It is 12:24 so it is officially My Birthday!

Yep it is my birthday! Wow, cant believe another year in my life! I am looking at this one as a good one since I am getting to have one! I got a call from a friend that her husband has past away. We saw him over the summer sporting a bald cut. James asked him if he was doing the buzz for the heat and he said he had just finished chemo. He had testicle cancer. The doctors told him that he had a 95% chance of recovery. He was doing very well but then found out he was that 5% that was not doing okay. It ended up that he got a rare form of cancer that was in his liver, prostrate and back. Just a few weeks ago we visited and I figured he was out in his garage and asked Carrie about him. She said he had gotten cancer back in full force and that he was not doing well at all. He was on so much morphine that he felt nothing only going from the couch to the bed. She called me today to tell me that she had lost Jim to cancer! He has two boys one that just graduated high school and the other that has 2 or 3 more years to go. I was just so devestated with this news--he was only 54 years old! So as I think about my birthday today and my age of 43, I realize that a birthday is just another day to give thanks to God that you are alive and healthy!!!!!

I guess I will now take the time to say THANK YOU GOD FOR ALLOWING ME TO HAVE ANOTHER BIRTHDAY! I pray that you will give many many more!

Latest Happenings

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I updated my blog! Thanks to those of you who keep coming back to encourage me to update or who have told you you missed me! That is so sweet of you!



Let's see the month of December was a blur. I worked with my Dad so much that things flew by! I did not have much of a Christmas spirit this year either. I actually have not been on the Internet much since the middle of December. I guess I just have not felt like being on much! I do miss all my friends at Creative Xpress!!!!!



January has flown by too! My dad and I have not worked much but twice this month. When it is winter it is hard to sell people fishing lures! Not to many are fishing right now! LOL To tell you about the business since I haven't had the chance yet that I can remember anyway. My dad and I are important lures from China and showing the product to area bait and tackle stores. We have covered a good part of Northern Ohio! We gave up close to the holidays since most of the shops closed for the season. In mid January, we made calls to some of the stores to just touch base and to see who had reopened. There is a store we had stopped in called Fin, Fur and Feather in either November or December that is more of a store like Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops but only has one store here in Ohio. Anyway, we touched base with Steve (the buyer) and he wanted us to come place an order! We went down that Friday to Ashland and left early enough that we stopped for breakfast. While eating in the car my mom calls my dad to tell him not to use the debt card. I hear him him say you have got to be kidding, how can that happen plus a bunch of other stuff. He gets off the phone saying why did she have to call me now to tell me this. There atm card was blocked by the bank because of a charge to Overstock.com for $4,000. It just so happens that someone had gotten a hold of the card number and started spending like mad! I have heard this happen but never knew anyone it happened to! What a thing to have happen when you are going to write your first order of your new business! Needless to say my dad was a little out of things while we were writing the order up but I was able to go ahead and work with him to get it done! So we left with our first official business order!!!!! What was even better was that it was a decent store and not the typical bait store! We walked out in shock! Our first order was over $1,400 and our end was going to be about 600! How stinking exciting is that!



We needed to head out again to see if we could catch up with Phil at Mandas Bait and Tackle. We headed to Akron to see if he was open. We had talked to Phil earlier and he mentioned us working a show with him in February and we needed to get that order going so that we could get it to the states in time! When we first got there he had his sign up that he would be back in an hour. So we headed up to get coffee and try him again. We were able to catch him and talked about the show that was coming up. We then wrote our next business order!!!!!! We were so excited! It was just over a 1,000!!!! We are going to be doing this show in February towards the end of the month! It is an all day thing from 9 to 9 so poor dad and I will be exhausted since we are a 2 person business!!!! It is only a 45 minute drive but I am hoping that we will just be able to stay in a hotel down there! My mom will be watching the girls so maybe we could all just stay in a hotel then they could stop over and help especially with breaks! My girls can also help out! My youngest, Antonia, is a new fly fisherman and loves to tie her own flies!!!!!!! It is great! So basically we have our first two business orders! Go us!!!!!!!!



Well the only other thing coming up in January is my birthday!!!!! Wow, when you have a birth month is sure does fly by! Oh well what can you do but say you are another year older!



Well I sure hope you will keep coming back to see what is going on! I am hoping that I can keep up with my blog, visit my favorite websites, and get back to visiting every ones blogs. I am sure going to try like heck to keep up. I am hoping to put some pictures of things that have been happening as well as some scrapping projects done by Taylor and I! Oh family update--James is doing well, Taylor is doing good in school and is still dating Jack! He bought her the most gorgeous diamond necklace and 2 bracelets for Christmas! He is such a nice young man! He cares so much about her. I had mentioned in a previous post they were inseparable well they still are! He is with us everyday but Tuesday (for snowboarding) and Thursday the day is spent with dad! Antonia is doing well too! She is just Antonia for those of you that know her! She is such a character!

Thanks again & see you soon!