Surprises in the bills

so today cimi and i went to joanns to get dagos gift for his bday this friday. we enjoyed ourselves. we then took a tour through the new townhouses being built near us and had to say great views, nice counters and loved the washer and dryer hookups down and upstairs. i dropped cimi off did a store run and then came home to do the sunday dinner thing. cimi called twice as she had to go to the store twice. now you all must remember cimi and i do not do the grocery store, the guys do that thing and well, we were just put out on sunday cause we had to do this. i mean really, what is the world coming too? so now it is evening and i am just finishing up with paying the bills. don't you love it when you finally decide to open up those envelopes that you know are not bills, cause it is tax time, and when you do you discover that you overpaid something for an entire year and you get a refund? mmmm don't these companies know how to use calculators? so now i am caught up with all of you and off to start another week. just for reference Macy's is in very good financial standing. the cuts in the stores were done a couple of weeks ago. the layoffs that the news reported this past week are in the corporate offices of all of the divisions. we are consolidating all of our buying to new york. all employees who were a part of the layoff thing will have the opportunity to apply for any of the new corporate positions which will be a little over 3000 positions. so that is only about 3500 that will really loose their jobs. some of the people who are loosing their positions are also eligible for retirement so that is what they are doing. so if anyone needs any retail questions answered give me a holler and i will try to help you out. have a great week and talk to you soon.

last two days in Virginia

OK, so i have now been in Virgina for a week. could it be any colder?

on Tues we had snow. it was really pretty for this Florida girl. I took lots of pictures, made a snowman and also shoveled the snow off of the front walkway. that was my thing to DO for Jim, i have tried to DO something for him everyday.

with the snow yesterday we did not leave the house. can i tell you that being cooped up without a beach to look at can drive you crazy?

i also have had a meltdown while here, there is a part of me that does want to fix things (are you laughing Cimi?) and another that always wants to have positive things around me. so for all of you that received my email, i apologize.

since being in Virginia, i have had the opportunity to get lost in dc, mother had to walk the entire time and did very well. we visited the Holocaust museum, depressing entering the box car and in awe of the room from floor to ceiling pictures of a village. we went to a see grand torino with Clint Eastwood, it was good and sad all at the same time. we have gone shopping and let me tell you that the service at this walmart sucks. i did find the item that i was looking from the moment i stepped off the plane, how exciting is that. all in all it has been an interesting week.

I have gotten to visit with Jackson and Ashley and Craig. and now i only have one more day here and then i go home and back to my life, which i do miss.

could it be any colder?

DO something warm

20 degrees

just some pictures of my first day here in Virginia, visiting Jackson Emmerton. oh, and i am also here to watch over mother while chris recuperates from having a little minor surgery on her nerves.

so this am, jim took chris to the hospital to do the surgery thing. i got up and spent the morning at church with mother and then we went and had mexican for lunch. this afternoon we watched "88 Minutes" with Al Pacino, predictable at best, i had it figured out half way through. took that daily vacation nap and then jim brought chris home, fixed dinner and now i am in my room letting all of you know what is going on. the agenda for tomorrow is to take chris and mother to alexandria for a day trip.

it should be 40 degrees.

back to normalcy

is that a word?

it is today.

and what have you done this week?

i went back to work on tuesday and wished i was still off. it is all about inventory and for those of you in retail you know how wonderful that time of the year is. i really do not have to do much, remember i am in charge of selling and service. i just keep the managers focused on what their priorities need to be. during the week at home, i continued to decorate for mardi gras. here are a few of the decorations. next week i am doing the carey thing and deciding what kind of diet i need to be on to get ready for bikini season.

enjoy the photos and talk with everyone next week.

anyone out there who can tell me how to DO a slide show would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

remember DO what you think is best for you.

2009 is now starting

I have been off for the past 3 days and have been ever so productive. Remember my DO motto. I did just that.

I took Christmas down and packed it away until next year. My goal is to not wait until after Thanksgiving, cause then it really is just sorta rushed and not enjoyed.

I then put up a few Mardi Gras decorations. I will DO the rest during the week. If you don't recall, this is my favorite holiday. Dago and I will be going to New Orleans to celebrate this year. I am really looking forward to this trip as it is just fun and eating and parades and more fun, with family and friends.

Rocko has also been busy these past few days. His cousin Jack is over for a visit and they just are having lots of fun. Rocko is stingy, but Jack gets the balls when he really wants them. Rocko is also very jealous of the attention that Dago and I give to Jack, especially when we are giving him hugs and kisses. The best thing today was when I was lying down watching American Gangster and Jack comes up from the side of the sofa and decides that he needs my glasses. Did not know where that came from, but enjoy the pics inserted here. Hope everyone has a great week and remember to DO, give your dog kisses and hugs.

DO

love

pray for peace

hope for the best

be humble

remember the small things

live in the moment

smell the flowers

what feels good

follow your passion

celebrate life

remember to look up

dance at least once a day

sing out loud

anything and everything

and always say I Love You before parting

Wishing all the best in 2009

Believe

Today is the first day that I have finally had some time to catch back up in the blogging world. Alot has happened out there and I have not been participating except in the world of retail. I finally graduated from the class that I had been traveling to Miami for during the past year. The biggest reward from the class was that I have been placed on the bench. Does that mean I can not play anymore in the store? Does it mean I don't have to work as hard? Does that mean more money? It means that Macy's Florida feels that I am qualified to be a General Manager of a store in Florida. So that happened at the end of October. We all know what happened at the beginning of November. And at the end of the month I was privliaged to meet one of my new grand nephews, Jackson. What a sweet boy. His parents aren't too bad either. Then the big month of December came upon us and work just continues. We have not had a fun season. It was nice this past Saturday to finally see that customers realized that Christmas was 5 days away. One of the best things that I have done for myself all month was to have a SPA treatment every week. The first week was a facial, the 2nd a full hour of a full body massage, the 3rd an LED facial treatment and today was the best with a full body detox wrap and massage. All I can say is that every woman needs to remember to do something for herself every now and then. With that I am off to finish baking my peanut butter cookies. Ask Cimi how the Chocolate Chip ones came out. And remember to believe this holiday season. Thanks to all for the cards. I have enjoyed them all.

Econonomy

So the 2nd debate is now behind us. Interesting, still undecided, but leaning towards Obama.... Based upon the main topic that concerns me at this time, I did some goggling and here is what I looked for. Interest rates 30 year fixed 6.49% 15 year fixed 6.14% 1 year adjust 6.04% Credit Card Interest no rewards 12.34% rewards 14.41% student 14.45% business no reward 10.39% business rewards 11.69% Top 5 Golden Parachute payout WaMu $20 million Allied Waste $52 million Pftizer $20 million Bramble $7.7 million HP $21 million and the Parachute of the day AIG $15 million That is just on the 1st page of Google for a total of $315 million! So what is the question or the point? I am all for helping those Americans who truly need the help, but as anyone who will be casting a vote in 30 days, what will you do for ME? I am an American that believes in the dream and that hard work gets you the dream, not easy fixes, which I believe that when you signed that paper 5 years ago knowing that your adjustable rate could double or even triple, why would you do that? Why do those of us that have struggled to get what we have, by not going above and beyond our means, have to FIX those that had no conscience of what they were doing and woke up that morning of signing the paper stupid? Which candidate do you believe is watching out for those of us who follow common sense and believe that our hard work will reward us? I am going to post this blog on both candidates pages and see who will answer and be concerned with this one American who is undecided. Looking forward to your comments.

Catching up

So I am finally getting back to the world of blogging. I just reviewed my last post and found out that it has almost been a month since I was in contact with any of you lurkers and family bloggers out there. Happy belated birthday to Jeff, Chris and Jim and Happy Anniversary to Cimi and Randy and Chris and Jim. Oh, and Happy one day late Birthday to Manny.

Lots has happened since I last blogged. Manny left for Lafayette for his court date on the day that Ivan decided to make its way across the Gulf and headed for Texas this time. He arrived prior to the storm making landfall and Lafayette had closed all govt. offices down, so Manny has now relocated back to Louisiana, sans car. What other things could happen? I got through all of that and have accepted that I no longer have the control or the influence over him, that being said, I am still in his corner and hoping that all will work out with his future decisions.

After the hurricane happened it was time to hope on the plane to Miami and the class that I have been taking all year. It was a great 3 days and lots of progress for our Group Project was made. Our project is how to generate sales in the small volume Cosmetic doors. I am the introducer of the project and in working on developing a cross training course. Our group has to present the project to all of the Senior Management Team of Macy*s Florida at the end of October. Lots of homework this week.

Oh, did I mention that I am on vacation again?

Today we just drove in from New Orleans. We spent the weekend celebrating Dago's parents 50th Wedding Anniversary, moving Jacki back and bringing Manny his car. And we did this all in just 4 days. What a whirlwind of a weekend it was. We spent time with all of Dago's family, celebrating the anniversary, nephews birthdays and brothers anniversaries. We picked up CJ and Elijah on Saturday and had them the entire weekend. Had and opportunity to visit with Kay and Tom, Terri's parents, and spent an afternoon BBQing with Terri, Cindy, Donna and Oggie down in Luling before heading back up to Algiers for the celebrations.

Dago misses everyone extremely and I think that if any possibility would ever come up for us to go back, it would be a discussion. I still am not convinced that New Orleans is the right place to be. The city, especially Algiers, is not the place I would want to spend my retirement years in. It is so different since the hurricane. Not alot of opportunities, the neighborhoods have changed dramatically and it just does not feel good to me. I still believe that it is a great place to visit, but other than that.....

We are now getting ready for the Saints on Monday night football and just taking it easy. So hello to all and will be much better with the blogging.

Back to work and just stress

So my vacation is now over. Question to myself, did it ever happen? I am finding that hard to believe now that it is already Friday. This week has been crazy, I have not caught up from being gone from the previous week. Changes continue to happen, people quitting, via email! Does anyone think that is a professional way to resign? New managers starting and not getting it, even though they have been in the building for 5 years, OK a little patience on my part is needed. Lack of organization, having to be all to everyone, day long conference calls and meetings. Working nights, not 1, not 2, but can we say 3 out of 5 days and to top that off, I get to work on Sunday, which is always the worst day to work of the week, cause it is really a very long day. So as you can see, I am not in the space where I need to be. Could it be that the situation at home is affecting what and how I am doing? I think so. Life is not real fun at the house right now. I am tired of not sleeping. I am tired of people not being proactive. I am tired of having to cook every day of the week, except maybe one. I am tired of the rain. I am over hurricanes and the weather men. I am tired of Caylee Anthony's family drama on TV. I am tired of football being on and it just started. I am tired of reruns. When do the fall shows start? OK, enough of being tired. Every now and then I feel you just need to be on the pity pot, and that is where I am. So tomorrow is another day as Scarlett said, and I will be better. Thanks for all who listen and read.

Black vs White, Iron vs Dryer

Vacation Day 6

Yesterday, I had this great idea to dye all of the black clothes that have faded. I did not know that there is an entire process for dying. I forgot those old days of tye dying t shirts when I was younger. Anyway, Macy's has a black dress code. I of course love cotton and linen. We all know that dark colors fade after washing several times. I had collected 13 black tops vs 19 white tops, 4 black suits, no white ones, 6 black skirts vs 1 white and lots of prints, 1 black pant vs lots of crops and 1 black dress vs 1 white. I love white tops. They are my favorite. Steph you keep all of your white T's as you never have enough. Back to the dying, I did it the "old fashioned" way, which is boiling water and seeping your clothes. All in all it took over 3 hours to do this process. So then it was on the drying rack for all. Now all I have to do is iron.

I spent this morning ironing all of my clothes that needed it. Started around 930a and finished up at 1130a. I never realized how wonderful clothes look when ironed, yes Carey, I even ironed all of the t shirts! And to think I actually did something productive that will keep me dressed for work for at least 3 weeks.

But back to black vs white. I hate black clothes, they are depressing and only really look good at black tie affairs. White on the other hand gives everyone the look of being cool and comfortable. Plus White never fades and you can always make white whiter!

Vacation Day 4 update

Oh, forgot to mention, that if anyone needs a great shampoo, call Cimi, she is the best!

Vacation day 4

The pic is a frog clinging to the window with Rocko trying to lick him off. So my vacation is now in full swing. Just getting things done around the house. Having family and friends over for a Labor Day BBQ, and NOT mentioning Gustav. But hey we do live in Florida and they are just lined up waiting to get here and to give all of the weather forecasters an exciting broadcast. For those wondering what everyone did for the not to be mentioned storm, Dago's mother, dad, sister and family and brother and family all went to Santa Rosa Beach. Monica and the boys went to Dallas and Martha went to Baton Rouge. Terri, Tom and Kay went up to Arkansas. Everyone is now anxious to get back and I just keep calling and giving them updates. Looks as if Terri and krewe come back tomorrow. Monica and Martha can get back in on Wednesday also, but the Orleans Parish krewe can not come back until Thursday or Friday. Luis, Dago's other brother stayed in New Orleans and all was fine he said. He is ready for all to come back, especially as the criminal element will get into the city and is now worried about everyones homes. Enough hurricane news, you know that I will keep all of you up with what is going on. On to vacation stuff. Of course the most important thing was to get my hair done by Jessica today. Love Cimi, who sneaks in as she knows that it will be cool. Her hair looks great and I have to say that mine does too. Got home and sat down with Manny to fill out several on line job apps, Home Depot, Lowes, UPS and scrolled through the wanted ads. We decided to have animated discussions regarding his "I did not have a choice" time here in Orlando. Guys and their testestorone, what are you going to do with it. His biggest concern is Emily. Mine is his life. mmmm any thoughts anyone? Tomorrow we will finally enter the age of HD TV as we are finally getting Direct TV HD installed! Needless to say Dago is thrilled, he has the Football Package and now he gets to see any game he wants in HD. Gosh, I am so excited :) Cimi and I are going to go and see the new Marshalls that just opened up close to our homes. Another exciting day. I hope I can find some sunshine somewhere to keep my tan alive, but if no real sun there are always those tanning beds. If I feel that there is enough time left in the day I think I will clean out my closet, so I can make more room for Manny in his room. So at this point that is all I have planned.

Not One, But Two

OK, another week in Florida and guess what? Not one, Gustav, but 2, Hannah, Hurricanes in the forecast, just surrounding us. We feel good that Gustav will not come this way, but as you all know we have family and friends in the path and will worry about them, as we are now 3 years from the anniversary of Katrina. Hannah has not figured out which way she will go. To top the whole mess of hurricanes being all around us, I am on vacation next week! Do I know how to plan it or what?

end of the work week and fay's life

So can you say rain? You know it's wet outside when the dogs don't even want to go out. Jack was visiting through today, while Cimi was in Austin visiting Brenna. This has been a really long work week. We get to work on Monday and start Hurricane Conference Calls. Decide on Tuesday that time to kill the calls as this TS Fay is really not a problem. Get to Thursday and she is now worse that when she started out the week and just will not go away! What is that all about. Moving at 5 mph? Get out of here, beaches are awaiting us sometime, somewhere. Back to work, could the days just drag by. I am always busy, but it seemed as if the days would just not end. I guess just thinking about having 15 days left of vacation time gives me the feeling to just be OFF! So I will leave everyone with a picture of what Fay looks like as of now. Stay dry if you can and talk to everyone soon.

Tropical Storm Fay from the front yard

So I was just getting ready to finish up syncing my new IPhone and Dago called and told me to come and look at the sky. As with all of us, a camera was within grabbing distance and here is the video. An interesting site.

Hurricane Fay, Macy's update and Manny and Emily

Another week has gone by and guess what? Another hurricane, tropical storm, whatever is making its way towards Florida. Above is the 5 day forecast of where Fay is going to travel. This Monday is an airport run for Manny, he is dropping me off for a 730a flight to Miami for the class that I have been in all year and for Emily to make her way back to Louisiana. I get on conference calls tomorrow to see if the travel for myself is still on and if it is off, I just go to work for the week. But unfortunately for Manny, Emily is going north west so she will not have any issues travelling. This week we have spent the time getting to know Emily. A delightful young lady. She is a good influence for Manny and supports the fact of him being in Orlando straightening out his life. They spent this past Sunday at the beach with us. If you have not checked out the Picasa album here is a pic of Emily and Manny skimming in the surf. The beach was awesome this past week. I can not remember the last time I spent so much time in the water. It was perfect.

Tomorrow Manny and Emily are off to Universal Studio to ride the rollercoasters. That should be fun for them. Jacki left Orlando this past Thursday to spend the week in New Orleans visiting her mom and sisters and any other family that she runs into. It seems as if drama loves to be in mine and Dago's life at this time. I think I should contact a cable show and have our lives produced at this time. Talk about crazy. And I thought that I had raised my children and would be able to enjoy my adult kids, but hey, not in the cards at this time. Work this past week has been interesting. It is all about the New Store Structure that we are converting to. No one knows exactly who does what and we are all enjoying confusing our boss, by pointing at each other saying, hmmm, that's under their umbrella, and where is the line we are not supposed to cross. Buisness continues to be good at our Macy's (thanks to tourists and the dollar to the pound) so as we all say we are having fun working at the mall. Enough updates, I need to go and do some homework for my, just in case I go, class on Monday. Will update next week. And Happy Birthday to Janet in Littleton Colorado.

Beijing Olympics

Check out the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The opening ceremonies have been pretty awesome so far.

We are all sitting here as a family watching the 1st night.

If you are into it, enjoy, if not I know that the reruns are alot

of fun.

Manny update: all was fine in court on Wednesday. If he takes care of all his probation things and pays all of his fines, he can get early release. He does have an email now, msilveriv@aol.com or call the house as he does not have a job yet, but will be out pounding the pavement next week.

Again, thanks for all of your thoughts and support.

getting back to normal

So it is now Monday afternoon, and again I worked the weekend and low and behold another system is in the Gulf, Edouard. Maybe Brenna will get some rain. So here is a photo of where it is at this time.

Manny leaves tomorrow am to fly into New Orleans to drive to Lafayette for his court date Wed am. So looks like he and his dad will be having a nice wet drive.

I have just spent the day today getting up early, having a nice conversation with Manny about where he wants to be with his life. After we finished talking for over 2 hours I thought it would be a good idea to have a nap. The pool was calling me after that so I laid out and floated around for a couple of hours.

I have now gotten totally caught up with my personal finances and am looking forward to cooking a home meal and then trying to get caught up with some last minute work that is due tomorrow am. So that is where I am at as of this moment. Taking my life just one day at a time, gee where did I here those words before? They really work.

Cimi has a great new look for her blog and for those of you who do not look at the rest of the families blogs you need to check them out. I love lurking them as they always bring smiles to my face.

Super Sleuthing

Last Wednesday night I received a message from Regi. My attention was captured immediately and with that arrangements were made to fly to New Orleans. Of course all in the family know the relationship that I have with Terri and her family. Terri agreed to pick me up and drive us to Lafayette to begin our sleuthing. The first thing we did was to check into the Holiday Inn and precede to go through my phone and contact all of the people that Manny had programmed into the phone 3 years ago. Luck was not on our side with the numbers. We left numerous messages and waited for call backs. Much to our dismay, only 1 of his friends called us back and said that we would need to call Emily. I had of course tried her a few times and she had not returned the calls. Our greatest accomplishment was the information that was given to us from Regi. I owe her my gratitude and will thank her for the rest of my days. We met for lunch at the Blue Dog, which was very good and I recommend it to all who travel to Lafayette. I had the crab meat served with a bechemel sauce spiced with crawfish on a bed of spinach. Delicious. Regi brought us up to speed with the information that she had about Manny. I had not realized that he had been arrested. The arrest was a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia and a small amount of marijuana. This had happened over a year ago. Great! That was all I could think of. With that information, I knew that I had done the right thing by coming to Lafayette and finding Manny. This news made our "mission" all the more urgent. That afternoon after lunch, I continued the phone tags with Manny's connections. Finally Emily answered the phone. As I was explaining to her that it was necessary that I speak with Manny immediately, she stated "oh, he's walking in the door now, do you want to talk with him?". This was the first time that I had spoken to Manny since Mother's Day last spring. I did not tell Manny that I was in Lafayette, but just probed him with questions about where he lived and where Emily lived. After retrieving this information from him, I told him to make sure that he calls me soon. Terri and I then looked up in the phone book, yes, we were amazed that at that point, that the Internet was not going to help us. We found out where the "Courtyard" apartments were and then preceded to drive to that location. Well, when we got there it was an Assisted Living complex and I knew we were not at the right place. I then probed my memory regarding what Manny had said about the location of the apartment. Terri and I then went back to the area that Manny had lived in when he first got his first apartment in Lafayette. As we were driving to that address I pointed out that there it is. Regi had told us that Manny had a bomb sticker on his back windshield and we noticed that his car was there. Terri and I then went into the complex and just randomly picked a door and started to knock. The first door did not answer, even though I thought as I peeked into the window that someone was in there. We then went upstairs to start on those doors. The first was a no answer, but then we were surprised that the next door opened and the people told us that Emily lived on the 1st floor, it was the door that we had first knocked. Downstairs we went and banged on that door. My first meeting with Emily was with her wrapped up in a towel and a headful of shampoo. She yelled "Your mom is here Manny!" My what a surprise this was to all. If I had a camera, this picture would have been priceless. So now you all know how I was able to find Manny in Lafayette.