Back in the rainy south . .

I didn't comment on Day 3 of the seminar, and I even spent another day with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie before flying home Tuesday.

But Tuesday I was tired. Wednesday was a payback day. Today is the first day I'm starting to feel human again.

Honestly, there were times during the seminar I wasn't sure I could make it. I'd be tempted to slink off to my room, but then one of my mastermind group or someone would ask me about something, and I'd say to myself, "Okay, just a little longer."

As Chrystie said on Monday when I was complaining about being run over by a semi-truck, "The adrenalin has worn off." Yep, exactly. During the seminar, I was running on adrenalin, pumped up and hanging in there as best I could.

I had big plans for this trip. I was going to go see Ellie at therapy. I was going to go shopping to get Ellie a birthday present. I was going to call the Sanfords. I did not get any of these things done. It was just a rough trip, feeling bad before the seminar and just finally the evening before getting a little better, managing to last through the seminar itself, and then trying to recuperate.

As for now! I just hope to keep moving forward, rain or no rain, pain or no pain.

Seminar, Day 2

All I can say is a repeat... wow!

I have learned soooooo much in the last two days. I told Jess when I talked to him this evening that's it's like a revival or "tent meeting" for online entrepreneurs!!!

It's not just sitting in there listening to someone lecture about what you need to do for websites or traffic or other components to online work. It is far more than that. It's creating a mindset for success. It's learning more about yourself AND your master mind group. It's been about changing limiting beliefs and replacing them with those beliefs about success.

My comfort zone was stretched so far out of the norm this afternoon it will never be the same. If I had known ahead of time some of the stuff we'd be doing, I probably would have reconsidered coming. Which would have been too bad, because it has been good for me.

I don't know what tomorrow holds, but once again, even if I went home right now, it would have been worth the money.

Seminar, Day 1

It's late, and I have another long day tomorrow, so this will be short.

To sum it up, I survived it.

Not only survived, but thrived!

Oh, the seats weren't the best and my posterior and back are feeling the pain.

But I learned soooooo much, and we got sooooooo much accomplished today. It's incredible!

If I left today, it would have been worth it. But there are two more days, and lots more to learn.

Wow!

This, That & The Other...

I've got dining room chairs in my living room. People who clean house regularly will probably figure out why right off, but for the rest of us, they're in here with me because I mopped the kitchen floor and am waiting for it to dry.

I don't do a full-out all-floor mop-up very often. More prone to spot cleaning, because scooting chairs and rugs and table around is a big hassle.

I have also dusted everything in the den and straightened up some in there. Don't anybody keel over in a faint.

I've done chores outside, I've sorted through some papers, I've done this, that and the other.

There were two factors in play to create this cleaning-semi-frenzy. The first one is the fact I didn't have any internet working until about 1pm, so couldn't work anyway.

The second is a variation of your mom telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident or something. (Frankly, I don't remember my mom ever telling me such a thing, but it's just something "everyone" knows.)

Anyway, my variation is "clean the house before you go on a trip, in case something happens to you and other people have to go in your house."

Hey, I didn't say it made any sense.

Of course, it's also nice to come back to a clean house after you've been away, instead of home to a mess. However, since on this trip I'm leaving two men behind while I'm gone, and they like to clean house maybe even less than I do, who knows what the house will look like when I get back. (I must here relate though, that a certain older gentleman actually ran the sweeper in the den while I was gone the last time. Wow! I didn't know he could even do such a thing, ha, ha!)

Anyway, I'll do a little more today, and a little more tomorrow, shop for groceries the day after, and do less physical stuff after that until time to get to Chattanooga and fly to Florida.

As for Jess, he also has a bunch of work. It's feast or famine, and he's in the feast stage again. This morning he mentioned he had FOUR jobs to work on.

So it's pretty much the usual around here, busy, busy!

One week until Florida! Again!

Wow, I'm just a traveling maniac these days. (As usual, no comments please!)

For the second time this spring, I'm headed to Florida one week from today. This is a combination fun and business trip. Fun because I get to see the kids and how Ellie is progressing while I'm there. Business because I have a 3-day seminar to attend.

Of course, Richard, Chrystie and Ellie are getting company from the far north too. And one of those times they went to Disney World. From all accounts, Ellie loved Cinderella's Castle!


I thought it was pretty cool too, but it's been years since I was there! (Like when the boys were in grade school! I believe Richard has grown a bit since then, ha, ha!)

Anyway, it's over to Chattanooga in one week to fly out on Allegiant. Wouldn't you know that in May they're supposed to start cheap, direct air flights to Orlando out of Huntsville. Too late for this year, but maybe it'll help the next time Jess or I want to fly to Florida.

In the meantime, we'll be heading down there again in April. This time Jess and I will drive down, and Randy will be down there at the same time, so we ought to have a great time visiting family.

Too bad we don't have that much family in one place more often.

Shopping

We went shopping in Huntsville this morning. I was telling Jess on the way down that's just one of the ways I am stranger than most. (NO comments allowed!!!) See, I don't do very many "middle-of-the road" kind of trips. I'm either going somewhere really close, like about 10 miles away, more or less (grocery store, Walmart)... or I go far away like Florida or West Virginia or Canada or something!

I needed a new laptop case however, because the zipper busted on my old one. And it was an OLD one. I'd guess over 10 years old and seen a lot of use. I'm pretty sure I bought it at Walmart, so it lasted a long time considering.

We looked at Walmart on our way down the Parkway, but they didn't have much. I suspect they weren't wide enough either. The labels said 15", and that's how wide my laptop is... but I didn't want to chance it. I'd like a little more room, and to be able to cushion it a little more when traveling.

Jess wanted to look at fire-proof safes while we down there, so we stopped at Lowe's next. He's been looking at ones big enough to put all his firepower in, but the weight of these things is a BIG problem. How do we get something that weighs 600-800 pounds in the basement?

Anyway, he downscaled his plans for the moment, and decided to get one big enough for papers and stuff. I just got a bill for our bank box, so I think the deal is that I'll now get the stuff out of there and put it in this safe.

Even the small versions are heavy! I think this thing weighs close to 200 pounds and it's just a 2' cube of concentrated weight. If we'd planned on buying the safe, we might have drove the truck, but we didn't. (Actually, it might have been even harder to hoist that thing up into the truck bed!)

So we tried to get that heavy object into the trunk of the car, and that took both of us tugging and lifting and tilting.... only to find out it was about 2 inches too big to slide into the trunk. ARGH!

That meant we had to carefully ease it back down onto the cart and take it around to the side door, and try to somehow get it scooted up on the back seat. Where were some of those strong stock boys (men) when we could have used one?

At present the safe is still in the car, awaiting Jonathan's return from town so HE can help Jess move it this time. I've done my part and made a place to set the thing, but I don't want to help move that monster again.

After that fracas, we finally made it to one of my favorite stores... Staples! Actually, it doesn't have to be Staples, just drop me off in any office supply type store and I'm as happy as a pig in slop. Pens, pencils, papers, notebooks, computer stuff. . . oh there are lots of things to drool over there!

I did find a decent laptop bag. I was looking for something rather lightweight, but sturdy enough to do the job. And of course I couldn't resist getting a few pens, and needed a new pad of paper before going to the seminar in a couple of weeks, and then there were. . .

Jess finally dragged me out of the store. Spoil sport. I told him I could have easily spent another hour in there just looking around. He made some remark along the lines of "that was what he was afraid of."

Of course, by then he was thinking RED LOBSTER. We timed our trip to be able to use gift cards for there that we got at Christmas time. Jess enjoyed lobster and grilled shrimp, but I got my very favorite coconut shrimp! Yum!!!

It was a nice break in routine, got some needed stuff, and had a good time. All right!

Family Update Time!

Yes, here we are again, time for a family update. I've about decided that's all I use this blog for these days, and will try to make it here once a week. Although sometimes we're just not doing anything that exciting!

In about a week and a half I'll be in Florida again. Woot! This having the Canadian Crew closer is a lot of fun. I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

Of course, the reason I'm headed to Orlando in March is for a work-related seminar, but I figure no need to waste a perfectly good plane ticket.... might as well go a little early and see the kids too! I'm eager to see how Ellie has progressed. From the sound of things, she's doing quite well.

As for Jess, he's in one of those "work coming in like crazy" phases. Sometimes just little jobs; sometimes not so little.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to Huntsville so I can look for a new laptop case. The zipper on my old one busted, and I don't want my lovely laptop falling out of the bag on the plane or something!

Since we're going to be in town, we're also planning to eat lunch there and use one of our wonderful gift cards for Red Lobster. Double woot!

As for Jonathan, he's also going to Huntsville tomorrow to meet someone for some war games. He's still plugging away at work, and the job seems to be doing fine.

So... we'll are still busy with our respective work & life, we're all okay, and that's the way it is in our part of the world!