Yeah, I know, it has been a couple of eons since I posted. Just not in the mood.
A lot of things going on in the last couple of months. I got a new to me pickup in January. It is a 2000 Dodge 2500 extended cab long bed. It is wonderful.... except the gas mileage. I traded my car, which got like 22 - 24 mpgs, for 7 -9 mpgs. Oh well, you can't plow snow with a Plymouth Breeze. LOL. I also got an eight and a half foot snow blade to go with it, now we haven't had a whole lot of snow. We have had some, just enough for me to practice with. My brother is really loving it, because he has lots of driveway I can use to practice on!
I happened to run across this truck, which is exactly what I have been looking for for like four years, and decided it was time to get it. With me pursuing this ministry I really needed it. It would have been nice to have it last spring when I was in Mississippi, but it wasn't God's timing.
We are still working on getting our non profit going. We have separated from the organisation that we had been partnering with.. all parties thought it was for the best. We definitely will be working with WCN, just not a part of it. Right now we are trying to line up a board of directors, and then we will be ready to file for our non profit status. Also when we get the board in place then salaries can be determined, and I can start raising support. I am sooo ready to get out of retail.
Speaking of retail. things at Marshalls are about the same. Sales have been pretty good, we are trending up over ly. We are just having our usual chalanges with hanging onto/ hiring associates. The company changed the policy on tardies and absences last May, and it is starting to catch up with some of our associates. We have had to term three associates in the last two months for it.
Then there is the new associates that we hire that do not show up for orientation then. I realize that we do not have the best wage out there, but with things the way they are, at least it is a job. Besides, they get to work with me, and what a GREAT fringe benefit that is!
I have done a little more on the house since the first of the year too. I had a wood furnace when I lived over in Shipshewana, and for the last four and a half years it had been setting in Phil's barn. So I closed in the stair/ outside entry for the family room and put the furnace in there. I had cut some wood in the fall of 2006 and had it stacked here. I have got the furnace going and it is wonderful! It keeps the house between 70 and 80 degrees, vs 62 to 68 degrees we kept it at with the gas furnace. I got our February gas bill and it was one fourth of what it was last year, and it was so much more comfortable in the house. The electric bill is about 25% more, but I can live with that. I also built a little room on the side of the furnace room for the puppies, just got that closed in on Saturday. So far they seem to like it. It should be some what warmer than what they had before. Two of them turned 14 in January, and the other one was 13 in December, so I think they appreciate the additional warmth. It is real interesting how deaf they have gotten in the last year. It used to be I would open the sliding glass door and they would hear me. Now I go out in the morning, walk into their house , start talking to them, and they are still zonked out. I sometimes have to start petting them before they realize I am there, and that of course startles them. Of course they can't hear me yell at them when they go charging off to the back corner barking up a storm either.
Well I am going to log off now, maybe it won't take me two months to post again!