every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end....

these lyrics from the song closing time by semisonic have resonated with me lately.....

2011 will be a year of changes for me.  

two weeks ago i lost my job.  

one that i have had for 10 years.

  

it was a shock considering that it happened just a week before christmas, however, i hadn't been happy for a while and talked often with my husband about finding something else, 

maybe changing careers, as the healthcare field had been taking it's toll on me in the past couple of years.  i felt stressed and overworked and my sense of compassion for other people was becoming non-existent.  

as the saying goes "when one door closes, a window opens"  

and i am going to live by that quote. 

this new direction will allow me to focus on my photography and perhaps 

start a little business painting and 

repurposing discarded and thrifted furniture, 

something that i have found really satisfies me. 

while i have an enormous amount of guilt about less money in an already stretched budget, i have a wonderful sense of calm poking through all of the guilt because 

this....

this...

and this...

is what makes me happy right now and gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride in my house, something i let fall to the wayside lately because of all of the stress and overtime hours spent at work. 

i am fortunate to have the full support of my family and friends, although i think austen is going 

to miss those couple of hours between getting home from school and dad getting home from work when he had the house to himself.  what kid wouldn't.  this new direction in my life will afford me the opportunity to chaperone on school field trips and watch my granddaughters now that shannon is going back to school to get her degree. 

i think that the next couple of months will be defining for me.....

and although my heart races at times when i think too hard about the new direction my life has taken,

i am at peace.

unemployment, the finale....

well, i've been afraid to say anything, especially after the first disaster with don's job situation....

but...

he has a job.  a JOB!!

for real this time..

he starts his third week tomorrow.  

so i am hoping that the precautionary waiting period is over with. and that it's for real this time.  

he is working for the state of michigan in lansing.

it's an hour away........which sucks.....

but it is a job.  with fantabulous benefits!!!
and a three year jump on being vested.  because he is a veteran of the military
he is vested after 3 years instead of waiting 6 years.

the drive is long but i have him set up with harry potter books on cd and this has made a huge difference there and back.  it really makes the time go by faster.

so for now, all is good!!

i want to thank everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers for us.
you rock!!!

oh, deer.....

this little doe wandered into our yard a couple of weeks ago at about 7:30 in the morning....

don saw her out of the upstairs window while job hunting and quietly brought it to my attention.   

 i grabbed my camera and started shooting through the window.  deer are skittish so i had to hurry up and change lenses so i could get closer......

 i also had to lock champ into his cage because he caught a glimpse out of the window and started growling and i didn't want him to scare her away.....

 she peeked and poked around at the edge of the woods

you will have to excuse the quality of the pictures, if i had gone outside i would have scared her away so i took them through the window....

see that blue basket??  the little boy next door is twapping wabbits with it.  the same wabbits that are driving my dog insane!!

he hasn't been very successful yet.

she hung around for about 15 minutes before trotting off into the woods.  it's nice to see that there is still that part of nature in our backyard.....

oh, and i can't believe it's july 1st already.....summer is flying by.  ugh!!

score!!!!!......

i went to a couple of garage sales yesterday.  i seriously think people think they are running a retail store instead of a garage sale.  really, an ugly coffee table from 1992 for $50?  a picture frame for $5?  not even a cool old big frame, a crappy contact paper over plastic frame 8 x 10 for $5?  good luck selling your stuff, is what i wanted to say to her.  

then i went to another garage sale and found these...

the frames in the back i painted before i took a picture of them. they have bowed glass.  and i love this candle holder.

the detail is really pretty.  the color? not so much...nothing a can of heirloom white satin paint won't cure!

nothing is better than free, right? because don is still unemployed and free is good!!

this little candle-holder is solid iron.  it would make a great cake-plate base.  that will get a hit of heirloom white too.

after that garage sale, shannon and i hit up the goodwill store.  i have been looking for something like this to use as a photography prop for a long time.  i never, ever thought i would get this lucky....ready?

how about this?........major score!!!!!!!!

shannon spotted it.  when i saw got my first look at it, it stood in the middle of the store with sun rays beaming down from heaven and the angels were singing on high...

well, not quite, but close.  

the best part??  $60.00 smackeroos!!!  10 dollars more than that crappy coffee table.

and clean as a whistle.  seriously, it is pristine.  and it didn't stink, because that was the first thing i did after pulling the cushions off of it to see what kind of disaster was under there.  ooh, my mind started racing about what i could do with this beauty for photography.

it is big, 90 inches long and since it is old, it is heavy.  not too heavy, though,  to haul out 

here

for pictures.

you could fit and entire family an their two mastiffs on that sofa.  

when i snapped out of my trance and came back to my senses, i reminded shannon that i wasn't allowed to spend any money on such a thing and that don would be furious if i did. 

she told me i wasn't leaving the store without it.  she would buy it for me for my birthday, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.  

god, i love that girl!!!

 happy birthday to me...(shhhh, it's not until october)!

don is still on the fence about it, but this one has been eyeballing it as his new parking spot!!

don't even think about it, dog!!

:D

linking up at

debbiedoos loves living in the carolinas

life in the fun lane

uhhhh....

no.   far from it.   

life around here has not been anywhere near normal for the past several months.  i guess employment was just something we took for granted.  don and i have always worked.  even when i had my babies and was a "stay-at-home-mama" i did something to earn money.  something i could do and have my babies with me.  whether it was babysitting for someone else's children, working at a scrapbooking store or working at our city pool, i've always earned a living of some kind.  some of the jobs i worked was at an opposite schedule to don's so if i wasn't home, he was.  we never had to put our kids in daycare.  and i prided myself on that.  i don't mean to insinuate that there is anything wrong with daycare, it just wasn't for us.

we figured that we would work until we retired. and i was okay with that.  oh, i wanted to stay home and  be there when my kids got home from school, with a plate of freshly baked cookies, but i was okay with contributing to our income.  

who would have thought that the one who has all of the college degrees would be the one out of work.  it sucks, let me tell you.  the job don got a couple of weeks ago wasn't his dream job, but it was a job.  it was better than being on the unemployment dole.  well, life threw us a curve ball last week when don was asked to take a 50% pay cut at his current job.  50%.  at a job where he had already accepted a paycheck that was almost half of what he was making when he was forced out of GM.  

so, it's back to internet job searches, unemployment and the lovely bridge card....(food stamps).  don hates that part the most.  he is the one who does all of the grocery shopping because he can do it much more cost-effectively than i can. which is true.  he doesn't like when i go with him because i'm like a kid.  i sneak things into the cart that he doesn't see until we get to the checkout.  and then he makes me put them back.  the nerve!!  i haven't been grocery shopping in months because i was offended.  

seriously. 

well, anyway, we got a bridge card.  have you heard of this?  it's a credit card that has an amount of money that we are eligible for per month.  $172.00.  for a family of three (and a dog).  for a month.  it automatically filters out the bad things like cigarettes, booze and junk food, which of course, we buy in bulk (i'm kidding mom and dad).

i digress.  

don made me go to the grocery store with him because he was too ashamed to use the card.  NOT ME.   i've earned it.  by working my whole life,  even when my babies were little.   by paying my taxes and contributing 3/4 of my pay to the government every week.  by always providing for my family and not living above our means.   so i don't care.  i walked up to the cashier, waved my card and said, loudly,  "i've never had one of these things before, how do i use it"?  i could hear don groaning audibly as he walked away as fast as he could from the checkout counter.  

make me put my stuff back, will ya.....that'll teach you, honey...heh!

anyway, keep us in your thoughts while don starts his job search again....

thank you!