Company Girl Coffee

Happy Friday everyone!

I am still in the midst of major changes Company Girls and I could really use your prayers right now. Rachel Anne, at Home Sanctuary, has challenged us to come with a housekeeping schedule. While I have a huge portion of the work done, until next week gets here, I am not able to complete the schedule. I thought I would share my top 7 blessings for the week -

6-My sweet little Tink, the poodle, who always knows when I need a cuddle.

5-The doctors who keep seeing my kids with all of their bumps and bruises. Sometimes

I think it would be easier to move in!

4-My boss, Shelly, who took me out on a tough night for me. We had a great gripe session.

Thanks for listening. (She is an awesome person to work for.)

3-My friends who have closed ranks around me. Your outpouring of love and support has been

so generous that it has brought me to tears on occasion. I don't know when I will be able

to return the favor, but somehow I will show you how much I appreciate it.

2-My family who is helping me get through this though time by keeping my head above water.

Thank you for helping me keep clear headed so that I will do the right thing. Thank you for

not trying to get back at the other person. Thank you for the donations. Just plain old thank

you.

1-My girls whose honesty has not always been easy, but it has been appreciated. We will get

through this together. I love you more than you will ever know. Everything I do is for you.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I know that I haven't been posting as much as usual. There are significant changes going on in my life right now that keep me from doing this as much as I would like. Give me a couple of weeks and I will be back in the groove again. I promise that I will explain everything later.

Peanut's B-Ball Game

Peanut had a b-ball game this past Saturday. I have seen a lot of improvements with her. She is wearing the blue shorts with the brown shirt. Looks, she has her hands up.

She isn't sure when to put her arms up. So she puts them up a lot.

She shot a basket! It didn't go in, but she actually took a shot! Way to go Peanut. Mom and Lugnut are very proud of you.

Goodbye Store

For those of you who haven't gotten to my blog through the store's website, Mako Man and I reached several painful decisions Tuesday. One of those decisions was to close the store. We just can't make it work anymore.

I sure am going to miss that store.

We Got Some! We Got Some!

Many of you who read this blog have been posting gorgeous pictures of the snow. I have told many of you that I was jealous. Well, we FINALLY got some!! It started sometime this morning and didn't quit until 2 or 3. We actually have a measureable amount! What makes this even better was that the schools are already out until Thursday so they didn't miss a day of school. Yeah! No Saturday makeup day!

I had a meeting this morning and the girls were texting me every half hour. The were so excited when I got back. Just look at Peanut. She was dressed and ready when I walked in the door.



The girls spent the first foray out on the deck. I am not sure why they are so fascinated by the deck, but they are. We also took Tink out in the snow. She loved it! We would kick the snow up and she would bury her muzzle in it.
Late afternoon we went out again. The girls quickly ran around our tiny backyard and we went on a walk.

Here is the sound. If we walk about five houses back from our house, the sound is there so I took this pictures from the road looking behind on of the houses. The sound was frozen this weekend, so it has warmed up, but I much prefer the snow to frozen water.

We walked to another dock to look at the water. By this time it was getting icy and I wouldn't let the girls so onto the dock. The last thing I needed to do was to fish out a frozen Peanut or Lugnut.

How Do You Count Your Blessings?

It is no secret that we have been hit hard economically just like millions of other people. This is when you find out what people are made of. It is easy to throw in the towel and get depressed. It is easy to give up.
I don't.

Why?

Because I have never felt so blessed. When times are tough, you find out who you friends really are. You find out exactly how much strength you have for your family. I have some great friends. I cannot believe how many have come through with offerings of help. There are so many ways to help someone in need.

1. Don't talk about how "you would never be caught in this situation." No one wants to hear it and makes you sound like the tragic hero. (Remember Oedipus? He wound up cursing himself due to his own ignorance) Anyone can fall on tough times. An illness, job loss, and many other situations can cause hardship.

2. You don't have to offer money. It is not what your friend is looking for-what they need is someone to watch the kids, invite them over for dinner, and most of all listen without judgement.

3. Don't complain about your job-you still have one.

OK-I totally digressed there, so I will go back to the topic at hand. See what happens when I try to do a blog late at night? My friends have come through in ways I could never dream of. Thank you to everyone. You have made me a blessed women. Thank you for your prayers, kind words, encouraging remarks, and flat out help.



Here is one of my biggest blessings. How can you not smile when you look at her? Peanut told me when she was three that she was put here on earth to make me smile. Thank you Lord, she has succeeded more than I could have ever expected. She is my moonlight.

Then there is Lugnut, who by the way, is now taller than me. She is becoming a confident, self-assured young lady that any parent would have to be proud of. You just have to look between all of that obnoxious teenager stuff that tends to get in the way. Thank you God for giving me so many blessing. Family and friends. I was going to call her something equally wonderful then that obnoxious teenager stuff got in the way.

The rest of the stuff in your life? Its just stuff. When you die, it doesn't go with you. I will take my blessings any day.

We Have Insurance

It was a long day of telephone tag, but the girls have health insurance again. YEAH!!!! Now Lugnut and Peanut can go back to their usual accident prone self and I can get them to the doctor.

What To Do?

Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary has a great verse for this month. It is Psalms 90:17. To sum it up, it is about resting in the beauty of God and allowing him to establish his work through our hands.

I think that is a great verse for this month. Working with teens who have been suspended from school we see children who sometimes have lost their way. I don't judge; I don't preach. I just try to help them get from where they are to where they want to be. I hope that God is using me to shape these children's destinies.

Along those lines, have you notice how some blogs seem to be used to hurt others? I am working hard on praying for those people. They need our compassion and our prayers. I, for one, am going to try really hard to make sure that nothing that I write here will hurt someone-friend, family member, or stranger. Sometimes I slip, especially when it comes to what is going on here at our beaches, but I am really going to try and get better about that. I think we need to let God tell us what to do.

Company Girl Coffee-A Week In Review

Good evening Company Girls! Grab a cup and sit down.

I have to admit that I am a little jealous with all of the snow pics that so many of you have posted. I want some snow. This is from November. It melted as soon as the snow stopped falling.

Here is a quick review of what's gone on this week:

10-plus 10 more days until Mako Man's birthday.
9-more days until the kids are out of school for 3 days.
8 bazillion times of hearing Lugnut say, "Edward is so hot." We saw the movie Twilight. She is in LOVE. It disturbs me greatly.
7,364,243,684,235 times that I have been bopped in the head by Tink, my toy poodle. She gets on the back of the couch and whacks me with her toy every time I get on the computer.
6 hours of sleep a night-if I am lucky
5 minutes is how long it took the repair to fix my Dyson. FYI for all of you out there thinking about getting a Dyson-the switches break every 6 months to a year. I need to learn how to replace the switch because the part costs $15, but the labor is $90.
4 days that I didn't have to cook this week. Thanks Mako Man! You totally rock dude!
3 days of work this week. I always have this slow down period after the Christmas break. I work with high school and middle school kids who get suspended. Most school don't carry suspensions through Christmas break.
2-days the Lugnut was out of school. She is a sickly little thing sometimes.
1-horrible meeting attended about beach closures.

Yesterday's Work and Play

Yesterday was a day when Rachel challenged her Home Girls to work and then play. I was able to finish the laundry and then I played a game on the computer. Thanks for break!

Fishy Girl, Fishy Girl, How Did The Meeting Go?

Thanks to those of you asking about the meeting. Here is how it went-

I got up and spoke and held myself together. I was proud of myself.

Then an aid for Senator Richard Burr came over and introduced herself and started asking questions about how this has affected me and I cried. It is hard when you think about how another human can be so callous as to destroy the livelihood of two counties. It hurts to think I the things I may have to tell the girls if we lose the house.

Then Bob from Red Drum Tackle started asking how business was and I cried again.

I hate crying. I wish that I didn't do it. I think it shows that I am weak, but I just keeping thinking about my girls and what all of this has done to them and I just start to cry.

Anyway, I am glad it is over for now. I just wish that the "environmental" groups put humans into their precautionary principal. By the way, if any of you are local and need either construction work done or have another job that I can do, call the store.

My One Extra Thing

Sometimes when you look at what is currently going on in your life, it can be painful to see some areas that you need to change. By the way, the above photo is a picture of Lugnut's knee after ice skating.

I am continuing with Home Sanctuary's one extra thing a day. Yesterday I was able to update my address book using Christmas card envelopes and I have completely caught up with the daily paper work from our tackle store. I still have to finish the weekly paperwork and then I can breathe a little easier. Mako Man was able to catch up on many of the inventory loose ends yesterday.

Today I will be speaking again to the Neg-Reg meeting for the Park Service. It is so frustrating to get up in front of a group of people like those assembled there. You have a government agency who seems at best to be apathetic about the additional economic hardship they have caused to the people who live here on the Outer Banks. Then you have the men and women who are from this area that sit on these committees fighting our fight. When you see them now, they are tired and worn out. It is not fair that they have to shoulder the burden of many and then get criticized by people who never attend, never help.

Last is my favorite group of people...the radical enivronmentalists. I believe that we share this planet and have a responsibility to all creatures.

I do not believe that humans are the root of all evil.

I do not believe that we should mandate the number of children that women can have to control the "population problem" in third world countries.

I do not believe that every endangered species is endangered only because of the actions of men.

I do believe that scientists have a responsibility to use sound science and data when stating what needs to be done in an area where they believe that animals and man are clashing. (in other words, don't close an area to people because a bird MIGHT decide to build a nest there one day...if it happens, make adjustments then)

I also believe that not one person who is sitting on the environmental side of the room cares one iota whether or not children on the Outer Banks are becoming homeless or going hungry as a result of their altered and manipulated data. If they did, then they would disclose all data, like the fact that the birds have started nesting on islands in the sound where they are safe from predators. They are not becoming extinct from our area-they just adapted!

I know that I won't be able to change their mind, but maybe, just maybe a government official who is involved in this mess will actually remember that people matter and listen to the people.

My Favorite Christmas Photo

This is one of my favorite pictures from this Christmas. Peanut is a natural born storyteller. She gets so into whatever story she is telling that she draws you in. I also love the fact that Lugnut is holding her very own cookbook. Now if she will use it, that would be even better!

My Resolution

I am constantly amazed by the amount of support that fellow bloggers can get from each other.

For example, Kim, over at The Inadvertant Farmer, cracks me up. With all the drama around us from the economy and having a teenager, a laugh is a gift. Ree at The Pioneer Woman, is another one who makes me laugh. Both ladies are extremly gifted writers and photographers and seem to have more energy that a person should have.

Then there is Rachel Ann from Home Sanctuary. While Rachel Ann often makes me laugh, she also provides me with some great tips that help me keep my home a little more organized and clean. I got another idea from Rachel today when she talked about her New Year's Resolution. It is just one. I will do one extra thing every day. That's it. Is that do-able or what? Talk about a simple way to change your life, here it is. So I am copying (actually stealing) her idea. Today my one simple thing is to finish folding the laundry and put every last piece of it away before I go to bed.

Happy New Year Fishy People!

Happy New Year to all of you out there in blogland. Here are my wishes for the new year:

• A better world economy-some economists are now saying a turn around as soon as 6 months. Not a total recovery-but things might start looking better.
• Good health for all of you.
• A peaceful home. That one means a lot to me with an almost 13 year old in the house. I know many of you have already survived these hormonal years and just seeing you all smiling and still functioning gives me hope. Some of you are bald, but at least you made it through.

Happy New Year! May God bless each and every one of you.