My new second home!

I am SO excited to be working at the Music and Arts store in Allen! Now, before you ask: No, I am not teaching voice lessons. I would certainly not consider myself anywhere near qualified to do that! ;) I'm working primarily evenings and a bit on the weekends, which is PERFECT for us! I can stay home with the kiddos and teach them all day long, go to work in the evening, and still have enough time to come home and have a good hour of quality time with Jonathan before bedtime! :) Plus, I have an awesome manager who has given me Wednesdays and Sundays off so I can still be involved in church! (Now, I just need to find the right church! hehe) Currently, I am brushing up on my instrument knowledge, and man is there a ton of it! Maybe I'll pick up my old clarinet and start playing again! :) Thanks to everyone who prayed for God to give me the prefect job, and thanks to Clay who let me know that they were hiring! :)

IthinkIcan IthinkIcan IthinkIcan IthinkIcan IthinkIcan

You know, sometimes it just seems like nothing goes the way you've planned. It's really been like that for us lately. You may remember that I was laid off from my job in February. After several months of fruitless job search, we seemed to be doing fine financially. Everything went well for a while. We were able to keep up with our bills just fine, and as a matter of fact, with me home, we were saving money on groceries and gas. Our ultimate goal was for me to stay home and teach the kids anyway, so we decided it was time for me to do just that. I started my own business that was supposed to help me make a little money on the side just so I could contribute. Then it happened. Everything seemed to break at once. Jonathan's work has slowed down, and they've reigned in how much overtime he's allowed. Everyone's pay rate has been frozen, so the raise we were looking forward to last month didn't happen. Now they're requiring everyone to take a week long furlough before the end of the year. Now don't get me wrong, I am VERY thankful that Jonathan is still employed. I know that makes us more blessed than a significant percentage of the population right now, but this news couldn't come at a more stressful time though. It just seems like every time we get a break, something else goes wrong. I really like to try and stay positive about life. There's always something good in every situation. You may have to look pretty hard to find it, but it's always there. I'm falling short this time, though. Quite frankly, I'm so stressed I've been getting hives. No kidding.

Right now, I feel like the Little Engine That Could. I'm just not built for all this stress, but IthinkIcanIthinkIcan make it. If you feel so inclined, could you pray for our family? Specifically, that my business will pick up, and earn that extra money it was supposed to earn. Also that if I do have to go back to work outside our home, that God will bless me with an awesome job that I will ENJOY. That's a big one. I looked some earlier today, and I just couldn't bring myself to apply for any of them. Not everyone was made to sit in an office, and I am certainly not one of the people who was.

Thanks for reading, and for your prayers!

Just a little late

So, I know I promised a post about my new business yesterday, but that obviously didn't happen. Between Jonathan JUST getting home late Friday night, and my friend, Lisa, who presented this opportunity to me having family in town, we were all busy on Saturday. Well, we got together on the phone this afternoon, and I am now officially a Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing representative. One of the great things about FHTM is that you don't have to purchase any product to sell!

A few years ago, I tried to sell Mary Kay, and it was NO good at it. I don't wear loads of make up, and what I do wear is all either natural or organic, and completely paraben free, so I just wasn't mad on the product. To make matters worse, every time I went to the meetings they spent a good 20 minutes talking up their wonderful make up brushes made of mink! Now, you may or may not know this, but I am something of a tree-hugger. I am also married to a vegetarian, so happen to be VERY conscious of animal products coming into my home. With few exceptions, we don't use leather, and I never cook any kind of meat when Jonathan is home. So, here I was, sitting in meetings listening to women wearing caked-on make up and talking about mink make up brushes, thinking "Small animals DIED for me to have super-soft brushes?!" Needless to say, I never made any money selling Mary Kay.

Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing is completely different! How it works is you buy things online from stores you ALREADY shop at through my website. Because these stores are partners with FHTM, they get a kickback, which is how I get paid. If you don't want to actually shop online and have things shipped to you, gift cards are also available. Lisa purchased one to CVS for $25.oo and when she went to use it, there was actually $50.00 on it. Now, I am still learning, so I can't promise that all your gift cards will have twice what you paid for on them, but that's FREE MONEY!

I've been looking for a home-based business opportunity that I could actually make money at for years, and was never truly comfortable with any of the research I did. The internet makes it SO easy to find out all you can about a company before you invest in it, so you'd better believe that I did my research! The only disgruntled people I found really sounded as though they had NO idea what marketing is all about. They wanted to pay their fees, and sit on their bo-hiney and make money. Nice try, but it's called a home-based business because there will be some kind of WORK involved! I have enabled comment moderation for this post only, and would LOVE to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to leave a phone number, or E-mail address and I will contact you to chat!

Best news ever!

I'm not going back to work. I'm. Not. Going. Back. To. Work. Oh man it feels good to say that! As a matter of fact, I'm shaking as I type it! You see, in the entire two months I've been home we've been fine. This is something we've been working towards for literally years, and it's FINALLY happening!
The other really great news is that I am starting a new home-based business. If you've been reading for a while, you'll know that I tried to start a dog walking service on my own. That went absolutely nowhere, so I've sort of given up on pushing it. There was just no interest, and I suppose in this economy, I'm not terribly surprised. That said, I WILL still walk doggies and house sit for fellow Anna-ites for the same awesome rates! ;) No, THIS business is one which is already established, where people purchase things they already buy through my website. I will explain more later today when I've actually set everything up, but I just HAD to share my excitement with you RIGHT NOW!!!! :)

Kisses 'n' Wags

Announcing Kisses 'n' Wags dog walking 'n' in-home pet sitting services, by ME! As you probably know, I have been laid off not once, but twice in the last year, and I think it's time to take matters into my own hands. I have always been of the mindset that if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself, and I think it's about time that my career was done right, don't you? I have a blog under construction for the service, and will be working on it in the weeks to come. If you live in the Anna, Texas area PLEASE spread the word for me! Whether you live here or not, please pray, pray, pray that if this is God's will for our family that He will throw the door wide open for me. So many of you have told me that you have been praying for us and especially my job situation, and I cannot tell you what that has meant to me! Thank you ALL for your prayers and support, and I hope to see your doggies, soon! :)

It's time

Usually, I try to keep these posts fun and light-hearted, after all, I am one blessed woman! I do have one little problem, though... I got laid off from my job in mid-February. I have been looking intensely from the very day I received the news and have had NO nibbles! I was given only two weeks severance, plus a week's vacation, and I'm coming up on three weeks that I have been out of work. Luckily, this is Jonathan's busy time of year, so he's making extra with all the traveling that he's doing, and we're not spending as much on gas when he's out of town. We're still OK for now, but I would prefer not to have to dip into our savings. I have an appointment with a staffing agency on Thursday. I hope that will bring me a few more leads, but right now SO many people are in the same boat I am, that I fear I will have a tremendous amount of competition. Please pray for God to lead me to the right places and people and work His will on my life. If any of you in the Dallas/Collin County area need a very capable administrative assistant, I'm your girl! :)