My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings » paperwork

The Start Of Summer

Lisa — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 15:50:15 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

With the crazy weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks, it is hard to believe that it is really summer here in Chicago. Last weekend, for Will’s birthday party, it was hundred degrees. At one point (since we can’t have a birthday of his without rain), we had some pretty severe weather come through here too. We had put up a tent outside and everybody had to grab on and hold. Little did we know, but about a mile or two away, that same wind uprooted pretty large trees! We also lucked out, because many parts of my village lost power. I lucked out that it wasn’t mine! Just as the storm started, I was starting dinner, so life would have gotten really interesting without power.

It’s hard to believe that Will is 4 now though! He officially turned 4 on Tuesday which also happened to be his last day of school. After his presentation at school, we surprised the kids and took them to Kung Fu Panda 2! They loved it. Heck, I loved it!

Then we had crazy weather. We sustained over 100 degrees for several days in a row. I also remembered that our air conditioning unit is on its last legs. It was put in in 1994 (I have the paperwork from the prior owners). When it was so hot outside, we couldn’t get the house lower than 78. (It was set at 74). We luck out that we have a basement that was even cooler than that. However, I still want my house to get as cool as I want it! However, air conditioning units are expensive. You are going to spend a lot more on that than an antique vanity with mirror or really any bedroom vanities on the market. At this point, I think we are just going to put up with it. However, it gets much hotter here I’m not sure. (We have lucked out now that we had some thunderstorms come through and cool us down. I think we are in the 60′s now!)

With the start of summer, I also have some projects I want to get done. One of them is painting the front porch. I’ve asked for advice of what color I should paint the porch. Everyone I have asked I told me a different color! It’s enough to drive you insane.

I also think I need to repaint the bathroom. Right now, it’s a light green. However, it is tiny, so it has to be a light color. (We did a complete remodel a couple of years ago, so I don’t need any new bathroom decor. Just new paint.) I can’t decide if a light yellow or brown would go good in there. I don’t mind painting. I just hate taping and picking out the color. Sigh.

How have you spent the summer so far?

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Big Top Circus aka My House

Lisa — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:00:12 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Does your home feel like a circus too? I know mine does. There are many changes I am hoping to do in 2009 that will make it even less of a zoo here. First, I am hoping to become more organized. Right now, we have paperwork from one end of the house to the other. Instead of just stacking it and then filing it when I am good and ready, my goal is to actually file it right away. Then I don’t have to worry about losing it. Next, I am hoping to save more. This will be interesting and hard. With Bill’s new car and possible school tutition for Madison, that may wipe us clean in a crappy economy. However, we’ve made it this far. I already cut coupons and if need be, we will start cutting the extras like cable and my daily newspaper. However, I am keeping my hopes and I think 2009 will be a great year!

What are your plans to make your life less of a circus in 2009?

My Day

Lisa — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 04:10:46 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Ever have one of those days? I did today. Instead of my normal Tuesday routine, I got stuck doing other things I didn’t really feel like doing. If you read my last update from when we went to the doctor’s office, Madison needs to get a hearing test done. I finally got around to calling the school district today, and what a mess. Instead of being able just to schedule her for hearing test, they are making her go through an entire preschool screening again. Unfortunately, this means I had to prove residency once again. This is no easy task. To prove residency in my district, you have to bring in your tax bill, two utility bills, an original birth certificate, and your drivers license. Unfortunately, that isn’t always so easy to find. I spent the entire time while Madison was a preschool looking for these items. My other problem was that the school closed at 4 PM.This normally wouldn’t be an issue except Madison had preschool until 3:30 PM. It takes me around 15 minutes to get from my house to her preschool. In theory, I should have made a back In plenty of time. However, I got stuck by two trains. I then turned on the wrong street to go to the school and got a bit turned around. What a mess! Luckily, I got there with five minutes to spare. I literally ran into the building with the kids. Thank goodness the woman was nice, because it actually took me till five after four for me to finish all the paperwork. Seriously, there was so much paperwork it was like signing mortgage papers. Now, I have to sit and wait for school to call me back and schedule a screening for preschool. I seriously don’t understand why they just can’t do the hearing screening like I asked. I think the lady said that testing would start November 7, so at least we don’t have to wait that long. It’s just frustrating because Madison won’t qualify for free preschool, so this is just a waste of my time.

Wine Of The Month

Lisa — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:12:36 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

Look what I have here:

We just got some wine delivered from Gold Medal this week. They have a great wine of the month club that you can join. I’ll be honest, we are not huge wine drinkers at my house, so I will be unable to give you a play by play of how exactly it tasted. I just know good or bad. In my opinion, this wine is good. We had both a white wine to try and a red wine to try, and they were both most excellent.

Besides the taste of the wine, there were many things that impressed me by this company. First, I love that the wine came wrapped. Most of the wine we do order is gifts. It is helpful to have it prettily wrapped. I have not seen any other company do this before, and it definitely makes them stand out. You can see that this wine came with a ton of paperwork. One piece of the paperwork is a wine tasting scoresheet. I love this idea! They want to know what you think of the appearance, aroma, body, flavor, texture, and aftertaste. They want to know if your wine was up your standards. I love it. This is a great way to please your customers. Plus, if your customer is not satisfied with their wine, they are able to let them know what exactly the problem was. The wine came very well packaged, so there was not a chance of the bottles breaking. I could have dropped the box, and they still wouldn’t have broke. Another piece of paperwork that was sent was their newsletter. There was a great piece on the owner of the company in there. There was also two really good sounding recipes in there too. My favorite line of the recipe was “two glasses of chardonnay for the chef”. I think I can handle that!

Wednesday Hero’s

Lisa — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:52:37 +0000

My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings - A day in the life of a busy mom . . .

This Weeks Soldier Was Suggested By Sunny Kay

Col. Cyril Richard “Rick” Rescorla
68 years old from New York City, New York
16th Air Assault Brigade, Parachute Regiment (England)
Platoon Leader of 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) (U.S.)
September 11, 2001

Col. Rick Rescorla is a multiple time hero. In 1957 he enlisted in the British Army and began training as a paratrooper with The Parachute Regiment of the 16th Air Assault Brigade. He went on to serve with an intelligence unit in Cyprus, a paramilitary police inspector in the Northern Rhodesia Police (now the Zambia Police Service). When his military career ended in England he joined the Metropolitan Police Service in London. But he found the paperwork too boring and quite at the behest of a friend who encouraged him to join the United State Army. Which he did.

In 1963, Rescorla enlisted, with his friend, in the United States Army. After he completed basic training he attended officer training school and was assigned as a platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile).

He was shipped to Vietnam and participated in the Battle of la Drang. While in Vietnam, he was given the nickname “Hard Core” by his men for his bravery in battle.

In 1968, Resorla became a U.S. citizen and continued his service in the Army Reserves until 1990 when he retired. In 1985 he joined a financial services firm, located in the World Trade Center, as security director.

In 1993, when the WTC was bombed, Rescorla was instrumental in evacuating people from the building. Afterwards, he enacted a policy in which all employees of the firm practiced evacuation drills every three months.

September 11, 2001. Rick Rescorla was supposed to be on vacation getting ready for his daughters wedding. Instead he was at work covering a shift for one of his deputies so that he could go on vacation. When American Airlines Flight 11 hit Tower 1, Rescorla ignored officials advice to stay put and opted instead to put his evacuation drills to use. While evacuating the 3,800 employees of his firm in Towers 2 and 5 he kept reminding them “be proud to be an American …everyone will be talking about you tomorrow” and sang God Bless America over his bullhorn. When Flight 175 struck Tower 2, Rescorla had already evacuated most of the employees from his firm as well as many others from other floors. He then went back in, despite being told he needed to evacuate himself. The last known words anyone heard him say were, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out”. Tower 2 collapsed with Rick Rescorla last seen heading to the 10th floor looking for more people to help.

As a result of his actions that day, all but six employees of his firm made it out alive. One of those being him and three others being his deputies who followed him into Tower 2, Wesley Mercer, Jorge Velazquez, and Godwin Forde.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by going here.