And The Drama Continues

I make my children dinner, I jump on the computer to take myself off of all the facebook pages concerning my former place of work. I open my account to find this waiting in my inbox: (remember names have been shortened)

Jaenelle,

Its taken me awhile to put my words together….Time and distance has helped me look at things.
I learned that you made my milk bath on your bed….all I could think about was if you used plastic or a sheet or whatever …all I could think about was that (where you were working) there could be cat hair, dog hair…bugs, in the product which I purchased…then I wondered where you made my bath salts?....….a bed is a bed…even if it is a couch…it is where people sit, lay, and even animals sleep….You told "N" this when you called her….she knew that I had purchased and was going to use this product…. I am very thankful she felt the responsibility to tell me…

That was it for me…”all she wrote”…couldn’t go any further…soooo I asked her to give me her cell phone and I texted you the message which you received…I didn’t want an explanation…I just needed to get all your product out of my store….I knew you were on your way down…I knew you were very upset and angry….I turned off the lights locked the door and left…

I know that you need to be making your product like you prepare food …not on wood table.…or on plastic…but on a disinfected counter or stainless steel….to makeshift your product area sitting on a couch etc…well, a health inspector would shut you down…you were not only selling your product…but sold it in a store where not only yourself was represented but others and myself….



I wish you the very best…
"J"

So did you catch that part insinuating that I have bugs in my bed? And I know what you are thinking. "N" threw me under the bus here. I was assured by "N" that the conversation about me making the product on my bed was part of an unrelated conversation. At this point I am more apt to believe her over "J". I thought long and hard about my response to this. I went through a couple of drafts and eliminated all cuss words and came up with this which I sent a whole 10 minutes ago.

"J",
What you did was unprofessional, disrespectful, and childish. I did make my bath milk on a work area on my bed. In clean containers, with clean tools.

Frankly, from your actions I am more inclined to believe this is a big excuse so you don’t have to work around me to get your grants. A reasonable person would have talked to their "friend" and coworker about the problem, not kicked them out of the store without a word and then run away and hide when they came asking questions.

Do what you want. Think what you want. I see what kind of person you are, and I am glad I found out now before I invested too much in our friendship and the store. I hope that you can get what you need out of the store now.

Jaenelle 

Not the nicest I know. But I assure you it was the nicest I could come up with. I also sent a copy of all this to "N" so that way she knows what exactly was said in case "J" complains to her that I was being mean. 

Oh. And just to make things perfectly clear. I am breaking no laws. My product is hand made at my house not in a level 9 nuclear clean room. I have no bugs in by bed, and the only animal anywhere near my bed when I was making any of my products is my children. 

Grrr. Arg. I feel better for now. :D 

Lost a job, Lost a friend.

I was having a great day yesterday. I was productive, I was feeling good, even Wyatt and the animals were behaving. Unfortunately, It was not to last. At 2 in the afternoon I get this text message. (names have been abbreviated.

" Jaenelle,

I am sending your chair and product home with "N" (to her house) you are not making your products in sanitary conditions. I will not renew your being in the store.

"J""

I hopped in the car and met "N" at the grocery store to get my stuff. She is at a loss and don't know what happened. I then go to the store where I find that "J" had closed down the store 3 hours early.  I can only assume that she knew I was on my way and left so she didn't have to talk to me. How pathetic.

I think I have the right to know what prompted this action, as well as who is spreading lies about my product. What it seems like as of now is that "J" made up this to get me out of the store. Even more sad is that "J" is not just the store manager, she is a pastors wife, and was my friend. WAS my friend. And this entire thing came out the the blue.  One day she was excited about extending the business hours of the shop and excited about my new product, and the next I am fired and she will not return my email.

But as I start to get angry about the knife in my back and the castration of my business I get to work doing something productive. I am secure in the fact that I did nothing wrong and that Karma will make its way around to her. Eventually every one gets what they deserve.

Turtle Ran Away :(

Ok. It is starting to get nice and warm outside so I decided to take both of the box turtles out to the turtle box to sun themselves and wake up after their winter naps. All day they were fine. they stayed in their sunny spots and the dogs left them alone. I got to work and when I come back 3 hours later I see Beka, my husbands little pup. chewing on a turtle. I blew up. I rescued the mangled, but still alive turtle and beat the hell out of the dog. she has not been allowed off the chain sense then. So I go to take both turtles inside and.... the male is missing. we spent an hour looking with no turtle in site. Now, my husband believes that Beka ate the male. But we found no shell and no bones or anything. So I am believing that he ran away while the female was being attacked.

April is fine by the way. her shell is a bit tore up and some of the underside has to heal a bit but she is alive and hiding inside in her box. My hopes is that she was bred before the attack and we can get some babies out of her this year.

Spring Stress Continued

Ok. I got my plumber, Darryl, to come out to the house and walk around with me. He told me that while he does not do septic systems anymore, he does have a guy to take care of that for me. He will come out to give me a better estimate but should be able to start withing 2 weeks. Darryl did warn me that the septic will most likely have to be a mound system. I have a vague idea what this is but it also means that we are looking at around $7000 for the system. This means that I have to pay out $3500 because the property owners are taking care of half.  The rest of the work that needs to be done is the well tie in and digging a hole for electricity. this is going to cost another $3000 our of our pocket. then the electrician to tie in the electricity which I have not gotten an estimate for yet.



We found another trailer to take a look at in Thief River Falls. It is a 3 bedroom 1 bath for $3250 with a pre-estimate of $600 to move it to the house. I am still trying to get the guy to call me back though. But regardless, I have to clear a crap load of small trees and have someone lay down gravel I guess before we can put the thing on the property.


Good news though. We got our taxes done and our return will pay for most of this. Bad news now. We were suppose to get our state return last week and still have yet to see it. That is killing our bank account. But I will call and  take a bite out of the Tax people and make sure everything is going as planned.

Spring stress

I have to admit I am starting to get nervous about this spring and summer. I have Sooooo much to do and way to little time and money to get it all done. But I have to get it done and on a deadline too.

First I have to have a septic system put on to the property that I am living at. The owner of the property has offered to pay half of this cost. With only a quick quote i am looking at footing the half bill of $3000.

Second I have to buy, move, and place a manufactured home on the property. I have been looking a bit and I have found very few in our price range but have found 2 possibilities under $5000. Moving the trailer is an estimated $1500.

Thirdly I have to Tie the new trailer into the existing well. I hope to be able to do this at least. If it is not possible then I am looking at another $5000 to dig a new well. I also have to hook the trailer up to the electrical system.

Lastly I have to get myself and my family moved into this house. The owners are expecting to have their house available to them in June. That means if all is not in place by then my family and I will be taking temporary housing in the mother-in-law house on the property. That will be all fine and dandy for the month or so that the kids are on vacation with their grandparents but everything must be in place by August.

Right now it seems like an impossible task for us. But Good news comes in the form of a renter. Our unsold house in Omaha will soon be the happy rental for a friend of ours. He takes possession in June, I believe, and that will give us an extra $600 a month to spend on getting this stuff done. It dont seem like a lot now, but I hope it will be enough to be allowed to take out a small loan to get this all done and get it payed off without getting in over our heads.

Thanksgiving Dinner '09

This is my first year actually cooking for just my family for Thanksgiving. I opted out of the super turkey that I bought in favor of a smaller bird. I used Alton Brown's Butterflied and Broiled Chicken recipe. It turned out ok, but I had a small issue with my broiler, it being the first time I have ever used it. So the skin of the chicken chard a bit more than I had expected.

Chicken Butterflied and ready to be put in oven.

Into the old ass oven.

My son taking the picture for the lovely Tamara's Blog give away. (see sidebar for link to Drabby to Fabby)

Bird done and resting. a little more chard than I had planned.

Wine for de-glazing the pan to make the sauce. I had to have it once I saw the name. Plus it was only $10.

Sauce reducing. I didnt have time to reduce it as much as I would have liked.

Bird quartered and plated with baked potato and the kids have some whole cranberries.

Even though the skin was slightly singed the bird was flavorful and moist. Even the breast. We had a simple chocolate pudding for dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trick or Treat '09 Pictures

I know. Halloween was 2 weeks ago and I am running very late getting these up. But, like I have mentioned the last 2 weeks or so have been more than a little busy for me. Better late than never though. Here are our pictures.

First the costumes:

We went to Roseau for trick or treating on main street and then headed to DQ for dinner. Talon was not feeling well so he almost didn't get to do anything more. But he begged and I gave in. I told him only 1 hour and then home for an early bedtime. He said "deal".

Out we went after dinner to trick or treat around the town. Notice how amused this first lady is by me being dressed up.

This next pictures are funny because of the story behind them. First the spider. Talon went walking through the yard after getting candy and my husband yelled at him to watch were he was going. He looked down and screamed at the site of this huge spider at his feet. He almost dropped his candy. We were laughing about it for the rest of the night.

This next picture is of a cat. This cat was doing tricks in honor of the holiday. I went walking past the tree and the cat scared me. almost as bad as the spider scared Talon. I did not scream, or drop the candy but I jumped back about 3 steps as my husband laughed his butt off. 

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain to everybody from all of us. (Even Hubby who is hiding behind the camera)

Stress and Samhain plans

3 more weeks of classes. I finally caught up with my Associates Capstone class and are still 2 assignments behind in Intro to Psych. I will hopefully catch that up tomorrow. If I am lucky, work ahead also.

This has been an emotional week for me. I am trying not to tell my boss exactly what I think and get fired. I have reconnected with an old friend I forgot that I had. I have been working my butt off catching up with my homework. And on top of it all, my house is trashed  because I haven't had time to clean up after my boys. I feel like I want to smile and cry all at the same time.

Samhain is Saturday and I have not nailed down plans besides trick or treating with the kids and some Halloween party at a church in town. Depending on the weather I would like to have an outside ritual with the bonfire. Maybe set up a labyrinth using string or flour.  That would be nice. If it is snowing like crazy, and I heard that the first real snow happens around this time, I will set out a plate for my grandmother and great grandparents and be content with that.

Autumn Yard Work - Day 3

Day 3 (Friday Oct 23) I took a bit of a break and started in again today. Alas, I only really got through a 3 foot wide row before I had to stop. I didn't manage to get past the Pine tree so I didn't even bother taking a picture. My hubby did get manage to get my progress area mowed down so that it looks a bit more manicured.

Autumn Yard Work - Day 2

Day 2 (Monday Oct 19)I worked another hour clearing grass, but did not have any help with watching Wyatt. I did not get as much done in this hour, but Wyatt got to run around an play outside with the dog and went down well for his nap. After my husband got home from work we went outside again to do what little work we could get done before dinner. 30 more min got him burning a couple bags of garbage and I cleared the debris that I uncovered when working earlier in the morning. I found a wooden pallet, some bricks, some small boards and a few peaces of medal. I also raked the entire area 3 or 4 times to completely clear the fresh cut grass, as well as last years dead grass and leaves. It is starting to actually look like part of the yard now.

Picture of progress from day 1 in the light of day


Day 2 end of the day. Talon is there to show how far back the grass is cut. I cut the bush out from around the tree on the left.

Autumn Yard Work - Day 1

I have been working on getting some of the tall grasses cleared now that it is not hot and buggy out.

Day 1 (Sunday Oct 18)I worked about an hour outside with my husband home to help watch the kids and had him running around with the tree trimmers cutting down any trees that were smaller than his forearm. I was cutting grass, by hand, with a kukri. (a kukri is kind of like a large knife or a short machete) I was able to clear about 20 square feet of grasses in that hour. I found some nice large boulder and a few stumps that are either rotted almost to compost or have been set on fire and are mostly charcoal.

Here is a picture I took shortly after we moved in. It was pretty much the same height of grass all the way over to the red shed.

And this is after I got done this night.

The line on the left is the phone pole and I cleared from what is pictured to just past the large tree on the right.

Halloween Party at Doug's Supermarket

We went to "Doug's Supermarket Annual Free Halloween Extravaganza" on Friday October 16th. They had many more activities that I thought they would, and many more children showed up that I expected. Think Walmart on a Sunday afternoon.

Here are the activities that we participate in:

First we stopped by the Police department Safety booth for a sticker an a coloring book.
Second we stopped by the coloring contest. Both kids sat down and colored a picture for the contest.








Next up was Guess the weight of the pumpkin. Talon Guessed 40lbs.
Sitting next to the Pumpkin was a booth with bug juice for the kids, no literally bug juice.

Green kool-aid with a gummy worm in it. I chose to pass on this but the kids enjoyed it. expecially Wyatt.


On to the bakery department where there was a cooking decorating station.



I made wyatt one but he never chose to eat it.

In the produce section there was someone making caramel apples so we got one for each kid (still sitting in the refrigerator by the way.

In the meat department they were serving Octopus hot dogs





One little 4 year old girl made the point that they were not real octopus because they didnt have enough legs. smart little girl.

In the Back of the store they had a Oreo Stacking contest. Talon stacked up 18 cookies in 30 seconds. The darn clown kept getting in the way so I didn't get good pictures

Both the kids got an Oreo and we moved on.


In the freezer section they were doing temporary tattoos




Next door in the dairy section they had a milk mustache contest. they used whipped cream for the effect.




Time for Ice Scream! er Ice cream! They had all the fixings for Banana splits so the kids got ice cream with chocolate on it.




Finally they were doing hay rides every 15 min. Talon was very excited but confused as to why they called it a hay ride when we were sitting on straw bails.


wyatt... not so much. he was not happy that we were on this trailer until we started to move. then every thing changed and the whole idea was very interesting.




We ended the morning (yes, we took the hay ride at exactly 12pm) and had lunch at the DQ and got Wyatt home just in time for his 1pm nap. He went almost right to sleep too.

a big day, only the one minor meltdown waiting for the hay ride to start. I even picked myself up a banana split blizzard at DQ as a prize for being an awesome mom and getting through an outing with everyone still in one piece.

By the way Suprise! Wyatt won the coloring contest for his age group. He won a fee movie rental from the store. Talon is bummed that he didn't win anything. But I explained that I think Wyatt was the only 2 year old to enter a picture so he won by default