We Must Be Crazy...Or Close To It!

So two weeks has slipped by since my last post, and I don't know exactly where it has gone. Strange things are occuring at a rather rapid rate, and I am multi-tasking as fast as I can. To start with, Katy was home four days last week with a 103.5 degree fever. I stood-up my mother-in-law for the girls first official piano lesson in Yankeetown. I thought it was Tuesday. Really! I was floored when she called and said are you coming? I was like, yup, we'll be there tomorrow! She said, it's today. Whoops. Finally, Katy made it back to school for Friday. You try making up four days worth of schoolwork. It's not easy.

Then, to throw me for another giant loop, my sister Laura, her husband Jason, and little Leify-pants are moving to Cedar Key! Wow. Jason is interested in becoming a clammer, I tried to warn him that the romance wears off very quickly! He is undeterred, however, and I am hunting down a rental house, a PO box, and jobs in no short order. They will arrive with moving van on October 16--yes, 1 week from tomorrow! I'm super-excited, it's been years since I got to spend any time with her at all. We are so thrilled to take Leify trick-or-treating downtown! It will be a blast.

Next, Shawn and I, Jonny and Jenny, are going into business together. We've both been clamming steadily, planting ever-larger crops, and working with local wholesalers. We've decided that in order to make our business grow, we must expand our ability to sell what we have planted. In short, we have bought a large local clam wholesale shop called Southern Cross. It is super-pricey, but completely turn-key which is a huge plus. Jonny and Shawn will remain independent clammers for the time-being, on our way to deciding if we want a true partnership. My job, yes, a going-back-to-work part-time job, is to expand sales and assist in running the office. The office manager will stay on, as I do not intend to work 60 hours a week like he does. There is plenty of room to keep Willie there with me, a play room, and a nap room, which I will do occasionally. I also am hoping Laura will be able to assist me with him and my girls on a semi-regular basis. It's a big big BIG leap of faith, especially in these tough economic times, but we intend to work hard as always, treat people the way we would like to be treated, and hope that we continue to be blessed like we have always been.

Part of the business arrangement yielded us selling three of our 6 rental houses to the SC owner. Jonny also is selling his rental house to him as well. This allowed us to lower our liability, lessen our work load, and most importantly, lower the mortgage payment. I will still manage the rentals for him as he lives across the state. In any event, the owner Bill, was quite accomodating as to the financing of the place. If he hadn't been, we certainly would never have gotten past the first discussion. We are looking forward to a new challenge, not so looking forward to dealing with people and their nonsense, and hoping for a bright future. Every one we've talked to about it says that if Jonny and Shawn are running it, it will be just fine. Their work ethic is well-known. Now just wait till we tell everyone we can't buy their clams because we're selling our own! It'll happen, at least till we get going. All those difficulties are the hardest part of the whole thing.

I'm off, gotta go pick up the girls and then drive to Yankeetown for our lesson. At least I know it's Wednesday this week. That's a lot farther ahead than I was last week! By the way, if you're interested, check out the Southern Cross link I've added to my blog. It'll give an overview of the business and the things we will be doing. Enjoy, and if you have any advice, let me know. And if you're advice is don't do it, YOU'RE TOO LATE! but thanks, anyway! : )

Willie and His Books

Willie loves his books. I went to go pick out a couple for Sean Patrick who is visiting Nanny for a few weeks, and here's what I saw!

He was taking books out of the basket and making two beautiful stacks. By the time I got the camera, he had stacked the second stack too high and it fell over. He spent about forty-five minutes stacking and restacking the books.

This is for you, Scotty: Awww, look at Mr. Sweetness! He's so handsome! Look at his cute lil haircut I gave him! Did I mention he is soooooo handsome?

CONCENTRATION....

Grandpa Celebrates His Birthday

On Sept 27th, we invited Shawn's parents, also known as Grandma and Grandpa, to come to our house for a birthday dinner. Grandpa turned 69 years old on the 21st. We had a simple fish dinner with roasted red potatoes, spinach, and carrot and raisin salad. Grandma even gave the two older girls their first piano lesson! Isabelle was not only interested, she did quite well with the counting beats game. During the lesson, Shawn walked with his dad down at the new pier. We hadn't gotten together in a while so we did a lot of catching up. The kids all loved seeing Grandma and Grandpa again.

Grandpa is more than a little happy about his "Apple Snack Cake" from Cook's Illustrated. It was delicious with cinnamon, allspice, ginger, chunks of apple, and raisins. A great fall recipe if you get the chance to try it. Notice Katy's eyes are trained on dessert. She had three helping of ice cream. (They were small, it's all about how many helping you get with her!)

It's tough blowing out that one candle that represents 69 years!

This is a weird picture because I had the flash turned off accidentally, but when I lightened it, it was so cute even with all the graininess that I had to put it in. Willie wouldn't touch the ice cream (I personally think he thought it was mashed potatoes) until we dabbed it on his lips. He adored the cake too. I might have to keep that in mind come January 22!

Izzy shows off her preschool scrapbook (it's amazing what you can do when there is no one home and Willie is sleeping!) to Gma and Gpa. Willie looks on, hoping to check it out. In the background, you can see Florida doing a great job of LOSING to Ole Miss. My husband was going, Oh ho ho, how do you like that, DEAR? Every time something bad happened to Florida. He's obnoxious to watch football with. I tried to tell him that he was just jealous because I can no longer remember the last year they were RANKED. Not too mention the fact that who was FSU playing, um um um...