All Worked Out

Today was a busy day, lots of meetings in my dept. at work.  Our ideas and things are coming together, but the next few weeks until I get into a set schedule are going to be hectic at Red Hill.  But I'm looking forward to the challenge.  I'm also looking forward to decorating my new office.  We finally got things rearranged so I now have my own space.  First time I've ever had an entire office to myself.  I had a nice little cubicle at Weichert, but this is awesome. 

School is going to be tough though.  My class on XHTML is going to take 6-9 hours a week.  Also, everyone has told me that a C is an A in Human Biology, which I also have.  Then Office Admin. is going to be a little tough since I'm taking it before a couple classes you're supposed to take, but the teacher thinks I'm smart enough to do it without those classes.  Medical Terminology doesn't seem like it will be too bad, just a lot of work and memorization.  And I'm not sure about Medical Transcription since my first class in it isn't until tomorrow (weather permitting).

So if you want to see some of the things I've been up to at Red Hill General Store, you should check out their company blog.  It's really the only thing tangible that I've done at the moment the rest is behind the scenes type stuff.

Well off to bed, hopefully a big day tomorrow!

November = Shock

My system is shocked, I cannot believe it is already November!  Yikes!  I have so much to get done before Christmas, I just don't even know where to begin.

This morning was a fun one, I went out to head to school, and whala! Flat tire.  I was so proud that I changed to my spare by myself, but no sooner than I let the car back down, than I realized, oops, the spare is flat too.  (couldn't tell without the weight of the car on it)  So with some help from a friend, I got my tire patched and made it to my 2nd class, a little late but better than never. 

Still enjoying writing for Red Hill General Store.  I have revamped the blog a little.  Go check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.redhillgeneralstore.blogspot.com

Top 10 Dropping Bloggers from Entrecard

This month's top 10:

Tables

Dropper # of drops bethere2day 30       Sparkle 26 the way I see it 23 Megan Bayliss 23 Mom's Wish Lists 21 eastcoastlife 15 Stigma No More 12 Dolly's Daily Diary 12 Three Peas in a Pod   8 slightlydrunk.com   7

Whew...

Gee, with all the work at Peds, homework, housework, and work blogging and rewriting descriptions for Red Hill General Store, I haven't had time to keep up with my own blog or with Etsy... I'm hoping that I won't have quite as much homework this weekend and I'll be able to make some jewelry and get it listed.  Its been crazy busy in my life lately.  That and making time for The Boy, who is amazingly supportive with all my work.  I couldn't do it without him that is for sure.  :)  Speaking of, here's my current fave pic of The Boy and me:

Shout Outs and Updates.

Starting off with tonight's post giving a shout out to Red Hill General Store.  The owner graciously did an interview with me for a school project, and I was amazed at how far they have come since I worked there back in High School, and my first go round at college.  You should visit their website at http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com they have just about anything you could think of and then some.  The staff is friendly, and the prices are reasonable. 

Update, the Jewelry Presentation my small group did turned out very well.  Our group came in 2nd, but we had a lot of fun, and I got to work with some wonderful people.  My Power Point class finally started, and we have a few projects which will be a bit more work added to my already stressful life, but I think I will still enjoy this class.  I get to be creative in a few ways, which always makes me happy.  Work has been stressful to the point that I've been nearly in tears and physically shaking every day on my way home.  I love the people I work with, but we need to figure out a way to lighten the load.  Or else I'm going to have to go to a Dr. and get put on some meds or something.  This much stress can't be good for someone.  I wish I enjoyed my job again.  :(

I have to work this weekend, but hopefully after I tackle all my homework in the evenings I will have time to  make some new jewelry and get pics up and stuff listed. 

Thank you to all of my readers.

Working on a New Me.

Fall 2007

Me Dec. 2008

Sept. 2010

I've been trying to eat healthier, walk more, and destress, I think its made a difference, I've lost nearly 50 lbs. and want to lose a minimum of 30 more.  Wish me luck on my way!

Projects galore...

So, I mentioned the Small Group project in an earlier blog.  The one that we are doing for my communications class, anyway, the product my group picked was my jewelry :O Which is awesome!  The girls are determined that we will sell a piece the day we do our speech.  They are all so super nice, love my group. LOL. 

Well, as I had said about Records Keeping, I have a feeling that it is going to be the death of me.  Accounting is not my thing, and I'm doing it online (I'm sure I've mentioned that a million times) but really ONLINE??? WTF was I thinking???  It took 2 tries to get a passing grade on my post test (and that's not the real deal grrrrrr.) I have one more try, I'm gonna study some more and shoot for a 100.  The bad thing is that for the pre and post test we can use our book...and I kinda have a feeling that we'll have to go to the ARC for the main tests and no books there *big gulp*  I need to look into that...

Now onto my latest listing:

Small World

Went to a cook out with The Boy yesterday, met some of his friends that I hadn't met before.  Had a lot of fun, the food was great and the conversation was interesting.

Found out one of his friends hangs out with some of The Lil' Sis's group.  Just found it weird how each group tends to link back to another in one form or another in this little town, but it should be expected by now.  He was telling some party stories, that I'd heard from someone else's perspective (the lil sis's) and it was neat to hear it in a new light. 

Also I have listed a new  piece of jewelry on Etsy and I have updated some of my links at the top of the page.

August's Top Droppers

I know its a little late this month, but I've been busy and forgetful LOL.  But here are my top 10 Entrecard droppers you need to go check out their blogs and show them some love!  They've definitely been supporters of my blog.

BeadedTail	29
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles	28
The Horror Movie Show	27
Photography by KML	26
NeoBluePanther	25
Megan Bayliss	25
Bible Examples	25
zenbananas	24
Blinkky.com	23
the crazy suburban mom	23

Hmmm...

So, I wound up ordering an older version of Gregg Reference Manual from amazon.com, along with a really awesome dictionary.  It is The American Heritage College Dictionary.  And oddly enough I also ordered a shower head, since mine had sprouted a leak.  The dictionary and shower head arrived yesterday.  So I decided to do some work in my shower (naturally).

So this morning was my first time actually showering with this thing.  Well, while the water was warming up I realized that there was a gust of air coming from within my shower...that is how hard the water is pounding out of this shower head.  And on my back the water pressure felt AWESOME.  Then...I turned around; My nips are still sore from the pounding water.  So I think this afternoon I am changing the washer inside the head to a water restrictor.

Also for those of you have still not checked it out.  I have made the goodsearch.com page my homepage on Firefox.  Yup, its that good.  I really like it anyway.  Try it out.

Today's first Dropper:

Went on a Book Hunt...

So for my editing & proofreading class, our teacher recommended us getting the Gregg Reference Manual so The Boy and I went to Barnes & Noble today to see if they had it, ha ha. Yeah they do...but for $70.  As much as I love books, and as much as I would probably use that book, I had to say NO.  I've found several copies on Amazon though for $50 and under, so I think I might go that route.  And since I'm a student they have this thing you can sign up for and get FREE 2 day shipping.  :)  And free shipping always makes Raen happy!!!

On a different note, I did pic up a Self Magazine while there (love their articles) and there is an article in this month's issue about Women Doing Good and one woman, JJ Ramberg has helped create a search engine that raises money for a nonprofit of your choice every time you use it to search.  It is called GoodSearch.com I haven't checked it out yet, but I have a feeling that page is going to get bookmarked as soon as I get a second to check it out.  What better way to help out a good cause?  You are going to be searching online at some point anyway (or if your me, several times a day).  If you do check out that search site, let me know what you think about it, I'm always curious about other's opinions! 

Well I am out, but before I go check out today's first dropper's blog:

First Day

Yesterday was my first day of online classes, and today was my first of actually going up to the campus.  I was so nervous the whole ride there, stomach in knots and all.  But so far so good I think I'm really going to enjoy this semester.  In case anyone is curious here's a look at the classes I'm taking:

AST 107 Editing/Proof Reading
AST 136 Record Keeping
AST 260 Pres Software (PowerPoint)
CST 110 Intro to Communications
HLT 121 Drug Use & Abuse

So far my hardest classes seem like Record Keeping (Accounting) and Communications.  Wish me luck!

Also for Record Keeping, we had to do an introductory thing and include a pic of ourselves.  So I figured I'd share my pic w/ya'll since the one I have on here is a bit vague:

Today's first Dropper:

  

Hoping to get Critiqued.

I posted in the Etsy Forums to get a critique on my shop, if you are on Etsy please visit this link and help me out: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6597599 I would sooooo greatly appreciate it!

I am hoping to get my shop as flawless as possible before I start going to school in 2 weeks, so that I can use my spare time for making jewelry and listing it (and hopefully shipping it) instead of trying to work out kinks in the store.  That would be a great help to me.  And since my hours have been cut at work I could definitely use some extra income if I could get this thing up and going.  Everyone has said this summer has been slow on Etsy, so hopefully I'll start seeing some more action as we move towards the holidays.

Well I am off to clean, organize, and make some jewelry.

Today's first dropper:

   

Update:
Made a treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c61a784f3bd6d915d20e343/cool-me-blues?index=0
Featured in a treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c61c0bf347c6d91df2cf718/quick-draw?index=0

Top Droppers in July:

Show these guys some love, they've def. shown my blog some :)

Dropper	# of drops
AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles	30
Frugal Healthy Choices	25
Simply Shiny Life	19
the crazy suburban mom	18
on the verge	17
Photography by KML	16
Teeming With Stupidity And Weirdness	15
Primarily Symphonic Rock	15
Meow Diaries	14
Three Fates Design	14

First Dropper today:
Zezebel: http://zezebel.blogspot.com/

Dragging out an old short story:

I used to participate in Blogphilia on Myspace and we wrote a story each week that had to follow a theme and include key points in it so here's one that I did, hope you enjoy the read:

Topic:  Clairvoyance Experiment
Bonus points (hard, 2 points):  Include a commode planter in the front yard.
Bonus points (easy, 1 point): Reference a hockey movie.

As Desi drove through her neighborhood, she daydreamed about her life and how she wished it had been. When she stopped at the stop sign she had a moment of clairvoyance that granted her a bit of sight into what her future would have been had she followed the plans she thought that would always come to fruition.

The life she had desired as a child was one of not much luxury, but one of happiness and purpose. She had wanted to be an architect. But her mother had coaxed her out of that idea. Desi’s mother swore up and down that being an architect would render her penniless in the future, because where she was, there wasn’t much of a calling for them. Silently, Desi cursed herself for listening. What does a woman who’s prized daffodils reside in a planter made from a broken toilet know about architecture?

Desi glanced around and saw that no one was waiting on her to turn, so she allowed herself to daydream a bit longer. She imagined the house that she would have designed for herself and her husband. And their two children of course, had she followed her dream she would have been able to afford to adopt. Her eyes welled with tears at the thoughts she had repressed about her barrenness. She had always wanted children. Especially a little girl.
Desi is abruptly jarred out of her mind wandering by her cell phone going off. She groped around in her purse until her fingers met the hard plastic and she quickly answered it hoping it was someone calling about her resume. It wasn’t.

"Hey, my brothers are coming over tonight, and I figure you don’t wanna hang out here so I thought I’d give you a heads up." Jonah announced.

"I had some things I needed to do around the house, why didn’t you ask me before?"
"Its my house too, they’ll come over if they want, go spend the night at your mama’s or something. You don’t see her enough anyway."

"Alright, love you." Desi hung up the phone before Jonah could say another word. She was glad she had an out, she didn’t want to be around those ruffians anyway, when the five of them were together they reminded her of the Hanson Brothers, and not the pop group. And she was not in the mood for that sort of drama. 

Desi turned her car around and headed to the drama free zone of her mother’s. She wondered if she could talk to her mama about what she’d been feeling about Jonah lately, and if she would be able to offer any advice. 

"Its worth a shot, too bad I’m not really clairvoyant, I would’ve seen all this stuff happening eight years ago and avoided it." she said out loud to herself while laughing at the day dream she had envisioned earlier as though she could actually see what her future would have been. She sure could come up with some wild ideas, but she knew that her life would always take the path of least opposition and the one where she was successful isn’t a path that her life was going to take.

Read more: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=358099222&blogId=375518167#ixzz0vJUcNDwa

Baby Shower

Have a baby shower to go to this afternoon. My bestie since 5th grade is having a little girl. (Can't wait till she gets here, I'm gonna spoil her rotten!) Until the baby shower, tho, I've gotta get a shower, clean some, maybe do some laundry and hopefully make at least 1 piece of jewelry for my shop. I have 2.75 hrs to accomplish this in. So I guess I'd better get my butt off here and get hopping :) lol.

Oh, almost forgot, here's today's first dropper:
Beaded Tail: http://beadedtail.blogspot.com/
Go show their blog some love!

Long day

I just had an idea...to help spread a little blog love to all I'm going to try to post a link everyday to the first blog to drop on my entrecard for that day.  Just something to keep in mind kiddies :)

So today's first official drop was from:
BerryVox @ http://www.berryvox.com/

But for now I'm off to bed, work rolls around early...

..............................

Well, I had every intention of coming home and working on some more jewelry, but I came home and crashed, just woke up a bit ago, and had to go in search of food.  So now I feel as tho I wasted my whole afternoon.  Its unlike me to sleep like that in the middle of the day.  Hope I'm not getting sick as a few of the girls at the office have strep throat.  Yuck.  That's the last thing I want.  So hopefully, I'll get to work on some pieces this weekend.  Expect to see some Sunday (we hope).

New Listings

I have some new listings on my Etsy Shop.  Pics below:

Check these pieces out at: http://www.crystalraen.etsy.com

Beauty in Nature

I was sitting on my back porch smoking (I need to quit I know) and a beautiful Fawn and its mother came trotting into our yard, they were very skittish the slightest noise causing them to pause and glance around.  Oh at this point I was cursing myself for not having my camera, but I knew if I went to get it, the screen door would have sent them running off, so I sat there and just enjoyed watching them instead.  They made their way over to our apple tree and had a tiny feast upon the apples that had fallen around it.  The mother would bite the apple so that it would burst into tiny pieces and the fawn was then able to enjoy some fruit as well.  Ah, what a beautiful sight, I'm never visiting my own back porch again without camera in hand.

Getting my shop up and running...

http://crystalraen.etsy.com Please stop by, check it out and come back and offer me some feedback on what I can do to make it better.

Thanks guys!