up all night!

I've been awake since 1:30 this morning. I'm entering A.D.D. mode. Bear with me.

Karen Minton on wsb tv looks like somebody scared her this morning - her hair is all poufed out and her makeup is done to make her eyes looks five miles apart. Not a good look. I know this will only be of interest to folks in/from Atlanta but it bears a google search if you have time.

I just cleaned the kitchen. Austin is supposed to do this as part of his chores every day. He had not. When I found myself clearing a path on the counter to make my coffee, I decided it was time to clean the kitchen. He had fallen asleep in the living room (which I'm actually ok with, as long as he sleeps) so I turned on all the lights and made as much noise as possible.

I was surfing for thanksgiving recipes and food gift ideas... for Thanksgiving I'm doing broccoli salad (which I always buy at the deli and luuuuv! I'm making the homemade version this time!) and deviled eggs (complete with egg salad sandwich for my Aunt Ginger) and sausage balls (for Cody) and pickled beets (yes, Jen, it is a southern thing) and maybe, if I'm feeling really inspired, I'll do that ritz cracker pie again. Austin loves it.

For Christmas gifts - since I'm appearing in the role of the broke, single mom again - I'll do my russian tea mix that people seem to like, sausage balls (they make good gifts - I do a breakfast basket with a mug, hot chocolate and tea mix and frozen sausage balls) and I'll make some candy/fudge sort of stuff. I've got to figure out a way to ship frozen sausage balls to Purple Michael in Chicago. Of course, this being his first winter in Chicago, he's got his own issues with frozen balls. Sorry. Bad joke.

I haven't slept much. I am not sure but I think I maybe forgot to take my anti-depressant yesterday morning. That usually gets me cranked up the next night- something about being off schedule. Or maybe it's the crying baby next door. Duplex living is fine except for being able to hear the crying baby thru the wall. I don't get aggravated... I mean... babies cry... and they don't ignore her or anything, you can hear sounds of comfort almost immediately. I just hear it. And wake up.

Austin has decided that our Christmas gift to "us" needs to be the George Foreman 360 grill because he is an infomercial writer's dream... he also wants us to get the steam mop and a half dozen other products he's seen advertised. The hook that got him with the George Foreman grill was making quesadillas. My boys love quesadillas. You'd think they were part mexican or something. They aren't.

We will definitely be focusing on the "reason for the season" instead of the gimme gimmes this year. God. Family. Friends. That sort of thing. I need to start working on my Christmas cards because I genuinely love doing that. Email me your address if you'd like to get something in the old fashioned mail from me! My email is julydarby@aol.com. I'm really not stressing over gift giving... my big boys are big enough to understand the limits of my financial situation and Austin has always been easy to please. I do want to get the tree up as soon as possible... We didn't have a tree last year and the year before we didn't do it the way I wanted.

I took on a new responsibility at work yesterday and it will keep me busy but will also make time go by fast. Georgia law has changed to allow people to choose between two types of uninsured motorist coverage... if you don't advise your insurance company which coverage you want, your insurance company has to give you the more extensive (and expensive) coverage. We are trying to be proactive and advising our clients of their options but people have a tendency (myself included) to ignore mail from their insurance company. I'm calling these folks up and trying to educate them... and of course getting a lot of slack about how we're just trying to cost them money. Um. No. We're trying to SAVE you money otherwise we'd just leave that more expensive coverage on there and not let you know you have a choice. My challenge is to turn these conversations into commissionable sales without letting people feel like we're just using these conversations to generate commissionable sales.

I set a goal of six life/bank products for November and I have sold... big fat zero. I had one life that got withdrawn, two loans that have been declined, one loan that is approved but the client hasn't come in yet to sign the paperwork. This means that I need to sell six products between today and tomorrow. Let me just tell you how excited people are about talking about life insurance the week of Thanksgiving...um... not! So I'm not only making the phone calls related to the change in auto insurance coverage... I'm beating the bushes to get life policies sold. I was almost hoarse by the end of the day yesterday.

On top of all that... this guy came in the office at the end of the day after having bought two trailers (mobile homes) that he intends to rent out. Not only did he not have any idea how much the homes were worth... or how much he wanted to insure them for... he didn't know the dimensions... or even the addresses! I'm like... "is this a test?"... And this guy didn't speak good english... nice guy... but... I had to send him to get more information. Insurance is matching price to risk... if I dont' know the risk... I can't give a price. It was frustrating....

Today I'm having Thanksgiving lunch at Sarabeth's school with her. I will definitely take pictures! We are also having our family fellowship dinner at church tonight. I will be leaving work early today to be there on time. Today is Austin's last day of school this week. I am working tomorrow but then have a four day weekend. I am trying to arrange to meet up with friends while I'm on "the southside" of town for Thanksgiving. I may stay overnight at my parents' house on Thursday night to be able to see a few more people. (Mary, A.T., Barry????)

Why is it that Stubby waits to do his grooming until he's in the middle of my bed?

I missed two phone calls last night... was already asleep (which may be why I was awake at 1:30) Give me a call today, if you can, hon! I'll try to call from the office if time permits.

Good luck to my friend who is on a quest for answers. I feel your pain. It's so hard not to know exactly what is going on and then sometimes when we do know... we wish we didn't. Just know that there is peace down the road for you.

And to my friend who is dealing with a broken heart... honey... all the words in the world won't make the hurt go away but please know that I know... and I care... and I'm sorry... and guys are jerks... and anyone who can't appreciate you doesn't deserve you... and that you don't want to spend a split second with someone who doesn't love you like you love them... and I'm saying all of this for me as much as for you... but I am really, really sorry.

I think it's time for a shower. Hope you all have a really wonderful, fabulous day! Send me lots of "staying awake" prayers!