Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Oh, my. Where do I start? We've had an interesting few weeks at work. Valentine's Day was pretty horrible, not because we were so overloaded with work but quite the opposite. It was the worst V-Day that I've ever seen, and I've worked in the flower business for about seven years now. Aside from that, we've had some people leave the shop, mainly for health reasons; they needed health insurance and my boss can't really provide insurance that's reasonably priced--it's a small business! However, the people that left included the lead designer for the shop, who has had 25+ years experience in floral design. She is phenomenal in what she can create and do. The other person that left has been our other full-time designer since October. I have been designing some off and on for the past few months, but not in any major capacity. I only work three days a week.

Sooo....guess who's the new lead designer? Yep, you guessed it...ME! This is both exciting and scary at the same time. Today I went in thinking I would only work from 9:00 to 2:00, but ended up having to stay til 5:30 because we had a lot of funeral work orders come in. But, I made two $75 dollar standing easels and several other things and everything looked pretty good! Not 25+ years-experience top-notch, but certainly not bad.

This means I am going to have to try to go back to work full time. This is going to be hard because I don't really have anyone to take care of my kids. So, please pray for me in this new position and also that I might find a good place for my kids to go on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (they go to "school" on Wed. and Fri.). Scott is also trying to finish up his comprehensive exams, which is really 4 papers, in the next couple of weeks for his Masters of Arts in Biblical Interpretation from LCU. So, AHHH! This is a crazy time for all this to be happening. I am just asking for prayers as we try to accommodate all these new changes.

Oh yeah, and Claire has been sick with RSV for the past week--bad timing! She seems to be at the tail-end of it, though :) To close, I leave you with a couple of random pictures...because what's a blog post without pictures??

My sweet hubby surprised me with roses on Wednesday! Beautiful!!

At long last...Scott's diploma from ACU came in a couple of weeks ago!

Sweet little red shoes on Claire for Valentine's Day (from Nana).

And finally...

A sign of the future?? Will decided he needed to take a nap outside in this cardboard box the other day. (He stayed in there for about three minutes) :)

I Survived...Barely

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone...yea!!!!!!!!!! This year was no different...it was still very stressful and frustrating, but we made it. We had a few hang ups, such as on Tuesday afternoon, the car rental company that we were going to rent two vans from called and said they had no vehicles to rent us. So, after a few moments of panic and freaking-out, we were able to find some vehicles to use. Then, on the very day of Valentine's, one of our extra drivers quit in the middle of a delivery run (we put two people in a van, one to drive and one to "hop"); he asked his partner to pull over and let him out because it was just "too stressful." Wow. And yes, we did have some guys show up after we had locked the doors begging us for flowers. It happens every year.

I said I survived (barely) because now I seem to be getting sick! My throat is all cruddy. I guess my body just let me be well enough to get me through V-Day. Oh, and if you were wondering what Claire did during all this chaos, I will ease your mind. She stayed with some very good friends of ours and had a nice relaxing time.

Other news:
Claire's first tooth still has not poked through. What's up with that?
Will is doing well in his new school.
Scott is knee-deep in papers and such for school.
Because we have been ultra-busy, sick, and way too tired, our Christmas tree (naked, mind you) is still standing in our front room. We are going to try to get it down TODAY.
Thanks for your prayers and thoughts for me while I was in the melee of Valentine's. I appreciate it!