Rick Steves and I...

are in Normandy tonight!  Him in the flesh and me in the mind.  But it keeps the spirit alive.  I've never been fond of France but Normandy is looking like the place to go!

What a crazy interesting week we've had.  There were two "no spend days" and we ate out three time (one of those being footed by my in-laws) and even Sammy was great during out dinners out.  Tonight I made a pepperoni pizza monkeybread dish and it turned out great.

I started a new cross stitch project which is a wee little stitches pattern of my favorite Futurama characters, which is all of them.  My timeline is to finish it within two weeks and then possibly have my last project framed professionally at Michaels!  I haven't framed anything in a long time!

E and I even signed up for our 5K and saved money doing so.  We signed up at Totally Running and saved $7.00 a registration.  And of course the kids said they wanted to run too but these are kids that are so lazy they don't want to stand.

We're nearing the end of January and I can't wait to recap the month.  I feel we've accomplished a lot and set a lot of habits in motion that will just get better throughout the year.

Jennifer

Unwind the String

This week was a hard work week with a lot of stress that was pretty harsh on the ego.  It's just work but when someone takes your words and changes them (that could potentially get you in trouble) then it hurts in a career kind of way.  But there is always a silver lining and that silver lining came Friday during my annual review.  It was amazingly great and I know I will be rewarded.  There was no better feeling at my job than the feeling of a job well done.  And I pat myself on the back for that because it can only benefit my family.

And so I finished week two of couch to 5K and although I should be running tonight, in order to make my upcoming week run smoother, I'm skipping today and going at it tomorrow.  It will be tough but I think I'm ready!

E and I have spent some wonderful alone time with the Joshy.  Of course the Sammy was there too but Josh got us without his twin brother and I think that is going to make a world of difference with him.  He gets lost in the shadows of his brother's issues and behavior. 

And we even had a "no spend day" this week!  With hopes for more next week!

Now it's off to have a wonderful cupcake and a nice glass of wine!

Sweet dreams!
Jennifer

Not Totally Unseen

Whether they are spambots or real people, apparently, our little slice on the Internet has begun to be seen, as our stats show some views. I'm still very excited about us going to the Atlanta International Gift Show at Americasmart on Tuesday! It's always fun to go to trade shows, but Jennifer and I haven't gone together in many years. I miss just us doing things by ourselves, which segues into this one: the narcissistic kid. It seems to be no matter what we do, you can't cleanse him of that personality trait, or rather, failure. There's nothing like starting the day off and him blaming others for his own shortcoming(s) in what he did. It's exhausting and it tends to make you cold towards him even though you keep going on and on like eventually maybe the light will turn on and he'll stop this behavior, but there is too much genetic predisposition to make that seem likely. 

Even though it can be maddening, you can at least feel sympathetic to the other one when his attention deficit issues rear their ugly head. You can work on that issue and at least make progress, although it always revolves around highs and lows. Maybe all of this says something of having premature twins.

I'm off to work with Adobe CS5 Illustrator today, which is way exciting! I can't wait to do character design on this and hopefully I can get things polished enough that we don't need to hire an outside artist right now. :)

E

Running Uphill

Today was the second run in week two of "Couch to 5K."  I must say, today was a struggle, but I made it through.  My legs feel rock hard and like lead but I made it through one more workout.  E and I hit up the America's Mart International Gift Show so we did a lot of walking today.  We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and visited the gift shop at World of Coca Cola.  It was so much fun to hang out together and look at all the new products.

But back to yesterday!  I found a great quiche recipe on Pinterest (awesome site) and baked it up all nice and pretty and it was received pretty darn well- much to my surprise.  But then I did serve biscuits with the quiche so that must have helped.  I had it for leftovers today and will have it for lunch tomorrow too.  I just love leftovers.

It has been a great four day weekend but back to work I must go tomorrow.  Only a three day week!

Jennifer

Running Into Week 2

I completed the first week of the Couch to 5K program and we are signing up for our first 5K ever tomorrow!  February 11th Valentine's Day Race here we come!

We did the ultimate frugal act today.  Yogurtland, our favorite frozen yogurt shop ever, had free yogurt from 11-2.  And that wasn't even the best part.  We also got $10 in gift cards for our next time and 4 Hello Kitty Yogurtland t-shirts.  And it fits me!  I'm shipping one off to my friend Ellen who collects Hello Kitty stuff.

We've had no "no spend money" days this week but it wasn't like we were out spending willy nilly.  On Wednesday we took Zach to get some candy for his very good report card and Friday, well, let's just face it- Mommy needed some wine.  It's been a crazy work week.

Tonight we are off to a basketball game (the four big ones, not the little one).  Free tickets courtesy of my friend Kelly who works for Turner.  It is great to have connections and such awesome friends!

And it is a four day weekend for me.  Golden Globes and the Gift Show.

Very good times!
Jennifer

Week One in 2012

We had a great week.  We ate out (at home) twice, which was pretty cheap and we had three days where we spent no money.  We took the boys to Monkey Joe's which didn't cost a dime because it was a Living Social deal I bought way back in February of 2011 and even Sammy had a great time.  I can't seem to shake this endless cold and congestion but I'm sure hoping it gets better soon because E and I have decided to do a 5k!  I am so excited!

This is the Valentine's Race on February 11th.  Our goal is not to run the entire thing of course.  We just want to get out feet wet and complete the darn thing.

I am looking forward to a great second week to 2012, although it includes a visit to the dentist for a new shiny crown.

All the best!
Jennifer

OCD for one please!

I'll be honest, I don't think I'm OCD enough because if I were, everything around me would be spotless and clean to perfection.  But there are certain days where I know my OCD is just enough, like today.  My skirt, made of a very thick cotton kept sticking to my tights when I walked.  This caused the skirt to bunch and not lay flat in the front.  I spent most of my day walking to and from the bathroom tugging on the front or side.  At one point I almost ran into people as the mental anguish from the bunching poked away at me!  Will I wear the skirt again?  Most likely, as the nice comments were numerous!

So I figure if I can just move that OCD into other aspects of my life, like discipline (mental and physical) I'd never have to deal with my own shortcomings being the cause of the mental beatings I give myself.  Outside issues wouldn't be a problem because those are things I have no control over.  Not all OCDs are bad, I just need to control the aspects that I can and let the rest just be.

Jennifer

What Direction Works?

No matter the year, no matter the economy, between the week before Christmas and New Year's Day, business slows down to a crawl. I was pleased as 2011 wrapped up and business was much better than last year. So, as the year ended, we were hit with a business bomb. If business bomb isn't a real term, well, I'm coining it right now! Over the past several years, we've used eBay is a big selling tool for our business. For me, it doesn't make me proud. Our business started in 1998 and over time, we moved from online auction type of marketplaces along with our website to our business being fully run based on the website, catalog, and phone. As the economy has tanked, we became reliant on eBay, once again. The percentage of business coming from there has honestly been too high for too long and with so much of our marketing budget going to eBay, it has limited overall growth potential of the business, once again. We run on a cash basis, so in good times, there is a lot more to work with in the marketing department.

Well, less than eight hours before the New Year, I get an email that our account has been temporarily suspended and we can't sell on there at this point in time. Does this have anything to do with our successful business on there? Nope. It has to do with an account that we had selling radios, vacuum tubes, and television components from my grandfather's store over five years ago. Somehow, there appears to be some small balance on this long defunct account, of which I have no idea about, but they are telling me that issues with that account have to be fixed in order for us to have our business back on their site.

I'm hopeful that this will be resolved within the next day or two, but regardless, this will radically change how business goes, once again. When we can use their service again, the amount of product offered through there will be dramatically reduced to 25% of what was available as of Saturday morning. We're back to radically changing the business model, tripling our AdWords, AdCenter, and BizRate account spending. In all honesty, it's the only way to grow the business in big numbers, once again, but it's disconcerting to basically have a sizable sum of your business income taken away overnight. This has always been the fear with eBay. They dicate the terms, their absurd fees, and can take businesses off of their system for no reason except that they choose to do so. I've read countless stories of businesses our size and ones bringing in literally millions of dollars to only see eBay shut their businesses down or to limit the dollar value of sales on their system. It didn't use to be like this, but when Meg Whitman took control, the business began to cater to big business and changed all the rules. If you're hurting a big enough client on there and causing them to not make enough revenue, well, beware as your business could be simply shut down.

So, here I sit on the 2nd day of the year. I expected slow business, as is standard this time of year, but not only do I have that, but a giant project to not only save this business, but to get it growing properly once again.

Eric

No Spending Days

The second day of the year and I've already blogged twice.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  To start the year off right, we had a family no spending day.  We went nowhere, spent no money and just relaxed all day long.  As a family, we are very proud of ourselves.  This is a very important part of the life that we want to lead.

And to top it all off, I managed to get myself on the treadmill for 30 whole minutes.  It's certainly not up to my husband's speed yet, but I've been there before so it shouldn't take too long.

So for the second day of the year we did something as a family that we've always wanted to do and that's free to boot.  We geocached.  And that was fun!  We even got a little trinket to take home.  Which can only mean now that we are going to set up our own geocache here just to see how many people we get.  Eric has a grandiose plan, of course, but we should probably just keep it simple.

We are off to a good start this year!
Jennifer

New Year's Day 2012

And it's finally here, New Year's Day.  I'm starting out my blog on a milestone day because it always makes for a great resolution.  One of those resolutions being to blog, write (or whatever you call it) about our journey as a family to move away from the rat race and the money chase to being more happy and content in ourselves.

My blog is called "Reversing the Heels" because that is what we're doing.  We're jumping off the train to follow our own path and I hope to share our triumphs and joys on a regular basis.

As I'm writing this, we have "House Hunters World Edition" on.  It is a dream to live in another country in a different lifestyle but that just isn't possible... yet!  But we can change how we live our life together as a family, which is our number one goal or resolution this year and to carry to all years in the future.

To start off this wonderful year, I am finishing up "A Tale of Two Cities."  And what better way to propel ourselves into the future by visiting the past of other countries, worlds and paths?  Later today I'm cooking the traditional collard greens and black eyed peas for luck and prosperity in 2012.  I'm setting our new traditions up with love for us all to enjoy.

I hope anyone who reads this has a Happy New Year!
Jennifer