Debt problems explained in photos

One Hundred Dollars

$100 dollars the most counterfeited denomination in the world

Ten Thousand Dollars

$10,000 Enough for a great vacation or to buy a used car. Approximetly one year of work for the average human on earth.

One Million Dollars

$1,000,000 Not as big of a pile as you thought, huh?  Still this is 92 years of work for the average human on earth

One Hundred Million Dollars

$100,000,000 Fits nicely on an ISO/Military standard sized pallet.

One Billion Dollars

$1,000,000,000 The aggregate annual income of 25,857 median Americans You will need some serious help when robbing the bank. Now we are getting serious!    

One Trillion Dollars

$1,000,000,000,000 Comparison to the standard size American football field and European football field.  Larger than a Boeing 747-400 transcontinental airliner.  The biggest passenger plane in the world until recently.

15 Trillion Dollars

$15,000,000,000,000 U.S. national debt will pass this amount by Christmas

$144.5 Trillion – This money, piled up, would tower above the World Trade Center

Welcome to 2011! (A 3 Month recap!!)

First off...Happy New Year!! Ha Ha (This feels really weird writing this after going on a blog hiatus for the last 3 months!) Work has been crazy, which has limited my free time, days off, and general lack of intrest in blogging! (More on that later!) So New Years day I decided to make some of my favorite holiday cookies Peanut Butter Blossoms I enjoyed a nice quiet day at home knowing that it would be one of my last free moments for months.

Now let the fun begin... Monday January 3rd! (All mail was not currently in the picture when I snpped this) but we had 29 trays of mail delivered! 15,000+ pieces of mail that we are responsible for sorting, prepping, scanning, and matching the customer up in our computer database to fill the order. Hence the start of Mandatory Overtime :( While the paychecks are nice in the beginning...the hours worked and lack of days off start to wreck havoc on your body. OT consisted of between 6-20hrs extra to be worked in a weeks time! The longest week I put in was was 60hrs long and 13days in a row without a day off! (yeah my back loved me after sitting for 10+hrs a day!)

One week later Monday January 10th we received our first major snowfall of the season. The weathermen predicted between 5-8" and we ended up getting about 7". Now being a former Minnesotan with 4 wheel drive...this is no problem for me. But KC has a different approach to snow removal than I am used to. They usually just put some sand and salt down hoping it will melt the snow away, and not actually plowing it (and they have a serious lack of plows anyways!) Well needless to say this caused a lot of problems.. schools cancelled, not being able to get out, cars burried etc....oh well...I have OT I have to get done :)

2 days later I finally get a day off!! Woo Hoo! I am beyond exhausted at this point I came home from work, had dinner and proceed to take a bed nap...bad idea! 12 hrs later at 8AM I wake up! (Fully clothed! I'm talking socks, undergarments, sweatshirt....my husband tried to wake me up to go to bed and I didn't even budge!) I am feeling completely refreshed though. I make a chiropractor appointment after the murder I have been putting my back through and I feel like a new woman.

This is our mailroom board where we write our daily mail drop totals on as you can see we have been getting hit really hard because everyone is out of the "donut hole" and they can start to satisfy their deductibles again.. so everyone is going to the doctor and mailing in scripts! The week of January 17th MLK day fell...we normally get a mail drop on some of the "off" holidays (ones where certain businesses are open but you don't get mail!) but we didn't this time! Exciting!! a 4 day weekend since "mandatory OT" has been cancelled. But voluntary remains!

Houses are on the agenda! Pat and I have been out looking at houses for about a month or so and have probably seen 15 at this point with only 3 being strong contenders. In the 3 days coming we managed to see another 18! Man are my legs sore from climbing all of those stairs! But we have another contender that has moved up high on our list.

Another snowstorm producing 4-7" is due to hit tomorrow 1/19 and a mandatory 12 hrs of ot has been issued. BLAH! So needless to say I am treking out in a snowstorm on my day off to go into work. Another week goes by with more OT but there is a light at the end of the tunnel...it is supposed to be 52 degrees here..HEAT WAVE! Goodbye Snow!!


1/29 My Weather Bug on my phone sends me an alert to freezing drizzle, heavy blowing snow and 6-10" of snow by Wed morning 2/2! With the threat of bad weather looming OT has been TRIPLED!!! From 8 hrs to 24 hrs just like that!! Beyond livid!!!  As is my company ended up putting workers up in nearby hotels because they didn't want them travelling home to far in the treacherous weather or better yet, not making it into work the next morning! (but yet they triple OT?!) Huh??

Hello February!! According to the Weather channel this is only the 2nd time since 1982 that KC has issued a Blizzard Warning! We are in for something major...I can just feel it.

Back up a day...this was leaving work on 1/31 We had rain all day which froze over as the temp dropped resulting in a full layer of ice all over my car! Thank God for de frost (and me going out on my lunch break to remove most of the water and ice that had already formed!) I can deal with the snow but the ice scares the hell out of me! Thankfully the sanding/salting trucks were out in full force and no major problems occured on my commute home.

2/1: Snowmageddon blizzard in full force! We got got about 14" of snow total! This was crazy fun watching from the comforts of my own couch! Later in the day we decided to trek out to the mailbox (which by no means is close) just to get out in it and have some fun! Being true Minnesotans we had a blast! Stepping down the stairs was a complete guessing game, only to step into a huge snowdrift that had formed up to my calf, cars being burried for days after our apartment complex plowed the lot and put all the snow up against the car fenders, snow hitting me in the face hard from the 40mph wind gusts we were having, breaking our shovel after trying to unbury our cars just to go to work the next am, and schools cancelled for days because of winds, cold temps, and buses not being able to pass through.

February 5th: Happy Birthday to me! I arrive at work to find my new lead had left me a balloon boquet on my desk! How sweet! I am now ending my 20's and quickly approaching 30! No major bday plans...because I have to work so birthday dinner has been put on hold for now. The next week we ended up combining my birthday with Valentine's day dinner at J Alexanders a favorite restaurant of ours!

The 2nd week in February I went for another much needed adjustment, and the bipolar weather went from being as cold as -10 one night to being 60 degrees in a week! Something I still am having a hard time grasping since I have moved! It has also caused me an onset of headaches from the drastic swing in weather. But the snow is melting and the sun is shining so I can't complain!


                                

February 13th: After checking out this beauty 2 weeks ago...we decided to put in an offer... how scary! Are we really doing this? Is this for sure the right house? (after seeing about 40 houses now!) After filling out all of the necessary paperwork we sit and wait! More to come later...:)

The next day on Valentine's Day we found out this house has become a short sale and that we needed a new set of paper work to fill out! But otherwise our offer had been accepted and agreed upon by the previous owners and now we were just waiting on the bank to hear something back. Boy for this being a short sale..we sure are moving things along quickly! Our realtor told us we would probably find more out by the next day! So the next morning on FB I post "Excited...Nervous...Anxious...Eager" leading everyone to believe that I am pregnant!! :)  Little do they know it's just a house! So after a call from our realtor which got me extremely excited he told me that it is now in the banks hands and that we would hopefully hear something in the next 3+ weeks or so :( So the waiting game begins! (And now we are on week 4 with no news still!)

So over the next few weeks I am still keeping busy with OT and trying to be patient waiting for good news and every Monday when the realtor calls I think "this is it" But only to find out he still "hasn't heard anything, and all is quiet on the homefront" Waiting is hard...and it has kind of lost it's "sparkle and excitement" but if it is meant to be it will happen! We have almost 3.5 months until our lease runs up anyways so we are technically in no hurry.

The weather is still bipolar...raining, sleeting, snowing then back to something else but another light is at the end of the tunnel...On 2/25 after almost 3 months of mandatory OT they have finally cancelled it!! I am so thankful! I know it could only be temporary but I have high hopes now that our daily mail has slowed enough to where we have caught up. Work is still sitting in another que that we don't have access to but it's not our problem since we are not pharmacists making the good money.


So now we are onto March...it has become way to nice to be inside now and the big window that I sit in front of is not helping!! :) I have also become addicted to Scentsy products. My lead Trena sells the flameless candles that come in over 80 scents! More will come about this in another post as I am very excited about this product.


And for the difficult...my grandma passed away on Saturday March 5th. This was my dad's mom, and his only living parent left. She was 85 years old and after being hospitalized earlier in the week after a terrible fall she developed pneumonia and passed quickly after being sedated and put into comfort care. I felt horrible being 500 miles away from my dad during this terrible time and it just breaks my heart listening to him get choked up and cry over the phone. He has had a lot to deal with being her main care provider (other then her assisted living facility) over the years from doing her meds, to grocery shopping and taking her to her doctors appts just to name a few. And now this past week he has been dealing with arrangements, cleaning out her apt, Social Security, banks, paperwork, legalities, etc.... all during his busiest time of the year (and when you run your own business no one else can take care of the work for you!)


And now to the present day...I finally had the time to catch up on my blogging and here it is...after a morning of getting my hair cut and colored, picking up my Scentsy order that was delivered at work, printing some photos, wearing flip flops for the first time, the sun is shining with it being 77 degrees tomorrow and wearing jeans at work until further notice...I say it was a good day! (Now if I could only hear some good news about becoming a homeowner!)

I'm going to be...

.....Someone's Auntie!!
  
David and Mandy (my Brother and Sister in Law) are expecting their second child  June 12th, 2011 to join Madeline Grace 10 months (pictured above)  Pat and I are SUPER excited for them!!  I can't wait to welcome our new little niece or nephew into the family!!

On another note...2011 is going to be the year of the babies.  2009 was the year of the weddings (mine was number 9 of 10 that year we attended!)  I have 4 real close friends/family pregnant right now... the first one is due in March, 2 babies are due in May and 1 in early June. I also have a friend who has gotten the go ahead to start trying again and I am feeling positive that it will only be a matter of time till she is pregnant also :)   I am also aware through FB "stalking" or announcements of another probably 1/2 dozen friends from high school or close aquaintances all due in 2011!  (And these are just the ones that have announced it.)

 I'm sure that as the months go on,  more friends will be announcing new baby news.  After all,  many of my friends are at that age/next stage in life where babies are the next step in creating a new family and life together.  Hopefully sometime late next year I will have some exciting news of my own to share!

The Cab Ride

I came across this story in an email and it led me to tear up. I have no idea why, it's just so sweet and really puts life into perspective...a feel good story!



The Cab Ride

So I walked to the door and knocked. 'Just a minute', answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.


After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90's stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie.


By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.


There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.


'Would you carry my bag out to the car?' she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist
the woman.


She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness. 'It's nothing', I told her. 'I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated'.

'Oh, you're such a good boy', she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, and then asked, 'Could you drive through downtown?'

'It's not the shortest way,' I answered quickly.

'Oh, I don't mind,' she said. 'I'm in no hurry. I'm on my way to a hospice'.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. 'I don't have any family left,' she continued. 'The doctor says I don't have very long.' I quietly reached over and shut off the meter..

'What route would you like me to take?' I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she'd ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, 'I'm tired. Let's go now'

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

'How much do I owe you?' she asked, reaching into her purse.

'Nothing,' I said

'You have to make a living,' she answered.

'There are other passengers,' I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

'You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,' she said.

'Thank you.'

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn't pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift?

What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don't think that I have done anything more important in my life.

We're conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments.

But great moments often catch us unaware-beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, ~BUT~THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

.

A Cops Life

You wonder why he pulled you over and gave you a ticket for speeding
He just worked an accident where poeple died because they were going to fast
_________________________

You wonder why that cop was so mean
He just got done working a case where a drunk driver killed a kid
____________________________________________

You work for 8 hours
He works for up to 18 hours
_________________________

You drink hot coffee to stay awake.
The cold rain in the middle of the nite keeps him awake.
__________________________

You complain of a "headache", and call in sick.
He goes into work still hurt and sore from the guy he had to fight the night before
__________________________

You drink your coffee on your way to the mall.
He spills his as he runs code to a traffic crash with kids trapped inside
__________________________

You make sure you’re cell phone is in your pocket before you leave the house.
He makes sure his guns is clean and fully loaded and his vest is tight
__________________________

You talk trash about your "buddies" that aren’t with you.
He watches his buddy get shot at, and wounded in front of him.
__________________________

You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls.
He walks down the highway looking for body parts from a traffic crash
_________________________

You complain about how hot it is.
He wears fifty pounds of gear and a bullet proof vest in the middle of July and still runs around chasing crack heads
__________________________

You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong.
He runs out before he gets his food to respond to an armed robbery.
__________________________

You get out of bed in the morning and take your time getting ready.
He gets called out of bed at 2 am after working 12 hours and has to be into work asap for a traffic homicide
__________________________

You go to the mall and get your hair redone.
He holds the hair of some college girl while shes puking in the back of his patrol car
__________________________

You’re angry because your class ran 5 minutes over.
His shift ended 4 hours ago and theres no end in sight
__________________________

You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight.
He can’t make any plans because on his off days he still gets called back into work
__________________________

You yell and scream at the squad car that just past you beacuse they slowed you down.
He’s in the driver seat of the squad car, going to cut somebody out of their car only to find out that their dead when he gets there.
__________________________

You roll your eyes when a baby cries in public
He picks up a dead child in his arms and prays that it was crying
__________________________

You criticize your police dept and say they’re never there quick enough.
He blasts the siren while the person in front of him refuses to move while talking on their cell phone and doing their makeup.
__________________________

You hear the jokes about fallen officers and say they should have known better.
He is a hero and runs into situations when everyone else is running away in order to make sure no one else gets hurt and lose’s his life doing it

__________________________

You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don’t.
He would take a bullet for his buddy without question
__________________________

You sit there and judge him, saying that its a waste of money to have them around.
Yet as soon as you need help he is there