Back in the saddle again

I’m writing a shorter entry today after yesterday’s epistle. I spent much of yesterday preparing for a birthday party my son was to attend on Aug. 2. Alas, somewhere along the way, I forgot yesterday was Aug. 1. I had him all ready to go, gift wrapped and supper on the stove for the rest of the family when DH (who is commuting to SLC for a few days to take some classes) arrived home and reminded me I was, in fact, a day early.
I still entertained myself with the way I wrapped the gift. The party is for the son of one of my Ya-Ya’s. She handed out spectacular invitations for the cowboy party and plans to have a pony at the event for the young buckaroos, so I had to pull out the stops a little for the gift.
DS-A picked out the present, it’s a cap gun revolver. I had to talk him out of buying the caps to go with it. Now days it’s a little dicey giving toy guns to children, but as his father is a horseman from the Utah boonies, I’m pretty sure we can get away with it.
I put together two 81/2 X 11 pages for DS-A school book yesterday. They were photos of him and brother on the first day of school, and him with his first grade teacher. That means I’m only about a year behind, because he will be starting second grade this month.
The pages are not spectacular, but they are done. I’ve been woefully negligent of my children’s albums since I discovered the 12 X 12 layout. The plan is to put all the “events” pages, birthdays, Christmas, etc in books for the kids. Each has their own school book where I (in theory) document each year of school with a few photos and samples of their work.
These pages are not works of art by any stretch of the imagination, so I have a hard time doing them. However, they are good pages to do when I’m in an artistic slump. They help me get the juices flowing once again, so to speak.
My boss from the newspaper called yesterday and I told him I needed to work more hours or I was going to have to find a different job. I told him I wasn’t threatening him or anything, just letting him know the situation.
He quickly told me I could have as much work as I wanted. They have had an intern doing a lot of the tedious beauty pageant, county fair stories this summer, which has been good for me in a way because it is so hard for me to get any work done with the family home. However, the intern will be going back to school soon, which should help.
Somehow in my fog of money woes, I forgot that I actually do have a job. (Well, actually I have several, but I only get paid for the one) What’s more, I know what I am doing, I have a college degree in the field and I am pretty good at it. I don’t know why this fact escaped me, but it did.
I don’t have to abandon the track I am on; I just have to step up the pace a little. I can’t tell you what a relief this was to me to realize I’m not going to have to turn in my notebook and camera (beloved camera) and work as a clerk in a drug store.
Doh!