As stated in my previous post, Tuesday was my birthday. Please note, this was my 42nd birthday. With that in mind, pay strict attention to the candles on the cake. My kids have such wonderful senses of humor (and grace ) I Heart my kids completely.

Is this just not the bestest cake? I’m such a sucker for pink and butterflies and polkadots.  But my favorite part is that thanks to my kids, I get to be 24 again!

And of course, who could resist all this great lute! Roses… oh my.

OH, and in the bag? A bag of my fave Starbucks Coffee and this….

My two favorite creatures in the entire universe (children and dogs not included)

A dragonfly and a turtle. I LOVE IT!

I’m sitting here in this freakin sauna of an office, totally excited about some recent developments.

(1) My 42nd Birthday was Tuesday and I did not immediately turn into an old crone.

(2) The birds that have decided to nest in my office had hatchlings overnight. I woke this morning to hear little “chirp chirp” sounds - either they had babies or I’ve got a lot of crickets.

(3) I got an exciting offer for my company that just may prove to be my most adventurous and lucrative offer yet! WOO HOO!

(4) I won Alpha Woman of the Week! I’ll get a t-shirt (Can a girl ever have enough t-shirts? I think not!) and a gift basket from StaysWetLonger.com.

I wish people could understand that just because you own a business, it doesn’t mean you have time or cash to just toss away.

Problem #1 - I have a client who, after a month of negotions, has finally decided he wants to use my services and would like his contract. Although the call came well after closing time, I took it, got his contract ready, printed, signed, scanned to PDF and sent to him because he was leaving this morning for another LDT (He’s an over the road trucker, long distance).  I told him during our phone conversaton that I’d have the contract to him, within the hour, which I did. I also asked if he had any questions about my policies or the contract (IE: You understand that there is a 25% deposit for me to BEGIN work, and you will need to include the amount for your website hosting package and domain registration? Because without them, I can’t build a site for you?) Yes he said he understood, no questions, blah blah.

This morning, I get the contract back, signed and ready to go, but… no deposit, no payment. UGH!

My contracts stipulate that I do not begin work on a project without a 25% deposit. Why? Because I have expenses that I must cover in order to operate, and I can’t afford to spend a month building a project, designing a custom SQL database or creating graphics for someone who, in the middle of the project says.. oh ya know? Never mind. That deposit covers my butt on work that I may do up unto that point.  It also covers such things as copyright registrations for any graphics or logos that I custom build for them.

I wish I could make these clients understand that my deposit isn’t just for my own sake, its for their own good as well.

Now, Problem #2 - I have a friend in Australia, whom I love dearly and he’s just discovered Wordpress! HOORAY! But.. he’s having problems understanding the back end, IE: How to make a static page be his landing page, how to order catagories, etc. We are on totally different time zones, for example, right now it’s about 3:00 AM his time where its 10:00 AM my time. And he KNOWS that I work from 7:00 AM My time till whenever-the-hell-I-get-done my time.

So he’s been emailing me all morning asking for help with this and that, and it’s not that I don’t mind helping. I don’t at all. But not during work hours. This is my time to make the money to pay my bills (OH lordy the bills I have!) And I really don’t have time to just sit around answering emails from someone who can wait until I have time. Yet he keeps emailing and frankly just pestering the shit out of me.

What’s a gal to do? Ugh.

So, I sent the client a friendly reminder letter letting him know that even though I got his contract, I still can’t start work without the deposit and hosting payment, as per my contract stipulations.

As for my friend I’ve given him links to the Wordpress site where he can find information on how to do what he wants. Read that. THEN if you have questions, email me and I will get back to you either at Close of Business today or during the weekend, when I have a minute to breath.

There seems to be a couple of unspoken rules if you live in Alabama:

1. You must choose a football team, either the Alabama Crimson Tide OR the AUburn Tigers - and become a die-hard fan

and

2. You must love racing because we are home to the Talledega Superspeedway.

I broke both rules. I’m not a huge football fan, though I do root for Auburn and like to watch the Iron Bowl, and I really am not a fan of racing. But.. my son is, so Monday, I took him to the Superspeedway for a track tour and museum.

Of course, He did not know we were going, so he was in total shock when we pulled up and he saw this.

He had a blast posing in the winners circle for a pic for crazy momma

He says one day soon, he’s gonna be sitting right here on race day.

He’s a huge Charger fan, and loved the official October Pacecar

He cried when he say the tribute to D. Earnhardt in the museum, but seeing the car he died in really shook him up. I never knew, until that moment, just what a fan my son is.

After we left Talledega, we cruised on over to Birmingham and had lunch at one of his favorite eateries, Joes Crab Shack. He had the “Bucket of Crab” which, in his words consisted of “FIFTEEN OF THEM THANGS BUB!” (fifteen crab legs, three hands LOL).

All in all it was a great day. I got to spend some mommy and son time with my favorite guy in the entire world and give him a day he’s sure to remember.

We are not a “take a regular vacation” sort of family. It has just never worked out in the past where Popa’s work scheduled vacation coincided with the kids being out of school, so, vacations are usually relegated to small, one or two day trips, with me and the kids finding adventures in our home state.

Last week, while the Tween was at Bible Camp, the Teen and I had our vacation - first Montgomery,then Auburn, then her photoshoot and day out in Birmingham, ending with us coloring her hair yesterday.

Today is me and the Tween. He doesn’t know where we’re going because I haven’t told him, but I’ve arranged for us to go to Talladega to the Nascar Hall of Fame Museum, and look at the 200+ cars, and take a tour of the track, where he’ll get to stand in the winner’s circle so I can take his photo.

I was really surprised to learn that the tickets for the whole shindig are only $10 each. Not too shabby.

Afterwords we’ll probably circle back around through Birmingham and visit our favorite Pet Store and then go eat dinner somewhere and maybe see a movie. Then we’ll come home.

I”m lookin forward to a day with just me and my lil man. We don’t get them often.  I’ve been swamped with work lately, which I’m not complaining about… but its nice to be able to just kick back and chill and enjoy the day with my dude, ya know?

For a month and a half, work was so slow, and then BOOM! It picked right up!:lol:

I sent out about 12 proposals, and got ten of the jobs, with another yet pending, so there hasn’t been a lot of time to post.

Also, I’ve just been busy doing stuff with my kids. Like.. dropping the Tween at bible camp every day this week at 7:50. He stays all day, which is helpful because I’ve been running like water, but I miss him when he’s gone. ANd he’s come home every day with a sunburn. He and the Teen are off purchasing sunscreen as we speak. I don’t worry so much about him being in the sun, or even a slight scortch as I know that with his fair complexion, its bound to happen. But I don’t like it happening frequently. He turns brown practically over night, but still, it can cause damage and I know its painful.

So, Monday, I needed to go to Auburn to get some ink cartridges refilled at Office Depot. I should have called first because apparently they don’t have the service available right now, and don’t know when or even IF they will again. Man oh man. I knew I should have taken the cartridges down there when I had the chance last month. I’ve only got around 15 that need to be refilled and I hate throwing them away! Especially since they cost so darn much!

Anyway, while we were in Auburn, I let the Teen have one of her birthday gifts early. I did it because it needs six weeks to heal, incase she goes back to school in August and they tell her to take it out! LOL I got her nose peirced. She’s been wanting it done for ever, so I took her, much to her total surprise. But she loves it. And ya, I’ve already heard all the arguments: “What if she decides in a year she doesn’t like it?” “Isn’t she too young”? And the answer to both is - No she’s not to young and if in a year she doesn’t like it, all she has to do is take it out and within three months it will close up. And if that happens, then I will have two new nose rings of my own

Tomorrow, we’re going to Birmingham to do her photoshoot for her promo material. Did I mention that my Teen is a rising rock star? Well she is. She writes her lyrics and music.  

She writes her own music and lyrics. The video isn’t the best quality and you’ll have to turn the sound up.

I don’t know about you, but I have a habbit of filling out “Work from home” offer forms online, just to check out different oppertunites, even though I own a business already. It never hurts to have more than one source of income, right?

A few minutes ago I got a rather interesting phone call. First of all, the number called my business line.

I looked at the Caller ID, out of habbit, and the number showed up as 222-222-5555. Hmmm curious.

I decided, just for the sake of fun, I’d answer it.

The guy asked for me by name, and introduced him self as Brian, with ITB - International Travel Beaureau. I had my computer screen open and did a search on google, while he was doing his schpeel. And guess what? All of the informationa bout ITB led to either Expedia.com or Orbit, or other travel site locations. Hmm.. no website.. so.. how again did I manage to fill out this form he’s told me I filled out? He couldn’t answer that. He also couldn’t answer WHEN I filled out the form.

Being a business woman myself, I cut straight to the chase. I don’t like to waste time, mine or anyone elses, so I asked “Let me ask you upfront, how much is this going to cost me?”

His response?

“Well, no business, as you know, is free. And if someone is offering you the option to work from home, then its probably a scam.”

Red flags went up and I immediately said, “No thanks” and hung up.

Here’s the gig folks; Nine times out of ten, anyone who’s offering you the oppertunity to work from home IF you’re willing to PAY X amount of DOLLARS - is about to rip you off.

They are not offering you a JOB. They are offering to sell you INFORMATION which you can probably gather just as easily yourself by doing some investigative work, taking some classes or networking with those in the field you want to work in.  There are places all over the internet that warn about these “work from home” scams.

Any company that is offereing a legitimate work from home oppertunity will have most, or at least one, or all of the following information, readily available on ANY form you fill out:

• A contact Phone Number
• A street address or other means of physical contact
• A website address
• A name of a contact, an actual person, not a voice machine
• An idea of when you will be contacted and how
• A privacy statement

And last but not least, no legitimate work from home oppertunity is going to charge you money to get started. That isn’t called WORKING FROM HOME. If you have to pay money to buy into a job, or a company, or to purchase information, you are not being guarenteed a salary, which is what WORK implies.

Okay, I”m done ranting now.

Whew…. 8:56 AM. Ask me what I’ve got done already today. No, seriously.. ask. Cause its a lot!

The business site is just about ready for the live launch on Monday. Don’t worry I’ll post a link here when its done LOL.

I’ve still got two months worth of archived articles to repost. A word of advice, don’t trust the database back ups to always work. This isn’t hard work, re-loading, but its tedious and time consuming.

I’m still tackling laundry. The old machine just drudges along but its making it, a little at a time. I should be done by.. oh.. Friday?

The coolest thing that’s happening to day though is that my new cell phone is going to be delivered! WOO HOO! I can’t wait. I’m moving on up into the next century! LOL.. meaning, this one has a camera, an mp3 player and blue tooth. I know a lot of folks don’t like blue tooth but I do, so there.

The kids spent the night at their sisters’s last night so the house is nice and quiet, just me and the dog, and the birds that are building a nest in my office. Yes, you read that correctly. I have wild birds building a nest in my office. A side effect of having no air down here and having to leave the door open when I’m working. When I get my new phone, I’ll take a picture and post it for you LOL.

Speaking of pictures. I’ve got to get some work done on my photography site soon. I haven’t updated it in a while. You can find it here at www.cherisecarterphotography.com

Okay, I’m off to do another load of laundry..

Ingredients:

• 1 large box elbow macaroni
• 1 large can large, pitted and chopped black olives
• 4 eggs, boiled hard and chopped
• 1 teaspoon mustard (spicey or yellow, I prefer spicey)
• 3 large cans peeled and deveigned shrimp (* You can also substitute imitation crab, real crab, shredded chicken or even ham)
• 1/3 cup mayonaise or light salad dressing
• 1/4 cup ranch dressing
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed and warmed under tap water
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup finely chopped yellow onion

Directions:

• Cook macaroni according to manufacturer’s directions, drain and let cool in large bowl.
• In smaller bowl combine ranch dressing, mayonaise and mustard, stir in spices and onion
• Combine all ingredients in large bowl, mix well, chill at least 1 hour and serve. Makes a lot, fills ya up and is nice and refreshing in summer heat