I've always felt that September 1st was a beginning of a new year. School was in session and in Vermont the weather was always taking a turn to the cooler side. How I miss those chilly September mornings waiting for the schoolbus! September is the time for setting new goals and starting with a fresh slate!

This time of year was always my favorite. Back to school shopping! Oh boy! I still get goose bumps looking at cool school supplies. Two weeks ago Stephanie, Cindy, and I found our way in Walmart to pick up some last minute supplies for the Maineville center's preschool graduation. We made a side trip to the school supply section! What cute stuff! Cindy got a striped notebook! I got one with funky flowers! Stephanie, glitter queen of the world purchased glittery notebooks, folders, and a pencil case! We will be decked out for our upcoming meetings! Yahoo!!!

My former roomate Jenny had her baby last week. Please pray for Little Eli! Pray for strength for Jenny and her husband Will.


I've been in a funk lately! Mostly due to work! I've been pitching in on the Toddler team at the Fairfield center. If you know me, you know that Toddlers are not my speciality. Being in a room with 14 toddlers will give anyone a run for their money! I'm more of a preschool/elementary type person. It's been fun, but I've been putting in a lot of extra hours. Hopefully things will be figured out this week and I will be back to doing storytime, which really is my love!

Michael and I have started attending Grace Fellowship Church out in Florence! So far so good! Everyone has been very friendly, which was not the experience at the former church Michael and I tried! People actually talk to us at Grace Fellowship! We are hoping to joing a small group! We really want to get involved at Grace and small groups seem to be a good place to start!

Yesturday, after church Michael and I went to Big Bone Lick State park which is just a couple miles away. We've been there before, but I forget how nice it was there. Maybe a camping trip is in our future! I was able to take some pictures, which made our little walk even more pleasant.

IKEA SUCKS!!

OK...I've calmed down a bit, but I am still upset with my IKEA experience today!

I really like IKEA. I have several IKEA pieces in my home! Yet my experience today at the new IKEA store in West Chester as made me rethink a few things!

I work rather close to IKEA and decided to pop over durinig my lunch break. I was very curious! So anyway, I drove in the the parking lot. It was not busy at all. In fact, there were many parking spaces availabe. Unlike most people, I usually park a good distance away from stores. I like the opportunity to get in some extra steps for my daily step count. This has never been a problem in the past. With in being a new store there were still parking attendents. I decided I didn't want to park in the area close to the building. I signaled my intent and than turned into that area. There were about 15-20 cars in that area. There were no signs telling me not to park there. When I got out of my car, 4 attendents come over and started screaming at me that I couldn't park there and that I needed to park where they tol d me to. They used quite vulgar langauge and were not polite at all. I asked why I could not park there and was told nothing. So I got into my car and left. This left a very bad taste in my mouth for IKEA.

I later found out from a co-worker who also works at IKEA that these parking attendents are volunteers and not actually employed by IKEA. This made me feel a little bit better, but after thinking about it I still feel that it was an unacceptable business practice.

I called IKEA and was unable to actually speak with a real person in the West Chester store. I did speak with a person from the national office. I was told that the local manager would be notified. I still wish there was more that I can do.

I have noticed how the service in stores and businesses have gone down the drain. Now I know why I decided to to go into the Hospitality and Business area because of the un-hospitable behavior I have seen!

SHAME SHAME IKEA!

The snow finally stopped around 3:30pm. It sure is beautiful. To me, it looks like we got about 12 inches of snow! Not so bad!!! I went for a walk in the snow just for fun!

Since, we didn't have to go anywhere, we stayed home. Michael played some computer games and I made some cards!! So much fun!!!

I was inspired by this Target Mug!

I get the amazing opportunity to work with many wonderful teachers. I have noticed how much grace and compassion this one certain teacher has been showing her class. I saw some beautiful flowers that I thought she should have! I hope they brightened her day!!!

PS: She doesn't know it was from me!

I arrived home around 5:30pm. On my door was a tag from Fed Ex that said they tried to deliever a package :D Yahooooooooo! So I ran down to the Fed Ex pick-up place and got my wonderful camera! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm back in Business with Scrappin'

Here are some old and new pictures!