Celebration

We had a wonderful time tonight. It got off to a shaky start but everything worked out well.

Angie and I met in Fort Wayne this afternoon and left Angie's van at Smokey Bones. Then I took her home and picked them up 3 hours later. By the time I got back to the house JR and Cathy were already there. Cathy tried to get in the car but I told her I needed them in the house. You see I did not tell them that a limo was coming to pick us up. I wanted it to be a surprise. When we got in the house I told her that my date was not there yet. She said "really"? I said yes. Well then the limo did not come and did not come. It appears he was on the other County Line road in Markle. So I had to call the office to see where they were. Then Cathy figured it out. So it wasn't a total surprise. But is was a nice treat. Angie enjoyed playing with all the buttons inside. It was very roomy. And we had lots of laughs. Smokey Bones was good also. I had ribs, Cathy had wings and pulled pork, JR had a steak and Chris had chicken I think. We had to wait an hour to get a seat. So we were ready to eat when the food came. I had just a Marvelous time! Great memories.

Winter olympics

Wow, what an excellent 2 weeks of Olympics. They went by so fast. I will have a hard time next week. It's a good thing that basketball tournaments start next week.

It was scary to see the US bobsled team slide over on their heads. But the second US team broke 2 track records. Still miss the Jamaica team in it but watching US come in first after 2 runs with 2 to go sure was exciting.

The US has improved greatly in all sports. We used to be good in skating and that was about it.

There have been lots of things go wrong. But on the whole it has been good games.

Today is Celebration day. I am so excited. I have to clean my car out. So I had better get busy.

I am very disappointed

I just found out that Mayo Clinic turned my brother down. He has horrible migraine's and we were hoping to get him into their migraine clinic. But they looked at his doctor records and are sending him a letter explaining why they will not schedule him. Guess they just lost one fan.

My brother needs to look for a deep skin massage therapist near the Ohio area if anyone knows of one. That seems to help him. But the doctor he is going to may be moving to Calf.

I guess there was a reason why my Uncle Don walked out of there.

I am so excited

I am so excited about Saturday's celebration. Chris and Angie and JR and Cathy and I are going to Smokey Bones to celebrate God's goodness to me in helping me pay off my house. I can't wait. It seems the week is going by pretty fast. I think we will have a great time together.

I cannot release any information about the celebration because some things are a surprise, but I will try to post pictures either Sat. night or Sun morning.

I am not sure what I will order yet. Most likely ribs. But I might change my mind.

Then when the weather warms up I will have a big celebration at my house where everyone will be invited. It's a bit cold to have people sit outside now. LOL.

Bad news

Today I received some bad news at work. As of April 1, 2010 we have changes to our health insurance. So I am asking for help in deciding what insurance plan to go with. I will do my best to explain each one.

Anthem Traditional Plan (I have this one now.) But the change is I will have a $500 deductible. That was always waved because I did not smoke. (I knew I should not have started last month) After you meet the deductible it is $2000 out of pocket maximum. Physicians office visit after deductible is met is 20% for me, specialists is 20%, preventive is zero for 1 office visit, emergency room is 20%, hospital admit is 20%, prescriptions count in the deductible, and are $10 generic after deductible, formulary is 20% $30 min.

Aetna: $600 deductible, %5500 out of pocket max, $25 copay for physician visit, $45 specialists, Preventive care $25 copay then 100% up to $500 calendar year max., emergency room $150, then 20%, Hospital $350 co pay admission then 20%, Prescription Generic 15% with $10 min and $20 max, Formulary 25% with $30 min and 60 max.

Consumer Choice Plan PPO, $1500 deductible, $5000 out of pocket max, 20% physician visit, preventive care 0 no deductible or copay, 80% after deductible for emergency room, Hospital 20% Prescription Generic 20%, Formulary $20. This ACS would put $45 a month into a HSA and we could put in what we want.

Now I do not understand all this garbage so which one is better?

I see a doctor once a year for a physical, I have to have managrams every 6 months. I do not take any prescriptions now. But I am highly scared of an emergency room trip.

Starting to look at houses

This afternoon I am looking at my first house. I have never done this before. I had this house built so I did not have to house hunt. But this house is killing my parents. The steps they have to climb to come in from outside is bad on my dad's heart and on my mom's knees and hip and heart.

I am looking at a house in Markle that has been for sale about as long as it has been built. It is the right size yard but I think the inside is too small for me to cohabitate with my parents. There is no basement. I am not sure I can live without a place to go to get away from them when I need to.

I have considered adding on a sunroom to the back of my existing house and putting in an elevator. There is a company in Huntington called Zimmer that sells sun rooms. Union has a half elevator they had put into their chruch that I am wondering if that will work inside the sun room. So the room would extend from the garage door in back of my house to just past where the porch is. The elevator would go where the porch is now so it leads to where the back door is now.

Thanks my thoughts, what do you think?

Can I fundraise $10,000?

I mind is reeling again. I have spent the last 24 hours thinking about ways to fund raise $10,000 for my Church. Do you think it is possible to fund raise $10,000 in a years time? I am thinking about writing up a proposal to offer to the elders of my church to guarantee $10,000 in fundraising over the next year. That would totally be a challenge for me. I love a good challenge. Here are some ideas I am thinking of.

1. Union (my parents church) ad a chili cook off yesterday that we went to. They had 30 people bring in crock pots full of chili. Everyone took small bowls and got to sample which ones they wanted. That was a great fundraiser because you don't have the expense of the materials in the chili. The people provide that. You just have the expense of bowls, spoons, napkins and drinks.

2. I think I can do a penny collection contest against small groups that could easily raise $1000 over a 10 week contest.

3. I think that I could find 50 people to give $20 to and have them double it.

4. I called the University last year and they said the college students could do a cookie sell but we could not. We have lots of college students at Church so I think if we had 50 people making 4 dozen cookies we could sell for $.50.

I know that many of you have attended churches that have had many successful fund raisers. What are those?

I JUST PAID MY 1st MORTGAGE OFF

As of today, I made the last payment on my first mortgage. I am so excited. I went to the auditors office today to report to them so they can start sending me the property taxes. She said "so you are the one." I said what? She said "you are the one that pays off their mortgage. Everyone else is refinancing." That made me feel really good.

First I have to thank God for providing me a job and the financial knowledge to afford paying off the house.

I have to thank my uncle Don who when I first bought the house said to get an annualazation printout and then make extra payments on principle. When I first got the printout my principle was $19. I paid $200 extra every 6 months and it would pay off 6 months of payments.

I also have to thank Jared and Cory Baker from Evansville who encouraged me to buy a house and gave me so much knowledge on owning a house and looking for bank loans.

I need to thank my family who believed in me and did not discourage me from building. Of course they did that so I would house the parents so they would not have to. Just kidding.

I need to thank my friends who supported me and encouraged me in this whole endeavor.

Gees, I sound like an academy award winner.

What to do, your opinion counts

There is a meeting at my chruch tomorrow to discuss the finances and where the chruch is going. I do not know if I should go or not. I know that if I go, it will get my German blood running. But on the other hand I would like to know what is happening. You see I get all wound up when it comes to the chruch. Mainly because I have ministry in my blood and I know the workings of the chruch better than my back hand. I am afraid if I go I will say something I will regret. So what should I do go or not go?

1st weekend of Olympics

Well the first weekend is almost over. Opening ceremonies Friday night I think I liked the Fiddler dancers and then the boy on the rope. I thought the flame lighting was chincy. Even if all four would have worked it just was not exciting. But then they had half the budget to work with. I felt sad for the girl lighter because she did not get to light since hers did not come up. Can you imagine being so excited about lighting and then not get to do it? I still think Michael J Fox should have been one bringing in the flag.

Yesterday was a really busy day. I worked on taxes in the morning and afternoon. Which was interrupted by Sears bringing in the new refrig. Then went to the grocery store. I just felt rushed all day. But I bowled a 136, 164 and 121. I liked that. And I finished the part of my taxes that determine if I get to claim mom and dad on my taxes. And the answer is yes. I have my tax appointment on Fri. this week at 3. I am hoping for more back this year. But I don't know. I worked a buttload of overtime last year. Was just a tad bit shy of $50,000. I have never been that high before.

I loved watching the Moguls last night. But staying up until 11:00 each night is not for me. Maybe 10:30 I will shoot for. And ski jumping was yesterday. That was fun watching.

I could really do without the commentaries. I wonder if Tebo lets you cut out the commentaries along with the commercials? Does anyone know?

In 2 weeks I will make my last mortgage payment. I still have the car loan that has the house a collateral so I will not get the deed until that is paid off. But it is exciting to know the mortgage is done. Hoping to have the cars paid off by Aug. Then throwing a HUGE party.

Got a chuckle at work

I got a chuckle at work today. It's not really funny, but it struck me as funny.

I was reading case notes and it said someone called and asked for a client and the person on the phone said "I am sorry she died yesterday. Can I take a message."

I heard on the local news this morning that a person on the city board was not going to bring up a bill in favor of trans genders because she could not get enough votes. It made me wonder are there really that many trans genders in Ft Wayne? Do I work with any? Maybe I do and I don't know it.

2 days and counting. Ha you thought I forgot....

3 MORE DAYS

The Countdown continues. 3 days.

Today the upstairs refrig/freezer broke on me. Called Sears and it will cost $69 for someone to come out and if it is the compressor it will cost about $325. So I said forget it I will just buy another one. So tomorrow or Saturday I will be shopping for a new refrig. We have the fridge downstairs so we plug that in for now until we can get one delivered. It will just be a pain to go up and down the stairs to get food. But then maybe that will help mom lose some weight.

We did not get as much snow as they were predicting today. They said 2 inches overnight and we only got a dusting, 4 inches today and we only got about 2 and 4 inches tonight. Hoping for less. But the wind is blowing hard now. And I think we are to get 2 more tomorrow. We shall see. It is still snowing so overnight may tell. Maybe the wind will create moguls in my yard and I can do it myself. HA Visual person here!!!

I took a suitcase to work today in case we got all the snow and I couldn't get home. But the roads were fine.

My oldest brother's birthday is today. He is pushing 60. Well about 3 years away. I remember thinking I would feel old when he hit 50. But I refuse to get old so there.

Bad, Bad Mrs. Warnock for texting me on Monday with sympathies for my sorrow. She just had to rub it in that the Colts lost.

Countdown to the Winter Olympics

Countdown to the Winter Olympics: 4 days. YAHOO

I am so excited. Even though they are on late at night it is fun to watch what I can. I love speedskating, and some ice skating, and love watching bicycle racing in the dome with the banked curves. And I also like ski jumping, mogulas, and of course bobsled. I do not care for fencing, boxing, weightlifting or wrestling. And once in a while I like watching the shooting contest where they ski and then stop and shoot.

As of today I am offically a Xerox employee. Xerox bought out ACS so now I work for ACS a subsidery of Xerox. I do not know what this does to my benefits yet but they are to tell us sometime. Xerox gives 6 weeks of vacation and ACS gives 5 so maybe I will get 1 more week of vacation out of it. Maybe they have a better retirement plan that the State does as far as health insurance for retirees. They will accept the number of years worked for ACS who accepted the number of years we worked for the State. So I now have 25 years with Xerox.

I took a hit in the market the last 2 weeks. I decided to move $1000 in 4 of my retirement accounts to more aggressive stocks and so far have lost $50 in each one. Still hoping for those green numbers each day. But so far only red.

What's the best way to have enough money at the end of the month?

I was talking with a friend this week and once again those wheels start turning in my head.

I see it as two ways that you can overcome this world we are living in.

A: You can spend less.

You can listen to tons of people who talk about making and staying on budgets, but that is not the answer in the days we are living in. If you don't have any money coming in how is working on a budget going to help? I think most people have normal bills that do not meet the income that they are bringing in. I don't think they are over spending on other things that can be cut out with a budget. But if you are one whose bills are not over your income then spending less would work for you.

B: You can make more money.

I believe this is the only answer for most people in order to meet the amount of bills they have at the end of the month. I can guarantee that your boss is not going to increase your salary. So you are going to have to look elsewhere in order to make more money.

We have a lot of creative people out there who if they only started looking to put those creativities to work to bring in money they would be surprised what they could bring in. Did you know that there are people out there that HAVE money. You have to find them. You have to figure out what they want or think they want and give it to them. There are many ways to do that: Internet, newspaper, fliers, and word of mouth.

Today at work I was thinking "it sure would be nice if we had someone come in and sell popcorn." I think break times and lunch would make a pretty good chunk of change.

Figure out what your talents are and start looking for availability. But don't think about it too long or you will do nothing. Doing nothing will not get you out of the rut you are in.

Why employers don't want me

I spoke today to a General Manager of the old county I came from to see if they will be hiring any new people this summer when we roll out to the Hybred system. He did not fall over backwards over me as I expected. I had interviewed with him for another job a few months ago and I guess he just must not be interested in me.

I can't image why? I am such a great worker. I work circles around everyone else. I can produce more work than a normal person. I am often told to slow down because I am producing too much. (If that is such a thing.)

I have 25 years of experience and I know a whole lot. I am a great catch for any county with an opening. So why did I not feel good after I talked to him? I guess I will wind up whereever. I figured I would have counties fighting over me. Did I just say that?

I think the reason he doesn't want me is the problems I bring with other employees who are not producing as much as I produce. That does cause a management issue. But can I help it that my mind moves fast and I sit at my desk and work all day instead of wondering off and talking to someone else. Humm, isn't that what they are paying me for?