JustaKrusen/ Mrsjustakrusen

As I was driving home today, I was thinking about the day that had just come to an end. Day 2 of paperwork up the ying-yang..and hoping we are only waiting another day or 2 for the updates to be completed . It is just part of living in a world dependent on computers for everything.  Today we still tried to be as positive as possible, we know we will need to enter all our info in the system once it is ready… and I think we are all staying upbeat……

It is funny though, “back in the good old days” people had ledgers, people hand wrote on reports, people could always pull out a report from a file or notebook. Doctors offices had scheduling books..appointment books. People would actually be able to flip through pages of paper and see a week at a time, and know how the day looked…

A friend of mine works at a rather large doctors office, and I was thinking of how awful it was for her the day she went in and the electronic records system was down. No one knew who was coming in for appointments, why they were coming in, what meds they were on, or what their history was. Can you imagine that!! Man every time a nurse opened a door to one of the waiting rooms, another surprise would be there… probably staring at the nurse , hoping to be called, to be recognized, to be seen.

We have paper back up thank God… I bet the doctors office wished they had the same thing.

So word has it for us, that tomorrow might be the last day of depending on our pens and paper.. but ya know what… all in all it has not been so bad. What an incredible group of people I work with. We rally around each other, joke a little about things we can not change, we improvise to satisfy the customer, and we get the job done.

For these people, I am truly thankful… and for the folks in IT trying to make things better… I too am thankful… and right now.. I am thankful for my bed!.

It will be another LONG day tomorrow…. I gotta be ready… Alarm going off at 5:20… and off I go… to share the day with the challenges that lie ahead. My word to the wise… have paper backup for things that you need to have access to… Love to all.. Mrs Justa..

An incredibly interesting and creative day today. We are updating our system at work, and that meant we had to go to all paper for a few days.

We fortunately have paper backup for about 1/3 of the cases we do, so it was not totally foreign to us, but it still was a challenge to create pathways that work for every situation. We have to keep the paper work with us, because in a few days we will have to enter into the system all we wrote on paper.

I gotta tell ya, there is not a better group of people to work with in times like this. We all do a proverbial bunt..and tackle the job at hand. We are not stopping production because of not having a computer, no siree… we just adapt.

I truly love the staff I work with. They are mature enough to know that sometimes no matter how good you want things to go..well sometimes it just does not work out that way. And they truly care about their work they do.

They thank each other, and care if someone is overloaded with work .

So for a crazy Monday- we made it through. We will tackle the tasks at hand again tomorrow. And in the end..the reward… an updated system.

I am exhausted… we got in a work out tonight , so dinner was quick at 945 ish. Now I am off to rest for tomorrows challenges with the mighty pen, the creative mind and paper… lots of paper.

I hope all is well with you, and always make lemonade when life gives you lemons.

Until later, Mrs Justa alias Cindy signing out.

Telephones, why do we not use them like we used to?

Some genius invented them, figured out how to have our voices travel through wires , and how to have electricity travel for thousands of miles so poof we have phones…

yet we do not call one another like we used to.

We have I phones, we have flip cell phones, we have mobile this and that..but I wonder what the percentage of them are used for accessing the internet, reading e mails, posting on face book.

I just got off the phone with my sister(Karen)  in Michigan. She and her husband were going to be here for Thanksgiving but they had conflicts in their plans and so were not able to come down.  She was calling to say she had just spoken to my sister . Melanie, in Liverpool and in their conversation it was mentioned we had to put the dog to sleep. Karen had planned to call both of us to see how Thanksgiving went, but her calling now had a new twist… condolences too. As I spoke to her, it was more of a 3 dimensional experience than face book is. I tend to use face book to communicate something and hope all receive it. That was how I spread the word about the dogs death. Unfortunately the way facebook works is that if you are not popping on every 5 minutes, things get lost in a trail of other peoples comments about their lives. Facebook is really rather silly as I look at it.

Putting the dog to sleep is not something I would have called all my relatives about… out of the clear blue at least. Had this been the early 1990s each of us would be calling one another every week or so, and within our conversations the dog would have been brought up. But to just, out of the clear blue, call my sisters and brothers to say.. “Hi, I am calling to tell you our dog is no longer..” well that just would not happen… BUT I DID JUST THAT ON FACEBOOK!!

We are becoming so non social because of “social networks!” AS I spoke to  Karen..I was able to hear expressions, different tones, we laughed, we had a conversation….it was like she was here…. it was real… On face book there is no personal touch to it.. a laugh is “lol” or “lmao”… but it is not the real laughter, and a “conversation” can take a long time if the other person is doing a bunch of other stuff… the conversation becomes an afterthought.

We become like computers communicating with one another… beep beep beep…. that does not compute…. I was reading a post from one of my nieces and she had so many acronyms it was like I was reading a foreign language…

Yes, we need to STOP… pick up the phone, write real letters, send Christmas Cards, meet for coffee..we need to be real….. Love to all, Mrs Justa alias Cindy

This is across the street from us. I thought it was so darn funny.Jeff took the photo with my new camera that has a 26X lens..

Black Friday comes around, the fowl has been roasted.. and so the Roosters came out to  jump for joy they made it through a day their relatives get gobbled up on.

I was afraid they had become someone’s dinner, cuz we had not heard them for a while..but they showed they proud heads as they strolled over the trampoline.

I gotta tell ya, I am really glad this is a 4 day weekend.. Man, I am still kind of whipped from the festive Thanksgiving day. Actually the whole week! It was exhausting. I am doing a load of wash now, but when it is done, I am thinking I will hit the bed.

I miss Indi terribly, and know as days go on it will be better. It is just so darn quiet here. When the kids were here, the air was filled with jibberish, and talking, and toys clanking and the Nick Jr channel at times. Today is our first non Indi weekend, and it is just weird. We went out to breakfast with our friends, and there was no need to worry what time we left..the cat would be okay.. SO after breakfast, we did the gym, than got groceries and than came home. No need to shoo him away as we lugged in the bags, nope… just the cat was around. He would bark at the roosters, he would bark if he saw a black bird flying over…both things happened—but silence…no barks.

Off I go to the laundry room, his tennis balls are in my dryer, so I hear them bounce … it is the same sound I would hear when Indi played ball with Mark.It is just strange…I hope you good Saturday… I am off till tomorrow.. Love to all, Cindy ..alias Mrs Justa

Do you remember making tents in the house out of sheets and chairs. Well this is a tent made out of a flannel sheet. It was a place where the boys could go to “take a nap” ,as Brandon stated..but not so much!

But they brought in a blanket, pillow pets and you have to have flashlights. Let’s see, there were trucks and drinks…everything a kid would need to survive in a tent.

I can remember when Jeff and Adrianne would make a tent and bring in so many things there was not room for them .They had regular bed sized pillows, and books, and toys..  Mark and I would laugh when we would go and check on them and their backs were pushing against the walls of their tent, because they did not have any room for themselves.

When we were kids we actually did sleep in the make shift tents too.

This was fun to see them have fun.

We made it through Thanksgiving with no leftovers…. HA HA..well no left overs here!.Nope I was working with Mark in the kitchen and we decided to send the leftovers off with the guests. That was they can have some goodies the next day or 2. There were  potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey, ham, and pies that left here..which we were ever so grateful to be able to share with them . We ended up with 9 for dinner and 13 for pies. So a lower amount than last year, but it was a nice day.

I did feel bad as people were leaving because it looked like a pretty nasty fog. But no one called to say they were lost, so I think everyone made it home safely.

Now we have the weekend, a time to back off, and chill. Hopefully hit the gym tomorrow and Sunday..this last week.. with putting Indi down and working lots of hrs Mon thru Weds… I just did not get to the gym… But I am going to try to get back on course. Life is so precious, days are so limited really… so we each need to be the best we can to ourselves so that we can enjoy every single moment that we are blessed with on this earth. Love to all, Mrs Justa. alias Cindy

Today I went back in time in my mind to a time almost 30 years ago. It was like a wave of clouds were hovering over me, with memories so real that it was like I was there.

I was remembering the day Jeff was born.

He was born after 36 hrs of intense labor , caused by a doctor who chose to keep upping the strength of the Pitocin to induce delivery. He was not due till 3-13 but the doctor wanted me to deliver on 3-8.. SO he had me admitted, started the IV medication , broke my water manually and anticipated a quick delivery.

Well, so much for his plans. It was not until much later that I found out he did it because he was scheduled to go on a cruise on the 11th and he did not want my pregnancy in his way.

Well Jeff was determined to stay put, and so even with mega doses of meds, and the water broke, Jeff chose to not make the journey.

Finally 36 hrs later, he started to have a slow heart beat..so all bets off and he came to the world by way of an emergency c section. Now I do not know why, but one breath and he stopped breathing. There was a lot of MDs doing some really quick procedures , to have him breath again, and that little guy fought for his life. There was a reason it was not his time to leave me than… So as I think about Thanksgiving, I am feeling very thankful for the doctors who did the right thing at the right time…and for the years of life he has blessed me with already, and for the strength and power in prayers..which were coming strong through the ordeal..and for all the people who have come into my life since than, people in person… people via cyber space….Had I not had him, I do not think I would be who I am today. He kept me grounded, he made me mature, he made me a mom, he brought out my insight, he caused me to find answers to questions I never really thought about… like why does it rain? Why do people die? why is there bad things? why do we smile? What makes us laugh? Whys and what of life that we take for granted…  yes I am truly thankful for much…. and as I sign off, I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. Whether it is with one person, two or many… it is a day we should stop…and say thanks…. give thanks…. share a moment of quiet time….. no matter if it is a turkey, or a turkey pot pie… I appreciate the reminder of the meaning of the day.. not the food on the table… Love to all, Mrs Justa..alias Cindy….

Okay.I am going to try to get out of the blues and move on. One step at a time, one moment follows another.

Today I went back to work and it was so weird. Every morning I would get up and Indi would push me out so I could get up and get moving. He stayed put till I came out of the shower and made enough noise that Mark was up too. This morning it was quiet, I got up and all I could hear was Marks calming inspiration and expiration as he dosed. So I quietly got a cup of coffee, took a protein bar and packed a smart one, a Yoplait light and  1/2 cup of melon, and I quietly opened the door and left.

The silence is piercing, which seems totally weird. Silence is not heard in many homes, but here…no real traffic noise, no sirens, no trains, no planes, and no dog licenses clinking together.

We are trying to convince ourselves that this is it for dog owning. We are getting older and we may want to do things that would be tough to do with a dog at home. WE believe  right now that this is where we are and will be at..I think we both agree this euthanizing a beloved pet sucks THE BIG ONE!!!..

We have 9 or 10 people coming over in a couple days, so tomorrow after work will be preparing the foods for the next morning of cooking, baking and hoping all comes out okay.

Thanksgiving …there is always things to be thankful for.. we must never forget that…..I can be thankful that Indi will not be seizing during the meal… and I can be thankful for those people in our lives that mean so much to us. Not to sound corny… but people do need people…. so we are lucky to have people….

I am off…I hope you  enjoy the sunrise…it was awesome… Peace and prayers for those with pain, Love Mrs Justa alias Cindy

Today sucked…. yep… sucked big time. This past weekend Indi went through 6 seizures in less than 2 days. The vet was not opened till today, so I called to give them the seizure report. They like to keep track of the seizure activity and severity. They took all the info down and asked me to call back in a few hrs, as the 2 vets were going to discuss his case.

So at work, I called back, thinking maybe increase the phenobarbital a bit. But the vet told us 2 months ago the seizures were not from epilepsy, but he was pretty sure it was a brain tumor. He said each increase in meds seemed to mask the tumor by shrinking it some.

So I called back, and well.. they said it was time to put him to sleep. I knew this day was coming, but never wanted it to arrive. Yet as the vet talked to me, I knew what they were saying was the truth. This weekend after his 3rd seizure , his left eye was crossed. They said with this many seizures it was only going to get worse, and one time some he would come out of it blind, or unable to walk, maybe vicious.

So I left work in tears, and drove home. I needed to let Mark know and than we needed to make that final ride. SO today I post this to Indi. He was put to rest around 10 this morning, and even though he is not trying to entertain me with the ball, and he is not here asking to go out , he is in me…he is in Mark. He was a great dog… he was so full of life, so loving, so great with kids and entertaining to all…. he was our “son”..our buddy…. Damn this hurts…

Indiana Jones… you will be missed… and as I thought maybe the score was Indi 0 brain tumor 1….

as I think of it…

it is the opposite. For he is now in a place where pancreatitis  won’t ever  cause you discomfort, where there will be no more seizures,

and you can watch over us…. We love you little guy… Love always Mrs Justa alias CIndy

AS I was hustling through 3 different grocery stores today I found myself feeling very very appreciative for the people who package the foods, who load the truck, who deliver the foods, who stock the shelves, and who ring you out. Also for the people who make sure the floors are clean, the carts are available and it is a safe place to go.

The last place I went was the Super Wal-mart and even though it appeared they had had a very busy Saturday before Thanksgiving..there were people trying to make sure everything was ready for the next shopper to look at the aisle.

We take life for granted, I really think we do. We expect for the stores to be stocked, we expect for the power to go on, we expect hot water from the faucet when we need it, we expect that we have fresh water to drink. We assume the roads and bridges are safe and we expect that every time we go to an ATM the money will be stocked for us.

We are a lucky bunch of people. How often do we stop and look at all we have in front of us. As I write this , the furnace just kicked on…providing a whisper of warm air to keep the house around 65 degrees.

I hear a scanner in the background calling for help here and there. And it hit me that there are so many people who need help. A woman at the Verizon counter is having seizures, an elderly person fell down the stairs, someone is calling for a status of a loved one that the caller has not heard from, someone is in need of an ER and some of the hospital ERs are on “diversion” , someone is stranded on the NYS Thruway out of gas…( that is spooky..those vehicle zooming by you in total darkness, no heat, the car rocking as the trucks pass by at 65 or 70 mph… )

Here I sit, thinking about life….. reading news stories about tragic things, looking at the less fortunate countries, and being totally thankful that I am here.

So Thanks truck drivers for devoting your life to your professions!  And Thanks people who work in public serving professions—you make life what it is…. and thanks to the teachers and health care workers who care for our minds and our medical being, thanks to the rescue workers, the police, the fire people and the folks answering the phones to get these folks to where they need to be… thanks to those who keep our cars, our roads, our life safe, thanks to all those people who are behind the scenes making life function, thanks to those who devote their life on helping us understand God more thoroughly and to help bring us comfort and faith,thanks for the people who make furniture, clothing, computers, phones and electric lines ( oh my…. this could go on for a LONG time )..…….…. and thanks most of all to you for stopping by….

My goodness—I am really feeling Thankful on this pre Thanksgiving Day…

Love to all, Mrs Justa alias Cindy

Whoa, I am feeling kinda of techie for an old lady !

I am sitting here, writing to you with Kenny G playing in the background from a free internet radio site called Pandora. Mark told me about it, I signed up and can choose an artist and it plays the music. Wow.. I am so 2011..LOL ( HA even using  that “LOL” .. I am impressing myself a little. )

I do have a limit to techie-hoodness though. We still have flip phones… and I choose to not bring it with me in a restaurant, it is not on at work,  it waits for me in the car when I go into a store, and it sits in the car for church.

The other techie type thing I did.. was I went Walmart shopping ON LINE!! Can ya believe it… for an ol fart like me..well this was a big event. See my camera is getting kind of tired… I have no idea how many thousands of photos I have taken, but it is in the near 10 thousand line … ( having grand children, children, being blessed in a world God has filled with  marvelous gifts to share for free… mountains, sunsets, sun rises, clouds, oceans, trees, foliage… the list is endless..) –so the buttons seem to be loosing the connectivity when I am trying to review or zoom in on photos… well I found the same camera –like the one I have now but 5 years newer… it was on sale- had a special package deal.. so with lots of hemming and hawing—we decided to order it. If you order for a store pick up- there is not charge for shipping and it comes to the store of your choice. Walmart will text message you or call you are home or e mail you when it comes in. You can follow it’s journey to you… it predicts 1-2 wks –but we ordered it on Monday..and the camera is here. I got a text when I was in Oswego- so I stopped on my way home—and taaa daaa…. done… No standing g in line, no dealing with crowds… no waiting for someone to unlock a cabinet—or tell me there are none in stock…. whew… it was really a nice feature.

Hang on world… this ol lady is becoming pretty cool… ( cool is probably an inappropriate term… I think now it is “bad”) so .. I am becoming pretty BAD>>

I laugh though, as I look at things we have, stuff we use…. I remember a couple years ago I was preparing a main meal and without thinking twice about it I drained the boiled potatoes , got some milk and margarine out and my masher.

One of the kids asked me what it was. I had to snicker… now a days people use big mixers and beaters to make mashed potatoes… we are still mashers from the 50s and 60s.

I had a set of mixing bowls that I just recently donated to good will.. these bowls have traveled with me from marriage one- to divorce one—to marriage 2. They had at least 31 years under their belt..that is A LOT of stuff mixed in them… and I would still have them if I had not just forced myself to upgrade.

These were probably a great new idea when they came to be, but the lids did not tightly lock on them, they spilled really easily..So I am glad to have replaced them. Again…I am modernizing… Kinda scary…

There are things I hate to modernize… like paying a lot for a purse, or jeans.. That is silly to me. I hate the fact that it is hard to get kids gifts that are not battery operated and that do not make noise or play songs. SO this ol foggie… who is kinda techie…is smiling at life… and wishing you all a great night. Love to all, Mrs Justa alais Cindy

“Anyone who angers you….

conquers you..”

                                                “ Mother’s advice to Sister Elizabeth Kenny…”

This says a lot, in very few words.

People who really try to get my goat, if I let them see that they have, I have lost.

So as a person tries to push the buttons of aggravation, I try to let my mind drift to a more humorous area in my mind.

There are always those people who drive aggressively, who think they are the only ones with a place to go… so  I let them go. As they drive off, I make a mental noise of gas being guzzled down.. or I think about how proud their boss must be to know how anxious this employee is to get to work.

People in the store..oh they can really annoy me if I let them… but I go to a happy place in my mind. Like I may try to figure out what their life is like… or I try to think about what they were like as a kid, or I say a prayer thanking God that they are not my husband or my kid!.

There is a person that calls us at work , and every special  day she calls she  is accusatory, she is sharp tongued and down right nasty. But we try to see how we can please her. We never let her know how we want to jump through the phone and scream right back at her..no we try to kill her with kindness. When I get off the phone with this person, I give myself an invisible pat on the back for surviving the challenge. I try to picture what she looks like—cuz she comes across like she should have 3 heads all spinning in  different directions and spitting green goop like in the Exorcist movie. As she is rattling on, I do a few um hums, but I refuse to feed her anger. I have come to the conclusion, that she is nto really mad at anyone of us, but at herself. She just needs someone to take it out on, as she will not look in the mirror to see the real situation… this quote comes to mind when I am enlightened with a call from her.

I wonder what the help wanted add was she answered, because she has worked where she is for years. People there must know how her phone etiquette is… I personally would not want a person like that on the phones—for the phone people are the billboard for the business. I can see the ad… “Help wanted, front receptionist, willing to dish out an attitude in every interaction. Able to talk over people, make false statements, never say thank you or please. Must eat a bowl of rusty nails prior to starting your shift, just to make sure you are in a really bad mood before the phone lines open.”

She has not yet conquered me…. nor have the drivers who think they are driving on their own private road, nor the people who look down at me, nor the people who seem to find more joy in looking at them selves in a mirror-than to have eye contact with others.

Life is a challenge… do not let the grumps, the arrogant folks, the self centered individuals get the best of you.  YOU can conquer them with a smile, kindness and patience. Love to all, mrs Justa..alias CIndy Clip art from free clipart on google images.. THANKS

Okay , the day has come and gone..but the memories—clicked in my mind forever.

Yesterday was the 2nd annual Thanksgiving dinner with our kids and our grand kids. It was a great time, the kids all interact well together.. ( well Caleb has no choice—he just goes with the flow right now…but once he has a year under his belt—he will be in the interaction game too.)

I wanted to start a grandma, grandpa and the 4 grandkids annual Thanksgiving photo..It was not quite like those seen from a professional studio- where everyone looks posed, and thrilled to be doing it… but………………

But this is LIFE!!! I love them !!!

We will have to see how each year they change as we change. It was really funny. Who need kids in posed positions looking like they love grandmas idea ??

Dinner went well, we did get everything ready at the same time—that is always a plus.. I have had Thanksgiving turkeys that had a mind of their own, and just would not finish until 30 minutes after everything else was done. This turkey …did have a mind of it’s own,

it would not stay upright and kept rolling over…. like the heat was too much for it to stand. –but regardless..it did cook on time.

I was thinking as the cars engines idles, we watched our kids as they walked away… as the grandchildren were being buckled in their car seats..that regardless of how screwed up at times life can be… THIS IS what life is about. The gift of life, the gift of family, the blessings that God has placed on each of us…..I am thankful for so much….

To Mark and me—it was not the specific day of Thanksgiving that was important… it was finding a day that we could all comfortably meet , a day that became a Thanksgiving for us.

I am going to go now.. and reflect the day, get ready for today..and wish you all the gift of friends, family, life. Love to all, Mrs Justa alias Cindy

Wow…., tomorrow is almost here and I am so looking forward to having Marks and my kids, kid in laws and grandkids here.

Today I was off to get ready for tomorrow. I did my weekend chores today… laundry, vacuuming and cleaning… the regular stuff… and I am thinking I am ready for the great cook off- Yup… doing an early Thanksgiving- one we can all share together. We did one last year and I would like this to be a new tradition. We do nto really have Krusen/Slater traditions… so this is one. The way I figure—this is the second year.. so a tradition has been set.

Today was 11-11-11…. and Veterans Day… and weather wise is was kinda ominous. We had gone up to Fulton – about 4 miles north from here…. and we got in the middle of some snow/sleet kind of storms—that were like Styrofoam little balls.  A few hrs after we got home..it started again just north of here… we were on the line…this photo is the sheets of Styrofoam balls going west to east… it was sunny here… so behind the snow was a snowbow..

and the weird thing was that it was so sunny here.

I have a photo showing the difference>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As we watched this unfold, I was thinking about all the lives that have been affected because of having a veteran in them. The lives that have been lost, we seem to forget them at times, and the families that are affected by having their loved ones over seas

… the familes are like we were— in the sunny part—and the men and women in the armed forces are sometimes like this storm rolling by. We can look only at the sunny part and put them out of our minds… or we can look into the turmoil, the destruction, the frightening times, the lonely times they have gone through –or are going through now… on Veteran’s Day—we should look at the “storm” and thank every one of the Veterans..who because of them… I was safe to stand on my front steps and take these photos….because of them… we can fly the flag with pride…and go to church without fear of being seen… and take a walk without fear of being bombed…

Thank you Veterans… I respect you, I am thankful for you.. and I gotta tell you.. you have more kanonas than I do… I would never make it through boot camp….

kinda hard to learn how to shoot a gun when you are closing your eyes and plugging your ears….

kinda hard to learn to fight-when the sound of loud noises makes you drop to a fetal position….

kinda hard to have a Sergeant screaming in your face from 1 inch away—when you laugh whenever someone is yelling at you … ….

nope boot camp and me… we never would have made it together…

SO thanks to all. Love Mrs Justa alias Cindy…

I really am not politically savvy… but than some of the candidates are not either, so I guess I am okay.

I have to say, I am having a really hard time understanding why the American people can not just be given the issues and possible solutions, instead of these questionable character attacks that plague the political news every day.

Herman Cain—I really am taking a liking to this guy. I think he is an honest person and I think what the so called victims who have chosen to start slinging mud at him…I think they are lying.

How can all these women all of the sudden wake up to tell their tales of alleged mistreatment 20 years later ! I can not understand why they would have waited till 2011 to try to trash this guy. He seems like a tough person, he seems very smart, he seems to CARE about America.

I think it would be AWESOME to have Romney and Cain on the same ticket. I hope Cain is strong enough and able to overcome this slanderous treatment.

The chick 2 days ago.. the one who had to read ( like a first grader reading Dick and Jane ) what happened to her. Her words slow, enunciated, as she read the events of her so called event. My goodness, I have had some pretty bad things happen to me, and I can assure you, I would not need a script to read the events from.  I lived them, they are imbedded in my memory, and in a moment I could be right back there and tell the whole story without any cue cards.

SO .. I have vented… we need someone who can help to bring a fairness to this country, we should all pay our fair share of taxes, we should try to enhance businesses to stay here, we should take pride in products from the USA, we should support the mom and pop businesses in the area we live. Together… we can make this country strong. We need to get rid of the mentality of “What’s in it for me?” and instead think “ What can I do to help?” God Bless America…and shame on you  ( if you are lying) who are verbally trying to destroy Herman Cain…We have people who seem to care, and we need to open our minds to their potential to help us. The way politics is so cut-throat—I am amazed anyone would put themselves through the accusations and insinuations.  And I am thankful there are good people who somehow have the tough enough skin and determination to say the mud slinging is not hurting their will to proceed.

Love to all, Mrs Justa alais Cindy.

Daylight savings time has ended for another 6 months. Yup, this past Saturday nite, clocks went back an hr, and darkness prevails, sooner than my body clock wants it to be.

It felt like the longest day on Sunday, it got dark, and my body wanted to go to bed.. but it was ONLY 5PM!!. It took FOREVER for 9PM to hit and me to feel justified to go to bed.

It is great when the sun is up by 6am and setting around 9PM, but that does not last too long. December 21st is my favorite day..why? Because the darkness will not be any longer than it is that day. Every day after we are working on a little more sunlight.

The color of depression is black in my mind. It seems the darker the days, the more prone depression is to hover around us, and for those with depressive disorders-well it gets pretty hard to be positive in the midst of the darkness.

I am trying to find positive to the darker days, so that I find a more upbeat approach to getting through it.

Let’s see…. it hides the dust…

                     it hides the fact the car needs to be washed

                     it hides the ugliness of dried up vegetation in the fields and hedgerows

                     it brings a sense of calmness

                     it sharpens the sense of sound, as we can not see anything

                     it makes it easier to go to bed early

There… it is a start. I am glad we live here and not in Barrow, Alaska..can you imagine days of darkness..not just part of a day..but days. In Barrow, the sun does not rise between November 18 and January 24 each winter. Whoa… bet it gets pretty darn cold there !.

And than in the summer, I understand their HIGH is in the 40s. Hmmm… not a place I would want to be. I HATE the cold… my feet and hands get so cold they hurt….

So as I leave for tonight, I will begin my daily chant at this time of year… one day closer to SPRING!!

Love to all, enjoy the sunlight when it is out, and find peace in the darkness. Mrs Justa alias Cindy

I am not sure who did this survey, but I heard it on the news this past week.

Over 50% of grads surveyed stated they would refuse employment if the potential future employer banned facebook at work!

I almost drove off the road when I heard this. It started my mind reeling in multiple directions, I was blown away.

So here I am . a manager of quite a few people, and we all have PLEANTY of work to do, and not ONCE have we been bored at work. We do not allow Facebook chatting at work ! Nor do we allow surfing the internet for personal use at work.

Sorry—but believe it or not, when our employer hired us each, it was not contingent that we could talk with our friends while the employer is paying us to work. This would be like in the pre-facebook days, coming to work with a car load of your friends, bringing them to your work area and talking to them for a portion of the day..while you are collecting a pay from your employer for work  they need done!

When employers try to figure out the number of employees needed to complete the tasks at hand, NEWSFLASH>>>they  are anticipating that they are going to receive 100% work time from employees, people who will be devoted to the business. I know this might be a shocker to those +50% of people..but the employers of America are not hiring you to do personal stuff on their time !

I was totally floored by this. I wonder if it is not created somewhat by various middle age adults who have their kids still living at home. The kids seem to expect it, that they are entitled to the roof over their heads, the cell phones, the internet…. and the parents always say that it is too costly for them to live on their own. But what are we teaching our kids than. That they have the luxury of living home for free ? What we have are young adults , like those in that survey, who  refuse to work unless they can spend paid time chatting with friends. I hate to sound like the old foggie that I am..but what happens to these kids when the parents are no longer able to support them, or have died?  Learning the hard knocks of life in one swoop is a lot harder than in smaller increments.

When I was a late teenager and a 20 something, I was expected to provide for myself. I was expected to get one or more jobs to do that. Once graduated from high school- if mom’s was the place of residence-we paid for our room and board. It was a way to teach independence. We did our own laundry, we shared with household expenses, and ya know what…we figured that if we were gonna be paying rent- than why not have the independence of moving out of moms home.

Cell phones should not go hand and hand with working ….mine is in my car –if it is an EMERGENCY__people can call my work. I DO NOT personally surf the internet while I am expected to be working, and every single day I come to and leave work, I am thankful that someone hired me to help out their business. When looking for a job, I always tell the prospective employer that I will give 100% of me,to them, while I am working there. It feels great to go home each day and know that my promise was upheld for another day .

We need to help the young adults of today ( those 50% in the survey) to see what work ethic is, what motivation is , what expectations are… and toughen up them so they get out of the “entitlement” syndrome which many are in. Oh I know that not all young adults fall into this category- we have MANY very dependable young adults at my work.

At work, at home, with friends… we need to give all of us to the people with us, and save time for others at another time. TURN OFF your cell phones and TURN ON Eye contact with the people around you, Turn on devotion to the job, or the situation you are in.,

There is A LOT of work to do to make this country, this time , this century heading back to a  nation of proud hard working Americans, who feel honored to be employed and blessed to be tired from a hard days work.

Love to all, Mrs Justa alias Cindy

Did you ever feel like you are not sure what the right answer is about.ANYTHING!!!

Like—do we live like we are broke every day, save like crazy, and than in the future find our money is worth nothing..and we missed opportunities to go places, see the world, have HBO on the cable, have an IPOD, I phone and “I” anything else?

Do we pay off our mortgage as fast as possible..only to find out we can not afford to live in the boonies…and no one else would want to either?

Do we pay off any loan quickly..only to find we did not save enough by doing so?

Do we tell people WHAT WE REALLY THINK??? Or do we take the passive role and keep the REAL thoughts way deep inside?

Do we live on eggs, pasta, tomato sauce, sandwiches and cheap frozen veggies ,so that we can put money away to pay everything off?

Do we take out “food insurance” and buy months of food that has a 25 year shelf life—for lots of $$$$..and than God forbid we need it—if the world was ending..why would we want to be sitting there chomping on dry old food..and watching as others suffer? We would share..and than all the preparations for months would end in days or weeks..and in the end..it would still be the end. Just a bunch of us got to eat and watch the world go through what terrible thing was happening, only to have it happen to us too.. None of us are better than the other..however how many of us are treated like they are less than another? 

What do we do with the little bit that is in a 401 K?

The list goes on and on..and ya know what..I do not think any of us knows the real answers. Some will choose a pathway that will not work for another.

Me… and Mark—we are trying to pay off things as soon as possible, but we are not rolling in the dough… … we are trying to save where we can, we have few vises, but are we doing right by what we are doing?

I just do not know. So as I ponder these thoughts of life, I am off to pay bills, make a grocery list and continue on with a weekend of sunshine and temps in the 50-60 range, being THANKFUL for no snow yet, and for the clean water from the faucet and the life that we have.

To all those out there, I send my love, my wishes for you to have answers that I can not seem to find…and enjoy what ever the weekend is bringing to you. Love, Mrs Justa alias Cindy

Unemployment… man that totally sucks ! I read the other day that “The number of unemployed persons, at 14.0 million, was essentially unchanged in September, and the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent. Since April, the rate has held in a narrow range from 9.0 to 9.2 percent” Think about that 14 million people. “

Have you ever been there, are you there now, or do you feel you might be there in the future?

Dang, I remember feeling like this guy in this free clip art image. It represents exactly how I felt too.

I had been in photo finishing for 7 years. 7 years of learning everything there was about mail order and retail processing of people films.

This was back before digital camera were even thought about. Where people would load film in their camera , take their photos, and than take the film out..and have to send it in or bring it to a retail store front and wait to see if their pictures came out. I LOVED that job. I worked from 7 AM till about 5 PM 5 days a week. We would start the day opening mail, ringing in the money, processing the film, cutting the photos and packaging the pictures to return back to the people. And I was good at it, I truly had a passion for it. When that placed closed, and I was left unemployed, I had no where to go. It was not a field that many others had openings in, and it was all I knew, and in my own self destructive way I convinced myself it was all I would ever do. So I went to the NYS employment office to look for jobs in my field, and left in despair over the fact there was nothing I was qualified for. But ya know what… I fought back the feeling of worthlessness and I kept looking.

Eventually I was employed again, I had to relocate to another city, but I got into photo finishing, and throughout the years I had different jobs- all in photo processing of some sort. In between I got married, was a stay at home wife, than a stay at home mom and for the first 2 1/2 years of being a mom, life was just being the wife and mom.  Than the “S” word…. “I want a separation..” was said to me…and once again…. I needed to find a job in photo finishing. Again I was this guy on the bench. Except now I had been out of the work force for 5 years!. I landed a photo job, I became a single mom, and through risky choices, I ended up going to nursing school, thinking this profession is a sure bet.

But ya know what… even nursing has risks of being hard to find the job you can fit into. I absolutely love what I am doing, but I think about people who work with me, and I look at myself, and every day I say a prayer of thanks that I have a place to go to. I wonder about those people who are 50 +, looking for a job in nursing, how scary that must be!. What about the moms who are nurses, who chose to stay home till the kids were grown, and now need work. To adjust from writing notes to now electronic records, to adjust to computers, to  the more advanced needle systems, IV systems, dispensing of meds… the list goes on and on… how lost they must feel.

With the number of people looking, how hard it is to stay psyched and proud to know it is YOU they want.

Yes, I am so very thankful I have a job. And for those who do not, DO NOT GIVE UP. I know it is easier said than done, but never ever stop believing in yourself, never shoot down your sense of self worth, and even if you have to do a couple part time or a temporary agency, do not let Satan overcome your mind. You can do it!. Sometimes the library has self help or learning courses, check the job banks, , keep your sights low- not looking for that perfect job—a specialized one that just will not often come up, maybe check out training in the area, just do not give up. Heck, I have even thought about advertising to walk peoples dogs, if I ever got in a situation of not having my job. Cleaning houses, being a “sick child” sitter. We can all do whatever we set our minds to do… good luck to those looking, go for anything and keep looking if it is not the right fit for you …it is better to do something as you look, than to be out there feeling totally shot down by life. Somehow, all along the way, I found joy in every job I have had… we need to do that… even if the boss is a royal jerk…. make yourself find goodness is something each day.

Love to all, Mrs Justa… alias… Cindy 

Here was our Halloween surprise. We were visited by a skunk and a police officer. The skunk… well he was not thrilled with being in a costume..he was too funny..his looks like “Really mom??”  and Brandon- well he was pretty darned proud of being a police man. How cute they were! ( It was funny… Brandon told me his brother was smelly and he was a woowoo ( the sound a siren makes on a police car.. LMAO)

Last year they were both animals…

how much fun Halloween is for kids !.

I hope they had a good night last night, they were going to go meet up with their Uncle Justin and cousin Emily and go out trick or treating. It was a pretty nice night, I am sure they were pooped when they got done.

It is so weird how we get no trick or treaters. I guess we do live far enough out , where people who come here have to have a really good reason. Let’s see we had a whomping 3 kids come to the door… and 2 of them were our grandkids.

Needless to say, the folks at work enjoyed the candy we had left today. Today was an interesting day…it went pretty fast , had some meetings, had to catch up on e mails from yesterday, and am working on some policy and process updates. It was a little difficult to get thru the day at times..see I got 2 teeth yanked out yesterday,..no yanked is not the appropriate word… THEY WERE DUG OUT !!!  so I am kinda feeling like I was slugged in the face. It is pretty sore right now, so I am going to go and get ready for bed, put some ice on it and call it a night. Tomorrow ( according to the info from the dentist) it will hurt more than today! Yikes…

I hope this finds you well, I hope this finds you with at least one nice memory of Halloween.. me.. I just think the kids are cute… that is my good memory. Love to all, Cindy alias Mrs Justa…