No, that’s not a typo– I’ve been “Reduction In Force”d again. Laid off without possibility of being rehired. Ain’t got no job no mo’ . . . you get the picture, right?

Well, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather yesterday when I got the news! There had been a couple of emails about it being a possibility from corporate but we figured that our department was so trim, it couldn’t get any trimmer. Apparently, we were wrong.

Of course, I need a new job but I’m still looking for telecommuting or low-visibility jobs. (I don’t want to have to spend a fortune on a new wardrobe.) I’m open to suggestions, not just interested in contract negotiation jobs. I type around a 100/wpm and love to do data entry so that is also a possibility.

Let me know if you hear of anything, okay? Thanks!

First of all, the Emmaus walk is supposed to be a secret so I’m not going to tell you WHAT happened but my perspective as a participant in the 72 hours that were my walk.

The walk originates out of Luke 24 in the New Testament where two of the disciples are walking the seven miles to Emmaus from Jerusalem. Jesus joins them on the walk but they don’t know He is Jesus until later when He breaks bread with them at their table.

We do not walk seven miles– all together we probably walked about a half mile all weekend (back-n-forth to the dining hall and our conference room and dorm). In our minds’ eyes, we all walked much farther than seven miles because we grew, minute-by-minute, in our understanding of the Bible and Jesus’ teachings in it and for us.

There are 15 talks that take place over the 3 days, along with discussions within the tables that you sit at. It is a time of reflection, refueling, recharging and readying yourself to grow as a follower of Jesus who is going to lead the way until He comes again.

Discussions lead to soul searching and soul searching leads to decisions being made: one woman from my table is going to leave her job that has been upsetting her and find something that is more rewarding. Me? Yep, I’ve decided to look into the lay ministry again. I can touch people’s lives that way– help them and encourage them when their sick or just need comfort.

I am so glad I went– de Colores!

I’m going to go on a retreat today; it’s a 3 day/3 night retreat at a Methodist “camp” that will have some type of indoor accommodation (usually 4 to a room) for us. There are 16 pilgrims (I am one) and 16 sponsors/guides. The sponsors do not stay the entire time and there are people that are left behind to tell us what to do.

The point of the exercise is to rebuild and add new dimension to my faith– I am sooooo looking forward to it! I don’t feel like my faith is being fed in church lately so I have to find something to make me stronger. I am REALLY looking forward to this weekend.

Brian just called and suggested I take my phone, keeping it turned off in the bottom of my purse. I’m not allowed to do that. I’m not allowed to bring an alarm clock (I hope they know what they’re inviting with that issue– without Lexi I could sleep a LONG time!). I’m not allowed to wear my watch.

Nope, not even turned off in the bottom of my purse. Nada. Zip. I really am looking forward to it. A way to force me to look inside myself and toward God so that I can grow. I’m really looking forward to it.

PS:  If there’s an emergency, there are people who are allowed to have cell phones that are there and yes, I am bringing my insurance cards.

This weekend I’m going on a women’s retreat called “The Walk to Emmaus”. I’m quite excited about it and at one point, I was very apprehensive at the same time. They (those in charge of the weekend) don’t tell you much about it but that’s because everyone’s take is different. Fine but do I get splinters shoved under my nails? That’s all I want to know– I’m sure I’ll get a lot out of it because I’ve never done anything like this before. Anyway, I am sure I’ll enjoy it and am looking forward to going.

Well, actually WE voted but not together and probably not for the same things. We don’t talk politics inside the house because we generally don’t agree. That’s okay– we enjoy other discussions and laugh (A LOT!!) so that makes up for it.

Frankly, I don’t think I want to know who wins the election– that’s always the scary part. Did I waste my vote or did it work?

. . . the only thing I did was a custom order on Saturday and a little prep work for finishing a quilt I started two years ago. Not all that bad but, not as productive as I could’ve been, given that I’m not going to be able to sew for the next two weekends.

The first weekend (this coming) I’m going to a women’s retreat that is sponsored by my church. Well, they say it isn’t but I think it is because no one outside of the Methodist church that I know has ever heard of it. Anyway, I’m going to be there for three nights and then the following weekend, I’m in Michigan being one of three hostesses for a baby shower for my nephew’s beautiful wife. (She was beautiful before but now, even more gorgeous!)

Once again, exceedingly busy but the next week is Thanksgiving week and we’re not going anywhere for that week and, in fact, I’m working. I don’t think I’ve worked that week since I’ve been with this company but I chose to spread out the last six days of my vacation/PTO rather than taking them as one clump, thus providing myself with long weekends (such as the two upcoming).

More to come before I go . . .

Nope, not the wrong spelling. My church’s bazaar is on Saturday and since I found some unused quilt blocks last weekend, I decided to make a baby quilt to donate. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, except for the 3 hours spent quilting it last night!

Tonight I’ve got to do the binding but it will be ready for drop-off on Friday night! YAYY!!!

Usually the ends-of-months are as bad as the ends-of-quarters at my company but not recently and especially not last night. I’m in the earliest time zone so I got to leave second earliest (now that I think of it). The other person does ELAs so that’s probably why she left a little before me but I got off work at 5:41pm. Not bad at all!

Plenty of time to sew and quilt!

We came through the hurricane with no damage and only one power-flip early in the evening Tuesday. Compared to so many others, we were so lucky!

These kinds of things are nice here because they are predictable as opposed to earthquakes. Now there’s an issue with having earthquakes strike here once in awhile but I like the predictability of hurricanes. Much easier to deal with for purposes of upcoming repairs or other things that need to be taken care of in planning for them.

I guess that’s it– you can PLAN for them!

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing… well, okay, I also went to a church meeting and cleaned up my sewing space. I found some blocks for a quilt that I started last year. Correction: I made one quilt from these blocks last year and then I realized that I had made enough blocks for three or four quilts. So, I’m going to donate one to my church’s holiday bazaar that’s coming up and I’m going to make the rest of them up into quilts.

I also finished up the burp cloths that I had started and will follow up with pictures of those shortly . . . within a day or two, if w don’t lose power because of the hurricane.

I have to admit, if I have to handle the generator by myself, I won’t be happy but I now know that I can do it, if I have to. Let’s just hope that Brian can get home or is home when the need arises. That’s the only thing that’s really freaking me out about this hurricane. I don’t want to be alone when the power goes– what if I can’t get the generator started THAT time? What if I have to bail out the sump pump? ARGH!!

Oh, well, say your prayers and send happy thoughts– I know I’ll be saying my prayers!

The beat goes on . . . How much should I charge for “burp cloths”?  Those are the cloths (in my case, about 12″ x 18″ with a rubberized bit of fabric inside of the fabric to keep the yucky stuff from getting on the burper’s clothing) on which we burp babies when they are laid on your shoulder.  I think my burp cloths are different because I don’t just have two or three layers of fabric sewn together but I have a rectangle of clothing-protector included.

What would you pay to keep from dry cleaning or washing all of your clothing?

I checked Etsy.com but there’s nothing similar in style or content to my burp cloth.  Seriously, if you have an opinion, please let me know what it is, okay? Thanks!