ReeHart - Blogging from the Heart

Wedding Planning Software

I’ll have to admit, I am a bit of a computer geek.  In my opinion, that really isn’t a negative, and it just means that I try to find software solutions for all of my life’s problems.

For example, when my wife and I were planning our wedding, we found the amount of organization that we needed a little overwhelming.  We had papers all over the house and it was hard to keep track of everything.

I tried to create a spreadsheet containing all of the lists that we had made, but my wife to be just didn’t get it.  So, I decided to look online for some sort of wedding planning software to make our lives easier.

After a bit of hunting I found some products that would work and I also bought a wedding guest list manager to help us try to keep track of all the people we needed to invite.

Thanks to the software, our wedding went smoothly - I hate to think what would have happened had we not found the right tools to plan the wedding.

Helping My Son Find a Job

It has only been a couple weeks since my son came up to me and told me that he wanted to go to Australia next summer.  You see, he will be starting college next fall that he thought it would be a great opportunity for him to have one last trip before he has to hit the books again.

I loved the fact that he was interested in expanding his horizons by traveling to different country, but I was curious as to how he thought he would be able to afford the trip.  He hadn’t really thought about it up to that point, but he told me that he should be able to find a job in Australia fairly easy.

I decided that I would help him out to find either some sales jobs or construction jobs in Australia and I told him that I would look online and let them know what I found.

So far, it looks that he won’t have much of a problem finding a job when he goes to Australia next summer and I’m actually very interested to see what he ends up doing.

Colorful Teaching Career

Even though I am nearing retirement, I look back with no regrets.  Sure, some of the jobs that I have had over the years weren’t the best including cleaning outhouses at a fair, but I feel that it is these jobs that shaped me into the person that I am today.

But what I like the best about my career is that for the past twenty years or so, I have had the opportunity to follow my passion of teaching.  This started out at a local hair school in the town that I was born and raised which turned into a position at a regional beauty academy.

I have a couple of years left at the current beauty school that I am working at.  Though the styles and trends have changed over the years, I love the fact that I can come to work everyday and do something new - how many people can say that each day of work has been exciting?

Miss Social Butterfly

When my daughter got involved in a NJ larp club, I was ecstatic. She had always been a bit of a loner and had never made friends very easily. She made a friend with a girl at school who was really into larp and she invited her to join them one evening. Danielle went and had such a good time.

It has become an obsession with her, but I think it is a healthy one. She has friends, a social life and even has people calling the house for her, which has never happened before. She seems to be so much happier and she is bubbly and excited when she talks about her games or her friends.

It was exciting for me when she asked for costume armor for her birthday, as she has never wanted anything besides books before. It is a wonderful new life for her and I feel like a whole new mom.

Exquisite Rugs for our Home

Since we are moving to a new home, we have decided that it was time for us to get some new carpets for our new house.  You see, the old karastan rugs that we currently have in our home look worn, and I thought that it would be a good time for us to get some new ones.

Unfortunately, the karastan dealer that we had bought the rugs from previously was closed so we had to look for a new supplier.  We did a quick look in the phonebook to see if there was one in town, but as it turned out there wasn’t.

So, we took our search online.  I went to my favorite search engine, and typed in "karastan rug ".  I checked out the many different shops online to find the style that we were looking for.  I found a couple that I like, but I will have to pass them by the wife before we buy it.

Needless to say, once we receive our new rug, our new house will be complete.  I can’t wait until it shows up.

Quick Pep-talk with Sales Staff

I try to keep our sales staff motivated, and we have a meeting each day before the day begins.  You see, as a manager, I have sales targets and need to make sure that we meet or exceed them.  I am not pushy by any means, but the meetings that we have each day help to highlight things that we can do to increase our sales with little effort.

For example, this morning, I was talking about the new line of TV screen protection products that we carry.  It is an easy upsell for customers that purchase a new plasma or LCD television.  It not only helps them to protect their television from damage (a real no-brainer for customers with children), but ensures that their investment will provide them years of enjoyment.

We also discussed some strategies on how to get the customer to buy a TV screen protector and the staff is going to try it out today.  I’ll be interested to see our final sales figures - I bet they will be much better than forecasted.

Finding Topics for a Laptop Blog

One of my challenges lately has been coming up with topics for my laptops blog.  You see, I wanted my site to stick out and not be the same as the rest of the other computer related blogs that are just rehashing old stuff.

I had come up with some good topics that really had not been covered, but I quickly ran out of steam.  It could be that the blog isn’t my main blog, but just one that is on the side.  I was just about to give up, when a friend of mine suggested that I could write a review about some of the software that I had been using.

I decided to write up a SpyHunter review, as SpyHunter is the current anti-spyware software package that I am currently using.  I haven’t found that anyone really had a good review of it online, so I knew that it would be a great opportunity.

I think for awhile here, when I am stuck on finding a topic to write about, I think I will do reviews - it is at least something that I know well and can let me stand out from the crowd.

Health Tips from Grandma

Now, I won’t be the first to say that my grandmother is very wise - in fact, you could ask pretty much anyone that she knows and they would say the same thing.  You see, she has spent a large part of her life studying natural health and alternative medicine, so she has some interesting perspectives on keeping healthy.

The fact that she is 92, also makes me believe that she knows her stuff.  So, when she tells me I should quit taking wheat grass in favor of barley grass, I listen.

Lately, she has been telling me to take chlorella and spirulina as they are both extremely effective as sources of vitamins and minerals.  I listen to what she tells me as I know that she has done the research to make sure that they are the best choices in terms of what is on the market.

Who knew that I would take health tips from my grandma…

Afternoon Advice

The nice thing that I like about Sunday is that the pace is a lot slower than during the week.  In fact, I would almost go as far as saying that you could take a day off of work, but so far, that hasn’t worked out for me.

But, I do like to get together with some friends on Sundays, just so that we can catch up on our weeks.  This has been a bit of a ritual for the last few years, and we quite often receive advice from one another.

I asked a good buddy what I should be doing in terms of lantana care in my yard - I was doing nothing at all.  We talked a bit about the plants that I had, how much I watered them and how I incorporated them into our landscaping designs.

After our chat, I thanked him for the advice, and took action - my plants are doing better than ever.  But, we are going to try to come up with some new landscaping design ideas so that our home is more unique.

Driving His Baby

When my husband was hunting around for a good rate on classic car insurance, he ended up with a big headache. He thought that the prices he was being quoted were ridiculous for a car of that age and I could tell that he was getting frustrated, which did not help matters any.

He said that he would just like a cheap car insurance rate, as he rarely used the car but he did not want to just let it sit in the garage. He wanted to be able to show it off and he could not do that without buying some insurance for it.

Things finally started to turn around when his buddy, who also owns a classic car told him where he could get cheap auto insurance. He called for a quote and was thrilled when it was in the range that he deemed fair to pay. Now, he can show off his baby all he wants.