Calgon...take me away!

It has been way too long since my last blog. But I really have been busy. Good busy and stressed busy.
We did the Home & Garden show this past weekend. It was very well attended, had lots of inquiries, but sales were down a bit. I kinda expected this but I still think I will generate a lot of new customers from this show.
The thing that has me stressed is my kiln! A week ago it went down. Fortunately I have good technical support from the company and was able to get new elements shipped out same day. Dad and Max were able to install them on Thursday and I fired it up that evening. Didn't get a good firing, so it was back to the tech. We tried a couple other things....fired it up. Got a couple good firings in, but I knew something wasn't right, it was taking too long. Call back to tech this week, found out 2 of the 4 elements weren't working (these are the coils that heat the kiln.) Jeff came in as my "electrician" and we found the problem. They overnighted the part and it was a snap to install today. Test on the elements was good so we were back in operation! Except 5 hours later......ERROR MESSAGE again! So that is where I stand at this moment. Tomorrow morning it is back to the tech......
Amongst all this, I have been proudly wearing my tiara. (Believe me, this is not a good thing, ask Shannon to explain.)
First tiara moment: I do my banking online....thought I would pay bills early, get them out of the way. Well yesterday I get a notice that I didn't pay a loan. Hmmmmm....knew I had, thought I had, checked my records, checked my account online.....yep, showed I had transferred the money and it had cleared. I look at loan account....nope, hasn't been paid. Hmmmmm....I look at another account.....AHA.....there it is! Transferred to wrong account. Nice thing about banking at small hometown bank, one quick phone call and it was taken care of!
Another tiara moment: Again, had to do with bills......rent is due first of month. With home show ending, I was trying to juggle everything, knew i needed to get rent mailed Sunday night. I write the check, and figure I will drop in mailbox on way home. Two seconds after I drop the envelope in the mailbox I realize I forgot to put a stamp on it! UGHHHH! Again, fortunately I have a very nice landlord and am the only tenant that pays him on a regular basis. (He told me one tenant hasn't paid him in 6 months.....but that is another story for another post!) So I straighten my tierra and make a quick call to him. Mail was returned to me today. So it is back in the mail, stamped.
I just want everything to get back to normal so that I can go back to "playing". And Jaden says she wants to get back to her weekly posts too! We have some good pictures to share from the Home and Garden Show. I also want to share a picture of Frank if I can figure out how to get it from phone to computer. (Ashley, ask Shane if he can email me that picture.)
And one final note......check out the countdown clock.........just 16 DAYS UNTIL SPRING!!!! (And I see I need to reset my Scrappin' the Night Away clock.)