Emerging from a Self-Imposed Silence . . .

It has been two weeks since I last sat down to exercise my typing fingers.  It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say.  It’s more that I had more important things to do – namely filling your orders.  We got absolutely swamped with orders during our Thanksgiving Weekend Sale (this is a very nice problem to have), and for more than a week I did practically nothing other than gather orders and order out-of-stock items so Debbie and Patti could constantly pack orders and ship them off to you. 

A lot of the smaller items we sell are stocked at our retail store – they haven’t seen so much of me in years.  I should have taken pictures – I spent most afternoons at the store, spreading order sheets on tables and filling as much as I could from there, then piling everything into boxes and heading back to the mail center.  Debbie and Patti went home after the last pickup about 5:00, and I usually stayed until after 7:00 laying out stacks of completed orders so they could hit the ground running the next morning.

We’re now in the home stretch – if you haven’t received your order yet, it probably includes Spellbinders dies (a new supply will arrive Thursday) or Tim Holtz dies and folders (those come in from multiple suppliers).  I can’t thank you enough for your support – it seems obvious, but without you we wouldn’t have jobs!

On to unrelated matters . . . a lot of you who have called or e-mailed to check on your orders have asked questions about my family.  Nala is adjusting to life in our household – after a lifetime of having to fight to survive, she still doesn’t understand that every movement by a bigger cat (or even a dog) is not a threat.  She does understand that our tomcat rules the house – and he never had to raise a paw to her.  Tom seems to have that effect on other animals.  But she is starting to realize that Zoe is a pacifist – Nala has slashed at her a couple of times and Zoe just looks at me with a surprised “Are you going to do something about this?” expression on her face.  A couple of nights ago, I noticed that Nala was using Zoe’s tail as a play toy – chasing it back and forth while Zoe laid on the couch.

And as I type this, my parents are on their way to the airport to fly back here for the holidays.  Mom has a PET Scan scheduled for Thursday, and we’ll get the results early next Wednesday morning.  A lot of you who have been through this before will understand that they decided to wait to schedule the return flight to Arizona until those results come in and give her a clean bill of health.  At this point, I refuse to even consider that she could get any results other than that.  But we would appreciate it if those of you who have supported Mom so much over the past 15 months would continue to keep her in your prayers for the next week or so.  As soon as we leave her appointment next Wednesday, I will come back here and post the results.  Thanks again.