Monday, December 29, 2008

Landscaping!

Woot! I'm getting my landscaping done. This is the trench that they dug on Friday for the downspout water to run from the gutter to the street.

Ah, FINALLY! A picture of my trees. Serafin is working on the ditch that will bring in the drip line.

The Crew of Ayala's Maintenance service hard at work.

Happy Birthday! That's Earthworks Landscaping here in Chino Valley delivering my 11.5 TONS of rock. It's like "leftovers" from a quarry -- stuff that didn't make the grade. Because of that, I can get it pretty cheap. Of course, it took up all $250 of the gift certificate my folks got me for my birthday in September. But, I think it'll be worth it!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We did Christmas at my house this year. It was so very exciting! I've never really been hostess since I moved in. This is me and Lily under the "Christmas" tree.

Okay, okay, so I decorated my ficus. It's a start!

For dinner, we had a traditional Mexican meal: posole, tamales, salsa. Yum! I'll be eating the soup for days. Lucky me!

Here's Grandma Alice, Dad, & Mom sitting around my table. After dinner, Dad took a nap and Grandma Alice, Mom & I played Yahtzee. You can tell that Dad doesn't feel good.

And my favorite Christmas present? The afternoon rainbow above my neighborhood. It went all the way over.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Flagstaff, Arizona Sledding

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Friday, December 19, 2008

My New Website!

I'm really excited to have had some mentoring time with Mr. Jonathan Conrad. Mr. Conrad is one of the top executives in the business, knows 100% of the facts and is interested in helping me (and my friends) earn some extra income.

I'm over-the-top excited to be able to get such great coaching and mentoring from him.




Which ties into... My New Website.


Here's the email that I'll be sending out to my friends (but I'll also post it here in case you want to read it before I send it!) Check it out and then let me know what you think!





Dear Friend,

I wanted to run something by you real quick. As you know, the economy is getting softer and softer and gas prices seem to be going up every day.

I've found a way to recession proof myself and create an ongoing source of passive income, even in a down economy. I wanted to share it with you and get your opinion.

Please take a few minutes to check out this video. At the end of the video, fill out the form and let me know what you think.

http://www.greatcareerplan.com/?keldredge

I'll be in touch.

Regards,

KIM

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Spanish Dancing


My Spanish II class studies Spain for their cultural project. I've been needing a break (and so have they!) from bookwork, so I approached Mrs. Q, the dance teacher at TCP to find out if she new flamenco and sevillanas dances. She did (or learned them!) so for the past two weeks, my Spanish II class has been dancing with her dance class!

It's been a lot of fun to do something different; not do book work, and learn something completely new. Even I dance most days.

Here they are dancing in PARTNERS.

Faces have been smudged and blurred to protect the guilty.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Monday Update

It's cold! Snowing! Cloudy! Windy!



And, did I mention: COLD!!!




Let's see, I just spent the afternoon on the phone making calls for Pre-Paid. It went pretty well in that I got a hold of a few people, got some No's (always good so you get them out of the way!), and got a few people interested. AND, I think I've got a small business plan marketed. Yeah!

So far, for Player's Club, I think I'm sitting at 4 for the month. While that's not GREAT great, at least it's a start.

I'm also toying around with the idea of sending a blast out to my newsletter list. As any of you can attest to: I haven't send out ANYTHING in months. Funny, but the idea of sending a blast makes me nervous. I don't know WHY. I mean, it's MY list. They're all people who wanted to hear from me. And yes, some will leave, but that's never bothered me in the past...

I've even got REAL updates to tell them. Holiday wishes. Geez. Maybe I'll just work on it tonight.



And, one of my goals:

In 2009 send out 52 newsletters!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Chino Valley Hometown Christmas

So, can you tell Dad isn't really feeling well? It was dark and cold and he was SO tired. We set up the tree this morning. It'll be up Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. That's it. At least MDI Financial Services got a nice big mention!

The finished tree. The table next to it has the story of the cranes and business cards.


Dad and the tree! Aren't they cute?

"Big" cranes. They're very floppy since I made them from wrapping paper. I do NOT recommend trying to make cranes that are out of 37" square paper. VERY hard to fold!


Dad and Santa. AKA Mike Tobey from the Rotary.


And, the finished cranes. They looked really good. We made them out of a foil-type origami paper. We had a wee assembly line going for Monday - Thursday nights as Dad would do the base (waterbomb), Mom would do the next bit, and I had to finish it.

They made me do all the hard parts.

All in all, we made about 80. Which was perfect (and we didn't have to decorate the BACK of the tree. Whew!)

Alvin, Mom, Dad & I went Friday night to look at it.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Weeweechu

It's a romantic full moon, when Pedro said, "Hey, mamacita, let's do Weeweechu."

Oh no, not now, let's look at the moon!" said Rosita.

Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I do Weeweechu. I love you and it's the perfect time," Pedro begged.

"But I wanna just hold your hand and watch the moon." replied Rosita.

Please, corazoncita, just once, do Weeweechu with me."

Rosita looked at Pedro and said, "OK, one time, we'll do Weeweechu."



Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....



"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry Christmas,
Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!




I got this email from my Aunt Vicki.

Monday, December 08, 2008

Origami Cranes

Dad is the big sponsor for the Hometown Christmas Event this year. Every year, businesses, organizations, and families put up Christmas trees in the school gym and then people come and look at them. Free. It's a GREAT event.

Dad is the big sponsor at $1,000. He's also putting in a tree. He wants to do "Peace" and is covering it with 100 origami cranes.

I have to make them this week.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Alvin's Amazing



It is cold and windy. My boyfriend's on a ladder. He just finished putting up my Christmas lights before he had to leave to go to Church and I have to get ready for a Pre-Paid Legal training today.

He even put them on the peak of the house. Remember that? I don't know when I'll put the LIGHTS up, but I've got hooks! (I have to get lights from Mom...)

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Vacuuming!

Don you just LOVE those projects that seem all big and difficult, so you put it off. Those projects that when you finally DO it, aren't that big of a deal after all? Well, that was me and vacuuming. I was dreading it. Then I COULDN'T do it, because I didn't have any bags for the vacuum cleaner.

Once I finally DID it, it wasn't that bad. I opened the windows, chased the dog (Lily LOVES the vacuum) and was off and running.

The best part about a mostly empty new house? It's very easy to move the furniture around!


See! Proof. The vacuum itself. It was a very pretty day for vacuuming too.

GREAT New Book

Dad bought me a FANTASTIC new book yesterday. For anybody who knows me, I'm always feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and with a to-do list that's 9 miles long. This is NOT good, obviously. I've read and re-read time management books and nothing really seemed to help. Then yesterday, Dad bought me:




I started reading it this morning. Here's what I'm already loving:

"And you'll discover, the principles and methods are instantly usable and applicable to everything you have to do in your personals as well as your professional life.*

*I consider "work" in its most universal sense, as meaning anything that you want or need to be different than it currently is. Many people make a distinction between "work" and "personal life," but I don't; to me weeding the garden or updating my will is just as much "work" as writing this book or coaching a client. All the methods and techniques in this book are applicable across that life/work spectrum -- to be effective, they need to be."

(page 4)

Holy cow! You've got me sold. I'll read the whole thing and be in for the long haul.




And, just as an aside: I think the author kinda looks like my Dad.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Fantastical Visions IV

Oh! Guess what! My story, "Crows are Black the Whole World Over" will appear in the anthology Fantastical Visions IV. It's published by Fantasist Enterprises, an independent publisher of illustrated fantasy books.


The image is by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, who's website is www.shadowscapes.com

I've been published there before too.



And I've also been in their other anthology. This one features my very first ever short story publication for the story "Olympic Politics." When the King of the Gods decides it is time for him to take back power, in "Olympic Politics," he discovers that the political climate may have changed too much for his brand of thunderbolt-enforced leadership.