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!

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.

Flagstaff, Arizona Sledding

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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

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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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...)

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.

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.

Geocaching - Thanksgiving in Tucson 08

Dad wanted to go geocaching while we were in Tucson to drop off the two geocoins that we found when we were camping. We found this AMAZING cache that was a sculpture garden. I LOVED it. I can't wait to go back. There were at least 12 sculptures that I'd pay for.


Here we all are with our cache. I LOVE the auto-taking feature on my phone.

The yard was full of huge metal sculptures made from found metal.

Butterflies on a metal fence.

3 FOOT wide blue sunflower.

Dragons!


Shovel sunflowers.

Cactus tunnel.

Studio 2633.

Little guy who wants to eat you.

The front yard.


Alvin wanted me to take a picture of the "bird."

Black Friday - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson

Ah! The 5th wheel. Do you see how Papa's truck has rolled back and is TOUCHING the trailer? Yeah, that's where the propane bottles live. The propane bottles we needed to turn on to turn on the oven in the 5th wheel to cook part of Thanksgiving dinner.

We all pushed (Helped once the truck was in NEUTRAL instead of REVERSE) but nope. Couldn't move it. Ended up microwaving the potatoes.

This is actually the day AFTER Thanksgiving, but I didn't take any photos of Turkey Day itself. This is me and Alvin (very over-exposed)

Front to back, left to right: Dad, Maurice, Papa Charlie, Nana (you can just see her purple sweatshirt and hand), Tia Vicki, Alvin.


In this photo you can see Nana. She's kinda hidden behind Vicki.

Mom, standing up.

And I just LOVE this photo with Tia peeking out at me.

Kyle and his girlfriend WERE there but they didn't eat with us. Kyle was complaining that he just COULDN'T eat any turkey leftovers and his girlfriend went out to eat.

The soup was super spicy!





After dinner, we played penny poker. I HATE poker but play because Nana likes us to all do something together and SHE likes poker.

Tucson Flood - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson

It rained today in Tucson. See that driveway next to the brown car? Yeah, that's NEW. My grandfather's neighbor poured it and then sloped it so the water runs towards my grandpa's house.


Like this. It's about 6 inches deep. Needless to say, it really worries him and stresses the foundation of his house; his 55+ year old house! He's called the City of Tucson but they're dragging their feet. They did give him a sump pump (under the white "board" in the photo) but that doesn't really FIX the problem.

I'm figuring out how to get Pre-Paid Legal involved since Papa & Nana ARE members. I figure they'll write a letter and help them out. I don't know if it's to the neighbor or city or both.

Chili Relenos - Thanksgiving 08 in Tucson

Remember all those MILLIONS of chilis I grew in my garden this year? I shipped them all to Nana so she could roast them. Well, some of them, she roasted and stuffed with cheese for chili relenos! Here she is showing us how she dips them into batter.

A close up shot. I THINK it's just whipped egg and a bit of flour but I wasn't there for it.


And into the skillet. We all had some as a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Everybody had 2. Except for me.





I had 4.





One was sweet and 3 were melt-your-face off. Guess I'll never learn.

Alvin's Goatee

Alvin grew a goatee for hunting and I wouldn't let him shave it off until I took photos. Isn't he good looking with it?

Yeah, he shaved it off the next day!

Chaos in the Living Room

So, I got the bright idea to throw in a movie and put together my shoe rack. Yeah, it's more complicated than it looks! I thought it would help as part of the moving-in process for the new house.

This is what Lily thought of it all. After sitting on the couch (behind where I was working) and putting her VERY cold, wet nose in my ear, she retreated to her bed to watch me pound the show rack into shape.

I gave up pretty quickly and just watched the movie.