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I Don't Like Ike, Day 5

Day 5. Still no power. Stores are opening and the gas lines are getting to be less than ridiculous. My husband, Shane ventured out early this morning and found another cooler. I was relieved. It's hard to keep that much food cold when there is no room in the cooler for ice.

The "boys" (our employees) are coming over today to clean the backyard. They need money and it's the only work we can give them right now. We call them boys because we are old enough to be their parents. Boy, does that make me feel old. None of the boys have running water at their houses, so they will all take showers here.

A dear friend came over yesterday to fill up water jugs and take a shower.

I am running out of busy work to do. Today I am going to tackle decluttering my office. It's a big chore and a little difficult to do without power. Not only is it full of work stuff, old trade magazines, etc., I also have a huge section of Girl Scout related stuff that needs to be boxed up and moved to our new meeting location. I'll give it my best WAHM effort.

My neighbor bought a generator yesterday that is big enough to run the wash machine. She said I could wash a load of towels today. Thank goodness. A shower is wonderful but what's the point if you have to dry yourself with a stinky towel?

The other two major chores that need tackling are decluttering my closet and my daughter's closet. Those might wait until tomorrow. My office is a doozy.

Yesterday, my daughter and I ventured out to find ice. I had to visit two PODs. Found it at the second POD. FEMA really is doing a remarkable job with the PODs. Lots of city employees, fire department and police were working the distribution lines. KUDOs to FEMA and the City of Conroe!

Anyway, on our adventure we saw a caravan of 15 work trucks with backhoes and other heavy equipment from Georgia. We also saw a caravan of electric company trucks (bucket trucks) parked on the side of the road just a mile from our house! There are electric trucks from as far away as Canada here working to restore power! It's wonderful! I can't wait!

I can't log onto the internet in the afternoons. It's too much of a power drain on the neighbors generator. So, until tomorrow morning... This is Kandas the SuperWAHM, reporting in from Hurricane Ike Central. :)

I Don't Like Ike, Part 2

Well, this is day 4 after Ike. I thought it might be fun to learn what a WAHM does after a hurricane. Currently, we have water and gas but no electricity. Phone and DSL work. I am running my PC off the next door neighbor's generator. But, I only have a few minutes more before I need to shut down.

Yesterday (Day 3) went like this:

Woke Up. Ate defrosted frozen pastries.

Threw some undergarments in the bathtub with some liquid detergent. Stomped around in the tub for a few minutes. Rinsed out the garments. Rigged up a clothes line using my husband's weight set on the backporch and hung the garments on hangers to dry.

Hooked up the generator line to the laptop and read some email. Could not respond to messages for some reason. Also posted to our business blog and website that we'd be without power for up to 4 weeks.

Washed the pots from last nights grilled spaghetti dinner. Yes, we made spaghetti on the gas grill.

Made cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Cleaned out the fridge and freezer. Threw out over $100 worth of food. Fridge sparkles.

Garbage truck picked up. Thank goodness.

Mailman delivered someone else's mail to us.

Entertained 6 neighborhood kids with sidewalk chalk and a parachute.

Filed a couple months worth of vendor bills and correspondence.

Raked the front yard.

Swept the living room rug and floors.

Cleaned out some of the garage.

Went to neighbors house for hamburgers.

Slept like a log. Exhausted.

Day 4 agenda:

Email and Blog Posts
More in the garage.
File Customer Correspondence and Invoices
Clean out the pantry
Watch neighbor's kids
Drive to POD to pick up MRE's (look that one up on the internet)
Grill chicken for dinner with the neighbors

No school all week. So entertaining the kids is high on the priority list.

Hopefully, I can post more tomorrow!

Happy Mommy Moments

This is my nephew. I am posting it because, to quote Lynn, "I can"! This little video is a good enough reason for me to work at home.

Have I been living under a rock?

We don't have cable television. We don't see the need for that many tv stations. We watch PBS for the most part. I am addicted to Battlestar Galactica but we can watch the new episodes the next day on the Sci Fi channel. Plus, it's not appropriate for our 9 year old, so we watch it on our laptop after she has gone to bed.

That's NOT the point I am trying to make here.

Today I discovered that there is a new X-Files movie in theaters. Right now. Opened on Friday.

What ROCK have I been living under that I didn't know about this movie?

Sheesh. Cable or no cable. I need to get out more.

Look Big but Act Small

After finishing my first line I was so excited to show my samples to bridal stores in the area and get this business off to a big start. I quickly realized that to get my foot in the door I had to convince them I was a big company, no one was interested in doing business with a small start up. However once they saw the line and bought form me, what made them happy was all the things that a small start up could offer them. When they called with a question they were talking to the designer. When they forgot to order something and needed it in less than a week, it was no problem. When the bride wanted to make changes to the veil or the headpiece I could accommodate. My customers learned that doing business with a company like mine was a great way to go. They quickly became dependent on the kind of service I could give them.

I guess the moral to my story is that when you need to impress your future customers look, act and sound the part, then once you have won them over, you can show them what great service a small business can offer

Jill