Over already?!

I thought I'd posted again in October...but apparently not. And now October is already over! It's hard to believe it's already November...soon the year will be over. Right now I'm just ready for this dang election to be over. I used to love politics. I loved learning about all the candidates and debating the issues. I was in middle school arguing with adults on AOL message boards about politics. I wanted to BE a politician until I realized it was mostly BS lobbying instead of just working to make the world a better place. Well...that and in high school I realized during a very unfortunate student council election that I have a fear of public speaking. :P lol. But now? Just get rid of this shitshow. I'm over it. I still have very strong opinions about the issues...but I'm just so exhausted by all the lies and conspiracy theories. I'm a person who shows up with receipts. I'll show you exactly where I got the numbers from and cite my sources for information...I believe in transparency and FACTUAL information. But people out there are clinging to confirmation bias like it's a security blanket. And I just really, really don't like the direction some people are wanting to take this country and their inability to see the writing on the wall. But...I digress. 

So anyway... still loving the new fridge! It definitely feels like we have a lot more room than the old fridge. I like having two doors that open when we have casserole dishes going in and out of the fridge or large pizza boxes. And it's so nice having a working ice maker again...as well as a working fridge in general! LOL. But all three of us (me, Aubry, and Johnny) have randomly said "I really like this new fridge" a few times. We did spend a little more than we were originally planning to when we were considering just replacing our old fridge with another side-by-side fridge. The French door was a bit more expensive...but I like it a lot better. And the weekend after getting the new fridge, Johnny and I were able to get the old fridge out of the kitchen ourselves. We took off the doors and that made a big difference in weight...so it was a lot easier to manage. We ended up putting it in the garage for now. I'm not sure what we'll ultimately end up doing with it, but I'm just glad that it's out of the kitchen. :P 

We celebrated my birthday last weekend. We went to Village Inn for dinner with my mom, my grandparents, Aubry and her boyfriend (Ashlyn and her boyfriend already had plans). We were talking about getting ready to leave when the waitress ended up bringing Johnny another iced tea. Grandma said something about getting a to-go cup, but Johnny said he'd just drink it really fast. While Johnny was drinking it, Grandpa made the comment that the tea looked weak, and Johnny started to laugh but he had a mouthful of tea so he had to stop himself and hold the tea in his mouth so he didn't spit it out at Grandpa who was sitting across from him. Johnny made a comment about almost spitting out his tea at Grandpa and then Grandpa said he was just making an observation and started laughing *so hard* that he was crying. He took off his glasses and covered his face with his hands...I don't think I'd ever seen him laugh so hard in my life. And of course we all started laughing, because it's one of those things where it's just contagious. We all laughed so hard for probably a good five straight minutes. It was so funny. Definitely makes for a good birthday memory. :)

Then after dinner, we went over to my grandparents' house to play Hand and Foot. Aubry had a Halloween party to go to so it was just my grandparents, mom, then me and Johnny. We had an odd number of people so we couldn't play teams like we usually do. So we played individually with 5 people, which we'd never done before. It ended up taking longer to play, but it was pretty fun. There were actually two rounds where I had a book of deuces (which are wild cards)...the first was a clean book and the second was a dirty book (dirty has jokers). It wasn't intentional either time...I just kept drawing them and didn't have enough regular cards to match them with. But the bad thing is that BOTH of those hands...someone else went out before I was able to get into my foot. :P So while I got a lot of points for the book of deuces, all the cards I had left in my hand subtracted a lot of points, too. :P I ended up finishing exactly in the middle. My grandpa was first, Johnny beat me by FIVE POINTS, then mom, and then Grandma came in last. It was a fun night though. It was actually 10:30pm by the time Johnny and I got in the car to home. The dogs were definitely excited when we got home! Bozley has quite a bit of separation anxiety so he really whines and cries and freaks out when we get home. Nova gets excited too...but I also think she was wanting us to hurry up and give her dinner. ;) 

Work has been going well! Last night before I went to bed, I updated my spreadsheets for the month of October. Each month I make sure I have all my receipts entered and update my Profit/Loss worksheet for the month. October 2024 has been my highest monthly profit since opening CandiMaker by more than $300. It wasn't my month of highest orders (I had 137 in July and only 105 in October) but my profit in October was more than $385 higher than July. Part of that is customers making orders with larger quantities. In July, I had several orders with 4, 5, and one order with 6 stickers...but in October I had one order each with a quantity of 15, 20, 25, and 50. Each of those orders except the one with 15 stickers only count as one "sale" in my shop since they ordered that quantity of the same item, but they definitely increased the profit of those orders. The order of 25 was actually for 4" magnets! I think I mentioned this before, but I'm getting a lot more magnet sales now that I've changed my listing photos to say "sticker or magnet" on the main listing photo...and they have a higher price point than my stickers. Oh! And I also got my first bestseller in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop! I noticed today that my spreadsheet design had the bestseller badge on it. :) That's always nice to see. 

I'm also excited about more product ideas that I am working on. I have a couple ideas for both my sticker shop as well as my planner shop. And on that note...I'm gonna get back to work! :) 

Well...we have a new fridge. :P

After the the delivery guys Lowes sent not arriving during the delivery time they gave us, not actually bringing the fridge into the house and installing it like they were supposed to, little Ashlyn and her boyfriend helping us get it into the kitchen, and Johnny getting 3 stitches in his wrist after slicing it along the bottom of the fridge exactly where I told him I wasn't going to hold to lift it because it was sharp...we have a new refrigerator. :P It took more time taking off all the tape and plastic than it did at the ER, surprisingly. And then we had to wait awhile for it to get down to the correct temperatures. I was going to rearrange the shelves that night, but I was just too tired after all the heavy lifting and excitement. :P  

But once it was down to the right temperature, I made a small grocery order to replace some of the things we had to throw away and get some things for cheesy chicken chili that I'm going to make. I decided to go ahead and adjust the shelves while I was putting the food away. That way I had a better idea of how much space we needed and where to put everything. Even though the whole thing is just slightly smaller than our previous refrigerator, we actually have more cubic feet of space inside. We got our side-by-side because it was one of the few that had the ice maker in the door and there was more space in the freezer compared to other models...but it feels like we have a lot more space now with the drawer. We don't have all the little bins that were in the freezer door of the side-by-side, but the space makes up for it. Our freezer was pretty much full (and was still working so we didn't have to throw anything away), and you can see in the picture that everything we still have space leftover in the new freezer drawer. And I think the way I have everything set up in the fridge section really makes use of the room. Almost an entire 24-pack of bottled water fit in the space that I put it in by the ice maker. Some of the bins in the door on the side with the water/ice dispenser are smaller than most condiment containers, but that's the only complaint I have so far...and that's pretty minor. Oh and there are two tiny "condiment bins" at the very bottom...which you basically have to bend over to see below the other door bins that stick out farther. It seems as though they were like...what should we do with this wasted space? lol. But the one on the right, I ended up not installing the little bin cover thing because our fridge is right up against the wall so we can't open the right door further than 90 degrees, and the deli drawer kinda rubbed on the bin divider thing. But that's more of a complaint about how our kitchen was designed. :P I just left the divider thing off for now. I didn't really have anything to put down there anyway. Overall I'm super happy with it. I also love the tall space available for the water/ice dispenser. Our last fridge wouldn't even fit a 32oz cup under there...I'm pretty sure this one would fit a 40oz cup or those tall water bottles. 

Now we just have to figure out what we're going to do with the old fridge and get it out of the kitchen. :P We'll probably wait until the weekend to deal with it. 

Oh and I forgot...the blood from Johnny cutting himself is still all over the front steps. Aubry got home from work before we got back from the ER. So she put her skeleton out front...now the blood is just part of a Halloween decoration. ;) I do wonder what the delivery guy thought when he dropped off the Walmart grocery order. LOL. :P 

Other than that, I've just been busy working. I did take the day off when we were dealing with the new refrigerator...so my Etsy shop has actually been slow since then. But I have a 1-3 processing time, so that way I do have a little bit of time to get orders out when things come up. The next day I was able to print, cut, and package all my orders for Aubry to drop off the following day. She's my shipper. I package my orders before I go to bed and put them in the mail holder by the door, then she grabs them on her way out the door and drops off all the orders at the post office on her way to work in the mornings. And she usually goes to her boyfriend's house on Saturdays, so a lot of times I'll have her drop off orders on Saturdays too. So it works out really well. :) But today I've gotten caught up on some little things. I've printed more of my packaging stickers and folders and reorganized some of my storage drawers...things like that. And after I finished that, I started working on some new designs. :)  

But...now I should probably get started on making dinner. It'll be the first night I've actually made dinner since the fridge went out! We'd been just living on Door Dash and heating things up from the freezer. :P 

Ohhhhh my goodness...

Well the score is now Skunks: 2, Dogs: 0. Boz and Nova were sprayed the first time at the end of June...and last night they were sprayed AGAIN. I've lived here for almost 12 years and we NEVER had an issue with the dogs being sprayed...and now it's happened twice in the same year! We took the peroxide, baking soda, and dishsoap outside to coat the dogs and then brought them in the house to give them a bath. Nova wasn't as bad as Bozley was...she barely has any smell left but you can still smell the skunk a bit on Bozley's face. 

So...that's super frustrating. :P 

And last week our fridge stopped cooling AGAIN. We emptied everything out of it and defrosted the frozen fan again, but it still wasn't cooling below 40 degrees. And unlike the last time this happened, the temperature on the control panel showed that it was the right temperature the whole time. Even after we defrosted it, it was still showing a lower temperature than it actually was. We've been having problems with this fridge for awhile...it was the first big purchase we made together back in 2014. It's a Samsung and the first few years, it was great. We even started replacing the rest of the appliances with Samsung...until we started having issues with the fridge, dishwasher, and dryer. :P Luckily we hadn't replaced the stove yet...so it's the one appliance that isn't Samsung. The ice maker in the freezer hasn't worked for many years...and the "fix" from Samsung was to buy a whole freezer door. We just dealt with not having an ice maker. :P 

But we don't want to keep emptying, moving, and defrosting the fridge...so we just decided to get a new one. We've had to wait an entire week for it to be delivered though...so that's been not fun. Luckily...it'll be delivered tomorrow! Hopefully it all goes smoothly. Sunday we cleaned up the kitchen and got everything moved off the fridge. It looks weird not having all the magnets and everything on there! Johnny originally had a regular white fridge with a top freezer. Then we got the Samsung side-by-side fridge. Now we're going to have a French door fridge with the bottom drawer freezer. We went with Frigidaire instead of Samsung...so hopefully it's better! :P 

Other than that, I've just been busy with work! I ended September as my most profitable month so far. Since changing my listing photos to specifically state "sticker or magnet" I've been getting more magnet orders, which has boosted my profit. So even though I got 137 orders in July and 119 in August, I still had higher profit in September even though I only had 109 orders. I've also been getting more large orders lately. Over the weekend I got an order for 50 stickers, so that was exciting! :) And I love my repeat customers! I have a couple wonderful customers who have placed several orders for my custom text stickers and magnets...and it always makes my day when I see one of their orders pop up on my phone. :) I've also had a couple orders already for my new kitchen magnets that I listed last month. 

But...I should probably get some more done before Johnny gets off work. I hope everyone has a good week!

Fall?!

Well...in my last post I said that I was ready for fall...todaywe kinda had fall! In typical Kansas fashion, yesterday it was 100 degrees and today the high was 67 or something. I think it's supposed to be in the 70s and 80s over the next couple weeks. 

September has been a rough month, to say the least. 

My Uncle Billy's service was on September 9th. He passed away on August 17th and then he had a memorial service at the federal cemetery in Winfield. He and I were very close when I was growing up. He always called me his baby. I was the first born of all my cousins and Billy was even living with my mom and dad for awhile. So I was the one he was around the most. He joined the Navy when I was a kid so we didn't get to see him much after that. But when I was about 11, my mom took us on vacation to spend three weeks with him in Chula Vista, California. His wife at the time was pregnant with their second child...their first was just a toddler. We saw all the sights from Hollywood to San Diego and even took a day to go down to Tijuana, Mexico. It was an amazing time that I've always cherished. It was also the first time I tried blueberry Eggos which I ended up having almost every morning...and since then, the smell has always reminds me of that vacation. He came back to Kansas a few times over the years, but usually not for very long. He always saw me whenever he was in town, though. The summer of 1996, he was in town and he let me drive his brand new hunter green Ford Taurus SHO when I was getting my learners permit. After that, I wanted a car just like his (ended up buying an older white Ford Taurus a couple years later from a family friend, actually, but it wasn't on purpose). He also came back through town in December 1998. He tapped on my bedroom window and it was dark so I didn't see him at first...but when my eyes adjusted, I just saw this face staring back at me and it scared the crap out of me. Now I don't look out windows in the dark anymore. :P We ate some Hawaiian pizza at Pizza Hut...because I was the only other person who would eat pineapple on my pizza. Billy did end up coming back home to Kansas in 2019 after retiring from the Navy. Shortly after he got back, I went with him to the DMV to get his truck registered. I remember him being so surprised that the background on my phone was pink...because he knew my favorite color was blue and that's why his favorite color has always been blue. That's just the kind of relationship we had. But his health started to decline and it got pretty bad the last couple years. 

And then on the 13th, tragedy struck. Johnny's daughter, Ashlyn, lost her husband and 11-year-old stepson in a very bad car accident. Randall and Eli had gone to Wichita to pick something up and a woman was driving the wrong way on the highway and crashed into them head-on. All three died at the scene. Ashlyn and Randall were married in 2014. Ashlyn had a daughter from her previous marriage and then Randall had two sons...and they had a son together. They've had custody of Randall's sons throughout their marriage...so Ashlyn has raised those boys since they were toddlers. So the loss of both Randall and Eli has been devastating. Johnny spent much of that first weekend at Ashlyn's house until her mom arrived in town on Sunday. The memorial service will be next weekend.  

So yeah...things have been tough lately. :( 

We did celebrate (little) Ashlyn's birthday this weekend. It's hard to believe my youngest is now in her 20s! We had dinner at Olive Garden with my mom and grandparents. Then afterwards, Johnny went over to my grandparents' house to play cards with everyone. They played Hand & Foot again. I was going to go, but I haven't been feeling well today. My stomach has been bothering me all day. :( But Ashlyn loved that Johnny was there AND it meant they were able to play teams...boys against girls. Johnny, my grandpa, and Ashlyn's boyfriend Joe ended up winning against Ashlyn, my mom, and my grandma. And then tomorrow Ashlyn starts her first day of college! She's going to WSU tech for composite technology. I was surprised by her choice...I figured she would choose something like veterinarian technician. Aubry went for sheet metal mechanic a couple years ago, but I just never really thought Ashlyn would be interested in something like that. But hopefully it will go well! :) 

Aubry is getting ready to deal with her first strike as an aircraft worker. The company she works for...the union voted against the contract and for the strike. So we'll see how that goes. She's a worrier so she's been pretty stressed about the whole thing. It doesn't help that she just recently had some car troubles that she had to pay for so the strike is kinda bad timing for her. :/ 

I've been busy working. I finally got all my listing photos done in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. I also finished listing my newest product lines: kitchen stickers and magnets as well as "Hello I'm" nametag stickers and magnets. I have 5 regular "Hello I'm" nametag stickers and magnets where I've designed them with a phrase that I've chosen...but I also have listings where customers can make custom tags with their own names or phrases. So I'm excited about getting those things accomplished. I've wanted to get those things done for awhile and I always like getting things crossed off my list. I still have SO many other things I want/need to do...but every little bit helps. :) 

On that note...I want to get some more stuff done before I go to bed. I hope everyone has a good week! 

I'm ready for fall!

September is here...but I'm ready for the fall weather to be here! We're going to have a few days of 80s temperatures, but still some days in the 90s. I'm so tired of the heat. UGH. I'd really rather have 70s all year. :P But...I suppose 80s and low 90s are better than temps in the 100s. There might be a thunderstorm tomorrow afternoon, but we'll see. Usually the storms tend to miss us...except for the one that took out our fence! We also had a storm on the 25th that I don't think was in the forecast...just popped up. They ended up canceling the air show because there was some damage at the base. So unfortunately mom didn't get to come watch. But in a couple years when they have the next air show, I think I'll have her come out on Thursday or Friday when they practice...because it seems like they flew by our house a lot more during practice. 

But in other news...our fence is done! They came out last Thursday to tear out the old fence and set the posts, then on Friday they placed all the pickets. I wasn't *super* impressed with him, but they did a decent enough job and I'm just glad that we have a fence again. Johnny liked him. And they did get the job done quickly, so I liked that part. Eventually we want to replace the back fence and the gate, but that'll have to wait awhile. 

Work has been good...busy! I had 119 orders in August (compared to 137 orders in July), but I did break my record for the most orders in one day. Previously my record was 9, but I had 13 orders on August 31st! I didn't work on orders during the holiday from Friday-Sunday...and I ended up having 24 orders go out on Tuesday morning! That's been the most orders I've had go out at one time...so that was pretty exciting. :) And I'm almost finished updating all the listings photos in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop...so that has felt pretty productive. I also think having my main listing photo that now says "sticker or magnet" is boosting magnet sales. I've noticed a slight increase in magnet sales since updating the listings...although it could just be coincidental. I'm also working on some new kitchen magnet/stickers that I hope to have listed by the end of the weekend. Hopefully they'll do well. :) 

On that note...I'm going to try to get some more work done before I go to bed.