Communication FUNdamentals

Nov. 10, 2007

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...REALLY!

I'm just buried under it!    I was not able to post my FIMM episode on Wednesday or a Friday Funny yesterday and I am a day late with my Communication FUNdamentals eNewsletter too so hang in there if you subscribe and didn't get it yesterday!  I'm working on it today!  I can't believe I haven't posted since Tuesday Tips!  I don't know about you folks, but I was swamped before it became Christmas season!  This is the time of year where my family has decided to put many of its birthdays and anniversaries too so it's like Christmas shopping on STEROIDS!  ROFL  Besides which, we have recently added a new family member.  Ok so she's tiny and just a few months old, but still... Let's see where to start... My dd has been busy studying to retake all of her SATs.  She is doing very well but it means that she can no longer help me around the house, with my son or with Art of Eloquence.  She does come out of her room for meals and to watch Jeapardy!  One more to go in December and then she is done.  Well...there is that little matter of taking three AP tests sometime next year, but I digress... My son's football season seems to have been prematurely cut short by the fires.  Nobody appears to want to continue.  Ok so they have scored only one touch down all season and parents were expecting the season to end last month so that might have contributed to our apparent lack of enthusiasm for expending energy and priceless GAS on practice!  That and the fact that practice is two and half hours long three times a week while we huddle together with blankets and hot chocolate!  My dh is getting tired of his 2 1/2 hour  drive home from work. Oh and on Fridays it can be as much as 3 1/2 hours of fun and adventure with Tommy Tow Truck picking up Freddie Fender Bender and the general Go Slow Gang!  Southern California promisses to build more freeways but I think the rate of new teenage drivers and imigrants far out number the ten year plan for new freeways by about 657 to 1!  As for me, I don't appear to have the Techno Thumb.  Last week's Birthday Bash show on Grace Talk Soup didn't go off very well.  To be precise, it didn't go at all.  Now I am in the process of one upsmanship making the show even more fun than it would have been had we been able to proceed on schedule.  Keeping up with the Jone's has nothing on keeping on step ahead of the Beelzabubs!  The Say What You Mean Convention is getting very exciting. LOTS of planning and details to follow up on but you all are going to be blessed to tears to see what my sponsors and keynote speakers have in store for you!  Marie, my technical advisor, has reworked the convention site. Go take a look!  My online classes are going so well, but they are very time consuming.  I guess had I known that my dd would have been taking classes at a not so very local public high school this year, I would have scheduled them differently.  As it stands now, I practically street race it after my second class to pick up my dd with just enough time to race back to my computer with about a minute thirty seconds to spare!  Just to make life interesting, the local cities have declared Martial Law on the streets.  We are fighting old pavement and so each day new streets are closed and the preferred route changes day by day.  It's not a commute, it's an adventure!  For those who had asked, we will not be able to offer the online classes next semester.  Perhaps next year.  I had a blast at Cindy Rushton's High School conference yesterday!  What a line up of speakers she has.  Go if you can!  It's still going on today.   I taught two seminars yesterday:  Because I Said So!  Tips for Mother/Daughter Communication and a sampling from my newest eBook, Say What You Mean Every Day!  Everyone had fun and I ended up giving away a ton of free books!  I received a call from one of the staff writers at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  What a pleasure she was to talk to!  She is going to do a story for the next issue on the Say What You Mean Convention!  So look for that in the next issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  If you don't subscribe, now is the time!  They are giving away a ton of free gifts with each subscription!  It's an awesome magazine! I finally got a vacuum cleaner!  I don't know if I told you the story, but this house seems to be the black hole of vacuum cleaners!  My mom and dad gave us one for our engagement.  It lasted nearly 20 years.  After we moved in to this house, it began to have some problems.  My folks were getting a new vacuum system and gave us their old one.  Very expensive and fairly new.  It died within a few months!  So we purchased a vacuum cleaner.  It died within a month!  And so it went...  I was visiting our neighbor who was having a garage sale and they were selling their old one.  We bought it.   Please say a little vacuum cleaner prayer for me today as I use it for the first time.  It remains to be seen how long this one will last.  So what's going on in your household?  Go ahead and comment... After all, it's Speak Up Saturday! From JoJo's Purple Crayon...

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Comments

Nov. 10, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by doehillhomeschool

Sounds like a busy week! We're all sick this week, but on the upside, I've had lots of time to read and blog. Here's hoping your vacuum doesn't conk out on you today.

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Nov. 10, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by SurvivingTheTestosterone

Glad to see you back!!! Hugs, Amanda

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Nov. 10, 2007 - Busy, Busy, cont.

Posted by Anonymous

Dear Jojo, I'm still learning how to say what I mean. What I wanted to say is this: It is good for you to talk about your family. I, at least, DO want to hear about your daughter more....please digress more. Really, it's okay to talk about your children. They are a blessing from the Lord. So, you are their mother, first, and a speaker second, right? I am a mother of 4, and I used to volunteer at church all the time before I was married (I guess my gifts would be helping and working with children), and sometimes I wonder if I will ever get to do anything at church again. I am learning, though, that sometimes we pass up opportunities to serve, using our gifts and talents because we are looking for the right person, the right time, or the right place. It just occurred to me that there are many things I am being asked to do right here and now, with my family, so that must be what the Lord wants me to do. I have always wanted to be a writer, so I guess these blogs get me going. Thanks for asking for comments. Sincerely, Kim B.

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