Guess what I’m doing while it is 90 degrees outside. I’m sitting by the “pool” and working on Sweet Hope. But isn’t it August, you ask. Why yes, yes it is. That would be why it is 90 degrees and I’m not wearing pants.
It takes 4 months to put Sweet Hope candy sales together. For the most part the groundwork is laid and I just repeat everything I did last year. However, I use August to look back and figure out how I can make things more efficient. I have the timeline finished. I would suggest marking November 8th on your calender. The week of September 20th should also be noted. That is if you want to have a say in what we make this year.
The only thing I’m currently stuck on is packaging. I want to be economical in my packaging choices so I purchase the recycled material brown kraft boxes. They aren’t the prettiest boxes in the world, but they’ll do. I do have the option of changing the ribbon colors. In years past I’ve gone with red. It is the holidays and that seems rather festive. I have branding for the website and the cards and pretty much everything else. It is just that the product doesn’t match.
The candy sales are just a fundraiser portion of the whole organization. Granted, it is how we got our start, but in the long run we don’t want it to be the only thing we do.
Here is where I need your opinion, oh 8 people who still read my blog. Should I change the packaging? The box options are brown kraft or gloss white. The ribbon colors can be found here. I use 5/8″ ribbon so I’m limited to those colors. I’ve also considered not tying bows, but rather having labels printed with the bee to seal the boxes.
Give me your honest opinion. You’ve given them as gifts. I need your experience.
I think I’ve officially become the mother to a boy. Yes, I did check prior to leaving Russia and I am aware that the boy has been a part of our family for almost 4 years now, but up until now he’s been… well… a little prissy. He didn’t like to get dirty. The thought of touching dirt was as if the world was going to swallow him whole. I attribute this all to the crazy being in our life that is causing more gray hair than my husband’s addiction to buying random cords for random electronics. The boy loves his dog.
Indications that my son is turning into a real boy:
1) I must wash the scum off of his feet on a nightly basis.
2) The best game ever… throw shovel fulls of dirt into the air and pretend it’s rain.
3) A conversation with the trusty husband started with, “how much does a broken arm cost?” (the boy has begun climbing trees)
4) Every morning I must tell the child to put on clean underpants
5) The boy comes to me one afternoon after going to the bathroom. He says, “Mom, I have the funniest story to tell you. I was going to the bathroom and I had on two pair of underpants. So I took off the football underpants (the clean ones) and am just wearing the gray ones (the dirty ones his father told him to change).
6) Now every morning I tell him, “please put on clean underpants and remove the dirty ones first.”
I am still working through photos of China. Don’t worry, I’ll post some… eventually.
In other news…
I’ve once again started stalking the local humane society website. If you weren’t aware I did this for 2 year prior to us getting Busy, the dog… gah! We all really wanted a dog, the trusty husband wanted to rescue one, we ended up getting one as a gift. Funny how that works out.
If you are friends with the trusty husband on Facebook you will know that our other cat died while I was in China. Please recall I had to put my baby girl to sleep on June 28th. On July 19th Julius unexpectedly died in the hallway of our house. The trusty husband was supposed to be taking him to the vet later that morning.
We suspect he may have had some sort of cancer. He had lost a ton of weight, constantly threw up, but we weren’t in time to diagnose the problem. Odds are we couldn’t have afforded the treatment anyway.
The crappy part about the whole thing is that I was gone when it happened. The trusty husband was out of town when Kitty died. One for me and one for him I guess. Since the moment is past I don’t have a sappy post to write about this particular cat. I had him longer than I’ve been married to the trusty husband. If that doesn’t say something about our relationship I’m not sure what else will. He had a stupid purr and loved bacon.
With both of my cats gone there is this giant hole in our house. I haven’t been without a cat in 15 years. Before that I had my previous cat for 16 or 17. Only 2 or 3 years out of 34 of my life have I been cat-less. When Kitty died we said we wouldn’t get another one until Julius died. We just didn’t expect him to die 3 weeks later. I think he just didn’t want to live without his partner.
The problem with us getting new cats is Busy. She’s slightly high strung. We’re afraid of her mauling two baby kitties. Now before you go and say, “well, adopt older cats,” you have to realize how much I love baby kitties. LUUURRRVVE them. The snuggly and meww and cute and GAH! I’m not sure how long I can wait before I say screw it and go pick up a kitten or 12.
Now that I’m back in the US I can speak more freely about China and my experiences there. My trip was 99% awesome. The remaining 1% of not awesome was due to 1) having to travel in a large group of (mostly) teenage girls for 15 days and a few unexpected scenarios.
The awesome included things like traveling with 4 super fun ladies (no girl drama in our group of 5), getting to see some amazing stuff and eating some amazing food (even if it did cause intestinal distress).
Here is my list of do’s and don’ts when visiting China*.
1) Do not expect your air conditioner to always work and when it does stop working don’t expect the hotel maintenance guy to be able to fix it.
2) Do expect your shower to leak. We had 3 out of 4 showers leak and the one hotel bathroom with a shower that did not leak had a toilet that did leak.
3) Do keep toilet paper with you at all times and bring some with you. Odds are you will have to buy additional toilet paper or resort to stealing it off of the housekeeping cart (like we may or may not have done).
4) Do practice your squatty potty technique prior to leaving. This means build up your quads or you’ll be peeing down your leg.
5) When crossing the street in China do follow the Chinese people. Don’t run, but rather go with the ebb and flow of the traffic.
6) Do bring enough Fiber One bars and Pepto Bismol to last your entire trip. I did not do this and am seriously regretting that decision. This goes with Do # 3.
7) If you do not have a tendency for car sickness (like I do) do not sit in the front seat of your tour bus. It is better that you don’t know how and when you are going to die.
Take the time to build up your tolerance to greasy food. If you do not please, for the love of all that is holy heed Do #4 and Do #3.
9) Do take the time to learn as much as possible about the Chinese culture while you are there. Your life will be greatly enriched by it.
10) Do take extra deodorant with you. You will need it.
I am still working on photos. I’ve edited my collection down from 1953 to 1504.
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*Please note that I travelled at the hottest part of the year.
We are getting ready to leave China after 15 very long days here. I’m not looking forward to the plane ride home, but I am looking forward to what is on the other end of the flight… fiber. Oh and my family. But that tasty tasty fiber.
My time in China has been very memorable. I climbed the Great Wall, I walked through the Forbidden City and Tian’ Ammen Square, I saw people worshiping at the Llama Temple, I learned about the history of the Terra Cotta Warriors, I experienced a 2nd class train for 18 hours, I master the squatty potty, I enjoyed a meal in a Chinese home, I built relationships and made friends and I did it all with 4 amazing women. I’m glad that we had the opportunity to come here together. Our little group of 5 was fantastic.
This morning we are going to say goodbye to China with one last hurrah… a great Starbucks hunt. Supposedly there is one right around the corner from our hotel. We’ll see. We did find one in Xi’an so I’m not coming home totally empty handed. Of course a Xi’an Starbucks mug is not the only thing I’m bringing home. I have a few other things. I spent all of my money down to my last 13 Yuan.
Will I come back to China? I’m not sure. I like to leave a place with a few things left unseen. I didn’t see the Summer Palace or the Olympic Village in Beijing. There is a giant Buddha statue 3 hours outside of Xi’an that I’d like to see. I would like to see other parts of the Great Wall (but not in July). I would like to return to Nanchang and tour more of the city. But for now I’m happy with the experiences I’m taking away.
When I get home I’ll try to put together a little movie of my photos. It might take some time because I think I have over 1000 photos.
