The other night I discovered that I have had a very
busy year and felt that I have neglected my
customers all year long.
Jim and my son, Tyler, had left town a day before -
Ashley and I couldn't leave - we had gone out to
dinner, ran several errands and found ourselves very
comfortable in front of our laptop computers
(actually the one I was working on, is my son's). We
sat there for hours, checking emails and replying to
everything that I hadn't had time for - peeking in
on the different decorative painting forums that I'm
involved in (Atriumonline.org and Muralsplus.com)
and even had time to be involved in some of the
discussions going on, adding a little of my own
input. After playing around and just feeling really
good about getting all that done and having time to
- I decided I should go check out my own web sites
and see what needed to be updated, added, deleted
and so on. What I discovered was that life had been
busier than I had even thought......during the year of
2005, I found time to send out 11 emails
communicating with all our customers about sales,
classes and what had been going on in the Ferguson
household. What I did discover is that I hadn't
sent not even one email the entire year......I knew that
it had been on the to do list for a while - but sure
didn't think I had put it off for the past 8
months......WOW, that's busy.
So, I started thinking about what all had been
happening in our lives this year and what an
incredible year at has been for all family members.
It started off in January, when a wonderful friend
of mine called and indicated that he needed my help
on a large project - he needed the project completed
by March 1st (he was going to Paris - not me) - so
we partnered up and finished the job on time for him
to be somewhat prepared to leave on his incredible
trip (training over at a school in Paris). As we
were finishing this project up - another one landed
on our laps......Jeff helped me get started and I
continued to work alone for the next 6 weeks - Jeff
finally returned and we have been working together
ever since. We both feel very blessed to have this
opportunity to work together - working with such a
creative individual is such a great experience.
So all these projects with Jeff have been great -
but, this has put me back out onto the job site on a
regular basis working at least 4 to 5 days a week
out of the office. Also, all the jobs have been
down south - Tulare, Visalia, Porterville area -
causing very long days with lot's of travel. This
has created a major change in our home life - Jim
has stepped in as Mr Mom - taking care of the family
and been doing a wonderful job (he's always been the
worlds greatest Dad)!!!
While all these jobs having been going on - Ashley
has been on a Club Volleyball team - we traveled to
Alameda, Denver, Co., Southern Cal, Reno and many
more tournaments in between the long distance
travel. Her team was awesome this year - they
qualified to attend/play in the Junior Olympics in
Atlanta, GA and we spent a week there at the end of
June - her team ended up winning it all - THEY
BROUGHT HOME THE GOLD MEDALS!!! This was a first for
our club - no other team had won Gold before!
As volleyball was in it's last month preparing for
the Junior Olympics - Tyler's All-Star baseball team
was moving into full swing - so, we were juggling
volleyball and baseball for about 4 weeks. With
volleyball over - we have just been going to one
ball game after another - his team is one of the
best ever and has been winning everything. We made
it to the Western Regional play-offs in San
Bernardino - this is a major accomplishment - no
other team in Fresno has ever made it this far - way
to go Tyler and Jim...by the way, my husband Jim
coaches this team! We are currently down south for
a 10 day tournament - I'm going back and forth -
trying to get Ashley to volleyball tryouts and still
making all Tyler's games. If by chance they win
this one - we will be on our way to Williamsport, PA
for the Little League World Series - WOW! Okay -
they made it to the ESPN game for the finals - but,
it just wasn't meant to be - they did get their 15
minutes of fame!!!
Okay - so you can see that my personal life has been
very full and exciting - we are having the year of
our life - Ashley will have many more chances to
make it to Junior Olympics again - But, for Tyler,
this is a once in a lifetime event!!!
During all this - I was also the Expo Chair for our
national organization, SALI - we just had our Annual
convention during the week of July 17th - 22nd -
spent a week in Chicago with all my wonderful artist
friends - this is one of my most favorite weeks of
the whole year and this year was more incredible
than ever. More on convention later...
So, I apologize for not finding time to communicate
with all of you - But, I'm hoping that things will
be slowing down a little once the baseball season is
over this year and we can get back to somewhat of a
normal life......whatever that means!
