Number ten: Getting a Job

That's right! I got a job!! For so long, I was just not excited about growing up, working in a cubical, doing the same thing over and over. But this summer, I started to feel like I was ready to have a job. To be busy. I was happy at my internship and I figured that I was ready to have a job.

So, I started looking at jobs, not applying, but just looking. However, I was offered an opportunity to be the web content manger at the Hen House were I did my internship! It is just a part time job, but it is still a job and I was thrilled!

Then, on my last day, during the last five minutes of the internship - the shop owner asked me to stay. She offered me a full time job! This is on top of the other job. So I now have two jobs at the same place! I am so excited and I start tomorrow! So exciting!!

I am really happy to have a job and a great on at that! And I am really excited to be able to start paying on my student loans. Yippy Skippy!

Number eight: The excitement of new product in the shop.

Oh my gosh! New stuff is awesome! Seriously it is great to get packages. Well, you know I love to get mail and parcels. Anyway, it seemed like all summer we were getting packages. Some of them were just items that were restocked, but others were new products. Still, there was one shipment that we all were waiting for.

Jo Morton is a fabric designer that creates Civil War reproduction cottons for quilting. She does really great work and those who follow her are often very loyal. Jo Morton fabric also makes up the entire list of designers that the shop purchases the entire line of fabrics. Other designers make some fabrics in a line that are not as pretty, but Jo always does great. So, we were waiting patiently for the newest line to come. We knew that it was supposed to ship "August/September." But what does that mean? The shop always gets the fabric quicker than others because she buys the whole line so we thought that we might get it by the end of July. By the way, we were expecting 30 bolts in the line.

Everyday when UPS or FedEx came I would rush to open the package. I just could not wait for the new line to come. Then one day....

I was in the backroom which opens to the alley where the deliveries are made. I was pressing something, I cannot even remember what it was. I heard the door open and glanced over my shoulder to see who was coming in. My eyes saw a man in all brown backing in. I turned back to my work...Wait! Brown! That is UPS! And he was backing in! I whirled around...yes, I left the iron on and plugged in...By now he was in with a little trolley holding 4 huge boxes! I ran over to see who they were from...meanwhile he was pushing them into the room. "Where do you want them," he asked, "I don't care! Put it anywhere! Who is it from! Hold still!" Seriously, that is what I shouted out! He finally put them down and I read the shipping label. "Oh my gosh! It's from Andover!!" That is the company that makes the fabric with Jo Morton's designs.

I ran to the front of the shop babbling something unintelligible ...Nancy, the shop owner miraculously understood what I was saying as I was jumping up and down. "It's Leesburg" she exclaimed. She, Ronda, and I dashed to the back to tear open the boxes...leaving four customers in the front. Once we got back there the poor UPS guy with the most bewildered look on his face handed me the electronic clipboard to sign. "So...do you get this excited over all of the packages?" he asked. "No, it's just that we have been waiting for this one for so long!"

I cut open the boxes and we oohed and ahhed over the loveliness  Then the customers came to the back and asked if they could help us carry the bolts of fabric to the front. We said yes, we would be thrilled to have help! The ladies were happy to do it too. So fun! I think we each took two or three armfuls of fabric to the front. It was great! Thirty bolts of fifteen yards each!

The rest of the afternoon we were busy cutting fat quarters and we even had a lady come in to buy an entire fat quarter bundle. It was truly thrilling.




P.S. The next day the same UPS guy delivered some more packages (boring ones in comparison  and asked why I did not get so excited this time...

Number 7: Letters from friends.

I love writing letters, but it is even better to receive them! I have always liked to write letters. Thank yous are  fun to write and I have been writing them for ages. I am not sure why I like to write...maybe it has something to do with my love for paper and stationary, but who can say?

I have a few close friends that I like to write to. Some of them are awesome at writing back super fast, others take their time. Either way, I love to get the letters they write.

Letters are more important than text messages and e-mails. Letters take more thought, more planning, more consideration. Letters offer the reader a bit of the real feelings of the reader. Letters offer more honesty. Actually writing the words offers the writer the opportunity to take time out of the busyness of life and to put down in words what the writers thoughts are at that point in time. Letters are lovely.

Some letters I got this summer were full of good news which buoyed up my spirits. Others where written with heavy hearts - these challenged me to help as best I could. Some of the letters were encouraging and some were just newsy. No matter what the letter said on the page they all told me that letter writing is not a lost art.

Oh! And I cannot forget about the letters from Jake! I was really bad at writing regularly to Jake while he was at bootcamp, but he wrote faithfully to his family with whom I was staying. Jake's letters where awesome! They were full of all kinds of news. Like what physical challenges he had completed and was looking forward to doing. He wrote about his friends he was making and the things they had in common. He wrote about his walk with Christ and his desire to be baptized once he got home. His letters encouraged those it was written to and was read with tears in the eyes of the reader more than once.

Letters are lovely.