Winging it!

Lately I've been really missing my Dad. Everyday it was nagging at me like a minor headache. Maybe it was because I was away for Father's Day and didn't get to see him. I finally told my husband last week, "we need to go see my Dad." His response, "we'll be spending a week with him in a couple weeks on our family vacation." My response, "that's too far away." Since there is very little that my husband won't do for me, we drove down to visit. They only live about 3 hours south of us, so it's not too far. We spent quality time with my Dad, Stepmom, Brothers, sister in law, nephews, and my sons who also came down. It was a totally fantastic weekend! Much needed time with everyone and completely stress free! Now in less than 2 week's we'll all be together again for our family vacation, needless to say we are all super excited for that. I think sometimes you just have to listen to that inner voice that tells you when you...

I had a customer a few years back who was driving down I95. It wasn't rush hour, thankfully. His exit was coming up so he started to merge to the right lanes. He kept looking in his mirrors, turning his head and checking as he got over. However, there was a car in his blind spot that he didn't see and he slammed right into it. He hit the car hard, going at a pretty fast speed and spun the car into a guard rail. Fortunately no one was hurt. Unfortunately, the car he hit was totaled. And more unfortunately, the car was a Jaguar. In his case, he had property damage limits of $100,000, and the insurance company wrote a check out for $92,000 to the other driver. The state minimum limits of liability in Virginia are $20,000. Do you know how many people are driving around with $20,000 of coverage for property damage? If you live in the DC Metro area, you know that most of the cars on the road around you are worth more than $20,000. This is the case in most areas these days. So ...

Sunday, July 10th, 2016 I thought a good topic to post today would be "Getting back into the swing of things after vacation(s). It felt like I was pretty much on vacation for most of the month of June. I went to Paris with my daughter for 10 days, and then after being back to work for 4 days, I went to the Bahama's with my husband for a week to celebrate our anniversary. I've been back to work a full week now and finally feel all caught up as far as office work goes. I didn't work at all while in Paris, but I took my computer on my second trip so that I could issue policies and work on quotes when time permitted. I have found that the time away was good for me because it gave me time to think about the processes I use and the way things should work. Things that I think about all the time, but don't really have the time to dwell on and follow through. One example, I really thought about how I find myself doing too many things at once and how I want/need to cha...

June 30, 2016 Why I vacation I grew up in two families. My Mom, step-Dad and sisters & my Dad, step-Mom and brothers. Because of this I grew up going on many vacations. With my Mom, I went to Ocean City Maryland every summer for a week. On top of that we did many trips to visit family, and also, trips to Kings Dominion and other amusement parks. With my Dad, we did a 2-3 week vacation every summer driving to different destinations, stopping at various places over night along the way and then a week at the planned destination - such as Florida or Tennessee and ultimately on our way home, a week at White Lake, NC.  Add to that, the fact that going to my Dad's for the summer felt like a vacation because he had a pool in the backyard.  Fast forward to me being an adult. Vacations to me are just a normal part of life. I had my first son when I was 18, my 4th child when I was 26. My kids have also grown up going on vacations. They have gone to White Lak...

Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 The weather in Paris. I have to admit, we were bummed initially because the weather forecast was showing rain our entire stay. However, it turned out to be a blessing. The weather was perfect. We were only rained on once while we were out, at the end of one of our days, we were on the way to the metro, and we had umbrellas. The other times it rained, we were either sleeping or inside of a museum. However, because of the rain and clouds, the days were cool in the mid-sixties and absolutely perfect for sight-seeing. We didn't have to worry sweating, getting sunburned or that gross feeling of being just being too hot. There wasn't one aspect of our trip that God wasn't smiling down on us. Here are some pictures that show the sky in the background  - it sure looks ominous. However, you can see from the ground being dry - it wasn't raining. Looking over the Seine River [; Place De La Concorde  Looking out over Paris from Sacre Cou...

Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Hello all. I'm back from Paris and we had a wonderful and safe journey! My daughter, me, and my son at Sacre Coeur Because my daughter is so fascinated with history, we had pre-planned and read tons of information on the history of each site we were planning to visit. It was a truly educational experience as each place that we went, we knew beforehand so much of the history and background. It was more awing somehow to really look at a monument or even just a spot in a park and know what had transpired there, right at that very place you were standing. Concorde, trying to decide where the guillotine was based on drawings. If you haven't been to Paris, it is a must see place. So beautiful that you can't even begin to get the full grasp of it's beauty through pictures. Because of it's beautiful architecture even the apartment buildings look as if they're a work of art. If you don't have a fear of heights, Paris i...

Thursday, June 9th, 2016 I survived the final week of work prior to vacation. I tried to follow my survival guide the best that I could. I even went to bed last night at 8 pm, so that I could be at my office at 6 am and have a good nights sleep beforehand. It worked! I was able to get everything tied up, put away, or handed off for someone to handle while I'm away - because this vacation will be strictly vacation - no work! So this post is sporadic thoughts I wanted to mention, forgive me if it doesn't flow. My daughter, son & I are flying to Paris tomorrow. My son is actually going for work, but will be spending a little time with us before he heads to his work apartment. He's also staying in Europe for another month after we leave, to do some traveling. I won't be around to post anything for the next 12 days, but I will do my best to post the week after we get back. If you're interested in seeing posts about my trip, you can follow me on; Twitter at ...