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Labor Day Celebrations

Many of us in the U.S. are looking forward to a long holiday weekend, Labor Day weekend. For the first time in about 10 years, Eric will have this holiday off, and it's the first time we'll be able to enjoy it as a couple. I'm actually taking Friday off, as well, for a 4-day weekend. We don't really have any plans to do anything other than to hang out around the house and perhaps catch up on movie watching. We did our big grocery store trip last weekend, which means that we have everything we need for to cook out this weekend (I hope!). Eric can't wait to put on his Grillmaster hat and start the outdoor grill! :)

Happy Labor Day!

Celebrating Two Years

Eric and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary on Sunday. We got married on 8/8/08, an easy date to remember, according to Eric, so he wouldn't forget our anniversary. Well, this year I almost forgot, I'm sad to say. In July we began talking about how to celebrate, and at that time we both assumed Eric would be returning to his old job, where he was scheduled to work that entire week without any time off. So, we decided just to forego any celebration because trying to schedule something was just about impossible.

When he returned to work last week and found he was going to be able to start his new job immediately, it just failed to register with me that he would be free on our anniversary. I had become so accustomed to ignoring most holidays and special occasions because of his work schedule that this new way of being just hadn't caught up with me. About three days before the big day, it hit me that we could actually do something together! This realization had already dawned on Eric, and since we were both still unaccustomed to his having a flexible schedule, we decided to make it easy on ourselves and plan on a low-key day.

One of our anniversary traditions is writing in an anniversary journal. We both have a red leather-bound journal where each of us writes an entry about what the other person has meant to each of us during the year and share that on our anniversary. I think it's a pretty cool tradition, and love creating my entry as well as seeing what Eric has to share with me. This year we both mentioned our excitement at being able to be a "normal" couple with a normal schedule for the first time in our relationship...:)

It's a Winner!

On Monday night, my Get Clients Online ezine was named second runner-up in Linda Claire Puig's Next Top Newsletter Showdown. Thanks to those of you who voted on and commented on my newsletter -- all of those played a role in my win. You can see the other 2 winners here.

On the homefront, it's sweltering August here in SE Texas, which is the time of year when I don't go outside any more than I have to. It's so hot that when I walked from my front door to my car (maybe 20 feet or so), I was already starting to sweat (or perspire, I guess I should say, as the mother of one of my high school friends always said that ladies perspire, not sweat. <g>) And, Eric was released to go back to work on Tuesday, and rather than having to return to his old job, he got to start his new one on Wednesday. It'll be weird having him here every night now, since he gets off around 3:30 PM, as well every weekend. Whatever will we do??? I think I'll be able to adjust..LOL

Newsletter Finalist

I just received word that my Get Clients Online Ezine that you're now reading was named as one of the top 20 finalists out of 169 entries in colleague Linda Claire Puig's "Next Top Newsletter" contest! The decision about the top 3 finalists will be determined from a combination of factors. Two of these are votes and comments.

I'd love your vote and your comments on my ezine here. Voting closes at 12 PM noon Pacific on Monday, August 2. You can join me later on Aug. 2 to see if I won as Linda presents her teleseminar, "The Next Generation of Newsletters," where she will announce the winners, as well as reveal the newest trends affecting newsletters today and what they mean for you. You can register for that teleseminar on her site.

Newsletter Nominations

I've nominated my Get Clients Online Ezine in Linda Claire Puig's "Next Top Newsletter" contest. Rather than considering newsletters a burden, she wants to celebrate them in this contest. This contest kicks off nearly a month of newsletter-related learning and exciting opportunities for everyone, whether you have a newsletter or not.

If you have a newsletter and meet the entrance qualifications, you can enter the contest here. If you don't have a newsletter, this is a great opportunity to see what your peers are doing with their newsletters. Look to see what works, what you like, and what you might like to try yourself. Review them and get inspired! She has collected some great prizes to give to the winners (and I donated 2 one-year memberships to OnlineBizU.com to the offerings).

Hopefully I'll become one of the Top 20 finalists, and if so, I'll ask you to go and vote and comment on my ezine.

The Silver Lining in Every Cloud

Things are almost back to normal at the Carver-Gunter household. Eric is still on the mend and out on short-term disability, probably for at least 2 more weeks. Despite being in a bit of pain and having to make regular visits to his doctor, he's enjoying his time off and has been catching up on his sleep and reintroducing himself to me (we had been seeing each other only about 10 minutes a day, if that, when he was working all of the mandatory overtime of late.)

The best news occurred on Monday of this week. Eric had interviewed for a "normal" day job at his plant several weeks ago. On Monday, he was called and offered the job. After we spent some time discussing the pros and cons of the position, he decided to accept the post. The downside? Less money, as this job has little overtime (which means fewer "boy toys" -- electronics, in his case). The upside? Regular 7 AM - 3 PM M-F work schedule, no nights, no weekends, very little overtime, and all holidays off! Wow, it's hard to remember the last time we actually celebrated Christmas on Christmas Day or ate Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving.

It's going to be quite an adjustment for us both. I'm so used to being a married single person (i.e. very little time spent with my spouse) that I'm not sure how to be a "normal" couple with Eric with the ability to have a good chunk of time to spend together at night or on the weekends. When we went out for celebratory pizza last night, Eric wanted to talk about expectations in this new phase of our relationship, specifically how much time I would let him devote to gaming. We established some guidelines agreeable to both of us, but the big relief now is that I don't feel like Eric is being pulled in two directions when he has time off (spending time with me vs. seeing his gaming friends). That tug-of-war led to more disagreements than I care to recount, but it looks like it's water under the bridge for now.

The Best-Laid Plans.....

Last week I was supposed to participate in Sandra Martini's "Best Fall Ever Program." Unfortunately, despite my best laid plans, the day went to hell in hand basket pretty quickly. Last Wednesday Eric came home from work with heart-attack like symptoms, and so I rushed him to the ER. Fortunately, he had a severe leg infection rather than a heart attack, but we spent all day in the ER before that was determined. He was then admitted to the hospital where he was on a steady diet of IV drip antibiotics. On Saturday he was released and is doing much better, although he still has difficulty walking and is off work for at least two weeks. I'm enjoying the opportunity to actually spend time with him, but it's a sad state of affairs that the only way he can get a day off work is via short-term disability...:)

Needless to say, this unexpected event threw a monkey wrench into my plans, and now I'm trying to find another day to devote to listening to the recordings of the virtual retreat day that I missed. One day, perhaps, I'll actually catch up on everything..LOL

Getting Certified

I'm never been a big fan of having a bunch of letters after my name to connote my certifications or degrees, as I've always felt that the quality of work I do outshines letters of the alphabet. After all, if I couldn't do what I say I can do, no one would hire me, right?

Despite that, I have been looking at some sort of Internet Marketing Specialist certification now for several years, primarily as a professional development challenge to myself. I looked at several non-degree programs, and finally settled on one offered by Craig Cannings of VAClassroom.com. Many of the others focused much too heavily on Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While both are valid strategies, I use SEO only in its most basic form from day-to-day, as I think that there are much more effective strategies that a service business owner can use to get traffic to her web site that also serves to leverage her expertise, which is vital when you run a service business. The program at VA Classroom covered a variety of Internet marketing strategies, most of which I use regularly. And, the program was only five weeks long, and VERY reasonably priced.

So, as of Monday of this week, I can now say that I'm a certified Internet Marketing Specialist. :)

Making Retirement Plans

I never thought I'd be saying this in my 40s, as I think I'm too young to retire (in the traditional sense, anyhow!), but Eric and I have started to discuss retirement issues. Personally, I don't plan to retire, as I love what I do. Eric, on the other hand, would retire today if he could. <g> What we've started looking at are some unconventional retirement options, like moving to Ecuador, for example, which offers a very low cost of living, incredible California-like weather, low-cost and accessible health care, and almost all of the amenities of home. The only downside to this plan is that we'd have to learn Spanish. My one year of high school Spanish won't take me far, I'm afraid, and Eric is up to the task of putting his high school Latin coursework to work in learning a new language. We're getting some great info from a site and magazine called International Living and from a blogsite called Ecuador Living.

For Christmas this year, we've decided to give each other the Spanish version of the Rosetta Stone language system and are exploring some dates for a trip to Ecuador. We'll see what develops in our research..:)

Diversification is Key

At one time, my fantasy was that all of my business income would be produced by one product or service. Now that I've been in business for 11 years, I see the problems with this fantasy. First, it's seldom realistic. Secondly, I'd soon become bored with doing the same thing day after day. Third, when income dips from one area of your business, you have other streams of income to help you pick up the slack.

So, I continue to add new streams of income to my business, including some services that I, at one time, didn't really want to offer any longer. I've discovered that my failure to diversify regularly means that my business no longer keeps me interested and entertained. That's my biggest obstacle in staying in the same business -- maintaining my interest and enthusiasm for what I'm doing. I am often tempted to try out new things and ditch what I'm doing, but it's hard to build a successful business without any follow through..:) So, discovering new ways to keep me excited about what I'm doing is vital to my own success. Funny how you have to play mind games with yourself as a motivational tool..LOL

Check out my newest opportunity in a Dose of Donna 1:1 Strategy Session .