Glen Brammell Journal

The whole family piled into the car and we headed out to the annual parade for Saint Patrick. We got there early and I found a good place to park. We got out and headed down the street all dressed in green. We were a sight to see.

The parade finally started and it was worth the wait. There were many things going on and the kids had a great time. When it was over, we had a cookout at a local park. All in all it was a great day.

It seems that everyone went a little overboard with the gift buying this year. The tree was stacked with presents from everyone to everyone. There is a mountain of torn gift wrapping all over the floor and ribbons and bows everywhere. I think everyone is happy with their gifts and it’s been a good morning.

The preparation of the food will soon be the next thing on the agenda. There has been some baking going on over the last several days but the real serious cooking will soon start. As usual, I feel blessed to have so many people I love around and hope that everyone out there is having as great a day as I.

Thanks to Olga Quinn

Small business owners across the country are hurting, it’s not just me, but these times are tougher than I’ve ever seen in the last 30 years I’ve been doing this. We’re just not as busy as we’ve been in years past but that’s given me an opportunity to really try hard to make this business better and more efficient for when things do pick back up. I got us some http://smallbusiness.xo.com/ solutions to streamline things a bit and I did an allover audit of our spending and all that so I could make sure we weren’t hemorrhaging money in places we shouldn’t have been. There are only so many things I can do right now to help business pick up and after that’s done I really just have to wait, you know? Things will come back like they have before we just may have to wait a while longer this time around for it to happen…nothing’s easy in this economic crisis and that’s the end of that story. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

The moon is full in the sky at this time of year. It’s really huge and can be menacing when the clouds are just right. It sets the tone for Halloween and that’s fine with me. I always enjoy trying to give the kids a little scare before they get their treats. It’s a tradition that my father started.

When I was little we always decked out the yard with all manner of scary things. I have taken over this tradition and added to our collection of stuff. My yard will be the envy of all others on the block. I am waiting for that wonderful night!

Wish I could see my mom this year for Mother’s Day, but work is crazy busy and they wouldn’t let me have any time off for a quick trip out of town. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go, I decided to send her some flowers and I found a good deal online.

Thanks to my sister who gave me the tip about checking for online coupon codes before ordering anything online. I typed in flowers discount code into the search engine and I got a deal that saved me money off the cost of the flowers and also gave me free delivery.

Turns out that I saved so much money with the coupon code that I was able to upgrade the arrangement I had picked out and sent her an even bigger bunch of flowers. That worked out great, and I’ll call her on Mother’s Day, too, to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day on the phone.