Yay! I Survived a Week in Michigan!

Actually, overall I had a pretty good week up there! I did indeed go up with a pretty miserable cold, so ended up dealing with that pretty much the whole time. But other than that, everything went well. It was kind of weird to be back in Michigan, to see the snow and go back into work. It was almost a bit surreal - almost felt like I hadn't ever left! I just sort of slipped back in and started working. But we got a TON of work done - Henry and I spent a lot of time on year-end processing, getting ready for the Plante Moran audit (actually, review, to be exact!) and I also had the opportunity to sit in on second interviews with two good candidates for the senior accountant position (aka, my current position). Actually, the overall plan is for Kerkstra to hire someone who has the strength to really dig into the accounting tasks at Kerkstra, but also someone who has the ability (and the time, as long as I stay onboard) to really get a good solid background in a broad range of areas within the company, such as inventory, delivery, our product line, etc. By having me available, we should have the luxury of giving the new guy (looks like it will probably be a guy!) the time to really get well grounded before he takes over the full scope of the accounting taks that I'm currently doing. We had one truly excellent candidate and I have my fingers crossed! It would be great to bring the new person into the January month end process even though I'd be doing my teaching remotely - should be interesting! Anyway, the fact that I felt pretty lousy was probably just as well in the long run. I made no effort at all to make any type of "social plans" because I just wanted to go back to my room at the Holiday Inn and crawl under the covers. And because of that, I ended up working fairly late both Tuesday and Wednesday so I ended up getting a LOT of work done. And by Thursday, my last day there, I was feeling like I was pulling out of the worst of my cold so I was able to head for home feeling pretty good overall.

I had good flights up and back - it was great to have non-stop flights both ways - but I ended up looking like sort of a novice flyer (I actually haven't flown in five years, since Dave and I flew to Vegas to get married!). So I kind of forgot some of the rules about liquids and I ended up having my shampoo, body wash, Oil of Olay (which is NOT cheap!) and face scrub all confiscated at the airport. Oh, yeah - and my hair gel. Good grief! I took a taxi from the airport to the Holiday Inn and had to have the driver take me to the Meijers in Jenison so I could buy everything new (but this time I left everything behind at Kerkstra so I have lots of toiletries waiting for me when I return in April!). I wonder if I can charge them to the company? (...JUST KIDDING, for any of my Kerkstra followers!).

It was nice to see everyone up there - I DO like my fellow Kerkstra employees (NOT kidding, this time!) but, BOY, did it feel funny to sleep all alone in a hotel room for four nights - no husband, no "kids" (that would be the dog and the cats), no one to talk to at night. Now it seems weird to me that I was single for seven years in between Tom and Dave. I'm DEFINITELY a married lady now - I MISSED MY HUSBAND! So it was great to get back home (home is where they all are!). And he missed me too, so it was a nice homecoming. Okay, moving on....

So - now I'm back in Florida, and back working at my RV desk (see the attached picture of my primary office assistant - what a cutie!). The next month will be a little hairy, because we're still closing out 2010 and by next week I'll be working on the January month-end closing, which is always a little challenging because you set a lot of "standards" in January, plus have to move over to the new budget model. Plus, (and this makes me so happy!) my friends Cindi and Glennda are coming down for the second week of February. They aren't staying with us - they're getting a room or suite or something! - but I hope to spend GOBS of time with them. So February will probably pass in a blur.

It was a beautiful day here in Florida - mid 70's with lots of sunshine - so it was good to be back getting my vitamin D. And tomorrow should be lots of fun - we're going out with Scott and Deb on their boat for the afternoon (can you say booze cruise?) and it's supposed to be a picture-perfect day. And then come Monday, it's moving day again. Our time here on Pine Island went really fast, but we'll definitely come back here again - in fact we plan to spend two weeks here next January. When we leave here on Monday, we're heading straight across the state and going over to Jonathon Dickinson State Park, on the ocean side. So my next blog will probably have some pictures of us and our friends on their boat, along with an update from the "ocean side". It's GREAT to be back home!