Are You Dreading The Malls At This Time Of Year?



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Do you look at the parking lots and seas of people and have a strong desire to avoid them?







Do you need a really elegant gift, or candles? Do you know someone who is into natural products? Have I got a Secret For You! A trendy gift shop and a yoga studio all in one!
Plus the full product line is available online. Just click the links and go to products.























This Holiday Season the shop is offering a Drop the HST sale. I think this is a great incentive!
If you live in the York Region or GTA I have a hidden gem of a shop to tell you about that is in a quiet town, and on a main street and easy to get to from HWY 48 or HWY 404! From either HWY head to Souffville Road. In town, Stouffville becomes Main Street. And on Main street just east of the Nineth line is The Moksha Yoga Studio. It is in one of the business Brownstones on the north side of the road, on a corner with parking in the rear, and on the roadside of Main.

MAP:HERE


This year Moonflower's Magical Touch joined Moksha Yoga Studio and has taken residence in the main area of the building. It is a wonderful place!




Moonflower's Magical Touch has a celtic theme. But of course because of the Yoga there is also a Nameste vibe to some of the products too! From Chakra stones to Candles, Faerie Figurines and fountains, to crystals and incense. Plus two types of yoga mats and some other Yoga related products!


I did a lot of my holiday shopping there this year! I was de-stressed and did not have to hang at the mall at all!

Guys are easy to buy for: They either want clothes, tools, books, videos or cd's.

Women and girls are not so easy to buy for: They collect stuff. Lots of stuff! Jewelry, figurines, scents, themes, images...... Plus books and cd's and clothes. Buying clothes for a girl is impossible! Try to guess her size! One of my daughter-in-laws is tiny wasted and tall, and in the fashion stores today she says she can be a size 6 and be a Large! That is the most incongruous sizing imaginable! So when I shop I have to shop NOT for clothes. So what else does she like? Candles! Scented candles, perfumes, cute nick-knacks, and jewelry! But the scents have to be natural or she breaks out in hives........so.....I look for natural scented candles. Essential oils, and really unique cute stuff!

Now-a-days with the video game revolution, Gothic Faeries are really popular with the 20-something crowd. Warrior and Earthly Faeries of voluptuous stature dawn the bookshelves of many-a-university student these days. Sometimes they are their Avatar in a game, sometimes they are their favorite character from a book or RPG. If it is Fae/Fey it is IN!

Moonflower's Magical Touch has an awesome collection of these faeries, and from my research they are the lowest price of all the shops in the GTA for these amazing collectibles! They also have a huge collection of under $20.00 gifts of angels and faeries. There are angel cards, and tarot cards, incense and candles of all shapes and sizes. Books on the spiritual. Crystals, Spiritual Jewelry, and lovely wall hangings under $30.00. Silken banners with Hindu features, earthly painted mirrors, and plaques for indoors and outdoors.


You could also pick up gift certificates for Spiritual Readings, or Reiki work, plus Spa services like Theraputic Massage.



Moksha Yoga has two types of Yoga Mats for sale. The typical spongy one, and a newer kind that is microfibre with a grippy bottom you can use in the sweaty hot yoga studio upstairs in the building! The microfibre is the IT yoga mat as far as I am concerned. Easy to wash, easy to carry, light and practical.
Hot Yoga! Oh....so awesome! I started Hot Yoga since I injured my shoulder last year. I was desperate to find some form of exercise that could help me. It helped me improve my range of motion while a awaited a cortisone shot in my frozen shoulder. The girls (yoga instructors) helped me attain my goals with special bands that could compensate for my lack of motion range so I could keep my body fit and supple. It was a great prep! And when it came for my injection of cortisone, I only had to wait 8 hours for my full range of motion to return! After 14 months of a frozen shoulder, then using the hot yoga in the month prior to my injection I attained what the specialist said was a tiny chance at motion.....almost immediately!

The Moksha Yoga Studio is offering the sweetest trial deal which would be the most awesome present for someone! One month (the first month) $40.00 unlimited hot yoga! And there are at least 4 different classes and styles of classes you can take per day in the week, and a few classes available on the weekend. $40.00 for an awesome fitness present! You could have them make a membership for the person, or you could have it as a gift certificate they could redeem. The Moksha Studio is a franchise, so ask them about mingling your membership at a studio near your work for some of your classes! I am not sure how it all works, as I am a newbee, but your membership card is a keychain card you swipe in before the classes! So cool!
There is maternity hot yoga, meditation hot yoga and easy basic hot yoga and heavy cardio hot yoga. I don't know the special names, but you get my drift.... So there is something for everyone. It is like yoga in a sauna. So awesome! Folks know I am a round, and diabetic and I can do it, so don't think you have to be in great shape! It is worth the try for $40.00! Moksha is set up to welcome Men and Women. There are two beautiful changing and shower rooms available. One for guys and one for gals.

There is even a 30 day challenge. Which is to try to attend a yoga every day for 30 days! It is really a fun challenge. It also helps you try out all of the styles and see which one you like best.

Hot Yoga is my new best fitness friend. So if you go to Moksha you will see me there regularly at different times in the New Year! The location is about 20 minutes to the door from Newmarket, and about the same from North Toronto, and less from Markham.

There are only a few gift boutiques that carry Spiritual things in the York Region area, so it is really nice to have Moonflower's Magical touch in the area. I also find Charlene is a great soul. She is of Celtic traditions and she has spent a long time working on attaining that spiritual peace we all strive for.

Lisa of Moksha Yoga Studio is vibrant and earthy. She is dedicated to her students 100%. She has hired a great team of instructors. The community of patrons is great! Everyone is very supportive and helps each other out with the moves and compliments each other if they attain something in the studio they have been striving for. A real adult-minded community. It doesn't have that public gym, high school mentality of competition or pick-up joint.

If you want to feel peace instead of frenzy this Holiday shopping season, you need to drive yourself to Stouffville, avoid the crowds and fulfill your Secret Santa gift, and family gift shopping by heading to Moksha Yoga/ Moonflower's Magical Touch. One stop shopping for everything gifty, and a bonus of Yoga class memberships or gift certificates!

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/12/are-you-dreading-malls-at-this-time-of.html

What If You Had Nothing For Christmas?


What if all winter you would have to decide...rent or food?

This year I am making a huge appeal to my Toronto, and York Region area friends.

Our family has been helping a family that has been homeless for the past 4 months. Sometimes they seek shelter here, most times they slept in their car and would come here to shower and do laundry and cook some food they got from the food bank.

A tragic turn of events found a family of 4: Two parents and two, twenty-something kids without a home. Their rental was basically condemned the day they moved in and the landlord put them up in a hotel promising the house would be fixed, and when their first and last ran out he said, "Upps sorry."

In the mean time because they had no permanent residence their jobs let them go. The son who is a carpentry contractor had to stop working so the family could live in his pickup truck.. ( 4 adults, a dog and a cat).

This is a hard working, Never been on unemployment or welfare ever, family. People who always had one full-time and and one part-time job each to make by. Homeless in York Region with no aid in site. Welfare offered them food money. A pittance less than 'Bob Cratchet' had.....

This family lived in their car in the grocery store parking lot until three weeks ago when it got so cold they had to go to a shelter. Why didn't they go sooner? The shelter would not take them with pets. The shelter had limited room for families. York Region Housing lost them in the system. York Region Police were looking out for them and protecting them at night, and were trying to find them aid. Finally the Police told them to sit on Welfare's doorstep night and day till they helped. Welfare and housing called the Police on them and the Police came and told welfare the family was doing as the Police had instructed. It has been the most horrible ordeal I have ever witnessed in my life.

An Animal shelter gave temporary refuge to the dog and cat so the family could be warm at night in the shelter. The family found a home. I got a call last Sunday from a lady who purchased a newly built property in Brandford on spec. with the intent to have it as a rental income property. She said she was willing to give them a break because she had to live in her own car in the past.

We tried to get the Newspapers and the News channels to help.... We tried all the politicians of the area, and even their own home parish Anglican church would not aid this family. These are people that have clean abstracts and are bondable. No drug or alcohol habits. And are hard working and willing to do ANY job- type laborers.
The two adult children stayed by their parent's side. They could have each left their parents and probably bedded down with a friend here and there and made it on their own. But they are so dedicated to their parents and so worried for them, they would never leave their side. If only some of us had such dedicated kids of our own........

I have known this family for 20 yrs.
Our family did all we could within our own limitations, as I just had my third cancer surgery this year, and I am not so well myself.

Now we are asking for everyone's help.
This family got a house. But they cannot afford to pay their storage fee so they cannot get their furniture or belongings until they can afford to pay the storage, and that won't be for quite a long time. Welfare can pay the rent and eek by the utilities, but they won't be able to buy food. It will be rent, or food, not both.

I am appealing for help for me to help them. I will drag my ass out of my sick bed with the help of my own family to pick up donations.
The family is sleeping on the floor of an empty house, with nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I made a facebook appeal and got some stuff from folks today and Carl and I delivered it, and we will continue to deliver it throughout the weekend.

These folks need jobs too. They are all experienced:

house and business cleaning
retail management
general contracting and carpentry
handyman/mechanic help
meat packer
butcher
grocery clerk and grocery labor
farm hands
baker
taxi drivers or dispatch

My first appeal got some household items and furniture, and I am still in need for these items:

towels
facecloths
ivory laundry soap
ivory body soap or dove body soap
baking pans
pots and pans
kitchen glasses
large tea pot
toaster

beds and mattresses: three queen size would be best as they are tall

coffee table and end tables
night stands for three bedrooms
three dressers
TV
clock radios
lamps
one overhead dining room fixture or kitchen fixture to put over the kitchen table
a computer monitor

dishes
sharp knife set
shovel
pots and pans
area rugs
iron and ironing board
coat hangers
queen and double bed sheets
cleaning supplies
tools
blankets



The food banks here are almost empty so the pickins is slim for them.
I know they need grocery cards for No Frills so they can make sure their money pays the rent and utilities(water and gas). The new townhouse comes with free cable, internet and telephone for a year as part of the builder deal, and it came with all the appliances.

We need a pair of men's steel toe work boots in decent conditon, size 10 1/2.

We need dog and cat kibble and cat litter.

I would really like to get them some prepaid gas cards. I would really like to get them lots and lots of pre-paid No Frills Cards.

These folks are not even thinking about Christmas presents. But I know if some of you have no cast-off furniture your wallet might be able to open with cash, or you would be willing to make a Christmas stocking for an adult?:

They could use a stocking each with personal toiletries
Two women and Two men:

The stuff they could use: bars of ivory or dove soap, shaving cream, feminine hygiene products, razors, deodorant (probably as neutral scented as possible), toothpaste, chapstick, hand cream.

I took $50.00 of my Christmas money and went to No Frills and I said if I buy them $50.00 worth of meat, potatoes and rice and pasta, would they match my spending with a gift card for No Frills. I am willing to do that again and again if anyone wants to donate cash. I am willing to do that with the gas stations and Walmart, over and over again for every dollar of cash a person wishes to donate. I will ask everyone I can think of who is a retailer to match the donations with gift cards for them. My goal is to have them not go hungry this winter while they try to make rent, until they get work, and can stand on their feet again.

No one in their family would help them. Their parents have all died recently. They looked after one set of parents for the twenty years I have known them.

I know some of you have been in their shoes, and remember how great it was to get a hand-up. Please pay it forward if you can. Check your closets, your basement, your garage. Come on I bet you know in some form of laziness you haven't gotten rid of stuff you don't need anymore....
When you go to No Frills can you add the cost of a pre-paid grocery card to your order and do without the extra holiday sweets? Do your kids really need the 20th present you are dreading wrapping, or could that money buy some toiletries for an adult who will get no Christmas presents this year?

Did your own dog or cat have to go on "Special" diet food this year and you still have part bags of kibble in your pantry that your pet can't eat? Can you pass it on to this family for their pets? Did your own pet just pass away? Do you have extra food you don't know what to do with?

Are you wealthy enough to give someone cash to buy food? Are you willing to buy car gas pre paid cards so someone can get to a job or hunt for a job?

Carl and I don't have much money. My illness takes tons of money to manage, but we decided Christmas cards and stamps were not as important as food for a friend, and found $50.00 we could spare, and we turned that into a double investment by approaching a grocer. We are willing to do it! Can you?

Do you own a business in York Region and are able to employ someone? Consider this family.

Can you give up a night at the bar to ensure a family has food on their table?
Can you give up those three movies you might rent this weekend and buy a food or gas card?

We cannot help the world, but we may be able to help one family survive through 2011.

If you can help you can contact me at motivatedmotion (at) sympatico (dot) ca

Do you know a big business person or a news media person you could show this blog post to? Please tell everyone you can. Shout as loud as you can. PLEASE

(If you see responses on here or Facebook and think: "Oh they are getting help, I don't have to bother." Please think again. I also know of another family in need I can send the overflow to... People I know who are local.... If we get enough food cards to help this family for several months I will pass on the overflow cards to another family in need. No Frills is all over the area, so we won't waste the extras!)

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-if-you-had-nothing-for-christmas.html

As a Member of the Trans Canada Etsy Team I am proud to announce that The Motivated Motion Gallery on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/motivatedmotion will be participating in the sale. Please watch each day, as I roll out the new Winter Line. This week will be filled with roll-outs!

Stuff On Sale:
Everything but the charity items and the New Winter line are on sale, 10-25% off. All sale prices are reflected in each item description and there is no need for coupons or codes.

We still have the Sneaky Shopper feature running in the shop. This means there are significant savings for shipping on all items when they are the second item you buy, so pick a low cost or free shipping item as your first choice, and then your higher priced shipping items as your second and you can save huge on shipping! Details are available here: http://fluffandneedlefelting.blogspot.com/search/label/Sneaky%20Sale

For The Trans Canada Etsy Team 12 Days of Christmas sale you can also get a ballot for a gift package give away. For every $10.00 you spend before shipping you get a ballot for the prize. You can also get a ballot by writing a letter to Santa. Please see details on the Team Blog: http://transcanadaetsyteam.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-first-day-of-christmas.html

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/11/as-member-of-trans-canada-etsy-team-i.html

Rough Times And Another Surgery For Me

Those who have been following along on Facebook have seen some status updates that have indicated something was really wrong with me this last month and a half.

Through weeks of diagnostics and conferences between my Dr's and Specialists, and through endless evaluations of every kind, there seemed to be no answer to why I was so tired that I could not lift my head from the pillow some days.

The symptoms were so extreme, that if my Dr had not had such amazing cardiac test results for me in his hand, and great blood work in his hand, he would have thought that I was experiencing some sort of cardiac failure.

Then this weekend everything changed again. A lump rose up just under the scar from my vulvectomy site and it grew very fast.

Today the Surgeon didn't bother with an O.R. , he just expanded upon an in-house biopsy, and basically did another vulvectomy under local anesthetic, taking a super large site encompassing the whole of the lump plus surrounding tissue to test for malignancy.

I have a strange lump on my right leg-in the quadricep muscle(the tech called it a ropey mass), and the inguinal lymph node is tender, so they did an ultra sound on both those sites this afternoon, and they have booked a pelvic ultra sound and an abdominal ultrasound for Sunday morning. Plus I had a chest xray on Monday.

The Dr's have covered all the bases, just in case this is not just stage 3 VIN3 as before, and it has advanced to a malignancy. The Surgeon is optomistic that he got it all, but he reminded me this cancer returns over and over again, and getting it early will keep me healthy. It is rough news to know I didn't make it 6 months from the last surgery, and I didn't make it 1 yr from the first vulvectomy.

I hope this was the culprit to me feeling so physically bad, but just in case it is not, the Dr's are continuing the investigation to the mystery why I have taken so ill, so suddenly.

I didn't want to tell everyone until I really knew what the Dr's were going to do for me. Now the surgery has already happened, I at least have something concrete to explain to everyone.

Thanks for all of your concerns. Thanks to those who were patient and did not probe me too much when I said I would have something to tell today- and they were willing to wait.

Thanks to everyone who sensed something was really wrong and sent strong messages of support even though they had no clue what was happening....they just knew that I was not able to be me, and it was scaring them.

My Dr's have been so good. They have all been talking and have not left me just hanging out there with no support. I have had so much support it has exhausted me going to do all the stuff they suggested we try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

In two weeks the pathology results will come back, and I hope they will come back with no malignancy so I don't have to think about Christmas Chemo or Radiation.

I am scaling back my life for a bit.
I will be only releasing the Christmas stuff I have for the shop, and I will not be working or designing anything new until well into the new year. I have the shop closed on vacation until the end of the week, and I will open up again and publicize some Etsy Team events, and then I will close up the shop on Sabbatical, just before Christmas.

I will be only focusing on one thing this winter. I have a paper to write and present in 2011, plus I am just finishing up a workbook I am writing, and a novel. I figure even if I am stuck in bed I can still write. So I will be concentrating on my academic endeavors, instead of my artistic endeavors. I just don't have the energy to do both right now, and I have to learn how to create some boundaries, so I can stay well and not get into the pickle I have been in this past month.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/11/rough-times-and-another-surgery-for-me.html

Silence Does Not Mean Idle!






This summer has been a time for catching up, shaping up and stepping up.

My Son and I took on a huge task of participating in the Toronto Walk For Women's Cancers and a great deal of our time has been spent fundraising and training.

This weekend is the walk and we are going to have a blast.

I will have pictures and stuff later!

I have not been idle in the studio, but I have had to change my working and my vocation for a bit, as I am still plagued by this stupid frozen shoulder! It will soon be a year since the fateful injury.
I have had to hang up my knitting and reduce greatly my needle felting for the most part of 2010. I have done one needle felted piece so far, and I soon will release a new line of cobweb felted (nuno felted, or wet felted) scarves and accessories and shawls)
This hot hot summer was perfect for wet felting and I have taken advantage of the weather to move the studio outdoors and do most of my wet felting in the garden.

I will release the new line for October 1st.
I will give you a taste of the new line now and show you my prize work!
This shawl is called: The Flower Of Hope
It was inspired by all of the folks we got to meet and share our story with through our Cancer Charity fundraising, as I survived two surgeries this winter to overcome a cancer re-occurrence from cancer I had in 1993.

The piece took me 15 hours to make. It is so big I had to piece and tape tons of bubble wrap together and felt the whole works on my driveway!

The huge daisy blossom takes over the piece. It is made of wool and silk fibers. It is extremely lite weight and so so warm! I wore it out in some rain and it kept me dry too! (I had to quality control test it! Plus I wanted everyone to get to see me in it once before some deserving sole buys it up!)

So here is your earlybird preview of the shawl! It will sell for $200.00 and will have free shipping.

If you want to buy it up before everyone gets a chance you will have to contact me quick so I can make it a reserved sale! The funds for this item will be added to my Walk For Women's Cancer fundraising. If someone buys it before this Friday they will get a 2010 tax receipt for it.

This is just a reminder too that everything sold in my Etsy shop except for the Lop-eared Lulu bunny will have its proceeds donated to the Walk For Women's Cancer Charity until the end of September.

October 1st to January 31 the proceeds will go to Motivated Motion to buy supplies for the following year.

The shawl will remain in the Charity section of the shop until it is sold, and it is guaranteed always to have its proceeds go to the charity. And Lop-Eared Lulu bunny proceeds go to an animal rescue, foster and adoption charity in York Region.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/09/silence-does-not-mean-idle-this-summer.html

MY REPLY TO EVER-SO-WISE SEARS

The following note is a reply to the last letter Sears has sent me reguarding the mess they created. You can read the last letter to me at the link below:


http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/08/sears-saga-continues-here-is-latest.html

My Newest Reply:

Dear Courtney,

I appreciate that you have gone over my grievances.
I see that you refer to policy several times. I also think that what you have said means that some of the things I have addressed cannot be changed until you get more complaints about the similar issues from other customers.

Seriously now....the issue with your protection agreement department not having an ID saying Sears attached to the number is the #1 catalyst to this whole thing. I have sited many many other grievances that have been made public and were available to me over the internet over this situation going back at least as far as 1988, and I do not believe that this situation should continue any longer. It has nothing to do with the service rep being able to open their ID when they call. It has to do with the number being assigned getting an actual name of Sears on the ID. Perhaps this situation is occurring because you are not doing the Sears work with Sears employees and you are using a contracted company to do the work that refuses to carry the Sears ID. If this is the case then they cannot identify themselves as Sears.....can they? Of course this is only speculation on my part that you must be contracting out the calls, but it seems the only logical reason a Sears ID could not be on all the lines of the customer service reps for warranty.

You are inviting problems with your customers questioning your reps and asking to speak to management immediately if they doubt the validity of the call, and by asking them to hold on for 48hours to get a manager is really bad form under the circumstances you are creating by not having a Sears ID on attached to the telephone numbers that are being used for these purposes.

Your customer base that holds the Sears Credit card is aging. This means we are becoming more vulnerable as the information technology age grows at a faster rate than our own knowledge base can grow. We rely on being able to still speak to a person of authority immediately if we request it, especially if we are concerned about our private information security, and about giving out our credit card number to someone who initiates a call to us. Older folks are being frauded all the time by folks who call them to provide bogus service. Sears used to be counted on to provide good customer service. This means actually providing it. Not promising to provide it in 48 hours.

You have also neglected to inform me about the ISO rating of Sears. I need to know which ISO rating you are compliant with so I know if the policies you have told me about in this note are compliant with the rating you hold. I have been waiting for info from you on this issue, yet none has been provided. I believe I asked for someone policies and compliance to write me on this point, once already.

Reguarding me replying promptly to your emails or not.
When I took two days to deal with the company on the telephone with zero satisfaction and zero service, I used up all of my free time. Now I have to take the time where I can get it to reply to you and to contact you in whichever way necessary when I can, as the first two days of giving you all my time resulted in nothing. Unfortunately I am not about to rush some other important aspect of my life which will attain results in the proper timing and format, just to appease Sears so they can clean up a mess they created. You will just have to be patient with me like I have had to be with you.

I am still reserving my right to deny or accept your offer after I have learned all I needed to from you reguarding policies and compliance.

Sincerely,
Lynn Tucker

It looks like we need a list of complaints about the same problem to effect change. If you have documented a similar problem could you please contact me through comments.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-reply-to-ever-so-wise-sears.html

A Piece Of My Life Is Officially Closed,


My partner and friend has died quite suddenly.
Many know of my years driving truck with Deb. We spent night and day together driving all over North America, then in 2003, after I was diagnosed with diabetes, I hung up my driving hat, and left Deb to make her way along the highway without me.

When we drove together Deb did the days and I did the nights. We traveled the highways and biways lookin for adventure. Don't know what we were more like.......Thelma and Louise, or BJ and The Bear? I guess some folks sway one way on that opinion, and some sway the other. We kinda just swayed in the wind. Half the time, hangin by the seat of our pants, haulin loads of Just-in-time freight.

Well Deb was the girly girl and I was toughy girl. Deb was 6ft tall and I skidded in just short of 5 ft. Her hair was perfect and her nails always painted, and I never painted my nails and I wore overalls or velour lounge suits, while she wore dresses. She made me seem kind of butchy, but I wasn't.....she was just way more prissy than me. A funny pair of girls rolling down the road.



We had two weaknesses......casinos and shopping. We were relentless shoppers. I was always looking for unique shirts for my boys and Deb was looking for the next bargain at Tall Girl! We knew where all the best shopping was and we would do our best to plan down-days on the road in good shopping towns. We also liked to site see. Once in a while we would get to see something really cool, or meet some really awesome people. Deb definitely taught me how to shop. She also taught me the toughest parts of my job. I learned the details and intricacies of the logistics business from Deb. We actually did make a good team. But when I got diabetes I did not have the stamina for the job any longer and I decided to retire from the long haul and stay closer to home.....teaching driving and safety instead. I missed the road. Sometimes I still miss it.

Until now I always knew that if I wanted to have one last ride in the truck I could have just asked Deb to indulge me, and I knew she would. But I never got the chance to fulfill the one-last-ride. So now that Deb has died I will turn in the dream.

When you ride together you spend more time in the truck than you do with your friends and family. We spent day and night together and then she lived here on our down time. Deb was an integral part of our family the whole time we drove together. She had a roll here. Stories about our life with Deb are part of family dinner conversations all the time.

Even though Deb's death was sudden to us, she had been sick for a while. Her friend Leigh Ann explained in a note that Deb had taken ill, and it was discovered she had multiple blood clots throughout her body. While preparing to remove the clots and repair a defective heart valve, a clot from her lung moved into her heart and killed her. It is a tragic way to die. I wish I had known she was sick. I wish I could have said, "Goodbye"

Every day I look at the map that Deb and I put on the wall upstairs. Every time we would return home we would trace out the roads we traveled in RED ink on the map. I think of the hours we spent going without sleep so we could listen to the Harry Potter books on tape while the truck rolled along. And how Deb would yell at the tape at all the bad guys.

I will remember endless evenings with our friends....playing pool....eating on Church street...and goofing around.

The most of my memories I know I have shared with her is "The World From My Small Window"......all of the photographs I have from our trucking days. A million sunrises and sunsets, mountains, and oceans, forests and deserts. The thrill of finding little cool places. Of even tough times when we would be stranded by broken down trucks in the middle of no-where....too close to Christmas....and not with our family....And of course....where we were at 9/11 and how tough those first days of unrest were, and how crazy it was with immigration during that time.....

Once we made the most of a time we were stuck in Cheyenne Wyoming, just before Christmas, so we did the Christmas shopping and set out to do crafts in the room for a week waiting and waiting for the truck parts to come in.


Or the day we were offered Lamb fries for the first time.......or the day we were chased by the tornado, or the nights we slept through earth quakes in California........or the 5 days we were stuck in the ice in Nebraska.

We were transient souls visiting the majesty of the land one freeway after another. I have traveled some of our roads since. Back to New England twice, and without her on the road with me it was not the same. I would share stories of our trips with my traveling mates, but I could never quite bring myself to enjoy the road like I used to. The view is different from the car, than the big truck.........







So my days of trucking are now officially closed. The transient chapter of my life is done with the passing of Deb. She died way too young.....Just when she finally was putting all the pieces in place too. Perhaps in Deb's next life she will become the marmy school teacher I always joked with her, she always aspired to be.......and hopefully she will give up her love for pick-up trucks and go for a Jetta or somethin!!

Deb you will not be forgotten!

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/08/piece-of-my-life-is-officially-closed.html

The Sears Saga Continues,

Here is the latest reply from Sears:

Hello Ms. Tucker,

Thank you for your patience while dealing with this issue.

We have reviewed your letter and the corresponding notes in our system regarding your protection agreement sale call. We will address each incident and explain the Sears policies regarding the way in which the associates handled the situation.

You had received a call from the protection agreement sales department regarding the renewal of your expired agreements and the sale of your vacuum agreement from Teresa. As you had stated the phone number in which the call is made from appears as an unknown number. All of our outgoing calls from the protection agreement can appear as an unknown number to our customers phones. Unfortunately, this is not a feature in which the sales associate is able to change.

As you had stated, Teresa had tried to speak to you regarding your air conditioning unit and furnace in which had not had their maintenance checks completed. This was to assure you that she was in fact a Sears associate as well as to help you as a customer, as the service in which you had been paying for was not being used to it's fullest potential. The maintenance agreement checks cannot be used during a previous date if the service is not used annually. This is why this issue had been mentioned.

In order for a transaction to be completed for a protection agreement sale, the credit card number must be stated by the customer, and under no circumstances should be read to the person over the phone to prevent giving confidential information to another person other than the card holder. Reading gout the first 4-5 digits of your card should have never taken place.

Due to the Canadian privacy act all credit card numbers that have been provided by our customers will be mashed in our system to avoid credit fraud. Our associates are able to see the customer's first 4 or 5 digits, however, the rest of the information needs to be stated by the customer so we do not give our customer's credit card number to another person over the phone. This is for your protection, and for the protection of your personal information.

The sale for the protection agreement had been finalized by yourself and Teresa. As stated later on in your email the transaction had been cancelled as the information was not in our system. This could have occurred for a number of reasons, however we are unable to determine the actual cause of the transaction not being finalized at that time.

Once the transactions had been completed, and realizing that the protection agreement may have been added to the wrong unit you had initially called to confirm this information, and as a result have spoken to a number of employees from the customer service second level associates. This is the escalated line for our customers to have more difficult issues resolved by our associates.

Our second level associates are trained at a supervisory level and are able to resolve all issues, and have the authority to make important decisions regarding all problems. They have been trained to resolve all issues on their own without escalating a call to their acting managers as long as they are confident that they are able to resolve the issue. If a customer requests a supervisor they will be contacted by the supervisor within a 48 hour period if requested.

Throughout these calls you had a number of associates who had spoken to you in a rude, unfriendly, and unhelpful manner, and for this we do apologize. Under no circumstances should the associates speak to our customers in this manner. We also apologize that you concerns we not addressed regarding the customer service aspect, rather than the sale. We also apologize for the breaches that may have been made during your initial call regarding the associate reading out your information. We are further researching these associates to ensure that they are coached internally by their acting supervisors.

We apologize that you were not able to resolve your quality assurance issues with the supervisors in which you have spoken to. Unfortunately, on the most part our associates were following Sears policies and procedures regarding, escalating calls, forwarding you to different departments, and regarding the privacy of your information.

We would like to apologize for the chain of events that as a consumer made you weary to give out your personal information regarding the original call, including the unknown number, the unclear information regarding your credit card number, and the mixed responses from the different departments in customer service. We have formally noted your comments and concerns regarding these issues. We cannot guarantee immediate changes as a number of complaints must be made regarding the same issue from separate customers before we are able to address an issue an implement changes to better our customers experiences.

The protection agreement has not been charged to you, and an invoice has been sent to provide you with further information regarding the protection agreement offer. If you wish to confirm that this charge has not gone through you may call JP and Chase at 1-800-265-3675.

Due to the inconveniences that you have experienced during this process we would like to offer you a 1 year protection agreement free of charge. If you wish to accept this issue you may do so by replying directly to this email with your response. We do appreciate your business and regret that you have had such a time consuming and troublesome experience. If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this issue please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Courtney
Sears Corporate Office

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/08/sears-saga-continues-here-is-latest.html

Here Is The Sears Follow-UP So Far.....And my response

Hello Ms. Tucker,

Thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention.

We value you as a Sears customer and regret that you have had an unpleasant experience.

We have directed this important issue to our Corporate Customer Service Department for further review. One of our Customer Service Representatives will be in touch with you to address your concerns.

We appreciate your continued patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Regards,

Angelique


And This is My Reply:

Dear Customer Service,

It is now in the 48 hour day, and I have had not been called or emailed by the Warranty Department for the multiple verbal complaints I made for which I was told there would be a response within 48hrs.

But the Warranty Outgoing department (and she identified they were in Montreal) called me again this morning. They were addressing the fact that they still had not made a sale on the transaction of the vacuum warranty.

I questioned the girl that called me and I asked if she was phoning to sell me my warranty plan or not. She said yes that was why she was calling. She began her conversation with all of the warranties I could renew for the big money. I stopped her. I said that I was expecting a call from her supervisor today over a very big quality assurance issue that occurred on Monday, and seeing it was now the 48 hour mark day I was expecting to get a call from the supervisor.

She told me she would get her supervisor. He came on after a couple of minutes and his name is Raymond.
He was absolutely oblivious to this whole situation. He said that would have to go to the warranty department and I probably called the wrong people. I told him I had called his department first to complain and I called the warranty incoming department at the 1-800 number after being instructed to by corporate, and when I got no satisfaction from either I then sent this email thread to Home @sears.ca. I said there were there-and-about 5 verbal complaints made with requests for the supervisor from outgoing and incoming customer service. I told him I had an email thread I would like to send him by email so he come up to speed on this and he told me that he had not way of getting an email. I was shocked that there were no way to send him the thread.

He only wanted to address the warranty transaction not going through and I said I was not going to do that. I needed to address 7 quality assurance issues reguarding that department and Theresa, and he did not want to talk about that. He said I would have to address the situation with warranty. This call ended at 10:00AM. I hung up, I was not going to complete a sale for this with him, if he was not going to address anything.

***while writing this note I got another call*******

I received a call from Danny The Supervisor in Warranty which ended at 10:58AM
He too wanted to address the transaction not going through. I told him that there were 7 quality assurance points that needed to be addressed and they were so gross that I was forced to contact corporate and send an email. I told him that the best thing would be for me to send him the thread in email so he had the details of the thread in hard copy. He too said he could not receive emails.
I then asked him to be very patient and listen to me read the whole letter. I said I would do my absolute best to be very clear when I spoke and not emotional or angry, but to please let me finish the letter because it was long and detailed the 7 very specific points.
He cut me off before I could finish reading the letter. I asked him to let me finish. He said no because he could clear this up very quickly. I asked to please let me finish the letter so he had all of the quality assurance points and he would not.
He cut me off and then began to tell me that she did not have all of the credit card number. That part was blanked out.
I said that is only part of the problem with that. I could not ensure fraud had taken place and I needed to speak to a supervisor, and I said that a supervisor was not available. He said it is not our department's policy to allow you to speak to a supervisor and they will contact in 48 hours and he is doing just that. (I found this incongruent, as within the same prior hour I got to speak to Raymond the supervisor of the department I originally called at the 1-877 number- so who was abiding by policy? Raymond or Danny?)
I said to Danny that he had not addressed my complete issue with the first complaint and I got heated angry because he never allowed me to finish reading the letter outlining the points yet wanted to give me a half response to the first complaint.
I said to him again in a very very very loud voice that there were 7 points of quality assurance that had to be addressed and the credit card number was only one thing.
As far as I am concerned I had the full right to to be worried about fraud! Why the hell would Sears allow anyone who wants our account numbers to call from a number with a blocked caller ID!? That is the stupidest thing I have ever seen! And in doing my research I have found this is not the first query to your company about this problem: sited: http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8778892024 , http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8778892024/2, http://www.chadrichard.net/nlextremez/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1760, http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-877-889-2024, http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090115/Dont_call_090115/20090115?hub=TopStories, http://phoneowner.info/Number.aspx/8778892024
My biggest concern was that this started with the fact I was really on high alert when a number with no visible caller ID wanted my card info, and when I wanted to speak to a supervisor to tell them about this concern I go no supervisor. Then when I call back to double check a detail there is no record of the transaction, then I again cannot get a supervisor to investigate it. Now I have had to investigate this all myself and with no aid or help from Sears.
Sears motto is "Satisfaction Guaranteed" How can Sears guarantee satisfaction if a supervisor is not on board to address possible fraud issues when there is a legitimate concern when the transaction is NOT showing in the system. Especially after all of the queries I had to make to get that far.
From looking at the web public complaints I have truly legitimate concerns that needed to be addressed immediately, and nothing was really dealt with so far. A Supervisor like Raymond of the 1-877 number would have addressed this quickly if they were available to do their job, and they were not, so there was no way on Monday I was going to know if I was frauded or not. Plus the gross issues reguarding my private information being confirmed by Theresa, then never making it into the system as a whole is disgusting, because it added to the worry that I was frauded and something was fishy. I didn't say in my earlier note but she was looking at my warranty agreements and she even questioned me on why I had not had my furnace tuneup or AC tuneup in the past two years while she was trying to convince me she was a legitimate Sears rep. It is none of her business if I had a tuneup or not!
This whole thing is way out of hand. If you instruct your supervisors to cut people off when they are talking so they cannot address all the points, how can it be dealt with properly?

The behavior of your supervisors is shoddy and unprofessional.
The supervisors seemed only interested in completing the transaction ASAP, and not deal with the 7 gross issues of poor Quality Assurance, and were not interested to learn about the details of the situations that occurred with the Warranty Department on Monday.

I am really tired of having to spend hours and hours following-up with supervisors who won't listen and dealing with folks who "Just want to make the sale" at the expense of my personal information and security, with those who Sully the name and reputation of Sears......and still no "Satisfaction"

Your Company Policy is merky at best.
Your Customer Service is not there if when someone has a query and asks to speak to a supervisor they are denied the action
Thus you are not living up to your motto.
And your practices of blocking the caller ID are questionable business practice and do not make the customer feel comfortable at all when they are asked to give out their private security credit card information over the telephone!
What the cold callers from the Warranty department are doing is not customer service, it is really just sales, and if they cannot make the sale they don't want to know about anything else.
They send a clear message to the Sears Customer that they are not interested in the motto or complying with ISO standards and practices, and wont satisfy a customer by allowing them to talk to a supervisor. Plus when they get a supervisor the supervisor does not want to address the whole of the customer's concerns, they only want the end result to be the sale and if they don't get that they DON'T CARE.

I want proof in writing as well as a telephone contact that outlines what you will do at the head corporate level to investigate all of this, and details about the measures taken to ensure the customers, especially the ones who feel vulnerable because of the situation get to speak to a supervisor right away, and also a way to contact JP Morgan Chase financial to discuss these practices by the warranty department of Sears, and I want someone from standards and practices to contact me to discuss with me the ISO standing of Sears and the details of their certification, so I can determine if I need to report your company to a standards commission.
I want documentation addressing everything I have sent in this thread as a whole.

If I am forced to do all this investigation because you are not Satisfying me, and I am taking the time to document everything, I would like you to do the same. As it is now 12:20PM and again today I have had to spend over 2.5 hours on all this stuff over and above the over 4.5 hours I had to spend on Monday....again....with no "Satisfaction" as you Motto guarantees.

Sincerely,
Lynn Tucker


Folks might be interested in this page that outlines Sears Corporate Responsibility

http://www.sears.ca/content/corporate-info/social-responsibility

Here is the post on the beginning of this email thread:

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-heck-is-happening-with-this-world.html

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/07/here-is-sears-follow-up-so-far.html

What the Heck Is Happening with This World?

It seems that every time I turn around I am now forced to rant about yet another poor quality of service. It is now like a mantra.
Holy Monkey! I cannot believe I have tell you about another thing that happened to me that makes me want to vomit with disgust.
I thought I had heard all the BS when it came to the hospitals and their lack of care or concern for my poor 971/2 yr old mother-in-law.........
Now more BS from Sears Canada today that makes me really worried for more vulnerable folks who may not question anything and just give out info.

If you are a Sears Canada Account holder you need to read this: This is a letter I sent today about an incident that occurred to me today:
(I will post their reply to me as soon as I get it, and I promise I will not edit it.)


To Whom It May Concern,

On Monday July 26th, 2010 I received a call from someone identifying themselves as Theresa from Sears extended warranty...at 12:56PM
The number I was called from came up on my caller ID as UNKNOWN CALLER. The number is 1-877-889-2024.
The woman inquired if I would like to extend the warranty on my Kenmore vacuum, as it had recently lapsed. She also inquired about early renewal of my furnace and air conditioner, and any other warranties I had which would save me over $100.00 if I renewed them early.
I told her I would not like the whole of the warranties renewed at this time, but I would like the vacuum warranty renewed.
Then she told me I needed to give her my card number.
*I told her I had problems with that as I have no way of knowing if they are officially Sears or are an impostor, because the caller ID is blocked by the caller.*

As I looked for my card I thought about how I would ensure my own security.
While I was looking for the card she began to read off my card number, and I asked her to wait a second. She had gotten read off the first 4 or 5 digits before I stopped her.
I stopped her because I was not looking at my card at the time, as I was still looking for it. She was anxious on the phone to get me to confirm and kept talking while I was looking for the card trying to convince me she was an official Sears representative. By asking questions like: You see the 877 number, you can call it and see....
Once I found my card I had decided to ask her to tell me the last 4 digits of my card so I could ensure she did have access to my information by legitimate sources.
Theresa told me 4 digits that were not my account. I told her that was not my account. She then said that there were two cards on the account and the other card number was.... and that was my card number.
**Theresa said she had both of our account numbers in her system and she could see them. **

When I was satisfied enough that she did know my account number then I approved the warranty for the vacuum.
After I hung up with her I realized there could be an issue if the wrong Kenmore vacuum I own was put on the extended warranty, as I purchased a new Kenmore in the spring of 2009 after having on old model Kenmore vacuum for many many years under the extended warranty. I still own both, but only want the new one on warranty. So I called the above number to inquire on which Kenmore vacuum was covered on the warranty, and to change the policy if the old vacuum had accidentally been put back on extended warranty, instead of the new one getting its warranty upgraded.
When I called back I got another service person, and I explained that I may not have been diligent enough to properly inquire which vacuum was now on the warranty. When the girl looked at my account she could not see any warranty transaction taking place. She said that was strange, as all the transactions were in real-time. She suggested that I should call back at the end of the day to follow-up on this situation. I said well I had had previous misgivings about the the quality of the first call to me as now that there is no record of this transaction I am quite afraid that fraud had taken place, and that perhaps my own security measures were not enough to prevent our accounts from being compromised. At that point I asked to speak to a supervisor. As I didn't feel it was up to me to do the follow-up on a quality control issue within the department, and I wanted the supervisor to do the follow-up and let me know the results. I also felt that if there was a fraud issue occurring then the supervisor would be better equipped to contact the correct security department within Sears to take care of the matter.
***I was told there was no supervisor available***

I then said that I thought that Sears was ISO certified, and I would then be satisfied to speak with the acting supervisor for the department.
I was told there was no such person.
I then said, but if a company is ISO certified that standards and practices system requires that all stations have a trained back-up person so there is always someone available......
I was told all they could do is email a supervisor and ask them to call me, and they would call within 48hrs.
I ended this call with her; accepting that they would have the supervisor call me.

I then proceeded to call corporate headquarters at 416-362-1711 to then file a formal verbal complaint about the lack of quality control in these procedures, and the lack of a supervisor and the lack of a back-up supervisor and to still query about the possibility of a fraud happening on my account as no one could find any record of this so-called transaction.

I spoke to Diane ( and my call to Diane ended at 1:38PM)
Diane was very patient with me and informative. I told her that I was really nervous now about the situation and I had told her all I have told to you above.... I said I was nervous because I was now concerned that the number could have been bogus, as there is no record of transactions taking place.
****Diane informed me that only employees of JPMorganChase have access to the account numbers and that no service department or warranty department have access to the account numbers since Sears sold the credit card over to JPMorganChase.****
Now I am doubly worried that fraud has taking place, as Theresa was able to give me the first digits of my accounts as well as the last before I confirmed all the numbers. Which I was told by Diane-Theresa should not have had...
Diane could not tell me if the 1-877-889-2024 number was a Sears Warranty department number or not.
Diane instructed me I would have to call the Warranty department at: 1-800-361-6665 to make the query and complaint.

Right after I hung up from Diane I called the number.
The woman on the other end was so rude to me. She talked to me like was a child.
She said she would call the 1-877-889-2024 and see if it is a Sears number or not. She came back on the line to me and said of course its Sears. It says its Sears and gives the voice prompt(with a really snarky attitude like I was stupid or something). I told her I knew that it said all that because I had called that number back to make the query about what vacuum was put on the warranty script, but because there was no record of the transactions I felt that something was fishy and at the least I should get confirmation from corporate if this number really is a Sears number or a fraud,and corporate could not confirm this so they instructed me to call this lady.
Seeing the lady was so rude I was not going to waste much time talking to her, so after I quickly went over the plight again-covering all the above bases that I have already listed I again asked to speak to a supervisor.
She told me that the lady before told me there was no supervisor available.
And again I had to ask for an email to be sent to them with a prospect of a reply by phone within 48hrs.
*****She did tell me before I hung up that she figured Theresa didn't press the ENTER key before she did the transaction.*****

At this point I was losing my patients. I was on the phone almost an hour already trying to follow this situation up with no satisfaction. I was doing all the leg-work with no positive information coming my way. So I called back corporate. By this time I get the number dialed and I begin to get beeps on my call-waiting. I answered the call-waiting beep in the middle of the corporate telephone menu-just in case it was the supervisor calling me back. Lo and behold it was Theresa. She was calling me to get my account number again. I told her was not giving it to her again and hung up on her, as I was still in the phone menu of the corporate system.

I don't believe I got all the messages correct and I possibly chose the wrong department cuz Theresa kept calling back causing beeping in my call to the menu.
So I eventually got someone and I think it was someone from Coroporate in retail at 1:59PM. Her name is Lindsay.
I explained the problem and gave the details of what had happened up to this point and she also could read it in the system notes. So she had a really good idea where I was coming from.
******I explained this was turning into a huge quality assurance issue that was ending here with no satisfaction and now me being called back over and over by Theresa so she could complete the so-called -transaction******
She said a formal complaint would have to be made at the number for Warranty at 1-800-361-6665. I said that now I have gone through outgoing and incoming from that department and had been a victim of such gross quality assurance issues, I could not possibly feel comfortable addressing this situation with the department seeing I want to complain about the specific incoming and outgoing practices to the incoming part of the department.
Lindsay said the best thing would be to send this email, and she gave me the address.

When I got off the phone there was a voicemail from Theresa telling me that she is sending me an invoice.

I then proceeded to call back the Warranty Department at 1-800-361-6665 to address the voicemail and issue about the invoice. The next lady I got was also very rude.
I am trying to be patient again to explain this whole thing once more, as she tells me that she can see no notes on all of this stuff accept for a note from Theresa saying she sent an invoice.
The whole time I was trying to explain the details patiently she kept cutting me off to tell me about this note from Theresa by saying yes I know there was an invoice sent to you today. I kept telling her no, listen to me there is more. She kept trying to cut me off. ******So I asked her to look at the notes and that is when she told me there were no other notes*******
So now I am dealing with another rude woman who is trying to talk over me and now the notes that everyone else was able to see are now missing.
So now another quality assurance issue. So that is 7 quality assurance issues over one department and the security of your company's name, and the security of MY personal information, and a breech of ISO standards and practices. Plus I have spent from 12:56PM to 4:44PM dealing with this, with no satisfaction.

I am disgusted by these shoddy practices. For nearly 30 years my Husband and I have been long standing account holders. We have chosen Sears to do business with because their business practices were a cut-above. This quality control assurance crap I went through today is making me rethink my contracts with your company. I am an intelligent woman with some business savvy and I worry for the more vulnerable of your clientele now. You have now proven that I could go to a liquidation house and get equal shoddy customer service and a cheaper price, but there I would expect the headache and pain-in-the-ass customer service. Sears is now selling us a rouse of customer service......

Please reply with a report covering how my points were addressed and how you will make this quality assurance issue a thing of the past, or I will be forced to take my business elsewhere.

Sincerely,

Lynn Tucker

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-heck-is-happening-with-this-world.html

When Life Throws Insanity Your Way.....


Well the dreaded time in our lives when the worst you could expect happened to Carl's Mother.
Last Monday we got one of those phone calls you don't want to get.

Carl was just starting his work day when his Brother called to tell Carl that he had to take their
97 1/2 year old Mother into the hospital emergency as she was complaining of shortness of breath and a tightness in her chest. So Carl took the subway to Scarborough to be with his Mom and Brother.

The Dr's did the tests to rule out heart stuff and they noticed she was quite swollen from the waste down to her toes. Plus they revealed that her hemoglobin was quite low. So the Dr's gave her two units of blood.

Then they set to the task to determine why she needed the blood and that was not so clear. By Friday evening they released Carl's Mom from hospital, but still did not know what happened to her, and they asked her to return this Tuesday to meet with the Dr's, and perhaps by then some other test results would tell them what the issue was-whether she was bleeding somewhere or had a bone marrow issue.

Well, about 12 hrs after she returned home she fell and broke her hip and bashed her head and cut her arm. And a phone call at 5:46AM Sat morning had us scrambling and making phone calls.
Carl took off to the city, and I called Alex and Amber in Peterborough, to come and get me and go with me to Scarborough. Alex and Amber and Cam and Mishelle and I headed to the hospital.

The Dr's still didn't know the whys of her blood issue so as a precaution they gave her another unit of blood and morphine and prepped her for surgery.

Things did not look good.....the whole family came to see her before surgery and off she went. 45 minutes after the surgery began... the surgery was over without a hitch. They did it with her awake and frozen from a spinal so she could survive it, and she came around just about 45min after that! Two hours after that she was sitting up and eating crackers and enjoying jello and tea!

Today she is more alert and is ready to walk! So I think Monday morning she will get up and walk on a brand new hip! Now she is the 97 1/2 year old bionic woman and she is determined to walk and get to go home after recovery.

The 20th was Carl's birthday and the last time his Mom was in the hospital was 53 years ago when she spent three days in labour with Carl before they gave her a C section.

I am so surprised and quite delighted at her recovery so far. She is alert and can now recall the details of her fall, and can tell us about the weird experience she had in the morning when she awoke confused and disoriented from the pain meds, and how she knew it was not her right state of mind!

I cannot imagine living to 97 1/2 years old. It just amazes us how great her mental acuteness is even after such an ordeal.

Today she had cake with us in the hospital room with lots of the grand kids and great grand kids present, to celebrate Carl's birthday. Then she told us he was born at 2 mins before 12.

So our anniversary and Carl's Birthday and Father's day were spent apart while Carl lived in the city to help his Brother with his Mom.

So now we ask for everyone to put her in your prayers so we can hope for a good recovery for her, that enables her to go back to her home instead of having to go to a nursing home.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/06/when-life-throws-insanity-your-way.html

The Etsy Shop Is Open Again with a SUMMER SALE!

We are celebrating the thrill of summer here at Motivated Motion!

Enjoy the savings until the End of June!

All Steampunk, Jewelry and Geekery is 10% off the original price.
Everything else is 25% off the original price.

There is an exception of one item. It is Lop-eared Lulu from the charity section.
There is always a way to save big on shipping here! Please see the details about being a Sneaky Shopper to save on shipping:
http://fluffandneedlefelting.blogspot.com/search/label/Sneaky%20Sale

I am a member of the following ETSY GROUPS OR TEAMS:

Trans Canada Etsy Street Team~ http://transcanadaetsyteam.blogspot.com
Altruism On Etsy(AOE)~ http://team.etsy.com/viewteam.php?id=628
PAGANS OF ETSY (POEST)~ http://paganhandmadeteam.ning.com
Needlefelters On Etsy Street Team(NFEST)~ http://nfest.blogspot.com


I'm on Twitter. Find me as WitchAmy.
Motivated Motion Has a Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Newmarket-ON-Canada/Motivated-Motion-Gallery/120823826246

We will also be revamping the Motivated Motion Gallery Site very soon, but in the mean time if you use the Gallery site the sale prices will be reflected when you click on to purchase-when it directs you to the Etsy pages the items are available at. The Etsy listings now have the sale prices up and the previous price and the discount % you got on the item in the description for your references.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2010/05/etsy-shop-is-open-again-with-summer.html