Out of the Office Reply

There once was a Blogger from Sask
Who broke from her usual tasks
She went on vacation--
undisclosed location!
Let her hair down and had a blast!


Sorry I'm out of the office this week. I'm off examining swine entrails for research purposes.



Oh, and it's our anniversary. 18 years!


READ THE FIRST COMMENT!

My Flash Drive Tragedy

A couple of years ago, Melanie saw me working on the schedule and, in her cheery way of brightening my life, said, "I can help you with that, you know! My mind is quite mathmatical and just works that way!"

It kind of reminded me of when I was a kid and I said to my mom, "I WOULD LOVE TO MAKE MY LUNCH!" And she said that would be great! She said I'd be very good at it! Playing on my need for control she went on to say how it would be fun to be able to choose what the kids got in their lunches. And then I, the eldest, was stuck for the next 7 years as the lunch maker for me and my 4 school aged siblings. What kind of a dirty trick is that?!

Or the day I announced, "I'm becoming a vegetarian! I think it's a sin to eat animals." To which she calmly replied, "Oh, that's too bad. We're having fried chicken today." Oh, that was sneaky. My mom made a mean fried chicken.

So, Melanie, if you are reading this, let me apologize in advance...

Anyway, since Mel started working on the schedule, it's been a nice relief not to worry about filling shifts and figuring out the puzzle. However, just before Mel went on her break, she warned me that the scheduling had become much more complicated since the merger. Add several staff, ministries, and buildings... It's bound to happen!

I spent probably a day getting a handle on the schedule and working it out for the summer. Summer used to be a slow time around here, but now it's a time for being short-staffed due to vacation. And the scheduler feels the pain!

(It's okay. She's taking some time off right now. Shh.)

I managed to develop a master schedule and many weeks worth of schedules. Up until next week. I went to begin the fall scheduling program and lo and behold, my flash drive wouldn't work. I tried it again and again on different computers with the same result. I called Office Joe at work in a panic.

He was so sweet. He was super busy doing some highly technical testing, working daily overtime, with the flu! Yet he came by during his lunchtime. He worked his magic and recovered quite a bit. But NOT the weeks of scheduling. And NOT the list of upcoming holidays and time off needed by various staff and volunteers. And NOT my beautifully crafted master schedule. How sad.

So, yesterday afternoon I took the hard copy Masters and set myself to work again. I've got the initial draft here, then I need to tweak weekly copies for people's days off. That's this morning's project.

Joe and others have told me it's highly unusual (more like unheard of!) for a flash drive to go berserk. Lucky me. I'm special.

Look at the bright side. I am truly a sandwich artist. Subway can't hold a candle to me!

10 things you can do today to leave a legacy

1. Prepare a will. Without a will, you lose control over your property at death.
2. Leave a gift in your will for the not-for-profit organizations that made a difference in your life. Imagine the positive impact on your community if everyone made a gift from their estate to their favourite not-for-profit.Leave a specific dollar amount or percentage of the assets in your will to a not-for-profit of your choice.
3. Consider using assets for your charitable gift. These include, but aer not limited to, cash, stocks, mutual funds, term deposits, real estate, vehicles, art, jewelry or insurance. Such gifts may even provide tax savings.
4. Name a not-for-profit as a beneficiary of your RRSP, RRIF or pension.
5. Name your favourite not-for-profit as the beneficiary of an existing or paid-up life insurance policy.
6. Purchase a new life insurance policy naming your favourite not-for-profit as the beneficiary.
7. Remember loved ones with memorial gifts.
8. Encourage family and friends to leave gifts to not-for-profits in their wills.
9. Ask your financial or estate planning advisor to include charitable giving as part of their counsel to clients.

Revive Us Again!

Ken spoke on revival today. A lot of hearts were pierced.

How can we know we are revived?

Well, you know you are revived if it lasts longer than the church service. If you have a song in your heart. If you bring your new spirit-filled attitude back home, and to the workplace.

How can we be revived today?

1. Return to your first love. You may be doing all kinds of wonderful things for God, but you are forgetting those things you did in the beginning. Remember when you first fell in love with Jesus? Everything you thought and breathed and did was because He loved you first! You had a different mentality. A different mindset. That's the one God is looking for.

2. Be disciplined. Do the things you know you need to do in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Deal with that dark thing only you know exists.

God hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

-Psalm 40:3

Backyard fundraiser helps Mission

Thanks to Carl Fix and his wife, Sandi, who cooked chili for 300 people!

I do want to clarify that this was a private party, to which the hosts decided to throw in our honour. Due to the alcohol served, the Mission could not take part in the planning or organization of it.

Donovan and his wife, Bonnie, was invited to represent the Mission, and were fairly awed with the evening. The amount of work, money, and donated time, even from the celebreties, was very generous.

Matt Rapley of Canadian Idol sang!

And the MC of the evening was Lorne Cardinal! (Police Chief, Davis, from Corner Gas)

Read more here!

____________________________________


Karen Brownlee
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

For Karl Fix, the sign of a good fundraising party is a pallet of pasta in his driveway.

The pasta was donated for Souls Harbour RESCUE Mission during an event held in the backyard of Fix and his wife Sandi Beug on Friday night.

Beyond truckloads of food and supplies to host the party that were donated by several local companies, Fix said up to $15,000 was raised for one of the many projects expanding Souls Harbour RESCUE Mission.

The walls are going up on the 30-unit emergency shelter and affordable housing building being constructed on the 1600 block of Angus Street, said Donovan Caroll, chief operations officer of Souls Harbour RESCUE Mission. The project also received funding from the federal, provincial and municipal governments earlier this year under the Centenary Affordable Housing Program and the National Homelessness Initiative.

The expansion is a big change since Souls Harbour had to find a new location for its soup kitchen after the building it was leasing was sold.

"Two years ago, we had no place to go," said Caroll.

Today, they have a 9,000-square--foot soup kitchen built last year in downtown Regina with several suites next door. The LifeChange program for men is run at a separate campus where the mission's offices are located. A similar women's centre will be run nearby since the mission has purchased the Sacred Heart Church and rectory, said Caroll. These are just some of services offered by the mission, which was created when Souls Harbour Mission House and Regina Rescue Mission joined forces earlier this year.

This fundraiser held on Friday did a lot to expose the work of the mission, said Caroll. Fix said those who attended were inspired by the mission's work and have said they intend to do more to help it.

Several local and out-of-town musicians and entertainers performed and have said they'll be back to volunteer for such a fundraiser again. Several business people in the community have also expressed an interest in helping to ensure such this fundraiser continues, said Fix.

"This was a spur of the moment thing," said Fix.

"We want to do more planning for next year."

Fix and his wife decided to hold a fundraiser in their backyard and chose Souls Harbour RESCUE Mission after spending some time helping out there.

Money was raised through the 250 tickets sold at $50 each, but some of those attending chose to pitch in more once at the fundraiser, said Fix.

"We hope to do this annually," said Fix.

"I think next year, we'll charge $100. In talking to people, they said they'd be willing to pay."

The money will be used to support the work of the mission and "chew away" at any mortgage it may need to acquire to pay for its properties, said Caroll.

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007

Evicted on short notice

---

Evicted on short notice
By PAMELA COWAN Leader-Post
Leader-Post
05 Sep 2007

Marilou Garcia has hardly slept since she found an eviction notice taped on her apartment door on Friday afternoon. She and 23 other tenants who live in an 8th Avenue North apartment block are devastated since they received notice they must vacate the... read more...

---

Or you can read the whole article here, for free... go figure: http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=c3a63867-b997-463c-9bd4-a4a829e5c789&k=12541

I'll be talking more about the need for affordable housing in the coming weeks, so thought I'd let you get up to speed with a few articles.

Skyrocketing rents and lack of affordable housing is a huge problem, making a 30-day eviction, while legal, very difficult on the tenants.

Michelle

_______________________________________