The Heartland & South Mississippi

Our Heartland edition of In The Field magazine was delivered to our office in Plant City and it was with much anticipation. I felt like this magazine was a new one for us but in reality this magazine will be 2 years old in October this year. This publication has had some internal changes (people) and there has been some serious bumps in the road with in the last 30 days but with a lot of prayer and a great staff we have all put our heads together and have decided we will win this battle and continue to do business the correct way as we always have and promote our farmers and ranchers. We have a ways to go but we are gaining ground even now.

I have to say that I have learned a lot through all these turn of events with this issue and it has not been easy to say the least! Its amazing the types of people who we come in contact with and you really think a lot of them then one day it all just hits at one time and you are left with a huge blank look on your face and thinking this is not the person/persons I thought they were. Unfortunately we have to go through battles to be shaped/molded so we can go on and be smarter and wiser for our days to come so that is the way I am looking at it. We are soldering on and will win this up hill climb and I have to say we have a HUGE start and again I am thankful for wonderful people around me who want to win.




Now onto the NEWEST baby with In The Field magazine!
South Mississippi.
I have already spoken about this in a recent blog but I wanted to put the cover pic up on here so everyone can check it out. GREAT job Brent and Terry Davis...You rocked it. We are spreading the word about how important Agriculture is now outside of Florida. I really believe that this publication is going to do well and I am excited about hearing feedback from our new readers and advertisers.

Make sure to check out our website but please understand the site is still under some much needed construction. www.inthefieldmagazine.com

Gotta get some sleep now I have a huge day tomorrow.

Life Is A Journey......Live It

Karen

Just THREE Things

It's Thursday and I can already sense the urgency that the weekend is just around the corner and it can not get here soon enough! We have been on deadline this week for 3 publications and we have sent two out successfully and we have 1 left to upload but we are having to drag our feet on this one a bit. We are trying to get some last minute ads in and articles but no fear....we will get it out in enough time to meet our deadline for them to be delivered.

Our newest magazine is covering South Mississippi and we are excited about having a new publication out but the coolest part is, is that it is out of the state of Florida. Who would have THUNK it? We have been blessed to have a friend of our family take this publication head on and he and his family are doing a great job but have a lot in front of them but I have faith they can handle it. They have lived in Mississippi for 18 years now so they know the territory and how things roll :-). I want to give a shout out to Brent Davis and his team...Congrats on a job well done but now is the fun part.....Delivery :-) I will make sure to keep you who follow this blog updated on how things are going.

Now onto another subject! I am facing some other challenges with another magazine. My dad and mom always taught me not to look at situations as problems but challenges and that is what we are doing. A challenge to me means lets win this thing it brings out my competitive nature which is a good thing. I have a great staff that is working with me on this and we have new people coming on board and they all have a positive outlook which means they are all winners in my book. So again as I said in the last paragraph I will make sure to keep you who follow this blog updated on how things are going.

Picture: My sister Lori is on the left and my Managing Editor Sarah is on the right.

Gotta Run its almost quitting time!

Karen

Life Is A Journey.....Live It

Time Changes Things

"Time Changes Things" These are 3 words that ring loudly right now in my thoughts. We all go through life we grow we get older and while doing all of this our parents are going through the same things but they are further ahead in this process of life than we are. This brings me to share about my mom. Mom has had diabetes for years now and has taken a pill daily then the pill led to taking shots then not long a ago she was given and insulin pump that is attached to her every single day and it is quite a cool machine! She puts in what she is eating etc. and the pump administers the exact amount of insulin her body needs and with this change its made her life as a diabetic so much more tolerable to say the least. Mom has also has 2 knee replacements on the same knee over the past 4 years. That was a rough time for mom, the recovery/therapy was not pleasant but now she is able to walk with out all that pain in her knee and she has lost over 50 pounds also and we are all very proud of her :-). Mom has also has some heart issues over the past 5 to 6 years, within that time time she has had to deal with an irregular heart beat - Atrial Fibrillation, the heart's electrical current flows where it's not supposed to. Two weeks ago mom went into the hospital for a procedure to to shock the heart and the mission was to get the heart beating back on track but after 4 times of trying her heart was not accepting it so this procedure did not work. We asked the Dr.'s why not a pacemaker? The reason why is she has had this Atrial Fibrillation to long now so that means that the pacemaker will not help her heart get back on track so the next step is open heart surgery. This is what we did not want her to have to go through but if she does not have this surgery her heart will tire out and we want mom to be with us for a long time! Our motives are obviously selfish but that is normal. The scheduled time for this surgery is in April so until then we all we be praying that God will have his hand on her and the Doctors.

Time Changes Things-I do not like this but its a fact of life so I have to face each day that have these types of challenges head on. My problem is that I have always been one who likes to keep things in and act like they are not there and this has only pertained to my parents mostly. I am one to always think that as they get older their health will continue to be fine with no speed bumps. I understand that this is just not the truth so I am gradually learning to accept it. I guess with this journey I am learning and growing at the same time.

Not much more to share but I will make sure and blog the progress of mom.

Gotta Run...Much to do.

Karen

Life is a journey......live it.

WOW where do I begin? There has been so much stuff that has been going on around me but I choose not to write about those situations because I am wanting not to go there. I have let some situations completely over take my emotions and in turn its really put a lot of pressure on me physically so I have chosen to leave work and the stuff that goes along with it at the office especially with this situation. Thankful that I have a heavenly father that loves me and helps me through difficult times.

Tonight I am sitting in front of the TV watching MINUTE TO WIN IT! It's the craziest thing I have seen but they are giving away thousands of dollars for people to do different tasks within a minutes time. The last young man to leave won 50,000!!!! Not bad for 30 minutes of craziness.
Thinking about signing up :-).

I am going to quit right now since I am really tired and need to get some rest before tomorrow so I am sure that I will be doing better soon at this blog thing but I did want to it least get something new in even if its very simple.

Gotta get some shut eye.

Life is a journey.....Live it

Karen

Cold Rainy Day

I look forward to weekends as everybody else does but its even better when the weather is good but today is not a day for Florida weather and it has not been for months now. Rainy and cold is what we have today in Plant City Florida which keeps me inside being a couch potato with two Jack Russell's who's energy level is way above normal. I thought about cleaning up around the house but have opted out and I feel good about that decision I just want to chill and that is what I am doing and its needed. So with that said I really have nothing to share I guess you could call it writers block, I just have nothing.

Looking forward to blogging tomorrow and I have a lot going on then so I will catch up with you later.

Peace Out!

Karen

Life Is A Journy...Live It.

Simply Put

It's press day today for two of our publications and they need to be uploaded to the printer before 5:00 and the time is now 4:12. Seems we are up against the clock but in publishing it seems this is just a normal process but I would rather it not be the norm. In owning your own business you can look at ways to make a process run smoother and hopefully it will help the employees with their daily work load but there are times when looking into it you find that the best way to get something done is to do it the way it has been running. So why the same issues of pushing it to the very end? I can knit pick until I am blue but the bottom line is your employees need to do their best from day and make each minute count but not every person has the same motivation as that! Me and my managing editor whom is soon to have additional rolls can see that there are always some that are just taking advantage of the good nature of people around them and they are just plain lazy with a lack of motivation! Motivation has always been such a huge part of my make up of who I am, God has placed that in me and I am thankful my parents instilled that in me and my sisters as we were growing up. So now the challenge is how to instill motivation into those that work for you who lack this. Yes we are motivated to get up in the morning to go to our jobs or we will not see a paycheck, yes we are motivated to keep ourselves clean (hopefully), yes we are motivated to eat without food we do not exists yes we are motivated to keep gas in our cars so we can get to point A to point B and on and on and on I could go with many more but you get the picture! So I will continue to work on this motivating the troops and see what works and what does not. If any of you have some insight please feel free to share I am open to hearing your thoughts.

On to other things....going to have a great dinner this evening at Carraba's they are having a special night to raise money toward "Relay For Life" the tickets are only $15.00 which is a small contribution for such a huge need but every little bit helps for continued research.

Gotta Run

Live Is A Journey....Live It

Karen

Feb. 12, 2010 Lazy Evening

Glad its Friday and it seemed like this day went on forever! The truck came in today with two of our four publications on it totaling 4 skids but it was somewhat challenging since it was raining. The magazines are on a high white news print but if they would have gotten to wet that would not have been a good thing. We were fortunate enough to have two men that work for the owners of our office building and they were a blessing we finished unloading and stacking the magazines in our van and storage room in record time. After we were finished the two men said let us know when we can help again and my thoughts were ABSOLUTELY!

At this very moment I am sitting on the couch watching the opening ceremonies 2010 Olympics and seriously thinking about going to bed since I am having a problem keeping my eyes open.

I do not have much to share on this blog of any substance but I wanted to drop a couple of lines and I am determined to keep this up. I also am thinking about running again and getting on my bike soon so when I do I will let you know.

Gotta Go and get some rest....

Gotta Jet :-)

Karen

"Life Is A Journey...Live It"