Playing catch up on entries.

Reason 4 Love -

My mom. Since she was such a great mom to take my monsters for 2 weeks, then fly up and visit for a few days, a mom's love is all you need sometimes.

Mom - for being such a nut and being yourself - I love you.
Mom - for giving me advice wether I want it or not - I love you.
Mom - for stepping back and watching us make mistakes - I love you.
Mom - for being my friend, my mom, my mentor, my vent - I love you.
Mom - for being so strong when dad died - we love you.
Mom - for setting the example, leading the way and never telling me how scared you were - I love you.
Mom - for being you - I love you.
Mom - I love you.

Off topic...

Onesome: Game- What's your favorite game? Sports? - Hockey and Baseball, but it has to be, I have to be there to watch. Watching on tv isn't fun. Playing tha game? Golf. Board Game? "Life" and a bunch of others that I play with my in-laws.

Twosome: Set- Do you collect anything? Is there anything you've worked to get a full set of? Coca-Cola. It's terrbile - here's a post with all my pictures.. that has just SOME of the items I have, not all. I think 3 to 5 boxes of Coca-Cola items are still packed downstairs.

Threesome: and Match- Have you ever broken something belonging to someone else and tried to replace it with a perfect match? Breaking? No. Dead fish that the children take care of? - Yes. A replacement of a dozen red roses that was given to a room-mate from her boyfriend that my dog ate up.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! Now play along, leave a message and go eat *g*

web day

I'm catching up on some web stuff today and lets all just shout "It's About Time!"... I learned to password protect a directory on one the Directors websites that I design and mantain today. That only took 3 months to learn, but by golly I got it figured it out then spent the next 2 hours trying to remember the password I had given it! DOH!

Julie and I quickly knocked out 30 more invites for our next Holiday Open House and then I can say "Yes.. I'm done for the season, bring on Valentines day".. NOT! Ok, at least not yet. I then worked on Anna's site. Yeah I know.. you would think I'm obessed with her lately, but she has become a great friend over the past few weeks, and I thought her blog could use some sprucing up (but I loved her purple look for the longest time!) and designed her a set from my own computer geeky hands thanks to work saying "Create!". Check her site out later... the images might be in place. Then I'm going to work on my own set for the new year, I still love this Santa look for a few more weeks. I change designs more often on my journal then I change the lint machine in the dryer! Eewww I know.. TMI.

Ugh. I have 2 used kids with teary eyes for sale. They just came back into the house and just tattled on each other. D's telling his friends about our slight "move" we had to make last March by saying we were "kicked out of the house". Sometimes I have to learn to keep my stupid trap shut so that these little ears don't tattle to every damn kid in the neighborhood.

There are no holidays in the fight against evil.

Or in my case... dishes. I think I am now on my 3rd round of dishes and still not everything is done yet from what we messed up yesterday. I want the 3 tier dishwasher I saw on the H&G channel a few weeks ago in my future home.

My mom is safely planted back at home, trying to fight off another cold. I hate to say this.. but I have got to get myself into better shape before I hit my 30's, I mean 35, I mean 40's or I'm going to be hating it later on and though I love her.. I don't want to really end up like her.. I still have time to refix things right?

We then went later in the evening to visit my in-laws. Some weird tradition is that we do Thanksgiving, (at her house most of the time) go home and come right back the next day for more pigging out, watching movies and playing some family games. Never fails. Tonight we let the kids play with us, so it was hard finding a game they could handle, and my in-laws receive an average of 5 new games a year, so they went rummaging through boxes that have never been open. They found a game called Trumpet and B and I had to help J and D, but by the end of the game, J was doing ok and not needing me and D once in awhile had to rely on dad for help and ended up winning the whole game. I'm still looking for the Mickey Mouse Family Trivia game set so we can have some fun with that.

Now to get ready for Christmas. Decorations will go up I think on Monday. B's only night off to be with the family. I can't believe we are heading into another year so soon. J will be 9 this coming year... egads! D will be 8. B and I celebrate 12 years of marriage, my longest boyfriend of all time. :) But the nice thing is.. right now, at this moment, I'm working. I can't say that enough. I'm working and I'm working my pink business and Christmas will be nice. Not grand, but nice. I'm not asking for much.. just a job.

I'm also a little late in posting some things I'm Thankful for -

• My husband B - a scary thought to lose him in my life


• My children J and D - the light of my life


• My mom - spending time with her


• A job


• My MK career - without it, I would not have the self-image I have today


• Julie - my dear friend


• Life - I'm breathing, I'm living, I'm here

Photos

The Table -






The Food -





B and I worked as a team and it was a blast. He got home from the midnight shift (make mental note of that comment) and started on the turkey. We cleaned up the house a bit and we moved the dinning table out of the kitchen into the formal room because there is no room in the kitchen for 4 people, let alone 7. I did the table up, I wish I had better pictures, but I have a crappy digital, so hopefully my mom took better ones that she will scan later. The table looked awesome, the fish behaved herself. Then about 1 pm, my mother-in-law showed up and we went into team work. B worked on the yams, I worked on the mash potatoes, then the corn, then he worked on the cranberry stuff, then I went to corn-on-the-cob and he went to carving up the turkey, the ham (yes, we had ham too) was already cut, just needed warming up. Slowly things went out on to the extra table we had out and it was just full of yummy things. My mother-in-law brought over 2 pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, rolls and stuffing. By 2 pm we were eating the works. Everyone full to the gills... my mom ends up taking 2 naps (she has a sugar problem) and my mother-in-law takes 1 and in between the naps, my mother-in-law brought "pre-Christmas gifts" for us, so we watched D play with his new "Spongebob CD game" on the computer. B got some light/tire gauge/gadget toy and J and I both recieved Christmas sweaters. I'm always telling my mother in law that I don't have any festive clothing like she does and so now I do.

By 5 pm we were watching the Travel channel and watching all the Disney secrets and B and I are justing wanting to go back there as soon as possible. (yes.. B is still going full strong) In-laws leave around 7 pm and B heads off to bed for the first time since 7 pm LAST NIGHT at 7:30. Mom heads off to bed for the 3rd time today at 8:30. My friend who lost her husband called a few minutes ago and we talked about how she and the boys are doing. Her husband was in need of a lung transplant and never told anyone because he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him. His body just shut down and he went down hill and never recovered. She said the boys are just in shock and she's trying to cope and I'm sitting here just wondering what can I do? She doesn't need me to babysit but has asked that I help with Kevin's birthday party that was cancelled because of his dad dying and now has to be rescheduled. I said not a problem. Can you believe her? She asked me what day was good for me to have the party? I told her to name the date.. I'll be there.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for tonight and I'm now going to go cuddle with my babes and watch the Santa Clause.

Happy Thanksgiving

Photos to follow.. food was great, everyone is full, mom took 2 naps... I'm waiting for the kids to come down off their sugar high.

Told You So!

Taking a small break from movie quotes..

Today I got home from work early and knew I had to hit the basement and dig through 30 boxes to find my china box. To give a small background on the china, my mom gave me her wedding set of china that was given to her from my Grandmother. I had the packers pack it - 7 years ago and since then the box has moved 6 times and never been unwrapped. I really had no idea what I would find in the box. But I figured that if the packers did it, we could get lucky and not have anything broken. Mom swore up and down that everything is broken and I'm sitting on false hope, so close to Thanksgiving. She follows me like our dog Shadow down to the basement and I find the box within seconds and I start unwrapping paper. I figured if anything is going to be broken, it will be at the top.. not so. Plates, platters, gravy bowl, salad plates, serving bowls, a depression bowl, one by one each item is unwrapped and everything is fine. I was doing the pee-pee dance of happiness that nothing was broken. But we didn't have to use everything and it was then I realized that there must be another box unopened because her tea cups were not in this box, so I'm not out of the woods yet, but those dishes are for another day.

I then took mom to the computer and went to "replacements.com" a site that warehouses china and stuff and you find your patteren and can buy replacements to your set. It took us a while to find who made mom's set, then it took us 40 links to find the right pattern. This is the pattern to my china that will be used tomorrow. Pictures to follow.

Then mom and I went for the pink night. It was a quiet night being Thanksgiving Eve and all but people still come, and we still get training. I finally got to pin my mom, considering she's been my personal recruit since January and minutes later she was pinned for her own recruits, she loved it all. They held the drawing for the $100 Dollar Day, which I have only won once before and I really liked this month's prize.. a pink cadillac business card holder (pictures to follow) that is no longer available to buy. I wanted it, but being it's November and many other consultants are doing $1,000 and $1,400 weeks.. my odds of my 2 business cards were not great. I was pretty much wrong on that thought. My name was pulled and I got the car caddy. :) Totally made my night.

My Christmas present from B arrived today. He's really on a fickle about it. I know it's from the coca-cola.com store, and that is it. He had them gift wrap it so he could put it right under the tree.. they sent him 2 pieces of tissue paper and a card - he's pissed now. So I know I'm guaranteed 3 coca-cola items for Christmas this year. My sister and mother-in-law will, now B is into getting me something.

B also got a letter from the corrections and they offered him the job for corrections officer, but he still needs one more phase to pass. He says the letter means nothing, he could still mess up the next test (physical), I think it does mean something and that the job is in the bag. We shall see. Happy Thanksgiving ~

lil Devil I am

Work has given me the task of desiging websites for practice. They want me to play with color, styles, textures and go off the deep end of design. I did a layout for Anna and her journal and we have been playing tag, I send her ideas, she has me change a few things. It's been fun doing something for her.. I can't create anything without having a 'theme' to go off of, so Anna was easy with her culinary skills, (ok and her party / single lifestyle too) :) ...but I'm wondering if I should put a tag-board in the code for her and once she loads it she will have one in place..hmmmmmm

Shock

B just called me, D's best friend - Kevin who is also 7, his mom just called. Her husband died a week ago and they burried him this week. We just got the call. I'm just shocked. She's not a few years older then me, she has 3 kids, all boys and they adored their dad... he was a work-at-home dad and though some of his ethics and thought process wasn't always on my level, he was a great father to the boys and I thought they were so lucky to have him do things with him. He had them all love baseball like it was going out of style.. and the oldest boy has mentioned that when he makes the majors.. he would by his mom their next house. I'm just in shock. I don't even want to think what would happen if B ever died sudden on me.

Can I call my mom and tell her I won't be home... ever?

Babies are home and so is my mom.. too tired, busy to post much today ~

It's the same things your whole life. "Clean up your room!", "Stand up straight!", "Pick up your feet!", "Take it like a man!", "Be nice to your sister!", "Don't mix beer and wine, ever!". Oh yeah, "Don't drive on the railroad track!"

The main quote is "Clean Up Your Room!" In 4 hours or less, B and I did a tornado like sweep of the house, getting it ready for my mom to arrive tomorrow. All of a sudden I'm major anal about her showing up and disapproving of something. I found out a week ago, on one of her last visits that she took back a table cloth she made years ago because I wasn't "taking care of it" and now all of a sudden I'm looking around the house now and going "What? What will it be this time?" So I know the kids will see changes to the house, we hung up paintings that I had no desire to put up in this house because we are renting, but yet she will point it out and make me look like an ungrateful person for the gifts she gave me. I love her.. but all I have to say is this.. Moms. Sad part? I'll probably turn out to be the same way on my daughter!

B and I wrapped up our Thanksgiving Dinner food shopping tonight. Got the turkey, yams, the "presentation" to make everything look cool (Anna... you're going to die!) and we even had a funny fight in the store and had another woman in the aisle just dying over our comments. We have turned into kids, I swear. Total misbehavior in the stores lately.

Got a haircut. Went short and sassy and B made a joke that it looked like a mullet cut and now I'm scared that it really looks like that. Butt head he is. There will be no pictures tonight, I did some on the web cam and they just look terrible. Maybe tomorrow.

OH - So Anna gave me some ideas of what to do to make the table look nice for Thanksgiving (and Anna - when it comes to blogrolling, add them where you see fit. I didn't add you till I started talking with you, because I wasn't sure if you would feel comfortable with it. Other blogs that have other blogrolling - go for it!) :) So I went looking for placemats and thought I would get festive "thanksgiving" placemats. This Coca-Cola nut can't turn down the stuff if it's on display.. and there in the table setting section was Coca-Cola placemats! I asked B - Traditional or Normal? We went with normal.. 6 C-C placemats, with 4 plain brown ones. Found out later my brother-in-law will be out of town so that counts him and his girlfriend out for dinner. I got this nice off white running board, and while in the arts and crafts, I was looking for a centerpiece, B made a joke that one of the vases looked like the bowl that holds our Meta Fish. He said we should make that the center piece. (I know Anna is going OH NO!) I grabbed some red poinsettia garland, wrapped it around the vase and said "Yep. The fish has become our center piece. The fish is even going to get festive colors in the bowl to match the placemats and season. We found dark red heart shaped marbles, with some white stones to set the color. I hope I'm doing the right thing, I'm sure it sounds tacky but you have to admit.. it will be a talkative piece! While walking around, we found a total decked out Coca-Cola bathroom set; shower curtain, bath mat, toothbrush holder, soap holder, the works. I told B that the ideal home for me is to be new so we can have our way with colors and scheme. I want a retro's 50's kitchen (black and white tile) so that it looks like a soda shop and all the coca-cola stuff will go in properly, but now I'm getting nervous that we might have to do the whole house that way. We also found Coca-Cola bedsheets and I thought about torturing the kids and getting them for their beds. They are Pepsi kids (yeah traitors.. they will get rich after I'm dead selling my stuff off) don't know where and how that happened!

Tomorrow everyone arrives at noon, if there are no problems with the flights. B was telling me yesterday the company (the airline) forgot to pay a bill that pays for "de-icing" and so they could not de-ice the planes for flights yesterday, about 45 out of 65 flights were canceled. HELLO? WHO forgets to pay the dang bill?? So it put everyone back a day in take off and with us getting snow up till early this morning, I was nervous they would cancel the flight all together tomorrow. But Denver is famous for melting quickly, and by 1pm it was almost all gone.

Other quick news then I need to sleep. I recieved another email from another lady in pink. I was is deep fear that when they did their google searches and found my site that they would be upset with me, telling dark secrets of the pink world, but I don't think I really do.. but I just felt that some would be upset that I'm telling my journal online. This sweet lady made my day when she told me this:
Hi from a sister consultant...

Last night, I was trying to find out if director's suits come in my size just to motivate myself to rise above lowely consultant status, and google gave me your blog. I have to say, it has been like reading my own life. All the ups and downs of MK life...the highs and lows...it seems like the highs are skyrockets and the lows are black holes, to me...but you have it all expressed perfectly.

I had a crapfest of a day with customers and turned to your blog and continued where I left off last night. Now I feel much better and like I should keep going, trying to build my business and not letting a few turd heads make me quit.

Thanks for sharing your happiness and sorrows with those of us who know them so well. it so made my night, and I know she's reading.. thank you. Thanks for reading and telling me I'm doing ok. :)

Night all.. Night Anna, Night Julie, Night Jennifer, Night Marsha, Night Althea, Night John Boy!

.:> Weather permitting, my babies come back tomorrow!

.:> Julie time this past weekend

.:> My babies come back tomorrow!

.:> My Holiday Open House - Made $300!

.:> My babies come back tomorrow!

.:> New Clothes!

.:> My babies come back tomorrow!

.:> The house has been clean for 2 weeks!

.:> Did I mention? My babies come back tomorrow! (I'm homesick for them)

.:> I'm working :)

Moms

MOM! I want to get off the phone now!!!!

Hey, pretty girl...time to wake up

Had our 2nd day of the Holiday Open House.

Lessons learned over the weekend..

1) follow up, follow up, follow up
2) make sure next movie to watch with Julie is a chic flix and not a wierded out movie (Mulholland Dr)
3) more junk food on hand

We had a blast, even though it snowed, and we ended up watching a movie, but I know we could have done better. Mulholland was strange and for those who have seen it, I now understand why my darling husband B - watched it twice. He called during the movie and I talked him and he told me "yeah, I watched it twice, but not all of it twice" so I know exactly what he's talking about. Pervert. Julie and I have decided we are going to go for 1 more open house in December for last minute shopping.

Another lesson learned over the weekend - shopping a "midnight special" is not always that "special". B and I hit Kohls last night after he got off work and I got back from the Unit Christmas Party. I need some pants. My weight issue is getting a little out of hand and I need some new clothes. After going to the Nordstrom training on Friday (oh crap, forgot to talk about that) I knew how to shop a little better this time around. But with all this knowledge, could I find what I needed? No! I couldn't find a darn pair of pants 1) my style 2) my size 3) my color 4) my length period. I started to believe that I was on a mission for shopping - just to shop and when I get home I would not like my purchases or I would walk out frustared that I didn't get what I came in for.

My point is - could I find any help? HELL NO! The one lady walking around the area I was in, was putting clothes away. She didn't want to help anyone, just wanted us all to get out so she could get home. I understand, but I'm there to shop! So I finally tackle her football style and get her to point me in the general direction for my size and all I find is the 80% off rack of clothes, and it's clothes from the summer with tons of jungle safari prints, shorts and sleeveless t-shirts. I later confirmed this with Julie - she had been there earlier.. they sent her there too. I about gave up and started to do a google seach on B in the store when I found 2 pairs of pants that were my size, color and style. Small problem was that one pair was a rich brown and doing a quick inventory in my head (I'm so glad I'm anal about how my closet is set up color wise) that I didn't have anything to match the brown pants, so I was able to talk B into 2 new shirts too.

I never told B that I went to the Nordstrom / Pink Lady training on how to Dress for Success Friday. I took a half day for it, so I know he would be a tad upset that I didn't go to work. But I went and I'm glad I did. Other great lesson's learned and the main 2 I got was - a) if it hasn't been worn in a year, toss it b) for every new shirt / shoes / pants, toss out an old one. So right there at the check out.. I told B he had to throw out 2 shirts when we get home and so was I. He never asked me where I got the information from, he didn't question me why it needed to be done and when we got home, he marched upstairs and tossed out 2 shirts. I ended up getting rid of 3 and 2 more this morning. My goal is to clean it out over the week and show him I need new clothes!

Anywho - here are the 2 ornaments I recieved this year from my Unit. The ornament is the one I picked from the goodie bag. We do the "White Elephant" way. Not sure how to explain it, but it's fun. If I open a gift and someone else wants it, when it's their turn they can take it from me. I can in return take it back, open another gift or take someone else's. I had my eye on 2 other ornaments that I wanted to take, but I knew when I opened this that J would fall in love with this and so I kept it. It was taken from me by another gal, for the same reason why I kept it, her daughter.. but I promptly went back and took it back. The 2nd ornament is from our Director. Every year she does a theme, and we all get the same. This year's is "Your Ship to Come In". Her wish for us is to take charge of our life, and to swim out and claim our ship. I'm the Captian of my life, have the power to set sail and make my choices. Pretty cool.