Birthday Joy

This year for my bday I had the privilege of going to Utah and celebrating with all my MK friends. It was our Summit-a halfway point in the year full of recognition and tons of amazing training. It was my first time as a Director. On my bday we had a Director's day with our National Julianne Hackett and Judie McCoy, a visiting National. It was a powerful day getting to be in these 2 women's space. I had 9 of my girls attend Summit counting me-which is phenomenal in itself. So they decided to go all out for my bday. They had a tiara, bday sash, and magic wand so they could be at my beck and call. Throughout the day they had other directors and friends give me little notes of love and appreciation. At the end of the night they awarded me with some beautiful roses. It was so much fun. All this took place at my National's home, Julianne Hackett. She was kind enough to allow us free roam of her entire home-even her closet. After seeing her shoe display the girls decided I needed one just like it! My beautiful roses!
Here are some of my girls and Julianne, our National. We are, in fact, in her bathtub. Which may seem to be an odd thing, but in the MK world is considered a tradition and good luck to sit in a National's tub. The tradition started with Mary Kay herself, when a Director would debut she was invited to MK's home and got to sit in her heartshaped pink tub. So now whenever we go visit a National's home that is the place to take the picture. It definitely gave us some amazing mojo the next day!
Here are some more of my girls with National Judie McCoy. She was one that wrote me a note, that I will cherish. It was so amazing and powerful to be in her space. I know that I am going to be a better Director and woman because of it.
Here I am in all my bday glamour. I was just slightly embarrassed to meet Judie like this but my girls were so excited. Thankfully halfway through the day they let me off the hook and I was able to take off the sash and tiara!

The next day was recognition and training. I had been asked beforehand to give a 10 minute speech which I was excited and nervous for all at once! It went extraordinarily well and I received 3 standing ovations. The only speaker to do so, so it was an incredible triumph for me. Next they crowned the Consultants Queen and my girl won #1 in the entire National Area! Plus she is currently in the top 20 in the company. Yahoo! I didn't think it could get any better, but it did. Next it was time for the Director recognition. We have 3 main categories we place in, in the first 2 I was in the top 10, which I was ecstatic about because we are a brand new unit. But it was the final category-Top Director of the entire National Area that blew me away-WE placed #1!!!! I still can't believe it. I was literally speechless! Especially because our competition is unit sizes of 200 or more and we are a unit size of 40 and we beat them all! I found out later that it was by quite a lot. It was an amazing weekend. To top off the day Julianne let me drive her convertible pink Cadillac to lunch. Yup, I drove my NSD's Cadillac!

I am still reeling from all the emotions but more determined than ever to stay on the throne. At seminar in July if (I should say when!) we win first place we get to stay in a Suite at the Fairmont and receive limo service to Awards night. Andy is coming with me this year and it would be amazing to be crowned queen with him there to share it!

The best part of all this is I finally feel like I am getting to be the woman I always imagined I could become someday. The Lord is truly blessing our lives and making our dreams come true. The ironic thing about all of this was I was most scared about not being a good Director back when I debuted in June. Now I know I truly am changing lives and making a difference and that is all that matters to me! It was a Birthday weekend I will never forget!

And the Award goes to....

Moi-that's right me, I am nominating myself for Worst Mommy of the Week this week. I know some of you can hardly believe my audacity to nominate myself; when so many of you feel you have a real legitimate shot at it. But no; I truly feel the crown belongs to me this week.

Here's why-I have been running, running, running for full speed for too long. Between school, MK, house, MK, church, MK, holidays, birthdays and did I mention Mary Kay?! I am feeling a little ragged around the edges. It is nothing that a good nap and long day at the beach couldn't cure but I didn't expect to be doing so phenomenally well so fast with our unit, so I am scrambling to put systems in place to make my life smoother for my fam and me AND I am hiring an assistant-this week! But my life has been a little nuts as I have tried to do the job of several at once.

So this morning I get my kidlets up for school and we all can feel the chill of winter in the air so I make everyone hot cocoa. I send my first out the door for school and low and behold I have a few minutes wherein I can let my younger two play for a bit before the next rush. So I close my eyes on the couch for 10 minutes and then we are up and running again-getting clothes and shoes, socks and coats on. Then because it is so much colder we break out the winter hats and gloves, check backpacks drive down to the bus stop and send my kindergartner off. Sigh of relief-only 1 more run to go and then 2 blessed hours of peace and quiet. But did you catch what we forgot??? BREAKFAST! It wasn't until I got my, now 4 year old, home and he wanted more of his cocoa that I looked around and noticed I had not made breakfast-just hot chocolate. Argh!
Now you can see how well that crown fits on my head-perhaps it should read: To the most Absent Minded Mother, may you not forget. Needless to say, I made him a sandwich and drove over to his school, caught him before the bell rang and tried to cajole him into eating it really quick. He succinctly informed me, with no small amount of indignation that, "Mom, we eat breakfast at home." As if I weren't already aware, oh the irony. Do you just not love the wisdom of children? So I warned him he would most likely get hungry and his sandwich was there in his bag to eat when he needed it. Heaven only knows what his teacher will think of me now when he informs her that his mother didn't get him any breakfast. (I am already on her list-which is a whole other story.)So I hope thus ends my reign of Worst Mom of the week with little to no fanfare or pomp and circumstance.

PS I should add that he is my child that if is blood sugar goes too low he falls apart and can only be put to bed in a high state of tears and exhaustion-not a pretty sight-can you imagine that in school-I'd rather not. But there you have it, cross your fingers that he eats the darn sandwich!

Be still my beating heart...

So I have a confession to make- I have a slight, not particularly too bad, but still present-shoe addiction. I LOVE really gorgeous shoes. I happened to mention this recently at a class and a gal turned me onto this amazing website called shoe dazzle. It's a dream come true! For only $39 a month you can get a pair of shoes. Not just any old pair, I might add, but a really gorgeous designer pair that comes wrapped in tissue and with it's on shoe bag. Yup, that is a mark of a really good pair of shoes, let me tell you. So the best thing is you don't have to choose a pair each month, you can skip, or quit anytime, no fees, no guilt inducing emails, just stop whenever you want, but the question is why would you?

So I got my first pair today and while they were DIVINE, they were just a little too high fashion for me-I did not catch the stiletto heel while I was drooling over my selections. So I am simply tucking them back in the box and affixing the free label to send back and trying for a different pair. Can I confess I am totally hooked? My husband is thankful it is only one a month! So go check it out, if you love shoes it's your kinda place-you'll love it!

I am having a little problem here....

SO life has been fun in our household since I have been trying to plan the perfect week. It's become somewhat of a running joke as we have had lots of illness and mishaps that just come from living day to day. But I am continuing to try.

I had to take a moment though and write about some funny things that have happened lately. Joe just turned 6 this last week-(pictures to come,) and started kindergarten. He has been full of the most hilarious little things, so I had to share! We were in the car driving along and he asked me; "Mom, do we live in Costco or Japan?" I said back, "Costco or Japan? What do you mean?" He replied; Well, Mom, Uncle Brett lives in Costco and Aunt Linsey in Japan so where do we live?" It dawned on me then-Uncle Brett lives in Pasco and Aunt Linsey, Richland-both of which sound very similar to his question. I think he didn't know those words and found ones that were closest in his mind to try figure it out in his head. His dad and I laughed alot, it was pretty cute.

Next for our funny man, we have had a new neighbor move in who has 2 girls the same age as Joe and Jordan. In fact, Joe and the neighbor girl are in the same kindergarten class. They have become good friends-too good. I took her with us real quick, the morning Joe got to celebrate his bday at school, to pick out his treat. We got out of the car and they immediately started to hold hands on our way into the store, Joe confided in me as we were walking that they were best friends and only kissed sometimes on the lips and most of the time on the cheek. My mommy brain went screech! Out loud (very calmly I might add) I explained that kissing on the lips was only for grownups (the neighbor girl is very interested in all of this because her daddy has a new girlfriend and they are still in the twitterpated stage) and that they did not need to do that until they were both 20. They were very solemn faced but agreed. I double checked a couple days later to make sure there had been no liplocking and Joe had told me-nope! Wheww! I know this one is bound to come up again but hopefully not for a year or 2 more!

The last in the "Joeisms" is our fun with illness. This being his first year in public school he is catching every illness out there. Last week it was bronchitis and this week it has been the "2 spew flu" (thank you Melanie for that apt title) We kept our guy home today since he has the throwing up flu. The funny thing is he threw up 2x with no fever and seems to be his normal happy self, no side effects. (hence the name) But the best part was this morning as he was dashing for the toilet for his second time, paying homage to the porcelain god I came and checked on him and asked him if he was ok. His response after emptying everything, even the acid in his tummy was; "I am ok, Mom, I am just having a little problem here." I had the hardest time not laughing out loud. The best part was he was totally serious, as soon as we got some food in him, he could hold down, he was his normal self!

So while we are dealing with the illness and fun mishaps at least we are laughing lots in our family! I guess it's been the perfect week after all!

The perfect week

I recently have been working on trying to get more organized for this new year ahead for my family. I want to do more and accomplish more as a family than I ever have before. What I found is it takes planning-ALOT of planning. I have also found out that I am a great planner-for big scale events & short term goals-but for everyday, like planning hours, weeks, months-I do not like it! I have been of the philosophy that if I cross my finger's and have a good idea of what I want for the month-or year, the rest will fall into place.

Oddly enough this does not seem to be working quite as well as I would like.

So in listening to some motivational cd's the speaker spoke about planning our perfect week. What activities would you include in there-how would you choose to spend your time? I had never thought of planning out my time quite like that. But I got really excited about the idea. Because I realized that if I started out planning the perfect week and began to fill in where I could that I would start to have more and more weeks where it went how I planned instead of sneaking up on me. Then those weeks would accumulate into months which would turn into a year. Ahhh, the perfect year! What would that be like? It really caused me to sit and reflect on what a perfect day-a perfect week or year would be for me and my family.

So Monday mornings I am starting to plan my week putting in all my essentials like FHE, scripture study, enrichment, kid's open houses, things like that. Then I am marking out time for the things I would like and need to do-like reading a book, making work calls, scheduling facials and classes. It is exciting to me because I am getting all the necessary things in first and still having time left over. Then I don't have to feel guilty for reading a book or 2 - I scheduled it in so I can have it!

I thought it would be confining and a little OCD but I am finding it is just the opposite. It is freeing because I know when and where I will be doing things. Last but not least, I do have to include in here that while I am striving for the ideal the practical side in me realizes that there are going to be off days, weeks and months, but I am hoping to get an equal sprinkling of really ON days, weeks and months. Ironically as I sit and type this I am in my bathrobe, unshowered and it is noon today. So today is falling into an off day, due to the fact that I have 2 sick kiddos. LOL But once I get them down for naps we get right back on schedule! So here's to perfect days, that lead to perfect weeks, that lead to perfect months to an incredible year!

AWOL

So it's been so long since I have done my blogger I forgot that you must upload the pictures first and then write all about them. So I did it the opposite, which is a good indication of my state of mind lately, lol, so enjoy the pictures first, in no particular order

and then you can read all about my summer after! Dallas Texas, Seminar awards night-the girls decked me out in

false lashes and straight hair-I loved it!

Meeting Robert Jones-International Makeup Artist-he told me my hair rocked!!!
If you aren't familiar with who he is-google him, I promise you will be impressed!
The first day of Seminar! One of my top girls, Laura Francis-we had awesome seats!

Lyneve Bailey, another one of my top girls, another seminar day. National Awards night with some new friends, fellow directors Hollie Mahoney, Wendy Rickertsen, Marlene...(I temporarily forgot her last name, oops!Some of the bling I earned on National Awards night!

My national, Julianne Hackett, MK Awards Night

One of my girls and I on a trip we earned just before Seminar

In Dallas Texas- all the girls in my unit that came with me. Don't they look AMAZING?!

A dear friend, Terah Partridge-we stayed for 4 days over the 4th of July

she spoiled us rotten, it was heavenly!

Jared and Lydia (Terah's daughter) at the beach looking

intently for rocks and shells of every kind.

More of the gang at the beach-we found tons of jellyfish that day.

Here's Jared with another specimen we found, luckily it was not alive! Flowers my girls gave me when we debuted as a unit!Jared setting up for camp!

With a dear friend, Beth, at my debut-the first time in my Director's suit!Jordan and Joe hanging out in their cute shirts their Aunt and Uncle gave them from Mexico!

So I basically took the summer off for writing in my blog. It has been a whirlwind but now that we are getting back into the routine for school I feel like there might be a chance to be able to sit and add a few thoughts occasionally. So here is a quick recap of my summer:

In June we debuted as a brand-new unit-yahoo and Jared had 11 year old Scout Camp for a week!

July 1st we had our official coming out party in Mary Kay as a new unit!
July 4th weekend-we visited some friends on the coast for some much needed relaxation and downtime.

We came home and then I packed for a week at Camp Zarahemla for Girl's Camp. My job was the Stake Craft/Activities Director-we had an awesome time and the girls loved the crafts-but I was WAY TOO ambitious to plan 2 crafts a day for 150 girls. Whew!!!

I came home for a week and planned my units' end of the year Awards night, we celebrated in style! Then packed my bags and left for another week! (Yes, I am still in July!)

This week was spent in Dallas, Texas for the Mary Kay end of the year Seminar. I had a great time making new friends and earning a ton of prizes-super fun! Home again in August-I breathed deeply and began unpacking a month's worth of being gone-got sick from running around too much on too little sleep and then it was time for SCHOOL!

This year has been a huge transition for our entire family. Jared started Middle school, Joe Kindergarten and Jordan preschool! It is hard to believe that I have moments during the week now where I have no kids to take care of! But I am trying to adjust. (lol) I am thoroughly enjoying it and so are my kids. We have hit some bumps and bruises with Jared adjusting to MS-he is also learning to play the sax-everyone else has done well-except Jordan-he loves Preschool, it is just the trick of teaching him to pull up his own pants after he's done in the restroom. Let's just say the kids in his class have seen more of him than any of them should have to.

So now my typical mornings run a little something like this:

5 am alarm goes off-I hit the snooze, drag myself out, groggy eyed, read scriptures and pray, try to shower for the day, help hubby get out the door, work on quiet projects

6:30 Help Jared up and at 'em, no small feat mind you.

7:10 he is out the door

7:15 Joe is up for school, feed and clothe both boys

8:00 walk Joe to bus stop

8:10 come home, clean up breakfast, get Jordan ready to go

9:00 Drop off Jordan to school

9:15 come home and collapse in an exhausted heap and get ready for the afternoon run around!!! There is a song Hillary Weeks does just for moms that run like this. I would love to post it on here but I am just not computer savvy enough to get it on there-try googling it on YouTube-it will make you smile! So hopefully my faithful readers will forgive me for my crazy ways and last of all hope you enjoyed the few snapshots of our summer fun!

Invitation

I am extending an invitation to all our friends and family to come to our Debut for Directorship! It is at the Union Library at 6:30. You will get to meet my amazing Unit and cheer and shout for them for all their hard work-and a little for me too! We won't be doing any skin care or color, just celebrating!! You'll also get to hear from Andy, from me, AND my amazing National-Julianne Hackett. She is coming all the way from Utah, to celebrate with us! Plus my mom is making the desserts-so for that reason alone you'll want to come! Hope to see all your smiling faces!