Thirty-One Gifts

Here's another long story but one I feel the need to explain. Last week I was surfing the internet looking for items that I could have Chic n Scratch engraved or sew on to give my team members that are going to Convention. And....I found the company Thirty-One. I was like "WOW, they have some pretty awesome bags and I could see myself ordering a ton of items".......as well as ordering a few gifts for my team.

If you're asking...... "shouldn't I make them a gift?" 2009 is the year that I've learned I can't do it all and I need to delegate!! Are you guilty of that too?

Now back to the exciting news....I signed up to be a Thirty-One demonstrator. I tossed it around so many times it would make your head spin. But then I figured why not take my own advice and do it. What do I have to lose? Just like the advice I give my recruits with Stampin' Up!....the product is yours to keep without any strings attached.

My heart is with Stampin' Up! (& my bread & butter) and I won't lose focus on that.....especially after viewing the Holiday Mini Catalog this morning. That thing seriously brought tears to my eyes. I absolutely love it!!!

If you'd like to check out the Thirty One Gifts Catalog here's the link to my site where the catalog is available to view, click here.

See ya,

The Little Prince

Last week was one of those weeks that I look back on and wonder how I survived.......new ribbon & new designer paper arrived and I was buried with cutting & repackaging them. Along with being mom, wife....taking dogs to vet, kids to doctor.......etc!

While I was cutting the ribbon I had the TV on & I watched the Memorial for Michael Jackson. I thought it was a very nice memorial and when Brooke Shields spoke I couldn't help but rush to my computer and order "The Little Prince" book by Antoine De Saint Exupery. I'm a reader...how did I miss this book? There was a quote from the book that Brooke read and I had to write it down to remember it, here it is.....

"Eyes are blind, you have to look with the heart, what's most important is invisible."

July 4th

I thought I would share our 4th of July weekend.

There's something about the lakehouse that makes me very sleepy. The minute I walk in I hit the recliner and for some reason those recliners call my name the entire time I'm there. We all laugh, I can only take about 3 days and then I feel the need to rush home.

This weekend I decided to start calling it "The Napping House" where everyone is sleeping. Does that sound familiar? It should....it's a book I use to read to Chase & Brook when they were little.

Speaking of when they were little....Since Chase & Brook are both teenagers....they have a bit of an attitude. I try to make light of it...they are teenagers. Anyway long story short. As teens with their attitudes they will sometimes act like I'm an absent mom or that I've not done enough for them. But there are little moments that they see, that is not the case. This weekend when I renamed the lakehouse the Napping House, everyone was like oh yeah, I remember that book, you read it to us all the time. Then that started the conversation of all the books I used to read to them. And even that I read the Winnie the Pooh book out loud when I was pregnant with Chase (not that he remembers it but I've told him that story a bunch).

Another example of that was a few weeks ago, both Chase & Brook ran and jumped in bed with me and at the same time I started signing "there were ten in the bed and the little one said roll over roll over and they all rolled over and one fell out there was nine in the bed and the little one said"........ that started the discussion of all the songs I used to sing to them (and the fact that I can't carry a tune but I wanted to be the best mom ever and that meant I needed to sing to them whether it sounded good or not).

In less than a month, they've both realized that although I work all the time right now.....that has not always been the case. I'm still working on the whole balance thing!!

One last story....we went canoeing on July 4th and we had a great time. But, can you believe the last 40 minutes we got caught in a rain storm. I was not a happy camper but what can you do? So, I picked a water fight with Dave and Chase and it was sooo much fun!! I soaked Dave and they both soaked me. I wish I could have filmed Dave behind me sputtering (you know spitting the water out and yelling at me at the same time).

See ya!

p.s. I need to change the banner on this blog....can you believe I need to figure out how to extract a font file? I don't do that very often and I forget from one time to the next.