So much to do...

SO MUCH COMING IN!! It has been a big week at the store, packages arriving daily! So much Christmas stuff that I had to completely re-arrange in there.. no room for it all! Plans and plots on the horizon... my mind is awhirl lately! Which is scary, since I have so much holiday stuff to do!

In Alea news.. I finally set her up with her own email account. She loves it! It takes her 30 minutes to type out 2 sentances, but she is fascinated with getting responses! How cute! Mostly she emails her cousin in Phoenix, but she also emailed my brother in No. California and her uncle in Florida! Her parent-teacher conference went AWESOME and they had nothing but good things to say. She had 4's on most of her things (4 being exceeds expectations) and the rest were 3's... so we are right on track for that! She is loving Girl Scouts and I absolutely can't wait until we can go camping with them. I treasure my girl scout camp memories as a little girl!

In Jarrett news... we had a rough weekend with odd fevers that just came and went. Which of course made for a very grumpy 4 year old. I found him playing with sissy's Leapster today.. she was actually letting him, and he was doing great! Guess Jason and I made the right decision getting him one for Christmas! I am very nervous about him starting Kindergarten next year, and really need to get on the ball with working with him on his letters, writing and whatnot. The boy is a lefty and it has intimidated me thus far. He is starting to write his name and other various words in pre-school, and his teacher assures me he is right in line.. but I have that 2nd child guilt going on... you know.. that we don't pay as close attention to him, or work with him as closely as we did with her... anyway.. I digress.

In us news... no news to say! Jason figured out how to put his fender back into the clips and now you can barely tell I banged up the pretty new car... all is well there... he wants some really weird electronic things for Christmas... nothing new there. I think I want and Ipod. A pink one. So I can put something brown on it and make myself happy. Well that and have a non-skipping music player for working out! Again.. that means I actually have to work out.. oh well! Off for now!

*Update on Falling Apart...

Welp, I think I found out why I was having those really bad UTI's... Kidney stones. Ugh. Yesterday I woke up feeling like yet another UTI was coming on... but it wasn't quite the same and my lower back hurt really badly. It got worse and worse until finally I was pacing around the house in so much pain I could cry!

Jason took the kids to Papa's and off we went to the ER. They were awesome, got me checked in and into a bed in a hurry. Iv in, pain meds in... ahhhhh.. sweet relief! I went and got a CT scan and they found a kidney stone about 2 mm in size. I was given lots of pain meds and sent home to "pass the stone"... and I don't think the worst is over yet. I spent most of the day yesterday gaga on my meds and today am feeling much more normal. So far I am just achy in my back, though they said it could take a few days to pass. I am supposed to drink tons of water to flush things out.

Anyway... we are cleaning the kids rooms out today in preperation for Christmas. I need to get rid of the things they no longer play with, and figure out what on their wish lists will be worth getting. Fortunately this only requires me to sit on the floor so I am not in much pain right now... hopefully this goes away fast!

Harry Potter...

I am SO sure that everyone is talking about this movie this weekend... and the hub and I went to see it today. A M A Z I N G . Even though they tweak the story a bit to trim it down... cut things and alter things a bit here and there.. it worked man. It was awesome. I tell you what, I know they are in pre-production of the #5 movie.. if these actors for ANY reason decide to NOT do all 7 stories, I will be SO FLIPPING PISSED OFF. I just can't imagine seeing anyone else doing them. I can't FATHOM them not finishing the entire series. Ok.. so anyway.... it was awesome, very hard to watch emotionally.. and I want to see it again. NOW.

Falling apart...

Who was it exactly who said that 30 is the new 20? Cuz apparently they were wrong. I am FALLING APART! My back hurts in the morning... I get UTI's WAY too frequently, I am hormonal moreso than before and am prone to teenage acne around my period each month.. WTF is going on??

So anyway... I think that my super secret teacher has just backed out on me... I am waiting on more details but DAMN I could cry... maybe I can swing something major for the store anniversary! Who knows... ugh... off to Sim for awhile... at least my SIMS aren't falling apart..

Well gee...

That last post was pretty wasn't it? I now know part of the reason I was feeling so crappy. I had yet ANOTHER horrific UTI. I was in SO MUCH pain by Tuesday morning... ugh... it is finally getting better. Now I have an appointment to see the Dr. next month to run some tests and see why I keep getting these.

In other news... I am an Auntie once again! Jason's brother and his wife had their 2nd baby on Tuesday morning! Lil girl they named Mia. So sweet! Can't wait to meet her... of course it won't be until mid-next year since everyone and their family now live in Florida... whine...

Alea's parent teacher conference is today... let's see how that goes... not expecting anything bad... better not hear anything bad!

Today sucks...

Can I just whine for a bit? I promise it doesn't happen often.

I feel awful about a situation at the store. There really isn't much I can do now about it since it didn't involve me. But I AM the owner, and I felt I tried my best to do the right thing. Apparently it wasn't enough. I hate feeling like this. I hate that there are people out there that now have a bad taste in their mouth because of me and my store. I hate bad publicity. HATE HATE HATE this whole thing. Now there is nothing left to do but deal with it. I don't deal well with people being unhappy with me. It eats away at me. I get down and have a shitty day... like today. I snapped at my husband and my kids... they didn't cause this. I don't really know what to do other than sit and whine and cry about it. I know I can't please everyone all of the time, but dammit I can try right?

So that is that... my whine is over. I know there will be days like this and situations will always pop up that I can't "fix"... but still... I don't like this feeling. ugh

Back from the mountains...

And oh what a feeling! I absolutely LOVE the cold, crisp mountain air. I absolutely DO NOT love the coyote I saw run by as I walked outside!! BACK inside I went! There was no fog, no rain and I took an amazingly crisp afternoon walk with some of the ladies. And Fall. I SAW FALL. Did I mention before that I live in San Diego and we don't GET fall? Yah yah... some of the trees change colors, but since the trees are few and far between, you don't get that sense of FALL. It was awesome!

Did I scrap? HELL YAH. Didn't think I would remember how. But apparently it is like riding a bike, get right back on and keep going. I started out with 2 cards to get the juices flowing and it went from there. 2 cards, a chipboard accordian book thanks to miss d.d., a 2 page 8x8 layout from my 30th bday at Benihana... and then I got on a roll. I am making a love album for the hub and I for our 10 yr anniversary in January. Pages need to be DONE I tell ya! So I did some pages... 8x8 and 4 spreads for that book. Then on to the 12x12. Finished up a few "started" pages and ended up with 4 2 page spreads! Not bad for not having scrapped in forever.

Wanna know my secret? THE LADIES.
We work so well together and bounce ideas off of each other and the creativity is infectious! With so much product and laughter, energy and ideas... it is hard NOT to be creative! I needed this weekend. I think we all did. I am so so glad we went. SO glad.

Here is my favorite nature picture from the weekend so far...

Oh my gawd....

I LOVE SHOES! Have I told you this yet? Well, if you know me, you know I have a few... uh hum... let's just call them obsessions shall we? SHOES is one of them. I LOVE SHOES and the funny thing is... I love my feet in cute shoes! Ask most women and they will be hard pressed to find a part of their body that they like... my fave part is my feet. I have cute feet! I love to show off my pedicure. I LIVE in sandals!

Another healthy obsession... eBAY! I have ordered the CUTEST shoes from LEI, Steve Madden and a few others and they are SO CUTE! SO CHEAP! SO AWESOME!

SO... here is the greatest thing ever... finding an amazing deal on eBay for BRAND NEW (eww on the used shoes) Steve Madden's chunky brown suede loafers. The EVEN BETTER PART? Finding them after 3 months, not even knowing you had lost them! STILL IN THE BOX AND NEVER YET BEEN WORN! These will be AWESOME for this weekend! LOL

SEE YA!

Cleaning Cleaning.. do do do doooooo

Blah blah blah CLEAN. In order for me to have a successful weekend coming up, I need to ORGANIZE. In order for me to lose weight, I need to CLEAR A PATH TO THE TREADMILL. So today was a cleaning day. 18 loads of laundry and about 100 stamp sets lighter, you can see MOST of my floor! AMAZING!

It wasn't a completely blah day though... the store called and our QK Holiday gift sets arrived! Also the Zsiage line that I won at Memory Trends came... as well as something else that is escaping me at the moment. 5 more Pink Squeeze's are due in on Wednesday so that will make the ladies happy!

And best of all? Our friend Danny came over after work today and just left about 30 minutes ago. He hung out and had dinner and just chatted a bit and played with the kids. Alea and I Easy Baked for the first time.. wow they sure have come a loooong way! An overall GREAT day... but it ain't over yet... gotta tackle a few more spots in the room before calling it a night! See ya!

OMGOSH...

I am so crazy busy today! Good news is that everything I needed to do got DONE. Now I just need to wrap presents, take a shower and head off to dinner! In other good news... I may have some news up my sleeve in regards to the store... hmmm... fun fun

OH YEAH... forgot to update everyone (who am I kidding) that we are still ON for our retreat! YAY!!

Sniff Sniff.... boo hoo...

Tomorrow.. my daughter will be 8 years old. EIGHT. When the hell did 8 years go by? I am still the spry 23 yr old that I was when I had her... at least I still FEEL that way. I DEMAND TO KNOW WHEN THIS HAPPENED.

Ok.. so tomorrow will be a full day...

Get up at crack of dawn and take children to school... go home, change out of "drop off kids at school clothes", shower, etc. Head to Target to buy said 8 YEAR OLD birthday present. Pick up 4 yr old and take him home for nap. Transport 24 cupcakes to school by 1:15pm for school bday party. Take 8 year old to get a haircut after that. Home. Dinner at Olive Garden with family at 5pm. 4 year old gets to head over to Papa's house for a boy's night... while Mom & Dad take now 8 year old to see Chicken Little. Home. Sleep.

Sounds fun eh? Anyone have any good gift ideas for an 8 year old?? hmmmm

Oh NO.....

I think our retreat might be falling apart... man I hope not! Fingers crossed that we still go... I really want to!!!

In other news... Alea is home sick again today, with a cough. She woke up at 11pm last night and I gave her some Nyquil... she slept without coughing until 6am. I decided to give her some more and keep her home, but she should be good to go tomorrow. She hasn't coughed and isn't all dopey like I thought she would be.

Her birthday is in 2 days and I have NO idea what to get her. She has so many things she doesn't play with already. We are boxing clothes and toys up to donate, so that will be making some room. I think she is over her Little People playhouse, that puppy takes up half her wall! So today I have to go grocery shopping and see about finding her a present. We are going to take her out to see Chicken Little on Friday night after we go out for a birthday dinner. Holy COW.. my baby is going to be 8!!

I thought I would share this cool photo I took about a month ago. Jason yelled for me to grab the camer and come outside. Looks like cotton candy.. with the sun setting it was amazing!

Holy Frijoles!

These past 2 days have been CRAZY with all of the products coming in! WHOA! The store is so full I am going to add some more clearance! LOL

Anywho... wanted to show off a couple pics from Halloween.. and share this great thing! A customer of mine came in today and asked if I knew about the Ali Edward's classes up in Irvine in January... umm.. NO!! So she said she would find out if there was still availability and we could totally drive together! HOW FUN! So yeah, I get to officially meet Ali now!

NOW... I was just perusing my bloggin girls... and Donna has announced she will ALSO be teaching in Irvine in January! ARG!! So now I need to see what that's all about and maybe I will be making 2 trips up there! We shall see...