Another week has gone by....

And we are still playing the "hurry up and wait" game. We are waiting to hear back from the company he interviewed with last week. They said they would contact him this week. It is Wed. Am I an idiot to hope they would have called on Monday? I hate waiting. I am NO good at it.

In other news... my birthday was good. My fabulous friends joined me for the movie Last Kiss and we had lots of Almond champagne and laughed and talked. My friend put it all together for me. She rocks. Love her to pieces. She just got a NEW job... and I am SO TOTALLY excited for her and hoping some of that NEW JOB mojo spreads this way!

Have a fabu day..

So.. it's been another week..

Time is running out. I am trying to remain calm. There is a pretty significant interview tonight and then I am sure more waiting. I hate waiting.

As a friend of mine said, My bills aren't flexible, why should my salary be?

Deep breathing is of the essence. Had yet another bad morning. Was awake half the night trying to stategize our next move. Had to trick myself to get back to sleep. Woke this morning and both of us were full of energy and fire and became very pro-active together. Unfortunately all I can do is talk.. I can't be the ONE to DO anything. I didn't lose my job. I am not the one who deserves answers. I can't be the one to demand them. I HATE THAT.

Control issue much? If this were any other thing, I probably wouldn't get so worked up.. but jesus h christ... he has a FAMILY to take care of and they don't give a SHIT that he has been an EXCELLENT employee for 13 years! Why didn't they offer him the option of something else? Why the fricking FINALITY? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? Sorry.. ugh

This past week...

Has been a testimate to my sanity.

Has it been easy? NO.

Has it been enjoyable? NO.

BUT, it has been a lesson, one in which I won't soon forget. We have survived through this past week with very little food or sleep, very little energy and very little comfort in our future, but things are finally starting to come together. Resumes have been submitted, interviews are scheduled, bills are being consolidated and we are finally able to catch our breath a bit.

Thanks for letting me vent... if anyone is listening, I appreciate you. HUGZ

Trying to stay positive...

The main bread winner in the family has just been given 2 weeks to find another position.

(me breathing deeply)

The main bread winner just called to say the next best thing is over 20k less a year.

(use those child birthing techniques)

The main bread winner is sad, hurt and confused as to how this could have happened after 13 years at the same company and just as many GOOD reviews.

(blowing my nose)

The main organizer of the house is currently in freak out mode, please check back later to see if she has pulled herself together yet.

And so we welcome Wednesday to this week.

Constantly amazed..

How certain songs or movies or books can affect me so.

I am absolutely SCARED about what JK Rowling will do with the final Harry Potter. I am a sucker for a happy ending and I am totally unsure if she will go that way.

I was thrilled to DEATH with the way Stephen King ended the Dark Tower series.. it gave me hope and helped me realize to take opportunities and have no regrets.

I LOVE Zach Braff and his amazing ending to Garden State.. when during the movie, Jason and I were holding hands and were so afraid that the plane would crash and he would die and that is how it would end. The reality was SO MUCH BETTER.

When I want a movie that will make me cry and laugh and be totally satisfied at the end, I pick either Garden State, Notting Hill or Sense & Sensibility. In that order.

Our family has a LOVE of Hayao Miyazaki's movies and Howl's Moving Castle makes me cry just to think about it! Always a message of love and acceptance.. always comforting at the end.

Zach Braff just added me as a friend to his MySpace account and I wanted to SCREAM! He has about 18000 friends but hey, he took the time to add me and that made me happy. Not to mention, that man has AMAZING taste in music.. the song on his MySpace page is by Imogen Heap, called Hide & Seek. Fricking AMAZING. I actually heard it MONTHS ago on Star94.1.. she does everything in this song completely accapella, and her tone is the kind that gives you goosebumps. They used it to choreagraph a dance on So You Think You Can Dance and I forgot to look and see who the musician was... now I know. I have a feeling that Last Kiss is going to be another movie I can't live without.

Ok.. so maybe it is almost that time of the month... I dunno but I am so damn emotional lately! I want to cry and laugh and do all of it at the same time.. weird.. Much Love.. S

Do ya ever..

Just sit back and think about High School? Maybe one time in particular where you were just CRAZY?

I was doing that the other day. I realized that as a parent now, I would FREAK OUT if I found out my teenager was doing some of the things I did. Not that I was a bad kid, because as kids go.. I was a good one. But there were some times where we just did STOOPID things!

For instance.... A girlfriend and I were driving around the local movie theatre one night and we saw some cute boys in a car.. we followed them.. chased them around the parking lot.. got them to pull over and then went to their house for a party! OMG... They were hotties.. and we DID have fun.. but still!!

Now it makes me think.. what kind of parent do I want to be when my kids are teens? I obviously won't be like MY parents, who were so doped up and into themselves that they didn't CARE what we did.. but I also don't want to hold the reins too tight because then they will lose respect for us and rebel. No rebellions please.

Anyway.. just an unrelated rambling for today. Just sit back for a minute and think about the FUN you had in High School/College. Not the crappy times, cuz there were PLENTY of those.. but a FUN time.. a CRAZY time....

S

Campin'

So yeah, we are camping right now. Of course, SOME would say we aren't camping at all.. since we have an RV.. but it is CAMPING to us! Well, I DO have my laptop and I AM skimming wi-fi access off of someone.. but still... we are all living in a 24 foot space together... LOL... we have a BBQ, bikes, swimsuits, folding chairs and BEER... now THAT is the way to camp.

In other news, we will soon be purchasing a home protection devise... AKA - GUN. The one Jason likes is a .45 1911 Kimber. I like the stainless steel with mother-of-pearl grips. hehe

Anyway... That's all for me, I will post pictures of Jason's new tattoo when we get back!
S

Another day....

Today I was all kinds of grown up... I got up at 5am, got ready and was out of here by 5:45am and on the road by 6am. Drove to Long Beach (no traffic WOO HOO) for my rep Monika Thomas' customer day. It was so much fun! Make n Take tables, teacher taught classes and of course, the 1 hour class with Ms. Kelly Pannachi herself!

So many cute projects and hanging out with fellow store owners!

Next year Jason wants to come with me. Got to order new Sandylion (ADORABLE) and Lil' Davis, got to see some new products I hadn't seen before. It was like a mini-trade show! Makes me sooo anxious for October - Memory Trends in Vegas baby! By FAR my favorite show of the year.

I had an AWFUL night last night and I am way paying for it today. Went to bed at midnight, tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. Kept waking up with the WORST stomach cramps... got a total of maybe 4 hours of sleep. On the way home from Long Beach I was sooooo sleepy and had an AWFUL headache to boot. Did make it home in one piece with minimal traffic. Had to sleep for like 2 hours and now feel soooo much better.

Working tomorrow. BIL and SIL and niece & nephew are planning to come out from Florida at the end of the month and we are SO excited! Curtis just wants to hang out and I can't wait to meet the lil' one for the first time! I get to babysit her!!

Ok... off to eat... see ya!

Tattoo Pictures

Welp, here they are! The story goes like this. I got a tattoo on my ankle when I turned 18. It was cute, but not as elaborate as I wanted. Much later in life I covered it up with a realistic Lotus/Water Lily. Loved it. Felt like it needed something else on the inside... a cuff so to speak. Finally got it done. Now I need to go back and have the original freshened up to match the intensity of this one! YEAH! Here ya go... action shots! Click on them to see full size!

Am I really interesting AT ALL?

Hmmm.. I would have to say that yes, I do have some interesting qualities. Even better is the fact that my family is SO FRICKING WHITE TRASH that we could have an entire month of Jerry Springer episodes dedicated to us and it would only SCRATCH the surface. But enough about them... on to me!

Seriously though.. sorry to be lacking in postage. My gal pal and right hand man got sick and I had to work and incredibly AWFUL amount of days in a row. Topped off with a FABULOUS weekend off with no kids and just me and JASON! There was a small incident that did infact involve "bed - breakage"... but we will just move on past that.

I got my tattoo done on Monday and BOY does it look awesome! Did I mention how much it FRICKING HURTS? or... HOW HUGE MY CANKLE NOW IS? Oh yes, you read that right. I don't have an ANKLE anymore. I have a CANKLE. Looks like a cross between your calf & ankle. Swollen and fat. UGH... the heat doesn't help. Nor does walking around on it all day but what can you do??

I will be posting pictures asap... or rather... asaiptotc.. which loosely translates too.. as soon as I pull them off the camera... hehe

PEACE OUT

Ahhh.. the moon hath risen....

It's a full moon tonight and BOY do I feel it! I purged at the store today, throwing away racks and fixtures I wasn't using, clearing out room for new stuff, cleaning up my table area... etc. That felt good. Put some stuff on clearance, lowered some prices on other things... yanno.. basic blah blah.

I need to do the same here at home now.

We are waiting to hear when grandma's service will be. Man, almost 2 weeks now since she passed. Sadly, I didn't visit her as much as I should have in the past few years. Life happens and I let it be an excuse. I was just SO glad that I was able to visit and talk to her before she passed and to actually be there as she left us. She hadn't been the same person for several years but she was still grandma, even up to the end. Apparently she looked at Grandpa and Uncle Ricky and said - Oh gawd... - like... PULEEZE go away.. hehe... cracks me up to think about it. I am making the guest book for the service and found some real-pressed Pansies to use. Very excited about that.

May possibly be traveling to the East coast to help a friend move. Hopefully we will find out for sure in the next week or so.

So much I want to do right now... go to the beach with the kids, go swimming at MIL's, get a TAN, get a FACIAL, get my mustache REMOVED, get my HAIR non-3 toned.... oh well.. what's a girl to do? SCRAPBOOK.. hehe

Today is a sad day....

~*~Pansy Foreman~*~

This morning at around 3:15 am my grandma left us. She was surrounded by family, she was not in pain, her body just slowly shut down until she was finally gone. She is the last of the most influential women in my life to go. My mother passed 10 years ago, my paternal grandma passed last year and now she is gone too. I was very fortunate to be there with her. Both my brother and I were there, he holding her hand, I rubbing her shoulders and back, trying to keep her warm. I will miss her dearly, but I know she is with my mom now, her baby. No longer will she have to deal with the dementia that has plagued her for the past 11-12 years, no longer will she have to live with pain and confusion. No longer will she need to listen to those around her bitch and moan about this and that. She was the best grandma she could be. She was loving and funny. Sweet and sassy. She was the one that I knew would hurt me the most to lose. I will miss the spunky humour and witty one liners she used to pull. I will miss her cursing out my grandpa or my dad. I will miss the way if felt when she gave big hugs. I will miss how she used to scare us kids when she pulled out her teeth. I love you grandma... know that you were special and loved and WILL NOT be forgotten. Have a peaceful journey and say hello to mom for me. i love you

TAGGED!!!

Yep.. I have been tagged and of course I will play!! Thanks to my friend for the tag.. now on with the show!

Ten Things I Hate...

1. People who act as though their patronage alone keeps your world afloat. Working customer service since... FOREVER.... I have seen it all. Especially working at the casino for tips. I totally appreciated every cent I received... but PLEASE don't give me attitude if I don't get to you fast enough and then bust out the "I'm paying your paycheck right now" comment.
Nowadays... please don't come in with a problem and tell me offhandedly... "I spend a lot of money here".. honestly... I KNOW your stats and most of the time, you are NOT one of my top spenders and WHY DOES THAT MATTER TO ME? Each and every customer is JUST as important as the next.. whether you spend $400 or $4. PERIOD...

2. Whiners.... I am not an empty well ready at the drop of a hat for you to unload on just so you can feel better and I end up feeling like crap! I will do my best to analize the situation, give you my take on things, offer opinions if you are asking and support you in your quest.. but DO NOT keep whining and not doing anything about it. I have never bought that phrase "Play with the hand you are dealt".... find different cards and go with it!! ps.. no whining also includes small children who are of my loins who don't want to do what they are asked and only want to whine about it.. knock that crap off and just do it. Life will be easier if you don't piss me off.

3. Haters.... I honestly don't use the word HATE in normal everyday conversation. I don't like it. Hate to me consists of having a VIOLENT reaction to something or someone.. and honestly, that is scary to me. Not that I haven't had it.. oh say a few years back.. hehe.. but I cannot STAND haters. People who make rude comments about someone because they are slightly different, race, sex, or otherwise. Can't we all just get along??

4. People who sweat the small stuff.. This is a relatively new dislike for me. I have absolutely been one to sweat and bitch about the small stuff... until I learned to utilize a VERY important phrase. LET IT GO. I understand that the dumbass in the Expansion in front of you just cut you off, but is it necessary to race up next to him and flip him off? Rev your engine and scream obscenities? Nope. I understand that there are people that may come in and annoy you from time to time.. but a sale is a sale and customer service is IMPORTANT... GET OVER IT. It means NOTHING to you.... let it go and you will feel soooo much better!

5. Disrespectful kids. The kind like the girls I ran into in Target the other night. My friends took me out and we of course hit Target afterwards. We are a bunch of clucking cackling hens when we are together, and these brats were mimicking my friends at the end of an aisle. Until I walked up behind them and mimicked THEM and said "You girls are SOOOO funny!"... and they got red and shuffled off. YES, I remember being 14 too.. but I would never have been so bold.. my friends on the other hand... whoooo weeee. I know they don't realize that they too one day will be as ANCIENT as we are but come on... don't act like a nitwit. This applies to kids and their parents too. ugh

6. Skow Walkers. Please move to the slowlane on the sidewalk so I can get by you. Thank you

7. Drug addicted parents. You shouldn't be allowed to pro-create. If you are lucky enough to have decent kids... you shouldn't sluff them off because they won't enable you. GROW UP.

8. Slow Checkout Lines... Why is it that I ALWAYS pick the lane that has a major malfunction or otherwise idiotic people?? WHY??

9. People who hit cars and then don't tell you. Someone side-swiped my perty mom van in my parking lot. I know there were a MILLION cars here that day but you COULD have left a note.

10. Friends who disrespect their other friends. Don't treat my friend like an ASSHOLE just because your life is a MESS and you are too big of a PUSSY to do anything about it. My friend ISN'T a bad mom, nor is she a bad FRIEND.. and how she put up with your attitude for as long as she did is beyond me! Just know that next time you call her.. she will ask you the TOUGH question and I bet you won't be able to turn that crap around on her again! HAHA

So there you have it.. my hate list for today.

Happy Anniversary!

Just another day right. WRONG. Today is the anniversary of the opening of my store!! 1 year ago TODAY we opened the doors and had QUITE the crowd.... and a year later I am still SO glad I did it.

This weekend marks a huge milestone for us! I am proud of myself for having come this far. I feel confident that I make wise (most of the time) store decisions... that our customer service is awesome, that our prices are great and that we bring a different energy to this business. PAT ON THE BACK. But I didn't do it alone. NONO. My amazing girls Cindy & AnneLise have been right there with me... as well as my business savvy saviour Lynda. The very first Design Team Members Valerie, Cyndy & Debbie brought amazing projects to the store for all to oogle and awww over. Yet let's not forget my customers. THEY MAKE IT ALL POSSIBLE. They support the store with their patronage and suggestions. Their enthusiasm keeps me going and I appreciate every second of that! THANK YOU ALL.

Happy Anniversary Scrappin' Attack!!

Did I mention...

that the rest of that day from the post below SUCKED BUTT? Oh.. I didn't? Oh well, now you know.

On to bigger and better things.

I love my friend Dacia. Can I just tell ya a little about her? SHE ROCKS. She is an AMAZING mom, not without normal MOM issues... she is amazingly SMART & SAVVY... she is an amazing FRIEND.... she is an amazing KNITTER.... she is an amazing WOMAN... and she is SPECIAL TO ME.

She has not had the best year so far. I felt and stated that 06 would be powerful... well it has been, but not always in a good way for her. I know she will persevere. She already has. SHE knows she can count on me when it is time to rant, logicalize (is that a word?), laugh and cry. I feel truly blessed to have her as a friend.

THANK YOU DACIA... for being you

Today will be a good day...

Despite my lingering cold... which turned into a very dry throat and lack of voice... it is soo beautiful outside this morning!! The cat is sitting on my armrest (very hard to type) and purring like a crazy cat... I want to clean up the yard a bit today and finish the last bit of laundry. I need to go to the store and help Cindy in a bit because yesterday Bazzill came (all 273 lbs of it) and KiMemories... and Notions... yikes.

Naturally our regular UPS man was gone so they loaded us first and delivered it late. Hate that. I had just enough time to get Ki in the computer and Bazzill out of the boxes. Not to mention the fact that I had a surprise visit from a friend who needed help with wedding invitations... so guess what else I did yesterday??? Oh yeah.. and it was busier than a weekend day too! WOWSERS...

So anywho... hopefully I will get a chance to take some pictures of my projects and load them up... we shall see!!

The weekend is over....

But WOW what a weekend! I picked Margie up on Friday morning and off we went to Horton Plaza! Lunch and Nordstrom here we come! Had fun talking and walking around! Headed back home to get ready for the crop. MAN was that fun! We moved the tables completely around and made a big circle. Margie was SO MUCH FUN! But of course I knew that, it's the reason I love her and invited her out! Her card make n take was tooo cute and the goodie bags and prizes were a nice bonus for the ladies!

The next day was a whirlwind! I absolutely LOVE my Boho wall hanging... the pictures I chose were AWESOME and the project was sooooo elegant! Alea was a big help (for the most part) that day and the ladies loved her... especially since she was so anxious to give away prizes! LOL

I have to find pictures for the 2 album classes but how much FUN was that? I love the Friends album because who woulda thought to make it out of a box? SERIOUSLY??? The paper mod podged on there sooo easily! The BE album is such a great concept. I have a ton of ideas... Be Unique, Be Strong, Be determined, Be an Original, Be Independant, Be Silly! Can't wait to finish that one up!

I was sad to see Margie go... she is so much fun and I love her to pieces! But hey... we will see her again at Memory Trends for SURE!

Yesterday was supposed to be clean-up day but alas... my cousin Joe came to town!! So we hung out with him at my Aunt Nancy's and then headed off to dinner with the whole fan-damily! Too fun! I started gettting a cold on Friday night but fortunately it wasn't too powerful... it just kind of gave me a sore throat and now I have a bit of a sinus clogging going on. (shrug)

I will be posting pictures as soon as I get my camera back! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

It's been a week...

Since we got back and we are finally finishing up around the house. Most of my shows have been borrowed and watched, laundry is slowly thinning out, projects are getting finished, some groceries have been bought and rooms are getting cleaned. Fortunately we cleaned before we left so it was pretty much just getting things back in place and in our routine again. I wanted to post a few pictures from the trip. We had so many amazing days... from the Redwoods to the Waterfalls to duck ponds and Hangman's Tree. Here are a few of the scenic photos from Yosemite.

Above is 1. Yosemite Falls 2. Yosemite Valley (El Capitan on the left, Half Dome in the middle and Bridalveil Falls on the right 3. Us hiding behind trees in the valley.

Below is 1. Alea standing in front of the Lower of Yosemite Falls 2. Alea all wet from the river 3. Jarrett in front of Bridalveil Falls 4. Jarrett all wet from the river

So it's been awhile... but

I do have a good reason. I was preparing for our VERY FIRST big family RV trip! We drove the 101 all the way up to Arcata to pick up my brother who graduated from Humboldt State University. Then we drove the 299 (beautiful right along the Trinity river) to Auburn to visit my Aunt & Cousins. Then to Placerville to stay with my cousin Kelly and her family for a couple days. Then back west to Sunnyvale to visit with my Uncle and then.... then we spent 5 days in Yosemite! WOW. Can I get a HELL YA?? It was AMAZING. The kids were great (for the most part) during all of that driving and visiting with people they didn't know. The RV was kicking... a fabulous home away from home. We saw so many beautiful sights and animals that I think I will dream of trees and waterfalls for the next 10 years!! I will post a few pictures as soon as I edit and transfer them onto my home computer.

Also, if anyone is interested or knows someone who might be, we a having a special guest teacher coming to our store next month for our anniversary. Margie Romney-Aslett from Making Memories will be hosting a fun filled crop and teaching 3 amazing classes on June 9th & 10th. Full details can be found on the Sassy Skool page of our website! I need to know by next week because we are in danger of not meeting our class minimums... so tell your friends!

I am off to work for now... catch ya later!

Wow I am sick...

Really sick I tell you. Yesterday I took a sick day and stayed in bed for most of the day. Last night I started feeling a bit better and today my head doesn't feel ready to explode. This is a good thing. Plans are underway for our trip.. the RV is mostly ready and we have some loose ends to tie up here before we will be ready to go. I just found out that Alea will miss most of the Star testing and makeup (oh woopy do) and we have to talk with her teacher about homework. Jarrett's 5th birthday party was a success and was very NON-stressful. We like it that way. Park party requires little clean-up.. LOVE that. I am still feeling blessed with my life.. but not so much with this cold.. hehe

HUGZ