Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Born Seller

So, I sell this jewelry called Park Lane. It is fun fashionable jewelry that is sold at in-home parties. I love retail and if I could work in it while making a good living off of it, I would still be in it. I love doing the parties, but even more I like dressing up with the merchandise. :) Well apparently so does Juliet, she is also quite a sales gal and here is how we found out.....

I was having a party at Dinner's Ready (my parents old store) and we had a good 7-9 people there...as well as my cutie-pie daughter. Well like any girl she wanted to wear one of the 'pretties'. so, being a doting mother, I let her. She picked out one of her Granna's favorite pieces, which was a pink/purple pearl necklace with an antique look to it. She puts it on and roams through the guest and of course her being so cute, they stop their conversations to pay attention to her. She eventually got the attention of a good 3-4 people when she says "do you like my pretty?" the ladies answer with a reassuring "sure do honey, it is very nice" Juliet gives them the 'gotcha' look and very clearly states (not asks) "buy it".

So there you go. A born sales girl showing off her talent before the tender age of three. Needless to say the gals did buy some items and I did take her to a few more parties. :) and yes, she is still very interested in the jewelry, constantly getting into it and dressing up while wearing mommies favorite high heels. That is soo not me when I was that age, but I am hoping she is taking after me in some way because it would be very awkward to find out that is how Jason was as a little tike. ;~))

Thursday, April 24, 2008

a tad bit embarrassing.....

OK..so Deborah, this should make your day a little better. Let me tell you all one of the most embarrassing things I have ever had to endure and it happened today!
So everyone knows that I like to read. If I could spend 9 hours a day reading....I would! So sometimes my work is slow and sometimes it is just plain boring. So I like to take little breaks and read. Sometimes to make sure I get through a chapter or make it so I don't look like I read more then I work ;~) I will sneak my book into the bathroom and pretend to be on the potty.
Well today was one of those days....after about 3 hours of work I realized that if I kept it up I would be done and out of work with nothing to do for the rest of today or tomorrow. So I take my book, creatively hide it in a stack of papers and walk myself into the bathroom. I situate myself on my new found library chair and get comfy, for this is a long chapter and good book and I have to get through it. I was in there for a good five minutes when my leg started to fall asleep....so naturally, I re-situate...."Wait what was that sound? It sounded like something swishing...in water. I am the only one in here... how could something be swishing in water?" I think on this little plight of mine for a second and then it hits me like a ton or bricks. My dress has fallen in to my makeshift library chair and proceeding to soak up all the nasty toilet water......Uck. I am so horrified that I literally sat there for a good thirty seconds before my ears finally hear my brain yelling "get up you dolt, your dress is getting soaked in TOILET water!!!" I stand up quickly, mentally kick my self as the water starts spraying all over my legs and shoes...I hold the dress up so it can kindly drip in the toilet and not on me. Then I realize what I am going to have to do.....yup..ring it out. I put my book down. (ya books are that important...I lovingly held it away from spraying, dripping water). I take the chunk of dress in my hand and start twisting at the same time gagging so hard my eyes start watering. I almost had to stop ringing out the water to puke, but I held it and with shaking fingers, blurred vision and a wet backside I walk out of my stall....wash my hands (thoroughly!!!) and collect my papers!
Now comes my next dilemma....getting back to my desk with out anyone seeing. I walk out of the potty room and proceed to cling to the wall, whenever someone comes walking by I put my back to the wall and pretend to be reading my file....I also have attached my own personal theme song in my head and make my self chuckle because I think of Cronk in Emperor's New Grove. So anyone who was really paying attention would have seen a mortified, giggling woman pretending to read an upside-down file up against a blank wall in the middle of a random hallway with a dress that was most obviously wet all up the back. Ya...I was sly!
I finally get back to my desk and turn on my heater....full blast and stand awkwardly in front of it to try desperately to dry this dress. Now I work in a cube that faces a wall....so not many people come back this way, except of course, for today. The four or five people that did walk by looked at me quizzically and I explain in my most courageous voice with my chin held high..."it's cold in here", I complete it with a 'I dare you to ask' look and they go about their way.
Now two things. One....the water had NOT been used, but the fact that it is a communal bathroom and who knows what kinds of things stick in there is still the most disgusting thing and two...one would think this would deter me from reading in the bathroom instead of working, I am here to tell you that is most definitely not the case. I will just be more careful from now on and pay more attention.
So there you go. Disgusting, Embarrassing, Amusing and Comical all within a half hour....can't beat that. Now if you will excuse me I am off to go read. ;)

Monday, April 21, 2008

Say hello to my little friend

so anyone who knows me probably knows that I have a serious aversion to spiders. I couldn't tell you when this started or how it got so bad. I used to play with daddy long legs when I was a kid....but now, no way. Jason says I have spidy sense. I can walk into a room, tell their is a spider and make him find it before I will go back in there and sometimes they are so tiny he has a hard time even finding it.

Anyway, I am trying to not let my likes and dislikes influence Juliet. So, I try very hard not to show how afraid of spiders I am. One night she said there was a spider on her wall...thank goodness Jason was still home because he went in there and told her it was friendly spider and got her not to be afraid of it....she even helped daddy carry her new friend outside....Yes carried, she let it crawl on her. I am getting the chills just thinking about it. But that is good, I don't want her to have a phobia right?

so the next day she found another making it's way across the floor "daddy, my friend is back...come see" Jason goes over, gets excited for her about her new friend and gives me the 'probably shouldn't come over here' look and gets a paper. He lets her friend crawl on the paper so he can take it outside. well apparently this spider had other idea's because he crawled off the paper and started hanging from the paper from his little butt string. Yuck. Well all the while Frodo (our dog) was watching with half interest....until he sees this little guy dangling from the paper. Without another thought he goes over sniffs at it and then chomps it right out of the air, swallows and then walks off like he just got the best treat in the world.

Now four very different reactions went on in the room with this little incident. Frodo was very happy with himself and seemingly with Jason for providing this tasty treat, I was profoundly proud that my loving pet got rid of this vicious enemy, with out the possibility of it coming back into the house, Jason was thoroughly amused at the turn of events and had a smile on his face and Juliet was very disgusted that Frodo would have the audacity to eat her friend. "Fodo" she yells "you do not eat my friend, go to the corner". Of course he didn't and she gave him a thorough reprimanding lecture about friends and being nice and not eating them. It was super funny and cute. All the while he gave the 'but the door was open' look. (Deborah and mom are probably the only ones who will get that....but it is a 'what, what I do? look).

so needless to say when Juliet went back into her room I told Frodo what a good boy he was and Jason and I laughed about it.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Money....

So money is one of those things. You cant live without it....however, seems you can't live with it either. Someone or something always comes around the corner and snatches it away. So I got our taxes back this weekend. We got a pretty nice chunk of change. I was able to catch up on our cars and some bills, put some in savings and then had enough for food and gas and maybe a trip to the Scottish Clown. (that is what we call McDonald so the kids don't know where we are going haha). Anyway, I was happy....until life said "k, you had your fun now cough it up" yup, in a matter of literally two minutes 3 more bills came a long. It won't put me in the negative, but it did wipe the cocky grin off my face! I admire people who have the skill and discipline to save money. Some people can invest one dollar and make a fortune off it, while others (such as I) make lots of money (on paper) but can't for the life of us catch up. Mostly due to stupid mistakes and bad decisions. Slowly but surly we will catch up and someday look back on the days when we were poor and smile, but not today my friend...not today!

Jason is doing well, he is now an official resident of Idaho. :) They get their permits in the state they are schooling in, that way when they come back to their home states they don't have to take a test or anything. As long as they passed the schooling and have so much driving time they go right into a CDL. So that is good. He seems pretty excited and has made some buddies so I am pretty excited for him.

Juliet and I are having it out on the potty training issue. She is so smart but this is the one thing she just can't or won't get. She does awesome for a few days and then totally regresses. Drives me nuts but we are trying. I am sure when she is a teenager she will be super thrilled that I shared that on our blog...but I am a mom and it is my right to get to embarrass her...might as well start now right? hehe.

so here is a quick little story for you. Juliet LOVES to play teacher. she is always lining up her animals and baby's and reading them a book or singing them their ABC's. Well we have charts on our wall of the ABC's and 123's in sign language. She also tries to teach her 'class' that as well. Well apparently I was included in this class of hers (as I was on the couch and she lined up all her animals next to me). I didn't realize I was suppose to be paying attention, so I kept reading my book. I could here her in the back of my mind...telling her class what was what, but apparently there was someone in her class that was not paying attention. Low and behold, it was me! she came over and taped me on my leg, I mentally check where I am on the page, and with a smile say "yes, baby". She gives me the ' don't' you patronize me' look. I think "wait...what I am confused. She is looking at me like I am in trouble,". She sternly says " I am the teacher..pay attention". I try my hardest to look humble and say. " oh, I am sorry teacher" she smiles and goes to the chart with her pointer (a marker) says. "what is this?" and points to one of the letters. 'oh' I think " she needed to know what one of the letters were". I say "that is W" she looks at me, looks at the chart and turns back in a very grown up teacher way cooes "goooood, now time for nap" and proceeds to take all her animals and dolls into her room. 'wait, did I just take a test?'....apparently I did because she came back out and I asked. "is class over, can I read my book?" "Yes" she says in a very matter of fact way, gives me the "duh, we were over when I said it was nap time" and walks back into her room to scold one of the babies for getting out of bed.

it was very cute and funny, course I couldn't laugh because she is very much like me and doesn't like to be laughed at when she is being serious. I loved it though.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Just an update

Hello everyone

this is just an update on what is going on in our family. :)

Jason left for commercial driving school this morning. He starts school on Wednesday and will be there for three weeks, he will come home for one, maybe two days and then will go out on mentor training for six weeks. Depending on the mentor he could be back every weekend or he could be out the entire time. It will be hard but we are very proud of him and he seems very excited about doing this. After he completes all that he starts driving, for SWIFT. There is a member of our church who also drives for SWIFT and asked Jason if he wanted to team drive. This is where they have two drivers per one truck and they take turns driving the load. Which means they can drive longer and drop more loads faster then a solo driver. They get paid more but it is hard to find a partner you can get a long with, so their aren't a whole lot of them. I liked this idea because he won't be alone and get tired, or get robbed by some random person or anything like that...and get this everyone. The guy Jason is going to team with talks more then Jason......no you read that right.....talks MORE then Jason. haha. They are fast becoming good friends and are both excited. It is also good because this guy is big on bike riding and stuff while he is stopped and was wanting to find a team partner he could go to church and the temple with.....I am so excited that we found them. Plus their family is just a hoot. I love his wife and we get along very well! Anyway, once he starts driving with Chris (his real name is Jason but there are so many Jason's in his family and at work he goes by Chris...funny huh?), they will be out for three weeks and then home for one. So I figured it out. We will see Jason around three months a year. It will be hard but I think worth it. So I will keep you updated on that.

I do have to mention that I think our family is unique and handles things in a completely different way then everyone else. An incident happened this weekend in our family....if you didn't know or if she didn't want anyone to know...oops. sorry. :) Rebekah got in a little accident. Ok. I am way understating "Little". She was lucky she walked away, let alone walked away with out braking anything or internal bleeding. After the initial shock of it, and after we found out she was ok and was going to completely heal, we did what we do best. Started joking. Some would call us insensitive, some would just call us down right rude and uncaring. But that is how we cope and it makes life much more bearable at times. We all cried and where worried out of our minds but when we knew everything was going to be ok, we laugh about it. Like for instance - we (our family) play this card game called Killer Bunnies (we got hooked after Deborah and Tyler got us into it). Well Beck was bring home the game (that's what she was doing, driving home) and the bunny game went everywhere.....well the first thing she tells Deborah is " I couldn't save the bunnies" ok....how is that not funny? Then Me, Jason and Reana went and got her a cake that said "you really are superman" on it and we sang Happy Survivor Day (to the tune of Happy Birthday) and celebrated.
Don't get me wrong, our family is very close and we were devastated to find that one of ours was hurt and could have potentially been killed, but she wasn't and we are eternally grateful.
so Beck this blog is dedicated to you. Happy Survivor Day to you and don't ever say I didn't give ya nothing...you've gotten a cake and a blog! Love ya and we are very glad you are still here....even if you didn't save the bunnies. :)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Deal or No Deal.....

So I am sure most to everyone knows that mom and I went to the Deal or No Deal auditions this past weekend. Boy did we have a blast! We usually make the best out of any kind of situation and have the luck (if that is what you can call it...) of attracting some odd sorts to us. This time, however, we were lucky and had some pretty ok people around us. So let me go through the day and tell you some of the highlights starting at the beginning.

We left town about 8:15, knowing the line would be around the corner already but not wanting to get there so early to look tired or be forgotten by the judges! We stopped and got some camping chairs and snacks. We parked, grabbed our back packs with our snacks, I-Pods, books, applications and camping chairs....we were set. we found the end of the line and promptly proceeded to get comfy....enter: weirdo one. She is about 4-5 people in front of us and is on her cell phone talking to everyone...LOUDLY...about what she put down for her answers on the application. 'ya, haha and then for the question what would you do with a million dollars...." Mom and I both look at each other and think..wait, that wasn't on our application (which I had printed of the week before and filled out the 13 pages...sure we were a head of the game). We ask around and find we have the wrong application. Well surely they will accept this application it has all the info and more on it....nope. We need to fill out the 2 page application. We eventually get said application and proceed to fill them out before we even get in the building thinking it would be to late once we get inside. Nope there is another 4 hour wait but I will get to that soon.
so naturally you are going to see some weirdo's at these things. they always come around thinking they will get noticed for the "clever" costumes. Enter weirdo two, three, four and five (I am sure there were more but we didn't see them from our spot in line)...A man dressed as Jafar from Aladdin....how that fit into Deal or No Deal..we are still trying to figure that out, a girl dressed in cow-boy get up with a life size cut out of John Wayne, a girl with a HUGE check with her name on it ( a little eager are we..), a woman who had to be at least 10 years older then mom with tight shirt, leather mini, fishnet and boots with wild orange, red and purple hair...although I don't think she was dressing weird just for this event, and of course the girl who wore the tight green mini dress which was much too short and much to tight ( she was trying to dress like one of Howie's girls). She had the cottage cheese thighs and the pudgy tummy. don't get me wrong she was a nice looking girl...she just did not show off the right assets. There were also some pretty funny people there. A man with a great English accent, a gal who had two kids one of which was mentally handicapped and a guy who moved here from Spain. this soon became our little group and off we go.
so the doors open at 10 to start auditioning. well the line starts moving....fast. Like they are just herding people through.....well that is exactly what they were doing. Once you got inside you had to wait in this zig-zag line (just like Disney Land) for about 3-4 hours. You finally get cut up into groups of 10 and are carted off to this table, which by the way is not secluded so you can make this grand entrance, it is right next to the other 5 tables with groups of 10 around them. You get literally 20 seconds (stop watch and everything) to impress this person. If they liked you then you are asked to stay and answer some more questions, if they like the answers to those questions you are carted off to the next line to freak out about doing it again....um 20 seconds... are you kidding me? that is all the time you are going to give me. What kind of impression can you make in 20 seconds and it is so loud you can barely here the person next to you. Well I made it to the second round (probably because I did the Pantyhose dance as part of my most embarrassing moment story I told). Mom did not. I felt bad. I really didn't want to go to the second round by myself but hey one of us had to win us the money right? so now I was doing this for both families....No pressure..right? haha. so I stand in the second line for another hour or so and yup.. .here we go again. 20 second to impress this guy (he looked grumpy right off the bat so I knew I had to be careful) It is my turn. I am so nervous I almost black out...I think "no take control you have to get on the show. Say what you said the first girl and you'll do it" I say my deal..."hey he chuckled, he likes me..he thinks I am funny. I'll say something else. No, no I just stuttered. Oh what an idiot...shut your mouth. YOUR losing him...shut up Maura!!" (really..that is what is sounds like in my head sometimes).....and then it was over. I totally bombed. He chuckled at my first joke so I tried to be funnier and totally lost it and sounded like a stuttering idiot. I knew it was over but held out hope that maybe he would remember the first part...No I was dismissed with a thank you, and off I went.
I was disappointed, I had really hoped to make it so that I could win some of that money and give it back to my parents. They've done so much and it would been great to help them out with that! I try not to sound depressed or angry. It is just a game...what was meant to be was meant to be. We had fun anyway, that is for dang sure and know we can say we did it.
"but wait.....that's it.....I knew there was something else. We can send in an audition tape. We can say all the things we didn't get to say in the whole 40 seconds they gave me. They can see that we really are the best people for the show. Hey maybe they will even let us be on the show together as a team.....wouldn't that be cool? Ya that is what we will do". I start to perk up again with the idea (or it could have been i finally ate something after 9 hours of standing in line) or a little of both.
so there you go. I hope this made a bit of sense. it was super fun and if they ever come back we are doing it again....we are going to be on that show dang it and that is a fact! so although it was a no deal this time.........they haven't seen our audition tape!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Infamous Question

This story comes cutesy of my dad and little brother, Eric. It is a short story but well worth it. Ever notice how children sometimes say something and a light comes on in your head and you think "well gee, that would have been good to know 20 years ago" (and yes I did just say 'gee').


Well my Dad and brother were watching Chicken Little, a classic story of crying wolf. The little chicken tells everyone the sky is falling, but tells so many tales that no one will believe him until it is too late. I don't know if you have seen the new cartoon movie that had come out a few years ago. But in this one the deal is the chicken sees the "sky falling" because they are being attacked by outer space guys. Well anyway, in the mayhem of it all Chicken Little tries to go and find his friend to rescue. (Don’t' know what this friends name is, when dad was telling me this story he referred to him as the little furry guy). The little furry guy is in the library, so Chicken Little starts running towards the library to find his friend. That is when Eric looks at my dad with little boy innocents and asks most sincerely "why did that chicken cross the road?" well....everyone, now we know the answer: to find his furry friend.


So thank you dad and Eric for finally finding the answer to that question that has haunted humanity since.....well since before they had libraries (oddly enough. :~)). I can’t wait to see what other mysteries will be solved by young minds in the next few years......