New Direction

Jen agreed to let me post to her blog, so I decided to write about a new import line that Jen and I have been working on for several months. It is a line of brushed stainless and powdercoated stainless garage tool boxes. We just received our first samples this past week and Jen and I spent several hours on Thursday un-crating and assembling the boxes and table. We will be contacting potential distributors this week to see if we can find a market. They come in several different sizes and price points; from 26" width on the small side to 72" width on the other side. We're excited about the prospect and hope that it goes well. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Jen's Birthday

My birthday was Thursday. It was a pretty normal day, but I got very exciting gifts. I received chocolate from Meredith, a book called The Host from Regan, Sydney made me some red bracelets, and Steve and Phillip gave me an Ipod Touch. It is so cool!!! I can get on the internet anywhere there is Wi Fi. I can surf the web, send and receive e-mail, play music, watch a movie, see my pictures. It is just like the Iphone but without the phone part. That's okay because I won't be changing phone companies.

When Sydney asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her that I would like red bracelets because I only have one and I like to wear multiple bracelets. She made me two bracelets on her own. I was so impressed that she spent the time and was so resourceful. Meredith is my partner in crime as far as chocolate goes. The chocolate was called a Chocolate Emergency Kit. Regan knows that I am infatuated with Stephenie Meyer books and gave me her latest book. I am stoked about all of my gifts.

Girl's Shopping Day!

Girl's Shopping Day was Saturday. We had a lot of fun just enjoying each other's company. As usual we started at Dillards--our routine. We didn't seem to find much at Dillards, but we looked at shoes (a must!) and smelled perfume (We liked the fruity stuff like DKNY Green Apple). I went to girl's shopping day with nothing in mind to buy. But having birthday money to spend makes your imagination soar and all of a sudden there are plenty of things that would be great to have. I found some clothes, perfume, shoes (my favorite), and underclothes. Well, shoes ended up winning out for a fair chunk of my money. Luckily everything was on sale. The right picture above is a pair of Keds that I bought for myself. I also bought a new pair of running shoes because you need a new pair every year when you are using them regularly. I bought some shirts because I needed a few new ones. But I didn't end up with any perfume. Regan went shopping with Meredith Saturday also. She bought some new shoes (left picture above) and would like to do a survey of everyone to find whose shoes are cutest: hers or mine. So to all our many fans: vote.

The Dogs

We have two little dogs. Ginger is a Papillon and she is the hairy one. She is also the mother of Tiny. Tiny is the short hair and she is the daughter. Tiny has a little fettish. Steve calls it a big problem -- one that she needs rehab for. She takes my shoes and puts them in her bed and snuggles with them. In this picture, Tiny has five (or more) of Jen's shoes in her bed. She runs to my closet and takes whatever shoe I have worn most recently. We have caught her with seven shoes in her bed. Until recently, she has only taken Jen's shoes to her bed. But a few days ago Steve couldn't find his sandal. When he went looking for it, guess where it was: that's right - in Tiny's bed! He thought I had put it there as a joke.

Party

I just had a Pampered Chef party with my sister Michelle. She was surprised when I sent out 80 invitations. I just took them to everyone in my neighborhood. Well, as it turned out, I had scheduled the party for the night of our enrichment garden party. So I had to make 80 phone calls to tell everyone that I rescheduled it for the following evening. Well, turns out that was stake lagoon day. So after 80 invitations and 80 phone calls, I had one person show up for the party. I did have a few people bring an order to me ahead of time, but I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. As it turned out, I had an $800 show. So I am excited to get all of the free product that I earned.


NAUGHTY KIDS
My two youngest kids are grounded today because they didn't help me with housework yesterday. What really broke the camel's back was when it was almost bedtime and I asked for help folding three batches of towels. I got no help from the youngest two so they have had almost every privilege I could think of taken away today. I am not sure that they have learned their lesson. They also had to pull weeds. Just letting everyone know that their kids aren't the only naughty ones.