Grandma Mac's 84(!)th birthday!

B-rad's Grandma Mac (Stanley's mom...duh - did you get that from the 'Mac' part?!) turned 84 years old last week! His Aunt Bev (her daughter) planned a surprise birthday party for her & a 64th(!) anniversary party for them this past Sunday! Sam scoped out the mints on our table right away.
B-rad, Brian, Brady & Stanley

B-rad's always up for attention from the kiddos.

And Cole's always up for doing things to get my attention...

"Take my picture NOW, Jaime..."

It was funny during the 'happy birthday' song hearing all the names she's called by all the different guests... Ruth, Mom, Grandma Mac...

The smoke hadn't even cleared from the candles before the kiddos descended on the cake.

And Cole got the biggest piece of cake we have ever seen. Uhm, NO he did not eat it all...

Erin & the girls were still here from their whirlwind weekend visit. Payton enjoyed trying to pull out Uncle B-rad's tongue. Maybe next time, Payton...maybe next time...?

B-rad's family has a pretty good track record of living for a while. All of my grandparents are gone. I lost the last one when I was 21. So my dad likes to tell me, "Don't worry - B-rad's gonna outlive you anyway..." Gee thanks, Dad...I don't know where he'll live when I'm gone? Perhaps on a motorcycle? Or a boat? Or a mustang? Or on a snowboard...

(That's another reference to his spending & my savings habits, get it?!)

Current events

There has been a lot going on lately that has just not been good enough to have its very own blog post. Lots of tid bits & interesting stories that I just couldn't weave into something on their own. So I came up with the idea of doing the hodge podge in one BIG post. Ahem - let us begin...

You may remember I was in Ohio last weekend. And B-rad was home. Unsupervised. And this is bad. Because his little brain never stops running. With ideas. On how to spend our money. Sigh.

I'm not sure when he came up with his newest gem, but he decided he was going to sell one of his motorcycles. Oh-no worries - he already had a plan to buy ANOTHER one. (See why I'm crazy?!) This just really infuriated me. And once again I started with the, "You're never happy with what you have! You always want more, more, more!" Alas, it did me no good. He was not swayed. And I was left with the task of figuring out how to pay for yet another hair brained scheme of his... (Funny side note - I had training last Monday night & a show Tuesday night. I didn't get home until late both nights. Tuesday night when I got home, B-rad had done some laundry. Gasp. AND had unloaded & re-loaded the dishwasher AND ran it. He was laying it on thick, huh?!) Anyways - I came up with what I hope will be a master plan for B-rad's future hair brained schemes...

What we USED to do is take a certain amount of money out of each of B-rad's paychecks. But it was only on paper. I had a sheet in the office that listed the paycheck date & how much money went towards his 'funny money'. If he bought something, we simply subtracted that from his balance. Nifty! This worked perfectly until the day he decided to buy something that cost MORE than what he had on his little sheet. "Oh, it's more than what I have - just take it from the next few paychecks..." Well - as you can imagine - he was in the hole more than he wasn't so that was nixed.

Then, the Angels in Heaven spoke to me & gave me a genius plan. Lets start B-rad a checking account. With his own little debit card. And put his allowance money in there every other week. If something he wants costs more than what he's got in the checking account - too bad, so sad. I love that plan! So that's what we did. B-rad has his very own debit card on order & when he sells stuff he already has ('cause ya'll know he has a TON of stuff), that money is his very own to deposit into his checking account & spend however his little ole heart desires!

In the spirit of full disclosure - he did not sell his motorcycle to buy another one...this time...

Next up is the destruction of my house known as the office makeover. B-rad has moved 'most' of his gaming stuff into the other bedroom. When I say 'most' I mean his tv, his gaming system & the games he wants to play. The other stuff is still in the office. On the floor. And the stuff that was in the other bedroom is in my dining room until we figure out where to put it. It's a vicious circle...

I am a lotta things, but decorator is not one of them. I have no clue what goes with what or what looks good with something else. All of the walls in our house are...white. No lie...

I knew I wanted the walls to be purple. Duh. But I didn't know what shade or anything. I went to Rhonda's last week (she was the jewelry show!). Her dining room was purple! Be still my heart! It was a darker purple on the bottom, with a white chair rail & then darker purple & lighter purple stripes up top. UHM-stripes are WAAAAAY too much trouble so I thought about doing the darker purple on bottom, painting a white stripe for the chair rail (hello, I'm cheap!) & a lighter purple on top!

But THEN I was talking to the girls I work with & I was telling them how I wanted the office to be purple & purses. And one of them suggested finding a purse border for the chair rail. Oh, I heart that idea! So I went out trolling the internet to find a super cute purse border! This is what I found! I love it! Sadly, it was $36/spool & I need 3 for my room. Gulp. BUT-my jewelry mom read on facebook about me looking for purse borders & she sent me a link for a purse border. It was the.exact.same.border only on a different website! Great minds think alike! And even better - it was only $17/spool!

Yesterday, B-rad & I went to Home Depot to look at the purples. These are the cards I chose for now. I want to wait for the border to get here so I can match up the purples from it! My fav right now is the one on the right. Probably the bottom purple for the bottom & the 2nd or 3rd one down for the top. (The bottom looks MUCH darker in this pic. Trust me - it's an awesome purple...)I spent about 3 hours working in the office on Saturday morning cleaning out papers, papers & more papers. We have SO much crap! Not only do I have jewelry stuff in there - I keep paperwork for the farm there too! I am in paper hell! I had stuff dated back in 2000 & 2001! That crap went straight to the garbage! (Don't tell my brother-in-law though... He hasn't asked for anything like that in years, but if he knew I threw it away he'd have an aneurism!)

B-rad suggested that we get a new desk. The desk we have now is not really conducive for 'work'. We bought it when we moved in (11 years ago...) & it was just a spot to house a computer & a printer. So I decided if I'm doing this - I'm going ALL out! Go big or go home! B-rad suggested I get an 'L' shaped one & I liked that idea!

I looked on Office Depot.com & the desks were reaaaaaaly expensive. And it was hard to tell what you got because each piece cost different things! We stopped in at Staples Saturday night to look around & I found one I really liked! It is all billed as one piece. It was $340. I didn't think that was too bad considering the ones at Office Depot were in the $700 & up range! There was a sale that ended that night on the hutch. If you bought the desk, you got the normally $200(!) hutch for...for... FREE! Yee-haw!Next, B-rad decided we needed a new chair. Ours is broken. And office chairs are crazy expensive! It's a little ridiculous! We went through all the chairs & most of them were in the $250-$300 range. Are you freaking kidding me?! Then I found this gem: regularly $289, on sale for $189. Come to momma...
A-ha, there was a catch! When we got to the register, the chair was going on sale the.next.day. They had just already put the tags out. Hhhmmmm, so I asked in my bestest, most nicest voice while batting my eyelashes - since we were buying the desk AND the chair, could they go ahead & give us the sale price? Uhm, YEA they did. Staples is awesome-sauce (& batting your eyelashes at the male manager totally helps!!)

I have quite a bit left in the office to do before we can get the old desk out & the new one in. Right now its still in the box in my dining room. Office makeover day is set for March 19th. B-rad & I have some prep work to do to the walls before we paint them as well. I am SO excited about it. I think if I have my OWN space (where B-rad is not allowed...) & it's a pretty room I will enjoy working in there more!

We also went yesterday to buy B-rad his own laptop. We've been sharing mine & that's just not working. He uses the computer for field yield stuff from the combine & it seems whenever he needs the computer I do too. Now we each have our own so we don't fight. We also went back to Staples for that. I told the manager because they were so good at working with me - we wanted to bring back our business! (Plus they don't charge you to set up a new computer - Best Buy charges $70!)

I did take 'before' pics of the office. And they're baaaad. I mean reaaaaaaly bad. I almost don't wanna show you. I said almost...

Stay tuned - I'll have them in the post after the office glamour work is done!

Impromptu dinner

Friday night, Erin, Eric & the girls came down for a weekend visit from Ohio. And the guys (B-rad, Brian & Brady) were going skiing that night, so Lora invited us over to eat dinner & visit with everyone! She made a really yummy chicken lasagna! While eating it, B-rad looked over at me & said, "This is really good! Did you have Lora show you how to make it?!" Uhm....what do you think?! (But I really should ask her - it was super yummy!)

B-rad always enjoys playing with Rusty! And Ohio has been really hard on little Payton! Look at that shiner! Apparently her sister likes to slam her in the eye with toys!I asked Lora if there was anything I could do to help. Of course, she said, 'no'. But almost everybody else in the house had to help! Brady made tea...
Erin set the table...

even Cole got in on the tea making action. I mean-somebody has to dip & stir the teabags in the water, right?!

Brian came out with this cowboy hat. And either Payton isn't real happy about the hat...or Brian? I'm going with Brian... Cole & Madelyn playing with the home entertainment system. Yea, that looks like trouble!

Brady had a little remote control helicopter that he & B-rad were playing with. Madelyn was jumping to try & catch it.

Cole put on the cowboy hat. I told him to stand there & look mean & I'd take his picture. He can't help put smile...

2nd attempt - over-compensating & trying NOT to smile...

3rd time he got it!

Madelyn wanted to wear the hat. Just think of all the toys these kids get through the year & they wanna play with a HAT. I'm buying them hats & kitchen utensils next year!

Then Madelyn wanted ME to wear the hat. AND she wanted to take my picture. Uhm, er, ok - a 2 1/2 year old holding my camera? Gulp, gasp - ok?! Don't I look scared? I kept saying, "Don't drop my camera! Hold on tight! (& of course I had my hands on it too!)

Then COLE wanted to hold my camera & take my picture. Boy these kids are reaaaaaly making me squirm!

Then a self portrait by Cole. By this time I had given up...

This picture is funny because the guys were all getting ready to go skiing. And B-rad decided to hit Brady in his 'boy parts'. But he was afraid that Brady was going to hit him back so this is how he spent the rest of the time we were there... With his boy parts pressed against the wall so Brady couldn't get him back...

Thanks again for having us over for dinner! It's always good to visit with Erin & the girls....& of course Eric & Rusty too...

"Rally"ing the troops

This past weekend I ventured up to Columbus, OH with some of my jewelry peeps for Premier's regional rally! Rally's are all about giving you that shot in the arm you need to get your eyes back on the prize. You get lotsa training & lotsa recognition! You also get NEW JEWELRY! Woot Woot!

We also have a great time dancing. (My vote is that they play all the great dancing music so we don't fall asleep! Rally is ex-haus-ting!)

After they announce the woot woot new jewelry-whoever pre-ordered it has a par-tay in their hotel room & we all get to take a peek!

The founders of Premier attend every.regional.rally. There are 6 total. 3 one weekend & 3 the next. They travel to them all. And they are 85. And I think I'M exhausted?!

This year, sadly, Andy had to come alone. Back in the beginning of December, Joan passed away after a brief illness. But I swear, that Andy Horner shoulda been a preacher. While there was not a single dry eye in the house as he told us about Joan's passing, he also told such a touching & uplifting story of her being with our Heavenly Father. He really makes you feel differently about death.

And these were the first rallys in 25 years that Joan was unable to attend. While it was very strange without her smiling face there to present the new jewelry to us, I know that Premier is the kind of company that will keep her ideals alive through the new generation. Tear...

Ok, lets dry it up, shall we?

Premier is really big on recognition. And this little chickadee right here got to walk across the stage for achieving the first level in the Crown Jewel Program. All I had to do was have $6,000 retail in a consecutive 30 day period. Sheesh! No wonder I was exhausted a few months ago! I was workin' hard!For acheiving the Amethyst level, I also got a certificate from Premier for $200 in free jewelry! Go me!

See my name on the big screen?!

Me & my jewelry mama!

This is our whole crew! We had these super cute signs made too! They are zebra print & they say "Wild About Premier" in hot pink & have a ring in the middle!

So now I've been to rally it's time to get busy. I mean, I can't let those other girls catch me & take away my top retailer crown. Psssssh!

Supa Star

Last night was our Premier "Year End Celebration". We decided to do it after Christmas because everyone is SO busy over the holidays & it's hard to get 30+ people together. Plus if we waited until after the new year, we would all have our show & retail numbers for recognition.

We had dinner at Christie's in Salem. My Premier grandma, Gerilee, always has a nice spread laid out! See the tv? That was our contribution to the evening. Gerilee had mentioned that she'd like to get 'a few pictures together' to show. Hmmmm - me & pictures? Got.it. So I went back through all the pictures I had taken all year at the rally's & trainings & B-rad told me about a really cool program on our computer called 'windows moviemaker'. I made an 8 minute DVD of pictures set to music & everything! Then we took B-rad's gaming tv & Play Station 3 with us so we could play it for everyone. I also took family pics of everyone & B-rad & I were able to get our picture taken too!
This is Mandy, my new jeweler.

And this is my 'step-mom', Rose. I call her my step-mom because my real Premier mom couldn't go to National Rally with us because her mother in law had passed away. Rose moved her room situation around so she'd be in the hotel room with me. She showed me the ropes & explained the craziness of National Rally to me. I would've been lost without her!! (She also almost got us lynched by other jewelry ladies! We had to stay at a hotel like 20 minutes from the arena. And Premier had shuttle buses for us. But at the end of the day - like 9 billion jewelry ladies were trying to pile onto those buses. And the lines were reaaaaaaly long. But Rose was all like, "C'mon-we're not waiting way back here!" So we very innocently (& stealthily) made our way to the front of the line & got on the very first bus out. Score! We were back in our hotel in bed before the others even got to there!)

So the celebration is all about recognition for what we've done the previous year. And ya'll know I love me some recognition. So this is me getting the servant's heart award. This award is basically just what it says - for having a servant's heart & a 'happy to do it' attitude! Gerilee (she's on the left) gave me this award because of all the things I help her with behind the scenes at trainings & for the website. I was really honored! But notice my face?! This is me telling B-rad (yes, while I was up front in front of God & everybody...) "B-rad. Office. Gotta happen!"

Here's the deal with the office. Our house has 3 bedrooms. Obviously we only need to use 1. So we've made one into an 'office' & the other is a 'storage/junk/whatever we can't fit anywhere else' room. The office is pretty large & half of it has morphed into 'B-rad's gaming room'. This is a problem. This is also where his stuffed turkey & deer are. Hmph. Like I wanna look at that when I'm doing official jewelry business? So I've been on B-rad about making the storage/junk/whatever we can't fit anywhere else room his gaming room & make the office THE office. As a matter of fact on the way to the celebration I told him, "I'm going to be gone next weekend. That would be a PERFECT time for you to get your game stuff outta the office!"

Here I am with my Servant's Heart award! Brenda, my real Premier mom is on the right & Gerilee.

Next up was recognizing the top retailers. She recognized the top 5. And I wasn't in the top 4. Hhmmmm? B-rad said, "Who's number 1?" I said, "I don't know...." And really - I don't pay attention to things like that. I know every month how many shows I do & my retail, but I never added it together for the year. But when they started to 'talk' about the top retailer - I knew it was me! YAY! I did 44(!) shows & had somewhere around $22,000 retail. G.u.l.p! Something else I was pretty proud about was the fact that Tracey has 88 people in her downline. I.was.number.6!! I told her, "You should LOOOOVE me!"

This is my entire Premier upline. Tracey is on the left, she's my Premier Great-grandma, Brenda, me & Gerilee.

So I went up front & I had no idea what they had in store for me. First they gave me a frame with a 'J' on it with a paper saying 'top retailer'. I also got a super sassy 'star' pin because I was a 'star' (I dubbed myself a supa star)! THEN they put me on a chair & gave me a black boa! I kinda thought I might get a pedicure.

THEN they gave me a paint roller. And I was like, "Uhm-I don't paint. Ask B-rad - I have NO patience for it!" And they said, "Well, that's good - because you don't have to paint! WE'RE coming to your house to give you an office makeover! Painting, accessories, everything!" OMG!! YEE-HAW!!!! I love that B-rad caught my face when they told me! I am SOOOO excited! (Uhm-but doesn't this tell ya'll I've been bitching about the office all over town?!)

Next up was a 'White Elephant' exchange. The guys brought guy gifts & the gals brought gal gifts. Gerilee did something cute with the guys. When their number was up, they had to go up & Gerilee asked them a question about their wives' Premier businesses. B-rad did pretty good at his question! His was, "When your wife sponsors a jeweler - & that jeweler makes $3000 retail, how much does your wife get?!" B-rad said 10%, which is half-way correct! I make 10% of the wholesale cost which is half of that $3000 ($1500). So I would make $150. (Remember how I said Tracey should LOVE me?! She made 10% of the wholesale cost of my total retail. And my retail was $22,000. YOU do the math!) It was a really fun night & I am so thankful for my Premier family! I had lotsa girls come tell me congrats on my achievement but that I better watch my back for next year! Bring it on, girls! I LOVE the competition!!