I'll do anything for a laugh

Monday night was official jewelry training. The training after rally we spend mainly talking about what we learned for those who weren't able to travel to Texas. (More on that in a sec...)

I was the top retailer for June! Woot! My friend, Rose, on the right was able to travel 2 hours from her home to come to this training. She was the #3 retailer! Double Woot! (I also think it's because she KNEW what I was going to be involved in sharing from Rally. Plus I made, er I mean asked her to be my lighting, camera & audio producer. Oh hang on! More on that in a sec...) Just so happened that I tied for top sponsor in June with Christy. Sadly for Christy to break the tie they go by retail. I was the big winner!
You stalkers are gonna LOVE this. Picture it - we are in our hotel room Saturday night in Texas. We are tired. We are slap happy. We are discussing what we want to 'share' at training for rally so we don't do the same things. Debbie says, "Hey-why don't we do the fashion show where they presented the new jewelry?" UHM-shut.the.front.door. What a great idea! (You remember how I told you how the presented the new jewelry to us, right? Runway show with models & lights & music?!)
And the ideas were on from there. We were up until 2 am Texas time (yea, I was exhausted...) laughing & giggling & coming up with a plan. Here's how it turned out....
We had a runway of lights. We had music. We had someone with cue cards to announce the jewelry we were wearing. We.had.it.all.

That's me...getting ready to bust.it.out!
I know it's blurry, but you can't slow down fierceness, people. Check out that hair flying!
Oh yes, check out that necklace! (JLL-this is the spectrum necklace we talked about...)

Here's some bracelet action for ya!

We were supposed to have 'wardrobe changes' but I was laughing so hard when I got done with my first walk I nearly forgot to change my jewelry! I was supposed to take off the black thing & put on a denim jacket with my next ensemble...my bad... So glad there's nothing up my nose here...Taking a bow for the audience. We really did have SO much fun with this! I just wanted to make people laugh...& it worked...

We named the puppy

You may remember a while back I told you about a sweet little beagle that has been hanging around? While most of you have a soft spot for kids... I have a soft spot for animals. (In the spirit of full disclosure - I admit - I feed stray animals. But if a stray child came to the house, I would probably feed it as well...I would just call the authorities....& quick...)

So B-rad got tired of me calling her 'dog' & said I had to come up with a name. And she should be glad that I came up with her name. Because if B-rad named her, she'd have a dumb name like: Gixxer (his wrecked motorcycle). Or MX260 (the new tractor).

Her name is..... wait for it.... wait for it.....

Lilly. TA-DA!!!!!

Instead of naming things after hobbies, I like to use glittery, colorful, pretty, flowery names! (Uhm, Sparky? That was all me. Sonny too. After sunflowers because they're my favorite but I very well couldn't call him Sunflower. He's a boy, so I made it Sonny.) We have another dog that came from the neighbors a year or so ago. She used to go back & forth (more on that in a minute...) but I call her Daisy. See where I'm going with this?!)

So Daisy used to go between our house & her real home. And when she was with us, I fed her...duh. But recently, the pieces of garbage where she lived quit feeding her. When she finally wandered back to us, she was super skinny & starving. 'Dog' was there too & we had lots of trouble with Daisy being aggressive. I know she was starving & I tried to deal with that, but she'd eat every morsel of food around...including the cats food. This went on for awhile, it was quite the scene, but I finally decided that I couldn't have her acting like that when she KNEW I was going to feed her at least twice a day. I know she had that 'fight for my food' instinct but that wasn't helping the other animals. I told B-rad to take her to the animal shelter. Don't judge me- you have NO idea what I would have to do to feed all these animals to make sure she didn't eat all the food.

Long story short, Daisy wasn't home the day I had an appointment to take her to the animal shelter. Then B-rad's dad said to bring her to the barn. He did take her there, but she came back to our house. Sigh.... Lilly & Daisy got into a MASSIVE fight the night before I left for Texas while I was feeding them. I was screaming & trying to escape the porch because I didn't want them to hurt me. B-rad ran out & had to hit Daisy to get her off Lilly. Then Lilly decided to attack Daisy back. It was really scary & Lilly had a nice little gash under her eye to show for it.

Soooooooooooo....since B-rad hit Daisy, she has calmed down a bit. She has always been a good dog & very sweet. Until she was starving. Ok-I get that...

Since Lilly doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon, I'm also a responsible pet owner & wanted to have her spade (Daisy had already been fixed...). I loaded her up in the truck last Friday to take her to the vet to get all her shots & to be fixed. She really is a good dog. She didn't make a peep the whole time we were in the truck. She just sat with her nose out the window. She did keep locking & un-locking the doors with her feet.

When I got her to the vet, she had gotten 'car sick'. Sorry for the gross picture, but I just had to share! She hadn't gotten to eat since midnight the night before so it was really gross & sticky. Gag! After I took her inside, I got to clean up this nasty mess before coming to work. (Side note-sooo glad B-rad let me use his truck & I didn't have this mess in my new car...)
About an hour after I dropped her off, the vet called:
"Mrs. McAfee - Lilly is fine, but we were getting ready to do her surgery & she has a scar. I think she has already been fixed. Has she had any surgeries you know of?"
"UHM...I don't know? She's a stray. She's been hanging around for like the last 3 months."
"Well, I'm pretty sure this is a scar from her being fixed. I don't want to open her back up if I don't have to. I'll check a little more & see what I can find out."

(Side note-duh....didn't know the dog had been spade? Really, Jaime?! But Rhonda had looked at her too & didn't see a scar. I'm not going down for this all on my own!)

They called back 15 minutes later & had determined that yes, in fact, she had been fixed already. So they woke her back up, gave her all her shots & she would be ready to come home at the end of the day as planned.

When I picked her up, she acted a little strange. I think she was still getting her bearings. This time she sat in the back of the truck with her nose out the window. She must've been mad at me...
She didn't eat anything that night, but by the next day she was back to her old self. And since you just can't have pets without taking care of them, this is what my life has become...medicine for my 'kids': Frontline for the dogs AND the cats. Regular worm & heart worm medicine for the dogs.
Sigh...why can't a stray kid just come up? I KNOW I could get rid of one of those...

Even though I'm 35, Jordan Knight loves me...so there...

Please re-read the above line & imagine me sticking my tongue out at you afterwards.

Last night was the big NKOTBSB concert. History lesson: I LOVED New Kids on the Block. Like loved them like I love Reese cups. Jordan was my fav & I had pictures of him on my bedroom walls. Swoooooon. When we had people over for New Years, they were performing in New York on tv. Rhonda & I got all excited when we saw them. We danced & sang right along with them. Imagine my surprise when like 2 weeks later I heard they were coming to the Yum Center. YUM indeed...I had to attend!

Long story short, Rhonda got us tickets in January while I was in Ohio on official jewelry business. She was concerned about the price of tickets, but also we wanted to be able to see. I finally told her I trusted her judgement. I felt the same way she did - I didn't really WANNA spend $100 on a ticket, but I really DID wanna see the New Kids. So Rhonda got the tickets...

This is the view of the stage from our seats. This is not zoomed AT.ALL. Our seats were AWESOME! We were SOOOOO excited! (Can you tell I'm still pretty excited now!?!)

Happy girls in great seats! I wasn't quite sure how the whole "2 dueling boy bands" was going to work, but they came out together & then switched off back & forth singing. It was very cool.I have never been to the Yum center before. It is VERY nice. The seats are nice, the arena is gorgeous & humungous! JLL, Tracey & Ginmommy-I think you were in the extreme left hand side of this shot wayyyyyy up at the top...
Ok-I'm not gonna lie to you. I left work an hour early to go home & nap. Call me pathetic, it's ok - I don't care what you think. I am old and I am cranky when I don't sleep. I knew to enjoy myself I would need a nap to get me through. (Am I totally like a kid, or what?!)

So they played this video of the Glee people before the opening act. And I wasn't really sure what Jane Lynch & the dude from Glee had to do with anything?!

I had seen on the ticket that Matthew Morrison was opening for them. Uhm-who the heck is Matthew Morrison? I listen to satellite radio a lot so I'm not really 'up' on new songs, bands, etc. You can imagine my surprise when the opening act came out & it was the hottie dude from Glee!

OHHHH! His REAL name is Matthew Morrison? They shoulda just said that on the ticket: 'the hottie dude from Glee'...

He was pretty good too...

And he wasn't bad to look at...especially when he shed that restrictive jacket.

Ginmommy-this is for you...

Rhonda had her friend, Cindy, come with us too. Rhonda had to seperate us the whole night. She is also a Jordan fan & we just couldn't get too close to each other.

OH.MY.WORD!

There they are in all their boy band glories.

See my man Jordan in his shades? I seriously was screaming like a 13 year old girl.

Swoon...it was then I realized I may not be able to talk or hear today...but it was ok. I didn't care. I was with Jordan...everything else would just work itself out...

After going back through my pics, I don't really have many of any one else BUT Jordan. Eh-who needs the rest of 'em?! I will say that Donnie is a tall drink of water too. I'm not a big fan of bad boys so back in the day I didn't really care about him. But when took off his shirt - I got converted realllllll fast...

We were so close that we were near the little stage thingie that came out in the front. Most my pics are blurry but this one turned out of Jordan on the right & his dumb brother got in my shot. Hmph...

At this point, I was sure these were 5 angels & this was heaven...

And when Jordan sang "I'll be loving you forever" to me...I knew I had died & gone to Heaven. Sigh...

Both bands did this little introduction thing of each other towards the end & I just included these during that because Jordan is Fine with a capital F!I mean, how can you resist that face?! Age has been kind to my crush... The finale was INCREDIBLE! BSB came out & sang "Backstreets Back" & then the New Kids sang "Hangin' Tough". It was awesome! Then they were both on stage singing both songs somehow entwined. Hard to explain but flat out amazing to watch! The energy these guys had through the whole 2 1/2 hour show was unbelievable! You'd never know those New kids are in their 40's... (but I bet they totally had to take naps too before the show... just sayin'...)

We had parked in a garage close to the Yum center & when we walked back to it, the door was locked? Really? There were these lattice thingies for walls & I told Rhonda, "You're skinny. You'll totally fit through that!" And I was right!

She got through & opened the door for us.

I really did have the best time! I saw some friends from high school too & that was fun! I never got to see New Kids when I was young. We just didn't go to concerts. The first concert I went to was Aerosmith when I was 18 & B-rad & I were dating. This was like a dream come true for me. It really was a great show. I got home around midnight & was so amped & excited that I couldn't go to sleep until around 1:30! (Side note, my cousin wants to go see the show in Indy on Tuesday night. If I didn't have that pesky job to go to the next day, I would totally go. It was well worth the $100 I paid for a ticket!)

I'm a Premier celebrity stalker...

I left last Wednesday for my trip to Fort Worth, TX for Premier's National rally! I was there 4 HOT days & had a great, but exhausting time!

I have already showed you the picture of the special bracelet I won...but here's the ensemble I won as well. It retails for around $130. And I got it for free. (Well, there's blood, sweat & tears mixed in with that free...) The statue of Andy & Joan they bring into the convention center.

Gerilee makes us all goodie bags & this year they were Barbie bags. Be still my heart...

This was the stage. One of the Horner sons, Tommy, has a production company & they produce all of Premier's rallies. They do a great job. It's all top notch stuff, people. I mean, look at the camera guy & the guy holding his cord for him. Top notch...Me & Debbie...& some pesky photo bombers...

You may remember I told you how Joan passed away in December? They did a wonderful job of weaving her spirit & personality through the whole thing! Normally Joan & her granddaughter, Jessica, reveal the new jewelry. Right before they did the reveal, they played a video of Joan & Jessica from last year. They showed us the jewelry in a really cool, fun way. See those 5 white things on the stage? Those were paper frames & chicks busted through them with the jewelry on. There were lights & techno music & it was soooo high energy!

This was something new this year - Le Boutique Premier. They even had a stage inside with little 'shows' going on to show us jewelry combinations.It was bee-u-tee-ful inside & they had all the new jewelry set up around the edges in different combinations,

You stalkers are never far from my heart. When I saw this sign I immediately thought of you... Everytime I passed it, I smiled...

This is something else I love about Rally. There are some men that come, but they are obviously out numbered. And what happens when you get a bunch of women in one place? Long bathroom lines! Wellll, they 'convert' some of the mens restrooms into womens.

This is after I got to walk across the stage to be recognized for making the "Queens Court" in May.

Premier also has an area they call the "jewelry box" & they have 9000 sets of the new jewelry so we can play in it, wear it, touch it & examine it. You can see how popular this place is!

Rally is tough on the ole tootsies! This was day one & Debbie & myself had rubbed spots on our feet. Sigh... I'm the foot with the pink toenails. She has some funky zebra & cheetah print polish. Hmph...

So Friday night after our meetings, we went into the exhibition center to look at the new jewelry (hoping it wouldn't be so crowded...). As we were walking, I saw a large group gathered around something that wasn't new jewelry. And I knew immediately what it was: Andy....they were all gathered around Andy...

So I got all paparazzi on him & started taking pics...

And this group was really big. Like so big I thought there was NO WAY I'd get up there to get my pic with him.

But, ya'll know me. when I'm on a mission, I'm on a mission. Debbie & Miranda were with me & they kept hanging back. Hmph, amateurs... When I got close to him I said (through gritted teeth) 'You two better get up here if you want in the picture!" See how they listen?...

Celebrity #1-stalked...

When we walked through the boutique, I spotted Penny Lacey. She used to be a jeweler, but she now works at the home office in field marketing. So I marched right up to her & told her how you could really tell that she's made a lot of positive changes & that I thought she did a fabulous job on the bouitque. We chatted for a few more mintues (because we're bff's & all) & then I asked for a pic.

Celebrity # 2 - stalked...

When we were walking around we saw a mannequin with the same set of jewelry I had won. Miranda thought I was mentally unstable for wanting my picture taken beside it. But I knew you would all understand...

Then we saw Tim Horner who is the President & of course, little ole shy me had to walk up to him & chat for a minute & then ask for a pic. I told these girls to stick with me-I'd take them places!

Celebrity #3 - stalked.

While we were waiting for Tim, I saw Jessica. Remember she's the one who helps pick all the new jewelry? I didn't want to run away from waiting on Tim to get a pic with her because, well-that's just rude. So we ran over to her AFTER our pic with Tim. Of course, I chatted her up & then asked for a pic. (Do ya'll see a pattern here?!)

Celebrity #4 - stalked...

The whole gang in front of the statue!