"This annoys the hell out of me!"

I would, in normal circumstances, get really mad if a customer tried to touch me. This instance however, it made me laugh all day long.
I was counseling a man on some eye drops, I'd say he was about 70 yrs old or so. As I began to talk he reached over and brushed my bangs out of my eyes stating, "this annoys the hell out of me!" I could barely contain my laughter. I shared it with my staff and we laughed all night long.
Only a 70 yr old man could get away with this.
It's awesome.

Ah, good day!

Today was good. I have been praying a lot about my job. If the past several days are the Lord's indication of his will for me, then I think I'll be staying where I am for a while. It finally all seems to be coming together, and yesterday one of my senior technicians took the time to tell me he thought I was doing a great job. That meant a lot.
My Christmas tree is up and looking very pretty. My first set of Christmas cards are finished. I'm planning 3 Christmas parties to be held at my house. Yet, still more decorating to do, cards to make, and organizing to be done. I'm reminding myself: keep perspective. Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ not the decorations, parties, and cards.....and plus, it's not even December yet.

Thanksgiving

Allie climbing on Ryan like a jungle gym


















Our dining room table















The Aloia family: Tom, Natalie, Matteo, Allie














The Newcom's: Ryan and Kelly














The Moore's: Brian and Angela














The girls after the early morning shopping














The girls, Wednesday night at Fralo's














It has been an awesome Thanksgiving! Having great friends such as the Aloia's and the Moore's is such a blessing. We have had a blast hanging out together!
Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous as Natalie, Angela and I combined our favorite recipes. Today, we got up at 4 am to start shopping. It was Natalie and Angela's first time shopping on Black Friday. I was psyched to be with them as they experienced the madness for the first time. We got lots of great things at Target, Old Navy, and Michaels. (Ry braved Best Buy by himself). After afternoon naps, cornhole, scrapbooking, childrens museum, movie watching and more-we all sat down for another wonderful dinner together. I have to go back to work tomorrow, but boy have I enjoyed my 2 glorious days away. This weekend ranks right up there with some of our best vacations! I can not praise the Lord enough for theses wonderful moments.

Stinkin' cute

Seriously!
It doesn't get much cuter than this!
*Note: on the left of the picture you can see the tip of the stuffed crayons Ryan's mom made for him as a child. We pulled them out of storage....it compliments my giant colored pencils so nicely!
We are ready for our kid visitors! (ask me in 5 days, however, if I'm ready for them ever again ;)

LOVE/HATE relationship

This week's challenge: Love/Hate Relationships was chosen by me. I only thought of the topic because of my strong feelings right now about the telephone.



I love my BlackBerry.
*It rings Never Alone by Barlow Girl
*Callers get to hear Sex & the City theme song instead of ringing
*I get all my emails on the phone
*I can get on-line with the phone
*It's my datebook
*It's my friend
I hate the phone at Walgreens.
*It never stops ringing...even if you don't answer it
*It hurts my ear
*Answering it usually means getting yelled at by someone
*It causes my chin to break out
*I hear it ringing in my sleep
*It's not my friend

Friday Blessings

Friday was full of small blessings. The day started bad. I woke up 2 hours late, thus arriving at work 20 minutes late. Never a good feeling for me. As we got started on our day at work we tried super hard to stay ahead of the game. By noon, we were 75 labels deep on the counter, phones were ringing out of control, voice mails were piling up, and complaints were starting.
That's when I heard the familar voice, "Kelly-Mae." At my counseling window were Kaylie and Michelle. They had come to visit, and come early enough to help me out in the pharmacy. Unpaid. Just because that's who they are, just because that's how much they care. I gave them a brief introduction to the pharmacy and we all went to work. Michelle started filling Rx and Kaylie started typing the 20 plus images, checking the voice mail, and (bless her heart) answering the telephones.

At about 1 pm, another familar face at my consultation window, bringing tears to my eyes. Kara had brought me 'Have a great day' flowers. (I had came to small group meeting in tears the night before because of the horrible day at work I had had). I was touched by her kindness. What a blessing she and the rest of my small group friends are.

As the afternoon progressed Kaylie, Michelle, and I busted our butts so that I (that is-we) could leave early. At 3 pm, we walked/ran out the door.The first thing Kaylie said was, "I don't know how you do that everyday.....I could never do it." Even though I didn't need her justification, it made me feel better about my similar feelings about the current job.

For dinner we went to an awesome little restaurant here in Leon Springs. It's called Fralo's. It's handmade pizza, you sit outside, and you can bring your own wine. Awesome. We went shopping at the new DSW at The Rim and to The Shops at La Cantera. Fun. We ended the night with cappucinnos and Grey's Anatomy. Seriously, you don't have a better evening than this. But then...one final little blessing to end the day. PotteryBarn boxes on our front porch! The pencils Gramma bought us arrived already!

I am so thankful for the numerous blessings that grace my life. How can I be sad about customers who tell me they want to pull my hair out when I have friends that bring me flowers, and drive 3 hours to work for free!

Reflections of a family visit

Really, there is never enough time with visitors. Especially when you have to work a job outside the home (unlike my husband). Ry's parents and Gramma were here from Saturday till today. I, sadly, couldn't get time off work. The time flew by. I couldn't believe that it was already Wednesday and time for them to go home. But it's not like we have nothing to show from their 4 day visit. I now have 2 freezers full of bread, desserts, and other Ryan-friendly meals. Ryan is overall victor in Pinnocle (not to hard considering he played in every single game that was delt over the 4 days. I organized all of Ry's childhood pictures (with the help of Mom & Dad) into files so I can start his childhood scrapbook (cute files at that....I'll blog later on this adorable find!). I made Debby a template scrapbook to give as a gift for Christmas and planned out her Christmas cards for this year. And, best of all, Gramma bought us the PotteryBarn kids colored pencils (for the kids guest room) for a house warming present!


It was a terrific visit. We are so blessed to have family. (above: early morning cards before I went to work).

White and Nerdy

Weird Al just made a new song titled "White and Nerdy". I'm not sure, but I think it describes Ryan and his Dad pretty well. Listen here then scroll down a bit and you will be able to see the video. Listen closely!

Rockstar Scrabble

So once again, I am late with my posting. But I had a good excuse yesterday...I had to work! Actually, Angela's choice of topics stumped me for a bit. I spent at least an hour sorting through pictures trying to decide what I would scrap about. I wanted to do something different than what I have in my childhood scrapbook. The topic I chose is "Rockstar Scrabble". When I was in junior high, I was such a rockstar wanta-be. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table on boring summer days with my scrabble board. I would try to use as many letters as possible to spell out all of the names of rock bands and rockstars names on the board at one time. Ah yes, good times.
Serisouly!

SBR cards is live!

Kudos to my wonderful hubby! He has worked day and night to get my new website (SBR Cards.com) up and running. It is officially live but doesn't have all my products available yet. That's where I will have to work day and night to finish my part of the bargain!
The scrapbook room here in the house is definitely becoming christmas card production ready! I had to set up another table just to sort my supplies.
I unfortunately lost my much desired and yearned for Thursday off tomorrow. I was somehow convinced into working 8-2pm tomorrow. It shouldn't be too bad since I'm a slower store than my own. Anything less than 600 Rx will be a cake walk!

Autumn Sunday

Oh, it's Sundays like these that I love. Although I've been working all day with SBR Cards it has been so enjoyable and relaxing. Ryan and I attended the early service at church, then ran some errands including stopping at grocery to get what we needed to make a pot of chili. It was the perfect Autumn day for chili.













Here is my recipe for chili
(a seriously modified version of Jason Newcom's)

1 lb of ground turkey
1 pkg of bacon
1 pkg mild italian sausage (5 links)
1 lb of ham
-cut up into small pieces and throw into pot on high. stir often.
2 cans diced tomatos
1 white onion-chopped
some garlic (the easy stuff in the little glass jar)
chili powder (enough to taste)
-add non-meat ingredients and stir
-simmer for a couple hours

It is currently 8:30 pm and we have so much more work to do in order to get SBR Cards up and running with the Christmas Card collection by tomorrow. We'll see, it may not be till Tuesday.

Today I am thankful to the Lord for:
my Mom...Happy Birthday!
our new friends Kara & Ian
a day off work
6 more days till Mom, Dad, & Grandma come
scrapbooking talent
Air 1 radio for the listening enjoyment all weekend long

My Jesus

Today's Scrapbook challenge was "favorite song". Although I have many favorite songs that I've gathered over the years, I chose the song that is my current favorite. My Jesus by Todd Agnew. The first time I heard this song, I nearly had to stop the car because the words were so moving, so real, so honest. The words of the song say everything there is to be said about living a life like Christ, for Christ, and in Christ. There are so many really good questions that I ask myself and grow from every time I hear the song. If Jesus were here, would I walk right and not acknowlege Him? How can I humble myself so that I'm not the rich, arrogant, or comfortable? Am I so caught up living for success and popularity that I've forgotten to follow Your lead? Is my vision of You that of a perfect upper class King instead of the modest servant You actually were? How can I be more like You, Jesus? If you've never heard the song, you must. Go to Todd Agnew's MySpace page and click on My Jesus in the player box.
And, you can check out Angela's favorite song scrapbook page here....and Angela, p.s. I made a Surrender page a couple weeks ago that I thought seriously hard about using, but I thought that might be cheating :)

Last week's scrapbook challenge

Due to unforseen circumstances at my job, I was too busy to make my scrapbook page last week. But because the topic is dear to me since I haven't scrapbooked Princess in such a long time, I made sure I got it done today!

Nothing's Better . . .

. . . than a package of homemade bread from Mom! Both Ryan-friendly and Kelly-friendly!
Yum.
Thanks Mom!




Actually, there is something better than a package of homemade bread from Mom....Mom and Grandma in my kitchen making it fresh!
9 more days.
Super Yum!