Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Seminar

Last week I attended the annual Mary Kay Seminar in Dallas. That is always a highlight! I love every minute of it. I missed my goal to become a sales director to debut on stage, but I've reset my sights to finish in December and attend Leadership Conference in January in Los Angeles. So wish me luck! Here are pictures from the event.
All the gals that attended from our unit. 

Lots of gals from our future national area
At Jan Harris's last red jacket rally...she made $10 million in commissions last year!

Jan Harris: this was her last seminar because she's retiring.



One morning we learned from the top nationals in our division. Jeanie Martin is speaking here and she  is one of my new favorites! 

This is Cassie from Kentucky...new friend!

On point! On our way to awards night.
Wednesday Justin and I got up early early (3:00) to get to the airport at 4:00 for me to get on my plane that left at 5:00. Thank you Justin for driving me to and from! It took me 30 minutes to get through security so I was getting nervous about missing my flight but It was fine. From the airport in Dallas I took a shuttle to downtown to get to my Red Jacket Rally. Every new director took about three minutes to share with us, so it was great information! That evening Jan Harris had her last area banquet. Can you believe Wolfgang Puck catered our meal? Pretty crazy-awesome!

Thursday we had the new National Sales Directors debut and Director debuts. This is my favorite part of all seminar. Four of the five nationals came from the Jan Harris "MK family" three favorites being Lily Gauthreax, Crystal Trojanowski, and Patti Olson. That night we had our soon-to-be national area banquet and I got a ribbon and a couple plaques for the work I've done this past year. Fun fun!

Friday we had classes all morning and then awards night from 3:00-7:00. There was a lot of security that night because this is where Mary Kay gives away thousands upon THOUSANDS of dollars of REAL diamond rings to consultants and directors. A gal from our area earned a diamond ring so that was fun to watch her cross stage!

Saturday we had closing ceremonies where the top three directors in the seminar spoke. That's also one of my favorite parts. You hear something new every seminar. I wasn't as excited to go this year because I had missed my goals, and when that happens its hard to not feel like everyone is looking down on you...but MK is a safe place to fail, and I learned things I needed to hear for where I am in my MK journey. I'm excited to keep going and watch it all unfold. I really love my MK business and truly believe there's a place in MK for every woman, whether she is benefiting from this opportunity or from our products. We are #1 in direct sales AND have the #1 skin care for a reason!

There's nothing like coming back to the real world after my "pink bubble week" than going into the dentist's office Monday morning and having FOUR CAVITIES filled...it was torture. Three of the four were wedged between my teeth...it was a rough day yesterday! But I'm looking forward to our housewarming party this coming Saturday. Stay tuned!

Fun Week

Last week I got a call from Auburn School District to come in for "middle school science interviews...". They didn't say which school or for what grade I would be teaching, but I showed up and had my first interview last Wednesday. I met with the principal, assistant, and science supervisor. Rachel - with all of her interviewing experience - gave me some great ideas for things to say in an interview, and they called me to come back for a second interview on Friday (thanks Rachy!). This time I interviewed with the principal and superintendent. After a few questions, they had me leave the room for them to chat about me. I waited maybe 30 seconds before they called me back in and offered me a job on the spot. Woot! I'll be teaching 7th grade science at Cascade middle school in Auburn. The location isn't ideal meaning I am no longer spoiled with having my school 10 minutes down the road, but I'm looking forward to it! The principal is a PLU graduate (where Laura graduated from and now works) and I really like him. He is very chill....at our second interview he came in his exercise clothing claiming "I have to work out after this!" Ha! I thought maybe I should be worried but...after my administrators last year who were CRAZY I'm thinking it will be a breath of fresh air.

The sad news is, I have had to take a lot of additional tests - hours and hours - to be certified in this state. I took my last test (or what I thought would be my last test) on Thursday and I actually failed. I know! Me! Failed a test! My first time ever! I didn't even feel bad...that test was crazy hard. You either knew the answer or you didn't and I definitely guessed on at least 50% of it. I have until January to pass the stupid thing. Wish me luck!

Justin and I found a dresser on craigslist that is to-die-for cute! The sellers delivered it on Saturday and it now holds our TV. I can't even tell you how much I love it! I still need to take a picture of it and post it...

Saturday we also went to the Bite of Seattle with Jon and Laura. This was my first introduction to Seattle three years ago when Justin brought me to meet his family. I love the atmosphere of walking around to all the booths and eating the awesome food! Later we went to IKEA and got a desk, then went to Lake Tapps to play in the water. Sunday we had our annual MK awards night. It was a fun-filled weekend :)



Epic Corn Dog!

Fat Boy dipped in chocolate? Don't mind if I do...



My friend Taylor at our awards night...we dressed identically! Pearl drop earings, green necklace, and ivory dress. We have impeccable style ;)


Monday, July 13, 2015

All Settled In

Not a lot to update on this week. We are all moved in and loving our new space :) We have some things we still want to get, like a few rugs and a desk - random furniture like that - but other than that we are really happy and enjoying our house! I've spent a lot of time putting the house and yard together. Last week I ripped out a ton of flowers and chopped down a tree and a bush. We've taken SO MUCH STUFF to the dump/Goodwill, and we're still not done! Ha! Here are pictures of the inside of our house. 
To the left is where the piano will go.


Downstairs bathroom

Family room
Table here in the future


The office: eventually we'll have a desk in here



Empty bedroom: for now it's the room for exercise!

Guest bedroom


Our huge closet!









Dining room adjacent to the kitchen: the door leads to the mud room


Other than moving in, we hung our with the Roses this weekend. We celebrated Judy's birthday (which is today!) on Saturday with some foot golf and a BBQ at Jon's. Papa Jon and Judy went to see Wicked that night, so Joe spent the night with us. After church we drove to Silverdale to drop off Joe and had lunch. We played Settlers and I beat Justin for the first time ever! No worries though; we came home and he slaughtered me at Ticket to Ride. ;)

Three years ago today Justin proposed :) He is just so great. I sure do love my handsome man. I gave him a SLAMIN haircut yesterday too ;) I also got a slammin' hair cut last week...we are just real good-lookin ;) that's all for now!



Monday, July 6, 2015

Our "New" Home!

As many of you know, we have moved into our house! We are completely in love with it. It has its quirks, but we like it that way ;) We are excited about adding our personal touch to the house to make it ours! Justin is excited about staining the cabinets as our first project. 

The last week of June we prepped to move again. Jon and Laura put up with the crazy of our house closing. The original closing date was June 11th, and we didn't sign until June 23rd. Even then, the sellers couldn't move until the weekend (June 27th). Considering we moved out of our apartment on May 28th, we were basically living with them for a whole month! Thank you Jon and Laura! 

June 27th finally rolled around and we were anxious to move. Justin's parents helped us shuffle boxes from our storage unit to the moving truck, and then into the house. A couple from our ward came to help as well. When we finished, we all had burgers at Jon's house and enjoyed their AC one last time ;)

Last Sunday I subbed and taught relief society for a friend. I really love teaching RS; so far it's been my favorite calling I've had. They finally split our Sunday school class which is so much better now! We had 15-20 16-and-17-year-olds in our class and it was just too much teenager ridiculousness in one room (which isn't even a room considering we teach on the stage!). Now we have no more than 7-8 teenagers and it is much better! Don't get me wrong: I really like them! It's just much better this way ;)

So now we are moved in and adjusting to all of our new space! I read "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo and would recommend it to anyone! I read it just in time to apply everything to our house. We are loving it! We have trashed/donated a lot of our "stuff" and our place is sleek and tidy! Papa Jon and Joe came up on Wednesday to help us out with yard stuff. I chopped down two huge bushes, one of them being a wisteria bush that was taking over our deck so that felt awesome! Mom gave me advice for washing windows and I did that as well. Here are some of our favorite things about our place so far:

The deck: it is huge and wraps around 3/4 of the house. Love it! 
The trees: 1/2 the house is surrounded by trees which keep the house cool and give us privacy. Though we live in the city, it doesn't feel like it! Love it.
The creek: it runs behind the house, which prevents future construction around us: more privacy.
The name: the neighborhood is named after the creek: Kelsey Creek! HELLO!!! 
The windows: they are HUGE and beautiful and let in so much beautiful natural light!
The house: it was built in 1950. It is solid as a rock according to our inspector. It was a farm house and has so much charm! 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms will accomodate us and a growing family for a while :)

This weekend we played with our Vegas team in a tournament (Potlach) in Redmond. They flew up here to play three days of ultimate. We played on Friday and Saturday. It was HARD! There were not enough ladies and I am out of Ultimate shape....with few subs there was a lot of running in the 90 degree heat. I am glad it is over! Ultimate is a strange sport where people dress up like hooligans, drink a lot of alcohol, and wear little-to-no clothing. I saw way too many butt cheeks this weekend and Justin and I agree that this was probably our last hoorah. Ha! But it was fun. Our team ended up winning our division of the tournament, so that's something! 


















We had a most delicious BBQ at Keith and Gerda's house the evening of the 4th. We had cheeseburgers, baked beans (Mom's recipe!), potato salad, lemonade, and pie...seriously, what is more American than that? Love it! We shot a few fireworks and were finished. People in Washington are crazy. EVERYONE buys fireworks, and by that I mean EVERYONE buys HUNDREDS of DOLLARS of fireworks! It was a war zone, but we were so exhausted from playing ultimate we fell asleep no problem!






Today in church Bishop read the statement from the First Presidency and we had a discussion on it. I am just reminded of a paragraph of The Family: A Proclamation to the World:

"WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets."

The Supreme Court ruling is certainly a continuation of the disintegration of the family. There is a reason marriage between one man and one woman has been encouraged for so long: it is the best scenario for raising children. Strong, traditional marriage is the basic unit of society. The Proclamation also states that, "Children are ENTITLED to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a FATHER and a MOTHER who honor marital vows with complete fidelity."

am reminded of the prophesy of the constitution hanging by a thread in the last days. Regardless of what others think, our religious freedoms are under attack. I'm sure we will see more and more lawsuits as bishops decline marrying two men or two women, and as we decline the use of our church buildings for gay marriages. With social media blowing up in our faces, I am reminded of Elder Perry's last conference talk, where he reaffirmed, "For whatever reasons, too much of our television, movies, music, and Internet present a classic case of a minority masquerading as a majority...Despite what much of media and entertainment outlets may suggest, however, and despite the very real decline in the marriage and family orientation of some, the solid majority of mankind still believes that marriage should be between one man and one woman."

For now, Justin and I are extremely happy and very blessed. We are loving life and are so excited to enter a new chapter of life in our first home. Idaho family: it's time to come visit! ;) We will spoil you rotten!