Thursday, June 30, 2011

{June 30th} Happy Birthday Mom / End of Fiscal

I made it - I really didn't know if this day would ever come...June 30th - the end of fiscal at work and the end of an entire year's worth of work!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom - I hope she has a wonderful day today & I hope we get to see her later tonight for something...dinner, Florence Freedom game...anything!

This is a picture from a few years ago - but I love it because it shows we are the birthday girls in June! She said I was the best early birthday present she ever got! :) I love sharing a birthday month with her!!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

{friends are the family you choose for yourself...}

What an amazing week with my friends - I've had birthday dinners with Stephanie and Melanie 1 on 1 and really enjoyed catching up with them and hearing all about what's going on in their lives.

Last Saturday Richard & my friends all got to go out to Brio for dinner and then out for drinks afterwards - Michelle, Crystal, Ryann, Keith, John Michael & Kelli...it was so nice to see everyone & just enjoy everyone's company.

It's been a wonderful week of celebrating my birthday and I really appreciate it - I've received so many cards in the mail (grandma's, aunts, uncles, friends from my fertility blog :) and others!), at work (thanks Sooz & Kat) and in person - mom & dad, Corey & Jimmie, Amy, Jack & Caroline etc. What a great time celebrating and I feel so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life - I'll post more pictures later but waned to just share a collage that I made from some of the highlights!


Dad has also commented that saying friends are the family you choose for yourself makes it seem like you're stuck with your family :) Here are some cute shots with my family this week too celebrating Father's Day, Richard's birthday, my birthday & mom's birthday - we have to do them all at once around here!




Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate & everyone who has said "Happy Birthday" to me in the past week! I am one lucky girl!

Saturday, June 11, 2011

4 weeks from today...

My lilypie ticker at the bottom of my blog reminds me that 4 weeks from today we'll be starting our next round of IVF - I'm listening to Melissa Lawson's "What If It All Goes Right" I just downloaded from Itunes - I hadn't heard the song until I was watching a slideshow that someone in Thirty-One put together a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was simply perfect for what we're going through.


I'll leave you with the lyrics (and link to listen on youtube to the song if you want!) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRbSUPWSdcE

Melissa Lawson Lyrics – What If It All Goes Right
What if that road that you’re taking’s a dead end
What if love leaves you all jaded and broken
What if that limb breaks you’re climbing out on
Yeah, what if it all goes wrong
But, what if it all goes right
What if it all works out
What if the stars line up
and good luck rains down
What if you chase your dreams
and it changes your whole life
Yeah, what if it all goes right
What if that road is a beautiful slow drive
what if that love ends up lasting a life time
what if that limb holds you, oak tree strong
what if this time nothing goes wrong
What if it all goes right
What if it all works out
What if the stars line up
and good luck rains down
What if you chase your dreams
and it changes your whole life
Yeah, what if it all goes right
What if you climb to the mountain top
and touch the sky
grab a cloud as it passes by
you might fall you might fall
but then again you might fly
What if it all goes right
What if it all works out
What if the stars line up
and good luck rains down
What if you chase your dreams
and it changes your whole life
Yeah, what if it all goes right
Sometimes music just speaks volumes - and says more than I could ever put in words - I hope everyone has a great week & I hope I get a better night's sleep (given the storms kept me waking up last night!) 

my 31 family

I signed up for Thirty-One Gifts as a consultant in May of 2010. My director, Tiff Wellinghoff used to work with me at BASES and I was good friends with her cousin April. I knew she sold 31 through facebook, so I contacted her on there to ask questions / right away she wrote back that she'd love to meet with me & answer any questions that I may have about the business/being a consultant. I remember the day we met at Friday's on Fields Ertle to talk about everything - I was really excited after meeting with her!

I became interested in 31 after seeing a catalog at my sister-in-law Amanda's house and read the testimonials and thought "I can do this!" Richard was a little more skeptical than me, but he has always been supportive!

Because the hostess special in May was so awesome (double hostess rewards) I decided to host my kickoff in May and tell my friends/family about my business. I would not have imagined everyone would've been SO supportive & so excited about this new adventure for me. To be honest, I think if you would've asked me in May "How long do you think you will sell 31?" I might have said a year or so...I just didn't know if I could do it successfully & keep it going (esp while having a full time job, going through IVF etc.) Having 31 in my life has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people - and more than I ever would've imagined that are struggling with infertility themselves or know someone that is - that support has meant so much to me through this journey!

I've had awesome months, and I've had harder months - a lot of times I will decide the month prior that I don't want to do as many parties, so I'm the one actually backing off of it a bit - I could do a lot more if I didn't want to spend as much time with my family or I didn't have a full time job, but for the time being - I'm ok with just doing it on the side for fun! I never imagined my business would grow and continue to grow over the course of the past year - it's been amazing to watch my excitement grow and it's going to be higher than ever come July when I come back with the new fall/winter catalog!!

From being on Tiff's team I have met one of the sweetest people & someone who had become an incredible friend - Kelli. She & I have become buddies meeting before every Celebrate & Connect Meeting at King's Island and shared our live stories with each other! We motivate each other to keep going some months, or to try harder in something...and she's the first person I call when I think "Have you had this happen before?" More than likely she is able to help me! We were hoping to both be promoted to director by the time conference rolled around (because we both promoted last year to senior consultant) but I didn't quite make it this year - so she'll have to go without this year but I am beyond excited for how great her business is going...I can't wait to be cheering/yelling from the audience when she takes the stage as a director!!

This was our latest C&C meeting we had (and Tiff was about to give birth to baby Emily!) - Kelli was recognized for being a director so she's got the crown on :) Love these girls to pieces!!
 This was a random C&C meeting where we all had sweet teas (we try to pick Tiff up one but this time she had already bought one from McD's!)
 Here is Megan Hollar - always a hoot to talk to & see!
 Kelli & I got mini retro metro bags and they had beach balls at the Jan meeting - how fun!
 Tiff, Kelli & me at the meeting when we all had pink on (guess we all got the memo!) and our team had to work the welcome tables!
 Here is my 31 team - Jennifer, Jessica & Michelle - I am so proud of them & can't wait to see what the future holds for all of them & their business.
 Love Kelli - she came down to help me during  my Spring/Summer Kickoff (which was so successful!) and just her helping me take orders & calculate was wonderful! I helped her next but we totally forgot to get a picture!!


We went last weekend to meet baby Emily *and bring Tiff LOTS of sweet tea! It was so great to meet Emily & spend time with my "Thirty-One family"!

Looking forward to seeing what the next year of 31 holds - hopefully nothing but good things!! Thanks to everyone who has supported me/my business over the past year - I wouldn't be where I am today without each & every one of you!

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Cincinnati Reds - Richard presented the colors!

I am very proud to be married to a fireman, and I love when Richard gets to do neat things in his career that are truly once in a lifetime opportunities! He called last week to let me know the Covington Honor Guard was asked to present the colors at the Cincinnati Reds night game. I was so excited for him (probably more than he was)! Since he didn't let them know right away that he could do it (he thought it was a day game and he worked at Edgewood 6-2) so we weren't actually sure he was going to be in it until yesterday afternoon!

The day before & the day of Richard was concerned with which tickets we should buy and I told him to just decide for us and he came up with an amazing deal from stubhub.com - $18.99 a piece for tickets right behind the dugout ($5 to download, $5 service fee to be fair) but when I got to the seats I couldn't believe how great they were - they were even padded! I walked across the Suspension Bridge from work (only took about 10-15 min) and found our seats. This was our view (and when you get there an hour early, it's much more comfy to have so much room!):


 This was my favorite picture of the night - love the American flag, how Richard doesn't even realize I'm taking a picture of him & how great of a picture my Canon takes!

This was as close as he got to the jumbo-tron! He got to hold the American flag, but it was in his face anytime the camera was on him - so cool to see!

Here they come - they did a great job and it was a great experience!

After Richard got changed, he got to enjoy the game in our wonderful seats (don't pay any attention to me - it was after a full day of work!) :)

Home run that would ultimately win the game - so excited for them to come back in the 8th to win!

All & all wonderful night at the Great American Ball Park! Glad I was able to go & get such a great spot to take pictures!