The Christmas Sweater Contest

Today at work we had a Christmas Sweater Contest. Now I don't know about you, but I cannot think of a better way to spend a dreary, snowy day, then to have one of these. I made the sweater myself.....well not the SWEATER, I certainly cannot knit a sweater for Heaven's sake and not many people can....but I digress. Anywho, I went to a local thrift store and purchased an old sweater that, due to the smell ot it, I am pretty sure was peeled off an old dead dude AFTER he died wearing it....but again, I digress. Even the angel on top of the sweater came from the thrift store. Now I ask you........who in their right mind makes a green-haired, ugly angel that looks strikingly like Tammy Faye Baker (the eyes)??? I just knew she has been watching down on me from heaven. So here are the pics of the WINNING sweater. That's right after a vote from the peers... (drum roll please) My HOMEMADE Christmas sweater took the prize.

I know many of you will want to be "hating" on my sweater....but please....just let me bask in the glory of this fresh win for a moment longer:)

The Rock Baby

A few days ago I came home from work and lugged my worn out body to the door. And there sitting next to the front door was a large rock, wrapped in swaddling paper towels. In front of it was a cracker and some other food that I could not make out, as well as a toy. Well apparently my sweet little Sophie has found a new playmate. (Should I be worried about this?) Sophie has a new rock baby. Here is a pic:

A friend of mine, Julie Salva, once said in a presentation: "If you don't quite know what to say, just simply say 'Bless her heart'". Thanks for sharing that Julie because I was certainly at a loss for words. Soph, bless your heart

Uppercase Living- Facebook and Extreme Makeover Home Edition

So my work has gone all techy on me :) We have our own Facebook page. It is going to be a great source for decor and product ideas. They are doing prize giveaways through the site as well. You have to be a fan of the page to win. All you have to do is go to Facebook and type in Uppercase Living and you will get our page.

Also, tune into Extreme Makeover Home Edition this Sunday. They will be using some Uppercase Living product during their renovation. How exciting is that??????? Make sure to check it out.

Live Nativity

Monday night the whole fam got to be in a live nativity. It was amazing. It is a tradition that has been going on for years in our area and to be honest, it is truly an amazing experience. An entire city of Bethlehem is built right behind our church. There is a cast over over 100 people all decked out in clothing of the time. There are tons of live animals: camels, donkeys, chickens, sheep and baby cows. And at the end of the walking tour of the city, you end up at the manger where there is Mary, Joseph and a live baby Jesus. When Sophie was two months old, they asked us to fill in for that role. She was the prettiest baby Jesus you ever saw. Here are a few pics from my cell phone- so they are not great.

Coltin and I were the Carpenter and Son

And Teresa, Malorie and Sophie were street merchants.

And here is a pic of the "streets" that you walk through to get to the manger.

Sorry I have been so LAME not updating more often. I promise to get back on track.

Snow? NO!!!!!!

I just can't do this yet. I am NOT ready for winter to be here. Where have you gone summer? I will count down the days until I see you again.

Currently it is only 34 degrees and I cannot stand it. Here is the view from my office windows today:

Ugh!! I hope to see the sun soon or I am going on a trip to Texas. (I was there last week visiting our awesome demonstrtors there and the weather was perfect!!!)

Another Trip...Washington/Oregon

To say that Washington and Oregon are beautiful states would be a gross understatement. If you live there, you are lucky! What stunning scenery, all of the time. Here are a few pics from my last business trip there:
The road from Spokane to Seattle. Ok, so not all of Washington is full of trees.

Soon the scenery turned into this:
Stunning!!

I was driving through the Cascade Mountains and came upon the coolest little village in the mountains called Leavenworth. It was well worth the drive to Seattle. The whole place looks like an old Bavarian town. It was amazing. The Hat Shop was my favorite. It was filled with thousand of hats and everyone was wildly trying them on and taking pictures and laughing. I need to own a place like this that brings so much joy to people.

It was getting late so I had to head out to Seattle and finish my drive through Steven's Pass in the Cascade Mountains. Wouldn't you know just as I was laughing about the fact it was going to snow back home, I ran into a snow storm of my own rolling through the canyons. I was the nut pulling off the road every twenty feet to get an even better picture. Sorry Washington drivers! (BTW- you are not very friendly drivers I might add) :)

Me at the Public Market Center (duh) in Seattle. Everyone was buying flowers because they are so cheap. I bought some too even though I had nowhere to put them but in the car. Oh well! And the famous Pike's Fish Market where they literally throw fish from one worker to the next. It was awesome. So glad PETA wasn't there that day :)

Jimi Hendrix grave/memorial in Renton, WA. I didn't really follow the dude's music but the concierge at the hotel said it was a must. Sorry dude in the back for posting you on my blog. I waited ten minutes for you to even flinch and you didn't so you are on the blog now mate.

I also got to see the sites of the filiming of Goonies (Astoria, Cannon Beach OR) and the Roloff Farm from Big People Little World in Hillsboro, OR. The mom was even outside at the farm. No pun intended but does life get much bigger than this? HA. As soon as I download the pics I will post them.

Traveling all over the place

First I have to say, I LOVE my new job at Uppercase Living. The people here in the office , and our demonstrators in the field are too cool for words. I have been out visting our Demonstrators in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. When you are driving along the highway this is what you can see:

IOWA

Corn- and lot's of it!!

Middle of nowhere, IA

Here are other pics from the trips. They are all what I like to call "drive by pics" which means I didn't really stop to look much. I jumped out of the car snapped a pic and then jumped right back in.

ILLINOIS

The grave of THE John Deere. Still not sure why I went there:)

Moline, IL

Rolling through Nauvoo, IL

Carthage Jail

Springfield, IL

Abe Lincoln's home- An amazing man!

Chicago, IL

White Sox Stadium

The famous Chicago Theater

Millineum Park- where Obama gave is victory speech

The "Bean" sculpture in Millineum Park

INDIANA

Gary, IN-Michael Jackson's childhood home. Gary----is SCARY. I jumped out of the car, took a pic, and then jumped back in, peeled out of there and did not look back :) Seriously though, if you go there, take a gun!!! yikes

MISSOURI

St. Louis

View of "The Arch" from my hotel room

Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play

There was a Tums factory right across the street from my hotel. Each time I walked outside it either smelled like mixed berries or spearmint. ick!

The Pageant theater, seemed so fitting so I took a pic

Good times. I will find a few obscure places on my next few trips. Can't wait. Sorry for not updating more frequently. You can see I have been traveling a bit. I'll try to do better.

Sophie Says...Bratz dolls

Just got back from a business trip and Sophie was telling me all about a Bratz doll she got for her birthday and said:

"They are called Bratz Dolls dad. But not because they are brats sometimes like Malorie and Coltin. It's just their name."

She gets and extra $100 in my will someday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS SOPHIE

My little baby Sophie turned five this week! Can't wait to celebrate this weekend! So here is my Sophie Top Ten things I love about her:

1. She is little!!! No surprise there.
2. She loves to sing all day long.
3. She says some of the strangest yet ridiculously funny things ever.
4. She loves to be with Malorie.
5. She has the cutest haircut, perfect for her.
6. She comes into our room in the middle of the night and makes a bed on our floor without us knowing.
7. She loves to play outside.
8. She loves anything High School Musical
9. She is learning how to play the piano.
10. She is more than a blessing in our lives. God loved us enough to send her to us, and I will almost always be grateful for that even when she is a teen!

Uppercase Living AWESOME deal

So Uppercase Living is running a promotion right now that I wanted to tell all my closest friends about. I don't always put stuff like this on my blog but this one is honestly, too good to pass up.

The promotion is the Buy Two, Get One FREE!!!!!! Holy cow. Purchase any two items from August 5 to September 10 and you’ll get an additional item of equal or lesser value free. The best part is that it can be ANY item Uppercase Living offers such as the new Fall/Winter
accessories, expressions and embellishments, Chalk Wall kits and theme packs, or even a MyDesign Suite™ custom expression. Plus there is no limit to the number of FREE items
you can get! Seriously? Told you it was too good to pass up!!
If you want more information just go to www.uppercaseliving.com. Don't forget this promo ends on September 10th so you better hurry.

OH FINE... I will update!

Thanks for waiting patiently for me to post again. Wow, life got crazy for a moment but I have a minute to update.

August 21st was my bday! What fun. My UL peeps took me to breakfast at IHOP and I advised them I only had one birthday request: It was for everyone to take motorboating pictures while we were at IHOP. For motorboating you take a picture while you are breathing out through your mouth like a horse; you know- while your lips are just a flappin'. Thank you mates for obliging me. Here are the pics (please don't be mad):

Rachel /Amanda

Katie /Brandi

Lisa /Christina

And one of my sweet Tito (Coltin). I swear his mouth was made for these. I find pictures that he has taken of himself on my camera and cell phone EVERY day!

Draper Idol

I ran for Draper Idol this last week. I have never been more scared in my life I swear. I am up there on the stage with all these high school aged kids. How intimidating. I sang Feeling Good by Michael Buble' and then This is the Moment from Jekyl and Hyde. It was a good experience. I was the Second Runner-up. (I call it sceond loser for fun!!!) One of the judges told me I would have won if I had sung younger songs? What the? He told me I should try rock songs. HA- me singing rock songs, now that is funny. Anyway here are some pics of the big event:

Thanks to my family, my boss Brandi, and awesome friends like the Sanovich's and Schraders for coming out to support me- it's good to have "peeps"