Uppercase Living Vinyl Borders

I have been traveling all over the USA visiting our Uppercase Living Demonstrators and have loved every minute getting to meet and see them. There have been so many old friends that I have also been able to connect with that were also previously with Stampin' Up! that are now Demonstrators for Uppercase Living. I cannot wait to be able to see our Demonstrators at our Leadership training next month in Tampa....bring on the sun baby!!!

One product I love that our company has right now are the Borders. I attached some pics below for your viewing pleasure. These large borders are easily pieced together to fit any space, as you can see in the pics.

I LOVE this stuff. If you do also, you can go to uppercaseliving.com to see many more ideas and a plethora of vinyl expressions. I truly am blesseed to work for a company where I love going to work each day- Not everyone can say that! :)

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!