Birthday Celebration

Wow....today has been a great day!  Even though I had to work my normal shift at the airport, on my birthday,  I still had plans afterwards to join my friends for some shopping and an evening meal out.  I met my friends at Trisa's house and we went to Kohl's for the first stop of our shopping extravaganza.  From there we drove to Shadow Lake Towne Center.  After eating an early evening meal at Wheatfield's,  we found a parking space centrally located to most of our favorite stores and hit the sidewalks.  We walked in and out of most of them.  Clothing was tried on and some purchased, shoes were tried out and most purchased, and accessories were picked out and of course, purchased.   Tammy and I were the last two standing that night.  We were out and about until most of the stores were closing up shop at 9 PM.  I hadn't done that for many months! 

My day started with many birthday greetings popping up on Face Book.  They continued alllll day long!  I think before it was all said and done, there had been over 50 people sending me good wishes.  I love how I've been able to reconnect with so many that I used to see and talk to regularly when I used to live in ND. 
It was so fun to read them all.  I also had a few phone calls and even some text messages from a couple people.  Technology has certainly changed.  There are so many forms of communication and they all worked for me that day. 

But the birthday celebrations aren't over today.  Next Saturday, on the 5Th of March, I'll be joining my best friends for a co-birthday celebration with Lisa.  She celebrates hers on March 12th.  So we are all getting together on the 5TH.  Stay tuned for all the fun details on that day! 

Thanks to everyone that sent greetings my way!  I love to hear from you any time. 

Baptism

My good friends Chris and Dee Ederer had their baby boy baptised today.  Ian Christopher was welcomed into the church of God at St. Mary's of Bellevue, NE. 


One of many beautiful windows in the church.

                                     

Above the altar is this very huge cross....gorgeous.

A small group of family and close friends was in attendance to witness the blessed event.  He didn't really appreciate the water running down his perfectly shaped head.  After the Deacon finished the Christening, Ian had been fussing and when the word "Amen" had been said, Ian fussed again and the Deacon stated (directing his words towards Ian) that he was all done.  Ian then made a sound that sounded just like he himself said "Amen!"  Everyone laughed because they thought they heard the same thing!  It was very cute!

Ian's sponsors are Chris's brother Greg and Dee's sister-in-law Lori.  Here is Lori holding Ian during the Christening.  Greg is standing behind the Deacon. 

Afterwards we all went to Chris and Dee's house where we ate cake and ice cream.  Gifts were opened and we all went home.  He received many nice things such as crosses, picture frames and clothes. 



Another TSOT

TSOT.  Are you wondering just what that stands for?  Tastefully Simple On Tour.  Each year, prior to the spring and summer catalog coming out, regional conferences are held for consultants in different locations to introduce the new product line and also to jazz up our recruiting, selling and party strategies.  For the last two years, this conference has been held in Omaha.  This year the closest location to me was in Kansas City, MO.  Here are the last two posts from the prior two years.
The schedule for the conference had things kicking off at three in the afternoon this past Friday.  So Teri, my sponsor, and I left Omaha in her car around eleven.  We arrived at the Downtown Holiday Inn, across the street from where the conference was being held at the Marriott Downtown, right at two thirty.  After we checked in and left our belongings in our room, we walked over to register and got seated in time for everything to start.
We heard from a couple of consultant speakers, watched as several were recognized for having the top team sales either in their respective region or overall, and also cheered on those that were on a million dollar team.  Then....the most anticipated part of the entire conference:  unveiling's of the new products coming out in the spring/summer catalog for March!!!  Because this conference is happening simultaneously in many cities both last weekend and this weekend, they showed a video of employees from HQ (headquarters) as they introduced and showed many ways of using the products.  Very similar to what we do at home parties.  Some items have been brought back from last years' catalog because of being so popular.  The others were brand new.  It's going to be good!
Then at 6:30 PM, it was time for our dinner.  It featured some of the new products with a cash bar including some of our new drink buckets.  Wow....so yummy!  Then it was back to the other hotel where we were staying.  I was exhausted as I'd been up since 3 AM for work.  (I had left early in order to go to Kansas City) 
The next morning started out with breakfast at 7.  At 8 AM, there was a leader session of which I attended.  At 9, the doors opened and we welcomed the other consultants back in for general session.  Not long after getting started with some announcements, we were surprised to see Jill, the founder and CEO, come running in from a side door!  What a surprise!  She never tells which conference she will show up to.  We were all cheering and excited!  It's an honor to listen to her speak as she gets us revved up for the new season.  She's sincere in her pep talks and speaks from the heart; as she says, " I love you to the moon!"  It was so great and never gets old seeing her at these conferences.  I'm waiting for her book, Simply Shine,  to arrive this week and will be reading it from cover to cover.

There is always a theme to each conference.  This one was "Raise the Roof".  It's so inspiring to take home information that we've heard from either Jill or the guest consultant speakers as they share with us just what works for them in their own business. 
The rest of the morning was similar to the day before with more recognitions followed by lunch.  Again, we got to sample yet more of the new product line.  It's very difficult to stay awake after eating so much food!  We definitely don't go hungry at these meals!
We finished our day at 4:30 and left with some of the new items in hand.  They usually give us all a few of the new things to take home to make for friends and family. 
Teri and I had a good time reconnecting with people we've met at the other conferences.  We left KC at roughly 5PM that day.  Our drive to Omaha would seem long (even though it's only 3 hours total) only because we'd been sitting all day and still had full tummy's from all the food they gave us!

My Niece Abigail

I wanted to share more with you exactly what's been happening with my niece Abigail.  I've told you about the strange episode she dealt with about two weeks ago.  But here is the account given by my brother Kevin in his words. 
Please keep Abigail in your thoughts and prayers and hopefully this mystery will be solved and prevented from happening again. 
Love you sweet girl and you're always in my thoughts!