Lucky in Love

I re-did the photos on our fridge today for under $3!! Thank you Target and your easy peasy photo printing!

In deciding what I wanted up there I realized how lucky in love and friendship I am. It made me a bit teary putting them up there, I just love my life so much. And there are more photos that, after the fact, I realized I want up there. I need a bigger fridge. :)

The upper right corner was in Paris. And while we were there, for many reasons, I fell for Chuck all over again.
The upper left corner was the 4 of us at the Fair last summer. Lily kissed me on the cheek without any prompt.
There are 2 photos one year apart of Chuck and his best and oldest friends from Tucson.
There is what I affectionately call "The 3 Amigos", me, my BFF Ryan and Chuck. Hilarity ensues whenever we are together.
There is a photo from 2 years ago at my friend Laura's wedding with my closest friends from college.
There are some great photos of the girls, the are just growing into such beautiful people.

I need a photo from my mama's wedding, I need a photo of one of my best girls, Lynn, I need a photo from my trip to Costa Rica. I love photos on the fridge, we look at it every day, it should be filled with joy.

A Space

With this gloomy weather, I'm really itching to be in this spot. With a good cup of coffee and all the time in the world to sit and write and think and create.

This was taken in Paris at the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. One of my favorite stops of the trip. Maybe I just want to be in Paris again (who wouldn't??) Maybe I'm itching to travel, maybe I'm just wanting a creative space to call my own. But this picture brings back such a good feeling to me. Some day, I'll go back there and really will spend a day at that desk and write. It's now on my Life List.

World Traveler

So I went to Paris over the new year.

And then went to Coast Rica 3 days after I got home from Paris.

How is that my life?

Many many uncountable thanks to my mama for the tickets to Paris! It was a trip of a life time! So much delicious wine, so many sights, such a calm city with enough bistros to fill the streets of Minneapolis 3 times over. We did the Louvre, the Arc de Triumphe, saw Jim Morrison's grave (which was lame but the cemetery itself was pretty sweet,) saw the Eiffel Tower which is much cooler at night, found a quaint little bookstore that was stacked in every nook and cranny with books, went into Notre Dame with enough time to get a few photos before it closed, put a lock on the Lovers Bridge which was one of my favorite moments, went into the Catacombs, napped, drank, wandered the streets, even watched the last Viking's game in a Canadian bar. It was truly an awesome trip!

And Costa Rica! I won the trip with my company last June and in terms of my career, it was life changing. I was in the heart of our business and saw the whole process. I picked coffee cherries right off the plant, saw the whole process at the mill, met the workers, it was an amazing experience. The spirit that is on that mountain is something that I will hold in my heart for a very long time. It felt so honest and real and long, like a sense of accomplishment and hard work and pride is in the soil and it gets deep in the bones of those that live there. I took so much of that trip to heart and back into my work ethic. I am forever grateful for that opportunity.

And ever since those 2 trips, my life seems lame. Ha, not really. But what a way to start off 2014! I am quite lucky.

Merry Everything

We called Santa last night. It was so magical. It made me all teary seeing the joy and belief and excitement in her eyes. We'd been telling her that Santa won't come unless she's asleep. So after a family party with Chuck's aunts, uncle and cousins, we came home last night and called Santa at 11:40 pm. And sure enough, one of Santa's helpers answered the phone, told us Santa had just left Mississippi and was on his way to Tennessee. She said she was calling from Minnesota and he responded with "You better hurry up to bed. Santa won't come until your asleep. And he's headed your way." She ran upstairs right away and jumped right into her bed. It was such a wonderful moment for me as a parent, to see her sheer joy and absolute belief that he was coming. It made me all ferkelmpt and filled with warm fuzzies.

If you don't know about this, read the following article. It was all because of a typo.

Merry Christmas, Friends!! Much love to all! And may you have a sweet moment that reminds you of the spirit of the season!

In Love

I'm sitting here watching the last Harry Potter movie on cable for the zillionth time, he's asleep on the couch next to me, I'm surfing Pintrest cause I'm a girl and it's one of the many inane things we do and it's a simple Saturday night.

And I couldn't be more in love.

I'm going to get stupid sappy on you now. So either prep yourself or hit the back button on your browser and get out while you can!
We've been together nearly 4 years. We're in it to win it. We've hosted for 4 Thanksgivings, one for each year. And every year it goes off without a hitch.

We compliment each other better than I thought possible.
He stays busy in the kitchen and I fill beverages.
He lets people help when they ask and I free up a seat for their tired feet.

I didn't think an understanding and an appreciation for another person could be felt so deeply. I really feel like I've found my other half.

Except for on nights like last night where I got all PMS-pissy and slept on the couch because I'm that girl who blows things out of proportion and he's all you're-crazy-I-love-you-but-I'm-going-to-sleep. Which then leads to me be all I-can't-believe-your-asleep-while-I-wallow-in-my-self-made-sobfest.

And then we wake up, sheepishly apologize, genuinely say "I love you" and move on.

See? Compliment. Understanding. Balance. Other half.

This whole post was moved from this silly lil' picture I found on-line

It made me smile and giggle and think "that isn't really us. I don't think. But I totally get what they are saying."

Love. It's a tricky business. It twirls things within so much that it's hard to tell if they were originally within you or grew from something. Or both. Love. It makes you put your dumb self out there for the other to poke at and say "I'll keep that dumb stuff." Love. It creates an understanding of "You're an idiot" equals "I adore your crap." Love. It makes you feel whole when you didn't think you weren't.

My wine glass is empty, he's still sleeping next to me and I this is right where I want to be. If you'll excuse me, I need to go be in love with my life.

And in love with love.

Emotionally Investing

There is no feeling like the vote of confidence you get for being recognized for a job well done. I'm one of the lucky ones who work for a company that does just that. It was 2 years ago this month that I was preparing to leave a very ungrateful place of employment. (There are a few posts you can go back and read to understand my frustration then and appreciate my feelings now. Start here. And then the new job post here. And then the reason why I do what I do here.)

But man oh man, in the past few months I've been acknowledged for my abilities so many times over it's dizzying. In August we had our regional meeting and I was given 3 awards! Three, baby! One was from the COO for being number one in the company during a bean promotion. Another was a Team Hero award that my own district team gave me. They voted me as the team hero for the year and I got a little tiger paw award because as a district we "believe in holding back tigers not pushing elephants." And then I was given an award by regional manager for a core value. Our company has 4 core values and each year our regional manager gives an award for each value to a manager that exemplified that value. And mine was for Commitment to Unique Personality. No surprise there!

All my awards. Pretty cool, huh? I'm proud.

And then I find out that I get to travel to one of our coffee farms in January. And that coffee farm is in Coast Rica!! I was number one in the entire company for a bean promotion in the month of June and because of that was put in a nomination pool to go to the coffee farm where that bean comes from and I won!! The company sends 2 groups of 6 of company members that have excelled at something in their job. AND I GET TO GO! Before the bean promotion started my boss said that if our district was number one in the company, he would nominate the number one store manager to go to La Minita, Costa Rica. I wanted that trip and I held the number one spot for nearly the whole promo. I dropped to number 3 for a few days and then took it back and never let it go. And now I get to to go to our coffee farm, pick the coffee off the mountainside myself, meet the farmers, it's going to be life changing.

AND THEN.... about 3 days before I find out about the trip, my boss approached me with taking over one of the top 10 busiest stores in the company. It's a drive-through location and a million dollar a year store and I was nervous about the change. But to say no to the opportunity that he was willing to give me was just dumb. The door had been opened and I would have shot myself in the foot if I had said no. So I had made my decision on my drive home, I'll take the job. And 5 days before our biggest promotion of the year, I took on a beast of a store. And I have survived 3 weeks so far. No one has quit, and the store hasn't burned down. I do have my work cut out for me. I'm noticing the deeper I get into this store, the more work it is going to be. But, when I take a step back and look at my successes and the awards I was given, I know I can do this. I have a reputation to protect and I don't fail.

I was in the midst of writing this about a month ago and got side-tracked and didn't finish it until now. I'm 3 weeks and 2 days into my new store and am at the overwhelmed part. I have 5.5 days to meet my company goal, because you know my district strives to be the best and we all agreed to meeting goal on 10/21, even though the promotion goes until 10/31. I broke down at a meeting today, sometimes it's all too much. 95 pounds in 6 days. REALLY? And today when I voiced my concern, the tears welled up because my peer team and my boss are so supportive. I have 3 people coming to my store to help sell and I have refocused my energy into my top sellers and the ones who care. I'm reamping myself. I made a paper chain to cut off each link every time we sell a pound, I'm trying to create energy within my team to sell sell sell. It's big and scary and completely possible.

I have a quote at the end of my auto-signature on my work email "What you get be achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." -Henry David Thoreau

And I believe that is true.

Cool Parenting Points

I did something very cool last Friday, I took a pre-teen to a "documentary" movie about her favorite boy band. I say documentary loosely because it wasn't nearly the level of National Geographic or those Ancient Aliens shows on Discovery or History channel or something. But it was a movie compiled of little interviews and moments from tour and live shows bits to make a surprisingly fun movie.

One Direction is a band compiled of five talented British boys. They took the pre-teen world by storm in the last 2 years thanks to Britain's The X Factor and Simon Cowel. All 5 boys auditioned separately and Simon thought they had something worth while and put them together. Low and behold, he was right. They are in the middle of a world tour right now and will be doing another one next year. And yes, I'm keeping my eyes out for tickets in the Minneapolis area.

That last paragraph will put me in the category of a DIRECTIONER. Click the word to find out, it'll make you giggle.

But seriously, I had a blast at this movie. I bought the tickets in advance, told her we were going via instagram. You know, took a picture of the confirmation, tagged her in it and put it on instagram. Cause I'm all hip like that. I told her she could even pick out my outfit. (Sadly, she didn't get home from her friends in time to do so, so I got to look like the smokin' step-mom that I am without her help.) We got our 3D glasses, our obligatory popcorn, candy and coke before hand and sat with bated breath, waiting for the moment when it would start and we could all "woo-hoo!!!" at the opening credits.

The whole movie made me very nostalgic for my New Kids on the Block days. I was in love with that late 80's-early 90's boy band. Their posters were all over my bedroom, I knew all their "fun" facts, had the doll, the game, every jewelry piece possible, and I KNEW I was meant to be with Donnie. He and I were SOOOO going to get married. Connecting those old memories to this night made it amazing for me. As I settled into this movie and accepted the fact that I really do like their music, they actually can sing, and are really charming and humble, I looked over at Miss K and my heart did a leap. Seriously, you guys I wish you could have seen her when the footage of the five band members playing "live! in concert" came on the big screen for the first time. She sat in the seat next to me, her Skittles in her lap and her too-big-for-her-face 3D glasses on, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth in complete AWE. It was real. And she was SO their number one fan at that moment. That was my favorite everything about this event, watching her and remembering that feeling so well.

There are times in my step-parenting life that I question everything I do and who I am. But this night I did it right. I let her be her, love what she did for the same reasons, completely embraced why we were there and fell for her and who she is even more. And One Direction, listen to them. They are cute and man, they make some catchy music. For reals.