Happy Easter

Today is Easter. It has been a great day. Braxton stayed the night and woke up today to some awesome presents that the Easter Bunny brought. He was pretty excited. He got some yard tools. He helped us last night finish putting the bark in the flower beds. He was so cute helping us to shovel bark into the wheel barrow. Then Joelynn would let him ride on top of the bark in the wheel barrow and he would help her to dump it out. He also like to pretend that the watering can is a gas can and that he is responsible to keep everything filled with gas. That goes for the things that need gas and the things and people that don't need gas. He went around today while everyone was eating their Easter lunch filling them up with gas. He is so funny!

We had 13 people here for lunch including us. Joelynn is a great cook so people feel excited to get to eat her sweet sweet cooking. I call it sweet nectar! She made boneless pork ribs with her secret bbq sauce, spinach salad, bbq'd asparagus and rolls. Joelynn's mom brought her famous potato salad and Randilyn and Mitch brought Marie Calendar's pies for dessert. YUMMY. We ate like kings. I sent everyone home with leftovers. They were pumped.

I was super glad to see my mom and my brother. They both looked good. That makes me happy. 

We decided to boycott candy for this holiday so everyone got other things instead from the Easter Bunny. Our moms (and their husbands) and my brother got exercise stuff. The kids got socks and undies. Gage also got an iron and an ironing board. Randilyn got a cookbook. Hopefully everyone liked their gifts.

It has been a great day all around.

To Wii or Not to Wii?

I brought my Wii in to the office this week for a team building activity with the management team. We played the surgery game I got and then also played the sports game. We busted it out for the agents to play when they make sales or do other reward worthy things.

It has been so fun. I have played more than my fair share this week. I love having it here. It would be so awesome to have a department Wii. Everyone is having fun with it.

I am sure we have lost some efficiency with it but gained a great morale. Everyone has been cheering each other on.

I even learned about a training part of the sports game that I had never known about - did I mention that it is my game system. Yeah, I am kind of dumb.

The training games teach you how to play the regular sports games better. I can't wait to take it home and learn how to play the tennis game better. I am not sure how to aim my Mii. I'll learn that and then when I play again, I'll really kick some butt.

I beat Shep at golf today. It was 11 to 26. All of the other games, I have been beat at. It has still been a ton of fun, though.

My Favorite Day of a Travel Week

Today is my favorite day of a travel week for Joelynn. It is the day she comes home. I am so excited. For some reason I thought she was coming home on Friday this week. Last night, I signed on to the Delta site to check the time she was going to arrive on Friday so I could count down the time until she would be home. I usually start counting down around my 2nd favorite day of a travel week (2 days before she comes home). I was surprised I had lost track of her schedule this week.

I got the laundry room finished last night except for the sink. I moved all of the sheets downstairs and am using the laundry cabinet for the laundry that is waiting to be done. I know... insane idea. I moved the laundry basket into the guest room. I thought that might be a nice little addition so that if people are staying over, they have a place to keep their laundry.

The dogs had me up 3 times in the night to go out. They are totally shaking me down for treats. Jake has my number for sure. He barks once while he is outside so then I tell him to come in. He just looks at me until I tell him that I'll give him a treat. Last night, on the 3rd time, I told him I'd give him a treat but it was not going to be a good one. He didn't seem to mind. Instead of giving him a whole piece of chicken jerky, I split one into thirds and each of the dogs had one and I put the last piece back. They were cool about it. Then Jake went to bed on the couch and Petie jumped in bed with me. He uses his stairs when he wants to but mostly he makes me pick him up and put him in the bed. He has my number, too. I am a push over for the dogs.

Jake has a hair appointment tomorrow. I am happy about that. I always love him more when his hair is short. His long hair gives me the heebie-jeebies. It is like cotton and I hate to touch it. When he gets his hair done he looks like a little boy. It is darling. I need to clip Petie's nails, too. That is a 2 person job so maybe Joelynn and I will do it this weekend. Gage is a sissy and will not help because Petie bites him. Petie hates getting his manicures. We feed him scrambled eggs so he won't bite us when we do it. He still growls and shows his teeth but he holds back as long as the eggs don't run out.

We are going to the gun range this weekend again. We need to decide what kind of gun we like best so we can be prepared for our chick gun class on the 20th of April. I just found out that you are supposed to keep both eyes open when you are shooting. I have been aiming with one eye closed and then closing both eyes to shoot. I know I am a sissy. I will get used to it and be able to keep them open, hopefully soon. It is just so scary for me. I am totally intimidated by guns.

Braxton is going to come over for a couple of hours on Saturday. We are not going to have him stay over this weekend. We need some time by ourselves. We can't not see him though so we will just do a couple of hours. He is so perfect and fun to hang out with.

Spring Cleaning

I spent the evening cleaning up the laundry room last night - it is almost completed. It is always such a mess because it is a dumping ground for stuff that has no other place.

I am doing all of my cleaning and arranging without shopping for anything. I am using just what we already have at the house.

I needed to reduce the amount of stuff we have in the laundry room and keep only the essentials. I moved one of the cabinets downstairs into the spare room. It will keep all of the sheets that we use. I moved the towels that were on that cabinet downstairs. That is what they are for anyway - they are the downstairs bathroom towels. I keep all of the upstairs towels in the cabinet in the upstairs bathroom. That freed up about 3 feet of floor room. I am going to move the boot mat into the garage so that will give us another 3 feet of floor room.

I am thinking about clearing out the sheets that are still upstairs and moving them all downstairs. That would free up the bottom of the cabinet in the laundry room. It has one of those laundry shoot type doors. If I actually used it as a laundry basket that would give me another couple of feet of floor room. I just thought of that as I was typing. I think it is a good idea and that I should do it. That would mean that the entire area between the toilet and the sink is free and clear. Wow!

I had to clean out the coat closet so I could put the steamer and the vacuum in there. I did not want them in the laundry room anymore (well, I never did but that is where they fit). Now the closet is clean and the laundry room is almost done. I will feel great when it is all done.

Then I need to get Joelynn's office cleaned up and then Braxton's room. I am going to reduce the amount of toys that Braxton has at our house. I am going to send some home with him or donate them. Probably both. I will probably put some in the storage area - the ones that I want to keep but that he has outgrown.

I also would love to get the server and the printer out of his room and into the office. I just need to make a plan to make that happen and find the room in the office. It should fit in there fine since I arranged the furniture in there. I can put the server across from the desk along the wall and then put the printer on the little table in there. That would make it convenient for Joelynn and add a lot of space in Braxton's room. A win-win.

I also need to get the roomba going in the basement. We have one for down there, too. I love the one upstairs. It will make me keep the basement cleaner and make sure that Braxton keeps his toys put away when he is done playing with them.

Boy - I have a lot of stuff I am working on. I can't want to get started. Maybe that is a little lie but it does have some truth. I will be super happy when I get it all done. It seems like I never get it done before it has to be re-done in other rooms. It is a never ending battle.

Children's Museums to Tattoos - My Saturday

So, Joelynn and I had a great Saturday. We started the morning waking up with Braxton at the house. He is awesome. He had been asking us about the museum and when we were going to go again. We decided that it was time to make it happen for him. We went and had a great time. He loves it. He runs around like a maniac playing in all of the different areas. His favorite is the one where you put gas and air into a truck. He spends most of his time there doing that. He also likes to get on the giant horse and scratch his neck. He tells the horse that he is a good horse. Adorable.

After we dropped him off at home, Joelynn and I went to the shooting range to test out a bunch of different 9mm guns. We tried a Smithson (or something), a Glock and an HK. Our favorite was the HK. Joelynn is a fan of the Glock. The one they have at the rental counter does not have a front site. She did some research on them and there are some with front sites. I was really freaked out to shoot the guns. I was shaking. I did it, though and had fun. We are going to go again next weekend. We are signed up for the chick gun class on April 20th.

Then after the shooting range, we were feeling totally awesome and tough. Joelynn said that we should go and get tattoos. I was down with that so that is what we did. We went to Southern Thunder and got new tattoos. I got a hibiscus flower and Joelynn got a seashell. She has wanted a seashell tattoo since she got back from New Zealand forever ago. 

I am uploading some pics of the shooting range and the tattoos.

Interviewee Smelled Like Pickles

I am not kidding you... This dude that came in for a job smelled like pickles. I am not fortunate enough to have been in the interview and experience it first hand. It was done by a couple of our team leaders because they are the ones hiring.

Not only did the dude smell like pickles, he was a rainman. He would answer his questions with a simple "yes" and be done. I am surprised that Rick and Shep did not ask the guy what his favorite show was - anticipating "Wapner."

Advice to those looking for a job... skip the pickle perfume. Save it for a special occasion with the one that already loves you or that has lost their sense of smell.

Hopefully this gives you as much of a laugh as it did for us here. We are simple people who are cold, cruel and heartless.

Training at it's Finest!

I am so pumped. Yesterday I worked with one of our agents on his product knowledge about our newsletters. I helped him with his verbiage about asking for the credit card and overcoming the associated objections.

Today he was 1st on the board with a sale - on the hardest newsletter to sell. Yahoo! I went over to tell him that he was a rock star and he told me that it was all due to his credit card verbiage. I am attaching a picture of him being pumped on himself and of course being pumped on me!

I love it when the fruits of my labor are so quickly harvested!

Speaking of harvesting fruits... I have a ton of sprouts on my Jiffy seed starter. I took the lid off today and put it in the window. I made a spot just for it on the kitchen table so it will get great sun and keep growing. I got some potting soil and 2 window box planters last night. I am going to transplant the biggest ones soon and see if I can get some veggies before I plant them outside. That would be neat. I got planters that you water from the bottom so I won't over water and kill everything. I am pretty nervous about that.

Joelynn called this morning and is feeling great. She got some awesome sleep and is pumped for the Keep It Real presentations today. I am glad she is doing better.