Freaky Friday

Today I had my Mary Kay debut party...It was awesome! I had a lot of fun and I got to see some people I haven't seen in a long time and catch up and hook them up with some great products. It turned out really well. I think had been stressing over this all week without realizing it. I have a huge knot behind my right shoulder blade which I get when I'm stressed. Besides worrying about my debut party today, I have had a stressful week. Nothing in particular, just overall stressful for whatever reason. Which leads me to tell you about Friday morning...trying to get to work....
It all started when I decided that since it was one of our few jean days, I didn't need as much time to get ready so I would stay in bed an extra 15 minutes; we'll call that Mistake #1. Once I got up, I realized I still had to take Rowf out to potty, get my lunch ready and put on make up ---which as of late is taking longer since I'm making an effort to always look put-together no matter what I'm wearing. So...the time I finally left my house was 7:30. I NEVER leave the house that late...EVER. Once in my car, I decided that I would stop at McDonald's for a quick drive-thru breakfast since it was pay day and since there was a McDonald's "on the way" (which means it was right off an exit which also happens to be the WORST exit/area on loop 820 as far as traffic and bad lights goes). We'll call that Mistake #2. There was already really bad traffic on the highway which is not normal for a Friday but my rationale was that since I would be poking along on the highway, I might as well pull off and get something to eat since I would be going anywhere soon. I get to McDonalds and the drive-thru line is wrapping around the building so I go across the street to Chick-Fil-A for some of my favorite chicken minis. They also have the line that goes around the building. I decide to forgo breakfast as this point and get back on the highway (7 minutes wasted already). I go over to the access road to do so and what do I find? Another long traffic line to get on the freeway. I decide to stay on the access road and pass all this traffic up and get on at the next on ramp. This is definitely Mistake #3: after driving down this access road almost 2 miles, it felt, I come to find out that there is NO "next on ramp" -- you have one option: take a left across the high way and get back on it going the opposite direction. At this point, I'm getting really, really, really annoyed with how my morning is playing out. I look down the highway a while, in the direction I need to be going and see that the traffic doesn't let up as far as the eye can see. Great...I'm so angry at this point I could spit - in my own car!!! It's already 7:50 at this point which, on a normal day, I am already at school sitting at my desk checking my email. I finally get back on the highway going back to where I just came from, get back off, and do the u-turn and get back on going the right direction. I felt like I was going in circles; I was. After 20 minutes of going 5 miles and hour, we finally get to the "problem" holding up all the traffic: a semi, broken down in the middle lane of the highway just where it goes down to two lanes!! Perfect!! I finally get past all the rubber-necking and get on my way to school going a nice 80 miles an hour. It was test day and I needed to get their tests ready and write my board for the day, which I had left to do for that morning thinking that it was Friday and there wouldn't be traffic and I wouldn't have a hard time getting to work. I do end up stopping at a McDonald's very close to my school because at this point I'm angry and extremely hungry and slightly sleep deprived. I need my coffee and I need my country style chicken biscuit. I get both and eat on my way to school. When I drink my first drink of coffee, I feel warmness running down my hand. My coffee cup lid was "defective" and was leaking out the sides!!! GREAT!!!! now I had coffee all over my hands and then when I wiped it off on my seat, my hand felt sticky. It just got better by the minute. When I finally did get to school, two of my male students where standing outside the school and approached me about why I wasn't there early to help them study for their tests. They seemed disappointed. I felt bad -- I've let my students down on a day when they need me the most, test day. From the time I got into my classroom, everything got a little better. I was thankful for that, although still a little grumpy and a couple of students who decided to try to be smart with me got the raw side of me. Oh well, it's going to happen. I was just so glad the day ended by the time 3:48pm rolled around. I'm thankful this whole week is over. Next week can only get better...right??
So how was your Friday morning????
I'm going to go get some shut eye. I would like to put some pics up here of my apartment and some "married life" photos. I just have to take some, then I can post them! I've been slacking in the photography department. Sorry guys...
hasta luego!
Steph

Follow up to last post

We did it last night...Daphne now has a new home. I cried before we left the house, on the way there and after we left. It was a lot harder than I ever thought it would be. No matter how frustrated I had gotten with her, I still felt bad giving her to someone else. I remembered everything I went through with her, nursing her back to health when she was so little. It still makes me sad today. It's quiet around the house now...it will take me a while to get used to that. I better stop writing about this before I start crying again...I can feel it coming on again and I had a headache all day today from all the crying I did last night. I can't imagine how it must feel to give your own baby up for adoption. I could never do that. This was brutal enough.
Steph

Doing the hard things...

Waylon and I have decided that we are going to get rid of Daphne, for sure this time. We've been talking about it off and on for a while. He has been totally for it for quite some time. I have been on the fence about it. I'll get REALLY frustrated with her at times and at that point be totally ready to give her to the first person that comes around and then she'll fall asleep on my lap and I'll see how cute she is and not want to give her up. The fact of the matter is, right now, we just can't have two dogs. It's too much for our already busy and full schedules. She's a great dog, but she needs so much more attention than we can give her and she needs somewhere where she is able to run free and expend all that energy she has pent up. I will miss her at times but I know we're doing the right thing and I hope to find her a great home. Anyone on here who knows someone looking for a dog, please let me know or let them know about me. You can give them my email: stepher1980@yahoo.com if they are serious about taking her. I'm going to post her on freecycle.org also and hopefully find someone kind and caring who wants a good little dog to play with and keep them on their feet. She will definitely do that! She has been quite an ordeal since we got her, what with the getting pneumonia for a month (and costing me over $1000 in vet bills!!!). She's great now though, lucky person who takes her after me. They're getting a very expensive dog for free.
Well, I think I'm going to go right now. I still have to make a trip to Walmart to get a shelf of some sort for all my Mary Kay inventory, get stamps to mail out my thank you notes from my wedding (finally!!) and also stamps for my Mary Kay debut party. I'm having that next Saturday morning at 11am. Anyone interested in coming, please let me know. You are more than welcome!!
I just needed to write about the dog and kind of rationalize for myself why we are getting rid of her. It helped. Thanks for listening.
Steph

Here's to first successes!! And hopefully many more!

I just wanted to do a little cheer for myself for a little, yet big, accomplishment tonight. I got my first outside sale with MK tonight! It came from a referral and my customer was looking for a Spanish-speaking consultant...which I am. :) I called her up, got her address, took all my stuff over there and she just kept asking to try this and that and kept picking more and more stuff to buy. I was thrilled! Not only did she have a great experience but she took a couple of business cards to give to her family members who use MK but don't have a Spanish-speaking consultant to buy from! I was pumped!! I'm having my debut party the 27th and need to get on the ball getting my invitations sent out. I hope lots of people come. It not only will help me get my business jump started, but it will also be fun for anyone who comes and there will be lots of cool product to try out. So if you read this and you live near me and you want to come and you haven't got an invitation in the next few days, TELL ME!!! I want you there!!
ok, that's all...just had to get a little excited. Toodles!!
Steph

On life, ministry, and a revisit to 9/11

Although today I have been VERY tired, I feel like I have a second wind on life. Let me explain. On my last post, I wrote about feeling like I was running out of steam. I really was feeling bogged down and tired and kind of beat up physically and emotionally. The only person to blame for that was myself. I have allowed myself to get that way, to start thinking and focusing on the negative and I haven't been close to the Lord in a while. Every since getting married, I put my quiet time on hold, getting caught up in the excitement of being married and all the responsabilities of running a home. It was kind of like I told God "Thanks for bringing me to this amazing point in my life, I'll take it from here." I realized that today and my mind set has changed. I realize I need to make time again every single day for some alone time with God. Without that, everything I do is going to bog me down and make me tired. I haven't filled my cup with His strength and I've been trying to do it all on excitement and personal strength alone. It's not possible!! So, today, I was revitalized and my vision has changed and I'm ready to face everything, with God this time back at the wheel. I think He probably looks down at us when we're doing all this and struggling and thinks to Himself, "Why on earth do you WANT to do this alone when I can carry you through it?? I WANT to help you!!" And yet, here we are, "beating at the wind" as one of the writers of the Bible said...it's all vanity. So here's to a renewed spirit in me and a "fresh" start that will hopefully be a longer-term change. I know I will have to renew this spirit from time to time but if I keep God in control, it won't have to go so long before I finally do it again.
Part of the reason for this renewal of purpose and focus was what we studied in Sunday school today and then what our Sunday evening study was over. I was hit over the head twice today with the realization of what I should be doing with my life. First, in Sunday school we did an over-view of the book of James. This book focuses on how to be a "mature" Christian. While reading through it, so many things stood out that I don't do that I should, therefore showing me that I'm clearly not as mature of a Christian as I so often thought. It brought to surface the fact that the number of years you are a Christian doesn't affect how mature you are, it just shows how long you have had to become mature...regardless of whether you are or not. I have to say that in the past couple of years since my dad started GracePointe, I have matured a lot. I've gone through some difficult times which were brought on by myself and had some inner turmoil as to what direction I was going to go in life. Thankfully, I chose to continue my path serving God and not the alternative: serving myself. That's not to say that I haven't still struggled with serving myself and my desires, but God has brought me back time and again to Him, showing me how powerless I am without Him. So, I have matured, but I'm still not anywhere near the mature Christian that the book of James speaks about. That made me really want to change things about myself that have needed changing for a while. It's true what they say about not being able to change until you want to and you make the effort to. I want to change now. I want to grow into a mature Christian that God can use beyond where I am right now. The second time I was poked in the conscious today was at our Class 301: Discovering your Ministry study tonight at church. We have a series for the members of our church that starts with 101 which is for people interested in becoming members of our church and it explains what we believe as a church and what being a member of our church means. Class 201 is about maturity and growing in your walk as a Christian. Now class 301 is focusin on developing your ministry and doing what God designed and called you to do with your life. I realized as we were going through the "how" of finding your ministry, that there are so many things I enjoy doing and I don't know exactly which one to focus on. Right now I'm working with the women of the church on a special song. I used to direct a women's choir at the previous church we attended and it was really something I enjoyed and the women enjoyed. That would definitely be one of the ministries I would want to be involved in. Another one that I had started up but can't do right now because of time constraints was the women's book club. I enjoyed that, but it was hard finding a time when all the women could come and then they were even having a hard time finding time to read the books. Maybe in the future it will be something that can be started up again. Youth has also been a passion of mine. I taught junior high Sunday school at our last church and I loved it. I really enjoy working with youth (I teach high school Spanish and really enjoy it despite the behavior issues) and we don't have a youth group as of now. Waylon also has a passion for youth and feels called to be a youth minister. We both feel like starting a youth group would be something we could do together and serve whole-heartedly in for our church. That's definitely something that takes A LOT of prayer and hard work to build and maintain. With Waylon going to school right now and working, it will be hard for us to do a lot for that, but we do have plans to start it in the future. I know that if we are prayerful and always seeking God's timing and will, He will lead us at the right time. I'm really excited about finding my ministry though and developing it and seeing the ministries that the other members of our church are lead to. I feel that this year is going to be a year of growth for our church as we already have aproximately 6-8 new people in attendance and two new members back at the beginning of the year. God is blessing our church and we have a great core group that is dedicated to building it up and bringing in new people. With my Mary Kay business just beginning, I feel that I can even use that as a way to minister to the women I meet and even the women at my church with free pampering and giving them gifts they will love. I want it to be a positive thing in my life, and not something that makes people want to avoid me. I am doing it for extra money, however, the more I get into it, the more I see that it is also a way of connecting with women and filling a need for them and doing it in a loving and caring way. I hope I portray that towards the women I encounter and do business with.
The last thing I wanted to write about was 9/11. We just celebrated the 7th year anniversary of that tragic day. I still can't believe it has been that long. I was doing laundry at my parent's house tonight and the History channel had a documentary on with pure footage, no narration, of 9/11 from several on-lookers and pedestrians who were video taping the whole thing. As I watched it and heard the cries of fear and shock and saw the thousands of people in NY city running for their lives and finding shelter, I was reminded of how dangerous this world has become. It brought back all the anger I felt 7 years ago when I was watching it happen on TV and driving to school, listening to it on the radio and finding out that it was a terrorist act. To see footage of the real people who went through it, of the fire fighters who went into the first tower and never came back out alive, the buildings burning and people jumping out of it...it was horrifying and so sad. I can't imagine being there and witnessing it all and watching two towers collapse with thousands of people inside. It's so sad, I just wanted to write a little bit and reflect on it and be prayerful of the people who lost their family members 7 years ago and hope that it doesn't take another tragic even like 9/11 to bring our nation back to God.
On a quick side note...I'm not a political person by any means as far as knowing a lot about politics. I do get informed about presidential candidates and I do vote every election because I want to have a say in our country's future. I have to say that the more I see on Sarah Palin, the more I like her. She is shaking things up quite a bit and I think she's going to make this a much closer race than many democrats give her credit for. I have to admit that McCain was not my number one choice in the primary's - I did not vote for him, however, I will be voting for him in the upcoming election simply because I would rather have him in office for 20 years than Obama for 1 day. I would have rathered have Hillary as a president than Obama, and I can't stand any of the Clinton's!!! - so maybe that gives you a hint of how I feel about Obama. Either way, this year, the elections were looking pretty grim and un-exciting until Palin showed up on the scene out of nowhere. A lot of folks think that McCain did himself a huge dis-favor by appointing her as his running mate. Well, from all the press and interest in her, I think he has done himself a HUGE FAVOR. She is making me feel 10 times better about voting for him as president. I think she did a great job on her interview this week against liberal idiot Charlie Gibson who kept trying to corner her into saying something wrong. Un-biased media my butt!! She stood up to him and didn't back down and didn't show any fear or weakness when he was bullying her and I was proud of her. She's good people in my book and she has my vote. Like I said before though, I'm not really a political person and there are aspects about every candidate that I don't like or don't agree with. But I have to chose someone, and that most definitely wouldn't be Obama. No thank you - I want America to stay great, thank you very much!
Well, well, that was probably the longest political "rant" I have ever gone on. lol. I didn't even plan on writing about that, it just came to mind when I was thinking about 9/11 and all the catastrophe's the Bush administration has had to deal with in his term. He had a rough time and I really think he did the best he knew how and felt that was best for the country. That doesn't make him perfect or mean that everything he did worked out like he had planned, but he still did better than any citizen who complains about him would have done. They would have us be sitting ducks, waiting for another attack on our country, imposing fear at every corner.
Ok, that's it for tonight. I'm getting all worked up!! I need some rest tonight to get my week started off right. Good night all,
Perrymans out
p.s. what do you think of my new layout?? I like this one a little better I think. It's simple yet, looks really cool. Let me know your vote!

Running out of steem

I feel like I'm starting to run out of steam. My schedule is catching up with me and I'm more and more tired each morning when my alarm goes of at 6am. Today I didn't even get out of bed until 6:20 after I had already hit the snooze 3 times. I hate that feeling in the morning when you just REALLY don't want to get out of your warm, comfy bed. At the same time, I've been thinking a lot about my MK business and how to get it started. It's exciting and kind of scary at the same time. I want to approach people about it, but at the same time, I don't want them thinking (especially friends and family) that the only reason I'm around is to make money off them. I think this is the hardest part about this line of work. I really just need faces to practice on right now. I'm giving another one this Saturday and I'm going to make sure to do it up right! I'm going to do everything the way I saw the lady at our last meeting do it. And even though the person I'm giving the facial to is a very good friend, I'm going to act like I would around someone I didn't know well and do my best!! I feel like if I don't make myself think that way, I may relax and slip up around close friends and family or not be as professional. I don't want that to happen. Anyways, if any of my readers are interested in a free facial to help me hone my skills, please let me know. Some of you I will be calling soon, when my schedule slows down but please, please, please let me do a facial on you! I would love it and you would too!! Parties are also good because as a hostess you get free stuff. So there's just a little "plug" for my new business. I'll be calling you soon so be expecitng it!!
I'm keeping this short. I'm tired.
Peace out.
Steph

The blog that took all day to write...sigh...

I went to my first MK meeting today. It was fun and interesting to watch. I have a long way to go to be like these women though. They are so put together and they all look so great! I thought I was doing good wearing my dress and putting on a full set of makeup! I felt so drab compared to them. They all have their nails done, jewelry on, hair done and perfect and I do mean PERFECT makeup! I could just stare at some of them. lol, I didn't though so don't worry. The meeting got me pretty excited when I saw how many people were willing to come to the "Muffins and Makeovers". Now that I see it in practice, you are really just bringing women to meetings to get makeovers and a chance to try out the product. I guess there are a lot of women out there who will do that. I didn't think there would be - then again, sales has never been something I have tried. So I learned a lot then after the meeting was over, I sat and spoke with my director about inventory options and having my debut party. I'm going to have one hopefully on the 27th at my mom's house....yea, mom, about that...I'll be asking you about it later this afternoon when I see you! lol. I hope a lot of women will come. It's going to be fun and of course, there will be food and plenty of product to try out! My director, Jennifer, is a wonderful woman with a great story who is very energetic (most MK women are) and very encouraging and uplifting. She prayed with me at the end of our little meeting. I think I'm going to like her... A LOT! Tomorrow I'm supposed to go over to another team-members house for a little training session in the afternoon. I think that will be really good for me so I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm sure some of you are thinking "How is Stephanie going to teach me about using makeup??" -- I wondered the same thing since I've not been a huge makeup user during my life. This is a learning experience for me too!
On to other stuff. I need to pick a song out today for the women in our church to start working on tomorrow. I really want to get the women's musical group going again. It was something they all enjoyed, I enjoyed and the church was blessed by them. They are really good and there's just something about a group of women singing and harmonizing together that just sounds great! I can't wait. I kind of already have a song in mind, I just have to see if we still have the CD and the music book for it. I'm also excited about Christmas music! I love Christmas!! It's my favorite time of the year! I love how the air is charged with energy everywhere you go and you smell coffee and sweets all the time and it's just a magical time of year to me, even if we ARE in Texas and don't get much snow to complete the Christmas feeling. Nevertheless, it still has that feeling and I'm all about feelings!
You who are reading don't know this but I started writing this blog around 3pm this afternoon and it's now 10:30pm and I'm finally finishing it! I've been taking breaks to clean and get things done around the house that I needed to. I also had music practice at 5:30 so I took a break then too. Today we traded out a dresser for the one we had. My parents just bought another investment house to rent out and the previous owners left a dresser. It's not new by any means but it's MUCH better than the one we had! Ours had flakes of the varnish coming off on everything and it was really old. This one is old, but solid wood and no flakes coming off. It's also a darker wood and narrower so it doesn't take as much space up as the other one. Bryan (my brother) and Waylon had a good time taking the old one down and bringing the "new" one up. lol...not really. I helped by taking down the drawers so that the dresser was lighter. The new dresser got me in the "cleaning" mode so Waylon and I organized our room and it looks 1000 times better than before! I threw out a ton of "stuff" that I didn't use and didn't even realize I still had, therefore meaning I could throw it out and not miss it. Our room is much better, but now I'm noticing how bare it is. Nothing really on the walls except for one picture I hung tonight of Waylon and I. I really need to get something up on the walls in there. I need to get stuff up on walls period because our whole apartment is bare, however, that falls under the categories of wants really and therefore not something I can afford to spend money on right now. We are tighter this month for money than we were last month. Maybe I can make a few extra bucks with my MK. We'll see...I'm hoping I can!
Well, I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted and have been yawning constantly since about 3 this afternoon so I think I should definitely try to get some quality sleep time. Good night folks and sorry if this blog seemed a bit "off" since it was written throughout the day.
Have a great Sunday!!
Steph