My little Daisy

There's a reason I never worked in retail. There's a reason I left Scandia years ago when they started having me work snack bar/cashier once in a while. I hate trying to get people to buy things! Even if they are willingly doing it. I just don't like to say "Hey buy this product please!" or "Would you like to buy this? It's a really great thing!" Just not something I'm good at.

And then.......I have a 7 yr old first grader named Katelyn who decided she wanted to be a Girl Scout! I was cool with that. Afterall, Daisies don't sell cookies yet.

Wrong! The Girl Scouts decided to have Daisies help sell cookies this year. Ack! Thoughts of selling door-to-door and at stores filled my mind with dread.

Luckily.....since they are so young, those two things are not allowed. Whew! Saved! But wait....

The district asks that each girl sets a goal of 200 boxes to sell. So our troop leaders asked us to try and make that at least. What?! Are you serious?! The bulk of sales comes from the two methods we can't do and we still have to try and reach this goal! "Oh but you and I are LDS, we can pass around a sign up sheet in Relief Society." Maybe in her ward. I called another mom, a mom who is a Brownie troop leader and has 3 girls in the ward in her troop, and she said she's talked to our bishop and he says nope. We can however pass out fliers after church and/or place them on the cars (she'll have her husband do this as he's not a member and can come before he picks them up and do that). But with 4 girls in one small ward selling I know we won't get many sales this way..if any.

Oh we've gotten sales here and there...close family and friends, a neighbor here, a neighbor there. Three staff members at Katelyn's school ordered. Clark took the order form to work and got 4 orders. My dad took an order form to work and has at least 5 orders. (and not just a box per person either for these orders) I took the form to Laura's Fun Friday class and got 3 orders. One of those from a dad who swore up and down he would not buy. Apparently his sister sold for years and they always bought too many. But then...."oh alright, I'll buy some thin mints. and I better call my wife and ask what she wants." The teacher and I were laughing at his weakness. I still have a few more families committed to buying. Got an appt set up on Sunday to see the family of a classmate of Katelyn. All this extended family (one aunt and uncle being active LDS and in our ward, some inactive, some not members) all love Girl Scout cookies and they said when she joined G.S. to make sure we let them know when it's time to buy cookies. So I did.

So slowly orders are trickling in for pre-orders. Then there's still another whole month to sell after. I doubt we'll get anything after pre-orders. I doubt we'll even get close to the 200 box goal. We have sold about 49 boxes so far. 40 boxes is 20% of the goal. So we've reached that. Yeah! 80 boxes will be 40% of the goal. I think we'll be able to make that and I'll be happy. Afterall, it's mostly me selling them. When I do bring Katelyn she gets all shy and can't seem to ask what she needs to ask. So it's been me, my dad, and Clark making all the sales. Given the limitations of how we can sell for Daisies and not knowing too many people to sell to, I think we're doing pretty darn good. I'll be thrilled if we reach our own 40%/80box goal! Anything else will just be icing on the cake.....or ummm cookies in this case....for us.

Though I am happy about our selling......I still hate being a salesperson! With passion! This is the only thing I hate about Girl Scouts.

But I sure to love my little Daisy...........

I love this kid!

Not that I don't love Katelyn.....but it's a whole new ball game with Laura and how verbal she is at 3 compared to how Katelyn was. But she just cracks me up. Tonight we let the girls stay up late and watch Annie. Now at one time, Katelyn was afraid of this movie. It all started with the "Little Girls" song Miss Hannigan sings. It scared her because she is a little girl. Now she's 7 and "not scared of it anymore."

So anyhow, they are watching the movie and that song comes on. I start singing it just to annoy them. Laura turns around in complete shock and loudly proclaims:

"You can't hate little girls! You're a mommy!"

Of course I can't hate them.....not when they are this darn cute! ;)

Socks

One of the major holidays is coming up. And that means......socks! "Socks?!" you ask. "Why socks?" You see I have ugly feet. Feet that only my husband and kids see. Oh and my parents when I swim at their house. But I don't let very many other people see my feet. No photos of cute pedicures for this woman....I won't even let the pedi people see these feet. But for big holidays....you know, any of the holidays where you can find cards, candy, decorations, etc in every single store for......I can always find socks. Cute socks for that particular holiday.

Those that I've told this little secret of mine to (which is obviously not a secret any more), know that it started with Christmas socks. I've since branched out to Halloween socks too. And this year I have......Valentine's socks. They were too cute to pass up taking pictures of. So here are my cute socks covering up my ugly feet.

So now it's your turn..........anyone who reads my blog, just for fun go and get some cute socks, not so cute socks, a pedicure on your cute toes, and take a picture and blog about it. Anything goes as long as it is socks or pedicure related. I dare ya! :)

Christmas Photos

Sorry I'm a bit behind in sharing some fun Christmas moments this year. But I've been enjoying having my husband home for 2 weeks and letting him deal with nutty, wired kids while I curl up with lots of good books that Santa brought. But here are a few photos past and present that I wanted to share before we head into the New Year.

Christmas 2005....Katelyn 4, Laura 1 month old
Christmas 2008...Katelyn 7, Laura 3....my how they've grown!

Christmas 2005....Laura is much smaller than the stuffed animals

Christmas 2008.....only 1 is bigger than her

Katelyn was once smaller than all of them too, not anymore

What's with the serious faces?!

Now this is more like it.....Laura bolting and Katelyn laughing cause I can't keep her little sister in one place very long for a picture. Gotta pay a professional to get these kids to pose for pictures these days. LOL!

I can't forget the cats......and yes they got even later.

This is Al

This is Cookie

He's plotting his revenge

We had a great Christmas with lots of fun gifts.....both given and received. Here are two that are my favorite. My father-in-law got these for the girls. Katelyn was 14 months old when my mother-in-law passed away. Rick took a picture we have of Katelyn as an infant (about 6 months old) with her grandma Colleen and had the image put on a blanket. It's gorgeous and she loves sleeping with it each night.

Laura didn't come along for another 4 years. But she is named after Colleen. Laura Colleen. So Rick used a photo of Colleen on their wedding day for Laura's blanket. Again, gorgeous. She's a little too young to get it yet and hasn't asked for the blanket each night. But I know as she gets older and learns more about her angel grandma that she'll ask to be tucked in with her grandma blanket as well. For now, we are keeping it in a safe spot so cats don't ruin it.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and we wish everyone a safe and healthy New Year.

Christmas Lights

Okay, so I'm a bit behind in updating the blog. But I get busy around the house and with the girls right before Christmas so I didn't get around to it. I have so many pictures to share and should just do a video clip of them. However alot of them need some explaining so I'll just do a new blog per day with lots of fun pics. Be sure to check back daily til I'm done!



Today's entry are Christmas lights. Just about every year since my parents moved to Rancho Cucamonga, we've gone to see the city's street that has become popular for it's lights. It's now more "streets" than "street" now and it's best to walk it since the crowds are so crazy you crawl along like a snail in a vehicle. Plus you miss out on little fun stuff.....some homes have a stage set up for carolers or dancers, portable pianos and kids playing Christmas music, a house with a ramp built up for their two golden retrievers to walk up to stand for all to see them with reindeer antlers (doggy reindeer, LOL!), those mini horses with antlers, residents selling hot chocolate/hot apple cider/tamales/popcorn/homemade choc. chip cookies for $1-2. Plus you get a close up view of all the lights. Here's some of our family's favorites:

I loved the snowman family. Too cute!
Santa making his list and checking it twice.

Katelyn wanted a picture of the Grinch.

Santa's Workshop, this is a favorite of mine.

For the Disney fans......Jasmine and Aladin

Cinderella and Prince Charmin

Beauty and The Beast

Katelyn (who moved and made it blurry) in front of her favorite

Princess Aurora

Our 10th Anniversary!

We've had such a busy weekend that I am finally blogging about how we spent our Friday night. And this was on the heals of a night out without kids when we met with the Elder's Quorum presidency for a dinner out with wives. (it ended up being us...Clark is secretary....and the EQ president and his wife and that's it)

Friday evening Clark and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. That's right...the big 10 years of marriage. We both kept saying that we couldn't believe it. Why? Well in some ways it still feels like we were just married yesterday. Ask us on a different night and we might have said it felt like much longer. But Friday night we felt like it was just yesterday. For those not in the know, here's a little recap of our meet-up, dating, and first 10 years.

We met in 1995 not long after I got home from my mission (Buenos Aires West Mission....the best one in the whole world). We met through a group of friends at Chaffey College Institute of Religion in Rancho Cucamonga. We hit it off so well and soon I was sending a "Dear John" letter to the elder I said I'd wait for. (I swear I never thought I'd be one of those! LOL!) We had a lot of things in common too.......like his best friend had also served his mission in Argentina and so had his dad (one of his comps was my first mission president, Pres. Richmond....and another comp of his was my 1st year Spanish teacher in high school....small world); my sister was born in the hospital just down the street from where he grew up; and one of the guys he grew up with in West Covina moved out to Rancho C. with his family and when we were like juniors in high school or something like that I can remember that Sean brought a bunch of his friends to church and introduced them all...I still remember that one of them was "going to be baptized today" and I remember the truck they all hopped into later. It was Clark's truck. I even remember Danny was there and I think Cory. But gosh I do not remember Clark at all. It totally wasn't the right time to meet.

So we dated for 3 years. Yeah it was no whirl wind romance for us. And even though he didn't fit my ideal marriage material (you know wanting Temple marriage and all), I knew he was the man I was to supposed to give my heart to and marry.

We married on Dec. 19, 1998 at the Hillside Ward Bldg in Rancho. Clark's dad, Rick, was a bishop at that time and so he performed the ceremony. I don't have a scanner or I'd share pics of our wedding day.

We haven't had an easy 10 years. We are so different that we tend to bicker and argue.... alot! We've also had lots of monetary set backs over the years. But we love each other enough to work things out.

Somewhere along the line we became parents to two beautiful girls (okay so I am a bit biased on that) and are owned by 3 crazy cats. Our life isn't as exciting as others but we have fun, we love each other, and we enjoy what we do have.

And this is how we celebrated our big 10th anniversay.....

My parents took the girls for the night (thanks mom and dad! you rock!). We had made reservations for The Melting Pot in Brea. For those who have never heard of this restuarant, it is a fondue theme. You have a 4 course meal and it is European style......everything except the salad is cooked on your table in fondue pots.

1st course: cheese fondue of choice...we chose the Wisconsin trio.....the waitress mixes it up for you and then brings out chunks of different breads, apple chunks and a veggie medley (carrot chunks, celery, cauliflower). I have never had apples and cheese before and the apples tasted great in the cheese fondue.

2nd course: salad and you have your choice of salad, this is the only course that you don't share; I had the basic house salad. It had a honey mustard vinagrette that was soooo good. This was brought out while we still munched on the 1st course but towards the end so we weren't rushed or anything. They really give you the chance to savor your meal at this place.

3rd course: main course.....we did one of the feature meals for two and it had a variety different cuts of steaks, filet mignon, chicken, shrimp, lobster and pasta along with more veggies. The fondue is a broth based one and it is hotter so the meats cook fast in it. The meats are small chunks so someone with a huge appetite might not want to splurge at this place. But over the course of the evening you do get fed well. The veggies are different from the 1st course veggies. For this one they served red potato chunks, mushrooms, broccoli and yellow squash. They also bring out a variety of dipping sauces as well and explain what each tastes good with. Hard to remember so we just tried it all. Everything was delicious!

4th course: dessert......you get your choice of chocolate fondue. We chose a milk chocolate with chunky peanut butter swirled in. They bring out a platter of lots of yummy dippers. Here's a picture----strawberries, bananas, oreo and graham cracker covered marshmellows, brownie bites, rice krispy treats, pound cake chunks, a slice of cheese cake (Clark let me have the cherry cause he knows I love them!). It was all so delicious!

I really can't decide which was my favorite part of the meal. It was all so good and the service was great. Our waitress was awesome. I even got a rose for the night. So here are some pics of the evening:


The yummy desserts!
Me, getting ready to eat a strawberry.

Clark and I....and my pretty rose.

This is why I married Clark...he's so hot, he's steamy!

And this is all we can show you of the rest of the evening. ;)

Happy Anniversary Clark my love! May the next 10 years be as wonderful as the first 10 years!

A Lesson In Honesty

A couple of 7 year old girls got a lesson in honesty today. Here's the story:

This morning I needed a print out of something in Katelyn's school file. So I went into the office. While in there I realized that the Secret Santa Workshop was today for her class and NOT tomorrow like she told me. So I asked the secretary what time her class went. 9:45 a.m. I went home, got the envelope and filled it out, stuck $25 of cash into it and flew back down to the school. (I walk and I haven't walked this fast since my mission....and heck I'm not sure my comps would think I walked all that fast back then, LOL!) I gave it to the principal who happened to be manning the office at that moment.

When school was over, Katelyn had no gifts. I checked her back pack. Nothing. So I go to talk to her teacher. She says that the principal did call her room but the class was in the computer lab already and so the principal was going to have Katelyn paged to the office to get it. We asked Katelyn and she says "I didn't want to go alone. So I didn't go." Figures. So I head to the office to find out if the envelope is there.

No envelope there or in the teacher's box. The principal comes out and says "When she didn't come, I was going to take it myself. But a grandparent volunteer came in to help out there and I gave it to her to pass along." By this time the grandparent volunteer is not around. So the principal takes me to the library to talk to the librarian. Librarian was on the phone......we overheard the conversation. Another little girl had brought home gifts and mom had not sent in any money. So the other mom was making the little girl bring the gifts back. Librarian ends the call and talks to principal and I. They began digging through mounds of empty envelopes. They find Katelyn's.....bottom part ripped apart. I'm asked if I had cash or check in it.....cash $25. Librarian says "Do you have a Kayla in your class?" No but we discover both girls are 1st graders and both classes were in there at the same time. Librarian lets Katelyn shop since the other child is bringing items back. We head home, passing a sad little girl and her mom on the way.

Not 5 minutes after getting home, the door bell rings. I recognize the mom and little girl. They were the ones we saw coming in as we were leaving. We also pass them each morning as I head home. See they live like 4 houses from the school so wait for the first bell before leaving their home. We live down the street and around the corner so we leave our home a bit sooner. Plus we pick up another girl on the way. Anyhow, the mom has seen me around the neighborhood so knew where we lived when the librarian mentionned that "the mom and little girls leaving were the ones the money was taken from." So the mom brought the little to our home and asked for Katelyn.

An embarrassed and repentant looking Kayla quietly said "I'm sorry I took your money." Katelyn said "thank you." The mom explained to me what had transpired on her end. They had decided not to have their daughters do the workshop since they were done with all their shopping. However the grandparent volunteer handed the envelope to Kayla by mistake. Kayla told her mommy that she knows the name wasn't hers but saw there was money in it and that all her classmates were getting things and just had to buy things too. So she ripped open the envelope and took the money. Being only 7 years old, obviously she wasn't thinking that it would go unnoticed by mom.

This story could have had a different ending. It's very rare that you find honest people these days. Esp in my area. A lot of the parents would have just brushed it off as a loss on our part and let their child keep the stuff. But this mom taught her child a valuable lesson. A lesson in honesty. And in doing so also taught her that it is wrong to steal, taught her how to make ammends (returning the items), and how to apologize for our wrong doings. Big lessons for a child. And though my daughter did nothing wrong, I was able to teach her a lesson in all that by explaining and discussing the situation to Katelyn.

I felt really bad for the girl and knew it was not easy to come and apologize. I let her know that I know what she did was wrong but that I thought it was nice of her and very brave of her to come and apologize for it. I also thanked the other mom for instilling all these values in her daughter because the world needs more parents like that.