drama queen???

First off, I would like to say that in the past I have been labeled a "drama queen" by my family. I can firmly say now, that if you all would read other peoples blogs (I will mention not names to protect the lives of others), I pail in comparison!

With that being said, on my fourth day of work....I had a flat tire. How lame of an excuse is having a flat tire when you have to call your boss to tell her you are going to be late because of a "flat tire"? Scott had left for church and I had to skip out on account I now have the privilege of working Sunday's (woohoo). I may have time to squeeze it in, but on this Sunday I didn't want to be late to work...hahaha. I get in the car and drive a block down and immediately notice something is seriously wrong. I pull into Chicken Fried Rice...which incidentally is owned by Mexican's, but that is another story....and realize much to my dismay that my tire is flat flat flat. I called Scott who was 20 minutes in the wrong direction away. He picked me up and took me to work which I was 17 minutes late for. I kind of got the feeling that my manager was a bit suspicious of my story...but what can I do you know. I think she believed me when she saw Scott there to pick me up at the end of the day.

This morning Scott got up extra early to take my car in to get fixed and get the oil changed and the inspection done. I was soooo happy that I didn't have to do any of it! And, to top it all off, they fixed the tire for free!! That was a real blessing. He had to be into work at 1:00 this afternoon. He usually gets up at 5:00 a.m. to work out. He took my car after that which gave him time to take a short snooze before work. It seems like every time my car has had a flat or some kind of tire problem I have just gotten a new tire and all my tires are different ages. Scott thinks I need to get a good set of new tires soon. Sure, let me go out back and pick $400 off our money tree!!!!! Do I sound like a parent??? Ha ha...oh the joys of being an adult.

Anyway, what is so great about him doing all that for me is this.....Scott is a firm believer of doing nothing on his day off. And when I say nothing, I mean that asking him to fold a load of laundry is too much. I must say, though, that since he is a BIG believer in relaxation, he instills that into me as well. He would rather do everything on work days...mow, clean, etc. (doesn't make sense, I know). Today is my day off and he didn't want me to have to do "car stuff" on my day off. I must say, I am not quite as "relaxed" as he is on my off days. I have done laundry and light cleaning today. I even made it to the mall this afternoon and walked around with Marissa and Francesca. That was fun. Marissa and I like to get together as much as we can, but she has a little one year old to chase and I have a full time job so it gets a bit crazy to catch up sometimes. We mall walked (that sounds so old lady) for about an hour and a half. Francesca was awesome, but we knew when she had had enough. And that was the day!

Off to make dinner for my hubby! Baked chicken and beans...perhaps some broccoli too. We'll see what I can scrounge up.

A Birthday Celebration!

Little Francesca Turns One Year Old!!

Last night I went to a birthday celebration for some dear friends of ours, Jonathan and Marissa, who have a little girl who just turned one. It was a barn yard party with pony rides and everything. It was a great time had by all.

Marissa was my first friend in Fort Worth and we go to church with them. Her dad was our premarital counselor. They are a really neat family!

Francesca got her own little cake.

We got her this counting turtle. You can't tell, but she is dancing to the song it plays. It was too cute!!

Francesca and her daddy.

Heidi, Elizabeth and Clay...a cute little family.

Another cute family! Noah, Nick, Katie, and Hailey.

Me and Marissa.

Francesca with her mommy!

i'm a workin' woman

Today was the first day of my new job at Veria Wellness Center. I will highlight some of it:

• Got to work at 9:00am and got a quick feel for the place before heading over to the corporate office for a product training on MegaFlax. Thought that was interesting since, in my opinion, flax is one of my top ten healthiest foods on the planet. MegaFlax seems to be like a great product. They gave us an entire one pound bag to sample so that will be the true test.
  

• I ate my sack lunch of a sprout sandwich, strawberry yogurt, and cucumber and tomato salad at a picnic table outside Veria Cafe. It is sure going to be hard to resist the cafe food everyday...it all looks so yummy. I did grab a little snack at the cafe before leaving though. It was an Energy To Go wrap. It was peanut butter, yogurt, banana slices, apples slices, and dried cranberries wrapped in a tortilla. It was delicious!
  

• After lunch I headed back out onto the floor where my head was filled with all kinds of policies and procedures and training. I will admit, today was a bit overwhelming for me. I went over all the supplement and vitamin lines. Then reviewed the body care and make up line which didn't take long. I did a bit of cleaning and straightening too.
  

It was a long, fun day, but I was glad to come home. I am not used to standing all day on a concrete floor. I will most likely be investing in a pair of comfy, black walking shoes after my first pay check. The dress code is all black and they provide a black smock to wear with the company logo on it. Well, at least I won't be fretting about what to wear to work everyday, that will be a plus!

Looks like Scott and I may just start seeing each other passing in the night. My schedule was 9-5 today and his was 1-9. I can't complain too much though....at least I can count on my income these days...a huge plus!

I told Scott that he is going to have to get used to making his own lunch to take to work. He had gotten into the habit of not making time to fix anything before he left the house. I would usually get a call after he had been at work a while needing me to bring him dinner. Last night before I went to bed I packed up my lunch and had it all ready to go before heading out the door this morning. MEN...........

Time to make myself some dinner and take a load off!

Having Babies and Buying Houses

Believe it or not, I am actually seeking advice on these two subjects. Anyone out there have any wonderful, thoughtful words for us?

The reason I ask.....we are looking into the whole buying a house thing. The baby thing, well, not so much right now. Our landlord has several rental properties that are going to be for sale in the near future. We are interested in one house in particular. It would possibly be ready by the end of the year and we may be ready to buy at that time too. I haven't felt truly settled since we have gotten married. Sometimes it feels like we are always waiting on the next thing before we do anything like buy a house and start a family. I have come to the realization that it is ok to get settled in a place even though we don't know what the future holds for us. I sort of feel behind being almost 28 and Scott being 30. I guess we just got a later start in life than others.

So anyway, I would be greatly encouraged by anyone who has gone through this....

Well, they offered me the job and I took it! I start next Wednesday at 9:00am. Monday I have to go in and fill out paperwork at the corporate office so that our benefits will kick in in 30 days. I am glad about that, since we missed the enrollment period for Scott's benefits at The Vitamin Shoppe. I hope I can get used to actually going to a job again.

I have been sick this week with a red, sore throat. It is a little better today. I have been nursing myself with tea and vitamin C.

We are in the process of trying to sell Scott's car because we are being given Scott's grandmother's car.

Other than that, not much more to report.

Happy Father's Day Dad!!!

To my dad on Father's Day.... I wish we could be there with you! Hope you have a great one. I love you!

a little of this a little of that

Eventually I will make it to the grocery store today. I have a medium sized list of things I have to get. We are having Scott's dad for lunch tomorrow (which reminds me I have a little bit of cleaning and straightening to do) so that is the main reason I am going to get food. Otherwise, we would continue to eat strange meals until I absolutely HAD to go the store. For lunch today we had beets, bean salad, and deviled eggs. I have been making up my own creations these days. Scott says I need to put a cookbook together. I don't use recipes much unless we are having company. Well, I did for the deviled eggs, but the bean salad was an experiment with leftover veggies and black beans. Around our house, when Scott sees me making a meal without a cookbook, he'll say "so, we're having another "creation" tonight, huh?" I made a gluten free chocolate cake the other night (just a craving) and started out using a recipe, but ended up not having all of the ingredients so I through a bunch of substitutes in and called it good....Scott liked it so I won...YAH!

After , or before groceries (I haven't decided yet) I will get started on my paper for my class called Elements of Nutrition: Antioxidants, Phytonutrients, and Enzymes. I finished the first book for the class and I have to write a paper on my opinion of what are the top 10 healthiest foods. This could be very interesting. Scott and I have been discussing and I have a list of about five that I have to research now and have data to back up my opinion. One of my references is The Top 150 Healthiest Foods which I have found to be an extremely interesting book and very informative on a lot of different types of foods. My top five as of this moment are spinach (leafy greens), wild salmon, blueberries, legumes, and almonds. This may change as I do more research. I think that I will head to Barnes and Noble to get more references. Believe it or not, the public library here in Fort Worth (or the closest one to our house anyway) doesn't have a lot of literature on natural and alternative health. There were more books at the tiny Springdale, AR library than here. B and N has a lot of books that I can look at. I like to go there and study because I had just the right amount of background noise.

Well, off to get things done! My dishwasher (Scott) just quit on me so I have to finish dishes and take a shower from working out and get moving.....not much day left and a lot to do!

Job Search Update

Yesterday I had an interview at Veria Wellness Center in Arlington. This company was started by a man from India who wanted to start wellness centers in the US that had an Ayervedic "flavor". (If you aren't familiar with Ayerveda, it is basically the Indian/Middle Eastern way of health and wellness. I have studied a bit of the Ayervedic eating habits a bit in my schooling.) The first store was opened in Plano, TX in the fall of 2007 and the second in Arlington a few months ago. There are plans for 500 more stores throughout the US. I think it is very exciting to have the opportunity to be at the start of something. They also have a station in Dish network called Veria TV and they have an online store at www.veria.com.

So, back to my interview. The manager and her assistant interviewed me for the spa specialist position. This position wears a lot of hats including stocking, ordering products, providing customer service, and so on. They asked me things like "what do you do when a customer asks you something you don't know?" Thank you mother!!! This is a question that I have always talked to my mom about. In the past, I have often felt embarrassed when someone asked me a question about natural health that I thought I should know but didn't. Thanks to Mom's advice, I have come to the point where I can now say confidently that I do not know, but I will surely look it up and let you know! They liked that answer. I had to answer things like "define customer service" and "what is the most difficult situation I had ever encountered at work?" It was all going so great until they unexpectedly asked me to tell them what salary I expected!!! Well, first of all, I didn't prepare myself for this question because my book on interviews explained that money was not talked about in the first interview. It caught me way off guard! Second of all, when you are used to making $50-75 an hour doing massage for the past few years, it is a lot different going back to the world of working for someone else and getting paid A LOT less. So unfortunately I blurted out a low ball number and am regretting it. Maybe I can negotiate in the end. I got a tour of the center after the interview was over. They have a spa with 5 massage therapists and 1 aethetician. They have a cafe that serves organic foods such as smoothies, hummus, wraps, salads.... They also have nutritional supplements, a makeup line, organic clothing, holistic home products, and tons more (you can see why this is right up my alley)! They also teach "movement classes" such as tai chi, yoga, pilates.....

In the process of talking to them I found out that 4 people I used to work with at Kokopelli's Wellness Spa and Yoga Center in Frisco work or have worked at their Plano location which I though was so wild! (Kokopelli's went out of business after I moved to FW).

So, I left thinking the interview went pretty well. I had what they are looking for and have the experience. I get home and about an hour later they called me. They had a couple of more questions which I answered on the phone. If I pass the background check I am in!!! YAY!!! I am excited, nervous, happy, and sad all at the same time. Part of me is sad to have to give up doing massage on a full time basis and I will miss my flexible schedule. I just can't keep it up like I used to and my body, though I am a lot stronger than I was three years ago, just cannot keep up with it anymore. After this last bought of infection that I caught from a client, I decided to put up my lotion and look into something else. I could cry just thinking about it. But, I will not be totally giving it up. If time and energy allow, I will keep about 4-5 regular clients a week.

My thinking process behind this is for Scott and I to be able to get ahead and eventually start a family sooner than later. These past couple of years being married have been a bit difficult as he was trying to find exactly what he wanted to do. Our several moves were a bit of a financial burden for us. Plus, we missed his enrollment period for benefits. I am now going on 4 years without health or dental and he for about 2 years. This job would provide all of that for us...as long as we don't miss the deadline again!!! ;)

I will keep you all posted, but as for now if all goes as planned, I start full time on June 23rd.

It's About Time

So, I have been entertaining the idea of getting a "real" job for a few months now. There are several reasons including my aching body and financial stability. It has been about four years since I have actually worked a "real" job...and by "real" I mean working full time for someone besides myself. Since March I have looked into many different types of jobs such as administrative assistant and chiropractic assistant. Until I get my degree next year, I don't have much in the way of schooling to offer. However, I think that what I am looking for will be based on my experience.

On Tuesday I have an interview at a wellness center. They just opened and are looking for all types of positions. It is a full service wellness center providing fitness classes such as tai chi, yoga, and Pilates. They also have massage therapy and aesthetics. They sell a wide variety of organic products like personal care, clothing as well as music and workout videos. It sounds a lot like the place I worked at in Frisco when I first moved to Texas. I have applied for non-massage position. Hopefully I will have what they are looking for in terms of support for their company. I am very ready for a change.

Scott is a bit worried that I will be letting all of my massage clients down. I have about four to five regular clients that I would definitely try and keep on a regular schedule along with my full time job.

So, I will keep you updated about all this when I know more!

Our Famous Friend

Our friend Brian is on the Bachelorette! I used to work with him at one of the country clubs here in Fort Worth and he shops at The Vitamins Shoppe with Scott. He personal trains at the country club part time and coaches at a local private high school. So far he has made it through three rose ceremonies. We haven't seen much one on one time with DeAnna, but maybe next week will be the big week. Scott talked to him yesterday and he invited us to go the the watch party at a local restaurant. We couldn't make it, but maybe next week! So, if you catch the show, keep an eye out for our friend!

Andrew

I am a proud aunt, what can I say?! I have been known to be a bit overbearing with the picture taking, but it's a hard job and someone's gotta do it. Trust me, you'll thank me when your kids are grown!

Anyway, I love taking pictures of Andrew. He has the biggest cheese face grin. He loves to look at the just taken pictures or video and laugh at himself.

Can't wait until Joely gets here. I guess I better run out and buy a few more discs for the camera before August!