A Weekend to Celebrate

Friday was my cousin, Devin's, birthday. He wanted to come and visit us this past weekend so we said "Sure. Why not."

After work on Friday, Tabber and I met him and my Aunt Marcy. On the way home we stopped at Subway and got some dinner. Once we got home, we watched some tv and played Wii (Jimmy FINALLY got his Cabela's hunting game).

Saturday morning we woke up and I made chocolate chip pancakes. We do love us some chocolate chip pancakes. Then after a little bumming around we went to this bible bookstore I have been wanting to go to. What a great store! Definitely bigger than I thought. Tons of stuff!! Will definitely have to go back there. Then we went to Wal-Mart and Giant to pick up some groceries and odd and ends.

Once we got home we baked some cupcakes. I saw these cupcakes in Family Circle Magazine

and thought they were totally cute! I knew Devin likes to bake so I thought, perfect. Well not so much. When I took them out of the over they looked great. Almost perfect.

Well then it was time to put the icing on. This was a new recipe for icing and we were using the cake decorating stuff (bags and tips). It just so happened to be the first time using that stuff as well. All I can say is we tried. We used a little too much food coloring in some of them.

I couldn't find pastel food coloring like they said to use. I'm sure that would've made a difference. For some reason it was very runny and wouldn't really stay in shape. It also had lots of white little speckles. Not sure what that is all about. I think maybe the sugar. I dunno.

After we were done with the cupcakes we made homemade pizza. My aunt got us dough from a store, which was really good taste wise, but a pain in the butt to use. We kept stretching the dough and trying to form it, but it would just shrink. (I later found out we were messing with it too much.) We decided to make 3 different pizza's. One big one, that goes this crazy bubble in it.

Then two smaller ones. We made a white garlic one, which was pretty good. (Sorry no pics) While we were eating the pizza we watched Dark Knight. AWESOME movie!!! I so want to get it on DVD.

Sunday morning we cooked a big breakfast. Eggs, potatoes, bacon, and toast. Ok, so not that big, but VERY GOOD!!! After breakfast we just hung out for the rest of the day and watched some tv and played Wii. We had an experience with the toilet overflowing while Jimmy was at the gym. Not sure what happened there. But it all worked out. Other than that. We didn't really do much. I hope Devin had fun spending his birthday weekend with us. We know we did!!!

Bigger and Bigger

It's funny how my friends always talk about their children getting bigger and bigger, and I say, "Yeah I know, Tabber is getting so big." Well she is. Last Monday Jimmy had her to the vet and she weighs a whole 10.2 lbs. How crazy, right?!?!?!?! Not really when Jimmy told me there was another Westie at the vet that weighed 27 lbs. and was a year old. Tabber turned 7 months yesterday. 27 lbs!!! That's a big dog! Especially when they average 15 lbs. My goodness I hope Tabber doesn't get that big. Sometimes she does the most random things. Sits the most random ways. But I guess that's why she is so lovable!!!

Conference 2009 - Part 3 - PA Kicked Butt

My final blog about conference. Wednesday night of conference there is an awards dinner. It was a beautiful dinner, some great food and a great time around the table's. That night we had a coach nominated for just about every award possible. We walked away with 5 awards. Coach Thom won two awards, and they were the same awards he won last year, Best Client Results - Testimonials and Best Client Retention. Our Firm in Lancaster won Firm of the year, for the third year in a row. Coach Doug and Coach Paul won ActionMan Awards. All in all it was a great evening!!! We were really pleased and had a wonderful time!!! Unfortunately, I did not have my camera that night so I don't have any pictures. I am working on getting some.

Conference 2009 Part 2 - Lucky Penny

The one night a bunch of us were hanging out after dinner and what not. We were just sitting around getting to know each other a little better. It was getting pretty late and the guys decided to head to bed, I on the other hand decided I was going to play the slots. When I play the slots I normally play the penny slots and I usually play the same machines where we go. I only like to play certain ones, don't really ask me why. I had a $50 bill so I threw it in one of the machines. A machine I normally don't play. It had to do with wolves. Right now, I don't even remember what the name of it was exactly. I was sitting there playing and was doing ok. A couple of times I was over $100. I told myself that I wouldn't go under $75 because I figure I would still be ahead. Well I never got near $75. I kept playing and before I know it the screen reads 50000+ pennies. I'm like, wait a minute, that's $500. I just watched as the numbers kept going up and up and up. It sure was $500. Holy cow!!! I started freaking out! I called my mom and woke her up. I had to tell someone. No one was around. There weren't too many people in the casino, and no one was sitting anywhere near me. Then I called Jimmy, who was actually up because he was going to work. He was so excited and freaking out as well. At that point, I said I'm done! I'm cashing out!! I cashed out at $545. To celebrate, the next night I bought a round of drinks for the PA team!! What a great time!!!!!

Funny Video

Here is a funny video that Brad showed at conference. It's pretty good. Seemed to be the theme for the rest of conference.

Conference 2009 Part 1

A week ago today I go back from our North American Conference in Las Vegas. We stayed at a beautiful hotel off the strip. It is a brand new hotel built in November of 2008. The weather was beautiful!! So beautiful that on Sunday we had the opportunity to sit by the pool and get some sun.

Saturday was an interesting day. We got to the airport in Vegas around 1:00 in the afternoon. Lisa and I went to claim our bags and my bags were no where to be found. After talking to the airport people behind the desk it turns out that my luggage was on the next plane in from Charlotte. Which I should have figured because I had 10 mins. between when my plan landed and when my next flight left. Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we told the front desk about my luggage. They said they would let me know when it was dropped off. We then went to TGIFriday's for a snack. When we were eating we started talking about my problem. See that night we were going to see 'O' the Cirque Du' Soleil show at the Bellagio. I was so excited, until I lost my luggage. I had nothing to wear. After our meal we stopped by the desk and they hotel staff said not to count on it showing up until after 9:00 pm. Our show was at 7:30 and we were leaving at 6:00. After looking in the gift shop for something to wear and going to the room, I found some clothes to borrow of Lisa's. So I jumped in the shower and started getting ready. As I'm getting ready the phone rings. It's the front desk. They guy says "You'll never believe this, heck I don't, but we just got your luggage. I'll bring it right up" So of course I started jumping up and down and screaming. I was so happy to have my luggage and to be able to wear my clothes to the show. The show was amazing!!! I would definitely recommend seeing it if you are in Vegas.

After the show we walked around Caesar's for a little while. Another beautiful hotel. All of the hotels in Vegas are beautiful.

There is more to tell about conference, which I'll post more. Let's just say I had luck with the pennies and that our PA team kicked some major butt!!!