It's the eye of the tiger

it's the thrill of the fight...

The boys went to a Detroit Tigers game yesterday and ended up in Canada. Go figure! I about had a heart attack when Jared called and told me he was hanging out with Canadians, Ay.

They got free tickets to the game from, yet another, very giving customer. I informed the boys tonight that they are NOT, under any circumstance, to accept any more free tickets unless there are 3 tickets for all of us. :) I don't like being left out.

Anyway, they traveled the 3 1/2 hours to the beautiful (NOT) city of Detroit to watch the Tigers. Hicks has a friend that lives north of Detroit in the 'burbs so they met him and, of course, they all thought it was a good idea to go to the casinos in Canada that night. The border is just across the lake, so it wasn't like they had to go far.

It was the first time for both of them to go to Canada, so they were pretty pumped up and had lots of stories about their adventure. I have never even been out of the U.S., so I hope I can go explore Canada soon. Maybe even to see my very awesome bloggie friend Tara!!!

In other news, my jewelry stuff came in this weekend, so that has kept me pretty occupied. I was even dressing up Jada in all kinds of jewels. She loved it! :) I should have taken a picture.

I also, finally, got my haircut. It was getting pretty long and I liked the way it looked, but it was so hard to take care of. My hair is sooo thick and it has natural wave (sometimes more curly than wavy). So it takes a long time to blow dry and then straighten every morning. Sometimes I wear it curly, but even that was becoming work. So, I chopped off about 3 inches so that it is right below my shoulders. Ah, it feels so much better and lots easier to get ready in the morning.

That's about it for us! My Sooners look like they are going to win their game and the Irish won today so it was a good Saturday.

Private eyes, are watching you

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I needed to vent about something important and did not think it was best to do on a PUBLIC blog site. You will understand if you read it.


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Catch you all on the flip side... I will have another post today, hopefully, if I get time! A real one too :)

Just breathe

as Faith Hill says,

Today was stressful and I had to take a little time to make sure I was still breathing.

Work is crazy, we were just awarded two rather large federal grants. This is great news since non-profit money is hard to come by these days, but it does mean a lot of busy busy days ahead. I am excited for the projects we will be able to accomplish and nervous about the workload it will put on me, as the newbie.

I am slightly overwhelmed with the new jewelry business... well, actually I'm not as overwhelmed as I am worried. That's my middle name, in case you didn't know. Stacy "Worry-Pants" Birk. It is a sickness that I have not found the right medication for. :( I will feel much better once I receive all my information and once I am officially trained, but I received my jeweler number today and was able to log in to the website and wow, I was overwhelmed. There was a lot of great, great information and resources and it got my mind racing!! What promotional and business items should I use? How will I do my accounting? What about taxes? What do I need to buy for incentives? What if I buy too much and can't make it back in profit? What if people decide they hate me and my jewelry and don't wanna buy anything? Ok, that probably won't happen, but the worry-wort part of my brain was in overdrive today. Which would explain the excruciating headache and nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I know I will do fine, but this is me and I have been dealing with it all my life. I did, however, take the advice of the exercise Gods and decided to head to the gym, even though I felt like throwing back a 12-pack of Bud Light (or sleeping the evening away, whichever happened first). The workout was difficult, but my mind did clear a little. I guess all these exercise gurus are right, but I still hate to do it.

Until next time, wish me worry-free!!!!

Help me Rhonda, help help me Rhonda

Ok bloggers, I need your help

A friend of ours is having a huge Halloween Bash and costumes are mandatory. I love to dress up, but usually I wait until the last minute and never have a costume. This year, I have plenty of time, therefore no excuses and Julie is absolutely MAKING me go with her. (Just kidding Jules, I wanna go)

Anyway, Julie (the even planner that she is) is helping me with costume ideas. We have come up with several ideas and now I just need some feedback before I start putting a costume together

1. Pippi Longstockings (Julie pitched this idea to me as a great way to pull off funky socks and patchwork. I agree with her!)

2. Fortune-Telling Gypsy (Would be super easy and I can wear all my Premier Jewelry and then hand out business cards with the fortunes. Great way to have fun and pitch my jewelry business)

3. Hot Air Balloon (Jared and I found this idea online. Cut holes in a laundry basket for my legs and then tie off a big helium balloon to it and decorate.)

There were more, but these were the top ones. What do you all think? Any other ideas?

Make new friends, but keep the old

one is silver and the other's gold. A circle is round, but has no end, that is how we make new friends.

For some reason I remember this song despite my hatred of Brownies and Girl Scouts as a kid. I liked Brownies for, maybe, one year everything else was crap.

I thought of this song today as I was thinking about my friends, both old and new. I don't know what prompted me to think about it. Maybe that I made friends with the girl who lives on the floor above us and that makes me happy. Maybe its that I have thought alot recently about my friends I have lost touch with or lost years ago due to petty high school or college typical girl arguments. Maybe it's that I am getting old and they fact that Jared is celebrating his 28th birthday tomorrow makes me feel even older. I don't know. But I just wanted to send a shout out to all my friends - old, new, estranged, and future friends. I am thankful for each one of you that is in my life and I KNOW that each of you has entered my life for a reason and some of you have left my life for a reason. You are all so special to me!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

and maybe a boy's best friend too...

My hubby is so cute. I just love him. He has been so supportive, helpful and loving with this new jewelry adventure. He doesn't quite understand it, but he asks a lot of questions and plans to help me anyway he can, including attending the next training session with me. Isn't he great? There are not a lot of small town, sports loving, gun toting, knife collecting, t-shirts and shorts wearing guys out there that would do this for their wives. But, he loves me and he knows this makes me really happy and excited.

In fact, he has gotten so into this he has EVEN started helping me sell it!!!
Here's the dish....

Last night Jared was grilling out hamburgers and I told him if he saw Leah (our neighbor upstairs) to stop her cause I want to see if she wants to look at a catalog. Well, I was inside finishing my ab workout from the gym (I hate rolling around on the floor at the gym looking like a beached whale, so I just do it at home). Anyway, I am doing crunches and I hear Jared talking to someone. I figure it is Leah but I stop and listen. He says, and I quote, "Hey, uh, Wifey was wanting to talk to you... uh, do you like jewelry?" I about died from giggling quietly. I decided not to go out there yet to hear what he had to say. She says she likes it and he replies, "well, uh, wifey is taking on a new business of selling Premier Jewelry and she is booking parties and stuff are you interested?" I am somewhat impressed at this point and wondering why he always refers to me as wifey. Anyway, he then hollers at me to bring a catalog out. Later I tease him for being a jewelry salesman and he tells me "well, you know, I DO know how to do sales, I do it for fireworks, why can't I do it for jewelry". The man has a point!! :)

In other news, Jared let Jada roam outside last night and she tried to eat a toad and I am pretty sure she was somewhat poisoned. Did you know toads were poisonous? I didn't. She comes running inside and Jared is laughing and says she was chasing a toad and decided she wanted a bite. Then I see slobber hanging from her mouth and as she runs through the house it is dripping all over everything. It was like she was foaming at the mouth like she had RABIES!!! I was freaking out, like any cat momma would do. She is my baby! I start to tear up and Jared is still somewhat laughing and says she is ok, she just won't try to do THAT again. Oh geez! Can you imagine this philosophy when we have ACTUAL children? (Well Billy Bob won't try to play with a venomous snake anymore cause now he is in the ER) Oh, COME ON! (Our little joke is that our son will be named William Robert aka Billy Bob Birk. It is hideous and will never happen, but still funny)

Anyway, I think she is ok. She played with one of her toys after that and slept by me all night like usual. This morning, though, when I poured food in her bowl she didn't start gobbling it up like normal. That kinda worried me. I guess I will see how she acts when I get home! Oh the drama!