where has 2011 gone?!

so my last blog was 10 months ago...where in the world has this year gone?!

so much has happened in the last 10 months that i don't even know where to begin! here is a quick rundown...

enrolled as a consultant with thirty-one in january...jon and i went to jamaica for (my) work in february (it was awesome!)...worked like crazy from january through march (except for the quick trip to jamaica!)...my best friend had a baby boy in april (theodore tobias mappus iv aka tucker)...my brother and his family came to visit in june...another good friend had a baby boy in june (wallace rudolph bowman aka ace)...my sister and her family came to visit in july...jon and i went on vacation with my brother and sister-in-law in july (an amazing cruise to st. thomas, st. maarten, and nassau...good times had by all!)...jon's brother and his family moved to los angeles in july (can't wait to go visit in november!)...we took a last minute trip to south beach miami (with jon's brother (and business partner) and sister-in-law) for his work in august (so much fun and so relaxing!)...i became a senior consultant for thirty-one at the end of august...we traveled every weekend of september (pawley's island, greenville, atlanta, georgia to see my sister)...and now it's freakin' october already! once again, where in the world has this year gone?!

that sums up this year so far...and there are still many good times and events to come! love my life...and those that surround me!

thirty-one...a fun, new opportunity!

so a little less than two weeks ago, i decided to become an independent consultant for thirty-one gifts. they have fun and adorable purses, totes, organizing totes, and kid stuff. so far, i've done pretty well for my first few days. i placed my first "party order" yesterday (which means it had to be at least $200) and i've had a few other orders as well. here are a few of the cute products that i received in my enrollment kit...this is the picnic thermal tote in impressionist dot...i just love this pattern!

this is the all-in-one organizer in circle celebration (accented with the scarf in impressionist dot).

and this is the zipper pouch in chains ahoy...when i saw this in the catalog, i had no idea it was going to be so big. it's perfect for the beach or pool or even makeup!

this is just a few items i received in my enrollment kit, and i was so excited the night my big pink box arrived! i couldn't wait for jon to get home, so i could share everything with him. being the awesome husband that he is, he sat and listened to me talk about each product. his comment was, "wow, these are really durable fabrics they use for the products!" this, of course, coming from my husband who works with pool cover material, so he's all about durable fabrics that will last a long time!



friday night i attended a celebrate & connect bimonthly meeting here in charleston. i had a great time meeting new people that also sell thirty-one products, and it was great to see so many of the new products and patterns from the new catalog. by the time i got home after hearing great tips and stories about selling the products, i was even more excited about this great new opportunity my sister introduced me to! i even received a free product at the meeting...

this is the mini retro metro bag in taupe.

i love doing something that is completely different from my normal job, being able to make money from something that is lots of fun, and getting to enjoy such great products! each time i go out now, i have to make a decision on which bag to take with me!

on another note...(a much needed!!!) vacation is only 10 days away!!!!

new challenges

today presented me with many (and i mean lots and lots!!!) challenges at work...and tonight i decided to present myself with a new challenge outside of work! after talking to my sister about her awesome experience with her thirty-one business, i've decided to challenge myself with a new "business." i've given up some of my accounting work that i was doing on the side in the last few weeks, and i guess i just couldn't quite come to terms with the thought of not having a little extra work in addition to my regular job.

i'm excited because this will be something completely different from my everyday job in the accounting world at hire quest. i'm definitely not a sales person or presentations person, but thirty-one products seem to sell themselves so i'm hoping it will work out well! i plan to make a list of goals for myself and my new "business" in the next few days, so i will be working towards something and not just doing it to be doing it! i can't wait to share my experiences and goals in the coming days, weeks, and months!

ready for a vacation....

this week has been HELL at work. although, it is january so i guess i should expect nothing less! this was my first year preparing the nearly 19,000 w-2's that i must send out in the next couple of weeks. i finally have everything balanced and ready to print after some extremely long days this past week. now it's time to get all of the other monthly work completed.

luckily there is a light at the end of the long (stress filled work) tunnel...jon and i are going to jamaica on february 10th!!! my company puts on an annual conference for all of our franchise owners each year, and this year it's in jamaica! neither jon nor i have ever been there, so we are both really excited about visiting a new tropical place (and of course relaxing and getting away for a few days)!!!

we've been trying to catch up with friends that we haven't seen since before christmas, so last night we had katherine, tee, and amy over to hang out! the boys ended up playing jon's new playstation 3 (he's been wanting it for a couple years now, but i wasn't so sure if i could handle a playstation 3 addicted husband!!!) and having a blast! they were actually kind of cute in the their chairs in front of the tv talking about the game they were playing! of course, the girls chatted and caught up on all the recent happenings while the boys played!

speaking of catching up, katherine is having a baby!!! theodore tobias mappus the 5th aka tucker is due on april 15th! i'm so excited for them and can't wait to meet their baby boy!

getting pregnant seems to be the thing to do right now!!! our friends rachel and aaron are also pregnant and are expecting their bundle of joy in june! they are going to wait for the surprise on the day baby bowman is born, and i can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl!

babies, babies everywhere! i must say, i think we might be getting a little baby fever but not enough to go all in yet!!! it will happen soon enough! :)

hello 2011 and goodbye 2010

2011 has arrived in full swing! i must say i was kind of happy to see the end of 2010. it had been one hell of a year! there were ups and downs, some good and some bad, but overall i'm just ready for a new year to begin!

we rang in 2011 with kris and anne (jon's brother and his future wife!) and had a low key night at their house with some great food and drinks, champagne, and rock band!

today is a working day for me thanks to the end of the year. it's time to prepare the w-2's for the almost 20,000 employees that we have throughout the country. this year is my first time doing it, so i've been a little nervous about it. so far it's going well though! i'm camped out at the kitchen table with my computer and work stuff spread out and jon is relaxing on the couch watching batman on his new playstation 3 and new television!

here's to a prosperous, fun filled, exciting, adventuresome, and productive 2011! happy new year!

crazy happenings + new endeavors = life

life...where do i begin?!

i got the news last week that my boss will be leaving on medical disability as of august 1st. so this means i will be taking over as controller of the company and hiring an assistant to take the position i'm in now. this is great news for me in regards to my career and something i knew would eventually happen, but i just didn't know it was going to happen so soon! i will be spending the next 3 1/2 months soaking up as much of her knowledge as possible and learning every possible thing i can learn about her job!

since jon and i got a new car several weeks ago, it finally came time for us to sell my altima. we put it on ebay last monday and it was sold when the auction ended this monday. jon handled everything with the buyer yesterday and i met them to sign the title over to her and say goodbye (after 6 years) to my very dependable altima! it was a bittersweet moment! (i'm definitely loving the bmw though!)

jon's business has picked up (thanks to summer being just around the corner and their only employee in north carolina resigning a few weeks ago!) and is working like crazy! he's been working 6 days a week, not getting home until at least 10 every night and spending the night out of town on others. it's definitely great that business has picked up, but he will definitely be ready for a short vacation when we head to vegas the beginning of june!

yes, that's right...we are going to las vegas! i finally booked the trip, and we will be celebrating jon's 30th birthday there on june 5th and staying for a few nights! i've never been to vegas, so i'm super excited to see all the sights! only 6 weeks from friday until we board the plane!

that sums up the last 2 weeks of my life...i think! now it's time to see what the next 2 weeks brings my way!

go away sickness...exciting things await tomorrow

unfortunately i had to use my last pto day until may and spend the day at home...sick! i haven't been feeling well all week, but last night it got the best of me. i woke up at 2 am coughing and not able to sleep, and then finally fell back to sleep around 4. i was just biding my time until i could call the doctor this morning to get some meds. i called in sick to work because a) i don't think i could have gotten ready and made it to work without coughing up a lung and b) i know that nobody at work wants to get sick just because i didn't want to use my last day off until may!

i slept on and off all morning and the doctor finally got my medicine called in around 2. i got out of bed long enough to go get my meds and do a few things around the house...and the highlight of my day was going to dinner with the girls tonight. i did not want to miss out on that because i'd been looking forward to it all week, and i didn't think i could survive if i stayed in the house by myself all day and night! i finally started feeling a little better around the time i headed to dinner, and i think i'm on the mend and will be able to make it to work tomorrow....thank goodness because i definitely didn't want to take a day off without pay!

i'm super excited about tomorrow because a) jon will be pulling up in our driveway (after a long trip from dallas!) with our new car (it's a 2004, but it's new to us!) - a bmw 745 (jon's dream car and one that i certainly won't mind getting to drive)!!!! and b) my dad and stepmom are coming to visit for the weekend! we haven't seen them since christmas (and that was only for one night), so it will be really nice having them here with us for the weekend!

now it's time for me to say night night and get some rest so i can continue feeling better and enjoy all the excitement of tomorrow...

preferred customer card...

as of about two weeks ago, i am the proud owner of a hancock's fabric preferred customer card. i never thought i would want to learn to sew after watching my mom do it growing up (much less hold a preferred customer card from a fabric store!), but i decided in october to buy a sewing machine. my goal was to teach myself to sew over the winter when it was cold outside and we were home over the weekends. so i finally got the sewing machine out of the box and set it up in february.

it was actually jon's suggestion to set it up and start practicing, so he helped me get it going and within a few hours i had made him a small pillow case from one of his pool cover specialists' t-shirts! unfortunately i haven't had time (or i guess made time!) to attempt another small sewing project, but i have been to the fabric store two times and purchased several different pieces of fabric and ribbon for baby blankets! my sister-in-law will be in town next week (and she's an excellent seamstress), so she is going to help me with some sewing skills! in the end, i just want to be able to hem new pants for myself (because they are always too long and i have to pay someone to make them shorter!), and make pillows, baby blankets, and other items for our house or to give as gifts.

i never thought i would enjoy sewing...as a child i just knew that wasn't for me and totally took my mom's sewing skills for granted! i'm sure she is very proud that i'm learning to sew and finally expressing and interest in it! i'm slowly becoming more domesticized (not sure if that's a word!)...baking, then cooking, now sewing! wow, i wonder what's next...learning to enjoy cleaning? learning to enjoy doing laundry? learning to enjoy washing dishes? (notice i wrote "learning to enjoy" because i do all of these things now - some not as much as others thanks to my awesome husband! - but i do not enjoy doing them!) probably not, but who knows what the future will bring! :)

i know it sounds crazy, but it actually snowed in charleston!

last friday night jon and i were sitting at home watching the news as they continued to talk about charleston getting snow....and finally around 7:00, snowflakes began falling from the sky! it was pretty crazy! the meteorologists had been predicting snow for about a week, but i think most people (including me!) just blew it off and thought "i'll believe it when i see it!" up until friday night, there had not been a recorded snow fall since 1989...21 years! within 30 minutes our yard was covered with snow and it just continued coming down! we watched it from the front door/porch in amazement and took lots of pictures! our cable went out around 7:45, so we decided to play scrabble! the lights flickered most of the night, and we thought for sure that we would end up losing power but it never went off for more than a minute! we woke up to a yard, trees, and house covered in snow! we got around 3 inches, but unfortunately it didn't last long on saturday! here are some pictures to prove IT SNOWED IN CHARLESTON!!!

nyc & boston...awesome vacation part 3

part 3 of our trip was not much fun...it involved delayed and missed flights and sleeping in the airport! our flight from boston to washington, dc was continuously delayed until about 10:30 saturday night...over 3 hours after we were supposed to take off. we missed our connecting flight to charleston, and were booked on separate flights (me at 7:55 and jon at 12:25) the next morning to charleston. once we got to dc, they were able to confirm jon on the flight with me...thank goodness because we'd both had enough of airports at that point! we got a couple of hours of sleep in the airport that night and couldn't wait to get home and go to bed!

when we finally arrived home around 10:30 am, we headed to bed and didn't wake up until 7 when we woke up and made dinner. we stayed up for a few hours and then went back to sleep until it was time to wake up for work this morning. not quite the ending to our vacation that we expected, but at least we made it home yesterday morning and didn't get stuck in boston because of the weather!

nyc and boston were amazing! what an awesome vacation...christmas and new year's were the perfect time to experience these cities! i love traveling!

nyc & boston...awesome vacation part 2

on wednesday we said goodbye to tee and katherine in nyc and loaded onto a packed bus for boston! it was a long and pretty miserable trip...more than 5 hours with no stops and not very much space. but we finally made it to boston and met up with brittany, jay, and pat at our hotel...and this is where part 2 -boston began...

thursday morning pat, jon, and i walked to breakfast at a diner down the street, and while we were eating it began snowing like crazy! snow is definitely not something i see often, so i must say i was pretty excited about it...at least for the first few hours of it! here is the view from our hotel room...the snow had covered the ground within a couple of hours!we walked through boston commons (a huge park) and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding....which we missed...and the reception on new year's eve! yes, we missed the wedding (ceremony only though!) thanks to the snow and traffic trying to get out of the city! the reception was lots of fun and we had a great time ringing in the new year and celebrating mike and toni's special day!

friday brought lots of fun and an interesting experience...we went to a real chinese restaurant in the chinatown section of boston! pat, jon, and i were the only americans (and english speaking people) in the restaurant, but i must say, the food was awesome! we also took the subway to the prudential center and went up to the observatory...what a spectacular view of the city! jon took tons of pictures and it was really neat to see everything in boston from a distance since we didn't have time to see many places in person! here is just one of the awesome photos of the city...

we ended the day with dinner at an authentic italian restaurant in the littly italy section of boston and grabbed some canolis to take back to the hotel for dessert! jon and i slept in saturday morning and then visited the bar that they used for the tv show cheers. we also watched sherlock holmes before heading back to the hotel and catching a taxi to the airport!

once we got to the airport, another adventure began....that's part 3 of our awesome vacation!

nyc & boston...awesome vacation part 1

vacation has been wonderful! we started in new york city last sunday (with katherine and tee), headed to boston (and met up with pat, jay, and brittany) on wednesday, rang in the new year at the davidson wedding, and are attempting to get home to charleston tonight or in the morning!

new york city was awesome! we went to see chicago (starring ashley simpson-wentz!) the first night we were there...

we saw many sites in new york...rockefeller center (with the christmas tree!), the empire state building (from top of the rock), times square, the statue of liberty (from battery park...in the frigid temperatures!), 5th avenue (fao schwarz & tiffany's) and we took a movie sites/tv show tour around the city!

katherine and i even got up one morning and went to see the today show...but only for a little while because it was only 23 degrees!

jon and i headed out of new york on a bus to boston on wednesday...and wow, was it an interesting bus trip! the bus was packed and it was a long 5 hour (supposed to be 4) trip! we were very happy to finally arrive in boston!

more on the rest of the trip tomorrow....getting tired and hoping our plane arrives from washington, dc soon, so we can at least get part of the way home tonight! we were supposed to fly out of boston at 7:15, but so far we are still here thanks to the weather in washington and boston! i think tonight will be spent in the washington-dulles airport! a first for me...spending the night in an airport! it will be worth it though since we have to be there for our flight to charleston 5 hours after we arrive!

making someone's christmas special

this christmas has arrived very quickly! i can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away! jon and i decided to do something we've never done this year at christmas...we adopted two needy children. there are so many unfortunate children that may not get to share in the joy of christmas, and this year was the beginning of a new tradition for us. christmas really is for children, and i can't imagine them not having gifts from santa on christmas morning.

i saw an angel tree at my gym that was sponsored by the salvation army, and i decided to check it out and pick an angel from it. when i started looking at the tags on it though, i was shocked! the "unfortunate and needy" children wanted ipods, wiis, playstation 3's, and wii games...this was not the type of angel i wanted to adopt for christmas! i wanted jon and i to buy gifts for a child who would be excited to just have something to open from santa.

after thinking about it and remembering the many days of helping my cousin who worked for the department of social services and was in charge of the annual christmas project (collecting, buying, distributing gifts for needy children), i decided to contact my old neighbor who works for a nonprofit organization that is affiliated with the department of social services. she was so excited to have us help and immediately sent me information for two young girls, ages 7 and 8. these two sisters wanted board games, uno, and a hannah montana doll...that's all they wanted!

i had so much fun shopping for them...picking out clothes, remembering the games i used to love as a child, and searching for the new character that the kids are raving about, hannah montana! on the saturday i shopped, i had the best feeling about what i was doing and how special these two sisters' christmas will be...and it really reminded that the giving is the important part, not the receiving! i am perfectly happy not receiving gifts this year, and just knowing that these two girls will have gifts to open on christmas morning will make my christmas very special!

one amazing year...

as of today, jon and i have been married for 1 year! i can't believe it has already been 12 months since we were married in a gorgeous ceremony barefoot on the beach....time has absolutely flown by! we've made some awesome memories the last 12 months and i'm excited about many more memories to come in the future!

jon is an amazing husband! he's brought so much into my life, and i don't know what i would do without him! i love waking up to him every morning and coming home to him every night! i love the way he makes me laugh constantly and enjoy life no matter what's going on around us! thank you baby for just being you and for being such an amazing part of my life! happy anniversary! xoxo

a weekend of anniversary celebrations!

jon and i have had an amazing weekend of celebrating our anniversary! last night we went to dinner at slightly north of broad (aka snob) downtown....and it was awesome! i had never been there and jon had only been once several years ago. they had two glasses of champagne ready for us...what a great treat! we started with some appetizers and then i had duck breast with squash casserole and asparagus and jon had triggerfish with wild rice. it was an amazing dinner at a restaurant we wouldn't normally treat ourselves to except for special occasions! after dinner we took a walk down to waterfront park and checked out the beautiful view of the bridge...what a great city we live in! we headed home to our dessert...a fresh mini version of our wedding cake that i picked up at the bakery yesterday morning! it was just as good last night as it was a year ago on our wedding night!


this afternoon jon and i had a couples massage at a spa in west ashley! it was so relaxing and we both thoroughly enjoyed it! we've decided that when we go on vacation from now on we will be getting one to help us relax...and maybe on some special occasions too!

tomorrow will be our 1 year anniversary!

5 years...looking back

last week i was reading a friend's blog, and she did something i thought was really neat. she recapped the last 5 years of her life! so here is my recap...

graduated from the college of charleston (on an extremely hot day in may!). became a full-time employee at mbw. started graduate school at the citadel. became an aunt for the first time (now i'm an aunt 4 times over and soon to be 5!). went through the death of an aunt i was very close to. met the man of my dreams through my roommate of 5 years. purchased my first home. got engaged on the 13th hole at the cozumel country club in cozumel, mexico! finished my mba at the citadel. married the man of my dreams in a amazing ceremony on the beach! went parasailing for the first time ever. drove an atv on the pacific ocean. learned to ski in utah. drove a snowmobile for the first time. started a new job.

i guess that sums it up! wow, it's really neat to look back and realize what all has happened in the last 5 years of my life...and i'm sure i've left something out, so i may be updating this later!

baby shower success

stefani's baby shower was very successful yesterday! she got some great (and much needed) gifts and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. rachel had such awesome ideas for the food....and yes, i took very good notes along with the recipes! caramel pecan chicken salad (so yummy) and chocolate marshmellow fruit dip (very scrumptious) were just a couple items included in our spread of food! we started a tradition for baby showers among our friends as well...all of the guests were asked to bring their favorite childhood book to build the baby's library! now we just have to wait to see if the baby will be named sophia grace or spencer leo....only a month and a half until we get to find out!

jon and i had a fun houseguest late last week. rachel came to stay with us wednesday night through the weekend, and then bowman took the train up to charleston saturday morning. even though my work schedule is so crazy right now, it was a lot of fun spending time with rachel...we definitely shared many laughs!

now for another week of tax season hell...only 16 days to go though! there's fun to be had once it's over! xoxo

a great vacation...coming to an end!

wow, what a vacation?! this week in park city, utah has been absolutely amazing! the mountains here are gorgeous, the snow on the mountains is beautiful, and the fun we've had here is unforgettable. we've lived it up during the day, relaxed at night, and then started all over again each of the 5 days we've been here.

yesterday was full of adventure...on snowmobiles. what an awesome experience?! we honestly did not know what we were in for...which included crazy fun, amazing views, many times digging our snowmobiles out, and absolute exhaustion by the time we got home. jon and i rode atv's in cabo during our honeymoon, and the snowmobiles were one more amazing adventure! we went with one of the owners of pcs national who is 62, but was more daring and hard core than any of the 4 of us! he did some crazy things while we were out there, and showed us an awesome time! the adventure began with 2 of the snowmobiles breaking down about 15 minutes into it. we had to tow those back to the lodge and get 2 more before continuing. after getting stuck in the 4 feet (yes, that is correct...4 feet!) of snow a couple times and learning to dig out the snowmobile, we were on our way! we went about 15 miles into the mountains and canyons before heading back to the lodge during our 5 hour trek! at one point we couldn't get one snowmobile out before getting another one stuck...it was then that we decided it was probably time to begin the trek back to the lodge. all four of us came back home and collapsed....sound asleep for a couple hours before waking up at 9:30 to eat dinner.

unfortunately i managed to get sick this week (jon the beginning of the week and me at the end!) and by the time we got home from our awesome adventure yesterday i was even worse. i had to forego skiing today because i didn't think i could make it on the slopes with a terrible cough all day! the guys and i headed up the mountain to meet anne for lunch and then the guys headed off for an afternoon of skiing. anne is in her second day of ski school today and is loving it....i hate i had to sit out today, but i guess there is always another time. i now have cute snow bunny ski clothes - thanks to the columbia sportswear outlet in park city - so i will definitely be ready the next time we go on a ski trip.

i guess all good things must come to an end, and that is happening tomorrow for us as we have to board the plane home around noon! this week has been so awesome and amazing....

falling snow in utah

it has been snowing contantly since monday night here...i believe it's slowing down a little now though. anne and i took ski school yesterday in pouring snow which was quite interesting, but we both learned a lot! unfortunately i had to head to the lodge early because my knees were killing me; however, i had an awesome time learning to ski!

the condo we are staying in is perfect for our vacation! it's cozy, yet plenty of space for the 4 of us! we slept in monday after an extremely long traveling day on sunday, explored park city a little bit monday night, and had dinner at an awesome bar - the no name saloon! yesterday we spent the entire day on the slopes and collapsed early last night. this morning we have been relaxing after a pancake breakfast prepared by chefs jon and kris and are getting ready to head into salt lake city. we are planning to tour the pool cover specialists facility today which jon and kris are excited for anne and me to see.

unfortunately i woke up not feeling very well this morning, but i've been popping meds like crazy in an effort to get better! jon was sick the first part of the trip and now me...hopefully i will feel much better before we have to get on a plane to head home on saturday!

time to hit the road to salt lake...xoxo

my first blog

my first blog....where do i begin? i decided to start this as a journal to hopefully look back on many years from now and know what i was doing in my life....and for others to know what in the world is going on with me!

i am very blessed with an awesome husband, awesome friends, and great family! speaking of family, i am heading to columbia this evening to stay with my mom and go to a doctor's appointment with her tomorrow. she found out on monday that she needs to have hip replacement surgery, so tomorrow we meet with the surgeon to possibly schedule it. prayers are definitely needed as she has been and will continue to be in a good bit of pain until she has the surgery!

also speaking of family, jon and i are heading to myrtle beach tomorrow to spend the weekend with my dad and diane. i'm looking forward to getting away, doing a little shopping (i'm still in need of some warm clothes for our trip to utah in 3 weeks!), and enjoying one last relaxing weekend before tax season gets into full swing! the joys of being an accountant! during the next few months, my life will be crazy and tiring due to working extremely long hours, but i'm going to do my best to update my new blog....and possibly let out a few frustrations on here as well! :)