Thursday, November 20, 2008

Rainbows



This evening a little storm rolled through the valley. The winds kicked up, the skies darkened and then it rained a little. By the time I left work, the sun was setting beautifully in the west, casting all kinds of gorgeous shadows over the hills and best of all - making rainbows.

I love rainbows. I've always loved rainbows. As a kid, I was so fascinated and delighted when I'd see one. I used to keep track of how many rainbows I'd seen. As I got older, I lost track of the number, but I've never lost the awe. Of course, now that I'm older, I realize that I have to share my love of rainbows with the gay community, which makes me wary of posting rainbows all over everything. I wouldn't want to give off the wrong impression.

In any case, seeing the rainbows (TWO!!) this afternoon reminded me of a conversation with my friend Susan. She asked me what I thought simple pleasures were. To me, simple pleasures are little, every day things that just brighten your day. Seeing a rainbow, reading a good book, wearing a favorite shirt, etc. It's the little, every day things that brighten your day that we need to remember when life seems overwhelming, stressful or out of control. Remember your simple pleasures and put whatever the problem is into perspective.

Well, that's my bit for day. Bye!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Life

Well, I just realized it's been a week since I blogged. Not a lot has been going on, but a few things. First, we went to Trans-Siberian Orchestra on the 10th. That was both awesome and awful. The first like hour and a half was kind of slow. They do a really amazing light show along with their concert. The first half was some really great music with really cool lights mixed in with some really slow and annoying narrator dude and some really slow music. The second hour and a half really picked up. More fast paced music, more intense lights, etc. If we go again, I'd really consider skipping the first half!!!

on Wednesday we found out that my grandma (my mom's mom) had a stroke and fell at her apartment. She broke her foot and a finger when she fell from her stroke. She attempted to call my mom once - but mom wasn't home - and she didn't call anyone else. She waited quite a while before finally calling her landlady to come unlock the door so granny could call the paramedics. Apparently her stroke was not as minor as we all believed - she was hospitalized until Saturday and now she's at a rehabilition factilty, working to regain control of her body from the stroke. She's apparently giving my mom quite a bit of trouble and is just being a general pest. I'm afraid she won't be allowed to live independently after this. She's not making sound judgement calls.

Our weekend was pretty tame. Saturday we cleaned out the office/guest room. Threw away 3 bags of crap, have another bag of donations/garage sale items and I found a ton of things for Christmas gifts. Saturday evening Nick had a few classmates over for a study session - finals are this week!

Sunday after the Packer game (we won!), we headed out grocery shopping and then I laid on the couch the rest of the day. I haven't been feeling well recently - I probably picked up a bug when I was at the emergancy room w/ mom. Yay.

Well, that's about it for my update. Nick's parents will be here next week (on Tuesday). I can't believe we're nearing the end of November already. HOLY CRAP!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Kids Incorporated

We had a Chochrek Children weekend and had such fun! Friday night we had dinner over at David & Letty's (she made home made - authentic Mexican - taquitos YUM), then we came home and met Carin at our house for a Scentsy/child exchange. I sold her some Scentsy bars and she left us Hannah & Emma. To get in the spirit of Disney on Ice the following day, we watched Beauty & The Beast.

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, colored a little, got dressed and headed out to Taco Bell Arena for Disney On Ice! We got there late - traffic SUCKED. There was a BSU game that kicked off at noon, so all the tailgaters were competing with those of us trying to go to Disney on Ice. it was great. I love stop and go traffic. Anyway, that is a great show. I realized that I know a LOT about Disney - I know all the character names and was busy passing them along to Hannah and Emma. I was so pleased, they LOVED the show and paid attention the whole way through. I really didn't think we'd make it to the end, figured the girls would get bored and we'd sneak out early. they were great! They didn't ask for anything other than a snack and something to drink. Emma got cotton candy and Hannah got popcorn. Emma's cotton candy came with a crown and we all took turns trying it on.



We got to see the princesses and princes from Beauty & The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Cinderella & Snow White. They did little mini shows of Beauty & The Beast (which we missed most of since we were late), Toy Story, It's a Small World, Pinocchio, The Incredibles, Mulan, and the Lion King. In between all that were little vignettes with Mickey & Mini Mouse and Donald Duck.

After the show, we headed out to Jamie & Carin's favorite Vietnamese restaurant for the child exchange. Little did we know (and to his parents surprise as well) Connor hit us up for an overnight on Saturday. We agreed and took him home. I got all my Scentsy orders prepared for delivery to Elaine's and was SO ANNOYED to find out Scentsy didn't ship one of the plug in's for my order. I was going to just give the customer my plug in (she ordered the same one I have), but I didn't realize mine was stained from when I spilled Sunkissed Citrus on it. So, dang it, I had to deliever the orders partially filled and will have to deliver the plug in when it gets here. I sent email to Scentsy because my order history shows that it ships, but I clearly didn't have it when I assembled my orders. That's SO ANNOYING. I sure hope they make good on it, send me another and send it QUICK.

Well, that's it, so far. Nick is doing home work while Connor is playing xBox and I'm updating this blog. In a bit, we'll head over to mom's for Packer football and get Connor home at some point. but for now, house work is calling! I'll have another fun blog to update tomorrow - we're going to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with my work. I'm so excited!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Scentsy: November Newsletter

"When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year."
- Carol L. Riser, Autumn


It’s that time of year again; the bustling holiday season. This time can be busy and overwhelming, family and friends gathering for dinners and parties, decorations are waiting to be set out and presents are yet to be bought.

Scentsy offers a variety of scents and warmers; you're sure to find a gift for anyone on your list this year! Don't forget, Scentsy also offers Car Candles and Room Sprays that are wonderful stocking stuffers or Secret Santa gifts!

SCENT OF THE MONTH: CINNAMON CIDER

Cinnamon Cider invokes sweet memories of the rich, dark amber liquid that is so often a part of the autumn season. Balanced with the crisp, woody fragrance of cinnamon, Cinnamon Cider is destined to become a Scentsy favorite. Cinnamon Cider can be purchased this month at a Scentsational value, debuting at a 10% discount.

Start the holiday celebrations early this year with a beautiful Snowflake, the November Warmer of the Month. Warm your hearth and home with this festive warmer.

Since Scentsy is flameless, wickless and sootless, these systems are a much healthier and safer alternative to flame candles. They're great for dorm rooms, offices, really anywhere!

My favorite Scent: Autumn Sunset

Let's plan a party and let me help you find your favorite scent! There are fantastic hostess rewards and I'm offering a free Room Spray to anyone that books and hosts a party!

Visit my website to order, book a party or shop! www.scentsy.com/beesley

Today is the day

Well, it's election day. The big day. What will happen? Will McCain/Palin win? Will Obama/Biden win? I'm so nervous - I'm making myself physically ill being so nervous about what will happen.

I voted last week. I really, truly have no idea what's going to happen. I have a sneaking suspision that McCain will win - solely because he's running against a black man. We say we've evolved and grown and changed, but we haven't. Nick & I agree that there are a lot of people that simply won't vote for him because of the color of his skin. I find that so close minded and just really irresponsible.

Well, without being too political - I'm just a wreck. :-) Today can't be over soon enough for me. If you haven't voted yet - make sure you get out and use your right to vote! Vote Democrat, Independent, Republican - just VOTE.

*Updated*

So, I logged into meebo.com (it's a free IM service - I use it to annoy Nick while he's at work) and periodically Meebo staff will post a little blurb that shows up when you sign in. I usually read them because they're funny - this one was posted for yesterday's date and it cracked me. Since it goes in theme with this post, I wanted to copy & paste it here:

"If you are one of the millions of Americans who have either already placed their vote, like myself, or plan to do so in the coming days you likely will be anxiously awaiting the results. As someone who has been following months of media coverage, news, and water cooler conversation, I am dying to know who will be the next president of the United States. While I know these things take time, and I inevitably will have to wait until late into the night on November 4th, I did a bit of digging to try to go beyond the opinion polls and the pundits to see what other people are using as predictors for who will win this presidential election. So, if you really want to know who is going to win and simply cannot wait until the ballots are tabulated, take a look at these far more sophisticated and reliable indicators, and then share them with your friends.

Since 1980, sales of Halloween masks have predicted the winner of each and every election, according to costume sellers. Amazon.com currently shows a 53 to 47 percent split of masks in Obama's favor, coincidentally the same current poll average that is being reported over at Real Clear Politics. Furthermore, Sarah Palin masks have sold out, clearing a margin of 3 to 1 over Joe Biden. Combine the two and it makes the race overall pretty close, if you believe in this prediction.

Another fun and reportedly accurate predictor includes polling the kids vote. Scholastic (R) classroom magazines hold a quadrennial poll of students in grades 1 through 12, and they’ve only been wrong once since 1956. The only one they missed was Kennedy/Nixon in 1960. Guess they weren’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch Nixon sweat the election away in their televised debate. So for this one, if you know of someone between 6 and 18 years of age, go ahead and ask them. Odds are, they are likely to be right.

For all of the sports fans out there, here’s another one for you: If the Washington Redskins win their final home game just prior to the election, the incumbent party wins. This has proven true 18 out of 19 times, and this year, the Redskins play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night. Should the Redskins win, that would predict a win for McCain, while Obama fans should be pulling for the Steelers. I predict TV ratings will skyrocket during the game.

Various other predictors include T-shirt sales, book sales, and electoral schwag. One last possible predictor: In the 2000 election, the absentee ballot of a man in Bellevue Washington was delivered to a family in Copenhagen, Denmark, who found two absentee ballots mixed in with their junk mail. He voted for George W. Bush. Do absentee ballots found after being lost in the mail go on to predict the winner? I don’t know about that, but it does predict that everyone--even a family in Denmark--gets junk mail.

To me, the most enjoyable part of this political process (aside from playing the guessing game) has been the incredible conversations that have come from people on both sides of the fence. As director of business development at meebo, I get to help facilitate those conversations by allowing people from all over the world to come together and discuss their thoughts in any of our thousands of partner chat rooms across the web.

One humorous and lively conversation that I will be definitely be joining will begin November 4th and last for two days at Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 site. There you will find some of the most exciting election banter on the web. That’s not a prediction, it’s a guarantee.

In closing, I offer a message to those who are eligible: Predictions like these mean nothing, unless you vote!"

Monday, November 3, 2008

Weekend Update

Well, good Daylight Savings Time morning to you! I hope everyone had a great weekend - our was nothing too spectacular, but I'll update you anyway.

Friday night was Halloween! Happy belated Halloween! We ended up just staying at home and handing out candy. We didn't get nearly as many trick-or-treaters as I would have thought - we still have about half of our candy left. During the trick-or-treaters, we tried to watch the Ghost Hunters live Halloween special, but it was AWFUL. They had special guests (one from the SciFi network and then some idiot wrestler) and it felt like the entire show was spent standing around, plugging these other peoples shows instead of actually GHOST HUNTING. Anyway, we attempted to find a cheesy horror movie for our nightly entertainment, but there wasn't really anything on.

Saturday we went to Connor's first basketball game. While Connor was playing, I took the girls outside to play at the playground. Connor's team won (YAY!!!!) and Jamie, Carin & Connor headed off to go hunting while Nick & I gathered up the girls and took them to my mom's by way of McDonalds. 2 Happy Meals and a half our of playing at PlayLand we headed off to my mom's. After we dropped the girls off, we headed out to grocery shop. That was pretty much the highlight of our day on Saturday.

Sunday we got up and had breakfast and then headed to my parents for Packer football. They lost. Stinkers. And uh...that's it.

Well, I guess that's not it. On the 10th we're going to see the Trans Siberan Orchestra with my work. So, that'll be exciting. I have most of my order from Scentsy on Elaine's party - I should be getting the back ordered items some time this week, so I can deliver those to her. Nick's parents will be here in about 2 1/2 weeks! Nick only has about 2 weeks of school left for this quarter, so that's cool, too!

Okay, that's really it. More later if anything interesting happens!