Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Certain Death Averted

For Christmas this year that Hillyerie girl got me a teeny tiny flat iron.  It's name is the Baby Bliss Pro.  I needed a teeny tiny flat iron because I have pretty short hair and the flat iron I have is bigger than my hair is long so I keep burning my fingers.  That Hillyerie has a nick for gift giving because she pays very close attention all the time to people's ramblings and then gets them the very thing they said in passing they'd like to have.  I'm pretty sure that's what happened with me and the flat iron.  I took a photo of it to show you just how baby it is in comparison to my regular one:

Something you may or may not know about me is that I'm a "read the instructions" kind of girl.  If I don't read them thoroughly, I at least peruse them to make sure I don't miss anything important.  So, last night I was washing my face, brushing my teeth, and such in preperation for bed.  My Baby Bliss Pro instrucion manual was on the counter and I thought that maybe I'd give it a look see to make sure I knew everything I needed to know about it.  I started with the "IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS" because they are important after all.  Boy am I glad I did because apparently I've been taking my life in my own hands by not following these instructions.  I've taken the liberty of highlighting a few of the ones that I was the most worried about:

#2.  Do not use while bathing or in shower--Now how am I supposed to multi-task to get to school on time if I can't use it while I'm showering, I ask you?
#3.  This appliance should not be used by, on, or near children or individuals with certain disabilities--I think I need a clarification on that one.  What exact disabilities are they worried about?  Siezures, baldness, maybe persons that have had their brain shocked?  If I don't know how do I know if I can really use it?
#7.  Never use while sleeping--This one is my favorite.  I don't think I need to make a snarky comment as it is plenty dumb all by itself.
#9.  Do not use outdoors or operate where aerosol (spray) products are being used or where oxygen is being administered--This one causes many problems.  First of all, I just had electrical outlets installed in my tent for camping trips where I may need to flat iron.  Since I can't use it outside, that was a total waste.  Secondly, I'm worried about all of the hairstylist in the world that have to take their clients outside to flat iron their hair because they cannot have it anywhere that has aerosol spray.  Only guess what...they can't use it outside either, so they are just plain screwed.  And finally, if it cannot be used where oxygen is being used, then all of the poor, catatonic people in the hospitals cannot have cute, flat ironed hair. 
#11.  This appliance is hot when in use.  Do not let eyes or bare skin touch heated surfaces--Only too bad for me because now I can't use it to curl my eyelashes!  What the heck am I supposed to do now since my other heated eyelash curler is about to bite the dust?

As you can see, I just averted certain death by reading these "Important Saftey Instructions."  I hope this public service announcement goes on to save many lives.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Parson Brown

I was listening to the radio as I was getting ready for school this morning and they played this jazzy version of "Winter Wonderland." Only maybe I shouldn't admit this because I don't come off looking so smart. Who am I kidding?  I'm no intellectual giant anyway. Anyway, they sang the part that says:
In the meadow we can build a snow man. 
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He'll say, "Are you married?"
We'll say, "No man, but you can do the job while your in town."
For all of my 34 years I could never figure out what color parson brown was and what that has to do with getting married.  Only just this morning did I realized that Parson Brown was not a color but maybe a preacher.  In which case him being all nosey about marriage makes all kinds of sense!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Survey

So, Mary Kay has come out with these new eye kits.  It's basically eye shadow for dummies.  Depending on your eye color there is a kit with eye colors that are supposed to make your eyes pop.  The kit also shows you how to best apply it.  I'm not exactly an eye shadow dummy.  I know what colors look good and how to apply them.  However, I've never really been able to decide what my eye color really is.  Sometimes I think maybe they are more blue, but then there are days that they look greenish.  Not to mention the days that I'm pretty sure they look hazel.  So, I decided to do an experiment.  I did the look for each of these colors of eyes and took pictures so that I could see which one looked the very best.  I still don't know.  They all look similarly great which makes me think that maybe I do have cameleon eyes.  Since I'm apparently useless at this I decided I'd put it to a vote.  Look at all three and tell me the one you like the very best.  I know that there are a few of you that look at my blog but don't comment.  Today you must comment because taking a vote doesn't do much good if no one votes.

Look #1

Look #2

Look #3

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Christmas Photo of the Day


The jury is still out on whether he has been too naughty for Santa to actually come to visit him.  I think he's buttering the fat man up.  Maybe I should start doing a little bit of that myself.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Mouse Babies

I woke up the other morning and when I opened my bedroom door I found this outside of it:

Hank lined up all of his mouse babies like a choo choo for me.  It made me giggle even though it was like 6:00 a.m.  Living with Hank is a little bit like living with a 2 year old.  Only more convenient because I can leave him for a couple of days with a bowl of food and water and a litter box.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Monday, December 7, 2009

Chick's

On Friday I took a personal day from school.  What wonderful event was happening that I'd take a whole day off of school, you ask?  Chick's, that's what.  My Auntie Kaye sent me an official invitation in the mail asking me if I wanted to go to Chick's and to Midway for a Chistamas boutique.  Really, she had me at Chick's.  The boutique was just a bonus.

See how cute my anutie and I are?  Plus, also, if you ever need to go to Chick's for breakfast (and I highly recommend that you do) this is what it looks like:
 

Plus it's address is something on Main Street in Heber.  You should probably know what kind of an establishment it is too.  I think that there are about 8 booths in the whole place and that's all.  This is their typical clientele:


That is real life manure on his boots with real life spurs.  That's because they are all real life cowboys.  And what kind of food do real life cowboys like to eat?

Incase you didn't notice it is DELICIOUS!!!  That pancake is buckwheat, those hashbrowns are crunchy, and the bacon is pretty much a whole pigs worth.  They have lots of other stuff that I'm sure is equally as wonderful, only I've never tasted it because I love this so much I don't dare mess with it.

Plus, also, on the way to Heber it was about -100 degrees.  It was so cold that the reservoir was warmer than the air so steam came up off of the water.  It was so beautiful that I took several photos:




Plus, also, we went to the boutique, but it was only just a boutique and not Chick's.  If any of you feel like you should maybe go to Chick's you are correct, only you cannot go without me.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Best Thanksgiving Ever

I've been needing to blog for a long time.  Only guess what?  I've not had one tiny minute to do so.  I should be going to bed right now, but I'm going to see how much I can get done speedy quick.  Also, this blog is a little longish, but most of it is photos so you should probably read it anyway.

Let's begin way back on November 22nd.  That is the best day ever because it is my birthday.  You may have noticed since I made Hillyerie blog about me.  I had a most wonderful birthday.  My most favorite part was everone telling me that they loved me.  My almost as favorite part was the fantastic presents I got:

I already showed off my Wicked calendar that Kesk got me, but it is so wonderful, I thought I should put it on again.  I also got Bette Midler CDs from Aunt Kaye because she knows I LOVE Bette Midler.  Hillyerie and Lynne got me the most fantastic red shoes.  I actually got them last month, and I wear them so much I'm about to wear them right out already.  For Christmas I'm going to take them back to their houses and have them fill them with homemade caramels.  Plus, also, that Hillyerie, because she can't help herself, got me the slippers what that I LOVE and the ball.  If you think that ball is a weird gift for a 34 year old, you may be correct, only I've wanted one for over a year.  It is filled with a glittery liquid that is so hypnotizing.  I used to take them away from my students and then sit and then play with them.  Hank likes that present quite a bit too.  We have to fight over it sometimes.  Plus, also, I got a crock pot from my Amy friend.  It was such a thoughtful gift because she knew I needed one.  When I first moved into my current house, I didn't have an oven.  I had to have some way of cooking, so I borrowed Amy's crock pot.  I kept it for a very long time.  Only don't feel too bad for Amy because I always brought what I made to lunch the next day for both of us.  So, that Amy friend knew that I needed one and that I'd love one.  Plus, also for my birthday, Hillyerie had me to her house for dinner.  She made me birthday cheesecake as Ruby is so proudly showing off:



That brings us to Thanksgiving.  I think I quite possibly had the best Thanksgiving ever.  I went to St. George to have it with the Ences.  You may remember them from the blog I did in October about Dad Ence when he passed away.  I have actually spent many a Thanksgiving with the Ences, but it's been a few years.  I caught a lot of guff for it from them, but I blame Inkey:

She went and got married and moved to St. George.  It was hard for me to go down with her when she was already there and I didn't much want to invite myself.  Now I know better and I will not make that mistake again.  I think Inkey will be okay with me blaming her since she knows it's a pretty weak excuse and I'm grasping at straws here.  So, anyway, I went to St. George and it was like coming home again.  St. George has a special place in my heart.  I decided that is probably because every time I go it is to be with the Ences.  I don't have a care in the world because I leave all of that back in Utah County.  I go and eat yummy food, play with Mom Ence, Inkey, and all of her sisters, shop, watch movies, eat more yummy food...I think you get the picture.


After Thanksgiving we drug out the Christmas decorations and got busy decorating:

I love this photo of Inkey's little Aidan.  He looks so tiny next to that monster tree.  These are some photo of Inkey's husband, Phil, helping Holly's littles decorate the tree. 






Plus, also, I took some photos of little Maddux, only I'm not sure what happened to them.  He is such a cutie that I stole a photo of him from Inkey's blog:

I think it's an oldish photo, but he was still exactly this cute last week.  I also told Inkey that after spending time with Maddux and Aidan that I was going to have to expand my list of kids that I love best by two.


On Black Friday no one was too interested in getting up at the crack of dawn to fight people for good deals.  However, around 10:00 a.m. Inkey, Mom Ence, and I did wander down to Krumpet's.  That store has the most wonderful of everything decorating-ish.  Really, I could hardly stand it.  I wanted pretty much everything.  I limited myself to just a few things.  All of them well under $10 and all of them Christmas decorations:






The snowflake and not the stocking is the decoration I got at Krumpet's.  The stocking is one that Aunt Kaye made last Christmas.  It's pretty cute too.

I've decided that the biggest problem I have with going to St. George is that I don't ever want to come back.  Only too bad for me.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Finger Lickin' Good

My house doesn't have an oven.  Actually, that's not quite true.  I have a very spendy Thermador double oven, only I can't use it.  It has no oven racks and nobody can find any to fit.  I know that sounds impossible, but it's true.  I've lived here for a year and a half and still no oven.  It is really and truly the only thing I can think of about this place that I don't love.  My house is practically perfect in every way.  Only good thing for me that my Auntie Kaye loves me and for my Birthday or Christmas or some such winter holiday last year she gave me the money to buy a convection oven.  (On a very important side note my afore mentioned birthday is this Sunday, November 22, beginnig at 4:20 a.m.  Not that I expect gifts and/or doting on, on that day.  I'm just sayin'.)  So, when Auntie gave me the money I did a lot of research and got the perfect one for me.  It's much bigger than any other one I could find on the market.  It bakes, convections, and rotisseries.  It's actually perfect and I've not missed my oven one bit except if I want to cook something in a 9x13 pan.  Which again, I usually don't because I only cook for me and I don't need a 9x13 pan of anything, except for maybe brownies or cake or cream cheese chicken.  One of my favorite things to cook in my oven is rotisserie chicken.  I'd been hankering for one, so last night I made one.  It's turned out to be a fun activity for Hank:

He sat and watched that Chicken rotate forever.  If I were a cat, I'd think I'd want to keep my eye on a moving chicken too just incase it decided to rotate into my mouth.  However, after a while he got tired:

Note that he didn't quit watching, he just decided that he could watch it just as carefully while lying down.  He's pretty much my favorite. 

Plus, also, since this is a story about chicken, I should probably show you how scrum-diddly-umptious it turned out:

And that's all.  The end.

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Pretty Much Perfect Day

Dear "Hurbilly" Anonamous Commentor, This blog is maybe a bit "long winded" for you, so you may want to not read it if you think it will be too taxing to look up all the big words in the dictionary as you read.  I'm just sayin'. 

I feel like I want to blog today, but I'm not sure what to blog about.  I just had one of those days where at the end you feel content and like you accomplished what you wanted to.  Those days seem to be rare because I always want to get a lot more done than I ususally do.  Maybe you should just have a play-by-play of my day and then you'll know about how productive I really was.

6:00 a.m.--This doesn't sound like a pleasant hour at all, but it was because I got up to be on conference call with Julianne, my Mary Kay National Director.  Incase you think she's crazy for having everyone call at 6:00 a.m. or I'm crazy for doing it, she also has a 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night one for those of us that are morningly challenged.  I could have gotten on that one last night but a couple of people I know were yacking my ears off and I missed it.  (You know who you are.)  Good thing I love their guts :)  You probably remember Julianne because it was her good thing idea for me to go to New York and see Wicked.  I love that lady because she has good ideas.  She's always so excited and before you know it you are excited too.  You don't necessarily know why, but it doesn't matter because excited is always a good thing.

7:30 a.m.--I went to school.  I had not been there since last Tuesday because of the death illness that didn't quite kill me but left me mostly dead for about 4 days.  I was somewhat behind, needless to say, but I got caught up lickety split and the kids missed me sorely.  Having a sub for a few days will do that to them.  Sometimes I'm tempted to stay home just so they will love me more when I get back. 

8:00 a.m.--I taught my first period and we did a fun thing that they enjoyed.  They got to work in groups so they hardly noticed at all that they were learning hard stuff that they hate.  It's easier to be happy at school when all the littles are happy too.  Plus, it's nice when you have those days were you feel like you are a good teacher because you came up with an awesome activity.

9:50--I was eavesdropping on my 3rd period class as they worked in their groups.  I am very good at working at my desk while listening to 4 or 5 conversations at once.  It never occurs to them that I'm listening to what they are saying.  A group of 3 boys was having a conversation that involved "that time of the month."  What do 13 and 14 year old boys know about "that time of the month," I ask you?  And furthermore, why would they talk about it?  I don't have an answer because I missed the beginning of the conversation.  I decided that it was a good thing that they didn't know I was listening because them I'm off the hook for having to ask them why they were talking about that.

11:45--Lunch.  Yummy tomato soup in the quietness of my room.

12:15--Lots more teaching until...

3:00--I got a phone call from one very small Roxie that was missing me and wanted me to come and see her.  I'm pretty sure she is my biggest fan.  At least in the under 4 year old category.  It broke my heart a tiny bit.

3:10--I left school and went to see my new Nevin friend. I had a HUGE bee in my bonnet and he was very helpful in how to handle that very pesky bee.

5:15--Hillyerie did not answer her phone even though she knew it was Monday after 5:00, and I was going to tell her about how the bee conversation turned out.

6:00--Delivered some Mary Kay product in Highland.  I wandered around a bit looking for the place, but when I got there I was rewarded with $50.

6:20--Delivered some more Mary Kay product in American Fork.  This time I was rewarded with $70.

6:35--Went to Walmart.  Found a filter for my humidifier and a fun Christmas thing.

7:10--Panda Express orange chicken dinner--Yummy!

7:30--I went to Roxie's house to see her and the other zoo animals that live there.  I was not rewarded with money but with something even better--lots of snuggles and loves from all three animals.  Plus, I managed to hear Family Home Evening AND get my birthday present.  Best idea I had all day was to go there.  This is what my present was:


It is the biggest, most wonderful Wicked calendar ever.  The photos are huge and the actual calendar is small, as it should be.

8:30--Came home, changed in to my warm jammies, and loved on Hank a bit.

9:15--Blogged.

See how full and productive and fun that whole day was?  Now to top it all off, I'm going to snuggle into bed and have a sleep.  Yey me.  I hope you all had a day that was equally as great.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Polyanna

When I was in the 4th grade I read the book Pollyanna. It became my favorite book and I was mad at that Haley Mills for making a movie about it that wasn't as good as my imagination. Only that's not my point, just a bitter side note. My point is that Pollyanna always played the glad game. No matter what the horribleness, she managed to find something to be glad about it. Today I decided to play the glad game. Here is the horribleness that I'm having to find gladness about:



I think that snow and cold is in my top 3 things that I don't love.  One thing that I do love about it is that it puts me in the mood for this:

I LOVE Christmas and Christmas lights.  I decided that if it was going to look like Christmas outside, then I'd enjoy my lights on the inside.  Hank enjoys them as well.  

The snow and cold also makes me want to have this:

I think that wassail is one of the few redeeming qualities of winter.  I love the orangey, spicey, sugary goodenss.  So, I had some today.  Since I've still got a yucky head and throat, it was a pleasure.  Only there was something that was even more of a pleasure than the wassail:

Yup, my mug has a cat in the bottom of it that peeks out at you as you drink your beverage.  When I was a wee one my mama's cousin Hazel had a mug with a frog in the bottom of it.  One day she made me some hot chocolate and told me that if I'd drink it all, there was a surprise for me at the bottom of the mug.  Can you imagine the delight of my 4 year old heart when I saw that frog?  My sister bought me this cat mug several years ago because she knew how much I loved that frog mug.  So, I'm glad that the cold brings Christmas and wassail and cat mugs.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Snogginess and Such

I meant to blog sooner only I've been sick. And by sick I mean S-I-C-K. The kind that leaves you floating in and out of consciousness for a couple of days.   I'm feeling a little better tonight after two days of sleeping and a long, hot bath tonight.  I'll probably live.  Who do I blame for this affliction? 

Ruby, that's who!  I happened to see her a few days ago and she was all snoggy, as Hillyerie says.  I really don't think she got me sick because what I have is far worse that a little snogginess, but she's as good as anyone to blame.  Plus, also, if I blame her then I can include that cute photo of her, which is my true motive.

Before my affliction I was going to blog about grocery shopping.  Mostly because I needed to go so badly that my fridge looked like this:

Incase you didn't notice I only had corn tortillas, applesauce, eggs, a couple of Diet Cokes and a couple of bottled waters.  That's because school teachers only get paid once a month, and toward the end of the month when the food is gone, it's gone.  Then blessed pay day came and my fridge looked like this:

 Do you see how relieved Hank is?  He's looking at actual fruits and veggies and meats and cheeses.  I guess the moral of this blog is that if I happen to show up on your doorstep around dinner time, check to see if it's the last week of the month and you'll know why.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Summit

Today I had a super-fun Mary Kay conference what that is named Summit.  Only it wasn't just any conference because I got to speak.  I got to speak about my tip to New York.  What does Mary Kay have to do with Kesk and I going to New York, you ask?  Well, I'm going to tell you.  Only I'm going to tell you by letting you read my speech.  This works out for me in a couple of ways.  First of all, you get the story and secondly, I have a record of my speech.  I want to make sure I document this because it was such a powerful, important thing for me.  Before you get to read my speech I think I should introduce you to my Mary Kay friends that will read about.  The first photo is of me and my Amy friend.  I think you are probably acquainted with her and how much I love her guts.

Then there is my Laurie friend.  She's sure a good egg.

And finally, Julianne.  She is the one that I actually have to thank for my most fabulous trip and a present she gave me, as you will soon see.

Now for the speech--

Good afternoon! When Julianne asked me to speak to you today about the power of a dream I felt deeply honored, a lot inadequate, but mostly I felt terrified. I just hope you can hear my heart today incase my words don’t come out the way my heart would like them too.


A little about me and my journey is that I started my MK business about a year and a half ago. I was, and still am, an 8th grade English teacher. There are a couple of reasons I decided to start. The first one is Amy Haider. In addition to being my director she is also a coworker and best friend. Back before she was my director and had just started her own MK business, she invited me to her parties. Of course I went because I’m pretty sure I’m her number one fan, and I wanted to support her. Which on a side note, actually brings me to my second reason for starting MK…every time I went to one of Amy’s events, Laurie Ashby would give me a call to follow up. After 9 months of telling Laurie no, I decided that if I signed maybe she’d quit calling me. Boy was I wrong about that! I really can’t shake her now. Truthfully, I’m just teasing Laurie a bit because I liked her so much I actually looked forward to Laurie calling. Looking back, I realize that if you can call someone repeatedly for 9 months to follow-up and they still look forward to the call, you are pretty much amazing. However, before Laurie wore me down I had no intention of ever becoming a consultant until the day Amy came to work and told me that she decided she was really going to do this MK thing for real and quit teaching school. If there is one thing that I cannot abide by it is being left behind or left out. I was not going to be left in that Jr. High alone while Amy played with makeup. I guess it’s true that when you can’t beat ‘em, you join ‘em. What I know for sure about all of that is that starting my MK business has been one of the most important decisions of my life. I have experienced immeasurable personal growth, come to recognize my strengths, and have had the opportunity to work on my weaknesses. 


One of the greatest things I’ve learned is the power of a dream. I find it ironic that I’m speaking today about that because before MK I’d never dared to dream. I was raised with scarcity mentality. My focus was always on what I didn’t have instead of what I wanted. Surviving from day to day was enough. However, when I started MK everyone seemed to be obsessed with dreams and goals and they always wanted to know what mine were. Since I honestly couldn’t wrap my head around what that really meant, I’d just make something up that sounded good. Then one day last December just making one up to didn’t work out so much for me. I was on my way to St. George for the futurity trip and I had the chance to ride for a while with Julianne. Practically before we got out of the parking lot she began to talk to me about my dreams. I didn’t know what to say. Dreams were frivolous things for people who could afford them. Only apparently, I was wrong. Julianne was having none of that, and I’m not so sure she would have let me out of the car until I had a dream that I could get excited about. That is the first step to building a dream—it must be something from your heart. This was tough for me because I had to push aside years of scarcity mentality—years of thinking that I never had enough, and I had to start thinking in terms of abundance, because I found that dreams don’t come cheap. Julianne and I threw around a couple of ideas, but nothing spoke to me until the heavens opened up and choirs of angels began to sing. You think I’m kidding, but I swear I heard them singing and the songs they sang were from the musical Wicked! One thing I knew I wanted to do more than anything was to see that play and see it on Broadway in NY. 


Now that I actually had a dream that I was excited about I thought I was done. Julianne would be happy with that, right? Come to find out, I was wrong about that too. She started asking me pesky detail questions that forced me to really envision what that dream would look like for me. One of the things she wanted to know was who I would take with me. I have a friend that is a little bit obsessed with Wicked like me, and I knew that she was the one who needed to go with me. It was something she would probably never do for herself, but it was a gift that I could give to her. 


Now, let’s be clear ladies…I don’t know how many of you have ever ridden with Julianne or in a car like hers, but you are eyeball to eyeball in that thing, breathing the very same air. Personal space is not an option. In that kind of environment you’ll commit to most anything. You’ll commit because who wants to be disagreeable with someone you are sitting that close to in a car that is going 90 mph? I sure didn’t and so even though I never believed that I’d really go to NY, I sure as heck told Julianne that I would. Only too bad for me, because I was officially in the dream making business and Julianne was not going to let me forget it. Which brings us to another crucial part of making your dreams come true—you must tell someone about it! If no one else knows what your dream is, you probably won’t accomplish it. It’s so easy for us to let ourselves off the hook when things get difficult. However, someone else expecting you to do it is a strong motivator. In my case Julianne wasn’t the only one who knew because if I remember correctly, and I do, she promptly told everyone in the continental United States. 


The next step and by far the scariest one for me was telling my friend that I was planning on taking her to NY to see Wicked. That is truly the point of no return. Someone else knowing is important, but if your dream involves your family or friends, you must commit to them too. It’s a lot harder to disappoint the ones you love. A couple of weeks after that fateful drive with Julianne I gave my friend 3 boxes for Christmas. Since Wicked is about the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda from The Wizard of Oz, she got a witch hat in one box with some clever poem I wrote, a broom in the other with another clever poem, and in the 3rd box was a copy of the itinerary of our trip, a NY photo album, a NY calendar to count down the days, and of course another clever poem. I’m pretty sure there was a 30 second period where she didn’t breathe. To be honest, I wasn’t breathing either. What had I done? 


Something I learned real quick about dreams is that they require a lot of planning! They don’t just happen. I had to do quite a bit of homework if this was going to work. I had to find out how much it was all going to cost and then figure out how I was going to pay for it. I had to research airfare, hotel, Wicked ticket prices, the cost of the tourist attractions that we’d want to see, food and cab money and of course shopping money. Since I didn’t have a few thousand dollars hanging around I had to break it all down month by month and week by week. I figured I needed an extra $300 a month. Really, that was only 6 miracle sets or a few extra parties a month. When you break it down like that, it feels less overwhelming and more obtainable. I set up a NY savings account that I did not touch unless it was for NY. The first thing I bought were the Wicked tickets. A couple of months later I got our airfare. Next came the hotel. 


Bit by bit my dream became a reality, and on October 18, 2009 at 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, to be exact, I was sitting 5th row back, center section of the Gershwin Theater in NYC living my dream. Even though my friend and I had been in NY for a couple of days, it wasn’t until that moment that it really hit me that I can accomplish whatever I want. I felt so proud of myself because for the first time in my life I set a huge goal and I hung in there and did it. I think we frequently worry about trusting other people, but for the first time ever I realized that I could trust myself. I did what I said I would do. It also hit me in that theater that I did not do this alone, and I was so grateful for all those that helped me along the way. Lest you believe my journey was all smiles and fluffy bunnies, know that there were many bumpy days where I wanted to give up. But, here’s the good news: because I was surrounded by positive people that loved and believed in me, when those times came I had my own cheering section. You cannot achieve a dream without these people. In fact, if you surround yourself with Debbie Downers I dare say that when you feel discouraged you will give up for sure because Debbie Downers will only pull you down more. On the days I thought I must be crazy for thinking I could take someone to NY, I would inevitably get an email from Julianne asking me how it was going and telling me how awesome I was. However, on a day to day basis I relied heavily on my MK friends and director like Amy and Laurie and even Deanna was checking in on me. They have dried more than their fair share of my tears. On the flip side, it also meant the world to me that they weren’t just there for my bumps and bruises, they were always the first ones there to help me celebrate my successes. YOU HAVE GOT TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN YOU! Involve your directors because they are just itching to see you grow and succeed, and conveniently enough, they actually know how to get you there. 


I don’t know how many of you have seen the play Wicked or are familiar with the music, but there is a song called Defying Gravity. Some of the lyrics say, “Something has changed within me, something is not the same. I’m through with playing by the rules of someone else’s game. Too late for second guessing, too late to go back to sleep. It’s time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap. It’s time to try defying gravity. I think I’ll try defying gravity, and you can’t pull me down.” 


In my own way, I defied gravity. Now that I know what I can do, there is no going back. It only gets bigger and better from here. If you don’t have a dream, get one! What speaks to your heart? Is it a trip, a house, a gift for a loved one? It doesn’t matter, as long as it is something from your heart. Do you know what the power of accomplishing a dream really is? Sure you get something fun from it, but more importantly it gives you self-confidence, you will experience personal growth like never before as you stretch to make it happen, and it will give you hope. Hope for something better and a vision of who you can become. Think of how you want to defy gravity and then make it happen! Thank you.

During the speech Julianne showed photos of the trip on a couple of huge screens and then when it was all over, she played "Defying Gravity" as everyone cheered and clapped.  It was so amazing and I felt honored to be able to tell my story.  After all said clapping and cheering was done, Julianne loved on me for a minute and said some really nice things and then she gave me a present.  I was not expecting that and when I saw it I squeeled like a little girl.  Lucky for you, I have photos:

You're eyes do not decieve you because that is a Barbie collector's doll.  The only Barbie I have ever loved.  She got me the Nessa Rose doll, which those of you who are not acquainted with Wicked, would call The Wicked Witch of th East. And when you push a button it sings, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead."

She looks really pretty and really grumpy because in the TRUE story she was both of those things.  She was also not-so-nice and to prove that you should probably know that it is her fault that the Tin man became the Tin man and doesn't have a heart.  Also, look at her tiny little stripey legs and ruby slippers:

I wanted to open her and get a good look at her, only Julianne about stroked out because apparently you can't open collector's editions or they are not collectable so much anymore.  I didn't think a peek would hurt, but apparently it does.

All in all it was a most wonderful and "wicked" day!