I've Got a Little Secret

OK, for a couple of days now, I’ve known a little secret—and I can finally share it!

I’m going to be on the Today Show!

Isn’t that exciting?

We’ve known it might be a possibility for a few days, but today I actually had a pre-interview interview (where the producer interviews me in preparation for the appearance), and it finally hit me. Up until then, I didn’t think it was really real.

It’s a short spot on Friday, December 4, only a couple minutes long. Stampin’ Up! is being featured because we’ve been involved in the annual Christmas Today Show Toy Drive for the past several years. I’m sure they interview people from several of the different companies who donate things, but it’s definitely exciting to be chosen for this opportunity!

 

After the pre-interview interview, I went downstairs to the Distribution Center to check out the boxes that we’re preparing to ship out for the toy drive, and I got even more excited. The boxes are full of discontinued Stampin’ Up! product—lots of product! I’m sure whoever opens those boxes will be pretty happy!

Watch for more information—we’ll be providing more details early next week and even encouraging demonstrators who live in or near NYC to maybe come and be a presence on the Today Show plaza.

In the meantime, I’m going to try to be calm, cool, and collected. Wish me luck!

An Evening with Thurl

Last night we attended a delightful event—a fundraiser organized by Thurl Bailey, one of our Stampin’ Up! board members.

The dinner/auction was held at La Caille, a beautiful, chateau-style French restaurant here in Salt Lake City. The atmosphere was cozy and warm, the food was delicious, and the company (Sterling, our girls and their husbands, Shanna’s date, and a niece and her husband) was excellent!

Many of you may recognize Thurl—he’s a former professional basketball player (played for the Utah Jazz), and is now a professional singer, as well as sports commentator. He’s got a gorgeous voice (he’s performed at convention and during the cruise before), and his wife Sindi is darling.

His nonprofit organization—Big T—works with youth groups, and this event raised funds for Big T. He also performed several songs from his newest album, from which all proceeds will be donated to the Larry H. Miller Foundation, which supports diabetic research. So our time—and donation—was certainly well spent!

A Douglass Weekend

I told you in my last blog that we had the Douglass kids for the weekend. We had a great time! Sterling and I planned to take them somewhere fun, like the museum or a movie or something, but they just wanted to hang out with us. Which kind of surprised us because they come over fairly often, and we thought they’d want to be anywhere but here.

We woke up to a snowstorm on Saturday morning, so we were kind of relieved that they seemed pretty content staying put. Heading out in the snow didn’t sound very fun.

We did manage one outing Saturday afternoon—we ventured out to get Kona’s birthday present (some classic Disney movies) and have dinner. While we were looking for Kona’s present, we found a movie the kids wanted to watch—Aliens in the Attic. That was all the motivation they needed to come home and take their baths and brush their teeth in record time!

On Sunday, the big outing was going to church. The kids looked darling!

And then after church, we celebrated Kona’s fourth birthday (his actual birthday was while we were at the Europe convention, so this was a belated party).

Kona loved the movies and chocolate doughnuts (he doesn’t really like cake and ice cream). And we enjoyed the chance to wish him a happy birthday and spend time with everyone who was in town! 

A Bad Hair Week

I’m sure most of you have had a bad hair day once in awhile. I hate it when I can’t get my hair looking just right! But I’ve been having a bad hair WEEK!

It all started last Saturday, the second day of Europe convention. For some reason, the adaptor I’ve always used for my flat iron doesn’t working, so I’d been making due with the hotel blow dryer.

On Saturday, however, Pam Morgan lent me her adaptor—I was so excited! So I plugged in my flat iron, let it heat up, and then started to work on my bangs. It took about 1.3 seconds for me to figure out something was wrong because I could smell singed hair! Apparently the flat iron had heated up too much, and I had burned a hole in my bangs!

After a bunch of “Oh my goodness-es” and “my hair, my hair,” I managed to get my emotions under control, but there was nothing I could do about my hair. I didn’t even have my Snips with me to try to repair the damage. I felt like a four-year-old who had cut her own hair for the first time; I’m sure all you mothers know exactly what I’m talking about—the missing chunk of hair and cut bangs right up close to the scalp.

I flip-flopped hair over and under and across for the convention, used tons of product, and tried to smile big enough that people wouldn’t stare at the hair. Everybody had the good manners not to mention it, and I made it through Saturday.

But it’s not gotten much better, as you can see. (smile) When I got to Savannah, Shalae did what she could, but she said she didn’t dare cut too much, or there would be even a bigger hole. So this past week has been a bad hair week, and I’m anticipating a few more bad hair days before my bangs grow out a bit more.

If anyone knows any way to make hair grow faster, let me know! 

A Four-Day Layover

On our way home from the Europe Convention, we flew into Atlanta, Georgia enroute to Salt Lake City. Atlanta is only a hop, skip, and a jump from Savannah, so of course, we made plans to stop and see the Brown family before continuing all the way home.

It’s only been a couple months since we’ve seen them, but it’s felt like much longer, and it was wonderful to see them again! The kids have spent much of their first few weeks in Georgia battling bugs (colds, flu, even pneumonia), and I’ve wished I’d been closer so I could help. Thankfully, they are all feeling pretty healthy now!

They all came to the airport to pick us up—even though it meant driving two cars because we all couldn’t fit into one on the way home. And Grandpa and Grandma Gardner were greeted by a hand-drawn “welcome” mural, hanging on the guest bedroom door, when we got to their house. The kids were very proud of their artwork!

We really didn’t do a lot while we were in Savannah, other than play with grandchildren, chat, and relax. Shalae and I went antiquing one day, Jon made his famous chocolate malts and shakes a couple of times, I worked on employee birthday cards, and I helped Shalae work on their family Christmas cards.

Even though I’m not much of a TV watcher, I actually enjoyed sitting down every evening in front of the screen, stamping and visiting. I don’t remember what we watched at all—just loved the feeling of being together with family.

 

The weather on the first two days was perfect—we loved spending time outside with the kids. On Wednesday it rained cats and dogs (Shalae claims it hasn’t rained that badly since our last visit, so it’s all our fault!), and Thursday it was cold—but not too cold for the kids to still spend a little time outside enjoying the fresh air.

It was a wonderfully relaxing four-day layover!

We got back last night, and returned to more grandchildren! We’re watching the Douglass kids while Sara and Sean spend the weekend in Washington visiting friends there.  And we’re hoping to have Kona join us tomorrow, so we’ll have seen all but our White grandchildren in the past week. What a treat!