Convention '09 Style

Can you believe that last weekend was my sixth Xango convention? I am still amazed with the journey I've gone through in working here for four years. It has been cool to see the company grow and evolve over the years. Anyway... so here we go again. Convention time! Jen and I were cash cashiers this year.


Our new product (well we actually had several new products) was called Juni. It is a line with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion, and a body bar. I need to try this! Finally some hair products!


I was a little sad not to be working the juice bar as normal, but it looked like my boys held down the fort.


Here are some of the cute clothes this year as well.




Well I survived, that's what matters. Crazy energy and crazy fun.

First Snow

No! It's here! I thought we would be able to make it until Halloween this year without snow, but alas that couldn't happen. It is times like these when I wish I lived closer to work instead of 45 minutes away. Driving in snow storms always gives me anxiety.

At least Reggie is enjoying the first snow of the year...

Happy Halloween!

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Have I mentioned how much I love this time of the year?

Blog Buddies

Last week [during what seemed like the busiest week of my life] I had the opportunity to get together with some great blog friends of mine. I've been reading Shawn's blog for almost two years now, and have quickly fallen in love with her witty humor, and wicked style. I also met some new blog ladies who were all fabulous of course. We all had dinner at Chili's.

[Big thanks to Susette for this picture]

I also had time to catch up with my new BFF Hannah Banana!


Her and I magically just have an amazing time together, no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other. She gets my crazy humor and my smile literally hurts after we go out separate ways. Our one-of-a-kind personality is a dying breed, we have to stick together in these trying times. ha.

Finally, here is proof Shawn and I met. Please excuse my scrubs and grunge look.


If you are looking for a new blog to follow she is your gal. I feel grateful to finally call her a true friend, instead of someone I know of in the blogger world. She is more then that now, she is my adopted mother now.

An all around great time to hang out with the ladies.

Making Halloween

The PIC invited Brandon and I over to her house for some pumpkin carving over the weekend. I have a love/hate relationship in doing this. I love the carving part and hate cleaning the pumpkin part.

But, who says I can't get my hands dirty? Let the carving begin!




Instead of the normal face this year I tried something a little different with my pumpkin.

[When did I become so cheesy?]

All of the pumpkins turned out great!




I love this time of the year. Especially when I get to spend it with the silly boy toy.

Dear Mom,

Dad let me know last week your headstone finally came in. Although I have mixed emotions about all of this, I knew I had to go see you. Last Saturday Brandon and I drove down to Orem and I was surprised how beautiful your headstone was.


The entire thing was pure granite. Dad did a great job in picking out something beautiful and peaceful. I know you would love the kids names written on there too. At the end of the day our family meant everything to you.

I also couldn't help but notice today is your wedding anniversary. 19 years. I hope dad is doing alright today. When I really think about it though. What is 19 years against eternity?

Remember how every year around this time I would get us some matching Halloween socks? I wish I could have given you some that day, but settled for Halloween inspired flowers instead. They are beautiful if I do say so myself. I hope you like them.

Of course Brandon brought you some flowers too. I think most people would think he would do it to please me. We both know better then that though, he misses you too. With our combined efforts your resting place looked a little more colorful. Within time I'll get more creative on ways to make it look good.


Know I'm thinking of you, and love you. I'll write again soon.


Love,

Rachel

The Regmister

I've been meaning to get my own Jana Laurene painting for a while now. She has this amazing talent and mostly paints kids. I e-mailed her asking if she was willing to do a painting of my kid, Reggie. It was her first time tackling the job of painting an animal, and it turned out better then I could have hoped for! This was the picture I sent to her.


And this is what I received in the mail last month.


It fits right in with the rest of my room, especially the barbie pink walls. I am excited to order more paintings from her, the next one will probably be my mom. Check Jana's blog out and make sure to get one of your own!

Secret Sunday

This weeks secret -

I hate pie.

No seriously... I hate it.

My new dream

To make this happen on my wedding day...

'Cause I don't care for your fairytales

My PIC brought up a good topic the other day, fairytale endings. Are they possible? Or just that, a fairytale?

If you are looking for a bubbly optimistic idea from me that happily ever after happens, turn back now. Because if you were honest with yourself you would know that doesn't happen, at least not in this life.

I think most successful marriages are the hardest thing you and your partner will ever have to do. There will be tears, broken dishes, and "I was wrong" speeches happening all the time. You will have to cover your wandering eyes, seal your hateful lips, and more importantly tune out your ears from the fairytale believers.

Us silly girls are raised with the idea fairytale endings happen. You just have to find the right guy, and your problems are solved. Isn't that what all the Disney's Princesses teach us?

What happens after they both ride away on their white horse towards the sunset? Most of us sigh and leave the story at that. However, it is only the beginning. I think Sara Bareilles' lyrics and Dina Goldstein's pictures say it best as to where our beloved Princesses are now.

Cinderella's on the bedroom floor. She's got a crush on the guy at the liquor store. Cause Mr. Charming don't come home anymore, and she forgets why she came here.

Sleeping Beauty's in a foul mood. "For shame" she says, "None for you dear prince, I'm tired today. I'd rather sleep my whole life away than have you keep me from dreaming".

Snow White is doing dishes again. Cause what else can you do with seven itty-bitty men? Sends them to bed and she calls up a friend. Says "Will you meet me at midnight?"

The tall blonde lets out a cry of despair says "Would have cut it myself if I knew men could climb hair. I'll have to find another tower somewhere and keep away from windows."

Do fairytales happen? Nope. But can you make the best out of your own story's ending? Yes.

I think you'll find that is the ending you were waiting for all along.

Have you ever?

Have you ever had an embarrassing bruise on your body? I am lucky to not bruise very often but when I do it looks like hell.

Exhibit A:

(and really it is looking pretty decent in this picture from the black it was the day before)

This pretty baby has been getting a lot of attention these days. Being right on my arm I get a lot of people who suddenly scream...

"What happened to you!?!"

I first want to tell them to calm down, and to let go of my bruised arm they are squeezing onto. No seriously, this has happened to me a few times this week. I'm embarrassed because the story is silly. It isn't easy to hold a conversation in the elevator where I say,

"Well you see, I wash my dog in the shower because it's easier to wash him that way. He is also a dog who likes to squirm around, and while we were both in the shower together my dog freaked out and jumped onto me. In which I fell through the door of the shower grabbing onto whatever I could on the way down. The next thing I knew I had a bruise on my arm"

Most of them responded back to my story with...

"Alright, who beats you?"

As of right now, I'm sticking to jackets and long sleeved shirts.

A date to dream about (part II)

It is early in the morning, and there is a knock at my door. I'm a little confused because it is so early. I slowly put on some slippers, while the knocking only gets louder and louder.

Rude, I think to myself.

Once I walk up the stairs and look through the peep hole I see a man wearing a black suit. I open the door and he introduces himself as Jack and that I was needed to leave with him as soon as possible. He lets me know I have an important date to go on. I try to tell him I can't, but before I know it him and two other women are shoving me into a black Cadillac. Next thing I know I'm on a plane heading who knows where. The women help me with makeup and a new outfit, and after several hours we land in Fiji where I am boated to a private island.

Jack lets me know my date will soon be here, and that he will see me later. I look around and notice no one else seems to be on the island but me. After exploring some of the beach I see off into the ocean a jet ski heading towards me.

My heart starts to race as the man pulls onto the beach and walks towards me with these flowers.


Who is this mystery man you wonder? None other then Mr. Sexyback himself.


My knees get weak and he picks up my left hand to kiss it gently. While we walk down the beach we laugh and talk about how crazy the day was as the sun starts to set. He tells me more about himself and asks many questions about my life growing up. Eventually we reach the top of a cliff and Justin starts to take off his shoes.

"You ready for this?" He says.

I'm a little distracted as he takes of his shirt and then jumps off the side of the cliff. My first reaction is to scream and run to the side of the cliff. Below is a blue lagoon with Justin smiling and telling me to jump in.

And of course I do!

After much laughter and horse play Justin brings me to his favorite part of the beach where we lay in a hammock together. He sings to me as I watch the moon.


Are you sick of all the cheese yet? It sounds like yet another prefect date if you ask me. And don't worry, Justin was a gentleman he only offered to sex me up a few times. I politely declined.

HA HA!

Dear Mom,

I miss you. I simply can't say that enough. Last week literally felt like I was completely submerged in hell. I was at my wits end with all the stress in my life. It all came crashing down. I am so glad that week is over! This one was a lot better. I had a week off from school, so I hung out with some friends, and tried to get as much relaxing as I could. Next week I start a new quarter of school. One of my classes is the hardest class in the entire program, pharmacology. Yeah, I don't even want to think about it right now... ha ha. Wish me luck with that!

Things with Brandon and I are going well. We have are ups and downs, but it is mostly us learning how to interact with each other. It has almost been a year since our first date. Can you believe that? I have no idea where the year has gone. It doesn't feel like I've been dating a guy for that long again. Who would have thought after the entire Adam incident I'd date someone like this so quickly? You were the first person I told that I fell in love with Brandon this year. I also told you I was going to marry that guy someday, and to this day the statement only becomes more and more real.

The holidays are coming up this year, I think today when I visit the family I will get out your Halloween decorations and put them outside. I'm trying to make this holiday season as normal as possible. It's a bitter sweet thing because this is the first time I can fully enjoy the holidays with Brandon by my side, but in the same breath you won't be there. I wish he could see your shine during the holidays. It will probably take me years, or I may never get there, but I will always strive to make the holidays what you did. I want to carry on your traditions and make this as painless as possible. I'm hoping a positive attitude can get me through it all.

The family seems to be doing well too. Dad moved to Provo now for work. He is closer to the family, and I am grateful for that. Alyssa is living up her senior year as much as possible. I asked Brandon if he would take Alyssa's senior pictures, I know he will do a great job. I want to make sure she does pictures, because I know how badly you wanted me to do senior pictures (even though I never did... my bad). Jonathan is in band again and loving it. He looses himself in music, and he is just turning into this amazing man! I'm so proud of him. Matthew is doing pretty well in school, and is doing football still. He told me this week that it wasn't his favorite though. He made me laugh by telling me it's just a tricky way to get him to work out all the time. Oh well, he will figure things out.

I hope wherever you are you are happy. This weekend was conference weekend and I made sure to take some time out both yesterday and today to listen to what was needed to say. I find comfort in listening to the words from President Monson. He always knows how to keep my attention, and touch my heart.

I love you, visit me soon!

Love,

Rachel

Secret Sunday

This weeks secret -

I almost let Brandon and I walk out into public yesterday looking like this...

Then I remembered we looked like a lumberjack family from Louisiana, and told him to change.

A little loose change

Growing up I was constantly searching through my moms purse. It's amazing what you can find in a moms purse. I found usually everything I wanted; gum, lip gloss, combs, loose paper, pens, keys, but more importantly I would find her loose change.

I would always take a quarter here, a dime there. It all added up when I was younger. Especially when Jr. High and High School rolled around all that loose change turned into a 20oz bottle of soda. Drinking that was pure bliss. My mom knew I took her change. Sometimes she liked to give me a hard time, but she never minded me buying a little something for myself. She out of all people could understand how a little bit of cold refreshing coke could make everything better.

This week during work I stopped by the house, and no one was there. I had some time to just look around and touch everything in the house. Little short clips of memories with my mom danced inside my head. Her baking in the kitchen with me watching, having long talks about life with her in the front room, and watching a movie in her bed together (the movie was usually one of the Mission Impossible movies - yuck!). I stopped short when I saw her purse hanging on the stair railing. I couldn't help but rummage through to see what I could find. There was some bubble gum lip gloss, which I put right back where I found it! (Really Mom? Gross!) I opened up her wallet and change starting pouring out of it. At first I was shocked, but then started laughing. I couldn't believe how much was in there!

So, I looked up to the heavens and told my mom thank you. I took the change (all $6.99 worth of it), and when I got back to work bought myself some Pepsi. It was by far the best tasting Pepsi I've ever had, and I owe it all to my Mom.