With 20 minutes left to celebrate........Merry Christmas! I hope your day was everything you wanted it to be!

A few things I'm thankful for....

*Family. I got to see all of my family at some point during the day on Thanksgiving. It was awesome! *Really good food. *Shopping at midnight at stateline. *Awesome deals. *Winning Phantom tickets with my mom for the girls. *Sleep. *Success at the craft show. *Work. *Old friends. *New friends. *Sonic. *Packages in the mail. *Notes left on my doorstep. *My $130.00 Roxy luggage for $17.00 on black Friday. *Brittney's orange rolls. *Suprise visits from old friends. *Peppermint Hot Chocolate. *My new plasma TV. *Susie finding my lost cell phone. *Just Be. I love us! *The fact that I wrapped Christmas presents already. *That we're all happy and healthy this time of year. *A huge smile from my Emmy. *A cuddle from Aurah. *And many many more things.....

One of my clients, Jill (whom I've done her makeup for years) called me and needed me to do her makeup over the weekend. I assumed it was a photo shoot or a magazine cover. No big deal. So, I get there....and yeah. It was her wedding! She decided to get married since all her family was in town over Thanksgiving. Good thing I came totally prepared. Whew!

MY version of "THE BOARD"

Ok...so I'm going to give fair warning now that this ISN'T a Sara Cecil board...nor is it a pottery barn board. I'm naming this my jen rose board. Flaws and all. But, I LOVE IT! I love that it has a place for my bills, coupons, 2 dry erase boards, 2 corkboards, 2 magnet boards, calendar etc. But most of all CHARACTER! Thanks to my dad who probably hates this board about now....but I really appreciated his help with cutting and assembling! It's my first step to being organized!

A couple of happy things...

-I got to see Aurah and Emerson today. Need I say more. We went on a walk. The girls love their wagon. Not only is it great being an aunt, but a GREAT aunt is so awesome. I'm so blessed to have all these kiddies in my life!

-I love when I make brides happy. Nothing is more rewarding than watching them look in the mirror and see a smile.

I was an "AUNT HELPER"

I took Dane on a field trip with his class to the fire station. We had so much fun! I was cracking up at these kids for all the crazy things they say. It seriously was entertaining. I made a new little friend Brooke (pictured in the middle) who held my hand the entire time and told me that dead people sleep in "cottons". They were hillarious! After we got back to the school, the teacher said for all the kids to thank the parent helpers. Dane raised his hand and said...also the aunt helpers!! So sweet!

Kids on Halloween

Well, Halloween was a success! Because of Hayley's surgery and her incapabilities of moving around at all :( my assignment was to get all the kids costumes ready for the week of festivities. Brittney and I did those kids up right!! They LOVED their costumes and I think everyone was happy! We went to the annual Findlay Halloween party like we always do....and it was a lot of fun! I was too busy running around with the kiddies that I wasn't able to try all the yummy food but I did do alot of snacking throughout the night! It's so much fun to spend time with great friends and family! Thanks to Ed and Linda for being the best friends anyone could ask for!

Wasn't Aurah the cutest little monkey?? I will have to post a picture of Emmy later....I didn't get to see her on Halloween and I was so sad! She was a cute little bumble bee! Hope everyones Halloween was spent with those you love and that it was a great night for all!

Remembering Rae

Today was the 1 year anniversary that Desirae Cassedy passed away. In some ways it seems like just yesterday and in other ways it seems forever ago. What I loved about Rae *her creativity & talent *her eyes *her being a good aunt! *her smile *her kindness I loved how she was so close with her mom. I think it's such a cool thing to have a great friendship with your mom! I'm blessed to have that also.

I pray that her family and friends will feel her spirit around them this week and will be comforted when they need it most. I miss Rae but know she is in a better place. I hope she'll be smiling down this week watching all of this crazy Halloween stuff! :) I loved how she LOVED halloween!

Brownies for cake....oh yeah!

We celebrated Susie's birthday tonight. She wanted mexican food, a movie and brownies! She's an easy girl to please! We saw the movie The Secret Life of Bees. It was really really good. I love Dakota Fanning though. Then, we came back to my house and had a little brownie cake (thanks to Stu) and sang Happy Birthday! Good times!

Day of Changes & Hayley update

YES that is my hair. All chopped off. I love it though! (Don't mind the picture! I look a little scary here visiting Hayley at the hospital). Which leads me to....the poor poor Hayley! The surgery ended up being 5 hours long and it was worse than they thought it would be. When the surgeon cut through the bone, he couldn't quite get to the right spot so recut ANOTHER bone. There were so many crushed bones all over that couldn't be fixed so the doctor just had to remove them! CRAZY. She has 7 large screws and one metal plate in her foot. Won't be able to put weight on it for 12 or so weeks. This girl has a LONG recovery but we are all SO grateful she is ok! Get home fast! We love you!

Random things happening....

*since there is no Pinkberry here....I've resorted to Red Mango. For those of you who haven't tried it - you must! Fresh fruit...yum. *The Chef Jeff Project started Sunday on the Food Network. It was a really good premiere! Not only is he THE nicest guy around...he really tries to help inner city kids. It's a really cool concept! I will admit that I hope there is a little bit of scandel on this reality show. Ok, so I kind of already know the ending but everyone should tune in! It's gonna be pretty good! *After a 17 hour work day (on the movie Hangover)...I decided I deserved a much needed facial. I thought about a massage but I had been working outside at the dry lake bed...need I say more. I went to Green Valley Ranch and it was heaven. It was too cold to swim outside obviously....but the decor is SO cool there. I love the feeling. And, my facial was amazing! While the mask was on my face, I even got a scalp and neck massage. Ahh! I just wish I could have made a whole day out of it. Maybe another time. Soon. *My mom got released from being Stake Relief Society President for the past 7 years. Yes, you heard me right. 7 long crazy years. I don't know how she stuck in there for that long but she is an amazing person! She was so incredible at that calling. I know she'll be missed. Alot. *Amber and I have been working our butts off for the craft show. We are so excited! We have a lot of cute jewlery as well as a few other things! Check our jewelry blog for updates! *I have been having crazy EYE issues the past few weeks. I even used eyedrops for over a week. I hate eyedrops. They just brought such relief. My friend Jen said maybe I could be allergic to some type of makeup. Thank goodness for Jen. Not that I am a makeup artist or anything.....I was SO allergic to a new eyeliner I was using. Threw that thing out! My eyes are perfectly fine. Whew! *Got a little more Christmas shopping done. Even got a couple gifts handmade! I feel like I'm on the ball but I know that closer to Christmas...I'll be stressed. Aren't we all? *My sister in law Hayley is having her surgery tomorrow (from her accident). It's going to be a 3 hour long one! And, she'll be staying a few days in the hospital. :( Everyone say a little prayer for her....and the sanity of her husband taking care of 3 kids.

Happy Happy Birthday to Suzyq3422

I want to wish my friend SUSIE a happy happy birthday today! She doesn't blog but I have an idea that she is a blog stalker :) For those of you who don't her....she is hillarious (funnier than Ellen) and is ALWAYS up for a good time! One of those friends everyone wants! So, I hope you enjoyed your day...if you are reading this! :)

Makeup is not all that glamorous

I've been working on a movie the last couple of days....and my job was to make this guy into: THIS

It's been a pretty easy gig. No complaints other than:

working from 4 p.m. till 6 a.m. (i hate all nighters).

And, being so bored that I was exhaused. From boredom. Go figure.

But, I did get to:

Read an entire book.

write out 500 tags for the craft show.

Take a nap in my trailer.

Update my christmas card list.

Eat some really good catered food.

Meet a guy that was in Wedding Crashers. My favorite movie.

Make good money.

But, makeup isn't all the glamorous.

My new addiction...

Amber and I drove to California this weekend to pick up our jewelry supplies for the craft show. We didn't get everything we needed but we got enough to keep us busy for quite awhile! We stayed with my cousin Byron and his wife Kim in Santa Monica. They were so sweet to let us stay there and even sweeter to introduce us to these 2 things:

Pinkberry and The Griddle. Yeah. Those are pancakes. Unreal. It looked like we hadn't even touched our plate when we were finished. Good pick. And for pinkberry. It is a good thing there isn't one here.

Sad sad day

For those of you who don't know my sister in law Hayley....she's the best! Not only is she an amazing person always serving many...but has always been so incredibly good to me. The biggest blessing I continually thank her for is that she allows me to have great realtionships with her children because I don't have any of my own. She makes "aunts" have special callings in life! Today Hayley was hit by a car while walking into Dillards. As she was crossing the street, the lady in the car didn't see Hayley, and hit her dead on. We are all SO grateful that Hayley will be ok. In the hospital she was able to get a priesthood blessing from my dad and brother. With such a scary situation, we just want to tell her WE LOVE YOU and we are all here for you....ready to help in any way we can!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!

I wish you lived here...we could have a little shopping trip for your birthday! You are such an incredible person! I hope you have the best birthday ever! Eat cake.....you skinny minny! I hope to see you guys soon! HAPPY B DAY!

The good and the not so good

My week: *my friend Jen cleaned my entire fridge! Threw away all expired stuff. Took every single thing out. Washed every shelf. Organized absolutely everything. Jen, I love you! =so good *my friend Linda suprised me and had my car detailed. WOW! What a treat. =so good *my friend Susie treated me to dinner at Buca! Chicken Parmesean. =so good *I got in a bit of an altercation at the store. This 400 pound black lady called me a stupid white b****! Yeah that's another whole story. I was kind of scared. =not so good *I had a makeup job that went so smooth. Love those jobs. And, good money. =so good *I bought some things to help me get a little bit organized. AND I started to actually do some. It felt so good to purge out all those things we never really need but for some reason keep. For years. Ah! =so good *Got to see so much family at the 2 Williams baby showers! Both of my cousins are due within 5 weeks of each other and so they decided to have a dual baby shower! It was a blast! Stef is on the left and is due 1st week in Dec with a girl! and Kim is on the right and is due in the last week of Oct. with a boy! We are so excited! =so good *Midnight and I'm dead asleep and my home alarm system starts going off! I was so scared to think that someone was breaking in. So, I picked up my phone to call the company and my phone lines were all dead. So I called my mom and dad from my cell phone and they stayed on the line with me while I walked downstairs to be killed. jk. I really was crying though. I think I was a little in shock from being woken up to that annoying alarm plus not knowing what was going on. Short....er story. My alarm is malfunctioning and I have to have someone come out. They don't have an opening until Tuesday. So, going back to bed with pillows over my head because it would go off every3 minutes. =not so good *Woke up tired because of the night I had but still had lots to do. Went to Town Square to fill up on all the makeup I was out of for my kit. They had every single thing I went there for =so good *I bought my first Christmas present! YAY! I even started my Christmas Shopping List for everyone I need to buy for. I'm gonna try to be on it this year! =so good *Had an awesome family dinner at my moms! I have the best parents in the world! All of us were able to come except Brad. Emily, Kallen, Jonathan and Arlene also joined us! We had really good food. Really good desserts. We played WiFit. We laughed and had a fun time. Arlene made a 1st place new record. Brittney made 2 1st place new records. Heather made a 1st place record too! We were having the best time! =so good *Got to see the kiddos. All of them were so sweet! The 2 babies were fun tonight. Full of personality. Aurah got her new mermaid dress up outfit. She was so happy. and Emmy was happy to just chill. =so good *I know there were things this week that weren't so good but overall, I am so blessed to have amazing friends and family who are always lookin out for me! I love you guys!

i miss her.

My sister Robin. The most amazing mom and grandma of 2 super cute girls. Always so stylish. So kind. To everyone. always. I loved when the kids were little and I got to see her all the time. Now we have Aurah and Emmy. This is allowing me to see her more. And, that makes me. Happy. I love you sis!

Day 2. Projects.

Had a really good weekend. Went to Time Out for Women. Saw a movie. Made 100 scrabble pendants with Amber. Finished photo blocks for Hayley's birthday. Ate cheesecake.

Project ONE complete

An elderly lady friend of mine whom I've been so blessed to have in my life asked me recently for a huge favor! She had been given hand written journals from her father and his twin brother written in 1904. Her mother had saved them for her after she passed away. Debby has treasured these journals for years and years. The sad part is that Debby is legally blind. She has been unable to read these journals which have meant so much to her. I feel honored that she would trust me with these journals. She asked if I would translate the words of these journals and type them with a larger font. Then, with her magnifying glass...she could read herself the words written from her father. This meant so much to her! So, between my mom, dad and Amber...this mission was accomplished. We found two boxes to keep the original journals including the new bound copy safe. We painted the boxes and then lined them with a semi flocked paper - one of Debby's favorite patterns. We copied the picture of the 2 boys who wrote the journals and bound that in the back of the box. We reglued some of the original seams since they are over 100 years old. I hand typed 89 pages of history! I printed them all out, picked out coordinating paper and had the book bound. It now has a safe place in it's own box. Doesn't it feel so good to do something for someone else that has a greater meaning than we will ever know? mission.complete.