Envy of Audrey

I remember the first time I ever watched My Fair Lady, which is still one of my favorite movies/musicals to this day. We were visiting Grandma Jo and Pompa in St. Louis and I remember thinking how absolutely beautiful Audrey Hepburn was. I wanted to look, sing, act, walk and do everything as she did. She started out a little rough on the edges, but I remember thinking, even then, how beautiful she was then as that humble little flower girl and how she aspired simply to speak a little more "genteele" so she could work in a flower shop.

So the time has come and Valentine's Day is coming quickly. Work has already started ruling my days and nights once again. From the very important to the very mundane tasks-it's time. Pre-cutting ribbon, ordering hundreds & hundreds of vases, stapling packets, pre-booking all the flowers, deciding how many of each arrangement to make, deciding which designers are going to do what, cleaning the store from top to bottom, organizing the upstairs we never use to accommodate for all the room we need, hiring temps, scheduling, greening, flowering, thinking of when I am going to be able to sleep, eat, breathe, relax, work-out, or just have a life in general.

And then I step back and realize: the preparation for all of this is going to be worth it. The next 2 weeks are going to come and go before I know it and I'll be done with the madness for a short while. The stores will be happy again after this slow time in the economy. Valentine's is my Christmas-it's busy but it gets me through the year. And I have to just keep remembering, it's all going to be over soon and it'll all be worth it. I love my job and why not?!?! After all, who wouldn't want to be the envy of Audrey.

Something random this way comes...

Ok-so I have been very excited to start this blog ever since my first post. However, with the other blogs I follow, I feel like I have to wait for a miraculous occurrence, a funny story, or just something crazy random to happen to me. Thus why I have been putting off my next entry. I feel like my life is pretty average. I wake up, go to work, come home, go to the gym, hang out with friends, and anything else random that comes my way...not too much variation, but this week in review I realize that I had quite the week.

Sunday...I helped Jenna pack 2 VERY large suitcases, loaded up a storage unit and made our way back to good old Provo. We, as we usually do when we are together, had to watch The Burbs starring Tom Hanks. Jenna and I love this movie. It makes us laugh no matter how many times we've seen it. In fact my silent/smoker laugh is usually involved because I am laughing just that hard.

Monday...I had to go into work for a little while to take care of the usual Monday madness with money, paperwork, scheduling, ordering and such. After Jenna and I headed up to Salt Lake...she left me :( but we did drop off her bags extra early so there would be less stress when I dropped her off and more time to play. After, as I love to do when I am in the area, I stopped in and saw Gentry and we had a little Cheesecake Factory and Fashion Place date. She definitely helped lift my spirits with Jenna leaving. I realize more and more how alike she and I are-just a East Coast/West Coast version of each other.

Tuesday...work as usual...not too much variation there but I got to make not only one, but two trips to Barnes & Noble. Bookstores have ALWAYS been one of my favorite places to go and just browse, read, and relax for a little while. And, yes Carly, I have switched from the Borders team to Barnes.

Wednesday...I kind of felt like I was all over the place. Everyone around me seems to be getting sick this week so I took some time and slept in and then headed into work. The shortened day there was very nice because I know the madness of Valentine's is soon to come in full swing. I've already started the prep work and have several meetings and a lot of hours to go before that goes down, but it's a good kind of craziness that gets our business through the year. After work, went to dinner and went and saw Avatar with Jeffrey...excellent, crazy, totally new concept of a movie! Then, I went over to have a sleepover with Liz for the events of the next day.

Thursday...went to Spanish Fork for Habitat for Humanity. Liz and I helped build a house! It was very very cool. I got to do some framing work-which involved several different kinds of saws (apparently, according to Liz, I almost cut off my fingers with one of them), a router, nail (not staple) gun and yeah...I plan to do this weekly as soon as I get through the Valentine's Day rush. I was covered in sawdust and had to go into work as such, but I loved every second of it! It was followed by the first week of American Thursday. It has been a tradition among our group of friends to go to dinner, with a different country's theme. We've hit Mexican and Asian foods the last two semesters and now on to American (full of burgers, barbeque, and such...) Also had some good quality time with Emily and SAC with a drama in our TV time.

Friday...work, dinner with Andrew & Lara, good nap, frozen yogurt, and another glorious trip to Barnes & Noble. Watched Angels & Demons with the crew, came back home, dove back into my book until it was too difficult to keep my eyes open.

Saturday...I woke up early in excitement for my book (I'm happy to consider myself a nerd for this fact). I love all sorts of books: one of the reasons I was most excited to graduate was because I was going to get to read whatever I wanted: spiritual, fiction, nonfiction, yadda yadda yadda. Read in bed til lunch time. After lunch: one of the highlights of my week-Andrew and Jeffrey are coaching a 5th grade boys basketball team. They looked so professional-I was so proud of my guys in full suits and the perfect coaches for these kids. They had an excellent game and won! We brought drinks and fruit snacks-pretty sure they love us! Rest of the night-housewarming party at Cory's house and whatever else.

Week in review: I need to write on this blog no matter what, need to get a camera so I can illustrate my life here, and need to thank Heavenly Father every day for the random things in my life that make up my routine, that make me happy, that make me feel part of something, make me know that even though my family is far away that they love me, and make me realize, despite the "average" appearance-I am having the time of my life!

Flashback

It's official...I'm ringing in the New Year by finally creating a blog. . First I want to do a quick recap on 2009. I may have decided that 2010 is going to be my year but 2009 was my year of 1sts (some good, some great, some not so good, some not so great)...

1. Stitches-I had an incident at a bridal fair which involved a very clumsy individual or someone trying to sabotage our booth. Either way it involved lots of broken glass and a pretty nasty cut on the back of my thigh, thus...first stitches!

2. Graduating-Ok so not a first for me and technically I graduated in August '08, but thanks to a late submission of a grade from a teacher, my diploma makes me a proud graduate in April '09.

3. Death- I have known very people who have died and even in those experiences I have not been close to the individual who died, but my Punkin (Dad's Dad) died this year and it was really the first time I have had to deal with death in my life. I remember how he used to always tease us about when he was a little girl, how he let us play with the new baby chicks, and how grateful I will always be to him for baptizing me.

4. Work- My first Valentine's and Mother's Day being in charge, it was crazy and stressful, and I may have been a zombie for lack of sleep, but I got through them and love the girls that work for me!

5. Transportation- After way too many incidents and repairs with my previous car, I decided to finally get my own. I love love love it! 2006 electric blue Mini Cooper! It has been the source of a lot of fun drives with very loud music, lessons for sisters who are learning to drive a manual, and many more things to come.

6. Roadtrips/Trips- While I was in school, I had a lot of very good friends, however, I don't feel that I really took as much time as I should have to just do what I want and have fun. Well, this year was the year for a few very random, quick trips that I plan to do many more of in the future. I got to visit Chelsea in Denver. I made a surprise visit home to STL for my birthday along with one for our annual summer Lake of the Ozarks trip and another one for Christmas break. I drove to Arizona with Liz for a quick weekend trip to get out of town, see her family, and Selena Gomez in concert. Another quick trip to Wyoming with Gentry and co to go camping/white water rafting.

Overall-it was an excellent year. I have realized I have so much to be thankful for. I have a family who is so supportive and loving and friends who have become my home away from home. It really has been an amazing year with so many fun moments to recap on. I'm excited to start the new year off with another 1st with this blog and can't wait for my year 2010.