A Great Week!

The last few days have been simply great! Let’s see what all has happened…

Last Friday, we had a Pfaff educator visit the store and hold an instructional session for our customers. Afterwards, we employees had the option of staying to have a session of our own. Since I didn't have much else going on that night, I opted to stay. She talked a little bit about salesmanship, but my favorite part was getting to use one of our fancy embroidery machines to stitch out a design! After learning the basics of hooping the stabilizer and material, she let us loose and I had a blast!

I love my designs, and it was interesting how I came upon the smaller designs along the bottom. As a side note, I should mention that last Friday was the 23^rd anniversary of Michelle’s death, so it was a somber day for my family. With that in mind, it was quite ironic that a co-worker of mine, who was unaware of that fact or that I even have a deceased sister, suggested that I stitch out an angel! After I stitched the angel, I found the heart. Then I decided to get crafty and combine the angel and heart, and I had to cap it off with her initials. A fitting tribute for my sister, if you ask me…it never fails to amaze me how little things like that situation play out like they do at just the right time.

After getting home from work that night, I had an impromptu dinner date with Mom and Gina! (Emily would have joined us had she not been recuperating from a small bout of illness.) We had a lovely dinner at Applebee's, topped off by sundaes from Braum's. We had great conversation and just plain old light-hearted times together. I’m not sure what I would do with myself if I didn't have my mom or sisters; I am incredibly blessed in that respect!

Most everyone else was at the lake on Sunday, but I opted to stay home because I preferred the extra rest and quiet time to the longer drive and extra packing that would await me. I happened to remember that Evan’s musical had a performance scheduled for that afternoon, so I pulled myself together and headed to town so that I could watch it. This year’s production is “Hairspray”, and I really enjoyed it! I loved the dancing and the girls’ dresses the most, just because I am in love with the fashions of that era. I will say, though, that as much as I enjoyed it, I still enjoyed last year’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof” a little bit better. No real reason, but I just did. I love getting to see Evan in his various roles, as I think he is quite the actor. It will be interesting to see whether he chooses acting or horticulture as a path in his future, because he is quite talented in both fields. I digress…It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

On Tuesday night, I ended up getting a manicure from Taylor, who is LOVING beauty school, in case you were wondering. (Perms still aren't her favorite thing, but she is flourishing, otherwise!) I decided to let her imagination go wild and have her do whatever she wanted to try on me. I have generally found that there are better results on both ends when you let someone go with their creative instincts, as opposed to giving them a laundry list of things you do and don’t want. Maybe it’s me being the indecisive youngest child that I am, or not being opinionated enough, but I think that I am usually more impressed with the results because I don’t have any expectations of what I think it should be. 

I was right, by the way, I was excited/impressed with what she picked out...it’s a little more bright than what I usually choose, but I love it nonetheless!  

I honestly thought about going to Stillwater on my day off yesterday. However, there was something inside that was telling me that I should stay instead. It’s a good thing I did, or else I never would have experienced my awesome day that I had! Taylor and I had a delightful lunch date at the Boomerang diner downtown. We decided that they have the BEST fried pickles that we have ever tasted, and it was all reasonably priced and portioned. (Each of us paid less than ten dollars for our meal, and that included drinks and a side substitution!)

After we were done eating, she had to get back to school, so I went and looked through a new boutique downtown. It had lots of cute clothes and accessories, and I eventually came out with a nifty cross bracelet. I was about 100 feet from my cousin Vickie’s salon (she’s Liz, Jake, & Evan’s mom, in case you didn't remember/know), and I knew that I couldn't be that close to her salon without popping in to tell her hi! As I was walking across the parking lot, a car started honking, which was a bit uncharacteristic for that area. Assuming that there was no one who could have possibly been honking at me, I kept walking until I was greeted by Liz & Evan, who were getting ready to leave! After almost being tackled by Liz with a bear hug, I ended up going with them to run some errands around town. It was great catching up with them, especially Liz, who I hadn't seen in a month! Liz’s volleyball coaching duties are starting to pick up quite a bit, so she has been busy, along with an online class she had been completing, and her work schedule. I think that Liz has also met a guy, who she is falling head over heels for, as he is with her!!! They aren't dating yet, and they really aren't talking that much yet, as they are still in the friendship/getting-to-know each other phase, so it isn't *that* serious, but I am still incredibly excited for her!!! I really hope that I don’t jinx her by mentioning it, but if he is half the guy that she has described him to be, I have lots of hope for them! Being that Liz is one of my best friends, I feel like she deserves someone just as amazing as her, and hopefully he will be that and more! (If nothing else, I can live vicariously through her dating life, since that isn't happening for me right now!)

Eventually, we made it back to the salon, and we went in to tell Vickie hi. Last week I had happened to make an appointment with her to get my hair cut in a couple of weeks because I was unimpressed with my most recent haircut from my usual lady. When I was in there yesterday, I was showing her why I wasn't so excited about it, and she proceeded to tell me that if I could stick around town for another hour, she would go ahead and cut my hair then!! She understood what I meant once she started looking at it, and she did a fantastic job of getting my hair back in a fixable condition!!

I also stopped by the grocery store on the way home to get ingredients for Jeremy’s birthday cheesecake that I will be making in the next few days. It was the first time that I have ever felt old in my life, because nearly all of the checkers/sackers were eighth-graders or freshmen at my school when I graduated. (They are now edging up on their junior and senior years, btw..) Not quite sure why I felt that way, but I did.

I am also quite happy to say that dad and I made some headway on the construction of the deck for my trailer! It wasn't really what I wanted to do tonight, because it was blisteringly hot in our shed, but I also would have felt bad about not helping with a project that will primarily benefit me, when Dad has plenty of other things that he could spend his time on. It was a hard, heavy process that isn't that close to completion, but it will be worth it in the end, when I won’t have a twenty-foot drop-off directly by my door, 2x4s for “stepping stones”, or a hike up the steep steps just to enter the trailer! The next time I go down there, I’ll be sure to snap a few pictures of the situation, just so you understand what I’m talking about, because words don’t quite do it justice!

So, that sums up the last few days for me, and it leaves me feeling so thankful for all of the things that happened and the amazing people in my life! God is good, and so is life :)