A to Z

So I stole this from The Stoy's Story! Enjoy!

A -Age: 25—will be 26 one month from TODAY!

B- Bed Size: Queen

C- Chore you hate: Laundry or scrubbing the toilets.

D- Dog's Name: Cooper!

E- Essential starts to your day: Spark and a kiss from my hubby!

F- Favorite Color: Red!

G- Gold, Silver, or Platinum: Gold

H- Height: 5'6"

I- Instruments you play: This should be ‘Instruments I USE to play’—Piano and Violin

J- Job Title: Executive Assistant

K- Kids: Not yet

L-Living Arrangements: With my husband and our 6 month old puppy in a cozy house.

M- Moms name: Sue

N- Nicknames: Nat and Burger

O- Overnight stay in the hospital other then Birth: Not that I recall…There was a LATE night visit to the ER when I broke my rib my sophomore year of high school.

P- Pet Peeve: I have a lot....but the biggest is probably slow drivers or people who use bad grammar.

Q- Quote from a movie: “Layla! Get back in your cell. Don't make me get the hose” – Mrs. Doubtfire

R- Right or Left handed: Right

S- Siblings: 1 brother, Joshua!

T- Time you wake up: Weekdays 6:00 a.m., Weekends 8:00 a.m.

U- Underwear: Definitely

V- Vegetable you dislike: Red Bell Peppers

W- Ways you run late: Can't decide what to wear OR packing my gym bag and lunch

X- X-rays you've had: See letter ‘O’

Y- Yummy food you make: Sausage Balls, Spinach Dip, Snicker Brownies (apparently everything I make starts with an ‘S’)

Z- Zoo Favorite: San Diego. Hands down!

If you made it to the end, I tag you!!

Rant and Rave

I’ve had some really great (and really bad) experiences at retail stores lately and I wanted to take a minute to vent. I’ll start with the ranting first…


RANT

Banana Republic. Love their stuff. LOVE their sales. Hate their customer service (well at least at their Highland Park Village store.) I am a Banana Republic card carrier and shop there on a frequent basis. I bought a pair of white pants about a month ago and wore them one time. They stretched out so bad that I couldn’t wear them again. So today I took them back to the NorthPark store to do an even exchange for a smaller pair. They didn’t have the size I needed, but the sales associate told me I’d be able to exchange them no problem. She called the Highland Park Village store and had them hold a pair in my size. When I got to the Highland Park store I tried on the pants and headed to the cash wrap. Obviously the sales associate was not willing to work with me and gave me grief over the fact that the pants had been worn (when I already checked with sales associate at NorthPark on this very issue.) Once she agreed to take them back after they’d been worn, she then said they couldn’t take them back because it had been more than 30 days. I was so pissed. I know Banana takes back stuff ALL the time after 30 days. They take back everything! I use to work at the Gap and I know their policies and procedures. Needless to say I was an unhappy camper and wanted you all to know my frustration! See, I told you I was on a rant.

Now on to my rave…

RAVE

Amazon.com. Over the past several months I’ve bought several things from Amazon.com. My Shred DVD, the “A Little Bit Wicked” book, and a FURminator for Cooper. The FURminator is a dog brush that is supposed to be great for getting all the loose hair off your pup! {Read the reviews, they’re amazing!} They’re about $50 in the store but Amazon.com had them for $18!!! So, I ordered the FURminator about 2 weeks ago and anxiously waiting for it to arrive in the mail. One afternoon, Kelly and I went to check the mail and we had a package from Amazon.com. However, it didn’t look like it could hold a dog brush. It was flat as a pancake. Come to find out, they shipped us the wrong item and we ended up with a CD titled “Waking Up is Hard to Do” that was intended for Shannon Walker in Savannah, GA. I was like, “Great! What am I suppose to do with this? Who do I contact? I knew this was too good to be true…” You get the point. So, I went into my Amazon.com account and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to print a return label (free of charge to me! WOO HOO!) They shipped me a FURminator the same day and I should have it in the mail today! They even offered to let me keep the CD but were going to have to charge me for it. Darn…turns out I don’t have a use for “Waking Up is Hard to Do.” So, all that to say, that even if they ship you the wrong item, it’s quite simple to return the item you received in error and get your original item in the end.

Viva Las Vegas

OK, last time I posted something worthwhile I had just returned from Las Vegas and was about to head out of town to Palm Springs but I didn't have a chance to fill you in on my trip. So, it looks like I’ve got a lot of catching up to do…and it’s only been a month.

Viva Las Vegas!

I headed to Las Vegas on May 5 to work the Southwest Airlines Spirit Party. A Spirit Party is an Employee appreciation celebration with incredible entertainment, live bands, light shows, special guests, all housed at incredible venues. This year the Spirit Party was held on Freemont Street in downtown Las Vegas. We had two blocks of Freemont Street blocked for our event!! Once it was all said and done, there were over 7,000 guests that showed up! We had food and drinks, an Elvis impersonator, an amazing cover bank, and Miss USA just to name a few.

I arrived on Tuesday and spent ALL DAY working hard… laying by the pool working on my tan! That night we all got ready for a night out on the town and headed to Diablo’s Cantina at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino for some to-die-for Mexican food.

{Leslie, Mallory, and Me}

When we finished dinner we headed to Caesars Palace to see CHER!!! I was never a huge Cher follower, but after seeing her show, I have to say, she was AMAZING! She looks great for her age and can still send goose bumps down your spine! We had 6th row seats and were two seats over from the stage—it was fabulous!! (Of course, they wouldn't let us take any pictures from inside the auditorium.)

And as if that wasn’t exciting enough, when the concert was over, our group headed to PURE, the nightclub in Caesars! We were there the same night Brooke Hogan was having her birthday party, so we got to see the famous Hulk Hogan and his entourage!! (I know, I know. Hulk Hogan isn’t all that exciting, but when you’re there in person…it’s pretty exciting!!)

It was late when we left PURE and we had to be up early to set up for the party, so I headed to bed…but in a city that never sleeps, I could still hear the party at the pool from my room! Here’s the view from earlier in the day…

The next day we spent the majority of the morning getting Freemont Street set up for the event. The volunteers at the party were responsible for checking ids, distributing wristbands, taking canned goods for the food drive, and manning the crowds. It was a long, but very exciting and fun filled night! (Side note: In the picture below you can see that I’m bringing the fanny pack back! Some of the volunteers were afraid we were going to lose our cell phones and cameras the night of the event, so we bought $2.00 fanny packs and sported them all night long! Call me a dork, but I loved having my hands free all night long!)

{Jaclyn, Kim, Me, and Freya}

I was exhausted after the trip and it took me almost two days to fully recover! But nonetheless we had a wonderful trip in Vegas and I can’t wait to go back!!

Smartypants710 Goes Private

For those of you who follow my Twitter updates on the right side of our blog, I wanted to let you know that my updates are now private. After having a few random people follow my updates, I decided to make my account available to only those who I knew and felt comfortable with. Unfortunately, making my account private means that I can no longer feed my updates to my blog. If you still want to follow my updates on Twitter you can go here to create your own account and request to follow my updates.

Thanks!!

Tick, tock, tick, tock...

Nothing like a family vacation on the horizon to make the day DRAG by.

We leave for Palm Springs today after work and I couldn’t be more excited!!

And you know what the best part is about going on a trip…PACKING! I don’t know why, but I love to pack. I get some sort of satisfaction out of seeing how much stuff I can cram into my small suitcase. Then I run around the house bragging to Kelly. (Like he really cares. He thinks I have a problem.) But seriously, I love it.

I love it so much that this weekend when we were at my parents celebrating Mother’s Day, I helped my Mom get her bag ready for the trip. Exhilarating I tell you!

On a completely different note, I started the 30-Day Shred DVD this weekend! So far, I’ve done 4 days and I feel great! It’s only 20 minutes long, and gives you just enough energy to get your day started. Instead of hitting my alarm 3 more times, I just wake up when my alarm goes off and then get to work with the DVD. I’ve only lost a pound so far…probably water weight, but hey, I’m on the right track! I find myself eating better and feeling better throughout the day. So…I’ll keep you posted on how it progresses. (And yes, I’m taking the Shred DVD to Palm Springs. Hope there’s a DVD player at the condo…)

Well, I wish I had time to tell you all about my trip to Las Vegas last week. But I’ll have to fill you in on the LIVE Cher concert, laying out by the pool, dancing it up at PURE, meeting the Rapping Flight Attendant, and spending three whole days in casinos when I get back from Cali!

Until then, I hope you all have a great rest of your week and enjoy the weekend!

I'm a sucker...

Any marketing/advertising team would see me as the perfect customer.

Gullible. And will fall for anything.

Which is why I gave in to this, and then fell for this. And last night, I gave in to buying this.

I have a problem. I know.

But now, I'm looking into buying this. Why? Well, it's because I've read here, here, and here that it's a great workout. I would LOVE to see what kind of results this little baby can produce at the end of 30 days. Plus, I'm in love with The Biggest Loser, and I secretly wish I would go on the show to work out with the trainers! Yes, I would probably cry because they're so tough, but who cares!

However, my practical, level-headed husband will say, "if you did ANYTHING for 30-days in a row you would see results." Well, right now I can't even stick to going to the gym three days a week, so he might have a point.

But nevertheless, it's Friday afternoon and I have a HUGE case of ADD...

...smashed my thumb in the drawer, finished my packing list for Vegas, cleaned off my desk, found out I'll be VIP at PURE on Tuesday night (hope to see someone famous), tried to stay focused on eating healthy, and am ready for the weekend!