"Success is not the key to Happiness. Happiness is the key to Success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." - Herman Cain


Well. The time is almost here for "the event". I have been working non-stop for over the last seven months. We have crossed and dotted all the proverbial T's and I's.

My spare bedroom is bursting at the seams with swag and door prizes.

My cell phone bill is astronomical.

The name tags are being made and the media kits are being put together.

The sponsors have all be obtained and the bills have all been paid.

WE DID IT!

Doors have opened for me that otherwise would have remained closed.

It's here and I am so excited I can't wait! It's going to be absolutely amazing! The whole dang thing!

The GNO party is being sponsored by Basa Body and they are bringing gift bags for everyone! I LOVE their product and working with their Rep has been simply DREAMY!

The entire conference is being sponsored by 300dpi and let me tell you one simple thing: That website is totally COOL!

There are so many other exceptional sponsors that I can't even begin to list them all... you should just check out the sponsor page. Or better yet sign up for the CBC newsletter, because there are SWEET sweet deals being released. Right. As. We. Speak.

I have made some incredible friends because of this crazy venture and I am so glad that I allowed myself to be talked into this thing.

I have learned a TON about myself and even more about people in general.

Some good. Some not so much.

Once it's over, I plan to be in a coma for a month. Minimum.

*****
My best friend is coming into town for the conference, and I CAN'T WAIT! I haven't seen her in four years. Four VERY long years.

I talk to her on the phone pretty much every week... we text and chat on facebook all the time. How did long distance friendships last without the invention of technology? It seems like I just saw her yesterday because of all this awesome technology we have.

Our children text message and facebook each other daily. We are hoping they get married so that we can be in laws. Wouldn't that be so fun to have your best friend as your child's mother-in-law? I mean, taking care of those grand babies would be a BLAST! Just one big, giant baby smoochin' party!

{Thing 1 is now horrified that I put that out there. Let me reiterate that they are JUST FRIENDS!}

*****
We hired our yard work out.

They came last week, and our yard looked AWESOME.

They ditched us this week.

I'm afraid we found a dud and it, to quote my friend Dionna, "HONK'S ME OFF".

*****
I wrote an article for MMB this week. Did you see it? You should go read it. Not that I'm biased or anything, but I think it's pretty good.

*****
Thing 2 takes drum lessons.

You're jealous, aren't you? You should be. He has a favorite rhythm that he likes to bang out. You can hear it outside it's so loud. I don't really know how to tell, but it seems like he's pretty good.

He's learning how to play Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams

I actually don't mind the drums. Except when Moxie decides she's done sleeping and gets up at the crack of dawn and wanders into his room and starts banging away.

THEN I mind.

*****

I have a ba-jillion and a half things I need to get done now. I can't wait to see you at the CBC. If you weren't able to get a ticket, we still have some Mocktail party tickets available. We are having two concerts at the Mocktail and giving away some SWEET door prizes.

Think BIG. As in SEVERAL hundred dollars per item BIG. Come play with us if you want! It's going to be a BLAST!


1. Die Alone - Ingrid Michaelson
2. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk
3. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths
4. Not Fair - Lily Allen
5. Sing A Song - Donavon Frankenreiter
6. Breathe Me - Sia
7. Heartbreak Warfare - John Mayer
8. Lonely and Gone - Montgomery Gentry
9. Southern Girl - Amos Lee
10. Walk On The Water - Britt Nicole

Bonus: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend

I can always tell when I am getting ready to start my comma (as Jefe loves to call it). My head spins over virtually nothing and I cry at the drop of a hat. It's rather embarrassing, really.

For example, take this morning.

Thing 1 broke my laptop. Again.

We won't go into specifics, but it involved serious amounts of yelling, head spinning and possibly some green spray. I really can't remember because I was possessed by Linda Blair.

Later I take the broken laptop to the local UPS store to ship and I'm chatting with the worker boy. I have a tendency to be a chatty-patty. I will talk to pretty much anyone, about anything. I need to get the filter on my mouth fixed, because it's broken.

I was telling the cute worker boy what had happened and we were commiserating together about the woes of children and how the ruin your stuff.

Not that HE would know. He's single. And Pure.

While he was packing up my precious, I noticed a flier for "Same Day MTC Delivery Service".

What does that mean?

Well, when boys reach the age of nineteen in my church they can volunteer to serve the church for two years. The church will pick where their assignment will be--we have NO say in where they go. It takes a lot of faith to send your child out into the Lone and Dreary world like that.

The missionaries pay their own way and the only communication they have with their family is via one weekly email. (or when Jefe and I served ONE weekly letter)

Jefe went to Spain and spent the majority of his time living exotically.

I went to Spokane, Washington but spent the majority of my time in Idaho.

Shut up.

Anyway, the flier.

I looked at that flier with the cute little cartoon missionary and the tears turned on like Niagara Falls. The worker boy stopped and followed my line of sight and then he smiled and said "Ohhh. Where's your missionary?"

I wiped my eyes and said "In the car."

He looked at me puzzled and then looked in the car and could clearly see Thing 2 happily playing my dashboard with his drumsticks.

He then looked at me again, very puzzled and ever so slightly shook his head as if to say "Man! Women. They NEVER stop being weird."

It's true.

I got all weepy in the UPS store because my son is GOING to be a missionary.

In seven years.

Jefe told me this morning that there is only one thing he loves about my blog and I have not been doing it lately. Posting pictures of his cute kids. So pardon me while I indulge Jefe and give him some eye candy.

Love you babe. We make beautiful kids together!

I have a ba-jillion and a half things I need to do and yet here I sit on the computer, listening to music.

When I get really stressed, the thing I use to soothe myself is music. For some reason, it brings me back to my core... It centers me.

So, in honor of my avoidance, I present to you my latest finds in music.

Hunter Langston. He is reminiscent of Matt Nathanson, John Mayer and Joshua Radin. He's a singer/songwriter and I really DIG his tunes. I found him today when I was wasting time on Facebook.

Cameron Rafati. Boy Howdy. I know that I've written about him before, but I seriously love this guys music. He is going to be HUGE and if you don't know who he is, you need to check him out. I love every single one of his songs, but if I had to pick my favorite, it would probably be Battles or Speck Out In the Blue. Check it: He's performing at the CBC on Friday night, if you're interested.

Jakob Dylan. He used to be the lead singer of The Wallflowers and he's the son of Bob Dylan. His solo stuff is awesome and I absolutely love his song Something Good This Way Comes. Besides all that, he is easy on the eyes!

Lastly, check out Meet the Passionista! Every month she puts up a new playlist of songs. She has impeccable taste in music and I absolutely LOVE her playlists. All of my new favorite artists are from her playlists.

Is it totally creepy that I never comment on her blog? I just go to listen to the music she picks out. I get giddy at the beginning of each month in anticipation of that months mix.

That's stalking at it's finest, folks.

Recently my kids and Jefe were watching Planet of the Apes. I abhor despise loath really hate that show. It's just plain creepy. Talking monkeys? Yikes.

I don't mind so much the new movie version with Marky-Mark and the funky bunch. I have seen it several times... and I actually like it. It helps that Marky-Mark is in it... seriously. He's just plain yummy! But the old version? It completely creeps me out.

I have to remove myself from the room every single time someone is taking in the monkeys. I think its PTSD. Really I do. I have PTSD with regards to Planet of the Apes.

Here's why.

One time, when my Mom was off to some sort of church meeting, my Dad was left in charge of my sister and I. He was in the basement watching Planet of the Apes and my sister & I were upstairs essentially hiding from the Ape monsters that could talk.

I remember that I was standing on our kitchen counter and we had a chair pulled up to that counter. Steph was standing on the chair, and we were foraging in the cupboards for something to eat.

There must have been a commercial on, because the next thing I knew I could hear a monkey sounding monster coming up our stairs and I FREAKED out. I screamed bloody murder and tried to not only jump over the chair, but my sister too... but I didn't quite make it. My sister hit her head on something and cut it open really bad and had to get stitches.

As the story is told (which has gotten better over the years) the Doctors didn't believe how she had cut her head open. They made her retell the story over and over again. To different Doctors. Because really, who tries to jump over someone because they hear a monkey sound?

{{raising my hand}}

Umm. Me.

I felt really bad. However, my Dad felt worse. He was just teasing us, but ended up scaring the living be-jeebers out of us, causing Monkey induced PTSD and scarring me for life. I think I need therapy now.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to participate in the Utah Valley Women's Expo to promote MMB and CBC.

When they asked me to come to the Expo, they said I would be on "bloggers row" and we would be speaking on a panel in front of the entire Expo. With famous people like Cjane. And Vanessa. And Tech4Mommies.

Nothing TOO terribly intimidating.

{cough}



When it came time for the panel, we had literally ten people in the audience. One was Vanessa's mom, three were blogging friends and their kids that came to listen and give us moral support.

And some random dude that was eating his lunch.

Good times.

I am, however, going to let you in on a little secret.

{looks around, making sure Jefe isn't listening}

I was sort of in my element. It's true. I was. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the random people walking by. I really enjoyed chatting with everyone that was on "Bloggers Row" and it was even more enjoyable when all my girlfriends showed up to hang out with me.

How can you argue spending an afternoon visiting with people and hanging with your girlfriends?

The best part of the whole thing was when Annie and I came up with a new blog idea: People of the Expo. Sort of like People of Walmart. Only better.

We actually took photos of people that were "interesting" but I'm afraid to post them. I mean what if that Barbie looking girl with the jumbo furry pink boots reads my blog?

She could, you know. Stranger things have happened.

Like seeing that lady that looked like she had a large Dog in her hair.

That was strange.

But seriously, the best part of the Expo was when my friends decided that I had - had enough and that I should go home.

Within a ten minute period they had my booth taken apart and were heading to my car, all while I stood there watching in utter disbelief.

That's how you know you have good friends... When they step in and tell you enough is enough-- Go home already.

But first you have to go eat at Outback and mock the Douche Lord.