Brick Wall....

Hello blog readers....
Today kind of felt like a brick wall hit me... in a way. I hate that feeling after a long break, and you get back to school thinking in your head that everything was going to be smooth, but it wasn't. Yes sir, it was not. Thankfully my music class went well.... I hope am getting through to my students.... am I? That is another uncomfortable feeling felt by many 1st year teachers. Am I really getting through to them? 

The break was nice, but I am already ready for Christmas! October and November flew by... I'm still trying to figure out where they went... 
To say that it is almost December, 2011 is a little weird. 
I am so excited to get things rolling for the holiday season! My Mary Kay business will take off with the amazing offers that I have going on. Just to give a little glimpse into my business... I sold make up over facebook just by mentioning to a friend about the amazing mascara we have... and once again the amazing deal of get $100 in free product from my Sales Director by sharing your facial with 3 people I don't know and who do not have a consultant. You will get your free product once I see 30 faces in a month. Cool huh? I will put up the whole spiel soon. :) Yes, super excited! 

The Griz are in full swing for the play offs. They had their buy week last week and this week end is their first play off game. Russ doesn't have marching band rehearsal any more, so his evenings are more free! He gets off work at 2 today, so it will be nice to have him home, and he doesn't have to go anywhere! :)

Well, that is all for today friends. Enjoy the rest of your day! 

Love & Blessings, 
R&J

Sunday

Good Sunday to you all! 
I don't really have a lot to say today.... I said a lot of it in my Black/Pink Friday post. Oh, yeah! The winner of my Pink Friday sale drawing is Beth Bennett! So, congrats to Miss Bennett! :-) Thanks to everyone who helped me out in the Pink Friday sale as well! My customers are fabulous! I have a new customer as well as a result of the sale, so thanks again! 
Yesterday Russ & I had lunch at the Montana Club with Ryan and my sister consultant Sharayah. She made fun of me for having my camera with me everywhere I go, so just for you Sharayah.... :)

I didn't do anything for school at all over the break.... and it was nice! That is what today is going to be for. I do have to say, as much as I never saw myself teaching anything but music, I am enjoying reading! You just never know where God will take you. Well, on that note, time to get ready for the day and get some work done! Have a great Sunday & what is left of the Thanksgiving break. 

Love & Blessings, 
R&J

Good morning, blogger world! 
This morning Russ made me breakfast in bed... cinnamon rolls & coffee. I talked to my uncle this morning about his hunting trip. We got a package from my parents this morning with our first Christmas ornament, a mini calendar & the new Jars of Clay cd. 

It's supposed to be turned the right way, but for some reason my lap top won't let me save it. Oh well, you get the idea. I'm so excited to hang it on our tree, that is at Wal-mart waiting for us to purchase it :-) That is all for today, just had to share that with you. 

Love & Blessings, 

R&J

Black... or should I say Pink Friday

Today was Black Friday... or in my Mary Kay Pink bubble... Pink Friday. For only being a consultant for almost 8 months... my Pink Friday sale didn't turn out too shabby. I had 5 people order from me amounting to over $150 in sales. I haven't gotten to the drawing yet, but even when that one lucky person gets their order for free, I will still have made over $100 in one day. Pretty successful if I do say so myself! 

Okay, now for Black Friday! I did not get up at the butt crack of dawn to go shopping. I went to Scrapbook Hideaway, Target, Starbucks (in Target) to enjoy a Peppermint Mocha & Shopko. I was able to get about $20 of scrapbooking supplies for about $12 with a 40% off discount. I purchased a few things for my Parents for Christmas and a few decorations from the $2.50 bin at Target. Russ & I went to Subway for supper, and he should me some ideas for Christmas at Sears... at pretty reasonable prices. So, we will see what he gets for Christmas this year :-)

Russ has the whole week end off! That hasn't happened in a while. Thankfully this week he has worked almost 31 hours... such a blessing! It's nice when there is enough money to pay the bills with a little room to breathe. 

Well, one thing that I got really excited about this week was cooking! Even though I feel like it is a pretty popular trend now a days, it is still exciting to me. :-) I cooked my first Thanksgiving Turkey... just a breast that is. :-) I had a conversation with my Mom about it and she recommended just doing a turkey breast due to time (since I decided to do it for a get together at a friend's house the day before) because it was less messy and doesn't take nearly as long. Suzie came over and helped me with a recipe from Betty Crocker online. We used melted butter, apple juice, paprika, thyme and garlic. I don't remember what the measurements were, but if you really want it, go online to Betty Crocker & find it... or ask Suzie. :-) It only took about 2 hours to cook, but it was pretty much a picture perfect turkey breast. My friend Katie Raffety has cooking blog that is becoming more and more famous every day about her cat, Butters and cooking and she would be proud :-) If you haven't read her blog... you need to, it is fabulous!! I want to try some of her recipes she posts. I also wonder how epic her Thanksgiving dinner was. So, Katie, if you are reading this.... and if you are taking requests for culinary topics to write about for your blog... please write about your Thanksgiving dinner! 
Here is a picture of the turkey breast! 

My sister in law was showing the picture off to my family in Glasgow at their Thanksgiving feast, since we couldn't be there. It was also a huge hit at the DeBray house hold, where we had our Thanksgiving feast. We also had mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, chips & artichoke dip, cherry, apple & pecan pie... let me quote Sid the Sloth on Ice Age by saying, "Yum-O!" And since we're on the topic of food....
How many of you have seen the movie Julie & Julia? Ever since we watched it we have wanted to learn how to make some of the recipes from the movie like bruschetta and hollandaise sauce. I found them online!! Here is the web site for them, Check it out!
http://www.delish.com/cooking-shows/food-tv/julie-julia-movie-recipes
 
Love & leftovers :-)
R&J

Ready.... Break!

Okay, who is ready for Thanksgiving??? WE ARE!!! Turkey... mashed potatoes... cranberries... yuuuummmm :) What are your plans for Thanksgiving?? We are going to make a quick stop over at Russell's parents house and then head over to a friends house. It is going to be a fun busy day! We are SO excited! Today was the last day of work for me and I get 5 days off! Russ picked up a ten hour shift for tomorrow. He will also be working on Thanksgiving and the day after. That is okay though. It is still going to be a wonderful holiday!

I had a fantastic Mary Kay meeting tonight. I didn't have any guests, and it was a nice break. I had a really great training session with my wonderful sales director. She gave us consultants a great challenge where from now until December 20th, when you book a party with me and share it with 3 friends you will get $100 in free product when I see 30 faces by my dead line. I love this challenge, and I am so excited! I will be calling you very soon. AND if you don't hear from me, let me know and I WILL call you and share this information with you. BUT I only have 10 specials to offer. 
Tonight I also got a baby bee pin for attending 5 meetings in a row. I'm half way to getting a momma bee :-) Ask about the bee story with Mary Kay, it is amazing. I will more than likely blog about that sometime soon. My friend Sharayah is this weeks Queen of sales!! This girl is amazing! She is 18 years old and a full time Mary Kay Beauty Consultant... and a VERY successful one at that. She is one of my Inspirations. Sharayah, you go girl! Love ya! 

Well, we are ending the evening with pot pies and watching the movie Devil Wears Prada. Russ is doing a puzzle and I am blogging. The pot pies are almost done. Good night folks & God Bless! 

Love, 
R&J

Cat Griz

Today is the famous Brawl of the Wild. Russ is in Bozeman with the Marching Band ready to represent UofM. This makes me miss marching band... not the freezing cold weather, but going to Fairmont Hot Spring after the game. :) 
I went to a craft fair this morning with my sister-in-law, Rachel. I bought a small Scentsy warmer, the kind that you can plug in to an out let, like a little night light. It's purple with white flowers. I put it in our bathroom, even though purple is not in the color scheme, it still looks good. :) I wish I could buy more of the scents, but I need to save our money for more important things. I just need to find all of my scents.
Today I have a birthday party to go to for a 1 year old! I'm so excited! I need to head over to Scrapbook Hideaway to make a card for him. He is the son of a co-worker of mine. The theme is Mickey Mouse, and they have awesome Disney stickers there. 
Well, off to make the card, and get a little gifty for the little guy too. Learning tree here I come! :-)

Love, 
R&J

Thursdays....

It was a good day! My drive to school wasn't so good though. The roads were pretty slippery and it was snowing. I usually leave our place at 7:30 or 7:35 and get there before 8. I barely made it on time today. Whew! I do love the snow, but not when the roads get really nasty because of it. Then the way home was fine. I talked to my Mom today and she said that there is no snow back home. That's usually the opposite. 

I worked a couple hours at Scrapbook Hideaway for a few hours, came home and had dinner with my husband. We had ravioli. :) Russ doesn't work until the evening tomorrow so he said he will drive me to school tomorrow. I love it when he drives me to school. A little bit of time together before we begin our days. And.... THANK GOD TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!!

Well, that is all I have to say for the day. :-) Love Ya'll!! 

R&J

Christmas Creation!

Here is the Christmas scrapbook that I made for my wonderful Grandma Pat. :-) I actually finished a Christmas present early! 

 

Thanksgiving is coming!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I am so excited! We can't go to my parent's house because Russ has to work, but what can you do. I would love to attempt... at least attempt.... to cook a turkey and have a Thanksgiving dinner for two. :) I never expected this, but I will be a last minute Thanksgiving shopper. The week of Thanksgiving is going to be wonderful because I have two days of work and we BOTH have the Wednesday before off. I mean we may not be doing a lot with family, but we are starting our own traditions. It's so exciting. :-)

During the month of November I have been working at Scrapbook Hideaway more than usual. It has been crazy, but so much fun! Patti and Ronda were hosting a retreat at the C'mon Inn this week end. While they were at retreat I was working!! :-) I worked there 12 hours over the 3 day week end, but I made a sizable dent in my pay check by buying card stock and other items. There are some beautiful Christmas papers that are more than the regular green and red. My favorite is the combination of blue & blown with lots of glitter. There are also other patterned paper with green and red, but they look really classy and vintage. Saturday was the craziest day though, it was just hectic... can't really pin anything specific... but it just had that kind of feeling about it. But, I kept going with my pages to get past the hectic feeling. I will post pictures of my scrapbook pages soon. Now time to do some Mary Kay and school work. 

Love, 

R&J

3 day week end & Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, and I would just to say a big thanks to all of the Service Men & Women today! To all of those who have served, are serving and will serve. My brother was a solider in the National Guard... My Grandpa Joe served in the army... and our good friend Rory is serving in the Navy. We are so thankful for those men and women who are apart of America's military forces. If it wasn't for them... we wouldn't have the freedom that we have today. It was a very nice today indeed. I worked at The Scrapbook Hide-Away tomorrow while Ronda and Patti were hosting a retreat at the C'mon Inn. That will be going on through the week end, so I will be there tomorrow as well. :-) 

Russ does not work tomorrow... which is so nice! Times are crazy and hectic more than they are easy going, but we are thankful for the days off that we have. He has to work on Thanksgiving though... we were hoping to make it home, but that's out of the question. Not that it's bad that we are staying in Missoula, we just looking forward to spending it with my family. Well, that will give us a chance to use all of our kitchen appliances to cook a turkey!! Whoa! :-) We shall see how that goes... and who we spend Thanksgiving with. :-)

This morning I had the chance to watch NFL Not Top 10 with Suzie. It was so funny! I loved it, short, sweet & to the point. I was able to have coffee while doing my make up for the day, and it was so much fun spending time with Suzie. She comes over for dinner & football every Sunday and it is so much fun! Our apartment is becoming quite the little abode. We still don't have everything organized... and we are living on banana chairs for furniture... but it's our home, and we have welcomed many people... and will always welcome friends and family were ever we go. But, our goal is to safe up money for a 7 foot couch... turn our guestroom/office into our Griz room. We have a Griz clock and fleece through... my GMB plaque is hanging up and Russ's be hanging up soon. I'm hoping to have all of that soon... no... we WILL have all of that soon! 

While I have been writing this post I have been going back and forth from here to facebook... and watching Julie & Julia... and now the movie is almost over. Maybe time to call this Friday night d-o-n-e done! Good night Missoula... and all surrounding/distant areas who might be reading this. Love you all, God Bless!! 

R&J

Creations!

So here is the journal I "renovated" & the brownies that Russ made. Yup, a creation right out of the box! :-P

 

The Front of the Journal 

The Back

The Brownies :-)

I noticed on Wayne's facebook page that he mentioned that his finger was cut up from taking care of his loot from his hunting trip. I sent him a text message to see if he could still text... ha ha ha! ;) His phone was dying so he told me that I should call him on his land line. So he did and eventually the conversation led to brownies. I told him that Russ & I were watching MASH and baking brownies. He asked me if I was using nuts and I told him how I don't like nuts in brownies because brownies shouldn't crunch. Any way, so I had a brownie and I posted that picture that you see above on facebook and tagged Wayne. The caption said described the perfectly good brownie... with out nuts! You can agree to disagree... but brownies should not crunch and therefore not have nuts! Any whoo... that is my spiel and I'm sticking to it!! Good night folks!

Twitter

Finally joined Twitter... sigh... 
I had a twitter account for my college tech class... but I never really used it. I know it's going to be something that I will just use to waste my time... but ya know, it's still fun. :-) I have been writing in my journal more. I will post a pic of my "renovated" composition notebook that I use for my journal. :-) 

I am so glad it is FRIDAY! This week was a rough week, but I made it! I'm looking forward to scrapbooking tomorrow at Scrapbook Hideaway tomorrow after the Community Band dress rehearsal. I have been back in Cricut mode lately and I'm loving it! I have been working on our wedding album lately. I also have several small projects... but what scrap-o-hollic isn't multitasking with their projects? Russ is at marching band rehearsal and I can't wait for him to come home! He was home earlier today, but that was long enough to say hi, bye, kiss and out the door. Sigh.... I wonder what we are having for dinner tonight... I am watching Diners Drive Ins & Dives on the Food Network and the host is at a fabulous pizza parlor. Yum... pizza... I have a recipe from my Mom for wheat pizza crust... but I lost it... Oh well, we will figure it out. :) We love watching food network, but we have never really explored cooking. We have plenty of appliances to make lots of great meals, so I guess we will have to start, eh? Since our budget is so incredibly tight right now, we are having to plan every day in 2 week blocks. But, it was a lot of fun! Yesterday we went grocery shopping after we planned out our meals. 

Tomorrow morning is the dress rehearsal for the Missoula Community Concert Band. I am so excited for the concert! John Combs is fantastic, and it has been an honor to be in an ensemble under his direction. In the spring it will be... Kevin Griggs! I'm looking forward to that too! 


Russ & I have decided that Wednesday nights are our fun/date nights. This doesn't mean that we are going to go out every Wednesday, but just that Wednesday is our night to spend with each other. Russ usually has Wednesdays off, and that is the first night of the week where I am not busy with a rehearsal or a Mary Kay meeting. Last night before we went to bed we watched a few episodes of M*A*S*H and had some cherry toasters strudel. It was a lot of fun and a great way to relax at the end of the day.


Well, let's see what is in the kitchen for dinner. I will put some pics up of some of my creations in my next post. 

Ta!

Puzzles and Scrapbooks

Hi all! 
So, if you don't this already, Russell's favorite hobby is putting together puzzles, and mine is scrapbooking. Russ just finished a puzzle of the Sydney Opera House, and now is working on a photomosaic puzzle of a butterfly. I am working on a scrapbook of our wedding photos. I just looked at my stack of scrapbooks and it brought back a lot of great memories :) So, here is one of my many favorite scrapbook 2 page spread & the puzzle that Russ & I finished: