A cutie, a hottie and some goodies...

The Cutie

My brother and I bought this ridiculous headband while we were shopping for Monkey's party. The picture is blurry so you may not be able to see that the flames of the candles spell out "Happy Birthday."

The Hottie

This is what my car said last night when we came out of the restaurant at 7 pm. We had to go out for dinner because the house was just too hot. My dad's friend was able to repair the air, thank God, but it had been out so long, it took hours to cool down the house. He had to replace the blower motor. I'm just glad it wasn't something bigger, or more expensive, or something that would have taken days to fix. Now that I'm unemployed, any hit to the pocketbook hurts, but I really had no choice. It HAD to be fixed!

It occurred to me last night that the air must have gone out either Saturday night or early Sunday. I had run home to change after spending the morning setting up for the party, and the house felt warm. I just chalked it up to the fact that I had been running around like a chicken with its head cut off all morning. CSJ said the thermostat said 83 when he got home, but he just thought I had turned the thermostat up in an attempt to be frugal.

Anyhoo, it works now!!

Some Goodies

My Tastefully Simple goodies arrived yesterday!! Look at the size of that box!

The first little peek inside...

I started to unpack the box one section at a time...

It almost didn't all fit on my counter! Then I grouped it according to how it was ordered.

This was my half-priced item. It's called The Perfect 10 Collection. (Normally$79.99, I paid $40)

It consists of 1) Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix 2) Artichoke & Spinach Warm Dip Mix 3) Bountiful Beer Bread Mix Value Pack (3-pack) 4) Garlic Garlic 5) Key Lime Cheese Ball Mix 6) Nana's Apple Cake Mix 7) Onion Onion 8) Perfect Parmesan Biscuit Mix 9) Seasoned Salt 10) Spinach & Herb Dip Mix

This was my FREE Hostess Gift.

It's called Returning Favorites, and is only available until the end of July. It retails for $48.45, and comes with a bonus mix valued at $7.99 (total value = $56.44!) Again, I got it FREE.

It consists of 1) Blue Ribbon Blueberry Bar Mix 2) Howlin' Horseradish Dip Mix 3) Meyer Lemon Infused Oil 4) Green Tea Peppercorn Seasoning Blend 5) Vanilla Bean Chiller Drink Mix and the bonus item 6) Viva, Garlic! Alfredo Sauce Mix.

The Rest

I earned $111.15 in product ON TOP OF all the stuff above. This is what I picked out:
Vidalia Onion Dressing
Lemonade Fruit Dip Mix
Onion Onion
Fiesta Party Dip Mix
Garden Veggie Dip Mix
Absolutely Almond Pound Cake Mix
Classy Chocolate Pound Cake Mix
Smokey Cheddar Cheese Ball Mix
Bountiful Beer Bread 3-pack
Bayou Bourbon Glaze
Pomegranate Chipotle Sauce
Perfect Parmesan Biscuit Mix
Twisty Grahams

How's THAT for a haul, huh? And, like I said before, all I paid out-of-pocket was $40! The total retail value of ALL these goodies was $230. I think every one of you should call Jen and set up a show with her!!

Ok, Tastefully Simple commercial over. Time to go clean up the next BIG mess in this house. Oh, what's that? I didn't tell you? Yeah, seems there's a leak SOMEWHERE in the f-ing laundry room (our best guess is IN the damn wall!) so I've been dealing with a flooded laundry room for almost a week now. (That's partly because CSJ insists on doing laundry every damn day.) As I've been typing, the shop vac has been sucking up water like crazy. In the meantime, the laundry piles are sky-high, so I think we just may have to head to the laundromat tonight. In the 100 degree heat. Awesome.

I just had to tell you...

...how freakin' awesome my Tastefully Simple party ended up being. Jen freakin' ROCKS!! We closed my show tonight, and all told, I'll be getting about $230 worth of products for $40. The $40 is really for the half-priced item (obviously an $80 value!) I earned through my sales total. The other rest is all FREE products! My sales earned me $111.15 in product, plus I got a bonus hostess gift worth $40. I'm so thrilled!

During the party last Sunday, we came up with the brilliant idea to have a combined Tastefully Simple/Pampered Chef party in the fall. We're looking at the beginning of November. If you're at all interested, let me know and I'll add you to the list. The beauty of this wacky interwebs stuff is that you can now shop from the comfort of your home, without actually having to be at the party. Although, it's SO much more fun to be at the party!! It's hard for me to pour you a margarita through the computer screen, ya know?

As much as I appreciate all the great stuff I'll be getting from this party, I'm more excited that Jen had such a great first show. What a great way to kick off her new business. And, the other thing I'm grateful for is that I got to spend a wonderful afternoon with friends and family. We had such a blast. I don't know if Jen had such a great time, since the TS party ended up going down the same road my PC parties always do - drunken debauchery! I can't tell you how awesome it was to finally meet Jen in person. She's just as sweet and funny in person as I thought she would be. She's obviously VERY patient, since she put up with my gang, and didn't bitch-slap anyone.

I know I said I didn't have any plans today, but I ended up going to my mother's to see my Monkey. My cousin and his boyfriend were there, too. It was great to see him. He just had surgery about a week ago to repair a double hernia. Ouch! And, just for the record, I did spend the entire morning in bed, with a BIG stack of magazines, so my day was still very relaxing.

Anyway, look at my little fashion plate!

I know you're sick to death of hearing it, but SHE'S SO DAMN CUTE!!!!

Did you happen to peek at the weather widget over there? The temperature dropped about 30 degrees since yesterday!! (as I type this, the widget says 73) The weathermen kept saying that the temps were going to drop to the 80s this weekend, and for the next 5 days or so. But, I didn't expect it to get THIS beautiful! I even took Monkey for a walk, just to get outside. We walked over to my Bestest Friend's house. (Little side story - Bestest Friend now lives just a few blocks away from my parents' house, where I grew up, and I live just a couple blocks from the house where SHE grew up! We swapped neighborhoods as adults. Weird, right?)

I think I just may take advantage of this GORGEOUS temperature drop, and sit out on my deck for a little while. Hope you all had as wonderful a Saturday as I did today!