Another Blog...

Hello Dear Friends and Readers,

I hope you are all doing well this week. I have a new introduction for you, it's my work blog. We decided to start a blog for our company and it was born today. So hop on over to "Life on the Fuzzy Side" and check it out. I would greatly appreciate comments, ect. God Bless!

Love Lauren

One of those days...

Do you ever have one of those days that is just filled with frustrations. Well, today was one of them. No major issues, just annoyances, but hey, if I can't talk about it on my blog, where can I talk about it :-)

I started off the morning with a nice walk with the pups and then it spiraled down from there. I was doing my hair and makeup with a bird that just wanted to kill my makeup brushes. Now keep in mind he has his own brushes that are old for his amusement. If I let him play with my good ones, he'll destroy them in 10 seconds flat, and have a great time doing it too. Well, this morning his makeup brushes were no good, he wanted to get into my good ones. So I spent the next 20 minutes repeatedly putting Birdy Boy back in his spot, only for him to jump down and go for my brushes, while trying to get ready.

I was already running a bit behind so I decided to pack breakfast and eat that at work as well. I went to the fridge to pack my lunchand my breakfast only to realize the food I thought I had in there for lunch was non-existent. I am usually a very good planner, and always have my lunch ready to go the night before. Last night, however, I was a bit distracted, see the baby post as to my reason. Anyway, I thought "no big deal, I'll go to break at 11:30ish and cook myself something at home. I finished getting ready and set off to work. I got to work just in time for our meeting, and realize my lunch plan b, go home and cook something during my break, fell through due to scheduling and people having days off. So, I bought lunch today, not something I like doing, especially when I almost always bring my lunch. I think this is the 2nd or 3rd time since I've worked here that I didn't pack a lunch.

Then the day continued with irritations. I had two wood towers that were due to be set up today. I had planned out exactly where they were to go and moved everything earlier this week to make room for them. Well, little did I know that these racks that we, the Tigard manager and me, understood to be small were GIANORMOUS!!! Let me tell ya, my showroom is filled to the brim as it is, so squeezing 4 large wood towers in was no easy feat. It took 2 1/2 hours of moving displays to get those puppies in, and brilliant me wore a skirt, grrr. I was so happy the very nice man, who will be known as The Rack Guy, came to set it up and took extra time to help me make room for it. I was very thankful that The Rack Guy was there to help; I could not have done all that on my own.

Following the near wood rack fiasco came the calls. Those calls that just irritate me.... I won't go into too much detail, but let's just say, the whole full moon thing this week certainly effects our people. I mean, why didn't some of these calls come in a month ago when I would be able to fix the problem. Manufacturers have rules and deadlines....Anyway, enough of that.

I'm so glad it's almost Saturday!!!

Okay, now that I've thouroughly complained I will say this... I am very thankful for my job and that I have been blessed with another day. These little frustrations make the pleasant days that much more pleasant, right? Well, I hope you all have a blessed weekend. I will leave you with a picture of Miss Marble. She has been sitting on my desk keeping me company this evening. God Bless and see you soon!!!

Love Lauren

Florida

Well, where to begin.... We landed in sunny Florida around 8 o'clock Sunday night. It was so interesting returning to the land of my birth. I only lived there for a few months but it was still familiar to me, especially the smells. We stayed in a very, very nice resort, that was basically a cruise on land, and had every amenity you could imagine. I wished we could have seen more of Orlando, but the days where spent working and haggling, and the nights were spent "partying." For those of you who do not know me, my version of partying consists of ginger ale with cranberry juice and going back to the room around midnight. I do not enjoy all hours of the night, drinking, ect... Yes, I maybe boring, but I prefer it that way.

I also had a number of new experiences. I met some pretty famous celebrities, which I will share more of in pictures. Had my first spa experience, and now I'm officially spoiled. Shaw bought out Universal Studios one evening, and all of us at the show had the whole place to ourselves. That was really awesome and really neat to have the whole theme park just for us. I also met up with some of my former reps from the store I worked at in Flagstaff. All in all it was a wonderful trip, and I'm slowly getting back to my routine. Here are some pics from the whirlwind trip....

Our amazing hotel with the weird name, Shingle Creek.

Frank, he's the pug in Men in Black... Our first celebrity siting, and petting, for that matter.

Nicky the Macaw, this guy has been in a number of movies, the most recent being Evan Allmighty. I learned that he's 18 years old and a huge mama's boy. His mom and I talked about bird things and swaped terrible two's stories.

The Cockatoo (don't remeber his name, but he sure was cute)

Oh, and Kathy Ireland. Truth be told, I stood in line to meet the animals, but wouldn't do the same for Kathy... What can I say, I'm an animal lover, especially birds.

A very silly picture of Chad, my rep from AZ whom I hadn't seen in three years, Brandy, our CEO, and Michele, our Tigard Store Manager

Okay, really silly picture of Michele and Me on the bus to Universal.

Universal Studios, Orlando

Outside the Mummy ride. No I did not ride it, I'm a whimp and it was a roller coaster.

A street scene with very cool car... Also Universal

And who doesn't love Lucy? I certainly do...(love her that is)

View from our hotel room, on Wednesday, our last day in Florida. Ironically it was the only day the sun was out, figures...

Another view from our window

Yours truly, very exhausted and without make-up :-)

Michele and Me enjoying our first day outside and in sunshine...

On our walk before we left for home

I think that is a crane?

More birds. I was in heaven....

This guy was only about a foot away and we had a very nice conversation. I think he like me, because he kept posing for me and stayed put the whole time.

Goodbye Florida

Well that's all folks... God Bless!

Love Lauren

Finally Home!!!

Hi Everyone,

I have been shamefully lacking in the blogging department lately. Partly due to very few new things going on and the rest due to a conference I just attended in Florida. I'm back home now, and I have lots of pictures and stories to share from my trip. I will hopefully get those posted this weekend. I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!! God Bless.

Love Lauren


P.S. Keep Sarah Jane from Romantic History in your prayers, she's having her baby today!

The Christmas Party

We had our annual company Christmas party on Friday night, and, as usual, it was awesome! You see, I work for the coolest company who loves rewarding employees by throwing a very fancy bash with lots of cool goodies. For example, Aaron and I both came home with iPods. Mine is the touch (jumps up and down with huge goofy smile) and Aaron's is a Classic. We have been playing with them almost non stop now, tee hee. We also came home with gift cards, a comfy blanket, and a weird cooler thing, that we will probably use as a white elephant gift. All in all, it is the best bash of the year. Here is a slide show Aaron put together for Youtube. Enjoy and God Bless!

Aaron's Slide Show

Here we are :-)

What a Week!

I have been shamefully lacking in the blogging area. So much has been happening these past couple of weeks. I won't go into much detail, but I will say that I had a crazy week. As a manager, there are many decisions that I have to make for the health of my store. Some of them are not as easy or as pleasant as others. This week, the decision I had to make was extremely difficult, but necessary. It made me go way out of my comfort zone and was quite scary. However, after it was over, this overwhelming peace came. I know it was the best thing to do, and I know that my store and my staff will be so positively effected by it. I'm thankful that God gave me the strength to do what I had to do and that He also gave me the wisdom to know how to carry it through. Let's just say, it was a huge milestone in my career and a quite unpleasant situation has been turned into a new and exciting opportunity. Thank you to those who were praying for me during the "task" and thanks for your support dear friends. What a week of personal growth!

On another note, we finally received our professional pictures from the ball. Enjoy!

God Bless and have a wonderful week!

Parade Of Homes 2008

My company was privleged to provide the surface materials for another beautiful Parade of Homes home by Barton Brother's Construction. We also were invited to attend the opening VIP night to tour the homes before the general public. It was alot of fun to see all of the houses, but my favorite, and I'm not being biased, was definately the Barton House. Here are a few pictures of the interior. Enjoy and God Bless! (the pictures really don't do the house justice)

Entry

Master Bedroom/ Bathroom

Powder Bath

Guest Bed/ Bath 1

My Favorite Room (it was so beautiful and just a jewel box)

What a Day

Oh my!!!!!! Today was just plain weird. Every wacho came out of the woodworks to "play" at The Carpet Place. We had claims, very odd customers, and weird phone calls!
It was quite the day. Not that it was bad, it was just really, really weird. We couldn't figure out what the deal was. Then we realized DUH! Tomorrow is a FULL MOON and we had a METEOR SHOWER this morning. So it makes perfect sense, all the wachos are coming out to play hehe :-)

Hope you all in internet land had interesting days as well! God Bless

Here's the gang at our last company meeting! Our faces pretty much sums up today :-)

Vegas Baby!

I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas. It was a work related trip to the Surfaces Convention, and oh my, it was crazy. I have never seen so many products packed into a huge space in my life. Almost every flooring company in the nation was there, as well as a few international companies. We spent the bulk of our day meeting with our reps and buying product for our showrooms. At night we schmoozed with our reps at varios swanky parties and night clubs. Now, I am not a partier, I have never been drunk, and that sort of lifestyle is not my thing. However, I did have a good time, still staying completely sober. Yes, it's possible!

The highlight of the whole trip was going to the famed Tao nightclub at the Venetian. It was amazing. It's one of those places that you only get into if you know someone or are someone, mainly a celebrity. For the rest of us, it costs about $200-$500 just to get in the door. CRAZY!!! Well, one of our flooring suppliers bought out the club for three hours, open bar and all, and treated all of their customers to a free party at the Tao. While almost everyone around us was drinking, I stuck to good ol' water and gingerale with cranberry juice. We danced and sang and just had a blast. Here are some of the pics from our trip :-)

Ahhh, my 1st view of sunshine in over a month :-)

Brandy's room at the Venetian. (Our room, Michele and I, looks exactly the same except there were 2 beds)

It's neat to see 50's modern design with a 21st century spin.

At the show in the Sands convention center!

Lot's of metallics this year!

Yes! That's a pewter plated, working toilet. And you can have one in your home.

A view of the canal shops from the 2nd story window of the Canalleto restaurant. Our supplier, Cronin, rented out the second story as well as the bar.

The pinnacle of the trip, the Tao nightclub. (I didn't take these pictures cause I forgot my camera. But they provide a much better view of the interior)

Michele and I with one of the performers :-)

Bye Bye sunshine!