Pampered Chef National Conference 2008

WOW I had a blast at Nationals! I learned so much information, and we learned about all of our new fall products, and our new recruiting incentives! Despite getting an average of 5 hours of sleep per night, with two of those nights getting only 3 hours of sleep or less, I really had a great time, and the money spent was WELL worth the classes I took and the information I learned. I'll give a little breakdown of everything we did, and try to get some pictures included, if I can figure that out.

Tuesday night, I went to bed about 11:30. Got up at 3 am. I don't remember sleeping that night. Lol I drove down to Amarillo for my flight leaving at 6:55 am. I met up with my best friend, Melody, gave hugs, checked in and talked like giddy school girls until take off. In the air, we both tried to get some sleep, but our flight to Dallas/Fort Worth was less than an hour. We had a 2 hour layover in the DFW aiport, and there we met up with Melody's other best friend, and one of my now good friends, Melissa. We picked up some breakfast, walked around, browsed a book store. Before we knew it we were on our way to Chicago. None of us slept. I tried to read, but found to my dismay, that I started feeling nauseous. A quick 2 hours later, and we were IN Chicago! It was completely umbelieveable, the aireal view of the city. Tall buildings everywhere, and we flew over Lake Michigan when we coming in to land. It was just the most beautiful thing. I was in awe of the greatness of this city! After we landed, we ran to the potty, and met up with our Director, also named Melissa. We got our luggage, and got a taxi! Woohoo, first time in a taxi! It was nothing special really, pretty much the same as what I've seen on TV. Thank goodness for television, huh? LOL We drove 30 plus minutes to where we were staying. The Sheraton. And wow, what a hotel. Here's a shot of the hotel, and a view from our room. The water you see there is Lake Michigan.




After we were checked into our hotel, and after we unpacked a little and got more organized, we walked down a block or two (and these are REAL city blocks. Like NYC blocks. Not 4-houses-long-blocks, like in small towns) and we ate at a Deli, which was de-lish! Later that night, once our 5th girl joined us, we walked down to Volare, an Italian restaurant hidden by many tall buildings. I have never had any Italian, as good as this! Ok, it beats out Olive Garden and Johnny Carino's! It was the best! I ordered Risotto Fattori,which translates to "Risotto with diced chicken breast, peas and a four cheese sauce". A $16 plate. I just drank water that night. Lol. Here's some pictures from that night.











After Volare, we walked down to Navy Pier. Navy Pier, as described by Wikipedia, is a "...3,300-foot long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million; it was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner Daniel Burnham and his associates. As Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the pier. However, the pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre-air conditioning era parts of the pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The pier even had its own streetcar. It was known as a romantic spot for young lovers..." They have firework displays on Wednesday and Saturday nights. It was really, one of the best desplays of fireworks I've ever seen. Here's a couple pictures from our night at Navy Pier. At one point, before the fireworks began, we were sitting down, all laughing and talking, and all of a sudden out of nowhere, a RAT comes running out of the bushes towards us! We all screamed and jumped and I guess our vocals scared him because he flipped a 180 and ran back into the bushes. LOL. Ok, here's the pictures. The first picture here, is a picture taken off Wikipedia. I believe that our hotel is the one thats furthest to the right or the one, right above that one.









That night we crashed about 1 AM. We all got up about 5 AM to start getting for Day 1 of Nationals! We had to pick up our registration packets at 6:30, and we had a first-timers orientation class at 7:15 am. Here is a picture of us, wide awake and all pretty on Day 1 at the butt crack of dawn!





After orientation, we had the privelage to drive to the Pampered Chef Home Office, in Addison, IL for a tour! I didn't get many pictures from there, but my 2 other girlfriends snapped a jillion pictures and haven't gotten the rest to me yet. But we were able to see some of the older PC products, we toured the test kitchen where they create new recipes, we got to see the makeup room/laundry room, we saw the kitchen where they make all of the dvds that are sent out to us each new season. Basically, they just demonstrate the new products and recipes in there. We were able to go up to the next level, and tour Doris Christopher's office. Doris is the founder of Pampered Chef. She is a wonderful lady and we all got a picture with her! But that picture is on another camera. We also toured Marla Gottschalk's office. She is the Senior Vice President of Pampered Chef. I left her my business card (hey, everyone was. LOL). We went up to the next level and we were able to view all the conference rooms. There's a room dedicated to all of the consultant who've reached $1 million in Career Sales. There was a room for the $2 million in Career Sales. There was a room for all of the TPC Achievers. Those are the Top Performance Cluster Achievers. Those are they, that achive the highest sales, recruits, and 3 other categories in a one year's time. Those people just blow me away. Their dedication and love for what they do, is just phenomenal.



After our Home Office tour, we headed back to the conference center, ate lunch, and headed to our first class at 1pm. My first class was called Cooking Show Live in Action with Matt King. I learned SO MUCH and took some great notes! There wasn't a time when I wasn't jotting something down. He was an awesome speaker, and I think he's my new mentor. He's been with the company for 6 years (I think??). He's a director, has dozens and dozens of recruits, and yes. He's not on "my team", if you know what I mean. But thats ok! That makes it even easier to talk to him! I did approach him after class to ask him some questions. And later on, I found out that he is actually in my PC family. All that means, is that we're under the same National Executive Director. So, like my upline director Melissa, would be his "sister" or they're possible "cousins". But we're related, which is pretty neat. Here's a picture of me standing next to his picture. I did get a picture WITH him, but that picture hasn't been sent to me yet.




After class, we attended Day 1 of General Session. Day 1, we learned what our new fall products would be, which was WOW exciting! I can hardly wait till then! There were giveaways and music and dancing, and just, wow. There were camera men, photographers everywhere.... We got our photo taken a few times and a shot of us on video too! So we'll see if we made it into the Conference video and newsletter! Here's some pictures we took, on Day 1 during General Session. The first picture is some of the staging decorations. Very professional and nice looking!









And here's a picture of our founder, Doris Christopher.



That night we ate at Giordani's. REAL Chicago Pizza! And it was the best pizza I have ever had! It was made with REAL mozzerella cheese! The wait was over an hour, but SO worth it! They had a water fountain in front, so we passed the time with taking pictures. So here's some more pictures. Lol




After eating the best pizza ever, we headed back to the hotel and passed out about 11:30pm. On day 2, we slept in till about 6:30 am, if you call that sleeping in. Lol Day 2 started with General Session at 9am. Ok, this was an embarrassing moment. The Pampered Chef has their own dance team and singers. And during one of the opening songs, they were singing a song to the tune of YMCA. It was called TPC Way. During one of the bridges of the song, a couple of the dancers actually came out into the audience and literally dragged myself and Melissa, my upline director, onto the stage. I was seriously having an anxiety attack. Lol Ok well it felt like it. I was so embarrassed dancing up there with the attractive male dancers, and shortly after walking on-stage, I became dsylexic and I lost all sense of "normal" dance moves. Lol I wasn't sure WHAT I was doing, but apparently my girlfriends all got lots of pictures, and the cameramen put me up on the big screen too. Ahhhhh! Incredibly humiliating! Ok, I'll share some pictures.









I had 2 classes on Day 2. Phone Courage and Abundant Bookings. Very good classes. I learned a lot and took some good notes. Here's some more pictures. I know you're loving all the photos! Lol





Also that night, we had a banquet dinner in honor of our Senior Executive Director, Teresa Brown. We were told to wear sparkly clothes or makeup. I borrowed this shirt, but think it looks good on me.



Ok, on to Day 3! On Day 3 started with my last class. It was called Be A Master Seller. I LOVED that class! Great ideas and very useful to me! All of the classes I took were very beneficial to me and my business. I felt that the money I spent on registration, was WELL worth the knowledge I learned while there. Here's some more pictures from General Session Day 3. (I forgot my apron at the hotel, so I'm not wearing mine, which wasn't mandatory, but still cute.) Let me tell you this.... The more universal you are in your group/team, the more attention you get from the photographers and camera men. We did get our picture taken a few times with our aprons and purple pom-poms, and had a video clip taken as well. So we'll see if we make it thru the editing. Lol




Overall, I had an awesome time at nationals. It was all very exhausting, but so exhilirating! We learned some fantastic recruting incentives, promotion incentives, and of course, we learned all about our new fall products! WOW is all I can say. Lol yes I can spill the beans, so if anyone is interested, shoot me an email, or give me a call, and I'll clue you in!

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And yes, Jayson and the kids were all alive and well, and no the house was not upside down when I came home. I was pleasantly surprised and thrilled to find a somewhat decently clean house. The kids all missed me and were happy to see me. As was Jayson.

I'm happy to be home, and I'm looking forward to Nationals 2009!!

It's been awhile, huh?

It looks like its been about a month and a half since I posted last! How about some updates, huh?

This past week, Jayson flew to Turlock,CA for work training and was gone for 5 days. Its about 8 miles from Hilmar, CA and 1 1/2 hours from Sacramento. They took lots of classes, split into groups, headed some presentations, and went out for some expensive meals at the company's expense. He had a great time, learned a lot, and everyone loved him. Lol Whats not to like, right? He's been busy at work with his new schedule, which keeps him there 10 hours a day now for a 7 day stretch, but then in turn gets 5 days off. Which is nice. He's happy to be home now, and the kids and I really missed him.


Audrey.... she's just a ball of energy and trouble. The other day she sliced her finger open after trying to cut an apple by herself. Where was mommy you ask? Mommy was sitting on the couch answering the phone, which not even 30 seconds before it rang, I had asked Audrey multiple times to sit down on the couch and to keep quiet for a few minutes. Next thing I knew, she's screaming her head off, and running from the kitchen. So I got her all cleaned up, inspected her wound, decided it wasn't bad enough to take her to the ER. I sealed it with super glue, and put a bandaid on it. By the time I got to looking at her face, there weren't even any real tears! I told her to stop her whining. I was in shock that she was whining over this, and not even crying! She was "bawling" for the attention! I do not understand why my 4 1/2 yr old feels the need for constant attention. Nothing I can do or say seems to ever make it better. Just the other day too, I was carrying Hannah. Ok and the kids have this toy that has a hard bottom and a soft top. And we have wood floors. So I was walking across the room, didn't see the toy, and me and Hannah went flying! I stepped on the toy, I knew I was falling, so I just held on tight to Hannah and landed on my right butt cheek and hip. So then Hannah started crying, probably because it scared her, and I just laid there for a minute, holding Hannah and telling her she was ok, trying to gather my bearings. And Audrey was asking if I was ok. I told her I was just fine, and THEN Audrey got up on the couch, and seriously threw herself off the couch, and started crying, because she bumped her head. Yeah, you tell me. I have no idea why she does these things.

Anyways, while Jayson was gone, I was really, really hoping Audrey would be a big girl, and not act like a baby so much. I needed her help, and I didn't get any of it. This past Wednesday, Ethan's ECI work lady came over. Before she came over to work with Ethan, I told Audrey that she was here for Ethan, and that she was going to help him learn to talk. And that she needed to leave her alone, etc etc. She said ok and she'd leave them alone. Well that went over well. It was VERY frustrating and aggravating. Audrey was constantly in her face, not leaving her alone, and me constantly saying, "Audrey, leave her alone so she can help Ethan." Nope, I never got thru to her. Finally the lady left, and I blew. No I didn't blow up, but I was really upset that Audrey didn't listen to me. And I let her know. I told Audrey that I was very disappointed that she would not leave Ethan and the ECI lady alone. Well then she started feeling bad, and apologizing. So I decided that I might as well get the rest of my errands done, while my kids were being rotten. Just get it all done and over with. So off we went to the bank and post office. Just before we pulled into the post office, I told Audrey that I wasn't buying any toys (b/c our PO has stuffed animals), no stamps, no envelopes, nothing. I told her that she was to stay by me and not go off running. So in we go. I get Audrey and Ethan to help me with my delivery confirmation papers and trash. I get up to the counter and the lady obviously sees that I have my hands full with 3 kids, and 5 packages to mail, and she's all taking her sweet time, and its stinkin hot in the PO and I was SWEATING! And then Audrey takes off. So I pray that this all gets wrapped up and I'm out of there soon. And then Ethan sees his sister running around (with me trying to unsucessfully control Audrey from a distance), and so then he takes off. So I finally get out of the post office trying my best to control my children. I hold in my anger and frustration, that Audrey didn't obey me, we drove to McDonalds, picked up some lunch, came back home, ate lunch and we ALL took naps. That was the only good part of the day. Hahaha

Ethan was pretty good while Jayson was gone. He didn't cause much trouble. He's my sweet boy. He just gets into trouble because he sees Audrey doing it. She shows him what to do, and he's like, "Sure, why not?!"

The ECI ladies are doing him a lot of good. Or maybe its me. Hahaha We have some flash cards that we use with Ethan, and when Ethan is talking to me, or trying anyways, I'll help him by slowing down the words so he can hear how they're pronounced. He says "mom" now, and it melts my heart. Lol

Hannah is trying to walk, but she gives up easy. She'd rather crawl because she knows she'll get there faster. She's also been incredibly cranky lately. I think she's going thru a bout of teeth coming in. She already has 1 molar thru, and I know more are coming in. She has a set routine, which makes it nice for me. She adores her daddy, too! When we picked up Jayson after his trip to CA, she saw him and immediatley put her arms up to him and starting crying for him. She's too cute.

And then me... well I did survive the week without Jayson. It was difficult at times, and I missed Jayson a lot. A lot, a ton, so much! It wasn't that I missed his help, it was that I actually missed his company. Him being with me. We talked when we could, but it was mostly at night, when I was barely conscience because I was so exhausted. Haha.

We've had a few bad storms here in the panhandle, but nothing too bad yet. Dumped rain, and thunder so loud it shook the house. Audrey and Ethan were enthralled. The dog was barking at the thunder too. Haha it was funny.

On a not so good note, we have 2 families in our branch moving. One family with 5 children are moving to Omaha, NE and the other family, who are older with no nearby children are moving to CA to be closer to their children. The bad news being that our primary will be reduced from 10 to 6, and our nursery will go from 2, to 1. That 1 being Ethan. And Hannah will join him soon. The older lady is the primary president, and the mother with 5 children is the Relief Society secretary. I have a feeling, theres going to be some major changes, and I think I'm about to get some serious callings. YIKES!

Anyways, thats about it for now I think. Its getting late and I'm off to bed. Bye for now!

Honeymoon to Orlando, FL (5 years later)

Yes we just took our honeymoon, 5 years into the making, but hey, better late than never right? We went to Orlando and really had a lot of fun. We missed the children tremendously about 3 days into the trip. But we talked to them here and there and we were comfortable with Aunt Sandra and leaving them with her. I'll try to post some pictures, but no gaurantees its going to work. I seem to have problems with loading pics. It was really kind of funny actually. I took so many scenery pictures! Florida was absolutely beautful! It was green and alive! Not all dirt and dead shrubs and weeds. Hahaha If we're friends on myspace (www.myspace.com/nb0663), you can view ALL our honeymoon pictures thru my albums. If you're not on myspace, here's a small sampling. :)

View of the Atlantic Ocean from our hotel room in Daytona Beach.



Driving towards Daytona, over the Atlantic Ocean.



Its so green and alive!

Updates

Well yesterday we traveled down to Amarillo for Ethan's hearing test. I really didn't feel like it was necessary, but that's what ECI wanted. So down we went. Drove a little over an hour. I signed us in, about 3 minutes later we were called back. The doctor put this pen like instrument into his ears to measure the amount of fluid, if any, in his eardrums, and he didn't have any. And then you know how usually, for hearing tests, you wear these headphones and you raise the hand on that side you hear the noise? Well I was wondering how they were going to do this with Ethan. We went into this sound proof box. On our right hand side, and our left hand side, and right in front of us on a table, were some black boxes, with a stuffed animal inside. The doctor left the booth, closed the door and one at a time, lit up a box. And that animal would make barking noises or clap its hands, and it was actually kind of funny to watch Ethan. The one on the right would start going off, and Ethan would snap his head to look at it, and then the box on the left would light up and make noises and Ethan would snap his head over in that direction and point and oooh and aaah. After a few minutes of this, the doctor came back in and said that she doesn't feel like he has any hearing problems. I said ok thank you, and we left. WOW a whole 15 minutes in her office, just to confirm something I already knew. Then we drove the hour plus back home. And then today ECI came over again today. They just asked me more questions and they'll come back on May 6th for his first session. They asked if I was opposed to sign language, and I said no. So they'll start teaching him some basic sign language so that he can have an easier time telling me what he wants or needs. I will also be meeting with the school board to see if they feel like Ethan qualifies for school this fall. Which I didn't even know was a possibility. But we'll all meet with them and that will happen sometime in May. Thats about it for Ethan.

Jayson's schedule changed yet again. Surprise surprise. When we get back from our trip to Florida, he'll be working 10 hour shifts from 3pm till 1am. And twice a month he'll get 5 day weekends. The other two weekends, he'll work for one, and the other he'll have 2 days off. I'm not so sure about the 10 hour days, but we'll see how it goes.

I had to take legal action today. Do you remember how I was babysitting a little boy? Well his mother decided she didn't like me or something. She never called to say he wasn't coming over, and she was just making up excuses left and right. Well we finally took her check to the bank. Cashed it and everything. Well a few days later, we found out that her check wasn't good, so the money came back out of our account. And then today we got the canceled check notice in the mail, and instead of NSF stamped across it, it said PAYMENT STOPPED! Yes she stopped the payment on her check! Me and Jayson were not happy at all. He's tried calling her numerous times, tried talking to her at work, and I called her today and left her a not so nice message on her cell phone. So i called Bank of America and asked what I could do. They suggested I take the check over to her bank and see what THEY can do. So over to her bank I went. They told me there was nothing I could do, except maybe take it over to the DA's office. Well I had no clue where that was at. So over to the Courthouse I went, walking thru the maze till I found someone who could help me. And then SHE suggested I go over to the County Attorney's office. She told me where it was, so I drove over there, and finally got the right place. Hahahaha They were really nice to me, and even though the check was for $100, she still handled me and my case like I was important. She said she'd send out a letter to the lady and say that she has 14 days to pay. If she doesn't, they'll send out a 2nd and final notice, saying that if she doesn't pay within 7 days, they'll file some kind of hot check suit against her or something. But either way, she seemed confident she'd get the money for us. And best of all? This doesn't cost us a dime :) And then she said she'd keep us updated.

Ok guess that's all for now!

Ethan

Well today ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) came over to evaluate Ethan. Ethan is 2 1/2 (29 months) and doesn't really talk. The extent of his vocabulary is dada/daddy, mama, uh-oh, no, peh (please), beh-beh (blanket), deh (cup) and thats about it. So anyways, after about 2 hours of evaluation, they determined that Ethan's cognitive skills are at an 18 month level and his language skills are at a 15 month level! So they'll come back in two weeks to start speech therapy and we'll also be seeing an ear doctor in Amarillo in a couple weeks. ECI will set that appointment up for us. Just wanted to let you all know.

Fawah News

Well, our poor little Fawah didn't make it :( Yesterday afternoon, Jayson and I were looking at the cocoon, and were both thinking he died as a cocoon. We figured we'd give him 2 more days to hatch before we gave up. Well today between 10 am and 12 pm, our little Fawah hatched into a beautiful butterfly! His life was short lived however. He passed away. We're not sure if the jar got too hot, and he died from the heat, or if he got stuck in his waste and died, but either way, he's in heaven now with Jesus. Poor Audrey though. Right as I was looking at the jar, to inspect him, Audrey walked in and asked about her cocoon. She immediatley saw that he wasn't a cocoon anymore and got all excited and said, "mommy! Did he turn into a butterfly? Can i see?!" And i said, "oh Audrey, I think he died!" We were both so sad. Audrey cried and cried, and I almost cried because she was so heart broken. We told her though that we would look into getting her some more caterpillars so they can turn into butterflies. We found this one website, that for $30 plus shipping (OUCH), they send you 5 caterpillars, food, a butterfly net, and a dvd. That may be our only option. But you know, I was really excited when Audrey brought home her caterpillar from school, because I had never done this when I was a kid. Anyways, I'll post a picture of Fawah as a butterfly when my camera phone decides to stop giving me fits (since my camera is dead).

Oops RE: Pictures

Well for some reason, my blog has cut off my kids pictures. Audrey and Hannah were cut off, so if anyone knows how to fix it, please tell me! Thanks!

PICTURES!

Well I promised I'd post pictures of Fawah, Audreys caterpillar, so here's a couple pictures.

Here he is in his original home, the cup that Audrey brought home from school.



And here he is in his new home, a pickle jar, with room to expand his wings when he turns into a butterfly. We punched lots of holes in the lid so he can breathe.



The Easter Bunny didn't come to our house on Easter, well because frankly, my children don't need anymore junk and candy and toys. So, we got them all pretty and handsome in their Easter outfits and I took pictures. The Saturday after Easter, the church had an Easter Egg Hunt for the Primary Social. So, here's some pictures of the kids.

Butterflies!!

Today Audrey went to preschool, and they're learning about butterflies and caterpillars. When I went to pick up Audrey today, her teacher gave each of the parents a little tiny cup with a little caterpillar in it! Its so fun, we're going to get to watch it turn into a butterfly! Audrey is ecstatic! She runs into the kitchen every so often to see if her catepillar has turned into a butterfly yet. I asked her if her caterpillar was a boy or a girl. She said it was a boy. And that she wanted to name him... ready for this? Fawah. Lol Yep. I have no idea what name that is, but she's so stuck on that name. She wanted to name the dog that, but we didn't know what she was saying, and we still don't. I don't know what Fawah is, and I can't translate it. Lol But she's so proud of her caterpillar. And when her caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly, she gets to release it into the world so that everybody can see it! (And those words came out of her mouth!) It was so precious :)

Lets see... Ethan is sick now. He has, what the doctor calls, Sinusitis, which I think is a fancy word for a cold. Hannah's starting to have a runny nose and she's running kind of warm. And now Jayson has acute bronchitis. So, lots of fun here!

Oh, and Jayson got me a babysitting job too. I watch a 2 1/2 yr old little boy named Matthew Monday thru Friday from 1-5, and she offered to pay me $100 a week! I'm pretty excited about that :) He gets along well with the kids, but he doesn't listen. I guess that just goes to show that no kid listens. Lol

AND at the end of April, beginning of May, me and Jayson will have the privelage of going to Orlando, Florida for 12 days! We are SO excited, and will be leaving the kids with Aunt Sandra. We just hope they'll behave for her. YAY thanks Aunt Sandra!!

The Biglers (Natalie, Jayson, Audrey, Ethan and Hannah) oh, and Bear and Fawah Hahaha

Ugh I don't feel good :(

Well Saturday night was when it started. The sore throat, the achiness, the coughing. Sunday began with a pounding headache, which I can only pinpoint to be a migraine. And now here it is Monday, and I just want to cut my head off. Its excruciatingly painful, and my throat hurts, my voice is coming and going. Yeah its not good. And then Jayson had to work today, so now here I am, stuck at home with my 3 "loving and so obediant" children, who just won't listen to me. They don't care that Mommy is sick or that Mommy doesn't feel good.

And to top all that off, I'm out of my medicine. I'm on Effexor, and actually the doctor had given me a month's supply, and Jayson just so happens to be using the same stuff. Well, he was out too. So he started using up my samples. I had gotten 4 weeks worth, and only got 2 weeks in :( So, apparently with my anxiety, I experiance a lot of the symptoms of anxiety that I never knew I had. Like dizziness, tingly face, heart pounding, stuff like that. And they can't see me till Wednesday for my followup.

BLEH