Hello!

Yes!  We are all still alive.  I didn't mean to take a 3 1/2 week blog break.  It just sort of happened.  I guess writing about our week just wore me out. ;)  So since I've been checked on by multiple friends and family members, I figured I'd jump on here and give an update.

• Life got busy when I ended up with 4 Thirty-One parties in the span of 2 weeks.  3 of those were done on Facebook.  That is a really fun way to party.  It's also really easy after you do the prep work.  However, the prep work took me many nights to pull off.  I did a lot of research, came up with a script that I liked, found pictures to use, and had to make videos to go with it.  That made that two week time period even more busy.  The good news is.... I MET MY GOAL!  I am super excited about that!  I am already all registered for conference.  My hotel room is reserved and my flight is booked.  I would have wanted to go anyway, but I really wanted to go this year because it's the 10 year anniversary of 31 so it's suppose to be all that more great.  They say that if you attend the conference, you will increase your business by 40%.  I'm hoping and praying that is true!

• Things wrapped up with MOPS.  We had a good last meeting and then things were set in motion to start planning next year.  I've already attended one steering meeting and gotten to meet some of the moms I will be working with.  I really love the ladies in our MOPS group.  They are all so genuine, nice and giving of themselves!  We also had a family fun night. This was an event to register early and invite perspective moms.  We have to cap our group out at 130 because of childcare and as of the Family Fun night we already had 91 registered.  It's going to be a great year!  We also had a MOPS play date last week, and we have a moms night out tonight.  Joining MOPS was one of the best decisions I have made!  We are going on a leadership retreat in a few weekends from now and I am looking forward to it. (EDIT: As of this morning we only have 16 spaces left. Wow!)

• I've talked on here many times about how I am on some Facebook buy/sell/swap type of pages.  It's basically like going to a virtual garage sale.  Well one of the kid pages that I liked to visit was having some drama with a bad admin.  I sat back and watched.  I had a friend that was affected by all the drama, but I didn't think it was my battle to fight.  Long story short, I made a very respectful comment about a situation and it got deleted.  So I went to the "good" admin and just wrote a message saying enough was enough.  One thing led to another and message after message back and forth... and she deleted the bad admin and 4 days later I was the new admin.  After the bad admin got deleted, people were coming out of the woodwork saying she was mean to them or banned their friend, etc.  It was CRAZY!  It's all good now, though.  It is a group of 4300 people, so that keeps me busy in my spare time.  I enjoy it though.  I was upfront with her about my time commitment.  My daughter and family come first.  I help out when I'm available, but don't stress out when I'm not.  The other admin is really sweet and we seem to have a lot in common.  Our families are actually meeting for dinner this weekend.  So a bad situation turned good and I may have made a new friend!

• We were gearing up to be on the hunt for a house and then we found out that just wasn't going to happen.  Since our condo hasn't been rented for over 2 years, and we took a big loss on it the first year (sitting empty for so many months and the flood), they are offering us a VERY small loan.  To the point where it wouldn't even be worth it.  So that bummed us out, but we're trying to believe that there is a reason for all of this.  So our plan is to hopefully find a house to rent come August.  Either way, we are NOT staying in our current place.  It was a last minute emergency decision to move in here.  The apartment itself isn't too bad, but the street noise is awful.  So we'll be looking for a house in a few months.  Just under different terms.  Out renter's lease is up in August too, so hopefully she will be re-upping.  She's been a really good renter!

• Michael's job is going well.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it here or not, but he got placed back under his first boss.  He really likes her, so this wasn't a bad thing at all.  He also got moved from a cubicle into an office.  He does share it with another guy, because their work sort of goes hand in hand.  He likes the guy and having the office... for the most part.  A lot of people are coming in and out all day long to talk to the other guy, so he does sort of miss the quiet of his corner cubicle.  But it's still a good thing!

• Olivia is doing well.  She's growing like crazy.  Mainly, her feet are growing like crazy.  We bought her a pair of size 7 sandals the day or two before Easter.  The sandals were big on her feet with plenty of room.  Her toes are now hanging off the edge.  It's insane.  So in 2 months we have now moved to size 8's.  I am hoping that these can at least get us through the summer, but I'm doubtful.  We wear sandals down here until late September/early October.  The rest of her seems to be staying close to the same.  She's still wearing all of her 24 month/2T summer clothes.

That's really about all.  I have pictures and posts to write all the way back from late April.  I will try to get on that soon!  I can't believe Olivia will be 2 in less than a month!  We are gearing up for a BUSY June!