I give up

So, with all the drama surrounding my POS dryer this week, I decided to cave and buy a new washer and dryer. Woohoo!

They are ever so cute (despite what my FB friends have told me, that washers and dryers simply are NOT cute)! No delivery available until Wednesday, so I’m pretty much wearing dirty clothes till then, but I can only assume they will be well worth the wait. And I’m convincing myself that the fact that they are energy efficient will mean that my $500+ monthly electric bill will go down. Right?

Another award?

Well, it would seem this is the week for awards here in blog-land.

Jinnia Low over at http://jinnialow.com/ has bestowed upon me the Foxy Mama Award. Thank you, Jinnia! I do so love being a Foxy Mama!!

To pass the love along, I am nominating the following Foxy Mamas:

• http://mommyspirit.blogspot.com/
• http://angiemarion.blogspot.com/
• http://mylife--smookiestyle.blogspot.com/
• http://adventuresmommywood.blogspot.com/

Thanks for being the Foxy Mama Blogger Babes that you are!

Giveaway

I am hosting a giveaway over on Miracle Momas – go check it out here: Thirty-One Gifts Hanging Cosmetic Organizer Giveaway. Yay for free stuff!

I received the Versatile Blogger Award

Carol & Stacy at Intentional Conscious Parenting gave me the Virtual Blogger Award! Thank you ladies, I am honored!

In order to receive the award fully, I must

1. Thank the person who gave me the award. Thank you again, Carol & Stacy, glad I found your blog!
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs, and let the nominees know about the award.

Seven things about me you may or may not know!

1. I have a huge soft spot for anything furry. I would save every single dog and cat if I could (and if hubby would let me!)
2. I originally thought I wanted five kids, until I had one, and then decided that five would be insane for me.
3. I used to model when I was younger, and LOVED it at the time, though looking back I realize it was a pretty screwed up world in a lot of ways.
4. I chew pen caps pretty much the WHOLE time I’m on the computer. But that’s about the only time I do it. I buy pens by the box full just to throw out and keep the caps.
5. I am terrified of spiders, to the point that I make my 7 year old daughter kill them for me if she’s the only other one around.
6. I LOVE the smell of the dog’s feet. To me, it smells like love.
7. I am a total reality TV junkie, and refused to be ashamed!

Now it's time for the most important part of the award. I am excited to nominate some of the newest blogs that I read below, and I look forward to many thought-provoking, fun, sincere posts from them in the future.

1. http://gottalovemom.blogspot.com/
2. http://kristenandrewsonline.blogspot.com/
3. http://vivobello.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.wisconsinmommy.com/
5. http://staciesthoughtsoneverythingandnothing.blogspot.com/
6. http://www.digicrumbs.com/
7. http://morethanamummy.blogspot.com/
8. http://crispymom.blogspot.com/
9. http://3boysandadog.com/
10. http://chicsassymom.blogspot.com/
11. http://jinnialow.com/
12. http://mformommy.blogspot.com/
13. http://shebecamebutterfly.blogspot.com/
14. http://www.thecakeathomemom.com/
15. http://www.3princesandaprincess2.com/

Thank you to all of you for creating blogs that I enjoy so much!

Why does customer service suck so bad these days?

I honestly could not be more irritated at the disgustingly low level of customer service that I’ve experienced this week in trying to get my dryer fixed. I honestly am just enraged at these people that call themselves professionals.

My dryer stopped working on Saturday. I called up a service that I’d used in the past, A Same Day Appliance Repair and despite the fact that “same day” is built right into their name, they didn’t give me an appointment until Monday. Fine, it’s the weekend, whatever. I can surely live without my dryer for two days. So I got off the phone with them Saturday and was told they would be there between 9-11am on Monday. Monday morning they call at 8:30am to confirm, and I tell them, yes, we’re good for the time window we established come on by. All day passes, and NOTHING. No call, no service technician coming by to happily repair my dryer. Nothing. I call them and get voicemail and leave a message asking for an explanation as to why in the world they would simply blow off a repeat customer like that. And I get NO response whatsoever. Nothing. Now, since I had called after hours, I waited til Tuesday morning, thinking that perhaps they would get back to me. Nope. Again, nothing.

So now I’m pissed and I figure, screw them, I’m calling a different repair service. So I call A-Able Air and Appliance Repair, whose website claims they offer “same day service, 7 days/7 nights”. Fabulous. I figure it’s Tuesday morning, I should have a working dryer by the evening so I can start slogging through the mountain of laundry, right? Nope, not happening. No appointments available until Wednesday. Really? I mean, come on, you’ve got to be freakin kidding me. WHY DO YOU PEOPLE PUT THESE EMPTY PROMISES ON YOUR WEBSITES? It can’t possibly be your sole intention just to piss me off, can it?

Then, to top it off, these same irresponsible geniuses who can’t seem to make a same day appointment, despite the claims on their website, have now called and CANCELLED the appointment that they made for today. Claiming they were ever so sorry, but their tech just couldn’t make it out here today and would tomorrow be better. Honest to God these people were so lucky that my husband answered the phone instead of me, because he is far nicer than I am when dealing with morons.

So my question to the masses is this: is it still possible to find companies that understand how to correctly serve a customer? Do I just have bad luck? Really, do these people not understand how vitally important word-of-mouth advertising and referrals can be to their businesses? How crucial it is to please a customer rather than piss them off at first contact? How much cheaper it is to get and keep a customer than to constantly be trying to find new customers? I am honestly just shocked at the lack of professionalism that’s been exhibited by these companies. And as soon as I finish venting here, I’ll be back on the phone trying to find yet another company that might be able to actually serve me correctly.

Couponing?

Okay, who is a big couponing person? I try to be. In theory, it doesn’t seem that hard. But then somehow I feel like I am missing something. I don’t think I’m doing it right. Maybe I need lessons. Are there such a thing?

It seems to me like I’m spending far more time than it’s worth to save about $6. I know people post that they save like half their bill or other insane things, but I just don’t see it. How can I make that happen? Will this just not work for me if a lot of my bill is produce and beverages?

If someone can point me in the right direction on this, I would sure appreciate it. For right not I feel like I’m doing it pretty half-assed, which makes me think I might as well not bother at all and save myself the hassle.

Crazy busy, and a freebie

Today I have run around like a crazy person getting 10 billion things done, and my day isn’t even NEAR over yet. So somehow I don’t think I can manage to be witty on my blog today. Instead, I’m sharing with ya’ll a pretty cool little freebie…

Don’t we all just need a little guidance sometimes in helping our kids with their homework? I know I do, and I can’t even imagine how much harder it’ll be when they are in middle and high school, but that’s like a whole other blog topic.

Teresa has come up with a free tool to help us out, at least in regards to science. Go check this out here: How to Teach Science. Check it out if you have kids. And hey, even if you don’t have kids, maybe you’ll learn something.

To pool or not to pool

That is the question around these parts daily. Most of the time the chips fall on the side of “to pool”.

Every day, pretty much as soon as she gets up, my daughter is asking if we can go swimming. Which I’m fine with, just not at 8 in the morning. Let a girl get some caffeine on board first. But typically I eventually relent, and at least a couple hours of our day is spent out by the pool. Being that we’re in Florida, our pool is directly behind the house and screened in. This is insanely convenient because it drastically reduces the high volume of bugs we would otherwise have joining us in the pool. The downside to this, though, is that the pool gets shaded by the house for a good portion of the afternoon, and thus remains cooler than I would personally like it to be. This week, the water temp has been holding steady at 84 degrees. That doesn’t sound particularly cold, but trust me, when you first jump in, it sure feels cold.

Today hubby will be manning the pool while I have my Thirty-One Out with the Old, In with the New Sale. A couple of my friends will be bringing their kids along to swim, as well. So today the answer is definitely “to pool”, at least for everyone but me.

A little link love

I’ve thrown myself back into blogging with a passion, and as such, have begun following and been followed by quite a few new women this week. Today’s post is just a quick little link love to a few of the posts I’ve read from some “new to me” blogs this week. Check them out, moms, you might just find your new favorite blogger mom to follow.

1. The Planet Pink for some very sweet musings about our babies growing up.
2. Mama’s Little Chick on the elusive quality of happiness.
3. HMCinCali on dealings with a pre-teen (I’m not there yet – lol)

Thanks to all my new followers this week for joining me on my journey. Looking forward to reading much more from all of you in the coming weeks and months.

Groupon

For the past several months, I have subscribed to a service here locally called Groupon. This is essentially a couponing website, where every day a new local company will offer a hot deal to all subscribers. Now, most days these deals are not anything I am interested in, product-wise, OR they are for businesses that are located just a bit too far away for me to want to take advantage of them (really, I am not driving 50 miles to get $10 off at a meat market). But occasionally they will have something that is personally of value to me. Not long ago, I got one for $100 worth of tree trimming services for $40. Not a bad deal. Well, assuming you need tree trimming, which I did, at the time (I have since gotten DH a chainsaw, so I think we’re now good in that arena).
If you are a girl looking for a deal, like myself, you might want to hit up their homepage at http://www.groupon.com/ and see if they are offering this near you. It’s free to sign up, and deals are automatically delivered to your email inbox once a day. If nothing else, you certainly do learn about a lot of other businesses in your area.

Thirty-One Conference 2010

I am finally getting around to posting about the Thirty-One conference I attended in Columbus, OH July 7-10. It was amazing! The energy of the other consultants, the execs and the home office staff was completely contagious, the product reveal was mind-blowing, and the free schwag was a great added bonus!

I probably took about a billion photos, but I’ll share just a few of my faves here.

The new consultant join kit, just $99 for all new girls that join this fall!

The $40 add-on kit, existing consultants can order through August 4th (mine will be here Monday! Woohoo!)

The $80 add-on kit, also for existing consultants (again, arriving Monday – SO excited!)

The warehouse at home office – look at all that product!!

Some of the people working on the custom embroidery side of production. That girl waving in the middle was my absolute fave person – so enthusiastic and energetic – LOVE her!

Two of the members of my team who attended, being silly at the awards dinner. Love you, girls!!

I already can’t wait for next year’s conference. I am hoping that even more of my team will make it – such an incredible experience and definitely something that every Thirty-One girl should attend!

Kindle

I love my Kindle. I truly do. I think it might be one of the best inventions ever. There is hardly a day that goes by that I don't use it, if only when I'm sitting at the horrible red light near the house that often takes 15 minutes to get through.

I am an avid reader, and have been for as far back as I can remember. Not that I'm often found reading anything that truly fuels my soul or anything like that. No, most often I am reading what many would deem pure trash. Junk fiction. Albeit often by some of the top fiction writers of our time (think Stephen King, Michael Crichton, etc.) Lately it's been anything vampire related. (yeah, I know, so shoot me) And the vampire thing didn't even start for me with the whole Twilight extravaganza, it was back with Anne Rice and Interview with a Vampire (though if I'm remembering correctly, I liked her books on witches even better than her vampire books.) My husband makes fun of me endlessly for this little literary addiction. Particularly since much of the vampire fiction I am drawn to tends towards more of a teen audience, much like the Twilight books.

But in any case, the invention of the Kindle has allowed me not only to conveniently carry around not just the book I am currently reading, but the next one after that, and so on. AND also to maintain some sort of secrecy about the fact that I'm actually not enriching my mind any, but rather just digging the latest in the Vampire Academy series. There's something truly fabulous about sitting in the middle of Starbucks, secretly feeding my guilty pleasure with one of these books, and nobody is any the wiser. Though apparently I don't mind sharing it with the blogging world.

And while I've got you here, you really should check out Vampire Academy. They are pretty fabulous, you know, if you're into that kind of thing. ;)

a new kit for fall

To go along with the launch of the new Thirty-One fall catalog, we now have a brand spanking new consultant join kit (and can I just say OMG it's awesome!) For just $99 you get all the products pictured on the right, as well as all the business supplies you will need to get started (catalogs, order forms, etc.)

My business has been growing by leaps and bounds this year, and I am constantly amazed at both my success and that of my team. I feel so blessed to be able to share this opportunity with so many women who are truly benefitting from what Thirty-One has done for their lives and their families.

If anyone has any questions about the company, the products, the kit, the opportunity, or anything else Thirty-One related, please let me know. I could honestly talk for hours about Thirty-One and would love to help you out. :)

motivated and energized

I just had a great call tonight that Thirty-One put on with Michael Bernoff speaking to us. What a fabulous speaker this man is! He has me so energized and motivated about my business that I just am not even sure where to start. I would highly encourage any women in business to take a look at some of what he has to offer.

One of the biggest things he emphasized was that in order to really succeed at whatever you are attempting, you first have to believe in yourself. And this is where we as women often fall short. We give and give and give (to our kids, husbands, employer, friends, etc.) and then there is nothing leftover for US, so of course when only that last little bit of energy and drive is all we are putting into US, then yes, we are not going to be the success that we are hoping we will be. And then we are our own self-fulfilling prophecy. We don't think we can do it (whatever IT is) and so we can't. You have to soar yourself before you can help others soar. I know we all know this, but how many of us are actually practicing it in our daily lives? How many times have you said "I wish I could _______" but then done nothing to advance yourself towards that dream? The world isn't waiting to just hand you success, you have to want it and work towards it, and I challenge you all to think of one way today that you can begin to do that. I know I will.

on shopping

Those that know me know I believe really strongly in buying from other moms as often as I can. I've had people comment that my home looks like the pages from many direct sales companies, and I love that. I get my make-up from other moms, my skincare, much of my food/spices, many home items, most of my jewelry (at least that that I don't make myself), items for my kitchen, etc. I would so much rather purchase from and support another woman in business than hit up Target, JC Penney, etc. Some of these moms I'm shopping from I actually know, from my local networking group, others I just "know" from online shopping groups, etc.

If you're not yet shopping from other women, why not? Here are some interesting statistics from the DSA website about Direct Selling and the women doing it:

: Direct Sales employs over 15 million people, almost 90% of which are women.
: The majority of women in direct sales are college educated.
: 32% of direct selling women are selling in the clothing/accessories and personal care arena (think purses, jewelry, make-up, etc.)
: The South leads the US as far as % of direct sellers, with 35% of direct sellers in the US residing in this region.

Additional statistics, if you're interested, are available here.

I would challenge you to take a look at some of the products and services available from the wide variety of direct sales companies available today. You might just find your new favorite product!

Thirty-One Littles Carry-All in video!

The home office at Thirty-One has just recently started putting videos out on YouTube with product ideas, news, etc. Woohoo - I love technology! Check out this video of different ways you can use our NEW sneak-peek of fall product, our Littles Carry-All:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYodaNHJ7Ic
These Littles are on sale this month for just $5 for every $31 you spend - buy 3 of them at the regular price of $12 each, and get the 4th for $5. AND get free embroidery on all four of them! I've got a bunch on order, can't wait to get them. :)