BOY OH BOY!

Are things ever exciting around here! First of all... I must apologize for having to put the word verification feature on my blog. I really didn't want to, but a post about "transexual dating" left me no choice. BLECH!! What kind of creep goes around posting these things? Anyway... I hope that weeds out the undesirables, otherwise I'll have to utilize the comment approval feature and I'm not really wanting to have to do that and jump through hoops just to share with my friends and family in bloggerland! The only kind of "dating" I want mentioned on my blog is the kind of date where my sweetykins took me out on Valentine's Day. Here's a picture of us that Brandon took before our date. I doctored it up just a bit in the picnik program. Isn't my man handsome!!?? :)

So... Things have been interesting around here lately. Most importantly, Brandon has changed high schools. I know, I know!!! It's big, I told you. :) He has attended small town schools most of his life. This is his 5th year here. After all this time, he's still not found a place to fit in. With there being only 2 social groups (the jocks and the druggies) - he's had a really rough go of it. It's not that he DOESN'T get along with people, he just doesn't really have anyone that he spends time with outside of school. He's not playing sports and doesn't go to drinking parties, so mostly stays home with his amazing parents on the weekends - EVERY weekend. Unless it's school related, he doesn't have anything to do. He came home from school recently and said he "hated his life". RED FLAG! We had a good long discussion about it and I suggested he consider and pray about making a change. So we toured the new school which is about equal distance from our house as the old one, maybe a mile or 2 further - and he was really excited. It's the first time since I don't know when that I saw a sparkle in my boy's eyes. There is so much more going on there...their band has over 70 kids, the one at his old school has 12. There were 100 kids total in his old school, and I believe 780 in his new school - the awesome thing about that is... there are that many more kids for him to possibly become friends with. So he made a new friend on his first day of school - which was this last tuesday. The kid seems nice and invited Brandon to youth group last night. He went and had a blast. They're already making plans for the next 2 weekends to hang out together and with some other friends. The first day at his new school - he had 6 new facebook friends! Wow, I think this was really encouraging to him. It's no surprise to me, that not 1 kid from his old school has said anything to him about changing schools. The move was a good one - POINT IN CASE. So as a mom, I'm overjoyed that my son is smiling again. He is loving school instead of dreading it. God is just so darn good!!!! What an answer to prayer - I hope that as time goes on he'll love it even more.

Me and MICHE!

I began a new venture - selling MICHE BAGS. They are so awesome! If you haven't heard of them... they are a genius invention. It's a base purse (either brown or black - classic size or big) with earth magnets that hold on a variety of different "shells". The shells are magnetic and attach to the base purse in a matter of a few seconds. So you can change the look of your handbag as often as you like. GENIUS! I only wish I had thought of this! But I can still get a piece of the action as an independent sales representative. Here's a little video that demonstrates how the Miche Bag works:

I'm hosting a launch party at my house this Saturday and am really excited to show off my new fabulous designer handbags. It's so much fun! I am booking parties and will be doing them here in the area as well as in McPherson and Wichita - so if you're anywhere nearby and would like to have a Miche Bag party to earn yourself a free purse and some shells... just let me know! I'd love to Miche party with you. :) If you'd like more info or would like to see what we're currently offering, you can go to my distributor's website and take a look! http://www.michebagmidwest.com/   Oh, and here's the purse I'm currently carrying, I LOVE IT!! This is the "Jade" shell , but I've switched out these handles for the black chain handles.  I should really take my own photo with the chain handles so you can see how cool it looks.

I'd be most delighted to ship a Miche Bag to you if you're interested in joining the Miche fun! Feel free to email me any time with questions or an order, I'd love to hear from you and/or get you all set up!

Luke's work has been insane. Hire people, fire people - drive and fly all over the countryside. UGH. Man, this gets old, but as everyone well knows, the economy is such that you just keep trying to convince yourself that you're glad you have a job at all. If you've got room for one more on your prayer list - my husband could sure use some prayer. He's mentally and physically exhausted and there's no end in sight. He is an amazing man... I honestly have no idea how he does what he does. He must really love his family to subject himself to all this. So thankful for him!!

College girl is doin' alright. Keeping some long hours working for the campus newspaper, plus working her job on campus and going to class and staying on top of homework. She's doing well... made Dean's honor roll first semester! GO CIARA! We're so proud of her and her accomplishments. I think I mentioned that she's living on campus in the dorms, and will be moving to the newer campus apartments this summer and then stay there her sophomore year. She's excited about that!! To my surprise things are going well with her living on her own. I still see her a few times a week so... it's all good!

Shoogie is fantastic. What a sweet little puppy. Something kinda funny going on with her is that her "roots" seem to be coming out a caramel color. It's the funniest thing eve!. It looks like she had her hair colored and it grew out and the roots are about 2 inches grown out. ha ha. She gets prettier and sweeter by the day! I'll post a photo soon.

Still loving my new Canon SX20 camera!! Here are a few pix I took with it recently, it was after one of our many snow/ice sessions here in Kansas - the couple is my cousin, Raleen and her fiance' Chris who will be married this summer- I did their engagement photos out in the snow - thought they turned out pretty awesome, if I say so myself. :) I really do enjoy photography, it's nice to have a hobby. :)

Did I mention that I LOVE LOVE LOVE how Blogger has changed the way you add photos? Suh-weet!!! :) Wishing you all a happy Thursday... one more day and the weekend begins, YES!