Monday, April 30, 2007
Milk Toast
So I just got the most hilarious compliment. My Arbonne sponsor just told me, "You are NOT milk toast!" Ha! That just cracked me up. She means that I am no weenie. I just thought that was hilarious.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Arbonne's National Training Celebration!!
So this past weekend, I attended Arbonne's National Training Celebration in Las Vegas! We basically took over the MGM Grand. I love that we have such awesome people in Arbonne--some of the employees were telling us that this is the best conference they have ever had at their hotel. I think when you get a lot of generous, good-natured, positive people together, you can't help but be nice and treat other people well.
Among all the great trainings, there were two MAJOR announcements at NTC:
1. THE NEW PRODUCTS! Arbonne replaced their concealers and liquid foundations with something amazing. Their new foundations and concealers have cutting-edge technologies that make you look truly radiant, they make your wrinkles much less visible because of some light-reflecting properties, and they have--get this--a patented ingredient called GABA that is basically like a topical Botox. Ha! I am ordering mine today, and I absolutely cannot wait to get it. They also came out with Hybrid nutritional supplements for kids (a powder that you mix with water to make a punch!) and for teens (a chew that has, among other things, an ingredient that helps your body adapt to stress!). Speaking of teens, we also now have a HUGE line called FYI, or For Young Individuals. It includes makeup and aromatherapy. You can check out all the products at www.arbonne.com.
2. We are going to AUSTRALIA!!! That's right, Arbonne Australia opens this July. I will be looking to start a team there, so if you know anyone in Australia, let me know! This will be a huge opportunity for anyone in Australia, because it is a completely untapped market. What happened in Canada over the last two years (about 500% growth) will start to happen down under, which means that it is a great income opportunity for people there. In June, Arbonne Australia corporate will be putting on recruiting events in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. The Aussies will love us! Nobody wants to look daggy! (Great word Nathan and I learned from our Aussie friends--it means sloppy or not put together.) I cannot wait to build a huge team there. What a great excuse for a vacation!
Here are some pictures with my awesome team:
Me and my NVP, Ashley Carpenter, at the Grand Awards Dinner.
RVP Leschon Serrano and me. Leschon reminds me of a flighty bird. She is a joy to be around.
Me and wonderful Darlene Tracy, who lives in CT--I can't wait to work with her more.
Me, RVP Kat Armstrong, and one my awesome sidelines, Ashley Tracy
NVP Roxanne Melker, Cons. Pamela Valentine, AM April Drolet, and mewith the awesome Arbonne cheesecake
Pamela, April, and me
Me with my new goodies!
Me and AM April, my Arbonne Ace!
Being silly with my friend
Birds and Breezes
We opened the windows when the weather was nice, and the kitties loved it! They jumped right up there to watch the birds and feel the breeze and swat at the spider on the screen. They love spring as much as we do.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
How to Climb a Tree
While we were in Lexington last weekend, we ran across this great tree. Nathan started climbing it, and I started snapping. I think this is so great, because climbing a tree is just Nathan in a nutshell: outdoors, physical, and boyish.
I like this picture. :)
Monday, April 23, 2007
Bea-u-ti-ful
So this weekend was beautiful (enough to add an extra syllable and make it bea-u-ti-ful). Ah, a sunny 70 degrees is heaven after several weeks in the 40's! And today it is supposed to get up to 82! I am in a short-sleeved shirt today!!
Now we are having to start thinking about buying an air conditioning. Cool!
(No pun intended. Well, actually, pun intended.)
We have been leaving the windows open, and the whole place just smells fresh. I love it. The flowers are blooming, and the breeze is blowing, and the sun is shining, and kids are outside playing, and it just makes you happy!
This weekend Jeremy, Nathan, and I took a drive up to Lexington, where we went and found the battle green and just looked around town. It was really neat! And we stopped into a roadside farm that was just fabulous. I want to go there and stock up on fresh produce. And fresh bread. And dessert. And about 15 other things. Everything in there looked amazing.
I will go take pictures of snowless, blooming Boston sometime soon, but I won't have time to do it today because tomorrow I go to VEGAS! Yep, you'll get to see pictures for that, too. I'm going to Arbonne's National Training Celebration. Can't wait!
Now we are having to start thinking about buying an air conditioning. Cool!
(No pun intended. Well, actually, pun intended.)
We have been leaving the windows open, and the whole place just smells fresh. I love it. The flowers are blooming, and the breeze is blowing, and the sun is shining, and kids are outside playing, and it just makes you happy!
This weekend Jeremy, Nathan, and I took a drive up to Lexington, where we went and found the battle green and just looked around town. It was really neat! And we stopped into a roadside farm that was just fabulous. I want to go there and stock up on fresh produce. And fresh bread. And dessert. And about 15 other things. Everything in there looked amazing.
I will go take pictures of snowless, blooming Boston sometime soon, but I won't have time to do it today because tomorrow I go to VEGAS! Yep, you'll get to see pictures for that, too. I'm going to Arbonne's National Training Celebration. Can't wait!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Snob
I have a confession.
I am a snob about certain types of food. The more interested I get in cooking and food, the more picky I get about certain things, particularly certain kinds of vegetables.
For example, I am a cucumber snob. I do not like regular cucumbers and will usually avoid them. Instead, I like the seedless English cucumbers that you find shrink wrapped in the produce section. Ahhh, if you haven't had those, you don't know what you're missing. There is just something about them that tastes better. Of course, they're about $2 each, too. I discovered seedless cucumbers when I made cucumber sandwiches for my mom's surprise birthday tea one year. There are few things in the world as good as a nice cucumber sandwich on white bread with a little fresh dill. Mmmm, it just tastes like freshness.
I am also a lettuce snob. I do not like to eat iceberg lettuce. I get annoyed when the only kind of salad on the menu is made with iceberg. I also got annoyed when I realized in college that Wendy's salads are really a bowl of iceberg with some greener greens on top. Dave Thomas, you con artist, you!
And if any of you has been able to avoid canned asparagus your whole life, you are one lucky fellow. Canned asparagus is awful. It's mushy and barely resembles fresh asparagus at all. I didn't know that I liked asparagus at all until I had it steamed one time.
That's all I can think of right now. What kind of snob are you?
I am a snob about certain types of food. The more interested I get in cooking and food, the more picky I get about certain things, particularly certain kinds of vegetables.
For example, I am a cucumber snob. I do not like regular cucumbers and will usually avoid them. Instead, I like the seedless English cucumbers that you find shrink wrapped in the produce section. Ahhh, if you haven't had those, you don't know what you're missing. There is just something about them that tastes better. Of course, they're about $2 each, too. I discovered seedless cucumbers when I made cucumber sandwiches for my mom's surprise birthday tea one year. There are few things in the world as good as a nice cucumber sandwich on white bread with a little fresh dill. Mmmm, it just tastes like freshness.
I am also a lettuce snob. I do not like to eat iceberg lettuce. I get annoyed when the only kind of salad on the menu is made with iceberg. I also got annoyed when I realized in college that Wendy's salads are really a bowl of iceberg with some greener greens on top. Dave Thomas, you con artist, you!
And if any of you has been able to avoid canned asparagus your whole life, you are one lucky fellow. Canned asparagus is awful. It's mushy and barely resembles fresh asparagus at all. I didn't know that I liked asparagus at all until I had it steamed one time.
That's all I can think of right now. What kind of snob are you?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Marathon Ruminations
So I was just reading some stories about racers in yesterday's marathon, and they got me to thinking about this whole marathon concept.
From time to time in Arbonne, someone says, "This business is a marathon, not a sprint." Boy, is that true. My Arbonne experience has definitely been like that. This is not a get-rich-quick, and I knew that from the beginning. I guess what I did not realize when I started was that it does take so much persistent activity--one step after another, plodding along, knowing that there is a finish line that is so very worth all the effort. It's one thing to be told; it's another to live the reality.
But life is like that, too, right? To get anything worth having, you have to set a goal, create a plan, and consistently work to achieve that goal. In other words, see the finish line, know the route, and run for a while--sometimes a long while. Nothing that is really worth having (a great marriage, a job you love, even a great retirement fund) can be achieved quickly or without much effort or discipline or a goal.
So that's what I've learned from my business: that sometimes things don't come as easily as you expect. What matters is whether or not you have a goal and a vision for where you're going, whether or not you can devise a plan to get there, and whether or not you have a great work ethic. And whether or not you get up again after you fall.
I love the story of the Nigerian, Cheruiyot, who won the Boston Marathon for the 3rd time this year. He fell at the finish line of the Chicago Marathon last year, cracked his skull, and suffered bleeding in his brain, but here he is running and winning (with a headache, no less!). I just find him completely inspiring. Here's a part of the article about the race:
---
The defending champion and the novice pretender raced shoulder to shoulder from [mile] 23 to almost 25, at which point Cheruiyot upped the ante to a level that Kwambai could not reach. It was a question of commitment and reserves and strength and courage; and Cheruiyot held all of those attributes in abundance.
Once the move was made - and it was dramatic - there was never any question as to whom the winner would be. The defending champ opened daylight with every stride and never had cause to look back. At the line - which one might have assumed he approached with trepidation, given his fall in Chicago - his time of 2:14:13 gave him a 20 second advantage over Kwambai.
"Boston is not so easy," Cheruiyot stated. "It is very tough. It was very cold." Asked about the headaches from which he had been suffering, he explained, "There was a little pain, but it was just something small."
As he received the celebrated Boston laurel wreath with the Kenyan National Anthem playing, Cheruiyot was clearly moved. "Our National Anthem reminds me of a lot of things," he stated. "It reminds me of missing my home and that there are a lot of people - my family - looking at me. And it makes you feel like crying."
The post-event analyses of this race will show it to have been one of affirmation that a thrilling race can evolve from one in which the times become a virtual irrelevance. Additionally, it affirmed that Robert K. Cheruiyot is a man who can overcome adverse conditions, troublesome tactics and personal ailments and prove, without question, that he is, at present, the finest marathoner in the world.
http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/2007Story.asp
---
How inspiring is that?! He had physical and mental reserves, which he drew on and made it happen. I especially love that they recognized the internal battle: "It was a question of commitment and reserves and strength and courage; and Cheruiyot held all of those attributes in abundance." I also love that because of the mental courage of the athletes in this race, "the times [were] a virtual irrelevance" (of course, they ran in a headwind the whole way, too). The most thrilling part was the runners' own personal ability to draw on their courage and committment, attributes that you don't always think of when you think about running.
From time to time in Arbonne, someone says, "This business is a marathon, not a sprint." Boy, is that true. My Arbonne experience has definitely been like that. This is not a get-rich-quick, and I knew that from the beginning. I guess what I did not realize when I started was that it does take so much persistent activity--one step after another, plodding along, knowing that there is a finish line that is so very worth all the effort. It's one thing to be told; it's another to live the reality.
But life is like that, too, right? To get anything worth having, you have to set a goal, create a plan, and consistently work to achieve that goal. In other words, see the finish line, know the route, and run for a while--sometimes a long while. Nothing that is really worth having (a great marriage, a job you love, even a great retirement fund) can be achieved quickly or without much effort or discipline or a goal.
So that's what I've learned from my business: that sometimes things don't come as easily as you expect. What matters is whether or not you have a goal and a vision for where you're going, whether or not you can devise a plan to get there, and whether or not you have a great work ethic. And whether or not you get up again after you fall.
I love the story of the Nigerian, Cheruiyot, who won the Boston Marathon for the 3rd time this year. He fell at the finish line of the Chicago Marathon last year, cracked his skull, and suffered bleeding in his brain, but here he is running and winning (with a headache, no less!). I just find him completely inspiring. Here's a part of the article about the race:
---
The defending champion and the novice pretender raced shoulder to shoulder from [mile] 23 to almost 25, at which point Cheruiyot upped the ante to a level that Kwambai could not reach. It was a question of commitment and reserves and strength and courage; and Cheruiyot held all of those attributes in abundance.
Once the move was made - and it was dramatic - there was never any question as to whom the winner would be. The defending champ opened daylight with every stride and never had cause to look back. At the line - which one might have assumed he approached with trepidation, given his fall in Chicago - his time of 2:14:13 gave him a 20 second advantage over Kwambai.
"Boston is not so easy," Cheruiyot stated. "It is very tough. It was very cold." Asked about the headaches from which he had been suffering, he explained, "There was a little pain, but it was just something small."
As he received the celebrated Boston laurel wreath with the Kenyan National Anthem playing, Cheruiyot was clearly moved. "Our National Anthem reminds me of a lot of things," he stated. "It reminds me of missing my home and that there are a lot of people - my family - looking at me. And it makes you feel like crying."
The post-event analyses of this race will show it to have been one of affirmation that a thrilling race can evolve from one in which the times become a virtual irrelevance. Additionally, it affirmed that Robert K. Cheruiyot is a man who can overcome adverse conditions, troublesome tactics and personal ailments and prove, without question, that he is, at present, the finest marathoner in the world.
http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/2007Story.asp
---
How inspiring is that?! He had physical and mental reserves, which he drew on and made it happen. I especially love that they recognized the internal battle: "It was a question of commitment and reserves and strength and courage; and Cheruiyot held all of those attributes in abundance." I also love that because of the mental courage of the athletes in this race, "the times [were] a virtual irrelevance" (of course, they ran in a headwind the whole way, too). The most thrilling part was the runners' own personal ability to draw on their courage and committment, attributes that you don't always think of when you think about running.
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