I'm so proud of Jessica! She was nominated and elected as PTO President at the K-2 Elementary School where Nicholas is in Kindergarten!! It was a total surprise and she felt so honored. She'll be great because she is so creative and loves working on projects for children. She's not much on speaking in front of a crowd so that was her first question, "Will I have to stand up in front of everyone at the meetings and speak??" !! The current president assured her that she wouldn't have to do that very much. So she accepted and brought home a box FULL of stuff related to her new role!!

This is goofy but Jessica and I both have a passion for notebooks (what I always called "tablets"!) and pens! We sometimes pick one up for each other whether we need a new one or not!! So of course, this occasion of being elected PTO President calls for a new notebook!! But I suggested to her that she get a View Binder this time so she can use her Close to My Heart scrapbooking supplies to create a nice cover and she thought it a great idea! This way, she can also advertise her new business since she will be having so many new contacts. How exciting for her! And Nicholas is excited to have mama doing some work at his school. She and my son Jaime actually built the homecoming float for the Pre-K last year when Nick was elected Homecoming King of the Kindergarten!! It turned out great and they were super-stars for a while!! So this will be fun for all of us as we love to be active in school related activities.

All of my girls are blessed to be stay-at-home moms. I pray they never take it for granted and I've told them to remember to thank God and thank their husbands for this privilege!

Well, I plan to get some paper crafting done today. I sketched out a few cards for Christmas and I'm going to incorporate our new Jingle paper packet and my new Christmas stamp sets that will be available in our new Autumn/Fall 2009 Idea Book! This new IB is absolutely awesome and I can hardly wait for it to go live so you too can have a chance to own some of the new stamp sets, paper packets and other new products!!

Home from California!!

Wow!! That’s all I can say!! Leadership Conference 2009 was simply incredible!

I’ve been home since last Monday night but went straight back to a very busy week at my day-job; that’s why I’m just now back to my blog!
Leadership was held in sunny Long Beach, California. I actually flew into San Diego a day prior and my gracious upline, Bren Yule, hosted me in her home the evening I arrived. Of course, I was in awe of her craft room!! It is fabulous! Bren challenged me to try something new every day so that first night, she treated me to an awesome dinner at her daughter and son-in-law’s restaurant, Harney Sushi!! That was definitely something new for me, actually incredible. I enjoyed several dishes I had never eaten before and the ambience was wonderful. We walked through some of the historic part of San Diego and I really enjoyed that! The weather was just right and Bren’s a great tour-guide! Then we went to a precious little scrapbook store on Thursday morning before we got on the road to Long Beach for the conference. The store was beautifully decorated and had tons of scrapbook and paper-crafting supplies. Of course, I’m pretty loyal to Close to My Heart products and supplies, but I DID purchase a cute little brown (chocolate) and pink (blush) organizer!! Lunch was on the deck of a quaint little place called Cody’s at La Jolla, CA where I enjoyed another new entrée while looking out at the Pacific Ocean !! It was a beautiful sight – actually breath-taking to me.

Thursday evening began this year’s Leadership Conference with a focus on artwork! We got a sneak peak at a new Workshops on the Go™ project along with new products from the Autumn/Winter 2009 Idea Book. You’re going to love it!! Our new products were introduced via a runway show featuring our founder & CEO, Jeanette Lynton, along with two fashion divas, VPs Kristine Widtfeldt and Monica Wihongi!! CTMH models walked the catwalk holding covers of each of the past Idea Books up through the NEWEST and the AWESOME Autumn/Winter 2009 Idea Book!! Included on the runway was a sampling of the hottest new products for fall !! New products were given away to many in attendance and each consultant received a newly redesigned Shoulder Tote!

The highly anticipated Autumn/Winter 2009 Idea Book was the show-stopping finale! The Idea Book, which had an ‘extreme makeover’ with a newly designed look and layout, was handed out to each Consultant in attendance!! The business classes taught at this year’s event were fun and informative and filled with other exciting announcements. Not to mention the fabulous fellowship and networking with fellow CTMH’ers!! It was an awesome week and I can hardly wait to get my hands on all my new products! My package actually came on Wednesday, filled with the bundles I purchased on Saturday of Leadership!! Attendees are able to purchase the new products in bundles while at conference and then they’re practically waiting on your doorsteps when you arrive home!! I’m telling you, you will love all the new stamp sets and paper packs!! I’ll be getting a display board prepared with some of the new products this week and plan to post pics toward the end of the week.

Although I had a wonderful time at Leadership Conference and spending time with Bren, it was also great to get home!! My little welcoming party included 3 little munchkins who were proud to see their Mammy!! I was feeling the love!! Little Madalyn learned to crawl while I was away so she was crawling up my legs a little, Cooper hunkered down on my left leg and Nick positioned himself under my right arm!! We sat like that for about an hour – they even sat through looking at some of my pictures and loved the videos I took of the take-off and landing of my plane! California was terrific and I had a great time, but it was even more wonderful to be back home and with my family!

So another week begins in less than 12 hours but things shouldn't be too hectic this week now that we’ve completed our Month-End Process; hence, the plan to get some artwork created with my new stuff!!! Did I tell you how much you’re going to love, love, love the new Idea Book and all the new products??!! Well, they’ll be available September 1st !! So stay tuned !!!

I’m sorry this was so long!! Just felt like I needed to catch up! I’ve missed blogging!

Jenn