I Need Some Volunteers

I need some volunteers to look at some products for me and give some honest opinions. If you're willing to be a trendy guinea pig, let me know. I'll send you an email with some product pictures and an explanation. Thanks in advance!!

Another Picture of the Clan

This one includes Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and Sisters (and one four legged friend). That's me in the back wearing the white sweater. My husband's aunt and uncle from New Zealand had a wonderful vacation where they were able to travel to Scotland, England, the US and Canada to visit with different family members and to see the sights. One of thehighlights of the trip was when Uncle John was able to suit up and head to Charlotte Motor Speedway and drive in a Nascar at 150 mph.

Kindergarten Chaos

I'm back from the mountains! What a fabulous time we had!! It was great going with another family who has kids the same age. The boys played the entire weekend and just had such fun together. They were messy and dirty and muddy and loud...they were boys! My friend's son even caught a crayfish in the creek. He was so excited!

Well, now we're back and I'm facing the chaos that is......Kindergarten. I can't believe my son is starting in just 2 weeks (boo hoo). Things started gearing up yesterday. We had our first get together with 3 other families from our school to get to know some other new kindergartners. Now at times I may run a little, ahem, tardy but I guess I didn't realize that my kids noticed. So for this play date we met at a local park at 10:30. We actually arrived around 10:25. My son said, "Well, finally we're the first ones to get someplace. That NEVER happens!" Score one for the procrastination crowd!

In the next 2 weeks we have a hot dog blast, volunteer fair, orientation, convocation, etc.....I just got all of his uniform pieces, but I have no idea if I actually bought the right things or not. I think so, but it gets a little confusing. I'm overwhelmed. Can anyone relate???

Climb Every Mountain

We're heading to the mountains this weekend. I'm so excited. While we're there we're going to a place called Tweetsie Railroad. Apparently it's an old fashioned western-themed amusement park. They have an old steam train that you can ride (and apparently get robbed by some bandits), they have cowboys, indians, an old fashioned jail, shooting gallery and country fair. They also have an area where a you can go gem mining or panning for gold. The kids are going to love it!

We're going with friends of ours who have kids the same age and I'm just so looking forward to the last getaway before school starts.

New Products

Woo hoo! I'm excited. In just a few short days I'll get to see all of the new products we're launching over here at Thirty One. We've decided to go almost entirely with exclusive products so most of the items we have in our current catalog will be retired by the end of this month. We are going to launch over 150 brand new, exclusive products in our Fall 2008 catalog. I can't wait to see everything! Of course I'll give all of you a preview as soon as possible.

If you'd like me to put you on my monthly newsletter mailing list which shows all of our sales and monthly specials, let me know and I'll email it to you.

View our end of season sale products here: http://www.thirtyonegifts.com/images/SaleProducts07_2.pdf

And lastly, you can see one of the products we'll be launching in the new catalog. The "Polka Dot Sassy Sac" is our customer special during the month of August. The small bag is on sale for $21 (normally $26) and the medium bag is on sale for $31 (normally $36).

Have No Fear, Underdog is Here!

We got a care package in the mail yesterday. My fabulous sister sent a box full of goodies. First and foremost she took care of her little sis by picking up sheer curtains at IKEA for $4.99 A PAIR! Can you believe it??!! We don't have an IKEA here, so she graciously offered to buy them in beautiful (but waaaay too cold for me) St. Paul and ship them to me. I'm going to hang them in our screened-in porch. Slowly my vision of an all white, shabby chic porch is becoming a reality.

Anyway, along with the curtains there was a DVD collection of the old Underdog cartoons. I don't think I've seen this cartoon since I was a kid. I know a movie version is coming out in August, which my 5 year old is dying to see. We'll have to wait to see the reviews because we usually only go to G movies.

We're going to the mountains this weekend and we're going to save the Underdog cartoons for the ride. I'm so excited to see the kids reactions! I know they're going to be thrilled.

Although, I liked Underdog, I think my favorite cartoon growing up was Josie and the Pussycats. I could, however, spend hours talking about my favorite Saturday morning shows from when I was a kid (I was a little bit addicted - it's ok, I've been through Schoolhouse Rock Rehab). I had soooo many favorites.

What cartoons/Saturday morning shows did you love to watch?

Some Family Photos

I need a drumroll please.....

No I haven't mastered the digital camera yet but I did manage to find some pictures that my sister-in-law emailed to us from a dinner we had at her apartment, so here goes....

Mr. J:

Mr. C:

All 3 of my boys:

And finally, me and the little guy. By the way, I think this picture does not represent my true, um, fabulousness and model-like qualities (snort). Do you notice that the wine bottle is strategically placed in front of me? Hmmm....I wonder how that happened?! One thing all people in my family know - wine and chocolate always is presented in front of me.