Is It Naptime Yet

Note: This was begun and mostly written Saturday night, I was just to lazy to change it.

It’s been a crazy day. I decided to take the girls swimming with my sister Carolyn today. We thought we’d head over to the nearest public pool and have fun. I met her at my parents house and my niece Adrianne was there. Apparently Kaitlyn had dance class so my parents were watching the baby, Howie decided he wanted to watch his sister dance.
So once Howard got there we decided to have them come along. We left my parents house for the pool around 12:30 and Eden fell asleep on the way there. I had Carolyn and Lilah go on ahead and I let Eden rest for about 10 minutes. Then once we got inside the pool area and found Carolyn and Lilah something happened and they kicked everyone out for 15 minutes or so. I wish I’d stayed in the car a little longer since you melt quickly in 115 degree weather. ( I don’t know if it was 115 but I imagine it was at least 110.) Lilah didn’t like the fountain and waterfall things they had there. She hates loud noises and getting water on her face and they consisted of both. So I mostly walked around with Lilah and Carolyn took Eden “swimming” throughout the pool. Eden had a total blast and loved being with Aunt Carolyn. Lilah eventually warmed up to the thought of not holding on to me and started jumping up and down in the pool. (The water came to her shoulders easily, so I think the depth scared her.) It was a fun day to be outside and in the water. We saw Howard, Howie and Katy a little, but they were mobile and swam around where as Lilah was not.
We got to my parents in the late afternoon and I then went to JoAnn’s to get the lining that I needed for the girl’s dresses. I now have everything I need and I plan on cutting out Lilah’s dress tomorrow. I’ll have Naia three days a week for a few weeks and on my off days I plan on taking the girls swimming. So we’ll see how much sewing I get done. If all the children sleep well I should be fine. It’s making sure they all sleep at the same time.
I hope to get one dress done a week. If I’m not lazy and I sew at night I don’t think it will be a problem. I will be sizing Eden’s dress from a 3 to a 2, so I’m doing hers last so as to not have anything but her dress to worry about. I think hers may take longer depending on when I get the help to size down her dress. (Another note: I found out today, Sunday, that somehow the zippers I bought were left at the store, so I now need to go to Henderson sometime this week. Which is no big deal since I’ll need my mom to refresh my mind on how to put in a zipper. 🙂 I don’t sew often enough to always remember what I’m doing, plus she has a zipper foot which makes the process a little easier. )

Anyways after JoAnn’s we had dinner at my parents and Eden and Lilah fell asleep on the way home. Eden is in bed, Lilah is watching a movie.
I’m subbing in Primary for the 9 year old class tomorrow. I still need to get the lesson figured out. I like to reformat them so I have the scriptures listed before the questions. In the lesson’s it’s always the question and then the answer, which confuses me when I’m teaching. It’s an okay bunch of kids so I’m hoping it goes well. We’ll see though, and I’m teaching them next week also so I hope it goes smoothly.

Update: The class went well. The girls were more disruptive than the boys which kinda surprised me. They were pretty good in the class but once we got to sharing and singing time their attention span was all of 30 seconds.
I’ve also got most of Lilah’s dress cut out. I should be able to cut out the rest after the girls go to bed. I’m excited to start sewing tomorrow.

Since I sometimes have a lot of time on my hands, well usually due to procrastination, I sometimes do online surveys and what not. I’ve also entered some drawings. Why I do it is mostly due to boredom, but I’m also trying to find ways to save money for my little family. Not that I’m tremendously good at saving money. Sometimes I end up spending more than I should to save a nickel. Anyways. For a while I’ve subscribed to this one survey site. I’ve done lots of surveys, but only made $10, so I’m not really recommending it, just letting you know that I am subscribed. (I made $5 through their drawings, well one drawing, and $5 for a paid survey. I did a survey on Sunscreen, it was kinda fun. )

Anyways. I’m starting to do more of the surveys you see on receipts. I just filled one out for JC Penny’s, even though I’m not sure when the next time I’ll shop there will be. I got a 15% off coupon for my two minutes of time. (If anyone needs anything from Penny’s let me know, though they do have a long list of what it won’t apply to. I think it really only applies to clothing and towels.) I’m hoping that I can start saving my family money on things we need or things we want if I take time to fill out surveys or do research online for coupons. Like Chuck E’ Cheese can be very expensive but with the coupons it’s a little less crazy to spend money there.
Also if I called in and did the surveys on my Payless receipts within the allotted time I could save $2 when I buy the girls shoes there, or my comfy flip flops that I love.
I guess my reason for this post is to have people look at easy ways to save money or get prizes. I haven’t won any prizes, the trip I entered for my Target survey didn’t pan out, dangit, but if you put yourself out there then you get rewards. I don’t do things that give me solicitations, like the car drawings, but I look for coupons. Ya know time is money and if you’re willing to spend the time you can save money and what else do I have to do besides laundry and watching kids.
I don’t use regular grocery coupons. Mostly because we buy store brand and often even with coupons store brands can be cheaper if they’re on sale and you usually have to buy a newspaper to get the coupons, so we just go cheap. So my goal is to do surveys, they’re stupid but save money of you shop at that store and spend a lot. I only wish Costco would give me 10% off if I did a survey.
Were their plenty of taste test stations? -No I want more so I can leave with a free lunch.
Did you find what you need? -Yes and about $70 worth of stuff I didn’t.

Like I asked before anyone need anything from Penny’s?

Our trip started out rough.

On Thursday I had stomach cramps. Like really really bad ones. I could hardly move. I think it was due to the forth like Eden’s sickness. Jon took off work shortly after noon and came home to help me. I had Naia so he actually took care of her since Julie had errands she was running that day. He feed her and changed her diaper and I even heard him playing with her while I was resting. He sad it was hard work taking care of small baby, well at least feeding her lunch, it took about an hour or so. hehe.
So with me being sick on Thursday I was unable to do any laundry or get anything ready for the trip. We weren’t leaving until the afternoon on Friday, but we were hoping to shampoo the bedroom carpets before we left. (Yeah that didn’t happen, so I now have to think of a way I can keep the girls out of their room for about 12 hours. Um, I’m not sure how I’m gonna do that unless they’re no where near my house for a full day, including nap time.)
So we left late on Friday, 3:00pm. Our destination was Filmore so we weren’t in any rush. Since I was still not feeling well and we were thinking of stopping at a restaurant in Delta on the way home, we bypassed Chuck-A-Rama. 🙁
We just ate at a family restaurant in Filmore called Larry’s and had delicious shakes. The girls ate very little the whole weekend, since we mostly had fast food.
On our way to Filmore we passed the forest fire. It wasn’t as big yet, but it had filled the valley of Beaver with smoke. The sun was also red as we passed through the smoke. We hit Filmore around 8:00 pm Utah time.
We all slept in a little on Saturday morning so we didn’t leave Filmore until 9 am Utah time, in which we needed to leave at 8 Utah time to get to Tooele. Oh well.
When we went out to the car Filmore’s air was full of ash and smoke. Our car had a slight layer of ash covering it.
The smoke didn’t really let up until we reached the outer limits of Delta near Tooele.
Luckily the day was hot, but not too hot for the outside family reunion. We had the gazebo at the park and we were right outside their huge pool. Lilah was not feeling well so we didn’t go swimming. 🙁 When we mentioned we shouldn’t go swimming when we’re sick she decided she was fine but we didn’t buy it. We had a fun afternoon seeing family and doing various crafts. We mostly just sat around and talked and then had a BBQ for lunch, a raffle and some trivia questions. Andrea’s in charge of next year’s reunion, so we’ll see if it’s in Ely. We aren’t planning on going because I want to do a major vacation. (If Jon’s family has one we’ll be there, but that’s because they haven’t had one since Lilah was one. Which means we’ve only missed one thus far since they only do them every two years, but one missed reunion often leads to a second one and a third and so forth.)
After the reunion we headed to my parents hotel. The girls had fun running around and Jon took a couple winks. We ate Wendy’s for dinner, mostly because it was right across the street. When it was around 8pm our time Lilah decided it was bed time and consequently Eden also decided to go to bed. Lilah settled on the couch and Eden laid down in her playpen. They both went to sleep without any problem. Lilah did come into bed with us at one point. She was little heater next to me though and it was cold in the room so I didn’t mind.
Sunday as we were getting ready to go Shauntae called to tell us her boys had caught what she had, so it must have been contagious. (We were hoping it was just allergies.) So with that we we decided to just pack up and head home. I wanted to come home at night so the girls could see the city lights so we left late and even stopped at a park to get some of their energy out. Jon had looked online and the roads had been opened so we thought we’d get home no problem. Unfortunately had we left earlier we could have missed the detour, but we left late. We saw some pretty mountains during the detour and at one point Jon thinks he saw someone pee off the side of the road when we were at the beginning of the detour and just in standstill traffic. It was entertaining to have someone pee at this time.
Eden slept through most of the detour and Lilah entertained herself. At the beginning of the detour Eden kept shouting “Truck go away” or something along the lines of telling the 18wheelers to leave. It worked as we were moving and passing them, but then we were in standstill traffic. Too bad they were right next to us and had no where to go. It was cute though.
After the detour we made it home quickly, though late, 10 pm. Eden had taken a long nap so she was awake to see the city lights as we entered the valley, Lilah had fallen asleep shortly after Mesquite.
It was nice to be home and in our own beds last night. I have Naia bright and early at 8 am tomorrow so hopefully I can get my dishes done tonight.
I made cookies with the girls tonight, so I’m reluctant.

One thing I learned. I really do not like driving on the interstate at nighttime. With the darkness and lights it’s just harder to estimate the distance of the cars and keep track of where they are mentally. I was happy when Jon took over after I drove through the gorge.  It’s fun to drive at night in a way but more stressful to me if there are a lot of cars on the interstate. Of course in the city we have tons of street lights so it’s not as dark driving at night even on the highway.

For the fourth we had a couple of engagements.
Jon’s first engagement was to change the oil to his car. So he went to his parents early Wednesday morning. They have a nice flat drive way so he doesn’t have to worry about being run over by a car while changing it on the street.
While he was gone I got the girls and myself ready and once he showered we went to my friend Anna’s house for lunch with her and her husband Kevin.
The girls had a blast playing with the stuffed animals they have and petting the cats. Well, petting the cats for the short moments while they weren’t hiding from the girls.
We had delicious hamburgers, potato salad and I brought a green salad and Creamies. We didn’t get to the Creamies so I just left them there as a thank you. (We had creamies in Ely with Andrea and Brien and so when I saw them on sale for 3 boxes for $5 on my recent Smith’s trip and I couldn’t resist.)
Neither Eden or Lilah ate very well but they did drink all the apple juice they could.
After lunch Anna, Lilah and I went to JoAnn’s to pick out fabric for the dress she’s making me for Carolyn’s wedding. (She’s trying to start her own business on the side for now.)
I think it’ll be very cute so I can’t wait.
Eden was asleep by the time we got to JoAnn’s so Jon just sat in the car with her. We took an hour and a half so I feel bad that he was out there for so long (I love you honey.) but, Eden did sleep the whole time.
After JoAnn’s we went to a party that was for Carolyn’s office. She was kind enough to invite us and JC, who is Naia’s grandfather and knows who I am, was very kind to let us crash it. Lilah went swimming and had a blast and Eden did also. They both were doing very well in the pool and Lilah was getting herself around pretty well with the floaty that Minnie provided, JC’s wife. It was a blast.
We came home and just relaxed. We popped popcorn and later opened the blinds and watched our neighbors fireworks and then we watched them on whatever show that was on PBS. Lilah wanted fireworks but she hates loud noises, so even if we bought quiet ones there was no guarantee our neighbors wouldn’t be lighting off loud ones while we were outside.
It was fun day, but it took it’s toll on Eden.
Warning: very yucky details ahead.

When Jon was leaving for work this morning he went in to find that Eden had vomited in the night sometime. So he came in to me and said “Houston we have a problem” to get me up and in their room. Eden was still asleep and the vomit was dark brown and in large, dried chunks so at first we were confused about what it was, vomit or poop? I’ve heard of the horror stories of children eating their poop and she’s been so much trouble lately that I wouldn’t be surprised if she had. Well, her diaper was clean and at a closer smelling we decided it was vomit. Jon helped me a little with getting Eden out of bed but he had to leave for work so I finished cleaning up and got the girls into a bath. I think she got sick because she only ate some tomato and chips at lunch, accompanied by apple juice and then for dinner she hate a hot dog, no bun, and had gatorade and then popcorn with a little water at our house that night. So with the combination of hardly any water, eating only food that was not the best for her and being outside swimming on a hot day she got sick. She’s been fine today but we stayed home from a birthday party. It too was outside and I just wanted to keep her inside and get her system normal.
So that’s the whole holiday happenings.
It was tons of fun, just a little sad today.

A while back I did a post about Eden sticking bread up her nose. Well she continues to randomly do it if I’m away from the table, meaning I think she’s learned her lesson and stopped but then one day she does it again. One day I had snot and bread coming out of her nose for a while after lunch was over.
Her new favorite thing to do is stick the small rubber bands I use in her hair into her ears. They’re just a little bigger than rubber bands people use for braces. Anyways, a couple days ago I laid Eden down for her nap and when she woke up I could only find one of the two in her hair. It’s pretty normal for them to be missing once she takes them out so I thought nothing of it. Well today on the car ride home she stuck one of her rubber bands in each ear. One was easily retrieved the other was too far back. We got a flashlight and some tweezers and I held Eden down while Jon retrieved the rubber band. He was inspecting her ear and we saw another one way down in her ear. Luckily we were able to also retrieve that one, but it was a little more tricky. I’m just glad that I hadn’t cleaned her ears the other day because I probably would have lodge the rubber band pretty far back unknowingly. I think I may have to use the larger rubber bands or make a rule of taking them out once we’ve been to our destination. She’s good about keeping them in right after I put them in and while we’re out, it’s the ride home that she takes them out and after her naps.
It’s just driving me nuts. She had a time out and a very stern warning but we’ll see if it sticks. From now on I just need to be extra vigilant in watching where she puts small things.

I never had this problem with Lilah.

I wanted to wait to go to Costco because we have no money in the food part of the budget until July, which begins tomorrow, but we needed eggs and a couple other things. As I was at Smith’s I figured I would get some eye drops that the doctor recommended for Jon. They were $15 for a 30 mL (1 fluid oz.) bottle. Now Smith’s does gas rewards so I thought if I spend $15 more than I can get the $0.05 reward per gallon of gas. So I thought I’d just buy things we needed or would use for the next month to get the rewards. Well, I wasn’t keeping track so the items added up. In short I hit the $30 mark and had I spent $8 more than I could have gotten $0.10 rewards on my gas. 🙂

My train of thought is horrible. But at least everything I got at Smith’s was justified and things that we will use over the next couple weeks or months ahead for our food storage or just to stock up. The costs will just roll over to July’s food budget.
Some of the things I got at Target before I went to Smith’s, now they could have also waited, but I didn’t know when the next time I’d be at Target, so I thought I’d get it while I was there. 🙂

Jon should do the shopping I’ve decided.

Also, while at Target I saw a loss prevention sting in action. As I walked in and went by the Women’s section and the hand bags, I saw a guy in black shirt and khakis crouching and looking towards the dressing rooms. Well, I just continued to walk and then saw him dash past me into the lingerie section. I saw him meet up with another guy in polo and khakis and they continued to monitor the dressing room or men’s area. Then I turned down an isle and a their was another guy in khakis and a polo in the women’s shoe department also watching the same area. Lilah at this point was already asking questions about the guy hiding earlier and then this other guy hiding. I started to say that they were watching someone who was stealing, but I stopped after that because I didn’t know who they were watching and I didn’t want the suspect to hear me.
I later saw the same guys and they were talking to their supervisor about the description of the guy. It seems that he got away, or decided to not steal from what I heard.

I’ve never noticed loss prevention at Target. My dad did loss prevention at Sears for a long time, so as a kid and teenager I liked to watch for men in khakis and polo’s with walkie talkies in department stores. Now they probably just use cell phones. I also knew what they were doing the moment I saw the first guy meet up with the other in lingerie, though it could have been a strange hide and seek game of 18- 20 something year old guys.
So that was my Target trip. Loss prevention in action. Too bad they couldn’t prevent me from loosing my spending habits while there.

I have to make the girls dresses for my sister Carolyn’s wedding but the pattern I want is no where to be found at JoAnn’s, where I have a sister and a mother who work. I may just order it online. The other problem is it only goes down to a size 3, or one size larger than what Eden is, but I think I can adjust it, maybe….:)

I have less than 2 months to make two dresses and drapes. Why drapes? Because I have just one set to go and I feel bad when things like this come up and delay me even more on these sewing projects for my house. I also only have only one set to go!!
I would make a dress for myself or a skirt but one, I don’t have the time and two, they never fit me right.
I want something like this for the wedding, but it’s pricey.
If you want to donate to my “dress to wear to Carolyn’s fund” wedding just e-mail me or make a or comment. 😉

(There is this dress which is less pricey, but it’ I still like this pricey one a little better. Of course I could want the most expensive one from this site.)

For our Ely trip Jon took Friday, Monday and Tuesday off. He took three days off so he wouldn’t lose two hard earned vacation days with the new fiscal year that begins this July. (Yay! More money, just to be spent on my now due student loans.) (He can only role over a certain amount of vacation time to the new year.)
So the past couple of days have been us at home doing not much of anything on our to-do list. One reason is some things cost money and we don’t have much of it. Another reason is when were home together we don’t do anything but read, do regular chores so the house isn’t overrun in chaos, though at times it is anyways, and we each try to use the computer when the other isn’t on it.
My friend Sam’s husband is a teacher and he’s home during the summertime. I can’t imagine how slothful Jon and I would be together if he was a teacher and we had about 3 months to be at home together.

Literally the dishes are never completely done and the laundry never completely put away on his vacation days. (Not that it’s that much different on days he’s at work, but I have been able to keep the sink empty most of the time.)
There’s also toys that are kept on the floor due to us not making the girls clean up through out the day.
Chaos on vacation days, utter chaos.
Weekends can be different. Jon will do a lot on weekends sometimes. Sometimes he makes me feel bad because he’ll do more laundry or dishes than I did the entire week. Sunday is usually our not do anything day on weekends though.

So the things we accomplished the past couple of days. Monday Jon finished the clothes that I started, which included folding and putting away whites, folding towels that had been washed last week, and washing and folding the girls clothes. I did one load of dishes, but only because I felt bad because I slept half the day and he worked hard watching the girls and doing laundry. I was just soo tired and exhausted though. Jon also baked bread Monday night. Not much of anything else happened but Jon did do a lot. Today we went to the Library to return and check out books for the girls and one on home-schooling for us to read and we dropped our Netflix in the mail.

Vacation.

Really we’re not go-to people. We’re stay home and cuddle people.

Also:
Lilah got Eden her blanket for bedtime. While Eden said the prayer the first thing she said was about Lilah getting the blanket. It may have had thank you in there also. I just thought it was too cute.

Monday- We went to Sis. Jewitt’s house. She and I had to go shopping to buy baskets for enrichment night this week and then the girls and I went swimming. Lilah loved it there and the youngest daughter Hannah, about 11, had tons of fun playing with the girls.
Tuesday- Dropped the girls off at Sam’s. Went to the DMV and registered the car. UGH, it was soo much money, so we are way over our misc budget yet again. (Sorry honey I totally forgot about registering the car and how much it costs when factoring in misc.) Went to JoAnn’s picked up chocolates and baskets. Baskets for the house chocolates for the truffle making class I would be doing Wednesday night with the Miamaids in our ward. After JoAnn’s I went to Trader Joe’s and then back home to put the milk in the fridge. Picked up girls and we came home for lunch.
Wednesday- Went shopping at Target to get different items and return a floaty swimsuit that got holes in it after one wear. Forgot to get anything to replace it though. Came home had Eden take a nap and then I went to Sam’s to show her how to prepare the truffle center for mutual. I also went through her recipes and now I have to copy tons of recipes so I can have some variety in our very redundant dinner menu. Came home, took naps, made dinner, kissed husband hello, ate dinner, kissed husband goodbye. Taught Miamaids how to make truffles. ( I made them for a cub scout dinner and they were a big hit, so Sam asked me to teach her girls how to make them.)
Came home, made phone calls for enrichment.
Thursday- My first day to watch Naia! Julie dropped her off a little after 9am and then I had to learn what to do with a young baby. She’s pretty well behaved but she got hungry right before we had to leave.( Julie called while she was crying and I felt so bad.) I feed her a little to get her happy and then we got to Lilah’s class about 15 minutes late.
Naia didn’t want to sleep while at the church and only took about a half hour nap. Then she fussed a bit when I laid her down in Eden’s bed, and Eden cried to have a baby put in her bed. Ahh, children.
Tonight Enrichment.
Tomorrow- We have a birthday party for Spencer, a boy from church. We’ll see how that goes because it’s 10-12, the same time Naia’s nap begins.

So I’ve driven somewhere every day this week. I don’t plan on having this be routine since it does cost a lot in gas but man, I was busy.

I’m happy to begin watching Naia. It’s nice to be contributing to the income.
Also great news is Jon got a small raise besides his cost of living increase!
Go Jon! He doesn’t think it was well deserved since he was learning his job this past year, but I say he’s a very hard worker and is dedicated to being an honorable employee.
I think he deserves it and it helps to ease the burden of the budget just a tad more.

Now I post this because my point of view as changed and I now see the importance of trying to keep my friends information private because this is what I now want. So if you ever think of me as someone who might like something get the card to the consultant and and I can tell you myself and not waste that consultant’s and my time. Now I’m not upset at anyone for referring me but I just realized that it’s easier if you don’t. 🙂
So I’ve only recently heard of a company called “The Living Scripture”. I was at a relief society function and one women there said how she got locked into the whole set and would be paying $4,000 for everything. I thought wow, a commitment of $4,000 in DVD’s, crazy, even if they are scripture related. I just realized Jon’s parents have a lot of the living scripture videos and I have seen some. I think they can be useful to teach little children but ultimately it should be from the scriptures and Church related publications, I think. Like the Gospel Art kit or Book of Mormon Stories, both which I have and neither do I use often, which just means I’m a slacker. (I’ll link to these church items when they site is running.) Anyways.
Yesterday I had just picked up the mail and I noticed a young man park across the street. I was watching him because he was in an unfamiliar car. I got back in the house and through my peep hole I noticed he had a duffel bag. I wondered who he was staying with. I saw how he crossed the street and was approaching my door. I wondered if he had the wrong address because I was pretty sure I hadn’t signed up for any exchange program.
He rang the bell and I opened. He called me Sister Blake, which I found odd because he was not familiar looking to me. He said he was talking to people in the ward about this product and he asked if he could come in and tell me some info and show a video. I declined and he said for just listening I get a free video. I said I wasn’t interested and he tried to get in by saying he gets paid for just doing a demonstration and he mentioned the free video again as he held three different ones in his hand. I declined and he said how he didn’t know many people and was wondering if I could give him referrals to people in the ward. I sheepishly mentioned one family who lives down the street from us. He asked for more but not many live in my neighborhood and I didn’t want to go pull out a ward roster, that would be out of line. He went on his way and I became a little upset by the situation.
Here are the things that mostly upset me:
1. He called me by Sister Blake and was a sales man. I like using the “Sister” title for church relations, so to call me “Sister” and want to sell me something made me a little upset.
2. He didn’t call first, he just stopped by. Had he called he could have saved his and my time. Also by stopping by I know that people are more likely to get inside and once inside the “foot in the door syndrome” takes place and a person is more likely to buy something. I felt a little guilty that he wasted gas coming to my house, but honestly he should have called first so the guilt I had is gone.
3. He wanted names specifically of those I go to church with so in a way he is able to bypass the whole rule about not using the ward roster for solicitation because it’s always “referrals” to other members of the ward.

I also know from reading this blog, though it appears to be highly biased against living scripture, that they do strange 2 year contracts, kinda like Columbia house, but for a much higher price of $2,000 per subscription and X numbers of videos.
That’s just not what we need.
At one point while I was turning him down I almost pointed to the new car in the drive way and said. “See that car, we just bought it and now our income is much tighter and I don’t need to spend $4,000 on videos.” But he was nice and not so persistent that I felt the need to act like a crazy lady to get him to leave.

Another referral experience I had with a Mary Kay Rep. I had a friend, lets call her Stacey, just start doing Mary Kay, she no longer likes the company, so I don’t feel bad divulging this info, plus it’s no sign that this always happen within Mary Kay, just to me.
Well I went to Stacey’s first party as a new Mary Kay Rep and bought one lipstick because it was way too much money to spend on makeup for me. While we were hanging around eating cake Stacey’s Rep asked if she could call me tomorrow and do a three way with Stacey and just talk about how she did. I thought yeah I can do that and said yes. Well this Rep called and tried to persuade me to join the Mary Kay team. Ya know, list the benifits of half off makeup and having your own hours and possibly earning enough to have them give you the use of a second car for free. Nothing was ever brought up about my friend’s experience or how she did at her first party. I found it strange because this had been my first Mary Kay party ever and I know that was asked while there and no where on my slip of paper did I show any sign of interest for joining Mary Kay. I declined several times throughout the phone conversation and the Rep asked if I would do a “pink pillow” and sleep on it. I said that I would think about it, but just to get her off my back. My friend was so embarrassed. She had no idea that her Rep would try to recruit me. She knew that she was trying to get higher up in the totem pole, but she felt so bad that the Rep called me under false pretense.

So here’s my new thing. I’m never going to give referrals when I’m asked unless I have already spoken to someone and I know they’re interested in the product. Instead I’ll ask for a card and say I’ll talk to my friends and if they’re interested they’ll contact you.

I know a lot of people who do the whole sales thing. I understand you make money off of referrals and if a person is looking into a product and you make contact with them before they just contact a rep, then you get the money and not just some random rep. That’s great, but what I’ve decided is I don’t enjoy turning someone down because I was referred by a friend. If I’m looking to buy a certain product I’ll ask around and see if I know someone who sells X product or if they know someone. If they do great, if not fine.
I already have a hard time going to stores and buying things I don’t need by just seeing them on a shelf. I don’t need a person telling me I need something and persuading me to spend money. I do that well enough on my own.