YAY! It's finally here!!! UPDATED

Tomorrow is my sister's baby shower. I am SO EXCITED!! I have been since I started planning it!!!
Today I am making the cake/cupcakes. Her nursery theme is camo, so we are incorporating that into the baby shower (my cousin Holly is helping me) :) We have games planned with prizes and we're having it at the best pizza place ever in the world. :)

Here is the cake process:


Baking:


Cupcakes:







This will be my first time EVER working with fondant. I will update as I go.

Fondant:




Finished product for the cake (I cut out little flowers for the cupcakes):

IO IO..

Maybe I should have stuck with my original plan for the PhD. I seem to most enjoy organizing, planning, efficiency and motivational strategies. While I can satisfy these interests with projects at home, like my sister's shower, husband's fun committee and the structure I am trying to enforce on a mommy group, I would like to eventually do it not just as a hobby. Granted, I love being involved in philanthropic events and volunteering. I wouldn't mind doing things full time for volunteer organizations. Those are my current thoughts.

Loving the new place :)

So it's been a few months since we moved. We LOVE this area up here!!! Awesome schools close by (minor obstacle we have to face in order to get him into the one we want him to go to), our neighbors are amazing on both sides of the house (hopefully once they build behind and in front of us, if they ever do, they are equally as awesome). Getting involved in several really awesome mommy groups up here (thank you Alicia for encouraging me to join the Kent one.. it also gave me the courage to try out a few more, which I love all of them!!!) In fact, tomorrow I have a craft project that I am bringing to do with the moms and kids at the Puyallup Public Library and also plan on discussing with the organizer a food drive idea I have for the group.

This weekend is my sister's baby shower. Super excited because I am planning it. I have everything ready, with help from my super amazing cousin Holly. It's going to rock!! :)

I've been definitely staying busy with implementing my cleaning schedule that I had at the old house in Ridgefield, working with Sevren on projects and reading/spelling, a few things I am doing for Sayoji at work for his fun committee and now the activities I'm helping with for the meetup group. Good stuff. I like staying busy :)

Silly, I know..

but I was watching a catch-up episode of Glee. And it got me to thinking (Born This Way was the episode). Although this is something I think about often, what would my life be like.. and how would I be, if the things that happened to be never happened. I mean, yes, there are certain aspects of myself that I was born with. The emotional issues, I know are from experiences that could have been prevented in some extent. Of course, car accidents are not something that can be foreseen, as are other things that happened. Hmm.. this is sounding more and more like a poor poor pitiful me post. Not where I was intending this.

This was probably a bad time to start my detox -> new eating habits. I am definitely hormonal. Tuesday is going to be such a fun day. It's the day my period is expected, I have to take Sevren to his 4 year check up and get shots, and then I have to take his paperwork with updated shot record to the preschool/pre-k place. Hoping it won't take very long to get through that. Ugh! :) Yeah.. I'm definitely hormonal and tired and thinking I might add a bath to my evening before bed. :)

:)

I am so tired today! Ugh. Got up early then sevren got up early. Hopefully early naptime!

Customer Service: Can Make or Break Business

Virtually anyone can start a business. You can start a business because you have a new idea, you have an idea for expanding on an existing idea or technology, or you just want to take a stab at running your own business. There is more to just wanting to start a business, however. You need to be educated in the business realm. It is important not only for the survival of your business, but also to keep your business dealings safe and protect yourself. You don't necessarily need to have a background in law, but having taken at least a business law course can be helpful. It may also be good to have an attorney look over your business documents and contracts to make sure everything is accounted for.

Once you have all of this taken care of, you are most likely ready to start your business. Unfortunately, even the most well-versed person in business can fail at their attempt to run their own business. In order for a business to be successful, it must have a method of attracting and retaining customers. But even this isn't enough for achieving success.

Customer service can make or break a company. You can have a truly innovative or superior product/service. Customers may try it out, but if you do not have exceptional customer service, chances are your customers will be lost to competitors. Even if your product is much better, if customers are able to have their needs met in a better way through a competitor, they may ignore the slightly poorer quality of product or service for that extra customer support.

Customer service is more than just being friendly. You need to be able to express empathy and fully understand the customer. Not just their attitude, but their expectations as well as their concerns.

If you are a consultant, or in the position to have an ongoing relationship with your customer, it is important to build a feeling of trust. That will help customers feel comfortable with you. They will know you will take care of them. They may or may not get that anywhere else. Take time to get to know them. Their family if it's appropriate. "Hey, how are the kids?" for example.

Listen. Remember stories they tell. Take notes if you need to. This will help when building a relationship with them. If you are not building a long-term relationship, it is still important to listen and take care of your customer's needs. This is important for all levels of employee.

If a customer is happy, chances are they are going to spread the good word to friends, family, co-workers about their fantastic experience. If they have a bad experience, they are more likely to share that with their friends, family, co-workers to warn them about their experience. This is why customer service is extremely important in business.

Ant vs. Grasshopper

There are many different versions of this fable, but all have the same outcome. In the world today, it is saddening but true that there are many more grasshoppers than ants.

The general principle of the story is that while the grasshopper played and lazed around, the ant spent all of his working hours gathering food and materials to last through the winter. When the winter came, the grasshopper had nothing and the ant had everything needed to stay warm, fed and safe during the winter. The grasshopper tried to get food from the ant, but the ant refused, stating that the grasshopper shouldn't have messed around instead of gathering for the winter. Because of this, the grasshopper suffered severely and in many versions of the storied, died.

Many people in the world are "moochers". They hop from place to place, overstaying their welcome and never taking on responsibilities. When one situation doesn't work out to their liking, they move on to the next. Innocent people sometimes get intertwined in their stories and make bad choices themselves because of it. Sometimes these grasshoppers don't hold a job for very long, if at all, borrow money that is rarely paid back and hurt those who try to get close to them. They often have a sense of entitlement for things that they truly haven't earned, but think they deserve. They try to find get-rich quick schemes or other forms of income that require much less effort for higher payouts. They often lie, steal and cheat their way through life, generally from those who work hard.

The ant, on the other hand, is few and far between. They believe in working hard for what they earn and hope their efforts will eventually be rewarded. They don't expect much, but hope for a better life. They feel directly responsible and in charge of their future. They believe in the saying "hard work pays off" and do not sit around with their hands open for hand-outs. They have the resume padding to support their interview sells-pitches. They are dependable, reliable and generally honest. They are ok with starting at the bottom in order to eventually work their way to the top.

Are you a grasshopper or an ant? If you or someone you know is a grasshopper, would you want to change? If you have children, do you plan on teaching them to be an ant or a grasshopper? How?