And We're Out of the Waiting Place

The wait is over!

On Friday I got out of teaching a class and I had a couple of missed calls so I checked my voice mail. And there it was... The call we had been waiting for all week. The call telling us that Miranda made it into our first choice middle school for Vanguard. I was thrilled!!

Apparently they moved down the waiting list quickly because Miranda was #65. The voice mail message said that I have until 8 a.m. on Monday to accept the invitation. Just on a fluke that they were still there working late I called. Of course they weren't working on a Friday at 5:30 so I left a voice mail message for the Vanguard coordinator and also followed up with an email. I'm making sure I cover all my bases and I'm calling again to confirm at 7:30 on Monday.

After that excitement I debated how I would surprise my little girl. I didn't want to just call and give her the news over the phone. I finally decided on some cupcakes from Kroger so I called my niece Hannah who takes care of her and her brother after school and told her that I'd be a little late. I had already worked late for a Friday too.

So I ran off to Kroger but when I got there I saw this cute little purple cake (above) and I asked the cake lady if she could add something real quick. She said she could and I debated what to write. I didn't want to just write a lame, "Congrats on Lanier" and "Congrats on Being Accepted at Lanier" just seemed way too wordy for such a little cake. Finally I remembered that their mascot was the Purple Pup. That just seemed very appropriate and I knew that it would take her a minute to get the message when she saw it.

My plan worked. When she saw the cake it took her a full 5 seconds to get what I really meant. When she realized that she'd been accepted she jumped for joy. I was so happy for her! It was so worth the wait and getting the cake. One of the wonderful joys of motherhood.

I know that Lanier is a really great school (not only one of the best Vanguard schools in HISD but also one of the best city wide) and I want for her to have the best foundation now for her future. That little girl has big goals and I want to give her all the support that I can as her mother. I want her to achieve more than I did because that's how it should be. Hugs to my big girl!

A Whole New Meaning to the Term, Working Mom

I sell advertising. Basically that's what I do and when I come across an opportunity I will take it. Very rarely do I have my children with me and that's just what happened to me on Friday.

Image by http://www.thespeciallife.com/

I had promised my kids that we would check out the new ice cream shop across the street from their school. So Friday after work I picked them up we headed over to the shop to get some ice cream.

While ordering some ice cream for the kids I made conversation with the teenagers that worked there. I asked if the shop was corporate owned or a franchise. They told me it was a franchise and that the owner was local, even living nearby. I pulled out a business card and asked them if they could pass it along to him. When I did that they told me he was right there and pointed to a young looking guy. I introduced myself and gave him my card. I asked him if I could leave some information after I ordered my ice cream and he said sure.

After ordering my ice cream I went back out to my SUV to get the information I had promised. When I handed it to the owner he started asking me questions and I found myself explaining how our insert program works. Meanwhile my kids are eating their ice cream and they would interrupt me every so often. The owner would smile, because he knew of course that this wasn't your typical sales call, since I had kids with me and of course kids are his biggest customers.

Then my son had to be the biggest drama king of all. He dropped his ice cream in the trash before finishing it. All he had left was the cone with the ice cream up to the top of that. He'd already eaten both his scoops. Well he cried so hard, big tears and all, that the guy fell sorry for him and gave him a whole new ice cream, two new scoops and all.

Talk about working with children! It was all pretty hilarious. And no, I didn't get the sale there and then. He's doing something at the corporate level right now and won't be on his own for advertising until the spring. He told me to get back with him later so he's a good prospect for either me if I'm still selling then or for someone else.

This is my first blog post of the year. The year has started off really interesting so far. I decided over vacation that I was not going to have the same year I had in 2010. I am determined to make 2011 a better year and I am going to be very proactive to make sure it is. No more sitting on the sidelines waiting for good things to happen.

Or as Garth Brooks would say.

"So don't you sit upon the shoreline
And say you're satisfied
Choose to chance the rapids
And dare to dance that tide"

I rebuke all the bad things that have happened to me lately and 2011 is going to be a better year for me spiritually, financially, professionally, personally and in my writing life. I will dare to dance that tide.

End of the Year Recap

I did a pretty thorough recap of the year on skirt.com, so I thought I’d do the same for Shoegirl Corner, since this is my original blog and my baby. One day soon I will start my own website away from blogger, ShoegirlCorner.com. I’ve owned the rights to that name for a while, but I’d like to take a website building class so I can work on my site myself.

The year started out slow on ShoeGirl Corner since I was still blogging for Hips ‘n Salsa. It was a good effort, but not successful. I didn’t blog at all in January and then blogged on average once a month, but at the end of March I thought I could pull off three blogs. I started blogging more through April. I blogged about: getting my first mammogram, purchasing shoes and art, lost remotes and the differences between men and women.


The summer wore on and I realized that I was in a funk. I blogged about it more than once on Shoegirl Corner and on skirt. Now that I look back at both blogs I realize what a bad year 2010 was for me- personally, professionally, financially, and writing wise. The only good part of the year was that I kept writing and the health of my family. I feel like I spent most of 2010 reminding myself that things weren’t that bad and that they could be worse. I taught my daughter to tell me what my husband tells me, “At least we have the money to pay for it” rather than to lament that we didn’t have any money.


Some time in April people started commenting on my blog in Chinese. I reasoned that they were either Chinese spies or they were people who were trying to communicate with one another in communist China and they were using my blog as a channel. They only stayed for a few months and they either found a better channel or they were discovered and had to leave my blog. I was sad to see them go.
 
As the year wore on I gained more weight and I realized that I have food and cupcake issues. Okay, I rediscovered this. I finally set some goals for myself and I shared my vision board on my Shoegirl Corner blog too. I shared my goals with the world to help me become more accountable.



At the end of the year I feel like things started to take a turn for the better. I went to my beloved New York for business and stayed over the weekend and did some things I didn't do last time, like walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and going to Coney Island.

I started working out on a regular basis. I’ve gone ten weeks straight working out on average three times a week, sometimes more, until I had surgery on the last week of the year. I’ve worked out many times before off and on but this is the first time I think I worked out so many times consecutively. It was a turning point for me. What made it even easier to do was that Rey has been working out too. He has been so happy with his results that he decided to start training for a triathlon. Having him work on a goal to get healthy too has made it a lifestyle for me instead of a chore.

I feel like I ended the year on a good note. I even got a Kindle for $6 and now I can have the experience of reading books electronically first hand. I think that’s important if I’m really going to publish my novel electronically in 2011. I had surgery to correct a little feminine issue that I had and hopefully that’s all fixed now.

I’m looking forward to 2011 whatever it may bring in. I say, "Bring It!" It can not be worse than 2010. Anything that happens will be for the best. I need to get out of my comfort zone. I need to shake things up a bit.

I learned an important lesson this year and that was that it is important to write down my goals. (something I already knew but didn't do for some reason) I will work on spiritual, personal, family and on my writing goals in 2011- all the things on my Vision Board. See you all around next year!