Yes, I am still here

It has been a long time since my last post as I have been in and out of town as well as busy with Valentine's Day business in *The Stores*.  So, time for a little catching up...don't you think?

First up...Quebec Canada
On February 9th I departed the San Francisco airport with my younger son, Matthew, and his hockey team for Quebec for the Quebec International PeeWee Hockey Tournament. As previously written, this tournament is one of the largest youth hockey tournaments in the world. Over 300 teams, from 16 countries, participate in a 10 day tournament.

The San Jose Jr. Sharks PW99AAA hockey team - sitting in the San Francisco Airport, waiting for everyone to check in their luggage and hockey equiptment before heading down secuity and the gate.

Our flight took off at 8am and after 5 hours in the first leg of our journey, we arrived in Toronto Canada. After going through Canadian customs, we had enough time to catch a quick bite of food before loading onto the next plane that would take us to Quebec.

Sitting at the gate waiting for our Quebec flight. Matthew is sitting in the middle (he has the Jr. Sharks grey shirt on), on the left is his coach and on the right is one of his teammate. Below, at his feet is the rest of his team, sitting on the floor eating and playing computer games.

The flight from Toronto to Quebec is a little over an hour. Once in Quebec and our luggage was collected, we all boarded the tournament vans which brought us over to the Pepsi Colisee where the boys would meet the families that they would be staying with for the next 10 days.

Matthew...his billete dad: Benoit...and his teammate: Cam

Once Matthew and his teammate, Cam, departed with their new Quebec family, I left with the rest of the hockey families to check into our hotel. Matthew's billete family has two children - a 3 year old boy and a 9 month old girl. During the weekend, Matthew told me that it was fun playing with 3 year old Maxime, but..."he only speaks French." However, friendship and love seem to breakdown language barriers pretty quickly! Both Matthew and Cam had a wonderful time with their billet family during the 10 days. They were treated like princes!

During their 10 days in Quebec, the boys played a lot of hockey. Their 2 tournament games didn't go very well, loosing both, they were eliminated from the tournament pretty quickly. However, the coaches set up a lot of exhibition games which kept them pretty busy and on the ice. There were only 2 days they weren't on the ice - the first one being Monday, Feb. 13 when they went to a huge snow tubing park...which is always a highlight for the team that go to this tournament. And the only other day they were off the ice was Sunday, Feb. 19 when they were getting packed up to depart the next day. If interested in reading a little more about some of their experience in Quebec, we started a blog to jounalize their experience (unfortunately, I didn't get a chance yet to finish it). You can visit this blog by going to: http://www.pw99aaa.blogspot.com/

The last night in Quebec, my son and his roommate had to come to the hotel and stay with us (I was rooming with Matthew's teammate's mother). Their billete family had to go back to work on Monday, Feb. 20th early so it was best for them to come to the hotel. I am glad that it happened this way, for it gave Matthew and I some mother-son time. Three years ago, when Robert (my older son) went to Quebec, this same thing happened and I treasured this time we had together for it just put a nice ending on the whole experience so I was glad to have this with Matthew. So, Sunday evening - the last evening in Quebec - we walked to one of my favorite restaurants in the Old City called Portofino. We had a very nice meal and Matthew filled me in on his wonderful experience he had at his billete family's house, playing in the tournament, hanging out with his teammates, going to the snow park, etc. He was just glowing with happiness as he told me all his stories. After we finished out meal, I took him to my favorite place in the city. Located below the Chateau Frontnac is Petite Champlain, a little cobble stone street with building that date back to the 1600's-1700's. Many of these buildings are now art galleries, shops and restaurants. But with all the holiday lights and the snow it reminds me of something out of a Charles Dickson's novel. It was a wonderful way to end this trip with my son Matthew.

My side of the Quebec Experience
I was in Quebec Feb. 9-12 and then again Feb. 16-20. In between I had to fly home to help DH with Valentine's Day business at *The Stores*.  My side of Quebec was like having 2 "girl" weekends...or should I say "hockeymom" weekends. Throughout the day we would attend the hockey games our boys played and then in the evening we would enjoy the many wonderful restaurants Old Quebec City had to offer as well as ending up in the hotel bar until midnight or 1am. It has been a very long time since I have had time like this...and I don't think that I have ever really had a girl weekend out. It was fun.

The first weekend up there, there were 4 of us hockey moms that hung out together and the second it was just down to 2. But we definitely had fun none-the-less!

Valentine's Day
Well, like I mentioned I came home Sunday, Feb. 12 and stayed until the 16th in order to help out at *The Stores*. It was definitely crazy and I didn't get much sleep. For I worked immediately when I got home on Sunday, Feb. 12. DH picked me up from the airport and I went directly to the store to dip strawberries and apples in chocolate. I finished up around 6am only to go home to shower so I could go up to our other store and work allday. After a full day at Store #2, I headed back to Store #1 to dip more strawberries in chocolate until 2:30am when I just couldn't function any more. Home I went to get 3 hours of sleep so that I could work in the stores on Valentine's Day. I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but lets just say it was a very long and stress ful day!

Well, back home now. Quebec and Valentine's Day is behind me! Life looks like it was be somewhat a little calmer. I hope.

It is time I need to sign off in order to get the house up and going. So, until next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often

 (I hope I will be able to soon!)

Lisa

Time to catch up!

Phew...what a Valentine's weekend! It was fun but exhausting! Especially my, 40 hour day that started at 5:30am on Sunday morning and ended on Monday at 9:30pm. I did catch a few catnaps when I went home Sunday evening to put the boys to bed; Monday morning when I came home to wake up the boys & get them ready for school and later on Monday after I picked them up from school. Crazy, I know! But very happy with the way Valentine's was handled in our store and the way that our employees helped to get everything produced and delivered. Sure, there are always things that store owners can do better and there are alway customers who aren't satisfied...but after hearing that some of the other franchise stores weren't able to make all their deliveries on Valentine's day - I feel very good that we did.

Now, back to reality and "routine".

Catching up on my blog reading I found out that Lori received the ornament I made her for the Ornament Swap, so now I can show you what I stitched:

"Snow Wishes" by The Victoria Sampler
Designed by Cathy Jean
Just CrossStitch 2009 Special Christmas Issue 

Stitched on fabric from my stash (which didn't have the count information on it) and substituting thread (but keeping true to the colors called for). It was a fun project to stitch and I was so glad to hear that Lori received it! Now it is time to figure out what ornament I will be stitching & finishing for the March recipient...mmmm, time to pull out all the ornament specials again :)

Six days until the repairman to return to fix the washer. We have received all 3 boxes of parts to replace the bad ones. We are making due with washing the clothes through other means, but it is a hassel - lugging the dirty clothes to the car...but it has to be done. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well next Tuesday and we will have a working clothes washer :)

That is about it for now...just catching up as well as getting ready to leave for Detroit, MI with Robert & his hockey team for a tournament during President's weekend. So, until next time...

Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

Valentine's Day...the "last minute" holiday

Hi all...well, I will tell you right off that I have not touched a needle and thread for several days as I have been in *The Store* working, trying to do what I can to assist DH to keep him relaxed...and helping out in the "kitchen", jumping in the production line where ever I can to assist our wonderful staff. For Valentine's Day weekend has been very crazy & busy...and if we do everything "successfully" it will be a very, very good holiday.

First off Valentine's Day is basically a "one day" holiday...meaning that everyone wants their fruit bouquet on Valentine's Day and to be delivered on Valentine's Day. As of right now, we have 300+ orders for Monday - fruit arrangements, boxed chocolate covered fruit and long-stemmed chocolate covered strawberry boxes. Thank goodness for our wonderful employees and all the preparing DH has done to get us to where we are right now, yet today will be the real test of preparing and organizing all the orders to be ready for delivery and pick up tomorrow. It is going to be a long day & night tonight, but I know that we can do it!

Second, it is also a "last minute" holiday...meaning, we are getting those desperate husband and sweethearts calling now. The phone call go something like this:

Me: "Thank you for calling *The Store*, how can I help you today?"

Customer: "I am looking for something for my wife...I am looking at your website... I know that she likes chocolate and fruit...do you have anything like that?"

Me (trying to keep the sarcastic tone out of my voice, especially since this has to be the 20th caller to ask this question): "We have a wonderful assortment of arrangments containing chocolate dipped fruit. If you are on the website, is there anything that catches your eye that your wife might like? or, if you would like to tell me what her favorite kind of fruit is, I can give you some options."

After walking the customer through a few of the options that best match his thoughts, then it is time to close out the sale...

Me: "Will you be picking this up or will you like us to deliver it to her?" (this was a question asked prior to Saturday, as we have had to stop taking orders for Monday deliveries...only pick ups)

Customer: "Can you deliver it? Maybe to her office? Best to have it there exactly at 2:45pm...she has meeting in the morning, then appointments outside the office, then goes to lunch...she might even have a hair appointment before she takes the kids to soccer, but I am sure that she is around there exactly at that time...or maybe you should have it taken to our house between the hours of 6 and 6:15 because that is when she brings the kids home and helps get the kids around for soccer before leaving at 6:15...or..."At this point, I step in - trying to calm down the husband and offer a couple of options, which make it easier to settle on the delivery option, in order to close the sale and move on. 

Valentine's Day seems to have always been that kind of holiday...last minute, full of desperation. I know that florist go through it too, that is why they create the "grab and go" bouquets. And when I worked in my family's party-goods store...the red-heart mylar balloon was the popular item.

At the party store, we would advertise this balloon at 2 for a $1 (currently Party City is advertising it at 69cents each if you purchase a dozen...99cents each if you don't). We would offer all sorts of incentives for customers to pre-purchase prior to Valentine's Day so that we could have their order blown up and ready for them to come in & pick up...no waiting in line. While that did work for the most part (I remember going into stores at 2am in the morning and blow up close to 1000 balloons or more to full fill orders as well as be ready for people to come in and purchase), there were always those customers who waited for the last minute and demanded their 3 dozen red heart balloons right now, not wanting to wait for them to be blown up and definitely didn't have the time to wait in the line to get the sale rung up. And God forbid if we should have run out of them!

Well, anyway...back to the present...I am up early, getting in a good sweaty spin on my stationary bike to make up for the one I didn't get in yesterday. I have to get up Matthew at 4:30am so that he can eat breakfast before getting picked up for an early morning hockey practice. As soon as he takes off, Robert, DH and I will head on over to *The Store* where I will start melting the chocolate - prep the apples and strawberries for dipping before the first couple of employees come in to help out. Robert is coming in early to lend a hand where he can to get things ready for a full day of prepping and production of Valentine's Day arrangements. It will definitely be a long day...but when all is done and out for delivery tomorrow there will be well worth it!

So, my friends, if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, just know that I am fine just up to my elbows in chocolate.

Take care and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch Often!

Lisa

I wear Red...do you?

Today is "Wear Red" Day, a day to remind all of us women...our grandmothers, our mothers, sisters and girl friends...to take care of their heart health!
Cardiovascular disease claims the life of over 500,000 women each year and many weren't paying attention, weren't aware of the signs, dismiss it as a "man's disease". So it is importanat for us to be aware of our heart health, to take care of ourselves...for we are important for so many other people who we are incharge of taking care. Be good to yourself today...wear read...visit the Go Red for Women website for more information.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It is Friday...Yahoo!

Unfortunately...and fortunately...I will be going into work today - my part-time job that is. All week I have been coordinating a photo shoot to take place at my office. It definitely has been an experience trying to get everything set up, working as a middle-person too coordinate it and making sure that all the right papers and background checks were completed. Anyway, the shoot is happening today, so I am going in to make sure that everything goes according to directions. I am looking foward to it, for it has been a long time since I have been to one of these.

The last photoshoot I attended was when I was working in Marketing and Public Relations for my families company in Minnesota. The theme of the shoot was first birthday as it was for our first Annuarl Report and the model was Robert (older son). He definitely hammed it up when he smeared cake frosting on his face. The photo was also used for the cover of the Kid's Birthday Party Planning brochure (pictured below).

What do you have planned for the weekend? While the boys each have a hockey practice in the wee hours of the mornings, we don't have anything else really planned. DH, of course, will go into *The Store* as we are gearing up for the Valentine's Holiday. Chocolate dipped strawberries...either in a box or created to look like a dozen roses in a special long stemmed red rose box. Yummy!

Wouldn't you like to get one of these from your sweetheart on Valentine's day?

Well, I will be there all next weekend dipping away! I can already smell that sweet scent of melted chocolate mixed with the fruity aroma that is always in the air at *The Store*.

However, this weekend, well with not much really on the agenda I am hoping to stay close to home and get a few things done here...things that don't include laundry as my washer is sick and the fixit doctor can't come until next Tuesday. So we will have to deal with laying out the stinky hockey gear in the sun to dryout and let the sun bake out the germs (right?). Oh, well, there are definitely worse things in life.

Well, take care my friends.Hope you have a good Friday and remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa