Productive Saturday

Caught up on my shows I missed this week.

Watched the Eagle some. 1st egg hatched!

P90x day 3. Can you say "I'm sore"?

Planned heart healthy meals for the whole week.

Did grocery shopping for the week.

Cooked Dinner.

Straightened the House.

Watched a Movie.

Prepared for the Children's Sermon.

Bed.

Oh how I love Saturdays.

 

Day 89

Blogging the Blessings

 

Best Valentine's Day Card Messages

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Flower Buying Tips

This guy has some good tips. I disagree with some of his tips. Watch and I will explain below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5STBvOXpZ0&NR=1&feature=fvwp

1. I agree, beware of internet ordering. You may end up with flowers that arrive in a box. Box delivered flowers are not shipped in the vase or in water. You will have to arrange the flowers once they arrive.

2. Ordering flowers online with big companies is not wise. These are called "flower order gatherers". These orders are taken online and sent to the real local florist to fill the order. Ex. You may order an $85 arrangement. The florist receives the same order for $50. Where does the money go? The money goes to the order gatherer and your recipient does not receive what you paid for in the beginning. You may call to complain and they will blame the florist. This is not the florists fault. These order gatherers will make promises that the florist can not keep. The customer always suffers.

3. The local florist is the best bet! You will receive more for your money and the designers will create something specifically tailored to your needs. Beware of this guys advice with Google. Ex. There are several local florists listed in my mom's small town. However, she is the only local florist. These florists even list a local address. They lie! It is deceiving.

4. If you are from out-of-town, call the florist and ask a few specific questions. What address are you located at? Are you an answering service for the florist? Are you in the location of the florist? Some larger local florists do have answering services. However, you should be able to tell by spending a few minutes on the phone. I promise calling is worth the hassle!

5. I disagree to only choose a florist that has 6 more full-time paid employees. The amount of employees does not always necessarily mean the quality of a florist. I have known several premiere florists that did not have 6 full-time employees. My mom does not have 6 full-time employees. There are plenty of premiere and quality florists that don't have that many people working. Most florist will hire seasonal help just for Valentines day delivering. They may also hire seasonal designers.

6. Why are flowers so expensive on Valentine's Day? Don't blame your florist. I promise the florist does not mark up the prices of flowers. In fact they wish that they could sell you the flowers for cheaper. However, wholesalers and distributors mark up the prices of flowers before Valentine's day because of the demand. Roses can go up 50 cents over night. A florist will do the best that they can to ensure you receive quality for the best price.

7. Build a relationship with your florist. If you haven't already, start now. Florists can cater better to your needs if you build a relationship with them. A florist can't know you by reading a generic order over the internet. You will have more creative and tailored designs this way.

8. Don't try to design the flowers yourself. They are the professionals! You will have better results this way. Designers choice is always the best way! You can tell them the types of flowers you like if you are nervous. Ex. I don't like carnations. If you build a relationship with a florist, they will know these things about you.

9. What about cheapo Valentine's Day flower deals? These are deceiving! Most of the time these flowers are what other florist may be ready to through out the door. Also, they are a cheaper quality of flowers that will die much quicker! Tonight, I went to a local store and saw some men looking at roses. I wanted to tell them that the roses they are looking at will be dead by Valentine's Day. Florists always have better quality flowers.

Hope this helps you!

Please be in prayer for my mother and father. Mom is really really sick with some kind of cold. I have never heard her sound so bad. She needs strength for Monday! Pray for her healing. Please also pray for my Daddy. His knee is red and swollen. They think it may be a bite of some kind. He is having trouble walking. Please also pray for his healing. Mom and Daddy can not be sick on Valentine's Day. This is vital.

To all of my florist friends out there.... I will be praying for you Cydney, Cydney's Dad, Susan, and Lauren! Have a fabulous Valentines Day!

Blogging the Blessings

Day 40

Skivvies

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The morning of Valentines Day is always an early one. In fact we were lucky if we got sleep.

Mom is always organized and knows what orders goes where. She has this meticulous plan of how the delivery process should go. Each delivery vehicle is equipped with water for flowers, maps, pens, we missed you cards, a phone book, cell phone, pepper mints and food for the drivers, and flower emergency kits.

Cupid Richard on the other hand has a philosophy of the more orders he can grab for delivery the better! He walks in like a tornado grabbing up orders. He is a man on a mission. Mission: Get the job done. Mom just turns circles. They balance each other out.

Riding with Daddy can bring some adventure. His job is to drive and my job is to jump out and deliver the flowers with a smile. One thing I love is that Daddy will stop and get a snack or something to drink. We don't tell mom. Snacking does not fit her schedule.

One delivery I went on was delivering to a older lady. I jumped out of moms ford explorer with the beautiful flowers in my hand and a smile on my face. I knocked on the door and waited. I hear "Just a minute!" I waited and waited and I waited a couple of minutes more.

Then to my surprise the lady walked to the door in nothing but her brassiere and granny panties! Now answer me this, why in the world did it take her ten minutes to get to the door if she was just going to come to the door in her skivvies?

Oh my!

I have always been Cupid Richard aka Daddy's valentine. In fact, he makes sure that I have a beautiful bouquet of  flowers and or a stuffed animal. He is so sweet. My mother on the other hand wants chocolates and a foot massage!

Daddy will you still be my valentine?

Blogging the Blessings

Day 38

Cupid Richard and Sweetie Nancy

Valentines Day Story #1

Many of you know my mother as "Sweetie". Perfect name for her!

One of mine and my mothers favorite Valentines Day candy is the sweetheart candies with messages on them. We love them because you can come up with fun and silly things to say to a person via the sugar candy hearts.

If you dare to walk in the organized chaos of Nancy's Flower Shop on Valentines Day you might would find a bag of those candies lying around along with a great assortment of chocolate. FYI chocolate on Valentines day is for the florist not the girl. This year, give your local florist the chocolates and give your girl the bouquet. Florist need the chocolates to calm the stress.

The week of Valentines day is spent by taking orders, skinning roses (cutting the thorns off), organizing timed orders, skinning roses, routing orders, skinning roses, taking orders, skinning roses.

Bonnie, did you skin the roses yet? Hey Bonnie! Process those flowers and get them in the cooler. Somebody answer the phone!

Yes, the hectic-ness of the week may make your brain tired, but we would not trade it for anything. It brings us utter joy to see the eyes of a lady light up when we walk in with a bouquet of flowers with her name on it. It melts our heart when we see tears in a grandmother's eyes as she has just received a bouquet from her grandson. It brings us excitement when we see men gush when they talk about their sweethearts. This very reason is why I love Valentines Day and miss working at Mom's shop.

There is also one important discussion that takes place the week before Valentines day. What will we wear? Mom can come up with some crazy things for her staff to wear that day. I think that it adds an element of fun to that day. Feather boas, heart headbands, and twinkling necklaces have all been apart of our Valentines Day attire.

Breakfast and Lunch is always provided by Mom. Mom aka Sweetie will make a pot of chili or taco soup for her ladies to eat. You are lucky if you get to sit down long enough to eat a bowl. Well, let me correct myself, Mom would always make sure her employees ate. Mom rarely gets to eat.

Yes, it is hard work, but we have created memories that will last a lifetime and we love the tradition of Valentines Day!

Tomorrow: Delivery Adventures with Cupid Richard aka Daddy!

Blogging the Blessings

Day 36

 

One Week Until....

Valentines Day!

Valentines Day has to be one of my favorite days of the year. I have "loved" this day since I was a little girl working in my moms flower shop. I would skip school, with permission, to work in her florist. I loved the excitement and business of the day. My favorite is seeing all the young men and old men alike come in and buy flowers for their sweetheart, mothers,

I loved watching some men get creative and request orchids, lilies, and mixed bouquets instead of a dozen roses.

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However, roses are a classic and definitely have their place. (Attention: Men of HC please don't order an orchid the day of Valentines day! My mother will not be happy with me.)

I am a HOPELESS romantic and I dreamed of my prince charming as I worked the day away.

Beware! If you were one of my close friends, my mom would recruit you to work on that day.

We always try to get Daddy to dress up as cupid. It has not worked thus far. Maybe this year is the year....

This week I am going to devote my blog to Valentines Day memories of working in the Flower Shop. Some are quite hilarious and others are sweet. Be sure to stay tuned.... stay reading!

Blogging the Blessings

Day 35

Puzzle Explosion

How did the my back table of my classroom get to look like this?


Well...

It all started with this....



One of my students put this together, but it was missing pieces. So, she got another puzzle out to find the missing pieces.

 

We found some of the missing pieces, but not all of the missing pieces. So, we did this..



Then this....



Then this today...



 

So, today we decided to take all the puzzles out and work on them to find missing pieces. Yes, we have been somewhat successful. We are determined to find all the puzzle pieces! I am determined to frame them if we find the missing puzzle pieces.

We worked almost three hours today on the puzzles. I am impressed with the diligence of my after-school kids

Therefore, we end up with a table that has exploded puzzle pieces.

Blogging the Blessings

Day 26

 

Puzzles

My kids and I have been working on puzzles recently. It all started when we put together a puzzle that was missing some pieces. We decided if we put all of the puzzles we have together, then we might find other missing pieces. I will post pictures as we complete the puzzles. We have put together three already. We are working on a little mermaid one right now.

I heard we had 61 one kids out sick today. This is a lot considering we only have 234 enrolled in school. All these germs are going around. The staff is doing everything that we can to try to prevent sickness. We have been wiping down counters and desks with lysol! Lysol is a schools best friend!

I am home tonight trying to still recover. Everyone stay well and get better!

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