My poem...

My dad is notoriously difficult to buy for (as a lot of men are I think) and he refuses to give us any idea of what to give him for Christmas. I asked my boss, also a male, what ideas he could suggest for a gift. He said to give him a gift from the heart. If you don't know my family history it is as follows:

-my mom got pregnant at a young age & had me at 16 1/2 years old.

-my male biological contributor (as I have coined him) was not someone my mom wanted to continue a relationship with, and further decided I would suffer from any partial relationship he could conjure up with me when the time suited him (and he's since proven this accurate over the last 7 years since I sured 18).

-When I was about 6 years old she married a man I have sinced called Dad & they had two more children that are my brother and sister (half in others' eyes).

So I decided to buy one of those hinged double frames. On one side I will scrap beautifully two pictures I have of my Dad & I: us dancing at my grad & us dancing at my wedding LOL Apparently we don't get our picture taken together too often. On the other side I am going to put the following poem, which I have written myself. Please write your comments!

Dad. A title that is often given,
But rarely earned.
Most think they get it through birthright,
But that’s not what I have learned.

It’s an invest of your time,
Your love and your support.
The good ones don’t test-drive it,
Then get scared & abort.

The job isn’t easy,
But it can be fun,
From Baby to 18?
No you are never done.

The balance between discipline and trust,
Is a hard one to find…
If you analyze it too much,
You’ll probably lose your mind!

We will all make parenting mistakes,
But so long as you try your best,
Part of the forgiveness comes quickly,
And time takes care of the rest.

Now don’t mistake my tone,

There's no sadness or regret,
You’ve taught me many lessons,

None that I will forget!

So I thank you for being a parent,

My Father and my Dad,
As far as I’m concerned,

You’re the only one I’ve ever had.

Being a Consultant

BeautiControl

So if you know me at all you know that I love to shop, I love to get deals and I'm quite impulsive. Some would call those qualities negatives but I embrace them whole heartedly. I have been using BeautiControl products for about 2 1/2 years now. They have a facial care line (maintenance, repair & prevention), spa products (like fun Sugar Cookie scrub) and a make up line. Some items are a bit expensive but some of them are reasonable.

Here's the deal I signed up for:

1. In November they have a special where you can sign up to be a consultant for only $150 dollars which gives you a kit containing products valued at $800 retail. Plus you can expense this cost as you are now an independent consultant for BeautiControl.

a) The kit comes in two parts. The first contains your basic 4 part face line, plus a couple bonus items like the hand scrub, relaxing eye pads and the Lip Appeal.

b) The second half you receive after you attend a one day BeautiU training (mines on Dec 15th). I'm not sure exactly what happens there but I've been assured that it's not a sales pressure thing but more educational based. In the 2nd half you get makeup tailored to your skin tones and spa products. The picture below is both half of the kit.

2. After you have ordered your 1st half of the kit you have 48 hours to take advantage of a special purchase: a minimum order of $750 in products for 55% off (equals $337.50 + tax & shipping)! Plus the 55% off is off of the retail suggested price, so if the company has the product on sale you get 55% off of the sale price! How awesome is that? For this order you can buy the pre-built "Friends & Family" Package (pictured below) or you can customize it & buy whatever you want. Again you can expense this purchase as a consultant & at this time of year you can use this deal to buy high quality Christmas presents for your family [or mostly spoil yourself as I have done]!

3. Of course once you sign up there has to be obligations on your part right? Well the obligation is quite simple, purchase $100 in products every four months, totally $300 per year. For some people this can be quite a lot to spend if you don't have the budget, but if you do, it's a great deal. BeautiControl is all online so if you are computer savvy then you can do this simply enough.

4. As a bonus you can absolutely use this as a opportunity to make a little money. You can sell your products that you've bought if you don't want to gift them or keep them for yourself. You can even become an active consultant and start doing spa parties if you fancy. Or you can simply use your consultant discount for personal use. (P.S. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what kind of discount I get but I will know soon!).

5. This month they had an additional sale opportunity. If you made a $400 purchase or more before November 21st you can take advantage of the "Thanksgiving Sale" this weekend. There will be more sales & I can get my discount on top of them. I am very excited as, hello, shopoholic! Ha ha.

Home & Gift Collection

As some of you may know I have become a Home & Gift consultant this year. Last year I thought there was no way I could do something like this. In the spring of this year (2007) I thought hey I love the product so why not try? Nothing ventured nothing gained & at the very least I'll have gotten some product @ a great discount (starter kit is $100 for $300 in product or $200 for $700 in product) that I can expense.

Well since May (about 6 months ago) I have been able to sell $20,000 in products. I had a slowish start, about 2 parties a month for May, June, July & August. Then in Septemer, after summer holidays it really took off. I had about 7 house parties in September & October in addition to several catalogue orders so I was (& am) super busy. Though even though I feel stressed and a bit tired it's a positive stress. I feel better about myself than I have in ages because I have been so successful. Each party I attend allows me to meet new & interesting people, pushes me to be more outgoing and has enhanced my directional skills (I used to get lost a lot more LOL).

Every month, for each $1500 in sales you have you get a $100 gift certificate for product or $50 for supplies. In October alone I earned $500 in gift certificates to spend how I choose on products. So I could have easily used these for Christmas shopping, though I am planning on saving them for the New Year. As of February 1st we will have a new catalogue so I want to be able to customize my new kit with the products I choose (& I may just have to buy some new items for my house depending what there is!).

Also, super exciting is that by reaching the $20,000 mark I have earned myself half of a Greece trip. The deadline for earning the entire trip is January 1st, so if I can't make up the difference (though I'm not ruling it out ha ha) I can pay the other half and still go. Seeing as Greece is one of the three places I want to travel to before I die I will be attending that trip! I believe Tyler is planning on buying a trip for himself so we can go together. So that will be in May of 2008.

P.S. If you want to order anything or check out my catalogues just let me know! There's still time to get it before Christmas!!!!!!

Yep I've definitely become a Sales Woman!

Your Supper Solution

On Saturday I had the opportunity to do something that was really fun, affordable and incredibly functional: Your Supper Solution.

Here's the premise:

Each month they have 14 different recipes on the menu. You choose your package based on number of meals & serving sizes (shown below) and then choose the recipes you want to make. Then you come to the location either during a public session or you can schedule a private party. For a private party you have to have a minimum of 7 people & a maximum of 14, then the hostess gets 50% off her order. You can also bring wine to a private party to enjoy.

At the location you get aprons and instructions. There are 7 stations that basically look like the counters at Subway. Each station has 2 recipes, one on the left and one on the right. So you go to a station that has one of your recipes that you pre-chose and get to work assembling. There are plastic covered recipes to guide you (one side has the 2-3 serving, the other has the 4-5). Most of the recipes are as simple as the following:

-Grab a ziplock back with chicken (cooked).

-Add one scoop of carrots.

-Add one scoop of peas.

-Add one scoop of mushrooms.

-Add one scoop of mushroom soup.

-Add one bag of rice (cooked).

-Grab a bag of cheese.

-Zip bag & freeze.

Then each recipe has a label to put on the bag so you know how to prepare it at home. At the end of the time you end up with a bunch of prepared meals that take little effort & vary times to cook. Plus they have a great variety of recipes for every taste. Other pros include knowing what is going into your food, being able to eliminate items you don't like/are allergic to/against belief systems, having someone else do the boring prep work & clean up and hanging with your friends while you are accomplishing something to help simplify your life. The company supplies all the zip lock bags, aluminium containers, etc. that you need. They are also very hygenic as they ask you to both wash your hands between stations & change your plastic gloves for each station (not enviromentally friendly though!).

Another advantage is it adds variety to your old stand-bys while giving ideas on how you can substitute items to create another whole new recipe. For example the Brie, Asparagus & Ham Strata could be made with a different cheese, vegetable & meat to seem like a completely different meal!

I had a ton of fun making the dishes as I like to cook but find I don't feel like it after work or I had cleaning the dishes mess. I had only ordered the 6 2-3 servings so I was done in a flash, but since it was so much fun (I felt like I was in a cooking show race, yep I'm a keener) I offered to help my one friend who has 12 4-5 servings to make. Then when we finished her's, I helped make the dishes for one lady that had paid but was unable to attend. Seriously, so much fun. I want to do it like every other week maybe :-)

Current Menu (to give you an idea of the menu variety):

-Chipolte Chilli

-Spaghetti & Meatballs

-Baked Tortellini

-Roasted Pork Loin

-Hunan Chicken

-Chicken Bake

-Cornflake Crusted Cod w/ a Lemon Dijon Mustard and Parsley Sauce

-Danita's Shrimp

-Black Pepper Honey Garlic Wings

-Three Dips

-Brie, Cranberry & Almond Tart

-Thai Marinade Beef Sticks

-Chicken Hoisin Spring Rolls

-Brie, Asparagus & Black Forest Ham Strata

Packages:

6 meals @ 2-3 servings = $75 + tax ($5.30/serving)

12 meals @ 2-3 servings = $150 + tax ($5.30/serving)

6 meals @ 4-5 servings = $150 + tax ($5.80/serving)

12 meals @ 4-5 servings = $255 + tax ($5.00/serving)

To learn more about the location in Red Deer they do have a website:

http://www.yoursuppersolution.ca/

Ignorance

This morning started out positively enough but unfortunately I am a sensitive person and when ignorant people make negative comments to me they stick on me all day. Here's what happened:

A few co-workers & I were chatting in the office. One gentleman said that he had to work a few years longer than he had anticipated because he pension worked a little differently than he thought. So we started joking about extra ways he could make money. This one jerk says "Oh I know how we can make more money. How about we take a cut of Crystal's business that comes across the counter every day." I was thinking 'Excuse Me? ' then, figuring he was talking about he girl who dropped a cheque off for me the day before I said "Oh I don't make that much money off of that." He says "More than I do. Must be nice to have a home based business where you have access here to free paper, lights..." then walks away with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. For those of you who know me: I was fuming but along on the brink of tears so I didn't say anything. Just walked back to my desk.

This also happens to be the same individual who I overheard talking to our IT guys about starting to track the number of "colored copies" each person prints off because "some people have a home based business and I don't think it's right for them to print here or for people to print personal pictures here". IT responded with "that's a risk we've decided is neligible". So the Corporation doesn't care. What the hell is his problem?

Confession: Yeah I have printed some of my "Home Based Business" stuff at work. Yeah I have done some things on Company time...but here is my defense.

1. I don't take smoke breaks. Ignorant prick does. Guess what? Sometimes his smoke breaks are about 45 minutes instead of the allotted 20. Usually actually. And sometimes he takes a coffee break & a smoke break. Do I take notes about this? Do I bitch at him? No. Sometimes I do take coffee breaks but usually I only end up taking one a day because I know I've been "breaking" at other times.

2. He is not my boss. He is other people's boss, but he's not even in my division of the Corporation. My boss has yet to address me on any of these issues & the person 2nd to my boss thinks that his accusations are rude and undeserving.

3. Every single person in the office attends to person business in the office. How do I know this? Cuz often they request my help with their spreadsheets, documents or other technical business. Or because I deliver the faxes (on corporation paper no less) that address their personal business. So it's BS to single me out.

4. Why should I be penalized for being efficient? I get my job done and meet the requirements my boesses (yeah I have about three of them) ask of me. The lady before me did this job for many many years so I can't imagine that she wasn't as least as efficient as I am so what did she do in her downtime? We get paid by the hour so I'm sure she didn't go home!

5. About that getting paid by the hour, yeah the Corporation basically asks me to bend over every paycheque. They fall back on the "budget" when I ask them to define why I don't receive benefits, holidays, and other gaps between my "wage" position and the coveted "salary" positions. However they sure seem to have enough budget to give the Corporation president a brand new office with spectacular materials & a fire place. Budget smudget. Oh and the vast majority of the Corporation works out of cubicles, sub standard desks or limited office space. Nice way to segregate the upper management from the peons eh?

6. The vast majority of my business takes place outside of my regular work day. I am a consultant at parties that do NOT occur during the day, I spend most of my evenings talking to potentional & current clients, doing paper work, sorting product, etc. And a lot of my lunch hours. So whatever.

I'm sure there's more but I'm tapped out right now...

I just hate being judged. And I really hate being judged & persucated without being given a fair trial. So this pompous ass can shove it up his...

H&G Update - October Stats

Keep in mind I have been a consultant since May 9/07

October Sales Only:
Top Sales - #16 in Canada
Top New Consultants - #2 in Canada
Top Wish Consulants - #10 in Canada

Year to Date (Feb 1/07 to Present):
Top New Consultants - #4 in Canada
Top Wish Consulants - #25 in Canada
"Top Wish" is money donated to the Children's Wish Foundation.