Hey all,
So....clearly, I've neglected my blog for far too long. So here we go, I'm back and I'm going to do my best to stay with it.

We've just returned home from a quick trip to Missouri. We went back for a Missouri Western State University function. High school students all across the state of Missouri came to a competition where they created a business plan, PowerPoint, and presented it to a panel of judges, all within 2 hours! Robbie led a group of these aspiring students in their challenge. I stayed for a bit, but quickly realized I wasn't much "help"....these kids are soo intelligent and business minded. I couldn't believe it, they were thinking of business concepts and marketing ideas that I am only thinking of now because I am in it! I was super impressed!

Also, while back, I met up with my dear friend Lesley and we got our hairs colored. Here we are looking.......awesome!

It was so good to be back, even if it was only a quick trip. We love getting to see friends and family any chance we get!

Upon arriving back to Cali yesterday morning, we went straight to the store as we had to finish and deliver an order of 200 gift bags, including:
-800 pretzel rods rolled in various toppings
-60 lbs of fudge
-100 lbs of Rocky Pop (caramel corn)
-50 lbs of peanut brittle
-50 lbs of chocolate covered almonds
-50 lbs of chocolate covered pistachios
-400 Snickerdoodle cookies

Whew! Luckily we had almost all of it made before we left. We have awesome employees who helped us get the cookies, labeling, and some packaging done while we were gone. So when we arrived home from the airport we just had to assemble the 200 gift bags and deliver. By the end, I was exhausted and took myself to bed at 6 pm last night! Now today we are getting ready to do a fundraiser booth for approx 600 people tomorrow night! Busy, busy, but we love it!

Hope you are all doing well! Keep me accountable on this blog!


Have a lovely Thursday!

Sorry blogging world, I have somewhat neglected you for awhile. Here I am, back once again and I will try to do better!

Nothing too much is new here in Southern California. We are getting use to the idea that we actually LIVE in California. It's hard to believe we've already lived here for 7 months! Although we very much miss our family and friends in the Midwest, we're loving the weather, being surrounded by the mountains and being so close to the beach.

Nothing beats a day at the beach. We don't get to go very often, but when we do we take advantage of it.

It's also hard to believe, we just celebrated our 1 Year Anniversary. Time flies!

That's all I have for now, I'm stuck at home today with a sore throat :(. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Trip to the Beach!

Happy Monday everyone! We had a great weekend which included 1. a lot of work, 2. a trip through the mountains 3. on the way to the beach and 4. the Super Bowl. I have been waiting for awhile now to get a short break from work to be able to make a trip to the beach. We've been keeping very busy and with Valentine's Day right around the corner there has been a lot to prepare and get ready for that big day. Saturday night we had one of our employees close the last hour by himself so we could attend the alternative service offered at the church we have been attending. Sunday mornings we usually have one of the employees open so that we are able to attend church. This Sunday, since we had already gone on Saturday night, we were going to try a different church nearby that has caught our eye. Well, turns out, our employee's alarm didn't go off and therefore he was an hour late...sooo...new church was almost over by the time our employee arrived at the store. Instead of arriving with 20 minutes left in the service we decided to take a drive up in to the mountains. The view overlooking Lake Elsinore was amazing!

 I love the view of the lake and seeing the mountains in the distance! Gorgeous!



Since we were already on this accidental and unplanned road trip.......not to mention already 3/4 way up the mountain.....we decided to keep driving. The view driving through the mountains was amazing!! (Not so fun on the driving part...lots of turns and narrow roads...but the view was worth it....(especially since my wonderful husband was driving..and not I=))

After driving a little ways and realizing we still had a couple hours before we needed to be back at the store, we decided to go to the beach! (Yay!!) Not to mention, and all Midwestern-ers don't hate me now :S....the 80 degree weather yesterday made it perfect!

It was great! I only wish we could have had more time to spend here instead of going back to work...maybe next time! Also, I'm not really sure how it happens, somehow whenever we randomly decide to go to the beach...I'm always wearing heels...not the most beach appropriate shoe.

After our quick random trip to the beach we headed back so I could work the afternoon while Rob got to enjoy the Super Bowl. One final picture of us on top of Lake E.

Have a great week everyone!!

Chocolate World

Can you believe it's already February? I can't believe that in less than 2 weeks it is already Valentine's Day. V-Day is a big deal when you're in the chocolate business! I am so excited and I love getting everything together for this special holiday! Heart shaped boxes, lots of chocolate dipped strawberries, and truffle assortments!

As most of you know, we also just had our Re-Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony this past Friday. In addition to this event we also decided to take on some hefty remodeling projects in order to give the store a new look! Three days before the event we hired painters to take down the wallpaper and paint. We updated the lighting in and hung neat pendant lights! Also, we received our RMCF graphics in the nick of time (2 hours before the event), but with the wonderful help of the mall we were able to get them hung up just in time! So in short, the store is looking a lot different and a lot more 21st century! I love the new look! The event went off with a bang and we are soooo thankful for all of the mall management staff as well as Craig School of Business staff who was able to be here and be a part of this event with us! You were all a huge help, thank you so much!

In other news, I'm looking so forward to my friend Kari Haywood's visit from the bitter temperatures of the north east! Only a little more than 2 weeks away and we'll get to see Midwestern faces again! Wahoo!! I don't mind sharing the sunny Californian weather, not at all! Come one, come all!

I included some pictures of the remodel process:

The original look (wallpaper, shelves, and all)

Goodbye wallpaper and dated lighting.

Hello paint, graphics, and new lighting!

Hope everyone is doing well and all the Midwestern-ites are keeping warm! I'm sending warm thoughts your way!

Where, oh where art January?

Hi blog world! I'm sorry if you feel neglected. I've been trying to do better but some days are just to busy for me to stop and chat. I wrote the date today and can hardly believe January is almost over already! I also realized today I'm still having a hard time writing 2011, time just flies!

As most of you know, we are getting ready to remodel our store here very soon...as in...next week! I am so excited to see the changes! Even though time hasn't allowed for us to do everything that we wanted to do for the current round of remodeling it will be nice to see the changes and even the few things we are doing will make a big difference!

We are also very excited as next week we are having a Re-Grand Opening at the store and many faculty from Missouri Western will be in attendance...excited to see all that can come and will miss those who won't be able to make it this trip.

Getting a chocolate store ready for Valentine's Day is exhausting but oh sooo exciting! I love all of our heart boxed chocolates and decorating strawberries is probably one of my favorite things!

Okay, that's all for tonight, time to get some shut eye!

Slow, slow Tuesday

Okay so I am writing this blog from work, yep, from work. Seems there aren't many shoppers out on this Tuesday evening. My wonderful husband did work a majority of the day, I can only imagine how much fun that was if it was as hoppin' as it is right now! So with a large part of my day "off", are there really days "off" anymore?!?....I....went grocery shopping, brought Rob lunch at the store, and cleaned house for our guests tonight! So my partial day off didn't really seem like much of a day off, actually....and obviously....I think I worked harder the rest of the day than I am currently while I'm at work.

Soo...our guests! Our 2 great friends Isaiah and David drove Rob's car the 26 hour drive from Missouri and arrived late this afternoon! We are so excited to see them and have them visiting for a couple of days. I'm looking forward for us getting a little "time-off" to spend a couple hours hanging out with them outside of the store. Also...their arrival gave me the much needed motivation to clean our very messy apartment! Now it looks awesome....if only it could stay that way forever....without me having to clean half of the day :). Don't worry, yes, I will keep dreamin! haha.

I don't know what it is about me but even though I have warm 75 degree, sunny Californian weather, I am still slightly jealous of all my friends in the Midwest who are having snow days from school and work! Ok, so even though getting out in the FREEZING cold and having to drive in the snow and having fingers so cold they would turn unnatural colors......I love snow days and the idea of being snowed in, cuddling up and watching a great movie or reading a great book all while sipping something warm....these things just sound cozy and wonderful right now! :) I'm sure all it would take is for me to step one foot in the current Midwest and I would quickly retreat back to my 75 degree, I could tan outside in January, weather. It is still very surprising to me just how quickly I can forget exactly what it feels like in negative temperatures and multiple inches of snow to make me miss these things currently.

So..new subject. I think I need a good book for all that "spare time" of mine! Any suggestions?

A Morning at Home

Well this morning I was able to be at home for a little time "off". It has been great but I honestly thought I would have gotten more done by now. You know how those mornings go, I have plans of relaxing a little bit and also having time to clean house, do laundry, and make lunch. Well...so far...haha!

In business news, we are working on getting everything together for our remodel. We've been looking at graphics, paint, lighting...it's going to look great and we can't wait to see the finished product. This week we were also able to hire another employee who starts on Monday! It is very exciting to see everything coming together and hopefully we will be super prepared for Valentine's Day coming up in a few short weeks.

That's all for now, I better start my "to-do" list!

Happy New Year!

So is everyone having a great 2011 so far? I hope so! The ringing in of the new year brought 3 consecutive nights of closing the store at 7pm! Woohoo! For New Year's Eve, since we're still new to the area and aren't sure what to do or where, we decided to have a date night! It was GREAT! We drove to Temecula, CA (about 20 min) and had dinner at P F Changs...one of my favorites! After dinner we came back home to watch a movie and of course I fell asleep at 11:30...Happy New Year! haha! But in my defense, I made it to midnight and rang in the new year Central Time Zone! :)

Yesterday we decided to do inventory at the store and got probably 3/4 done. It's quite the process, having to weigh out each individual assortment in our cases and back room. We were fairly efficient for our first time but I think the next time we do inventory it will go a lot quicker now that we've got a "system". I also realized yesterday that I lost my phone somewhere, turns out I left it at the restaurant in Temecula. So, after work on our way to pick up my phone, we decided to also stop by and see our friend and co-franchise who owns the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Temecula. Her store looks great! It's exciting to see what our store will look like in just a short couple of weeks with the remodel.

This morning I am so excited because we are going to church! It has been a couple weeks and since we haven't had employees to watch the store, we've been there every Sunday so far. But this Sunday, we're having our one and only (so far) employee man the store so we can finally go to church again! I'm excited! :)
We are also getting our Rocky Mountain shipment today, which is exciting as our shelves are mostly bare of boxed chocolates after the Christmas shoppers concluded. Now...on to Valentines Day!

We are very excited for 2011 and so excited for all of our friends and family that are getting married this year! With the close of 2010 I was reflecting the other day about what has happened in the past year. In 2010 I graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies, emphasis in Public Relations, and a Minor in Spanish, married my best friend and the most amazing guy I know, and moved half way across the country! Not to mention...becoming a business owner! 2010 was definitely full of exciting and very life changing moments all so very exciting!! Definitely excited for 2011 and all that it will bring. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, in 2010 I also won (through Lake Elsinore Outlets and Christmas Tree Lane) 7 nights trip to Cabo San Lucas! That will be our much needed vacation and sounds like a great spot to spend our anniversary in June!

Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed 2011!

P.S. We're starting out the new year on the front page (above the fold!) of the Press Enterprise! Rob was excited that his picture and article are both larger than the article on the side of the page with a much smaller picture of Mr. Arnold Schwartzenegger himself! We had fun driving around town last night buying all the newspapers we could find! Who knows when the next time our faces will be on the front page of a big Californian newspaper! Check it out....http://www.pe.com/localnews/lakeelsinore/stories/PE_News_Local_D_rocky01.a88051.html

Happy New Year!