Getting "Down and Dirty"

I have to admit that Scentsy is fueling my racing habit with supplementing the registration fees. The races I do can be quite expensive; however, I love them! I wanted to blog about my mud run on Tuesday, except Mr. Earthquake got all the lime light. So, now that I am in-between crazy aftershocks, and a impending category 3 hurricane, I can talk about the race.

Sunday morning, I wake up uber early.. like 4 am early, and my stomach does not like waking up that early-- and nausea sets in. Lovely, right? It goes away when I eat a banana, but I could tell my nerves were in overdrive. It is a little bit of " I am I going to fall out and pass completely out.." "Did I hydrate enough?" "Does these spandex make my toosh look too big?" "Am I going to bust my toosh on an obstacle?" Yes, I seriously have these provoking thoughts, while my stomach wants to do a number. Great imagery, right? I mean, c'mon! It is only a 5k.. no sweat, right? Well, if you remember me running the Spartan race in June, it was mostly obstacles, and some running.

So, I start off with the bang, wearing my lovely Vibram Five Finger shoes (I was entered in the barefoot division-- since the race was sponsored by Merrell shoes.)

Where was I? Ah! I take off pretty fast, and I am like, "where is everyone?" *giggle* For the first half mile, I probably run a 7 minute mile pace-- and then, lose it all. It just goes down to a nine minute mile-- and depending on terrain-- goes to a ten. So, these males catch up, and some girls in tutu's. I am like, "I don't care.. I am going to keep a nice steady pace." Then, I keep running, and running... oh shoot! They didn't say we were running hills!! I get a little winded by the hills, and just keep going. I am cursing under my breath. Then, I am anticipating some obstacles, and to no avail. What the hell?

Finally, I come to an obstacle-- a kiddie tunnel. Like, seriously? Then, more running. I think there was about an obstacle every mile or so. It was pretty sad until the end. I finally got to go into a water pit, climbed over a wall, cargo net, the slippery mountain, and the mud pit to finish off the race. I had a great time, but mentally, I was prepared for the obstacles. My luck, we literally ran the 5k in a hilly forest terrain. No sweat! I placed 3rd in my barefoot division at 37 minutes. I am still contemplating about the run time, but I can always do better. Mind you, I don't train for these races, at all. I just feel great when I complete them, and go home knowing I did my workout for the day. :)

Whoa... Earthquake!!

Yesterday, I woke up to a beautiful morning with cool air and blue skies. I got my first text of the day from my husband recognizing our anniversary of 6 years since we started dating. I jumped on the computer, and noticed on the Yahoo news that a 5.3 earthquake had struck southeast Colorado, and I called my momma to see if she was okay. She felt nothing, and slept through it. I had a Scentsy vendor-blendor that evening, and I wanted to bring a prospective recruit to the event. On the way to the out of my neighborhood, I noticed that it was looking a bit more like fall outside, and I had a bottom of the pit feeling, that something wasn't quite right that day. I went to my friend's apartment to allow our girls to play, and luckily I managed to grab lunch prior to arriving at her complex.

We were in the yellow outer portion

My friends apartment complex is a small building, two stories high. There were four of us, and five little girls playing in a room at the end of the hallway, when it felt/heard like a stampede. We looked at each other confused, and initially I thought the girls were stomping around all at once. But, then the walls started to shake, and I looked outside and the ground was rolling. I felt like we were on a rollercoaster ride, and our ride was about to bottom out from underneath us.

My husband and I was stationed in Twentynine Palms, CA prior to this duty station, and the Marines came from all over to train, and I was used to the mortar rounds rattling my windows, or the small tremors we got. So, within an instant, I thought we were under mortar fire. (It was really loud in the building.) The shaking wasn't always continuous, it started out slow, and got more intense, less intense, and then more intense. The pictures on the walls were swaying-- and then, I yelled, "get in the doorway!" My brain finally registered, that it was indeed an earthquake. My friend just wanted to high-tail it out of the complex, in case it collapsed. We knew the building was NOT equipped for an earthquake.

I yelled frantically to grab my baby (my two year old), since she was still in the other room where she was previously playing. We all grabbed the kids, and rushed out the door down the steps. (By this time, the quake stopped.) I was shaking for a good minute, scanning the kids to see if they were okay, and we placed blankets on the parking lot, just in cased the aftershocks happened. I instantly called my husband, but the calls weren't going through. I tried calling my momma, and no luck. Amazingly, Facebook on my cell phone did, and I was able to alert my friends what was going on, and that I was okay.

I was just so thankful that I wasn't at my house when it happened, and I was among some good friends. Luckily, the neighbor from down below had the news on, and we were able to go and see the earthquake coverage. We were literally within the 30 mile radius of the epicenter of the quake. I was like, "Omg!! It is right next to us!" We just experienced a 5.9 earthquake. I don't care if you experience quakes or small tremors in California, but if you're not prepared for this (especially the buildings) it feels more like an attack occured than a quake. All I knew was I was not ready to be back in a building for a while, lol.

Getting through to my husband was difficult. After an hour, I was able to get a hold of him from my friend's phone, and I was so relieved he was okay. I finally calmed down for the better part of the day, and I felt a small aftershock when I was settling down to get some sleep for the night.

So, there you have it, my quake story.

Back from the Stampede!!

What a week!! Monday, my daughter, Miss K turned 4 years old!! I can't believe it, she keeps getting smarter and bigger each a day.

Flying into my homestate of Texas!

Tuesday, I flew in Dallas/Fortworth, Tx to go to my very first Scentsy convention. I was so excited that I would be able to finally meet the girls on my team, and to see 10,000 other consultants that shared the same Scentsy Spirit with me-- it was truly a Stampede of women and men. I finally got to see my friend that is also on my team whom I had seen in seven years!! {We went through boot camp together, and we stayed in touch over the years, and when I began my Scentsy adventure, she decided to hop on board as well.} Then, my friend/sponsor went to Hobby Lobby and bought some flip flop and purple bling to show our Scentsy pride for the next day.

I finally had Whataburger, and I hadn't had that in a very l-o-n-g time. I love their hamburgers, so you should've seen me freak out when I saw one, and told my friend, Rachell to pull into the drive-through. Nom! Nom!!

Excitement sets in

That evening, the rest of our team showed up, and after all the giggles, we managed to fall asleep.



Wednesday.. Of course I am not exactly a morning person, but I woke up at 6:30 a.m. too excited about all the events for the day. I wanted to run around the room, and do a little dance. I felt like it was Christmas all over again. We had a kick-off group meeting with our Super Star Director, and that was amazing. We donated pj's to a battered women shelter for the little ones, donated money to the food bank, and donated school supplies to the local area. Scentsy believes in giving more than you receive.. With each donation, you received a ticket for a raffle. During the first game, I managed to win a $25 gift card, and I won a raffle and received a $100 American Express gift card... I was on high heaven!

The rest of the morning, we were checking in with registration, pinching ourselves that we actually made it to convention-- something that we talked about on our Facebook group's months...and it was finally here!

The Night at the Stockyards

In Fort Worth, they have the Stockyards-- the epitome of old western Texas cowboy. I loved it! Of course, I am a bit biased. ;) Scentsy had a special concert featuring Gloriana and Clint Black. It was a bit hot out, and we managed to find ourselves in a cool bar with a glass of beer. Prior to that, we got to sit on our very first live longhorn--which was pretty cool!

The evening was pretty great, couple bars with the girls--and a drive-thru to the local Jack in the Box. Why can't they have that in Virginia?

Day One of Sessions

Thursday..Seeing 10,000 consultants that share the same goal, is pretty amazing. Coming from all over the world, to meet in one single place-- and share the Scentsy spirit. We had inspirational guest speaker, Connie Podesta!! Hilarious woman-- teaches us what personality we are by the shape we had chosen. I believe I am squiggle; however, my director thinks I am a square, lol.

Followed by Connie, was Orville and Heidi-- the President and CEO of Scentsy. They are the most down to earth people, I've ever met. They truly want to make a difference in the world, with the power of one individual can impact many. The introduced the new fall/winter product line, which I am very excited to show everyone soon!

We broke for chow a couple of hours of later, and that was when I realized that "stampede" was another metaphor to what we were-- a herd of people trying to exit for lunch, lol.

More product reveals and exciting information soon followed, and two boxes full of amazing freebies from the new fall/winter season.

Day Two of Sessions

Friday, was a bittersweet day. It was our last day of convention, and I am sure my days were blending in by now. We had two more inspirational guest speakers, John C. Maxwell, on how to be a effective leader, and Shawn Achor on the happiness advantage. Learning to be happy will make you more successful and impact those around you.

Goodness, I could go on and on about how convention changed my whole outlook on life, and seriously it did. I realized that it is more than just a product, and something much bigger-- Simplicity~Authenticity~Generosity

We found out at convention, that we have the opportunity to earn a trip to the Dominican Republic for next summer, and next year's convention will be held in Las Vegas!! Now, who wants to join my team, and come with me to these great places, and meet the most amazing people that share the same dreams you have? Check out my personal Scentsy website at: https://hollybyrne.scentsy.us for more information about this wonderful opportunity. :)

Here are some moments from convention: