Tour de Funeral Home

Thought you might like to see a little bit of the funeral home. Holwell graciously agreed to give us a tour of the funeral home and tell us a little bit about the tools he uses.

Beginning of the End

Today was the last day of the semester before my last semester of college. Obviously, I am feeling very excited and anxious to be so close to graduating. If you don't know, I graduated high school in 2006 and after going to college for 2 years, took 2 years off after I got married. During those 2 years off I went to cosmetology school, worked and did my best to support my husband as he got his degree in mortuary science.

When we moved back to Columbia in August of last year, I knew it was time to get back to the grindstone and finish my own degree. On December 15, 2012 I will graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration with a Major in Marketing. I am so thrilled. This has been a long time coming for me and I'm ready to grow up and start being and adult now!

There is a downside to the last day of the semester before my last semester of college though. For a lot of my friends at school, it was the last day of their last semester. That means when they graduate in a week and half, there is a very good chance that I will not see most of them again. Of course, we'll stay Facebook friends and years from now we'll be sharing pictures of our children and grandchildren...but we will always look back on these times with fondness and remember how much fun we had.

A lot of those memories will involve recalling the stress of finals, the marketing plan that ended in what we thought was an epic failure, or maybe the time we plotted against our advisors. But with the bad, there is also the good. Being forced to join the dark side and creating a Twitter account by a specific unnamed professor, and eventually becoming addicted to posting about mundane daily occurrences. We will look back on sitting in the back of the classroom talking bad about our other classmates (yea yea, we're cruel). But the thing I will remember most is making new friendships that I hope will last a lifetime.

You can call me sappy, but this last year has been a lot of fun. And though it has been intensely stressful, I'll miss those that I've come to know and cherish.

...don't even think about unfriending me beotches.

As part of a school assignment, I had to do a podcast. In order to do that on Blogger, I had to attach an image(s). So since my podcast had to relate my blog, I asked Holwell to allow me to interview him about the funeral business. So I've put together a small slideshow containing images of my sexy husband with the interview. Check it out: 

I hope you learned something new about the funeral business. And enjoyed the slideshow :) Thanks Holwell for taking time out of your oh so busy day waiting for someone to die, to give us some insight into his career. 

Spring Break 2012

My spring break did not consist of sandy beaches or ocean breezes, but it was a lot of fun because I got to spend it with some awesome people. I've made it clear in previous posts that there are some people in my life that I hold in very high regard. The first of those is obviously my Husband, Holwell. He is numero uno in my life, second only to my Father God. Next are my precious siblings. They give me so much joy. It was awesome getting to hang out with all of them this week. Now that we are getting older, the conversations and problems we share become more mature and less childlike...but I always remember the old days.

Don't ask me to explain what's happening in this picture. I can tell you that we had a ton of fun. And we still do. We went to the movies, ate delicious korean cuisine, got coffee and ice cream. Last week was one of my favorite this year and I can't wait to do more!

Missouri Waits for No Season

It's getting to be that time again. Warm weather, spring showers and sunshine. And lucky for us, Missouri decided to get started early. I love spring and I love spring cleaning. Hopefully my professors won't fill my spring break with excess homework (wink wink Wayman) and I'll have a little extra time on my hands to clean out my closets and cabinets. There's nothing like having a sparkling clean house. Maybe I'll even get the hubby to power wash the outside! I can only pray. 

Cleaning isn't the only thing I love about spring. The fresh air that comes with the season just makes everything better. I can open up the windows and relax in the breeze. And fresh air always renews my love for being outside, as I'm sure it does for most of us. My sister Jordan and I have already started planning our softball dates. Can't wait to break out the gloves. 

Of course, with the fresh air, and the outdoors calling my name...so are the tanks and shorts. Ugh. Yep, once again it's time to shed the long sleeves and sweaters that cover the curves and don the cooler attire of spring and summer. And just like last year and the year before, I make a renewed commitment to work out, eat better and shed the winter pounds that have congregated around my mid section and thighs. 

So open the windows, let's clean out the cobwebs, and get to work. This time will be different. I know I say it every year, but it will! Now who's with me? Ok, ok, don't all speak up at once. But seriously, need to get on it. Guess I should start working out again. Bleh 

The Importance of Relationships

Well as of this week, I am no closer to my blog's purpose than I was last week. However, I would like to share a little bit of what my job entails and why I enjoy it. As you know, I am a wedding coordinator. Being in the wedding biz is a lot like being in any other business: you are constantly looking for connections, referrals and new customers.

Well, today I got the opportunity to go to the Columbia Business Showcase. It was so exciting to see so many businesses showcasing their services and products. As I walked around the exhibits I start to notice that some booths are crowded with people, while others received no attention. So I began to observe and find out why. I saw a few booths that looked exciting and had several people looking at the information they had set out. A few other booths had food and drink and of course had attracted attention that way. At this point, I thought that maybe the TV screens, iPads and food were the attention attracters. Then I came across some booths that were very plain, but were still attracting attention. What was different?

Then I saw two booths right next to eachother, neither seeing any visitors. One had a drawing and big TV screens. Lots of color and looked really exciting. The other booth had one simple banner. They both had something in common though, neither of the workers at the booth looked happy or like they wanted to interact with anyone. Aha! Relationships! We talk about it all the time, business is about making relationships. All of the booths that were getting the attention had people that were interacting with visitors, asking them how their day was and if they were enjoying the show. They asked questions, got involved and built a relationship with the person they were talking to.

That is the most important thing in business, any business. And making connections, or relationships rather, is what I love to do. It makes me very happy that something I am good at and enjoy doing can help my career and business grow.

Maybe I have found a purpose after all.

What's My Purpose?

Over the past couple of weeks and several blog posts, I've tried to find a purpose for my blog. Obviously, as the title indicates, it is supposed to be a diary of sorts about my life and my family. However, to be honest, my life is too busy to be interesting. I had hoped to find something about my own experience that others could relate to or benefit from, but there is nothing consistent enough to write about day in and day out. So I thought I'd mention it to my co-workers. I gave them the chance to come up with a subject for my blog and their answers were pretty funny. One suggested I could write about the crazy people that I talk about all the time that put up a fuss when it comes time to pay the bill, or who "had insurance" but money was tight one month and they missed the payment. (Those people are frustrating, but that gets old quick). Another suggested I talk about society's perception of mortician's and their lifestyle as portrayed in movies, compared to the real deal. Ironically, there are a lot of similarities between "movie morticians" and the real thing. They tend to have a very odd senses of humor, wear a lot of black, drive nice black cars, and have a good poker face. NEXT! Suggestion three: inform people on facts about mortuary science and its history. NOT! Suggestion four: tell funeral home jokes and one liners like: what song would a mortician sing if they had to give CPR? "Another one bites the dust". YIKES! OK, I'm no closer to finding a purpose for my blog, but I did get a good laugh from hearing what my co-workers think of being a mortician's wife. Maybe next week I'll interview my children's church class :)