A relaxing 5 minutes...

This will be a very short post, because the Rodeo Austin posts (that will start tomorrow) will all be very long and intense.

So, yesterday evening in the middle of loading up my truck, finishing jewelry preps, working on orders, laundry, and everything else going on to finalize Rodeo Austin prepraration, I actually stopped for 5 minutes. I realized what a beautiful day it was. And as Tanner and I were getting into my truck to run an errand, I had a few moments to just watch some of our show heifers graze. I know some of you (those that aren't show cow fanatics like me) won't understand this, but for the rest of you---I just love watching the cows graze on a beautiful day! It is very rewarding to me, especially when I had raised them. So, I took a couple of snap shots and of course wanted to share them with my blog. So, I hope all of you (cow enthusiasts and non-so cow enthusiasts) enjoy!

Royal Genetics Debut at the 2010 Houston Livestock Show!

Hello all SJ supporters and followers! Boy, is this just a busy time of the year for us. We just returned from the Open Brangus Show at the 2010 HLS&R. Let me fill most of you in
on a little history before the story begins.

I grew up in Bremond, TX which is located about 20 miles from Camp Cooley Ranch in Franklin, TX. In high school, I bought and showed Brangus heifers from Camp Cooley, which at the time, was home of the famous Brinks Brangus herd. They also raised Charolais and Angus. Their fall bull sale was famous! They sold over 1,000 head each fall of bulls alone, and of course had a top notch female sale as a preview to sta

rt off the weekend. If you have ever attended a Camp Cooley sale, you know that they also served an amazing steak dinner each night to all of the customers and attendees.

While in high school and even after that, I had much success with my Camp Cooley Brangus show heifers (which are now the basis and donors of our show cattle business 'Royal Genetics'). I won many Texas majors and also the 2005 National Junior Brangus Show. I still own each of these females and enjoy raising show and donor prospects out of each of them.

Tanner, my boyfriend, grew up actively showing American Steers. He has also won many banners himself, but his are breed champions from all of the Texas majors with his show steer projects. His oldest sister, Dusti, however grew up showing Brangus heifers. Of course she was a bit older than me, and I never knew her from showing. But, Tanner and his family both have roots in the Brangus breed. The neat thing about it all, is we both have a love and passion for show cattle!!!

So, now that I am a self-employed business owner (thanks to all of the fabulous SJ customers!), I can also still pursue one of my favorite hobbies -- showing cattle! The Open Brangus Show at Houston is the most prestigious Brangus show in the USA. Many exhibitors from all over the nation, as well as international exibitors, owners and Brangus cattle enthusiasts attend this show.

My dad and I left Wednesday morning with the trailer loaded down with all of our tack, feed, equipment, and of course, the cattle. Tanner needed to stay in school and my brother, Jacob, had recently had his appendix removed. Thus, dad and I were in charge of hauling, unloading, setting up, and taking care of the cattle until Tanner and Jacob arrived to help us Thursday evening.

The bull show was Friday. Even though we didn't bring any bulls we raised along with us, Tanner, Jacob and myself helped some fellow Brangus friends get prepared for the show. Tanner and Jacob helped fit the bulls, while I was in the show ring exhibiting them.

The next day, Saturday, was the day the Brangus females would show. Tanner's good friend, Jason Schroeder, along with the rest of Tanners' family (his dad, mom and little sister Emily) came to watch. Som

e other supporters that came to help us were Amy Hughes (a good friend of mine that I actually met through Camp Cooley and showing Brangus heifers), Ashleigh Sowell (my brother's girlfriend, an SJ employee, and a dear friend), and Dustin Burke (a fellow judging team member and college friend from Texas A&M).

On show day, I had to show both of the heifers of ours, a handful of heifers from Louisiana, owned by Bob Savoie, and because a fellow Brangus breeder and friend, Traci Middleton, from Puryear, TN woke up extremely sick, I was in charge of showing her string of heifers as well. Needless to say, as I am typing this blog, my hands and shoulders st

ill hurt. Not showing in a while can definately make you sore!

Probably the coolest addition to Royal Genetics within the past week and our trip to Houston, is the fancy signs we had made! I am extremely proud of them, hence why they are posted all over the blog.

Tanner and his family are headed back to the Houston Livestock Show this week with market steers. Myself and Southern Jewlz will be headed t

o the Star of Texas/Rodeo Austin to set up our booth! We will be there selling fabulous SJ goodies from March 12-March 27, so be sure and check the blog for upcoming pictures and happenings!

Remember to go visit the Southern Jewlz online store at www.southernjewlz.mybigcommerce.com, or by clicking on the collection tab while viewing the Southern Jewlz website. Everyone who builds a customer account during the month of March will be eligible for the drawing of $50 free store credit! Also, email us your pictures of you and your SJ gear to randa@southernjewlz.com to be included in our customer collage that will be part of the SJ booth at Rodeo Austin!

A very touching jewelry party and weekend...

This past Friday evening we had our first home jewelry party (well the first in a long 2 years). It was held at Lexington, TX at Tiffany Patschke's house. All day long, my new friend, Anna Spencer of The Grace Photography, and myself prepared for this party. I am also waiting to see the fabulous pictures Anna took of the party and will share them as soon as I have them. Anyways, back to the story. We took over Tiffany's house and decorated it with SJ goodies all over the place! By the time we had left to get ready and returned, many guests had arrived.

There were probably 25-30 ladies in attendance. One thing that I thought was so awesome, is most of these ladies were wives and mothers, but were childhood and high school friends and they still keep their relationships strong. That's definately how I was to be with all of my girlfriends in 5-10 years!

There was one younger girl in attendance. She is a sophomore at Texas A&M University majoring in Nutrition Science. I noticed she look at many, many items but only bought a pair of earrings. I don't know for sure her family life, but I do know my friend Anna put one item t

hat she had wanted aside and let me know she was buying it for the girl. I of course asked, why? what's wrong? I believe she lost a or both (not for sure) parents while she was in high school. One of the young mom's from Lexington was her high school counselor, so that's how she fit into the crowd. Anna soon told me that the girl had worked 2 jobs in high school to afford an apartment for herself. Because she was ranked at the top of her high school class, she couldn't move in with her aunt and uncle like her other siblings, or she wouldn't be able to qualify for valedictorian of her high school class, which would then cost her a lot of scholarship money. Now, this gorgeous and bright young lady is a sophomore by year, but junior by hours and plans to attend medical school. Needless to say, I had to fight back the tears hearing Anna tell me the story.

So of course, I told Anna many of the items the girl seemed to had wanted, that way I could give them to her, but they were already purchased. Little did I know, but some of the other w

omen were buying them for her. The only thing that I knew she wanted that hadn't been boughten for her yet was this necklace.

For all of you followers and readers who know me personally, it will come to no surprise that I wanted her to have this necklace. But the problem was, how were we going to give all of these items to her without her thinking she was needing charity in our eyes. So, we called her high school counselor over, told her we had compiled everything she wanted, multiple necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, and we wanted her to have them. The counselor called her over and explained that the ladies and myself wanted her to have all the items to wear an

d promote SJ while working at the Texas RoadHouse in College Station, TX. She of course did not want to accept the gifts at first, and with tears in my eyes, I told her I would love for a

girl like herself to promote my business. She did accept and by this point, tears had created in her eyes.

By the end of the night when I was taking Anna home, I explained to her how truly touched I was by the young girl. Then, as if I wasn't already fighting to hold the tears back, she told me that she wanted her little girl (whom I absolutely love) to grow up to be just like me. That was one of the sweetest and most genuine things anybody has ever said to me! By the time I had dropped her off, I called my mother (keep in mind it was 1am at this point) and just cried

to her. From telling her how much I love her (my mom), how blessed I am, how I try to be the best influence to others, and explaining how the night worked out, I could barely breathe in between the tears. Of course, my emotions were probably influenced by the time and me being tired, but I explained to my mom that I know I have pursued the correct line of business and am creating an amazing future for myself and others surrounded by me.

So, moral of the story - Realize just how blessed each of you truly are. Say your prayers w

hen you go to bed each night and when you wake up each morning. In today's society, it is so easy to take for granted all the gifts that life truly has.

I am now booking jewelry parties for the months of April and May. Please email me at randa@southernjewlz.com if you are interested! Of course, as a host, you will receive a very nice discount towards your SJ purchase. Until the next blog, stay fabulous SJ followers and customers!

We Now Introduce: Our Very Own ONLINE STORE!!!

Okay, so sorry about all the caps and exclamation points in the title, but, if you can't already tell, I am sooooooo excited about the new online store! This is going to make ordering from SJ so much easier, secure, quicker and just more practical!

The store features many different categories in which all of our products are split between, this way it is easy to browse and find the perfect item in which you are looking for. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter, create a wishlist, buy and redeem gift certificates, create a customer account to speed up the checkout process in the future, and the list goes on and on....

I will keep this post pretty short and sweet, but be sure to check out the store at www.southernjewlz.mybigcommerce.com.

I am gearing up for a home show tomorrow at Tiffany Patschke's house in Lexington, TX. Check back for blog and picture updates to see if a SJ home show would be beneficial for you!

Randa =)

Fighting the Stock Show Crud...

Well hello SJ followers.....

Since our last blog, Tanner (my boyfriend) and I have successfully survived 2 trips to the San Antonio Stock Show. So, yes, that makes 5 weekends in a row to stock shows (3 trips to FW and 2 to SA). I can honestly say that I am glad we are home and have a few weeks before we travel out to the Houston Livestock Show at the beginning of March. Then, soon after we will have our booth at the Star of Texas Livestock Show in Austin, TX. We are so excited!

Of course, with the nasty weather and all of the barns and stock show animals, both Tanner and I have been fighting getting sick. Tanner is laid up as we speak with quite the fever and sinus infection. I believe I am finally over my sickness, which is great! There's no time for rest when I am trying to run my own business and please all of my fabulous customers!

In between all of our trips to and from the stock shows, of course we are focusing on SJ. Almost all of our goodies from our Denver Market trip have come in. So now, what was once just a hobby of stringing beads, we have multiple items for sale. Of course, we still are focusing mainly on the unique and funky jewelry we love to create, but be sure to check out our accessories, caps, and apparel. Also, our newest metal cut-out pendants are absolutely stunning, BUT they are also top of the line in terms of quality. They are all hand cut-out and all of the crystals are sauntered on instead of glued, so no need to worry about wear and tear anymore! They are updated on our facebook page and will soon be on our website as well.

Also, from our last post, we are VERY close to our first ever give-a-way. When we reach 4,000 fans on FB we are giving away our most popular piece, the White Nuggets with Offside White Cross which retails for $45.00. I believe we are only a little over 100 fans away! There will be one very happy "Southern Jewlz Fan" within the week! We can't wait!

Also, I want to take this time to give a shout out to the fabulous ladies at Ranch House Designs. For those of you do not know, they are the designers of the SJ website and the very small amount of SJ ads that we run at this point. Feel free to check out their work at www.ranchhousedesigns.com. What I love most about their business, is the fact that they are owned and operated by Rachel Williams and her sister Catherine. They are very young, talented, successful, business-focused ladies that are true inspirations to myself. Here is the most recent print ad they designed for us! We love it and hope you will too! Happy weekend to all! =)

Our First Ever Give-a-way...

Tanner and I are now on our way to Fort Worth for the 3rd weekend in a row. This time, we are headed there for the steer show. Both Tanner and his little sister, Emily, will be exhibiting steers. We sure hope it's going to be a little warmer than the freezing temperature and rain we experienced while we were at the open show last weekend, but it seems as though it is still going to be nasty.

Once we get back this weekend, we will head out again Monday evening/night to San Antonio for the Junior Heifer Show. We will show (Brangus) on Thursday afternoon after the Brahmans and Red Angus. Although we are excited, it will be nice to have a break. That way I can have more time to organize my inventory and speed up my shipping, rather than just packing and unpacking to meet ourselves coming and going to and from cow shows.

For those of you who don't already know, we do have a Business Fan Page on Facebook. Even though we do perform some business via FB, we are working on a new way to simplify online ordering, and that should be up and running within the next week or two. However, we will always utilize our FB page, as it is a great form of marketing and advertising!

As the title of this blog suggests, we are giving our first ever give-a-way!!! As soon as we reach 4,000 fans on FB (we are currently somewhere around 3,000), we will randomly select a fan to win our most recent popular item, which is the white chunky nugget necklace with the offside white chopper style cross that retails for $45. So, if you aren't already a fan, be sure to add us for a chance to win. If you are already a fan, invite your friends so that we can give away the free necklace! Once we meet this goal, we plan to continue to give product give-a-ways.

Check out SJ employee Ashleigh Sowell rockin' this smoking hot piece below!!! Picture by Anna Spencer of The Grace Photography.

The latest in January 2010...

Since our last blog post, we are no longer at our location in the Post Oak Mall in College Station, TX. We had a fabulous 4 months there, from September 1 to December 31, and we will be back for the 2010 Holiday time!

Now that we are not working long and late hours at the mall EVERYday, it is our plan to keep our blog and website up to date. Within the past week, the website has been uploaded with all our current inventory. We truly appreciate the girls at Ranch House Designs, they are incredibly talented and are so quick to to the updates we send in!

At the end of December, besides being swamped with our Holiday sales, we hosted the 1st annual Southern Jewlz photoshoot. The location was downtown Calvert. Our photographer was Ms. Anna Spencer from The Grace Photography, be sure to check her out online at www.thegracephotography.com. Our models included: Ashleigh Sowell from Anderson, TX (my brother's girlfriend, dear family friend and also an SJ employee), Kaycie Carter from Conroe, TX (my good friend Jessica Carter's youngest sister who I think is adorable), Emily Huskinson from Flower Mound, TX (very dear friend that I met through my time with the TAMU Saddle & Sirloin Club), Devin Felger from New Braunsfels, TX (who is serving as the 2009 Miss Rodeo Texas, and is also a close friend that came about also through S&S), Katy Knox from Hempstead, TX (friend I met through showing Brangus cattle), Kirbie Day from Waxahachie, TX (she is currently the 2009 National Polled Hereford Queen that I met upon her career at Texas A&M), Macy Eaves from Stevenville, TX (past Texas FFA State Officer that I fell in love with on my trip to the Houston Hide Party), and Miss Laci Delesandri from Madisonville, TX (who I actually know through her brother, David, but she is the cutest, funnest chick around). Larry from Larry's Place in downtown Calvert hosted all of us girls, tons of jewelry, clothes, shoes, accessories to master all the photos. Dustin Burke (one of my dear friends from my livestock judging team) also helped us coordinate girls, outfits and picture backdrops. Needless to say, if you are wanting to check these photos out, they are all posted in albums on our Facebook Business Fan Page. Be sure and check them out, as well as all of Anna's work. I can't wait until our next shoot and am looking forward to incorporating these photos into the website, booth set up, and other advertising campaigns.

We also set up a booth at the 2010 Texas Circuit Finals Rodeo at the Heart of Texas Coliseum in Waco, TX during January 7-9. This was our first outting since the summer! We enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones along the way. Once again, to see pictures from this event, check out the Texas Circuit Finals album within our business fan page on facebook!

Then January 15-19, we made a trip up to Denver, CO. We have been this time of year for the past few year to Denver for the National Western Stock Show, but this time we went up for the international market. Roadtripping along including myself (Randa), my boyfriend (Tanner), and fellow friend and jewelry business owne (Ruth Ann Coomer of Two Bling Queens). We had many laughs, created new stories and memories, saw many of our midwestern and out-of-state customers when we would socialize at the Double Tree Hotel at night. Also, Tanner's oldest sister and her brother-in-law were in attendance as they own a tack company, Custom Tack, out of Thorndale, TX. As for the market itself, we about went crazy! But, on the positive note, we met many new contacts within the industry and have lots of new goodies on the way.

Now, Tanner and I are on the way to Fort Worth for the Southwestern Exposition Stock Show for the 2nd weekend in a row. We went last week for the Junior Heifer Show, headed to work on some shorthorns for the Open Show this weekend, and will be back next week for the Steer Show! Whew, we just live on the road. But, the good thing is I always travel with JEWLZ, so I am always prepared to please the customer. Anyways, I'm beginning to get a little car sick from Tanner's horrible driving (haha, jk), and all this typing along the way. I hope all of you enjoyed catching up on the latest and greatest SJ news........

The Fabulous SJ Kiosk

Soooooo.........there is so much to catch up on since my last post that I do not even know where to begin. Let me start with recent SJ news: WE OPENED A KIOSK!!! It is located in the Post Oak Mall in College Station, TX and is open everyday of the week. Due to the face that it is open 72 hours a week and I am working much more on building up SJ, there will now be time put aside just for the blog updates, and I am so excited about that.

Now to backtrack a little......I recently graduated from Cum Laude from Texas A&M with a degree in Animal Science as well as a business minor. As you can tell from my previous posts, it was my plan to pursue an MBA starting this fall. However, with the encouragement of some special friends and family in my life (thank you to those of you who are reading), I decided to try to pursue Southern Jewlz full time. So far (fingers crossed), all is going FABULOUS!

So, this summer, SJ hit the road. We attended the National Junior Brahman All-American in Bryan, TX, the Junior National Hereford Exposition in Tulsa, OK, the National Junior Brangus Show in West Monroe, LA and finally the National Junior Angus Show in Perry, GA. And yes, we (me and my 2 side kicks Miss Amy Hughes and Ashleigh Hayes) lived out of the living quarters of a horse trailer the ENTIRE time. Needless to say, the 3 of us love to listen to Casey Donahew's "White Trash Story" to remind us of this trip.

This past summer was my last summer to be young enough to show as a Brangus Junior (yes, for those of you who don't know, I do raise and show AMERICAN cattle!). I showed at the State Brangus Show in Brenham, TX and ended up meeting someone very intriguing. Needless to say, shortly thereafter, I have a birthday present that is a toy Australian Shepherd named Paisley and a 17-year old boyfriend.......WHOAH! I know, I know, it is kind of a big deal. But for those of you who have not met him, hopefully you will soon, and you will understand why I proceeded with dating a guy who is so much younger than me.

I also showed at my last ever Brangus Junior Nationals. With a 1st and 2nd in the bred and owned show, a Reserve division, 1st and 3rd in the owned show (all will heifers I raised) and being the Reserve Champion Senior Showman, I would say it was a very successful trip. Plus, it was great as always to catch up with great friends from the Southeast!

Anyways, that is a brief overview of my past few months. Now I am just hard at work building up the business as well as inventory, training my 2 employees Ashleigh Sowell and Megan Murray (who have both been amazing thus far), and trying to still fit in some social life time since I am still living in my college town!

So, stay tuned for updates from SJ and all of the lives associated within its inner circle. Believe me, we are all pretty entertaining peeps!

My Official Return to the BLOG!

First off, my apologies for ignoring my Blog for so long! Due to the fact that I was traveling so much being on the TAMU Livestock Judging Team, my blog and even my jewelry business got put on hold for a little while, but now we are back up and running!

So, since it has been SOOOO long, I will just give a brief overview of mine and SJ's fall! As I mentioned, I was on the Livestock Judging Team here at Texas A&M and we had a few big wins that I am proud of. We were champion team at the Mid South Fair, The State Fair of Texas, and the American Royal. Although, we did not win the big one: Louisville, we still had a good run and won more contests than any other team. Needless to say, it was an experience of a lifetime for me and I am really enjoying getting to judge shows now. Since the end of November, I have judged 3 and I love working with the kiddos!

As for SJ, we were extremely busy with the Christmas Holidays! We shipped out over 60 necklaces and I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all of my clientel! I greatly appreciate you all for helping me move forward with my business.

The latest in my life is trying to figure out my plans for graduate school. I will graduate in May and then would like to pursue an MBA. I have visited the programs here, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. I will also apply to K State. But anyways, my entrane exam is scheduled for this Thursday, so I should really be studying instead of typing.

So, with that said, I will get back to my studying and will be sure to give an update of the test and my applying process, until then, Stay Fabulous!

Trip to Big Sky Country...

Well here I sit on my couch back in St. Joseph, Missouri and I am needing to pack up as tomorrow is my last day to work at the Angus Association. Right after work I will be heading straight to Sedalia for the Missouri State Fair, then back home to Texas with a detour to Stillwater on the way!

I just returned to Missouri this morning from the state of Montana, aka Big Sky Country. I went there for the Junior Angus Leadership Conference, aka LEAD Conference (Leaders Engaging in Angus Development). And just let me say, it was quite the experience and I hope I remember to include all the cool things we did and awesome people I met!

We left on Wednesday. James, Robin, and I (my bosses), flew to Minneapolis to meet board members Dana May and Andrew Foster, before we would catch our connecting flight straight into Billings (which is the largest, most populated city in Montana, I believe it is #68 in the nation). We soon met the rest of the Junior Board (this trip there would be 18 considering the retiring 6 were still in attendance along with the newly elected 6!) So our crew consisted of James Fisher (MO), Shelia Stannard (MO), Robin Ruff(MO), myself (TX), Justin Brosey (OH), Andrew Foster (MI), Kara Wilson (IN), Rebecca Tokach (ND), Joe Epperly (VA), Dana May (WI), Mallory Trosper (MO), Brandon Creamer (CO), Walt Stinson (TN), Trey Davis (GA), Bridget Driscoll (IA), Ann Blumer (SC), Andrew Rogen (SD), Chris Cassady (IL), Kirbe Schnoor (CA), Robert Myers (OR), Lindsay Waugh (MN), Ashlyn Carter (IN) and then Brooke Bergkamp (KS) (who had flown in early with Kirbe). Wednesday was a pretty laid back day. Just lunch with the crew, an overview meeting, last minute preparations, and of course socializing again after dinner that night! (Or as the JR Board calls it...Church!)

On Thursday, the JR Board traveled 2 hours away to Canyon Creek Angus, the ranch who had bought the high selling foundation female a couple years ago for $250,000. They viewed cattle, ate dinner, and just spent time in appreciation for the day. Meanwhile, I had Brooke to hang out with and we were in charge of running errands, getting water shoes for everyone (for the white water rafting), and clothes and props for the skit!

Friday was the start of the Conference, and we had 218 total participants. So all day we had children and parents coming in from the airport and getting settled in the hotel. I must say I was very excited to see my Texas sister, Jennifer Ann Smith! So the most exciting part of Friday was the guest speaker, Mr. Alvin Law of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Mr. Law makes a living by serving as a motivational speaker. He was born with no arms, however he is completely independent. He drove down from Canada (10 hours away), all by himself and gave quite an inspirational message along with an overview of his life story and how he operated on a daily basis. I would highly recommend you to look over his story on his website www.alvinlaw.com. I took over 2 pages of notes while he spoke!

Saturday came, and this was our big day to go white water rafting! Of course, with this large of a crew, we had to split into groups of like 8-9 to all be able to fit on a raft. I am proud to say that I believe my crew was the funnest of them all. We consisted of myself, Jennifer Ann Smith, Chris Cassady, Trey Davis, Kirbe Schnoor, Brooke Bergkamp, Courtney DeHoff, Claire Taylor, and Mallory Trosper. We rafted 14 miles total! Even though the waves and tides were not that rough, we still hit a rough spot here and there which of course added to the excitement. However, the thriller moment of it all was when we passed a huge cliff. I begged our tour guide/head rafter to let some of us jump, but he said it was an extra charge. I soon used my persuasion skills and said, come on we have 220 people, can't you cut us some kind of a deal? So there we were (well all but 2 of us), on top of the cliff and ready to jump. It was quite the experience, and I somehow had my huge silver earrings on when I jumped, but luckily came up with them still on. So now, when my mother says, "Randa, if all of your friends were to jump off of a cliff, would you?", I can proudly say, "Yes, yes I would!" So after Vespers that night at a small church on the hill in the mountains of Montana, we were all extremely tired and wore out.

Sunday was full of tours. However, the coolest part of Sunday was meeting Miss Kim Anderson. She was to serve as the guest speaker Monday morning and then was to work with the new JR Board that next afternoon on leadership/team building/ future goals, etc. Robin had told me how Kim was an amazing lady that I should get to know, and as soon as I met her, I knew Robin was right! I wanted to get Kim to come down to do some officer training for my Saddle & Sirloin officers at Texas A&M (since I am serving as the President this year), but due to conflicts of dates and late notice, I am just going to have to look for another opportunity for Kim to come down to Texas. Anyway, she also has a blog at www.iowafarmgirl.blogspot.com, so be sure to check her out as well.

So between the tours to the Midland Bull Test (where I got to visit with Miss Lacey Robinson who works for the Simmental Association who was quite the female collegiate judger during her day), a tour of the Little Bighorn Battlefield (where dad told me I had been before when I was younger); Which for a side track note, in the Suburban was Kim, Robin, Shelia and myself and when we drove up, I was the only one who knew the history behind this sacred land which I was very proud of as history is not my strongest point. But, between my Aunt Michelle being an Indian Native and my dad being the History Channel Gurue that he is, I should have known the history of it. Too bad I was also thinking Mount Rushmore was also in Montana, and when I made this verbally known, everyone laughed and said it was in South Dakota. I soon chimed in with the response that I was from Texas and most typical Texans do not believe there is any other place, so geography can be quite tough at times!, then to the Vermilion Angus Ranch and finally back to the hotel for a dance (which had to have been another one of the funnest times of the dance), once again everyone was tired and needed sleep before the last day of the conference.

So Monday, Kim did her thing (very impressive!), I played mom and made sure everyone got on the shuttle at their assigned time to make their flight, then dealt with some delayed and cancelled flights, we eventually went to a CAB steakhouse "The Windmill", and back to the suite of the advisors to spend our last night together of the summer. For the retiring 6 and myself, this was our last night to spend with or as the junior board (tear..).

So after a 6am flight, here I still sit with nothing packed to get ready to eventually head back home.

Now as the SJ....I have been telling everyone I will resume all custom orders on next Monday as I will be back in Texas. Wow, will I have a busy week ahead. Between all of the old orders, new things to put together, along with record keeping and website updates, I will be running 90 to nothing (as always), however, be looking for new updates both on the SJ website and facebook as well. Also, Miss Reba Hicks (from Albama), had the SJ collection last weekend at a show in Montgomery, AL, so look for coverage of that. Until then, stay classy and fabulous!

Randa :)