Sweet Valentine

I am in LOVE with this gold initial charm necklace:

And lucky me because my mom surprised me with this necklace as an early Valentine's gift.  Thanks Mommy!  This would make a great gift for an special lady in your life or a nice treat for yourself...you deserve it!  The necklace is very tiny and sweet with a delicate 16 inch necklace.  It's perfect for layering, but looks great by itself too. 

Order online at More Than You Can Imagine! 

Peacock Rain Boots

Target, $24.99

Ashley alerted me about these peacock rain boots at Target.  Anyone who knows me, knows I have a slight obsession with all things peacock!  I really don't need a new pair of rain boots since my Grammy gave me an awesome pair of Coach rain boots several years ago, but at $24.99, how can I resist?

My True Calling?

I took a very in-depth career test a few years ago.  At the end of the test, it listed 100 careers that would be a good match for me based on my answers from questions about personal characteristics, strengths, likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. 

The results were ranked 1-100 with #1 being the best career match for me. 

My number ONE was....

A funeral director

Very interesting.  At first I thought this was just weird.  I'm matched to work with really sad, depressed people and dead bodies!  My mom convinced me it was because I would be great at comforting people in their greatest time of need. 

I never gave it much thought until this season of The Bachelor.  One of the contestants still in the game is a funeral director.  I also just saw the new Anthony Hopkins movie, The Rite, last week and the main character is a funeral director/embalmer. 

Shawntel, The Funeral Director/Embalmer contestant of ABC's The Bachelor

 Is this the hot new job of 2011?  Was this my one true calling?  I did a little research and this is what I found:

A good funeral director has:

-  A steely resolve
-  A strong stomach
-  Tenacious attention to detail
-  2 or 4 year degree in mortuary sciences (that's a degree...I'm not sure how well that would have gone over at the Pi Phi house in college)

Studying to be a funeral director would include courses in business management, anatomy and physiology, pathology, embalming techniques, restorative art, mortuary science safety and psychology of grief and bereavement counseling.

To become a funeral director and/or embalmer, you must take the National Board Exam, followed by 12-24 months in a residency program, and finally applying for a state law exam for your official license.  Most people do a formal internship before starting this process. 


There is even a school right here in Houston for funeral services: The Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Services.  Their slogan: "Where Funeral Service is Our Only Major."  Catchy.

Finally, I learned that funeral directors are way underpaid for what they do: $32,000-$53,000 is the average salary of a funeral direct.  Embalmers make an average of $29,000-$46,000. 

Hope you learned something today.  I know I did. 

*Quick tip- if this topic interests you and you do a Google search on it, prepare yourself for the images...I wasn't ready.

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was great!  Houston was geared up for a crazy "Winter Storm."  I would say 85% of Houstonians did not go to work or school, but Jason and I were not among them.  No snow, boo!, but we did wake up to lots of ice on the roads.  While I worked from home in the morning to avoid the ice, there goes my crazy husband at 7am off to work.  Granted he is in a Tahoe and me in a tiny 2-seater, but still, brave! 
I ventured out around 1 to go to the office for a few hours.  Big Mistake!  I skidded pretty bad across 59, but no wreck...multiple runs of online Defensive Driving did me well!  When I arrived at the office, I felt pretty dunb because NO ONE was there.  But I stayed for a productive few hours of quiet and that was my Friday!

Saturday was the last Saturday until May that I don't have to waitress in the Junior League Tea Room so I wanted to enjoy EVERY second.  Jason made sure I got to do exactly what I wanted.  We slept in and had a lazy morning.  I HATE having to get in the shower and get ready immediatey after waking up so this was such a treat.  We ate lunch at PF Changs, browsed Anthropologie and Paper Source, went to a Farmer's Market and had drinks and dessert at a new restaurant we discovered, Haven.

Sidenote- Haven has the best dessert that was truly made for me and Jason because it was made of all of our faves: Coconut Tres Leches Bread Pudding!  We ate it too fast for me to take a pic!

The rest of the weekend was great- Church, reading, movies, Central Market, pineapple sherbet, and a Superbowl party at The Bouwers!  And by superbowl party, I mean, Ashley and I caught up on things and ate, while everyone else watched football. 

Dress Deals

I've been very proud of myself lately because I have not purchased much of anything besides groceries and an occasional manicure.  I was starting to think that I needed to seek professional help - maybe shopping for 50+ people over Christmas did some permanent damage.

No professional help required.  Just some cute and cheap dresses at Old Navy to jump start me back to the wonderful world of shopping from my computer...

Aren't these great seasonal transition dresses?

Women's Surplus Tie-Belt Shirtdress, on sale for $20.50 (With limited 30% off only $14.35)



Women's Smocked Tie-Belt Dress, On sale for $28.99 (With limited 30% off only $20.29)



Women's Chambray Shirtdress, $29.50 (With limited 30% off only $20.65)

You can get 30% off too for just a few more hours...enter code ONBIG30 at checkout.  Just until tonight, 2/7 at 11:59pm.  Happy late-night shopping!

Goodreads

I recently joined the website Goodreads.  Its a fun way to keep track of your reading history!  You can rate them, write reviews, mark books that you want to read and share it all with your friends who are on the site. 

Is anyone else using this website?  I would love to connect with you and share books!  I just finished The Hunger Games which was amazing and am about to start the second book in the series, Catching Fire. 

Connect with me at: http://www.goodreads.com/chelseap

See you there and happy reading!

The Day After Tomorrow

If you were to watch the local news in the past few days, you would think the world was coming to an end.  It reminds me of the movie, The Day After Tomorrow with Jake Gyllenhal!  Yes, everyone up north can make fun of the Houstonians.  It's H: 34, L: 28 and most schools have been dismissed early or closed, employers are sending their staff home and the possibility of ice and snow is all anyone wants to talk about.  Even the Junior League has cancelled their annual charity ball this evening due to the weather. 

We will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.  Even though I think it's probably over-hyped, I won't complain if I get to work from home...