Cleaning Caddies

I've been working on putting together different cleaning caddies for my customers to try out. I have a cleaning caddy filled with the essential cleaning supples and a laundry kit filled with all our laundry products. You can use the kits for a week on all your household chores and then I will pick it up at the end of the week to see how you like them. This is a new idea I'm trying, so let me know your thoughts on it!

The kits will also have some samples and goodies in it for you to keep and enjoy while you clean!

Germany Trip

Well, I should update the rest of our trip. I will try to keep it somewhat short!

Monday night after we picked Nate up we went to the town of Braunschweig for dinner. We sat outside with the view of the palace there. Very cool! We then headed back to the hotel and Nate and Uncle Doug went in the pool...then got yelled at for being in after it closed! Oops!

Tuesday Uncle Doug and I went to Wittenberg. It was about a 2 hour drive from Wolfsburg. Here we went through Melanchthon's house, Luther's house and saw the Castle Church where he nailed the 95 theses. We went back to pick Nate up and ate dinner at our hotel.

Wednesday Nate only worked until about 10:30, so we checked out of our hotel and headed south towards Heidelberg (where we stayed the last 2 nights). We made some stops along the Fairy Tale road. This is the area where the Grimm brothers lived and worked and wrote all their fairy tales. We stopped in Hannover-Munden which is famous for all of its half-timber houses. We then stopped in Kassel and saw Hercules statue and one of the fairy tale castles. We didn't have enough time to go through the castle but could see it from the statue. We then went on to Heidelberg. We unpacked a little and then headed out to walk around the town for a while.

Thursday we headed out to see the Heidelberg Castle. It was a little bit of a walk from the hotel, but not too bad. We toured the castle for a while and then headed back to the hotel. We stopped at a cafe on the way back and had something to eat. It was pretty humid out, so we wanted to go swimming when we got back to the hotel. When we got back, I found out I had forgotten to pack the bottoms to my bathing suit:( So I took a shower instead and Nate and Uncle Doug went swimming. I guess I would have fit in with no suit on in the sauna...but I didn't think that would be a good idea! We went to a nice Spanish/Mexican restaraunt for dinner and then walked around for a while before we headed back to pack up for our trip home.

Friday we left the hotel around 9:00 a.m. and headed for the airport. All our flights went great and came in a little early. Uncle Doug was on a different flight home but came in under an hour after us. So by the time we brought our luggage to the car we could drive around and pick him up. It worked out quite nicely. We then headed home to get the kids. Nate was drifting a little too much on the road so I drove the last 100 miles or so. We got the kids a little after midnight and were home by 1:00 a.m.

Safe travels so far!

Well, we made it to Germany yesterday morning with no big issues. We made it to our gate at O'hare with 14 minutes to spare...so a little tight maybe!

We flew from O'hare to Atlanta and then on to Frankfurt. The flights all went well and on time. We landed at about 9:00 a.m. Germany time (3:00 a.m. our time). Our hotel is in Wolfsburg (about 3 hours north of Frankfurt) so we took a nice drive through some cities on our way up.

We stopped in Koblenz and went to the Festung Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. We stopped at a little local pizzeria for lunch. We then went to Bonn to find Beethoven's house. We had a little difficulty finding it since our GPS wanted us to turn down walkways, but we did find it. From there we went to Cologne. Nate had been here on his last trip and wanted us to see the Cathedral. It was awesome!!!

We then finished our drive most of which in on the Autoban. Nate has way too much fun with that!! I took a little nap since we hadn't slept since we woke up Saturday morning (well, a little on the plane, but not much). We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a while.

We woke up this morning and tried to find a SIM card for the international phone Nate got for me from work. We then brought Nate to work and Uncle Doug and I went to the Bergen-Belson concentration camp about an hour away. This was the camp that Anne Frank died at. There is nothing left of the actual camp, since they burned everything down to keep disease from spreading. It was a very interesting place to visit. It almost seems park-like since there is nothing left of the actual buildings. But still a very somber place, just thinking of all the horrible things that went on there.

We are now at the hotel waiting to hear back from Nate. The phone we have is not letting us dial Nate's number for some reason and we don't have his German number, so we are waiting for him to email us back. Hence the reason I'm updating my blog. We had to pay for a whole hour just to send him an email.

Hopefully we will catch up with Nate soon and head out for dinner. The weather he is great! In the 70's and sunny today.

Also, I put more pictures up on Facebook of our day yesterday.

Fun & Busy Weekend!

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Friday night we had my cousin Meri's wedding. Allison was the flower girl. She loved it! Her and I went to rehearsal on Thursday night and her and Aiden (my cousin Ben's little boy) did great! Friday she got to get her hair done and get pictures taken. She did so good all day...she told me "it's so much fun at the wedding mom". She made it through the reception and went right to bed when we got home.

Saturday was a beautiful day! Nate let me sleep in a little and played with the kids and read them some books in the morning. He also made them breakfast! So nice:) Then they all went outside and the kids helped Nate clean out the shed. Then we sat out in the sun and they played in their pool. They then told me they wanted to take a nap outside. So we laid out all the towels and they layed there for over an hour. They almost fell asleep, but we had to go away at night, so I put Andrew in bed after a while.
We then headed out to Nate's parents' house for dinner for Nate's Grandpa's birthday. The guys all went golfing in the afternoon and then we all met up for dinner.
It was an awesome night and I didn't realize it was 9:00 already, so we quick packed the kids up and took them home for baths.

Sunday was pretty typical. Church, then Sunday School, lunch, naps and church again. My cousin Kelly made confession of faith at night at Faith PRC, so we went there for that and had a lunch afterwards. Both services Andrew sat on Nate's lap in the back of church, we're hoping he can sit in church soon. He hates to go in nursery so we thought we'd try him out in the back. He does pretty good for a 2-year old!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful. The kids played in the pool for a little while, then they wanted to come in because they were hot.

Today was hot again! We had to go get Ally's 4-year old shots at the doctor this morning. She wasn't too happy about it, but did very well. She got an ice cream cone from McDonald's on the way home, so then she perked up quite a bit:) This afternoon we went over to my Aunt Mary's house to swim in their pool. The kids loved sitting by the pool, but not going in so much!

Rest of the Newsletter

Time for Vacations and Trips to the Beach!!

Also along with summer comes vacations and trips to the beach or park or zoo!!! I can’t wait to take the kids out this summer! We already have a long list of things we want to do for day trips, since we will only be going on one camping trip this yearJ

I just want to highlight a few products that we offer that I love when going out and about or going on vacation.

For the beach you will of course need sun block. You always want to make sure you are protecting your skin! I have used the kids’ sun block already this year and I love it! It isn’t greasy at all and soaks in very quickly without much rubbing (which is great when a 2 year old just wants to playJ). We also have sports sun block in a continuous spray form (SPF 50), and SPF’s 32, 52, and 78.

For snacks and drinks for the beach or trail, we have some great options for trail mixes, juice boxes, and snacks.

And if you want to look a little better in that bathing suit this year, we have a Trim Body System just for you! It comes complete with a 30 day supply of food bars and supplements to help loose those extra pounds by the 4^th of July! It also comes with a journal that has what you should eat and take for each day for the full month. It has recipes and shopping lists to help with healthy eating habits. And it also comes with a work out DVD.

Next is something that I always have in my bag with me…LOC towelettes. They are so nice if you need to quick clean something up or if you spill something on your clothes. And with kids…I never have them too far away!

For all those hikers out there we have some great meal bars and snack bars that are so convenient to take along. We also have energy bars that are delicious!! And you should always stay hydrated…we have sports drinks or twist tubes (add them to a water bottle for a little flavor!)

The new products for this month are: 12 oz. Cranberry Grape Energy Drink, Artistry Total Mascara, Meal Bar Variety Pack, and a Snack Bar Variety Pack.

We have an expo at Centerpoint Mall this Saturday, June 6 from 11-6 if anyone would like to come and check out our Artistry and Nutrilite lines. We would love to have you stop by and say Hi!

I have a few specials for this month as well. The Meal Bar Variety Pack ($25), Kids Sun Block SPF 60 ($9), Adult Sun Block SPF 32 ($8.50), SA8 Laundry Detergent ($20), and SA8 Tri-Zyme ($9).

As always, there is FREE shipping with any order of $75 or more and 100% money back guarantee on everything!

Hope Classic 5K

Nate ran in the Hope Classic 5K again today. I think he's done it every year since I started working at Hope. He finished in 23:01. Not bad for no training! My brother-in-law Ben ran also. He got the gold medal in his age group (25-34)! I think his time was 19:35. I usually go and help out with late registrations and taking times at the end of the race. It's like a secretaries reunion every year:) Stephanie Lanning - who was the secretary before me - comes and helps every year too. Going back to help makes me miss this time of year at school.

Nate also won a gift certificate to Rainbow Grill! Good things we stuck around for prizes this year:) We then of course had to go out for dinner tonight. Who wants to cook when you can go out for free? Em and Ben were over at Mom and Dad's house so we called them up to see if they wanted to come too. The kids were all very well behaved and we had a nice dinner together.

Now Nate and Jon are playing outside with the kids, so I have a quiet house to myself for a little while. Then it's the usual Saturday night routine of getting ready for church tomorrow. I think Nate and Jon are going to go play basketball, so I will have a night to myself...I'll have to find a good book to read, or clean the house....I think a book sounds better:)

June Newsletter

Every month I email out a newsletter. I thought I would start putting it up on here as well. If anybody would like me to add them to my email list, let me know!

Here is the first section of my June Newsletter. The next one will come hopefully on Monday!

Summer's Here!! Are you ready?

Along with summer comes all those lovely grass, dirt, and blood stains. Wouldn’t you love a product that takes them all out, even if you forget about them? We have a couple different products in our SA8 line of laundry care that are great stain fighters.

The powder detergent is awesome! I have never given a sample out where the people don’t love the product! (I guess there’s a reason it’s ranked #1 by Consumer Reports.) There are no phosphates in it, which is great for your machines. It won’t cause any build up in the pipes and will also start cleaning them out as you use the detergent, making your washer last longer and saving you money! It also dissolves completely, which makes it great for sensitive skin or for babies. Our 6.6 lb. box is so concentrated that it would take 3 – 4.18 lb. boxes of Tide to do the same number of wash loads.

I have used the liquid spot remover quite frequently with my two kids. It gets absolutely everything out!! It has gotten dried blood out of Andrew’s white church sweater (after he had a little accident in nursery) and blood out of Allison’s white sweatshirt after a fall out of the bike trailer. You can’t even tell where the blood was!! I was so happy, I thought they were going to be ruined.

Also, I use the Tri-Zyme presoak/booster as well. This is great if you have little kids or babies. I have a couple customers who love it for their baby stains. You can use it as a soak before you put them in the washer or as a booster along with your detergent. I’ve also washed and dried a shirt with spaghetti stains on it (I forgot about the stains at the time), treated it with the spot treatment and then used the Tri-Zyme along with my detergent and the white sleeves came out perfectly clean!!

I can’t say enough about these 3 products!! The other products in this line are also great, but these are the ones I use on a regular basis.

We also have all-fabric bleach, liquid detergent, sensitive detergent, and fabric softener.

If anyone is interested in any of these products or anything else...feel free to give me a call (616-667-2598) or email me at epastoor@hotmail.com. You can also order through any of the websites that are in my links section on the left.