Amy J. Bennett

In seven hours I will be waking up WAY before I want to to get ready to make an early flight out of Charlotte.  Getting ready this week has been absolutely insane.  Work was crazy for me this week (and not just all the public stuff going on…my actual work), I had too many appointments to keep this week, too many clothes to wash and all smack dab in the height of PMS.  I haven’t been on my best behavior and I’m very sure the minute I’m in the air I’ll be feeling guilty for the many times I’ve raised my voice this week but such is life, right?

So the kids are tucked away at my MILs and my bags are packed.  Heather is coming over soon to spend the night.  Dani is supposed to be here at 5:30am and Scott will have been up all night working and plans to take us to the airport.  Maybe I should first of all be praying he doesn’t fall asleep driving!  I’ve got a list of last minute things I need to make sure I take.  (Note to self: change purses before you go to bed!)  I’ve showered.  I’m going to finish typing this and head to bed.

My prayer/hopes for this weekend are that we stay safe in New York, we don’t get lost, we all get along well, we have FUN, we get lots of good shopping deals, we eat a lot of good food, my family stays safe back home, they don’t miss me too much and of course that I pick the right outfit and take a great picture on Sunday :).  Not too much to ask, right?

Oh and of course, my period..just in time for vacation.  Likely story.

Wow, this week has been insane in my professional world.  I mentioned one big bank buying another big bank this week.  Well one big bank backed out and let ANOTHER big bank buy ALL of them.  Well, this deal still affects me so if you read the news you might figure out which bank I work for.  I’m not naming names for search engine purposes.   What’s interesting is the first big buying bank is now mad and making accusations at my bank.  This is getting crazy!  insane!  You can imagine I’ve been in conference calls for much of this week.  But the one question the employees want answered is do I have a job a month from now, a year from now, two years from now?  No one knows the answers but I do know that changes are a-comin’.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Yes, I went and did it again.  Got my hair cut.  I get this kind of tick when I have short hair.  I have to change it every time I go.  And this time came a little sooner than later since I wanted a fresh cut for #HBC (for those not on twitter..# denotes an event and HBC is short for Hot Blogger Calendar)(and I know that’s sort of like Rachel Ray saying “EVOO” and then following that immediately with extra virgin olive oil)(i mean, what’s the point of an abbreviation if you’re going to say both??).

I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of the cut but then I had a little freak out when I walked out.  She had spiked it out on the side and I had this awful polo shirt that made me look like a boy and I HATED the cut.  Tried to get Scott to take a few pictures and I deleted every single one.  I got home and fixed it enough to go to church and liked it much better.  But this morning I’m feeling MUCH better about it.  The drama!  It has becoming quite a blogworthy event.  Then Melissa left this message for me:

Post pics of the haircut! I just went to your blog to look for them and I want to see them – now!

Well what’s a blogger to do but yes ma’am and post pictures??

I think this one might be a keeper for at least another round.

Can you believe in 72 hours I’ll probably be eating lunch in New York City somewhere with two of my favorite people??  I’m getting really excited!  We got an HBC update email this morning and I’m really excited because it had a bunch of details in it and as bad of an organizer I am at times, I LOVE to know what’s going to happen.

So here’s a few fun facts:

• My shoot is scheduled for 2:45pm.  Due to the size of the studio probably not everyone is going to be hanging out there all day.  Originally I was thinking Sunday would be “studio day” but now it’s looking like it’s going to be “studio a-few-hours”.  Which the more I think about it, might be cool because that just gives us more time to sight-see and shop!
• They’re scheduling a dinner Saturday night.  As long as it doesn’t interfere with our Broadway plans, we’re in.
• We still have Some Studio (http://somestudio.com)
• Our photographer is Bill Wadman (http://www.billwadman.com)
• Our make-up artist is Jillian Villifane (http://www.jillianvillafane.com)
• I have to do my own hair.  Which may be scary.  I’m actually going TODAY to get my hair cut!  I’m going shorter!  Kind of scary to do 4 days before a photo shoot but I trust my stylist that much.
• We will be able to sell the calendars directly from our own site.

OK, so the only thing I was surprised at was the photographer.  He does absolutely stunning work so I don’t mean this in a bad way, but the pictures were a lot different than I thought.  Now…I know the calendar is probably going for it’s own look but photographers are all known to have “a look” to their stuff.  His seems to be very natural and organic.  He seems to really capture the person just how they are.  Which is really is going to be AWESOME for photographing bloggers.  But it makes me wonder about my outfit choices.  Which truly say “Amy”?  Anyway, gives me something to think about.

Now I have a lot of appointments to attend this week…honestly, I think I went a little off the deep end preparing myself for this thing.  I’ve been really strict about the Isagenix plan (welll….let’s not mention the brownie and ice cream I broke down and had Monday), I’m getting a manicure and pedicure tonight AFTER I get a new haircut.  I’m also having another microderm done tomorrow and honestly my dentist appointment just HAPPENED to land two days before I leave.  I had planned to do whitening strips but really, I was just too lazy.  So if I look at all half-decent in these pictures…believe me, it’s not without a lot of work.

TODAY is Mama Belle’s 37th birthday! Her husband has set up a group of us to do a special post for her and I think it’s AWESOME! I have the pleasure of highlighting her as a ROCK STAR and she IS! I honestly didn’t know she could sing like that! Amazing!

I always look forward to Mama Belle’s posts! Happy Birthday, Mama Belle!!

Here are the other ladies involved, go check them out!

Jackie @ Moments and Memories
Wendi @ Miraculous Chaos
Jodie @ The Sky is Only Dark Between the Stars
Jessica @ Pianomomsicle
Sarah @ Life in the Parsonage
Rachel @ A Future Pastors Wife
Julie @ Blessed with Five

Well, my house’s hot spots anyway.  We won’t get into MY hot spots.  Ahem.  I was able to get things a bit cleaned this evening and realize there are a few places that if they get cleaned, I know I must have been serious about cleaning.  Those spots are:

• My bathroom floor…especially this little corner on the floor at the bottom of the tub that I stare at every time I go to the bathroom.  It drives me nuts and I always make sure to get it extremely clean when I finally do clean it (I cleaned it today and I’ll give myself a pat on the back every time I go to the bathroom for the next few days).
• The side counter top in the kitchen.  I dump all of my papers and everything else I don’t know what to do with there. I have to make a concerted effort to get it clean.  It’s not clean right now.
• The playroom.  It’s an “event” to get that room cleaned.  It’s almost clean right now but only because Scott rearranged everything in there recently.  Not because I cleaned it recently.
• A little table in my office.  The girls use the table for crafts and ALWAYS have some sort of stamp, marker or paper on there.  It’s not clean right now either.

Some of those are what FlyLady calls Hot Spots.  I should take her advice and just work on those every day a little at a time.  Since FlyLady actually has a name for these I’m guessing I’m not the only one with places like these?