It’s still a work in progress, but for now, check it out!

…And let me know if you need help organizing for the holidays!

www.wix.com/sortitout/sort

Who does my…………………………….cat think I am?

Who falls…………………………….for Nigerian scams?

Who runs…………………………….Egypt?

Why does my sister…………………………….stink?

Why does my dog…………………………….pee on me?

Why does my cat…………………………….drool?

I killed my…………………………….dinner with karate!

I googled…………………………….google on google.

I ran into…………………………….a pole.

Is summer…………………………….homework legal?

I feel like I’m…………………………….taking crazy pills!

Why on earth…………………………….are you making chocolate pudding?

Lauren is…………………………….beautiful.

Who…………………………….dat?

Did you know that…………………………….gogurt is just yogurt?

Barack Obama is…………………………….your new bicycle.

Stop what…………………………….that sound?

Hope you liked

Thus far, for me at least, October has been a mostly cheerful month. Minus a couple tribulations, October has encompassed the spirit of Fall. There’s been picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, and acquiring stomach aches from eating too many of said pumpkins’ pumpkin seeds (Okay, maybe that’s not so Fall spirited). There’s been drinking tea from Starbucks, swinging on the beach in a warm sweater, and snuggling up with Kitty. There’s also been sorting out my career path and deciding to tackle my biggest change yet: pursuing my very own professional organizing business!

Here’s a recap of what my October has been like so far:

Dan and I bought our very first pumpkin together

Meet Franklin

Then we ate Franklin's insides...

Kitty got outside and attempted to get back inside through a closed window

We retrieved Kitty. Janel cuddled and Mom made pancakes

For our 8 month anniversary, Dan surprised me with a beautiful dozen red roses!

I also had the opportunity to organize for my very first client. It went from this…

and this…

to this…

and this!

Happy Fall!

Dan and I at a Silverhawks game!

 

He was cooking pizza rolls.

Tubing in Lake Michigan!

Working on the Subi.

Dan and Kitty

This is not Dan, obvi. But it is our cat, Kitty, who seriously resembles Dan's cat, Lilly (pictured below).

Isn’t he handsome? (Dan, that is.)

The name should relate to organizing, sorting, assisting clients in getting rid of clutter, and relieving them of the stress associated with their mess. It pertains to both residential homes and businesses.

If you are willing to help, you might consider answering these questions beforehand:
What is something that would draw you to hire a professional organizer?
What current business names stand out to you and why?
What do you think of when you think of professional organizing?

I’ll keep thinking, but any input would be much appreciated! Thank you!

At the very end, this is what I had written: “Obviously what I’ve reverted to in the past (telling myself “It’ll happen someday”) hasn’t been working. If you would, please pray for me to find what it is I’m looking for, even though I don’t know exactly what it is. And in return, I’ll post a story about whatever happens if the prayers really do reveal their mighty power.”

Well…guess what? Something did happen! God was listening!

Now you may or may not have guessed this when you read that post, but it was about love. I’d been waiting for and wanting love in my life from a significant other for what seemed like eternity - 21 years when I wrote that post, but 22 when I finally got it. Anyways, what’s funny is that I had control over the situation all those years. I’m the one who made the decision that what I wanted was worth going after. And surprisingly, when I put all of my energy into what I wanted, I got more than that. I got what I needed: Dan.

So as I promised, even though its close to 8 months late, here is the story that your prayers unveiled…

(P.S. I must first thank my Aunt Darcy. A few days before I even started talking to Dan, she told me that sometimes the girl has to be the one to make the first move. If you want the guy to notice you and they haven’t already, then be assertive and ask them out. It was her advice that helped me overcome my doubts and persuaded me to give Dan a note the following Valentine’s Day. So thanks Aunt Darcy!)

(P.P.S. I copy and pasted this story into this post because I had already written it close to Dan and I’s 2 month anniversary so as to remember every detail. Sorry in advance for the length.)

I had seen Dan’s picture on Facebook via a mutual friend’s photo album the Friday before Valentine’s Day. Immediately, I thought, “Ooh, he’s really cute!” So like any normal Facebook addict, I checked out his page. He seemed pretty cool. I mean, he believed in God, liked sports, and had an adorable smile. His little sister was Kim, someone who had once played softball with my little sister, Janel. And he worked at Martin’s, which is where I used to work when I was in high school. With a few things in common, I was glad I had already planned to go home that weekend. Instead of going home just to get away from the Kalamazoo college scene for a few days, I went home with the plan in mind of somehow making my path cross with his.

The next day, Saturday, Janel and I had driven downtown to pick up some Jimmy John’s for lunch. I subtly tried asking her about my newfound crush. I started out with something like, “Hey, are you friends with Kim?” and then worked my way into, “Do you know her brother? Is he nice?” She wasn’t much help as all she knew about him was that he would say hi to her whenever they saw each other in Martin’s, but she didn’t say anything bad about him either, so that was a good sign. I tried digging for more information, but didn’t want to push it too far so she didn’t get the idea that I had a small crush on this guy. (Later on, she told me she was slightly suspicious of why I had asked more than a few questions about him…Guess I wasn’t so subtle.)

Anyways, later that evening, Janel and I had gone to Martin’s to pick up a few things. I can’t remember what; all I remember is that I was so nervous and every time we’d pass an aisle, I’d look down to see if Dan was standing at one of the registers. Disappointingly, he wasn’t there when we checked out whatever it was that we bought. But, on the way out of the store, I saw him; pushing a long line of carts back into the store. As Janel and I passed him, she said something along the lines of, “Hey Lauren…” teasing me about me questioning about him earlier. I tried to make eye contact, hoping that he would look into mine and it would be love at first sight and he’d grab me in the parking lot and kiss me right then and there (some fantasy, right?), but Dan only glanced up and kept on pushing.

Well then.

Janel and I headed back home, and the entire night I could not get Dan out of my mind. Something inside of me was telling me that I had to somehow meet him.

That Sunday afternoon, my mom and I went grocery shopping to pick up a few things I needed to take back to school with me. Surely enough, he was there again; bagging groceries. (Come to find out, Dan wasn’t even scheduled to work that day. He had taken over a shift for one of his co-workers.) We eventually checked out, but unfortunately not in his aisle. What to do, what to do. I couldn’t tell me mom that we just had to check out in this one particular aisle because I had a crush on the guy at the end of it that I had never even talked to before.

So what did I do? Formulated a plan. Mom and I went home, unpacked the groceries, and I waited until about 9:30 rolled around. I had worked up a plan that I would give Dan a note. And after several attempts at putting the right words together, it went something like this: “I think you’re cute so I had to give it a shot. Happy Valentine’s Day! 930-####, Lauren.”

“Hey Mom, Dad, I’m going to go for a drive.” And I did. I went for a drive straight back to the grocery store. To buy half a gallon of milk. That I didn’t need.

Once in the parking lot, I ended up sitting in my car for about 10 minutes, nervous out of my mind about how I was going to nonchalantly pass a note to Dan in the grocery store. It’s quite nerve-wracking when you’ve never met the person before and have no idea how they will react.

I walked into the mostly empty store, passed the customer service desk, and was unexpectedly caught off guard. He was standing right there; elbows on the counter, leaning in to talk to the girl standing behind it. I remember this because he looked right up at me, and I most definitely was not expecting him to be there when I first walked in. So I smiled just a little and kept on walking to the milk section in the back of the store. I was way too anxious and shy to do anything right then, especially with other people around.

So I grabbed the milk and passed the middle aisles of the store to see if his lane was open. It wasn’t; someone else was checking out. Since my plan involved passing the note directly to him, I needed to wait a few minutes for that other person to leave. I worked my way over to the shampoo section to give myself a pep talk and check my hair in the makeup mirror. “Come on, Lauren. You’ve gone over this a million times. All you’ve got to say is, ‘Here, this is for you,’ and pass him the note.” …Deep breath.

Here goes nothing!

I walked up to the lane and set the milk down, too nervous to even look Dan in the face as he bagged it for me. I paid for the milk, grabbed the note out of my purse, and worked my way to the end of the aisle; still avoiding eye contact. This was it. Just give him the note. Just do it!

I picked up the bag and Dan said something along the lines of, “Have a great day!” I said, “Thanks! You too!” And then I left.

I didn’t give him the note.

Halfway out the store, I stopped myself. Time for another pep talk. I paced back and forth for maybe five minutes, contemplating what to do. Something inside of me would not stop telling me to go back in there and give him the note. But I couldn’t just waltz back in now after I had just left and be like, “Oh yeah, here I forgot something,” and give him the note. There was no non-awkward way of doing this.

Except for one thing. The girl behind the customer service desk!

I forced my feet back through the doors and into the store; left, right, left, right. ‘Come on Lauren, you remember how to walk.’ My legs felt like jelly.

I made my way to the desk. (Luckily, it’s the closest thing to the door, so an escape was in sight in case something went awfully, terribly, embarrassingly wrong.)

“Excuse me, I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“This is probably really random, but would you mind giving this note to that guy over there?” (pointing to Dan.)

“Uhh, sure. Yeah, I’ll give it to him.”

 ”Okay, thanks. Really random, but yeah. Thanks.”

 I raced back to my car, my mind swimming in I don’t know what. Amazed and excited, yet also feeling as though I could puke on the spot. A million things ran through my head. “What if he doesn’t call? What if he thinks I’m weird? What if I can never walk back into this Martin’s again because everyone will know I’m the girl who left the note and laughs at me?”

Now I really needed to go for a drive. I needed to clear my head.

I took a drive along the beach, knowing in the back of my mind that Martin’s closed soon. He would be getting off. He would have gotten the note by now. He would be thinking about the girl who couldn’t even make eye contact with him as she picked up one half gallon of milk she didn’t even need.

I parked my car on top of the bluff, unsure of what to do next. I attempted to calm myself down, but there was no way that was happening. I had stepped too far out of my comfort zone to get anywhere near being calm.

Then, 11:15 rolled around and my phone vibrated. A new text had arrived from a number I didn’t have stored.

“Hey this is Dan i got your note!”

Completely thrilled with a stomach full of butterflies, I responded as my heart pounded furiously in my chest. We chatted on Facebook that night. At the end of our conversation, he asked if I would like to go on a date sometime when I was home from school.  I usually returned to school Monday afternoon, but he had to work in the morning, so we couldn’t meet up before I left.

Back at school, we were texting throughout the day and talking on the phone before bed. I went home that next Saturday and texted Dan to hang out. We had planned our first date to be that Sunday, but since I was home a day early, my mom convinced me to text him. He came to my house, brought in a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and we spent the night walking around downtown and driving along some backroads, getting to know each other in person. We agreed to hang out again the next night.

Sunday, he picked me up again in his sporty Mazda, we went to Chili’s, and then rented The Hangover and Couples Retreat. Good date movies, right? That night, as we were just starting our second movie, he sent me a text. “So I thought of a good question.” “What’s that?” I typed back.

He looked at me and asked, “Would you go out with me?”

…“Mhmm!”

And the rest is history. I got my first boyfriend that night.

So that’s our story, and I’m curious what you all think. I’m also curious how God so perfectly worked his way into your own stories. Feel free to share; I’d love to read them!

Not a bad one (BECAUSE IT’S FRIDAY!!!), but sort of a funny ‘off’ one.

You see, at work I’m responsible for buzzing people in because our front door is basically bolted. Seriously, there are some strange people that try to get in here. Not dangerous, mostly just looking to be hired or, for example, are locked out because a supervisor found them sleeping in one of the bathrooms in the warehouse last week…

Anyways, when you walk into the building, there is a staircase which leads you to the offices. My desk sits open at the top of the staircase, overlooking the balcony.

Let me be sure to inform you that, being at the top of the staircase behind the balcony, I can only see the heads of people who buzz to get in. So if I don’t recognize them, I ask them how I can help them and determine whether they are permissible or a psycho looking to kill everyone in the office.

There is one particular rule I was told the very first day I began this job: We do not accept applications here and people looking to be hired should not be let in. They should be directed to our website where they can send in a resume or apply for a position. Simple enough, right?

Not so much on the second day I was working here and permitted a scraggly-looking man to enter because I couldn’t figure out how to talk to him through the speaker (Mind you, most warehouse employees here wear rundown jeans and old t-shirts, so scraggly looking isn’t out of the ordinary).

So after I buzzed him in, the man walked up the stairs to my desk, and surely enough, asked if we were hiring. I told him, “I’m not sure, but you can check our website. That’s the only place we accept applications.”

Actually, I got nervous so quickly for letting a strange man in that it sounded more like this, “Well, uhh we don’t take applications, and ummm go to our website for jobs ehh we don’t do that here. I don’t know if we’re hiring. You can uhhh apply on our website, a-a-a- apl.com.”

Then, after my little stutterfest, he persisted that he take a seat on the couch, write up a resume real quick, and give it to me. The receptionist. Because I obviously do all the hiring. And I obviously had the job under control.

Key Point #1: Who sits down in the business they are looking to be hired from to write up their resume on a piece of paper with a pen?
Key Point #2: I am silently freaking out for doing the one thing I was told not to do.

Luckily, I am surrounded by offices with glass walls so everyone could see what was going on (…Also unluckily). My manager called my extension, asked what was going on, and took care of it. Phew!

So why, do you ask, am I telling you this story? Because it’s very similar to how today has sort of been. One particular incident stands out where I had everything under control and running smoothly, until it unexpectedly turned uncomfortable and unsettling in a matter of seconds. If you don’t know what I am talking about, this is the type of situation that happens for no reason at all but to embarrass you and make you think for the rest of the day how you could have prevented it.

Incident: *Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz* (Some people hold the buzz button for way too long.) I raised my head to peer over my desk and saw two short children, a boy and a girl, standing at the door. “Can I help you?” “We’re selling candy to raise money for our church fundraiser.” “Okay, just give me a second and I’ll open the door for you.” They sprinted up the stairs in pure enjoyment and waltzed up to my desk. The girl had a big smile on her face in her pretty blue dress and the boy, wearing a nice plaid shirt and khaki pants said, “Would you like to buy some Peanut Butter Cups for $5, some Fannie May Meltaway’s for $7, or some Peanut Clusters for $9?” displaying each box as he asked. The girl just stood there grinning in excitement. My manager walked out and took them around the office to see who would like to purchase some of their goodies. I bought the PBC and they were definitely worth it.

Now, this may not seem like a bad incident, but it turned bad very quickly. You see, so many of my co-workers decided to buy from these two adorable kids, that the girl had to sprint up and down the stairs 3 times to retrieve different boxes of candies. Also keep in mind that I had to buzz her back in each time. Now, the very last time she went out to get her last handful, the door slammed behind her and in one second, I heard the buzzer again. Some of my co-workers, including the manager, were chatting with the little boy in front of my desk, so distracted, I figured the girl forgot something and needed back in. I pressed the button.

A straight-faced and slightly depressed looking man and woman walked slower than molasses up the stairs. As their heads began to show through the balcony columns, my stomach dropped as I realized that I had never seen them before. (Obviously, the little girl had been too giddy to hold the door for them as she ran out to her mom’s car.) They looked directly at my manager and said, “Are you hiring?” Again, he took care of it. Crap…

Thank goodness it’s Friday!

Apparently the stories I’ve been so skillfully typing up and submitting over the past, oh, 8 months, haven’t appeared on my blog. Why you ask? I don’t know. Ask WordPress. They might have an answer. All I can say is that you’ve missed out on some hilarious and moving stories that I have encountered and planned to share with the interweb, but no. It is not that simple. All of my hours spent, with great intention to entertain your minds all the while risking carpal tunnel syndrome, have gone to waste.

Okay, not really.

I haven’t been writing over the past 8 months. I haven’t had hilarious and moving stories to tell, except for maybe a few. Mostly I’ve been too lazy to update my blog and/or too busy when school came to an end. And then I just sort of stopped.

But I’m back! For you, my adoring fans.

Please, hold your applause.

Okay, no seriously, you can stop. For I have updates! And to fully get you updated, here is a list I’ve compiled of things that have happened in my life since January 20, 2010 (aka my last blog post).

1. January 26 – I turned 22 and officially declared myself old.
2. February 14 – I gave a note to a boy named Dan.
3. February 21 – Said boy became my boyfriend.
4. May 1 – I graduated from WMU.
5. May 2-September 7 – I had the best summer of my life.
6. September 8 – I started a job as a receptionist.
7. September 24 – I am sitting at my desk writing a new post.

So now that you’re up-to-date, and in celebration of my blog’s grand re-opening, I have a few stories to tell! Three in fact. And they all occurred at this little place I (iffy word following) “like” to call work.

Story #1:
When: Two days ago
What: Every day at 12:00, one specific co-worker goes on his lunch break. At 12:30, he takes over my desk as I go on my lunch break. However, two days ago I did not see him go on his lunch break. So when 12:30 rolled around, he came up to my desk and asked, “Wanna grab a bite to eat?” A little thrown off (and thinking he was asking me on a lunch date), I replied, “Oh, actually I brought my own lunch today,” and pointed down to my purse which held my brown paper bag of pb & j goodness.

…Hold for awkward silence.

With a weird look on his face, he then said, “No, I mean did you want to go on your lunch?”

Oh. Okay, nevermind then. I proceeded to scurry to the time card machine, swipe my card, and eat my lunch in my car.

Story #2:
When: Since day one
Who: I have three co-workers! Actually, there’s a lot more than that, but three of them have names that I felt were worth sharing. They go on a scale of “fun to say” to “seriously, that’s your name?”

            Co-worker #1: Lonnie Truelove
            Co-worker #2: William Prince

And my personal favorite:

            Co-worker #3: Ron Snodgrass

Story #3:
When: Today
What: For the past week, I’ve been spilling food on the new couch at home and on myself; sometimes even both! The first occurrence happened with a bowl of soup. I was eating in my favorite spot on the couch when the bowl of chicken noodle soup (fresh out of the microwave, mind you) slipped partially out of my hand and proceeded to dump all over me. Literally, my shirt and capris were drenched…and hot. As was part of the armrest and a new pillow. I resisted my urge to scream since Mom had just walked out onto the porch. But as I was in the process of grabbing a wet rag to wipe up the mess, she walked back in. And a noodle was laying across the pillow.  “I think there’s soup on the couch,” she said. And she was not happy.

The second occurrence happened just a couple days later as a bottle of pop slipped out of my hand off the same side table in the same place. It tilted forward and decided that it should throw Diet Coke all over the carpet directly next to the new couch.

Last night, Dan brought over a new wine to try. I sat down on the couch with a glass half-full in hand and watched it as it slid to a 45 degree angle and almost spilled all over myself and the couch again. This time though, I caught it.

Now for what happened today. Or to be more specific, 77 minutes ago. I was eating lunch in my car again (I like to get out of the office) and took out my meal: a pb & j, banana, and pudding for dessert. After so delicately and carefully eating my sandwich and banana, I took out the dark chocolate cup of pudding. As I was just about to finish, I pulled the spoon away and it just so happened that the pudding cup slipped out of my hand. Guess what? A blob of pudding landed directly on my jeans. I quickly scooped it up with the spoon, dabbed it with my napkin, and laughed out loud alone in my car, but to no avail, I now have a brown spot on the middle of my thigh. Dan laughed via text and said, “eww poop.”

So as I go back to work now with a poop stain on my jeans and Lon Love, Prince William, and Snodman, I’ll be sure to keep you updated if anything else exciting happens. Did you miss me?

Happy birthday (two days ago) to the absolute greatest dad in the entire universe!

Thanks for always being there, Dad! I love you!