A Night At The Ball

Never in my life did I envision going to a ball.  For starters, I didn't think they existed anymore.  I equated balls with Cinderella, and Cinderella isn't real.  Therefore, balls aren't real, right?

Wrong.

A few months ago, Isaac was invited to attend the MOCF (Michigan Osteopathic College Foundation) Ball and he so sweetly asked me to come as his date.  I said yes.  This event would be an amazing networking opportunity for him, and we couldn't pass that up!

The event was last night and it was incredible, to say the least!  Here are some pictures!

The menu for the night.

Our ride to and from the event.  Around 20 of us from the MUC campus pitched in and rented a limo instead of all driving separately.

Before people were seated.  There were around 900 people in attendance!!

Some of Isaac's schoolmates enjoying their food.

Really sweet centerpieces!  One lucky person at each table got to take the flower arrangement home at the end of the night (but not the stand)!

The lobby at the hotel.  The car that Amy and I are standing in front of was given away in a raffle.  Tickets were $100 each and MOCF ended up making $70,000 by the end of the night from the raffle alone.

The school asked that we write thank you notes to the people who donated our tickets.  We ended up having even more to say thank you for, as Isaac won a trip to Cancun for us!  Looks like we'll finally be able to go on a honeymoon!!  Woohoo!!

Who Says You Can't Blog At 1 AM?

Things have been looking up rather quickly!

I've been spending the past week reading articles and doing research about what it takes to run a successful business and how to advertise to your niche clientele.  One thing in particular that I kept seeing was that a company should have an internet presence.  In this day and age, it seems that everyone wants to meet the digital you before they spend time investing in getting to know the real, live you.

Okay.

So I started doing research on how to create website, see if domain names are free, buying domain names, etc...  Turns out that Intuit is doing something fabulous for the state of Michigan.  Any small business owner can get a domain name (provided it's available) and a website setup for FREE.  Of course, this offer only lasts for the first year, but even so, if it serves it's function, many small businesses won't mind paying for the subsequent years because the revenue it helps create should severely outweigh the cost of the site.  And if it's not making money... well... I'd probably drop the site and start over.  Or reconsider whether entrepreneurship was my thing.

Anyway, I long story short: I am now the excited owner of www.ashleyhinton.com!  (It's up and running if you want to check it out!)

I had conducted a survey toward the end of last year asking for the public's opinion on what a good website name would be, but I am reserving that one for when I have the ability to invest more into freelance wedding work again.

Additionally, I have an interview at Nordstrom for a Cosmetics/Fragrances position on Thrusday.  I'm very hopeful that this is where God wants me.  Because I want to be there.

We'll see what all of this brings, but so far the results have been lots of excitement and Isaac receiving less of my attention than normal because I've been learning the in's and out's of the software for the website design.

He is so sweet.  Right now he's sitting at the table, decked out in his latest Parilexx gear.  He gets so excited to wear it because the company is run by one of his former track members--and because the shirts are SUPER comfy!  I think he looks quite handsome in them.  They hug his biceps very nicely.

That's it for the night--rather, the early morning update!  We hope you have an awesome weekend!