Monday, December 29, 2008

Holy Smokes!

It's been awhile since I've posted anything! We've been super busy and with the holidays this week...life has been crazy! I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I've already started my new year's resolution...I joined Weight Watchers (again!) tonight. I have always done better when I am on the program. Something else that will help is I asked Adam for a treadmill for Christmas. He was going to replace all of my ski equipment, but I am so out of shape right now, and since we aren't sure when I'll get pregnant, I don't want it to sit in the garage for at least a year. I've been wanting a treadmill for quite awhile now and think it will help even when I get pregnant since I can still use it for walking.

We have family from Washington, DC visiting us for the rest of the week, so don't be surprised if you don't see another post soon. I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year's!!!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Are you old enough?

Adam and I went out to do our Christmas shopping today. Our last stop was WalMart, where one of the items we purchased was Planes, Trains and Automobiles for my dad. Adam and I went through the self checkout since we only had 4 or 5 items and didn't want to wait in the regular line.

I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that the movie we got for my dad was rated R, since it's got some pretty bad language in it. But what did surprise me was when we rang it up and the check out screen said we needed to have our age verified by the attendant.

What surprised me even more? She didn't believe that I was old enough to purchase a rated R movie. SERIOUSLY? I looked at her, said just that, and then informed her that in 9 days I will be turning 27, a full DECADE OLDER than 17!

Now, I know that it's wonderful to be told that you look younger than you are, but at 27, I would really prefer to look my age. No one takes me seriously because they think I'm a kid. At 37, I'll be fine with looking 10 years younger. But it's insulting to me when people think I'm a teenager!

All right...I'm done ranting for the night. Hope you all have a good Monday!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Three Confession Thursday

1. I like beer. For Adam's Anniversary gift, I got him a beer of the month club...not necessarily because he really likes beer (he does, by the way), but because I was also excited to taste the different beers that came in. I just had one from the last batch...Pomegranate Wheat. WOW. Best beer I've had in awhile.

2. I'm not feeling as stressed out about work as I was last week. I think Kim and I were able to get a lot of adjusting done this week and I think we are going to be okay!

3. I'm really excited for Christmas this year. I've got a killer present for Adam this year and I can't wait to give it to him!!! I'm of course excited about the presents for me, and my birthday presents, too! But I haven't had a really good Christmas gift for Adam in a few years, so I'm excited about that!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

10 Thought Tuesday

1. My brother-in-law and his wife are coming into town at the end of this month. I haven't seen Christina since last year, and Casey since July.

2. I really wanted to do something fun for New Year's Eve. This will most likely be our last New Year's without kids, and I wanted to live it up and party like it's 1999!

3. I'm pretty sure we won't be doing that this year with the family coming into town. Which makes me so sad!

4. Jack passed his Canine Good Citizen class last night!!!

5. He shouldn't have passed...in fact...none of the dogs from our class should have passed! Each one failed some small part of the test on the first try, but passed on the 2nd. Sarah, our trainer, said that she passed all of the dogs as early Christmas gifts, we just have to promise to keep working with them.

6. Tarot's Basic Obedience Class still has two weeks left. Next week we'll do doggy introductions, then we'll do testing! I think she's going to pass. Then I think we'll enroll her in the next Canine Good Citizen class that Sarah is doing in March.

7. We're thinking about enrolling Jack in the agility class in the spring. He's such a spry and nimble little pup!

8. I bought some fun little toys for our kitties today at my new favorite pet shop. We have stockings for all the animals and I think they'll all enjoy their little presents that we have for them.

9. Adam is worried that the Cat Attack bag full of catnip is going to turn our little monsters into BIG monsters!

10. I did a whole bunch of Christmas baking this weekend and have left overs. I'm thinking a lemon bar and a glass of milk sounds mighty good right now!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Three "Not So Nice" Confession Thursday

1. One of my co-workers that just got laid off came in today to finish cleaning off her desk and computer. It should have only taken her a couple of hours, tops. It took her 6!!! Now, why do I care how long it took her? Because my other co-worker (who's still with the company) and I had plans to rearrange the office today so we could have a fresh start and be more efficient since there are only two of us now. We have to move forward with the new and can't focus on how we used to do things. AND we have to move forward now because we don't have time to wait. We have too much to do, too much to restructure and reorganize to wait. Because she stayed for most of the day, we couldn't do all of the moving we wanted to until 5 pm, and now we'll need to spend more time on it tomorrow, which we did not want to do because we actually have to get some work done tomorrow. I feel bad for her because she spent 8 years with the company and is having a hard time moving on, but she CHOSE the voluntary lay off. She CHOSE to leave the company and move forward. And it was frustrating that she wasn't allowing us to do the same.

2. I talked to another one of my co-workers that was let go and he was extremely bitter about the whole thing, which I would have been if it had happened to me. However, I got seriously pissed off listening to some of the things he was saying, like how the office wouldn't succeed with only one sales person and laying him off was a recipe for failure. He was not very good at this job. He didn't even make it to 25% of his goal for last month! I have basically been the only sales person in the office since I started with the company. He spent all of last month selling stupid $75 packages while I went after the bigger sale. He was perfectly content to only make his new acquisition goal and not strive for his revenue goal. He never listened to anything anyone ever said and was completely in la-la land most of the time. There are so many more not so nice things I want to say right now about him and his performance, but being that mean is not going to make any difference right now, so I'll stop now.

3. I honestly feel that the two people let go from the sales team is not a terrible thing. After thinking about it long and hard, I realized that Kim and I worked harder when it was just the two of us over the summer, but we were running so efficiently that when we finally had the "help" of the other two on the sales team, it felt more like road blocks than relief or help. I'm also pretty sure that if we weren't having lay offs, both of these people would have been let go anyway, and I wouldn't have been very sad about it because their lack of drive messed with my performance.

I know these thoughts aren't very nice....but I don't feel bad about them. I have a big job to do with getting our office truly successful, but I'm up to the challenge. And now that we'll be a tighter running ship again and I know my accounts, know my territories, and know my products, I have a feeling we'll be able to do it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Really bad Tuesday

So, today was an incredibly rough day at work. The company I work for is in the middle of laying off 10% of it's workforce nationwide. Over 4,000 employees nationwide, now out of jobs. We've known these layoffs were coming for about a month.

The particular paper I work for was told that originally they were going to layoff 40 people, which is 10% of our staff. Today, which was the start of the layoffs, we found out it was not 40 people, but 67!!! I came back from being out in the field all day to find out that I still had my job, which I am extremely grateful for.

However, the main product that I sell in my territory is going to be discontinued at the end of this month, four of the seven editorial staff from our remote office were let go, our Sales Coordinator took the voluntary layoff, AND they let the other Sales Rep in our remote office go. I knew the Sales Coordinator took the voluntary layoff, I had ABSOLUTELY NO idea that the other layoffs were going to happen in our office. This puts our remote office at HALF the staff it had this morning.

Needless to say, I'm a bit off today. I've been incredibly emotional most of the afternoon and evening. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone who was laid off today except one person, and I know the layoffs aren't over yet...we still have tomorrow to get through. At this point, I know that I am not getting laid off, but I know that I am now the only Sales Rep for the remote office with a HUGE territory to service. I also know if we do not make our main product successful, the rest of the office will most likely be on the next chopping block, because let's face it, our economy and employment situation is not going to be any better any time soon.

AND I found out my grandma on my dad's side got into a bad car accident this morning and broke her back. She's in a rehabilitation hospital in Sacramento right now, and I think I may be going to visit her this weekend. From what I understand, she still has sensation in her all of her body, but she is in immense pain and is completely doped up on morphine. In a couple of days she is going to be fit for a back brace. Thats about all the information I have right now. I'm hoping to have more info tomorrow.

To top off my day, I thought the possibility of being pregnant was out of the picture, but I'm not sure it is (hence the over emotionalness of the day), so I'm dealing with that possibility on top of the new responsibilities at work. Yes, I know I just posted how I want it to happen asap and how impatient I am for it, but with the day I had today, it would really just be too much for me to handle right now.

Adam just walked through the door with ice cream, so I am going to go indulge...and tomorrow is a new day.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Patience is a virtue...

....that I rarely exhibit when I want something to happen! Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, moving into our house, etc....I get very excited and have a hard time waiting for them to get here.

Well, now we have entered into a new waiting game that I have already begun to hate. Adam and I have decided we want to add onto our family. November was the first "official" month of trying. Unfortunately, no go.

Now, I know this was only the first month of trying, and the whole "trying" part is the fun part, but I'm still sad it didn't happen on the first go around. Adam and I both truly thought it would during our first month. I know it will happen when it's supposed to, but that still doesn't make the waiting any easier!

 
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