So lately it’s been difficult at work.  Over the past month we have lost our dispatcher that was here for the past year and gained a new sales manager, new sales guy and a new sales coordinator.  They were brought on to improve the growth of the company and make us a bigger player in the commercial industry around us.  Change in this type of situation is inevitable and something that has been a long time coming imo anyhow.  I like change, I’m not afraid of it or anything of that sort.   The whole “teamwork” thing is what is being preached at our work and I truly believe that a group of people working as a team are what makes companies truly thrive.  I just have felt like I’ve been a benched player, so to speak.  Most of my daily tasks and routines are in question at the moment, most of them being almost criticized for the process in which I complete them.  These processes were put into place, most of them, when I started here due to the problems from the person before me.  Over the past year we have since cleaned up and fixed a lot of issues from the past and moved on with a cleaner slate.  They have worked for us and in fact some I wouldn’t even think of removing because I know the chaos involved from past processes.  I get tired of explaining things over and over again to people that have been here 2 weeks but am working on lowering my frustration and gaining more patience and understanding in this situation. 

< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

Yesterday, I was called into a meeting with the sales manager and my project manager to discuss the issues at hand and to find out why I’ve been “Unhappy”.  I’m an emotional person, always have been and always will be.  I don’t know how I could ever change that about me.  I explained how I understood their were changes but voiced my opinion on how maybe involving me more in some of the changes that do affect me would be a better decision and I wouldn’t feel like the benched player or the local watergirl.  This was understood by them and I’m glad. 

The discussion of my schooling came into topic too.  Due in part of the wedding, the house and my own money managing I decided to take this semester off and I was originally trying to find an evening part-time job.  I of course, waited too long and most of the retail like Cost Plus, Pier One, Borders etc. aren’t hiring and the restaurants that are hiring require “fine dining experience” which I don’t quite meet, even with working for a steak restaurant.  So, it’s been a bit frustrating.   

I’m going to cut this short and sweet, without out all the details since I do have quite a bit of work to do.  I got asked how much money I’d like to be making and I told them.  He did the math on the calculator and said they had no problem paying me that much more.  He asked what I’d be willing to do to get that pay raise and I said almost anything to the limits I can handle in which I’d be very willing to be put to the test of tackling more. J So, on Monday morning I’m supposed to give a list of “job duties” I perform so they can look at it and then evaluate what else they want me to do so I can get this raise.  I’m not sure what conditions or when it will be active but I’m hoping soon.  That raise is going to help me a lot when it comes time to start making house payments and actually putting money into savings.   Patrick and I went out to a nice dinner last night and kind of splurged. 

Back to work J for now ..will maybe fill in more later!

I haven’t written in a while and I guess one could say I’ve been sucked into the computer gaming world somewhat.  Also, Patrick’s parents were in town so that added to things some. 

< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

Guess I’ll finally talk about World or Warcraft, just briefly and live a link to where you can find more if interested.  I’m sure most of my friends and family are going “wtf are you talking about”.  If people haven’t figured it out yet I’m a bit of a computer geek (yes, I do admit that sometimes).  I’m also marrying a software engineer so what do you expect?  His toys are computers and anything technology related.  We get MIT Technology magazine (thanks to his dad, which is an awesome magazine btw) for pete’s sake.  I never thought I’d end up this way LOL.  I was such a science and math girl and well jock when younger.  I could get around on a computer just fine but to think I’d enjoy them so much and even play a computer game ..GASP….is still a bit of a shock to me at times.  

*warning – if not a computer geek or game player this might be of no interest and you might be thoroughly shocked about the news of my geekness*

So onto this game I’ve been playing.   It’s called World of Warcraft and made by Blizzard Entertainment.    I used to play a game called Everquest but after a few years (yes, I played a long time..won’t say how many years)  it got boring to me and I wanted something new.  I was in a guild called Legacy of Steel which had some members that work for Blizzard.  One of the guys I’ve stayed in touch with is an amazing artist to say the very least.  He invited me into the alpha version of testing for the game and I was thrilled..this is an understatement!  In October, I was sent an email and had to fax away my NDA.  Alpha started in November and off to create my first character, a human mage.  I won’t go into great detail of the game on my journal, mainly because there is a lot of information on a website that I frequent regularly.  The website was the main area for Everquest wizards to get information about the game and they have a dedicated section to questions and answers regarding WoW and some of which I’ve posted answers / thoughts on.    Go to Graffe’s Forums for information!

To close this little topic though, this game is amazing and if you are into gaming at all, you’ll want to check it out.

Onto other news:

This weekend Patrick’s parents in town so we drove to < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Reno on Saturday and met up at his brothers apartment.  They are moving into a house in 3 weeks so we unloaded some furniture his parents had brought down for them.  This hutch they have is beautiful and will look awesome in their new house.  It’s a cute house in South Reno.  It was also Kiersten’s birthday so we went out to dinner that night to celebrate it. 

Sunday his parents came up to visit us in the afternoon and we took them out to see the model of the house since they had never seen it before.  They finally put furniture in the models so you can tell a lot better what the space is like ..although their decorator is horrible!  His parents decided to try and sell the sectional they were going to give us and then we’d take the money to buy a new living room set.  I’m just hoping we can find something reasonable but Patrick did find a couch set he likes and they sell it supposedly at our local JM Furniture stores so we might check that out and see how much it costs.  We have to get a dining room set also and of course our refrigerator.  L Things are looking so expensive.  Thankfully for the refrigerator Patrick has his GE discount so we’ll get the nice stainless steel GE Profile one for a great price.  Not to mention we are talking of painting some of the rooms before we move in which could be some long weekends out there before the wedding. YIKES! 

Honeymoon:  We booked our flights to Denver for the wedding, cost us only $220something for the 2 of us!!!! We then went on and checked out airfare to Puerto Rico and found them for SO cheap!!  We got our 2 round trip tickets from Denver to Puerto Rico for only $646 TOTAL! We were just a lil bit excited at our money saving deals!!  I just need to book our 2 nights in Puerto Rico for the before/after we board the ship and going to book those at something affordable that aren’t to snazzy since we are basically just sleeping there. 

Wedding:  We haven’t ordered the invitations like I was supposed to do the past few weeks, because well I’m slacking. I’m GOING to do them tonight..I have to…*puts on list of must do*

So I saw people putting a list of To Do’s so here’s mine..maybe this will help me some!

To do:

Order Invitations

Do timelines

Sign rehearsal dinner contract, mail copy to Patrick’s parents and put money down.

Call mom to find out if the girls and Rain are going to get their dress shopping done this weekend!

Book hotels in Puerto Rico

Plot out excursions for cruise and reserve ones that need early

Sign up for diving courses

Buy girls gifts for wedding party

Find placecard frames for tables

Buy Bubbles and have sent to Colorado

Buy cake serving set / have mom go pick up.

Coming up:       Register for next falls classes

                        ….i’m sure more J

Long entry but hey it’s been a while!

Oh, PS.  House News – Frame is going up this week, wood was by our house and the one next to us!

 Sav/heather

Patrick went off to lay down and it’s only 10 so i’m not quite sure if i’m tired yet. I really hate not going to sleep at the same time as him sometimes but there are nights when i’m just not tired and can’t count sheep in the evening hehe.

I came home from work today and worked out (Patrick’s trying to get me back in the swing of things and being very patient with my protesting in the mornings at his attempts to drag me out of bed at 6ish) I am horrible at getting up in the morning it seems despite all those years of am swim practices or waking up at the crack of dawn to go lifeguard and teach swim lesson or help coach teams. I guess it’s been so long since i’ve had to wake up early that motivating to workout now is hard. I am going to try working out in the evenings when I first get home from work instead because I so need to get into the swing of that before the wedding!!! Wearing a strapless gown has me totally stressed about looking out of shape and bleh. We hit sushi after the working out and I noticed that my stomach must’ve shrank down some because I was full after eating only 1 roll and some upside down shrimp. This is after eatting just a thing of soup at work and a balance bar for breakfast so god knows I didn’t eat that much earlier.

Patrick stopped by the loan guy today to turn in our papers and all is going as planned. I’m really hoping the house closes the month before the wedding so we have some weeks to calm down before the chaos of that. His parents are wonderful and going to bring back our gifts and also some of my things I left behind when I moved here. We’ll just give them a key to the house (we both think that sounds so cool, is that corny?) so they can drop them off.

I desperately want my bike out here. I have this amazing road bike my mom bought me while I was at CU. I was getting into the triathlon training kick and for my birthday she bought me a custom bike. I’ll never forget how excited I was. This bike is custom fit to my measurements and height etc. from putting all that into a computer and then it determining every length of piece. I have clip pedals which I love. I wanted a Cannondale so bad and got one but sadly I left it behind when I moved so I have to get that out here. I love the freedom of riding and Dayton will be a great area to ride in. I look back at how much I rode in Boulder and think god I was in great shape. I didn’t have a car for part of the time I was there so my bike was my transportation everywhere. My longest rides were probably to Boulder Res. to volunteer to teach handicap how to waterski. I had to be there at 7am and boy was it a long ride but well worth it. They are some of the most amazing people i’ve ever met and such strong wills and determination. Anyhow, i’ll just be happy to finally have my bike out here.

guess i’ll go join patrick now!
g’nite!
heather

house news: They are about to start framing our house! It should start this week and sadly my pictures that I took the other day turned out all blurry cause our camera was on motion setting or something. /sighs We went out at night and all you could hear was frogs and the silent sounds of the night. No traffic, just silence. Was so nice and Patrick said to me about how excited it makes him and how it reminds him of growing up with the frog noises and such. We also got our loan paperwork over the weekend and we are going with an 80/20 loan with our rate at like 5.5% so that isn’t bad at all. It looks like everything is starting to work out great.

wedding: Still need to order my invites..doing them this week hopefully and going to try to finalize some timelines and more details so over the next few months it doesn’t overwhelm me.

work: God it’s stressful but looks like all the changes have really helped improve attitudes and just the overall feel at work. I’m still upset with my salary but not going anywhere and figure i’ll just deal for now. I’ve spoken up about it and that is all I can do.

Saw this on another friends livejournal and thought it was cool. I did one of my own on my photo site for travels way back when before I knew you could do this but this one is much easier
I had the fortunate (at the time I hated it) experience of driving in the summer for our 2 week vacations with my family. We went all over the place and by car so we hit every rinky dink amusement park or attraction that we could. It is something I think every kid should be lucky enough to experience. Flying is nice and convenient but I’ve seen a lot from driving and love it.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Lots going on and good stuff actually!  Over the weekend we drove out to the house to find out we have foundation! Will post pics soon to bore you with.  Sunday I worked on finishing up some cards I made for the bridal party (girls and guys) so they could have info about tux renting and what dresses they are wearing etc.  I think they turned out, maybe a bit too cutesy but fun never the less.  I’m sure the guys will just laugh at my attempt at being creative but hey it was fun and a personal touch! 

Here’s some pics of the final product:

Last night we also booked our honeymoon!!! After thinking this whole time we might not even get to go on one we ended up deciding we could afford a cruise and it’s better then what we expected.  I figured we’d go on a carnival one because they are less expensive and also, i’ve been on carnival before.  As I was looking thru cruises again last night I found an awesome deal we couldn’t pass up on  I-Cruise .  We have a cabin with a balcony even!  The cruise sails from San Juan, Puerto Rico to many different islands!

This is the port stops and copied from the Princess website hehe

	1	San Juan		11:00 PM	View
	2	At Sea
	3	Barbados	7:00 AM	6:00 PM	View
	4	St. Lucia	7:00 AM	5:00 PM	View
	5	Antigua	8:00 AM	6:00 PM	View
	6	St. Maarten	8:00 AM	6:00 PM	View
	7	St. Thomas	7:00 AM	6:00 PM	View
	8	San Juan	6:00 AM		View

I can’t even say how excited I am about this!! I’m just hoping we can get all these things paid down and not be stressed about money.  I really hate that money doesn’t grow on trees or at least a bush!  I’m going to put $$ towards the cruise tonight and try to make payments against it every week whether be small or not. 

My car is luckily paid off at the end of this month so have some extra to put against this but yet after all this chaos I really am going to have to start saving up for a new car down payment.  Mine is on it’s last 4 wheels, I guess you could say and i’m sure once we move to Dayton it won’t like driving that far.  It has an easy drive, a whopping 2 miles currently.

Well, stuck here at work alone today so going to close up and head home.

~hugs

heather