As one year ends another begins

When I was younger, I realize I am not "old" now, but I am semi-adult. :) When I was a kid, actually a kid, I would be so terribly sad to see the year pass; New Year's Eve was always tough~ I hated to say goodbye to the year. I would think about all the memories that I thought were going to be lost with the end of the year. Now, it is scary to see the years flying by but I try to always be EXCITED about the possibilities of the coming year.

There is nothing I can do to slow it down, so I might as well be excited about what the future holds. *Don't get me wrong I am excited for what the future holds- yay!

This holiday season was FANTASTIC! I have *tons* of GREAT pictures and one Christmas left before the season is officially over.

I hope EVERYONE had a very Merry Merry Christmas and is ready for a GREAT New Year!

These will be backwards-- here is Christmas night recovery and the following days in Dallas.

So, this is the recovery on Christmas night. We had a GREAT day.

See Big under the table? He digs it under there.
He likes laying on Dad, too.

Having fun looking at the pictures from the day....

About to go to dinner with Diane and Ernie

So much fun at dinner!

My Diane and I, we had some eyes closed issues :)
Talking... shocking :)

I forgot to mention..

While I was "jet-setting" to New Mexico (ha-ha).


Jon was super busy studying for finals~ I took pictures, well becaue that is what I do. This is a shot of his notecards for ONE final! EEK.

The great news?! He made a 93 on his history final and an A in the class, YIPEEEEEE

Apparently all of those notecards paid off BIG TIME.

I am so proud of him. :)

What's been going on? A TON

So, the last few weeks have been crazy busy!! Between Xmas shopping and going to Albuquerque with work; once I get home I hit the sack. I was talking to Frankie over Thanksgiving and I see why sitting on the couch and having a few hours of quiet is the best part of the end of a long day!

Anyways, back to the fun stuff -- after tonight ALL the xmas shopping will be done. YAY

I have some great pictures from New Mexico and some fun stories, but I will share those over the holidays. ;)

Below is my Corona I ordered our first night at Maloney's ~ apparenlty it is a "bomber" which means HUGE BEER! Needless to say, it was the ONLY beer of the night. I tried one called Moose's Drool- that was pretty good, too. It was a dark beer.

The lime wedge was tiny, what was I supposed to do with that?!

A group shot from Maloney's ~ eating dinner, chatting, and watching the Cowboy Game!

My WONDERFUL tourguides, above. Aaron and Amy ~ also engaged as of last night. Amy is also the PC in Abq!
These ladies are FABULOUS ~ L to R: Angie, Holly and Marcie



Now, we were there to meet about our plans for 2009 and how we can continue to improve our services. Below is the theme from the meeting!!


The best part about this region, we meet once a quarter and we have the best time!



On our way to the dinner, did I mention is snowed ALL day Monday? It was beautiful!


This is my roomie for the trip, Megan. We had such fun! She is the PC in Midland/Odessa/ San Angelo.

Here is a pic of some of our region V2- We were treated to a WONDERFUL dinner at a winery as a 2008 Thankyou. I promise Holly and I didn't dress alike on purpose, but it was the brunt of many funny quips all night. :) L to R : Me, Holly (my boss), Beth (DD from Amarillo), Angie (DD from Midland), Amanda (DD ABQ) and then Yolanda (PC from El Paso) in front of Holly, and Marcie (PC from Midland)!


Our side of the table!

The other side of the table + Rhonda. :)

The kickin' butt Midland team and our Regional Tracy- Way to go on hitting budget 3 weeks to the new year!
Our fearless leaders! Tracy and Rhonda are wonderful women.

Marcie and I, we have a plan!!!

Day 2 of the meeting:
See all the hard work we do? Look at all the writing on the walls! This is an Action shot of one of our activities!

These women are WONDERFUL and so, so much fun. :)

FEDEX SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Why oh why can't a company that SPECIALIZES in shipping actually DELIVER the product?!!?


GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Twice, they have tried to deliver my package TWO TIMES and BOTH times the deliver guy has NOT actually attempted to BRING THE PACKAGE TO ME. Want to know HOW I know this? Okay, I will fill you in... I HAVE BEEN SITTING IN MY OFFICE WAITING :( grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Seriously, tomorrow FEDEX better deliver my package to my office- if it isn't there by lunch I am going down to their lubbock STATION or terminal and someone has some EXPLAINING TO DO. Ah, you say call customer service? I HAVE THREE TIMES. They "can't do anything because the terminal in Lubbock is closed" REALLY- the drivers are still out but ALL management has left for the day at 5 o'clock?! By the way, they deliver until 8 PM.
WOW what a job.

Do you know who can ship and DELIVER packages? UPS- what can brown do for me? ACTUALLY BRING ME MY PURCHASES WHEN THEY SAY THEY WILL!

Seriously, I ordered 4 xmas gifts from the SAME company, at the SAME time. They chose to send them separately, two from FEDEX and two from UPS. UPS arrives at 10am today- 1 week after my purchase, not a business week but literally 7 days from the night I ordered these items online. The other package was "expected" to arrive SATURDAY-hence the post below- and then REDELIVERED TODAY- and do I have my items? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The delivery driver didn't OPEN my office door, not my personal door but the DOOR TO ENTER the office, WTH??!!NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.


I know I can't possibly NEVER use FEDEX again, but I will NOT go to FEDEX for any more of my retail shipping, printing, copying, etc. Bring on the USPS and UPS.


~end rant~ *for now* :)

What I did this weekend... BEFORE & AFTER

So, this weekend I decided to "re-do" my office. See, when I started my job the office has been vacated and I guess I have a very different view on how furniture should be arranged in an office. Finally after three months I rearranged my office and made it mine. Luckily, I have before and after pictures. The before photos I took three days after they offered me the job- I took them with my phone so they are slightly grainy, I was trying to "sneak" the photos. :)

So, I present my first office

Before: this is the view from the door

Before: the view just inside the door looking left

Voila~ After: the view from the door

(ps- I moved EVERYTHING all by MYSELF -- I should have gotten some of the "moving men" the pieces that go under the furniture and make it simple to move, this was not simple.)

After: the view from the door looking left

This is the opposite corner, love my popazon chair!

This is looking at the door from my desk:

I have some art to put on the wall but after moving all of that furniture I was exhausted and ready to go home. Art next.

I *LOVE* my office now! :)

Thanksgiving~2008

PRECIOUS

I hadn't been home in so very long, 5 months, it was WONDERFUL to see Mom, Dad, Craig, Jill, Frankie and especially NICK!

My flight was delayed, a lot, I read half of my book on the way. It was so awesome to see Frankie as I walked off the plane, I had not seen him since June either! He was at the gate- yay for flights at the same time.

Wednesday night we had Campisi's pizza for dinner, yum! I had not enjoyed delicious fully-loaded pizza in months. Thursday was the day of food, seriously we ate from breakfast until bed. We made the BEST turkey day meal, we laughed during the ENTIRE meal and had a FANTASTIC day.

Look at sweet Nick wearing Grandpa's hat :)

Playing with the BEST toy from Aunt Ashley and Jon :) I mean no matter that he can't see it ;) The hat is a bit big, but one day!

There was LOTS of playing, walking, and movie watching done by all. This was such a great holiday with the family. I love my family.

Look at this table... gorgeous

Mom and I -

Best Friends.

Nick and Aunt Ashley, just want to give him a big hug and kiss!!

I love mybrother

Frankie LOVES his dessert
That is Mom's whipped cream! SO GOOD!

So, Nick has some of the best toys and lots of good books! Grandma reading to Nick

The Pfeiffer's, and I think Nick is letting everyone know that, that is Mommy and Daddy!

So cute, I love my family.

YAY, I don't have a ton of pictures with my nephew, but the one's we do get are AH-MAZING!

Giving Nick some Love :)

Last Minute Family photo missing Frankie:(