Thanksgiving 2008 and Black Friday!

Well Thanksgiving this year was not without it's drama but it went pretty well. Luckily there were only a few tears but that's par for the course in Ben's family. Everyone seemed to get along pretty well but most of the family didn't show up or showed up late so maybe that's why. So this year it was me, Ben, Ronnie, Aunt Cathie, Aunt Cindy, Grandma, Grandpa, Little Cathie and Tiffanie for dinner. Shawn and Crystal came after dinner and a little while later Aunt Karen and Uncle Joe showed along with their son Shannon, his girlfriend Diane and their new son Dalton along with all their other kids between the two of them. It was exciting to see the new baby (he is only about 2 months and and has very chubby cheeks!). Ben didn't get to see him because he had already left to go to PA for a college football game with some friends. He had a good time there though and seems much more relaxed and happier! Unfortunetly it meant that me and Ben didn't get a picture together like we do every holida :*(

Ben and Ronnie

Grandpa cutting the turkey

Little Cathie, Ronnie, Grandma and Cindy

Aunt Cathie and Aunt Cindy

Me before we left the house, it was the only picture of me all day though....

Since Ben was in PA, I decided to go shopping with my Mom on Black Friday. I didn't get up early because there really weren't any deals I needed since I am just buying gift cards for everyone this year. I have 4 people left to buy for but one I will probably get tomorrow and that will leave me down to 3 (2 of which Ben needs to decide what to get people so gotta wait on him). It was still madness though when I arrived at JCPenney's to meet Mom at around 11 am. I couldn't believe how crowded it was but I did get 2 new shirts and a pair of pants for work. Mom bought it for me as an early Christmas gift so I was excited! Other then what I got for other people I only spent a few bucks at Target on a space heater for work. I need one since I am sitting by the windows now and it gets pretty cold in there. I am glad to be almost done with my Christmas shopping though and hopefully we will finish up everything by next weekend so we can be done early and no last minute shopping!

I started decorating for Christmas today and pulled out some of my decorations that I forgot I had. I found my cute chair covers for the kitchen chairs - santa hats for the chairs. They are adorable :) So hopefully tomorrow we will get the tree up and a few decorations outside and we will be done.

Ben's mom is supposed to be here in about 3 weeks so it's time to prepare the house and get ready for her to come in. I'm sure there will be no shortage of intersting times with her around...'nough said.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and a shopping filled Black Friday!

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted. I have just been super busy lately with a lot of different things but mostly work.

I have officially moved my desk but my role does not seemed to have changed like it was supposed to. My boss informed me that he needs me to manage his calendar still (hopefully at the end of this week coming up that will end, he said it will but we shall see). I have a gazillion (ok not that many but it feels like it!) interview candidates coming in for different positions right now. I am really pretty sick of doing it at this point and i was just given more to do, both first and second round. Not really happy about it. I am just through with all of it. Plus, I am getting so many things to for my new job which I love but I can't get around to them and I hate telling my new boss that but it's the truth. Now I also have goals to start working on for next year that I need to work on and I just don't know how I will find the time until the hire someone. But then there will be trianing and learning so it will probably be another month and a half before I finally get a break....I'm hoping for sooner but doubt it. Alright enough of the complaining...

I have been doing a ton of cleaning lately and that is making me feel better about things around here but I still have plenty left to do! Everything just looks a mess to me! Hopefully this winter I will get motivated to get more things cleaned up and out.

I can't believe this week is Thanksgiving already! I have to say that I have much to be thankful for this year, my husband, my family, my friends, my home, my puppies and kitty, my job, and so many more things.

Manual Labor...what's that?

So today I took a trip to our "Soap Mines". For those that don't know...I work at GOJO. So as part of my Individual Development Plan (fancy huh?) I decided to do the Manufacturing Work Day Experience. And that's what it was...an experience!

First we got a tour of the whole building basically with a kind of deep dive into our receiving dept where we get in our raw chemicals. Learned about the Boom Room...too funny.

Then we got to go to our mix room where they make our formulas. We had to go to the top of the mix tanks and we got to help make one of the formulas which was fun. You gotta do A LOT of matching though to make sure you get the right stuff in there. It was so dang hot up there though but a good experience.

Then we went to lunch....I had Subway :)

When we came back we got to go work on the actual lines...this is where that manual labor part came in. And now i remember why I got a 4 year degree. To not do that. I'm not knocking that and I give those people a lot of credit but I worked those lines for 2 1/2 hrs and I wanted to fall over. I was hot...sweaty... my back hurt like the dickens. Oh, and my hand got scratched up from the pumps on the bottles. I only worked two of the lines but I was def over it but the time I was done. The people on the second line were very nice and easy to talk to. Learned a lot from them!

Then we were supposed to learn about shipping but I didn't learn a whole lot about it really. Just toured our distribution center. I wish we would have actually seen them ship something out from start to finish but oh well.

Overall it was a great experience because I really didn't think about everything that goes in to it before (although I knew...didn't know a lot about it). I'm glad i did it but man was it not easy or fun. I think I walked about 12 miles today....


And in other news...Obama is our president. I was not confident in either candidate and yes I know it has made history now that he is our president. I just hope he does what he has said. I am not sure what direction it will go but I do hope it's a good one. I just don't know about it though. Good luck to all of us and him.

Voting

I voted today - not gonna say who for because I don't need opinions or anything and I don't care what they are so I'm just gonna keep my peace :) I did have to wait in line for 40 minutes though which I wasn't happy about. Glad I went before work though because I came home and had no electricity!! It's back on now but still....

Update on work - I am starting to work on transitioning to my new job. Geez it felt like this day was never going to come! I reviewed my work with my boss and I think we have come to an agreement on what I will keep until the new person comes. I'm happy that he pretty much agreed with everying :) We are doing interviews this week though so I think that we should be able to get someone in there pretty quick after I move - I'm hoping no more then 2-3 weeks after my move. I think my boss would go crazy with too much longer :)

Other then that I really don't have a ton going on right now. I feel like I need more to occupy my time, I think I am going to start scrapbooking again. I get in moods where I work and catch up everything from 4-6 months and I'm current and then I stop. So the last time I updated right now is right before the wedding because we had them out. So now it's time to do everything since. I have about 200 pictures to get printed though so I need to get some bucks to do that first :) Wish me luck!