Weekend Recap

This weekend was a busy but really relaxing weekend.

My Friday class was cancelled so I was at work all day. We were having clients visit the office so we actually had to be dressed up. Normally the office is very casual. Part timers are typically found in sweats or jeans and t-shirts. I am proud to say that I have never worn sweats to work. I haven't gotten to a point in my life where I have given up yet. But it was nice to have a day where everyone in the office was dressed up. I live by the premise that if you look good, you feel good. My entire department was there all at the same time so we took the opportunity to get another group shot since we didn't want to frame our dwarf picture. Here we are. Aren't we precious?

I have now printed an 8x10 for my manager to display in the office and a 5x7 for one of the attorneys at the office. I'm sure some of the other attorneys will want one too. We shall see who becomes jealous about the picture in Jimmy's office. Maggie and I are considering making it into a holiday card to send to a few of the covering attorneys that we work with on a daily basis. I'm sure they would like to see who we are. Just this week, we got to see a picture of one of our covering attorneys and it was nice to put a face to a voice that I hear at least once a week.

Friday night after work, I stopped by the house to start a load of laundry, then I headed downtown. My boss from home was in town for the weekend to see his son and go to the game and asked me to dinner with their family. It was really nice to see them. And now I can say that if you are ever in Columbia and looking for a good seafood and steak place, you should definately check out Mackenzie's Prime. It was soooo yummy!!! I headed home after dinner and was in bed by 8:30. I was exhausted and Chris was out playing poker, so I decided it was time to hit the sack. The only bad thing was that I was wide awake at 4:00 a.m. which allowed me to get up and going early in the day.

On Saturday, Maggie came by around 930 - 10. We had a lazy morning and ate frozen pizza for lunch. We were going to watch the football game, but couldn't find it anywhere on TV. It was way to cold to want to get out of the house. Around 2, we finally decided to leave the house. We ran a few errands. Hobby Lobby was having a 50% wedding items sale. Too bad I didn't find anything that I liked. We also hit up a few stores. I got a new pair of boots for the chilly winter weather we are having. I cannot be bare on my feets in just flats all winter. We picked up McAlisters for dinner and spent the rest of the night in. Maggie and I had been talking for a few months about toning up before my wedding. While we were at Wal-Mart Saturday, we picked up a workout DVD called Dancing off the pounds: County Line Dancing. We took our first crack at that on Saturday night. It was more of a workout than either of us anticipated.

Sunday, we did another round of our workout and stayed around the house during the morning. Just after lunch, we headed to Joy's house (Joy is one of the attorneys at the F&B). Joy was hosting a Tastefully Simple party.

This is the second time that I have attended one of these. They are actually pretty neat. These are mixes, dressings or other products that only require 1-2 staple ingredients to make delicious meals. The dips are my favorite. I ordered a few items and they will be in before Christmas. Yah. We headed back to the house in the afternoon and laid around, each reading a book. It was wonderful. I headed back to campus about 6 to meet with my "co-counsel" for my pre-trial litigation class. We have mediation tonight and we wanted to make sure we were ready for it.

Hope that you all had a great weekend. This week is going to be a long one for me while I await Friday at noon to head home for an entire week!!!!

Shutterfly - 50 Free Holiday Cards

I know that I posted a couple of weeks ago informing you about the promotion that I found, but here is the rest of my thoughts on Shutterfly.

Shutterfly has a wide range of products.
This is one of the best times to start looking at Shutterfly with the Holidays coming up. For the past five years (I think) have done photo Christmas cards. We always felt that our families, especially the ones far away, would like updated pictures of us each year. What better way than Christmas cards? Despite the crazy schedule that I have going, this year will be no different. We will likely be using one of the pictures taken of us this fall.
Shutterfly is a great place to get photo holiday cards. We have had great experiences ordering from them in the past. We have even recommended them to family and friends. Please go check out the selection.

We will look forward to next year sending cards with our wedding photos on them. Then in the years to come after that, hopefully sharing the joys of our little ones. Here are a few that we are looking at for this year.

Holiday cards are found visiting this link http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards.

If you are looking for more religious cards, check out here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/religious-christmas-cards.

For those of you who own a business, Shutterfly has a special selection of business holiday cards. You can find out more about those by visiting here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/business-christmas-cards

All in all, Shutterfly is a great website. As we are getting close to time to need Save-the-Dates for our wedding, I have been checking out the products that Shutterfly has to offer for that. If you are interested in that, check out http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/wedding-cards-stationery/save-the-date?c=60577.

Lastly, if you just want a photo book to capture and collect some of your favorite memories, Shutterfly will make you a photobook here http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books

Also if you are a blogger, please do what I did and sign up to get 50 Free Holiday Cards by visiting http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Weekend Recap

This weekend, I had the pleasure of going home to Howell County. It was a much needed trip.

There wasn't a whole lot going on at work Friday, so I was able to get on the road by noon. I got to Willow a little before 3 to pick up my baby Dozer. He was soooo excited to see his momma. He is still young and doesn't quite understand that right now mom sometimes leaves for a few weeks at a time, but she always comes back. Just you wait, little fella, momma will be home for good in just a few months. Dozer and I got to my mom's house around 4:00. I visited with my mom for a little while. Chris came over a little while later. We headed to town to pick up something to eat and came back to the house. We just talked the rest of the evening.

Saturday was a pretty busy day. I was up bright and early with Dozer. I headed to town with my mom around 9. We met up with my sister and her three little ones for breakfast. Jansyn was in my lap most of breakfast. I hear that he is smilling, but he didn't smile at me :(
After breakfast, my mom and I ran a few errands. We had a couple of places we needed to go and I had to get Chris a few things from the store as well. We got a lot done and was still back at the house by 11:45. Once I got back, I had to wrap a wedding present and get ready to go to the wedding.

Here is Chris and I all dressed up for the wedding. I say dressed up lightly becuase Chris still wore jeans. As you can see, his hand is still bandaged up. He finally got all his stitches out Thursday, but his thumb is still healing and it generally looks really gross.

So, now to the wedding. The wedding was that of Phillip Shannon (Chris's second cousin) and Megan Shelton. It was a nice small wedding. Megan's grandpa performed the ceremony and it was really sweet. Just made me a little sad that Chris and I won't have any grandpas to get all emotional at our wedding. Here are a couple pictures of the wedding.

If you look closely at the last picture, you can see the ring bear laying on his pillow. It was precious.

We didn't stay too long at the reception. We were really hungry and wanting something more than cake. Chris and I went to dinner with his mom, grandma, brother and sister in law. We went to Captain D's because it is grandma's favorite. After eating, Chris and I headed back to the house. Everyone else went to go visit with more family.

After changing at the house and visiting with our puppies, Chris and I headed back into town. We went to Chris's aunt's house. There were tons of people out there. Most of the time when Cheryl is in, there are always people out there. I played some with the kids. Chris and I headed back to the house pretty early, we were both exhausted.

Sunday morning, Dozer and I were up early again. We played outside some. It was a beautiful crisp fall morning. I got showered, ready to go and all packed before anyone else at the house was even out of bed. I spent some time with my parents during the morning. Then Uncle Leroy came by like usual on Sunday mornings for coffee and visits.

I left town around 11. Steph and I wanted to be in Mountain Grove by noon to help set up for Sadie's benefit. It didn't take much to get set up, so we were mostly visiting with people and playing with the dog that was to be auctioned off. The benefit was a success and Sadie is getting her a bike for Christmas. I am so happy for that little girl. She had a blast at the benefit too. It was at the skating ring so she had tons of room to go in her wheel chair. She was always on the move.

Isn't she precious? I got back into Columbia around 5:30 and it was already dark. So not liking the time change. I had dinner with Maggie, headed to the house to unpack, watch a little TV and read for class.

Just two weeks this time til I head home again!!!

A Bike for Sadie

This weekend has a special purpose. Depsite the fact that we will be attending a wedding, the most important part of my weekend is a benefit auction for my niece Sadie Upton. If you have read my blog for very long, you might recall that she was born with Spina Bifida. She will never be able to walk. She is one of the happiest children that I have ever met. She has never let her disease get her down. She still tries to do everything just like her siblings and other children. She never complains about not being able to walk. She is a blessing to the family and an inspiration to me every day.

But now she needs our help - she needs a bike.

Here is the thing that her mother wrote on donation cans:

My name is Stephanie Upton. My baby girl Sadie has Spina Bifida, so she has no control of her lower body. She is wanting a bike, and we are trying to get her one. The only thing is that she has to have a special bike where her hands can reach. The cheapest one is $1,700.00. Please help us raise money. She deserves the experience every other child has but takes forgranted.

I'm not asking you to donate to her. I am just asking for prayers and thoughts for Sadie. Take a minute out of your day to be thankful that you can walk, run, ride a bike, drive. Tasks in your daily life are impossible for Sadie and thousands of other people. Thank God for the blessings in your life and life your life to the fullest!!!

Anxious for the Weekend

This week is going to be my bitch fest. Sorry in advance.

I am not sure that I have ever been so ready for a weekend in quite a while.

The past few weeks have been real rough. Work has been stressful (my previous post says a lot and there has even been more). There has been a lot going on at school. My pre-trial litigation class has more and more going on every week. We are now trying to prepare our case for mediation. Ahh. Then I had to write a 15 page paper that I turned in today.

I haven't been sleeping well either. Last weekend, I had the same nightmare for three nights in a row. Then for a few days after that I was even afraid to go to sleep. I have been waking up at least twice a night. Ahh.

Chris has also been in a cranky mood. He finally got the rest of his stitches out today. He is on light duty for the next week. But the doctor said that he will likely have pain in it for months because he damaged so many nerves. I'm not sure that I am prepared to see it tomorrow. Oh well.

I will be trying real hard next week to keep a positive attitude. I'm hoping that a weekend in the country with Chris, family and friends will brighten my spirits.

Hope the weekend goes well for everyone!!!!!

Work Woes

I have been having some issues at work for the past few weeks. I had been avoiding posting on it becuase I didn't know who all read my blog that were not official followers. But I am at the point that I do not care.

ABout 5 weeks ago, a new girl was placed in my department at work. She was a full time employee and was instantly thrown into the complexity that is coverage at Faber and Brand. Typically all employees hired go throught he mail room before being placed in departments to learn about what the office does. You are usually stuck in the mail room at least 10 days. Well, with the full time people hired that wasn't the case.

Before she came, I was told that I had to be nice and welcoming. As the leader of my department, if I was nice and welcoming, then the rest of the people would follow along. Well, I have tried and I am to the point where I cannot pretend to be nice anymore. I was left solely in charge of training her. I hate training people. I am not patient enough for that. But I try. I get frustrated easily and do not understand when people ask me the same question 10 times.

Well after she had been there approximately 3 1/2 weeks, I was consulted by the officer manager how I thought she was doing. I gave my honest opinion. Though I was somewhat blamed for her not picking up, I tried to remain calm. I was asked to give thorough life of a file training and explain all about lawsuits in general and lawsuits through our office. It was a terrible afternoon. Since then I have had to make a detailed list of everything I teach her, tell her and work with her on. I have to check all of her work and give a daily update on everything she is doing. I did that all last week and even today while I was at work.

Last Thursday, I was called into a conference with the officer manager. He thanked me for my daily reports and was beginning to see the full picture. He appreciated my working with her in extra training. I thought we were making progress and I left work that day feeling pretty great. Apparently Friday, the girl went up to talk to the manager, admitting that she knew she was having problems, but wanted desperately to fix them. The few items that she completed in the last hour were sufficient.

This morning when I get to work, there are items in incorrect places - and bad incorrect places. Like major mistakes. Then several things that she did today were wrong. The manager came up to me this morning to tell me that he was going to give her congrats for getting 9 items correct Friday. Um, hello, you should not get praise for doing a job you are supposed to be doing. That is just stupid. Giving positive reinforcement yes by telling her what she did was right, but to give extra praise for it. No. This is not needed.

I sent in my email this afternoon before I left work at 1. Apparently, he told my department manager that I must really hate her. That he could tell that I was being so diligent in my reports because I hated her. Ok, a few things about this.
1. I am diligent in everything that I do. Everyone who knows me knows this. After working at a company for over 4 years, I would expect you know this too.
2. I don't hate her. I just don't want to work around her. I don't like that she has talked about me behind my back, I don't like that she blames me for her making mistakes (today, she actually tried to tell me that I told her the wrong place to put things - yeah, that makes sense) and I don't like people who don't pay attention to what they are doing. Her mistakes fall back on me at this point anyway.

I also have a hard time grasping why I am being blamed for her poor work or why people are trying to defend her instead of looking at exactly what is going on. You have to look at the big picture. I have been at this place for 4 years. I have been one of the best employees the firm has ever had. I have been loyal and done anything I was asked to do, even going above and beyond my duties. Then for them to tell me that I am wrong and that I am being vindictive? Not okay.

For the past five weeks, I have been miserable. Doing my own work has been slow becuase I have had ot constantly watch someone else and check over everything. I have to fix mistakes and give repeated instructions. I have so much stress in my life right with with the anticipation in graduation in a few months, taking the bar exam and then planning a wedding. I do not need stress from work. I am a damn good legal secretary with Rule 13 certification to practice law on my own.

As much as I would hate to switch jobs with the last few months that I am here, I am considering the possibility of quitting. I don't want to be miserable for the next 9 months that I am in Columbia. I love my department manager and the rest of the people that I work with. I don't really want it to come to this, but I will not stand for what is happening. Just becuase someone has had a rough patch in life doesn't mean we need to baby them.

Thanks for reading my rant. Hopefully things will look up and I will become happier in the next few days.

Work Halloween Party

Friday was our work Halloween party. In the five Halloween's that I saw at the F&B, this was the only year that I actaully dressed up. My entire department dressed up together and it was fantastic.

The original plan was for my manager Jason to dress up as Snow White and the seven regular employees would be the 7 dwarfs. However, the costume that he purchased did not fit properly. So, he came as the magic mirror. But his roomie, Morgan, came in as Snow White and Craig (one of the attorneys) came as prince charming.

Thought I would share a few photos.

The whole Snow White group

Just the dwarfs

The coverage department at work

The two greatest dwarfs - Sleepy and Happy

We had a great day at work. So long as you were dressed up, you got free breakfast and lunch. It was awesome.

What were your costumes?