Times Fun When You're Having Flies

(That is a stamp that I saw once).

It has been a super long time since I have updated this. Yikes! In short, here is what has happened:

India: The rest of my time flew by while I was there. Sunday a few of us went to Elephanta Island. It was pretty cool. On Tuesday I started to feel a little crummy (swollen glands) so I tried to sleep as much as I could. Thursday I was showered with gifts from my friends and teams. And then I came home. Getting back to my time zone was ok. I was able to stay awake until bedtime. The only problem was that if I woke up for any reason (bathroom, Ben, Zoey) I wasn't able to fall back to sleep for a couple of hours. But I'm back to normal.

Sleep Out: Every year GMI hosts a sleep out at our JFB location. It's a time for families and friends to camp outside and raise money for the homeless. I was one that volunteered at the food tent. I had so much fun! We were all laughing and having a great time. And, I got to serve a hot dog to our CEO. :) I was thankful that after the food was done I was going home to sleep in my bed instead of outside in a box.

Chili: Yesterday at work we had a chili cook-off. The contestants were the senior leadership group of my division. We had a great turn out and had fun with this event. There was a lot of smack-talk from the leadership. One really funny thing (to me at least) is that one of the crockpots we put in Hormel chili and didn't tell anyone. When we tallied the votes, Hormel was 5th place out of seven. We had a good laugh about that.

Tonight: Ben comes home! He has been in CA for a week for a conference at work. I will be so happy to be home again with him. These last few weeks has been so lonely (first me in India, and now him in CA).

Why I Love My Job

I got this today from one of the members of my team in India:
"Hi Sarah,
Thanks a lot!!!!
we all have done the great work because of your moral support and help each and everytime help us to improve our productivity and flexiblity in our work.
we will definitely continue the same work to hit the target line every time.
Thanks for the appreication !!!!!!!!!!"

How can you not love your job when people are so nice and a simple email puts a smile on your face? Twelve days until I land in Mumbai!

Catch a Falling Star

At our old house we had nice, mature trees everywhere. I really liked the shade that they provided as well as the shelter from the wind on my morning walks. At our new house, the trees are young and short. As much as I miss the old trees, one great benefit of the young trees is that I have a full view of the sky. In the last few weeks I have seen 4 shooting stars on my morning walks (yes, it is dark enough at 5 am to see stars). I wake up hopeful that it is a clear morning and I can gaze at the stars as Zoey and I walk. I love it!

This Friday I leave for India. I am super excited to meet my team and get to experience the culture first hand. Neetha and Vaishali (Ben's teammates that were here this summer) have graciously offered to show me some sights. It is going to be a whirlwind of a trip! I hope I can keep up.

As I have been getting myself ready for the trip, I have also started to get Ben ready for my absence. Yesterday I taught him how to use the washing machine. Last night I made a batch of chili and am planning on freezing it for him. Today I threw some chicken in the crock pot before I left for work for shredded chicken for quesadillas. I probably won't do too much more since I'm sure he will be going out too.

I just realized that I should probably expand on the whole washing machine thing... our washer is a side loader and yesterday Ben saw me put the detergent in the little compartment thingy. He commented that he wouldn't have thought to put it in there.

Fairies Take All

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day for the Run of the Mills 5k. It started off chilly, and it was a bit windy, but the sun was out and the rain/snow stayed away.

Again Team Tortoise was the crowd favorite. We got interviewed for a Fortune 500 movie GMI is putting together, the photographer took a ton of pictures of us, and - the best part - little girls came up and asked to get their pictures with us. It was so sweet.

We finished ahead of our target time of 32 by coming in around 30 minutes exactly.

At the award ceremony we ended up winning the women's team division for time (?!)... And we won best costume! We were so excited. Especially because of the "upset" last year. It was kind of funny... a couple of people recognized our team from last year and let us know they still thought we should have won last year for costumes.

We are taking ideas for next year's costumes. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Accepted

Friday afternoon I officially accepted one of the jobs offered to me. (Drum roll please...) I have accepted the original job that I applied for. Unfortunately, it is the one that isn't on the main campus, so my carpool days are numbered. As I told my boss when I let him know I wasn't taking the job he offered me, it was a hard decision. In a lot of ways I wanted to stay at the main campus. But in the end these things tipped the scale:

1. The job I took really did sound more interesting to me.
2. My new boss doesn't expect me to stay long term (she figures 1 1/2 years at most, Tom wanted me to stay for a minimum of two). Based on my experience and that I'm (hopefully!) half way done with my CPA tests, I am still overqualified for either position. Having a boss that has a shorter time frame means that I can move up again sooner.
3. My new boss wasn't a college recruit; she took a low level job to get her foot in the door. For some reason they view their college recruits as more special than others (maybe because of the expense to actually recruit them?). As a result, those of us that aren't recruited aren't automatically put on the "fast track." We have to work a little harder to "prove" ourselves. (At least that's what it seems like in finance). Anyway, since she has gone through the proving thing herself, I figured she would be a great ally to have.

Yesterday I hosted my sister's "personal" shower. There was a total of twelve of us. We had a bunch of yummy food and drinks (if I do say so myself). She got a bunch of cute stuff. The funny thing is that those of us who are already married are like, yeah, you'll wear it once. :) After everyone left, our friends Chuck and Michelle came to visit. We had fun catching up and playing Wii. We are getting together today again so we can see Liam (our godson ~ 9 months old).

Well, I think Zoey and I might go for a run. I haven't told her yet, so she's calmly licking her paws. I know as soon as I start getting my running pants out she'll go crazy, so I'm enjoying the calm before the storm.

Double your Pleasure, Double your Fun

This morning I was trying to study, but Zoey kept pestering me. Finally I gave in, and we went for a run. Boy, she was on a mission! We beat our normal time by one and a half minutes! And for a mile and a half run, that's a great decrease. She's completely exhausted now. She's sleeping and I'm back to studying before we go look at some open houses.

In other news, Friday morning my boss gave me an impromptu interview for the open job in our group. Friday night he called me to let me know he was offering me the job! He also let me know that Heather (the hiring manager for the other job I applied and interviewed for) was setting up some time on Monday to offer me the job in her group. While I am super excited that I got two job offers, I have no idea which one to take. There are + and - for both. I'm trying to figure out what + and - mean more to me.

Also, our friend Dan's little guy is scheduled for heart surgery on Tuesday, but currently he is fighting a fever. Please keep their family in your prayers.

7 for Dec! Dec at 7!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with work to the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It was a lot of fun. We first watched a couple short videos about the history of the Exchange. Then we got to watch the close of the day (opens at 9:30 and closes at 1:15 - and I thought "Bankers Hours" were good!). It was kind of a slow day, so not much was happening in the pit. Until the last minute or so. Then everyone was yelling and trying to get in before close. After close we went down on the floor and got to do a few rounds of mock buying and selling. It was so much fun!

When I got back to work I ended up having to work late on a project (thought it was due next week, found out yesterday it was due yesterday). Ben picked me up and brought me to volleyball... except he forgot my shoes! Luckily because of my foot I have been wearing flats, and the shoes I was wearing yesterday were Mary Jane style so they didn't come off while playing. I'm sure it was due to the "magic" shoes that I was wearing that we won 2 games.

24

In a little over 24 hours from now I will be sitting down in a not-quite-comfy chair in front of a computer. I will be in that chair for about 3 hours. And if everything goes as planned, I will only have to sit in that chair 3 more times.

Tomorrow is test one (Regulation - tax and business law) for my CPA license. I'm a bit nervous. I feel great about the tax stuff but still a little shaky on some of the bus law.

In other news, yesterday my boss came over and told me about a job posting. He really encouraged me to apply for it. Funny thing is, I saw the posting last week and talked to someone in that group that I know. Today I am going to submit my name for it.

If you can dodge a wrench...

Yesterday I got an email from David asking if anyone was interested in joining his dodge ball team for Friday (every year the fitness center hosts a dodge ball day).

I was telling Vizma (from my team) about it. We decided it would be funny to forward the invite to my boss (Tom) and another guy (Jason) from our work team and tell them I signed us up. So I sent it to them.

A few minutes later Tom comes over and asks if I am serious. I play along and say yes. Then he starts asking why some others from the team weren't on the invite and what time we were going to play. I 'fessed up and told him it was a joke. He was disappointed because he decided that it would be a fun team thing to do.

So, I guess the joke is on me... our team is playing tomorrow.

Hot Deals, Hot Car

Last night Cassie and I went shopping and out to dinner to celebrate her new job. We found some super hot deals. I saved over $120!!! The best part is, I didn't even spend that much. My total came to $85. Crazy, huh? It was at NY&Co. They had a pants sale, 2 for $39 (originally $45 each) and I got some tops on clearance. And Cassie is a AAA member, so they gave us an additional 15% off. Nice work!

This morning when we got to work they wouldn't let us park in the ramp. Turns out there was a car fire. We had to park in the lot, which normally would be fine, but today it is super cold! (MUCH longer walk to get inside) I'm so glad I was wearing my ski jacket and mittens. No one was hurt in the fire, but the car that was on fire managed to burn some surrounding cars.