Phone Pictures

I took a picture of Zoe today and realized I've taken a couple of pictures lately I should share with everyone  else.  I hope some of these make you smile!

I had a coupon to a pet store around here that allowed Zoe to get her nails clipped for free.  Zoe's grandma (my mom) usually clips her nails since I'm too scared to, but since she's half way across the country it's not a viable option.  While at the pet place, I couldn't help but notice they had the CUTESTTTTT puppies!  I would never buy a pet from a pet store, especially around here since there are so many puppy mills in Kansas and Missouri :( I did spend a lot of time with this little pup and my heart melted.  I texted Ryan asking if we could get Zoe a wiener dog brother, and his response was "not if you still want a husband."  Sigh.

I feel like we have gotten a LOT of snow here the last couple of months.  One day it is 65, and the next we have 4 inches of snow and it doesn't melt for weeks.  The kids that live near us made these cute snowmen a couple of weeks ago.  Don't you love the sunglasses??

It was sleeting one day while driving to work, and as I'm driving 70 mph on the highway in this mess, my driver side windshield wiper decides to completely flop over and make it almost impossible to see.  It actually made me laugh because my wiper was literally flopping in the wind, but I soon realized I could no longer see and I had a problem.  I managed to make it to work by leaning over and driving very slow while looking out the passenger side window.  Ryan came and fixed it at my store when he get off of work, but it broke the next day. And the day after.  New. car. please.

When I get home from work, I like to plop down on the couch for a few minutes, not talk to anyone, check out Facebook and just relax after a long day.  Zoe often isn't okay with this, and will poke her long nose over my computer screen to get attention.  This little face always wins my attention! 

Notice all of the stuffing on the ground?  Zoe does this to all of her toys, about 5 minutes after getting it.  

Radford

I ran across a friend's Facebook page today where it made me start thinking about my years in college.

I miss them.

I can still remember showing up to Bolling Hall the first day to start unpacking my things.  I had no clue Kendall and I would become good friends, and I also had NO idea what kind of fun I would have the next 4 years.  I found out a lot about myself, and I will ALWAYS think of Radford as one of the happiest times of my life.

However, I will never miss the late nights and many trips to McDonnell Library.  I won't miss being broke all of the time.

When I was at the College of Business and Economics,  I spent the last two years of school in a tiny, old building called Whitt Hall.  Pretty, but small.  And old.

Whitt Hall came my home not only for classes, but for all of the time I spent with the American Marketing Association.

NOW, RU has received $34 million from the state and will raise another $10 to complete THIS College of Business and Economics building:

Woah, woah and WOAH.  This building is HUGE!!! I wonder if this one will have air conditioning? :)

I'm happy for all of the business students that will get to study in this building.  In a way, seeing the soon to be construction of this building makes me feel older.  Once it's completed, us business students from the class of '06 will have to say "I remember when...." rather then "It feels like yesterday...".  Sigh.

College, I miss you!

Updates

I've been quite a slacker on updating my blog again, I know.  I did survive the busy 2 day promotion at work.  It was very successful, but also very tiring and I was ready for a day off to do all of the things I love like laundry & cleaning (sarcasm).

The CEO and leadership team didn't end up coming to my store due to some logistical issues, which was a sigh of relief.  I did end up going with the other store managers in our district to the Challenger tour later that day.  The new CEO spoke as well as some other big wigs, and I have to say it was very inspiring.  The CEO mentioned one of my favorite quotes, and it helped to hear it in his English accent :) 

"The definition of insanity is make the same mistakes over and over again and expecting different results."  

Enough about work.....

I've had my eye on this baby for many, many years, and I think I may be on the verge of convincing Ryan we just need to suck it up and get it:

Droooooool.  Isn't it SO beautiful??? I've wanted this car before I even knew my father-in-law owned a Toyota dealership.  

Do I hear you asking why do we not have one already if we have such close ties to a Rav4??  Good question....I'm still waiting for my sweet husband to give me an answer why not :)  

Yes, we do not NEED a car.  Yes, we do not NEED a car payment.  True, my car runs.  BUT, do I love my car?  If you asked me 5 years ago I would say yes.  Is my car safe to drive?  Depends on who you ask.  Will we have pain at the pump if we get a SUV?  Ughhh, I have pain at the pump now, so what's another $5 every 2 weeks? 

I think at this point I'm yearning to get a car because I've been working full time (and very hard I might add) for 5 years now and I feel like I have nothing to show for it except a dog and a decent 401k plan.  If we aren't ready to buy a house or ready for kids, I think this is the next logical step!  

Ryan, as you read this post, picture how cute Zoe will look with her head hanging out the window ;) ;) Don't you want your wife in a safe, reliable car?????

Enough about work and cars.  Not much else is going on right now, but I do want to say

CONGRATULATIONS

to my big bro Christopher on his new job opportunity!! He's been working in outside sales at Daycon for a few years now, but he's wanted to get into medical sales for a while.  He just landed a job with COOPER VISION!  I'm so happy for him and his new adventures!  They are expecting their little girl on March 8, so they have lots of new things coming their way!  Emily's baby shower is this Sunday, and I'm so sad I can't be there to help celebrate.  I'm excited for my next trip home at the end of March!

In other big news, Nikki is now 32 weeks pregnant and is getting bigger than ever :P   Little Elliot is now apparently in her terrible two's and is throwing lots of tantrums for pregnant mommy!  Look how big the belly is!:

Isn't she so cute?  Here is a picture of her little one, Elliot, sleeping.  No, this picture wasn't made up!

I feel like there's so many big things going on with family and friends right now, and all of them are happy changes.  I have to say I'm a happy lady right now :) 

She works hard for the money, So hard for it honey!

It's been quite a week!  I feel like I've been working all day, every day!  Since I'm officially in my store, I feel like there's so much to be done.  This isn't just a typical "new manager in the store and new ways" kind of To Do list, but a different kind.

For one, T-Mobile is having a HUGE promotion this Friday & Saturday where we're giving away FREE regular and smartphones to any existing customer with an upgrade, as well as any new activations.  This includes adding a line and porting in from a different carrier.

You can only imagine what kind of prep goes into this.  Add in a huge customer base and the only T-Mobile direct dealer in a 15 mile radius, and this spells work, work and w o r k.

http://deals.t-mobile.com/valentines-day

Take a look at my shameless plug :) I wish T-Mobile would give me a free smartphone!! I work for them! :P

On top of this huge promotion that will have me working all day and all night Friday & Saturday, we also have the CEO visiting my store next week.

Yup, next week.

The entire leadership team will be at my store the following Thursday to see why we're so awesome.  The CEO, COO,  SVP of Marketing, CFO, BPSFL, and the LWIVELEVM will be there.  Also, one of my employees was selected to do a round table discussion with the leadership team.  I won't have to do a lot of prepping because he's been with T-Mobile 4 years and could do my job and then some in a heartbeat, but it's still stressful!

Because of this, I need to be on top of my game and the store has to look spotless from 5 miles away.

Needless to say, after this week and next, I will need a glass of wine and a full body massage.  And my dog will need some serious loving. And my husband will be ready to look for a new wife.  And I will be booking a vacation to go to some beach, sometime soon.

This of course will be AFTER I go to Maryland to meet my almost new neice!! Emily is due March 8 (ONE MONTH EXACTLY) and I plan on flying out for atleast 3 or 4 days to meet the little lamb and help out the new mommy & daddy.  With this trip I will definitely also try to make it down for Richmond for at least a day!

If you're reading this, I hope you either fly to Kansas City to activate a contract at my store, or you go to a T-Mobile store near you and stop paying so much for your dumb iphone :) Android phones do the same thing and you'll put more money back in your wallet.  Also,  please think of the Hibbard fam the next two weeks!  I hope we make it out alive!

SNo-m-g

As I'm writing this, I think we have about 12 inches of snow and it's still coming down.  Thank God we still have power!

It's definitely nasty snow too.  It's blowing everywhere and poor Zoe can't even get a foot outside of our front door.  I think it's about 17 degrees outside, and it's still coming down so we can't even go outside to play!

This is what we see when we look off of our balcony.  This isn't an accurate picture of what it really looks like outside...

Thank you apartment complex for attempting to clear the sidewalks & parking lots :)

On another note, work is still going really well even though I'm working a lot.  I had off on Friday but worked about 5 hours, and had off Monday but worked about 5 hours again.   I officially started at my store on Sunday, and I love my team!  There's A LOT to get done, so I have to remind myself Rome wasn't built in a day....

Even though I'm working a lot, my work hours are still better than my last two jobs.  In DC, I was pretty much gone for work from 6:30am to 6:30pm.  In Richmond, I was working crazy hours with Target and working long nights and early, early mornings.  Our T-Mobile store is open 10-8 Mon-Sat and 11-6 on Sunday, so the longest I can work each day is technically 10 hours :)  No late nights, and no super early mornings!

Yesterday (Monday, January 31st) was our 6 month wedding anniversary!  Can you believe we've been married 6 months already?? I really do feel like it was yesterday even though we've been through so much since we got married.  We moved 800 miles away from "home" (East Coast) and started 2 new jobs.

Since we were in a tighter financial spot when I was searching for a job, we didn't give Christmas gifts to eachother.  I think we mutually figured we would do something for eachother for Christmas/6 Mo Ann/Valentine's Day without ever really discussing it.

I made ribeye's for dinner and it was deeeeelicious:

I bought Ryan a Panasonic electric shaver since he's been looking for one for forever and it's something he would never actually buy for himself.  He likes it so far!

Ryan got me another piece of jewelry!  He got me a black onyx Tiffany's bracelet that's so cute!  It has a small Tiffany's heart on it, and it fits my wrist perfectly.  I should get a small jewelry box just for all of the jewelry he buys for me :) I'm a lucky lady!

Happy 6 months, Ryan <3