I hope that those of you who used to read this daily will enjoy reading these again. I'm gonna see if I can do a better job with this coming year.
So since October what have I done, what haven't I done? Ugh. Seems like I've lived at work. Lots of training, lots of new hires to get us into the holiday's. I don't remember if I had already told ya'll they sent Mani to Arlington & we finally got Doug who I told M Taylor about last September, who wanted to be in our store, he was moving down here from Arkansas. Doug is Domino who used to be my work out partners boyfriend. Great guy, everyone at work loves him. He actually does his job & a great job he does. LOL
November, came & went terribly fast. My brother in law, Clint found out that he had prostate cancer just before Thanksgiving. At work every available moment I had I was on the phone taking TG to go orders. We had 86 this years which is about 30 more than last year. Since they finally opened up the roads, all the construction is pretty much done around us, we have gotten busier & busier. Which is a good thing. But the attentiveness of our service has gone down in our scores. Some things have gotten better & some things haven't.
All the kids are now out on their own, Niki & Randy got a new apartment, Amanda & Jason found a place right off Las Vegas trail North of 30 & Stephanie found an apartment 5 minutes the other direction. So Robert & I now have the house to ourselves. We started working on some of our remodel. We stripped & painted the entry way, it looks really good. Primed & painted the first bedroom & got it all set up as a guest room. Of course we had that mostly done before we went to the Canyon. I still have to decide on the colors I want in the second bedroom. Although I still want to make it my craft room & turn my craft room into the second guest room.
Thanksgiving was a blur, we usually go to Sissy & Clint's but with his diagnosis they had a lot on their plates & didn't get the invite out early enough that we accepted Robert's sister Glenda's invitation. Of course just like the last 5 years I had to work sitting on the front porch for those picking up the bulk to go orders. This year I went in at 7 & didn't leave until after 3. Got home changed & we head to Alvorado. Spent a couple hours at Glenda & Johnny's with Mary Lou, Dena, Katelyn & Stephanie joined us. We had a nice visit, great food. Then we left for home & vegged the rest of the evening. Since Thanks giving is on a Thursday it was nice cause I always have Friday & Saturdays off.
December went even faster than November, I went to Rhonda's yearly Christmas party, which is always a lot of fun especially when you have about 20 women all together enjoying the games that Rhonda devises for us to play. LOL
Work Christmas party was on the 12th, this year it got started late because there are idiots out there that can't read or if they can don't care. We always post on the front door a week & a half to two weeks that we will be closing at 8 PM so that the employees can enjoy our Christmas party. So I get to the store at 7:30 there is an 18 top in the third dinning room who had just gotten sat another 15 top in the first dinning room who had just gotten sat & several other smaller groups. Needless to say that by the time we got everyone served & they sat and visited for ever, once everyone left & we got things cleaned up so that we could set up it was 9:30. Now mind you last year home office said that ETC are no longer to be in charge of the employee Christmas party, that managers are supposed to plan them etc. WELL that went over like a lead balloon this year. I didn't worry about, I had a lot of other things going on. So our party being on the 12th, when I worked Sunday the 11th our DM M Taylor came out to the store for lunch and to shake things up a bit like he likes to do & he asked me what I was doing for the party, if we were ready. I said I don't know, I'm not doing anything. He then proceeds to grill me on why not, I said because the directive from home office last year & this year said ETC are not to do Christmas party planning any more, we could help if asked but not to do the major work. He then tells me that "well you're the only ETC I have in the district then who isn't doing the party" Great, now what? So he tells me I need to find out what's going on & if I can help.
I talk to Fred, who is doing the party, he tells me he thinks it's Doug. Well Domino happened to be eating lunch with a friend at this same time, I was running the dinning room & Doug was on the grill, so I ask Domino, what has/is Doug doing for the party tomorrow? She tells me that she was supposed to get all the gifts the day before but had forgotten so she was going to do the shopping that afternoon. I said ok, well Taylor has pretty much informed me that I should be doing the party so at 2 meet me here back at the store because we have 200 to spend in store and then we'll go to Ross to see what they have, Tuesday Morning also if need be. We have 300 we can spend outside the store. So at 2 Domino & I start shopping for gifts for the party for the next day. We get it done & loaded in my truck. I worked Monday but left around 3 so that I could get home at a decent time to make food for the party & wrap all 90 plus gifts. I got online to see if I could find some games & entertainment for the night. BECAUSE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAD BEEN DONE OR DECIDED UPON FOR THE PARTY. I informed Mike Bernard the Wednesday after the party that we're going back to the way we used to do it. Next year I will start on it in late October early November like I used to do, we WILL have sign up sheets etc. Cause the only thing they had decided about the party this year was that instead of pot luck we'd do mexican.
Once the party got started, it went ok, everyone enjoyed the food, we had a couple of games to play, Santa came & saw the kids, giving them a stocking with goodies & pictures. I then had everyone pick a gift, not to open them just to pick a box or bag. I got everyone in a VERY large circle & we played the right/left game. It was a ton of fun & funny. It was something different & everyone enjoyed it plus it gave everyone a gift. There were a few extra left over so we drew for them.
Then Mike had a couple of awards to hand out, he started with some of the Employee of the month awards, then he made a small speech about how much work this person does to keep things in order & running & I really didn't hear the whole thing. Then he says that is why this next award goes to ........
Michelle Bartee - she was chosen as the ETC of the District for 2011. I really was surprised. I was hoping I would get it but when DM Mike Taylor wasn't at the party I figured I didn't get it since he was supposed to award it to me. I teared up, they wanted me to make a speech, I'm not sure what I said except how touched I was & how special it was.
This is the first year for this award & ETC's are chosen by their DM's. I really was surprised & excited that I got it. It's a 3 by 3 by 3 lead crystal block with a star engraved inside with my name & ETC of the District 2011 engraved on the front. It weighs like 5 lbs. Then Mike gave me a gift from the managers at the store. Which was some items from the new peacock display that I love. Tina tricked me, telling me she was thinking of sending some of it to her mom & what did I think.
Of course I've never gotten employee of the year in our building cause everyone thinks they can't vote for me. Oh well I got something more important. It really means alot.
So back to the sign up sheets, after the party was over, some helped me get the dinning room back in order & I assumed that there were people who had straightened up or cleaned the kitchen area where we had all the food laid out. NOT, after everyone had left including all the managers except Shawn cause he was doing his inventory & Sandy the night maintenance gal. I walk into the kitchen & nothing, not one thing had been cleaned up. So it's 11 PM & I have to clean up the kitchen now cause Sandy has to get started on her job & Shawn is useless. It took me an hour to pack up food, clean up the area, put food in the cooler & pack up some of it to take home with me since I was the one who had to clean it all up. I was pissed.
So that is one of the other reasons why next year I'll be totally in charge of the party again. We wont have any of the last minute problems like this year.
The rest of December flew by, I really didn't do any shopping, Robert did it all this year. I actually didn't finish getting his gifts until the 23rd. Of course the 22nd I left work early sick, had been sick for a week & by the 22nd it was really bad, I went to urgent care & found out that I had an upper respiratory infection, got all sorts of meds & told to go home not back to work. No problem wasn't planning on going back that day & I had the rest of the weekend off, my normal fri/sat plus we are closed Christmas day so that gave me Fri thru Sun off. Back to work on Monday feeling better & we were WAY busy the whole week. I once again have Fri thru Sunday off cause I asked to have New years day off this year.
So here it is New Years Eve day & I'm doing absolutely nothing but catching up on this blog.
Oh to report on some of the movies I've seen lately.
Hugo, Sherlock Holmes 2, War Horse, The adventures of Tin Tin, Breaking Dawn, ALL good movies.
Hugo - not really a kids movie but a great 3D, forgot I was watching it in 3D it was that good. It gets into the history of some of the silent movies, I think children under 10 0r 11 really wouldn't understand it. I really enjoyed it alot.
Sherlock - great movie, love Robert Downing Jr. & Jude Law. Can't wait to see it again.
War Horse - Speilberg has done it again. This is a great film, wonderful story & a good family film.
Tin Tin - wonderful fun, good kids adventure movie.
Breaking Dawn - saw it twice, can't wait for the 2nd part to it. It was good.
I'm sure there are a couple others that I've seen & hadn't reported on. But these are the most recent.
Still want to see the new Mission Impossible, the Darkest Hour & We bought a zoo. Plus I really want to see The girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
So tonight we're going over to Glen & Rue's for dominoes & snacks. Just gonna hang out with friends. No big parties.
So to all of you my friends & family, followers of my blog, I want to say I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, a blessed Christmas & most of all that you each have a Happy & prosperous New Year. God Bless you all & keep you safe through out this next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment