Roses!

We created a gorgeous rose garden this weekend with the most beautiful Italian-stained birdbath every created!

No Time for a Breather

We have been so crazy busy lately - but in a really good way. This weekend we travelled to Knoxville, TN for our friend's wedding. It was great seeing her pledge her life to the man she loves, but it was one heck of a drive - our whole trip was right at 14 hours, and the wedding and reception combined was less than 2 hours of that... That's a really long day!

Yesterday, Sunday, we got the yard leveled out in the area where we're getting our storage building installed. We also planted some flowers and borrowed a family member's truck to go get lots of lumber for our next project - building a frame for our porch swing. We're not doing the simple A-frame. We are doing a much larger frame, and putting lattace on it to have morning glories, roses, etc., grow up it. So, it's part porch swing, part arbor.

This morning, at 7:00 (around 34 degrees) we started working on the porch swing. It's huge - I'll try to remember to post a picture when we're done. Z is at Lowe's right now getting two more pieces of lumber so we can finish.

The guys to install the storage building are here now (now it's about 47 degrees and the sun is in the yard) and they're working awfully fast - we'll probably be moving all the tools into it by night fall.

So glad this is a long weekend!

New Possibilities

After I got laid off, I took the rest of that week off. Not to sulk, really, but to process my thoughts and figure out what to do. The next week I had interviews everyday except MLK Day. I met with two staffing agencies, had an interview on my own, and was sent on one by agency #2. The interview I had on my own was with a small start-up. They were looking for a marketing coordinator, but I wasn't convinced they were looking for me. Still, I thought they might offer me the job. Boy am I glad they didn't. The interview the agency sent me to was for the corporate headquarters of a large bank. I wasn't excited about it because it was a temporary job and the location was pretty far away from our house. But at the interview I found out that the job was filling in for the Senior Marketing Specialist while she's on a 3-month maternity leave. Count training before and catching her back up afterwards, and it turns into a 4 or 5 month assignment. However, I've been told by about 5 different people, including the 2 who interviewed me, that it's a growing and evolving company, and there's always the possibility that they'd keep me on after she comes back. So I don't feel that I'll be let go. Of course I could - that's the official deal, but I'm feeling positive and treating this like a 4 month interview. So far I feel like I've impressed people and done a good job.

This is my second week, and so far I really like it. I've been training, of course, which makes you feel stupid and annoying for asking so many questions. I'm in charge of local and regional marketing for all of our regions (5 states), along with all of our grand openings of new branches. It's really fast-paced, which is what I love. I've learned a lot. I think my favorite part of this new job is the level of professionalism. Everyone wears a suit just about every day, everyone respects each other's personal space and privacy, and everyone seems really intelligent, but not snobby. So far I haven't met any office weirdos or even rude people. All my coworkers have been the appropriate amount of friendly, I get along with them, and I think they seem to like me.

All around, I feel like this was a really good thing for me. I didn't fit in at the old place, and I was really bored. Here, the days fly by and I feel challenged, as well as needed.

Now if only it would become permanent...