First Snow of the Season!

This week is a big week for me. I'm at my first client in Cripple Creek, Colorado and I saw my first snow of the season.

The first snow of the season is always a happy day for me, mainly because I know that Richard will stay up all night waiting for the snow to start. Since he's still in Boulder this week, and they didn't get any snow I know that he wasn't up all night waiting. When I awoke Wednesday morning though, I knew that Rich would have been so excited to see the snow out my hotel window and even though it's freezing cold, it still makes me happy. Rich is like a little kid in a candy store with the first snow and really any other big weather event - he gets so excited that the excitement spills over and fills me up too :) To my weather loving, fiance - I took this one in for you and knew you'd love to be up here with me.

Today our team is awaiting our client bringing in a 500lbs pumpkin! We can't wait to see it - even though we're not auditing it. It's just a little something different to add to the week here. Last night while at dinner at Rooster's, a very nice steakhouse for the little town, we met the mayor of the town. Quite a nice man but he could tell immediately that we were not from around here - dressed nice, no winter boots, and well we just kinda stick out like a sore thumb compared to the locals.

Hugs

It is not uncommon for me to be told, "Wow, you give great hugs!" or something along the great hugs. I was thinking about why that was recently and recalled a memory long ago stored away:

In late middle school and into early high school one of my friends, Brooke, from our group of 4, became friends with Chelsea. So as young girls work, we were all "friends" with Chelsea. Chelsea was a very tall slender blond girl, who was always flirting with a new flavor of the week but I was never convinced that she really was or wanted to be friends with the rest of the group. As it was during our friendship we would all give eachother hugs, whether in greeting or just cuz someone needed a hug. But whenever I received a hug from Chelsea, it felt as though it was something she was being forced into. Her hugs were so light, it was as though she didn't want to touch us. Which gave the oppposite effect that I beleive a hug should give. I believe that after receiving a hug, the hugee should feel loved and cared for by the huger. It should bring them joy and if needed comfort. It should be welcoming. After hugging Chelsea, I would feel as though I wasn't good enough, as though she didn't like me, didn't want to touch me, didn't care about me. All the things a hug should never be. So it was then, I made a conscience decision, to give good hugs: Sqeeze tight, hold or a second, and take the time to hug my hugee. I never anyone to feel like I did after receiving a hug from Chelsea, when they receive a hug from me.

I've found that giving "great hugs" makes people happier. It cheers them up and it cheers me up in return to have made someone smile. I think our society often orgets about those little things that can make a person's day. So I use hugs to welcome people I know an care about, to help support my friends, and to show those I love, that I love them.

So my friends, Hug on!

Intro and Planning

I've meant to post things here since Sara created the site, which I thought was an awesome idea. I decided today to do just that. I couldn't be more excited to begin a family with Sara. I'm excited to join her family and hope she's excited to join mine (more friends than blood, really). The place we're having the marriage ceremony is beautiful. Tux styles and colors were chosen, leading to the primary color being burgundy, which as Sara said looks really good with us. I thought I would wear more of it, but I guess that's not the way these things work...

We want to get registered for stuff and decided to start by taking pictures of things so we can look at them at our leisure and plan our future place out now. We started with the bedroom. Yikes! We have very different thoughts on what a bedroom should contain, let alone the style and look of it. Good thing we decided to talk about these things before registering. I'm glad Sara wants my opinion and isn't just choosing everything for us, even though I giver her a hard time while we're looking.

So we have a few ideas in mind for room themes and am working on negotiating what's in and what's out of our future bedroom. We looked through some kitchen things while we were out. That was much nicer - we have similar opinions on styles. We both prefer classic looks to dishes and silverware, things that will still look nice in 10, 20 and 30 years. Maybe a cafe theme for the kitchen? There's so much to look through and decide! It's all very overwhelming...

The week continued to be busy as we did some looking for wedding bands. I settled on a nice piece. Our preference for a classy/elegant look is in direct contrast to jeweler's attempts to put as much stuff into one ring as possible, be it the engagement ring or the wedding ring. So finding something for Sara proved to be a little tougher. We left with some ideas, but no ring yet for her.
The next night, we went to a presentation from a crystal/china company. It turned out better than I thought it would. We decided on some very nice cookware, knives, a casual china dining set, a couple of crystal glasses and some very nice toasting glasses! We'll start out good, that's for sure.

Amazingly, not every retailer has a good selection of bedding options, as we found out this morning. Too girly, thank you very much. It looks like we'll take a closer look at options from Location #1 before making a decision.

There's tons of choices to make still. One at a time...

Dress Up!

When I was a little girl, I would always go into my mom's closet and come out wearing her heals. I LOVED getting all dressed up in her things whether fancy or pretending that I had to go to work. I always thought it so sophisticated to get to wear a suit to work and be a grown-up.

Now after 4 weeks working, I still feel like I get to dress up everyday and I still love it. Something about wearing heals and knowing that you look nice, always puts me in a good mood. It's also a big transition from my college days of jeans and huddies or whatever shirt I grabed from my closet. Not to say that I was a slob in college, I just always worn jeans and sneakers rather than dress pants and heals.

I smile every morning as I get off the 16th street mall bus and walk 1 1/2 blocks to my office. I'm still just a little girl at heart, playing dress up with Mom's shoes.

Job Update

So I've just spent the last 3 weeks training with MP. Last week I was in St Charles, IL and was learning how to audit cash and accounts payable. A training that could probably have been done in 3 days rather than 5. They are working on re-vamping the training process, but in the end, I am a firm believer that you're not going to learn how to use a piece of software unless you are actively using it in the real world. It is there, that I'll start to learn what is overall happening and the short cuts. In a training room with 40 other people, you can only learn so much.

This week was my first full week in Denver! I LOVE taking the bus. I don't have to worry about parking, driving, road rage, or any of that other stuff. I just show up, get on, then either read or nap :)

We did more training but more applicable to the Denver office and more geared to what I would really need to know. Instead of having a partner who rarely actively uses the software teach us, we have a person a level above us do it and she knows her shit about the stuff. Everything was useful and practical.

All to say I'm having FUN!

And the color choice is...

BURGUNDY for our wedding.

I realize that being a June wedding, burgundy isn't the popular color choice as it's more of a winter shade, but it looks good on both Rich and I and we think it'll look really classy :)

So now we have a date, location, and color..... now onto the smaller details.

My New Job

So I know it's been a while since I last blogged. And in that time I have:
- Moved ... the cats love having another person to serve them and sleep on :)
- Started New Job
- Went to Des Moines for training.

So I'm now sitting in yet another orientation and well... I'm bored. Starting a new job while is fun, includes lots of little HR things and general training. I've now been an official employee for 3 days and really haven't gotten to get my feet wet. But that happens... it's really a learn as you go job. I do get to know to Chicago next week for more training, and when I say Chicago, I really mean close to it, but won't be able to go to the city at all. Anyway who knows what we'll learn so it could be fun!