Spring Cleaning

Eric and I have decided to finally decorate the house, which means we have to clean first. I never thought two people could make such a mess! Our house was a disaster... and still needs work. We have decided to make room for books, and have hidden away all of our DVDs and CDs. Turns out, we have over 300 DVDs and almost as many CDs. It's ridiculous! We put them all in books, and put the cases in boxes. I'm so excited to move my book collection into the living room!! We aren't quite sure how we want to decorate yet, that will probably take a while.

I also signed up for classes starting on the 13th. I'm taking COM110 and BIO160. Eric says a communication class will be good for me... thanks honey. I'm excited for A&P though, I got a nifty coloring book/study guide that I can use for three different A&P classes, which is neat. I'm looking forward to this whole doctor thing... It will be a lot of work but fun! I wish I would have figured out what I wanted to do a long time ago, I could almost be ready for med school by now... Dang me and my laziness. 

We had a game night for work last week that I put together, it went over really well. We had about 40 or so people show up to it and had so much fun! No one wanted to leave, and they all want to do it again soon! I love that I was able to get that many people involved and that they all had so much fun!! This month we are having our annual 3 on 3 basketball tournament at Freestone on Easter Sunday! We already have 9 teams signed up and a bunch of people who want to go. It's going to be awesome. I love my job! 

That's all I have for now. Eric and I are about to head out to photograph Crystal and Steven's wedding!! We have another one next weekend. Busy busy bees!! 

I've got all these thoughts just floatin' through my brain

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything to this thing we call blogspot. Not much has happend. Cali was fantastic, except that I was sick most of the time. I think I was just stressed out about school and family... Strange how I was more stressed on vacation than I am on any other day. But, I still enjoyed it. My psychology class ended, and I got a B. I'm really disappointed because I only missed 4 points on the final... I wish it counted more towards my grade. All through high school our teachers said that finals and midterms would be so important in college... Well, I have yet to see where a final or midterm really affected my grade that much. I have finally decided that I'm going to med school. It has been a long year of nurse vs doctor. I finally decided that I like science more than anything. The whole time I've been debating, I've been leaning more towards the white coat. Becoming a nurse just seems like the easy way to get into medicine... I would rather work hard and go all out. I'm pretty excited. I got some information on the courses I need to take to transfer to ASU. These next few years I will be spending a lot of time finding the med school that's right for me. If you have any suggestions, let me know! Keep it realistic though... I'm probably not going to Johns Hopkins or anywhere like that... 

Work has been pretty interesting lately. Working retail in this economy you would expect to not have many customers to deal with.. But it certainly isn't the case. Since the new store opened up in the mall, we have had a lot more traffic. More people know we exist now that we aren't shoved into a little corner in a practically abandoned shopping center. It's funny how moving across the street can have such a huge impact on business. The mall staff is pretty amazing, especially mall security. This weekend is the big event that the mall is having for the new stores that have opened (Best Buy and Dicks)! It should be interesting. 

Well, that's all I really have for now. I really should get better at this... 

A blog about nothing, and everything

I have not been on my blog in a very long time, and you may be wondering if I am still alive. Well, you probably aren't wondering that because the only people who read this are family, and since we seem to email each other 5 million times a day, you know I'm alive. Anywho, I thought I would jump on here and blog it up.. or something.

There's really not much to report. School is still going. I'm thinking about taking 11 credits starting in March. I am not quite sure that I can handle that much school and work. But, I am working on this great project for my psychology class that is making me think I might be able to work it out. So the project is a self improvement essay. I know what you're thinking... "Valeri is perfect, what could she possibly have to improve??" I have realized lately that my life is very stressful, or rather I feel stress quite often and it is affecting every aspect of my life. In the short amount of time I have been researching stress, I have learned that if I put myself if a schedule and give myself specific goals, I can improve my mental and physical state of being. Procrastination, apparently, is a side effect of stress. I seem to procrastinate a LOT. I always thought that procrastination caused stress, not the other way around. I also learned that I need to eat a well balanced diet, which I definitely don't do. It is difficult to juggle everything, or so I think. I am pretty sure it is just me trying to justify the things I don't do that I should. 

Enough about that... let's talk about work! Work has been amazing lately. I have felt more confident, and I have implemented some new practices that seem to be catching on pretty well. I made these nifty folders to help customers keep information, which helps them remember what we talk about. There's a lot to know about TVs, and people can't always remember everything. Needless to say, the folders make it easy for customers to come back and know exactly what was discussed, and easily decide which solution they want. I love it! The other awesome thing about work is that I only work 1 more day in the old store!!!! We are moving!!! I can't wait!!! Thursday is my last day in the old 260, selling at least. The move has snuck up on us so quickly! The store is such a ghost town when it comes to product. It has helped uncover dust bunnies that have been multiplying under stands and boxes. 

Oh yeah, then there's vacation!!! I can't wait to spend the weekend with my family in sunny california, and celebrate 100 years of life! Not my life though, obviously I am not 100... Although I would look amazing if I were! I am going to purdy myself up for the party! I can't wait. I went out and bought makeup... what?! MAKEUP?! Yeah I know... I'm super weird. And, I bought a new curling iron... AND I already burned my forehead with it. Go me! My hair does not like to curl... even though it is naturally curly. But I won't get into that, I'm not that girly yet....

Well, There's my super boring blog!! Hope you're still awake...

The Train

So, I had the opportunity to ride the light rail a couple of times lately. I must say that it is a very exciting thing to do... On Thursday I rode it to my sister's house in Phoenix. I rode from Main/Sycamore to Central/Campbell. It was about an hour ride, but I got a lot done. I read some of my psych book and listened to music. I think I want to get a pass and just ride it from end to end on my days off and do my homework, it's peaceful. I like trains... 

At the end of the day, it is what it is

Well, it certainly has been a while since I have written anything on here... I guess that not many things in my life are blog-worthy! Christmas has come and gone, as well as the new year. Christmas was such a fun time! Eric and I, of course, opened our gifts a few days (maybe a week..) before hand... But it was worth it! On Christmas Eve, we went to church with my mom and Greg, and then we drove around and looked at lights. Let me tell you, lights used to be so much better! What is wrong with people?! Why does no one decorate like they used to... Darn HOAs... After looking at lights, we stopped my Fili-Bs and got some food. It's so good, but so gross at the same time. Then, we just kinda hung out with my parents for a while and headed home. On Christmas morning, Jessi came over to our place, as well as my dad, Windy, Taelor, and Marli. It was pretty fun! We took TONS of pictures of Dylan's first christmas (check them out at redefinedsnapshots.com). After that, we headed to Mom's again for the big party! Everyone was there except for Sandi and Steven (they went to Disneyland). After a long day of gift opening and hanging out, it was time for sleep. There was a week of work, then it was New Years! We didn't do ANYTHING... I didn't get out of work on New Year's Eve until 9, which means I didn't get home until around 9:30. We watched a couple episodes of Law and Order, and went to bed. So exciting....

Work has been rather interesting lately... We are moving across the street into the mall so soon! I can hardly wait to get out of our old dirty store. But, like a wise man once said, you can't polish a turd. Hopefully the new location works out well for us. The store looks nice! Our product process manager tried to get me to help with merchandising the week before we opened, to which my direct manager responded "Hell No." I guess it feels nice to be wanted... But I would have loved to help set up the new store! Not to mention that I would be working 6am-4pm M-F and then have the weekend off... Can't win em all I suppose. I also found out that Julie Gilbert, WOLF #1, decided to take advantage of the voluntary separation package offered to all corporate employees. Come February 12th, we will have a new WOLF (Women's Leadership Forum) leader. Julie has been such an inspiration to many women across the company and the world, and will be missed! I'm a little nervous to see how things go on the store level.......

In more exciting news, I went to bring Eric lunch today. That's not the exciting part, the exciting part is that the cops came into the store looking for me! AHHH!!! Well, it's nothing like that. Apparently, someone opened a Best Buy Credit Card with someone else's identity and I rang them out. I didn't do anything wrong, they just want me to look at some pictures and pick out who, if any of them, was the person who opened the account. I'm so excited... The Detective is going to meet me while I get my oil changed tomorrow. WEE!!! My baby is getting her second oil change. I still haven't even named her yet... so sad! 

The Laryngitis

Hey so I've been a little sick for about a week and a half. It all started last Thursday (12/4)... I started to feel a cold coming on. I had a fever ... coughing... runny nose ... chills. You know... I went to work and pretended I was fine (of course). Sunday rolled around and I had lost my voice... I went to work anyway and talked for 8 hours to customers about TVs. Monday I decided to stay home because I couldn't even get anything out... Just barely enough to call and say I couldn't talk. I went to work Tuesday even though I still couldn't talk. Tuesday night I couldn't take the pain anymore so Eric and I made a trip to urgent care. The doctor said I had Laryngitis, gave me some antibiotics and tylenol with codeine, and sent me on my way. I called work and told them I needed a day off since the doctor told me to stay home. I had 3 days off in a row. All I did was sleep and watch the Simpsons, it was magical... Then it was back to work on Saturday. Loads of fun... I can talk now, but still feel sick... At least I have tomorrow off... maybe I will get better soon...

The Work!!

Well, I'm now 3 days into my 8 day streak of working. It is so fun to not have a day off for a little over a week... Right?? I think the best part is that we close at 10 so I'm usually there till around 11-11:30 or later. The next day I usually get to open, so I have to be back at 8. I love the 5 hours of sleep, not being able to see my husband for more than 5 minutes in the morning or when he gets home. I also love that I've been sick for the past 3 days, yet I go to work anyway. I don't think I can even talk very well today... Well, I wouldn't know because Eric is already gone and I have no one to talk to until I go into work. I spend more time with people I could care less about than I do with the love of my life. I hate the holidays, just because of work. I love the family part. 

Well, on a happier note, we have done some decorating. Eric and I saw a cool thing at Ikea and decided to replicate it. Silver sand, small ornaments, and a candle in a vase. It looks pretty neat! My mom also got us a really cute candle holder, and we bought a couple of things at Target. I love that place!! We bought our tree and got it about 80% decorated. I'm sure the next time Eric and I are home together we will put the ornaments on... If we're home together before christmas. We also bought some year-round decorations. We found a neat giant spoon, fork, and knife at Hobby Lobby that we are going to put up in the kitchen. We also got a couple of lighthouses and a ship steering wheel for our chest in the entry way. Soon enough our home will have a lot of cool little decorations. 

We also go our TV calibrated on Wednesday! I know, I'm a loser... But it was worth it!! I love how much better the picture looks. I never realized how blue my screen was until I got it fixed. I'll show you sometime if you come over... It looks neat!! 

Well, I'm going to try and enjoy the next few hours until I have to leave for day 4 of 8! My day off is soon approaching! I'm free Thursday and Friday if anyone wants to do anything... Yippee!!