Sun!

My white body finally saw some SUN this weekend!! I didn't make it to the pool every day this weekend like I had planned, but I did get a solid 3 hours in on Monday, which was great! I was good and applied sunscreen, so I didn't get tons, but my shoulders are still a little pink today. My new swimsuit has a criss-cross pattern in the back, so I have a lovely criss-cross tan line to prove my sun time ;) Now I won't feel as bad to wear my summer skirts since I now have a little sun on the legs :) This was a relaxing weekend spent with friends. Of course I didn't do the semi-annual closet switch that I needed to do to get ready for summer, but oh well. Brandon and I even got in two of our Netflix movies - "The Contract" and "I Pronouce you Chuck & Larry" - the first was a little strange, but the second was pretty funny. I did some scrap booking at church on Friday night and Saturday, and got to take advantage of all my wonderful new Creative Memories tools I got for my birthday thanks to my family!!! On Saturday night we headed up to a neighbors house for a little impromto cookout and to watch the Busch race. They have put a lot of work into their backyard and it is awesome! They had someone come in and stamp and paint their once boring cement pad to look like brick. And they have some really nice wicker furniture with fluffy cushions. Since they enjoy the outdoors so much, they have a little set up where they can bring a TV outside, so that is where we watched the Busch race :) I was enjoying myself, and before I knew it, I had finished the whole 6 pack of Smirnoff Ice I had brought! 12 points down the drain in just beverages!! Oh well. On Sunday night, we headed to the Rinaldi's house for a couples get-together, and that was fun. We got to play with baby Cloe who is already 7 months old!! She is so cute!! Michele should be sending me some pics soon, so I will post them when I get them. We got home in time to see the end of the race and see my boy, Kasey Kayne win!! Yeah!!! Of course today was BLAH because it was back to work time, but I can't complain too much because I only have a two day work week, since we are off to Connecticut on Thursday morning to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday!! Speaking of, I need to start figuring out what I want to take and pack - I always seem to leave that until the night before and then end up staying up half the night trying to do all the little things you have to do to get ready to go out of town!!!

Catching up

Before another weekend is upon me, I thought I better blog about my past one. It was an eventful one! I took Friday off of work, and got some things done around the house and ran some errands. Friday evening we went to the Investiture of my godfather, Tom Schroeder. He is now an official Federal Court judge for the Middle District in North Carolina. This is an awesome achievement!! It is a position for life in which he was appointed by the President of the United States. It was a neat experience. After the ceremony, there was a reception at the Empire Room in downtown Greensboro. Tom's old firm hosted the reception, and it was really nice. We had the opportunity to meet other Federal Court judges and catch up with Tom's family who had flown in from Kansas, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. The Schroeder family lived next door to my parents right after they got married. My parents quickly became the 6th and 7th children and did a lot of things with Tom and the rest of his family. So, they are like an extended family of ours. My parents act like they are 20 again when they get around the Schroeder kids ;) And it was interesting to have federal agents around the perimeter of the reception - kinda like the movies :) Here is a picture of the Judge, me and my parents.

Brandon headed to Raleigh Friday night, and so I enjoyed a quiet evening at home with Chelsi, and opened a big array of presents that Brandon had left me as a surprise! He felt bad that I was going to wake up by myself on my birthday, that he wanted me to have some presents to open. My parents, in-laws and Brandon all went into together and got me everything on my wish list from Creative Memories!! I am looking forward to putting it all to good use this weekend when I scrap book at church ;)

On Saturday, I had an Open House along with my good friends, Sarah and Jess. Sarah is getting started in BeautiControl, and Jess in ThirtyOne, and so we decided to have a "girly" open house for all three of our product lines. It was a lot of fun spending my birthday with friends! After a much needed pedicure that afternoon, Brandon and I headed to a few graduation parties (Congrats again Kenny!!), and then off to Natty Greene's to meet up with a few of my friends for dinner and drinks. I ordered myself enough drinks that I wasn't ready to call it a night, and so I sent Brandon home and headed to Greene Street with Sarah and Amy Jo to hear The Breakfast Club - an awesome 80's cover band! It was a lot of fun.!!

Not the best picture of everyone, but here is a pic of the girls at Natty's!

(Jess, Sarah, Amy Jo, Amanda and me)

On Sunday I tried to rest up some, and then we headed to Winston to meet Brandon's family for dinner. My MIL's birthday is on the 15th, so we celebrated both of our birthdays, which was fun :) And of course I always love spending time with the niece and nephew! I opened up more gifts - who doesn't like birthdays and all the gifts you get to open!!! My niece and nephew picked out a really cute purse and necklace for me :) I wore the necklace and carried the purse for good luck on Monday for my first day as Supervisor!!

Tuesday night was Senior Fly-up!! This is an annual event that my AOII alumnae group puts on as we welcome the graduating seniors from Elon University's AOII chapter into alumnae status. Even though we thought the storm clouds were going to cancel the event for us, it ended up being a gorgeous night! Below are some cute pics we took.

Last night I headed to Durham after work for a Passion Parties meeting. Our President and head of product development were doing a summer tour to show off new products and get consultants pumped for "Sex in the Summer!" Perfect timing with "Sex and the City" movie coming out soon - can't wait!!! It was neat to get to meet some other consultants in the area, and meet our President who was traveling from Las Vegas. It was a late night, so I am just relaxing at home tonight, and hoping to crash soon and catch some shut-eye. Had another WW meeting and weigh-in today - not so great, but after all the birthday celebrations and other events, I was happy not to have gained anything!! So, I am now down 0.2 pounds for a total of 8.6!! TGIF!!!!

Promotion!

So, it's official.....I made it through my first day as supervisor. Of course I really didn't have to do anything, but it was nerve racking enough to see how everyone would react to the news. So far so good, at least I hope :) My first duty is to come up with a name for my new department, since my position was created from combining two entities into one. They used to be combined, were split, and now are being brought back together. Historically the department has been known as Cash Receipts and Disbursements, but to me that is too long a name. But, it does define the duties the best. Sure, I could shorten it to Cash R&D, but then no one would even know what that stood for outside of our office. Generally speaking we only deal with interoffice personnel, but still.......I know....I am making a big deal out of nothing, but since it is my first official duty, it is important to me :) So at any rate, I have been promoted to Supervisor, and will supervise 4 Cash Analysts. 3 of which work on the Cash Receipt side, and 1 on the Disbursement side. I will slowly transition some of my current duties onto others so that I can really dig into "supervisor" type duties, or really just try and get a handle on everything. I am really excited about the opportunity, but yet have a lot of nervous energy. I am comfortable with the job duties, but the supervising part is going to be an adjustment. But, all in all, I think it will be good for everyone, because since I have been working in Finance there hasn't been anyone in charge that really knew the cash side of things inside and out, and I do, because I helped build it onto the new system. I am nervous, because I want to be a good supervisor, and nervous about added responsibility, but I know nervous energy can be good too. It just means I care about my job and the company and want to do well by both. But, for tonight, I am putting off brainstorming about my new responsibilities, and focusing on more important things.....like ordering a new bathing suit!! (Lands End is offering free shipping TODAY ONLY!!)

M.I.A.

Ok, really didn't mean to be M.I.A. for two weeks! I guess I have been busier than I thought. First of all, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mom's that read my blog!! And I am excited for Jenny and Jason for their baby on the way! I did today something that I don't think I have done since college - we slept until NOON!! Of course that was because we didn't make it to bed until 3am, but still, I couldn't believe it when I saw the clock!! I rolled over and asked Brandon what he wanted for breakfast/lunch :) Last night was a lot of fun. We headed to Raleigh for a Stock the Bar party for our friends Chad & Anna whom are getting married on October 4th. Chad and Brandon went to high school together, and have been friends for a long time. Here are some pics from the festivities.

The Happy Couple :) opening our gift

Lucas, Brandon, Chad and Justin - the Wilkes Boys!

The dashing couple ;)

We learned last night that there is a little bit of a delay on my Acadia due to a strike at the GM plant :( But, hopefully it won't be too much longer before I get my new ride!! Anna let me sit in her Acadia last night so I could day dream :)

As I am sure many in this area did, the cat, dog, Brandon and I spent some time huddled up in the half-bath downstairs Thursday night (well, technically, Friday morning) as the tornadoes and storms came through Greensboro. Luckily it went north of us, but it was pretty scary to listen to the radio and hear the path of the storm, and knowing it was going through areas where a lot of our friends live and coming our way. We are very thankful, but feel so bad for those who lost their homes and had other damage.

On a happier note, I am excited to report that I have officially lost 6.6 lbs so far on Weight Watchers!! Just gotta keep it going!! But, I can already tell a difference, which is motivation enough. I am off to finally get in the shower, and head to Winston-Salem to spend some time with my Mom for Mother's Day! And of course had to post the adorable pic Brandon took of our "baby" yesterday :)