Big News!

As of today, I am officially the General Manager of the Cedar Rapids' Culver's!! I don't think it has completely sunk in yet, but I'm sure it will soon! I'll mainly be focusing on getting to know the crew and other managers over the next few weeks as well as how things are run there. Even though the main things are the same, each store has little differences that mainly stem from the preferences of the General Manager. Anyway, I don't have much else to say right now, but I'll be sure to keep you updated. :)

Relief!

We finally got air conditioning in our place! Woohoo!

We (and the dogs) have been crashing at our parents' house these past couple of weeks since the heat and humidity have been so unbearable. It was so great to be able to come "home" after work and not be hot all the time. Plus, I jumped in their pool just about every day we were there...also a great perk...not to mention the free food! :)

Although we both love being able to see our parents every day, instead of maybe once a week, it is good to be home again. Although...I'm already making plans on stopping by to visit and use the pool more in the coming days. :) The past few summers, after moving out, I didn't really use the pool much because I was working all the time. And, although I still work just as much, if not more, than I have the past few summers, I am determined to enjoy the pool more this summer! We are so blessed to have such awesome parents who let us stop by whenever we want to chat or use the pool or the multiple empty beds in the house. :) Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

Pictures

The old landscape timbers....

The new landscape timbers...and the proposed spot for the flower bed!

Dad and Kaleb pulling up the sod for the flower bed

Getting ready for the bricks

What Mom and I did while they dug up the sod and laid the bricks

Laying the first bricks

Looking good!

All done!

Guys are done, too!

Grandma and Piper hung out on the porch 

Mid-morning snack :)

Planting the geraniums

Geraniums are done!

Planting the petunias

Ainsley hung out on the porch, too. Sisterly love!

Pretty geranium!

The lily plant I bought. Love it!

All done!

Current pictures! 

One Way to Make Me Smile Everyday :)

The week of Memorial Day my family helped me put in a flower bed along the porch. I have been wanting to plant flowers ever since moving out of my parents house but was unable to do so when living in an apartment. If you remember, being able to plant flowers was one of the perks to buying this place!

Anyway, it started out just being something my mom and I were going to do, and it turned into almost a whole family project, which was great! I love getting more time with my family and I love how they show their love in supporting me. :) 

On Memorial Day, my dad and Kaleb replaced the landscape timbers under the side of porch where the flower bed was going to go (after 30+ years, the previous landscape timbers were practically gone because of rotting away). Then, on Wednesday of that week, my sister and her two girls, my mom, my dad, and my grandma all came over for the installation of the flower bed. Oh, earlier that week (I don't remember when...Monday? Sunday?) my mom and I had gone shopping for flowers and I had bought petunias and geraniums in red, white, purple, and pink. Also earlier that week (or the week before...again, hazy on the details of when), my mom, my dad and I had gone shopping and they helped me pick out some bricks to put around the flower bed. So, Wednesday morning, my dad and Kaleb started laying the bricks down while my mom and I finished taking out the white rock around the mailbox that I didn't want there. After the bricks were done, we filled it in with some more dirt and then Kristen and I planted the flowers. 

It was so much fun to have everyone here and to have help with the flower bed! I absolutely LOVE coming home to such a bright splash of color right next to the driveway! It still puts a smile on my face every day. :)

The flowers are doing very well. The petunias I got are a special spreading variety, so they are already spreading quite a bit and some of the plants are 4 or 5 times the size they started at!! So cool! There were a few of the red petunias that my sister and I weren't too sure if they were going to make it, because they looked kind of sad. I am happy to say that all but one are doing quite well, and the one that didn't do well was my fault....(I was pulling weeds after coming back from vacation--holy cow they grow fast!--and I accidentally pulled it up, too! In my defense, it wasn't doing very well anyway... =P) All the rest of them...the geraniums included... are doing very well. Oh! I forgot! On the day we planted everything, I felt like I wanted a slightly bigger plant of some kind at the one end by the stairs. So, Kristen and I headed off to see what we could find. It didn't take long and soon we were back with a yellow lily plant. It's super pretty! Right now it's not blooming...is it done for the year? I don't know. But it was really pretty when it was blooming! 

I know you all are dying for some pictures, but those will have to wait. I need some current pictures so you can see how well they are doing and it's already getting dark outside, so I will have to wait. :) Stay tuned for the pictures!

Long Overdue...

I am WAY overdue for an update, I know. And I apologize for that! Here's what's been going on since I last posted...

• Thanksgiving-- On Thanksgiving Day, everyone in my family came and spent the day here, at my house. It was so much fun to have my mom, sister, and sister-in-law helping me cook in my kitchen! :) It was the first time we all really got to see the two babies interact with each other. The last time they were together, they were only a few months old! My mom found some fun little projects for us to do to make Thanksgiving "decorations". One was turkeys, made out of Oreo's, candy corn, malt balls, and frosting. They turned out to be harder to make than they looked, but it certainly made for some fun memories! :)
• Christmas-- Christmas was a blast, as usual when we get our family together. :) We all spent some quality time together, cooking, baking cookies, playing cards, talking, and laughing. The presents, of course, were over-flowing, abundant, and well-received. One of my highlights was the surprise my parents had for me--a new dishwasher! We had been living without a dishwasher, and we had been planning on continuing to do so for several more months until I could save enough money to buy one. I was totally surprised when I opened it and so overwhelmed with gratitude! I do believe I started crying....and I am now, too, just remembering!

• Christmas, continued-- This year was the first year I really got to decorate my house for Christmas. We did put up a few decorations in the apartment...mainly some lights and small Christmas trees. But this year, we got to put up lights on the roof (so much fun to do on my own house!), and we got to put up an actual Christmas tree. Granted, it was a fake tree (and my parents'), and we didn't have any presents under it, but it was still so much fun to have it up and have lights and our ornaments on it! We also put up some window clings and other decorations that my sister gave me last year for Christmas. It was fun to be able to use them this year! 

 

• Not really for Christmas, but as more of a house-warming gift, my sister-in-law gave me a painting that she had done to put up in my living room. It is absolutely PERFECT! The colors are a perfect match and it is just the right size! :) I LOVE IT! 

• Work update-- Not a whole lot has changed since my last update about work, where I got a promotion. The main thing is that the GM has put me in charge of setting up and conducting interviews. I didn't take over immediately, as I had never conducted an interview before. But after sitting in on several, I felt more comfortable and started taking over in the interviews. I still run all my decisions through the GM, and oftentimes she sits in on the interviews with me so she has a chance to meet the applicant as well. I am also in charge of making the monthly flavor of the day list, as well as the truck orders twice a week. She still does the schedule, which I am fine with! She does a great job with it and I know I could not do as awesome as she does! 
• Random--
• I just took down my Christmas decorations the other day...just a little late, I know.
• I am very ready for spring and not liking the rapid changes in weather: sunny and almost 40 one hour, and cold, windy, and cloudy the next.
• My car window jumped off the track completely one day and got stuck INSIDE my door--in the middle of winter. Lovely! Fortunately, my dad is the best daddy EVER and was able to fix it! :)