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! :)

News!

So I have been dying to tell you all this news, but I had to wait!

The general manager at one of the other stores in the area has stepped down from his position to take a different job. The owner asked our general manager to move over to that store and he agreed. This left an opening for a general manager at our store, and so, the first assistant was promoted to general manager and I, the second assistant, was promoted to first assistant! I couldn't tell you all until everyone at both stores was informed.

The new general manager and I are both very excited for this opportunity. Basically, we will be in charge of running the store. Obviously major decisions would go through the owner, and our former general manager is still going to be available to help us out when needed, but pretty much it's just her and I managing our team! :) She and I work really well together and have the same views on almost everything and, as the owner put it, it's never been a competition between us.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that bit of news with you all!

Keeping my promise!

I have been promising pictures all summer long, and here they finally are!

I am going to show you pictures of each room/area from before we started any work plus pictures of how it all looks now, so you can see the differences! There are a lot of pitures, so bear with me!

Let's start with the front door...      Here it is before we did anything with it...It needed replaced because it didn't latch anymore, due to it being 30+ years old.

And now here is the brand new door! Notice the new light? We found out pretty quickly that it was almost impossible to see enough to unlock the door when coming home after dark, so my dad was awesome enough to install a new light for us!

And here is a picture of the new door from the inside. See the tiled entryway? It was carpet before...

Oh, and I do have a rug to go there, but it's currently being washed. Plus, I wanted you all to be able to see the tile. :)

Next up is the kitchen. Here is the before picture.

And the after picture, from almost the same viewpoint....

Quite a difference, huh? Here are a few more pictures of the rest of the kitchen. Notice the brand new stove that my wonderful brother, Kaleb, bought for me? :)

Next we will do the living room. 

Here are a few before pictures...two taken from the kitchen area and one from the hallway.

And the after pictures...

Doesn't it look great?

Alright, next we head down the hallway. Not much to see in the hallway, but things did change!

Before...notice the floor, walls, and curtains (hard to see, I know)

Notice the back door on the right...again, hard to see, but it got replaced as well!

And now, the after pictures!

New curtains!!

The mirror you see on the wall was actually there before, I just didn't get a picture of it. This will come a little bit later, but notice the laundry room doors on the left? Brand new and "professionally" stained (by Dad).

Here's the new back door...a twin to the front door.

Next, the laundry "room". 

Before...

After....

Doesn't look like much of a change, does it? Notice the shelf is gone, and the new doors, and in the second picture, you can just barely see that we replaced the floor, too.

The floor is still linoleum, but you can hardly tell, right? It almost looks like wood laminate. :)

We have to backtrack a bit...going back down the hall towards the living room to Kaleb's room.

You can't tell in these pictures or in the living room ones, but we actually tore down the inside walls to Kaleb's room and moved the one that adjoins the living room out another 16" into the living room, to make Kaleb's room a bit bigger. :)

Here are the before pictures...

And the after pictures....Quite a change, huh? :)

Next up is the bathroom. This is the one room/area that we did absolutely nothing with the floor, due to the fact that it was recently replaced. 

Before...

And after... I am in love with my bathroom :)

And now, the last room of the house...my room!

Before....Sorry, the before pictures aren't the greatest...can't see much.

And after! Beware of bright colors! :)

Compare this next picture with the first before picture....see what's different? 

We tore out a whole half of the closet! Since this was designed to be the master bedroom, there were two closets along this wall...I decided I really didn't need THAT much closet space, haha. Plus, this gave me more wall space and more furniture space, since it doesn't work very well to put furniture in front of a closet door.... :) We affectionately call this area "the nook". 

Well, that's it for pictures! I told you it was a lot! We did SO much work, it's hard to point out everything that's different and/or new. Just believe me when I say, we did A LOT of work to make it look like it does now. One thing I haven't mentioned yet...remember all the new curtains? Without the help of my grandma, my mom, and my sister, those curtains would not exist! Every single curtain had to be adjusted in some way, shortened, widened....or just made in general! Remember Kaleb's curtains? The bright orange ones....those are actually a flat bed sheet! I would never have been able to make a bed sheet into curtains, but with the help of my sister and my mom, they were made! Also, the bathroom curtains were made from a pair of pillow cases...pretty awesome, huh? We had to get creative because we couldn't find matching curtains for either of those two rooms! 

Did you notice how EVERY SINGLE ROOM got a new coat of paint? Or rather, new coats of paint... :) The ceiling also got a new coat of paint...hard to tell in these pictures, but every square inch of the ceiling was re-painted as well! After 30+ years, it really needed it. 

I know I already did a post thanking everyone, but after looking through these pictures again, I just have to say thank you again to everyone for their help!! I absolutely love it all....I know it was hard sometimes getting me to make a decision, but we got through it and the results are amazing. :)