Bad Luck, Uck

This weekend was full of bad luck ::uck:: While packing the truck for our trip to small town Indiana, my husband went to open his truck bed and snapped his key. Yup his key broke and half of it was in the lock. So we had to put all of our luggage in the front seat of the truck with us. I am sure that Minne was the one who was most comfortable, and she even got sick in the car ride after snatching my cheeseburger right out of my hand!

We get to Indiana to find out the hubby's clutch on his truck was shot. After looking over everything else, his ball bearings were also shot. ::uck:: On top of that, my sister's team didn't qualify for state. On their way home from the competition they found out a few boys from their HS football team had been in a bad accident. ::uck::

The Upside

My sister is adorable and despite losing, I heard her team rocked their routine and as you can see here they looked adorable!

Another up, a good thing about being in a small town is that everyone knows everyone and everyone knows some one who can help. We were able to order a new clutch, get it in that night and find someone to install it that night. The cost was expensive but totally fair. It was cheaper to fix that than to have a monthly car payment, for now anyway ;)

Finally, what could be more awesome then spending the weekend with your hubby and wonder dog? How about hanging out with the cutest little nephew ever! We got to watch Minne and Buddy play for hours, I seriously don't think they slept more than 2 hours the entire time we were there because they didn't want to skip a beat!

My favorite little nephew, Buddy, tuckered out after playing with Minne

it was of course nice to see my big sis and the hubs parents too. But we had a great surprise of seeing the hub's Goddaughter (our dog walker/flower girl) and the husb grandparents. Despite all the craziness, it ended up being a great trip. Infact, I even got glasses, more on this later.

The Hubs Goddaughter in 2005

Busy Weekend!

I am so glad the weekend is finally...almost here! Woke up early to hit the gym with my mom and now prepping for work. I am sad to say that I work my last shift as an acting manager at BR today. I spent much of yesterday preparing amazing cookies that my Jessica once sent to me (she talks about them here). I don't like chocolate but I do know that the last time I made these little suckers they were gone in a matter of minutes.

Minne loves car rides!

After work, the hubs and I will pack up Minne and prepare for a trip to his hometown in Indiana where we will work on his truck (so exciting I know) and make our annual trip to the eye doctor. I am hoping while he spends much of his time in the garage I can grab a few minutes with my little Frenchbo nephew, Buddy.



All the while, I will be sending lots of love and luck to my family who will be back at home cheering on my sister's high school cheerleading team. Tomorrow's competition will hopefully be sending the girls to State, which is so exciting for them. AND...I have next Saturday off so if they go to State can you guess who will be in the first row, cow bell and all? Yup me and the hubs, Minne girl will have to sit this one out.

Wouldn't you vote for her?

So cheers to a happy weekend of travel, fun, family, and friends.

Minne Turns 3

Today one of my pride and joys turns 3 (or what we would like to say is 21 in Doggie years). I haven’t had the chance to introduce you yet to my 17 lbs Boston Terrier so I thought today would be a prime opportunity.

I believe this was taken during our drive from Minneapolis to Indianapolis for the NFL opener in Indy a few years back.

I went my whole life wanting a dog, but I knew with my families fast paced life style and small home, having a dog didn’t seem to fit in. While being in college I started doing research on breeds and every dog who walked by I would have to introduce myself too. I did some nannying along with some dog sitting and overtime knew I wanted a dog. Especially a French Bulldog or a Boston Terrier. After college, I moved up to the twin city areas with my ex boyfriend and soon moved in with a few girls in a cute townhome style apartment in Minneapolis (don’t worry he's only my ex boyfriend because he's my husband).

While in Minneapolis I was browsing the local paper puppy for sale ads and guess what I found? A brand new litter of Boston Terriers that would be available in a few weeks. After getting roommate approval and talking to the ex boyfriend, I decided I would go look at the dog, but I promised I wouldn’t bring one home...I lied. Well not really. At the time, my intention really was just to see the puppy.

I thought I took this photo from the Indy Star years ago, but I could be wrong, if I am please let me know.

After playing with the litter for a few hours, we ended up driving home with an 8 week old female Boston Terrier. While thinking of the names, Minneapolis seamed perfect, yet a little long. Minneapolis was the place where I took my first job out of college and it was the place where my little girl is from. After a few days, we decided to call her Minne short for Minneapolis.

Minne's First Snow at about 10 weeks old, about 4.5 lbs

Since that day she has brought nothing but happiness to our hearts. Don’t get me wrong, the dog training was a pain in the but and there are times she still acts out but for the most part she is a great dog who gives us nothing but love. So for her Birthday last year we wanted to do something really special for her, so we threw her a doggy party.

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All her local friends came to sing to her! It was such a fun Party!



We wanted to do the same thing this year, but we downsized our apartment this past year and our apartment doesn’t allow “visiting” pets so a dog party is out. We opted for the next best thing, we made a visit to our favorite local pet store, Two Bostons and let Minne pick out some goodies for her big day. I think she'll be getting her Birthday donut tonight.



We will also be doing a trip to Elwood this weekend so Minne will spend her Birthday weekend with her new cousin Buddy (a 4+month old French Bulldog Boston Terrier mix). We are sure there will be plenty of new videos and photos to share soon.

Full timer at the UC!

My new home away from home, photo taken at a 2009 Bulls game

That’s right, as of Monday Feb 1, I am officially part of the full-time tech staff at the United Center. I will continue doing the roles that I have been doing with the added responsibility of CRM Data Analyst. I am excited because I will be learning something new, I get to work with an amazing staff plus I will be working with departments from both teams. My schedule should start to be more of a 9-5 schedule, with some event support so KH - that means you will be able to see me and remember what I look like. For my husband, that means we will see each other and I will owe you home made dinners ;)

Photo taken at the '09 Hawks vs Redwings Play off game

Unsubscribe

Wanna know the best part about starting a new job? Clicking unsubscribe to every career website that sends you “just updated” jobs. There’s also less stress, more of a routine, new challenges and new people. However, at this moment hands down the best part is not receiving emails about all these great jobs that are never going to hire me… over and over again. So happy “unsubscribe” Tuesday!

Bye Bye Banana Republic

Photo Found Here http://blog.timesunion.com/kristi/18693/sale-food-and-makeovers-at-banana-republic-crossgates/

Over the course of the last 5 months, I quit my job and started doing some other work, however, the hours and pay were flexible. To help fill the void of not having a regular pay check, I joined the Banana Republic team as an acting manager between 2 stores. I will say that the experience was great, I learned a lot about managing others and about managing a building. I worked with some great but very different personalities. I learned that working in retail full time is physically hard on your body plus you pretty much have to forego every family and friend holiday party/event/fundraiser/ect. It’s been a hard few months but I am greatful for the experience and the clothes.

I will say I didn’t learn too much about the product especially since 2006, I’ve worked at BR part time to help wardrobe my work attire after college. The benefits and discount are amazing, sometimes almost too amazing. For example, this weekend there was a 40% off all sale promotions, I was able to find 3 pair of mens Dawson Chinos for the hubby at $12 each, plus the 40% off, plus my discount, Awesome right? I also have my eye on this amazing new blue leather jacket, seriously, every day I walk it to work it stares at me and I stare back. I can’t help it...but I’m getting off track.

The discount isn’t the only thing I love. BR is apart of Gap Inc (Gap, Athleta, Piperlime, Old Navy and BR). Over the course of my time with BR I’ve learned so many great things about Gap Inc, about Don Fisher, his wife, the company’s amazing attitude towards the community. Do you know that during the Haiti Relief fund Gap Inc. donated a generous flat dollar amount and then told all of it’s employees that they would match dollar for dollar on top of that flat donation?

Photo Found Here http://www.ceo-watch.com/doris-and-don-fisher-gaps-ceo.html

Also, most retail stores do a “friends and family” type offer to help offer the employee discount to employee friends and family. Well Gap Inc. calls their event Give & Get for a really great reason. They let their employees pick from a handful of charities on where they want 5% off all the dollars spent from their friends and family coupons to go. This last holiday season from the Give & get alone $2 million dollars were shared among charities like Feeding America, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Teach for America and more. The best part...they don’t boast about it. How could you not love a company like this?



Well I write this post because this is my last week “acting” as a manger for BR, because next week I start my new job working full time for the.....sorry my employer hasn’t announced my position yet, so to be fair I need to keep it a suspense, but I am getting really excited to start my new job. I will be sad to be leaving my current manager position, as anything good in life it’s a bitter sweet. I am not quite 100% ready to leave BR yet so I am really hoping they will keep me on as a part timer, I think my husband may be hoping even more than I am (he loved the product so much, he's why I even applied in the first place).

Go Bulldawgs!

3NW Girls + Jenn

It's no secret, I loved my entire college experience. There are so many reasons why and I hope that over time I get to touch on some of them, but today brings me back to my freshman year of college. My roommate from freshman year had a cousin who played on our basketball team and from day one of our Butler experience we got to know some of the players pretty well. Naturally, we had an interest in the team and we surrounded ourself with others who had similiar interests.

Our freshman year, my friends and I got to experience a true March Madness watching our dogs make it to the Sweet 16 while watching Archey set an NCAA Division I record for consecutive free throws made. That year we rushed the streets a couple times with excitement, screaming for joy, all high fiving and perhaps there may have even been some fist pumping. It's true, it was such a rush and an experience that I hope I never forget.

Today, I can say that majority of my good friends all support the Bulldawgs. Some now have Bulldawg rooms in their houses, others make it to every game, in fact one even married one of the assistant coaches.

So tonight, I will be joining my old roommate to watch our Dawgs play ball like the good ole days wishing that all of the girls could be by my side.

Some of the team

PS I apologize for such fuzzy photos, apparently back in the day we didn't have digitals so we used to have to get the photos developed and then scan them into the computer. WOW that was a lot of work!