New Job!

In case you haven't seen it on my Facebook or you want more details, I have an announcement to make! I got a job! It's a job I've been working for and waiting for a long time and I'm so happy I finally got it. I am now the new Program Coordinator of New Student Orientation at Utah State University! So exciting! I'll now describe what that means.

It's basically the job my boss used to have. Our department went through a lot of changes this year and my boss got put in charge of a lot of other responsibilities. To help her out she decided to hire someone to take over SOAR (orientation) and the A-Team (the orientation staff). I first heard of the possibility of this job back at the end of the school year. The summer months came along and the decision was made to hire a new person. Then, the process. It took forever for HR to finally post the position and then it had to be open for 30 days. When it finally closed I believe there were still a couple weeks before interviews took place. That was last week. I was told a decision would be made at the beginning of this week. The beginning came and went and I was very nervous and stressed. Then it was Thursday night. I was helping to work the Cache Valley Recruiting Open House (for high school seniors). I knew my boss was going out of town for a conference on Saturday and wouldn't be back until next Thursday. I was really hoping I would find out the next day so I wouldn't have to wait a whole other week! I just needed to know! Because if I was going to get the job, wonderful! End my suffering! If not, that's fine. I just needed to be able to start making plans for getting another job.

Back to the open house: I was standing there and Lisa (my boss) turned to me and said "Well, I don't know if you've heard, because it's been buzzing around the office today, but we've decided to hire you". I had NOT heard anything! Which is quite the feat A) for the A-Team to keep anything a secret and B) for me to not know about something going on in that office when I spend 9 hours a day there. I was so excited!!!! I had to keep it hush hush for another day until everyone who had applied had been notified but then I posted it, which was my technological way of yelling it from the roof tops. And that was the journey of me applying for and getting this job.

Starting November 1, I will officially be over new student orientation at USU. I will also be the boss over the A-Team, including the Student Coordinators that work in the office. That's at least 44 employees to my name. Crazy!!! I will be in charge of coordinating everything to make sure that all new students to USU are oriented and then as many as possible retained at the university. I also am in charge of making sure the A-Team gets hired and then trained correctly and then do their job right! I'm not really sure on all the nit picky, day to day things I'll be doing quite yet. For right now, I have quite a few trainings and an orientation to attend. I have to clean out my office, which is currently being used as the office storage room (...did you catch that....MY office!!!) and then making sure A-Team hiring gets off on the right food this next week.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of so much responsibility but I know that I can do this! I feel like I was meant to get this job right now and that with Lisa's help I'll be able to do this, no problem. The first year of a new job is always the hardest, so I know this will be tough, but good. I'm just so grateful to have a job and to have it be with people I care about and a program I'm very familiar with.

Here's to growing up!

Sicky

So there I was this morning at work, wearing a cute outfit I'd thought out and even taken the time to iron the shirt. Big deal, I know! Then I realized I was freezing. Sometimes the office fluctuates in temperature so I didn't think anything of it. After a good half hour I was still freezing and I said so out loud and put on my coat. My boss looked at me and said "YOU are cold?!" You see, usually I am the one in the office who is dying because it's so hot and everyone else in there is freezing. As soon as she said that I knew what it was. I must be getting sick. Within the next hour, I went home because I started to feel the same way I always do when I get my version of "sick". My stomach felt gross, I was super tired, my head got fuzzy...it was coming on! So my kind, kind coworkers sent me home so I could get better today and not get even more sick. I spent the day in bed thinking I was an idiot for going home. I feel like it makes me look stupid to go home sick when I'm not puking or something. But I know my body and I know I'm my kind of sick. Usually I'm in bed a whole day with it. I think it's a type of flu maybe? That's what I've decided. Then I woke up from a nap and I feel a little worse. Yup. I'm sick. Good thing I came home! But my good friend Deborah stopped by and brought me some yummy soup and banana bread, so I can't really complain :)

I'm still waiting to hear on that job I talked about earlier. It's really stressing me out. I just want to know! Even if I don't get it (as sad as that would be) I need to be able to start making other plans. Stressful, stressful.... Could be adding to my body shutting down. Thank you to all of you who have been rooting for me, even if you aren't ever going to read this post. It really makes me feel loved that so many people want to see me stay where I'm at and even be their boss. I take it as quite a compliment because these are people I respect very much. Guess we'll see what happens! Whichever way, I've been very blessed these last four years! I'm a lucky girl.

Well, that's all for now. I might go curl up in my warm blanket and watch a chick flick. I hear they're good for sick people you know...

Sister Stalker

This weekend I had the chance to spend some time with my little sister while the parents are off playing in Dallas. Before I left, I dropped her off at work (taking my cousin Sara with me) and Emi so kindly got us a rice bowl and drinks...free of charge! Isn't she great?! (p.s. Emi works at Rumbi's..yum!)

When she left us to go work, I decided to take a picture...or two...or more. It turned into "sister stalking". Here is a documentation of the adventures of Sara and Alyssa while stalking Emi.

There she is..serving a table

Walking away from said table

Still serving this table. They were kind of needy

Still serving them. See what I mean?!

Looking around to see where else she's needed. So good at customer service!

But she eventually did get to help another table!

She wouldn't take a picture with me, so this was the best I could get while she walked by

Sara and I hid any mess we may or may not have made. Rice bowl? What rice bowl?!

My encouraging partner in crime. She made that face on purpose. Silly Sara Lara.

Changing Times

It's crazy how fast time can change things. The number of friends I have getting married has calmed down significantly and now I'm on to my friends having babies. Two of my best friends are due in the next few weeks and I am very excited for them. I'm claiming these kids as my niece and nephew since I don't have any of my own. I'm pretty sure their moms don't mind :)

Yesterday I went to lunch with some girls I was friends with in elementary school. How many of you can say that?! It was a lot of fun. It's interesting to see where all our our lives have gone so far. Alisa is married and her daughter, Reagan, is almost 2 (isn't she adorable?!). Melissa is also married and pregnant with her first baby. Carli just got married this last year. Seeing a trend?? I mean, that's not all they have going on in their lives of course, but I was a little worried I'd be left out since I'm in a drastically different stage of life but it wasn't too bad. They didn't even press about dating, so it was lots better than family holiday parties. haha But really, I had a ton of fun with these girls and I hope that we can get together again soon!

Tomorrow is a big day. I have my interview for a job I really, really hope to get. I'm super nervous about it. It's a really big deal, my first potential big girl job. I know all but one person on the hiring committee and that almost makes it worse to sit there and try to market yourself as a potential employee. I'll let you know if I get it or not but please, if you're reading this, pray for me. Pray for me to be calm, to do the best interview I have the capacity to do, and then for the hiring committee to make the right decision for the program, whether or not that includes me. Hopefully it does though. My interview is at 12:20 tomorrow and they're also interviewing on Tuesday so depending on when you read this, pray for whatever is relevant. Thanks :) Greatly appreciated!

Well, I should go get ready for bed so I'm as rested as possible tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to fall asleep! Good night!

It's an exciting week

I'm sure those people who I see often (namely my roommates and coworkers) are probably super sick of hearing me talk about this, but I can't help it! I'm not even going to apologize because I'm not sorry. Two of my friends return from their missions!!!

Kenzie "Gert" Lawlor is home already! She went to the Omaha, Nebraska, Winter Quarters Visitors Center mission. She even got to meet my friend Stacey Stanger and my cousin Marci Atkin! I was reunited with her this afternoon and it was a joyous occasion. This girl is hilarious and I'm so glad she's back. Here's us like 3 years ago at a Real Salt Lake soccer game. We always have a good time!

Then this coming Wednesday, my bestie Deborah Teuscher comes home!!!! I'm so excited!!! Des and I are driving everyone around us nuts with the excitement, even her mom. haha We're trying to figure out the soonest we can see her. If it was up to us we'd be at the airport, but that isn't going to happen, so hopefully Wednesday night! She is at the Rochester, NY, Hill Cumorah Visitors Center mission. Everyone keeps saying "oh she's back already? That was fast!" but no, folks. This has been a LONG mission for some of us. She's one of my very best friends that I was used to going to for everything in my life, so it's been rough having her gone. It's going to be wonderful having her back!!!

This is us getting ready for the school's Mardi Gras party a couple years ago. It's going to be so good to have her back! By the way, you may recognize her from last month's edition of the Ensign. No big deal.

A lot has changed in the last year and I don't expect everything to be the same, but it's always nice to have your friends home.

Forget Me Not

Last night I went to the General Relief Society broadcast with my roomies. See...there we are.

Our first roommate pic. How precious. We decided to make a day of it and went to the Gateway. While the other two shopped I enjoyed the nice weather outside and then enjoyed Barnes and Nobles' free WiFi when the sun got too hot for me. We then went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Maybe it's what I got, but it was meh. On our way back to the car we stopped in at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got a couple goodies.

The talks were great, of course but my favorite was definitely President Uchtdorf's. That man is amazing! His talk particularly touched me and I feel like sharing it. He started by talking about Forget Me Not flowers and then went on to give us 5 "Forget me nots". I'm going to write them down and then if I have thoughts on them, I will share:

1) Forget not to be patient with yourself

This one is so important. We really are so hard on ourselves all the time. God knows we're not perfect. We know we're not perfect. And guess what? Everyone else knows we're not perfect and they don't expect us to be! While we may compare ourselves to others during very human moments of weakness, we have to remember to be patient with our short comings. Nobody else is perfect either.

2) Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice.

While he used a couple of silly examples to illustrate this one, I liked the general message. So many times I think we are humans forget what a good sacrifice really is. This is when the "Good, Better, Best" philosophy comes in handy. "Am I committing my time and energies to those things that matter most?"

3) Forget not to be happy now

Oh boy. This is one I have struggled with lately, if you couldn't tell from my last post. I heard him say this and I wanted to stand up and say "Sorry, President! I'll be better I swear! You don't need to single me out like that". Ok, I didn't really think that. But I did feel like he was talking to me. It's a nice reminder. Be happy NOW.

4)Forget not the "why" of the Gospel

Awesome statement. So many members get so caught up in doing everything right, in attending to everything that needs to be done and trying to be the best at it that they lose sight of why they're doing it in the first place. This Gospel is not about one upping your neighbors or the leaders from the year before. It's about individual improvement and the journey to exaltation. It's about love, service and charity. It's about following the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and being able to live again with our Father in Heaven and our families forever.

5)Forget not that the Lord loves you

This seems silly at first. Of course God loves us. We're his children. But that's what's beautiful about it. He loves us BECAUSE we are HIS children. It's something we hear a lot (and occasionally sing about) but do we really take it to heart. It's not a metaphor. God is my father and I am His daughter. Literally.

I know I'm not a parent, but as a child I believe that there is no love more pure than that between a parent and child. It's the most natural relationship and form of love. I know that because God is my father, He will always love me and watch out for me. What more can you need?

Before he ended his talk, President Uchtdorf said something to the effect of the Forget me not flower being a symbol of the small things that make life sweet.

We need to learn to cherish our own, daily "forget me nots"

Gratitude

One of my new favorite things to do is sit on my balcony. Even though it's kinda chilly out right now and I definitely need to get to bed really soon, I just linger out here, enjoying the night air. I love just sitting outside and thinking. I love watching the sun set, looking at the stars and trying to catch a glimpse of lightening out on the horizon. I feel at peace out here. It's totally a stress reliever for me.

I've been a terrible blogger lately. I still read everyone else's but I've been terrible at updating. I can't promise that I'll change any time soon, but a plea for more posts to read on a friend's blog inspired me. And since she's moving half way across the world next week, it's the least I could do. :)

Something I really need to work on is gratitude. Lately I've been feeling very selfish, impatient and down on myself and the things I'm missing in my life. I have to constantly remind myself that I have a great life. I have an awesome apartment with great roommates. I have a good job for the time being and prospects for an even better job. I have the Gospel and a Father in Heaven and Savior who are aware of me and always there for me. I have an awesome family and parents I know I can always turn to. My car works, I have a new computer (I bought a Macbook Pro by the way...), and I have all my basic needs met. I'm educated, I'm intelligent, I'm healthy. My body functions properly and I have legs capable of getting me up the two flights of stairs to my apartment...and office now that I think of it.

I read a quote today that said "Nature, Time and Patience are the three best physicians". I completely concur. Although the patience one is a little hard to access sometimes. haha I have to remember that things that worry me, hurt me and cause me stress will one day be gone and replaced with other things that do the same thing to me. I just have to learn how to handle each situation and pray for the help I need.

Things will start to look up and until then, they certainly are not bad! I have to remember that.