13 posts tagged “plans”

Happy New Year 2009!

Hope everyone had a happy New Year!  We went to Betsy & Richards for their 3rd annual party and had a great time, as always.  Looking forward to good things in 2009, although I have had bad luck with the odd-numbered years in the past.  Both 2005 and 2007 left a lot to be desired, while 2004, 2006, and 2008 were all great years for us.  I plan on breaking that pattern this year. 

I was pleased when Richard got the fire pit going and they passed out pieces of paper for people to write down the things they wanted to leave behind in 2008 and throw into the fire, and I really couldn't think of anything non-political to write.  Last year was a completely different story.  I had fun tossing a "Screw You AAA!" message into the fire.  But this year, Tadd and I have both had decent jobs and things have been good.

Plans coming up...Our office is closed tomorrow, so I am enjoying a four day weekend.  Tadd has to work tomorrow, so after vacuuming up the living room in the aftermath of removing the Christmas decorations, and writing out Christmas thank you cards, I may go to the movies by myself.  Not sure yet.  Saturday night, my cousin Brianna is spending the night at our place, and then  Sunday, Tadd and I are taking her to Epcot.  It's our one last hurrah before she goes back to Massachusetts and we go back to work post-holidays.  I believe Sunday is also the last day that Disney has their holiday celebrations going on, so we'll get to see Illuminations with the extra Holiday fireworks!  I'm excited for Brianna to see that, because they really are spectacular and we haven't gotten a chance to see them so far this year.

Next Friday, we are meeting a bunch of friends at Rising Star at Universal Citywalk for Tadd's 28th birthday.  That's the kareoke place where they have a live band and backup singers.  SOOOO much fun!  Even though I refuse to actually participate...I just like to watch everyone else make fools out of themselves!  It will be even more fun when it is Tadd and all of our friends doing the singing.

Five day weekend ahead for me.  I took Monday off as one of my end-of-year "use it or lose it" vacation days.  And just in time because, although this was a short week, I feel like I did enough work in 2.5 work days to equal about 2 weeks worth of work.  This is the busiest time of the year for the benefits administration industry...lots of companies have their open enrollment periods in December and January, plus the end of the month is usually hell anyways, PLUS this was a short month.  Ugh.

We had friends over last night for drinks, pumpkin cheesecake, and Wii games.  Only a few people were able to make it due to either working late, being out of town, or having guests in from out of town, but that's ok.  We had a nice time regardless and it was a good excuse to clean my house from top to bottom in preparation for Christmas decorations. 

Right now I'm starting to make broccoli casserole to bring to my parents house.  It's my first time making it, so I hope it's good.  The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is on.  Pretty soon I will be making cinnamon rolls and using them to bribe my husband out of bed (he's still snoring away).  As usual, we're going over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents and aunt & uncle.  Then tomorrow is the traditional mother-daughter shopping excursion.  We're going to Target and I'm hoping to get one of the $89.99 digital cameras.  We need a new camera desperately and you just can't beat that price for a decent point-and-shoot.  Saturday I plan to start decorating...we'll probably put the tree up that day.  I can't wait!  I just LOVE this time of year.

Anyways, hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This is seriously the BEST time of year to live in Florida.  The weather has been SOOOO NICE lately!  I love being able to wear a light sweater, and open all the windows, and turn off the air conditioning, and just enjoy it.  We were thinking about going out to the Magic Kingdom this weekend so we could spend some time walking around in the glorious fresh air, but apparently this is a really busy week at the parks because a bunch of schools in New Jersey have the week off or something.  TouringPlans.com is calling this weekend as a 7 out of 10, whereas next weekend is averaging as a 5 out of 10.  So we're definitely going to go next weekend, as long as the weather holds up.

Tadd is helping Ryan and Rick move into their new place today, so I'm pretty much on my own.  This morning I went on a little shopping spree.  JCPenney is having a huge sale, so I got 2 sweaters and a shirt for about $40.  Then I went to Bath & Body Works, because I had a $10 off $30 coupon burning a hole in my pocket.  I got a 2-pack of Cinnamon Pumpkin plug-in air fresheners, a Christmas Tree scented candle in a festive glass holder for Tadd's man den (he LOVES pine/forest-type scents), a Creamy Nutmeg scented candle for me, and a three-pack of trial-sized lotions in the limited edition holiday scents (Vanilla Bean Noel, Twisted Peppermint, and Winter Candy Apple) that I'm going to bring into work and split with some co-workers.  All of that for only $22!  Then I went to Yankee Candle, where I got four holiday scented tarts (I think I got Egg Nog, Holiday Apple Wreath, Jack Frost, and one other scent...can't remember).  Then I got a small jar candle with a new scent called Silver Bells, which smells SOOOOO good!  I think we are now FULLY stocked on Thanksgiving/Christmasy fragrances!  But that's ok because I love all the holiday scents for this time of year.  And luckily Tadd does too.

Tadd just found out that he might have to travel to Atlanta for work for a few days in mid-December.  Unfortunately, it might mean we have to cut our WDW holiday weekend getaway short.  He wasn't supposed to go until January, but they just opened up a session in December, and they would really rather him go sooner than later.  I'm really hoping it doesn't work out.  I've been looking forward to this little getaway for months.  I don't know why they assume that they can give a month's notice for something like this right smack in the middle of the holiday season and expect people to be able to go.  But if he has to, he has to.  In this economy, I'm just glad he has a job and don't want us to do anything to jeopardize that. 

Originally when we made plans for my in-laws to come to town, I was only going to take the first half of the week off.  But since then I decided to see if I could get the rest of the week off.  I really didn't know how my boss would react, so I hemmed and hawed awhile about it.  Today, I finally bit the bullet and asked and she was TOTALLY fine about it!  I filled out the request and it has already been approved and put on the company calendar.  So I have a full week of vacation to look forward to in two weeks!

Woo hoo!

It has been a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time since I've taken a full week off of work.  Actually, I think it was 2005 when Tadd and I took a cruise with friends.

Today is our 4 year wedding anniversary!  I can't believe it.  We aren't going to do anything until Saturday, but I think I'm going to stop by Publix on the way home and buy a bottle of champagne for us to enjoy tonight.  I think we're also going to watch our wedding DVD.  Not sure what we're doing Saturday because Tadd won't tell me.  He's sneaky like that.

Things in other aspects of my life are ok.  Work is getting better as I learn more and more.  I'm much more comfortable now than I was in those first couple of weeks.  I could do without some of the office drama, but every company has that.

I know this is a quick update, but I must get back to work.  More later!

My new position is totally kicking my bum.  It is SO stressful and as a whole, our department is SO behind.  I still have to get over a lot of my insecurities when it comes to handling unhappy people on the phone, and I still have a lot to learn.  I have been coming home every night exhausted and have been working remotely from home after hours to keep up.  I'm trying not to worry so much about it, but the stress does get to me and I have found myself longing for my old position where I knew what I was doing and could do it quickly and efficiently.  Hopefully that day will come again soon...

Luckily, we have a few fun things going on to distract me.  Tadd and I talked to my mother-in-law last night more in-depth about her plans for when she comes to visit in October.  I actually put in for a quote with a travel agent last night and am waiting to hear back.  She wants to do a few nights in a Fort Wilderness cabin, which should be so much fun!  We're planning on getting there about mid-morning Monday of the week they are going to be in town, go to a late lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe in the Wilderness Lodge, then the Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom.  Then Tuesday we'll be at Epcot most of the day for Food & Wine Fest.  Then Wednesday we have breakfast at Kona in the Polynesian, followed by a day exploring Fort Wilderness, maybe mini-golfing, hanging out at Downtown Disney, etc.  We're going to rent a golf cart while we're there to get around the Fort, and I plan on decorating our cabin (and our golf cart) for Halloween/Autumn.

Also, Tadd found out that his boss might be sending us to Las Vegas!  We don't have many details yet, but he wants to take Tadd to an industry convention and said if I pay my own airfare, I was welcome join them.  We'll have to see about work time-off and such, but it would be tough to turn down, especially since I think it is right around our anniversary.

Work is still crazy, but at least I don't feel buried at the moment.  There has been more talk of hiring another person to help me out.  I hope they actually go through with it soon.  I'd like to be able to take a minute to just breathe every now and then.  I am counting down the days until our trip to Tennessee...I need a vacation!!!

Our Disney blackout dates for Spring Break are over and we can go back again until sometime in June when they are blocked again for the summer.  We were both surprised how much we missed having the opportunity to just go to any of the parks for most of March while we were blacked out.  We've decided we are definitely going to do our best to renew our passes in September, because we both feel the investment has been well worth it.  Anyways, Saturday night, we are going to do a date night.  Magic Kingdom is open until midnight, so we're going to have an early dinner at the Concourse Steakhouse and then walk over to MK for the rest of the evening, mostly just to wander around and take in the night parade and the fireworks.  Then the following weekend, we're going to go to Epcot's Flower & Garden Festival.  It will be my first time at F&G, so I'm excited about that.

Well, I have to be getting back to work so I don't get too far behind.  More later.

Lots of fun stuff going on right now...

• This weekend, we pretty much finalized our cruise plans.  October 4th on the Carnival Glory!  I absolutely cannot wait.  We'll be going to Cozumel, Belize, Hondouras, and the Bahamas!
  
• Tadd started up a fantasy baseball league, and I decided to give it a try.  I named my team the H-Bombs.  I'm not really up on the stats and figures, but it's all just for fun, so I'm just going to do my best and learn as I go.  I'm currently putting together a list of my top 25 players for when we do our live draft.  Bet, Ryan, my dad, Richard, and a few others will have teams as well.
  
• We get a short day at work tomorrow thanks to Presidents' Day.  All of the companies that use us for their benefits administration for are off tomorrow, so we only have to work 9-2.  Nice!  It would be even nicer if we got the whole day off, but I'll take what I can get.
• I never knew how much you could save by shopping at CVS until today.  We finally got one of those Extra Care Bucks (ECB) cards, and bought a ton of cleaning supplies and other essentials today, including one of those automatic shower cleaner machines.  We saved a total of $26 off of an approximately $50 purchase with sales and coupons and then got an additional $21 in ECBs towards our next purchase!  Even better...I found that there are whole message boards devoted to getting as much value out of those ECB cards as possible.  People are walking out with $80-worth of stuff, while only paying like $0.11 out of pocket because they know how to work the system.  This totally appeals to my bargain-shopper tendancies!  I love it!  So I have a feeling I will be shopping a lot more at CVS from now on.
  

This weekend will be nice.  We are celebrating Valentines Day a little early.  Back in October, Tadd got reservations for the California Grill (at the very top of the Contemporary Resort, overlooking Magic Kingdom) for tomorrow night.  He timed the reservations with the fireworks, and we're going to arrive early to try to get window seats.  To make a weekend out of it, I went on Priceline and got an inexpensive hotel reservation at Gaylord Palms Resort, which is incidentally the same resort where we spent our first anniversary.  I'm not sure what the plan is aside from dinner, but I think we may end up at Animal Kingdom on Sunday.  We're also thinking about going to one of the parks after dinner...possibly Epcot, or maybe Downtown Disney if we get out of the restaurant too late to go to the parks.  Should be fun.

We are not only celebrating Valentine's Day, but also the 5 year anniversary of Tadd proposing to me, and the fact that we both have new jobs.

Gotta get back to work.  More later.

Mountains of Tennessee

I've been researching dates and airfares, and I think there is a good chance we might be going to Tennessee to visit the in-laws in May.  I feel bad because in the 5+ years since they moved up there, the only time we visited was when Cliff (stepfather-in-law) passed away back in 2005.  We've made tentative plans to visit here and there, none of which actually came true.  For awhile, there was talk of us going up to visit last Thanksgiving, but Peggy (mother-in-law) decided she wanted a vacation in Florida instead.  So plans switched and they came to visit us instead.  Considering the turmoil we were going through at the time, I think that was definitely for the best.

I know my experience there during the days following Cliff's death was surreal, strange, and not entirely pleasant, but I'm hopeful that this trip will be a lot different.  They live in a pretty rural area, and that type of place isn't really my cup of tea.  But, being in the mountains, it is scenic and a definite change of pace from what I'm used to on a daily basis.  Central Florida might be bright, shiny, and new, with easy access to the kind of entertainment that leaves your senses overloaded...but it thoroughly lacks the historic charm that Cookeville and the surrounding areas do have to offer.  I know that due to the circumstances of my last visit, I wasn't able to really give the area a chance.  I know this time Peggy will be taking us to some interesting places and doing her best to keep things fun.  So I'm really looking at this as a fun vacation of sorts, instead of just a family visit.

So I found this great airfare on Southwest.  With taxes and fees, it would be a grand total of $355 for the two tickets.  We'd fly out on May 22nd, my birthday, and fly home on the 27th.  And thanks to Memorial Day, I would only have to use 3 vacation days.  I think the flight is only about an hour.  We were going to drive, but with such a short amount of vacation time, plus the cost of gas, I don't think driving for 12 hours each way is the best way to go.