What I've Been Up To

I know my blog has been all about Kenya lately…but I promise I have been doing other things since I have been home.  

Normally I would post all of these in their own separate blog posts, but I am really busy right now and it is taking way to long for me to wrap up all the things I want to say about Kenya.  If I was to do that, it wouldn’t be until the end of May when I would tell you about all this stuff.  Please be patient with me, I am typing and writing stuff as fast as I can in between all of the other stuff I have going on right now.  Plus, to tell you the truth, I have been reading a fantastic new book that is taking a lot of my spare time when I get home and I would rather read those books. LOL.  <-- That’s honesty.

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Drive-In Movie

I have always wanted to go to a drive-in movie theater and a few months ago Groupon had one for half off two tickets.  They were set to expire early this month, so I decided to take a friend with me to see Ironman 3.   My friend Leslie and her friend Theresa also came with us.  Theresa is new to Houston so we invited her along.  We heard that the theater sold out easily so we got there around 6:15 (for an 8 pm movie) and it was sold out. :/  We were able to get on that side of the fence though to watch the movie, as long as you have radio you can still here the movie (turn your car that direction).

Mother’s Day

For Mother’s Day we went to Landry’s Seafood in the Woodlands for lunch.  They didn’t have their usual menu, only a buffet, but it was wonderful!  I have never had such a good buffet, you go Landry’s!  We also go my Mom a DiamondCandle as her gift.  We burned her candle to see what ring she got out, but it wasn’t a $5,000 ring. Oh well, it was pretty!   More on Diamond Candles in another post!

Price is Right

My sister had told me that the Price is Right was in town and that her and her husband were going to go. I was immediately jealous and wanted to go as well, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit with them if I bought tickets.  The day of the event (a Tuesday) she said there were still tickets available and that I should buy one.  Of course I did!  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe that is next door to the theater (btw, when did the name get changed from the Verizon Wireless theater?  How did I miss that?!) and had dinner before the show.  The show itself was really fun and the host was hilarious, but unfortunately none of us got picked to be the contestants. :/  It was a fun night and I am glad I got to hang out with the Laura and Beau. 

Houston Social Source Whole Foods Singles Event

I just joined Meetup.com (it’s free!) and saw that there was a single’s event happening on a Friday night at Whole Foods off Montrose.  I posted it to FB and my friend Lily said that she wanted to go also.  We met at Whole Foods around 6 pm and got our nametags, goodie bags, drink tickets, and free food.  We added our name to a few drawings and I won a free spray tanning session.  Now, I have gotten a spray tan before, but I wasn’t a fan.  I am not sure I am going to use it or not, we will see.  There was an 80’s cover band playing too that were pretty good.  No cute single guys though. :/  We did play several games that were fun, including Whole Foods Scavenger Hunt and Grapefruit bowling in the parking lot.  At the end of the night there was also a bachelor/bachelorette game that was fun to watch.

Planning a 5K

When I as in Kenya I was thinking about what I would fundraise for and I decided I wanted to fundraise to help them build a school.  I am in the middle of planning a 5K fundraiser set for sometime in February.  More details to come!

Farmers Market

Most of you know that I am not very good at cooking, but I decided that I need to eat better than I have been lately.  My friend Leslie told me about a really big farmers market off of Richmond and Eastside in the Upper Kirby area.  I decided to check it out and buy some good veggies while there.  I had just gone shopping at Trader Joe’s the weekend before (love that place) so I didn’t need too much stuff, but I still wanted to see what it was all about.  I walked around and saw so many great vendors with all of this fresh looking food.  I saw lots of veggies (maybe fruit?) that I didn’t know existed and was too afraid to buy, but maybe next week I will get the nerves to actually try.  I ended up buying lettuce, tomatoes, white carrots, purple carrots, a breakfast taco, iced coffee with goats milk, curried lentil soup in a jar, and a curry jalapeno Indian sauce in a jar.  I have been eating salad and fresh food all week.  My body is thanking me.  Hopefully I can keep this up!  

No Label Brewery Party (this was actually before I left)

No Label Brewery sponsored our TIR relay team back in March, so they invited us to come to thew brewery to see how the beer is made and also just have a fun get together.  We met the owners, tried the beers and ginger ale (I stuck with ginger ale), played giant Jenga, and took a tour of the facility.  The owners (and their precious baby) were the nicest people!  

Cinco De Mayo

Cinco De Mayo was on a Sunday this year and I went for a strawberry margarita with my friend Tracie. Tracie lives in Pearland so we met halfway around Reliant Stadium at Pappasito’s Cantina.   This was before my ‘healthy’ grocery store trip though so I could gorge myself on salty chips and salsa.  

Astro’s game

The alumni association at SFA invited all of the SFA Houston alumni to an Astro’s game the Friday night after I got back from my trip.  I had a blast meeting new alumni, connecting with some old friends, and cheering on the Astro’s.  Unfortunately the Astro’s lost to the Detroit Tigers, but I got to watch fireworks at the end of the game so I was happy! :)  Plus, I got a free orange Astro’s shirt, free SFA Alumni koozi, and free SFA alumni stickers.  I was a happy camper!

Work Presentation

Part of my work paying for half of my mission trip was a stipulation that I would have to give a presentation when I got back to the entire company (about 100 people) what I did and what I learned.  I despise public speaking and was so nervous, but it sort of came naturally because I had so much to say about my trip and I wanted everyone to hear about what a fantastic place Into Abba’s Arms was and what a great service they are doing for the kids.  I showed about 20 pictures and gave away a free set of spoon/fork that had rhinos carved into the top, which were hand carved by an actual African Tribe.  Afterwards tons of people came up to me saying that they loved the presentation and my pictures.

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What have YOU been up to?  Do we need to catch up?  I have been trying to see all my friends since I have been back, but I am thinking I am missing a few people. 

Golf Happy Hour Gifts

Later this month, my departments are hosting an event at TopGolf Houston for a fun get together.  We (the Accounting and IT Departments) invited several other departments (other supporting departments) to come with us for a fun happy hour.  As departments that support the company, we don't usually get to go on outings with customers so we like to get together as a group to do fun things.

TopGolf has been open in Houston for three months now, and it is two exits away from our office.  TopGolf is a cross between a driving range and ski ball for golf <---That's the easiest way to describe it.  We are having a 3 hour happy hour there with drinks and appetizers for about 35 people.

I love planning events, so I suggested we go there as a department event.  Since it is just a happy hour I didn't need to decorate the area we will be in, but I did want a few simple touches.  This is what I made:

Table tents.  I just made the invitation and added it to these stand up folder things we use for other events at work.  They are double sided and I will put them on each of the tables.  TopGolf doesn't use golf carts, but I liked the look of this card together.  I found a picture online and just recreated it in Word. (company logo deleted for privacy).

I also made mini Hershey kiss size candy bar covers to sit around the table as decorations (not pictured).  For a door prize I added a foil star (like when you were a kid for charts) to two of the bars, the people who get those candy bars win a door prize!
 
For the goodie bags I made chocolate filled bags made of tulle.  I bought blue and green tulle from Hobby Lobby and cut them out in a square (they make pre-cut ones available in the wedding section, just not in the color I needed).  Just add chocolate and ribbon. I added a note that said 'Thank you for coming!' to the ribbon with an argyle background.  Blue and green argyle were part of my theme since it was golf!

 I will let everyone know how the event goes in a few weeks!

Work Gift exchange

On Wednesday my work had a BBQ and gift exchange at lunchtime.  It was so yummy and so fun!  I usually order some sort of pasta (marathoners love carbs) for lunch but this time I switched it to BBQ.  We ordered from Gil’s BBQ off of Eldridge and everyone loved it!  Gil’s dropped it off on time and it was fresh and warm.

There was tons of BBQ!  It filled the entire back counter was filled to the ends.

The gift exchange was held after everyone’s bellies per stuffed to the brim with BBQ.  Everyone was to bring a $15 wrapped gift to exchange.  The gifts that I can remember were gift cards (Subway, Chick-Fil-A, I-Tunes, Visa, and Starbucks), Marshmallow Hot Chocolate set, wine opener set, tool kit, flash drive (? An IT person brought that!), serving set, Bath and Body works stuff, travel mug, Christmas wine glasses, a game, candles, chocolate covered pecan toffee, and everything more that I can’t remember!  I brought a popcorn and movie set (which I brought something like it last year-not creative!) and also a blanket.  Well, technically my boss Rick brought the blanket but he gave me $20 and told me to pick out something. If you remember my Black Friday experience and I mentioned that we went to Kohl’s to go shopping.  While at Kohl’s I found a really nice $50 blanket on sale for $15 and I snatched it up!  It was one of the most stolen gifts at the party so I think I made a good choice!

Gifts!

I put all the numbers in a snowflake tin for everyone to choose.

I made these numbers that matched the invitation that I created. 

The official rules were read and had to be referred back to several times throughout the event.  And deals made to get the thing they want.  The blanket was a hot commodity!  Everyone was saying that deals could not be made, but the rules did not state that.  It was fun watching people put the deals together and they weren’t even secretive about it!

I originally opened a nice wine bottle set, but then it got stolen from me within minutes!  The nerve!  Then I opened a set of Christmas wine glasses, but then those were stolen.  I had gifts that everyone wanted I guess.  I ended up with a Starbucks gift card that I am soooo excited about.  I already added it to my Starbucks.com account so I can earn my Gold Card. (Take that Krista!).

At the end of the day we had tons of fun and tons of laughs!

Work Christmas Party

My work had our annual Christmas party at a local country club on Saturday night.  I was worried about who to bring because I didn’t want ot be by myself all night so I asked my old co-worker Debra to come with me.  I told her that whatever door prize she won, she could keep except an i-Pad. 

Debra came over at 6:15 so she could say hello to Jabba (he said hello back) and then she followed me to the country club in her car because she had to leave the party early.  We got to the party around 6:45 and got our name tags and door prize tickets. There were two open bars that were set up but we went to the bigger one. :)  I had my 18 mile race in Sugarland the next morning at 6:30 am (with a 4:30 wakeup call) so I was not drinking.  Debra got a margarita and I got a Flamingo Sunrise.  What is a Flamingo Sunrise you ask?  Well, it is club soda, pineapple juice, and grenadine with a straw.  So good and it has a super cute name so why wouldn’t anyone want it?  I kept going back to the bartender (like 4 times at least) and asking for another one.  I made up the name of the drink myself.  I think it will be my new signature drink.  Well, my new signature non alcoholic drink of course. J

We got our drinks and found a table that was close to the dance floor so we could see all the action.  The tables were set up like a fancy wedding or something.  So nice!  We had a very nice meal of steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, chicken, pork, and steak.  There was also bananas foster at the other buffet table, but that sounded gross so I didn’t eat it.  Our table was filled with super fun people from a few different departments.  Fun times!

Then, there was a big chocolate fountain with marshmallows (!!!), strawberries, Oreos, pound cake, pineapples, and more.  I love me some chocolate.

It was time for the door prizes to be announced.  There were a lot of prizes to be won like $100 gift cards to Wal-Mart, HEB, Toys-R-Us, etc. but also a big Kitchen Aid Mixer and about 4 Kindle Fire’s.  I was talking to the owner of the company when my number was called!!!  I won a $100 gift card to  Williams-Sonoma. 

We all danced to the Cupid’s Shuffle and a few other line dances.  I only did the Cupid’s Shuffle because that’s the only line dance I know except for the Chicken Dance and THAT would have been embarrassing at a company Christmas party. :)

I left around 9:50 so I could get to bed for my 18 miler the next morning.  Next up:  18.6 mile recap post!

And the winner is

And the winner is

Today was the judging for our Christmas Door Decorating Contest and also our pizza party.  There were 14 doors that were up for awards, but only three could win.  Who won?  Well, let’s review the doors first shall we?

You have seen the Accounting and IT doors (the ones I made for the departments I support) that I posted a few weeks ago.

This is the door that our Missing Frosty door was based on as a reply.  Santa in a Hottub from HR

CPI was a door that was themed “Children’s Letters to God”

Nat Gas’s door was an interchangeable outfit door where you can change the outfits on the snowmen that said 'What are you wearing to the Christmas party?'

Liquids door was a “Redneck Blending” door with shotgun shell and camo koozie decorations.  Each day they added more and more to the door until it was completed yesterday.

Then to bribe the judges they gave out pretzels and cocktails!  Actually they were 'mocktails' with orange juice and sparkling cider.  They also had music playing and blinkie glasses.

The owners door was a Christmas tree theme

Finance’s door was a money theme and also they had a Cat in the Hat theme.

The next two were two other doors from HR. One with a Letters to Santa theme and the other was a countdown to Christmas theme.

The CFO’s door was a Santa that was stuck in a chimney that had too many cookies.

The last door from Contracts was an ‘experienced lotto winners’ door.   The Contracts department was selling Texas Lottery scratch off tickets for $2 (instead of $1) and all the proceeds went to charity.  I think all in all they raised over $220.

Which door did you like best?  I love our two doors myself. :)  See Rudolph and Missing Frosty doors.

The winners were announced via a pizza party upstairs in the conference room.  Yummy pizza and prizes!! 

We also had Christmas cookies from Memorial Bakery.  I ate a Christmas Tree one.

We were the runner up to the most creative but we still got a prize.  The Christmas Spirit award went to CPI with their Children’s Letters to God door.  The People’s Choice went to Liquids by two votes.  Several people in our department did not know they could vote for the Frosty door since it wasn’t our ‘official’ door, so they voted for the Rudolph door.  At least three people voted for Rudolph and if they hadn’t, we would have won the People's Choice. :/  Oh well, at least we won something!!  I think it's pretty good for my first year here!

Tomorrow night is the Christmas party at a local country club!  Fingers crossed that I win something. ;)

Holiday Elves Come Bearing Gifts

Have I ever mentioned how awesome my work is?    I think I have, but I will say it again.  I honestly have never worked for a company that cares so much about their employees.  For serious! :)

Between all of the perks and benefits I get (did I mention they just upped our 401K match from 6% to 8%?) to just being an awesome place to work, I am truly blessed to be working here.  Quick story about how I got this position and why I call it my God position:  Back in March 2011 I was passed up on a promotion because my supervisor didn’t want to ‘clog up the system’ and promote me because he himself couldn’t get promoted.  At my old company you get promoted based on how many of your people you have gotten promoted (plus other stuff too of course).  Then the intern left and they gave me 80% of his job but no raise or promotion.  I started heavily looking for a new position and went on several interviews during the summer/fall/winter seasons.  I almost got another position, but they ended up going with another candidate.  Either that night or after another particularly rotten day at my old work I was at crying my eyes out and said to God “When am I going to leave?  Why can’t I find anything else?”  Then, a voice in my head (God) said “Soon”.  I know it was God saying me to stay tough a few weeks longer. :)  A few weeks later I was able to interview on a Thursday morning, went back to work afterwards and also that Friday.  That Saturday I flew to Philadelphia to visit my aunt and also use my vacation time that I needed to burn so I wouldn’t lose it on my 4 year anniversary.  That Monday I got a call from m y recruiter saying that they loved me and I was the only one they interviewed.  They made me an offer (a VERY nice offer) and I told my recruiter to let me think about it.  Really I wanted to pray about it and also talk to my Mom.  I talked to my mom, prayed about it, and called my recruiter back to accept it.  You have no idea how hard it was to keep inside!  There were several people that I was friends with on FB (including one of my supervisor) that I couldn’t post it on there without the news getting out early.  I felt that I should tell my work that I was leaving instead of them finding out some other way.  I walked in the next Monday and put in my two weeks.  I had thought they would let me go early and not work two weeks, which is what usually happens, but they said I could work the two weeks out.  I didn’t want to, I wanted to go! I did stay though and left January 27^th of this year and started my new position January 30^th.  So, I say it’s my God job because he wanted me to have the best position for me in a fantastic Christian centered company.  He didn’t want me to settle any longer.  To God be the glory! Well, that wasn’t a quick story at all!  Sorry.

Back to the elves bringing gifts!  My work gives everyone 2 lbs of pecans as a gift for Christmas, one dark chocolate and one regular, in a fancy tin!   Kendal, our HR Assistant/Elf came with a cart to deliver them to all of us on our floor.

They came in a white shipping box with our name on it with curly ribbon!

Then you open the box with a beautiful tin that says Merry Christmas (I blocked out the name for privacy).

Yummy pecans!

We have our Christmas party this weekend and hopefully I win a door prize.  I heard last year that they give away I-Pads, $100 gift cards, Kitchen Aid Mixers (the big, fancy ones!), margarita machiens, etc.  I can't wait!!  It is at a country club and I can bring a friend with me since the Chef and I are no longer talking so my friend Debra is my hot date.  I told her she can keep whatever door prize she wins, except the i-pad. :)

Work Christmas Tree

I am not one to decorate my house for Christmas because I am way to lazy to take it down at the end of December.  Last year, my flamingo Christmas tree stayed up until February when I moved. That is sad.  I know so people go all out replacing bedspreads, pictures, shower curtains, etc throughout their house.  That's way to much work for me and no one ever comes over to my house anyway.

At work though I love to decorate for Christmas!  I love it when companies go all out making the lobby beautiful and each area filled with holiday cheer.  In addition to our two doors on our floor (See our Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Door and our Frosty the Snowman Door) we decorated a Christmas tree and our palm tree.

Here is the palm tree right in front of my desk that I decorated with multi-colored lights.  Everyone seems to love it when they walk by and comment on it. 

This is our main Christmas tree on our floor (the main floor has a separate one). I was able to purchase new ornaments for the tree because last years ornaments were horrible!  Seriously.  I opened the box in the supply room and it literally was filled with feathers, doves, and butterflies. Aren't butterflies cocooning or something in the winter time?  They don't belong on a Christmas tree.  I also found glass ornaments with dollar and cent signs puff glitter painted on them and also enlarged dollar bills that had hooks on them like ornaments.  I immediately threw them in the trash.  No bueno on Stephanie's tree.  I know we are in the Accounting Department but that is just horrible. 

There is lights on the tree, but I didn't like them when they were lite up on the tree. I bought LED lights but I bought the larger ones and they look funny so I didn't turn them on. 

When I decorate a tree I always start with the ribbon and go from there.  I like the ribbon to wrap around the tree, no vertical like some people like.  Just my preference.  I choose this maroon ribbon and went with maroon and gold ornaments to complete the tree.  My old work had those colors on their tree and I didn't like them at first, but I have grown to love the two colors together.  It's Christmasy but not overwhelming.

These are some of the ornaments that we bought for the tree.

                                    

                                               I love these bulbs and also the frosted berries.
                                    

                            More ornaments!  I love all of the different ornaments that we picked.
                          

Of course you have to wrap presents for under the tree!  The tree needed more gold so I bought gold wrapping paper and mixed different ribbon on each box.

What does your Christmas tree look like? 

Tragedy in the North Pole

As you know from this post, my work hosts a holiday door decorating contests each year in each department. Our door is a reindeer theme this year (see it here) and I love it!  I was talking about the other doors over Thanksgiving dinner with my family and I  mentioned my favorite so far (besides ours) was the Human Resources door.

The Human Resources door is Santa Clause in a hot tub and bits of Frosty the Snowman are floating in the water (carrot nose, pipe, hat, etc).  The sign says 'Who's bright idea was it to invite Frosty?'  Then Santa says, 'HR, they wanted to include everyone.'  So cute!  So as I was talking about the doors over Thanksgiving when my uncle said it would be cute to have Frosty's Wife and Kids standing on the street corner with a 'missing' poster looking for him all sad.  I suggested it at work today and everyone loved it.  Off to Hobby Lobby I go!

First, I added dark blue paper to the door and penciled a silhouette of Ms. Frosty and the kids grouped together.  I cut it out and taped it to the door.

Then I added the letters to the top of the door that said "Help Find Frosty!"

Here is a closeup of the letters that we used.  The red are snowflakes and blue are little snowmen.

Then I added accessories like a purse, carrot noses, hats, buttons, arms, a bow, eyes, and the 'missing' sign.

Here is a picture of her Coach Purse that she carries.  Mrs. Frosty is sooooo stylish. :)

Frosty's daughter has a talk bubble right by her head that says 'Please help find my Daddy'.

Here is a closeup of the "Missing" Sign that I made.  I wanted to add a phone number to call, but I wasn't sure what to put.  800-555-SNOW?  haha.

Then I added these snowflakes to the blue paper in the background.  They look cute, but they are a pain in the rear trying to get them off the page.  I ripped so many of them because I just didn't have the patience to lift every single branch of the snowflakes.  It was annoying.  I think they are scrap-booking snowflakes that I was supposed to have used tweezers with, but that didn't happen.

Finished door!  Not bad for coming up with it in one day.

My work has a company intranet so we also added this news bulletin to the front page so everyone will know the HORROR that is going on in the North Pole. :)  I am also planning on passing out flyers and putting them up in the kitchen tomorrow! LOL.

Headline:  Shocking News from the North Pole

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN has gone missing from the North Pole.  His wife and children were seen today on the side of the road holding a missing persons sign. 

FROSTY was last seen by his wife when he left for the annual North Pole Christmas Party put on by the Human Resources Department.  Fox News questioned several characters that attended the party including SANTA and RUDOLPH but none will discuss what happened at the Human Resources Holiday After Party.  Apparently what happens in the North Pole, stays in the North Pole.

Police say that all puddles will be thoroughly investigated and if you come across one please notify them immediately.

The Accounting and IT Departments have posted the missing persons sign for all to see.  Please go to the 12^th floor to take a flyer.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of FROSTY THE SNOWMAN, please contact his wife at their home.

Fox News will keep you updated on any developments relating to this tragedy.