Office Cleaning

We've been cleaning up the office this week because on Monday we're hosting all the staff from the other two offices and our annual members' meeting. For me personally, it's a chance to show off all the improvements I've made to the office as well as to practice the hospitality that is so important to me. 

We did an extra push for cleaning today- I ordered burritos for everyone for lunch, I set up a "swap meet" table for people to leave things they don't want and take things they do, I made "I helped clean up!" stickers to give out with candy.

I really want the office to look nice and for people to feel comfortable and happy while they're there. 

Today I also finished doing a little makeover on a coworker's office. She's been out on medical leave because of COVID complications since August so we wanted to make her office extra nice. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Brrrrr!

The last 2 mornings when Korra and I biked to work/school, it was 38 degrees!

Neutered

Like Alex Horne got snipped today. He does not like the cone. 

7 hours

We're pretty comfortable with 4 hours car rides, but when we hit the 6 hour mark (during both the to and from 7 hour ride to my sister's house) all three of us started to lose our minds a littler bit. Whew. We're glad to be home and out of the car (even though we all had a great time visiting). 

Auntie Katie

 Yesterday (while Nate was at his conference) Korra and I spent the whole day with my sister and her family. I bought pumpkin to carve and the ingredients to make puppy chow (muddy buddies). We had a pretty great day. 

90 Day Review

Yesterday I had my 90 day review at work. Yep, I've been an office manager for 3 months now and according to everyone at CTE, I'm crushing it. 

Car Office

We decided to leave for North Carolina 30ish minutes before the technical end of the work day. Of course, that's even someone immediately needs something from me. Successfully used Nate's phone as a hotpot and was able to get it done. 

Tomorrow and Friday I'm technically working from home- though home for the next 4 days is a hotel or my sister's house. Wifi should be a little easier to sort out in those places. 

But Not Floppy Disks

Today I had an appointment to take a bunch of stuff from the office (and a little from home) to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials.  We recycled old phones, laptops, a huge box of cables and chargers, and CDs.  They recycle almost everything there!  But not floppy disks.  Guess I'm going to have to just trash them?

Pride Parade

 Today Korra and I went to the Pride Parade. It was our first time watching instead of being in it and we both enjoyed it tremendously. We were at the start of the parade route because it's a) closest to our house, b) the parade comes past sooner, and c) Korra realized you get the most and best parade swag. Seriously, we have so much swag. 7 flags, 8 fans, 6 tubes of chapstick, 10 pairs of sunglasses, about a gallon sized bag worth of candy, 3 dozen beaded necklaces, coupons for free Happy Meals, and so many stickers. The parade was a full three hours long but we loved every minute of it (standing with our friends helped). It’s such a joyful experience. I gave out about a dozen “mom hugs” and Korra danced her heart out. 

Fun weekend

Last night we had pizza at Dani & Ryan's. This afternoon we had drinks with a friend and her parents. This evening we're having dinner (and hopefully ice cream) with an friend who is visiting from Seattle. Tomorrow we're going to watch the Pride Parade and then having dinner with a family from our old church. Yay for beautiful weather and time with friends!

Back in the classroom (sort of)

Today I went to the science museum with 2 of my coworkers to lead a 2 hour science class for 9th graders.  It was a small group of kids (12) and they had applied to this program so they were really into it. They built toy hydrogen fuel cell cars that we brought and they thought it was amazing. I dipped my toe into teaching and it was good. 

Carly Rae Jepson Concert

For Korra's birthday we got her tickets to see Carly Rae Jepson. She's very excited but also very impatient. 

Fall Members’ Night

We have a membership at the Botanical Gardens. They had a special members only evening with crafts, live music, treats, and scare crows.  Korra made a glow-in-the-dark firefly and Nate and I really enjoyed the chef demo (butternut squash risotto!)

Perfect Sunday

Yesterday I read in the hammock, took a nap, went on a long family walk, and took a bubble bath.  

A girl and her kitten

Bomb Biscuits

Today's Friday Breakfast Date:

My Eclectic Job

Today I reserved two minivans for our Minnesota office, got trained on our new copier, reassigned all our Microsoft licenses, received a delivery of a pallet of promotional materials from California and unpacked them all into the closet, and picked up 7 party platters from Publix for our monthly birthday celebration. 

Microsoft... Again

Looks like my whole day will once again be taken up by Microsoft customer service phone calls.  I thought I'd fixed all this earlier this month but no.  Now our subscription has inexplicably been disabled and no one can tell me why or how to fix it.  Ugh.  At least I'm doing this terrible task in sweatpants.

Justification

My throat still hurts so I'm working from home. I don't have to tell anyone at work but I'm feeling desperate to justify why I should work from home today to SOMEONE. It's just so absolutely strange and disorientating that no one is watching over me, needing me to be AT work.  It will impact only one person if I work from home today instead of going into the office (ME) and staying at home when you're not feeling well is the right thing to do for everyone. So why do I still feel like I need to justify this to someone? 

Sick?

Korra stayed home from school today because she had a cough. I went into work for about 2 hours and then worked from home the rest of the day. About lunchtime, my throat started hurting. Nate said he's feeling congested this evening. I don't like being sick, especially when the weather is so nice, but at least we have jobs where we can work from home when we're not at our best. 

New Boots

I bought these boots at the thrift store for $4.80!

On my walk this morning….

I saw this in the side of the road

Friday Brunch Date

Since Nate and I both work from home on Fridays, we've made it a habit of going out for breakfast/brunch.  It's a really nice way to have a date and not have to worry about getting a babysitter.  Today we tried out HomeGrown and it was delicious.  

I feel like our Fridays are a thing we need to take absolute advantage of (like how we used to do with summers off together).  I know it's a job perk we may not have forever, so I want to make the most of it.  Brunch dates definitely feel like making the most of it.  

Procrasti-cleaning

Today I did some major cleaning of the break room/kitchen (scrubbed out the inside of the fridge, microwave, and toaster oven), mostly in order to avoid working on some very overwhelming and tedious expense reports. 

Mended Jeans

Aren't these the cutest?!?