Our First Christmas Party

In December, we hosted our first party in our house.  I had my co-workers over for our department Christmas party.  Everyone brought a dish, and we enjoyed the Secret Santa reveal. (In the picture above (L-R), Kayla, Me, Kate.  Kate was convinced that Kayla was her Secret Santa.  Once I learned that I used Kayla to help further disguise the fact that I was Kate's Secret Santa.  Kate was shocked to find out it was me).

We had a TON of work to do before having people over.  JP worked until the day of the party installing the recessed lights (which wasn't necessary for the party but needed to be done before we left for Phoenix a few days later).  I also was sick the day of the party as well as about a week before.  Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the night.  However, we LOVED having everyone over.  It was SO much fun.  I think we both learned that we will definitely be having more people over to our house AND that our house doesn't have to be perfect in order to have guests.

(you can see our 70s couches in the background of this picture.  Did not have the new one yet).

We really did not have enough seating to have 20ish people over.  Our pastor was kind enough to let us borrow 20 folding chairs, even though the party was the night before our church's Christmas program.  Glad we got them back to the church before the program because the program was packed and definitely needed those seats!

Our New Normal Week...

I believe I've mentioned on here before, but I am taking four classes this semester so I can finish my MBA in April! It is going to be a lot of work, but I'm ready to be finished!

Here is just a brief rundown of my week:

Monday: After work I come home for about 2 hours then head back to UAB for my Strategy class.  This is the Capstone class of the program where we basically use everything we have learned throughout the program to create a business plan for a real company.  We have been placed in groups and are required to find a small-medium sized business that will allow us to do a business plan for them.  My group is pursuing THIS company.  It is not definite yet, but we hope that it does work out.  We think this company would be incredibly interesting to do since they sell such a unique product all over the world.

Tuesday:  I have no class on Tuesday but it looks like I will be having weekly meetings at 5:30 for my Social Media class project.  We are working with a real company that take companies that are only present on the web and helps them improve their websites and basically improve their company.  I have been assigned to the Baseball Heros team.  I'm not really sure what we are doing yet, but this company we are working with involves internet gaming based on baseball and the prizes involve meeting baseball legends such as Dave Winfield.

Wednesday:  I have my Social, Legal Environment, and Ethics class directly after work at 4:30.  This class seems very interesting, and we have already watch two interesting videos Food Inc. and Who Killed the Electric Car.  We are required to do a presentation on any issue we come up with.  My partner and I are doing our presentation on the cost of obesity to America.

Thursday: This is the day my Social Media class actually meets right after work at 4:30.  It is a very interesting class especially since this is such a new topic related to business.  I've already shared a youtube clip we watched in this class, and I'm sure there are more I will be posting.  I leave UAB at 7 and head straight to our Redeemer Community Church home group that starts at 7.

Friday:  I do not have class on Friday, but it looks like I will frequently have group meetings for my online class on Fridays.  My online class is a project management class.  To be honest, I'm not really sure if I understand our project enough to explain, but hopefully I will... eventually.  Even then I won't try to explain it on this blog because it doesn't sound very interesting.  All of my projects for my other classes seem pretty interesting to me so that is good.

So while I'm doing this, JP is busy working all the time.  He has been working 12-13 hour days... sometimes just 11 hours and usually 5-8 hours on Saturday.  It really works out well that we are both so busy.

The weather outside is frightful!

Two Sunday's ago, the state of Alabama experienced a winter storm.  The Birmingham area got some snow but mainly ice.  North Alabama, however, got tons of snow!  Unfortunately I was unable to enjoy a "snow day" because I was required to be at work to help with the hospital food service.  However, as I tell my story, I will entertain you with pictures my Dad sent me of the snow he and my Mom got to experience.

It's common knowledge in my department that if it snows, you are expected to be at work at 6:30am no matter what.  Even though on a normal day it is not a dietitians job to work in the kitchen, when there is snow or other extreme weather, we help in the kitchen because the snow normally results in understaffing.  The snow doesn't stop the patients from needing food!


I spent all of Friday and Saturday hoping that the weather forecasts I had been hearing all week would suddenly change.  On Sunday morning, however, the prediction remained for snow and ice to start moving in that afternoon/evening.  I still spent most of Sunday in denial that I would likely have to go in that night.  It was around 5pm when JP and I went on a walk and that the storm started moving in.  As we were walking, the ice rain started to fall.

After a few hours of debating whether or not I should go in or not, I finally decided that in order for me to arrive safely at work the next morning it was probably a good idea for me to go ahead and go in.  JP and I walked up to a gas station near our apartment to see how the roads were.  We talked to a few people who had just been on the road, and they said there were all kinds of accidents.  It was about 8pm when I was ready to go and the roads were snowy and icy but I figured it would be worse in the morning.  There was hardly anyone else on the road, and it was snowing/raining ice the entire time.

JP drove me to the hospital and insisted that we stopped at Waffle House on the way.  Surprisingly (or maybe not) Waffle House had a lot of customers.  After eating our waffles, JP dropped me off and headed home.  I was so nervous until I heard from him that he had gotten home safely.  Ask him what he thought about driving in that weather, and he says that it was exciting and that he loved it.

So there I was Sunday night ready to be at work the next day at 6:30am, although technically I was already AT work just not working.  I had brought my sleeping bag but thankfully one of my co-workers had an extra air mattress.  We all slept in a big room in our new office suite.  It wasn't so bad, but of course I would have preferred to be at home waking up to a snow day.



After a busy work day on Monday, we were again told that we would have to be at work on Tuesday at 6:30am, and that we would need to spend the night again because the roads would likely refreeze.  The hospital was able to book us some hotel rooms so we would be able to have a real bed and a shower.  All of the hotels downtown were already booked, so they booked a hotel two exits south of the hospital... which is where my apartment is.  Because my apartment was within walking distance, I was able to sleep there.

Most importantly, I was able to watch the BCS National Championship game.  At some points that day I thought I might not be able to watch the game, but it worked out that we all were able to watch.  War Eagle!

 

source

Tuesday morning, a police officer driving a 12 passenger van picked us all up at the hotel and drove us in to work.  After working just 6 hours we were allowed to leave.  We were all exhausted and were so glad we were relieved of our duties a little early!

One thing I learned from this is, I must say I have a new respect for the people that deliver patient trays all day.  Pushing those carts all over the hospital can be tiring!

Looking back, it all wasn't so bad at all. However, I'm glad Alabama does not have these winter storms frequently!

Secret Santa

Each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my co-workers and I play Secret Santa.  We each draw a name and once a week  for 3 weeks we give a gift.  There is a $5-8 price limit on the gifts each week.  Trying to figure out who each person's secret santa is and looking at what everyone gets is SO much fun.  We all look forward to it all year long.  Actually, our new employees that started in June were informed on their second day of work by a co-worker that Secret Santa was "just around the corner."

I always have a lot of fun buying gifts for my person.

 The first week, I gave these ornaments.  I actually got them in Phoenix the day after Thanksgiving at Hobby Lobby.  They were all 50% off!

And then I put the ornaments in this cute tin.





The second week, I went to Hobby Lobby again and gave this oven mitt and dish towel. Again, everything was 50% off!




I thought this box was really cute to put them in.

 Finally for the third week, I gave what was my favorite of the three gifts.  I got this really cute teapot at TJ Maxx.

After all of the anticipation over the three weeks, it all comes together at our annual Christmas party.  This year we decided to have it at one of the girl's houses instead of at a restaurant.  We all brought a dish, and yes there was only one "healthy" item at the dietitian party.  

This year because we had it at a home, we decided to invite spouses too.  Not many came but it was great to meet the ones that could make it.  We hear about these guys all the time so it was great to actually meet them.

At the end of the night we do the Secret Santa reveal.  There was much laughter and fun.  I am very blessed to have such fun co-workers that I get along with!

All in a days work

Recently my job has been very busy.  One of the things we have had going on is converting our food service to hotel-style room service.  I was actually on the committee that worked on this.  After over a year of working on this project, we rolled it out Sunday October 17.  Me and my fellow co-workers had to work 12 hours that Sunday, but it was great to see something we had been working on for so long finally happen!  Check out this video that explains what exactly the hotel-style room service is and what the benefits for the hospital will be.