Forgetfulness

I've been reminded numerous times in the past week or so that my birthday is coming up. I don't hate my birthdays, but I don't love them either. I never want things, for my birthday or Christmas. I have everything I need and all that I want. I'm not materialistic (maybe that's only because I have the material things that I want...) and I've been thankful that I'm not the kind of person who lusts after worldly things. I'm not the type of person who will remind you constantly ahead of time that it's about to be my special day. Consequently, I tend to forget other people's birthdays as well. I just don't put that much importance on my own, so I guess that subconsciously I don't put much on anyone else's either. One year (ok, most years) I forgot almost everyones birthday in my whole family! Imagine the guilt! I am going to make a conscience effort to do better. I always marvel at people who manage to remember birthdays, anniversaries, pet's birthdays (I do know Rex's...June 1). I admire those people. And while I consider myself to be a pretty thoughtful person, forgetting someones birthday is pretty bad. So I'm sorry. It is something I do, and I'll try hard not to do it any more.

The Camera Situation

I have been getting some flack for not posting pictures of our Europe trip. The reason I haven't is because...we really didn't take any! Before we left I asked Jimmy if he had packed his camera, and he assured me that he had packed his camcorder and camera. I said 'if I need to go to my parent's house and borrow Beverley's camera just let me know...'. He said no, everything was fine.
So we get to London to find out that he indeed had packed the camera, but it was dead and he didn't pack his charger! So we went camera shopping once we hit Brussels. Well, the cheapest camera we could find was 400 Euros, which is about $600. I just couldn't see spending that much on a camera that we could only use in Europe. Jimmy said it could be our 'Europe camera', but the fact is that we will be there again together, so we didn't feel bad about not taking pictures this time. I was not upset about that. I really didn't even think about taking pictures because we were so busy with everything and having so much fun. And now that I'm home, I'm wishing we had taken some pictures! It was so beautiful over there. Please don't be upset with me anymore! I will do better next time...
Work has been really busy since I've been back. My company is notorious for having mettings ALL THE TIME. We then have meetings about those meetings. And then we have meetings to plan additional meetings. There is a lot of meeting going on constantly. We had our Owners Meeting last week and that means that aside from the meeting, there were several functions to go to. Now that I'm part of our corporate team, I'm expected to be at all these things. It gets exhausting! There is just so much going on that it's hard to keep up with sometimes. Also, I am a girl who loves her sleep. I wouldn't say I need a lot of sleep, but I LOVE a lot of sleep. Before I worked at IQ, I would go out with my friends 3 or 4 times a week and stay out until 2 or 3 or 4am each time. It was awesome! We had so much fun and I was great at functioning on little to no sleep. I carried that talent over from when I was in college. When I first went to school I had a curfew because I was on an athletic scholarship. We had regulations to follow, and one of those included a bed time of no later than 9pm. While I had fun, it wasn't the normal college experience. I've never been a partier, but I've always liked going out and meeting new people. I love the atmosphere of a fun bar with great music playing. So my last year of school I was able to have a lot of fun and excitement with my friends that I'd never been able to have before. It was great. And then when I moved to Little Rock and started meeting new people, it was even better! With all that being said, I don't think I could do it again! I mean, I still like to go out but now it takes me a while to recover. Since I haven't had that late-night lifestyle in almost a year, the thought of staying out past 2am freaks me out. Really all I want to do is hang out with Jimmy and my friends and go to bed early!

Back Home!

Jimmy and I got in from Europe late last night and I'm already starting to feel the jet lag. I never have a problem with it when I go some place, but when I come home I'm close to worthless for 3 days or so.
It was an awesome trip. I loved every second of it. I was ready to come home, but not ready to catch up on work! There is surprisingly little to catch up on...I guess I trained my team well enough to function on their own. I feel really good about that. The last time I left the country I returned to find millions of problems and unfinished projects. I had just gotten my promotion to director of operations the week before we left for that trip last September, and I feel like I've really had some great time to build my team up to what I need it to be. I've gotten rid of some people and hired great replacements. I have to say that I'm very proud of myself. I won't be so nervous next time!
So I got a voicemail this morning from my Dad telling me that my sister Melissa had just gotten out of her surgery and was doing fine. WHAT?! I didn't even know anything was going wrong! Before I left she and I spoke and she told me she'd been quite sick, but I never thought it would be something that would require surgery. I was thinking more along the lines of it possibly requiring an epidural...I thought she might be pregnant! But no, it was an actual serious problem. I felt helpless that I couldn't be there for her. I may go see her tonight at home if she's feeling up for a visit. I love you Melissa! Feel better soon!

Jimmy has informed me that this weekend we will be working on the house. It doesn't need a lot of work at all. By 'working on' he means changing out the remaining light fixtures (brass is not pretty, for real) and finish stripping the wallpaper in our bathroom. This will not be an easy task. Our bathroom is huge...easily the size of one of the guest bedrooms. And it's all flowers all over. I hate wallpaper, especially when it is covered in flowers. I don't know why anyone in their right mind would put up wallpaper anymore. The fun part has been that since we'll be painting over those walls anyway, we've been writing sweet messages to each other which has been really fun for us. I'm not excited about home improvement weekend, but glad that when we come back from our trip the house will look so different. I'm thinking of giving our designer a key to the house as well so that she can go in there and do whatever she wants while we're gone.
Rex got groomed this week at a new place is Hot Springs, the Doggy Dude Ranch. For real, that's what it's called. He looks amazingly handsome. His hair is so short now! He's a long haired breed so his hair will grow to the floor if we let it, but I've always kept it short. He's also shedless, which is awesome. He is the best puppy ever! I'm wanting to put a picture of him on here but I've already forgotten how to do that...