Saturday Morning Meetings

So for those of you who don't know... ( and I think most everyone who reads this knows) I work for Sam's Club Corporate Offices.

Sam Walton started a tradition when he was growing the Walmart business called "the Saturday Morning Meeting."

If you want to read more about why management level employees of the corporate office at Walmart/ Sam's Club have to wake up at 5:30am on a Saturday morning once a month you can read about it in an old article in Fortune Magazine(Click Here).

Even though Aaron is at a management level (he's much higher up than I am) he doesn't have to attend because he is on call on some weekends.

I actually like the meetings most of the time. It makes us feel unified as a company, and unified in what is most important to the company and how we can move forward with a common vision. We also always have really famous people attend as guests which is kind of fun! Here are some of the past people that have visited our meeting...

Today's Guest: Halle Berry




Other Past Guests:

Steve Carell


Former President Bush and Laura Bush

Eva Longoria





Others:

Sanda Bullock
Jesse James
Sheryl Crow
Robert Pattinson
Jamie Foxx

There's a lot more but those are just a few good ones!

Some mornings it's extremely hard to get up on a Saturday morning and drag myself across town, but I am always glad that I do.

Thanks, Sam, for this great tradition!

Having a job is stressful/ Fairy Godmothers

You go to college to get a good job right?

Well.....

Here are some things they don't tell you while getting your business degree:

1. Yes you make a lot of money, BUT you don't get paid more for working more hours and sometimes you have to work many hours just to get the job done for the next day and at some point the money doesn't equal the time spent.

2. People in the "real world" are much different than you picture them in the classroom. When you wake up to reality you realize people will walk all over you any chance they get, so you better have your act together if you want to survive.

3. Everyone is extremely hard to please. everyone....especially those with a lot of power and authority...

4. There will ALWAYS be more work to be done than you can possibly accomplish. Always. It's not like homework where there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nope. No light.

5. There will be days that you work so hard and for so long and it will go completely unnoticed. It took my awhile to learn this. It's noticed every once in awhile... but day to day it will probably go unnoticed.

6. It doesn't matter how great you were in college...what kind of grades you got....how awesome your teachers thought you were.... in the "real world" there will always be someone more experienced than you and always be someone one step ahead of you. At some point you just have to suck it up and be the best you can at your job and learn as you go. Humility gets you a LOT further than any kind of past rewards you earned in college.


Now just to be clear.... I actually do love my job. It is just a lot more stressful than I ever pictured my first job being. I am good at my job but it took a couple of months to figure things out. Some days are so stressful that I purposefully work late so that I have time to clear my head as people start leaving so that I am not stressed for the rest of the evening and can calm down before I leave for the day.


I should not be complaining... I am extremely thankful to have such a great job in such a struggling economy. I am very lucky. I worked hard for this kind of a job, but it will take me awhile before I am completely accustomed to the after college life and to come to terms with how things work in the "real world." I literally have a perfect life. The only thing I have to complain about is that my job pushes me to my limits (which I guess isn't always such a bad thing).





What I really am thankful for is my perverbial "fairy godmother" aka husband... (sorry honey for comparing you to a fairy... but it worked in this scenario ;) ) ... he's the sweetest person I know and always takes care of me. He always asks what he can do for me. And most of the time knows exactly what to do for me even if I don't say anything at all. No matter what kind of day I have had I always end up feeling like this at the end of the day ....


Thank goodness for fairy godmothers.

-SL

The Spirit of Christmas

I am teaching a lesson in Young Womens today about bring Christ into our homes.

This video is a great example of how we can each do our part to influence our homes, and bring the spirit of Christmas into our homes.

WATCH IT! It's awesome.

Thanksgiving

This time of the year is possibly my favorite.
I love the changing leaves, the time spent with family, the cold weather, the holiday music, etc....

This year we are spending Thanksgiving with Aaron's family in Mountain Home, AR. His immediate family flew out to our house and spend a couple of days with us and then we all drove out to his grandmas house. It's been SO much fun.

Until I married Aaron Thanksgiving has always been second to Christmas in my mind at this time of the year. I like Thanksgiving, but I am looking much more forward to Christmas. I am very grateful that I married someone who would NOT let me put my Christmas tree up until after Thanksgiving, because it made me focus on this particular holiday a lot more. I have realized over the last couple of days how much I have to be thankful for.

So here are just a couple of things that I'm grateful for!!!!!

1. A husband who loves me, and is a hard worker, and an overall great person.
2. A family who loves me and with who I have a close relationship.
3. A new family-in-law who I love being around, and enjoy spending the holidays with.
4. A great job...although difficult and stressful sometimes...I am still thankful to have a great paying job in this economy.
5. A warm house in a great town in a beautiful town that I love living in.
6. My religion and beliefs that keep me leading the kind of life that I want and need.
7. Technology and all of the benefits that it brings to our lives.
8. Nature.... I love love love Arkansas fall seasons. It's so gorgeous here.
9. Good health... the more I think about it... the more i realize how lucky I am to be in such good health.
10. Our great country. While at times it may appear quite messed up, we still enjoy so many great freedoms that we would not otherwise enjoy, and for that I am grateful.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Happily Ever After

Now that we're married...we decided to join the world of bloggers. I didn't ever picture myself writing a blog, but I think I am going to enjoy it. I have always loved keeping a journal so I think I will really love this!

Married life is wonderful. It's like always having your best friend with you. You always have someone to hold you at the end of a bad day, and you always have someone to share your life with. Now that we're married... I can't imagine life without Aaron.

On Monday we will be celebrating our one month anniversary. Now I realize that celebrating our anniversary each month is going a little overboard, but we figured that celebrating one month would be fun!! We are going to Olive Garden for dinner, and then I think we might do some fun shopping with our gift cards from our wedding.

Because so much has happened in the last month... I decided to do a list of highlights and exciting things that we have discovered about being married!

1. Honeymoon = DISNEYLAND! So incredibly fun. Total bliss. We had SO MUCH FUN!

2. Opening lots and lots of presents. We have so many awesome friends and family. We feel very blessed.

3. Date Night. Even though we are married, we still really love going on dates. This week has been SO exhausting and we were both so tired so we decided to do something simple for date night. We played Harry Potter Lego on the XBOX. Then we tried watching Stardust, but Aaron was pretty tired. I had him turn it off so he could get some sleep. He's currently in bed, and i'm on the couch watching TV. This is the first night that we haven't fallen asleep at the same time.

4. Seeing each other after work. I get home before Aaron does, and I get really excited when I hear the garage door opening because it means Aaron is home!!

5. Decorating our home. I LOVE having a house. No noisy neighbors... and I can put as many holes in the wall or paint the wall whatever color I want. It's a nice sense of freedom.

6. Married friends. We love hanging out with our married friends. It was fun before we were married, but it's even better now. It's great too because if Aaron feels like playing video games with the guys... the girls and I can do something crafty in another room. We are hanging out with friends, but we're still together so I really like that.

7. A normal routine. We are starting to settle into something of a normal routine. It will be even more normal after we are done painting the guest room/ my office. We LOVE sleeping in on Saturday mornings. We never used to because we wanted to be together so we would get up early and meet up at either his house or mine. Sleeping in has definitely become part of our normal routine, and I'm quite OK with that!

8. Mornings. I love seeing Aaron before I go to work. It makes my day just that much better. It's a great way to start the day! I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been pretty good about getting up to make Aaron breakfast before he leaves at 5:45am but the last couple mornings I have been pretty tired.

9. Sundays. Lazy lazy Sundays with my hubby. I love it. I cherish Sundays already because it's the one day of the week where we aren't trying to fit in 12 hours of work a day and everything else in our busy lives. We can just relax and enjoy each others company on Sunday.

10. Church. I love going to church with Aaron. We have only been to church once since we were married. The first Sunday we were on our honeymoon. The second Sunday was general conference so we watched that on our TV. The third Sunday we were in South Dakota for our second reception, and then this last Sunday was our first Sunday in our new ward! I love sitting next to Aaron and appreciating that such a great and worthy man was able to take me to the temple to be married for time and all eternity.



I supposed I should get some sleep. After all tomorrow is Saturday and that means cleaning the house, baking, painting, and FOOTBALL! That's right. I am determined to sit and watch an entire football game with Aaron. I really like watching football in person, but I get restless watching it on TV. Tomorrow will be different though! I'm determined.

That's all for now ~
SL