Been awhile I know....

I realize it has been two weeks since my last post or so, but I've been busy and on vacation - YEAH! Marshall and I went up to mom's for s few days over my birthday - it was great to just relax and not do anything if I didn't want to...Marshall conned me into making breakfast though our next to last day there (6/9) - he comes and wakes me up and tells me he wants waffles, eggs, and sausage and that Grandma had said if he wanted all of that he was going to have to have me start it for her or we'd be eating really late! Mom gets in from the barn and says, "Wow, thanks for starting breakfast!" I'm like - you told Marshall to tell me to start it - no, she didn't...that was just what he thought he heard or misunderstood (he conned me - my 8 year old child pulled a fast one on me). We had blueberry waffles and a few plain too just in case someone didn't want the fruity ones - I made Marshall and mom and myself eggs - no sausage (it was frozen). I received for my birthday some lovely gifts - Marshall picked out for me (with help from mom) a notepad shaped like the letter "A" and a pink picture frame with lots of sparkles on it. Mom brought me home a rug from Japan (it is cream with a pink hippo on it) - she almost didn't buy it because it's spot clean only!!!!!!!! I will probably use it as a wall hanging anyways, why would I let people traipse all over my beautiful birthday gift? That's like sacrilegious or something. I do have pictures and I will post them as soon as I can get them downloaded into the computer!

Short Week:

Strange week for me, I worked Monday and Tuesday during the day and then on Wednesday I went in overnight for inventory (Every year I am chosen to do it, but this year it was something different for me as I had to log all the items we had issues with.). Then I had the rest of the week off - what to do with four days off in a row? Absolutely nothing got done - not even the laundry I promised myself I would do. I had dinner with Marshall at "Nothing but Noodles" on Wednesday before inventory and then I went and picked him up early from the rec. center on Friday too. Sunday morning I went and got him early (9am) and we picked up breakfast from "Bojangles" - very good, especially the "Botato Rounds". Later on we went to the mall and visited the 2-story Barnes & Nobles so he could pick out a book or two for our trip to moms next weekend (he bought 2 books)...I of course could find nothing. Dinner at McDonald's - they were all sold out of the Shrek glasses already- bummer!!! Back to his house by 6pm and I went home to relax - he was a real handful today, not listening and in general pushing the limitations too far.

Done with training...

but not done with learning, of course! There is still much to learn and commit to memory - but it will come more slowly now...just as the unusual thing pops up here and there. I am confident in my abilities to do my new job, and that confidence grows daily. I have been working on getting to know my new team members and all the quirks that come along with them - today I found out that I will also need to acquaint myself with our signing person as she falls under my jurisdiction too! So, next week when we are slower I will work side by side with her and hopefully better understand her job responsibilities and how I will need to be involved. Everything else is the same - I have been gifted a digital camera (by my mother) so once I get it hooked up to the computer I will start putting photos up too.

Training Day:

So, today was my first day of on the job training for my new position as the pricing Team Lead (the current Team Lead was my trainer). It was a really good day, nothing too difficult that I couldn't wrap my head around - the key will be if I can remember how to do it all on a day to day basis. There are a lot of reports to print daily and weekly - and I need to know what all the numbers mean too - unfortunately, most of the reports are in two different systems that I have not used regularly before in my previous position at Target. Now, the biggest challenge after learning all the new stuff will be winning over my new cohorts (they are not happy about gaining a new Team Lead) I'm sure it will be a quick victory.

"Officially official"

Well, it is now official - I will be the new Team Lead over the pricing team at our local Target! YEAH!!! No more weekends, no more closing shifts, no more preparing the ad for the next week, no more folding tables, no more trying to figure out where to put all the clearance product - I just have to mark it all clearance now. I'm sure there will be a whole new set of challenges, but I am ready for a change - over 5 years in clothing departments! My biggest area of focus will be my on attitude and the attitude of my fellow employees, trying to remain cheerful and upbeat is not the easiest of things in retail. :)

The Waiting Game...

Well, it has been a week since my last post and unfortunately I am still waiting to hear about any changes to my job position! I wish everyone (the management) could just get their butts up off of their hands and give us (the peons) all the details we so desperately need...who is moving to what area (officially of course, as we know what the rumors are) and when, it's not asking for a lot - it would just be nice to know before it happens to all of us (hopefully to me)! Nothing else to really complain about at work, it's just been work...and normal life is just that - normal (as it can be for a married woman going through a divorce with an eight year old child). One good thing did happen this past weekend though - Marshall and I went and painted pottery at a local shop (Dish It Out) and he painted me a hippo for Mother's Day and I painted an item too (can't say what as I now my mom reads this too) anyway it was a whole lot of fun. I'll update again as soon as I have any information on my job changes (if there are going to be any, etc).

Challenging Upwards -

What an interesting weekend I had at work...after reporting in at my scheduled time and schmoozing with a fellow employee I realized there was a mystery afoot! What had set my boss over the deep end? Why would she let out all her frustration towards a group that probably didn't deserve it? Having no one to go to and confide in and being it was my boss' weekend off, I decided to investigate it further myself. After talking to all involved parties and hearing all of their stories (which were all the same) - I decided to let our HR person in on the fun when I got to work first thing Monday. After a nice long chat I feel we came to a good solution - an apology of some kind will go out to the offended and then we are going to hold a dinner/chat time for all the people who regularly work in our areas - to make them feel more appreciated and such...this should keep the grumbling to a minimum (I hope!). I was concerned with going to HR about my boss, because you never know how it will come off to all involved parties, but I feel better now and I know my fellow employees will feel better too in the long run!

My day in court!

Well, today was my day to go to court and listen to all the demands from my husband and his "high-priced" attorney! They said a lot of stuff that I agreed with and I surprised everybody by being well prepared (without an attorney - hard to find one that can go to court on less than a months notice evidently), I brought in my last three pay stubs and proof of how much my child's insurance is costing me a month, etc. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, especially since the judge helped "dumb down" everything for me (not that it was needed). End result is that my child is going to remain in the custody of my husband (for now) and I will continue to pay child support (less than I was paying though) and I am not liable for the cost of my husband's attorney or court costs (YEAH!). So, now we just wait for the big, final day and this will all be but a "happy" memory...

What a week!

Well, the week is finally over! I thought it was over when I went home on Friday too, but lo' and behold I was scheduled to do the overnight ad set on Saturday! Crap, no weekend off for me. Although the beginning of Saturday was nice, got to see my mommy and her husband and we all went to see my son play his last soccer game of the season - they won 2-0, I couldn't take a nap before work so off I went exhausted. I ended the week at midnight and had over 48 hours in and then when I finally left at 6am I had put a lot of hours toward next week too. Slept more than I should have on Sunday, but I was still able to sleep Sunday night...which was good!

First full day in new department:

Today was my first day in my new department...I used to be Men's/Shoes/Infant's and now I am Men's/Boys/Infant's! Not much of a change but enough to notice. Plan was to set 4 tables, and one Newborn layette - and not only did I do that but on top of all that I also set an endcap with these really cute hooded bathtowels on them! Everyone wanted to know why I was so happy all day today and my only response was that the day went better than I had planned! This was a good thing considering my boss had said she'd come and help me when her shift ended and she showed up 30 minutes before I was ready to go home, and of course was all done needing any help...I said to her, "I'm glad I didn't really need any help!" Help would have been nice, but it feels good to get stuff accomplished on your own too. I also got my annual review today...not what I wanted but what I expected! Work on being consistent with everything, work on your attitude towards others, ask for help, don't complain so much about stuff you can fix yourself, don't be so negative all the time.

"Target Church"

Today at 6:00am I went to work - yes, on Easter! We were closed for the holiday, but in an effort to be nice our store offered to go help out another one that is far behind in their work. My store manager opened the door to us(about 20 from our store and another 15 from their's) this morning and greeted us with, "Welcome to the church of Target!" We spent the entire day pushing freight from a truck and zoning the store to planogram, we we not able to get to the tables which were in dire need of folding or the numerous carts of reshop leftover from Saturday night...it makes you realize how good you have it at your own store when you go to another that is in distress! We all firmly believed that this was not a day of helping them but it was to make us appreciate what we have...so in a way it was kind of like church (we all came out feeling better about our own stores). Even those who were there from that store ended up appreciating their own store more once we filled it up with product and got it looking better, and I know that I will never say, "Look at my __________ (insert any store area) department it's trashed!"