Bestie Day 2011

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Today is a beautiful day! Know why???

It's NOT because my alarm went off at 7:25 this morning (which I couldn't figure out why...then I remembered it's because I didn't do any homework yesterday...and I have stuff due today)

It's because today is PAY DAY!

Whoever said money can't buy happiness LIED because when I checked my bank account and saw that I actually have money now, I wanted to jump around my room singing "I've got a dollar! I've got a dollar! I've got a dollar hey hey hey hey!" I did see a pinterest quote once that read: "I know that money can't buy happiness but money can buy icecream, which is practically the same thing."

ANYWAY

Just wanted to show you some pictures from last Saturday. BECAUSE I wanted you to know that I DO have FRIENDS and sometimes I don't have to WORK on a Saturday night and I DO go out and have FUN and NOT sit ALONE in my apartment watching TV. Oh wait...I don't do that...ever...

WHATEVER

SO me and my besties ate a spooky dinner (which I don't have pictures of) and watched SIGNS in a sweet fort at bestie Keri's apartment and then went to a corn maze in the DARK

SHADE

The most wonderful thing happened to me this week.

My store opened on Thursday.

If you didn't already know, I work for the Gymboree Corporation. Over a year ago Gymboree bought out a women's clothing store called, Shade. Just after Shade left the mall (which I was SOO upset about because I loved their basic layering tees - seriously I almost cried) I started working for the Gymboree Corp. in one of their children's clothing stores, Crazy 8.

Almost 2 months ago I found out that we were going to re-open Shade - at MY mall.
This is the project that my district manager (love her!) picked me to be apart of. Originally I was going to stay at Crazy 8 working as a manager like I have for the past year and also work as a manager at Shade. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to give all my time and attention to Shade - not that I don't love Crazy 8 but this Shade project is an experience of a lifetime!
How many people can say that they had the opportunity to build a new brand for a company? And be apart of the first store in the country!

Last week I found out that my district manager (again love her!) talked to corporate and convinced them to let Shade have a part-time assistant manager (there was no assistant manager position to begin with). She told them that she already had someone who would be perfect for the position. That person is ME!!

I am the assistant manager for the first and (currently) only Shade store in the USA!

I seriously cannot describe how wonderful and seriously amazing this past week has been for me. I feel like everything that I've learned during the past 5 years spent working in retail is finally coming together for this project. I've enjoyed every single second of this 40+ hour week and I can't WAIT to see what happens between now and January (as of now we're only open till after the holidays).

I feel like I can start to see what Heavenly Father has been doing with me over the past 5 or 6 years. And I can't even begin to say how grateful I am for how everything has been turning out. I truely believe that Heavenly Father knows the deepest desires of our hearts - because I can tell you, I would never have guessed and I didn't even realize it but I had been longing for this.

I found this quote on pinterst and it totally describes how I feel about my store (and I know that's like totally crazy and you probably think I'm nuts for feeling this way about a store but it's just everything about it): "And then my soul saw you and it kind of went 'Oh there you are. I've been looking for you."

I'm love with my store, it's like my baby. And our whole team is just fantastic. I just know we're going to rock it!

Check out the Shade website and you'll see for yourself how wonderful it is: www.shadeclothing.com

Curse you Facebook!

So I have this crush on a kid in one of my classes. K, I just think he's cute. I really don't know him that well. We've talked like maybe 5 times.

Instead of being a normal person and just talking to him and try to get to know him better...I decided to facebook stalk him. <--Mistake #1

I realized that I didn't even know his name. So I couldn't even find him on fbook so I could stalk him.
Instead of being a normal person and just asking him his name (you know so we could TALK more), I (like a creeper) looked over his shoulder in class and saw his name on one of his papers. <--Mistake #2 [I blame this one on all the spy shows I watch]

Yay I found out his name and now I can find him on fbook!
So of course late Friday night I fbook stalk him. <--Mistake #3 [I was alone. NEVER fbook stalk someone by yourself. You'll end up doing something stupid. Trust me.]

You guessed it. I did something stupid. I sent a friend request. <--Mistake #4. We've only talked like maybe 5 times. He probably doesn't even know my name.
But of course I justify it because we had talked so long in class earlier that day. Why would he not want to be fbook friends with me?

Monday rolls around. He still hasn't accepted my friend request. I'm not too worried about it because maybe he doesn't get on fbook that often. But that still doesn't keep me from feeling awkward when I get to class. Because I know that I sent the request. But has he seen it? And if he has, how come he hasn't accepted it?

Then comes Mistake #5 [no I didn't say anything to him in class], I looked on his fbook again. Guess what. He's been on his fbook since I sent that embarrassing friend request. He still hasn't accepted.
AWKWARD.
And of course it's too late to take back the friend request (which I learned you can do).

And we wonder why I'm not dating anyone....

Curse you Facebook for providing girls with opportunities to do stupid things and embarrass ourselves.
Because I don't already do that.

One Year

One year ago today I started working at Crazy 8. I seriously can't believe that it's been a year already. It still kind of feels like my 'new job'.
Let's do a flash back shall we??
I started working for Crazy 8 because things were not going well at American Eagle. I had been working at AE for over a year and a half. I had worked at 3 different AE stores and had 4 (going on 5) different store managers. I had just spent that summer helping the assistant managers run the store without a store manager and instead of pulling up someone from the store (...like me...) to be an assistant, they hired someone outside the company. I was sick of having to prove myself over and over again to every new store manager.
So I kind of started looking around for another job. I was praying and trying to figure out what I should do. And then one day I was heading out of work and a woman walked in. I asked her if I could help her. She said yes, she was looking for a sales lead (lower manager). I said, "you're looking for me." Yes she was. Within a week I had my job as a sales lead at Crazy 8.
During this past year at Crazy 8 I've been pulled up as temporary assistant manager (because our assistant went on maternity leave for 3 months) and I've been hand picked by my district manager to be head sales lead on a 4 month corporate project.
I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be apart of this corporate project. I'm so flattered that my district manager picked me. She told me that the second she found out about this project she said, "I want Rachel on this." This is such an amazing opportunity to build a new brand and to be apart of something so new. Corporate will have their eyes on this project and I can't wait to show them what I'm made of!
Of course any chance I had for a social life was shot the second I said yes to this project...I'll still be assistant manager/sales lead at Crazy 8 while being head sales lead at this new store...plus I still do special projects for AE...AND I'm going to school almost full time...
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

He just wants to hear from us

Alright. I know I haven't finished my August photo challenge...I'm having a few challenges with my laptop. But no worries because I'm getting a new one this week (sigh of relief and gratitude) so hopefully I'll get that finished soon.

Today is Fast Sunday - for those of you who have no idea what this means...it means that during the first hour of church members of the congregation have the opportunity to stand in front of everyone and share experiences that have helped them draw closer to Jesus Christ. Or to just share with us what they believe (we call that a testimony). And believe it or not but it's actually one of my favorite parts of the church. Now don't get me wrong, there are people in the congregation who tend to just talk and talk and sometimes the talking has like nothing to do with the Savior. You know, the people you just roll your eyes at when you see them getting up to speak. Luckily the ward I'm in is fantastic.

Sometimes I feel inspired to go up and share my testimony. But today I did not. Today I sat back and enjoyed listening to others share their testimony and was greatly strengthened by what people said. One girl talked about prayer. She said that there are times when she goes to pray and thinks to herself: oh God doesn't want to hear from me today. He doesn't want to hear about everything that I did wrong and about all the things I could do better.
What she said made me evaluate my attitude about prayer. I feel a lot like she does: oh, God doesn't want to hear from me today. I fall short so many times and I feel like my life is just the same all the time. I work like a crazy person. I'm trying to survive school. Help my car to last just a little bit longer, I almost have money to get it fixed. Please help me not feel like a idiot when I see my ex in class. I'm sorry that I think pretty much everyone is stupid and please help me to be more Christ-like.
But this girl said something that made me feel...well stupid for not remembering that it's totally true, but also realized that it's something I need to feel for myself. She said that even though she sometimes feels like God doesn't want to hear from her because she's not perfect, that it's totally the opposite, that despite that she isn't perfect, God WANTS to hear from her anyway.
He just wants to hear from us.
Even if what we have to say isn't all that wonderful or fantastic. Even though He knows that I have like no patience for people and that I beg and pled for the same things every day, He just wants to hear from me. And me in my imperfect [yet perfect ;)] state can't seem to remember that. God loves me. And I'm grateful for people who bear their testimonies and for those testimonies that touch my heart and remind me of what I already know but always manage to forget.

Day 26: something borrowed

We are currently borrowing this fan thing from, well I dunno who. I wasn't home when this all happened. Something is leaking water all over our carpet - that I already knew because I'm the one who emailed the apartment people about the problem. While I was at work someone came to 'fix' the problem. I have no idea what happened but all I know is that I came home to this really loud and annoying fan.

I was just hoping that they would replace the carpet....

Day 27: something blue

Day 25: something old/something new

This is my NEW quilt that my mother made me of OLD jeans and fabric she had when I was baby.

Day 26: something borrowed