The "Lowe-down"

So, here's the update on my first full, operational month with Lowe's: I really like my job. I've almost got a full complement of coworkers now, so things are running much smoother. I have a full time waterer, so much less is dying now, except when she has her two days off and no one waters anything. We worked out that glitch and rotate mine and Becky's days off with hers now, so one of us water when she's gone. There's another guy with a horticulture degree starting in a week or two to help me out. He's going to cover my responsibilities while I'm on maternity leave. (I already checked, he cannot be given my position while I'm away on maternity leave.) I feel like I've really stepped up to my responsibilities. I know exactly what my plant orders are doing, I'm keeping the nursery stocked, and keeping my people busy. It's kind of funny, the order of management goes from my zone manager, Scott, to my department manager, Ryan, to the team lead, Matt, to me, then to the sales associates and vendors. Most of the people in our area don't even know who Matt is. They come to me first, sometimes over Ryan. Ryan doesn't care, he'd rather they came to me and left him alone to get his other stuff done. Matt doesn't seem to want to step up to a leadership role either.

Everyone is really good to work with, albeit, there are a few quirks here and there, but that's just to be expected. The baby is making the days feel longer and it harder to do my job. My current game plan is to work through the 24th of July and then to start my maternity leave. I'm going to talk to the doctor about it as it gets closer and see what he thinks will be best. Scott and Ryan said that everything slows down after the 4th, so I'll be fine to go when I need to.

Ryan and Addie's Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Ryan and Addie's birthdays. Ryan's was actually yesterday, but Addie's isn't for another 2 months. We just celebrated anyway because they'll be in North Carolina then. I'm gonna let Meg do most of the narration for the day in her blog, but I thought I'd post the cute pictures that I got.

I cannot get this picture to post straight no matter what I do, but it was too cute to leave out.

Holy Crap, I'm Having a Baby

I've known about the impending arrival of my daughter since late November. However, it hadn't really sunk in that I was actually going to be a mother, it just felt like a dream or like I was making it up.

I assumed it would get real when I started to feel her kick. Nope.

I thought it would feel real when we saw her ultrasound pictures. Nuh-uh.

I figured it would seem real when I started to show and people asked me about it. Nada.

I guessed it would be real when we picked a name. Nothing.

Seven months pregnant and it still didn't feel real. I thought I was nuts. Finally, last night, it got real. All it took was this:

There's nothing better in this world that having an internal panic attack in the middle of Babies'R'Us. That store scared the crap out of me. Thank goodness for the Prozac keeping me calm and normal or I'd have started bawling and had an "I can't take care of my baby" spaz right there in the middle of the store.

I'm not sure why it was the car seat that made it so real. We've had baby clothes for weeks, a swing, and lots of other little things, but they didn't do it. The car seat did. I stood there and stared at it for a minute and all I could say was "Holy crap. I'm having a baby." The reality of it is wearing off again, and it seems like it's happening to someone else, but every time I pass by that little orange car seat sitting in my kitchen, I know it's really me having the baby.

Kelly says he's already had his "holy crap, we're having a baby" moment and has moved on. I don't think he has yet. I don't think it's really going to sink in for either of us until we're in the hospital with her.

I'm just afraid we won't be ready.

Grand Opening is Officially Over

Well that was fun. The Grand Opening festivities lasted from Thursday to Sunday. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in a store at once. My entire nursery is just empty. I spent today calling my suppliers trying to get restocked from Mother's Day this Sunday. It's so frustrating to have to tell people that I'm out of product when we've only been open for a week. Half of my plants haven't even come in. I got a handful of trees this morning and a second shipment of shrubs. They apparently didn't get my fax with the changes I wanted to make because I now have 120 1 gal arborvitae, 80 5 gal arborvitae, and more junipers than will ever sell. I don't have any burning bushes or lilacs and barely any barberries. No raspberries to speak of either, but 56 pots of blueberries that won't grow here. My department is understaffed, as is the front line for cashiers, so I spent most of my time at a register. My poor plants are being neglected because we don't have the manpower to water them, help customers, and run 4 registers. I only have 4 people, including myself, to cover the whole outdoor department for 7 days a week and 16 hours a day. The senior managers have been spending a lot of time at registers and doing cart runs to try to compensate for what the other departments are lacking too. Supposedly I have 2 part time waterers that are in orientation tonight and will hopefully be ready to go by the end of the week.
The baby is making it harder to do the things I need to. I have to send other people to help a lot of customers because I can't lift the paver stones over and over. One or two isn't an issue, but when they want 50 of them, I can't do it. It's getting hard to stand all day, my feet and lower back hurt really bad by the end of the day. She spent all of today on my Sciatic nerve, so I've been hobbling around trying to ignore it.

Anyway, on a more pleasant note, I do actually really enjoy my job and I like the people I work with. I don't have to babysit them, and I can give them a list of things that need to be done and I know they'll get done if it's at all possible. This past weekend it was just physically impossible to get anything done.

Preggy + Work = Tired Sarah

So, the Grand Opening for my store is tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes. The way my schedule worked was that I had last Saturday off, then worked 10 straight days till next Wednesday. I was pushing too hard to get my garden center set up and was burning out, so my managers let me take today off after I watered my houseplants to recoup for the craziness that is going to start tomorrow.

I kinda feel like I'm leaving my team high and dry, because there's so few of us, but the baby comes first. One of my girls made that very clear yesterday. She's mom's age, and asked if I'd taken a break. I laughed and told her that breaks implied that I had 3 seconds to breathe. I got in trouble and she made me go sit down.

I've been dragging the past few days and was worried that if I kept pushing that hard I'd end up on bed rest. I basically collapsed when I got home and slept for 3 hours. I keep thinking that there's so much I need to do around the house, but no. I got the day to rest, so I'm going to rest. Except for doing laundry, because nobody likes smelly employees.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my Mom's birthday, so I felt as though I should dedicate a blog to her for being such an amazing mother.

Good mothers beget good mothers, so I'm feeling pretty good about the arrival of my daughter.


Mom has supported every big decision I've ever made.



Mom never hesitates to laugh with us or at us when we deserve it.

Finding pictures of Mom can be a challenge, because she usually hides from the camera.

For the past 28 years Mom has taken care of us. She would always stop and buy us a slurpee when we had to go to the doctor for any reason. She made us a good dinner almost every night, even though I was/am ridiculously picky and usually complained. She washed all of our clothes, even Kelly's when he'd get sprayed by a skunk.

She came to every extra curricular event we had: swim meets, basketball games, band concerts, plays, award ceremonies, and all of our varying graduations.

She accepted all of our friends growing up, even the ones that annoyed her, and gave us a lot of independence.

Now, she has lovingly accepted all of our spouses as family and still gives the independence we need with a good dose of mothering when we need that.

Mom showed me that there is no reason to be anyone other than who you are.

Forgive me for not making this longer and more heartfelt, but I've got the flu. My wonderful mother is going to bring me some shower tablets to clear my head though.

Home Sweet Home

I think I hate unpacking even more than I hate packing. Kelly said it wasn't so bad, kinda like Christmas, because you get to open boxes and find things you didn't know you had. Bear in mind he only unpacked a hand full of boxes. I had a couple of days off, so I unpacked the majority of them. I'll post pictures when we finally finish unpacking and get all the picture hung. I had no idea we had so much junk. He says its like we're still at Mom and Dad's because he doesn't know where anything is, but there's less food here and it's warmer.

I love you Mom and Dad, and really, really appreciate you letting us stay with you, but holy cow, your house is always cold.

The neighbors are pretty quiet and the area is nice. I just have a short walk across the street to go to work, so that's a definite perk. We're far enough off the main road that we don't get any noise from Washington Blvd or from Harrisville Rd.

Work is going well for me. We finally have finished setting up the store and are doing a few days of training before the varying Grand and Soft Openings during the week of the 27th. My department still needs some work, but my plants are all going to be delivered next week, so that should take care of it.

Kelly likes his job, but was miserable this week. He's got the nasty flu going around. Again. We had to take him to Instacare last night because he's developed an ear infection with it. He got ear infections a lot as a little kid, and still has problems with them. I didn't get them much, so I'm hoping our little girl takes after me in that aspect.