At my Dad's insistence......

I will be killing two birds with one stone this morning. I was gonna blog about my amazing Tuesday anyway so I mine-as-well "record every detail!!" (to quote my pop)

The company that owns Sears Portrait Studios & Picture Me Studios (the photo places in Walmart), CPI Corp, are doing corporate sweeps throughout the USA, Canada & (I think) Mexico. They are doing surprise visits to studios to make sure "All the Aces are in their Places" their quote not mine. Naturally for the 2 months now that we've known about these sweeps all the studio managers in my district and I'm sure every where have been freaking out! Except me. I was a little nervous sure but in the big scheme of things I knew that my studio would be fine. I was not expecting a win but I knew we would pass. I've said before and I'll say again my team is the Best in the (North)West!

On Tuesday morning (11/10/2009) who should come walking through our door.....Yep Corp! I was in the middle of taking pictures of my studio for my dist. manager with my cell phone when he walked in! I was like "Nice Heather, cell phone on the sales floor". We shook hands and a made a joke, "You Corp?" He said "Hmmm. Am I Corp? I guess I am. You the Manager?" "I am indeed!" I said. He handed me his card, I glanced at it and sat it down. He informed me he was going to look over our photography. I asked if it would be cool if I went about my business or if he needed me to hang out with him. He said he was good so I went to do manager type things. I went to make copies and called Michelle, my DM. "Fucking Corp is in my studio!!" "What?! Who?!" "Ranoldo. Ranato. I can't remember his name. " "RENATO!!!" "Yeah that's it. Is he ok?" "Yeah he's one of the good guys. Don't be nervous, you'll be fine."

I get back to the studio and he was up behind my register where all our drawers are. I assume he went through them but he never said anything. I asked him if he needed me to show him anything specific, paper work, props. No was his answer. I was kind of bummed because all my stuff was nice and in order waiting for inspection!

At this point he starts asking questions that I won't bored you with. We walked around the studio with him taking pictures of EVERYTHING!! Pictures on my wall, the front counter, my sales station, my cameras, he must have taken a hundred pictures! Some of the things we do at the studio aren't "corp approved" things. I have pictures of my girls on the wall, we don't use flip charts we use price sheets, bla bla bla. So he's looking at these things and I'm thinking "Crap! I'm gonna have to take this stuff away." HE LIKED 'UM! Even said "This is a good idea, I'm taking this back to corp!" (Thanks Trae!) He dug the picture of my girls.

Finally were standing up at the front and he asked "What do you think as a company we could do better?" I preceded to tell him just what I thought. "These $7.99 coupons are kicking our asses, the online appt. scheduler sucks, other than that it's cool!" "Oh and since I have you here maybe you can help me. I have a girl would has been, for the last year, screwed out a her raise. And I don't believe I make enough money. I'm not asking for a huge raise I just want what I deserve as a manager." Not in those exact words but you get the point. He's taking notes and listening to every word I'm saying and all in all being a really nice guy, so I say "Well how'd I do?" "I don't have a set criteria, I'm basically looking for good management good crews and well run studios. So Heather I think I'm gonna give you an Award for Excellance! Your studio just won $100! What do you think of that?"

Well let me tell you what I thought! I teared up and hugged him. "Are you serious?!? Oh my God!! Thank you so much!" He took my picture told me to have a nice Christmas and left. Wendy came running out of the camera room and we jumped up and down! We looked like big idiots! I called Michelle "WE JUST WON $100!!!" "YEAH, I KNEW YOU WOULD.....OMG I HAVE TO CALL CHERYL!! (her boss) Then she hung up on me.

I then preceded to call anyone who would answer the phone.

I got home that night and I was telling Terry all about it. He was like "So who was this guy?" I said not sure some field tech I think. No wait his card said Chief Executive Officer." Terry's like "You mean CEO!?!?!" Now before you think I'm stupid just know I didn't examine his card really closely and I just simply had not connected the dots. I hugged the CEO! I talked to him like he was just a random person. I TOLD HIM I DESERVED A RAISE!!!

It was truly awesome! I'm so proud of my studio. And just so you understand what a big deal this is, we are the only studio in our dist, region & market (of like 5 states) to have won yet. And only 11 other studios across the country have won. THE CEO OF CPI THOUGHT WE WERE AWESOME!!!!

Oh and FYI.......I got my raise!

Pumpkins & Home Improvements

The pics I ment to write about in my blog a few days ago. Opps!

1. The pumpkins we carved.

2 & 3. Same pumpkins just lit up on the porch.

4. Our new dining room table.

5. The work bench Terry built in the garage.

6. A better shot of my haircut. I just liked this pic better than the first!

Meet the Lameos!

I feel like I should update my blog considering its been FOREVER since I wrote anything informative, but I got to tell ya, there is seriously nothing going on! But I will fill ya'll in on the little things.

As some of you know Terry is learning to play guitar. He's doing quite well! at first it was just alot of random notes and alot of repetition but he's now playing songs and is getting all excited about it. I'm glad he's got a hobby. It brings out the fun side of him.

work is going well for him. He's finally able to work some overtime which is nice. We can always use the extra $!

I myself have nothing going on. I'm working alot (which I hate) so I leave early when ever I can. Although I'm VERY grateful to have a job this manager stuff blows! It will one day look good on a resume but the job itself....not fun! Stupid conference calls every morning, having a district manager who has a pain in the ass regional manager, cranky customers, worrying about what everyone else is up to or needs. I never wanted to give a crap about any of this but now I do. Ba-humbug! I'm just whining. The jobs not all bad. Only sometimes.

I'm on a new medicine for my stupid diabetes. It's called Byetta. It's an injection but not insulin. So far its working great! My blood's staying normal! And its suppose to help me loose more weight! Awesome!

Love the short hair! Very liberating!

Well my beloved Seattle Rains have come. I love rainy weather! It makes me sad when it rains while I'm at work and I can't watch it. No windows at the studio. Everything's so green! I love it here.

I've been missing my Family & Friends lately. :( I wish everyone I loved was here in WA not 3000 miles away. I'm working my ass off to get my BFF Steph to move out here. I think that if I just get her out here and locked in a room she'd stay! We'd feed her and stuff. To all my Kalgren readers help me out! I wish that Jake, Nicole & Will were out here, too. I wish they were all out here. Brenda, Melis & the boys, my Hallmark Girls, Minn. And mine & Terry's families. :(

Terry and I are watching Arrested Development in DVD. Holy Shit is that an awesome show! What the hell is wrong with this country? "So you think you can dance", "the Bachelor", "American Idol", mindless shows like that are going strong but great shows never make it! WTF?

Well I hope that catches ya'll up. Until next time........