Our first truck was 33 pallets (a normal weekly truck can be anywhere from 7-10 for a smaller store to 20 for a bigger store, which we are not...yet). The forklift decided to stop working when the truck arrived, so guess what we did? Yes. Unloaded all 33 pallets by hand. It seems to be the theme of that month- no forklift, or it doesn't work. My boss dropped a box of gallons on his leg and had a HUGE welt for a few weeks afterward. So to make you understand the work, here we are halfway through:
Front door looking in (above), and looking to the right (below):
Notice the rug and decor, which I got to shop for without a budget! All in all it was about a thousand bucks. That was one of the most fun days I had.
And looking to the left. There's my assistant in the blue shirt, my boss in the lime green shirt (side note- I have a lime green shirt too), and another manager peeking over the shelf. They are really working hard!
There's the nook as you walk in to the right. Lots of empty shelves and lots of boxes, but not anything stocked on the shelves.
The office. It seems to look exactly the same in every picture, just with little details moved around. I still love the size of it. I have an area to eat and an area to work and an area to spread my stuff out. 
There's part of the back and all of the paint. What bothers me about this picture is that the racks are empty. It's fairly easy to adjust the height of the shelves when they are empty. Guess what we are working on this week? Adjusting the height of the shelves, but we get to move paint off of them first. I knew this would happen because there is no way to know how much of each product we will need to carry, so I stayed on the safe side and gave each shelf extra room. That we now don't need. It's slowly improving.
And there's the rest of the truck.
So, now on to the enlightened portion of this post. Today we had a Women In Leadership luncheon that we have 4 times a year, but we planned to stay late because the president of our division was promoted but would be in town for the event and we wanted to have a chance to say goodbye and get some last minute advice.
Up until today, I have been on the fence about what I would do when we start a family. My options were: quit and stay at home, go down to part-time, or continue ahead full speed. I was kinda leaning to going part-time and stay with the company so that I could resume my career when I get the kids in school. About halfway through our discussion, I blurted out that I was nervous to have kids because I didn't know what I wanted to do after.
One very recent mom (a few months) said that at 8 weeks she couldn't wait to get back to work. Another fairly recent mom (less than 1 year) said that after 12 weeks she wasn't necessarily ready to go back but on that first day, she was pumped up and ready to get back into the swing of things. Cheri (president) kept saying things about her nanny. I couldn't relate.
And I don't even know if I can explain what happened to me, but I realized that I completely, 100% want to work, full time, after having kids. I can't work as a part timer after managing a store, I couldn't follow someone else's rules. I couldn't quit because I have no idea what I would do at the house all day, especially when the baby is sleeping. Forget cleaning the house!
I need that fulfillment that comes with having goals and reaching them.
And for me, teaching my kid to use a potty is not a goal that excites me. Hitting my sales budget numbers does. A lot.
I just need to figure out what my 'next step' is going to be, which is hard to think of because I'm happy in the position I'm in. But I can't be a pregnant store manager. I wouldn't be able to do the lifting, and feeling helpless at work when I'm in a position of power is not appealing. Plus I can just hear the comments from my customers. No way.
So it looks like I'm going to keep working on advancing my career and enjoying the benefits I get from it (paying off debt, vacations, and the absense of real money problems). And when the babies come, we will figure it out. I figure I'm already on the good list so I'm farther ahead than most people so if I can just press on for the next couple of years, I will be set for awhile.
I feel so elated. Like I really put some pieces of my life together today. And I'm excited to see where it goes from here.
4 comments:
And then you have a baby made just like you and Scott and all you plans change...they will, just you wait and see!!
I totally agree with Whitney. Having a baby changes everything. You'll realize that your costumers don't need and love you but your children always will. And that someone can replace you at work but no one can replace you as their mom.
Once you've changed, oh lets say, a hundred thousand diapers, teaching your kid to potty train will be a VERY excited goal! LOL!
I've already had to come to the realization that my customers could care less about me or my life- I tend to care too much about them! And by the time we start a family hopefully I won't be dealing with customers every day. But it's more about how working makes me a better person. I can't really put it into words, but I know it's something that won't change. I plan to fully enjoy as much time off as I can take after the kid is born, and head back to work after that. Thanks for the comments guys!!
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