We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

This is my feeling today about living in the metroplex.

Most days, I don't feel a difference between living here and anywhere else. But sometimes...every now and then...something happens that gives me a kick swift in the posterior end as a reminder that things are very different here than what I'm used to.

Today a lady and her mom came in shopping. They found several items, mostly wall decor and a few other things. They checked out, and the daughter (probably in her thirties) took a couple of the wall pieces and her bag out to the car and was going to pull up closer to the store so her mom didn't have to walk. She had her purse on her shoulder, the bag in one hand, and was putting the two wall pieces in her trunk. She heard a car passing behind her. Suddenly, a woman jumped out of the car, and tried to yank her purse off of her shoulder. The customer yelled "no" and shoved the woman's face away from her, trying to get away. The woman told her not to fight her or she would shoot her. About that time, the customer looked down and saw a coke bottle in the woman's pocket. She said, "Oh, with what? That coke bottle?" The woman again tried taking the lady's purse, and the customer again resisted and was able to punch the woman in the face and try to take off. When she did, the driver got out of the car and tried taking her purse, but only got away with her Kirkland's bag. They jumped back in the car and took off. The customer was able to get a description of the car, but not the license plate number. She came back in the store and told us what happened. We called 911.

When the police came and was taking her statement, there was a call over the scanner. A man and woman of the same description, in the same kind of vehicle, was seen doing the same thing in the WalMart parking lot. This time the victim was injured. The police left for about 30 minutes so they could go assist there, but they came back and finished the report for our lady.

I'm so thankful that she was not hurt. Evidently, the police said that they had hit another place before our lady's incident, then they went over to WalMart. Not sure if they hit any other places. They had the Lake Worth, Azle, and Ft. Worth police depts all looking for them. Hopefully no one else was injured.

I don't like that kind of excitement to blog about.

Wonderful Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day with family and friends!

Mom and Dad and Katie came into town Tuesday night. My sister had to work Thanksgiving day, so she and her husband stayed home. I worked until six Wednesday night, then came back home to make my traditional "green stuff" salad to take to our extended family get together, have hot chocolate and cookies along with a hot game of double canasta (which the girls won, by the way) with the family!

Thanksgiving Day we gathered with the extended family on my mom's mom's side. One of my cousins works for Northwood University in Cedar Hill, so they were able to let us use the Student Activities Center. That campus is absolutely gorgeous. The picture of Dan and me was taken on that campus, on the porch of the 2nd oldest building in Dallas, the Sloan Cabin.

Then, of course, there was today...Black Friday. Kohl's is in our shopping center, and they opened at 4 AM. The other stores in our center weren't that completely insane, but wanted to catch some of the traffic leaving Kohl's, so we, along with Bath & Body Works and Bed, Bath, & Beyond opened at 6 AM. The rest of the stores in our center either opened at 7 or 8. We had a good amount of traffic for most of the morning. We were not overwhelmed, but it was definitely worth the effort of opening early.

Well, that is about it for now. Love to all of my dear friends this holiday season. I am thankful for each and every one of you.

a variety pack of thoughts and pics from the retreat

*There is one picture that I didn't post. One of you knows which one it is.
Maybe one day...

*I was off work today. I did my share of nothing, but the day did not go by as a total waste. I did the dishes and sorted laundry this morning, then we went and washed clothes this afternoon. It's a good thing we did, or I would have had to go to work tomorrow nekkid, nekkid, nekkid! (Not really, I just had to work that into my blog somehow!) Then we topped off the evening with Chicken Express for dinner...yummy!

*I joked with marme at the retreat that the color of our shirts was a conspiracy for me to wear something burnt orange, which was hard to do. The only comfort I had was that my Red Raiders had already beat the Longhorns, so with that thought in mind, I wore the shirt. However, as we were doing laundry today, and I hung my JOY shirt to dry, Dan informed me that although he wasn't happy about the color, he didn't mind me wearing the shirt as long as I waited until after football season was over. =)

*The weather was so great today! It was a bit windy, but I loved hearing the sound of the leaves swirling about outside the house. I had the windows open so that I could feel the cool air...so nice.

*I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving!!! This year has flown by. Mom and Dad are coming up here, and we will spend Thanksgiving Day with our extended family on my Mom's side. It's our version of a family reunion.

*Dan unofficially has a "conventional" job for the holiday season. When it's official, I'll let you know.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. Have a great weekend everyone!

yes, I know...

I know I need to update.

I just can't keep my eyes open.

Literally, Monday night I went to bed at 8:00. Tuesday night it was 9:00.

Do you know me? I am a night owl. Even when I have to get up early, an early bedtime is 10:30 or 11:00.

I promise I will give a better update tomorrow...some pictures or something, but for now...my eyes are closing against my will...

Vacation was awesome....

...but I will never take vacation this close to the holidays again.

This close to the holidays? It was still October!!!

Yes, I know. But this week...the week I came back...we got double freight, which I thought was supposed to start next week. Surprise! We also have to set our floor with all of our Christmas signs and everything Sunday (tomorrow...sorry, I've lost track of the days..) so we've been trying to get as many moves done on the floor beforehand. This is difficult, though, when you are also trying to put out 275 cartons of unexpected freight.

Oh, and did I mention that one of my part-timers gave her notice while I was on vacation because her husband told her he didn't want her working the holidays? Then on the day I came back one of my other strong part-timers called and said she wouldn't be in for three weeks because she had to have a corrective surgery.

Don't get me wrong...I completely understand both of their situations and really like them...it's just made for a CA-RAZY week! Needless to say, I've also been doing interviews and checking references all week.

My district manager basically told me that she knew I needed to go on vacation last week, but it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Great. Now next week when she goes to all the stores to make sure set up is complete, she's probably going to come to my store first. No pressure.

Since Sunday when we left San Angelo until the day the retreat starts, I will have no days off. This week I've been going in at 6 and staying until 5 (except for today...I go in at 1 and close).

I'm glad marme said we could wear our pj's all weekend at the retreat...

Sorry....just realized how whiney this sounds.