Hey there, hi there and hello there to everyone during this Thanksgiving week. First off, I have to give a shout out for a couple Bridgewater birthdays ... Becca Boo Bear and Deb, can't wait to celebrate! I have many things to be thankful for, like family, friends, a great job, my dog, a wonderful girlfriend and at least one healthy leg ... the other one, not so much ... more to come:)
Work was fun this week with all sorts of time spent on the future state of the department as well as plenty of blogging on the Duck Pond! We found out that our team will be physically moving in a couple weeks up to the 2nd floor of our big ol' campus. Our team outing on Friday was a great time as we ventured to the Farmhouse for some good down south country cookin'.
Thursday night we had a pretty intense quarter-final matchup for our kickball league. After a big win, we qualified for the Thursday night final to be played on Saturday (confusing I know). Saturday is the day that brought the most excitement though as we geared up for an epic battle. It was about the 3rd inning when Jenny made a great snag in the outfield for the second out of the inning and she threw it in. As I jumped up to grab the ball to put the tag on the base runner, I got undercut and unfortunately the ground broke my leg's fall ... apparently it looked pretty nasty as I heard the "pop pop pop" of my leg telling me that wasn't good! As I lay there thinking about how we're going to move people around in the field, everyone came over where we luckily learned, that even though my knee was facing backwards, it was not my knee that took the brunt of it.
My second visit to Jenny's work was indeed not even when she was working, but rather to the ER for a fast track x-ray. Turns out I did twist my leg a bit and that bones don't tend to twist with you, leaving me with a spiral fracture and displacement of my fibula, pretty sweet I know. I made friends with the doctor, so he gave me a copy of the x-ray, which was pretty sweet as you can see. I have to go see a specialist on Monday to determine if I need to have surgery or not, but it looks like it'll most likely be a six week cast/boot. I feel pretty lucky it wasn't my knee or my right leg, but after a day and a half of crutches, I will say that it is just really inconvenient to have a broken leg. Especially with lots of travel coming up. Good thing I have a great girlfriend that has been helping me out quite a bit ... and no, I will not be getting a bell for service:)
Work was fun this week with all sorts of time spent on the future state of the department as well as plenty of blogging on the Duck Pond! We found out that our team will be physically moving in a couple weeks up to the 2nd floor of our big ol' campus. Our team outing on Friday was a great time as we ventured to the Farmhouse for some good down south country cookin'.School is just about wrapping up for the semester as well as this last week brought my last Decision Analysis class leaving me with a 2 question final as well as a presentation, group case and in class final for the other ... ok, maybe it's not winding down! Luckily, I think I have most of the work done, just need to hammer it all out.
Thursday night we had a pretty intense quarter-final matchup for our kickball league. After a big win, we qualified for the Thursday night final to be played on Saturday (confusing I know). Saturday is the day that brought the most excitement though as we geared up for an epic battle. It was about the 3rd inning when Jenny made a great snag in the outfield for the second out of the inning and she threw it in. As I jumped up to grab the ball to put the tag on the base runner, I got undercut and unfortunately the ground broke my leg's fall ... apparently it looked pretty nasty as I heard the "pop pop pop" of my leg telling me that wasn't good! As I lay there thinking about how we're going to move people around in the field, everyone came over where we luckily learned, that even though my knee was facing backwards, it was not my knee that took the brunt of it.
My second visit to Jenny's work was indeed not even when she was working, but rather to the ER for a fast track x-ray. Turns out I did twist my leg a bit and that bones don't tend to twist with you, leaving me with a spiral fracture and displacement of my fibula, pretty sweet I know. I made friends with the doctor, so he gave me a copy of the x-ray, which was pretty sweet as you can see. I have to go see a specialist on Monday to determine if I need to have surgery or not, but it looks like it'll most likely be a six week cast/boot. I feel pretty lucky it wasn't my knee or my right leg, but after a day and a half of crutches, I will say that it is just really inconvenient to have a broken leg. Especially with lots of travel coming up. Good thing I have a great girlfriend that has been helping me out quite a bit ... and no, I will not be getting a bell for service:)Welp, I can't wait to see everyone back home in a couple days and am looking forward to getting lots of food to fill up my boot;) I hope you all have a fantacular Thanksgiving with boundless things to be thankful for!!
Thanks again for the good wishes and have a great eve.
Alwayz,
Nate
Aflac is still going strong week in and week out. Our PIC team is still very much the go-to for the whole department and at times, I think we do such a good job that we get many-a-thing that is not in our scope ... good thing that we operate under the "One Team One Dream" motto:) I am pretty excited about tomorrow as we're having the first ever "Dumb Letter Fair." At Aflac, we mail our customers a lot of letters, some of which we believe are completely unnecessary. This year along our team has identified 3 letters that we've cut off saving the company >$560K ... just imagine how many we're going to be able to get tomorrow when the entire production floor gets to help us identify the dumb ones;) I love coming up with new ways to save some money, this will be fun!
This week was pretty fun on the volunteer front as well. Thursday the United Way Executive Director invited me to his bi-monthly board of directors meeting to recognize the efforts for the Live United Youth camp, and they gave me a sweet Live United sweatshirt;) Even more special this week though was at the exec council meeting for the Literacy Alliance. After less than two years on the board, they have asked me to be the Chairman of the Literacy Alliance for 2010 ... what an honor! Although I will need a great deal of help and have a lot to learn, I am very excited about the opportunity to reshape the board and truly get all the members engaged. We should have a great year to look forward to with new board members and new ideas to showcase the great impact we're having on the community.
The weekend was just icing on the cake to a wonderful week. Last night we ventured out on the town with some pals from work and today was a time to chillax. I think after today I am about 87% done with my Christmas shopping, which is ridiculously awesome. Jenny and I also took Caden for a walk around Flat Rock park and played a lot of fetch; hope you enjoy the pics:) I also figured out that Netflix is awesome because we can now download movies straight from the internet onto the PS3, which we did and watched STOMP live ... fantacular!
It was another one of "those" weeks at Aflac with countless meetings, a few fires but all good times. We had a new member join our team this week, Ivy Hines - a SIFE Analyst from Georgia. Also, Alicia came back after being out for 6 weeks, so it was welcome week on the team. I'm starting to get my head around all the responsibilities a bit more, but when I start putting it down on paper they keep adding up! I guess that is a good thing though since my badge still works, so I will just keep on keeping on;)
Kickball was fantastic this week with a big 15-3 win over an undefeated team, doesn't get any better than that. I think every single one of the girls on our team has scored this season now with much excitement. This week also marked the Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens, an absolutely amazing event.
That evening I headed off to witness the wedding of Rio and Josey down at the Garrett Bullock House. It was a small ceremony, but tons of fun nonetheless. I had some cake, ran around holding other guys' hands (don't ask) and learned a new dance (pictured above). A huge Rock Band party followed at our place where the Bridgewater sisters and Ali dominated the country version of Rock Band. Although their visit was short, it was a blast ... thanks ladies for a great weekend!
Hey there, hi there and hello there to one and all. A special happy anniversary to Dad/Barb tomorrow as well as birthday wishes to Sarah "Sunshine" Jencks and of course, my little sister Steph ... wow, you're getting old!
Aflac was again very busy this week with the elevation of our big project this past weekend. We've had over 400 people sign up for the Duck Pond (yahoo) and of course we've received some positive, and negative feedback ... but constructive feedback nonetheless. Our team is being tasked with more and more items, so hopefully we either get some more resources, or we start to grow a third hand:) I wouldn't have it any other way though, because sitting around twiddling my thumbs is just no fun at all! This week we do get a SIFE Analyst to rotate on the team for the next five months, so I hope Ivy has a good experience and is able to contribute a great deal to the team. 
Of course, this was theme week for kickball since it was close to Halloween, so our team chose to be Adam/Eve. Not only did we win the game, we dominated the contest with some great git-ups;) Friday I also dressed up for Halloween as the ShamWOW! guy (pictured above), with the towel and all. Although many asked that I provide a demo, I was not able to fit it in to the day:( Friday night Jenny and I joined some friends for a new thing in Columbus called No Shame Theatre. We packed out the Springer and there were 15 slots for 5 minute skits, anything goes. We saw rhythmic poetry, dance routines, improv, broadway singing and my favorite, hilarious short poems that had me rolling on the ground. It was a great time followed by more fun on Saturday painting with Easter Seals and handing out candy at the house.