August 8, 2010 - Happy Birthday Week Jenny!

Hey there, hi there and hello there. Welp, it's been some time, but thought I would let everyone get warmed up to August before the next blog; literally, since it's been over 100 for the last month! Also been pretty busy with not just birthday, but birthweek celebratory activities with Jenny. Thursday markedher 25th birthday, but last week marked the celebration we'll chat about later.

Work has continued with the craziness over the last week as business planning wraps up and execution continues on. I've had some good time to sit down with team members over the last week and chat about their performance over the last few months and see how I can help them where they need to be moving forward, which is always the most rewarding part of the job. Additionally though, a position in the Marketing department opened up - Project Coordinator. Basically, this position would be similar to what I am doing now managing projects, just without direct reports and the projects are on a much larger scale with bigger execs:) It sounds like a fantacular job, so I put my name in the hat and got into the round of interviews of which there are four ... wow! Two down, and two to go ... one with our Chief Marketing Officer in a week or so. I'm in a great place where I love what I do, but also realize that in order to grow, I have to break out of my shell a bit and that would be what this job is all about, so, we'll see.

Emory is wrapping up the Summer semester this week as I just turned in my last paper for Social Enterprise, my independent study course. I've learned and enjoyed this one the most of them all because I've truly been able to apply what I've learned and feel I've taken away a great deal of new knowledge. Saturday marks the start of my August course, Entrepreneurship, which should be a blast.

Soccer has been going great over the last week with team Yo Momma. We currently sit in the middle of the pack of the third tier league, but last Tuesday we strapped on the big boy pants and took down the only undefeated team in our league. O ya, and Jenny scored the game-winning goal off I throw in I had to her. You could tell she'd never scored before in her life, because her celebration was priceless. Then tonight we played a friendly against the #1 ranked team in the league above us, whom also was undefeated ... until tonight! We planned Brandy Chastain night where everyone, including the dudes, wore a sports bra in honor of the famous Brandy Chastain goal celebration. After our first goal of the evening, we all ran over to the sideline and de-shirted for a team picture, instant classic.

That game wrapped up a great week of celebrating, yes, everyday. I started last Sunday with a pinata for Jenny filled with candy and gifts. Each day of the week the pinata was refilled with tasty treats and new gifts. Everything from CDs/DVDs to clothes and books were enjoyed. Then her actual birthday came and Jenny started the morning off with muffins in bed followed by the gift of guitar lessons from Caden and Jack Johnson concert tickets from me, as you can see ... surpriseness came upon her!

Friday night the celebration continued downtown with some dancing and good fun. This was followed by a weekend trip to Atlanta with about ten folks for some fun at the mall, by the pool and the Braves game. It was great good fun at the game where the Braves won and Sara Evans came around afterwards for a free performance. We stayed the night up in Atlanta and had a relaxing day at Lenox Mall before coming back to C-Town.

Although this was a fun weekend, we're both looking forward to some time back home this weekend in Iowa. Can't wait for Rabbit's wedding and some time with family/friends. Hope everyone has a great week and all is well, catch you on the flip side.

Alwayz,

Nate