Week 16 - Go Pack Go

Hey there, hi there and hello there...and a special good day to my new niece Lindsay Glau. Congrats Nicolasa and Jeff...good luck:)Had another great week at the ol' Aflac.

Started out things with a delicious Thanksgiving meal over in Support Services...mmm. I'm still workin on these projects for them and it looks like the big one just might get in by the end of the year. We had the vendor come into town to chat about some of the logistics and he took us out for steak...which was delicious! I did a little dance when we finalized everything and I'll do another jig once all of the officers sign off on it...that will be a great celebration! I had my first performance appraisal this week with Bob and it went great. He will be a great mentor in the years to come because he truly believes in the whole servant leadership thing I've been trying for the last couple of years, so it should be a fun ride. I had another class on How to be Successful in your Career and it was pretty interesting to hear some of the stories. People still ask me all the time, "what is a SIFE?" I think I've got the SIFE 45 second little diddy down pretty good now:)

I started my Junior Achievement class this week at Dawson Elementary. I've got 4th graders again for Our Region. I have to say, it was probably one of the most well behaved classes I've taught in a long time...it was super de duper! I also had my 2nd week at the Lasseter Academy. We went over interview skills before, during and after the fact. I was able to show them our MMC SIFE Nightly News Team Interview video and they seemed to enjoy it and learn a few things while we were at it. I see a lot of potential in these students, I just hope they see the same thing...they remind me a lot of the students back at Metro and it makes me pretty jazzed to see some of them get into the lesson. I'm trying to get Aflac to let them come on campus for a tour and to use the computers, but we'll see how that goes. It sounds like this project might help me get into the Literacy Alliance Board of Directors too after the beginning of the year, so that'll be pretty cool!

Last, but nowhere close to least for the week was the unfogettableness of the Green Bay Packer game at Lambeau Field. Words cannot describe how exciting that trip was! First off, I took Midwest airlines and they serve warm cookies and milk...scrumtrulescent. I flew in Friday night to meet up with the folks, Steph and Blaker in Milwaukee where we spent the night. The next morning brought snow (awesome) and a trip up to Green Bay to check out Lambeau. We walked around the atrium a bit, visited the hall of fame and then went and had a big lunch at Brett Favre's Steakhouse. Later that night we came back for a tour of Lambeau which was fantastic! After hearing some of the history and checking out the view from the box seats we went down and got to run through the same tunnel the Pack does every home game...what a rush. Then we stepped foot out onto the frozen tundra and it took my breath away, how amazing it must be to play there...I just wanted to lay on the grass and take a nap!

Game day came pretty quick so we bundled up, grabbed up our signs, put on the cheeseheads and headed out for some tailgating action. After some tasty brats and jambalaya at Favre's we headed towards the stadium and went to our seats on the 7th row up from the 20 yard line...we were so close I could see everything perfectly. More than 70,000 made for a rowdy crowd and a big Packers victory. Favre had a great game, the defense played great and we got to heckle Vinny Testaverde and the Panthers kicker...it was fantacular! I even got to see the ol' Cain family at the game before the Pack wrapped up the victory. It was one of the coolest spectacles I've seen and I will never forget the atmosphere in the bowl.

Well, that's it for last week...here's to another great week! Have a turkeyrific Thanksgiving week...don't work too hard and always remember all of the things that you're thankful for. I know I will never forget the greatest family and friends a guy could ask for...thanks and sleep tight.

Alwayz

Nate

Week 15 - Another day in the neighborhood.

Hey there, hi there and hello there all again. I hope everyone had a wondermous start to November! First wanted to wish my sister Steph happy 21st this past week...she is amazing and I hope she had a great time celebrating with her pals!

Had another fantastic week at work following a weekend back home. The first day and a half I was able to take part in a Management/Newly Promoted training course which was pretty awesome. Worked some on my project in Policy Services but mainly did a lot of work on my Support Services project. It looks like we should be able to get most of the capital in by the end of the year...which will mean high fives for everyone; I'll keep my fingers crossed! We had another great SIFErs in Action meeting and everyone got to share a volunteer moment...it was amazing to hear the stories. We've got some great things going on with that little group, it should be an exciting year with those folks. I passed another LOMA industry exam...felt like I was back at the mount. Overall a pretty solid week at Aflac, especially since they came out with the new commercial with Yukon Cornelius;)

It was going to be a great sports week for me with basketball, bowling and soccer...but my first basketball game put a damper on that one. I was on pace to have a double double in rebounds and fouls when I went up for a board and my shoulder got a shooting pain. I went to the bench and noticed that my shoulder was down by my bicep...which was weird to see. All of my teammates freaked out at the dislocation and somehow I pulled a Mel Gibson and popped it back into place. It hurt for most of the week, but I almost have full motion back...I hate going to the doctor so I'm holding off as long as I can. Hopefully I can get back in action this week.

Decided I should probably invite some folks over for a pizza and peach cobbler night...I know, a weird combo but you get my drift. About 10-15 people showed up for Mr. Ed's birthday celebration and to eat some bbq chicken, steak, Alfredo chicken and other delicious pizzas...scrumtrulescent! I think everyone had a good time over at the pad, it was pretty awesome. Another beautiful day was had today, so I went for a nice run after the Packers put another W on the board...one more week and I'll be in Lambeau, yippeekiyayay!

Hope everyone has a fantacular week...until next time, keep smilin:) Happy birthday sis!

Nate

Week 14 - Fantastic trip home with friends and family for fun!

Hey there, hi there and hello there all. I'm sorry for the delay, I just had so many wonderful things to think and write about! I hope everyone is well as we're shifting from summer to fall.

Had another great week at Aflac working with everyone to get projects rolling and in house before year end...should be an exciting finish! I've had some great mentoring sessions with Kathy Gant and my boss Bob Ottman has been pushing me to make an even greater impact on the SIFE program as well, which is exciting. Even more wonderful was the fact that Aflac allows the employees to dress up for Halloween, so I got the boys together: Blake, Mikey and Mr. Ed to assemble as the Channel 4 News Team from Anchorman. I was able to sport the Ron Burgundy burgundy suit and moustache and we got some amazing pictures, unforgettable!

Had a great Toastmasters meeting but had to miss out on bowling and soccer last week. Basketball did start and let's just say it was a little rusty! We have our first game tomorrow night, so it should be interesting to see what we're made of!

The highlight of the week by far was the trip back home. Left Thursday night, on Sarah Jenck's bday:) and got back to Shueville late...great to see the fam! We had a nice dinner for breakfast in the morn and then I wen to the mount for a day of catching up and seeing old friends. Anne had me speak to a couple classes, hope I didn't bore them too much...I handed out ducks so it couldn't have been that bad! I was able to see some of my favorite professors, some of the greatest staff, SIFErs and the best friends of all time! Wish I could've talked with everyone twice as long, but it was great to be there.

The reason for the trip started that night, Fisher's wedding...the first I've been in of any of my friends. We had rehearsal dinner that night where I got to see Amy again and meet a bunch of cool cats. After receiving a nice pair of underwear, a glass of splemonade and a tuxedo t-shirt it was time to get some pizza with Gump, Jenna, Horman and Jessi...of course I couldn't forget #2, then it was out on the town with all my compadres in Iowa City. There was probably about 20-30 people that came out for a good time and I want to thank each one of you...you've all been the greatest friends a guy could ask for! We danced the night away and chatted before parting ways again...I miss you all!

After a sleepover with Gump at his new pad, it was wedding day! Of course the priest was late to the ceremony...unforgettable! The wedding was beautiful, the pictures were a blast and I hope Kim and Ryan had an unforgettable time. The reception was more fun than I ever expected, and after we ate and I read my poem (instant classic) it was time to cut a rug! Iowa country weddings are the most amazing events and we danced the night away. I met a pretty cool cat Jenny, and she's lucky I'm not back in Shueyville or else she'd be having a steak dinner with me this week topped off with eating a tub of Rainbow Chip frosting...don't think she had the dance moves of the flower girl though...classic move! Overall it was a wonderful wedding and I wish them the best. I got to play some pong with the Funkmaster before the day ended too.

Sunday was another big family day over at pops' place...it was great to have everyone come down from both sides of the family. It's always great to see all of the smiling faces and hear what all of the cousins are up to!

The amazing weekend ended with another Packers win and a flight back to Columbus...it was unforgettable and thanks everyone for good times!

Happy Birthday to the greatest...my sister, the big 2-1...don't have too much fun. Until next time, you stay classy planet earth!

Alwayz

Nate

Week 13 - Words cannot explain the amazingness!

Hey there, hi there and hello there! Best week in Georgia by far...I don't even know where to start. I hope all is going well for everyone down here, back home and everywhere in between.

The ol' Aflac Duck has been treating me very well lately...and the AFL stock is on the rise, which is nice:) Work has been quite challenging lately, which has been great. Since I'm the project manager on a couple big projects, it's been really fun continuing to work with the vendors on contracts, NDAs, negotiating time frames and trying to get everything in by the end of the year. Some vendors even gave me a call to see if they could fly in to talk with me from New York...wish they would've flown me to New York, but o well! This week Jason (Swiney), Eddie (Mr. Ed), Blake and I even got to go golfing during work for the Boy Scouts...which was amazing! I actually shot better than I usually do, cutting down on the Caddyshack slice a bit with one amazing birdie putt.

It was an even more wondermous week outside of work. Tuesday night was free salmon and steak at the RiverWatch where we saw some pictures of the Hooch and heard they may be putting in some white water rafting action. Bowling of course came again on Wednesday where we had a clean sweep; I bowled two pretty good games with 162 and 147 but we won't talk about the other one! Thursday Mr. Ed, Swiney and I went out for some male bonding and pizza after golf and Friday brought about my first Columbus Cottonmouth Hockey game. We had about 12 people come and watch the Snakes whoop up on the Havoc including three wonderful fights! Sunday brought about another round of par 3 golf action with Josh, Blake and Mikey...didn't even go in the water this week. There were some hysterical moments throughout the 9 holes and I shot about 7 strokes better this week which made me a happy guy!

Columbus is apparently trying to start a Young Professionals Network like Access Iowa back home. They must have heard I was involved back in Iowa so I ate some lunch with one of the members of the Columbus Chamber that I met at the Legislative Express event last week to chat about how we can get it off the ground. It sounds like I could get pretty involved with helping this thing come to fruition, which would be a great thing for the community. I started up with the Lasseter Academy this week on a SIFE project of sorts teaching them about the financial marketplace. The group of students remind me of the ones at Metro so I am stoked for this project to continue throughout the year. After I was done with the lesson, all of the students were leaving and I asked if they were done for the day and a couple turned and said that Fridays are their days off...they just came in to hear what I had to say. What an amazing feeling, it made me feel pretty good for the rest of the day! Speaking of great feeling, I forgot to mention a couple weeks ago how proud I was of some of my best friends. One of my good SIFE friends Ashley and I talk some and she called me and we started chatting about volunteering and she said that there was just something missing at work, so she decided to try and fulfill that with some volunteer work and it just made me happy. Then the same thing happened with another SIFEr Sarah when we chatted, she always makes me smile. And it didn't stop there, Lindsay called and told me that she was getting involved in volunteer work as well and loving it! But best of all was when my sister called and told me all the amazing thins she was doing back at the mount...getting 50 college kids to go read to youngins is a feat I have never seen anyone do. I know it's weird to say, but she makes me so proud every time I talk with her...she's amazing! Then a bunch of us got together to cap off the week at Easter Seals to paint a few more rooms for the adults...fun stuff as usual.

O, I almost forgot the most important thing...I'm coming back home this week for Fish's wedding and some good times with family and ol' friends! I am stoked to see everyone...all the friends and the family of course. Shueyville, Iowa here I come...hope you're ready!

Until next time, have a superific week, don't forget to dress up for Halloween and go Packers!

Alwayz, Nate

Week 12 - Another year under the belt

Hey there, hi there and hello there. I hope everyone and everything is going wondermously for all.

Twenty-three years old seems a lot like twenty-two...guess birthdays won't get exciting again until I hit twenty-five and finally start saving some money on car insurance! Thanks again pops for coming down, it was a blast. Thanks also to my family, everyone at work (especially Annikka's balloon and Ruthanne's cookie cake), the Funkmaster and all the rest of my pals for the great birthday wishes and gifts. I bought myself a new fishing pole and a Brett Favre jersey for the game in a few weeks...very exciting!

On the Aflac side I have run into a crash course of business these last couple of weeks with the projects I'm working on...learning quickly about the importance of strategic planning and the budget process as we're rushing to get in capital expenditures by the end of the fiscal year. It has been fun contacting vendors, working on contracts and bringing people together to get things done...what a rush! It's been somewhat difficult to try and grasp the fact that everything isn't always planned out like it should be and some things get too rushed in my opinion, but I've learned that's why I'm not the one making the big time decisions:) I did get to take an all day leadership course on how to help coach people, which was very interesting to learn about.
We had another great SIFE meeting this week recapping all of the good things we've done and getting psyched for all the things we have in store. My bossman Bob put me in charge of the social activities in addition to running the meetings and I think we're going to have an amazing time getting together outside of work...even more than we do now! We've got some more volunteer action set-up for this upcoming weekend...should be fun!

I went up to the Children's Hospital in Atlanta again this week with Mike Hope and some other Aflac folks...wow, what an experience. I played BINGO with two little boys that were only 1 and 2. After chatting with their mom a bit, she told me that even at that young age they had already been through multiple heart surgeries...it was really hard to swallow knowing what these kids had gone through, but they were still happy-go-lucky! We played catch with their new football and exchanged high-fives before I said farewell to Demarcus and Demarko...two kids that are an inspiration to everyone, helping me realize how insignificant some of the worries I dwell on actually are. I wish their family the best:)

Had another wonderful sports week with some amazing left-handed bowlingness...wow. Then this weekend I went with my compadre Josh to a podunk par three course, that was amazing! The highlight had to be the brawl that broke out in the fog of our soccer game. After one of our guys was getting kicked, I ran in and tackled a couple guys off of him and must have grazed some fellas' nose. To make a long story short, a guy punched our player in the back of the head and a few others kicked him while he was down before I came in to break it up...I ended up with a red card and now have to chat with the cops to tell my story because our guy may press charges against the cheap shot...should be an interesting experience to say the least!

Other than that it was a great week, full of excitement and adventure as usual. I know this week will be the same.

I want to end by remembering Ryan Zimmerman, a fellow '07 MMC grad whom has passed earlier this week. I was only able to interact with Ryan through Ambassadors and outside of the classroom every now and then, but it seemed as though he had a very positive outlook on life and you could tell how grateful he was to be graduating and on that stage during his commencement address. It makes us all remember that life is too short to live each day for the next. You have to live in the now and make every day count, live life to the fullest and leave it with no regrets. Your family is in our prayers.

Until next time folks, remember to get out there and enjoy your family, friends and everything you have.

Alwayz,

Nate

Week 11 - Delicious chocolate and a great visit!

Hey there, hi there and hello there all. Life is good, I read that in a book once and I have found it to be true. I hope you are all having a wonderful time as well!

This has been one great week right from the get-go. I'm still having a fantastic time at work getting to meet new people pretty much every day. I'm still on a pretty steep learning curve in my new department, and the projects from the first stop are still rolling along. It's still hard to get used to the hoops you have to get through going from a great idea to execution, but it is helping me to learn the business that much better. I think I'm starting to understand some of the politics and ideals of Aflac a little better through all of the trials and tribulations of the projects I'm helping to implement and it's very interesting working with the different personalities. I did join the Aflac Toastmasters group so I could get some more work speaking in front of people and thinking on my toes. I've gotten to be the Ahh counter and Grammarian the past couple of weeks and it has been quite the entertaining experience!

Had another fun week outside of work. Of course I'm consistently the most inconsistent bowler, but it's always a good time meeting new folks at the alley. Our soccer team did have a big W this week winning 4-2...chalk another one up for Victorious Secret! I also had a great opportunity to chat with some students at an alternative learning facility. I think this will be a great project opportunity and give some of us SIFErs a real opportunity to give back to the community yet again!

One of the highlights of the week had to be the Business Expo that Jason, Mike and I went to. Met a couple of folks I knew from work, which is always fun, and got a lot of free food. Made a connection with the Columbus Chamber folks and the local news station. The best part of the evening had to be when the Chocolate Fountain lady was spooning the left-over chocolate into the trash bin only to have me ask her to ladle some into my newly acquired water bottle...wow, hilarity ensued! After we took a picture together, I went back...gave her my business card, and told her to email me...yes, I said, "Email me" and walked away...makes for a great story, I'm not planning on an email though!

Best part of the week was when my pops came down Friday night. We had a great weekend of relaxation and catching up. We met some of the SIFErs Saturday morning at the ol' IHOP, caught a movie and watched the Hawks, the Packers and the Chiefs make a solid sports weekend. We even ventured up to Callaway Gardens to see the birds of prey show, the butterfly place and just took time to walk around in the gorgeous weather.

It has been a fantastic weekend with pops, my last as a 22 year old...wow, I'm an old man! I hope everyone continues to have good fortune and good times...until next time.

Peace out

Nate

Week 10 - New place...still good times

Hey there, hi there and hello there all. Hope everyone is having superfantacular times all over! I'll tell you it has been another wonderful week down here in Columbus, GA.

I started my second rotation for the Duck this last week and had to pack up my stuff and move out to the Paul S. Amos Campus...holy schnikes that place is huge! There are a lot more people out there, and apparently a 70/30 girl/guy ratio...which is nice:) I had a fantastic time in Support Services and will miss all the great people there, but Policy Services is going to be a great time and I get to do some pretty cool future planning and business modeling so that'll be interesting. I've already met some pretty awesome folks over at my new place and it was even better that we had Customer Service Week this week, which it seemed like the whole company was partying the whole week...then Greg Biffle (the NASCAR driver dude) came and made an appearance. I think I would've been more excited if I had ever watched a race, but thought it was pretty cool they brought him down. I was able to meet the president and other executives of one of the vendors I'm working with on a project, which was very exciting...although corporate red tape is very unnerving at times! I also got lucky enough to go to lunch with the Chief People Officer (that name just sounds cool) for Aflac...it was fantastic, but the waitress was even more amazing...I'll never forget the waitress from Ohio, wow!

So I bowled a 201 last week, and came back with back to back 75 games...wow, I guess you could say consistancy is not my thing! We did win our third soccer game this past Friday...we've got some pretty cool cats on our team so it's been fun thus far. Took another wonderful bike trip over to Flat Rock Park, I'm starting to get in some good biking shape...watch out RAGBRAI!

Hands on Georgia week finished up today and I was fortunate to be able to go and help paint the local library, if I'm not careful all of this painting could turn into a new career...pause not! I will say that our Autism Walk was the highlight of the week. I started a team and got 14 people to show up early on a Saturday morning and we raised over $200 for a great cause. This was an event that really hit home and made me think of all the good times had back home with the kids from the Arc, I hope they're all well!

Well kids, it's been real...it's been fun...and it's been real fun. Hope all of you back home are having great times with school, homework and the real world! Pops is coming down this week and less than a month I'll be back home for the weekend...good times to be had. Until next time, peace out.

ps...that picture has nothing to do with anything, it just happens to be the funniest picture I've ever taken and thought I'd share it with you!

Nate