Hats off to new scenery

I decided to go the extra mile and give you all an update from this chick. I know it's been awhile. My proximity to the internet is hardly condusive to regular email checks and blog updates (10 minute drive with a required female buddy...everybody loves Pine Cove rules and the Mr. T!!--media office).
While I know the girls are familiar with my current setting, I am less sure about the rest of our faithful readers. For you...I will indulge. The pictures above are of my classmates. I am living in Tyler, TX on the Pine Cove Ranch property. I'm a student in a discipleship/leadership in ministry training program called the Forge (http://www.pinecove.com/leadership-training/index.php). I love it....mostly. There are tough things, but mostly really great things. I spend about 15 hours in class a week. These classes include things like theology, book discussion, leadership theories, etc. It's tight to have study material and books that I enjoy reading (and there's a lot..a total of 13 books to read including the Bible in its entirety and memorizing the book of 1 Peter...PRAY FOR ME!). I must confess, though....2 months in and it's getting hard to not fall back into college habits of just "doing assignments to get them done." Also, I live in a house with 7 girls, and 7 guys live next store. My community is pretty consistent...all day almost every day with these 13 new friends. It's good...challenging...but good. A little different than living with my 6 chicks.
I feel like this post-graduation season of life is uncharted waters. Most people I talk to feel like they're trying not to live life as a count down, while deciding what's next. I agree, but I feel absolutely confident that the Lord will use this short 8-month season for my growth and his glory.
Well, I must return to the world of camp and all that it entails.
~js

The Life of a Professional Assistant

I think you all should know what I now do for a living.

By "living" I mean... they pay me a little bit, but to say I'm actually LIVING off of what they pay me might be a stretch. I mean I guess I probably could make it in the real world on my own at this point...but if I have the opportunity for free rent/utilities, etc. I take that opportunity!

My title is: Assistant to the President.

That's right, I'm a personal assistant. I do all that comes with being a personal assistant.
Lots of days that means running errands - some very random, some totally normal. I shop for her... I pick things up... I drop things off... I decorate things... I buy things... I return things... I do LOTS of LAST MINUTE THINGS... I send mail... gifts... set up appointments... make reservations...I make note of her likes/dislikes... I research things... I work from one sentence instructions on many tasks... I "make things pretty"... I troubleshoot...making the "impossible" happen (Ha!)...and I tackle large semi-random projects, which brings me to my next point.

Here is an example of one of my "semi-random projects":

About three weeks ago my boss comes to my desk. She says, " Hayley, I have a brilliant idea!!!" I say, "Am I go to be excited about this idea???" She says, "Nope!"

She then preceeds to say something like... I would love to send a bag of the pink M&M's for Breast Cancer Awareness month to all of our employees.

My first thought is--- that's a fun idea. No problem. I will order M&M's and have them sent to each of our 18 offices.

Not so fast.... what she really means is that she would like each employee (roughly 400) to receive a bag of pink M&M's at their home. Yikes....

So I call all the sources I can imagine who might have the pink M&M's ---- none and I repeat none of them could help me.

So, plan B. I call every store in the area who carries normal M&M's and begin to track pink bags down.

Long Story Short.... I've been to lots and lots of Walmarts, Walgreens, Albertsons, 7-Elevens... ( let me note that I had a really fun girl named Brittany, who is in school at North Texas, helping me with this task).

I won't bore you with any more details about the fun of packaging... labeling... stuffing... taping... stamping.

M&M's are heavy and take up more room than you would think.

Now I would like to show you a picture of these adorable little M&M's.
(disclaimer: I couldn't get my actual picture of the 400+ bags to load so use your imagination)

All the M&M's have now been sent. As far as I know most of them actually made it unharmed to their destination before the end of October!

So, there ya go. That's a day( a week) in the life of a personal assistant.

HH

missing you...

this is a shout out from asia to my girls around the globe. i'm sure that austin, corinth, florence, irving, lewisville, and tyler are better off with you there. HOWEVER, i want you to know that i miss you. and... i love you. have a wonderful day!

Just so you know...

Italy loves me.
It's official.

This country loves it's graffiti.
And it loves me.

In a bold, blue-on-plywood kinda way.

We have already discussed how Italians don't do H's.
So we know this is for me.

Just thought I would let your wonderfully caring chick-minds rest easy tonight.


sv