BrianandLibby.com

Sorry for the lapse. My craplet…I mean tablet…had to be sent to Duluth, GA for some TLC since I have abused it daily for a full year. I have dropped it on the pavement 4 times (that I know of) and once I left it on a hot coffee pot burner for 45 minutes. The plastic melted and it was never the same. Although Brian got his new Macbook I’m still Mac-resistant. All the shortcuts are different and keys are in different places so when I look back at something I wrote it looks like gobblety gook. Or something like that. But I decided to bear with it for one blog post, after all, the big appt was today. And my HP is guaranteed to be returned to me by 10:30 tomorrow morning and I will be anxiously awaiting it’s arrival :) 

Speaking of anxiously awaiting arrivals, I finally succumbed to my big belly and dragged Brian to a maternity store on Sunday afternoon. Actually, he didn’t require much dragging, and they have comfy seats outside the dressing room at the maternity store in Colonie, so he was ok. He was also admired by the entire staff for his patience - I think they were also concerned about the fact that we were going to have a kid, since we were laughing and giggling like teenagers the whole time. It’s just funny - they have a pillow in the dressing room you can velcro onto yourself to see if clothes will still look good on you when you are ginormous. Yeah…like that’s the only part of me that will get bigger. They should just tell you flat out that nothing will look or feel good on you at 8.5 months pregnant. However, some of the stuff looked pretty cute for the time being.

The nice and helpful saleslady kept bringing me the size I wanted and the next size up whenever I asked for something. I finally looked at Brian (who, ever so lovingly, was also advising that I consider buying clothes that would last me the duration of the pregnancy), and told him that if she didn’t stop suggesting I try on bigger sizes, I would take the ginormous pillow and shove it down her helpful throat. Those people should have special insurance - pregnant women are a testy bunch. Throw them in a row of dressing rooms with huge mirrors trying clothes on their ever expanding bodies…that’s just a dangerous and hostile work environment.

And I just know I’m leaving something out…what is it? Oh yeah, we’re having a baby girl. And she makes all of this worth it.

For those of you who haven’t heard, we do have some news to share about the Howe family. It’s been four years of “just the two of us” and a few months ago we talked about taking the plunge and starting to grow our little family. Last week, just in time for my birthday, I received a big surprise. The news came as quite a shock, but I’m happy to share that the time has come…we’re getting a puppy! (Gotcha)

Brian had been planning our new arrival for some time, but came to me for that last approval before making the surprise final. I grew up with a cocker spaniel who unfortunately passed away a few weeks ago, so the timing couldn’t have been better. On September 22nd, we’ll drive out to Cobleskill to pick up our own little 9 week old cocker spaniel. Brian had the luxury of getting to meet our little girl last week. He went to meet the breeder and pick out one of the three puppies who were not yet spoken for. The choice was easy. While the other playful puppies ran immediately for their breeder, one ran straight to him, jumped into his arms and snuggled her head up on his chest. Game over: Puppy owns Brian.

She has pretty much stolen his heart…he continuously refers to her as “his best friend.” Last weekend, I told him I was nervous that he was going to end up liking her more than he likes me, to which he matter of factly responded “I kinda already do.” Hard to blame him though, she’s pretty stinkin’ cute. Don’t take my word for it, check her out! We’ll post more when we bring her home!

If you’d like to weigh in on her name, we welcome your suggestions. We’ve thrown around Sophie, Sadie, Roxie, Maya and about 100 others but the current frontrunner is Posh. I wasn’t a fan at first, but it’s grown on me significantly, especially since I started saying “Poshy” and “Come here Poshy-Poo.” Sad but true. I’ve been practicing verbalizing her name. Today I found out posh means “fashionably luxurious.” The deal is almost closed! Please throw any ideas you have our way!

Yes, this is the reason for my silence. Well, being unplugged is one of the reasons. Ever since I left Thomson I have not had a computer! I am limited to Internet access when Brian has his laptop at home and isn’t using it…a rare occurrence! The second reason for my silence is, oddly enough, AGAIN I found myself in a situation where the only thing I wanted to blog about, I could not yet make public. So alas, I was confined to my silence, and you to your bored anticipation….yyyyyeah right. Anyways, this is a good story, so have a seat.

So as you know, on Thursday April 5th, I accepted a new job and submitted my resignation to Thomson, my home sweet home for the last 4 years. Then on Monday, I got a phone call from a friend of mine who I spoken to a few weeks before about Pharmaceutical Sales. She is a rep and she was determined that I could break in without sales experience. Although I wanted the job badly, I was not as determined as she (obviously, since I’d accepted the other job). I had taken my new job as a stepping stone, to get some experience and hopeful get into Pharmaceutical Sales later.

So Monday, she tells me there is a position open on her team and she’s going to submit my resume. I was very confused…I KNEW the Pharma interview process was long and there was no way I would complete it before starting my new job. Of course my anxiety immediately overwhelmed me and I started to plan and worry, in typical Libby fashion. Fortunately I have a very good God who looks after me and my new prayer (and my new mantra) became “one day at a time.” I decided that this had the potential to be a huge mess if I took my new job but was still interviewing for the Pharma job (which I COULD NOT pass up).

The days go on and when I’m in California on the Thursday before my last week at work, the hiring manager calls me, while I’m on the show floor working at the noisy convention, and I go through what may be the absolute worst phone screen of all time. It was like all of my intelligence had left me when I crossed the California state line. By some miracle, she still wanted to interview me…the next day in fact, but I was all the way across the country. I hadn’t told her my job “situation” at this point and she said that she would probably not have time for the interview until the week after next…also known as my first week on the new job? Now call me crazy but I think it’s pretty hard to interview for jobs your first week on a new job. So I just kept praying…”one day at a time” (secretly telling God that I REALLY hoped he had a plan b/c I was lost at this point).

So the next week brought with it Thursday April 19th, my last day at Thomson. At this point I had all but lost hope in the new job, since I wasn’t sure I had it in me to sneak around at my new job and keep interviewing for a different one (even though it was SO MUCH BETTER). The night before my last day, I got a call at 6pm that there was an interview open the next morning at 8:45 am. Woo hoo! Nothing like the last minute, right? So I went home and studied like crazy (oddly enough, harder than I think I ever studied in college) and I had the interview on my last day. But my dilemma continued…even if they did like me (which I was doubtful of based on the interview) I knew I had at least 2 more interviews to go.

Enter God, by way of my friend Melissa. She calls Friday morning after talking with the hiring manager and tells me they did love me and want to move me on to the next phase(s) of the interview process, which would take up a minimum of 2 full days the following week. Now if God via Melissa hadn’t called me that day I wouldn’t have known until Monday (after starting the new job) that they were even interested. See how this is working out? Well, the wisdom of my husband and other trusted advisors persuaded me that it would be a good idea to postpone my start date by a week with the new company. So I made the call, and they were, surprisingly, okay with it. The manager there anded the call with “I’m just relieved you didn’t call to say you’d gotten a better offer.” Ouch.

Anyways, my one day of unemployment turned into 7 days, as my new start date was May 1st. I had 6 business days to finish all of my interviews for the Pharmaceutical sales job. I was on a mission. And there was absolutely nothing I could do to rush the process along. At this point, I added a second chant to my mantra “not my will, but your will, God.” At this point I was home and all I could think about was how much I wanted the “new, new” job, but I had to keep it in check and keep reminding myself that: 1. I shouldn’t get worked up or I may just be disappointed, 2. God worked this out in the first place, and 3. I wanted what He wanted for me. The third one was the hardest. I knew the Pharma job would be more stressful but I was okay with that. I didn’t know if God was okay with it, so I had to remind myself daily (and sometimes hourly) that I truly wanted what He wanted for me. Easier said than done.

Well, long story short (haha, this isn’t short at all!) I DID get the job, not until the last day before I was supposed to start the other job. There are a million other ways that God came through at the last minute, but I’ll leave that out for now. Let’s just say that His plans are definitely better than mine and I’m glad He worked it out this way. Why, you may ask? Well, first and foremost, this is how God works with me. He knows I’m a spasz and I tend to worry and freak out and try to plan everything, so He does these things to show me that I’m NOT in control, but fortunately He is. And second, God worked it out that I have not one day, not one week, but 6 GLORIOUS weeks of unemployment, at the middle of which falls my family vacation. Ummm, does it get any better? I basically get what I always wanted which is a college break all over again.

Now, should I worry about not contributing any income to the Howe fam for 6 weeks? Hello, have you not been listening? As my dad would say “Jehovah Jireh” or “God is our Provider.” I think I’ve learned my lesson! I will be thoroughly enjoying my time off until I start on my new adventure on June 1st, and NOT worrying about the details that are out of my control. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, advice, and encouragement!

(Sorry this is such horribly old news now, and that it’s totally anticlimactic since I already kind of broke the news in the last post!)

So I haven’t been able to write about this, for obvious reasons, but I officially quit my job this week. Don’t worry, I have another one lined up. My job has given me great experience over the past four years, but I’ve been thinking about trying another career path for a while now, and I started feeling like it was now or never.

So I started looking for other jobs back in December, but that fizzled for various reasons and I decided to stick around for a few more months. Once I started looking again, I had narrowed my search down to sales jobs. I know it sounds crazy and a lot of people are still raising their eyebrows at me when I tell them, but I think that I might be really good at it. At least that’s what I’m being told (you all better not be lying). Besides, the worst thing that could happen would be that I wouldn’t be good at it, and I’d end up doing something else. No biggie, I’m young…I’ll bounce back. And if I am good, well then that means I’ll have a job I like and am good at and I’ll make more money. So I decided to take the risk.

I quickly found that no one wanted to gamble on hiring (or even interviewing) a field rep without any sales experience. So the leads I was getting were, er, less than desirable. Bad hours, low base salaries…not what I was looking for. I started to wonder if that was just what I’d have to do break into sales. I hoped it wasn’t, but I still wondered!

Then a few weeks ago, we had dinner with Steve and Sissy. Sissy is basically my new life coach! She motivated me to get out there, be confident, and not settle until I got what I wanted. And she even convinced me that I was good enough to be picky! So I decided, what the heck, I will be picky. As it turns out, the better opportunities started coming my way. I turned a couple of them down, and then I found what I was looking for. Higher base, better opportunity, smaller territory close to where I live, solid business, daytime hours only and great flexibility. I was sold!

I’m still pretty nervous when I take the time to think about the immense change this will be for my lifestyle, but I keep reminding myself that was kind of the whole idea in the first place! I really do like my current job and, of course, I love the people I work with. But I wanted to do something where I’d be motivated knowing that there would be rewards for my extra efforts (by rewards of course I mean cashmoney), and something that would offer me much more flexibility and control over my schedule. So, here goes! There’s no turning back now!

Though I have become accustomed to the news coverage, I was still a little shaken when I was greeted by the following headlines on Yahoo!:

Just to clarify - I’m innocent!

Yes, I got sick again. What’s the deal? Very similar sickness to the last one, but really, again? Like any hard-working American, I expect my ailments to batter me rationally - and by rationally I mean in frequency and proportion commensurate with the sick time I am allotted by my employer (one day every 2 months, or 6 days per calendar year). Since I used two sick days before the third week of January LAST TIME I had this bug, I was not happy to call in sick this past Thursday.

I always feel better knowing I made the right call by taking the day off, and since I slept for all but 2 hours of it, I think I did. But Friday was much more difficult. I peeled myself out of bed and “got ready” (I use those words very loosely, I was a sight for sore eyes) and thought I could at least get through a half of a day and preserve a little bit of my elusive sick time. Although many of my colleagues were less than pleased with me for infecting the office, I managed to survive the entire day and got a lot of work off my desk too. The only unfortunate thing was the steady stream of yuck pouring from my nose. Since I was at work and there is a window looking into my office, I didn’t really feel comfortable utilizing the plug technique (use your imagination - it is much like it sounds) I usually use to limit the use of tissues. As a result, I will suffer from redness irritation and eventually peeling over the next few days. I think I’m on the up and up though. I should be back in full swing by Monday. Now, in order to fix my unbalanced time off, I can’t get sick again until August. Seems reasonable.

Since I’ve had a lot of time on my hands, I’ve been considering the good and the bad of being sick.

• BAD: it is never the same as being home with Mom. Granted, Brian did make several trips to the store for whatever it was I needed at the moment, but there is nothing like Mom’s elixir and an 24-hour on-call comforter to fetch the remote, close the drapes, turn on the fan, cover my feet, bring me some water, heat up my tea, and just pity me in general (I’m kind of high-maintenance when I’m sick. Did I mention that?
• GOOD: I can eat all the refined carbohydrates I want and still manage to loose a few pounds
• BAD: I will inevitably gain them back as soon as I’m well
• GOOD: I can catch up on everything I’ve DV-R’d over the past week or two.
• BAD: Light and noise = bad for headache and general irritation with all things.
• GOOD: Time to catch up on sleep
• BAD: Inability to sleep

Well, this list isn’t working out so well. It looks like being sick just sucks, for lack of a better word. I’m glad it’s (sort of) behind me. Or at least getting there.

Brian might kill me for this, but it is too funny not to share. Last night we were watching Wheel of Fortune (don’t hate, it’s a common practice in our home to flip between Wheel and Jeopardy and compete against eachother…FYI - Brian is disturbingly good at Jeopardy) and Brian hid the remote from me and refused to change the channel during a commercial. I threw a mini-tantrum because ever since DV-R changed my life, I feel I am above the watching of commercials.

So once I found the remote, I punished him by going to our list and playing one of my favorite shows, which happens to be one of his least favorites (it’s The Closer if you’re wondering…TNT showed a marathon starting at the very first episode on Sunday, which I of course DV-R’d). I thought for sure he would retaliate and make me surrender the remote, but instead, he did something shocking. He went to bed.

Ok, do the math…Wheel of Fortune is on from 7 to 7:30…yup, he headed up before 8pm! Tuesdays are an earlier than usual morning for him and this one was especially early since he headed to the gym before work, so it’s not totally out of character for him to head to bed a little early on a Tuesday night, but 8pm? He was completely shameless. In his defense, when I went upstairs around 9:30 he wasn’t totally asleep but I couldn’t let the opportunity to bust on him pass by.

On Friday I cleaned my office. Then, over the weekend, I forgot. Today, the clean office was not only a more pleasant work environment, but a welcomed (and much needed) Monday morning surprise. Here’s to proactivity and forgetfulness, a powerful pair when combined

Hope you all like our new look. Well, our site’s new look (we still look the same). This almost finalizes the look of the new site.

I am so excited right now. Brian and I were leaving the house tonight and we noticed that when the garage door closed the top panel was slightly misaligned and not resting on the one below it. The garage door is original to the house and I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones in the neighborhood that haven’t replaced it yet. So it’s kind of inevitable that we’ll have to replace it soon. Tonight I feared that the day was drawing closer…fast.

So when I got home I looked at it and the littly “thingy” that held that panel and the one below it together was no longer holding it together. But it was there, and the screws were still there, but those thingy’s that keep the screws on (I now know these are called nuts) were not there. So I was just going to walk away and show Brian when he got home, but suddenly I felt empowered. I examined the other metal thingy’s (not the screws or nuts, the big metal thingy that holds the panels together) and they were all intact. If only I had two more of the exact same nuts that were still in place.

And the light bulb went on. There’s a hardware store across the street, I know what I need, I can even bring one to show them. I was truly empowered. I could do this…all by myself! So I took off one of the nuts and brought it to the hardware store. I was going to just walk up to the counter and ask for help but they all seemed busy. So I kept walking, and found the aisle with the things that looked like what was in my hand. There were about 100 different varieties of them.

So after a couple of minutes I found one that looked like the one in my hand, but shinier. I brought two to the counter, and fully aware of my inexperience (and unwillingness to drive back to the hardware store if I was wrong) I checked with the guy behind the counter and he tried my hex-nut (oh yea, I know what that is) and the two I’d picked up on the same screw…and they all worked! He said I was lucky - but we know the truth. I am a genius.  And tonight, I fixed the garage.