On the road.....

I'm pooped. I didn't know traveling took so much out of you! It all began last Friday. I headed down to Hutch for the State Fair and camped in the RV with my folks. It was so hot that we spent most of the time in the AC watching football. I did manage to make a quick sweep of the grounds and found me some traeger pellets and seasonings, a garlic mincer, and a fragrance thingy; along with my kettle corn and turkey leg! We visited with some of Devin's family and then I made the 4 hour drive up to Norton. I worked in my new store Monday and Tuesday, then headed 2 hours north to North Platte, NE for a manager's meeting on Wednesday. I enjoyed the meeting. I learned a little more about Pamida and it's future and brought home ideas to use in my pharmacy. I then drove 5 hours to Clay Center and spent the night with my parents. My friend, John, from Pharmacy School manages the Patterson's Health Care Pharmacy in Abilene and was in desperate need of help on Thursday. I couldn't not help a friend or my hometown pharmacy, so I grabbed a couple nut rolls and headed to Abilene Thursday morning and worked 9 hours, then drove 3 hours back to Olathe. I could barely keep my eyes open! We were supposed to have a garage sale Friday morning. That didn't happen. We were supposed to have a garage sale today. That didn't happen either. I had no energy to get everything together. It's taking all I have to get boxes and totes put together of basic necessities to move to Norton. I'll be heading back to Norton Sunday morning to begin working full-time. I'll be glad to be in one place for awhile!

The New Gig

I will be managing Pamida Pharmacy. I've heard of Pamida, we have one in Clay Center, but I never knew they have pharmacies in some of their stores. Their focus is small town, rural communities. Here are a few things that attracted me to the position: open M-F 9:00am-6:00pm, Saturday 9am-1pm; NO holidays; NO drive-thru; less corporate control and demands....they allow the managers to run the pharmacy like independent pharmacies and provide funding; slow-paced and relaxing atmosphere; paid time off for community service; work with just a hand-full of doctors and nurses; paid for every minute I'm there.....no more donating time, etc. There will be things I will miss about Walgreens; they are the best in retail pharmacy and the computer system is top-notch, but I'm ready for the change. The Norton Pamida has a lot of potential. There hasn't been a full-time pharmacist there in about 2 years, which deters customers from coming. It's a mess and needs cleaned-up and organized. I have a lot of challenges ahead of me. I have 2 days left at Walgreens. I don't think it has really hit me yet. I work a couple days next week in Norton, travel to Nebraska for a manager's meeting, and will begin full-time on the 27th. The next few weeks will be nothing but work, work, work so we're heading to Hutch this weekend to enjoy the fair, family, and crappy food.

The Burning Question Answered

Where am I moving to you ask? Well, it's a small town out west with a population of about 3000-3500. Going from big cities like Phoenix and Kansas City it will definitely be a big change. I'm closer to Denver than KC and just a short drive from Nebraska. Their high school is 3A and they have a very strong athletic department which the community is very involved. They have a newspaper that only comes out once a week on Tuesdays. Our date-night dinner choices will be McDonalds, DQ, Subway, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Attitudes Steakhouse and Grill, Adventures in Eating, and Town and Country. There's also a little coffee shop, pub, and chinese restaurant. Starbucks, Mi Ranchito, and nice restaurants are a thing of the past. Living in the bigger cities we had everything at our fingertips. If we needed anything, we went a got it....big or small. Now we will be making lists for our shopping trips to the bigger near-by towns. The closest Wal-Mart is an hour and a half away in Hays, KS or Kearney, NE. It will take some adjusting, but I'm excited for the slower pace......the simple life. No more "keeping up with the Jones's" mentality that's so common here in Johnson County. No more HOA's!!!!! It's the pheasant hunting capital and there is a state park just outside of town so the hunting, fishing, and boating will keep my man happy. With the small town comes the gossip which I'm not too excited about. I'll be under a microscope for awhile being new in town, and the new pharmacy manager no less. There is also a state prison which provides a lot of jobs for the community. I like the little town and would be happy to start a family here. So.....the answer to your question is: Norton, KS

Below is a picture of the street I currently live on. A sign???? or just a coincidence????

Letter

I remember it so clearly.....I was at the Hereford House in Lawrence, KS for a Walgreen's recruitment dinner. The slide show was nice and fancy. The company looked great, the benefits looked great, and I just couldn't think of any reason why this company wouldn't be good for me to begin my pharmacy career. They were the #1 retail pharmacy chain and I could see why. It's hard to believe that was over 6 years ago. I spent over 4 1/2 years with Walgreens in Phoenix and over a year and a half with them here in Olathe. Walgreens is all I know. I was comfortable......but not exactly happy or excited to go to work everyday. The nights and weekends were getting old, and I wasn't happy with all the corporate demands. I knew there were better jobs out there for me, but with the down economy I knew Walgreens was stable, and again, I was comfortable. I get calls from recruiters all the time at work, but I usually just pretend I'm listening to them. It was back in April when I answered the phone. This one was different. "Pharmacy Manager...no nights, weekends, or holidays...sign on package....small town...etc, etc." It must have been music to my ears, because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I went and told Devin and he was very encouraging and said lets check it out! We both went for a quick visit and it was something we both thought would be a good career move for me. I've always wanted to take my career to the next level and manage, but wanted it to be on a smaller scale than Walgreens. This would be perfect. After much negotiation I signed a contract with them in May. I didn't have an exact start date; I wanted to try and sell the house before we made the move. With all the cut-backs due to the poor economy, Walgreens asked us to take some volunteer time off. I, of course, volunteered. I went and worked at my new store instead for a couple weeks and I did not want to come back! It was very different, but so simple and relaxed. We still haven't had any luck selling our house, but I've decided to go ahead and get started. The company has been so patient with me, and I don't want to keep them waiting any longer. Now comes the hard part. The Letter. Telling those that I've worked with for so long that I am leaving. It was hard. I've met some of my greatest friends at Walgreens. Walgreens has been good to me, but it is time to move on. And as I told them in my resignation letter, if it wasn't for working for such a great company and with so many exceptional professionals, I wouldn't have the confidence I do now to take on this new role. So my letter is in. I submitted it on Friday. It felt good. I have 12 days of work left......but who's counting!
To be continued.........

Just Because

My sweetie went to the store last night and came home with these:

He brought me some Twizzlers too! My favorite!! I asked him what he had done (hahaha) and he said nothing......he just wanted to do something nice for me. Awwwwww......

Puppies

The puppies are almost 4 weeks now. They are starting to walk around and talk a lot. They are so cute at this stage.

I just had to show these pictures of Raven. She sleeps in the most awkward positions and it cracks me up! She always looks so peaceful though.

San Diego

I just had my big weekend in San Diego. All my training was put to the test. I was a little nervous, but extremely excited! I was also worried about the lack of sleep I had gotten due to the all-night delivery we had with Bella's puppies. We stayed at the Sheraton and this was the view from our window. I was expecting it to be warm out there, but it was overcast and chilly the majority of the time.




The first day we were there we went to the fitness expo to pick up our race packets and visit all the vendors. It was a fitness persons dream! They had clothes, shoes, energy/protein foods and drinks, watches, sunglasses; anything and everything to do with running or fitness. Here's Theresa and I taking advantage of some photo ops.




Saturday was our inspirational dinner. We had pasta to load up on carbs before the big run. It was just an overview of what Team In Training had accomplished and a couple inspirational speakers. Basically a pep rally for our weekend. I think they said this weekend alone TNT raised over 12 million dollars!!




It was an early night so we could prepare our gear and wake up early for the shuttle. We had to be ready at 4am!! Here is Theresa, Stefanie, and I waiting to get on the bus.


I don't know if you can tell, but this is the line to the johnny's. For anyone that knows me well, you know I don't do toilets that don't flush or that move. I'm disappointed to say that I had no choice in the matter and had to brave the accommodations. Getting up 3 hours before the race and loading up on fluids, I just couldn't hold it any longer.




This was the starting line. Look at all the people!!! I think they said there were over 40,000 runners. We were released by coral numbers and I was in #36, so I actually didn't start running until 45 minutes after the race began.




There were so many people lining the streets cheering us on. Team In Training actually had their own set of cheerleaders. These guys were hilarious!




With so many runners it was fun to pass the time by just people watching. People were dressed in tu-tu's, Elvis costumes, etc. In my pack there were 2 guys in batman underwear carrying guitars filled with Gatorade. They got a lot of attention along the way.




The one thing I did not like about the course is that we spent a lot of time on the interstate and interstate ramps. We were running at an angle and it just wasn't fun.




Since this was a Rock-N-Roll Marathon there were bands along the way to keep us entertained with good music. There were also plenty of water stops, johnny's, and medical staff to help with any injuries along the way. I saw some people opt out from using the Johnny and found trees, people were off to the side stretching, crying, puking. Like I said there were so many things to look at the time went by pretty fast.




I'm finally at the finish line!! I did fine until between mile 11 and 12 and I started to struggle. The last mile was the longest mile of my life!! At times it may have been more of a shuffle than a run, but I still finished without stopping. That was my goal. The finish line was packed with people cheering you in. It was awesome. Once we crossed they handed us our medal, took a picture, and loaded us up with cold wet towels, water, and food. I took a long walk afterwards to help walk off the soreness. It sure helped.




After the race we went to the victory celebration for Team In Training. They had food, music, and a cash bar!! It was so funny to watch everyone limp and waddle to the bar. Alcohol= the best pain killer! I was definitely waddling.......I can tell I'm getting older. My body doesn't recover as well as it did when I was 20! We didn't stay long there and headed to the Gaslamp district. We spent a lot of time here between events walking around, shopping, and eating. Again, you could definitely tell who participated in the marathon with all the waddling, moaning, and groaning around town.

The last day we needed to kill some time before our flight, so we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. Our tickets came with a bus tour so we took advantage of that right away.

Final Thoughts: I would definitely do a half-marathon again. It is something I have always wanted to do and nothing is more satisfying than crossing the finish line and knowing you accomplished something great. I need to have better training with longer runs, however. Team In Training was great to start with, but the farthest we ran was 10 miles and the marathoners only ran 20. That's 3 and 6 miles further!! That's a lot when you're already tired! There were 2 people from our team that ended up needing medical attention because of dehydration and exhaustion. I want to be able to run 13.1 miles strong and not feel like I have to shuffle to cross the finish line. I met some new people and really had a good time with the organization. They really do great things for people affected by blood cancers. The hardest part of the experience was the fundraising. I am so grateful for those that helped me reach my goal. People really surprise you when it comes to fundraising. There were people I didn't expect to donate that did which was awesome, and there were some I thought for sure they would donate that didn't and it was very disappointing. I understand if they don't support the cause, but I was hoping people would donate in support of ME! I thought $2900 was a little steep and I know a few people who had to put in a lot of money to make the goal. I learned a lot about what to eat, what type of clothing to wear, and nutritional supplements to keep you going along the way. I would love to keep training and since I am now considered alumni I can still train with the team on Saturdays.