Tag: teamdevine

Updates . . .

Published on by Kat DevineLeave a comment

If I survive this semester – what should be my final semester of college – it will be a small miracle.  I have to wonder if I’m focused on the negatives or if the stress of work and school are overwhelming me, but the bottom line is I am having the absolute worst time focusing – period.

On the upside of things, I have managed to pull ahead in the regular course work and Case Study for my Business Policy class.  I wrote and submitted the case study two months in advance and got a 100 on it, so yay me!  One paper down and three to go.  I have completed all of the research for my Seminar in Business class.  (This class is only worth 2 credit hours and only requires this 1 research paper.) But still it’s a required class to graduate and a paper is still a paper.

I think I have finally managed to understand the Business Simulator (CapSim) for the Business Policy class.  I feel terrible for my team mate because I was so far behind the curve ball of understanding that I think our team is in dead last place.  The good news is that she is fantastically nice and willing to shoulder at least 50% of the work as I am, so I believe we make a good team.  It’s not easy being CEO of your own company and playing in multi-millions, responsible for hundreds of employees’ lives and shareholders profits.  So far my take away is to have a strategy and stick with it.

The advanced research class is the one that is killing me.  70+ pages of content is not easy.  The research is done.  The reference page is complete.  The Abstract and Thesis statements are complete.  It’s the background, problem and supporting material that I am having so much trouble diving into.  And it’s NOT like the subject is all that sexy either; Negotiation Strategy and The Role of Attitude. (Blech!) pfooey!

That leaves the Management of Change class – and this class has the most required regular work plus a term paper.  The good news is, that paper is finished also and uploaded, but this teacher is incredibly  . . . hard to please with papers and tore my first paper to shreds (which in all honesty as I’m used to getting 100’s kind of tore me up).  She called my findings “arbitrary” and I’m like – how ‘arbitrary’ can expounding on a researched subject can it be? Sheesh.  Whatever – I got a B on it. Who cares. LOL . . . When did getting a “B” become failing?

Oh lord, have I become an Asian Tiger Mom to myself?! – Probably. LOL!

Thanks to the water leak at the house and the VERY mild winter and now saturated Spring my Eczema is worse than it has EVER been in my entire life!  Embarrassingly so!  I have these red, inflamed, itchy patches of skin on both legs now and the tops of my hands!  I’ve had to wrangle away a little time to head back into the gym to tan in hopes that the exposure to the UV light will help it again.  The upswing on THAT is that I feel so good after tanning that I have been working out.  The bad news is – it takes precious time away from my shiny new hubby.

Speaking of shiny, new hubby’s – mine isn’t perfect, but he is very sweet and thoughtful.  I can honestly say that no one in my entire life has ever been so keenly aware of  . . . ME!  And isn’t THAT interesting?  Being an inherent people pleaser, I am always acutely aware of others.  I try very hard to head things off at the pass because I’m blessed with being naturally observant, so when someone is actually that way to me, for me – it’s a little . . . disconcerting.

Don’t get me wrong!  I LOVE that there is someone out there that loves me so much that they can discern the subtleties of me; the nuances that comprise my mood, personality and attitude.

It’s really refreshing.  Thus one of many reasons why I love him.

I guess that’s all I’ve got here.  It’s time for another cup of coffee and more work.

Here’s hoping you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.  Keep fighting the good fight, be the best YOU, you can be, hug your loved ones and never stop assessing your ‘Lesson’s Learned.’

~ Kat Devine  

My other blog is much more fun . .

Published on by Kat DevineLeave a comment

Yep, that’s right – there is more than one out there.  Seek and ye shall find.  It’s as juicy as this book I’ve been writing for the past two years.

Let me know when you find it and what you think . . .

Oh wait – never mind.

I’ll know – I always do. 😉

 

 

Just Ranting and Rolling Along . . .

Published on by Kat DevineLeave a comment

I’m probably going to rant a bit right here, but you all know me well enough by now to know – I love me a good rant!

So the reason I haven’t had a chance to update this blog in over a month is because well the holidays happened (which was totally  . . . weird, but more on that some other time) and then school started back.  No big deal, this is now my fourth semester with a full load, so not only do I know what to expect, but I felt going into this semester (my last by the way) that I had this covered and would be good to go.

Will the depths of my naivety ever cease to surprise me?

Four classes.  Four Senior level classes; two of which are required to graduate and have to be taken concurrently in the LAST semester before graduating.  (WTF?!) Right? Ok, still in and of itself – no big deal, right?

WRONG!

All four of my classes require a lengthy research paper.  Ok, still nothing for me to panic about, but one class in particular flat out said we could NOT use a recycled paper – ok, again no big deal, just have to buckle down and start working, [But FOUR different subject materials, FOUR Thesis Statements, FOUR Bibliographies and FOUR Abstracts; all in APA 6th Edition Format. (WTF?!)]

And as if that weren’t enough work two of the classes also have tons and tons of regular work to be done with deadlines etc . . .  I mean I knew we wouldn’t have much of a life this semester but gosh – really?!   The sad part is that I’m so overwhelmed by the thought of all these papers and the fact that one of them has to be over 70 pages long that I’m having difficulty focusing and diving in.

SIGH.

So to relax these days I’ve been cross – stitching.  I’m so goofy; I love to just sit and breathe and keep my hands busy and my mind still; monotonously stitching.  I guess I’ve grown tired of gaming.

27Jan16 Cross-Stitch

Who am I kidding?! I will never grow tired of gaming. LOL.

I can just only handle so much Hay Day, Candy Crush, Marvel’s Champions, Bubble Witch Saga, Soduku, and Puzzles.  I briefly got back into playing on the Xbox over the holiday’s but I know myself well enough that if I get hooked into a game there I will never get my homework done.  At least with the phone or iPad Mini I can take breaks and not get sucked in.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Only three more months and I’m done with school.  I don’t even want to think about graduate school as yet, but I suppose I should.  At least a little.

Work has been interesting.  I was given the role of ISO internal auditor last week.  I am already the document control for all things ISO, so I guess it makes good sense.  In addition I still have to ensure that all the office IT works, that the website is up and running and that all employee documents are accessible through the employee portal, and take care of all things security related.  It feels good to be busy. LOL.  I love my job!

That’s all I’ve got on this dreary January Thursday.

Well there is this one thing . . . thanks to the beautiful wedding and engagement pictures that Southern Cotton Photography took, we were featured in a local magazine!  How super exciting and weird is THAT?!  Sharon Palmer can seriously rock a camera!

Sneak_Peak_002

 

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Best of luck to those of you literally snowed in up north and out west.

Kat of Team Devine outta here . . .

A Series of Unfortunate Events . . .

Published on by Kat DevineLeave a comment

This is the turn of phrase my husband (OMG! I have a “husband”!) used while posting a sweet thank you to one of our very good friends on Facebook yesterday.  He was thanking her because without her help he might not have been able to get to the wedding at all!  But let’s go back and revisit some recent ‘unfortunate events’ leading up to this particular one.

Not long after we became engaged did we find out that my husband (!) had to have back surgery – immediately.  NO problem – we get it done.  Then because I wasn’t taking good care of myself I develop low blood pressure, low iron, have a hypoglycemic episode while at dinner and wake up covered in blood outside of BJ’s Brewhouse with a huge gash in my forehead two weeks before my wedding.

Five stitches and a two and a half day stay at Madison Hospital later and my husband’s house gets burgled, follow that with the week before the wedding he twisted the wrong way and tweaked his back and we are back at the Dr’s, but it doesn’t stop there.  Two days before our wedding I grabbed his razor and cut my left ring finger so bad I couldn’t get it to stop bleeding for well over an hour and when my sister, (a nurse) saw it the next day she even said it probably could have used a stitch or two, but by then I had worked it out.

Which leads us to the day of the wedding, where my husband went to do something sweet for his son/Groomsman, and simply stepped off the curb, heard something “POP” in his left calf and can now barely walk; thus the sweet thank you to our friend for dropping everything, driving out to our house, getting him and dropping him at the venue for pictures and then running back to her house to get herself ready.  (Thank you Heather Rudeen for ‘being there’ always when we need you!)

Not once did it EVER occur to me during this entire process that I should run like hell, probably because my husband kept saying to me, right up to the minute we took our wedding vows standing at the altar, “You can still run babe.” To which I just shook my head and laughed.

Today, this morning, it does however occur to me that we have now had our fair share of bad luck and I would like to pass it along to the next in line.  I’m sorry for that and I wish you (whoever you are) all the best with it, but I’m really kind of done and over these unfortunate events.

Despite all of THAT – we had one hell of a rocking, good wedding.

Momzilla and Sarah (the wedding coordinator) freaking broke their backs and necks getting that venue decorated and everything in order.  It wasn’t glitch free by any means, but no one but us would EVER have known that, thus why I can tell you now.

Everything that could possibly go wrong did and the ONLY reason I didn’t flip shit and turn into a maniacal BRIDEZILLA is because of attitude.  I CHOSE to have a good attitude.

Starting with the rehearsal at the venue, when our officiant didn’t have the script completed and it took us way too long to get through even one run through, much less two, I just rolled with it.

When I woke up and found it to be raining, checked the forecast for the whole day and saw we had a 30% chance of rain, I just sighed and repeated to myself what everyone else has said, ‘Rain is good luck on your wedding day!’

When I found myself all alone, driving to the hair dresser and a little sad because everyone was too busy to be with me and I wanted to share my experiences with someone – like my MOH or BM, I just cried a little, got it out of my system and moved on.

When I found myself being reprimanded for ‘being late’ to the hair dresser and makeup artist, even though my text appointment from the salon said 9:15 NOT 9:00, I just shrugged my shoulders and walked in at 9:16.

When I was being coiffed and the other hair stylist was having a snit fit because my bridesmaid wasn’t there for him to do because the time line got screwed up, and it wasn’t communicated to us, I just tried to problem solve it and keep him from having a hissy fit and her from being upset and crashing her car in the rain.

When my sister was told that because the time line was jacked that she wouldn’t get any professional makeup, we just nodded and said ‘ok’.  I then told her it will be fun for me to do her makeup, so we did. Plus it meant she got to hang with me and I got some awesome company to share this experience with – win/win!

When my sister was asked to pay for her hair when our understanding was they were going to bill my Mom for that – she just paid for hers, SB’s, and the little girls and we moved on.

When I got the phone call from my husband that he had stepped off the curb and heard something “pop” in his leg and could barely walk – ok I’m not going to lie here, I did freak out a little, but he assured me come hell or high-water he would show up.  (Thanks to Heather, he did.)

When the photography time line got so jacked because nobody was ready on time and my father couldn’t be found anywhere and then we found out he couldn’t get on base because he forgot his ID – I just started drinking.

The photographer (Sharon Palmer of Southern Cotton Photography and her super sweet and really handsome bf Chad McFalls) were absolute god sends.  Her calm, smiling demeanor kept us still able to get shots outside despite the rain, and her flexibility on the time line kept my bitch switch from flipping. I will be ever so grateful to her for unconsciously ‘handling’ me very well.

So the list goes on and I will try to recap here by memory as best I can – Drew could barely walk so getting him from point A to point B to exchange our gifts to each other without him seeing me, blind folded was NOT fun. The officiant (whom I adore) was not on his game and snafu’d things a number of times to the point where it became just comical.  He used a cell phone inside a bible and at one point it died and – yeah, we stood there.  The band didn’t know about playing ‘Ava Maria’, the guests weren’t told when they could be seated so they stood longer than they should have, we think a big chunk of our I do’s were skipped and a lot more people showed up than the RSVP’s we received.  I think at last count we had in excess of 80 people.

All in all, despite all and any of that – we had THE most beautiful wedding you could possibly imagine.  Every element of it was absolute perfection for us.  And if you don’t believe me, just check out all the pictures and eventually the video of my entrance.

Oh did I mention the entrance?

My Groom thought at about a week out that he was being funny when we were asked if I would come out to ‘Here Comes The Bride’ or “Cannon in D’, when he suggested I come out to Darth Vader’s ‘Imperial March’ to which I thought was genius and I ran with it.  So there you have it, I entered the ceremony on the Imperial March until I choked that tune out and then walked down to ‘Cannon in D.’

It was surreal.

It was stunning.

It was bigger, better, and more perfect than my imagination could have EVER conjured and it was completely US!

That’s all I got here folks.

Raise your hand if you are next in line for this streak of strange luck.

Catch you on the flip side.

 

Lots of love,

Kat Devine