Stocks & Benefits

Before I started working for my publicly traded company, I knew a small, but significant amount about stocks.  We have Ameritrade and Edward Jones accounts.  Eric and I both have 401(k) accounts that we are quite "involved" with.  However, I hadn't really ever followed stock prices on a regular basis.  Now that I have stock options and am enrolled in our awesome perk of the employee stock purchase plan, I definitely follow our stock.  It is getting a little better each day.  I am crossing my fingers that it will hit $20 sometime soon.  I may be waiting for awhile, but hopefully not.  I definitely see how having these sorts of benefits as well as the return on assets bonus structure encourages employees to focus on the bottom line more than at other privately held companies I've worked for.  I realize that the bottom line isn't all that matters (especially as my role in HR) but as a team, we are much more conscious of costs/spending when it directly impacts our pay. 

GO STLD! :) 

Volunteering

Life is busy and I have tried to focus on the fact that regardless of how hard I may think my life is, it is still leaps and bounds easier than many other people's lives.  Therefore, even if you never feel like you have enough time or money to get by in life, you probably do have at least a little time to give back. 

I joined the Ann Arbor Jaycees 4 years ago.  I joined because I wanted to add variety to my life and get out and experience new things.  Boy, did it give me that!  The organization also introduced me to a large like-minded group of people that I have become great friends with.  I have found that I enjoyed the community service projects quite a bit.  Now that I work in Jackson and live in Livingston County, Jaycee events are a bit difficult to make it to.  I did a bit of research and found a cause that I felt strongly about in Jackson.  I started training with the AWARE shelter earlier this fall.  It is a shelter/center for battered women and their children.  The training is extensive but I am excited to have found a way to give back.  I have had some stumbling blocks in my life and was always so lucky that there were people there to help me along the way, both family/friends and strangers/new friends.  Many people do not have anyone to lean on.  Actually, many may not be the accurate term.  It is probably more accurate to say a large percentage of people feel that they do not have anyone that can help them. 

How to be a Good Person

After some recent events, I really started to wonder what others felt made a good person.  I did some research and feel that the article above is a pretty good representation of what I found.  No one is perfect and I know that there is no way in life to make every person you come in contact with happy.  What you can do is try your best to be the person that you can respect.   I'd say that is my goal. I'll keep on working on constantly trying to achieve it. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my cherished family and friends.  Love you all. 

I am SO tired of this

People, when did it become ok to pry in to a person's very private life (especially in public conversation)? 

It didn't. 

Don't Ask

Run thru Hell on Halloween!

Running a race on Halloween thru Hell?  Sounds just about perfect!

Friends

Over the past several months, I have reflected a bit of life and specifically friendship.  Life is busy and time passes by very quickly.  I believe that true friendship exists when you are able to pick up the phone after any amount of time has passed by and talk to a friend like no time has passed at all.  I am truly thankful for all of the meaningful relationships in my life.  I have learned to let go of the things go that do not feel right or are too much work. 

Thank you to all my wonderful peeps! 

Here is a pretty good one!  :)

The Darc