This is June, we worked at her home. She wanted some plants planted in front of her house and a tree to be planted in the front yard.
This is me and Dylan. I think he is from Iowa. He and I worked together to dig holes and plant the plants for June. He was very funny. I guess he writes for our company paper The Siren's Tale. He was asking June all sorts of questions!
This is how the little planter turned out! Pretty nice huh? I hope they are still alive! You know how I am with plants!
on Wednesday. We walked down the street and the organizers would yell out how many volunteers were needed on each site or at each home. The home owners would direct us from there.
Monday's schedule was packed with activities. I hardly took any pictures at all. Here is one of the convention center where we were waiting to enter the customer gallery. There were so many people!
The customer gallery was amazing. It was at times emotional. Inside there were walls with customer letters - good and bad - for us to read and relate to. There was an enormous wall of cups and 'cup phones' for us to listen in on actual customer calls to the customer care line.
Then of course the video about 'Bob' and 'not-Bob'. The conversations we all have to have about the difference in the way we treat our regular customers and the customers who don't come in everyday. It makes me feel bad to know that I haven't treated everyone with the same level of care and enthusiasm. That's what these conferences are for!
The partner gallery was inspiring. It provided new ideas for engaging and inspiring our partners. There are activities to do when back in our stores to help build a strong team which in turn creates a better experience for our customers. I look forward to meeting with each of my partners individually.
I participated in an executive round table with Troy Alstead, our senior vice president of finance. As a table we talked about the effect on Starbucks of the economy and what is happening on Wall Street these days. We also talked about store budgets, store manager bonuses and how new programs/promotions get thrown at us so frequently making smooth execution challenging.
An awards dinner for the South/Southwest Zone finished off the evening. The store managers of the quarter for 2008, store manager of the year and district manager of the year were announced and recognized for their work.
After dinner it was back out to Bourbon Street! Another late night, but we got to sleep in!
When we were done with the stores gallery we ate dinner and went down to Bourbon Street! Dawn, Lenora and I explored the street's various bars and souvenier shops. We then headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our team who arrived at 10:30p. Luckily they were as JAZZED as we were to see what was going on, so we all went back to the party, found a cool bar called Bourbon Rocks and stayed out until 3:00a!
On Sunday October 26th I travelled to New Orleans for our Leadership Conference. I have been to other conferences that were on a much smaller scale so I wasn't sure what to expect. Seeing this billboard as we left the New Orleans airport heading into town gave me an idea that this would be a very big deal! This was not the only sign in the city with our name on it. We were on every lampost! One said "BELIEVE in the power of 10,000"- another said "ONWARD". These were the theme of our conference.
Mercy came to visit us for five days of beautiful weather in October! It was great having her. We romped around town to see the sights. We made some great meals and ate outside on the patio. We also forced Mercy to watch the final Presidential debate on Wednesday. Someone had to keep us calm, all this talk of Joe the plumber- "what about Jessica the barista?!" I yelled.
Thanks
Splish, splash
Reflection of the morning sky.
The flowers enjoyed the douse.
Isn't she beautiful?! She is so tiny and soft!
Our first bird! We have been waiting for two years for this thing to flower!
Mom's half sister, Birta and her family came to visit the western states for three weeks in July. It was great meeting them and getting to know a little about their lives.
Ricky surprized me for our anniversary with tickets to see George Michael in concert! It was a great show! He is an amazing performer.
We went to the weigh-ins before the Ultimate Fighter Championship in June. At the event we met several fighters and got lots of pictures. Rampage in one of our favorites! He looks mean but he is super funny and very friendly.
Sunny and warm the first day, snowy and cold the next! I don't want to move back here after all!
This is the back yard. We had a few BBQ's last summer and enjoyed the pool with friends and family. Aarin came out in September to relax in the sun with me!
