A Blooming Business

I forgot to mention something in my post today that I wanted everyone to know! Cymbidium is a flower and event planning company that I first interviewed with when I came to Dallas. The company is owned by Robyn and Rachel Wise who both went to Coppell High School and ACU with me. They were also both Kojies! Rachel is a year older than me and was the mascot when I cheered at Coppell. Anyway, they weren't able to hire me at the time but I might have a chance to work with them in the future. All this to say, they now have a reality show on TLC called A Blooming Business and the first episode aired TONIGHT! It was at 9:30pm and 10:30pm but of course, TLC will replay the episodes throughout the next couple of weeks. I know the pilot episode airs again tomorrow (Saturday) at 3pm also. If you have a DVR please record the show (or just watch it). I want to help them get their ratings as high as possible! We watched the episode tonight. Not only was it fun to see them, Preston and I also recognized a groomsman in the wedding featured who used to go to my church growing up and who also went to ACU, was a member of Gamma Sigma Phi and went to Texas Tech with Preston! If you're from Dallas, it's a lot of fun to recognize the vendors, places and people used in the show.

Here is Cymbidium's website if you are interested: www.cymbidiumflowers.com

Preston's post

I have been ordered to contribute to “our” blog. So I thought I would talk about my new job.

It took 4 interviews across 7 weeks, but I am finally gainfully employed. I was just hired at a financial planning firm in the Dallas area called Lee Financial. I have been hired on as an Investment Strategy Associate; which should mean nothing to you. The way Lee Financial is set up is that there are two teams. There is a Capital Strategy team and an Investment Strategy team. The Capital Strategist take care of things for the client such as taxes, insurance, estate planning, etc. The Investment Strategy team handles the daily money management issues.
I was hired to be an Investment Strategy Associate. I am there to help the Investment Strategists (who work directly with the clients). Part of my job is to prepare client data for client meetings. If a client is coming in for a meeting, it is my job to pull all of that client’s financial information and put it together into a power point presentation. I am also supposed to sit in on meetings with our analyst and Investment Strategist and talk about the stock market and the economy and decide what changes we need to make in client portfolios to try to maximize returns (or minimize losses). That is probably the biggest chunk of what I will do at Lee. But I have only been there a week and am still figuring out exactly what I will be doing.
It seems to me that there is really no limit to what I will be allowed to do. All I have to do is ask and they will let me sit in on meetings or be involved in different teams, etc. It seems like I will be able to learn as much as I want to.

So there you have it, that is my new job in a nut shell. In about 6 months when Shelbi orders me to make another blog post, I can fill you in on the actual details of my job. I know you can’t wait.

Slow clap

Aren't you all so proud of me for getting Preston to write a post about his job! I gave him "the look" and he finally surrendered.

So my best friend from birth, Annie Gasparro, called me yesterday to catch up. She is a writer for The Wall Street Letter in New York and often times her work is published in The Wall Street Journal. Because Annie writes about finance, she tends to understand Preston's field of work much better than I do. I find that highly amusing. Anyway, she asked how Preston's job was going so I started explaining it to her in "Shelbi terms" like I do with all my friends. Then she asked me some financially related question that I did not know the answer to, much less what she was trying to ask me in the first place so I just handed the phone to Preston. When I got the phone back Annie said, "Guess what...we're doing video of our stories now." She made it sound like no big deal but I kept thinking it was a pretty big deal so I told her to send me a link to her video. She said it was boring but when I opened the link and saw THE WALL STREET JOURNAL at the top of the page...I didn't think it was boring. Now granted, she has already had several of her stories published in the WSJ (and I have kept every copy) but now her face is on their website...and I think that is just about the coolest thing since sliced bread, so I'm telling everybody. I mean, how many people can say their best friend is on the WSJ website? I wish it was like YouTube and told you how many "hits" the video has...then I'd know just how famous she actually is...

Here's the video:




And here's the link if you want to see it on the actual WSJ site: http://online.wsj.com/video/brokerage-firms-up-pay-to-keep-talent/B1CADA5E-086D-48E2-943B-BACC9784435D.html


By the way, I would like to take this time to give a shout out to Preston for fixing the leak in my parents' shower this weekend. He never ceases to amaze me with all the "handyman" duties he is able to fulfill. In the past two months he has replaced the faucet and plumbing underneath the bathroom sink in our house, redone the frame around my parents' garage, rebuilt and repainted my parents' front porch, trimmed the vines off the side and roof of my grandparent's house, added weatherstripping to our front door and now fixed a leaky shower saving all us hundred's of dollars in maintenance fees. I think he deserves a slow clap...

In SICKNESS and in health, PROSPERITY and adversity

I am finally on the upswing from my 2-3 day "flu" illness and am ready to write! You would think writing would be one of the only things I would be able to do in my bed but I'm still getting over the fact that my brain wasn't working correctly while I was sick. We went to dinner at Chuy's last night (mistake by the way) with friends because I thought I was on the upswing and Preston told me the creamy jalepeno ranch would help clear my sinuses. Well we get in the car and halfway there I noticed that I didn't bring ANYTHING. I left my purse, my driver's license and my phone at home. I NEVER do that. I decided that was probably a sign that I should still be home in bed.

I don't really know if I had the flu but this is what I do know: both my parents were ill and bed-stricken for a consecutive amount of 2-3 days, I was around them and whatever they had I got. Unfortunately I am also dealing with allergies so half my symptoms, I presume, were throwing me off a little bit. I was sneezing, coughing, snotting, stuffy...you name it. Then came the aches and pain...I had those for a couple days and last night when we got home I finally got the chills. So the first set of symptoms I attribute to the fact that I am in fact allergic to Texas (or perhaps just Dallas). The second half I attribute to the flu. I never gave myself a chance to have a fever because I was popping 3 Advil every 4-6 hours, not to mention DayQuil, NyQuil, Airborne, nose spray, the Netti pot and whatever vitamins I could find. Today I finally had Preston pick me up some medicine from Walgreens that is specifically designed for flu symptoms. 30 minutes after taking it, my "fever" that I didn't have broke and I could hardly keep my clothes on I was so hot. Preston thought I was going insane. Now I feel great, aside from the stuffed up nose and ears that I'm still dealing with. Hopefully Preston won't get sick too, he's been trying to stay in the main house playing Halo all day...at least that's his excuse.

In other news, PRESTON IS EMPLOYED! That's right. In one of the worst economic times in our country's history my husband actually found a job! It really is a blessing and we are so thankful, especially knowing so many people who have lost their jobs recently. You know what else that means? We are insured!!! Not currently of course, but we will be in a few months. You have no idea how happy that makes me. I miss going to the doctor. Some people hate the doctor but I love going and I love being able to buy prescription medicine. Hooray for health care!

I told Preston he should write the blog about getting a job but he said he wanted to wait until his first day on the job. I'm pretty sure that's his way of saying he just wants to play Halo. Expect a post from him on March 16th.

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

This video is great too. For some reason the YouTube host didn't have an option for me to embed it into my blog so you'll just have to follow the link.

To preface, this guy is a comedian who was on Conan O'Brien. The title of the video is "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus