First week on the job!!

So, this week has been an absolutely crazy week and I am also realizing that I have quite a bit of updating to do on the blog. Agenda for this post- brief job info, Dr's update, finally furniture/house pictures, & maybe that will be it. ;)

This was my first week on the job at Study Island, which is technically now under the umbrella brand of Archipelago Learning. There are three products: Study Island (K-12), Northstar Learning (post-secondary division- where I will be working), & Teachers Web. So, they are trying to have one name that is over the whole company, although everyone still refers to it as "the island" or "Study Island". So, I just thought I'd let you all feel as confused as I have been on what I should actually call my place of employment. :) There are I believe around 250 employees that work within Archipelago Learning and there are so many components that I won't even bore you with the details, but I sure have learned a lot this week. Monday and Tuesday I was in the office getting my cube set up and meeting lots of people as well as starting to learn the system a little bit. Wednesday through Friday we have been at the Annual Sales Conference which was held at the Palomar Hotel in Dallas. Oddly enough it was run very similarly to how my previous sales meetings were with Merck, but the biggest difference of course being there were a little over 100 people in attendance vs. the 3-5,000 that were at the Merck meetings depending on what groups were represented at one time. I have to say my favorite part about the company was how laid back everyone seems to be and how much they joke around with one another. We truly spent a good amount of the meeting laughing through different presentations due to the presenters being funny or the slides they were presenting. There are a few practical jokers as well that I'll have to be sure to stay on their good side so the joke's not on me next time! I got to meet some more people and am starting to finally get a hang of some of the names. I know that will get better with time as well. My boss, Julie, was in town from Michigan since she is the Vice President of Sales and I got some time to get to know her better and learn from her as well. There is still a lot for me to learn, but I am ready to get in there next week and start getting my feet on the ground. For now though, I am thankful for a weekend after a long past few days of meetings all day followed by cocktail hours, and dinners that lasted pretty late into the evening. So, enough on the new job, but more to come in following weeks.

Mike has had a good week at AT&T and carpooled with me the first two days this week which allowed us to take the HOV lane. He also has a rental car this week while his car is currently in the shop to be fixed from his accident. He was very helpful around the house the past few days while I was busy at the sales conference. He busied himself with feeding Toby and getting some house chores done, which I found EXTREMELY helpful. We still have some last minute cleaning and setting up to do before Meg & Derek's shower tomorrow, but in general we are ready.

Last Friday we had another Dr's appointment where the Dr. decided that we were 14 weeks instead of only 12, which puts us at 15 weeks right now. It's crazy how the time can fly on all of this. So, it looks like we are also sticking to our January 21, 2010 due date for the time being. We were also very excited that we were able to schedule our next appointment where they are planning to try to determine the gender. So, ladies & gentlemen mark your calendars because August 24th we should hopefully know if this little one is a boy or girl!!! :) We cannot wait to find out! Either way we will be so excited, but it'll be fun for planning purposes and starting to narrow down a name as well. So, with that said this week we will be adding a voting poll for you to cast your vote for whether you think Baby Campbell is going to be a boy or a girl. I think it will be fun, so be sure to cast your vote!

Coming up: Wedding shower tomorrow, August family birthday party-Sunday, & Next weekend- trip to Ruidoso, NM with Mel and Hahns!

Finally, as promised (especially for you Nanny) here are some photos that those of you who do not have facebook may not have seen of our house with some of the furniture in it. Also, new curtains that my Mom made for our bedroom. Enjoy!!

Formal dining room

Formal living room

Master bedroom- New curtains

New curtains

Our bedroom

Guest bedroom

New living room furniture

New living room furniture

New living room furniture