What better way to celebrate St. Patty’s day than a long overdue Aguilar update!
OMG – I can’t believe we’re into our seventh month of pregnancy already with the new baby! It doesn’t seem possible that in only a few months we’ll have another face in our little Aguilar clan. I literally woke up on Saturday morning and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the belly on myself – must have forgotten I was pregnant overnight b/c I was certainly quite surprised!
We have been keeping busy this winter and the time has definitely just been flying by! Garrett played basketball – a season length that Steve has directly compared to that of the NBA – lol! Steve coached the team (the “JAZZ”) and they started practice in early November and just finished their season last weekend with a heartbreaking loss in the tournament. Steve was awesome working with the boys and I was absolutely amazed at how much they improved over the course of the season – he had them running plays, setting picks – didn’t even know 2nd graders could do that! Must be the girl in me coming out there – I would have had a completely blank look at my face had anyone suggested such organization on the court! Actually, I’m not sure I did much more than play HORSE in the driveway – ever! He is now gearing up to start spring soccer in mid-April (PLEASE let us have a warm April!) so we have a few weeks of hiatus to hopefully catch up on our sanity.
Ava is still taking dance classes – this year it is tap and jazz. She is thrilled to know that her recital costume will be pink (again!) God forbid they put the girl in something other than pink and expect her to get on stage J I went to her parent observation night last week and their routine is sooo cute! Can’t wait to see it in June! She is also “tinkering” with the idea of cheering this fall with a couple of her little girlfriends from school but she wasn’t overly impressed with the clinic we attended for it over the weekend. Regardless, she was at home all night that night with Pom Poms out jumping around and making up cheers all evening so who knows! I told Steve we need to hire a third person just to help us get the kids to school and activities, etc. This poor baby better have a low-maintenance attitude – ha, ha!
We are looking forward to *hopefully* getting away on a vaca soon so hopefully my next entry is all about my relaxing trip - keep your fingers crossed!!!!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Emergency Info you NEED to know!
Okay, honestly I got this from an email chain but this is worthwhile info for us all to have and can even save you money - I am enroute but I will be snoping for accuracy - more to come if someone is pulling the wool over my eyes!
Important Emergency information that you might want to print and keep in your car.
FIRST
EmergencyThe Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you findyourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is anemergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network toestablish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.
SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy some day. Good reason to own a cell phone: if you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
THIRD
Hidden Battery PowerImagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#. Your cell phone will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell phone next time.
FOURTH
Disable a STOLEN phone?To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: *#06#. A 15-digit code will appear on thescreen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep itsomewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phon e your service providerand give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.
FIFTH
Free Directory Service for CellsCell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800)-FREE-411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all.
Enjoy!
Important Emergency information that you might want to print and keep in your car.
FIRST
EmergencyThe Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you findyourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is anemergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network toestablish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.
SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy some day. Good reason to own a cell phone: if you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).
THIRD
Hidden Battery PowerImagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#. Your cell phone will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell phone next time.
FOURTH
Disable a STOLEN phone?To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: *#06#. A 15-digit code will appear on thescreen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep itsomewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phon e your service providerand give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.
FIFTH
Free Directory Service for CellsCell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800)-FREE-411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Is a compliment more rewarding than cash?!?
Okay, so a few weeks ago GMA ran a segment about Compliments v. Cash - pretty interesting. Long story short - the Journal of Neurons (which believe it or not publishes some cool stuff - not too sexy sounding but you'd be surprised!) published a study that shows that your "striatum" responds similarly to monetary rewards as it does to social appreciation (compliments). In addition, it also responds negatively to a superior social hierarchy - something to think about when you are talking to your boss, parents, etc.! Some more food for thought - it also showed that status could impact your health regardless of where you are on the social totem pole. If you are on the top of the heap you are always fearful of the potential to hit bottom and if you're on the bottom you might feel like you have no opportunities - perhaps that's where the term "happy medium" came from!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Okay, so WHY grill to bun?!?
It's a great question - what does that even mean?! It’s really like saying from the beginning to the end of something. In fast food restaurants (and heck – maybe other places too – who knows!) it literally means from the time you put the hamburger on the grill to the time it’s cooked and you place it in the bun to go out to the customer. My husband and his family have been in the fast food business for over 30 years so the first time he used that phrase I was like – whoa! Hold on! I really like that! There are a lot of different processes that I could have used – let’s face it – perhaps from car to couch? Or, from laundry to body? Personally – I think the fast food guys have the best version so that’s what I’m sticking with! So, since I’m on the whole hamburger rant – one thing I think we could all do a bit better is give a great feedback sandwich! Let’s face it, giving feedback or coaching a direct report, peer (spouse!) can be really hard to do and even worse if it isn’t something you do often!
The company I work for has this super cool culture shaping workshop that ALL associates have to go through and, I know what your thinking, total kumbayah session. I'm not going to lie - there may be a little of that! But, of all the great parts of the day one of my favorite was the segment about coaching and feedback.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk."
So true. But something a lot of us shy away from is "conversations". There just aren't enough of them - I am totally in this camp as well. If something is going to get ugly I don't go running full-speed towards it and say - yeah! let's go! If AT ALL possible I avoid it - kind of like that crazy end of term english lit paper in college - there are a million other things I would rather do!
So what do you do with all that frustration? In my world it all goes to the hubby - totally lucky guy that he is! Or maybe to a friend, right? What's funny is that a lot of people are taking that conversation they won't have (or can't have) and bringing it to the blogosphere or their MySpace or FaceBook friends - so much so that a recent study actually attempted to quantify the affect of customer service "venting" on brands that they impacted - so cool! 59% of the respondents claimed to use social media to vent about negative service experiences even though only about a third of them felt like the company they were talking about would actually take their complaint seriously - granted I'm guessing that those who use social media in general were more likely to respond to the survey, but still - almost 60% with no real faith that it would impact future service.
I'm not against putting your thoughts out there into the websphere - but let's face it - once it's out there, it's OUT there! Just a thought, but maybe if we had more conversations - gave more coaching/feedback BEFORE we got totally pissed off at whomever we wouldn't have to spend so much of our time venting. What is it they say - look at it through someone else's eyes first before you react? Don't judge too quickly before you truly understand the situation? I'm amazed at how many times, when I really take the time to understand what someone is saying, I get a new perspective just by taking the time to talk about it. Truth be told, I always feel better when I'm NOT pissed off :-)
The company I work for has this super cool culture shaping workshop that ALL associates have to go through and, I know what your thinking, total kumbayah session. I'm not going to lie - there may be a little of that! But, of all the great parts of the day one of my favorite was the segment about coaching and feedback.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk."
So true. But something a lot of us shy away from is "conversations". There just aren't enough of them - I am totally in this camp as well. If something is going to get ugly I don't go running full-speed towards it and say - yeah! let's go! If AT ALL possible I avoid it - kind of like that crazy end of term english lit paper in college - there are a million other things I would rather do!
So what do you do with all that frustration? In my world it all goes to the hubby - totally lucky guy that he is! Or maybe to a friend, right? What's funny is that a lot of people are taking that conversation they won't have (or can't have) and bringing it to the blogosphere or their MySpace or FaceBook friends - so much so that a recent study actually attempted to quantify the affect of customer service "venting" on brands that they impacted - so cool! 59% of the respondents claimed to use social media to vent about negative service experiences even though only about a third of them felt like the company they were talking about would actually take their complaint seriously - granted I'm guessing that those who use social media in general were more likely to respond to the survey, but still - almost 60% with no real faith that it would impact future service.
I'm not against putting your thoughts out there into the websphere - but let's face it - once it's out there, it's OUT there! Just a thought, but maybe if we had more conversations - gave more coaching/feedback BEFORE we got totally pissed off at whomever we wouldn't have to spend so much of our time venting. What is it they say - look at it through someone else's eyes first before you react? Don't judge too quickly before you truly understand the situation? I'm amazed at how many times, when I really take the time to understand what someone is saying, I get a new perspective just by taking the time to talk about it. Truth be told, I always feel better when I'm NOT pissed off :-)
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