Oh My Goodness! I am the Worst Blogger Ever!

I cannot believe it's been almost a week since I last posted something! Time flies!

Things have been pretty busy at the Hoffmann house. Between Jeff and I just trying to stay caught up on all the projects we've got going on at work, we're also trying to get our house ready to sell (it's taking forever!), taking care of two dogs (one a little more neurotic than the other), prepare for baby (hello! Baby needs a name!), and the list goes on.

We're aiming to get our house up for sale by next weekend. Both neighbors next to us have thiers listed with an agent, so I figure we might as well try to take advantage of the traffic they are paying for! :) We're just about there on the inside, but it's just hard to get everything ready to go on the outside.....especially with the snow we've had lately. I have created a separate blog where I am going to post a bunch of pictures and info about the house. Since we have that huge eye-catching deck off the back of the house, I have ordered a large banner to put across our deck giving our phone number and the web address. Once I get it up and running, I will post the address so that those of you who haven't seen our cute house can see what it's like to live Hoffmann style. :) I'm hoping the house sells before baby comes, but I'm thinking that might just be a pipe dream.

Other big news of the week: I told Guy (my boss) some of my ideas on how to make Alta Ridge Communities have more of a corporate feel. We're getting bigger and bigger, and I definately feel that there are areas of business that we could tighten up to help effectively manage our growth. He loved the ideas and wants me to head up all the changes. I then told him how burned out I am getting. Sure, I am the Controller at Alta Ridge, but in reality my job extends way past that. Here are some alternative titles I like, "Idea Maker-Come-Truer," "Corporate Workhorse", and my favorite "Stupid Person Who Always Ends Up Doing Everyone Elses Work Becasue Supposedly I am the Only Person Who Can." Anyway... I am tired of putting in the long hours and worry what life will be like when Baby comes. We've always known that I would need an assistant, but I've always put it off saying that I wouldn't need someone until we got our new buildings up and running (roughly nine more months). Well, I've had a change of heart, and lucky for me I have the best boss in the world, and he agreed completely. I almost felt like he felt relieved that I was finally asking for help. I only wanted to hire someone part time, but I ended up thinking of someone who will be great for the job, and Guy said to go ahead and give her full-time work, and "we'd work it out." In hiring someone I faced a few issues:

1. I didn't want to hire anyone I knew or anyone already associated with the company.
2. I didn't want to hire someone who has an accounting degree, or necessarily anyone who had bookeeping experience. All that stuff I can teach someone for the tasks they will be performing for me. In fact, I preferred that they start out without any prior knowledge so that I could teach them how to do things my way (the right way of course!).
3. I was hesitant to hire someone from the paper for a few reasons: 1) The title of the position (bookeeping assistant) was sure to get me a lot of applicants I didn't want (see #2). 2) I was bound to get a lot of 40-something year old applicants, and even though I'm probably the easiest person to work for, I'm always bound to run into some age discrimination down the road. I don't think a lot of people like to look at a 24-year-old as their superior.
4. Interviewing applicants I didn't know wouldn't necessarily help me find a person who possessed the few qualities and skills I felt were necessary to the job. I want someone who is trust-worthy, dependable, detail-oriented, organized, and a quick learner. When you interview people, who doesn't have those skills? Those are usually the first few "skills" listed. I just don't feel that these qualities are something you can interview for. Keep in mind that I also had to find someone who I could eventually have in my home on a daily basis as well (I plan on working from home when Baby arrives).

So after thinking about things for awhile, I finally came up with the perfect person. I have hired my cousin's on-off-again girlfriend MacKenzie. She has been a part of our family for a long time, and I really think she is a great fit for the job. Called her up, and she decided to take the job. I intially didn't want to hire anyone who I knew, but I think Mac will do great. I can't believe I didn't think of her sooner. She plans on starting in a couple of weeks, and I plan on getting my life back as she learns more and more! Hopefully it all works out!

Let's see....what else.....We're still working hard on the baby name thing. Hayden is still the front runner, but I don't know if that is just because Jeff has always liked it, so in his book anything else pales in comparison. My biggest issue with the name is the popularity of it (also Aiden and Cayden). I was the kid who had 30 other Ashley's in my grade (my best friends in school were Ashlee Johnson and Ashley Tueller). I don't want my kid to deal with the same thing. On the other hand, I don't want to be one of those people who don't have a name picked when I'm in labor. We had plenty of girls names to choose from, but boys names are hard!

Other than that, things are pretty much just the usual around here. Lots of stuff going on, but nothing blog-worthy (like scrubbing toilets, and steaming the tile). Sorry that this entry is more like a journal entry, rather than a blog post. Just felt like I had a lot of catching up to do. I will try to be better this week!

PS I just read over my post and noticed that spell check is not working. My brain is a little fried (I'm starting to forget people's names and stuff at this stage of my pregnant crazies), so I'm sure there are also some grammer issues as well. Good luck, and if you find something that doesn't make sense, just work through it. I'm sure you'll be able to find what I really meant! :)