Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Christmas Tree 2011
This is our fifth year of Christmas tree decorating photos with Anna. I remember year 1 when she was learning to crawl! Look at this!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Our prime time debut: Fox News
Here's the final piece that came out tonight on the 5:00 news. I think it turned out lovely and Anna was proud of seeing me on TV :) She said I did a great job! She also said she remembered when daddy was on TV talking about his patients and doctors and he did a good job too! Pretty good considering that was last year! We have gotten several inquiries, a few new customers have signed up, and a few about to place orders. Even got requests to expand to other parts of Houston. So far it's been good!
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/111206-nasa-scientist-launches-grocery-business
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/111206-nasa-scientist-launches-grocery-business
Dusty Plasmas, An Empty Building, a News Feature, and Major Exam PASSED
I'm trying for the life of me to get familiar with dusty plasmas. It's not so hard to understand; I'm just having a hard time focusing on the relevance of investigating them on the space station. It's part of a set of charts I have to have ready for an upcoming Flight Readiness Review. These FRR's happen with every launch of humans to the space station, and so my charts are supposed to give a status on some of the cool research that's happening up there. Dusty plasmas are cool, but I'm supposed to talk it in a way that others will see that point too...
In other news, today a film crew and reporter (Tom Zizka) from Houston Fox News 26 came out to film us at Kroger to do a piece on the Grocery Station. Before Thanksgiving I had submitted a press release to the local news stations to see if I could drum up interest in a story. Fox contacted us and in less than 24 hours they were filming! This will air tonight all over Houston at 5PM. When I get a link to it, I'll post it here. I think the filming went well...my #1 shopper, P, was filmed while shopping an order, and our friend L came with her daughter as the customer for pick-up. They even interviewed CP, the Kroger store manager, who was really nervous in front of the camera. In fact, Kroger has a strict policy in when they let cameras into their stores period. So in a pinch yesterday I had to sweet talk the Kroger PR lady to give the camera crew access in a quick turnaround. She voiced her concerns, which I was sure to cover in the interview, so I think all the right things were said. In all we spent about 1.5 hours with the crew. I got to ask Tom how the heck you get a reporter's voice like that, (to which is cameraman giggled), and Tom said he was born with it :) Destiny! He also shared a few reporter secrets about his job, which I thought was awesome and could come in handy with my NASA interviews. Incidentally, when I do NASA interviews, there's usually some NASA PAO rep involved for the sake of our own protection. So today I felt a little naked out there without a pro, but then again, it was also kinda freeing in that who the heck could I piss off (other than Kroger)? I'M THE BOSS! Anyway, I'm hoping it comes out well tonight!!! AND you'd think it would generate orders. I guess we'll see now, WON'T WE? On that front, business has been slow but steady with repeat customers. Slow but steady. Not enough to sustain our shoppers for real where pay is concerned, though. MORE MORE MORE ORDERS, PLEASE!!
As I was wrapping up with the film crew, Paul was meeting with the owners of a new building right around the corner from his current location. All the discussions he had with them today were right on target with what he wants, so who knows, this may be it! It's an empty space in a new building and they really want a medical facility there. So they're working with Paul and the terms seem nice so far. We'll see....
As I was pulling back into the parking lot for NASA today, I got a text from TJ in that she passed her first round of major certification-crazy-you-don't-ever-get-to-do-acupuncture-DAMMIT-if you-don't-pass-this exam. This was exhilarating for HER and ME! Woooo-hooo! TJ hates these exams but this go 'round she totally grabbed this Texas Bull by the horns and tackled it. No messing around. There is much celebration to be had!
In Anna news, she is beautiful, happy, and smart and sweet. We love her to pieces and enjoy spending time with her. She's at the age where you can reason with her with no freak-outs, you can answer her thoughtful questions and ask her tough ones, and just darn-well talk to her like the little person she is. A few weeks ago we brought her for an eye exam and they had to put eye drops into her eyes. While I had to hold her down for the Flu Mist a few months ago, the eye drops were a freakin' piece of cake! Who knew? She still gives us the spontaneous I LOVE YOUs and "you're the best mommy in the whole wide world" and all that stuff. She's also learning that if mommy says no, maybe she should try daddy! At this point, it's not a manipulative thing directly; it's more of heck, why not give it a shot? I know, I know, this is how it starts. We're aware.
Also today she told me that daddy said "shit" and he shouldn't because that's a bad word. She had asked me about this a few weeks ago: "Momma, is shit a bad word?" The word "shit" coming out of a 4 year old's mouth is well...freaking funny. Sorry.
She's also learning to lie, and when we bust her it breaks her heart she disappointed us. If we're too hard on her she melts into tears and apologies. Dang, this child is SO SENSITIVE! Love her tons.
I will be applying for the astronaut corps this go 'round, since the opportunity is open until sometime in Jan. I haven't really done much to get my application together yet, since I'm keeping pretty busy otherwise. But I'll get it in.
Teaching is officially done for the semester, woo-hoo! I get my Monday nights back until mid Jan. No Disney trip this year (lamenting, seriously lamenting), but we run the Houston Half marathon mid Jan. I ran my fastest 5k this weekend. Mile 1 was a 10:07 pace (HOLY COW!), Mile 2 was a 10:37 pace, and my overall for the 5k was a pace of 10:54 or something. That's a sub 11 minute pace, which I think is a record for me. And I felt GREAT! I could have gone faster.
Anyway, that's us in a nutshell. What a great day! At the same time the Grocery Station was being filmed, Paul was looking at a new building, and TJ was passing her major exam. LOVE THAT when that kind of energy aligns! Wonder what Anna's day was like? I bought her a whole bunch of neat stuff from a book fair I ran into today. She'll love that! Life is good!
In other news, today a film crew and reporter (Tom Zizka) from Houston Fox News 26 came out to film us at Kroger to do a piece on the Grocery Station. Before Thanksgiving I had submitted a press release to the local news stations to see if I could drum up interest in a story. Fox contacted us and in less than 24 hours they were filming! This will air tonight all over Houston at 5PM. When I get a link to it, I'll post it here. I think the filming went well...my #1 shopper, P, was filmed while shopping an order, and our friend L came with her daughter as the customer for pick-up. They even interviewed CP, the Kroger store manager, who was really nervous in front of the camera. In fact, Kroger has a strict policy in when they let cameras into their stores period. So in a pinch yesterday I had to sweet talk the Kroger PR lady to give the camera crew access in a quick turnaround. She voiced her concerns, which I was sure to cover in the interview, so I think all the right things were said. In all we spent about 1.5 hours with the crew. I got to ask Tom how the heck you get a reporter's voice like that, (to which is cameraman giggled), and Tom said he was born with it :) Destiny! He also shared a few reporter secrets about his job, which I thought was awesome and could come in handy with my NASA interviews. Incidentally, when I do NASA interviews, there's usually some NASA PAO rep involved for the sake of our own protection. So today I felt a little naked out there without a pro, but then again, it was also kinda freeing in that who the heck could I piss off (other than Kroger)? I'M THE BOSS! Anyway, I'm hoping it comes out well tonight!!! AND you'd think it would generate orders. I guess we'll see now, WON'T WE? On that front, business has been slow but steady with repeat customers. Slow but steady. Not enough to sustain our shoppers for real where pay is concerned, though. MORE MORE MORE ORDERS, PLEASE!!
As I was wrapping up with the film crew, Paul was meeting with the owners of a new building right around the corner from his current location. All the discussions he had with them today were right on target with what he wants, so who knows, this may be it! It's an empty space in a new building and they really want a medical facility there. So they're working with Paul and the terms seem nice so far. We'll see....
As I was pulling back into the parking lot for NASA today, I got a text from TJ in that she passed her first round of major certification-crazy-you-don't-ever-get-to-do-acupuncture-DAMMIT-if you-don't-pass-this exam. This was exhilarating for HER and ME! Woooo-hooo! TJ hates these exams but this go 'round she totally grabbed this Texas Bull by the horns and tackled it. No messing around. There is much celebration to be had!
In Anna news, she is beautiful, happy, and smart and sweet. We love her to pieces and enjoy spending time with her. She's at the age where you can reason with her with no freak-outs, you can answer her thoughtful questions and ask her tough ones, and just darn-well talk to her like the little person she is. A few weeks ago we brought her for an eye exam and they had to put eye drops into her eyes. While I had to hold her down for the Flu Mist a few months ago, the eye drops were a freakin' piece of cake! Who knew? She still gives us the spontaneous I LOVE YOUs and "you're the best mommy in the whole wide world" and all that stuff. She's also learning that if mommy says no, maybe she should try daddy! At this point, it's not a manipulative thing directly; it's more of heck, why not give it a shot? I know, I know, this is how it starts. We're aware.
Also today she told me that daddy said "shit" and he shouldn't because that's a bad word. She had asked me about this a few weeks ago: "Momma, is shit a bad word?" The word "shit" coming out of a 4 year old's mouth is well...freaking funny. Sorry.
She's also learning to lie, and when we bust her it breaks her heart she disappointed us. If we're too hard on her she melts into tears and apologies. Dang, this child is SO SENSITIVE! Love her tons.
I will be applying for the astronaut corps this go 'round, since the opportunity is open until sometime in Jan. I haven't really done much to get my application together yet, since I'm keeping pretty busy otherwise. But I'll get it in.
Teaching is officially done for the semester, woo-hoo! I get my Monday nights back until mid Jan. No Disney trip this year (lamenting, seriously lamenting), but we run the Houston Half marathon mid Jan. I ran my fastest 5k this weekend. Mile 1 was a 10:07 pace (HOLY COW!), Mile 2 was a 10:37 pace, and my overall for the 5k was a pace of 10:54 or something. That's a sub 11 minute pace, which I think is a record for me. And I felt GREAT! I could have gone faster.
Anyway, that's us in a nutshell. What a great day! At the same time the Grocery Station was being filmed, Paul was looking at a new building, and TJ was passing her major exam. LOVE THAT when that kind of energy aligns! Wonder what Anna's day was like? I bought her a whole bunch of neat stuff from a book fair I ran into today. She'll love that! Life is good!
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are in Arkansas this year, at Paul's family's house. A 9 hr drive. I can't even believe how good Anna was, just drawing and listening to music for the whole ride. Not even a movie! When it got dark we started getting goofy with the mini flashlight and I put it in my mouth to light my cheeks up, which she thought was hilarious...and which she tried about 20 min later after a meal of chicken nuggets, fries, and chocolate milk. This part is important.
The only thing I saw was her cheeks light up and then all I heard was "eww, this has mommy's germs!" And I saw her taking the flashlight out of mouth, heard her gag, and saw stuff coming out of her mouth! And by stuff I mean chocolate milk, chicken nuggets, and fries. And while Paul was yelling at me to DO something, my brain was saying "does not compute" another round came spewing out. This round I held the Happy Meal box out as her target and told Paul he'd better pull over!
Out the nose and all, it was mighty impressive! She was grossed out about her first puke episode ever. Especially about the nose vomit. She actually had a few rounds of it, all because of a gag reflex she associated with mommy's germs (she won't even drink after anyone...germs you know).
Puke all over my precious truck that she doesn't even like to spill crumbs in (sorry mommy!). Luckily we were right around the corner from our final destination so we rinsed her mouth, wiped up the obvious, and gave her a piece of gum. On the drive away, she just said she was "so sorry mommy", as if I'd be mad! Ha oh poor girl! She showed up to Paul's family in pink leopard print pajama bottoms and a glittery shirt that said "My Daddy Rocks", along with10 hour-old messed out Dorothy braids. Hello all! She was surprisingly fine the rest of the night and I congratulated her for getting through her first puke episode. Yes I'm aware we are lucky to have made it this far without experiencing vomit. She had a great rest of the night and Paul did a good job of cleaning the puke out of the truck.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The only thing I saw was her cheeks light up and then all I heard was "eww, this has mommy's germs!" And I saw her taking the flashlight out of mouth, heard her gag, and saw stuff coming out of her mouth! And by stuff I mean chocolate milk, chicken nuggets, and fries. And while Paul was yelling at me to DO something, my brain was saying "does not compute" another round came spewing out. This round I held the Happy Meal box out as her target and told Paul he'd better pull over!
Out the nose and all, it was mighty impressive! She was grossed out about her first puke episode ever. Especially about the nose vomit. She actually had a few rounds of it, all because of a gag reflex she associated with mommy's germs (she won't even drink after anyone...germs you know).
Puke all over my precious truck that she doesn't even like to spill crumbs in (sorry mommy!). Luckily we were right around the corner from our final destination so we rinsed her mouth, wiped up the obvious, and gave her a piece of gum. On the drive away, she just said she was "so sorry mommy", as if I'd be mad! Ha oh poor girl! She showed up to Paul's family in pink leopard print pajama bottoms and a glittery shirt that said "My Daddy Rocks", along with10 hour-old messed out Dorothy braids. Hello all! She was surprisingly fine the rest of the night and I congratulated her for getting through her first puke episode. Yes I'm aware we are lucky to have made it this far without experiencing vomit. She had a great rest of the night and Paul did a good job of cleaning the puke out of the truck.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Halloween 2011
The hand-on-hip automatic pose cracks me right the hell up!
Yes there is a fine line between Hooker Transvestite Barbie, Lady Gaga, and the Good Witch Glenda. My getup came after what was a hilarious scene of the Scarecrow trying to zip me into an old prom dress, with Anna looking on in her Dorothy costume. I prayed for darkness to come quickly!
This year's fearless candy crew! So stinking fun! I can remember when Anna and M were small enough to share that wagon as we took them to go look at Christmas lights through the neighborhood!! No way now! I don't remember it being that small!
What great memories we made Halloween night! We are so lucky to have such good friends to go with. And the weather was just perfectly cool and clear!
And finally the aftermath!
Love!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Slow trickle and a fire hose
Here's the slow trickle part:
The orders for the Grocery Station have been super slow. Totalling only 3 now. I suppose I made the rookie mistake of thinking somehow my idea would be SO FANTASTIC that word would spread and I'd be overwhelmed with orders :) HAHA. Well...
We get about 5-12 new visitors at our website everyday that I can see. We have about 6 new customers signed up and we've totaled just 3 orders. What this tells me is we need to advertise more outside of just the Kroger and also we need to offer coupons off of orders. So here we go! I just look how far Paul has come with his client base and all that he's done to get there. We're just a few weeks in. This is going to take time. OK it's slower than I'd like but I also work full-time during the day and I have no budget to pay someone else to promote it. As such, we shall be grass roots! Besides I'm not sure I could handle an influx of crazy orders at this time. My head would very surely pop off.
The fire hose part:
My NASA ('real job") has been so fun and exciting still! I've been doing tons of speaking, and scaling back my travel too. Last week I got to speak at a leadership seminar of big wigs from Fortune 500 companies, which was so darned cool. I got to meet a CIA trainer, and leadership representatives from AT&T, Verizon, and Aetna, just to name a few. They all thought that I was cool but I was keeping my own excitement down! My talk was at Space Center Houston, and afterwards I got to join them for dinner in the Starship Galaxy room. This is a neat room with stars on the ceiling and actual Apollo era artifacts. I'd been there just once as a visitor but I have to say it's the coolest place I've ever eaten dinner! Plus free wine :) WOO-HOO! I was invited by the coordinator to speak at a Women's Leadership conference in NYC in April. I hope it all holds because that would be amazing!
Tomorrow I give my first ever astronaut briefing to the Expedition 33/34 crew on ISS Science. Julie usually gives this and I have just observed but now she's out of town and so it's my turn! I'm totally game these days, feeling comfortable with the material, after having had to answer the oddest questions on all of my speaking events. One of the astronauts is a flight doc I worked with back when I was in Engineering, before he became an astronaut. So this is pretty neat.
Anna is hilarious these days. She does have her moments of whininess that we'd like to beat out of her but otherwise she's just growing up! She is giving us "Are you CRAZY" looks that I thought was funny and then I caught myself doing it at work today and realized then where she must have gotten it from. Yesterday in the car she asked what a "soul" is. And she is recognizing the sight words she's learning in class everywhere we go. She's excited to read whatever she can and that one caught me off guard!
Tonight is Trick Or Treating, SO FREAKING FUN! The weather should be rocking! Anna will be Dorothy and she's talked me and Paul into make-shift Good Witch and Scarecrow costumes. This will be half-assed rigged from the best products we could find last minute, but for me includes a blonde wig and a pink dress I wore at a wedding once (I was pleased to see that I fit into this pre-baby dress...SCORE!) Oh and Anna's princess crown. Stay tuned for rediculous pictures!
The orders for the Grocery Station have been super slow. Totalling only 3 now. I suppose I made the rookie mistake of thinking somehow my idea would be SO FANTASTIC that word would spread and I'd be overwhelmed with orders :) HAHA. Well...
We get about 5-12 new visitors at our website everyday that I can see. We have about 6 new customers signed up and we've totaled just 3 orders. What this tells me is we need to advertise more outside of just the Kroger and also we need to offer coupons off of orders. So here we go! I just look how far Paul has come with his client base and all that he's done to get there. We're just a few weeks in. This is going to take time. OK it's slower than I'd like but I also work full-time during the day and I have no budget to pay someone else to promote it. As such, we shall be grass roots! Besides I'm not sure I could handle an influx of crazy orders at this time. My head would very surely pop off.
The fire hose part:
My NASA ('real job") has been so fun and exciting still! I've been doing tons of speaking, and scaling back my travel too. Last week I got to speak at a leadership seminar of big wigs from Fortune 500 companies, which was so darned cool. I got to meet a CIA trainer, and leadership representatives from AT&T, Verizon, and Aetna, just to name a few. They all thought that I was cool but I was keeping my own excitement down! My talk was at Space Center Houston, and afterwards I got to join them for dinner in the Starship Galaxy room. This is a neat room with stars on the ceiling and actual Apollo era artifacts. I'd been there just once as a visitor but I have to say it's the coolest place I've ever eaten dinner! Plus free wine :) WOO-HOO! I was invited by the coordinator to speak at a Women's Leadership conference in NYC in April. I hope it all holds because that would be amazing!
Tomorrow I give my first ever astronaut briefing to the Expedition 33/34 crew on ISS Science. Julie usually gives this and I have just observed but now she's out of town and so it's my turn! I'm totally game these days, feeling comfortable with the material, after having had to answer the oddest questions on all of my speaking events. One of the astronauts is a flight doc I worked with back when I was in Engineering, before he became an astronaut. So this is pretty neat.
Anna is hilarious these days. She does have her moments of whininess that we'd like to beat out of her but otherwise she's just growing up! She is giving us "Are you CRAZY" looks that I thought was funny and then I caught myself doing it at work today and realized then where she must have gotten it from. Yesterday in the car she asked what a "soul" is. And she is recognizing the sight words she's learning in class everywhere we go. She's excited to read whatever she can and that one caught me off guard!
Tonight is Trick Or Treating, SO FREAKING FUN! The weather should be rocking! Anna will be Dorothy and she's talked me and Paul into make-shift Good Witch and Scarecrow costumes. This will be half-assed rigged from the best products we could find last minute, but for me includes a blonde wig and a pink dress I wore at a wedding once (I was pleased to see that I fit into this pre-baby dress...SCORE!) Oh and Anna's princess crown. Stay tuned for rediculous pictures!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Overheard...
At dinner last night I overheard a conversation between Anna, L (4 yrs old), and M (6 yrs old).
L: "God is in my HEART!"
M: "God is up in SPACE!"
A: "Noooo, my mommy said that God is EVERYWHERE!"
HAHA, I think they covered ALL of the bases! Is this what typical 4 and 6 yr olds are talking about? Oh man, I LOVE IT. Totally tickled me!
L: "God is in my HEART!"
M: "God is up in SPACE!"
A: "Noooo, my mommy said that God is EVERYWHERE!"
HAHA, I think they covered ALL of the bases! Is this what typical 4 and 6 yr olds are talking about? Oh man, I LOVE IT. Totally tickled me!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Keeping Up!
Ok I can't possibly keep going at this rate. Sleep is elusive, TV unheard of, and thank God I am comfortable with the teaching material finally because I have zero time to immerse myself in it. My running schedule is certainly taking the biggest hit, with no energy to give much speed or miles. Also waking up that early after just 4 hrs of sleep, well....
The 3 hour sliver I get to spend with Anna between 5:00 pick up and 8:00 bedtime is golden and mostly protected. The problem is that my brain doesn't stop and neither does my body. This level of intensity is potentially damaging and I am a pretty hard worker as it is. The week has been a roller coaster non stop, the details dizzying and this morning the 3 of us made for one exhausted household. I think Anna has the most exhausted parents in her class right now. By the way. Yesterday Paul spoke to her class about physical therapy, which I heard was really cute.
At any rate my exhaustion right now is just seemingly the infinite amount of work to be done regarding the Grocery Station. Now that we for the website ready forte customers, my shopper retention has been too low. The good team I built up in September has since moved on to other things that actually pay them money NOW (who wants to wait for a new start up to ramp up?). I have a few left but now the hiring is back sucking up my time so much so I haven't been able to focus on advertising. These things I think need to happen in parallel but there's only so much time I have available to work into the evenings to try to pull it all together. I'd pay someone to handle it but that's over budget! It's like energy in a system: you can't possibly get
Something from Nothing.
This is me whining. This means I need to make some changes in my processes, which I'm about to do. Just like anyone else who is starting something new, I just need to identify the efficiencies. Next will be a more restful week.
The 3 hour sliver I get to spend with Anna between 5:00 pick up and 8:00 bedtime is golden and mostly protected. The problem is that my brain doesn't stop and neither does my body. This level of intensity is potentially damaging and I am a pretty hard worker as it is. The week has been a roller coaster non stop, the details dizzying and this morning the 3 of us made for one exhausted household. I think Anna has the most exhausted parents in her class right now. By the way. Yesterday Paul spoke to her class about physical therapy, which I heard was really cute.
At any rate my exhaustion right now is just seemingly the infinite amount of work to be done regarding the Grocery Station. Now that we for the website ready forte customers, my shopper retention has been too low. The good team I built up in September has since moved on to other things that actually pay them money NOW (who wants to wait for a new start up to ramp up?). I have a few left but now the hiring is back sucking up my time so much so I haven't been able to focus on advertising. These things I think need to happen in parallel but there's only so much time I have available to work into the evenings to try to pull it all together. I'd pay someone to handle it but that's over budget! It's like energy in a system: you can't possibly get
Something from Nothing.
This is me whining. This means I need to make some changes in my processes, which I'm about to do. Just like anyone else who is starting something new, I just need to identify the efficiencies. Next will be a more restful week.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Our first order!
Yesterday we had our first order at the Grocery Station. A real, live person we'd never ever met before signed up for an account and placed an order of groceries of around $190 online. Plus an $11.50 tip and the shopping fee of around $35. Wow! I took off lunch hour at work to help Pam shop since it was our first one and I needed to be sure the wacky operations concept I came up with actually would work from beginning to end.
It was a bigger order than we had allotted time for, so it's a good thing I was there so we could tag team it! We were dashing through the store like it was one of those Grocery Game TV shows! The folks at Kroger were saying something to us about how exciting, our first order, but we were dashing too fast to take that in :) We made it within the designated timeslot, though, with really no hiccups.
How about that?
If the biggest flaw is that we need to allot ourselves more time for larger orders, that's not bad at all.
It was cool to meet the customer, too. Her reason for using this service? She hates to grocery shop, period. Just two nights before, she was telling her husband she'd PAY SOMEONE to just GROCERY SHOP for her! this woman has two kids, both in school, she stayed home all day, but she still hadn't shopped in 4 weeks because she dreaded it.
Interesting to see what the stories will be. We have so far about 5 customers who have created an account but not yet placed an order. I think this might be because all of the fabulous shoppers (but a few) that I hired the first go round have since bailed and moved on to real paying jobs, so now there aren't many openings for customers to place an order. So I've done another round of hiring, and will be doing group interviews weekly. I can't keep up with the individual interviews anymore! I want my nights back at home!
I actually know that when more shoppers sign up, thus opening more customer timeslots available, then more customers will order. And so that's how it goes...our web site gets anywhere from 5-20 hits per day (around 5-10 being "new" visitors).
And Customer #1 says already she'll be a repeat. And her grocery cost, fee, and tip are the EXACT target market we're looking for. Here's to more like her!
After I got back from that crazy shopping trip, I took a minute to reflect on what the heck just happened as I sat in the parking lot at NASA. I said thank you out loud, acknowledged how crazy, insane it was that we just pulled off for REAL, with someone's trust, a concept that started in my back yard a few months ago, and if for nothing else, that later I can say "I totally did that."
That's completely nuts.
Wooooo-hoooo!
I am $30 closer to paying off my student loans ;)
It was a bigger order than we had allotted time for, so it's a good thing I was there so we could tag team it! We were dashing through the store like it was one of those Grocery Game TV shows! The folks at Kroger were saying something to us about how exciting, our first order, but we were dashing too fast to take that in :) We made it within the designated timeslot, though, with really no hiccups.
How about that?
If the biggest flaw is that we need to allot ourselves more time for larger orders, that's not bad at all.
It was cool to meet the customer, too. Her reason for using this service? She hates to grocery shop, period. Just two nights before, she was telling her husband she'd PAY SOMEONE to just GROCERY SHOP for her! this woman has two kids, both in school, she stayed home all day, but she still hadn't shopped in 4 weeks because she dreaded it.
Interesting to see what the stories will be. We have so far about 5 customers who have created an account but not yet placed an order. I think this might be because all of the fabulous shoppers (but a few) that I hired the first go round have since bailed and moved on to real paying jobs, so now there aren't many openings for customers to place an order. So I've done another round of hiring, and will be doing group interviews weekly. I can't keep up with the individual interviews anymore! I want my nights back at home!
I actually know that when more shoppers sign up, thus opening more customer timeslots available, then more customers will order. And so that's how it goes...our web site gets anywhere from 5-20 hits per day (around 5-10 being "new" visitors).
And Customer #1 says already she'll be a repeat. And her grocery cost, fee, and tip are the EXACT target market we're looking for. Here's to more like her!
After I got back from that crazy shopping trip, I took a minute to reflect on what the heck just happened as I sat in the parking lot at NASA. I said thank you out loud, acknowledged how crazy, insane it was that we just pulled off for REAL, with someone's trust, a concept that started in my back yard a few months ago, and if for nothing else, that later I can say "I totally did that."
That's completely nuts.
Wooooo-hoooo!
I am $30 closer to paying off my student loans ;)
Monday, October 17, 2011
Anna's been up to...
She's been asking a whole lot about death. I had mentioned to her that our old cats had died before (Tiny and Omega) when she was a baby and that set it off. I'm trying to be just matter-of-fact-in-a-nice-and-caring tone about it all to calm her a bit.
Mommy, will I die?
Yes, baby, we'll all die.
REALLY? I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
I tell her there's nothing to be afraid of with death, and that everybody dies and she says she's scared to go to Heaven! (In her mind, that's where her teachers say we go when we die, of course. Public school will be so much easier in this respect. No offense to the traditional Believers).
Anyway it seemed to be a topic of conversation for a few days and lately she's lost some interest in it at least.
She hates violent (Disney) movies (and Wizard of Oz freaks her out but she has to watch, like a train wreck). She's becoming pretty sensitive to the children's movies that kill your parents (Disney) or likewise. Oh how I miss Yo Gabba Gabba, when it was almost easier to explain what the hell that Big Red Muno was (I'll stop short of the description). She doesn't like bad guys.
She doesn't like to not be the winner, too. Maybe it's an only child thing, or maybe it's her dad's inhereted competitive nature. We just had a 5k and a children's half mile "race" this weekend and she couldn't believe she was obviously not going to finish first! It's not her first "organized kids' run" but it's the first in a long time, especially since she's become aware of "winning". I told her to look around at ALL of the kids in this race! Only ONE can finish first. If you want to finish first, you have to train and train! Practice! Or else you can be like mommy (and just pray you finish without looking like you're about to puke). I reminded her that REALLY it only matters that she crosses the finish line. In the end that's really it. You can be first if you train and that's your goal, don't get me wrong. Otherwise, what works for me is competing against myself to get better and better. Anyway, she got a metal in the end (all the kids did, where's MINE!?) and that pleased her! As for me, she waited like forever for me to finish my 5k, and ran in the last leg with me over the finish line to help "pull me in". After we crossed she said "Mommy, you didn't win first!" And I told her no way, but I finished, see?! She told Paul while waiting for me that "Mommy's slow!" but then when she saw me coming she shouted that I looked fast :)
Today when I picked her up from school she was in the best mood I've ever seen this kid in her whole life. I mean for real. I wondered just WHAT THE HELL was going on so I could get a daily repeat. I asked what she had for a snack and she said "Goldfish". Noted.
On the drive home she told me she learned about Guatamala (perfect pronounciation by the way!). The child proceeds to tell me every detail about the poor kids in Guatamala who have dirt for floors, only one shirt, no toys (their toys are just playing with bugs), no stairs in their house, and no cats. In addition, they have no bath tub and no door handles! And tiny sidewalks! Detail upon detail as if I was talking to a really big kid, and it was apparent that she learned from her (missionary trip) teacher that Guatamala was in dire straits and it had a real impact on her! Down to where she recalled every detail. WOW. FLOORED WAS I! At the end of the conversation she told me she was going to pray for Guatamala. OK.... I told her that would be a great thing to do. Then she said when she gets bigger she wanted to go there to help them and I told her that I'd go with her. WOW. Seriously. The details...I wish I recorded that conversation because that was really darned cool.
At any rate, she's getting big. And super smart. And sweet and nuts and all of it! I didn't even document that she had her first school field trip to the hospital on Oct 6, which was really cool (Paul and I both went along)! I have pictures to post but I've been crappy at keeping up because my evenings are consumed with Grocery Station stuff. And I'm also still teaching (which thank goodness has become turn-key for me).
Also, She likes Lady Gaga music.
Good night!
Mommy, will I die?
Yes, baby, we'll all die.
REALLY? I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
I tell her there's nothing to be afraid of with death, and that everybody dies and she says she's scared to go to Heaven! (In her mind, that's where her teachers say we go when we die, of course. Public school will be so much easier in this respect. No offense to the traditional Believers).
Anyway it seemed to be a topic of conversation for a few days and lately she's lost some interest in it at least.
She hates violent (Disney) movies (and Wizard of Oz freaks her out but she has to watch, like a train wreck). She's becoming pretty sensitive to the children's movies that kill your parents (Disney) or likewise. Oh how I miss Yo Gabba Gabba, when it was almost easier to explain what the hell that Big Red Muno was (I'll stop short of the description). She doesn't like bad guys.
She doesn't like to not be the winner, too. Maybe it's an only child thing, or maybe it's her dad's inhereted competitive nature. We just had a 5k and a children's half mile "race" this weekend and she couldn't believe she was obviously not going to finish first! It's not her first "organized kids' run" but it's the first in a long time, especially since she's become aware of "winning". I told her to look around at ALL of the kids in this race! Only ONE can finish first. If you want to finish first, you have to train and train! Practice! Or else you can be like mommy (and just pray you finish without looking like you're about to puke). I reminded her that REALLY it only matters that she crosses the finish line. In the end that's really it. You can be first if you train and that's your goal, don't get me wrong. Otherwise, what works for me is competing against myself to get better and better. Anyway, she got a metal in the end (all the kids did, where's MINE!?) and that pleased her! As for me, she waited like forever for me to finish my 5k, and ran in the last leg with me over the finish line to help "pull me in". After we crossed she said "Mommy, you didn't win first!" And I told her no way, but I finished, see?! She told Paul while waiting for me that "Mommy's slow!" but then when she saw me coming she shouted that I looked fast :)
Today when I picked her up from school she was in the best mood I've ever seen this kid in her whole life. I mean for real. I wondered just WHAT THE HELL was going on so I could get a daily repeat. I asked what she had for a snack and she said "Goldfish". Noted.
On the drive home she told me she learned about Guatamala (perfect pronounciation by the way!). The child proceeds to tell me every detail about the poor kids in Guatamala who have dirt for floors, only one shirt, no toys (their toys are just playing with bugs), no stairs in their house, and no cats. In addition, they have no bath tub and no door handles! And tiny sidewalks! Detail upon detail as if I was talking to a really big kid, and it was apparent that she learned from her (missionary trip) teacher that Guatamala was in dire straits and it had a real impact on her! Down to where she recalled every detail. WOW. FLOORED WAS I! At the end of the conversation she told me she was going to pray for Guatamala. OK.... I told her that would be a great thing to do. Then she said when she gets bigger she wanted to go there to help them and I told her that I'd go with her. WOW. Seriously. The details...I wish I recorded that conversation because that was really darned cool.
At any rate, she's getting big. And super smart. And sweet and nuts and all of it! I didn't even document that she had her first school field trip to the hospital on Oct 6, which was really cool (Paul and I both went along)! I have pictures to post but I've been crappy at keeping up because my evenings are consumed with Grocery Station stuff. And I'm also still teaching (which thank goodness has become turn-key for me).
Also, She likes Lady Gaga music.
Good night!
Woo-Hoo! Our First Order!
This weekend we finally pulled everything together and got the Grocery Station website up, running, and functional after some major glitches. I lost a few shoppers now that it's really time to ramp up, so I've been having to go through more interviews this week, which is only painful because it takes up my time I'd rather be at home! But I've picked up a handful so I think we're right at around 10 shoppers or so. I still need more, so more interviews next week for me!
But TODAY we got our first official order! We'd had customers create accounts, which is very cool, but today was the first time we actually got an order. And not from a friend, from a total stranger who says she saw the advertisement in Kroger. Her order was huge! The end results is a take-home of $30 for me, and $22 for my shopper (after a nice tip!). Not a bad deal :) I am $30 in the black now. HAHA!
It's really exciting to see other people I don't even know put their faith in us. WOW. I'm meeting my shopper tomorrow to help her out since we've never actually done this end-to-end yet! Good thing my calendar at work is pretty empty tomorrow. Here's hoping for a nice flow!
But TODAY we got our first official order! We'd had customers create accounts, which is very cool, but today was the first time we actually got an order. And not from a friend, from a total stranger who says she saw the advertisement in Kroger. Her order was huge! The end results is a take-home of $30 for me, and $22 for my shopper (after a nice tip!). Not a bad deal :) I am $30 in the black now. HAHA!
It's really exciting to see other people I don't even know put their faith in us. WOW. I'm meeting my shopper tomorrow to help her out since we've never actually done this end-to-end yet! Good thing my calendar at work is pretty empty tomorrow. Here's hoping for a nice flow!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Windy
This weekend we finally moved her out of her Britax Decathlon (with 5 point harness!) into a big girl booster seat. With that came a move from the center of the back seat to a window seat. My boss gave me the two boosters her daughter outgrew. I guess it was time to make that move in my truck but I just never processed it till now.
The results:
Windy fun and "floating arms"!
The results:
Windy fun and "floating arms"!
Friday, September 30, 2011
We have viewers!
Woo hoo! We have stats collected on the viewers to the Grocery Station website! People are looking.
Just a few kinks to work out over the weekend and get this thing functional. Fingers crossed for next week GO TIME! I want to see CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS GETTING CREATED, PEOPLE!
Just a few kinks to work out over the weekend and get this thing functional. Fingers crossed for next week GO TIME! I want to see CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS GETTING CREATED, PEOPLE!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Dance class canceled
Anna has decided she wants to go back to gymnastics rather than stick it out in dance class (no we are not doing BOTH for the sake of my own sanity. Call me selfish). That's fine because getting her into those Effing tights were my biggest life challenge of the week. Also it's fine because the shoes, leotard, and stockings I bought her for the class were still cheaper than one single gymnastics suit, which for her sake, I hope she can still fit in.
And I know she LOVES gymnastics. But I hate the fact that the Acrosports gymnastics place is a filthy disgusting sewer drain. Actually it's not really a sewer drain but it's pretty filthy all the time. Ick. Ick. Yay.
And I know she LOVES gymnastics. But I hate the fact that the Acrosports gymnastics place is a filthy disgusting sewer drain. Actually it's not really a sewer drain but it's pretty filthy all the time. Ick. Ick. Yay.
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