A ray of sunshine

I adore my boss.

I have had a pretty horrible week, details of which I can't go into here. Suffice it to say, I'm pretty disheartened with people in general right now. Let's hope that time will change my opinion. I was also unexpectedly reminded how unpredictable, short and fragile life is.

My boss knows it has been a rough few days, so after lunch she came into my office bearing this gift which totally helped cheer me right up. Looking at this makes me smile. Not only because it is so pretty and was such a sweet gesture, but also because it serves as a reminder that there are way more good people out there than jerks. :)

BOOYAH!

I finally had my review today at work and it went GREAT! I wasn't really worried about it, but I don't think anyone actually looks forward to those, right? Anyway, the performance evaluation went extremely well, but the part that makes me very happy was my compensation review.

As many of you know, the husband and I are determined to buy a house in the next year and a half while the housing market around here isn't as outrageous as usual - at least by Silicon Valley standards. We've given ourselves a budget, started saving and planned out our finances as well as we can for the next year. Needless to say, I was a little antsy to see if my comp adjustment would reflect all the hard work I've put in over the last year, but just as important, will it make a difference in our savings plan? The good news is YES! Granted, I didn't win the lottery or anything, but I did receive a pretty solid raise and every little bit helps, so I certainly can't complain. Woohoo!

And as if I deserved MORE good things at work, I'm just finishing out the second week with my new boss. She. Is. Awesome. A little background: two years ago, I was promoted to the HR Manager position to build an HR department. All by myself. I had no experience and at the same time started going to school in the evenings to get my masters degree in Human Resource Management. While I believe I've done a really good job so far with the HR dept., I'm realistic and know that there is only so far my department can go without some help and guidance from someone with more experience. Well, apparently my boss (the president of the company) was thinking the same thing and we hired the HR consultant we were working with on a few projects to be our Director of HR. She is amazing, funny, witty, super smart and has the most adorable British accent ever. I just can't believe how much nicer it is to go to work now that she's on board. The best thing about her? She's all about incorporating shopping into any and all offsite meetings or business trips. Who can argue with that? :)

Finally, a few pictures I took after work today to brighten up this post before I lose my 3 readers for good!

Pretty floral arrangement from my company...

Flowering ivy outside our kitchen window...Baby peaches on our tree!

...aaand I'm spent. The large furry things that live in my house are summoning me again... Have a Happy Friday, ya'll!