Werk Werk Werk

Are you there blog?  It's me, Katie...
I promise, I'll get back into the swing of things, but let me tell ya, life is so crazy right now.  I swear every time I sit down to blog something else gets in the way like cooking dinner or spending quality time with the family, or avoiding cleaning my house.  I'm really well at doing that last one. 
But anyway... I thought I'd talk a bit about the reason I'm so dang busy all the time. 
Work.
Shocking right? As I mentioned in my catch up post, I got a new job when I moved back to Salt Lake.  When I got the job in June, I was mostly doing so because I was getting bored.  I'd only been home for a few weeks and it was absolute torture to sit home all the time just waiting for people to get off work.  My aunt was working for this company and they were going on a big hiring frenzy as their call volume was spiking.  I saw that as an opportunity and started days after my interview. 
The job was easy.  I love talking on the phone, I love customer service, and I like to solve problems.  The system was pretty easy to operate and the people working around me were pretty great as well. 
Week later, I was training new reps.  I was a new rep teaching other new reps how to do the job...like what?  I guess you could say I took to it like a duck to water.  Eventually, I was getting bored of just being a rep.  I sat at home and I worked on developing my own training aids.  For free.  I started taking supervisor calls, and I basically gave my boss no choice but to give me a promotion.  And now this is my life:

I work at home.  I work at work.  I work late.  I work early.  And my phone starts buzzing at about 5:30 am.  Every.  Morning. 

What's interesting about it, is that this experience may have completely changed my desired career path.  I still love kids and teaching, but I've come to realize that I have a talent for management (which is basically what teaching is...)  and I honestly really love it.  

If you had told me a few months ago that I'd be considering a career in business management, I probably would have told you to take a hike, you don't know me at all.  And now it's like I don't even know myself.

It's funny how things change. 

On the Outside

Ever since my adult teeth came in, around third grade, I've been hiding my smile. I've always had extremely sensitive teeth.  I've been ordering drinks without ice since I was a little kid.  I can't chew sugary gum.  I can't chew hot food on the left side of my mouth.  I don't even remember a time when eating and drinking wasn't an inconvenience.   But as a growing young girl, you can imagine how hard it was to not be able smile without feeling self conscious.  And every picture I took looked like this:

So one day, I was sitting at my unit twiddling my thumbs.  I was finished with my work for the day, so I started calling dentists.  I asked for some quotes. I crunched some numbers.  In case you were wondering it is not cheap to completely remodel your mouth.  After several calls, I ultimately went with one that allowed my insurance and had a fair price for veneers.  Oh and availability for an appointment right away.  I don't think I have ever been so excited to schedule a dental appointment. 

At my consultation, they looked at my teeth.  They asked me about my expectations, and they ultimately told me what they thought I needed in their professional opinions.  I sat in the chair and I told them my story.  I explained how I was afraid to go on dates, as I was recently single, and how I didn't want to smile in photos (especially ones I thought I could be displayed).  And how I wanted to be an elementary school teacher who wasn't reminded about her teeth by a different student every day.  Because that is what I saw in my future. 

I left the dentist with an appointment to get my gums lasered.  I took this photo that day in the car before I walked into the office.

Friends, if you can avoid having your gums set on fire with a little laser, please do.  It's a terribly painful procedure.  It was horrible while it was actually happening, but I'm so sensitive I started to feel the pain really quickly.  Afterward it hurt for several weeks.  And it was not cute.  

Luckily, my next appointment was only a few weeks away.  I healed up and they put in my temps.  I got them a just before halloween.

They look pretty good here but they weren't fun.  They were really white, but they were all one piece (no flossing), had a plastery type texture, and they irritated my gums.  They were swollen almost the whole time I had in the temps.  It was worth the wait though.  The veneers they would put in a few weeks later were custom selected to fit my mouth with the shape and size chosen by the dentist and myself from a catalogue.

They put these in a few weeks later and I cried when I saw them.  My face was all puffy and my gums still irritated from the...installation?  Of my permanent veneers, but I was so happy I honestly didn't have words. 

And I have never felt so confident. A lot of people told me "oh, Katie, I never even noticed your teeth before!"  or "You're beautiful with or without your new teeth."  Well that is very sweet of them to say.  But this was not about being beautiful.  It really wasn't even about anyone else. It was about me.  It was about looking in the mirror and being proud of what I see smiling back at me.  It was about leaving my house and feeing confident.  And it was about never again having the thought "I would look so great if it wasn't for my smile".  And how that makes me feel is more important than any compliment or rude comment that has ever been directed at me.  But hey, keep the compliments coming.  These babies are expensive.  

1 Semester, 2 Jobs, and 3 Relationships Later; Alternately Titled: TLDR

I frequently consider a return to blogging.  In fact, I probably think about it at least 2-3 times a day.  But then when I sit down to write, I just don't really feel like it. Today, I thought about it a lot more than usual and I figured the best way to get back into this is to just tear off the bandaid. I figure a relatively easy way to do that would be a brief re-cap of 2015.  And I mean brief.  At the beginning of the year I was living in Las Vegas.  I was in a different relationship, finishing up my school semester and I was, to say the least, uncertain about where I would be a few months down the road. 

Towards the end of February things started to change.  My relationship was on the verge of ending and so was my time in Las Vegas.  I was trying to figure out the best way to stay there, but it just wasn't all that realistic. 
After that relationship ended, I started dating an old boyfriend.  You know...That one that I almost married back when I was 18?  Well shortly after that began I finished up my school semester, and I moved back to Salt Lake.  
For the rest of the spring, and throughout the summer, I continued to date Jake.  We had this whimsical summer filled with fishing, camping, family time, and other random adventures.  I started a new job, I played Army for a little while and then all of a sudden (and I mean it...it was pretty damn sudden) that relationship ended.  That was probably the biggest surprise.  But when I think about it, it's truly for the best.  It still twinges a little to say that, but I'm better off. 
In August, after I started to really excel in my position at my civilian job. I started working off the clock and trying to figure out a way that I could get looked at for promotion.  As I'd only been working there a few months, I wasn't sure how realistic I was being, but all that extra work finally paid off.  I was officially promoted in October and I started training new hires and working on the development of our current employees. 
Also in October, we took an amazing family vacation to California. We spend a couple of days on the beach and several more in Disneyland.  It was fantastic and I kinda want to go back, eat some Disneyland pickles and lay on the beach.

 Hoover Dam on the way to the beach.

 My sister's adorable little family.  My niece LOVED the "big watty"

Seriously...she's the cutest little Minnie Mouse in the universe. 

Disney's 60th Anniversary was pretty Memorable.  I got this cool pin and I totally made the fanny pack look cool.
Toward the end of October I started dating Corey.  I'll tell ya more about Corey here in his one very special blog post.  
and in November I finally made that trip to the dentist I'd been planning forever.  This too will need it's own post.  
But just as a little teaser...

That was on Halloween which I spend with Corey, turning down a trip to see Garth Brooks in concert (for free) to do so. 
Now...here we are at the beginning of another year 1 semester, 2 jobs, and 3 relationships later... and I don't even know where the time went. Things are so different from when this year started.  And honestly, I can't wait to see what happens next.