Gary is still working for McGill Digital Solutions. However, they restructured the company in May (?) and he is now the Director of Technical Support. He is still as dedicated as ever and always gives 110%. The company's course took a bit of a turn, when late last fall, it landed some big contracts to create interactive touch screen presentations at a couple of the PGA tours. He travelled to Palm Desert, CA in January to set up and troubleshoot at the Bob Hope Classic, all the while getting to hang out in the media tent! He called me mid-week, to tease me because my current heartthrob, Matthew McConnaughey, had signed up to play!!
In March, he was in Orlando, FL for the Bay Hill Invitational. He took along a co-worker to show him the ropes so that he wouldn't have to travel as much. He loved going to the PGA tours, but being away for 8 or 9 days at a time was too long to be away from his family!
I went back to work at Shoppers Drug Mart after the Civic Holiday in August 2005, after taking the full year of maternity leave. By choice, I switched stores with the Store Administrator who had filled my maternity leave. So I now have two stores, which are similar in size, sales-wise, rather than a large-format store and a smaller one. I didn't want to go back to working five days a week, and she wanted more of a challenge so it worked well for both of our families. The new store was in rough shape, due to a negligent initial replacement for the mat leave, but I've turned things around almost 360 degrees. Still some issues to resolve but we're almost back on track!!
In addition to working four days a week, I also started teaching scrapbooking classes at Michael's Arts & Crafts. It worked out great for a couple of months, but favourtism in the class scheduling and excess demands on my time to "demo" my classes turned the experience sour for me. Several of my students requested that I teach classes at a local scrapbooking store, but with all the other commitments going on, I walked away from that, feeling good about my decision.
One of the aforementioned commitments was an increased role at Scraptivity. I joined the team (unofficially) in August, when Wendy and I discussed my role as Contest Co-ordinator. Due to several technical difficulties and the switch to a new site, it was delayed until this February. I love being part of such a great group of ladies.
And thanks to Scraptivity, I was approached by a couple of women on the message board in the fall 2005. One of the women was planning on launching a new magazine, Canadian Scrapbooker, and they wanted ME to be a part of it!! I now have a column in every issue (so far!! :D) called Let's Get Technical, that I share with a wonderful, talented lady, Tammy Nice. She writes the article from a computer viewpoint, where I write about a photography-related topic. The magazine launched in November 1st, 2005 and sold out almost immediately! We're so glad that it was well received! I don't believe that it is available in the US yet, and is only available in scrapbook stores in Canada, although some Chapters stores have started to carry it. But the first two issues have SOLD OUT!
Wow! If you've made it this far, I'm impressed... and appreciative! And I haven't even started on the kids yet!! We'll have to save that for another day...
