Ch-ch-ch- changes

I've had my swing shift (5pm - 1am) for over a year now. It worked out ok when the kids were in preschool and Kindergarten, but now that they're all in full day I've started to grow less fond of it. During the day I sit at home all by myself, then as soon as they get home from school I have time to say Hi and ask them how their day was before I get in the car for work. I barely see them. When I get home from work at 2am of course the entire house is asleep. I discussed the idea of switching over to a day shift with Ti and was excited to make the move, but every shift that came up had me scheduled to work Sundays during church... so I never signed up for any of them. I waited and waited and thought that I was doomed to this swing shift forever LOL. One night I went in to work and seen a grave shift up for bid.  I've worked grave before and barely survived. Didn't think it was for me. But I looked at it again and couldn't help the interest and curiosity that crept in my mind. 11pm-7am with Saturday & Sunday off. I wanted weekends off so bad. Hmmmm... If I started at 11pm I could actually have dinner with my family and even put the boys to bed before work. And if I got off at 7am, that would put me home at around 8am - just in time to send the boys off to school. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to sign up for it. It took a little convincing for Ti. I think just the word "grave" made him a little uncertain about the change. I worked 9pm-5am before and it was brutal! But that was when Siope was still in preschool and so I never was able to get consecutive hours of sleep. I was confident that this time around would be different. We finally decided that I would sign up for it. If it didn't work, then I could always go back to a swing shift.

I've since completed my first week of grave and am going on week 2. Can I tell you how much I love it?! I know there are pros and cons to each shift, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons for me with this schedule. When I explained what my new schedule was going to be to the kids I was surprised at the reaction from them. They memorize my routine from swing and on Mondays they would come home and jump all over me cause they knew it was my day off. I told them that I was starting a new shift and I would be going to work while they were sleeping and come back in the morning when they were waking up. Mote jumped so high and hugged me so tight.

The other night we went out and had dinner at Chili's. It was freak'n awesome that I got to go out and have dinner with my kids during the week! Each night we do homework and have dinner together. I'm able to give them a bath and put them to bed before I get ready for work. When I come home in the morning they're already awake... usually brushing their teeth and soon as they hear the front door open, they run down the stairs to greet me.

Surprisingly my body has been doing ok adjusting to the time difference. It didn't do so good when I worked 9-5. And I'm not sure if I'm doing better because I went in to it this time expecting the worst. I've been ok during my shifts... a couple yawns here and there and Ti has bought me some 5hr energy drinks, but for the most part I've been fine. Last week I never got more than 4hours of sleep at home though. I would sleep either 4 or 3hrs each day. My body just wasn't accustomed to sleeping at this time of day. Today however I got 6 hours! Which is good enough for me!! I was shooting for 6 or 7, so I'll take this 6 that I got :) I have very little to complain about this shift. So far so good!

5 Diamond!!!

Last night at work our managers announced that Aria is officially rated a 5 Diamond property! I am so excited and proud!! I remember opening and hearing everyone stress that we wanted to achieve 5 Diamonds in our opening year. The only other property to achieve that was the Wynn. We are closing in on our year mark (Dec. 16 is our 1st birthday) and there have been many times when I thought we'd be lucky to get 4 Diamonds lol. I can't believe we made it! It certainly doesn't mean that the hotel is perfect... we are FAR from perfect. But it is awesome to know that our hard work has paid off! Aria is most definitely my 2nd home and I am sooooo proud of my Front Desk team!!

It's a Wrap

Project M&M World is complete. Ti came home today with a gift basket from his friends at the factory.


My favorite item in the gift basket was this darling candy dispenser...

>>Jackpot!<<

July Birthday Board

We have a birthday committee at work that designs a board spotlighting those who celebrate birthdays within the current month. Last month my manager Brian asked if I would help him with the Birthday board for July. When I saw Brian's sketch of what he had in mind I was super excited to be on board. He came up with a whole Independence Day theme and wanted to create a sky scape with fireworks and rockets shooting off. We decided that instead of giving the usual candy filled goodie bags we would fill ours with sparklers, party poppers, and super snaps. I was in charge of making the rockets and this is what I came up with. July is the first board to go 3D... thank goodness there were only 6 birthdays this month! Last month we had a ton.

Viva Elvis... 2nd Time Around

I hate morning shifts, but was actually happy that I landed one yesterday because halfway through my work day Zuhlay came up and asked if I wanted Viva Elvis tickets for later that night. We heard that there were changes made and were getting the opportunity (again) to attend the show. I wouldn't have opted to go, but we were allowed to bring a guest this time, so I took her up on her offer. After dropping the kids off at Mote & Toa's, me and Ti Tonga headed up to Aria and made our way in the Cirque theatre. We were very surprised to find our seats all the way up in the front. There were actually a lot of changes made, but all for the better. I liked it, Ti Tonga liked, and it was free- so yes, it was a good time.

I've got a bunch of blogging to catch up on and shower invites to design. Hopefully I can tackle this to do list... and oh, Neo's coming in today with Leo. So we'll see how much I can get done.

Viva Elvis

While we were in training we were invited to watch the newest Cirque Du Soleil production to be brought to Las Vegas. Viva Elvis! What an experience! I've always wanted to watch a Cirque Du Soleil show- any Las Vegas show to be quite honest, but I've never gotten around to it. So when I heard that we would be one of the first in the world to watch Viva Elvis I was so excited!! We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I found these online from the performance they did for Priscilla Presley. The stagework was insane. I never thought of myself as an Elvis fan before, but I was dancing in my seat the entire show. They put a modern twist on the King of Rock N Roll's songs which made it pretty much impossible not to clap your hands and boogie.

Dec 1-5 in the City

I started my first day of training on Tuesday and it's been a little chaotic trying to adjust to the new schedule. I haven't had much time to hop on and blog, so I thought that while I had a minute I would give a brief overview of what's been happening at work.


The first day of orientation we got to tour the casino and restaurants. I couldn't believe that in one day we saw less than half of the hotel- it's a little overwhelming. The property is HUGE!!! And beautiful to say the least. Throughout the week each of our sister properties within the City Center have been opening. My property (Aria) is scheduled to open to the public on Dec 16. We won't be full occupancy for the first couple of weeks... and our GRAND OPENING will be New Years Eve. I haven't really had time to watch TV or hop online, but there's no way that you can avoid hearing about the City Center right now. It's a big deal and certainly the talk of the town!

Actor Orlando Bloom @ Vdara Grand Opening

Actress Rosario Dawson @ Vdara Grand Opening

Eva Longoria-Parker @ Crystals Grand Opening
Crystals is our shopping venue at City Center. They feature shops like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co., and Roberto Cavalli. Eva Longoria-Parker has her own restaurant there called Beso.

We got to tour our hotel rooms on Wednesday and they are not only gorgeous, but they feature state of the art technology- it's mind blowing! The panoramic views from the suites gave me goosebumps! Before we started I seen all of the computer generated images of the hotel and to see them in real life is absolutely incredible.