gfs annual paarrrtaaayyy

congratulations to my main squeeze for working hard and receiving the highest honor awarded by gfs!

john was awarded with gold club, epayment award for increasing his epayments from 15 percent to 80 percent since last november, and he was awarded with the sales person of the year award.   he was also recognized for 10 years of service.  he's a stud...i know! ;) this is the part where you can stop reading.  i'm going to get really windy because we want to remember this special night. 

okay, now that i have that out of my system (i'm just proud, he has worked really hard!) on to the details.  this year's annual meeting started out like all others except that they announced gold club right off the bat in the departmental meetings, which usually they save for last.  we saw john's boss head up on stage and knew someone from his branch was going to win.  to his astonishment, it was him!  he just sat there for a second, making sure it was indeed him, because there are more than one john davis' who work for gfs (wouldn't that be really embarrassing if you started up to the stage and it wasn't you!?!).  as the person heads up stage, they always say really nice things about the person, their accomplishments, etc.  we both said later that we didn't even hear a word they said.  it was a blur from the time i heard his name to the time he received his ring and i received my yellow rose, to the picture, and shaking every one's hands, and the congratulating.  definitely a surreal moment.  i was so proud to be standing next to my man up there!

as the meeting went on, he also won an epayment award.  i guess the lady who is in charge of this said something to him about being at the top of that category, which was pretty much telling him that we was going to get the award.

the departmental meeting ended and we had about a half hour until the meeting where they announce profit sharing and who the people of the year are.  every department is in this meeting.  it's huge!  we had to sit up front with others who won gold club.  out of the people who won gold club, one person wins a trip of a lifetime from each category (sales, drivers, store workers, etc.). when they started flashing pictures of the location on the screen and i leaned over to john and said, "that would be amazing! someone is going to have a great time."  i never even gave it a thought that it would be us.  stuff like that doesn't happen, right?  this was a good year for john, but he's had better years so i didn't even let my mind think of the possibility of it being us.  he was the third name out of four to be called up on stage.  he literally just sat there.  i had to hit him on the leg and say, "that's you...GO!" he was stunned and as he said later "floating."  i thought the previous time when i had to go on stage was surreal, but that was nothing compared to this.  john was in a different world and kind of left me behind, which just makes us laugh now.  he was in shock.  when we went on stage i was greeted with six red roses and john was handed some papers that were about the trip.  i still get chills when i think about it.  i know i'm not giving it justice, but it was definitely an honor.

all night long people kept stopping us and congratulating john.  i kept joking that he was a celebrity.  it was neat to see so many of his colleagues, some who he knew and some he didn't, praise him for his efforts.  he really has worked his tail off.  there were some nights where he wouldn't get home until after the kids went to bed and a lot of early mornings.

his boss gave him a card after he won, and one thing really stuck out to me...he wrote that john's character was what really sets him apart.  i'm proud to be married to a man who is the same no matter where he is.  he works hard and treats people right.  he often gives more than i think he should-i have wanted to tell off a few of his customers...they can be down right mean.  however, john takes the higher road and serves them with a smile.  he truly is the sales person of the year in my book...not only this year, but every year! i'm so proud of you, honey!                 

dinner was fabulous and they had lots of different choices for the entertainment.  i think it was the best that they've had since i started going to these meetings.  mercy me and bebo norman put on a concert for us...it was awesome!  they did some of their hit songs and also sang some christmas songs...LOVED it!

it was a wonderful night...so thankful that God has blessed us in this way.  we are very grateful for the gordon family and the way they do business and honor God through everything they do.