Something To Be Proud Of...

I have had a ton of wonderful experiences in my 11+ years with my job. The challenges of my career continue to get bigger and better every day. This year however has brought new motivation to why I do my job. I LOVE my job and in these times I truly know how lucky I am to have a job. But never before have I felt so blessed with my job.

In January, myself and two other co-workers began a program to prevent drug abuse in our local community. We have brought our message to thousands of middle school and high school aged children by way of school assemblies in various schools here in town.

We have partnered up with some very special friends who have carved a special place in my heart. They are to old to be my kids, but I have shared special moments of pride with them and they have brought tears to my eyes sometimes in front of a crowd of hundreds! I hope each of them know how important they are to me and to my career! And I hope they know that I think f them each often and say a little prayer for them to be strong and good. Thanks boys, you will never truly know how much you have had an impact on my outlook on life!Event Date: 05/26/2010

Bring Your Child To Work Day - 2010!

Being in the line of work we are in our office is rather iffy about the "Bring Your Child to Work" day. This year was no different, we didn't get the word if it was okay or not until the last minute. I had so much going on at work that I thought, "we'll just skip this this year."

We headed into work and didn't mention anything to Kadence. We haven't brought Cole before because he is still a little to rambunctious to last all day with us in a somewhat quiet atmosphere. When I got to work the guilt of not including Kadence really started to eat away at me. I just had a lump in my throat all morning because I was on the verge of tears. How could I not include her on this day she loves so much because, "I am too busy!" I always have told myself that I would never allow myself to be that mom that is just "too busy". Yet here I was allowing int to happen. The sinking feeling in my gut just got worse and worse until I couldn't stand it anymore. I walked into my bosses office holding back the tears and explained that I just had to go get her. Of course he obliged and out the door I went.

I walked into the front school of her office and explained to the secretary that I would like to pull my daughter out of class to take her to work with me. She gave me a smile as if to say, "what a good mom!" I finally realized I was doing the right thing. Whatever was going on at work would have to wait one more day.

The second Kadee walked into the front office and saw me standing there she lit up and had a smile from ear to ear. "Mommy, what are you doing here?" she asked. I told her it was Take Your Child to Work Day and that I couldn't stand being at work without her.

We headed back into town and met Clarice and Kaitlin at Jason's Deli. It was packed with proud parents and even prouder kids who were accompanying them to work that day.

From there we headed into the office where we did our tour of the office. The jail cells are always a helpful reminder for us to hammer home the point that if you are bad enough, you might just end up here!

Erin and Tony stocked the kids up with lots of "Company Propaganda" supplies. Kadee had a blast and I was so glad I went and got her.

She asks me about this day all year long, and to think I almost deprived her of something she looks so forward to. Thank goodness my mommy instincts kicked in and told my work instinct to cool it for the day.

Next year I will bring Cole in as well...

Office Holiday Party 2009

We had our office, more like our group holiday party again this year at our boss's house. We all pitched in and had it catered once again by Famous Dave's BBQ...yummy! A great time was had by all especially during the white elephant gift exchange. Last year, everyone was so polite...this year...the GLOVES WERE OFF! It was hilarious, one stole from one only to have the item stolen from them. The hit of the party was the cutest puppy dog that made all kind of cute puppy dog sounds. Joe initially opened it, Clarice stole it from him and when I subtly mentioned that Chance would love it on Christmas morning I saw a slight mean streak in Clarice, never seen before that intimidated the you know what out of me and force me to steal someone else's gift. By the way, sorry Rosie and Freddy, but we love our Kahlua and Bailey's...

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's Back to Work I Go :(

Well today was the day that I had to head back to work. It was not easy! Being home with all three kids 24/7 was without a doubt a challenge and believe me my patience was tested like no other. But it was so nice to just be able to do whatever I wanted with the kids, whether it was to go to the park or just swim! I am glad I had two months off to spend with just them. It is going to be hard to leave Chance as well. Lucky for me I know he is in great hands with Lisa and Felipa. They have had Kadence since she was four months old and she turned out great! But he is still my baby and my last baby at that. I loved snuggling with him all day every day. Now I guess the snuggles I get will be even more special. I LOVE my job and am happy to get back to the challenge however my kids will be on my mind a lot...I love them 1000x more. Too bad I can't just bring them with me...

Take Your Kids to Work Day

The annual "Take Your Kids to Work Day" was Thursday, April 23 so me and Charlie decided to take Kadence. Unfortunately, Cole is in the midst of his terrible two's and is pretty high maintenance so we figured he would be best off at the babysitter's where he could play outside all day and take a really good nap! We surprised Kadence on Thursday morning and she was soooo excited. She loves going to our work. I remember back in my crazy days I would leave work at 5:30, pick her up and go back to work for a couple hours with her in tow. She loved raiding the vending machine and rearranging all of the pictures I have on my locker! Those days are over as we are on a pretty strict 8 hour day policy!


Dallas brought Chi and Clarice brought Kaitlin so Kadence was in seventh heaven to not only get to go to work with mom and dad but to also have friends there to play with! They had a blast! Our tech agent showed them some really cool toys that we use on the bad guys and one of the officers took them for a ride around the garage in the police car, sirens and all!

The one and only time I better ever see this!


For lunch we all went to Johnny Rockets at Fashion Show for some yummy shakes and burgers! The rest of the day was spent delivering mail around the office and spending time with our AWESOME student aide coloring (which helped mommy and daddy actually get a little work done).

I almost forgot to mention the funniest part of the day (until I was reminded by Clarice). Clarice took Kadence and her daughter Kaitlin around the office to deliver some paperwork. Well apparently while they were in another bay of our office one of the officers picked up a conversation with the girls. He mentioned to them that he had handcuffs, probably thinking this would catch their attention. Well, my daughter quickly responded, "My daddy has handcuffs too!" The officer inquisitively replied, "he does, who does he use them on?" Yeah, you guessed it, she blurted out, "Mommy!" Apparently there was a lot of laughter generated by this comment and I'm sure some good stabs will be taken at Charlie next week when everyone returns to work! I couldn't have scripted it any better if I wanted to! Now for some clarification...one year I was a sheriff for Halloween and had bought a pair of handcuffs to go along with the outfit. Well at Halloween we pulled out the storage crates and the kids found the handcuffs to play with. Charlie of course decided to lock me up (in the middle of the day, in the living room, fully clothed...I don't know the more I try to explain it away the worse it sounds so I will leave it at that! Oh what comes out of the mouths of babes!

Abe's Last Day

March 13, 2009 was Abe's last day at work. He is off to Afghanistan to serve us all proud! He will be in all of our hearts and prayers and we look forward to seeing him back at work in a year from now! We will miss you Abe!

A Goodbye Get-Together for a Good Man!

Abe is one of my and Charlie's co-worker's. I have had the pleasure of working with him for quite a while and Charlie met him when he started almost two years ago. Charlie and Abe went to Quantico together in January/February 2008 where they attended an almost month long training. They were roomates and came back with some great stories. Unfortunately, Abe is leaving us for approximately a year. He is with the Nevada National Guard and will be deployed to Afghanistan this spring. We will miss him dearly and will keep him close in our prayers!

We had a get-together for the office to wish him farewell. Poor guy was sick as a dog that night as he had just returned from some pretty brutal training that I think wore him out! But he hung in there with the best of him and we all made sure he knew how honored we are to know him, how proud we are of what he is doing and most of all how forward we look to seeing him back in a year.

Don't Mention Any Food Around Me...

Okay so my pregnancy cravings have gone into full swing! The funny thing is that I don't just all of a sudden crave something, I have what I like to call suggestive cravings. All that has to happen is someone has to say a type of food, I can see a commercial or just simply drive by a restaurant and it just kicks in. Well Friday the suggestive craving went into full gear. Yelena just simply mentioned Arby's before lunch and that was that. I would have Arby's for lunch...one way or another! Immediately after Arby's was mentioned everyone else started kicking in more suggestions, Beef-N-Cheddar's, Curly Fries...Lunch time could not come fast enough! We all loaded into Charlie's truck and off we went to Arby's. After a full serving of Beef-N-Cheddar and Curly Fries we were all stuffed, however...

I decided it was a great time to act on a craving I have had for at least a week now, thanks to Clarice at work. One day she mentioned Luv It's and since the words slipped out of her mouth I have had the craving in the back of my head. So I decided today was a great day to act on it! Luv It's is a small mom and pop frozen custard shop. Everyday they have a different feature flavor and my all time favorite is butter pecan! Clarice had mentioned that Friday's was butter pecan day so I thought I better take advantage of it being Friday! So with full tummy's already we trekked over to Luv It's. I was the only one who has had Luv It's before so it was new to Charlie, Dallas, Diane and Yelena.

I quickly looked at the featured flavor menu to make sure Friday was butter pecan day and much to my surprise it was not...today was peach! I am not a fan of peach but lucky for me the man told me he had a little butter pecan left. YEAH! It was as I remember, pure heaven. Everyone else split between the Turtle Special which was covered in nuts and chocolate and the Jimmy Special which had butterscotch, sliced bananas and chocolate jimmies. YUMMY!

Christmas Party 2008

This last Friday, our group in our office gathered together at our supervisor's house for a Christmas party. We had it catered and took part in the "white elephant" gift exchange. I think everyone there had a fantastic time. The food was delicious and the company was great.

"The Group"

"The Girls"

Okay so the rumor has it that something is in the water at our office, specifically in my group because both me and Clarice are prego! That's okay, it just gives us a better excuse to eat more chocolate chip "Nothing Bundt Cake"...YUMMY!

Naturally, during the gift exchange, Charlie picked the gift in the Victoria's Secret bag. My husband is addicted to this store, for obvious reasons I guess. Every time he is at the mall with me we have to visit Victoria's Secret. Men! The joke was on him however, because there were no untouchables in the bag, only a DVD of "The Office" TV series. Everyone else was very spirited about the gift exchange. Some were happy with their option of picking a gift from under the tree while others had their eyes on somebody else's gift and waited their turn to move in for the kill. Dallas made it clear that her gift would be going nowhere but home with her. It was really cute and although several teased she got to take it home with her, not to mention that she pretty much threatened anyone who attempted to take it from her! I don't think Joe even cared much about the present he received, he was just happy to get a new hair accessory. He must have known that a big present was waiting for him in Marty's garage. See Joe had a little run in with a pole in our parking garage, so Marty, being the good-hearted supervisor that he is, brought in a bike from the garage for Joe to use until his car was back from the shop. Don't feel bad Joe, when I was pregnant with Kadence, I reversed into a pole on two different occasions and reversed into a parked car. Hey, like they say, $h!t happens!The night ended on a good note, and several left with new found hair accessories! I think we all had a great time and look forward to it again next year.