And So It Begins...Again

Yep, hard to believe it, but my boys started school on August 9th (Grayson, 11th grade, Sam 7th grade). What ever happened to starting after Labor Day and enjoying the rest of SUMMER?!

But with the start of school, Mom's been TRIPPIN' DOWN MEMORY LANE...

GRAYSON:

SAM:

Sammer Bammer

Sam has had either a very EVENTFUL few weeks, or a very BORING few weeks he MADE eventful!

One day he just walked into the kitchen in a "makeshift terrorist" outfit out of neon green duct tape and a white t-shirt. (where does this stuff come from?!)

At SCOUT CAMP, they did Air Soft Guns -- of COURSE they wore GOGGLES, but when his fogged up and he took them off as they were running in the dark, he was attacked in the face by a wild branch, giving him a black eye. He wore the black eye like a 'badge of courage' as he passed the sacrament the next day.

He said it was a TOTAL BLAST -- he's only looking mad in these photos because mom was taking photos!

The big, round, red marks are from getting hit with air soft bullets! I KNOW, RIGHT?! This was a TOTAL BLAST!? 

And a couple of weeks ago on a SuNdAy Night, we had about 30 minutes, and he decided he wanted to play a long, involved game like Monopoly or Careers. In the interest of TIME...I finally convinced him to play a simple game (that I was sure MOM could win, and we could both go to bed happy)...WRONG.  (Well, ONE of us went to bed happy, but it wasn't me.)

 

 

When I got home from Stake RS Auxiliary Training this past Saturday, I was ready to pass out from exhaustion and sleep deprivation the few days before. I took a couple of pain relievers on the way home for a massive headache, and then discovered they were "NightTime" pills, so then I REALLY needed to pass out for a little while!

 

Sam was patient enough to let me sleep for about 90 minutes, and then he just HAD to get to the pool to finish passing off his Swimming Merit Badge. So we did that next...

 



 

AND...I was looking for something else and ran across this old photo from EARLY 2008 -- so cute, I just had to post.

PLUS...Sam just started 7th Grade (see next post).  BUSY BOY!

Monson Documentary

Life at Corizon

Things have been crazy busy at Corizon (my work) lately...just prior to my big birthday bash (see previous post), I was in Denver at the American Correctional Association (ACA) Conference. We attended events, manned the booth, etc.

Ralph Salk (MO), Me, Chris Duffy (IN)

_______________________________________________________________________________

I was in charge of planning a retirement reception at the corporate office which was held on July 30th for one of our Senior Vice Presidents, Larry Pomeroy -- who hired me almost seven years ago. He had been with the company for 15 years...starting back when we were Prison Health Services, then PHS Correctional Healthcare, and then through the merger to Corizon. He was promoted about 3 years ago, which is when I started working for my current boss, Jon Walker.

Cool cakes we had made 1) showing all our logos...and 2) a great photo of him and Dr. Keldie riding bulls!

We (team effort) made him a scrapbook of photos through the years, and notecards from friends with appreciation and good luck wishes...(these are just a few of the pages).

Jon Walker, SVP Business Development; Rich Hallworth, CEO; Larry Pomeroy; Dr. Carl Keldie, Chief Medical Officer

Jennie Latimer, Briana Lutes, Larry Pomeroy, Me

_____________________________________________________________________________

And this past week, with the London OLYMPICS-MANIA so ever-present all over television and the internet, Google also had a new little game on their page each day. Jennie decided we should do a Google Olympics in the Marketing Department. So...we did! We would compete for five minutes, and send in a screen shot of our best time.

First was Hurdles:

Jennie Latimer, Bronze; George Parsons, Gold (notice the 'endorsements'); Doug Devlin, Silver
I was FOURTH place on hurdles, but if you're not in the TOP THREE, you're NOTHING! (sniff!)

Next was Basketball:

Briana Lutes, Bronze; George Parsons, Gold; Jennie Latimer, Silver

Then was Canoeing:

George with Bronze (and endorsements); Jennie with Gold (& matching sandals); and Briana, Silver

Then...was SOCCER:

(and I must admit, I wasted waaaay too much time practicing this one!
It was reminiscent of the olden day "PONG.")

BUT IT WON ME THE BRONZE!!!!  And Briana with Gold; George (again with 'endorsements') with Silver

When we all cheered for the final medals won, someone from the Finance department way down the hall called Jon...they though we must have won a contract or something. Nope, not today! Just having fun and spreading a little "Company Culture" through our end of the building!

And after all...with a healthy Company Culture, EVERYBODY WINS!

The Big "5-0"

As much as I hate it, I have hit the BIG 5-0.

Yep, I have. Nope, I couldn't wish it away, couldn't hide from it, couldn't pretend it wasn't happening, couldn't lie about it (any more) and couldn't ignore it. It came. Gratefully, family and friends helped me survive it.

I was in Denver for the ACA convention the weekend before my birthday, getting home after midnight Tuesday, so I came in to work a little late on Wednesday (my birthday). This is what I found in my office...and a floor full of balloons!

My assistant, Jennie Latimer, and I both share the same birthday...she turned the BIG 3-0 (a baby). Wooo-hooo! So we celebrated together all day -- and went to lunch, I paid her ticket, she paid mine! :o)

Chris & Nathalie sent me my favorite flowers, DAISIES that look so lovely in my office!

We were so excited to hear that our dear friends, Jeff & Deb Sermon, happened to be in town for a conference on my actual birthday. We drove to Opryland Hotel and picked them up -- went to a dinner at Chuy's. It was GREAT to visit and catch up with some of our favorite people in the whole world! Love these guys!

Schedules were crazy this past couple of weeks, but able to fit in fun birthday lunch dates with great friends, Rochelle Payne, Cynthia Howard, and Christine Parris (no photos). And then with Connie Thomas and Michelle Bennett!!

Connie, Michelle and I

But the BIGGEST blowout was Sunday night when Steve, Michelle, and a houseful of guests pulled off a surprise party at the Bennetts! I thought they might do something eventually, but I knew some people's schedules weren't working, so I thought it would probably be later this week, or next weekend. Uh, WRONG...

This FABULOUS (albeit "graveyard") CAKE was made by Aimee Paturno...

Watch the BLOWING OUT OF THE BONFIRE below:

Stake RS Presidency: Barb Williams (Counselor), Jen Lamoreaux (Sec'y), Pres (me), Michelle Bennett (Counselor)

...and we enjoyed watching the swimming and gymnastics for the 2012 Olympics in LONDON in between all our partying...