Fall Break in North Carolina

We were very excited to go to North Carolina over the boys' Fall Break from school. We left on a Friday morning, it's about an eight hour drive (instead of FIFTEEN to Nebraska -- SCORE!). And we spent Saturday and Sunday there, and came home Monday.

We had a great time looking around the FARM!

We went from CHICKENS to BUNNIES...

 

From BUNNIES to BLUEBERRY BUSHES...

The kids (big and little) kept us pretty entertained...

 

SATURDAY morning, Grayson and Sam went out and helped Chris and a kid from their ward pull up some of the black tarp that used to be used in the STRAWBERRY PATCH so they can get the land ready for animals (goats & pigs).

 

They said it was awesome, because there were LOTS of creepy, crawly, disgusting spiders, bugs and CRITTERS underneath the tarp. They love that kind of stuff -- NOT!!

 

While they were out doing that, we played with the kids inside...

Sam dumped this entire bucket of LEGOS out on top of himself to find one tiny, exact little shape that Rogan needed...

Then we went to lunch at a yummy MEXICAN RESTAURANT, and the talk of the town was the HUMONGOUS "BURRITO LOCO," which Grayson ordered, and he was able to eat ALMOST the whole thing!

We went to Elon University and walked around and looked at Chris' 'stomping grounds,' the outside and inside of the campus. He showed his office, his classroom, etc. VERRRRY COOL!

This campus is just BEAUTIFUL!

After Elon, we went and got ice cream at the local "Soda Fountain" downtown Graham...

 

SUNDAY SMILES...

 

 

We happened to be there for POPS' birthday, and Nathalie was nice enough to bake a special cake for Steve, and we all had cake & ice cream...

 

 

Sam and Colton made this COOL, very long car with no pattern or instructions...very detailed.

 

 

Moving the CHICKENS before we left Monday morning. GRAYSON provided the muscle this time...

 

We were ready to pack up Addie and bring her home with us, and she was ready to come!

 

The drive home...the colors were starting to change.

 

 

Can't wait to see them again as we SKYPE, and then when we come back for Christmas!

Root Canals STINK

I had to have another root canal in September. And let me just tell you that I will NEVER go back to this endodontist, Vince Hicks. He was so rough and just BRUTAL to my mouth. Last time was not (of course) pleasant, but I was able to go back to work and stuff, so this time I planned on going to a luncheon and then back to the office afterward. Well...this time I just cried in the car, went to Publix to get the free antibiotic, and went home and cried some more, took my pain pills and took a 2-hour nap. I felt a little better when I woke up, but literally felt crappy for two days after that.

I had to work from home that afternoon, and I felt in great need of some soft, yummy comfort food: homemade chicken noodle soup!

Sort of a BIG Deal...

Little "stress balls" for the occasion

About a year ago, Corizon was awarded the LARGEST correctional healthcare contract in history. Seriously, this is sort of a BIG DEAL, because in the history of privatized healthcare (an industry we founded in 1978), this is the biggest contract EVER awarded, worth $1.2 billion (over 5 years), serving 55 prison facilities and caring for over 52,000 inmate lives. Seriously, HUGE!

So after a year of legal battles with disgruntled competitors regarding the RFP process, nurses union lawsuits (because they wanted to continue to work for the state, not privatize), court 'holds' and such, we finally started up the contract on Sept. 8th. We were already doing LOTS of things behind the scenes toward startup, but the actual contract began Sept. 8th, when we went 'live' in the facilities. Our startup process is very thorough and AWESOME, and it took 'all hands on deck' to get things up and going, get the 2500 employees registered for payroll, oriented and trained, and get our materials, processes and expectations out into the sites.

Normally, this is handled by the Human Resources dept., but with such a large scale project, they called in everyone! So I got to go to Florida for a week in September and help with training, collecting I-9 forms, and give a presentation to different groups each day regarding our Company Culture (my favorite 'work' thing to talk about).

It was RAINY, but still beautiful, the whole time we were there!

So, anyway, here are some photos from my week in Lakeland, Florida. It was a great experience, but I'm glad I don't do this every day! I like my day job.

We stayed at and had our training sessions at "The Terrace," an old-fashioned cool hotel right downtown Lakeland. They upgraded us to suites -- even though they were a tight suite, they were very cool!

We saw these little guys EVERYWHERE! This one on a window sill...

Me and our team lead, Jennifer Chambers

 

Georgia had bought this MASSAGER at the airport, and decided to bring it to the sessions to use on our
trainees. It was a HIT!! I liked it so much, I came home and immediately ordered one for Steve
 for our Anniversary!

 

 

 

Our Training Team: Leesa Peterson, Mac, ME, Jennifer Chambers, Georgia Wayne

 

After our final day of training, we left Lakeland and drove to Tampa to stay closer to the airport for our early morning flight. We stayed at the GRAND HYATT, and they had a convention in town that needed more rooms for overflow, so they upgraded us to the little "CASITAS," which were individual little apartments separate from the hotel itself -- SCORE! Again, very cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND...These ones below are the only photos we're going to post of my AWKWARD attempt to pose in the fun hammock! It provided some early evening entertainment, anyway...

 

 

This place was right on the water, and such a GORGEOUS setting!

 

We had a FABULOUS dinner at the hotel restaurant -- I had the Mahi-Mahi on the top. Scrumptious!

The whole time we were waiting for our food, and even after it came, I was hopping up to take photos of the AMAZING SUNSET taking place right in front of us!!

LOVE THIS SHOT...! (below)

The next morning, I hurried down to the dock before we left to capture some of the early morning beauty...

 

AND...I was sooooo happy with how the shot BELOW of the sunrise turned out! One of my favorites I've ever taken!

I couldn't help but snap a couple more as we drove to the airport...