Favorite Things

HA! A vendor sent me this...advertising ploy
to get my attention. I guess it worked.

...And these are a few MORE of my favorite things!

Chris & Colton at Pre-School Christmas Program

Corizon/Tennessee

A couple of weeks ago, we won our first "NEW" business as the combined company of Corizon, the Tennessee DOC's Mental Health contract. We've won several renewals and re-bids since June, but this is our first new business, so there was much joy and jubilation! We already have the DOC medical, and now we have the mental health contract, too YAAAAY, us!

Just a few of the Corporate Office employees celebrating Tennessee WIN!

To celebrate this contract win, our COO, Stuart Campbell, declared the first week of December as "Tennessee Week" for the corporate office (Brentwood) and Operations Office (St. Louis), and encouraged us to wear team apparel from any of the teams in Tennessee. Since I have NONE personally, I had to borrow from Grayson, who only has UT orange gear. But, oh well, it was fun!

Marketing Dresser-Uppers: Janet Vogelaar, Jon Walker, Me, Jennie Latimer
(You can tell this is a phone photo, instead of a camera photo -- blurry!)

GO, TENNESSEE!

Phalange Fodder

A few days after Steve got home from the hospital (remember that? see HERE), Sam was running upstairs into the bonus room, when he inadvertently jammed his finger into the bonus room door. After putting ice on it for a few minutes, it swelled up, and still was causing much pain -- so he ended up in the Urgent Care room (as opposed to the Emergency Room -- a difference of about $800). They did x-rays and determined he probably had a hairline fracture. Joy.

So he wore a full forearm cast for a couple of weeks, then graduated to a finger/wrist wrap cast thingy, then to just some medical tape wrapped around his ring and pinky fingers. All in all, he was in some sort of wrap for about 4 weeks.

His least favorite part of wearing the casts was itchiness. His favorite part about it was that he couldn't practice barritone -- his mom did NOT appreciate that attitude.

Photo Glimpses

I thought I should share the boys' school pictures...

SPOILER ALERT for those family members who have them coming in their Christmas cards! (stop now, close your eyes, exit the blog, return in 3-4 days)

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd share a glimpse into each of their current personalities...

Sam - 6th Grade - 11 1/2 years old - Freedom Intermediate School

Yes, this little 6th grader, Sam, has quite the vocabulary! He even likes to create his own words! I posted this on Facebook, but thought I'd post here, too (so when I make a book of my blog, I'll have it forever...) 

So, we're listening to the radio in the car, and it's on a country station, and Sam says very dramatically,"Mom, puh-lease, this music digs into my ears! Its like its...allergic-ating or something!"  Bahahaha! Okay, Sam, tell us how you really feel!

And then there's this handsome feller:

Grayson - 10th Grade - 15 1/2 years old - Centennial High School

I sang in church yesterday, and he says to me afterwards, "Hey, Mom, you sounded really good today!" I said, "well, thank you."  He says, "No seriously, I always thought you could sing and stuff, but you actually sounded really good today!" And then he proceeded to give me an unsolicited hug. Okay, not quite sure how to take that wildly unusual compliment, not to mention a hug I didn't initiate. And wait...in comparison tooooo...all the other times when he thought I could sing, but then I sounded like crap?! Hmmmm...

Such thought-provoking words from these two...I've decided not to analyze too deeply.

Happy Baby

Just have to post these darling photos of baby Addie, barely 5 weeks old, smiling her lips off!

Soooo, so cute!!!