Work Christmas party

My company holds a Christmas Party each year.

We've held it here at the building because we have a huge conference room and our cafeteria in house. 

Our Cafeteria manager caters the event. 

Here we are in our party clothes.

I want you to meet all of my special friends!

This is Amy. She is the new Pam. 

I met her the first time in Christopher Banks in the Mall.

She has been working there for years. Every time I went in we had so much fun together.

When she walked in the door for the interview, we both were happy to see one another.

She was the one. She is FANTASTIC and has made coming to work so much fun!

Every one loves her. She is bright and happy.

This is Becky and Angel. Becky also is my hairdresser.

We are going together to a Christmas Eve Service at the Dixie Center next week. 

Neither of their children are coming home for Christmas, so they are just like us.

Alone! Not anymore. On Christmas Day we are going to go see The Grinch and eat at Black Bear Diner. 

It's the only place I've found that is open.

Becky and I are also walking at lunch together. She is a wonderful friend!

 Now one of my MOST FAVORITE lunch/joke buddies.

This is Kason and his wife Melanie.

He is so much fun. He is the Accounting Manager. 

 This is Usha and Jeff. Usha (pronounced Wisha) She works in Research & Development.

She is someone that I enjoy. 

This is Cecilia & Danny. She is one of my backups when I go on vacations or covers at lunch when needed. 

She is the payroll clerk. Over the years they have had her do a lot of stuff. 

HR being one of them. She is overlooked when it comes to recognition of dedicated employees.

 This is Amy. We have become bosom buddies. 

She is so much fun. We laugh A LOT!!

 Matt & Shauna. Matt is also a lunch buddy.

I really like Matt. I think we have a nice friendship.

For some strange reason it just seems to happen that whenever he walks by,

I yawn. He noticed it. Gives me crap about every time. 

I try to reassure him that it's just that I'm so comfortable around him I relax.

He acts all hurt like I yawn because he's boring.

This is Janie with Amy.

Janie is our HR Manager. 

She is a great new friend too. We have a lot of fun together.

She has made a difference around here since she came on board.

This is Sandra Morales. She is about 34 now. She has MS. When I started here five years ago, she was walking around just fine. She has three children and her husband comes and picks her up everyday. She is the sweetest and kindest person. 

You can see my station at the front desk on the left.

We decorate and have hors d'oeuvres set up down here.

This is our Christmas Committee. 

The guitar player is Janie's husband. The guy with gray hair and a beard is my boss Mark.

Vickie on the end headed up the committee.

Bryan and I interact a lot. He is the one that administers the drug test on new hires.

He's a good guy.

This is how the conference room was decorated.

 So you have met my special friends. 

Merry Christmas!!

Meeting Clara

Fred and I flew to Idaho for Clara's Blessing.

She was in the kitchen when we got here.

This was our first sighting of her in person. 

  Now these are all the pictures from my cell phone.

Here is Grandpa Fred.

 He was happy to hold her.

 He still has the knack. I remember him holding our babies just like this.

 I got to hold her A LOT!!!!!

 There was a bit of competition with Spencer for holding her.

 I don't like that I won't see her again for longer than I like to acknowledge.

Grandpa Fred played games with the boys all weekend.

Both of us really enjoyed our time with Henry.

He has really grown up. 

 Spencer cuddles Clara the most. He is the most tender with her.

 The timing was perfect for us to attend a Christmas Nativity Concert for Garrett and Spencer.

It was an amazing performance. Fred and I have attended a lot of high school string concerts.

None were ever as good as this one. There was not a single sour note played. 

It was all beautiful.

 Ben's parents and his sister Stephanie's children attended.

Here we all are.

 Here is a group photo.

Garrett and Spencer on the end on the right.

 There was an outdoor Nativity that was something else.

Fire pits that were very warm. It was quite a production.

 Saturday everyone came to our hotel to swim. 

Our hotel was fabulous. One of the nicest rooms we've had in a long time.

We want to stay here from now on. It was pretty close to Corinne's.

 Here's the gang with Fred.

 Ben had to leave for a choir practice.

 We went back to Corinne's and spent the day playing games.

I even played games. It was fun.

I went to Walmart a couple of times to buy Corinne some stuff.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow.

 Here is everyone who came for Clara's blessing.

My Dad, Margo and Gary, Stephanie and her family and us.

It was a really wonderful gathering. I'm so glad we could be there for this special day.

I'm so grateful for Clara coming to this family.

She brings a softness and tenderness to the boys.

 Here she is. It's funny how I'm so used to looking at Corinne's boys. 

Clara, she just doesn't look like any of the boys. She has a completely different look.

Not like Corinne, not like Ben. She will be fun to watch as she develops into her little self.

When Corinne called to tell me she was expecting, I was shocked and honestly, not happy.

It was not my plan for her. Now I am so grateful and thankful for this little girl.

She is part of God's plan for our family.

Cars and other stuff

So a few weeks ago my friend Becky drove a car to work and parked it out front.

It has for sale info all over the windows.

I didn't think anything of it because we aren't in the market for a new car.

Well when Fred came to pick me up to go to Las Vegas, he was interested.

So now I own a 2014 Toyota Rav

 The next car story is Fred and I bought new recliners

so he borrowed his parent's truck and we went to pick the recliners up.

As we were driving along, Fred said "now we look just like all the other old people 

driving around in their trucks."

I don't think so! 

 After we picked up the recliners, we drove my Hyundai to the school parking lot to take photos.

These are the pictures I posted on Craigslist and KSL.

2013 Hyundai Elantra

The low mileage is a plus.

I hope someone respond soon because we need to move onto other things.

I've already switched my allegiance to the Rav. 

I have loved driving it and it has been a great car.

But I'm so happy to be back in a SUV and a TOYOTA!!

Things I've been doing

The last weekend in October Fred and I did an overnight in Las Vegas.

Fred has a retired Civilian Military ID that he had to renew at Nellis Air Force Base.

While he was there doing that, he learned there is a Base in Cedar City we can go to next time.

Anyway back to the story. I took a half day off work and we drove to Vegas.

It was a little stressful worrying about getting to the Base on time. 

Wondering if the line would be super long, but everything worked out okay.

So next we headed to our hotel. 

Checking in was a bit of a nightmare, but it all worked out.

Next we headed to The Rio where the show was that we had tickets to.

We decided just to eat dinner at one of their restaurants because we didn't want to be late.

We wandered around. Not much to choose from really. 

Plus we actually were a little keyed up from the stress of the military badge thing,

the checking in hassles etc etc....

So we didn't really feel up to trying anything new or unknown.

 We played it safe with Smashburger. We knew we would like it.

Burgers and fries are comfort food. We needed that.

We decided to order an Oreo shake to share.

Fred went up to order it and came back and said they were out of Oreos.

What the heck?

So we ordered a Salted Caramel Shake.

We both took a taste and Fred said "it tastes like coffee".

We sat there thinking now what? Did they make a mistake?

Pretty soon one of the workers brings us another one so we thought, oh we accidentally got someone else's order. We asked if there was coffee in it and she said yes. 

So that was the end of our treat.

On to the show. It was very good, but definitely not a Big Headliner.

We were three rows back on the main floor.

We enjoyed it a lot.

 Here we are.

  In October I started a group I named my "Creative Circle". I'm doing it through the Relief Society.

It's my contribution to providing a way for the sisters to get together. We need more opportunities.

Plus, I wanted to take charge for myself. I did this back in Bremerton with some of my closest friends. Basically we got together every month and took turns coming up with an activity to do together. At the first meeting at my home, there were 20 women who came. 

So that tells you there is a need.

Our first activity was dinner at an Italian restaurant in town called Cappelletti's.

Now our turn out for the evening was small, but that was okay. Not everyone can come to the events.

I won't orchestrate something like this again. It was too much hassle.

I invited Becky from work.

After dinner, we headed to one of our High School's to see their musical production of 

The Sound of Music. This is the rest of our group.

The production was so good. I'm always amazed at the talent of young people. 

The singing was so good and the casting was spot on from the movie!!

 Then this last weekend my "ministering sisters" had an extra ticket for Time Out For Women and invited to me go with them. I was so happy about that. I waited too long to get a ticket.

As I wandered about the tables looking at stuff to buy, I ran into Kathleen Francom from Bremerton.

We instantly saw each other and starting talking, but I knew she couldn't remember my name and I was struggling to come up with hers. It did finally come to me. Isn't that just weird? You can be friends with someone for so many years, but being apart the names go. It was just so terrific to run into Kathleen.

It was a really fun day with my friends. I love that I'm living a new life here in St. George.

New people and places. New experiences. I feel blessed!!