Wow....it's been a while!

I cannot believe that it's been so long since I've wrote something on here!!! I was just thinking about this this morning as I was getting ready for work.

Well, lots of things have been happening. I had a really nice four month break from work which was awesome. I loved spending every day with my kiddo's and getting to see everything with them, instead of hearing about it from my mother in law. I got a new job working at a university (which I will not mention names) working at a certain college in the university working for the Dean. I'm not going to mention names because to be honest, I hate this job and will bad mouth it repeatedly until I find a new job.

Beckett turned one years old on October 6th and we had a big party for his first birthday with family. Parker turned four (who the hell did that happen so fast) on January 10th and he had his first party with his friends (well, three friends, and the rest were cousins!). Scott and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary (woo hoo) and oh, yeah...Rachael had a baby.

Yes, you read that right. My sister had a baby. It's a long story. He was quite the surprise, but he is awesome! And, they are doing wonderful, which is all that ever matters right?!?!

Two more big things....I will finally be done with school on April 14th. That is my official last day of college (well, until I return to get my Master's) and graduation is May 1st. Not sure if I will be going to that because Scott has a game and isn't going to be able to make it, and if anyone is going to be there I really want him to be there.

Second....Saturday is my 30th birthday. Usually I'm really excited about birthday's, but not so much this year. I'm actually kind of depressed about turning 30. I feel like my twenties went entirely too fast and I didn't even realize it, and then I thought, "Oh my god, then I'll be 40 before I know it!" I love my life and I love where I'm at and wouldn't change any of it, but I would like to re-do my twenties just one more time.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

Well, I'm sorry it's been so long, but I promise to get on here and keep everyone up to date more often. I will not disappear for 6 months this time!

So sad

Today is my last day at work. I'm a bit sad. I really love my job here and I really love all of the people that work here too. Everyone here is so nice and welcoming and hilarious. There are so many things that we joke about and play around about (Mike with his Nerf gun). I was very lucky to be a part of this wonderful group of people at this wonderful company. I'm going to hate to see everyone go, and I'm worried about everyone finding a job. This is a hard time to have to find a job. It's gonna be rough.

I'm sad. I'm nervous. I feel like I have a huge weight on my shoulders. I feel like I've let my kids and Scott down.

I've never NOT had a job. Since I was 16 years old. It's gonna be different. Different for sure.

It's a sad day. For a lot of us.

Goodbye to all of my friends. The laughs that we have had are priceless. I'm going to miss them greatly.

The Fair is in town! The Fair is in town!!!!

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the Alexandria Fair...or the Worlds Fair for everyone who lives in Campbell Co.

Everyone here loves the fair. It's always Labor Day weekend and it's a great time to go and stand by the beer booth and see friends that you have not seen in years! I love it and look forward to it every year. It's just one of those things that you must go to each year! Good times.

Tonight is the opening night. We go to Jeremy and Shawns house (my cousins) because their house is right on the entrance of the fairgrounds and we watch the parade (yes..there is a parade!) and then we take the kids down to ride rides (well, Parker at least) and grab a bite to eat.

I love this time of year (and it also helps that it has been insanely beautfiful here for the past week, temps in the low 70's, cool every night and sunny sunny sunny!).

Yea for the Worlds Fair!

Laid off

Has today's economy affected your family? How you spend, if you go on vacation? Well, it wasn't really touching us much. Until now.

My company did their third round of layoff's on Tuesday. And, you guessed it...I was one of the not-so-lucky one's. I got the boot.

But, not just me. Last September they laid off 15 of my great co-workers. In June they laid of 2 of my co-workers and then on Tuesday, after a nice motivational e-mail from our president to ALL of our company telling us that they were beginning layoff's immediately, all but 8 of my co-workers were laid off on Tuesday morning.

It wasn't not an easy morning, let me tell ya. This is the third round of layoff's in just one year, so it's almost like everyone knows the deal. But, this time it was different. The first one last September was out of no where. So, it caught all of us off-guard and we had no idea how to take it. Then in June, same deal but it wasn't most of the department, only two people, so it was like a little smack in the face unlike a punch in the gut. Then, this one..was expected. We've all seen it coming for the past month or so, it was just a question of who, when and how bad. We knew that our particular site was in a nice downward spiral. Our projects had been cancelled and they sent out a new organizational structure chart a couple of weeks ago that conveniently left the our group here in Cincinnati out. So, that was clue number one. The a few short days later we got an e-mail saying that all of the projects that we had and were working on had been cancelled. Eww...punch number two. Then, they walked around and changed all of the locks on the doors (but said that they didn't know who had the previous locks and wanted to change them to keep track of who had what key...yea right). Then, came the e-mail at 3:30 on Monday afternoon that had ALL of us sitting in the middle of our department wondering if it was going to be that day. It wasn't. Our manager didn't even acknowledge it. So, all night Monday night I thought about it all night long, wondering if it was going to be me, or if was going to be the entire department or the entire building for that matter. Tuesday morning we came in and we had a meeting. They were disbanding the entire R&D department and only keeping 1/3 of the department and then getting rid of 2/3 of the department.

The morning sucked to be blunt. We all just sat around waiting. We quickly found out that they were meeting with the people that they were keeping first, and as the morning wore on, many of us figured it out that we were not the ones that they were keeping. They called all of us in (16 of us) and told us as a group (classy, huh?) that our positions have been eliminated and that September 25th was going to be our last day. They handed us our severance packets and sent us home.

We went to the bar.

And then to one of my co-workers house's and drank some more...and talked, vented and laughed. Rough day.

I'm not sure that it has hit me completely or not. I know that it has happened, but I think because we do have to come back here for a while that it just doesn't seem real. People are taking it how they are, and some of us are taking it okay and some of us are not taking it very well at all. It's hard for many because there are people who have been here for 30 years and this is the only job that they know and they are going to leave. And, there are people here that have their lively hoods resting on their jobs (cough cough...me) and it's sad. It's sad that a group that works so stinkin hard and get's along so well and could conquer anything that was thrown their way---and our company feels like they just didn't need us anymore. So, it sucks.

September 25 is our official last day here, but if we get all of our projects transitioned over to whoever is going to take it before then we can head on out of here. So, I'm hoping to do that before next week I can have everything done and all of my personal stuff taken home and Friday can be my last day. I will be paid up until the 25th and then I get 6 weeks of severance from there, so I have a short amount of time to find another job. I would love to take some time and spend it with my boys, but, I cannot afford to do it. So, it's job hunting time for me....which I hate.

I'm sad...I'm sad for me, and I'm sad for the 25 people in my department that lost their jobs this week. It's not fair.

It's not fair.

Where is my beer?

Monday Memories

So, I'm going to do this new thing that I've seen on a couple of other blogs. Just maybe a picture or two (or three or four) that is pretty old that I love. So, here it goes!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Parker. It was taken right after we had gone to watch my brother Jacob at his Freshman football game (Jake is starting his SENIOR year of high school today). It was SOOOOO cold out that I had to go to the concession stand and buy Parker a hat! This was October 2006. Look at my chunky monkey!

Getting some lovins' from Chompers! He is so stinking cute! I remember this day literally like it was yesterday.

Where did my baby go???

Back to School

So...Parker is now a big boy. Pre-School. Parker is in pre-school and I cannot believe it!

Monday was his first day of pre-school, and we've been hyping it up all summer long trying to get him ready and prepared. He was pretty excited to be going to a new school ("Miss Mary's") and that Kaitlyn and Nolan from down the street were going to be there too.

This was Parker right before we left to head off to his first day of school. I took a vacation day on Monday so I could drop him off and pick him up in the afternoon, and I was near by so if anything happened I could go up there and take care of things.

When we got there, I loaded Beckett into the stroller so we could walk Big Brother in to his new class. His teacher's assistant, Ms. Sondra was waiting patiently for all of the kids who were being dropped off at 7:45 (there are two drop off times, 7:00-7:20 and 7:45 to 7:55.) When we walked in Ms. Sondra said, "Parker, I love your backpack!" his response was, "Thanks, my daddy ordered it. It was expensive, it cost 100 bucks!" She looked at me funny and I said, "That backpack did NOT cost $100!" Where does he come up with this stuff?!?

When we walked into his classroom he was a little hesitant. He sat down at a table by himself and just kind of checked things out for a couple of minutes.
Hanging onto Beckett's stroller for dear life. Beckett looked like he was ready to get up and play a bit!

I can only imagine what was going through his little head! I'm sure he was nervous and excited at the same time. Me --- I was ready to cry!

Once he found him a friend to talk to, he was off. He told me to leave Beckett there with him, and once I told him that Beckett had to go home with me, he was fine. He walked over to the rug with another little boy and then I snuck out of their classroom.

Walking through the halls I wanted to just start sobbing. I cannot believe that my little boy is in PRE-SCHOOL!!! It just seems like there is no way that he should be this old already. Before I know it, we're going to be dropping him off at college.....tears :(

When I went to pick him up they said that he did really well. And, there is no other feeling that having him run to you and wrap his arms around you and say, "Mommy, I missed you!" Because I don't think he will ever have any idea of how badly I miss him when he's not right there with me!

The rest of the week has not gone that well when it comes to dropping him off. There are a lot of tears shed (both mine and his!), but we're making progress! Soon, he's not going to want to come home!

Finally! Vacation pics!

The last day in Myrtle Beach...he was pooped! He sat down and fell asleep on daddy's lap and when daddy got up, he just kept on sleeping! Which, as windy as it was, I couldn't believe it! Too much vacation for Parker!

Parker loves doing flips in the pool. Scott can never throw him high enough!

My babies!

Beckett and Daddy in the pool! Beckett loves him some daddy!

Beckett and Scott at the Alligator Adventure Park....it was SOOO hot that day!

Buried in the sand!

Look how red my face is! This was right before we were leaving for dinner one night!

He's going to be just like his brother.....Goggle Man!

They buried Parker in the sand. I wasn't sure if he was really going to like it much or not, but I think at this point, he was so tired that day that he didn't really care! Gotta love him, he's such a good sport.

Cutie pie Parker!

They buried Daddy this time! Sorry they are not ALL looking at me! It's hard to get them to smile at the camera at the same time (and in Beckett's defense, Parker did have some cool floaties to play with!)

One of my favorite pictures taken before dinner at Key West Bar & Grille

Checking out all of the sights at Broadway at the Beach

Daddy's and their boys

Loves the beach!

The coolest kids on the beach! Aiden and Parker

One of my favorite pics from vacation!

Me, Beckett, Aiden and Parker in the kiddie pool.

Right after we got checked in and swim trunks on! We headed straight to the pool!

There were many more pictures of course, but I didn't want to load down my site with all of them. Those are some of my favorites, and sorry they are not in order!

We had such a good time and hope we get to do it again next year! The kids had a blast and so did we. Now, I miss it so much and cannot believe that it's almost been a month since we were there! This summer has gone so fast, but that is one week I wished would have lasted forever!