Fall is here!

Isn't Gizmo a cool lookin' cat???

Hi everyone! I know it's been over a week since I last posted.. so thanks for hangin' in there. ;-)

A lot has happened since then. My branch is now fully staffed!! YAY. 2 of the new hire tellers just came back from training on Monday and are doing well. It's funny because my investment specialist came up with the saying that "being short staffed is always going to be the norm". After a year at this branch and being a manager it's true. I sometimes just have to take it one day at a time!

Last week my branch had a special visit from not only my district manager but my market manager too! They spent a good part of the day going over numbers, operations, customer service and some other stuff. I got several high 5's and some kudos for how my branch has turned things around!! It felt great to be told to keep up the great work. You see.. hard work does pay off!

Nick is leaving this Friday for Alaska to spend the weekend with his good friend Roddy. Nick and Roddy are going to do all sorts of boy stuff up there.. you know fishing, hunting and riding machines. I can't wait to hear the stories that Nick comes back with.

While Nick is gone I am going to go over to Eastern Washington for my friend Lesley's bachlorette weekend. I think about 20 girls are getting together for a kick ass limo/bus ride and 6 hours of wine tasting. I bet Nick can't wait to hear the stories that I come back with.

Esmee!!

A few weeks ago Nick and I got to watch the kiddos when Tim and Renee went to the Storm game. Boy do they have some serious energy. Ethan enjoyed playing an Xbox game (Lego Starwars) that Nick has.

Willa!!

Notice in the background Esmee is brushing gizmo with a cat brush? I swear if I had barettes for the cats the girls would have had a blast!

Willa just LOVED carrying Gizmo around. He was a really good sport about it. I lost count of how many times she picked him up. I think it might have something to do with him being a kitten. Chester kept his distance most of the night. Every once and a while he would get close to the girls to check them out but decided he didn't want much to do with them.

Both of the girsl are on a cat toy. Pretty cute, huh?

Both girls love to give hugs... but boy is Esmee a climber!

TACO NIGHT @ LCP!!

We all pitched in and enjoyed a mas grande taco dinner. Barb made this amazing rice, I cooked up the chicken and beef, Moni had the guac covered (made from scatch!) and Shannon was all over the tortillas. It was AMAZING.

She is getting so big! Amelia will be 2 on October 21st. Wow how time flies. It was funny to see her walk around with her life vest on for hours! I'm not really sure how she ended up with it on in the first place but she loved it.

Mmmmmm... Nothing like a nice ice cold mint julep by Makers Mark, huh? Ryan and Nick enjoyed a 5th of this between the two of them. Even though both of them paid for it the next day they both would drink it again because of how good it was.

Silly boys!

Yes. Moni is about to show the boys how this is done.

Creepy. I know. This is the KISS mask that hangs out on Ryan's lot. The boys take it out every once in a while (when we have new comers join us) and scare the crap out of them. I really don't know why I was wearing it that night...

WELCOME FALL!!!!

The air is crisp. The leaves are turning all sorts of colors and starting to fall from the trees. Kids are back in school and I have to leave for work 10 minutes earlier just in case I get stuck behind a school bus or 2.

It's my favorite time of year!!

No worries - I'm still alive.

Hi there!! Wow it's been a long 2 weeks but the end of it is finally here! 6 days a week for 2 weeks straight can really take its toll on someone. Let me just say that I am currently enjoying every minute that we are spending up here at LCP. Even though it's been raining pretty hard since last night - I don't even care!! I'm off of work and happy to be hanging out with our really good friends.

Last weekend I worked on Saturday and was home for a half hour after work before we headed up to LCP for Joey's 5th birthday!! I cannot believe that he's already 5. I remember seeing him for the first time in the hospital and have enjoyed every one of his birthdays. On Sunday Nick and I enjoyed hanging out and sipping on coffee for an hour before heading back home to get our house ready for a branch "going away party" for 2 of my employees. 1 of them got a promotion and is at another branch now. The other one had an opportunity fall into his lap and left the company.

While getting ready for the get together my mom, dad, Owen and Octavian came over to our house for a couple of hours. (I had to coax them over with pictures from our wedding!) Owen and Octavian are my sister Alex's boys. Owen will be 6 this December and Octavian was born on March 17th. I took pictures of their visit, but just have not taken the time to download them yet. It was great to visit with my parents and see both of the boys. Wow- they really do grow up fast.

Back to work on Monday. With some half hour lunches and non-stop running around - I made it through the week!

I have tons of great pictures to share. I'll update the blog soon!

Remember when you were a kid and how awesome otter pops were!?!? Here's a picture of Amelia enjoying an otter pop. The real reason I posted this picture is I wanted to share her shirt with you. MY MOM IS HOT. HAHA!! I love it. =)

Here's Brooklyn sportin' her swimsuit. She's 6 months old and FULL of smiles. (She's Barb and Tim's granddaughter).

Comfy food. Barb's famous biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

Here's a shot of Barb's sunflowers. Pretty, huh?!?

Barb and her grandson Dizzle. Dizzle is short for Trayvon. This was taken on the day that he got his football gear! What a stud.

Here's Tim enjoying a moment with Brooklyn.

Oh yes. The good ol' - take the bottle of whip cream in a can and fill your mouth as much as you can. - Dizzle did a pretty darn good job at this.

I just wanted to post a picture of Chester to remind you how cute he is. =) Such a good looking cat. During the last week he's been sleeping on the foot of our bed again! Since we moved into the house, he has been sleeping out in the living room. Well that and he really hates the fact that Gizmo sleeps by my head every night.

Bucket = Cat's toy. I swear this must have been a mintue after Nick took the bag out. Silly cats. Nick was in San Fransico Wednesday night and Gizmo saved me! He was playing with a HUGE spider in the bathroom when I got up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom. He hadn't killed it yet, but at least stopped it from crawling into my bedroom.

Oh.. and he lost his baby canines a few days after I posted the last blog. He lost both of them on the same day. We could tell he felt better right away.

Okay - That's it for now. I promise more pictures to follow soon!