Vacation- Auntie Gail's

With friend Theresa outside Auntie Gail's house


With my best friend from high school, Beth, and her son Linus


3 generations... just before we dumped my mom out in the forest along the Clackamas river. Sick, I know :)


Matilda with her great, great Auntie... also while dumping mom


Matilda asleep on the couch that's been in the party room since I was her age

Vacation- La Center

Watching football practice with the girls


At the park


How does this work?


Got it!





Quinn golfing with Andre


Janiene came down to meet us for lunch at the casino!


Golfing with Donna


Golfing with Mama

Vacation Pics- Beach

Cheese!


Tillamook Cheese Factory and Rockaway Beach


Matilda devouring her Tilamook ice cream. Caramel was her favorite.


Auntie Gail, me, Matilda and cousin Carolyn


In front of the Tillamook cow





Feet in the sand at Rockaway (outside Dave & Norma's beach house)


Headed to the beach


Walking to the beach


Baby on the beach!

Til We Meet Again, Bunny

CH Chaps Baledwr Marcy Playground left us this morning. She'd been having a hard time for a while, but took a turn for the worse again this week. We decided it was time. Since Quinn and I are in Oregon, Jeff took her to our vet. He gave her lots of love as she was falling asleep and said she went very peacefully. She hadn't crossed the line into misery yet, so I am happy we timed it the way we did. Thank you, Jeff, for helping me not drag her down this road too long, and Mandy and Carolyn for telling me it would be okay.

Rest well, Marcy-Marfy-Bunny... the sweet spunky girl who gave us all so much happiness.

Blogging at Work

Writing for business is MUCH different than writing for pleasure or for school. I'm not the best writer, but I'd say I'm above average. I love essay assignments in school because I always pull in an A. Well, 5 edits later, here is my first work blog:

http://www.thealexandergroup.com/blog-press-room

My content never did get edited, but I needed to be less wordy. I also needed to use "big" words like "synchronicities." I'll admit, I ended up feeling slightly unsophisticated by about the 3rd edit. Now, in my defense, our Managing Director has a law degree and a friend in journalism coaching her on blog writing, so she admits that she can't STOP editing. We have a Phi Beta Kappa at our company, and even she gets edited. Still, I have a lot to learn in terms of being succinct and writing to the business audience. It's OK, I'm up for a challenge.

Yesterday I started writing PAs, aka: Professional Appraisals. It's like the story book version of a person's resume. We give it to our clients so they can read about a candidate in more detail. It's a 14+ page document that I have to pull together the info for, dictate, get back in printed version (hopefully they don't include all the "Um's and "Uh's" on my tape) and rewrite. Then, obviously, someone will proofread it before it goes to the client. Let the editing begin!

'Cause that's how Bunny rolls

I can't afford a maid yet, but for $20 a month this is one luxury I can't live without. I haven't had a manicure in months, but Bunny gets door service to keep her crazy nails looking their best.

Updates

I've said this before, but I so rarely get to blog! I'm sacrificing sleep right now, but sometimes I just crave some alone time so it's worth it.

Baby news first: Matilda will be 4 months old next week. I can't believe it! She holds her head up high now, which means she doesn't get all chafed in her neck rolls anymore. Yay! She loves the bath... she can roll over, though it's still inconsistent... and she does a belly scoot that I have yet to see. She spends her days with Grandma, who has graciously offered to watch her while Jeff and I work. They have fun baking cookies, shopping, visiting with friends, playing and learning. She also loves the Beatles, and her favorite song (as far as I can tell) seems to be Yellow Submarine, though daddy is teaching her to dance to twist and shout.

Dog news: Bunny had a big lump on her neck last week when I got home from work. We took her to the vet and think it is a swollen lymph node. It's responding well to antibiotics, which means it is most likely a yucky tooth that's draining and causing an infection. She's going back to the vet after her antibiotics in 2 weeks, and the vet will assess whether she feels comfortable putting her under anesthesia for a much needed dental. On a brighter note, Cosmo and Bunny got the spa treatment from our local mobile groomer last week. I think I am going to have her back every couple weeks to give Bunny a manicure, since she did such a good job and I have a hard time keeping up with it.

Job/school update: I LOVE my job. I'm learning a lot and have been taking on a lot of new projects. The nice thing about a small firm is the opportunity to learn a little bit of everything. One of the recruiters has been particularly great about letting me sit in on the interviews of the people I have screened for her. School took a really interesting twist when my advisor called and told me that one of the course areas I was doing an emphasis in for my general studies degree had started its own major. After reviewing my credits, she found that by switching my major I would shave 17 hours off my degree plan. SOLD! My new major is Learning Technology and Performance Improvement. Like I said, I was taking a lot of those classes anyway and love them, so I'm really happy about that. It will feed well into HR if I want it to, which is a path that makes a lot of sense with my background and what I am doing now for work.

I can't justify too much time away from sleep, so I guess this is my blog for the month. Miss you all!

PS: I have to do my first blog for work next week and have NO idea what to write about. It has to be career related or somehow professionally interesting. Any ideas?