Awards time! Best Photographer, Best Boss, and Best Worker Bees in the WORLD!

When I was a little girl, I was so jealous of my friend Tiffany who lived a few doors down from us in Odessa, TX. Tiffany was one of those little Texas girls who was always in beauty pageants, and she had trophies that lined a shelf down one entire wall of her room.

My mother, on the other hand, did not believe that this was any way to establish the kind of values and self confidence that she wanted to see in her daughter (no way was her daughter ever going to think that my worth was dependent on someone's judgement of me based primarily on my outer "beauty") (and here's where I need to apologize to all of those out there who feel that beauty pageants represent more than this and perhaps enjoyed being in them... I mean no offense... rest assured that in West Texas in the '80s, little girl beauty pageants had nothing to do with positive affirmation of young girls and thus I feel no remorse for stating the previous)

In any case, I was never allowed to enter a beauty pageant and thus, remained envious of my friend's trophy collection.

One year for Christmas, my parents presented me with a trophy for "Best Little Girl in the World". And while I knew that it wasn't exactly the same as what my friend had, it meant SO much to me and I proudly put it up on a shelf in my room. I knew my worth, and I knew how much my parents loved me.

And so, in that same spirit, I present the following "awards".

OK, we all know that my husband gets the prize for Best Husband in the World.

(hands down. it's my contest, and I make the rules.)

I'd like to announce that Kate Singh deserves the Best Photographer in the World award, Rob Emmons (my manager) deserves the Best Boss in the World award, and my Dad and Carrie deserve the Best Worker Bees in the World award.

Kate Singh (website is Aevumimages.com, you should check it out) was our photographer for our pregnancy photo shoot last weekend. We had SO MUCH FUN!
Background: I've been working for my current manager for about a year. He and his sweetie, Paige, live on some land and breed Morgan horses. Paige and I met last summer and I stopped by after work a few times to do some riding with her. (maybe 4 or 5 times last summer). The horses are absolutely gorgeous and Paige and I got along great.
Anyway... When I met with Kate a few months ago to talk about taking photos with her, she mentioned that she had always wanted to do a pregnancy photo shoot with horses but had never found anyone who had access to any. "Hmmm..." I thought. "I might be able to make that happen". So I talked to my manager and he and Paige would be thrilled if we used their space and the horses for the photo shoot. Woo Hoo!
So, the weekend before last, Johnny and I and Kate all drove down to Corvallis to do the photo shoot at Rob's (Rob is my boss) house. Rob had even hired a landscaping crew to make the scenery look nice for us... he was out of town on business all week before and didn't have time to do it himself. Talk about going above and beyond!

The photo shoot was timed perfectly. The cherry trees were in full bloom, it was a gorgeous day, and I felt fantastic. Normally you pay a photographer a fee to do the photo shoot, and then you pay for all of the prints. A normal photo shoot can last 1-2 hours, but in this case, Kate was snapping pictures for over 3 hours! AND, was willing to go to an out-of-town location with us. Normally, we're talking BIG BUCKS to do this kind of thing, but she was so excited about the idea that she just charged us her normal studio fee. (which was very very reasonable).

But when I saw the pictures... oh my GOD! They're so beautiful! She has a fabulous eye, and was able to really capture the emotion of the day. Johnny said to me during the photo shoot, "this is way more fun than the photo shoots with the band... I just get to lay around and make out with my wife all day". (hee hee)

Kate took over 300 photos, and there are over 250 that I have to choose from. I can't wait to share them with some of you!! We got a few of me actually sitting side saddle on one of the horses in this flowy dress with my belly showing and the cherry tree blossoms all around us. They're amazing.

And so, it's with absolute joy and an incredibly grateful heart that I hereby present Kate Singh with the Best Photographer in the World award! Yay!!!! (applause, applause...)


AND now...
Not only does Rob deserve some kind of "coolest, most generous co-worker in the world" award for his willingness to do the above (letting us use his space, and hiring the landscape crew), but I've got another story about him.

This week is the last week of HP's fiscal quarter which means that we need to get all of our contracts signed this week if they are going to count towards HP's bottom line. This is a BIG DEAL. Last week, our team lead had a death in the family and was out of work for most of the week (Tuesday through Friday). Another contract negotiator was pulled off onto a special project and dumped her load of contracts on to me. So here I am, almost 8 months pregnant, will WAY LESS energy than I normally have, and representing the entire contracts team for one of HP's businesses entirely by myself.

I fully admit, I should have said "No, I can't do that", but I didn't. And as a consequence, I was working way too many hours last week and absolutely ran myself down. Johnny gave me a scolding on Thursday night (after pulling me away from my computer at 8:30pm, and having been working since 7:30 that morning) and told me, essentially, that I had to stop or he was going to call Rob or have my doctor put me on bed rest so that I would be forced to not work so hard.

On Friday, I sent Rob an email telling him what was going on, all of the good work that I was doing, but essentially saying that I was going to have to start saying No to things because I had let things get way out of hand. I also accepted full responsibility for not speaking up sooner, and wrote that I knew that I was the only one that could put the breaks on, and if I didn't tell him where my boundaries were, then there's no way he would know.

Not only did he respond, and say that he completely agreed, but he thanked me for my honesty and encouraged me to slow down. THEN, on Sunday, he called me and left me a message saying, "I've just been thinking about you, I hope you're taking it easy, and I just want you to know that the most important thing is your health, and the health of the baby. The business will work around you; you just tell me what you need and we'll make it work". THEN, on Monday, he calls me again to re-iterate that he was worried and to offer that if I needed to take any time off this week or slow down to a decreased work week that he would completely support that.

HP, like many companies, has very confusing policies about maternity situations and most of them are "up to the manager's discretion". This means that you can be treated like absolutely doo-doo, or you might be treated with respect and courtesy, but it all depends on your manager. I realize how absolutely lucky I am to be working for who I'm working for now. Rob is amazing.

And so, it's with incredible respect and an incredibly grateful heart that I hereby present Rob Emmons with the Best Boss in the World award! Yay!!!! (applause, applause...)


And now... the final award...
Last weekend my Dad and step mother came into town early on a Thursday and just left yesterday. Their mission: To get as much stuff done as possible. And let me tell you, my list was about ten things long and there was NO WAY I thought they would get all of the things done.

And yet, they did! These two are absolutely amazing!
Now, don't get me wrong, we've had some incredible help over the last few months with these baby projects. Mom and Graeme have come down to help with some serious manual labor (moving support beams in the basement, installing sheet rock, installing insulation (yuck yuck) etc), Mike has been SO amazing (helped me re-wire the basement, installed new 3-way switches, removed that horrible old "pipe to nowhere" and finished putting the tape and mud on the dry wall)... not to mention my sweet husband who has also spent many yucky hours in the dimly lit basement trying to turn it into my office.

But the effort these two put out this weekend was phenomenal. Here's what they did...
In the basement;

• primed and painted the sheet rock
• installed the trim, new door and door knob
• re-insulated the outside door in the basement
• hung the painters canvas on the ceiling
• installed two new light fixtures
• replaced some wood down there that was dry rotted
• covered up the access to the water main
• installed the curtain rod
• helped me clean out the storage space

In the rest of the house;

• painted the nursery (which included moving all the furniture that was in here)
• installed a new toilet in the guest bath and ordered a new toilet for the master bath (it hasn't come in yet)
• installed a new light switch for the back patio
• completely weeded the back gardens and helped me plant the vegetable garden
• mowed and weeded the back yard

All in three and a half days!!! These two are incredible!

And so, it's with a huge amount of gratitude and a mind wondering "how did we get so lucky to have such incredible support" that I hereby present John and Carrie Harris with the Best Worker Bees in the World award! Yay!!!! (applause, applause...)

In other news... I'm doing well. Having braxton-hicks contractions on and off, and feeling her move a lot. All is going as expected.

This weekend is our second baby shower, and it'll have a "Kentucky Derby" theme. We're going to watch the race and even put in some bets on the winner. I'm making a FABULOUS Kentucky Derby hat to wear. I can't wait!

Love to you all