I'm Back!!

I've neglected my poor blog, but my dear friends Wendie and Connie have inspired me to get back into the swing of things. Wendie made a huge leap and resigned from her post as weekday editor of a celebrity gossip website to focus more on her own website, Mommytopia, and her book. Yup, I'm friends with a professional writer. Connie started her blog today... get this... ThreeLittleBirdsAndMe.com. Is that the cutest ever? Her first post brought me to tears and I'm so looking forward to reading more. The best part is that I'm having dinner with both of them tomorrow night, and they are meeting each other for the first time! It will be fun... a seasoned writer and one trying out her voice for the first time... lots to talk about.

So... here's what's been going on, for the three of you that are interested...

At the beginning of November, the company I work for moved into a beautiful new office. Our new place accomodates our growing staff very well. It's two floors and 8500 square feet of gorgeousness. My own office is coming together quite nicely :)

When I started working for this company 12 years ago, we were very small company. The number of employees has now quadrupled in size. Lots of changes come with growth, and it's been exciting to have been a part of it... I'm proud of what I've personally accomplished... having starting as a temporary part-time receptionist, my title is now Director of Communications and I have a kick ass staff of 3 to supervise. I'm also very proud in general of what we do here.

My company is an Employee Assistance Program. We provide free counseling to the employees of our client companies. So, if you work for one of our client companies, and you need someone to talk to... about parenting, work related issues, family issues, whatever... you would call us and speak to one of our amazing counselors, or you would see one of them face to face, depending on what type of contract your company has with us. The company I work for literally changes lives.

We also went to San Diego! Bob and several people from his company attended the National Association of Realtors convention and I got to go!! It was a quick visit, but we did get to the San Diego Zoo (see my friend Mr. Gorilla, at the top of the page), La Jolla, Torrey Pines and Hotel Del Coronado (that's us in the picture above on the beach there). I'm in love with San Diego... the west coast in general, really. The best part of this trip was that Karen and Rich were there!! Rich is a Realtor and attended the convention with Bob... and Karen and I got to spend a lot of quality time together. It was such a great time, and I'm so happy we did it. We talked about doing this every year... meeting up at the convention, wherever it may be. Next year it's in New Orleans! This is me and Karen in La Jolla.

Oh yeah... and I've been sick-twice. The first time was the week of the office move. Cough, cold stuff. The second time, last week, it was the flu. I don't think it was H1N1, because I didn't have respiratory stuff, but it knocked me out for sure. I feel way better now, and ready for the holiday season!

Meanwhile, it turns out my husband is an awesome photographer. Seriously... I'm so impressed... check this out

I asked him to take three gerber daisy pictures for the wall in my office. I wanted a red, an orange and a yellow. He totally made it happen. See the iPhone picture above of my office... doesn't that look cool against the chocolate brown wall? Since I brought these prints in, he's been asked to take some more pictures for other spots in the office suite. He's been bitten in a big way and I really can't wait to see what the future holds.

So that's it! Lots of fun stuff coming up...

• Dinner tomorrow night with the girls
• Holiday Pet Bazaar on Saturday
• Stand Up for Animals Comedy Showcase to benefit the Providence Animal Rescue League, sponsored by Bob's company, Williams & Stuart Real Estate next Friday
• My birthday is coming up next week! The mister is whisking me away to Boston for a night... so exciting!