Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

My first job. I would love to tell you all that I worked really hard to get my first job. How I had to go through a big long process to get the job, and I was picked above all the other applicants. That would be a lie.

My dad is a State Farm agent, since 1971 to be exact. The 1970's the ugliest era to date, when everyone appeared orange and brown, and appliances were puke green. What was going on in the seventies?!

I think at one time or another, my dad has employed everyone in the family, even my mom!! I don't think that went over so well, mom wasn't used to my dad being the boss, HA! (Hi mom!) Anyways, I think around my sophomore year of high school, I started going into the office after school and working. Working, in a very loose sense.

My sister also worked there, and mainly she and I would just goof off. You know, make fun of people, go buy Hostess cakes at the gas station across the street, jam to the 'Light 106.9' tunes, put up dad's awesome Christmas decorations that he surely bought in 1971, get in fist fights, etc. I did have a few VERY important jobs though. I put the gum in the birthday letters, filed, cleaned, and even worked up to the SR21 report.

I feel as though I should apologize to my dad now. Sorry dad you paid me to goof off, but please know Jo and I made some awesome memories at your pay check's expense.

After State Farm, I went on to work at Bacon's, in the junior department, circa 1995. Holla!! Then, Cracker Barrel as a hostess, boy that was fun. Then SIRH (Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital) until right before I gave birth. Last job on my resume, stay at home mom, 2004-present.

Addendum.

My post that I just did today, about our next blog off topic, had a mistake. April was sweet enough to point it out to me, and subsequently outed herself, as a secret stalker of JaimeMac.

First job post due Thursday. Or whenever you can!

Feel free to point out any other mistakes I am unaware of. :-)

Our first j-o-b's.

Amanda over at World of AME, suggested we do a blog off about our first job's.

Miss bossy pants over at The Farming McAfee's, said let's get it done by tomorrow.

Whoever would like to join in, feel free. Also, if you can't do it tomorrow but still want to do it, just join in when you can. I won't tell miss bossy pants.

I will tell you about good things from my visit to Indiana. The land that flows with milk and honey.

I had not been back to paradise since July! I do think that has been my longest stretch since moving. There was a very important thing that started this whole visit, and I'm glad, because I have missed the land that flows with milk and honey. So, let me fill you in on some good things from the visit.

Spending time with the family.

Watching the kids take great pleasure in the new toys Neena bought for them.
A 2 dollar microphone turned my daughter into a serious performer.
Oh mercy.
Okay, back to good things. New outfits for the kids. How cute is this right here? Pretty darn cute.
Cough. Cough. While the boy filling the clothes is too cute, the outfit?? (Janelle, remember when I saw you at Penny's? You said Jackson was all about Mario?) Well, this is what a certain little boy talked his Neena into.
Bless his little Transformer self.
More good things? My kids seeing their buddies from home. :)
Tracey, I tried my best to A) Get Maggie to look at me B) Smile.
Good thing #984? Spending time with my friends!!!!

Love these girls. And the good thing that started this whole visit? Celebrating Cameron's 1st birthday, at his fabulous party.
Good family. Good friends. Good times.

September 11, 2001.

On September 11, 2001, I headed into work at SIRH as a scheduler, I was 26 years old. This day was like every other day, I sat at my desk right next to Donna Poff, and we were answering the phone's that were always ringing off the hook. I had my brown sugar and cinnamon pop tart, and in between phone calls, was doing the usual morning chat. Around 8:50-8:55, Mike Hensley, came up to our desk kind of frantic, "Did you hear? An airplane flew into one of the twin towers!!"

I immediately thought of my trip to NYC when I was a senior in high school. I remember thinking, how in the world would a plane fly into one of those buildings? They are so visible, and all packed in so tight, that must be a mistake. Within minutes the buzz was that another plane flew into the OTHER twin tower.

Paul and I had only been dating for a month, and I called him. "Have you heard about planes flying into the twin towers?" Paul being the 'not get easily excited' kinda guy he is, pretty much gave me no information. So, I called Dana Albertson. She had the news on, and gave me the play by play of what was going on. It was bad.

It was so hard to work. What I remember though, was EVERYONE seemed to shut down. Phones quit ringing, except family and friends calling to give us the latest. We turned on the radio, and heard of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, and then United Airlines Flight 93. By this point it was madness. I didn't know what was true, and I just wanted to go home.

When I got home, I turned on the t.v., to find horrible, horrible images. I don't know that I moved all night. I had never seen anything like this, and I was unaware of terrorism. I had heard of it, but didn't really understand it at all. This was a crash course into evil.

I attended special church services, watched tons of t.v., and cried at the stories and images. One of the things I remember the most was having my radio on a public, secular station, and then hearing Bob Russell on there praying. Our nation was totally different for a while. Too bad that couldn't have lasted. This was also before I was a mom. I know that if this were to happen today, I would have had much different fears and anxieties.

Years later, I watched the movie, about flight 93. I sobbed. Those people knew the death they were facing, but they fought back as hard as they could. They also had the chance to call their loved ones and tell them goodbye, that breaks my heart.

Ten years later. Sometimes it seems much longer than that to me, and yet the feelings when I write about it, are like it was yesterday. As cliche' as it sounds, I will never forget. How could I? And I never want to. The least I can do is have a heavy heart, every year on September 11.

Mommy has been a duck earning machine.

Who remembers selling stuff in school? I remember selling bells door to door, that was fun. Oh, and every year to play sports, we had to sell oranges. If I remember right, my dad would just pay the fee, instead of making us sell oranges. I mean who really wants to buy bulk oranges?

Well, it has begun for me. Pierce came home with one of those catalogs that has wrapping paper, and chocolate turtles, and bath salts, you know the kind? I kind of put it of to the side, thinking I'll get to it later. The school being the geniuses that they are, has incentives for number of items sold, and giving out names for magazines sales (please don't curse me when you get one in the mail) The incentive for stuff sold? Ducks. Uh hugh, ducks. Not real life ducks, but these little plastic ducks. Guess who wants these ducks? A certain 6 year old boy, has been wearing.me.out. for these ducks. So, guess who has been all about earning those ding dang ducks? That would be me.

And as of today, he has earned them all.

It kind of feels like Chuck E Cheese to me. You pay 675 dollars to earn a spider ring. Except this time at least the money goes to my son's school and not a giant mouse. Oh, and one of those ducks is supposed to be Justin Beiber?? Pierce said to me today, "momma, I earned a Justin Beaver duck."
For him, I will sell bath salts all day long.
Also, he earned a pin for being the best listener in P.E. Proud!!!
One more thing. Hope had been saving her allowance, and decided she was ready to spend it. Check out her nails.
Can I get a shout out to Lee Press On Nails!! My daughter knows how to keep it classy.
Because she learned from the best.

Throwing my fears into the lake. Along with my children.

My sister Jo, is good friends with a couple named Mike and Tracy, who happen to have a lake house on Nolin Lake. In the past summers, Jo has spent a lot of time at the lake with them, and has mentioned several times that she would like for us to come down sometime. Sounded fun to me!! This actually materialized into a real plan this time, and we headed down Friday to experience some lake fun.

Other than Paul taking Pierce fishing on a boat in the spring, our kids have never experinced anything like this. Who are we kidding, I've never experinced anything like this, I've lived a sheltered life. More on that later.

Woo hoo!! Who's excited to go to the lake?! Can't you see the palpable energy in the back.

Here were our headquarters. Beautiful home.
There were about 23! of us there, and apparently it's like that most weekends in the summer. So to have a lake house it seems you sign on the line that you will always be surrounded by people. Not so sure I could handle that.
Had to get a picture of this dog, Cooper (Jami this is the second dog I've met named Cooper. Don't feel to bad, I used to always have people tell me, "I have a german shepherd named Gretchen.") he was HUGE. He was the SWEETEST dog I've been around in a long time, and Pierce was obsessed with him. Made me *sorta* want a dog.
Main reason for sharing this picture? Other than my pretty sister and baby. My tan that legends are made of is gone, and I am back to being my milky pale self. Oh, and I've decided after looking at pictures all weekend that my glasses aren't flattering. Why didn't anyone tell me this?

Saturday it was 454 degrees outside, of this I am sure. Before I even had the kids on the dock, I had their life jackets on, you know in case a gust of wind came and swept them in the big bad lake. We were feeling miserable almost right away from the heat, and I knew we had to probably get in that water. Look, I have lots of phobias and fears, and I come by it naturally. My dad, was the king of telling us about the bad things that happen to people. (hi dad!) He was in insurance, and that's the business of insuring for life's tragedy's, and then he would come home and tell us kids all about those tragedies and scare the jebbes out of us.

You must know that a trip to the lake was full of chances for me to freak out! Fast boats, cliff diving, dirty water, and snakes! Eek! All should be proud though, I threw my fears to the wind, and went for it with gusto. Oh, and LOTS of screaming, and praying to Jesus.

First up, I agreed to putting my life in the hands of my sister. You see the little head in between us? Hope went too, and she LOVED it. I was crying out for Jesus to take the wheel, and she was laughing her head off.

You know what stinks about doing water stuff though? You can't take your camera with you, so a lot of the things I did, I didn't get pictures of. After we dropped Hope back off at the dock, Jo took me out for some more time on the jet ski. I do believe she saw this as the time to pay me back for being a bratty sister for so many years, by the time the trip was finished I had lost my voice, and she had lost her hearing. I had a blast!!

Also, Paul took Pierce out on a jet ski too, but I couldn't get any pictures, so sad!! I was watching Paul fly around with my first born, oh heaven help me. Pierce loved it!!

After our time on jet ski's we all loaded up on the boats, and headed to this place here. Do you see those INSANE people up there? Okay, maybe I'm the insane one, but I like to think they are. Anyways, they climb up this cliff thingy, and jump 30 feet into the water.
All the boats were tied up, and there were basically two choices. 1) Jump from the cliff to an inenvitable death. 2) Swim so you don't burn alive from the heat. Seeing as I would not be jumping or any of my offspring would be jumping, it was time to swim in that icky lake water.

Here we all are!! If we're going to get some crazy water borne illness, let's all get it together!!

Later in the evening we went out to go tubing. We made the mistake of letting Hope watch the bigger kids go first. Those kids were being flung all around, and after that she had no desire to do it. She love the boat ride though!!Surprisingly, Pierce still wanted to do it! He had a blast!!


I also tubed after the kids. I'm afraid there might be some black mail worthy photos surfacing later.

I'm so glad that I swallowed all my crazy fears and just went with it. I had a really good time. It was nice to spend that time with Jo and the boys, and with Paul.
Besides, I would have never experienced this sweet moment had I not gone.


Thanks Jo for inviting us down, and thanks Mike and Tracy for being so gracious.