Christmas, Christmas time is here!

This Christmas we headed home to California. The original plan was to leave at 5 am, but we didn't end up leaving until 8am. Delay was due in part to me NOT sleeping and trying to finish Christmas presents, Nic only getting 3 hours of sleep and still having to pack. Every time we head down to Cali I say I'm going to get my packing done early and it NEVER happens. *Sigh* All is well.

Heading down, we got to stop in Lincoln and pick my niece (Jacob's daughter) Mia. Unlike most times she was happy to see us, we were greeted with hugs! I'm sure her mom did a lot of prepping with her. Laurel is really nice about letting us picking up Mia to bring her down to Merced to spend some time with her while we are in town. I'm so grateful for that. Mia is growing up sooo much. She is very independent and wants to do things all by herself. Mia and Nic got to be best buds. It was so cute to see her cuddle on Nic and want to spend some time with him. I can't wait for Nic to be able to do that with our kids-some day. We got to have two Christmas' with Mia. Well, more like Mia got to have two Christmas'. One was with us before she left to go back home and the other one was with her mom on Christmas Day. The last day there it was getting hard for her (being away from your other family for five days can be rough), so I told her that I ran into Santa Claus and he told me that she had been such a good girl that she got have two Christmas'. She was a excited but we had to make a call to Santa (aka Nic) so he could tell her himself.

My mom tells me that she loves it when Nic and I come home because all my siblings make sure to come over. One night the kids were in the front room playing a game and I asked my mom if her and dad wanted to come play. She said no, "I'm just enjoying hearing you guys laugh in the other room."

We took our Wii down and it was a HUGE hit! The first night we rocked out to Rock Band. My mom rocked out until 11:30 pm (waaay past her bedtime) and us kids stayed up until about 2 AM playing. It was fun. A couple of days later we bought Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and that game NEVER went off. Our last night there Jacob wanted to have a championship match! Jacob's girlfriend Summer is usually pretty quiet, but when were were playing-I never heard her talk so much. I lot of smack talk too! If you haven't played this game, I suggest you do. Some of the concepts are gross (a burping contest where you try to destroy the city) but it's so much fun.

Christmas Eve we made tamales (with A Christmas Story playing in the back ground) and everyone helped this year. My mom wasn't used to having so many hands helped she would have to tell us to take a break. She still refused to let me help roll, even though I've made tamales several times on my own. Maybe in two years I'll be grown up enough to help. Oh! And to those of you that called me a tamale Nazi last year, I'm not nearly as bad as my mama. Trust me.

This year I must have been a very good girl because I got what I wanted for Christmas. A wok and a sewing machine. Well, technically I got a traveling case for my sewing machine and the machine its self will be here on Monday. When Nic put my present under the tree, I (thought I ) knew what it was, but he refused to let me hold it. Christmas morning I opened it and I was a little confused. Nic got a laugh out of my confusion. I also got two movies that I absolutely LOVE. The first one was from my brother Ricky-The Last Dragon. It is totally cheesy but it's so good. And Nic bought me Santa Claus the Movie. To me, this movie is the only Christmas movie that captures the magicalness (is that a word) of Christmas. I LOVED this movie growing up. Nic and I bought it a couple of years ago but we lost it. So I was REALLY excited when I got it this year. If you haven't seen this movie, you need to. It's great. The best Christmas present given Christmas Day? Ricky have Jacob a pair of Transformers underwear. I knew what it was before he opened it and had to do my best not to laugh.

Christmas night we went to go see Sherlock Holmes. It was good, but not the best movie I've seen. It's just nice to see that Robert Downey, JR turned his life of self-destruction around and is now successful. After the movie, everyone came back to my parents so we could play Cranium (my niece Brandie's request). My team totally dominated and we won.

Meeting Fayth

*Nic had a stuff bear when he had cancer, so it seemed fitting he give one to Fayth.

If any of you are friends of mine on facebook, then you know about my campaign to help Fayth and her family this holiday season.


Fayth is the seven year-old niece of one of my classmates from high school. Fayth has stage 2 Leukemia. My friend was asking people for help to make this holiday season wonderful for Fayth and her family. Be it in the form of money (for bills and gas) or Christmas presents.


As many of you know, Nic had cancer when he was younger, so anything that has to do with this horrible disease, I always try and help. For about two weeks, all my FB status' were about asking for help in spreading Christmas cheer for Fayth and her family. My friend and Fayth's family were touched by my efforts and especially so to learn that Nic was a 12 year survivor.


My friend asked Nic and I to come over so Fayth could meet him and so Nic could chat with the family. We had to move somethings around but we were able to meet Fayth and her family. Can I just say that it was so special. I had to do my best not to cry.

Nic was his charming self and was able to put a smile on every one's face, especially Fayth. My friend told me that the whole day Fayth's mom, Danielle, was really quiet and itching to head to Fresno for dinner. But when Nic got there, just opened up and forgot about her plans. I think it was a relief for Danielle to be able to talk to someone who understood what little Fayth is going through.

After our visit, we were able to take some pictures to remember everything. This was an experience that I will never forget. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to meet Fayth and her family. The last update we got is that Fayth's leukemia is in remission, but they are still in need of some financial help to cover the medical bills. If you would like to help Fayth, please email me at: ward_family_2005@hotmail.com (subject line Fayth). Thank you to my friends who help make Christmas a little more special for a little girl and her family.

The slap, kick and punch to my self-esteem

Here's the story that you guys have been waiting for. For all intent and purposes, names of co-workers and place of employment have changed. Though I did not leave there with the best of feelings, I do not want to totally black ball them (especially since their listed with google search).



Here's some history: November of 2007, I left "my previous life" and came to work for Hunter Law. I had met with the head attorney, Mr. Sweet, and he was an amazing man. In December of last year, I had my year review. Within my year of employment I ran the office by myself for 2 months (with "help" from the Mr. Sweet's wife). I worked closely with the (then) litigation paralegal to develop ways for the office to be more effective. I was responsible for the pre-litigation work flow and training new employees. I worked close with the assistant/litigation attorney in developing spreadsheets in Access and Excel to help manage our case flow better. I formatted templates for our most frequently used documents (instead of having to find one that you remember using 3+ months ago), formed protocols for office flow and created an employee "how-to" guide for new employees. I was positive. I was happy. I was enjoying work. I was ready to work. Imagine my shock when I met with Mr. Sweet and he said: "Everything that you've told me is true, but I'm sorry, we just don't have any money. But if you feel you could make that money else where then go ahead. I'll write letters of recommendation for you." Not only was I not getting a raise, nor was he willing to negotiate more vacation time he was pretty much telling me to leave (though you may be reading it and it doesn't sound that way, trust me. It did). I continued working. . .not happily. . . but I continued.


The decision to quit was NOT an easy one. We knew back in July that I should leave. We knew that I should quit my job and be home. Getting our home ready for a child. But anyone that knows me, knows that I am a planner and quitting and doing nothing did NOT make sense to me . We had prayed about it but I wasn't ready to make that kind of jump. Through some experiences in my life, I knew that this was the leap of faith the Lord needed me to take. So, I made the decision to quit.


I gave my notice, and few days later all HELL broke lose and came to surface. Back in April(ish), the receptionist, Mustang Sally, was promoted to Litigation assistant. She deserved it. Most would think a raise would come with a promotion but it did not. Around the same time I gave my notice Mustang Sally received an offer she couldn't refuse. She shared with the Litigation attorney and he went and talked to Mr. Sweet. Mr. Sweet told him that they were already paying Mustang Sally "x" amount of dollars. Litigation attorney went to Mustang Sally, and she told him that simply wasn't true. Litigation attorney goes back to Mr. Sweet. Mr. Sweet goes to his wife (who makes all the financial decisions of the practice) and comes back to Litigation attorney and tells him, "I'm sorry. I was wrong. Georgia is actually making that much." Georgia is another paralegal in the office who has been here a year less than me. The litigation attorney was able to find out that within the last year Georgia has been here she has received THREE raises. One before I asked for mine. Another AFTER I asked for my raise and a third right before what would have (again) been my yearly review. She is making a very (VERY) significant amount more than me a year. If you know how much our adoption fee is, then you know how much.

Needless to say I was a little upset. I'm not mad at Georgia. She is a fine paralegal, but do her abilities supersede mine? Not at all. We're pretty fairly matched, though my being technologically savvy saved the firm money. They didn't have to hire an outside cameraman to interview Dr's for a big case. I was able to do that. When a family friend, of a big case, dropped by a video of them before the accident I was able to extract and reformat the video clip. We didn't have to send it out (and pay more money). When the firm needed photos for the web-site, they didn't need to hire a photographer, I did it.


I did A LOT of things for Hunter Law, but apparently they didn't think they were important enough. After I gave my notice Mr. Sweet's wife didn't talk to me at all. She didn't even ask me what my plans were for Thanksgiving-she asked everyone else. Now, I'm not asking her to be my best friend, but at least show a little professional courtesy. *Sigh* All is well. Over and done with and I am a free woman.

However, there are a few things that I would like to tell Mr. Sweet's wife. They are as follows:
1) Medicaid and Medicare are to completely different insurers. Their policies are procedures are COMPLETELY different. I've explained this to you many times. I'm glad I don't have to explain it to you again.

2) When you save a scanned document, you're not saving it to Word Perfect. You're saving it to the computer. It's not even in Word Perfect format.

3)You know that twitch that your lip starts doing when you get upset? It drives me crazy. There have been times that I've wanted to hit you to make it stop.

4) When you stick your nose in files when you have ABSOLUTELY no idea what is going on and go complain to Mr. Sweet, you cause unnecessary drama.

5) If "nothing has been done" on a file, it's because nothing can be done.

6) Though you hail yourself to be a good "Christian" you're greedy actions and behavior say otherwise.

7) I do not wish harm on people, but I think I'd be okay if a house landed on you.

I am free woman people!