A Few Pics...

On our way to see Shrek!

SHREK! The Musical

A blurry shot of the stage. We were in the nosebleed seats, but there are no bad seats in the 5th Ave Theater.

Juju's first day of school.

I had to throw in a couple shots of Nikki Sixx, (YUM), that I took while at the Cruefest concert. He really does look hotter in person. *swoon* I was in the mosh pit the entire concert...about 5 hours worth... Incredible!

"Ogres are like onions..."

I had a few spare moments this morning so I thought I would shock you all with a blog entry! *GASP*

First on my mind is Shrek The Musical. Only because Jubilee is bouncing off the walls reminding me every 3 seconds that TODAY is the day. She woke up at 6am making sure I knew, "THERE ARE ZEEEEEEEERO SLEEPS LEFT!!" We are piling in the car with Makayla, Dylan, and my mom and heading to the the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle to make a day of it. We'll hit the Market, eat some homemade donuts, grab lunch at EYE-vars, and catch the show. Im very excited, however, not as excited as Jubilee. She is right now quoting Shrek, "That'll do Don-kay, that'll do."

So, whats the news since I last blogged? Well, Im not sure how many of you actually do not know this yet, but Troy and I are separating. Im sure most of you who know us well do not find this a surprise. However, its still difficult when it comes to Jubilee. We have not told her as of now, but that is coming in the next couple weeks as Troy prepares a place for himself and Jubilee for when she visits. Please pray for her - we are doing everything we can to make this as stress-free for her as we possibly can. She is a smart little girl, and processes things in that mind of hers very well. I know I wont be able to get away with a simple explanation to her that might satisfy the typical 4 year old.

The goal for Troy and I is to make a happy life for her despite not having both of her parents in the same household. Even though our efforts failed in providing a happy household for her together, we are optimistic that we can be better parents, and good friends separately. Obviously there are many details Im not going to publish here for public consumption. But Im a very open person and will answer any questions you may have...just drop me a line!

Other stuff...
*Work is great. Ive been with Westport for over a year now and Im settled in working for a big company. The people I work with are GREAT. Its the best part of my job to be able to interact with such a diverse group of individuals every day. About 240 of our 1200 employees fall under my HR responsibility realm. I deal with a huge range of HR, (and sometimes not) related issues every day.

*Weight: My weight is stable. Im no longer losing, and Im maintaining just where I should be. I fluctuate between 155 and 165. My goal was to be a size 14 and Im a size 11-13. Im very happy. I still dont get as much protein as I should have everyday, but vitamins are where they should be. My hair as grown back...boobies did not.

*Jubilee started a new pre-school. She loves it. In fact her new teacher said she had no problem with the transition and that Jubilee could probably teach the class in her absence. HA! I will post some pictures of our trip to Shrek later on.

Overall I feel like Im rediscovering who I am. Who I will be outside of a marriage that dictated I change who I am at my core. Im looking forward to finding her again. I just need to peel away those layers... I guess Ogres arent the only ones that are like onions.

Vegas, Baby!

I just got back from Vegas. Best. Trip. EVAH! Why? Three things... Patron, CR3-16-78, and NEW INK! Vince Neil Ink ROCKS.

HOLY MONKEY!!

Oh my,... Could it be?... YES, Im blogging!!!! Muahahahahaha! Did it scare you to come to this link and see new words!? WOOHOO!! I cant believe some of you have been so faithful. My visit report says I still get 10 or so hits a week. Maybe just spammers, but I rather believe you LOVVVE me! HAHA!

So what excuse can I give you that I havent blogged? LOTS of good ones. None of them truly as honest as... I am lazy. But sooooooo much has happened the past 9 months, I had to decompress by spewing it out of my fingers as they fly across the keyboard.

First of all... Jubilee. Wow, has she grown. She is still just a tiny thing, but getting taller every day. She is about 39 inches and weighs just 26lbs. She is in the older kids class in preschool and does very well. Her teachers say what a joy she is to have and has spent no time in the naughty chair. (Surprising considering we have a well-used naughty chair at home.) Jubilee is always cracking me up with the things she says and does and hopefully as I blog more I can pass those stories onto you in time. But for now, catching you all up on the past few months will be a full blog for today!

Im still working at Westport and Im having a blast doing it. HR there isnt what HR means in a lot of the rest of the world, but I like it. My office is always full, dealing with different issues. If confidentiality wasnt a factor, I could tell you SCADS of hilarious and odd, scandalous and fun things I get to deal with on a weekly basis, but just trust me when I say the content runs the gamut. Westport as a company is growing like mad. Currently we're #1 in North America when it comes to Megayachts. If you have an extra 35 million in your pocket and want a sea-fairing playtoy, you get a Westport. Its very exciting to be part of a company like this. Im so used to the human services field where its always bad news about finances, and red tape. I work with some great people too. Since I blogged last they moved me to the Interior Plant. I was at the 50 meter plant where they build our 164' yachts. The Interior Plant is where all the cabinets, upholstery, and design is created for the interior of the yachts. Its booming place! Since I started there the Interior Plant has gone from 180 people to 245. Does that give you an idea of the growth? Its amazing! I also got a new boss, who is fabulous, (and doesnt know about this blog so dont think Im sucking up!) and we have talked about some badly needed HR projects that I will get to head up. Im looking forward to getting BACK to work. ....did I not mention that Im not working at the moment... OH?? I'll get to that!

Gee, what else have I done in the past few months? ...hmmm.. OH YES... I went to NYC!!!!!!! WOOHOO! For those of you who know me well, know this has been a dream of mine for years. Since I discovered Grease and theater, oh yes... NYC and seeing a broadway show was the top of my to-do list. So, we did it! We took my Mom as the well-paid babysitter, hopped a plane and flew to New York. ...Or as Juju calls it, You Nork. Seems like it took FOREVER to get there with the anticipation. But once I got in NYC it was FABULOUS!!! I was in culture shock for about two mins, then I was HOME. I will never be able to afford to live in Manhattan, but I sooooo totally could. I LOVED it. Usually when I go, well actually anywhere for any extended period of time, I am ready to go home to my own house, bed and shower by the 4th day. After 4 days in New York I was ready to see how much it would cost stay another week! I was sad to leave!! Thats after of packing TONS of stuff into 4 days. We were not in the hotel room except to sleep! (Which was only about 5 hours a night.) I was worried about Jubilee and how it would be dragging a 3 year old around NYC, but it was wonderful. She was a trooper and loved it as much as I did. She kept calling it "her big city" and called our hotel room her new house. We stayed right in the heart of Times Square and spent the first day walking around, taking pictures, shopping and just being in awe of it all. Then that first night we went to the Lunt Fontanne Theater and saw The Little Mermaid.

Juju and Mommy are ready for The Little Mermaid!

The performance was amazing just as I had expected. The special effects and costumes were outstanding. The cast (or at least all characters that lived under the water), did the whole performance on heelies!! So it always looked like they were gliding gracefully under the water. Jubilee was in a trance! She LOVVVED it. She sang along with the songs she knew and was so excited when Ariel made her entrance onto the stage. During the play, when the Sea Witch was making her watery demise, the music was loud, at the fullest crescendo, thunder and lighting was everywhere, the Sea Witches tentacles were stretching out toward the audience from the sides and top of the stage, Ariel was singing loudly...getting her voice back and then in a swirl of fog, with a crash and boom, the Sea Witch fell through a trap door in the stage as she died. Everything was quiet and dark for dramatic pause. In that quiet moment when everyone was transfixed, Jubilee yells, "THE SEA WITCH DIEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!" The entire theater full of people CRACKED UP laughing. OMG... Here I am, my first time on broadway, trying not to look like the Ghettosville bumpkin, and all of a sudden all eyes are on us! ACK! I was between embarrassed with my head in my hands and cracking up with everyone else!

On the second day we went sightseeing on a guided bus tour. If you are a first time NYC visitor, I HIGHLY recommend this. Its a hop on/hop off double decker bus tour and you get to go EVERYWHERE. We did it in two days. One day we did the uptown loop and the 3rd day we did the downtown loop. We saw it all and even tho it wasnt nearly enough time, we at least got to go everywhere for a little bit of time. We went up into the Empire State Building, saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Central Park, and every little cool neighborhood in between. On the fourth day we started by going to the Today Show where we met Matt Lauer and Al Roker. They were very taken with Jubilee who engaged them in conversation. Then we went ice skating at Rockefeller Center just across the street from The Today Show:

The weather was bitterly cold but that wasnt stopping us from doing anything! We had a BLAST!

Then Friday night we went to Grease. It was so wonderful to actually get to see my favorite production live FINALLY! However, they did water it down from the original format and the production was no where near The Little Mermaid, but certainly not a let down. I cant wait to go back and see the others on my list like The Lion King, Mary Poppins and Wicked. Im ADDICTED now! (Elizabeth, if you read this, we should meet up in NYC someday and see a show!)

We also saw a taping of David Letterman. If you happened to watch it on Thursday, Feb 14th, then you saw me in the audience mouthing the words, "Hi Juju!" to the camera. I looked like such a dork! While we were in Letterman, Mom was walking around Times Square with Juju and ran into one of her favorite soap stars! I forget his name, but he plays Cole on One Life to Live for those of you familiar. She was quite star struck.

We started our trek home on Saturday by checking out of the hotel, *sniff*, and shopping for souvenirs before hopping a plane. I neeeeeeeeed to go back! Soon!

Which brings me to the most recent excitement in my life and the reason Im not working right now. Surgery! Yes, more surgery. I think Ive blogged before about having Gastric Bypass and how sick I got afterwards. Because I was so sick and throwing up almost hourly for 4 months, that resulted in an incisional hernia. It was quite large. It made my tummy stick out so people thought I was pregnant! I lost a total of 170lbs just to have people think I was preggo. HA! Anyway, I needed to have that fixed. So on February 26th I had that repaired AND a tummy tuck done at the same time. Im two weeks out of surgery and feeling GREAT! As long as I keep pain meds in me, Im golden. It hurts a lot more than the first surgery did, but no where near as miserable because Im not sick all the time. Pain, I can handle. Im also walking hunched over because my new tummy is soooo tight. This is normal and I should be able to walk upright in about 3 more weeks. My back is not liking this part of recovery, but DANG my tummy is F-L-A-T!!! Ive not ever had a flat stomach except maybe as a baby??? Very strange. So now, Im just home recovering. Jubilee is taking good care of me. My mom was very direct with her in being careful not to jump on me or do anything to my tummy area. This is how that conversation went:

"Well, ... can I tickle her?"

"No Juju, you cant tickle Mommy."

"...can I tickle her leg?"

"No."

"...her arm?"

"No!"

"...Can I tickle her face?"

"No Jubilee!"

"....What about the BACK of her face?"

HAHA... When I heard about this I started laughing...which HURTS like mad to laugh. But couldnt help it.

So hows that for an update? WHEW! Im just sitting at home with my drains, (I call them my hitchhikers.), so give me a call if any of you feel like chatting. I have cabin fever BAD! ...Look! It even has me reduced to BLOGGING! HAHA!

The First Week is Over...whew.

Remember back when I said that if I got this HR job I would be jumping in with both feet, as opposed to easing my way back into the work force with a stress-free part-time job? Wow, I couldnt have possibly understated that any more. My first week with Westport was fun, intense, interesting, fast-paced, stimulating, stressful, mind-numbing, and oh, did I mention intense? With the exception of Monday, every day had me looking up at the clock to notice, "Holy monkey, its 5pm already." Thursday and Friday were especially fast paced and filled with learning different processes of my job. I got to spend those two days working with my direct supervisor who is normally stationed out of our Westport, WA facility. The duties are your basic HR functions but with a huge amount of employee relations. That is my favorite part of HR, so Im okay with that. On average we hire about 10-12 people per week, with about 20 interviews per week. Every Monday I will be facilitating an orientation for those new hires. Its really too much for one person to do, and the second HR guru will be joining me July 9th. Im looking forward to that. Once he gets here, I will be working with our Interior Plant, (the huge shop that makes all the interior woodwork and furniture for the yachts), three days a week. Im not sure how it will all shake out - time will tell. There is just so much to do, and I can already tell so much has fallen through the cracks while they were going through an HR crisis for about a month. I already have identified about 10 projects that I want to undertake given the time to do so. One hurdle that needs to be addressed is the high turn-over rate. Westport is a great company to work for....lots of perks and bennys, and they pay well, (for Ghettosville). So I need to figure out why the revolving door is spinning so quickly. Many of the entry level jobs are labor-intensive - having to wear tyvek suits and respirators. "I get to help build a yacht!" sounds way more exciting than, "what I really do is sand fiberglass all day long in a plastic suit with a mask on my face." I think reality sets in once they are on the dirty hull with all the equipment on...wondering how they are going to do it day in and day out. If you can stick with the job though, you can move up fairly quickly in position and pay. Anyone need a job?

On a personal note, going back to work hasnt been as heart-wrenching as I thought it would when it comes to Jubilee. Maybe its because I did all my stressing about it before I actually started. Having Meema's Juju Care Inc. helps a lot too. Plus, it just doesnt seem like she misses me. Which hurts and heals at the same time. One morning as I was saying goodbye she said,
"Where you going Mom-mom?"
"Im going to work."
".....AGAIN!?"
Thats about all shes said about it so far. I miss her like crazy though and cant help feeling like Im missing out on something. In fact, my very first day she ended up vomiting at my moms house. I missed a barf! Not sure if she just had a little bug or what...seems fine since then.

So this weekend I hung out pretty close to her and we did much of nothing. I think we are in the process of phasing out naptime. *sniffs and holds a small moment of silence for naptime* Since weaning from the binkie, Jubilee has had a horrible time going to sleep at night. She plays and basically throws a party for her babies, mermaids, Diego and Dora for about 2 - 3 hours. If she does not nap during the day, she is usually asleep by 8pm. However, today I attempted to keep her awake all afternoon while playing cards at my parents house and it didnt go so well. I left her with my mom to go pick up my Dad and by the time I got back she was VERY soundly asleep in the chair. Party tonight in Juju's room!

On another note, as of this morning, I have lost 125lbs. Dangggggg that is a lot of freaking weight. I feel like I should be a LOT smaller than I currently am having lost that much. 125lbs in 7 months. I know that seems really fast and unhealthy, but its a very good pace for RNY patients. Plus, Im getting in protein drinks and vitamins every day. Still not as much protein as I need, but Im working my way up. I also have a god-awful hernia as a result from the surgery. Whenever I sneeze, cough, or laugh, it squishes out and my tummy looks like something from Alien. I need to have it repaired badly, BUT....if I can hold out until I finish losing all the weight I want to lose, my surgeon will do a tummy tuck at the same time as the hernia repair. WOOHOO! Im not sure how much I want to weigh as a goal. My goal is to be comfortable, to feel good.... I think I would feel great in a size 14. I never had the desire to be a skinny-mini and when I see a woman who I think is gorgeous, she always tends to be on the curvy/round side. If you look at a clinical chart that states what you are supposed to weigh, my "healthy normal" weight is between 104-118lbs. I think I would be skin and bones at that weight. ew. I think no matter what my size is, I wouldnt like to lose more than another 50-60lbs. A drop in the bucket compared to what Ive lost so far. And I would like to be finished losing all the weight by the time my anniversary for my surgery date gets here in November. That would be about 10-12lbs a month. Think I can do it?

Operation Binkie: Update

All is well in the binkieless world! She has hardly mentioned her binkie with one exception and I will explain that in a minute. Naptime is the same as before, she pretty much puts herself down for a nap, telling me when she's tired and falls asleep quickly. Bedtime is a different story. Jubilee has always been easy when it came to bed time. We get a bath, a few scenes of a movie in my bed, bedtime story and prayers in her bed, then lights out and shes asleep within a few minutes. The routine now is still the same, however, after I turn the lights out and leave the room, apparently a party ensues. Theres singing, bouncing, tapping and knocking on the walls, and when I go in to tell her its time to sleep, the bed looks like wild horses ran through it. It now is taking her a solid two hours to fall asleep at night.

The one exception to her even talking about the binkies occurred yesterday when I was watching Camden. Camden is Troy's brother's baby. He is six months old and CUTE as ever. Jubilee was the perfect little mother. She wanted to help in everything we did for him. At one point while I walked to the kitchen to get Camden a bottle, I turned around and saw that Jubilee had piled toys on top of Camden. If he didnt play with what she brought him, apparently she just put it on his lap and kept bringing him things, (including a standard-sized Garfield basketball). So I unburied him and she got to help me feed him lunch. She was thrilled. Then it was naptime for both of them. We got him settled into his seat.....with his binky. Oh boy...was that a mistake. When Jubilee saw Camden with his binky - she wanted hers back. "I want my binky baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" Crying and wailing ensued for 10 minutes until she was just too tired to cry anymore and fell asleep. I know I cant let her have a binkie back now after days of success - but boy did I feel like a mean mommy!

After that little melt-down, there hasnt been another instance of mentioning the binkie. I think it really has become a situation of out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

She Works Hard for the Money

Or at least I will be starting Monday, June 18th. Yesterday I received a call and was extended a job offer which I accepted.

I will be the HR Generalist for Westport. If you go to their website here, click on "careers", you can see the ginormous list of job openings they have and why they are in desperate need of HR help. Plus, you can learn a bit about the company there. The product is exciting - this job will be so different from working in the non-profit, human services field. Westport is the largest employer on the Olympic Peninsula. Along with a second HR Generalist, which they have yet to hire, I will be responsible for the HR needs of over 400 employees. MUCH different from a small social services agency with 50 employees.

The waiting period from my interview until I was offered a job was about 8 weeks. Both the lady that interviewed me, and the first HR Generalist they hired for the job I applied for, quit within a week of each other. So they went from having to fill one position, to having to start the process over twice. Plus they did some strategic planning for the HR positions - hence the wait. In the meantime they still had to keep hiring 10-12 people a week to keep boat production on schedule. Im told it was quite a mess.

Im very excited, but still sad about leaving Juju everyday, all day. I do realize there are perks for her of me going back to work. Not the least of them me not getting annoyed by being alone with a toddler all day. Plus, there are activities like dance classes, piano lessons, and sports that I may not have been able to afford otherwise. And I get to dust off the cobwebs from my brain and use it for something other than strategic maneuvers in Diego checkers. But still, I will always miss our daily morning snuggles until she decides its time for a bowl of "Honey Butt Cheerios".

Now that Ive actually been offered the job, I have to focus on my career wardrobe. The problem being I dont have one. After losing 118lbs, I dont have much that fits in the way of business casual. If it were appropriate to wear baggy t-shirts and Garfield jammy bottoms to work, I'd be set! Who wants to go shopping with me?