Just a quick thought...

I just wanted to share a scripture that has been on my mind. Whether you are LDS (i.e. mormon) or not, it's applicable and makes my heart warm everytime I think/read it. It's Isaiah 43: 1-3

1. ...Fear not: For I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by name; thou are mine.
2. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour...

A new job and a box of chocolates

So my brother, Scott, was looking for a job and I knew that our South Tucson Property (I work for Red Roof Inn and have for what seems like forever) was looking for front desk people. So I sent him over there, told my manager and the manager that was down there about it, and Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, Scott had a job. Yes, I am just that awesome! :) Seriously though, Scott's is awesome too, and I know the manager saw that. In fact, my manager Tim, was down at that property for a few days and when I asked him what he thought of Scott he said (almost a direct quote), "He's a dork, and I'd hire him in an instant". Always knew Tim had good taste...he hired me, didn't he? ;) In any case, clearly Tucson South was pretty desperate for GOOD workers that aren't idiots (sidebar: I stayed down there a few weeks back and had to walk the girl through the check-in process...can you say AWKWARD?), so when I sent Scott over, Misa (the temp. manager while the real manager was out of town being trained) rejoiced. She definitely gushed when I talked to her. But the point is (besides Scott having a job) apparently Scott is worth a box of chocolates...

A pound See's of Milk Chocolates to be precise. If you've ever been to AZ, you'd know that See's chocolate is AWESOME! It started out looking like this...

But I have, of course, already eaten them. :)

In Memorium

So, our family dog Gem died this past Sunday. We got both her and her brother about 15 years ago. She was a great dog, even if she didn't care for men (but then who can blame her...sometimes men are real stinkers!). I'm not as affected as the younger ones, and we all mourn in our own way, so I wanted to post some pictures of Gem and tell a few stories. It's my blog, I get to do that. :)

Gem was named because of this spot on her head. It did look like a little diamond when she was younger, but as she got older it became just a splotch of brown. She had the original "puppy dog eyes". I never could resist her, and she had this habit for when you stop petting her...she'd either put her head under your hand and toss it or put her paw on you leg and dig in her claws. Either way she got your attention.

We even lost her for about 5 months when my family still lived in ND. To make what could be a long story short, she escaped the groomer's in mid-December and managed to get all the way to the other side of town (not a HUGE way, but quite a ways for her) after getting hit by a car and lived in the empty fairgrounds for the better part of a nasty ND winter (a pretty good miracle considering how skinny she is and always has been). A nice man found her and managed to trap her and bring her to the Humane Society where...Voila, she was reunited with her family. And there was much rejoicing! YAY!

She was missed then, is now and will be for some time. Even the other animals seemed somehow melancoly when I went home to visit.

My diploma

So it finally arrived! Even though I technically graduated in June, my diploma has taken FOREVER to get here. It arrived sometime this past weekend (while I was out of town for work) because I found it when I got home on today. Needless to say I was VERY excited. I took a picture of part of it (see above) and sent it in a text with Ode to Joy playing and a Hoorah!

So this is it, I'm official. What do you think? And now the big question....WHAT'S NEXT?