Useless bits of info brought to you by Greg&Annie: September 2007

informacion

This week of Sept 11th has been an eventful one in our house. We managed to have a couple of exciting events thrown our direction and we had a couple chances to celebrate.

We are plugging along and are still on track with our budgeting for this month and now thanks to an increase of spending money we will finish funding our "baby emergency fund" later this month. (the fund has nothing to do with a human baby in case you got that impression-- merely just a small rainy day fund in case something goes afoul.) The fund is a huge step for us since for pretty much all of our relationship and marriage saving money has been a serious struggle. In the past extra money went to extra fun so this is a really important step and a great accomplishment to be able to have the cash on hand and not be raring to spend it on just any old thing. We are really proud of ourselves. We have found a lot of wonderful support on the DR forum and that is making such a big impact in our quest for debt freedom.

Check out the next 3 posts for updated news in our neck of the world. We will update again soon.

xoxo,

celebrating another small win

what a week this turned out to be...

A couple of weeks ago, Annie got word from the higher ups at her work that she won an award for a police dispatch incident that she handled in 2006. This was a total surprise and completely unexpected news to us.

911 dispatchers have their own national accrediting organization called APCO/NENA. The Oregon chapter held an awards banquet and dinner on 09.12.07 in Welches, OR at 'The Resort' to hand out achievement awards to dispatchers and call takers all over the state for various incidents handled over the last year.

Annie won a State Critical Incident Award for an incident that occurred on June 30, 2006. She won one of the three awards for critical incidents handed out and was the only recipient to receive the award on an individual basis. She received a nice certificate and a medal. It was a great night and a fun event to attend. It is nice to be recognized (so Kathy if you are reading this, thanks for being a kick ass ERC member and submitting my info ;o) ).

Annie 09.12.07

Always each others best support and biggest fans!

Annie and 911 director, Lisa Turley

After the awards ceremony.

In the car about ready to head back to pick up Belly from Nana and Papa's.

PROMOTION !!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Greg!

He finally earned his promotion! It has been a long haul (especially for the last few months) but he not only successfully trained and promoted his trainee, but he kicked ass and was taking names on his sign off on Tuesday 09/11/07. The regional manager flew in from Sacramento and observed during the sign off and both her and the local area manager were very impressed with Greg's skills and accomplishments. Next step is GM (maybe next year?)

This promotion, while a financial gain for us, is also a huge emotional win for us. Just over 3 years ago we moved from Visalia, away from friends and family, to come here and start a new journey. We were so poor we could barely afford to pay the rent. We struggled big time. We questioned (frequently) whether or not the move was worth it, should we go back and go where we knew it was comfortable? We decided we weren't going to go home crying with our tails between our legs. We were determined to win. Greg slugged it out at school, worked part time when he was able. I worked at that god forsaken clinic downtown where I wasn't paid enough for the work I was doing. We did our best and tried to be optimistic. Slowly things started to fall into place; I got a better job (then I certified and became a permanent full time employee), Greg graduated, got a good job, and now this promotion. It has been tough but worth it. The best thing we did (since getting hitched and having Belly) was to take a leap of faith and try and make a go of our dreams.

We have a lot of work left to do; more promotions (hopefully sooner than later) to work towards, more financial goals to attain, more kids to be had, more travels to be done, but for now, I think Greg deserves a big round of applause. Job well done!!

Greg celebrating on 09.11.07 at Henry's Tavern in downtown PDX

You are looking at the new Apprentice!

Greg and Annie, celebrating our little victory

Last day of soccer. boo hoo.

09.11.07 -- last day of soccer for Belly.

She has had such a great time playing. At first she was a little timid on the field but after the whole summer she has really come out of her shell. She scored a total of 5 goals on her own, learned some great soccer skills, and had a blast. We were sorry to see it end but at least fall will bring us a dance class and a swimming class. Here are pictures from her last day.