Where My Treasure Is

It's June.  Wait.  What?  How did that happen?  My blog has once again fallen victim to the villainous traps of the hustle and the bustle.

Thoughts and ideas and inspirations have been stacking up in my brain lately, each waiting their turn to be organized and assembled and written down.  It looks like a midday line at the DMV up there! I have a few minutes today, so I thought it wise to get one out that has been lingering up there awhile.

Work and relationships.  

My job has always been a struggle for me.  I spent the years before we had kids loathing my position.  Commercial real estate is absurdly boring to me. And I foolishly saw my job as a partner's secretary as demeaning and beneath me as a bright, collage-educated woman.  I looked for other jobs, but none came to fruition.  I finally figured that God must want me there, so I stayed and wrestled with my pride.  I have always been grateful for the blessings my job has brought to me and to our family, but to say that it has been a lesson in humility is a grotesque understatement.

When our kids came along, everything changed.  I no longer sought purpose and self-definition from my job because I found both in the brilliant blue eyes of my babies.  Paradigm shift!  I began looking at my role at the office differently.  I saw myself as a nurturer and that spilled over into my work.  I'm good at taking care of people and now I pride myself at doing just that.  The title of secretary is no longer something I scoff at.  It's just another way to serve.

Now I don't always do it with a smile on my face.  I lament.  A lot.  Taking care of demanding grown men is much more frustrating than caring for children because these grown men have so few redeeming qualities.  :)  They don't have sweet angel faces that make you feel guilty for losing your cool.  They don't say they're sorry when they hurt your feelings or push your buttons or ask too much.

But I love them anyway.  

Because I've never accepted the "business is business" rule. My relationship with my boss is the longest and most difficult relationship I've ever had with a man.  I adore him.  He's family to me.  Over these fifteen years we've shared many personal moments, like when his father died, when my grandparents died, when he had a very scary health crisis at the office, when he's shared things with me about his family, when we've laughed so hard we've cried, to name a few.  And in these moments I have caught glimpses of him as a man.  Not the boss or the businessman or the high-powered executive, but stripped down to what we all are when the titles and wealth can't help us.

Our most humble human selves.  

It's these moments that have fostered a place in my heart for this man who I have admittedly cursed as often as I have praised.  He's a tough man to love, but I love him nonetheless.

One of the hardest things for me to reconcile is the knowledge that my feelings are not reciprocated.  I know he cares for me like a sister.  He's told me as much many times.  But I'm under no delusion that he wouldn't fire me if it were best for business.  For him ambition and business reign supreme.  It's how he lives his life.  I get that.  I in no way agree with it, but I guess that's why I'm not a powerful millionaire.


My relationships are my treasure.  

They keep me going.  The fill me up and make me whole.  They make me who I am.  Sure I would love to vacation in Scotland and Greece and Africa, to travel the world in comfort, to give my children those experiences.  But my focus is on the stripped down soul inside.  When I stand before God at the end of this journey, in the place where we can't hide behind money and beauty and titles and power, it's my love and my relationships that I will offer as evidence that maybe I understood what it was all about.  And I want my kids to learn by example that our lives and the people who are placed there are deeper and more beautiful and more important than any business deal or bank account could ever hope to be.

And maybe, when I'm in that place and God sees where my treasure truly lies, he'll overlook all of the cursing.  :)

Catching Up

Our garden is crazy with all of this rain. We're getting loads of awesome goodies out of it this year, except I just yesterday learned from my ever-the-wiser sister that the secret to picking green beans is to get them small-ish before the bean bulges appear.  Which means most of those I've picked this year (about 2 tons) have been left on the plants too long. They're still pretty darn good, but I'm bummed that it was my fault they weren't better eating.  I gave a ginormous bag to Lori to try to crock pot cook and a huge bunch to Mom and Dad and we've eaten a ton of them ourselves too.  We just can't quite keep up with those beans this year.  Awesome problem to have.  I need to learn to can...maybe next year.  For now it's beans for everyone!

The rain has also brought with it an abundance of inside playtime at home. This massive fort aided us bravely in our mission to provide indoor entertainment for the kids. 

Waiting for the New Albany fireworks to start on the 4th.  Everybody was so excited.  It was a great show!

Our 4th of July picnic with cousins and aunts and uncles and parents and sister and brother-in-law and nephews and grandma and friends...and rain...in Delaware.  Even with our unwelcome rainy guest and without several family members, it was a great day!

Rich's latest house project.  Back splash.  It really looks great now that it's finished, but I don't have a picture of that yet. I mean seriously, is there anything this man cannot do well?

Speaking of things Rich does well, we can add gardening to the list.  Not only did he build the raised beds we plant in, honestly he tends to them much more often than I do.  He'll say it's a family effort, but truth be told he has the greener thumb between the two of us.

I mean look at that zucchini plant!

 

Our team at work went to Huntington Park for a Clippers game a couple weeks ago for lunch.  Our company has a box and, let me tell you, it's nice to catch a brief glimpse of how rich people live and play from up there in that box. Such an awesome treat!



Chilling in my favorite spot in the kitchen.  I love how the sun shines through our huge windows.  I'm a lucky girl to call this home.

Goodbye, Friend

I am blessed by many amazing women in my life: a sister, sister-in-laws, a mother, a mother-in-law, grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and many friends.  I'm thinking particularly of my four best girlfriends today. 

I couldn't have dreamed up better friends.  They are all caring, tell you like it is, compassionate, loyal, thoughtful, got your back kind of friends.

The best kind of friends.

Two of those friends, Jen and Tara, have been my best friends since third grade. We share each other's pasts and are intertwined in the fabric of who each of us has become.  We know everything there is to know about each other, and can tell each other anything.  I can't imagine my life then or now without them in it and am inexplicably grateful that our friendship remains tight, through all the years and over all the miles.

My other two closest friends, Molly and Nichole, have become a part of my life and my heart in recent years, through work and marriages and kids.  We share each other's here and now, the good, the bad and the ugly of it all.  They know the best and worst of me, the lightest and darkest parts of my soul (oftentimes to their dismay).  And they've trusted me with theirs.  To have found friends like that as an adult, and to know all of these women like I do...well, it's a very precious thing to me.

Nichole, Molly and I work together, which I think has tightened our bond.  We spend as much (or more) time at work as we do with our families.  And we're there together, working and laughing and crying and sharing our everydays with each other.  That has been a special gift. 

But this was Nichole's last week at work.  And we are very sad about losing our everydays with her.

Nichole said that work isn't the glue that holds us together.  Our friendship is real and strong regardless of where we are, like all true friendships should be.  We will all remain close until our dying days, I know.  But I also know that Molly and I are going to miss the hell out of her.  And that Casto will never be the same without Nichole Sony at its helm. 

Never.

Nichole has been at Casto for 15 years (or more, I can't remember, lol).  She is a good employee, loyal and hard working.  But so much more importantly, she is a good friend to so many.  She built and cultivated relationships during her years there.  I believe that's kind of what life's all about - the relationships we make and nurture, the people we love and those who love us, giving our time and attention and heart to the people we care about, and being grateful and open to accepting those things from them.

Nichole could teach a lesson in that. 

Relationships 101. 

There were lots of tears and hugs and stories and memories at Casto this week as we all said goodbye to our friend.  She will be missed by everyone.  That's a fact.  

By none more than Molly and me.  We're going to be a little lost without her for awhile, I think.  But we're also excited for this new chapter in her life.  She's fulfilling a dream she's had for many years - spending the summer with her family.  So we're trying not to dwell on the sadness of losing our everydays with her and, instead, focusing on the happiness and pride we feel that she's, very deservedly, living out her dream. 

We love you, Nichole Sony.  Your girls will remember this summer for the rest of their lives and they will be better because you're there with them.  You made the right decision for you and your family and, even though you completely disregarded Molly and my feelings (hahaha), we'll forgive you this time. 

We'll be seeing you soon, friend.

My Boss

Speaking of my boss, here he is at the office costume contest. He won for funniest costume.



Aren't those shoes disgusting? White patent leather booties...for men...who would have ever even manufactured those?