Updated Photos

It's been awhile since I've uploaded any new pics. Bad me. Well, check out my most recent ones to see what I've been up to.

10 Years

As of today I've reached a milestone in my working life. Many people that I graduated with went on to college, others found jobs and I have no idea what they are doing. I would like to think that few have done what I have done. Today marks my 10 year anniversary working at Coldwater Creek. I started working here as a temporary employee down at the store in Sandpoint as a summer job before I went back to school. Well, things happened and I never went, but I stayed here and 10 years later I'm still here. Things have changed greatly for both me personally and here at work. I've gotten married to the love of my life, had 2 wonderful (if not sometimes a handful) children, bought a house, and lived a great life. Coldwater Creek has changed too. When I started we only had one store, now we have over 200. I'm not working down at the store any longer, but out at the corporate headquarters where I've been for the last 6 1/2 years. Life is good here. Coldwater has taken very good care of me over this time and I don't see that changing any time soon. I've worked in many different departments and had the luxury of experiencing new areas of the company. I've been promoted and given new responsibilities. All is good. Life in a big corporation isn't always the best and many people complain about how the company takes care of them. My feeling is that they don't look at working here as part of a bigger benefit that living in an area like North Idaho gives you. The company is casual, friendly, and fairly flexible. Those tied into the style of life many of us here have come to enjoy makes me appreciate what I have and not try to make the quick buck and move on to another company. I don't know how many people can say that they've worked for a company for 10 years and feel like they've been taken care of. I can and I'm thankful for that.
So, today I start on what I hope to be the next 10 years. I have no reason to think that it won't be possible. We'll see what happens, but I can say that working here has been a pleasure and I can't wait to see what tomorrow may bring for both me and Coldwater Creek.

Work Release Day 3

Seems like the list is getting shorter after 3 days of work. Feels good to get so much done. Today will be work release off-site. We've promised to help the in-laws set up for a craft show today and then it's off to the grocery store to restock the fridge. Tomorrow will probably be a light day as well as we have two soccer games in the morning. Here's today's update on yesterday's progress.

• Planted the rest of the vegies (except corn)
• Had Grandpa up to till the flower garden to knock over some of the grass. BJ is already to start her flower garden now.
• Spent 15 or so minutes trying to pull a section of metal wire fence out from the tiller on the tractor after Grandpa ran over it. Not much fun here.
• Rebuilt 2 sets of stairs in the garden
• Hauled 1/2 a pallet of cow "fertilizer" up to the corn bed and spread it out. (I'm getting tired of that stuff)

Work Release Day 2

Another productive day yesterday. The list isn't as long, but things still did get done.

Landscaped around our flag pole
Cut a 3 inch hole in a 4 inch thick piece of rock to put the flagpole through
Tilled the garden
Put down cow... um... fertilizer ;)
Put down a full truck load of grass clippings on the garden for weed control
Fixed Andrew's bird-house for Cub Scouts
Marked out the location of our new brick patio in the garden
Spent a couple of hours at a Cub Scout pack meeting with 30 hyper kids. It actually wasn't too bad this month.

P.S. Happy anniversary to my wonderful wife.