Reason 1,252 why I love my job

I get to bring my baby to work!

Living life on purpose

I'm feeling very content these days - It may be a sign of maturity, life circumstances, or choices that I've made.

One of the top contributors to recent happiness is a change in employment. I started a dream job at the Humane Society of Indianapolis. I am the operations dept. assistant; I run the vaccine clinic, provide volunteers with their basic training, and do research and special projects as needed. I LOVE going to the Humane Society for work every day. My feelings of well being are tremendously better than when I worked in insurance. Sure, the money was great, and the office was close, and I worked for a good company in Indianapolis - but I was certainly unhappy and marinating in stress.

Now, on Mondays and Tuesdays, I don't get home until 8:30 or 9pm. Amazingly, I still have the energy to come home and cook dinner. I've made specific choices to simplify my life to make room for this career change.

In college, I had this vision of becoming a successful entrepreneur or a corporate ladder climber with a large company. I got swept up in this game and didn't take the time to search out my own unique passions and talents. Getting out of the race allowed me to be more mindful of my values and opening myself up to pure pleasures in life.

God has been seriously blessing my me and my family

Don't feel sorry for me!

I had an interesting conversation today with a sales rep from ADP (a payroll company we used to use for the staffing company).

While we owned the staffing company, we decided to switch payroll companies, and this woman was calling to ask if we would be willing to give ADP another opportunity as our payroll company. I told her that we had shut the company and were no longer running the company.

She immediately responded with, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!" She had the impression that our business had not done well and that we were forced to close the company. I explained to her that we got got burnt out running the staffing company (for so many reasons - the lack of reliability from the employees, the ridiculous demands from clients, never having a weekend free, the stress, etc.) so we decided to open up a uniform company instead.

It's been almost a year since we closed the staffing company, and in that year, almost every person reacted similarly when I mentioned that we closed the company.

What I really want to tell the person is that they don't need to be sorry - they should be happy! The staffing company took us to a lot of really fancy events (some with celebrities - Danica Patrick asked Aaron for extra salad dressing, lol). And it was fun to be in newspaper and magazine articles. We learned so much about business: we had to make enough money to pay for the office, we got sued - twice, we learned interviewing skills, how to fill out employment forms, how to write fluffy sales brochures, and how to sell our company when we both looked like high school kids.

Closing the staffing company was one of the best and most difficult decisions we ever made. We now enjoy volunteering on the weekends and spending time together as a couple. Our stress levels are dramatically lower. We now are doing things that are fulfilling for us.

So don't feel sorry for me because we closed our company - congratulate me ; )

Good news about the dogs

I drove past the houses on Saturday to see if the dogs were still chained up, and as luck would have it, an Animal Control van was already at one of the houses.

Since then, I have not seen either of the dogs chained up outside at night. The dog who is pictured has not been chained at all.

I hope this persists.....

So disappointing.....

I found a lost dog in our neighborhood, and while I was putting up flyers about the found dog, I noticed a dog chained up outside. He was very dirty, and I could see his bony spine from the road. There was water bowl that had been tipped over I could tell that he spent a lot of time out there tethered, so I headed out during the middle of the night (I know, I have no life), and sure enough, he was still out there in the cold.

As an FYI, in marion county, it is illegal to tether a dog from 11pm to 6am to prevent around the clock dog chaining and to avoid dogs barking outside at late hours.

This is the second dog that I've found in my neighborhood that is continually chained, and it's so disappointing. I called Animal Control for the last dog (and it helped for a little while - he has been chained up during the night recently), and I'll do it again for this dog. I wish I could send this message out to my neighbors: It is NOT ok to chain your dog up outside of your house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You cannot tether a dog like you park a car outside. Animals are not disposable, and I WILL call Animal Control to report your actions. It is illegal and cruel.

An update on my last post

Ok, so he is the (slow) progress that I've made on my goals from the last time I posted.

1) I signed up for the mini! I'd say this is a point of no return. I'm too cheap to pay the money and not actually participate : ) In seriousness, I'm quite nervous to try to tackle what I consider do be a difficult physical challenge, I'm really excited at the same time. Which is why I agreed to do the next small step.

2) I joined an indoor soccer league with a friend of mine. Truth be told, the team needed another girl to help with substitutions, but I knew it would be a great way to start getting into shape. And boy was I right!

3) I've decided the comedy topic that I'll present - crazy cat lady antics! I started thinking about what I know most about and could talk about freely. It was simple - animals. I thought it would also be a great platform to inject a spay/neuter message into the routine. Truthfully, I'm moving pretty slowly with this goal because it's really scary for me. Getting up in front of a group to sing is not an issue, and neither is speaking. The thought of trying to effectively tell jokes in front of a group of people is sooooo terrifying because I don't consider myself to be a hilarious person. I think I can come up with something really good with enough practice and preparation.

The point of these goals is to try two things that are completely opposite of me and attempt to be successful at them. I am not really a runner, and I'm certainly not a comic. It should be an interesting journey to say the least!

Purposeful living

I decided to shake things up and try some new things. Wanting to squeeze the best out of life and "suck out the marrow of life," I chose to work on a couple of projects in the next year to keep things fresh.

Both projects really scare me - but I'm really excited too. The goals that I chose seem far from my reach and surreal, but I'm glad for the challenge.

The first project involves Aaron - we're going to participate in the mini marathon next May! We may not run the entire race, and we're not really racing for time. We just want to finish ; 0 I'm scared because I'm afraid of how painful it may be and because I'm afraid of not finishing and feeling like a failure.

This is Aaron's parents 4th or 5th year of doing the mini, and a friend of mine completed it last year (way to go Emily!), so knowing a few others who've successfully finished gives me some confidence!

The second project is not a physical challenge but still ulcer inducing in its own way. I'm working on writing a short comedy sketch for an open mic night at a local comedy club. You see, I have never considered myself to be a funny person. Any laughs caused by me are usually not on purpose, so this one's going to be really tough for me.

Usually, a first time comic gets about 3 minutes of time, so I'm confident that I can conjure up some laughter. I can at least survive 3 minutes! I'm actually pretty happy with the initial material that I've come up with. I'm talking about a topic that I feel extremely comfortable discussing - animals.

So there they are! Two big, scary projects that will hopefully be fun and fulfilling. I'll provide updates!