CodeSmart Inc

Recently, CodeSmart Inc (the company I work for) was nominated for the 2011 Fastest Growing Business in the South Sound.  The awards Ceremony was on Tuesday night, and we won!!  Over the last two years we have grown from 4 employees to 23 (and I'm almost positive it was ALL due to the killer administrative assistant...yeah, that's me. heehee), and had a revenue over 1.7 million...which in a dead economy is definately something to brag about.

I don't think I have ever talked much about my job on this blog, but it's the best.  I work from home, and choose my hours.  The management team has always been great to work with and are completely understanding about the fact that I have three kiddos that take top priority during the day.  I feel so lucky to be able to work from home...and the paycheck certainly doesn't hurt either :)

Ok, thus ends the shameless plug,  now back to the awards ceremony...

These two tall guys in the back are Hans and Mark, part of the Management team.  Good guys.  Vicki, to my right is a Business Analyst and Project Manager.  Garrett (the bearded one) is one of our Developers, and that's his cute fiance Corrine.

Here is Chad giving a little speech about CodeSmart...He is the owner of the Company, and the one that hired me.  Vichet is on the far left, he is part of the Management team as well.  Chad, Vichet, Hans, and Mark are the ones I work with on a daily basis.

These two beautiful ladies are married to Chad and Vichet. Love these gals.  And such awesome wives to be married to men that work Ca-RAZY hours!!

And that's the back of my head...I didn't even know the picture was being taken. or else I might have shoved the rest of the salad down my throat and turned around.

I just had to add in this picture...how cute to serve salad in martini glasses. A salad bar...get it? heehee

The evening was great, but I missed Scotty...he was at home playing Mr. Mom (Froot Loops and ice cream sundaes for dinner anyone?!?  Just kidding. But seriously. No wonder he's the favorite parent.)

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In other news, little Laney has been really sick.  A visit to the doctor and some tests confirmed our suspiscions of RSV.  More on that in the next couple of days...

New rules and crayons...

(Thankyou for all the well wishes...we are all feeling much better and are back to our usual energetic selves!)

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We have been switching things up at the Springer house.  I was sick of the noise. Specifically TV noise.

My kids didn't spend all day in front of the tube, but it was always on first thing in the morning and then all afternoon...even if they weren't watching it, it was on. 

So I decided to make a change.

I wanted to see what would happen if I didn't turn the TV on until atleast 3 or 4 PM.

  I was nervous at first to see how it would work.  Really nervous.

The first day was unnaturally perfect, like something from the twilight zone.  The kids played together all morning and all afternoon, read story books, colored pictures, and did their chores without a fight (surprisingly, they didn't even ask to watch TV)...The house was peaceful.  And while they were keeping themselves busy, I was able to get LOTS of work done.

At 4 o'clock I turned on a movie and they were glued to it quietly for an hour while I made dinner and cleaned up the house before Scott came home.

The same thing happened the next day, and the next day, and the next... and has been that way for the last two weeks.

I most certainly have nothing against TV, but I'm really enjoying the difference not having it on is making in our home.   

Now I'm curious...what are your TV rules? what works for your family?   

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Having the TV on less has given me the opportunity to have a lot more fun with the kiddos.  It's forced me to be creative on what we do during the day, and I'm lovin' it.  

Yesterday we took all of our broken crayons and melted them together. 

The kids seriously spent 30 minutes on the countertop un-wrapping the crayons.

(Pardon the lame Ipod phones...my memory card is broken and I haven't gotten a new one yet)

"I did it!!"

They had fun dividing the crayons into color piles, and Jack thought he was SO cool.



And if you are a sneaky mom like me, you say something like "Ok guys, I have a REALLY important job for you. I need you to sit here and watch the crayons and tell me when they start to melt" {insert evil laugh}

After 15 minutes in the oven (and some cool down time of course) you have some fun new crayons.

A perfect rainy day activity!

Oh, and we can't forget Laney...the little sweetie partied in her excersaucer the whole time. Can you believe how much she's growing?!?