The Hunter

Jayke the Zombie Hunter.  Last year the zombie, this year the hunter.  Another awesome costume!  Love the pose too.  I had to keep telling him to stop smiling.  We had terrible weather for Trick or Treating this year.  Jeff and I ended up driving the van the entire way so they could get in and warm up when there was a gap between houses.  It started out cold and rainy then the wind picked up and before it was over, it was snowing!  They hung in there though and got a huge haul.  I think they lasted over 2 hours and covered all of Carrington Woods and part of Farmington, then our street on the way home.

Look at this scary bunch!  Zack Jeffers, Jayke, Mason, Jonathan Chimbanda, Emily and Zach.

Jonathan says he is a Dingus Wingus...whatever that is.  His costume was pretty creative!  

Any Reason to Bust out The Booze

This group looks like they need some booze.  The work crew, all decked out in their Halloween best!  Above is the entire group who dressed up.  I think we had more this year than we did last and the costumes were better too!

Above is our department.  I didn't want to wear an uncomfortable costume all day so I just made a prop and went as in Instagram post.  

Our boss, The King.  Rollerskating Elvis who later, when the booze was brought out, dedicated songs to different departments/people.  I left early so I missed this part of the party, along with the booze, but I did see a video.  My favorite dedication was the one he did for the warehouse and EDI department (This would be Jeff and all who participate in the drop ship program) Return to Sender.  Hilarious!

Creepy the Clown was waiting for us in the darkened cubes.  Good thing clowns are about as scary as kittens to me.  He chased people around all morning with his creepy voice and laugh.  Not all are as unaffected by clowns as I am though.

My favorite, by far, The Gingerbread Man!  Doug, from Quality, as The Gingerbread Man.  He had a video from Shrek all cued up for us to watch with the part including The Gingerbread Man.  Then he had a performance of his own...running, flopping around on the floor, and yelling EAT ME!  By far the best and most entertaining.

Our sales team, Neil, Jeff Bird, and Brad.  We work with the BEST people!  There was tons of food and entertainment all day and at the end of the day they brought out the wine for one of Midwest's infamous "Happy Hours".  The owners enjoyed themselves so much they told us to figure out something for Thanksgiving so we could party again!  I love my job.  Stressful as it is, this makes it worth it!

Meet Jimmy

He said, "When you put that on Facebook, make sure you say it's Jayke and Jimmy!"  Meet Jimmy the Jack 0 Lantern.  He thinks the stem makes it.  I tried to shred it some.  It was a little too dry to get the full effect I was going for but The Boy likes it...that's all that matters!

Tourney Champs!

Cold morning.  This tournament is always cold.  The forecast was predicting it to warm up into the 70s though.  Fingers crossed.  We were hoping the warmer weather would be the key to helping us finally bring home a championship.  So many seasons of coming up short in the freezing cold.

We took all of the usual pictures...

Except this year, we got to take the team photo as champs!  We won our age group.  Finally these kids got to see what it feels like to be called tourney champs!  

After months of practice.  Coming up short of the championship games, not once but twice, in our two earlier tournaments.  Dropping from 1st in our division to 3rd by the end of the season on a 3 game losing streak.  Losing to the last place team. Watching Jayke deal with a lack of playing time.   Overcoming many pulled muscles and finally fighting through 4 tough games this weekend to come out on top by beating the team that dropped us to 3rd place. We finally beat the Indy Premier team that beat us in our final two games of the season.  Finally got a trophy that wasn't a participation trophy.  Finally get to be called Champions.  Instantly all of those previous things didn't matter.

It was a great weekend of soccer.  It was 70 degrees.

Zoo Boo

Mom took Jayke and Mason to Zoo Boo over fall break.  From what Jayke said, the animals were pretty active and fun to watch.

She sent me pics throughout the day to post to Facebook, Instagram, and any where else I could think of.  Below is a shot of the boys eating their $7 DipNDots.  They probably washed it down with a $4 water!

Jayke was oddly thrilled that the walrus kept chewing up his food and then spitting it on the glass only to slurp it back up and repeat.  I was overjoyed to hear this part of the day's events.

The 'rents

Mom and Jim at Mitch and Mallory's wedding.  SOMEONE had a few glasses of wine and tried to dance with everyone.  This victim doesn't look too thrilled about it.  LOL!!!

Treats!

Treat bags for the co-workers

BOO!!!

I was "Booed" at work by a co-worker...Got these wine glasses, that pumpkin decoration, and a bottle of sparking grape juice.  Fun!  Wish we did this in our neighborhood too.  

Cube 3

That's me on the left...cube number 3( The one with the flag banner going down the side)  All decorated for Halloween.  Thought I should post a picture of my "other home".

And...the outside view with our new flag...

Because MidWest is Pretty Awesome!

MidWest donated about 40 skids of dog beds to, not only ARF, but also the Muncie Animal Shelter (donation pictured below with facebook post following) and several other shelters in the surrounding counties.  Love that we do this! This happened back in August but I thought I'd share now.

MidWest Homes for Pets shared Muncie ARF's photo.

August 25

Last week MidWest had the opportunity to provide QuietTime® pet beds to multiple pet rescues and shelters in and near our community. We are grateful for each organization. We appreciate their efforts to care for animals and pets when they are in need and their work in uniting pets with loving and caring families. Thank you for all you do!

We are more than grateful for the wonderful donation of many dog and cat beds from Midwest. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Many ARF animals will sleep snuggled in these gifts.

MidWest Facebook Post: Luna was Featured!

MidWest Homes for Pets

September 30

Wendy, a member of our customer service team, has shared two adorable photos of her "fur baby" for this week's MidWest Employee Pet Spotlight. Luna, short for Lunatic, has earned her name.  She is 6-years-old and has three fur siblings including two dogs and another cat. Luna likes to hang out in fancy room décor and her sister Zoe's LifeStages crate.

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Party at Jayke's Place!

(This is only a small representation of the entire group)

Literally.  I had the entire team plus some of their younger siblings in our "other" hotel room...aka..."Jayke's Place".  

After coming home from Colorado I had to turn around and go back to Carmel for a soccer game the very next day.  That, in itself, wasn't too bad but didn't leave much time for packing...or should I say RE-packing for the following weekend in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Friday after we returned from our trip out west, we headed south to Louisville for a two day soccer tournament.  We got two hotel rooms, one for the 3 kids and one for us (Jeff and me).  Saturday we had two games and afterwards the entire team headed back to the hotel for swimming, a carry-in dinner, and then...party at Jayke's place.  He invited the entire team up to his hotel room for a "party".  I must have been temporarily out of my mind and agreed to this.  

All the kids made a break for the elevators and stairs before I could even blink.  I was trying to get up there with them so I could lay down some ground rules but kept getting hung up by more parents asking if they could, conveniently, send their kid up as well.  Sure!  The more the merrier...(wth was I thinking?)

I finally got up there and luckily, I had a key since I was unaware of the secret code word to get admission.  Once inside I was overwhelmed by the smell of kids who had been out playing soccer, swimming, eating garlic bread sticks, and running through the hotel.  They had turned the air conditioner off which helped contribute to the ripeness in that room.  After the smell hit me, the next thing I was aware of was that all the lights were off, there was a strobe light going, and they had chosen to listen to Eminem while all laying around on the beds and floor playing their tablets.  Pretty tame, as long as they kept the noise level down and the AC up.  Each kid had also brought host gifts, it appeared.  There was a collection of half eaten bags of Goldfish crackers, fruit roll ups, and other chosen snacks piled on the tv stand.  I also discovered that before I arrived there must have been a pretty intense Cheese ball war waged.  

I can't even imagine how people have more than two kids and keep their sanity.  I felt like a top, spinning around and around.  Picking up shoes, socks, cheese balls, orange coated wash clothes (from the cheese balls) and even a toothbrush and toothpaste.  I had kids coming at me from all angles asking questions, telling me things, and Jayke showing off by MOUTHING off and trying to usher me out of the room.  My main objective was to get them to understand they had to be quiet or the wheelchair bound gentleman in the room adjacent to theirs would likely get us removed from the premises.  Once it was down to a dull roar, I left for my room with one last order...they had to come tell me if they were leaving to go back to their room or any other reason.

I then made my way across the hall and down towards the elevator where I propped the door open and set up camp in a chair where I could see both the tv, and the hall way.  The party broke up not too long after it started.  They were in there maybe an hour before they all started heading to their own rooms, whether by their choice or their parent's.   All in all, it wasn't as bad as what I thought it would be.  We didn't get kicked out and all the lamps were still standing.  Everyone had to get to bed for an early morning game.  We played for the win in our bracket but, ultimately were eliminated and didn't advance.  We headed home in shock after rolling through the first day and only allowing one goal the entire tournament.   Too bad it was the one that put us out.

Precious!

Uncle Mark sent me this picture he took of my cherub at the wedding a few days after we got home.

Day 5: One for the Road

On the plane heading home...a selfie for the road!

Day 4: Hanging out at Mark's

View from Mark's balcony

After coming back from the wedding we grabbed our stuff from Kelly's house and met her for lunch to thank her for allowing us to crash at her house in between our running around.  I had to run into Old Navy because I wouldn't be me if I didn't get a little shopping in while on vacation then we were off to Mark and Robin's to watch football and just hang out with them before heading home.  Mark made the most awesome pizzas on the grill and we just relaxed after a busy few days.  

Day 3: Keystone and THE WEDDING!

On the third day of our trip we all headed for Keystone where Mitch and Mallory were getting married.  We met in Breckinridge for lunch on the way.  The weather was bad and we didn't have much time to spend there, which was disappointing since the last time I was there I was only 13 years old.  

After our quick lunch in Breckinridge we went to the the resort where we were staying.  Its the off season so there was really no one there, no one but wedding guests.  After a quick change we headed to the gondola that would take us up the mountain to the ceremony.

The view from our condo

Below is our ride to the wedding...

We had to take two gondolas to the top of the mountain.  Jayke thought this was pretty cool.  I was just happy it wasn't a chair lift!

On the way up the mountain it stopped raining and there was a rainbow over the mountains...a good omen. 

Jayke got to join in the Champagne toast!  Look how happy he was about it...then he tasted it.  (Non-alcoholic of course) He claimed it was good but I noticed he didn't touch it again.  He tried several of the h'ordeuvres, which I was proud of him for.  They were prepared for the 3 kids who were there and had chicken strips for them, much to Jayke's relief!

Before dinner...the guys watching football on their phone...smh.

There was lots of dancing.  I danced with Jeff, I tried to dance with Jayke, and my mom tried to dance with everyone.  As the night grew later and later I began to wonder how some of these people would get on the gondola to get back down the mountain.  The ride down was a little scary.  It was Jeff and I on the Gondola in the pitch black.   All you could see were the lights from the resort at the bottom of the mountain.  The only noise was when you went over the periodic stands that held the Gondola cables, which was a little disconcerting.  They gave you a blanket for the ride down which was little comfort in the pitch dark, on the side of a mountain, hanging by a cable in a metal and glass box.  I was more than happy to get off of that thing and wondered how Jayke did.  Turns out, he didn't like it much either.

The next morning we headed back towards Denver to have lunch with Kelly and go spend the evening with Mark and Robin.  After running around non stop for 3 days I was happy to just hang out at their house and eat pizza from the grill.  On the way back I took the below picture at the continental divide.  We would have loved to have had another week to hang out in the mountains but unfortunately, we had to go home the next day.  Maybe someday we will be able to go back.  4 days is not enough!