WOW!

It is AMAZING what a night without children can do for a couple. I hadn't anticipated the kids spending the night but my bil and his fiance insisted they'd be fine. With a promise to call me if there was crying I left them at my bil's house. The kids did not even blink, though I think it helped that Oak was asleep when I dropped them off. He's at that out-of-sight, out-of-mind age and probably didn't even realize something was amiss. Plus, his brother and sisters were all there. Anyway, so Neall and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly at his company party. I am renewed in my sense of joy at the fact that Neall works for this company and not some corporate entity. The owner of dh's company is so in touch. This year their SEP (their bonus/401k program) payment was based on the sales for the year. This turned out to be a great motivator and they will all be receiving a nice bonus check soon. However, since the economy is in the crapper, dh was worried about next year. There is no way for this company to top it's performance, especially since things like raw materials cost and health insurance are costing the company more. Those things don't have anything to do with the employees and how hard they work. It wouldn't be fair to penalize them. So this year SEP will be based on some other motivating factor besides profits. Find that kind of setup in any corporate environment and I'll eat my shorts, man. In fact, most companies didn't give bonuses or even have parties this year due to the economy. This company ROCKS. I feel blessed and relieved that Neall is in a stable industry and with a company that doesn't have to answer to shareholders in regards to whether they made 1 million or 1 billion in profits this year. As long as there is profit, this company will stick it out. I am grateful to have that small stability in our lives. We've had enough instability. We're due at least another year of stability, I think.

So the party was awesome (boy was that a tangent). We "learned" to play craps (air quotes to demonstrate that learn is a relative term, more like listened carefully to the guy running the game, lol) and actually won 15k worth of fake money. The top 3 earners were awarded an extra vacation day. Due to the card sharks in the group I doubt we were even close to top 3, but 15 K when we started with 5 isn't too shabby. Last year we busted in 10 minutes at the roulette table. Then busted again after the organizer gave us another round of chips.

Then, when we called to check on the kids we found out they were all sleeping soundly. Our instructions were to enjoy our night. Uh. After 9 years of worrying about children every moment, what do you DO with a night off? We wanted to go to an adult shop (well, hey, we'd already been drinking, had already eaten, what else does a kidless couple do with themselves?) but the only one we knew about was closed. So, we headed home. That was fun too ;). In the morning I was wishing we could rewind and replay the night.

My BIL offered to keep the kids again for Valentines day. We will take him up on that. We'll go out the 12th, since dh is off that night anyway. It'll be less crowded. I'm considering a hotel room, champagne, strawberries. Doesn't that sound like fun?