If you love what you do, you'll never work a day....

Guest blogger, Daddy-O here! Guess what Grace, Bella and I did tonight? I will give you a hint: "Pants on the floor, pants on the floor, lookin' like a _______ with your pants on the floor"! If you can fill in the blank, you, too, were watching "American Idol"!



Tomorrow marks my 25th anniversary as a financial rep with Northwestern Mutual. So, technically, I am still holding an entry level position and, as I once heard, and have since then always believed: If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life! I think Paula also feels that way about her current position for the last 10 years as the CEO of our home!

As I reflect back on that night, just over a quarter of a century ago...it was late one night and I sat in the corner office of the bank that I worked at as "maintenance and security" guy,(the position was a little more maintenance than security) I asked my girlfriend if I should accept the internship I had been offered at Northwestern Mutual? I will never forget what she said: "I think we would have more time together." Well, she was right, because in August we will celebrate being happily married for 22 years! It's actually our 23rd anniversary, but there was that one year that....... anyway, I have gotten off topic!

The best part of being self-employed is that I have always been able to take my children to the office with me on Saturdays when I go in to check the mail and do those things that don't get done during the week. Two years ago, we moved into a brand-new office after 23 years in the same location downtown across from Trinity Hospital. When Grace first saw the new digs, she was very excited and immediately fell in love with it and all the new places to run and hide from me. Since she has always been gifted verbally, I don't think it was a mistake that when I told her this was daddy's "new office", she started calling it Daddy's "Oooooh office"!

So now every Saturday when I tell her it's time to go to Daddy's Ooooh office, she turns to Bella and says "Balla, want to go to Daddy's Ooooh office"? Bella then turns to me and makes the sign for "shoes" and says "beep, beep", for the car, and away we go! Their routine is exactly the same and involves raiding my basket of chocolate and watching themselves dance and act out scenes with my video teleconferencing equipment acting as a big, full-color monitor for them to check out their moves! We now also have to take time to eat graham crackers while watching "Barney" on the big screen as well, since those are two of Bella's favorite things!



God has blessed me so.....Grace will always have Bella and Bella will always have Grace, and I will probably always have at least two children who think it's cool to go to the "Ooooh office" with their Daddy!