Certified

July started off as a pretty good month thus far! As of last Friday I am now officially certified by the National Association of Personnel Services as a Certified Temporary Staffing Specialist (CTS). Next step will be to start the certification process/studying to take the Physician Recruiter certification....that will have to wait though until after summer classes which start on Monday!

It's been a nice little break from the spring to summer classes I wish that I didn't have to start back to school I liked not having to stress over the reading and exams, but I only have a total of 5 more courses before I am finished with my MBA so HOPEFULLY all goes as planned and I will graduate in the Spring 2012 class.

Not much else going on in the lives of the Blanco's recently work, work, and more work....at least it's Friday right?

Almost there....Vacation

We are t-minus 4 days before the Napa trip starts! We fly out of DFW on Tuesday morning and I’ve made 4 vineyard visits that required reservations to start out the trip. One vineyard each day – but of course I am sure that we will make our way to various tastings but we are going for a nice relaxing vacation this time, it’s a bit of a change compared to when we go to Disney when we are up early every day.

We are staying at the Embassy Suites in Napa Valley, CA which is right down the street from the cute little downtown area so we’ll have plenty of things to see and do without much travel!

First stop after we arrive at the San Francisco International Airport will be a drive about 1.5 hours into Napa and then to theClo Du Bois for a tasting. Rene is excited about this location! While there we will be doing the Marlstone Experience.

“Join us for a stroll through our demonstration vineyard as we share the story of Marlstone, the signature wine of Clos du Bois Winery. Following the visit to the vineyard, you will experience a blending seminar comprised of the five varietals found Marlstone, our Bordeaux style blend. We will explain the importance of each varietal on the finished wine and invite you to make a blend of your own.” This location allows us to taste from the bottle as well and afterward I have a coupon for a “2 for 1” premier tasting as well.

We also have reservations at Morimoto'srestaurant in Napa where we plan on over indulging and more than likely over spending on the tasting menu and sushi from the Iron Chef himself for Rene’s birthday dinner!

Day 2 and our second stop will be Del Dotto Vineyards.
I saw an article in Food and Wine Magazine about this location so I knew we should go! We will be doing the Cave Experience & Barrel Tasting.
“Come and experience wines thieved right out of the barrels! Taste the difference between barrels made from the great forests of the world, up to 45 different flavors of highly rated wines. Voted #1 wine tasting by world wine critics!”

“Cave Experience and Barrel Tasting includes barrel tasting in the cave out of several types of different oak barrels. Following the barrel tasting you will sample select bottled wines along with handmade chocolate truffles and cheese. Finishing off with a sampling of our ports. The experience lasts about an hour”.
It looks amazing and I am looking forward to the option to taste right out of the barrel! They will even call you when they bottle the wine that you have tasted if you want to buy them.

Puppy Update!

Rene just gave me a call with wonderful news! There isn't anything wrong test wise with little Stitch! They think that since he had a little bit of pancreatitis 2 week ago his system is just still being very sensitive to higher fat foods. We feed Stitch Organix which is a high quality organic wheat free food so it's not like we were feeding him puppy chow but apparently his little tummy needs some more time to recoup and that should make him better! I am relieved to say the least! Now it's back to work!

Career Updates for the Blancos

“Your Career Plans Look Bright” At least that’s what my Panda Express fortune cookie told me in May.

Now I am not one to “buy in” to the whole horoscope and fortune teller idea but occasionally (rather once a month) I do look at my horoscope. The only reason though is that I get a little insert in my credit card bill and I find it amusing to see how things pan out accordingly.

Well to add to my fortune cookie my May horoscope added that I could find enhanced satisfaction in my daily activities in the month and also that a sense of financial promise could color the 6th to 11th and that I could capitalize on that and my strengths later in the month in terms of my career.

That led to the fact that I received a promotion at the end of the month. It’s nothing huge no 6 digit salary increase or anything like that but I will be heading up the inpatient side or our company in a middle management role. I was glad to see that at least someone here thinks that I know what I am doing!! I have had my ups and downs with the current Director since he arrived about 8 months ago but I think that I have proven him wrong in many accounts and that in itself if victory enough! Hopefully adding a year or two in management and the finishing my MBA and hopefully pursuing a PHR certification (when I can actually find the time!!) will benefit in the long run.

So I guess that I must give in to the idea of horoscopes, fortunes and the zodiac at least for the next month or so… I mean it did somewhat say that I was looking at good things career wise right?

What does June have in store for me? Well my horoscope did say that a change in salary was inevitable and that more responsibility brings greater salary in the end (and I did get a little bump in my salary and comp package this week) so maybe it’s not completely wrong…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!


This past week also brought around the day that Rene has been waiting for…he got to take the last and final portion of the CPA exam! Which means no more studying for him for the time being! Now we just wait for the results and he gets to start the licensing process to be “official”. He also has finally gotten some recognition from Deloitte and he received 2 different awards of sorts for his performance over the past year. I couldn’t be happier that his hard work is paying off finally.

The end of May turned out to be very eventful for the Blanco house in our careers to say that least and it was great news to head into the Summer and really a great start to our 3rd year in Dallas.