And the award goes to...

... Kate!  This Friday, she won an incredible award - Employee of the Year 2011 in John Deere's Product Testing Division!

You may be thinking.... "Kate doesn't work for John Deere.  Brian does.  That's Brian's department in John Deere.  What the heck?"

Well, some of you may have heard that I love to bake.  I love to bake so much, and I like to eat it too.  But if I ate all the food I baked, I'd probably be twice my size, which would be bad.  So, I make all these delicious treats and I send them with Brian to his work for his coworkers to enjoy.

In Spain no one (okay, maybe 1% of the population) makes things like cookies or cakes at home.  They simply don't bake much.  Many apartments don't even have ovens!  So when I would send in something as easy as Tollhouse recipe chocolate chip cookies, the guys were blown away, asking Brian how in the world I could have made them!  It did wonders for this girl's self esteem.

I've been able to get adventuresome with them.  Here are a few of the things I've sent in: Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter chip/chocolate chip cookies, chocolate walnut baileys biscotti, almond blood orange biscotti, cinnamon rolls, Deb Riek's pumpkin bars, ginger bread cookies, sugar cookies, almond bark dipped pretzels, raspberry scones...

One month, they made me the employee of the month.  I was so honored!

Well, this past Friday, Brian invited me to his office for the first time.  He toured me around the factory, and I got to finally meet most of his coworkers!  They are great guys.  I brought some cinnamon rolls & biscotti, and looked forward to talking to them during the normal 10am coffee break.  When I went to the break room, they were the ones who surprised me!  They had brought in a bunch of food to have a little party for my visit!  A couple of empanadas, spanish tortillas, cured meats and cheeses, bread, and sodas to have a little fiesta :)  

But before we started eating, they said "Wait, wait, we have a gift for you!"  I was handed a small gift wrapped box, and when I opened it, I found this incredibly amazing engraved silver plaque, stating that I had been selected as the Employee of the Year 2011!!!!  I was STUNNED.  

El Equipo PV&V de John Deere Iberica

 otorga el tìtulo de 

EMPLEADA DEL AÑO 2011 

a Kate Thuesen 

por endulzar la vida 

de manera altruista.  

Getafe, abril de 2012

The PV&V team of John Deere Iberica

awards the title of

EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR 2011

to Kate Thuesen

For sweetening life selflessly.

Getafe (factory location), April 2012

 I felt like such a star :)  Pretty much the rest of the day, I couldn't wipe the grin off my face.  Honestly, this award was so unexpected, and that a bunch of guys working in a factory put this together for me with only a day's notice absolutely blew me away. 

Honestly, the thing I have to say makes me even more grateful is to know that Brian has gotten to work with such a group of men for the last 2 years.  They are high-caliber, intelligent, hard working, and a fun loving group.  They've embraced him as one of their own, patiently working with him while he learned spanish in his every day work, hanging out with us on the weekends, giving us recommendations for travel/restaurants/bars to visit... without these group of men, we would not have had as successful experience in Spain.

Thats enough to make a girl feel like she (and her man) are on top of the world.