Let It Snow!We hope you're all doing well, and surviving the cold and SNOW up there!!! And no, this is not our backyard! haha! Speaking of, we were supposed to have 1-2" on Wednesday night, but it never got cold enough. Just rained all day and all night, and almost all day Thursday. It was very windy - gusts from 25-40 mph. So it felt very cold and damp. Yuck!
The disgusting thing about the St. Louis area is that officials and residents FREAK OUT about a forecast with the word "snow" in it. The superintendent of the St. Louis school system was on the news, saying how he or someone else would stay up to the wee hours of the morning to see if they should cancel school or not. We were only supposed to ge 1-2"!!!! What is wrong with people!? Even the city plows were all ready to do, and were out on the streets salting just incase, and practicing their routes. This is all too bizarre for me, being from a place where they don't cancel school for a blizzard. I just can't get used to it!
I'm glad to see that by the middle of next week it'll be back in the mid- to upper 50's here! It's how winter should be! :)
The Car Saga Ends
You can't believe it? Well it's true! After 4 months, the car saga has finally ended!!! We picked up our brand spankin' new Toyota Camry last week Wednesday. (Can I please brag a little bit? I'm so excited!) It's absolutely gorgeous... Barcelona Red Metallic, with a sunroof and alloys (different than the picture). I absolutely love it. The ride is great, it's so quiet and comfortable and it drives great in the rain! I was getting a little nervous towards the end with the Sentra. It felt like I was sliding, plus the engine kept losing part of the power. Pretty scary sometimes. Luckily, we sold that thing to a dealer and they had no clue anything was wrong with it, didn't ask... whatever! We didn't tell. It's up to them to fix it now!
One of these days I'll get out the camera and post some pictures of us (and maybe some of me and the car! haha!).
The Ol' Grind...
Work is going well, as always. Noah is going to be working 3rd shift tonight for some project they're doing here in St. Louis. He went into work early this morning around 5:30am, and left at 2:30 so he could go home and sleep. We're going to a surprise birthday party tonight for a friend, and then he'll go back to work around midnight until they are done. I don't know how he does it.
My work is going well too. My 6 month review is coming up already. It's been great! I still love my job and my manager, Jennifer. She and I have a lot of fun, and get a lot of things done. Our district is doing pretty well this year with her managing, and hopefully with the marketing planning stuff I've been working on, even better in '07.
Speaking of, my presentation of all the marketing information that I've been working on for the last 2 months, went extremely well, and was very well received by the agents. They were clapping by the end, which made me very excited! I feel, I'm here to help all of them with what I know, and since I have a marketing and advertising background, I feel blessed and privileged to help all of them meet their goals and bring in more business. It's the least I can do! All of them said they had never been presented with all of this information before - they were basically on their own - and were glad someone put this together for them. Glad I could help! We have some great agents, and I feel honored to work with such a good bunch.
Today was a treat. I went into the office for about an hour, then go to go help out an auction team at a nice hotel by the airport. American Family puts on an auction for agents in the area every year with some nice prizes. The agents bid on prizes with points they earn for writing life insurance policies. The more policies they write, the more points they have to bid with. All the DMA's (District Manager Assistants) got to come and help where needed and have a free lunch.
The Holidays Are Here!My goodness... we're already at the holidays again?! Where did the rest of the year go? I really don't understand how all of us could feel like we missed half the year!
For Turkey Day we'll be heading into Springfield, IL to Noah's family. The Boones (close family friends - you could call them family) are coming in, and it will be nice to see them again. This year, we will get to meet their other son, Matthew and his wife, Jennette, whom I've never met before. We have only met their one son, Jonathan. We'll probably spend some time at Noah's Aunt Rosie with his mom's side, maybe see his grandparents (dad's parents) too.
And... we will be flying up to Wisconsin for Christmas. The dates again are December 22-26. Mark your calendars... we want to see EVERYONE!!!!! :) We miss all of you!
In Other News...
What else? Well, I am leading worship this week at church, which means I got to choose all the music we sing, and basically direct our team! Practice did not start out so great, but by the end, I think we all had it down pat. I wasn't aware that one of the songs I chose, hardly anyone knew! Ooops! But it turned out great and I think we're ready for Sunday. It's really awesome to be a part of a group that's not about themselves or the music they play - it's about praising God and using the talents God has given us with singing and playing instruments to lead the people in our church in worship! It's always a lot of fun, and we're all on the same page when it comes to doing it for the right reason :)
We're having dinner with a family from our church tomorrow night, which should be fun. We've been trying to get together with them for a month or so. They have a 12 year old daughter and a 2 or 3 year old son (can't remember how old!). He is full of energy and so cute!
Something really neat happened yesterday. One of my old high school classmates contacted me via email. Funny because I never really talked to her all that much back then. But we seem to get along great now! She contacted me because I contacted the high school alumni office to see if we were going to have a reunion (don't know what prompted me to do that - maybe I was bored! haha!) and asked who was planning it. So I think I wrote the girl who was planning it, and she finally wrote me back and we emailed all yesterday. It was pretty exciting catching up with her, seeing how everything had turned out 8 years after graduation. I'd like to actually go to our reunion in 2009 to see a lot of people. Noah isn't that thrilled, as he doesn't really have interesting going to his reunion. But that's okay! I knew a lot of people in high school, and I figure, what the hay. I just think seeing people again after 10 years is exciting and interesting!
Anyway, I think that's about it for us down here! Love "ya'll!" and see you soon!
