Long week

I have to work 6 days this week, it's going to be torture, plain and simple. Our department is on a 6 week rotation to work on Saturdays and this is my week. Now, it may not be too bad on a normal week, but lately work has been draining! I work 11:30-8 Tuesday thru Friday (9-5:30 on Mondays) and most nights I've been staying until nearly 9, if not later. The travel agency I work for is a "travel redemption agency." So you know when you see commercials for credit card companies that you can earn points towards travel if you use their card? Well, once the points are earned, the cardholders call me to redeem them for travel. Fun stuff, huh? It's actually a great way for us to earn business though, I mean, if they want to use their points, they HAVE to book their travel through us. Guess it is a pretty good idea... Well anyway, we also offer service to some companies that offer travel awards for their salespeople, and in one particular instance, an unnamed pharmaceutical company. Well, these overachievers have a bunch of points expiring at the end of the month and so you can imagine how extremely busy that makes us. But hey, I guess I shouldn't complain, those pill-pushers are paying my bills.

Am I a redneck?

Bobby asked me the other day, "Are you a redneck?" We both laughed and agreed that I probably wasn't, but it got me thinking. So let's review the facts: according to Wikipedia, rednecks are largely descendants of Scots-Irish, which I am, I listen to country music, I go to Boat Shows, I own a Bass Pro shops hat, I enjoy fishing every once in a while, I'll be spending my anniversary in a cabin on a lake in Kentucky or Tennessee, in the next couple of months I may be moving to either Arkansas or West Virginia (enough said), and I'm married to a guy who currently has a semi-mullet. Hey, maybe I just married a redneck! What do you think?

Only in America

As all of you know, yesterday was Super Sunday, which is a day of food, fun, and football in nearly every household in America, and you can bet that we wouldn’t let a day like that pass without a grand fanfare! Bobby got to make a variety of “dips” – red salsa, salsa verde, and guacamole – I heard they were good, I could smell them too, but that’s as close as I got. We made some other yummy snacks and of course, I made my semi-famous Super Bowl cookies. And this year I added a Super Bowl cake. The cake wasn’t my best work, but I really did put some thought into placing the spice drops. As you can see, I have the Colts on offense so that I could have Peyton Manning on my cake, and the Bears are on defense, in a 4-3 formation (or so I’m told) – I just made sure I had 11 for each team! We all really enjoyed the game, halftime, and commercials. We need to get better about taking pictures of the people at the party, but once again, we only took shots of the food. Congrats to the Colts, Tony Dungy, and MVP Peyton Manning!!!

(the palm trees are for Miami - where the Super Bowl was played last night - I guess I should have made rain drops instead)

Blessings in hard times

You know how people say that they never would have experienced or received the blessings they have if they hadn’t gone through trials and hard times? Sounds like a bunch of bunk, doesn’t it? Well, you heard it here… it’s true! Most of the readers of this blog know that just a little over a week ago, I had a miscarriage. I am happy to report that physically I am healing just fine and as far as we know, I have no reason not to believe that I won’t go on to have a perfect pregnancy in the future, which is wonderful. Emotionally, the healing is taking a bit longer and I expect to grieve over this for a long time, maybe even forever, even if just a little bit. What I’m trying to say is that I’ll never forget it, and I know that is normal.

But what I’d rather focus on in this blog post is the love of our friends & family we’ve received during this tragic event. We really debated whether or not to share the news about this, but in the end, we decided we wanted our good friends to know and we needed the prayer support. This is a corporate thank you to all of you who have been thinking about us and praying for us, your kind words in your emails, and for those special few who sent cards, flowers, and made meals for us. You are greatly appreciated!!

And even more important than our dear friends, is our loving and caring Heavenly Father. Through this He has been faithful to us, comforting us, healing us, providing us with hope and grace. I know that we as God’s children experience these things daily, but they seem to be much more evident in difficult times like these.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (look it up!)

Ringing in the New Year - in Oklahoma!

This past weekend we got to celebrate Christmas #2 with Bobby’s family in Oklahoma. We arrived late Friday night and came back to St Louis Monday afternoon, so it was another quick weekend getaway. The plane tickets may have been $314, but being with family on New Years was priceless. How about that for cheesiness!?! It is true though.

Saturday afternoon we got to eat lunch with Bobby’s aunt, uncle, & two cousins at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Ted’s. Ok, so normally I don’t really get that excited about Mexican food, but even I love that place – they completely lavish you with chips & cheese dip (and salsa, but who cares about that?!) and keep refilling them to your heart’s content. The service is great and the food is better. And to top it all off, we got sopapillas! Yum!! Saturday night we had a big turkey dinner and opened presents. Sunday morning was a wonderful church service at Heritage PCA, followed by family portraits at Walmart. The rest of the day was spent eating, visiting, playing games, and of course watching the ball drop in NYC at 11:00 pm central time – that anticlimactic event I’ve had to deal with for 4 years now.

Monday afternoon we were all dressed in our official Fiesta Bowl t-shirts

but Bobby and I had to fly back to St Louis to watch the game. And that is what we did – until after midnight! I still can’t believe OU lost, but wow, what a game!!

Christmas on the farm

We had the great privilege of spending Christmas weekend in southwestern Pennsylvania at my Aunt Traci & Uncle Jack's farm. We arrived Saturday afternoon and Bobby was whisked off to Hunting Hills where he got to enjoy shooting some birds. Meanwhile the ladies went to a candlelight service at a little country church. Then we all met up for dinner that evening. Sunday was nice and relaxing, and I was excited about getting to see the Steelers play, but the game was a major disappointment. Monday morning was a blast, more family & friends arrived, we had a delicious brunch and opened a bountiful amount of presents! Then we left the farm, drove two hours north to New Castle to exchange more presents and visit my mom's side of the family. The bad part was getting to bed late and waking up at 5:00 am (yes, that's 4:00 central time) to fly back to St Louis so that I could go to work... but hey, let's not focus on the negative! Here are some pictures from the weekend:


Bobby and his birds


















The Hammond family Christmas photo


















One of my favorite presents this year - my mom had my wedding gown preserved. Only to be taken out of the box when I have a daughter to try it on someday. Or if I have a mid-life crisis and get determined to fit back in it!

















And this picture is just to prove that we really were on a farm... Pattycake the Pig, running up the steps because it's feedin' time! Isn't she adorable?!

Party Season

'Tis the season for parties & open houses, and fortunately other people have been hosting them so I haven't had to! True, I do love entertaining, but it really is nice when we can go to other people's houses and enjoy their clean, inviting homes and eat all of their food.

This past Saturday, our neighbors that live on the other side of our ceiling, Currie & Abby, had a fun little gathering. Unfortunately though, only one picture was taken all night, but it's a good one!

Here is Jessica, me, Abby & Joy - all seminary wives. Jess and her husband, BJ, don't live in Atherton yet, but they hope to soon.

Last week we got to go to another party. Technically it wasn't a "Christmas" party, it was actually a going-away party for our dear friends, the Zellners. We are very sad to say good-bye to them. Eric & I worked together at my first job here in St Louis - while I was running errands & doing laundry all day, he got to do all the cleaning - lucky guy! It was great to get to know him, his wife, Susan, and their two precious girls, Olivia & Emma Frances, well over the past 3 1/2 years. Wow, has it been that long?!

18 days until Christmas

We put our Christmas tree up this past weekend and I wanted to show it off.



















Here is our Nativity - notice, the wise men are far away.















Bunny's favorite winter activity is to wreck havoc on the tree skirt so I tried to capture that for all to see. Whenever we start playing with her, she goes directly to the tree skirt and won't play until we come over there.

Winter Storm Hits the Midwest

I really thought I would not make it home from work last night. Give me a foot or two of snow and I can plow right through it, even in my little Altima, but hit us with sleet and freezing rain and two inches of ice, and I'm a wreck (fortunately not literally). My new work hours are 11-8:30 and the sleet began around 9 am, I made it to work just fine, but my drive home last night (fortunately they let me leave at 6:15) was hazardous, to say the least! There was a layer of ice, snow drifts and slush all over the roads, and the lane markers were completely invisible. Every little movement I made, even at 15 mph, my tires were sliding all over the place, and my 9-mile commute took me over an hour - and I drive on some really major roads!

Beyond my experience, here are some highlights of the storm's impact on St Louis:

• 500,000 customers are without power
• one of the major highways here (I-70) was shut down for awhile
• Metrolink (train) was inoperable this morning
• more than 1000 travelers stranded in Lambert Airport
  

Thankfully the sleet stopped sometime during the night and we woke up this morning to a winter wonderland! We were "supposed" to get 6-10 inches of snow, but only got 1-2. Normally I would be disappointed about that, but since there was 2 inches of ice underneath, I was happy with just a little more than a dusting this time. I am grateful now for the pretty sunshine that has come out and given us a relief from the precipitation so that the road crews can catch up and keep my roadways clear!

Every year

I have such a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit. I don't know if it's because I love fall & Thanksgiving so much and it's hard to let go of that season, because there is no snow yet (and it's 70 degrees outside!), or if it's because of the over-commercialization of Christmas that by the time it gets here, I'm sick of seeing Christmas decorations and Christmas songs. But whatever the reason, it happens every year. I don't want to get out the tree, the garland, the lights, the CDs... but I do it anyway, and you know what, the magic of the season eventually gets me and all of a sudden I'm little miss Christmas-girl.

But right now, on November 29th, I'm just not there yet... but then again, I hear snow is on the way... Better start bringing up the boxes from the basement, Bobby!!