So, a month has gone by in the new job, and it seems like a dream. I can only thank God and pray that it continues to be a good career, with many future blessings. I went to Tucson in the middle of November with Team in Training as a Staff person, and had an amazing time. I think I had a total of 3 hours free time, but it was well worth it. The team did an amazing job (they raised over $100,000 with only 19 people for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and each one of them finished well under the time limit for closing the course). There were a few logistical things that were hectic (rental cars being foremost) but all things considered, for my first event, it went well.
It was kind of strange for me because it was the first
time that I ever left my wife at home for more than 2 days on business. She's had professional development, trips to see her family in Hudson, and a few others that I couldn't attend with her because of my retail schedule, but now I have crazy flexibility. And with the flexibility, I have the tremendous blessing of being with my wife all throughout the week and all weekend. I've seen more of her in the past month than I did in our first three years of marriage. God is Awesome.
I will end with some cool pictures, and my Greg Lemond story (for those of you that don't know, Lemond was the first American to win the Tour De France and has a brand of bicycles named after him). At the beginning of the Tour De Tucson, the elite riders were given about a 5 minute head start. Greg pulled up in an SUV literally about 10 feet away from me and another
southern Ohio staff member after those riders had already left the gate. When we finished snapping pictures of him, we asked if there was anything we could help with (since he was already more than 5 minutes late for the start of the race). He handed my coworker the keys to his SUV and asked her to give them to the race director so that it wouldn't get towed. (And yes, that is him in the picture to the left.)
BTW, for those snooty LA types that used to room with me, my brush with fame may seem trite, but to the rest of you midwesterners, it was pretty dang cool. ;) Peace Out.
- Papa E
I also had my last shower over the weekend and my creative friends and family decorated some onesies for Cate. Here they are:
I have the awesome-est family and friends ever and I can't wait to bring Cate into a world where she is going to be totally loved by all of them. :-)
Paintbrush cookies were a staple at Christmas time in the White house. It was fun to pick out the shapes we wanted and then with painstaking elementary school concentration, paint our cookies (just a plain cookie dough) with "paint" (made from egg yolk and food coloring). Then we'd take them home (we usually made them with my cousins at my grandma's house), each kid with their own tin full of cookies they had painted. I've always talked about them and how Eric and I should make them, but we've never gotten around to it.
surprise...her and my Uncle Dave had made the dough for Paintbrush cookies and we were going to get to make some. Yum! While we weren't as attentive to detail as I was when I was a kid, it was still really fun to make them together. They still turned out just as yummy, and even though Cate's artistic talents may not be fully bloomed as an 11 month old, we're excited to introduce the tradition to her next Christmas too. Hey, my brother's first painted cookie ended up being a red, doughy blob (it was supposed to be a truck), but it still tasted terrific to him.
Another tradition we'll be able to start next year is the advent calendar. My mom, aunt, and grandma all had the same homemade advent calendar with a Christmas tree on it. You hang it on the wall and below the tree are 24 little pockets to fill with small ornaments that you hang on the tree (it has buttons to do this). As a kid, my brother, sister, and I took turns hanging up the ornaments each day in December and fighting over who got to hang up Christmas Eve, the last ornament and always the angel that went at the top. My grandmother surprised us this year by giving us her advent calendar ("the original" as my mom calls it) for Christmas this year. She said it's no fun to do it by herself anymore and figured that we'd have fun bringing it to our house and hanging up the tiny ornaments with Cate and with Cate's brother or sister (someday). We absolutely love it and can't wait to put it up next December :-)
time that I ever left my wife at home for more than 2 days on business. She's had professional development, trips to see her family in Hudson, and a few others that I couldn't attend with her because of my retail schedule, but now I have crazy flexibility. And with the flexibility, I have the tremendous blessing of being with my wife all throughout the week and all weekend. I've seen more of her in the past month than I did in our first three years of marriage. God is Awesome.
southern Ohio staff member after those riders had already left the gate. When we finished snapping pictures of him, we asked if there was anything we could help with (since he was already more than 5 minutes late for the start of the race). He handed my coworker the keys to his SUV and asked her to give them to the race director so that it wouldn't get towed. (And yes, that is him in the picture to the left.)