Have yourself a merry little Christmas…

I have been doing a lot of reading lately (The Johnstown Flood and the Great Bridge by David McCullough – I highly recommend either book – and the Anne of Green Gables Series – I had to stop after the 6^th book, I couldn't read the 7^th and 8^th.  I am sorry if you like them, but they lost their charm for me.  I really enjoyed the first 3 books and even sort of liked the 4^th book, which was mostly letter from Anne to Gilbert while he was at med school, but after that, the books just get more and more unbelievable and feel contrived).  I notice a trend in my life, quilt for a while, read for a while, or cook for a while.  I can't seem to be able to do a healthy balance of those activities.  Maybe I will be able to pull it off once this lab that I am teaching ends and I have a little more free time. 

Last weekend Jared and I decorated the house for Christmas!  I love the way the house looks during the Christmas season.  We pull out our Christmas quilts, table runner, and tree skirt (all made by us, except one quilt from Mrs. Shelton).  I have my little wooden spinning nativity from Germany (love love love) and Jared has his Swedish chimes from Sweden (they both turn around when you light candles under them).   We have our Willow Tree Nativity from the Lunas (thank you thank you). Jared has countless Charlie Brown and Snoopy characters that he sets around (some of them sing and make noise, others sit around looking pretty).  Jared wants to name a child Linus someday… hmmmm.  There are two sets of Christmas dishes that come out and are put on display in the cabinet in our living room (each has its own unique snowman on it), bowls, plates, mugs, and dessert plates. Jared has this HUGE abdominal snow man, from Rudolph, made by Jim Shore, which Hannah gave him.  It is awesome.  Jared thinks it is hilarious to stick it behind the Willow Creek Nativity scene, as if it is sneaking up on them. I find it like that from time to time and have to move it.  Maybe I will get my camera out and take pictures . ha ha ha.  It isn't the taking pictures that I fail at doing, it is the uploading them to the internet. 

Tonight, I have to go to the dentist (to replace a filling that I pulled out while flossing on Saturday night), to the gym, and to the grocery store.  If I have any extra time, I will clean the house and start a new quilt that I have been dreaming about.  I think the plan is a little ambitious, but it is better to dream big. 

I hope your thanksgiving was lovely.  I had an awesome thanksgiving; I agree with my mother, the more the merrier.  She had 20+ people over and we feasted on all sorts of delicious foods.  Yum.  I ate leftovers for 5 days (I finished the last leftovers at lunch yesterday).  It was amazing.  Thanksgiving food never gets old to me.  I am so thankful for my family and my extended family.  J     

Dallas - plan

So I am planning my trip (cough cough food) to Dallas.  Here is where I am visiting so far. ha.

Babe's Chicken Dinner House
LOOK AT THIS MENU (all you can eat sides - what?!? - I am looking forward to some fried catfish and some fried chicken)
Babe's Arlington Menu

Main Dishes
Fried Chicken
Chicken Fried Steak
Fried Chicken Tenders Smoked Chicken
Fried Catfish
Pot Roast

Vegetables & Breads
Mashed Potatoes
Cream Gravy
Green Beans
Green Salad
Grandma's Corn
Homemade Biscuits

Desserts
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie
Coconut Meringue Pie
Banana Pudding
Pineapple Upside-down Cake
Sugar-free Apple Cobbler

In-N-Out Burgers
Animal Fries
All my favorite food blogs say that it beats the pants off Five Guys and is half the price.
Enough Said

Cheesecake Factory
I ate there three times while I was in Chicago - I know ... sad.  I should have tried some Chicago pizza or something, but it was almost an hour from my hotel.  There food may be better than there cheesecake, if that is even possible.

Dallas

I am headed to Dallas in December.  Do you have any suggestion on anything that I should do while I am there?  I looked to see if there were any plays or concerts in the area the week that I am there, but there aren't.  I really wanted to see the Messiah, but it is showing the week before I am there.  Anyhow, if you have any suggestions, leave me a comment.  :)

My new coworker brought me real Mexican food today that his wife had made.  Yum yum yum.  Did you know there are over 40 ingredients in mole (mole-aye) sauce? I am trying to convince him to come to thanksgiving at my parents; I think it will be a lot of fun if he and his wife come.

I have a really funny story about our HR department, but I really shouldn't blog about it.  It was like being on the Office, but even more ridiculous. Basically, it came down to the HR department complaining about me helping them out.  :D  I can't begin to tell you how funny it is and I wish I could blog about things like this, but I know I would get in major trouble.  ha.  If you want the details, I may be persuaded to talk about it offline (that is a word that has dropped in my vocabulary from work - "let's talk about this offline", I have also started saying, "what are the action items that we can take away?" or "today's take away points are...", oh work).

I am thankful, very thankful, for my 4 day weekend and all the good food that I will partake in this weekend and all the great people that I will see.  I love you all.  I wish I could see my entire family (Hannah and Linnea and company) too, but I will have to be content with the 4 siblings and parents and my in-laws and niece and nephews. 

Lastly, happy late birthday to the best Dad in the whole world and my little, baby sister, Sarah.  I love you both.

Anne of Green Gables

As some of you know, I have been reading the Anne of Green Gables series over the past month or so.  I LOVED the first book, enjoyed the second book, and really liked most of the third book.  The fourth book was way to contrived and the fifth book even more so.  I was extremely disappointed in the plot for the 4th and 5th book because Anne makes everything in the world right by just being there.  Life doesn't work out that way and it started to annoy me.  She sets up 6 or 7 different couples together in the 4th book and plus, Gilbert isn't ever in it. I am currently reading the 6th book (just started).  I will let you know an update after I finish.  I highly recommend reading the first 3.  After that, I could take them or leave them, but now that I have started I am going to finish them.  ha. 

Ha.  I was telling Jared about them and how much better the writing was in the first two and he said, "she probably didn't even write the rest of them."  To quote several characters in the 5th and 6th book, "isn't that just like a man?"

Last part for Anne of the Island

They lingered in the old garden until twilight, sweet as dusk in Eden must have been, crept over it.  There was so much to talk over and recall - things said and done and heard and thought and felt and misunderstood.

"I thought you loved Christine Stuart," Anne told him, as reproachfully as if she had not given him every reason to suppose that she loved Roy Gardner.

Gilbery laughed boyishly. "Christine was engaged to somebody in her home town. I knew it and she knew I knew it.  When her brother graduated he told me his sister was coming to Kingsport the next winter to take music, and asked me if I would look after her a bit, as she knew no one and would be very lonely.  So I did.  And then I liked Christine forher own sake.  She is one of the nicest girls I've ever known.  I knew college gossip credited us with being in love with each other.  I didn't care.  Nothing mattered much to me for a time there after you told me you could never love me, Anne. There was nobody else - there never could be anybody else for me but you.  I've loved you since that day you broke your slate over my head in school."

"I don't see how you could keep loving me when I was such a little fool," said Anne.

"Well, I tried to stop," said Gilbert frankly, "not becuase I thought you what you call yourself, but because I felt sure there was no chance for me after Gardner came on te scene.  But I couldn't - and I can't tell you, either, what it;s meant to me these two years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced.  I believed it until one blessed day when I was sitting up after the fever.  I got a letter from Phil Gordon - Phil Blake, rather - in which she told me there was really nothing between you and Roy, and advised me to 'try again.' Well the doctor was amazed at my rapid recovery after that."

Anne laughed - then shivered. "I can never forget the night I thought you were dying, Gilbert.  Oh, I knew - I knew then - and I thought it was too late."

"But it wasn't, sweetheart. Oh, Anne, this makes up for everything, doesn't it? Let's resolve to keep this day sacred to perfect beauty all our lives for the gift it has given us."

"It is the birthday of our happiness," said Anne softly.  I've always loved this old garden of Hestor Gray's, and now it will be dearer than ever."

"But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert sadly.  "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course.  And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls."

Anne laughed. "I don't want sunbursts or marble halls. I just want you."

More parts from Anne of the Island

When Gilbert came the next afternoon he found Anne waiting for him, fresh as the dawn and fair as a star, after all the gaiety of the preceding night. She wore a green dress - not the one she had worn to the wedding, but an old one which Gilbert had told her at a Redmond (their college) reception, he liked especially.  It was just the shade of green that brought out the rich tints of her hair, and the starry gray of her eyes and the iris like delicacy of her skin. Gilbert, glancing at her sideways as they walked along a shadowy woodpath, thought she had never looked so lovely. Anne, glancing sideways at Gilbert, now and then, thought how much older he looked since his illness.  It was as if he had put boyhood behind him forever.

The day was beautiful and the way was beautiful. Anne was almost sorry when they reached Hester Gray's garden and sat down on the old bench.  But it was beautiful there, too - as beautiful as it had been on the far-away day of the Golden Picnic, when Diana and Jane and Priscilla and she had found it.  Then it had been lovely with narcissus and violets; not goldenrod had kindled its fairy torches in the corners and asters dotted it bluely.  The call of the brook came up through the woods from the valley of birches with all its old allurement; the mellow air was full of the purr of the sea; beyond were fields rimmed by fences bleached silvery gray in the suns of many summers, and the long hills scarfed with the shadows of autumnal clouds; with the blowing of the west wind old dreams returned.

"I think," said Anne softly, "that the land where dreams come true is in the blue haze yonder, over that little valley."

"Have you any unfulfilled dreams, Anne?" asked Gilbert.

Something in his tone - something she had not heard since that miserable evening in the orchard at Patty's Place - made Anne's heart beat wildly. But she made answer lightly. "Of course. Everyone has. It wouldn't do for us to have all our dreams fulfilled. We would be as good as dead  if we had nothing left to dream about.  What a delicious aroma that low-descending sun is extracting from the asters and ferns.  I wish we could see perfumes as well as smell them.  I'm sure they would be beautiful."

Gilbert was not to be thus sidetracked.  "I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends - and you!"

Anne wanted to speak but she could find no words. Happiness was breaking over her like a wave.  It almost frightened her.

"I asked you a question over two years ago, Anne. If I ask it again today will you give me a different answer?"

Still Anne could not speak. But she lifted her eyes, shining with all the love-rapture of countless generations, and looked into his for a moment.  He wanted no other answer.

Psalm 139 (ESV)

 

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

 

I praise God for his grace and goodness in my life.  He works all things to His glory.  Wonderful are his works; I know it full well.  Gracious and merciful is He.  There are so days that His goodness and mercy overwhelms me; today is one of those days.  Today I feel like I can truely say, "I know it full well." and "It is well with my soul!"  Somedays I feel like I am just gliding by, but then God tosses things in your path that you have to trust him fully for. I am thankful for those things that bring me closer to God and allow me to know more riches His grace.

Another section from Anne of the island

This is after Anne has refused Gilbert (two years ago - last blog post) and is basically engaged to another person (he actually asks her to marry him and at that moment she realizes she loves Gilbert, but he is supposedly getting engaged to Christine sometime soon (so says everyone at college)).  Anne graduates and goes home to Avonlea and then goes to visit some friends for three weeks.  When she returns she finds out that Gilbert was sick the entire time and has almost died.  She spends the whole night crying until she sees the hired man and asks him how Gilbert is. To which she thinks, "Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning."

"I've come up to ask you to go for one of our old-time rambles through September woods and over hills where spices grown this afternoon," said Gilbert, coming suddenly around the porch corner. "Suppose we vist Hester Gray's garden."

Anne, sitting on the stone step with her lab full of pale, filmy, green stuff looked up rather blankly. "Oh, I wish I could,"  she said slowly, "but I really can't Gilbert. I'm going to Alice Penhallow's wedding this evening, you know.  I've got to do something to this dress, and by the time it's finished I'll have to get ready.  I'm so sorry. I'd love to go."

"Well, can you go tomorrow afternoon, then?"

"Yes, I think so."

"In that case I shall hie me home at one to do something I should otherwise have to do tomorrow. So Alice Penhallow is to be married tonight.  Three weddings for you, in one summer, Anne - Phil's, Alice's, and Jane;s.  I'll never forgive Jane for not inviting me to her wedding."

"You really can't blame her when you think of the tremendous Andrews connection who had to be invited. The house could hardly hold them all.  I was only bidden by grace of being Jane's old chum - at least on Jame's part.  I think Mrs. Harmon's motive for inviting me was to let me see Jane's surpassing gorgeeousness.

"Is it true that she wore so many diamonds that you couldn't tell where the diamonds left off and Jane began?"

Anne laughed. "She certainly wore a good many. what with all the diamonds and white satin and tulle and lace and roses and orange blossoms, prim little Jane was almost lost to sight. But she was  very happy and so was Mr. Inglis - and so was Mrs. Harmon."

"Is that the dress you're going to wear tonight?" asked Gilbert looking down at the fluffs and frills.

"Yes, isn't it pretty? And I shall wear starflowers in my hair. The haunted woods is full of them this summer."

Gilbert had a sudden vision of Anne, arrayed in a frilly green gown, with the virginal curves of arms and throat slipping out of it, and white stars shining against the coils of her ruddy hair. The vision made him catch his breath. But he turned lightly away. "Well, I'll be up tomorrow. Hope you'll have a nice time tonight."

Anne looked after him as he strode away, and sighed. Gilbert was friendly - very friendly - far too friendly.  He had come quite often to Green Gables after his recovery, and something of their old comradeship had returned.  But Anne no longer found it satisfying.  The rose of love made the blossom of friendship pale and scentless by contrast.  And Anne had again begun to doubt if Gilbert now felt anything for her but friendship. In the common light of common day her radiant certainty of the rapt morning had faded. She was haunted by a miserable fear that her mistake could never be rectified.  It was quite likely that it was Christine whom Gilbert loved after all. Perhaps he was even engaged to her.  Anne tried to put all unsettling hopes out of her heart, and reconcile herself to a future where work and ambition must take the place of love. She could do good, if not noble, work as a teacher; and the success her little sketches were beginning to meet with in certain editorial sanctums augured well for her budding literary dreams.  But - but - Anne picked up her green dress and sighed again.

Some sections from Anne of the Island

This is Gilbert's proposal (end of sophmore year at college):

Gilbert sat down beside her on the boulder and held out the mayflowers.
"Dont't these remind you of home and our old schoolday picnics, Anne?"

Anne took them and buried her face in them.
"I'm in Mr Silas Sloanne's barrens this very minute," she said rapturously

"I suppose you will be there in reality in a few days?"

"No, not for a fortnight. I am going to visit with Phil in Bolingbroke before I go home. You'll be in Avonlea before I will."

"No, I shall not be in Avonlea at all ths summer, Anne.  I've been offereed a job in the Daily News office and I'm going to take it."

"Oh," Anne said vaguely. She wondered what a whole Avonlea summer would be like without Gilbert. Somehow she did not like the prospect. "Well," she concluded flatly, "it is a good thing for you, of course.:

"Yes, I have been hoping I would get it.  It will help with next year."

"You mustn't work too hard," said Anne, without any very clear idea of what she was saying. She wished desperatedly that Phil would come out. "You've studied very constantly this winter. Isn't this a delightful evening? Do you know, I found a cluster of white violets under that old twisted tree over there today? I felt if I had discovered a gold mine."

"You are always discovering gold mines," Gilbert said -- also absently.

"Let us go and see if we can find some more," suggested Anne eagerly, "I'll call Phil and -"

"Nevermind Phil and the violets just now, Anne" said Gilbert quickly taking her hand in a clasp from which she could not free it. "There is something I want to say to you."

"Oh, don't say it," cried Anne, pleadingly. "Don't -- please, Gilbert."

"I must. Things can't go on like this any longer. Anne, I love you. You know I do.  I - I can't tell you how much. Will you promise me that some day you'll be my wife?"

"I - I can't," said Anne miserably. "Oh Gilbert - you - you've spoiled everything."

"Don't you care for me at all?" Gilbert asked after a very dreadful pause, during which Anne had not dared to look up.

"Not - not in that way.  I do care a great deal for you, as a friend. But I don't love you, Gilbert."

"But can't you give me some hope that you will - yet?"

"No, I can't," exclaimed Anne desperately. "I never, never can lover you - in that way - Gilbert. You must never speak of this to me again."

There was another pause - so long and so dreadful that Anne was driven to at last look up.  Gilbert's face was white to the lips.  And his eyes - but Anne shuddered and looked away.  There was nothing romantic about this.  Must proposals be either grotesque or - horrible? Could she ever forget Gilbert's face?

"Is there anyone else?" he asked at last in a low voice.

"No - no," said Anne eagerly. "I don't care for any one like  that - and I like you better than anybody else in the world, Gilbert. And we must - we must go on being friends, Gilbert."

Gilbert gave a bitter little laugh. "Friends! Your friendship can't satisfy me, Anne. I want your love - and you tell me I can never have that."

"I am sorry. Forgive me, Gilbert," was all Anne could say.  Where, oh, where were all the gracious and graceful speeches wherewith in imagination, she had been wont to dismiss rejected suitors?

Gilbert gently released her hand.

"There is nothing to forgive.  There have been times that I thought you did care. I've deceived myself, that's all.  Goodbye, Anne."


Anne got herself to her room, sat down on her window seat behind the pines, and cried bitterly. She felt as if something incalculably precious had gone out of her life.  It was Gilbert's friendship, oh course. Oh, why must she list it after this fashion?

"What is the matter, honey?" asked Phil, coming through the moonlit gloom.

Anne did not answer. At that moment she wished Phil were a thousand miles away.

"I suppose you've gone and refused Gilbert Blythe.  You are an idiot, Anne Shirley!"

"Do you call it idiotic to refuse to marry a man I don't love?" said Anne coldly, goaded to reply.

"You don't know love when you see it.  You've tricked something out of your imagination that you think love, and you expect the real thing to look like that."

Thankful

I am thankful for:

* Skype (so I can see my sister Sarah)

* all my siblings (I have the best siblings and I love them all so much!)

* the Sunday School lesson on listening yesterday (I realize that even though most of the world does not listen well, I can listen to them and hopefully they will sense a difference in the way I listen.  Although, it could be frustrating to look at how often I am not listened to (or that lists of things I leave my employees sometimes do not get done exactly how I ask for them to be done), I choose to focus on the fact that I can learn to be a good listener.  I am thankful for a great book that my father and Mr. Seipp are teaching in Sunday School.  I am thankful that they are willing to teach up how to be peacemakers.  It is funny how simple listening can be and yet how hard it is at the same time.  God, make me a good listener for you.

My office (or half of it in pictures)

I have painted you a picture of my office (this is the latest layout as of Friday at 5 when I left, I have moved the office around 5 different times lately to fit more people in the office - we are up to 4 full time and 3 part time people right now.  It is so crowded that I can't have meetings in my office anymore - boo!). The door is that little squiggle on the upper left side.  John's desk is the one right next to the door on the left.  Mary's desk is squished between the storage cabinet and the filing drawers.   The interns get the desk between the sign maker and the printer.  I am in the corner next to the printer and Otho is directly behind me. 

 No a little doodle can only show you so much... Did I mention that the walls are half wood paneling and half painted dark red?  You can see them belong.  In the first picture my desk is turned facing the door; we had to move it to fit Otho in our office.  In the picture you can see my white board (hidden behind the wooden door - so old school) and the window that runs along the top of the wall (it runs almost to the sign maker). I now face the window (which is too high for me to look out, but it is natural light and I one of 4 offices in the plant to have a winder, so, I am thankful!!!!).

 This is where Otho's desk is now.  This is the other corner of the end of the office.  Here is one of the red walls (and an intern at the intern desk).

And here is where the intern desk is now... There is the end of my desk at the far left (it is now facing the wall).  There is the printer, Otho's old table (where the intern new desk is now), the sign maker, and John's chair. 

The carpet is so worn that my chair can move around extremely easily.  The joke in my office is to talk about how big it is because there used to be only one person who used to have this office.  I bet it seemed really big when there was one person in it.  ha. 

I found these pictures that my interns had taken and thought they would make an interesting post. So, when you picture me at work, here is my office. What does your work place look like?

Jared

As of Thursday night, I had worked 41 hours at my normal job and 4 hours at Salisbury University teaching (plus 2 hours grading labs).  I was so tired. I came home at 6:15 on Thursday and knew that we had to leave for our small group book study at 6:45 (starts at 7).  When I walked in the house, not only had Jared gone grocery shopping (and found my favorite brand of tea on sale), Jared had cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom and straightened up the rest of the house.  He is the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jared!!!  I love you. 

 

P.S. I have the best job in the entire world!!!!  I can't say enough about how much I LOVE MY JOB! 

P.P.S. I have the best husband (for me) in the entire world (and he is pretty cute too).  :)

3 meals from some super cheap chicken

Prep:
I bought a pack of chicken thighs for really cheap this week and didn't have time to do anything with them by the time they expired (they were cheap because they needed to be used that day - $0.75/lb - 10 thight for $4.30).  So I boiled them down with onions, parsley, and celery for a couple hours.  Then I picked the chicken off the bone and strained the juice to make chicken broth (homemade chicken broth is the best).  I chilled the chicken broth and them skimmed off the fat once it had hardened. 

Meal 1: Chicken and dumplings with biscuits
Used - chicken fat, chicken broth, chicken
From the chicken fat I made biscuits and dumplings.  Then I used some of the chicken broth and chicken to make chicken and dumplings.

Meal 2: Chicken Pot Pie
Use - chicken broth, chicken, and rest of dumpling dough (for crust)

Meal 3: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Use - chicken broth and chicken
Throw the following ingredients into a pot and let them cook down for an hour or so.
Ingredients
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 can crushed tomatoes (or equivalent chopped up tomatoes and tomato juice or some combination - I use whatever I have)
1-1/2 cup chicken broth (the recipe calls for 1 can condensed chicken broth and 1-1/4 cup water - again, use whatever you have on hand)
1 cup corn (I have used canned and frozen)
1 can black beans (drained)

I serve this with rice (sometimes), tortilla chips (UTZ yellow corn rounds are the best), cheese, sour cream, and green onions.

(the basic recipe came from Rachel Townsend, I had it at her house two Halloweens ago.  I have made a few minor substitutions because of what I have on hand)

So that is what I have cooking this week.  We had the chicken and dumplings on Saturday and Sunday.  Last night I did not cook dinner.  The soup should last us two or three days and I will break those days up by cooking the chicken pot pie.  Yum.   Jared and I love chicken.  And I still have some chicken broth left!! :)  I am thinking maybe cheese soup this weekend sometime... maybe.

It feels so wrong not to blog today (after 31 days).  So, I thought I would type in a short post.  Yesterday, for Halloween, I dressed up as an important person in a company leading tours of the plant to people from different countries.  After that I changed into university professor mode and taught two classes.  ha.  And then I realized that I wasn't dressed up for Halloween, but for life.  Isn't being grown up weird sometimes?  A lot of days I feel like I am playing at being older than I really am...  Does anyone else feel that way?

 

Today I am still thankful for my office staff (or some of them) and the huge help they are (most days).  And I am thankful for my mentors from the other plants that help my job go a lot smoother.