I have a great bit of news to share....my sister Stephanie is pregnant! She and Brian are expecting their little bundle of joy to arrive in late August or early September. Congrats to you two! You'll be awesome parents!
Also, my youngest sister, Andrea, is nearing her due date rapidly for her little Olivia Jane. Our family is growing by leaps and bounds!
I have made a few resolutions for the New Year:
- Be more organized than last year (an on-going resolution for me)
- Be more adventurous in my cooking, trying new recipes more frequently
- Be more patient (the terrible-twos are upon me!!!)
- Continue to keep in touch with friends and family (snail mail ahoy!)
- Include more healthy foods and activities in my daily life
Our Christmas tree came down on New Year's Eve. It was drying out faster that we hoped, and Samuel managed to start pulling light strings off anyhow. We're still finding pine needles almost everywhere, even though we've vaccumed a few times since the tree went bye-bye. It is so annoying to step unknowingly on those, especially barefoot (which is often -- we don't wear shoes in the house). Hopefully any stray pine needles will be vacuumed or otherwise found within the next few days....
Another bit of good news, however odd: My company awarded me a prize for being passionate in my job. Our company's mission sttement has five key values: Passion, Urgency, Integrity, Standards, Focus. Twice a year, one employee is chosen as exemplifying one of the five key values. Store or corporate employees nominate candidates, and the "winners" are tallied. For the second half of 2006, I was voted for my PASSION in my work. I try to be as in to my job as I can possibly be. I mean, it IS only a grocery store service counter, but I do deal a lot with the public, money in varouis forms, and securtiy issues for the company....so it DOES matter quite a bit to me. Especially since I've been working here for nearly a decade.....(ugh, did I really just put that in writing?!) Apparently, others have taken notice, and voted for / nominated me for the award. Not too shabby!
We've been having a mild winter here in StL, aside from that ice storm we had that knock power out for most of the metro area. But now it is getting bitterly cold outside, and another potential ice storm is approaching for this weekend. Working in the grocery industry, the public has been incited to near-panic, buying huge quantities of firewood, canned soups and bread, milk, eggs, etc. We'll be busy, all of us here in the StL grocery industry. I understand folks want to be prepared for an emergency, but panic only feeds frustration and more panic. People just need to slow down and think things through, show common-courtesey to your neighbor, and calm down a smidge.
I've been working now for the past eight days straight.....and am feeling drained. I'm off work for the next two days, and plan to make big warm hearty meals for dinner and enough for leftovers. I've got a great recipe for Baked Potato Soup (tomorrow's dinner) and an EasyApple Cake for dessert (also tomorrow). Both can be found at the webpage for Penzey's Spices; just click on their link for recipes. I love Penzey's. They have a local shop, so I don't have to order through the catalogue, but the catalogues are very informative, and have recipes, too, which is why I continue to request its delivery.... Check them out!
It is time for me to get to some housework. And Sam needs a juice refill. I hope everyone's year is starting off on a positive note!
2 comments:
Did you get a cash prize with that prize? Congrats, that's awesome!
I like your resolutions. They are quite similar to my own!! ;-)
Eight days straight???????? I would die.
The prize (now this is the lame part) is a $10 gift card to the store, accompanied by a Letter of Recognition. I told my manager the other day that I could show more passion and other of our mission statement qualities if the prize were more substantial. His reply was equally blunt, but I will not discuss that here. Use your imaginations, folks....
I've enjoyed may two days off. Yesterday I did nothing but surf the internet, and tend to Sam stuff as usual. And then a last minute load of laundry right before bed. Today I've been cooking like a mad woman (a mad half-white, half philipino woman) to make some easily re-heatable (i.e. over our Weber kettle) in case of a power outage, so we can survive on decent food for a while.
Gosh, Am, I should've just sent you a separate e-mail!
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