Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. We sure have a lot to be thankful for. God sure is good and there has been blessings all around.

Johnny and Laura got to come up this year to celebrate with us! Sean and Asia were beside themselves, Asia especially about their arrival. They got here yesterday evening. Scott had a big fire out back and they hung out at the pit for a bit while I finished up in the kitchen with my prep work.

We had appetizers at 11 for about an hour. I put them away at noon so we wouldn't be too full for dinner. And we did save some for Kim and JJ to enjoy before we ate. And yes there are five pies on the counter. I ended up making 2 cherry, an apple, sweet potato and a chocolate pecan pie. And I made 2 cherry pies because I feared I had messed the first one up so I made another just to be sure.

JJ and Kim got here one after the other, Kim near 1 and JJ about 1:30. It was really good seeing both of them. So while I finished cooking we hung out and chatted and everybody got to catch up with the two of them.


After we ate, JJ passed out on the couch but he didn't get to sleep long. We sat down for pie and coffee. But J opened one eye, saw where we all were and opted to get more shut eye instead. I guess he figures he knows where to find them (pies) when he needed them.


So Kim had to head out since she was doing Thanksgiving with Kendle's family too. So we got the basket out and we all decorated the tree together. Now the house is festive, like it wasn't before. But now it's all done, sans the lights on the roof of the house. I didn't crawl up on the roof this year. But that's okay. It means less work for me.

Anyway, everybody is asleep now. I'm still up, dead tired but happy. And tomorrow will be a new day.

Spring Rollout Celebration


We had a celebration at work. It was actually at the Legacy Theater in Tyrone GA and it was a semi-formal affair. Most of us wore business atire. But the execs that were part of the "show" were dressed to the nine.

The presentaion was formated like the Oscars which was pretty funny. We had "Joan Rivers and Kojo" there on the Red Carpet. The Ocar nominees were presented and the execs presented the statues to the award winners. It was a fun way to see how all of our work together produced such a successful rollout of new and improved products.

After the ceremony, the "after party" was held and we had desserts and punch and pictures galore. Anyone who had a part of the rollout was there, even vendors as far away as New York came to be part of it.



If you start at me and go in an "M", the people are Angela Canada -senior developer, Stephanie Smith-contractor, Lisa Emily-contractor, Maria Mateu-contrator at top,Tammy Baker-contractor and Shona's sister, Shona Jonson-senior developer and my boss. And then Carrie is at the bottom directly in front in the middle of the group.

In the upper picture, the other people are Emily Wise in the green, Christy Cook in the black and white dress, Jason Cannon who runs the Tech Center kitchen is in the gold blazer and Derrick is in the back and he runs the FRL training kitchen at work.

At the end of it, some of my coworkers and I went to Upscale, a new establishment that Truett Cathy, our founder, created. And once we sat down, he actually came in. He hadn't been into the restaurant for awhile so we came at the perfect time. His assistant recongnized all of us and brought Truett to our table. We got to speak to him briefly and got our picture taken with him.


I can hardly wait for the Christams celebration. It's only a couple weeks away and it's going to be held in the Egyptian Ballroom at the Fox. I'm so excited since I've never been to the Fox before. And this one is a formal so Scott will have to wear a suit for this one. You know I'll be taking some pictures that night. :) But this one will be great since spouses are allowed to attend.

Rock Eagle


Sean's 3rd grade class had an overnight field trip to Rock Eagle 4H camp. We left on a Tuesday morning and came back home Wednesday afternoon. When we arrived, we checked into the cabins, ate lunch and then the classes broke off into core groups for the activities. The boy Sean is sitting next to in the white tee is Michael Bell. He's a boy in his class and football team.

Rock Eagle is actually and old pioneer site that used be an Indian stomping ground. But when pioneers settled there and had their farms etc. they preserved the Rock Eagle that the Indians had created long ago. It was pretty intersting.



But the kids learned herpetology, and got to see some really neat snakes and amphibians. They learned about pioneer tools and got to use some of the tools that were used long ago.



And then the funnest part of the trip in my opionion was when the kids learned how to canoe. Sean and I were on the lake for a good hour and we went on a scavenger hunt while out there. We saw some pretty cool wildlife like a Silver Herring, different ducks and some vegitation. We never did see the turtles though.





It was a bit painful (literally) eating the camp food. At one point, Sean said, "Mama, I can't eat this anymore." But hey, what can you say? It's camp food. I did however did escape with one of the mothers and we ate out on Tuesday night for dinner. We were back in time for the trading post for the boys to get a couple things.

But Sean and I had a great time going. It was great for me since I never really get a chance to do stuff with just the two of us. Scott is usually the one who gets to do all of the fun stuff. So I was really excited when Sean said that he wanted me to go with him this time. It was pretty special.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Sean dressed up as the incredible hulk and Asia was a Barbie cheerleader.

We met up with the Tucker boys and we went trick or treating in a neighborhood near their home. I remembered how much candy we used to get when we were kids so I was prepared. I grabbed on of my chick-fil-a bags to dump the candy into as we went from house to house.


Well we got started and 30 minutes later all the kids but Kyle were ready to go home! Kim and I tried to talk them into walking a bit longer but they weren't interested in getting any more exercise than they already had. So the kids got the candy that they wanted but we definitely put them to shame when we were kids.

But we had a lot of fun, stayed up late, and then the boys came and spent the weekend with us.

We had a parade of nations at school on Friday, Halloween day. First thing in the morning the entire elementary went on parade through the school.



Sean's class studied Germany and Asia was an American farmer. Both of them had fun activities at school during the week. And Sean got to eat some German food at school. A parent came and cooked for the student.



Once the parade was finished, we all went into the auditorium to hear a chorus group from Korea. The children were between 8 to 13. The very first song was Ari Rung. I was amazed that I remembered some of the words that Sung Yung Back had written out for me long ago at RF. The girls did a beautiful fan dance. Then after that, the chorus group came out and sang traditional hymns. It was pretty special.