It's about time for an update!!

Ok so I've been a big blog slacker!! It's almost been 2 months since I've posted anything and trust me it's not been cause life has been boring and nothing to report!! Life has been anything but boring these last few months. So let me start at way back from November where I last left off....

After my road trip to see all my wonderful friends and their new babies things took off! November proved to be one of the busiest months ever for our office. We had a huge patient load and made the best numbers thus far in our short three year existence. So that alone kept me busy as I tried to learn how to handle more employees and more patients. I've had a couple issues with employees who aren't getting alone or pullng their weight so I've been learning alot about what I don't know as a supervisor and trying to learn really fast so I can deal with all this new found business.

As Thanksgiving approached things started to slow up a bit at work and got ready to head back to St. Louis for a whirlwind Thanksgiving trip. My parents really wanted to come to Kansas City to see my brother's new place and but my sister could not get off work. I decided to take the train home for a short 24 hours to enjoy turkey dinner with the family and then ride back to KC with my parents the next day to spend the long weekend with them and my brother. It was lots of fun to see everyone and get to hear all about my brother's recent trip to Africa! Below is a picture of part of the family on Thanksgiving night at my aunt's house.

Thanksgiving came and went and I started thinking that it was time to move on and get ready for Christmas...my favorite time of the year!! That very weekend my roomies and I all gathered together and set up our tree and decked out the house with lights and decor! We even decorated our deck with lights this year...sorry no pictures of that...maybe I'll get a shot before we dismantle everything. It was fun to get decorated and start feeling festive. I enjoyed watching all the classic Christmas movies as they come on tv. We made lots of fires in our fireplace as December entered with a blast of cold air and weekly gifts of snow/ice...argh!

The week before Christmas came really fast and all of a sudden I paniced...only a week til Chirstmas and only one present bought!! I had a couple parties that week and the kids program at church to help organize...whew! I had a stress out moment and then did what I do best...made a list of what had to be done when and plowed ahead. The presents all got bought after a few very frustrating shopping trips and the kids program at church went beautifully. Below is a picture of me, Lilly (on of the kiddos from church) and Veronica (corrdinator of children's ministry at church) the morning that the kids sang.

Once the program at church was finished I took a deep breath and realized....I am now offically on vacation!!! Nothing left to be responsible for just get packed and get on the road home! I spend Sunday doing laundry and wrapping presents. I got home safe and sound and settled in. In the week that I was home my sister, my mom, and I did two puzzles, baked lots of treats, and watched plently of old movies! It was ultra relaxing and I'm not quite sure how well I'm going to adjust to working again!

Christmas day was a blast! We had my mom's family over at our house and everyone was blessed with lots of presents!! My parents made out quite well this year....they are finally getting the pay back now that 2 out of the 3 of us are out of college and working full time. Saturday night we headed to my dad's sister's house for his family get together. It probably had been about 4 years since I had seen most of those folks and it was a blast to reconnect and see how all the second cousins have grown and changed!! I took about a billion pictures over the Chistmas weekend so I'll just post a couple of the better ones below.

Ok that is the last few months in a nutshell. I will try to do better about posting in the new year but I make no promises!! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Fall Road Trip

Last week I cut out of work for 3 days and headed west! This trip came at such a good time for many areas of my life. Things in life have been very busy. Work is just crazy busy which is awesome but tiring. I've had a roommate switch so things at home are busy. Things at church are always changing and growing which keeps me busy helping to meet the needs of the kids in our children's ministry. It was all becoming a bit overwhelming. I was getting to the breaking point! Each day seemed to be packed full of responsiblities and activies. I was quickly wearing out and knew that I had to get away before things started falling apart!

About 4 weeks ago one of my dearest friends had her first baby, Lawson. Getting away to visit them was a perfect solution to my worn out state. They happen to live very close to a couple of my other good friends so I hopped in my car and headed to central Kansas for a 4 day road trip. The whole trip proved to be very relaxing and peaceful...granted I did loss some sleep with all the babies not quite sleeping through the night ;-) It was nice to get away from the hussle and bussle of daily life and I have to say it was really nice to have a few days where I wasn't in charge of something or someone. Don't get me wrong I love my job and my church and my roommates but being responsible and in charge of all those things is sometimes a bit over rated!

Visiting my two friends and their babies also brought some very good perspective and appreciation to my current state of life. I've always dreamed of the day I get to be a mom and spend my days raising my kids. I still dream of that day and feel that that's the real job I've been created to do. But since I'm no where near that point of life now...this trip helped me realize how grateful I am that I have the chance to travel, work, be involved at church and so much more. I love that I'm free to do as I please and spend time helping others and serving at church, work, and home. The trip made me remember to love the time of life that I'm currently in and never wish away the present for the future. God is so good and I'm blessed beyond what I need. What more could I really ask for!

Okay here are some pictures of the babies and Auntie Han!

This one is me with my friend Bitty's baby Lawson....he is so adorable!!

This one is of me with my friend Sara's baby Leah at 8 months....she is getting so big!

Fall Fun

Whew....it's been a busy Fall thus far but it's been a lot of fun! I've been all over KC doing all sorts of fall activities. I attribute all these fun activities to my friends cause on my own I never would have thought of all these cool things to do.

A couple weeks ago some friends of mine, from church, took me to the corn maze in Gardner, KS. I had never been to a corn maze and it proved to be lots of fun! We had some little kiddos with us which made it even more fun. They were so excited to find their way through the maze and I was glad they were paying attention cause I would have gotten us lost on my own!! After going through the maze we indulged in some yummy kettle corn...perfect fall treat!

The next trip was with my friends Sarah and Leslie. We again headed to Gardner, KS (it's the happening place for fall activities!) to the Wagon Wheel Orchard. It was a newer orchard that had apple trees and a pumpkin patch. This trip brought back many found memories of picking apples with my family as a kid. I got to pick out a pumpkin right from the vine for the very first time on this trip! I haven't carved it yet..not sure if that will be happening or not. ;-) I got a bag of very nice fresh apples now on my counter...I really want to make applesauce out of them, but again not sure if I'll get to that or not.

My next adventure was last night....me and a bunch of my friends went down to the American Royal Rodeo!! We got awesome seats in the front row which was great, but a bit dusty! The Anheuser Busch Cycadales were part of the entertainment at the rodeo....they are some of the biggest horses I have ever seen and they did some pretty amazing tricks. Another bit of filler entertainment was a cowboy monkey! It was the oddest thing!! There was this little monkey dressed in a little shirt and cowboy hat riding a dog. Where do people come up with this stuff? The best part of the whole rodeo event though was afterward. Josh Turner was in concert and it was awesome! He as the deepest voice ever and it was really cool to see him live!

On top of those activites I got to see my sister last week!! She was in town for a few days and we got to get breakfast together one day and catch up a bit. I've also had a roommate move out and a new roomie move in over the last few weeks. Gosh the month of October has been packed but as I look back over all the fun stuff and change, I see God's goodness in it all. I love fall because of all the colors changing and it reminds me that change can be a good thing.

Procrastination at its best...

My friend Milli had this tag on her blog, and I thought it was hilarious. What you do is answer the questions and type the answer into "google images." Whatever image pops up; you add to your answer...

My first name: HANNAH

My last name: GORMAN

My age: 24

Place I would love to travel to: HAWAII

Favorite place to visit: ST. LOUIS, MO

City I currently live in: LEAWOOD, KS

Favorite Cuisine: ITALIAN

Favorite sweet treat: CHEWY CHOCO. CHIP COOKIES

Place where I grew up: KIRKWOOD, MO

Favorite animal: GIRAFFE

Favorite color: YELLOW

Relationship Status: SINGLE

What I do for work: OFFICE MANAGER

So, this is what I did this afternoon instead of a lot of other things that I probably should have done. Oh well it's the first day of the weekend so there will be plenty more time to get the boring housework and errands done ;-)

Busy Month

Well, it's been quite sometime since I last updated my blog. I was reminded of that fact this week by one of my dear blog readers ;-) This month has flown by and has been filled with lots of stress and busyness.

After returning back to Kansas City, from being in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend, things got crazy! As many of you already know I have been very short handed at my office. We have been losing people right and left due to pregnancy and relocation. When I left for Labor Day the last of my full time, fully trained staff had left me. I was, to put it midly, freaking out! I was headed to St. Louis thinking that I would come back to an insane month of much overtime and much stress. Well, part of that vision came true...there was stress and there was overtime, but it only lasted a week not a month! I got a call when I got back in town that a new full time person had been hired for me and she turned out to be perfect! She caught on really fast and is on her own now. She is a true blessing of God's provision....I'm not sure I could have handled a month of the stress and craziness.

Aside from work....this month has brought lots of other busyness. I help coordinate the Children's Ministry at my church and this month started the Fall Quarter. Each new quarter brings lots of preperation and planning to get it rolling. I really enjoy this ministry and am continually blessed by the little ones that I get to help grow more Jesus. As our church grows the needs of this ministry change and so it's always interesting to see how things will play out at the start of each quarter.

As all this was going on things at home started to get a little bit rocky. I must admit that when I get highly stressed at work or in other areas of my life I tend to bring that home with me and take it out unduely on my roommates. All the things that used to be just little annoyances or botherings become HUGE in my mind...not good. I came home from work one day frustrated and stressed and the first thing I saw was a dirty kitchen and a full trash can. I about blew my cap...but by God's grace I didn't open my mouth and later asked the girls if we could meet to discuss some issues. I've learned in my life that I can't always deal with stuff right away because my temper can cause me to say things I will later regret. So we talked the next night and made up a plan so that all of us are helping with housework and chores and I'm not doing it all. That was a huge load off. I was feeling overwhelmed trying to keep my office running, keep up with Children's Ministry, and run my home. Having help at home now has relieved some of the pressure so I can do all things well and not stuggle at all of them.

All of the above events took place in the span of a week and a half. By the end of that second week I was worn out in everyway: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I've learned that God takes care of me and he provided a women's retreat with my church at the Lake of the Ozarks at just the right time. Last weekend me and about 40 other ladies headed to a retreat center at the lake to get away from everyday life and rest and reconnect with God. It was just what I needed! The time away got me focused back on what really matters...God and off of myself.

I came back from that weekend totally refreshed. Things at work at almost back to normal, children's ministry is up and running, and things at home are good. I was able to get away and be refreshed and come back to low stress week praising God for his constant provision.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

So today was one of the worst and best days of work that I've had in awhile. It was the worst because today was my first day in over a year that I've had to work alone without by side kick, Bethany. Of course we've taken vacations and been apart but this was so final...she really isn't coming back...yikes! It was also one of the worst because I was working solo all morning with a very packed patients schedule. We has been open for literally 2 min and I had very line on hold and two people in line to check out....where do this people come from at 7:30am seriously! Then the last part...I worked for 13 hours in one day...madness!!

Ok so now to the good part! I got a call Monday night from my supervisor saying that Dr. Tague had hired the girl that I had interview and really liked!! Her name is Sharon and the best part is that she was able to start right away. She started this morning! She is really smart and very pleasant. I think we will get along really well. She is catching onto everything very quickly...I am very impressed! It was a little crazy trying to train and run the front alone but Sharon jumped right in and helped where she could and was patient with me as I tried to juggle everything. She is an answer to prayer for sure!!

So with that said...I think the light at the tunnel is finally coming into view. The next week or so will still be busy as I get Sharon up to speed, but it's comforting to know she's there and very competent for the job ahead!

St. Louie for Labor Day

This weekend I am at home in St. Louis. My brother and I have headed home for the long weekend. We had an eventful ride last night as we drove through some of the heaviest rain I've ever driven/ridden through! It was a strong down pour with hail mixed in for the first half of the trip, which made our normally 3-4 hour trip into a 5 hour trip. But we arrived safe and sound so that's all that really matters.

Today we made a trip to the Anheuser Busch Brewery and took a tour. Budweiser is just about as much of a St. Louis landmark item as the Arch. I am not really a beer drinking at all, but it was really neat to go and see the process of how they make the beer and hear the story of how the company was developed and how it has survived various ups and downs since 1876. It was also interesting to learn that beer is the 3rd most popular beverage in the world behind water and tea. Living in the U.S. and seeing how much our country seems to love beer, I was surprised it wasn't second to water!

After the brewery tour, my parents and brother, and I headed to Forest Park to have a picnic. It was such a beautiful day and it was fun to get out and enjoy it a bit of it. Once home it was time to relax a bit and then think about dinner. I am so blessed to have a mom who is an AMAZING cook and it's always so nice to have her home cookin' again! We had a great summer meal of pork steaks, potato salad, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, and fruit salad. Things just seem to taste better when mom makes them! All my favorite things in one meal...doesn't get much better then that!!

Below are some pictures from the day:

The famous Clydesdales:

My brother and I outside one of the brewery buildings:Me with my parents inside the lobby area of the tourist center:
Our tour trolley:

Babies, Babies, Babies

The past few weeks have been full of babies, pregos, and showers. I am beginning to think that we are in the middle of the next baby boom or maybe it's just because most of the people am I close to are all entering the family stage of life.

Both of my best girlfriends are beginning the journey of motherhood. This past weekend I had the joy of having both of them in town. We were throwing a shower for Bitty, who is about a month away from having a little boy, Lawson. My other close friend, Sara, already has entered motherhood and has a 6 month old little girl, Leah. It was a fun weekend to connect with my girlfriends and to shower baby blessings on Bitty and little Lawson. It also proved to be a very emotionally draining and rough weekend. I entered the weekend with great hopes of finally relaxing and getting some much needed stress relief after a very intense work week. I was excited to have my favorite girls in town! The first half of the weekend went well. I was pretty beat on Friday, but was looking forward to the shower on Saturday. Sara and Leah stayed with me and on Saturday we were all up early preparing for the shower that morning. Things were starting to get a little stressful but rolling along rather well. As the shower time approached things began to get hectic, as they always seem to right before a big event. I was helping Sara lots with Leah, which was a joy! She is such a cutie!! The shower was a great success and Bitty got lots of awesome things.
As the shower came to a close and we began the clean up process, we all were getting a little tired and crabby and before I knew it things had gone from bad, to worse, to terrible. Sara and I got into a little tift and spent the ride back to my place in silence. Now Sara and I have been close friends for over 6 years and have never ever had a fight....it was terrible! We thankfully talked through our issues and realized that our friendship is going to take a little extra effort then it has in the past. For the first time in our 6 year journey as friends, we are not able to relate to each other very well. We have always been pretty much in the same stage of life and able to relate to what each was going through. Now with Sara being a wife and mom and me being single and working things aren't quite the same. I can't really relate as well to her and she can't to me. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with Sara and I know we will always remain lifelong friends. We just had to realize that, for the time being, we will both have to think outside of ourselves and try to place ourselves in the other's shoes. God is so faithful and will use this rough patch to make us even stronger and closer. It's already made us stonger and we are still as close as ever.

Apart from the baby filled weekend last weekend, I've thrown two other baby showers this month! Milli at work is having a baby girl in October and we had a shower for her a few weeks back and another girl at work, Bethany, is also expecting a baby girl in December and we just had here shower this past week. (I've tried to avoid drinking the water at the office ;-) It's been so fun to watch these girl's baby bumps pop out and to see their excitement over there little ones!! I can't wait to meet both their little girls in a few months!

I feel like with the knowledge I've gained on prego life and on infants that when my day comes I'll be all set! It's neat to see how God can use all the experiences of our lives and the lives of those close to us to prepare us for things down the road. It's also been interesting to watch how He has taken these new experiences and used them to stretch me and make me be less selfish and more focused on Him and His plan for my future. It's been such a joy to get to be apart of all these new life beginnings!!

New Desk, New Adventure

Yesterday was a tough day at the office...it was Milli's last day, which was sad cause Milli was the first person who I got to train up front with me and she was such an awesome team player and a wonderful friend! She always had the most random and funny stories to tell and made the work day more fun! She is getting ready to be a mommy which is very exciting!!

The other rough thing was that I lost my, near 2 month, battle of moving my desk. I have had the same desk since I started working here, and it really is the most logically place for me to have a desk given what my daily tasks are. Well, for some reason our doctor decided that it would be a good idea for me to move across the front desk area. This now puts be across from everything I need to do my job! When he first told me about this I was against it and told him it wouldn't be very efficient or practically for me to move my desk. He wasn't budging on the issue so I just let it fall to the back burner for awhile. Last week he brought it up again and I decided that since he was the boss I probably should just go along with his idea and just endure the annoyance. Probably should have done that from the very beginning but my strong willed nature didn't want to do that! Yesterday the computer tech came and moved me over to the other side of the office.

Let me just mention that the biggest deal of all this was that I HATE change! I like for everything to stay in a neat little box and never change. So moving my whole work environment about sent me into an 'OCD' breakdown and lossing yet another co-worker was just a bummer! As someone once said..."If you don't change you die"...I know that change is good and that things won't ever just stay the same forever. I just hope I can keep my sanity amist the many changes. God is faithful and He will get me through all the madness, as long as, I run to Him and not try to bear it on my own.

The Olympics

The Olympics have begun!! I am so excited that they are finally started! My roommates and I have totally caught the Olympic fever and have spent most of our weekend watching volleyball, gymnastics, and swimming. I missed the opening ceremonies on Friday night but the clips that I have seen have been stunning! It's only been one full day of Olympic festivities but already I have a few favorite moments and athletes.


1) President George Bush has been at the Olympics and has spent quite a bit of time with the USA Team both watching them compete and getting in on the action himself. Below is him with two of the USA beach volley players. It's cool to see our President as such a down to earth guy.

2) My newest favorite athlete is Jonathan Horton. He is a gymnast for the USA men's team. I don't quite know what it is about him that I'm drawn to...besides his good looks of course. ;-) He has amazing talent and strength in his sport and is really fun to watch!
3) My most favorite moment and athlete thus far in the Olympic games was tonight at the medal ceremony for the men's swimming. Michael Phelps of course took home the gold medal for not only winning the race but also for setting a new world record! As he recieved his medal and our national anthem was being played I was overwhelmed with an amazing sense of pride for the country that I am so blessed to call home. As President Bush and his family watched on, with the same pride on their faces as Michael Phelps' mom and family, I realized what an awesome country we live in and what pride we take in supporting our own.

The Olympics have already provided me with a new sense of pride and ultimately a new appreciation for the freedom and blessings I have as a citizen of the USA. I am looking forward to another 13 days of events and proud moments!!

Road Trip to Amish Town

Friday after our trip downtown I decided that I was tired of being tired and stressed from work and home stuff and wanted to get away from it all. I asked my sister if she wanted to go do something totally random. We decided to take a mini road trip. Here I am gasing up for the trip

We drove about an hour and 1/2 up north to Chilicothe, MO and stayed over night at a hotel. We got dinner and brought it back to our room and got in our pjs and watched "What not to Wear" and movies. It was so relaxing and wonderful! We slept in the next morning and then headed out to Jamesport, MO. Jamesport is an amish town. It was so crazy driving into town because it seemed like we had taken a step back in time. There were horses and buggies everywhere. There was a festival going on in town and we did some shopping and get fresh kettle corn...amazing! Before leaving down we stopped in one of the bakeries and bought fresh baked rolls. They were to die for! Those amish folks sure can bake!

Ok so I couldn't walk past this sign without taking a picture! It was this totally random RV park in the middle of amish town. It lived up to it's name cause it looked pretty shady!After our many adventures in amish town we packed up and headed back to KC. It was so much fun to get away and go to a new place. This past weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time!! Here we all are getting ready to say goodbye to Beth before she headed back to St. Louie on Sunday.

City Market

I felt like such a tourist this weekend! I've now lived in the Kansas City area for almost 6 years and have never done anything downtown! I met my brother and sister downtown for lunch and we headed to the River Market area. It was so fun to walk around and smell all the fresh produce and see all the cute little shops. Here's me with this corn couple. They were so cute I had to take a picture with them!

Here's Bill and Beth picking out fruit at the market. It was so fresh and very inexpensive!

We also went into the library downtown...which is amazing! It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. It is huge and has an open roof top that you can go out on when the weather is nice. Here I am standing outside by the giant chess set!

Tour of Downtown KC

My sister (Bethany) is in town this week and so last night her and I headed downtown to my brother's (Bill) house for supper. I was very impressed with his cooking skills! He made us a delicious stuffed pasta dish with salad and bread on the side...very gourmet! After supper we headed out for a walk which was awesome because he lives right in the heart of downtown! We got to see all the main areas of the city and even catch a few minutes of a free concert by Jason Alden at the Power and Light District. One of the areas we walked by was the Library District. Downtown KC has a huge library and the parking garage is painted to look like books. Here is my sister standing in front of one of the titles. She lives in Hannibal, MO, the home of Mark Twain, so I made her stand by this book.
After our tour of downtown we enjoyed some ice cream and tried to take a group photo. It was hard to squeeze all our heads into one picture...good thing Bill has long arms! We will have to find someone to take a better picture of us all before Beth heads home.
This last picture is of me in front of the Dwight building. I have no idea what is in this building, but I had to have my picture in front of it in tribute of Dwight from The Office. We have nicknamed Mike at my office Dwight and this was just a priceless moment.

Raise the Blaze 2008

Raise the Blaze was the name of our camp this past week. I had a blast and was truly blessed by the girls who I had in my room and the messages that were presented at camp. I was a little nervous about going to camp mainly because I didn't really know any of the youth that were going but as soon as we got on the road to camp I started bonding with the girls and it proved to be an awesome week!

We had a slight detour on the way to camp. The exit we needed to take was poorly marked and before we knew it we were about an hour too far down south. We turned around and got back on the right track. The detour ended up being a blessing cause we were going to be at camp way before check in and we weren't quite sure what we were going to do to that fill time.

Once we got to camp we all got checked in and unloaded and headed to supper. This camp was very well organized and had fairly decent food. From that point on we were busy non-stop. We had two chapel session each day, one in the morning and then again at night. We were blessed to have the group Shachah lead us in worship at chapel as well as play a concert one night. We had games, pool time, and free time each day and some of us from our group headed into Osage Beach one day to do some shopping at the outlet malls. Of course we had to pull a few pranks on the guys and they for sure pulled some on us girls...however we way out did them!! ;-)

Camp was awesome and I am so glad that I went!! I have a whole group of new friends now and was so blessed by the group of youth that came from our church.

This is me with my girls that I had in my room for the week:

Maddie, Bailey, and Me:

Camp Here I Come!

Today I am working a long 2 hour shift at work and then I'm off for the rest of the week!! I am headed to Windermere Conference Center at the Lake of the Ozarks for youth camp with my church. I am really excited to get away and get to know the youth better...plus 4 days off work is pretty exciting as well ;-) We will be leaving Wednesday morning and returning Saturday afternoon. I'm hoping to get some good lake time in and try not too get sunburnt...I'm still peeling from the last burn! I also hear we are going to make a trip into Osage Beach to do some outlet shopping!! I will post an update along with pictures, when I return, of all our fun adventures.

Just a Trim...

The title of this post were my words to my hair sylist yesterday. I went into a salon that I've gone to a handful of times and told my usually lady that I was just wanting a trim to shape up my current style and cut my bangs. I am headed to camp this week with church and just wanted a fresh cut so my hair would behave and be easier to style, etc. Things started off rather normal...nice washing of the hair and general trimming of the front portion.

Well...things began to take a turn for the worse when she moved to the back of my head. I started seeing longer pieces of hair falling into my lap and started getting a sick feeling in my gut. I again told her I really didn't want much length off in back just a trim of my layers. She said oh I know I'm just doing some texturizing. I was still rather nervous cause of the hair that was in my lap and not on my head!! So thankfully the salon phone rang and she went to answer it and I started feeling my hair or as I found out the lack there of! I realized the back felt rather short and os when she came back I told her it was getting much shorter then I wanted and that I thought she should just even things out and be done!

I could tell she felt bad cause she took an eternity styling it which I didn't like how she styled it anyways! I just wanted her to let me out of there so I could go home and try to figure out what the heck she had done!! I got home and had a few moments of panic as I realized my simple trim had turned into cutting off almost 2 inches and creating a new style. Once my panic attack was over and I had styled it how I wanted I actually liked it ok. It's still taking some getting used to but it's not terrible and hair grows so in a couples months I'll be back were I started again.