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!!