Early Birthday Blessings and such

Even though my birthday is tomorrow my work wanted to make sure that I celebrated it in style..... because I was taking the rest of the week off......

Just wanted to share pictures of the mess that my co-workers made in my corner cubby. It was just a mess but it was great to feel so appreciated. They went all out and even hand shredded all the little shreds. Then on top of all of that they had flowers delivered for me that are two tier and being held up by a "coke-a-COLA" can :) too funny!

Here are the flowers. Please ignore the date, forgot to update the camera.....

4th of July Festivities

Well things have been very exciting over the past few weeks. Dad came back to visit with the family for two weeks (over the 4th of July) and came bearing gifts and pictures. The picture you see on the left is actually him about to go snorkeling in the Red Sea, a regular Friday ritual. He was able to bring back some amazing seashells and other interesting finds that a person would just not expect to find in the Red Sea. But I'm sure it's just got to be amazing to be in such a historical area and making your faith and Bible stories turn into a reality. It's just too cool to imagine. But while he was here John and I were also able to spend some time with my family.
My sister came down to stay with us for a week with her girls while DJ was at Space Camp and from what I can get from him it was neat. But from what mom and Michele says it sounded really interesting, even Tom Hanks showed up because his son was there.

Then my brother David and his family (Lavon, Tyler, and Jonathan), my parents, and John and I went up to Blue Ridge Mountains and stayed in these amazing cabins (see picture below). While there we saw a movie, went tubing down the Ocoee River (highly recommend) and then experienced our own Hillbilly Fourth of July....I swear the GA mountains are where the hillbillies hide. But they sure are an enjoyable group to people watch.
So after that we all headed down to our house and my brother Timothy and his family (Cindy, James, and Ellen) joined the fun. So for the past few days we have had one hectic household. But what good is a big house if you are afraid to share.

Well that's about all that's been going on with us, now we are just enjoying the fam and having some sweet summertime. But I will say my next day of fun I'm greatly looking forward to and that is spending my birthday with my husband at Six Flags. I have been looking at all the rides and it's been so long.....so I can't wait!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun

4th of July!!

Patience is a virtue.....

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted last but there have been a rush of things that have been going on so I figure the best way to let you all know is bulleted points, so here I go.

• We decided to get a dog, prepped the house, bought the stuff, decided not to get the dog. What an emotional roller coaster. But ultimately it was the best decision for the time being. I just couldn't get a dog with both of us working full-time and going out of town too terribly often.
• Decided I wanted to start gardening so planted some flowers and such outside of our side door. You'll be able to see the pictures below. Do you like?? I think it kind of looks like something that you would see in a Bible play or something...but that's just my mom's opinion.
• We organized our garage. After mom moved in we just kind of threw things in the garage so we decided to have a garage sale (made almost $400) and then mom wanted to start parking in the garage so we had to organize. But it looks great and since we cleaned it out mom got us a garage door opener. Isn't amazing what excites you when your married?
• Then we also have planned a mountain vacation when Dad comes in to town to visit from Saudi Arabia. We are very excited about the trip and also being able to hang out with my siblings again...

Well that's about it but I will try to keep a better blog as we move into the summer :) Enjoy the pics.

P.S. I now have a myspace too and I like posting pic there better so go and check them out (from San Francisco) but just know that I only blog here :)

http://www.myspace.com/skaraann

Seasons and lives are a changin'

Well not only seasons changing but so many other things in my life are changing. First of all let me say NO I'm not pregnant. hee hee I know that's what you were thinking. Actually there have been so many things going on but the biggest change is that.....

My mom just moved in with us.

You see my dad just took a job in Saudi Arabia and flew out today. So since he has officially left the country and God blessed us with such a large home it's now getting used. But just keep my dad in your prayers for a safe trip and stay. At this time he's on a year contract but it could be continued by his choice when it's time for renewal. He's anxious but I think (from what I've read) he'll enjoy the challenge and opportunities.

So right when we got back from San Francisco (on vacation) we have had a "Family Send Off" weekend where everyone in the family came here (all 17) and we had just good 'ole family time. Then last weekend we prepped the "Mother-in-law" suite and moved mom in. So this would be the reason I haven't posted recently, but thank you for your patience.

So what's going on with all of you???

P.S. I finished my book by the time we got back from Vegas and I thought it was great. So now I'm starting another one "The Five People You'll Meet In Heaven". I might actually become a reader!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Yippy we are in San Francisco!!!

Just wanted to say hey and.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Here's a little Irish Tradition for the day:

Many people will be eating Irish food such as Irish Stew and Corned Beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. Corned Beef is not an Irish dish. It is what Americans think the Irish eat. A more traditional meal would be ham and cabbage or bacon and cabbage. Some say that in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day the traditional green beer is prominent. However, in Ireland, many years ago, St. Patrick's Day is considered a holy day and Pubs were not open for business. There were no parades, no drinking or wearing green. Green was considered an unlucky color. Crazy huh??

I'm actually reading a book

Okay as most of you know I'm not much of a book person. But here's the story.

I currently TIVO Oprah shows and when I get the time I watch the ones of interest to me and the other day I was watching her show and she started talking about her book club and the new read she was suggesting. Well it's about the holocaust and I'm just a huge history fan of the holocaust. I love watching movies about it, reading about it and I've even met survivors of it. The last part is probably why I've always been so interested in it.

But back to the subject of "Night" the new Oprah book club suggestion. Once she announced it she said that we didn't have much time to read it because she was going to have a show in the beginning of Feb. where she and the author will return to Germany and walk through the remains of the concentration camps. How cool....so long statement I've now purchased the book and will be reading it.

Just thought I would share that if anyone was interested in reading it too!

On the Road Again....Just can't wait

Well I haven't blogged much because I really haven't been doing anything exciting recently. I have been pulling some really long hours at work to get ready for our Annual Meeting in February. But at least that will pay off because John and I are invited to go. So we will be hitting the travel thing once again. Actually we have a few things coming up.

In February we will be going to Vegas for 5 days. Work is going to pay for the air fare for both of us, hotel, dinner, a show and then give us tons of giveaways including a $100 chip :) Soooooo exciting. But at least the work part of it I'm doing before we because I'm in charge of event registration and signage/logo/powerpoint creation. So my hard work will be done before I go and on day one of the trip so the rest is just paid for fun time!!

Then in March we are heading off for 7 fun filled days in San Francisco! We actually had this trip planned since last year for John's birthday but it's just a blast that's it's just a month after Vegas. We are really having fun planning for it. I actually already have a few things that are a must that we are doing

1. We are going to a Giants/A's exhibition game (the best of both worlds in one night) :)
2. We are going to ride a dinner train through Napa Valley with some great stops.
3. We are going to Alcatraz (a life long thing for me, I know weird)
4. And then of course we will visit some of John's cousins while we are out there.

It should be really fun. Since we love to travel and it's actually a state neither one of us has been to I'm just thrilled.

But if anyone has been to either place and have a favorite spot you would like to share we would love to hear about it......

Talk to you soon! I hope to post before we go to Vegas!!!

Pure entertainment, really!

Okay I stole this from Candice but I just couldn't resist it truly is one of the best things I have ever experienced. Please enjoy!

Click me cuz' I'm hilarious!!!

Buy the way has anyone heard about the thing no longer saying "Merry Christmas" in all the stores but instead saying Happy Holiday's? And instead of Christmas trees calling them Holiday trees? Is this not absurd?

I just couldn't believe it. I mean last year it was Christmas who decided in the past year to no longer have a Christmas? Do you think their name is Scrooge? or the Grinch?

So for the record I would like to say...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Read here for more information: http://www.christian-coalition.org/

I hate wallpaper!!

Well I'm back. Sorry it's taken so long but it has been more than hectic recently. Here's the bulleted points of life for the past month.

• 11/13/05 - We celebrated our one year anniversary by planting a tree, "Mabel the Maple" at our new house.
• 11/14/05 - Started removing the wallpaper. If you can imagine 2400 sq ft and there is not a single room that doesn't have wallpaper or border! YIKES!! This has been the biggest undertaking yet! Let's just say we have purchased two steamers and there wasn't a night we haven't used them.
• 11/16/05 - We officially moved into the house.
• 11/22/05 - We went to my uncle's house in Waynesboro, GA and celebrated Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family (about 25 true southerners) then my sister and her family (spouse, 3 kids and dog) followed us home and were our first house guests until 11/24/05.
• 12/03/05 - Hosted Jennifer Gainer's Lingerie Shower and Bachlorette party. We started off at my house for the shower and then moved on into the big ATL for the rest of the evening. It was a blast.
• 12/04/05 - That's today but now we start another hectic season with finishing up the decorating and preparing for my entire family to be with us over the Christmas holidays. Also, we have Jennifer Gainer's wedding on 12/17/05.

Hopefully this will give you a glimpse of our excitement that we have been experiencing. I must admit I do love being a home owner. I'm having to get used to the mass of space but it's nice to have a place where everyone feels comfortable and feels at home. It's been a true blessing.

I hope your holidays are going smoothly also! Just keep us in your prayers for this is the season of employee evaluations at work and the fam coming down it's all going to be so crazy!

"Holy" Halloween?? Say what?

Okay so John and I have been going to a wonderful church and we have a "lifegroup" that we attend for a weekly Bible study which is incredibly interesting. But at our last meeting they stated that we wouldn't be meeting on Monday night because it would be Halloween. Which then made them start talking about what some of them do that night and I must admit I was kind of shocked. You see as a child I was NEVER allowed to participate in any Halloween antics so it's amazing to me what kind of things people were able to do at Halloween. I mean when I was a kid we always went to church on the night for our "Autumn Festival","Fall Festival","Calvary Carnvial"...basically you think of a corny NON-halloween name and our church evening was called it. Then to top things off we had to come dressed up as a Bible character. Now most churches now adays will let you dress in anything not evil or scary but I was not that lucky. However, I do remember the only2 times, yes 2 times I was able to go trick or treating I was 12 and then 13 and it was always last minute so I never really had a costume. Once I was a baby and the other time a bag lady, all things that can be homemade costumes. But I feel like I missed something in my childhood because of this so it brings me to the question of what will I let my kids do??

Now that being said I am trying to ask fellow friends what they grew up doing and what they will let their kids do when this time of year comes around. Granted we don't have a clue what our neighborhoods will be like or the crime rates but if you had let's say a 7 year old right now what would you do when they come to ask you if for a costume and trick'r treating??

I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!

Back to Blogging...

Well it has been awhile since my last blog but so much has gone on. I would like to say PRAISE THE LORD my health appears to be back to normal. There have been no unplanned Dr's visits for about 2 weeks which for now is wonderful. Also, John and I have made a big move in our life and signed a contract on a home. As some as you may know John and I have expressed an interest to leave the Atlanta area but we came to the realization that this will be just a few years and rent was just looking daunting. So we decided to take the plunge and purchase a home. However there were many things that we took under consideration while looking that all needed to be "yes" answers....

1. Could we resell this house in a few years and make a profit?
2. If we were unable to move in more than 5 years and raise a family would we be happy in this home?
3. Could family visit and not feel like we were all on top of each other?
4. Does it have more than .5 of an acre?
5. Is it in an established neighborhoord?
6. Is it in a good location from work? I-85? Church? Play?

So with all of our considerations met we found a GREAT place and if all goes well we will be closing on 10/28/05.

Now here's the home details. It's was built in 1990 and is on 1.01 acre in an established neighborhood about the same distance as our apartment so commutes are still wonderful. It's approx. 2400 sq ft with 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths. There is also a detached garage with loft storage and the yard is completely landscaped and partially fenced. It also has hardwood floors in the "common areas" (living room, dining room, kitchen, sitting room, hallway and foyer).

Granted it's a great purchase for us but there are some updates that need to be done but all in all we are thrilled!! Here's a picture!!



And on a side note when we signed yesterday we were able to celebrate by going to Elton John (thanks to Careerbuilder.com one of my vendors). It made for a wonderful weekend!!

YIPPEEEEEEE What a blessed time!!!

Oye Vah! What a time...

Well as it was mentioned in my previous post I was on the road to recovery after my surgery but things quickly took a turn for the worst last weekend and I was at the emergency room this past Monday and then admitted in the hospital for two days. It was crazy.

You see when they went in to get my gallbladder (because I had gallstones) they didn't notice a few little stones escaped and consequently I had to go back into the hospital and for another procedure to grasp the "leftover" stones. So now I am back to recovering and things are looking much better.

However, I must admit I learned something during this "first" experience with surgery and the hospitals. They are horrible. If you have never been admitted into the hospital unexpectedly consider it a great blessing. It's a scary time. During my first night I had a slight panic attack because I just didn't know what to expect or how to handle things. I had never felt so far from reality then right then. And then the worst part is the constant waking up every 3 hours for blood work (which I hate needles) and blood pressure/temperature checks. It's absolutely insane. But I do know one thing that I learned friends and family make all the difference. It was such an encouragement to have phone calls, flowers, gifts and cards. So just know that if you know someone who is in the hospital or planning on going those thoughts mean so much to them.


**On a positive side note during good and bad times I was able to return to Charlotte, NC for a very good friend's wedding and some great times with my friends that I miss dearly (but soon hope to return to)!!

Congratulations Kim and Paul !

Post-Op

Well I have officially now had my first surgery. On Tuesday I went "under the knife" to remove my gallbladder and now I'm just trying to have a smooth recovery. Currently I feel like I have done about 6000 situps and I'm really, REALLY sore. But all is well and I think my recovery is going pretty smoothly. Anyways I just wanted to post an update and that's why I haven't been posting alot recently I was trying to prepare for lots of rest :)

Have a great day and I will report when I'm back up to my springy self!

Sara

Blogging at work

Okay this may seem really weird, but it's no weirder than meeting someone and noting that they drive a yellow car and now when you go out all you see is yellow cars. Which I'm sure has happened to everyone at least once.

Anyways I say that to say this. Since I have been blogging I seem to get all this news about being able to be fired for blogging. Can you actually believe that this may be a policy workplaces now have to start. Just imagine how it will read.

If you are taking business time to write personal "blogs" then you will be written up. What's the difference than your co-worker taking 40 smoke breaks during the day? Or your boss getting their 14th personal call during a meeting? Or someone endlessly writing personal emails? I just think this is absurd. Is this really something that you should be fired for? NO!!! It's just a fact of life that people need to overlook. I mean geesh you still get our freakin' 60 hours a week out of us without paying us overtime!

But that's just my two cents! :)

Neat things about the weekend

Okay so this weekend has been really interesting and I thought I would share some of the happenings....

Well recently John and I have been trying to pay off some bills and get in a more "comfortable" position before he goes to Grad school and on of the things we are up in the air with is rent. Currently we live in an apartment and trying to decide if we should possibly look into building a home in the area (he's got many connections so the price will be right) that we could sell down the line. So that made Friday an interesting discussion night. I'll let you all know what we decide, but I'll also take advice if you have some :).

On Saturday I was able to spend time with Jenn and Matt and we had a blast. We met up in downtown ATL and went to Cafe' Intermezzo (John's fav). Then we headed down to a great restaurant choice of Matt's..but for the life of me I can't remember the name. It's a micro-brewery passed the Fox. Anyways it was delicious. Then we headed out to Dad's Garage for a night of improv show downs. Just tons of fun!!

Now today just was a nice way to top of the weekend. We went to church this morning and was able to attend the "Welcome to Heritage" class. Since we have only been going to this church for about 2 months it was great to find out more about it and I must say we are thrilled. This church truly has a heart for the community and outreach. Then as we were leaving I spoke to the "Lifegroup" Leader (they are weekly home Bible studies) spoke to us and stated that he was real excited about getting us into a drama/praise team group. The Lord is certainly working here with us, this was a great decision. But the most surprising turn of events for the day was when John and I visited the local YMCA for a tour. As we were walking around trying to decided if we wanted to join I really hit it off with our tour guide (who was also the membership director) and she asked me if I would be interested in working with her Part-time for a free membership. I said I would think about it and she handed me an application. So when we left John was so funny he said, "Only you could go somewhere in 20 mins and get a job offer." Now I don't necessarily agree, but it sure was a nice compliment.

But alas the weekend is now coming to a close and the work week is about to set in. Hope everyone has a great week!!

What do you look for?

As some of you know I recently moved to ATL a little over a year ago and I was having a tough time transitioning the whole work/job thing. I ultimately held 3 jobs and turned down another all within a 3 month period before the wedding. Talk about stress!! But I had an amazing realization about what I need in a work/job situation.

Job #1: You see the first job had me isolated in this horrible office with my tyrant boss breathing down my neck. The worst part of this is that there was absolutely no reason and no one would come to our offices because we were across the plant. I didn't realize it at the time I took the job that this isolation would be an issue (not including that the boss lady was the spaun of satan) but it was. So when I quit the job I decided that since I'm such a people person I needed to be in an environment where I interacted with people, money was not going to be a driving force.

Job #2: So I start this job (through a temp agency) and I was amongst great ladies and communication was good. However, this was a Japanese environment and the schedules were crazy. The best way for me to describe this is that there were bells that would go off to let us know when we could leave for lunch and when we should be back from lunch. They also rang at break times and watched the clock, never be late! This was way too strict for me (also this boss was a little over the top, but it wasn't the turning point of the decision). So alas I needed a place to have some schedule flexibility to get the best work out of me.

Job #3: Well let me first say that I am still there (almost been there a year) and it's alright, but not perfect. Let's see I have a somewhat flexible schedule, I have great co-workers and interaction with others. However, my boss is the most ADD person I have ever met. My co-workers in the department call her the tephlon queen because everytime she messes up she somehow comes off scott free. But I have to say the worst part is that she has no education or experience in HR which makes her very scattered, paranoid, and bossy because her butt is always on the line. But with the Grace of God I am surviving. I just take the good parts of my job into account when I'm getting upset and it's not so bad I just overlook her and don't take things personally.

Now I say all of that to say.... since moving here I have come to realize that $$$ to me is low on the list of what I look for in a job and I would have never thought that or learned that without my experiences. Isn't it amazing what you can learn out of the craziest of scenarios??

So here's my list of what I look for...when looking for a job?
1. Flexibility
2. An boss that is understanding, encouraging, and educated
3. Environment - open area for chatter
4. Good pay

So for those of you who have worked in the same job for awhile (and I know a few of you making changes)and are about to move away from that...don't just let money be your deciding factor. Take under consideration all the attributes that you use/need in your work life that are necessary to making you happy in your job.

What's are the most important things to you???

VA and DC Pictures

Here is the WWII Memorial and all of those concrete stands are states remembered in support of the war.


Here is the reflection pool and Washington Monument (with the Capitol Building behind). Just check out those blue skies!!


The Vietnam Memorial Wall with the soldiers looking on..



Downtown Charlottesville. It was kind of like a really, REALLY big Athens, GA. It had all those nifty little shops and cafe's.

The flowers and stuffed kitten that John gave me for my birthday :) and they actually made it home with us.

P.S. It's hard to get pictures together when your traveling with just the two of you :) but I have a few more that I will post when we get them.

Back to the race we all call work...

Well I have just gotten back from a wonderful trip to VA and DC, and I must say a GREAT birthday. John and I got to see and do a whole lot but man the weather was crazy. As we drove up to Charlottesville, VA on Friday it was pouring the entire way up. Needless to say I was grateful for a pillow so I could sleep and not critic the wonderful driving of my hubby :). So back to the rain....so when we arrived to the hotel late that night I immediately wanted to check the weather channel to see if our vacation was going to be ruined and man it looked bad the whole eastern part of the US was green (in case your not familiar with rain colors, that means heavy to moderate rain showers).

Then the next morning we wake up, open the curtains and it's a little overcast but today is our DC day (we were still about 2 hours away but since we were so close we decided to make a long day and just drive up and back on Saturday). Once we got into DC I wanted to make it a good sightseeing trip for John since this was his first time so we started off in Union Station, parked and jumped on their newest transit system (highly recommended, let me know if you are planning a trip and I will discuss). Then we headed off to the National Art Gallery, then started our stroll down the 4 mile National mall - starting at the Capitol. Now here's where it's cute we are steadily walking in the dead heat (no sign of clouds) when I start complaining about how hot it is. Then John tells me that I shouldn't complain about the heat because then it would rain and I would complain about that, aww he knows me so well. **Break for Sappy Moment**So I stop complaining and he tells me that he had prayed earlier that morning that the rain would stop and not bother our vacation and I would like to say it did, we never saw a raindrop the entire trip!! What a thoughtful husband.**Return to story** So we continue down the National mall and see the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and the headed into Georgetown for dinner and lite shopping. We then ended our day at around 9pm and headed back to the hotel. Not a bad start.

Then on Sunday we just kind of hung around Charlottesville, walked around their downtown area and looked at the local used bookstores..it's amazing what you can find. But that was just our lazy day. Because on Monday we went to the University of Virginia to see the sights and get some Masters of Architecture information for John and then we headed to the James River to go canoeing. That was a blast. The funniest part was we could never quite get on the same rhythm so we just took turns rowing and the other would rest and when we checked our boat back in everyone was like "you guys row fast". I just looked at John and said I wonder how fast it would have been if we would have rowed at the same time :).

We both were kind of tired so we grabbed some sandwiches and headed to the hotel to rest up for a "date night for my birthday". **WARNING: Sappy Moment #2** Let me explain the date night. John had called weeks before to make reservations at this fancy steak and seafood restaurant that the locals use (because I have this big thing that I don't like to eat at chain restaurants while on vacation) and told me to wear something nice, so when we arrived to the restaurant and were shown our seats there was a bouquet of a dozen multicolored roses and a little stuffed cat (since we can't get a real pet) that he ordered to have delivered just for my b-day. HOW SWEET! Then after dinner we headed back to change into "comfy clothes" to top the date night off with a movie, "Must Love Dogs". Now for those of you that know me this truly was a great date for me since I'm a stickler for dinner and ANY movie!! **Sappy Moment Complete**.

So to finish up our trip we visited Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson...really cool) on Tuesday and headed into Charlotte (1/2 between ATL and Charlottesville, VA) and my sister had made a wonderful b-day dinner with the menu being my request. We visited, played Scrabble (the Hill Family game) and then headed back to ATL today. However, we did have a brief stop off in Clemson for John to review their Master of Architecture program to see if he wants to go there.

And that is the end of our trip and a wonderful B-day.


P.S. Thanks for all the birthday shout-outs. It's nice to feel loved :) !

Music...and traveling

In case anyone has ever wondered what to do in a car for a long trip when you already see a person everyday and know there every move....well I have a cure for the stumped traveler which I have done for many a road trip. Purchase a CD that the two of you can agree on (the hardest part of the task) and decide that you will both learn the lyrics of the CD while on the trip. You'll be amazed at the conversations that lyrics can strike up, and you get a free CD out of it (if you know how to make the situation work to your advantage).

So as John and I set out on our adventure I am going to get the new Jason Mraz CD, "Mr. A-Z". When I was recently at the Alanis M. (acoustic Jagged Little Pill, highly recommended) concert he was her opening act with his friend Toca and they were also acoustic. Now this act should have been and could have been the headliner, they were absolutely awesome. He was performing at the Fox and they did a rhyme right there about Atlanta and the many acts that Fox has seen. Then during his little act he said "Wait I need to do this like the Fox would like it" so he started singing in an operatic voice, MARVELOUS!!! OUTSTANDING!! Can wait to travel and listen to my new tunes :)

Enjoy! By the way how do you spend time on the road during long road trips? I'm open to suggestions since I travel tons!

P.S. I have also recently been to the Kelly Clarkson concert...I'll post pics as soon as I get them from my friend Ashley..we were on the 2 row on the orchestra pit, CRAZY seats that she had won on the radio. Funny story - she won them the day of the concert so we gave away our balcony seats to some friends :) hee hee.