Fun parts of my job

One of the most common questions I get is in regards to my job. "What do you do?"

Well that is an interesting question. In my current position as a Knowledge Manager my primary activities revolve around researching best practices in patient satisfaction improvement and sharing them with our clients. Now of course my job also includes a wide variety of other activities as well.

One of the more entertaining ones occurred this past November. At our client conference in NYC we had our resource tables and booths each take on a Broadway play or musical to create a "Walk Down Broadway." This of course was terribly fun. With the release of Mary Poppins on Broadway just this past October, our team decided this was the perfect opportunity.

I firmly believe you can buy anything off the Internet and with the help of eBay I was able to procure a Mary Poppins costume.

So there I was in NYC at the Marriott Hotel dressed as Mary Poppins. I have included a picture for your amusement. Now please be forgiving of my tired face, after nearly 2 and 1/2 days on my feet straight...even Mary Poppins gets tired.

So my short stint as Mary Poppins is one of the many random aspects of my job.

My diligent husband

Over the past few months (pretty much since Jan 1), Mark has been working many many hours. The product he works with is in high demand and has had some production issues. This means that we've had very few weekends where he hasn't had to work. The first quarter of this year it also meant 10-12 hour days as well. This has thankfully tapered off a bit.

During this time of long hours and tiring days, Mark has maintained to keep up with his school work as well. He is close to completing his associates degree and will be moving on to his bachelors very shortly.

Everyday he comes home from work and studies for 3-4 hours. I'm so proud of his hard work and diligence. He also is careful to make a point of spending time with me. School keeps our days full but together, we'll get through it.

For those of you who don't know Mark, here is a picture of him on our recent trip to Chicago with my family.

Wishing you God's richest blessings

It is an exciting time in the world of my friends. In recent months, two very dear friends (bridesmaids actually) have had their engagements announced.

Katy Schlipf to Chris Stoller

&


Jolynn Schmidgall to Kevin Hodel

Each one is special to me and I'm excited to see how God has brought this change into their lives.

Marriage is a wonderful blessing. Yet it was in our singleness did these relationships even come to be. I wouldn't trade either.

Picking Blueberries

One of the joys of living in the South is the abundance of produce available. We have a year around farmer's market and I typically have an easier time getting produce than I did up north. They say only in the hottest times of the summer is there not something to harvest.

While we worked in the corn fields at home, young men down here may have a summer job of throwin' watermelons. When they harvest watermelons people walk down the rows picking up melons and throwing them to one another toward a truck. You build up quite the muscles doing that.

Well this past Saturday I met Mom and Dad Lindberg, Lydia and Caleb to pick blueberries. A lovely old lady named Miss Bea has an excellent blueberry patch behind her home. You can come pick fresh blueberries for 8.00 a gallon. Now if you have purchased blueberries in the store recently, you know this is quite the deal.

I only picked a 1/2 gallon and have come to realize I need to return and get some more. I think we are going Thursday or Friday. We had a dry spell earlier this year so the patch is a little thin and the berries not as plump according to Miss Bea. Yet they are tasty. The best part is she lets you eat as many as you like while you pick.

Melted Chocolate

If you have the inclination to mail me a present in the next few months, I highly recommend you stay away from food items. My company recently sent down a box of chocolates for my assistance with a project. Summers in Georgia are notably hot and humid.

Well they sat in the UPS guy's truck during the entire Memorial Day weekend. Needless to say they were a melted chocolate mess.

If you have the urge to send us anything...things that can stand extreme heat are highly recommended.


(Note: This is not a solicitation for gifts but for humorous purposes only)

For the birds

Throughout the warmer seasons of the year, all the birds that fly south for the winter return to their native lands. They leave us little reminders of their presence by the chripping, the flocks in the sky, and of couse the lovely droppings on your car.

While scrubbing your car is never fun, I've realize their are worse things. During my parents trip to Georgia in March, we were having lunch by a lake at a wildlife refuge. Commenting on the number of birds in the area, my dad was quickly reminded of their presence. They kindly sent him a present of dodo straight into his mouth. I was impressed my Dad's composure and restraint during this unfortunate incident.

Another gift was bestowed on us while Mark and I were taking wedding pictures. We were in an alley in downtown Bloomington. Looking up at the high buildings we saw a couple of birds look over the edge. They then promptly turned around and dropped one down. Thankfully it did not hit Mark or I in our wedding clothes, but the camera and another piece of the photographer's equipment was not so fortunate.

While the birds may feel they are sharing with us, those two experiences were definitely for the birds.

Salami and Ice Cream

One of my favorite bridal showers last year was with some friend's from Chenoa. These women have been a part of my life as long as I can remember. Many have been like alternative parents for me.

One of the games at the shower allowed me to ask the group about something they learned or experienced during their first years of marriage.

One lady, I'll call her Jane, shared the funniest story. When her and her husband, George, were first married he did all sorts of funny things. One night as they were crawling into bed he brought with him a stick of salami and a bowl of ice cream. Jane looking appalled didn't know what to do. His response was "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want some?"

Smoke

As you may or may not know, the southeastern part of Georgia and north Florida has been plagued by wildfires in the Okefenokee Swamp. Up until recently we had not been personally effected. Well..my brother-in-law, Jake, is a fire fighter and is now gone for a 2nd time to fight them but that was as close as we had been.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/28/national/main2738548.shtml

Well apparently we've had some that are a little bit closer than before. Saturday and Sunday Thomasville and the surrounding area was covered with a smoky haze. It was like you were 1 block away from someone burning leaves...everywhere you went. It made for a fog on the road, prompting us to turn on our lights.

We speculate a change in the wind brought us the smoke. Well now the wind has changed again and the smoke has lifted.

I feel sorry for those who are close to the fire. Please pray for rain to help put out the fire and cure our definite drought.

Cooking

Before I was married, I already enjoyed cooking. I loved inviting people over to my apartment for a meal of any sorts. So when I did become a wife, I was already reasonably prepared in that area. Mark is anything but picky so he typically likes what I make.

So far I haven't put the wrong ingredient in or left something important out. The only trouble I have had it burning veggies. I bake cookies just fine. My meat is typically moist and tender. Yet for whatever reason, actually I know the reason is because I'm like my mom and I get distracted, I have burnt two pans of vegetables.

Now the only thing I'm doing is boiling a small pot of peas or mixed veggies for dinner. Nothing overly complicated. This is part of the problem. I put these on the stove and walk away. Typically to work on my computer. It isn't until more time has passed than I thought do I realize all the water has evaporated and my veggies are burned to the bottom of the pan.

Fortunately they aren't very expensive, Mark just laughs at me and we try again.

I'm glad so far it has only been burnt veggies.

In an instant

As time passes, people come in and out of our lives. Some by life circumstances and other leave us because of death.

One of my Dad's good friends died very suddenly of a heart attack over the weekend. As I read his obituary in the paper, it seems reminds me as quick as the paper is thrown away we'll move on the next life challenge. His wife and family will grieve for a long time and he'll always remain in our hearts. But the earth will keep spinning.

Last week we also heard of the good-bye of a very young woman who died of cancer. My husband knew her from childhood. It was only a year ago she was diagnosed. Her journey toward heaven is very inspiring.

Both of these dear souls knew their Lord and had given their hearts over to him. Their deaths are our loss on this earth. I look forward to seeing them and many others in heaven someday.

Transfer of Ownership

My marriage to Mark has brought me a wonderful set of in-laws. Mark's youngest sister is Rachel. Whenever I would talk to Rachel on the phone or see her during our engagement, she would always speak of her Mark. "My Mark is sleeping." or "My Mark is getting married." Rarely was it just "Mark." Now she loved me and I adored her, so it wasn't a jealousy thing at all.

After the wedding though, Rachel now refers to him when speaking with me as "your Mark." She has officially transferred ownership. "Your Mark is at work."

Since Mark is a boy that should be possessed by a girl, he was hers until the wedding. Afterwards, he left their home, now lives with Laura, so he must be Laura's Mark.

I'm glad she is willing to let me have him...I promise to share with her :).

Valentine's Day with the Flu

I was so excited this year to return home from a business trip to Boston, just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day with my husband. Now I know that this holiday is overly commercialized etc... but this is our first one together, so the sentimental girl in me wanted it to be special.

Well as I stepped off the plane, I got a sudden burst of shaking and chills which later ensued into a full-blown flu. Instead of bringing me home flowers, Mark brought me medicine. I didn't feel like eating, much less cooking so he lived off of left-overs and sandwich meat during my illness...so much for a romantic candle light dinner.

We still went to a play on Friday night. I spent most of the evening blowing my nose and resting on his shoulder. It was a good show though.

Finally after sleeping 14 hours from Saturday to Sunday, I started feeling better. Mark had to work both days this weekend, so I just slept most of the time he was gone.

We had our romantic dinner on Sunday night.

I'm finally almost back to my normal self and just praying Mark doesn't get sick. :)

Bigger isn't better

Wal-Mart charcoal, in addition to being less expensive than the name brand Kingsford, advertises 60% bigger bricks. This is definitely one instance where bigger is not better. These charcoal barely last, never really grey, and don't get very hot. I barely can finish grilling our meals some nights.

I decided this was annoying and purchased some regular Kingsford. We had a fabulous steak and potato dinner on the grill last Tuesday. They performed much better than the 60% bigger bricks.

While sometimes the Wal-Mart brand really is a savings, these charcoal are no "Great-Value."

Some things are round and some things are square

Shapes play a vital role in our life. Street signs for example come in many distinct shapes. While driving down the highway long before I'm able to see the words on the sign, I can tell by the shape what the message is likely to be.

In my ordered world, I still like to add some variety to the shapes of my life. When Mark and I registered for our wedding, we got some square plates, square-ish cups, and square stemware. Now I find this "variety" very enjoyable. My brother on the other hand was a bit disturbed. He felt that glasses and plates were round. My choices were fine...just not traditional. He felt the glasses were some what impractical as that you have to be more selective of where you choose to drink from than a round glass.

While this example clearly demonstrates the engineer in my brother, it also reminded of all the things I expect to be a certain way and a certain shape. Most things in my life do meet my expectations and follow what is seemingly logical order. Typically though it is those that diverge that catch my attention and occupy my mind.

I think we tend to exaggerate how much things "change" or "aren't the way we expect" because we fail to notice the things that stay the same or are the way we expect. While dealing with change can be a challenge, noticing what is square or round may be more difficult.

Child's View of Marriage

For those of us blessed with parents who are still together, it is hard to imagine them as a part of separate families. Marrying into a family with smaller children has refreshed my view of how kids view their family. In their mind, their family is and was always this way. They recognize Grandma and Grandpa but the thought of mommy living with them doesn't make a lot of sense. When their family continues to grow and change, children also struggle with the changing dynamics.

When Mark and I first were engaged, his siblings were very sad by the prospect of him moving out. They loved me but that did not seem sufficient reason for Mark to move away. Joel lovingly suggested that I could move into the house and stay in the girl's room.

After the wedding, Rachel asked me why I didn't live with my family and Mark move back home. I pointed out that Mark and I were married so we were a family now and needed to stay together. Joel recognized after the wedding that Mark and I had to stay together. He told Grandma at Christmas that when they move into their new house Mark and I can move back in. I assume he figures their is enough space so we can have our own room.

Well with the recent engagement of brother-in-law Matthew to my good friend, Renae, Rachel had another suggestion. After Matthew and Renae get married, Renae can move in with me and Mark can move back home.

The views of marriage from a child's eyes.

Tragic Pet Deaths Part II

It seems in my both of my families (Vercler and Lindberg) pets tend to die in very tragic ways.

Last year, the Lindbergs obtained some tadpoles from a nearby pond. These little guys were fun to watch while they swam in their jar on a table in the kitchen. Since they were in the process of moving, a few storage boxes sat at the back of this corner table.

Well the little guys continued to grow. They were just beginning to get their legs. They had a tendency to jump out occasionally but usually were retrieved and placed back in their home. One late night they must of decided that little jar was no longer suitable. They jumped out of their jar. One of them landed squarely on the kitchen floor and was found dead in the morning. The other was nowhere to be found. The family looked everywhere in the kitchen, porch, living room, etc... to find this poor lost tadpole/little frog.

Well last week they discovered how the little tadpole met his doom. He had jumped in between the moving boxes. While moving some of the items around, they found his poor dried out body between the boxes. Death by moving box such a sad way for a tadpole to die.

Aquatic animals seem to have the most trouble in my family. My poor fish Epicurius (the one after Samson) died suddenly when I accidentally changed his water too quickly. It was too cold and hence put him in to shock. I didn't realize what I had done till I saw his little body floating to the top.

If you are an aquatic pet in my family, you're sunk.

Christmas Card

One of the joys this year with my new husband, was sending out Christmas cards. Since we are trying to live on a modest budget, we opted for Christmas postcards. I tried to get to everyone but I'm confident I missed people. If you didn't recieve one and you would like one, just e-mail me and I'll drop it in the mail.

I have also attached the picture and short note for those who just want to view it via the blog.

If you didn't want to have anything to do with our Christmas card...my apologies are extended.

Greetings and love from Georgia,
As we approach this holiday season, we remember the many blessings of the past year. As you all know, we were married on September 24th. We had a wonderful wedding. Many thanks to our family and friends who worked to make the day special. It is a memory we will always treasure in our hearts.
Married life has been a joyous adventure thus far. Laura is adjusting to south quite well, enjoying her sweet tea and grits. She is still working for Press Ganey out of a home office. Mark is busy at CAT in addition to studying. He has been very diligent with his classes despite his busy work schedule. Our church family in Atlanta and the Mennonite Church in Meigs have welcomed us with open arms. We love working out at the local YMCA and grilling out on our back porch. Unfortunately we are unable to return to central Illinois for the holidays, but trust God will bless their holiday season. We are looking forward to holiday time with the Lindberg family here in Georgia.
Please let us know if you are ever driving to Florida or in our area. I-85 is only about 45 minutes away. Visitors are always welcome. We miss ya’ll and love you always.
Love ~ Mark & Laura

Tragic Pet Deaths

"Today we gather together to celebrate the life of..." Death is one of the few certain things in life. Ironically it is a personal favorite of man-kind to try to fight and/or ignore. It seems our own mortality (especially those who are lacking the promise of eternal life) makes people very uncomfortable.

Now many of us will experience death prior to our own. Family members, friends, acquaintances, and of course beloved pets remind us of our own demise.

It is even a greater struggle when these deaths are a direct result of our actions.

My beta fish, Samson, died a tragic death in an unfortunate incident with a garbage disposal. I was replacing part of his water, a traditional method of bowl maintenance between cleanings. I was pouring it into the sink/garbage disposal my hand slipped a bit. Before I knew it, he had followed the current directly out of his bowl.

I tried in vain to retrieve him but my efforts were futile. To insure he wasn't just sitting at the bottom, I flipped the disposal on and my fish met his untimely death.

Another tragic story is when my husband's grandmother was cleaning out her canary cage. Birds can be awfully messy. Grandma decided that vacuuming out the bottom of the cage would be the most efficient least disgusting way to clean out the cage.

Well one thing lead to another and the poor little canary was sucked right into the vacuum cleaner. They quickly shut it off and opened the bag. The bird was dusty but still alive. He sadly though died the next day as a result of the trauma. It truly sucked the life out of him.

Nothing like the tragic deaths of our pets to remind us of our own mortality.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Mark and I attended Victorian Christmas in Thomasville this past weekend. It is a holiday festival with food, song and dance performances, a living nativity, and host of other booths spread down 3-4 blocks of downtown Thomasville.

You can always tell which food vendors are the most popular by the length of the line at their booth. Mark and I enjoyed a bloomin' onion with sweet tea. We were going to get some pita chill packets but decided it wasn't worth the wait. We settled for a corn dog and a sausage with onions and green peppers.

After our meal, we enjoyed a lovely living nativity presentation with Matthew. Our seats were excellent, right in the front row. It was truthfully an accident as we just sat down on some empty bleachers to enjoy our dinner when we realized that soon the show was starting.

We decided to walk down the last block to see what else was offered before heading home. At the end their was the incredibly long line, even longer than the one for carriage rides through downtown. Upon closer inspection, it was a circle about 50 ft in diameter of fake snow.

SNOW in Georgia is as exciting as it gets apparently. Now to a Northerner it looked like pretty pathetic snow cone-ice type snow but to a Southern child, this is as close as they may get. Kids were running around, throwing it, making shapes with their feet etc...

We kind of giggled at the excitement of the people but realized Mark's youngest sister, Rachel, probably hadn't ever seen snow either. Different perspective isn't it?

Well as we still have our air conditioner on as it rather warm outside, it is the only snow we are going to see this Christmas.

Think your life is rough...read "Dear Abby"

As an advice-columnist addict, I'll admit to gaining a bizarre pleasure reading the issues of others. I'm vehemently opposed to gossip but I do have that inherent human interest in the lives of other people. This fulfills this needs but since the writers volunteered the information and it remains anonymous, I avoid the evils of gossip.

I use this medium as an inexpensive form of therapy. Anytime that I'm worried my life is lacking direction or that I'm in a troubled state, my daily dose of these columns cures me almost in an instant. The concerns many of the writer's have I couldn't have even dreamed of, let alone experienced in my own personal life.

I'll concede many of these people are in these situations due to poor choices on their own part, but not always. Either way it is oddly enticing to read. Most of the issues deal with romantic relationships or issues with children, which of course has mounds of opportunity for disaster.

As far as what I'd recommend for reading the Chicago Tribune provides an excellent daily assortment

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/advice/

Now I often don't agree with the at least part of the advice given, so don't think I'm recommending this as a source for solving your own personal problems. Rather a study of the Bible will provide far more sound advice.

These are recommended for uplifting entertainment as you realize- "it's really not that bad."