Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written anything because I've been swamped! The first three months of the year are crazy in legislative affairs. On Monday, January 12th, the Georgia General Assembly convened to start another 40 days of fighting over the state budget, Sunday alcohol sales, and property taxes. The bickering sometimes is just too childish, but hey, we elected them right?

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours under the Gold Dome attending the 24th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Tribute. As a board member for the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism, I was invited by the Governor's Office along with the rest of the board. I always love to go to the Capitol during the legislative session. There is just something electric about the atmosphere; loaded with lobbyists from all sectors-all of them vying for a vote! This day was no different. Anyway, Martin Luther King's sister, Dr. Christine King Farris was there to accept a proclamation from the Governor. Personally I thought it was sad that none of his kids where actually there, but whatever. That's a whole different story if you've seen the news! The speakers included Rep. Melvin Everson, Sen. Emanuel Jones, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Governor Sonny Perdue and the former Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele. All very distinguised gentlemen and wonderful speakers as was Dr. Farris. Dr. Farris is 81 years old and MLK would have been 80 yesterday. It was interesting and I was glad to be there to hear them all talk about the legacy of service that Dr. King left behind. The picture above is with Michael Steele. (What a terrible picture of me!!)

• Another cool thing about being at the Capitol yesterday was all of the wild animals that were on display. They have certain "days" at the Capitol every year and I guess this was wild animal day or something. The most facinating thing for me was the bald eagle. He was live and sitting on a perch like any other bird and he was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure he could have torn all of us to shreds, but he was still beautiful! I wish I had gotten a picture.

• I'm so proud of my husband. He is co-chairing the Johns Creek Relay for Life for the first time ever. It's actually the first Relay for Life in Johns Creek. He was very apprehensive about taking the lead at first, but he's really been enjoying meeting new people and helping making this Relay a reality with his co-chair. Last night, we attended a reception for cancer survivors and the Johns Creek community to garner interest in creating teams and donating to help this very worthy cause. I have worked with the Relay for Life for about 6 or 7 years now with the Citizens of Georgia Power and the Gwinnett Relay. The Gwinnett Relay for Life is the largest event in the United States. If you have never been to a Relay for Life, I encourage you to get involved- trust me when I say, you will be glad that you did! Everyone is touched by cancer somehow. Whether it's a family member, a friend, co-worker or an acquaintance; we've all seen the devastation of cancer. Please get involved.

• It is so cold here right now! I know, I've been hearing from all my friends and family who live further north that this cold is nothing, but it really is for Georgia! It's snowing everywhere but here! It never got above 32 degrees today and the wind is blowing which makes it even colder. Nothing compared to the -13 temps in Illinois, but it's still cold to me!

• So, now I'm just sitting here checking some emails and my facebook page, enjoying a glass of wine and waiting for our pizza to be ready. Scott and I have a problem sometimes trying to decide what we want for dinner, so tonight we settled on a frozen pizza. Real Healthy! I offered up my two favorite foods-Mexican or Sushi and neither sounded good to him, so we're having pizza!

• Well, Scott just took it out of the oven, so I'm off to have some pizza and watch some tv in front of the fireplace with my honey!

Ta-Ta for now!

It's been a Monday!

After a lovely, lazy weekend of sushi, mexican food and some shopping, today was back to "normal" work for me and I have to say that I actually enjoyed it! Sounds kind of sick, huh? Well everyone was back today and it was nice to be busy again. Everyone in my department is a total of 15 people. My boss was in and out all day going from one meeting to another. Our Vice-President has been promoted to a Sr. Vice-President over all of External Affairs, so now we report directly up to him instead through him to someone else! It's kind of crazy and confusing, but should make for an interesting year. The Georgia legislative session is about to start and I love this time of year. The action at the state capitol is my favorite and someday, I want my boss' job. We'll see if I can break that glass ceiling!! The most important part of my day was getting my report filed with the State Ethics Commission.

The one thing that was hard this morning was dressing for work. Ugh! I've been wearing jeans and comfortable clothes for two weeks and today was back to business suits and heels. My feet wanted to rebel this morning, but by the end of the day, they were fine.

Tonight I'm sipping on a glass of Biltmore Estate Chateau Reserve Voignier wine, waiting on my dinner to finish cooking and working on a paper for class tomorrow night. I have to write a paper about how I categorize problems. What problems? My life is perfect!! Ha Ha! I'm actually dreading class tomorrow night. I'm having major writer's block because I'm tired of being in school right now and I'm ready to be finished! I hate writing fluff papers about things that I don't really care about. I keep repeating to myself, "three more months, three more months, I'm almost finished, I'm almost finished." I really want to go ahead and get my doctorate, but I think I'll take a break before I start that program!

I have five more nights of my current class and then I start a seven week Capstone project that will allow me to graduate. I think I'm going to do my project on why employees do not trust company ethics programs. Ethics is a major interest of mine and I can't understand why companies don't take a more active role in ethical practices. Oh, in today's society the majority of corporations have a whole department focusing on workplace ethics, but how many people really believe in the process? I sometimes feel that many companies do the bare minimum to keep from being sued and that's it. Statiscally speaking, and I have research, most employees believe his or her company really doesn't care about them as an individual. The general perception is that corporate ethics programs are designed to protect the manager, not the average employee just trying to do his or her job. Anyway, that's a soapbox for another day!

Well, I better get work on that paper, so I can watch my recorded "Brothers and Sisters" before I got to bed!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful time last night with our friends and neighbors. Everyone started showing up around 7 pm and we started eating and watching the football games. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl was absolutely painful - Georgia Tech lost to LSU 38-3. It was awlful!

Our rowdy neighbors came over with some of their friends for a little while and then we walked across the yard to their house a little later. Spent a little time over there and came back home to light a fire in the fireplace. It was too cold last night to light the outdoor fire and no one wanted stay outside for long! After the game was over we started watching some of the New Year's Eve shows. The music wasn't that great. I love Fergie, Katy Perry was good, never heard of the Ting Ting's, Ludacris was ok. I'm not a Taylor Swift or Jonas Brothers fan at all - they have no talent. All of Taylor Swifts song are about the same thing. I can't stand the Pussy Cat Dolls or Kelly Pickler either. Talk about country! I can't stand to hear Kelly talk and I'm from Arkansas!!

No fantastic wild party at our house! It was nice and layed back! It was so nice to have our friends over; the conversation was great, the food was great, we shared a few drinks and had a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Today, Scott and I got up late and I made eggs benedict for breakfast, then we started taking down the rest of the Christmas decorations. Ugh! I always love having the decorations up at first and then after about two weeks, I'm ready for it to all be gone! I need one of Santa's Christmas fairies to come every year to put all the stuff up and then come back to take it down!

This morning I put a pot roast in the crockpot and we are having a friend and his two children over for dinner tonight. Roast, sauteed spinich with garlic (I absolutely loathe collard greens!), mashed potatoes, gravy and black eyed peas! Sounds yummy!

I have to work at least part of the day tomorrow so no late night for me tonight. And we have a quiet weekend planned so far. I bought tickets for us to go and see the King Tut exhibition at the Atlanta Civic Center so we may venture down to Atlanta for that, but then again, maybe not! There is always another day!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!