I hate the word swine

So I thought this was kinda funny. As y'all know, I travel alot with my job and EVERYWHERE you go, all you hear is swine flu this, wash your hands that, I can't believe the Obama folks actually had Air Force One fly over NY like that, wait... that's another subject...

But I just got the email below from my HR director.

Hey Hope. I hope you are having a good week.

I know that you probably have heard about the recent Swine Flu cases in the country and right now no one knows exactly how severe of a public health emergency that this may evolve into. In the meantime, I wanted to send you a few ways to protect yourself from getting sick:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue or sleeve when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue into the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are also effective.
• Avoid touching your hands, nose or mouth – germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

You can also visit the Centers for Disease Control website at www.cdc.gov/swineflu/ to view the latest information regarding this public health emergency. Take care of yourself! (I know… I am acting like your mom but that is part of my job!)

We will have an announcement to the company this week, but I wanted to go ahead and send you an email since I know you are not in the office and you may be traveling in an area near some of the reported cases.


B***** K*****
Human Resources Manager

Kinda funny to me... but kinda nice. Or maybe it's just the company's way of saying, don't sue us if you travel and get the swine flu.... cause we're not about to let you stop traveling.

Gettin' Crafty

So, one of my favorite things to do lately to help me de-stress is to get crafty. I've got an awesome setup to get scrapbookin', but what I've enjoyed doing a lot of lately is making cards. Here's a couple of the ones I made lately...

For our niece's bday:


For a friend that's having a baby who hasn't gotten this card yet so I hope she doesn't see this:

Derby Excitement!

So, the whole town of Louisville is getting pumped up and ready for the Derby. To make sure everyone's excited about it, the city puts on the Kentucky Derby Festival full of about two weeks of festivities. It's a pretty fun time, and in my attempt to get us more involved, I've been dragging Matt out to several events!

Today we went to Opening Day at Churchill Downs. It was so much fun! You could feel the excitement in the air in anticipation for The Derby next Saturday! Women were already wearing hats & drinking Mint Juleps and men were.... drinkin', smokin' and bettin' away! But I just walked around with a smile on my face all day.... and sunburn on my shoulders!

I would post pictures for you, however............ I wanted to take some "GOOD" pictures, so I took my real camera with me. "Real" meaning the use of actual film and lenses. I busted out the old Canon that I probably haven't really put into good use since my photography classes back in college. The anticipation of what they will look like it killing me! (I think I'm about to go drop off the film in a few minutes.)

But last night, we went to the Balloon Glow... and I took the digital camera to that. It was pretty neat. We waited around a lot not knowing if it was even going to happen because the wind was so strong, but it did - and it was worth the wait! I think Matt and I may have been the only "family" out there without any children - there were LOTS of kids - but it was ok, because like I said, the goal is to participate in more that the city has to offer!

So, enjoy some pics from the Balloon Glow!





You know I had to get a picture of the Coca-Cola one:


Thought this one was pretty cool too. The airport was close by and planes were going by all evening. I can only imagine the surprise when people flying overhead looked out the window. I actually caught one of the planes going over in this one:

Back in March....

Brooke and I went to a cattle show! Woohoo!
Here's pictures of our step cousins doin' their thing:


Joseph came in top 5!

You want a treat?

Dixie wants a treat....
You see that head tilt?

Hello Blog....

Hello Blog,
Remember me?

I haven't talked to you in a while.

I'll get better.

Sincerely,
Long lost owner

Classic Update

I feel like it's been forever since I posted on this thing!! And I should have been - there's a lot going on!! So considering I can't sleep (I'll get to that in a minute), I figured now's just as good a time as any to catch up!

As I mentioned before, Matt was asked to work the World Baseball Classic. Well, it's in full swing right now! He left on February 27th to head to Arizona to work with the South African team as they did their workouts to prepare for the Classic.

While he was there, a couple cool things happened.
1 - He got to meet/ hang out with the Oakland A's major league clubhouse guys. I'm all about making those connections! (for him at least!)

2 - So, Matt is walking into the A's clubhouse... Jason Giambi is walking out. For those of you that don't know him, this is what he looks like...

For the ladies...


Aaaanywho... back to the story.
So Giambi is walking out and says to Matt, "Hi, I'm Jason Giambi"
Matt: "Matt G******"
Giambi: "Hey, did you used to work with Guy Gallagher down in Tampa?"
Matt: "Yeah, and the end of the season in '05 and '06."
Giambi: "Yeah, I thought you looked familiar."

I'm sorry.... what?!?! My husband, Jason Giambi remembered you! That's kinda cool in my book! One day... one day all this hard work will be worth it and you'll be in the Bigs!

On Friday, Matt headed down to Mexico City, Mexico...... and I've been stressed to the MAX since. Word to the wise - don't watch news story after news story about the ever growing drug war in Mexico. Did you know it's not just on the border? Yeah, Mexico City is the number 1 city in the world for kidnapping... soo... needless to say, God's been hearing from me about 24 hours a day lately.

I haven't really been able to talk to him much while he's been down there, but I know that day one consisted of course of unloading everything until about 2am! Oh, the life of a clubby...

We got to talk briefly yesterday in between him going from one place to the other... but we haven't been able to talk since then. We may be apart alot between my travel and his working in baseball, but my goodness, to not even have the OPTION to talk to each other makes it just a little more tough.

So, please pray for us, friends. Pray that Matt will have an amazing time and this will be a great opportunity for his career!! And pray that I just make it without completely stressing out until he gets home on Friday!

So, I will continue to update on what I know...

All I've got so far is the not so good news about South African losing Game 1!

Go South Africa!