Memphis Update

So if you saw the pics on the Weather Channel you can compare to what this did look like-they are doing an amazing job on the store! That is daylight shining through on the one photo-roof was gone! My car got hit pretty good too.

The most amazing thing is we are actually planning on being open for business by next Friday (that's August 7th!!!) It is tax free weekend in Tennessee and they don't want to miss it. The pot of gold is that all of the remaining work that we had to do to really clean up the store before the storm will now be done by next week and no worries about payroll!! :) We should look like a new store by then!!

I am learning all kinds of new stuff-it is pretty amazing what they are doing. Tonight there are huge plastic "tunnels" through out the store blowing air from huge compressors to dry it out. It is kind of cool.

Another perk is that my name is now fairly well known-supposedly corporate recognition coming for Jerrica and I for being the "heroes". We had a lot of great associates that evening who really pulled together to keep everyone safe. Customers have been calling to thank us which really makes us feel good. Lots of big wigs in the building right now too-making lots of connections!!

I will update as I can-not much time off for awhile! Thanks for your prayers, phone calls and emails! Love to you all and Good night!

Hi!

Wowza. It's been a while since I posted. Oops. My computer was on the outs a few months ago, and I think that threw me off. Anyway...

First, Happy (Belated) Birthday Grandma! I hope you had a fantastic birthday, and I am sorry that I could not be there. I was thinking of you, and I hope you had some fun. :)

Uhhh, so I guess I could give y'all a 'quick' update on life. I'm working at the City Museum right now in STL, where I serve gelato. The City Museum (click the name to go to its website) if you don't know is basically a big awesome playground/artsy crazyplace. I love working there, and I've met a bunch of really great people on the staff there. This particular position only goes until September, but I am hoping to move to the floor staff at least part-time in the fall. I costumed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a couple months ago, which was huge and a lot of fun. That's my cast! I did quite a chuck of the costumes myself, because I am Julie McCrazyperson. But it went really well. I'm in between shows right now, but in the fall I am actually the producer for a play, not the costume designer. It will be interesting to try on a new role. I also have a volunteer job right now for a website called The Leaky Cauldron. It's a HUGE Harry Potter website. Basically, I am on the staff of a section of it called The Lily and Stag Inn. The basic forum website is here if you want to take a look--I don't think you can actually get into my Reading Group's site without signing up and everything. But it's a big online forum where we are reading through the HP series. Right now we are on book 5. I help run a Reading Room with a few other staffers. I help with things like chapter summaries, discussion questions, creating polls, moderating member discussions, etc. It's very nerdy, and I love it! I'm actually learning a bit more about HTML and code and stuff working on it. Plus, it's a bunch of Harry Potter geeks! Speaking of, I'm drenched in HP right now--I also met a bunch of people through one of my friends at work who are all St. Louis Harry Potter nerds. :) They are great, and we do lots of fun stuff together. A bunch of us went to the midnight release of the Half-Blood Prince movie. :) What else? I start biology classes again in the fall. I'm going in a couple of weeks to visit one of my best friends from high school in Atlanta. Yay! I think that's about it.

I'm sorry that I haven't been on much lately, and I will try to remedy that. :) I hope everyone is doing well and is getting some sun!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy, happy, happy birthday Mom! We wish we were there to honor your 78 years. Hoping dad is taking extra special care of you today.

Love,
Leslie, Eric & the munchkins

Summer in the City

Well-life has definitely been interesting this summer as far as work goes. I am finding why Memphis is rated number 2 in the country for crime. We have had lots of incidents of people just running out the doors with carts full of merchandise. Then to top that off the store was broken into and robbed over the weekend. They cut a hole in our roof and cut the alarm wires, then proceeded to bust out all of our jewelry showcases and empty them. Most of the really high dollar stuff is pulled into a safe at night, but quantity wise it still added up to a LOT of money. So this week for me has been spent getting everything repaired. It is kind of creepy that when my boss answered the first alarm call the burglar was probably still there-but they just checked the perimeters and front area since the building interior alarm had not gone off, then got a second call about an hour later. Luckily for me, he had moved his name to the top of the alarm call list, before that I was always the first to get called! Of course, I had Skyler overnight that night so I would have had to called him anyway. Just makes you pause and really pay a lot more attention to what is going on around you!
Other than my (overly) exciting job, I have been enjoying my summer. Spending time at the pool when I can, driving to Jonesboro (frequently) to see my beautiful new grandson and his parents, and lots of time pondering what I want my future to look like. I am hoping to maybe travel somewhere at the end of August for vacation-maybe I will show up on someones doorstep!! :)
Hope everyone is enjoying their summers as well! Back to school will be here before you know it!!

Celebrating Eric's Birthday

Can you believe it! The second to oldest or one of the middle siblings has learned how to put pictures on the blog all by herself!

We met up with Eric, Monica and Julie today in Columbia Missouri to celebrate Eric's upcoming birthday. Their choice of eateries was Shakespears pizza. They have been a local hagout for college students for 36 years. Just a few blocks away from Mizzou and some of the best pizza around!! Very much like the old Shakey's for those who remember that.

Anyway it was a beautiful day, perfect temperature to sit outside and hangout with our kids.

They are all doing fantastic. Eric and Monica are still in the house hunting mode. They were going to look at 4 or 5 houses this evening. Getting a little discouraged in not finding what they want at what they can afford. They did have one earlier on but come to find out it had a offer on it. It took a little for Monica to get over that. I told them they needed to talk to Bryan and Nikki. They had went through all the same experience not that long ago and could relate as well as give them encouragement.

Julie is keeping busy as well. Saw Harry Potter movie on Tuesday at midnight and saw it again yesterday. Her take on it is that she thought it had some good points but overall did not like it. (which must be way she has seen it twice already)

Both Julie and Eric are getting ready for school to start again in a couple of weeks.

As far as Tony and I.....we are working hard, lots of hours, and trying to keep business coming through the doors at both our salons. Anyone with any marketing ideas out there??? If so we would love to hear them.

Hope all is well with everyone. David, Carolyn and Hannah any news from our there???

You are all in my thoughts and prayers daily!

Love, Chrissie

And Summer Continues.....

I have my choice...work or type....too early to work, so I'll type!!! We had a great old fashion fourth in KC, complete with a "Steeleville" style parade, followed by a barbecue and ending with a concert in the park and superb fireworks!!!! The weather, though, overcast, and threatening at times proved to be quite enjoyable for a Midwest fourth. CHRISTINE'S proved to be "the place to be" and our thanks to our hosts.
We returned to Quincy and back to the chores that awaited. Dale is painting the garage and putting up much needed new gutters and a garage door. The garage is a little more red than I had hoped--the color "redwood" seems to have changed over the years. I've been deep cleaning the sun room, almost finished, and then will move on to the kitchen (that should take a couple of years).
We've had a quick visit with Kathy and Charlie as they passed through on their way home to North Dakota. Kath wanted to meet Fred, my favorite robot. It's always great to get to visit with them. We had gone down to Fairview Heights last Wednesday to spend the day with them, too. We have a lot of catching up to do--we only get to visit once a year and not always with Charlie.
We're headed to Springfield tomorrow to pick up Gracie. She's coming to spend a couple of days with Grandma and Grandpa and has "plans" for us. I'm sure she'll keep us entertained. She always does.
We're due at Laurie's next Sunday to help with some chores. We'll stay a few days and then return to Quincy to do a few of our own chores, and then return to Iowa to help Leslie out the this year's Iowa Ragbri--one of the stopping places this year is Indianola and Simpson is helping out--they're expecting the town to grow 30,000 people for the day and night. Leslie's looking for lots of body help for all the activities that are being planned for the bikers. Sounds like fun. Dale and I are taking care of the kids and whatever else she needs us to do.
From there, we'll come back to celebrate Mom's birthday and then take off for KC once more. We're going to go to our favorite dinner theater to see "Sound Of Music" (I've heard it's a great musical). We're staying an extra couple of days to take Grace and Hope to the KC zoo' they'll be joining us on Monday. Grace is also in line to have Chris cut her hair for the first time. It's long enough that what Chris cuts can be made into a wig for a sick child.)
We're due to have a houseful of kids the first weekend in August as Grace and Hope will bring David, Matthew, and Michael with her to visit. (They're the sons of good friends Donna and Glenn). Then it's back to Indianola to watch the hot air balloons from Leslie's deck--we're hoping to bring Dad and Mom with us then. I know they enjoy watching the balloons.
We've scheduled a weekend trip with Bryan and Nikki (Laurie, too?)to Wichita to visit Dale's Aunt Henrietta tentatively for the weekend of August 14th. So we'll be busy for a while.
Hope everyone is having an enjoyable summer. Please write and tell us all about what you've been doing. I really enjoy the pictures. Mom and Dad are too, and keep us posted when new ones are on.
Take care and love to all.

Catching up

Wow, this year is going so fast. Can't believe it's July. Hannah is doing great in her chemistry class at the University of Utah. She got the highest grade on the first test in her group, and had to bring donuts the next day to make up for skewing the curve. We visited Benj and Ashlie's new house and had a picnic in one of the many parks in their lovely neighborhood. I took my camera to take pictures of the house, but must confess that my camera only had eyes for that cutie, Tyler, playing with Grandpa and Hannah playing catch with Benj. 

We spent this weekend at the cabin with our good friends Tim and Lynette. Dave cooked up a storm, Hannah provided the music, Carolyn and Tim hiked each other into the ground, and Mother Nature did the rest. It was great. Hope you all had a great 4th!