Please forgive this rant....

Please forgive this negative post that you are about to read....but I'm tired.

Work has worn me down. I'm tired of working around the clock 7 days a week with no help on the three jobs I've been covering for a year now.

Let's talk about the anonymity of emails:

Emails allow people to horrible and nasty without a conscience or guilt. The blackberry and iPhone make the entire process even worse. In my job I receive every single guest email that comes through our website. And people write the worse things and do not consider that their responses to the incredibly nice email (that includes most of the time groveling on my part even though I had nothing to do with the issue)I sent back are super rude. Sometimes when I'm tired and worn out these rude emails just wear me down and make me not want to do my job. So when you have an issue with a place of business and you write a letter or email to let them know your disappointment please remember that person receiving your emails may have NOTHING to do with the issue that you experienced. So lets all try to be nicer.

In reference to the working 7 days a week:

I'm tired of being at home working and not able to do the things I need/want to do. Instead I sit in front of my computer screen and take on multiple responsibilities because of cuts made. I just don't like that my job requires a lot of my time. An even balance would be much more preferred.

Don't get me wrong:

I am thankful for my job and the people I work with and for; they are great people and its a great company. I'm just tired. Life has worn me down lately and so the long days and multiple projects and multiple work trips have just about done me in.

Our vacation planned for March never looked so enticing......

So please forgive this rant.....

-lp

The Kite Runner

I understand that I may be a few years late here reading The Kite Runner BUT I finally got around to reading it. I'm sad I did not read it before. I'm thankful to Khaled Hossieni for writing this book. It opened my eyes to prejudice I may have had and not even been aware of the existence of it in my own heart. I am also thankful for the story of redemption of ones self that you can come full circle. I encouraged MK to read this novel and I hope that he does. I encourage all of you to read this even if we are a few years behind the trend. I think it's profitable even though its about a foreign culture, and customs and beliefs that we may or may not understand even after reading the book. It's a good read.

It's been quite the week and half for us in so many ways that I don't want to even elaborate because even thinking about it exhausts me. Through this week though I have been even more

thankful for my husband MK and his strength and understanding and humor and concern for me. He is a true blessing in my life. I thank God for my lovely, crazy, handsome, hardworking, leader of a husband He saw fit to bless me with.

Oh AND we booked a cruise on Royal Caribbean! Can't wait to go! Next to Europe cruises are my favorite!

always,

lp

Home Sweet Home

We had a good weekend in Arkansas with MK's family. We left for Hot Springs on Thursday and made it back to Tampa late last night. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying family time. We enjoyed good food compliments of Sherri, another Christmas morning, lots of laughter, DK's basketball game, seeing family friends at church, and overall just enjoying ourselves. Thanks for a great weekend Arkansas Kellys!

I think the only pictures I got were of DK's game. =)

-lp

St. Louis???????

I thought we were supposed to be in Hot Springs, AR right now preparing for the BIG game tonight by drinking coffee and prepping clam chowder or lasagna. Nope we're in the snow in St. Louis. When we left Tampa this morning there was ice on the plane and Tampa being Tampa doesn't have a way to de-ice planes except the by way of the sun. Yes we had to wait for the sun to heat the plane up and melt the snow. So we missed our connecting flight in Baltimore by 10 minutes which means we were re-routed to St. Louis where it is 12 degrees outside and snowing and they have the AC on. I'm super happy right now. So instead of arriving in Arkansas at 12 we will be getting there around 7 a whole day wasted sitting in airports. Bummer. Here are a few highlights of the fun we've had today. I thought it was going to be a good day when Southwest started me with a coffee with most adorable stirrer I have ever seen. I was wrong. There are some weirdos here at the airport; including snotty business men that are too good to sit down and have their hand on their hips while they talk on their phones and stand together in a group and pace, a man who just pulled his ear buds out of a vera bradley pouch, and every girl has the same hair cut and look on her face. My assumption there might be some in breeding happening in the mid-west and no one is talking about it(no offense Meg, no one looks like you I'm sure there is no in breeding in the Wiley clan). Here are some shots of us I took with my phone while we're just sitting here......

Insomnia

Now some people maybe of the habit of getting up before the sun but I'm not. If its 4 AM give or take 30 min and I'm awake and unable to go to sleep I consider THAT insomnia!

So on this sleep-less early "morning" I have already showered for my long day ahead of me. I have meetings in Sarasota today and I'm sure it will be a long day. These always are.

BUT on this quiet morning in which I am freshly showered as seen to the left and I have a good cup of coffee brewing AND I'm freezing because YES it is below freezing in Tampa at the moment I reflected on some things.

1. I hate cold mornings but like the anticipation of perhaps wearing gloves and a scarf today because they are oh so cute.

2. I really hate being away from Jans right now. I think she could use some laughs and

I think I could help her out with those.

3. 2010 is going to hold some pretty neat stuff I hope.

4. Kinda wishing I was on a cruise ship at the moment or had some FABULOUS vacation planned for us to look forward to as we did last year. At this time of year last year we were just MONTHS away from leaving on our two week vacay to Europe.

C'est la vie.

5. Liking my very organized and clean house.

6. Not liking paying bills. It gets old.

7. Looking forward to traveling to Arkansas it will be a nice a get away to see family and hopefully some snow.

8. Roll Tide - Beat Texas!

New Years

We had a great New Years! We had a SMALL party of us, Andrew and Andrea, Luke and Allison and us at our house. Nothing big but a lot of fun. We cooked great appetizers of pimento cheese dip and stuffed mushrooms, an awesome dinner of stuffed pork, parmesan zucchini crisps, spinach strawberry and feta salad, rolls, and cheesy potatoes. For dessert Freiji made mini lava cakes! YUM! We had a great time (despite Joey lunging for the stuffed pork on the table and Allison trying to save the pork and he thinking her finger was part of the pork and blood and tears flowing - they made up later as seen below).

We welcome 2010 with excitement. We're excited for the what the next decade might hold for us. We know that the past ten years have been fantastic and more than we could have ever hoped for! I'll do a recap of those years in a later post. For now enjoy the fun of our friends below. We know we're truly blessed beyond what we could even imagine for ourselves with FANTASTIC friends!

Christmas

Christmas this year revolved around a beautiful little 21 month old that is the cutest niece anyone could have! Claire loved Christmas. In fact I'm pretty sure she had too much Christmas! She didn't make it through all her presents but we sure enjoyed her!

Matt sent me on a scavenger hunt for my presents (no pictures to pro

ve it only a video that I refuse to let anyone see). He ended up getting me LOTS of IKEA gift cards and some golf clubs. Not too shabby. We're going to the driving range tomorrow to test them (and me I suppose) out. Should be interesting.....