Skiing

I am finally getting around to posting these pictures – a month later. I went skiing at the end of January with 18 other people at Breckenridge Resort. We had fantastic weather. The slopes were great. I really enjoyed the skiing. I even did a black for the first time! It’s the 2nd year I’ve gone with this group. Three days of skiing, the temperature was in the 30s, clear skies most of the time, very little wind, freshly groomed runs, and very few people. It was incredible.

Views from the top of the mountain.

The girls I skied a lot with – Wendy, Staci & Tina

4 of us went night skiing at Keystone one evening. Me, Tony, Jeremy, Jennifer

Being a domestic goddess

My friend Lindsey gave me the cookbook "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson for my birthday.It has inspired me to get back into baking. The recipes are unpretentious and delicious. I've already made 4 recipes from it. Nigella has wonderful little notes about each recipe that make you want to sit down and read the cookbook from cover to cover. It has been fun to take the time to bake again. I highly recommend it if you are looking for some inspiration.

Auch, France

I am once again in Toulouse, France for work. When I take time to reflect, it is very odd to me that a foreign city is so familiar to me. I can’t believe that trips to Toulouse are old hat, routine. It can get frustrating living in limbo for when the next trip to happen – as they tend to be last minute. But I don’t want to take this unique for granted. I am thankful for all God has allowed me to do. To still be connected to an incredible group of friends & church family in Wichita and yet still get to travel. It is a unique work situation too – you form different bonds with co-workers when you live in a foreign city together. It reminds me that God’s ways are higher than my ways and renews my trust in Him and His leading.
“Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the Lord’s decree will prevail.” Proverbs 19: 21
Here’s a little of my weekend escapades. I decided to explore Auch. There are signs I pass every day for highway exits in that direction. I couldn’t find much on the internet about Auch. A co-worker and I drove out there on a sunny Saturday afternoon, it’s about an hour northwest of Toulouse. It was a bigger town than I expected. Situated on the River Gers, it has a large hill that the historic city is set on.
The Grand Staircase connects the upper & lower portions of the city. I climbed all 234 steps. On the Grand Staircase is a statue of d’Artagnan, of the Musketeers. He was born in a castle only 30 kilometers from Auch.

Cathedrale Sainte Maire (St. Mary’s) is on the top of the hill. It was started in 1489 and finished two centuries later Next to it is Tour d’Armagnac – a 14th century prison. This is Pousterle de l’Est – and yes, I climbed it too. I forgot how great of a workout you get climbing up towers and hills in France.
I love finding these towns. I didn’t know what to expect, but the city was more than I expected. We took a very scenic drive home too. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it -amazing countryside.Sunday’s plans to run down to Barcelona were scraped at the last minute because the others were sick. But it gave me the opportunity to go to church. I love Toulouse International Church. It amazes me they remember me from my 3 month stay in 2007. I got to spend the afternoon having lunch with the singles & young couples group at an elders’ house. This is the second lunch I’ve been in town for. I’m told my trip needs to coincide with the next one.

Happy Birthday to me

I turned the big 3-5. Friends threw a big party for me. The decorations were High School Musical. We had a dance party in the basement of Heather & Rob's house. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed celebrating with my sweet Wichita friends. You can see me, Lindsey, & Rachel posing with the poster.

That was a Friday night. The next morning I flew to France for 2 weeks for work. So I was in France for my actual birthday. On my birthday I went to dinner with a few of my co-workers. It was a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Toulouse. I promise I shared the bottle of chianti. The sticker was in a friend's card - I figured I had to wear it for a picture. It says "It's my birthday and I'm an incredibly smart, exciting and good-looking person!"
I got phone calls from my family too. It was a great birthday.

Christmas and NYE

Happy New Year!

It's been a busier week than I expected. So, I'm just now getting around to posting some Christmas pictures. I don't have a lot of pictures. The boys weren't being real cooperative in taking any posed pictures either. We had a fairly quiet Christmas. I went up to Mom & Dad's on Dec 23. Sharon & David and JT came over on the afternoon of Christmas Day. JT got a train for Christmas "just like Grandpa's!!" (only smaller scale). He had to call Grandpa first thing Christmas Day to tell him. Marshall also got a special train table that he played with for hours. He broke down sobbing when they made him take a nap. Hannah & Jonathan and Marshall drove up on the 26th. We all pretty much just hung out at Mom & Dad's house for the weekend.

I had an impromptu sewing project. Sharon had asked me to make an apron for JT since he likes

to help in the kitchen. They picked out "Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU" fabric (that's JT's description).

It went together so quickly that we decided to make one for Marshall too since he likes to help his mama in the kitchen too. JT went to the store with me to help pick out the John Deere fabric.

My big Christmas present was money - I was saving towards a fancy cooking pot. I went shopping on the 26th at The Legends in KC to the Le Creuset outlet store. I am now the proud owner of a cornflower blue 7.25 quart round French oven. (Le Creuset are French made enamel coated cast iron pots.)

I made the trek back home and spent a few days running errands all over town. I was in charge of the Pathways New Year's Eve party this year. It's a semi-formal dinner & dance. We had about 40 people and everyone had tons of fun. It was in Old Cowtown. Everything went well and once the party started I was able to relax and enjoy it. I wore Mom's dress from my parents' Alaskan cruise this summer.

Happy New Year - may you be blessed in 2009.

Chicago

Mom & I went to Chicago last weekend for 3 days. The weather was actually better than I expected. Friday was cold but sunny. Saturday & Sunday were a bit warmer but cloudy. All in all, a couple layers and we stayed warm enough. We stayed downtown and walked everywhere. Both of our legs were a bit sore by Sunday. It was actually Mom's first time to downtown Chicago. I went twice my senior year of high school for school trips and several years ago (10?) with a friend for fun. So, I was the tour guide.
We started out Friday window shopping on the Magnificent Mile. Found out the Ghiradelli store was giving away free samples of peppermint bark - we made it back there on Saturday too! We took a quick look in American Girl Place just to see what the hoopla was all about. This was the view of the Wrigley Building from our hotel.

Saturday we walked down to the gigantic Macy's on State Street. It used to be Marshall Field's flagship store. When Dad was little, his family would make the trek into Chicago to look at the animated windows. We went inside too to look at the Christmas decorations and the 45 foot tall Christmas tree in the Walnut Room.

Then we visited the Christkindlmarket in Daly Plaza. It is a German open air Christmas market that's about 13 years old. It was smaller than I expected but lots of great Christmas ornaments handcrafted and imported direct from Germany. From there we headed down past Millenium Park & "The Bean" -
to the Art Institute of Chicago. Saturday night it was raining and we were a bit wet when we finally made it to the theatre. We saw Wicked. A delightful retelling of the "behind the scenes" story of The Wizard of Oz. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sunday was a walk down to Navy Pier to check out the skyline and get blown to bits by the wind before heading home. Thankfully we left before any weather-induced travel delays hit due to the cold front.

Next up - Christmas!

Stuck in France - the pictures

As my previous post said, my 8 day business trip to Toulouse, France turned into a 19 day trip. So I had 2 weekends to play with and Armistice Day (Nov 11). I tried to take advantage of it all. The first weekend I went shopping in Toulouse and to a wine festival. Armistice Day I got to tag along on a road trip to a little village near Bordeaux. The fall colors are beautiful. The leaves on the vines have all turned beautiful colors and the trees are brilliant as well.
An incredible view down the road into the village.

That night, back in Toulouse, I attended a chamber orchestra concert. It was a violin virtuoso accompanied by 4 violins, 1 viola and 1 cello. It was at St. Sernin Basilica. This is the year of baroque music. It was amazing to hear music played in the venue it was created for. I've never heard a more stirring rendition of Ave Maria. They ended the concert with selections from Vivaldi's Four Season.

My last weekend in France, I took a road trip up to Limoges. It's a town famous for it's porcelain. I don't recommend this town as a must see - only if you have money to spend on expensive dinner ware. Unfortunately the porcelain museum is closed until April for renovation. This is the inset of Limoges' Hotel DeVille - the French national slogan - Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

I walked around the botanical gardens and took a self-portrait.

St. Etienne Cathedral is next to the botanical gardens.

The drive was the best part of this trip. This is a poor attempt to capture how beautiful it was.

Look, it's shake & bake and I helped! Well, it's an Boeing 777 nacelle and I did the analysis on portions of the thrust reverser. I got to fly a 777 on my trip over and had a perfect seat for seeing my handiwork. It always kinda freaks the person sitting next to me out when I fly one and mention that I had a hand in it. That was 3 years of my career.