Private Jets, Holiday Shopping and Sunny Skies!!

Hello -

It has been a few weeks since we have posted on here so we have a lot of updating to do!! So, here goes. A few weeks ago some buddies and I went to an event that we had at church, the wives got together to do Holiday crafts and we had planned to meet up with them after the event. Shortly after the event ended one of our friends who was with us got a call from work that he had to fly that night (he is a pilot). He flies private planes and it just so happened that there were three seats open on this flight. It was just a short 30 minute flight to Valdez and back, but it was still a great experience! So we all piled onto a private plane, which was a first for all of us. I must say, I fly A LOT and I certainly understand now why people buy their own planes! It was so nice and very comfortable! I grabbed a quick picture with my phone before we left of me in front of the plane, it's kind of goofy, but that's ok! It was a very fun experience!!

Our Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, we went to an early Thanksgiving dinner at my Dad's house and then went over to a friends house for a 2nd dinner later that night. We hung out with friends and just had a great night! We had been planning to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving, as that has become a sort of yearly tradition for us. Our friends wanted to join us so we all decided to stay awake all night, rather than trying to get a few short hours of sleep. At 3:30am we left our friends' house and headed to Best Buy, hoping to snag some of the great deals that they had advertised. The doors opened at 5am, so we figured that 1 1/2 hours would be plenty of time to get a good spot in line. Well, we were wrong. When we arrived shortly after 3:30 there were already approx. 1,000 people in line ahead of us. So, we decided to brave the line and the cold and wait outside with everyone else. The temp was -3 that night!!! After an hour and a half of waiting we finally got in the store and, I am proud to say, we all got everything that we had on our lists! We spent the rest of the morning hitting some other stores and then grabbed breakfast at Hogg Brother's, a favorite restaurant here in town, and went to get some much needed sleep!!

My new job has been going really well, I am enjoying it and am really looking forward to being "cut loose" after my "training" is over. I will be in Orlando for approx. 5 days in January, so that will be a nice trip! Sherri is doing really well. Work has been going good, probably the best that it has in the 2 1/2 years that she has worked there. She is enjoying the people she works with, that is a great blessing!

We have had a very strange November. We have had sunny skies EVERY day this month, with not even as much as a trace of snow! The temps have been very cold, in the single digits, and we are all ready for some snow! Cold is ok as long as there is fun snow to play in!

Our home is all decorated for the Holidays and is looking quite festive! Sherri painted some AWESOME holiday decorations this year and they just look great! I will try and get some pictures of our home on here soon.

We leave for Connecticut on the 17th of December, so we are getting very excited for that trip!

I think that is probably about it for now. We would love to hear from all of you, so if you have the time, drop us an e-mail with an update!!

BIG Changes....

Hello -

I have some BIG news. I have been at my job with The Hotel Group for a little over 2 1/2 years. I have always felt fortunate to be in this position at such a young age and have been thanful for the opportunities that this position has given me. However, for the past few weeks I have been in "negotiations" with a new company and am pleased to announce that today I accepted the position with them. The new position is "Area Director of Sales" for Extended Stay Deluxe hotels. This is a fairly new hotel chain that has been growing like crazy. They have several hundred hotels around the country and I will be the Area Director for the 4 hotels that they have here in Alaska. This is a BIG promotion and an opportunity that I could NOT say no to.

I sent out my letter of resignation here today and will be starting the new position in the next couple of weeks. This position comes with a large increase in pay, better benefits and less travel, all of which are HUGE answers to prayer for Sherri and I.

I am thankful for my time with The Hotel Group, they have been great to work for and I am very excited about this "new chapter" in my professional career.

To say the least, Sherri and I are thrilled about our future!!

Fall Harvest/Halloween Costume Party Update...

Our Fall Harvest/Halloween Costume Party was Awesome!! We had a White Trash couple, Howie Mandel and a Deal or No Deal girl, iPods, A Pilot and Flight Attendant and Sherri and I went as a plug and an outlet. We had such a fun time, here is a picture of everyone! We hung out, ate, handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, watched some old episodes of The Twilight Zone and played some Halloween trivia...which Sherri and I won!! Awww Yeah!! What was the prize for winning you might ask...5 episodes of A Spongebob Halloween on DVD. Ha! We are having friends over tonight to watch the new episode of The Office. It is easily our favorite TV show. We own season 1 and 2 on DVD and anticipate every new episode! If you haven't seen it we highly recommend that you take the time to watch it. It is VERY funny. Last night we went and saw "Who Killed The Electric Car", which was very interesting, it was fairly one sided and obviously anti-bush and anti-government, but it made some good points and at least made for some great discussion. It is a documentary about the creation, life and death of the electric car. I actually would recommend it to anyone who is open minded and likes a good documentary and enjoys hearing different points of view. Ok, that is all for now. We will post more soon!