Well, since Lucas was gone for almost a week. I got to experience a lot of "alone" time. I thought a lot about why it was so difficult for me to be by myself, and then I realized that normally if one of us is going to be gone, which doesn't happen very often, then at least we have a little time to prepare for the time apart! I had not much time to prepare, but it was a good week nonetheless! I am definitely VERY glad that he is back! :-)

Last Wednesday, Lucas got a call from his parents that his grandmother had passed away. She was 93 years old, and the mother of 9 children! She lived a good, long life, but of course it is still hard for Lucas to loose his last grandmother (his other grandmother passed away earlier this year). Lucas and I discussed what he was going to do, and of course he really wanted to go down to Brazil to be with his family during this time. The only problem is that his Brazilian passport is not current, because we have not been to Brazil in a little over 2 years. We are planning to go in January but were not too concerned with renewing his passport until a little closer to when we were going to go. Well, as far as we knew the Consulate for this region was in Miami (the Consulate when we lived in Texas was in Houston, so a nice, easy drive) Anyways, Lucas called around and figured out that there was actually a Consulate in Atlanta (about a 3.5 hour drive from us). So, he talked to the Cosulate and they said that they close at 1:00 to the public. It was 9:00 at this time and there was no way we could make it there because we had to get all of his documents together and pack so he could make the trip. But they SO generously said that they could see him if he made it there by 2:00, so we quickly packed his bags and were on our way by 10:00. Of course we were about halfway there when we realized that we had TOTALLY forgotten that Atlanta is in a different time zone than us....!!! Well, we arrived at the Consulate at about 2:45 Atlanta time, and thankfully they said that they could still see him. They very generously got his passport together in about 30 minutes (this usually takes at least a couple of weeks!). Once we realized that he was going to be able to get his passport, we started calling the airlines to see who could give us the best price for such a short notice trip. We were in Atlanta, so we were hoping that we could just leave from Atlanta, but for whatever reason, it costs more to leave from Atlanta, than to leave from a smaller airport and still go through atlanta... The airline ticket prices absolutely make no sense to me!!! Anyways, of course the cheapest tickets were from Nashville, but there was NO way that we could make it there in time. So we decided to let him leave from Birmingham. (About 2.5 hours from Atlanta). Well, we left Atlanta at 3:10 and his flight left B-ham at 5:50... Needless to say we were cutting it a little close! We were determined to get him on the plane though. God had been watching over us all day of course, and things were falling into place. Well, miraculously, we drove into B-ham at 5:00 on a weekday and there was NO traffic!!! Amazing. So, we made it to the airport and Lucas was off to spend some time with his family! So, that was our crazy day! We drove 550 miles from Alabama, to Tennessee, to Georgia, to Tennessee, to Georgia and finally back to Alabama...

Well, I had mentioned before that Lucas and I had decided to go on a TV "fast" for a week after the Olympics. Through that experience, I've decided that I would like to challenge myself with giving up something that I do often for a month, in order to refocus my attention throughout the day and week. I know this might sound crazy, but it is something that I have found works for me! For the month of September, I have decided to not drink any carbonated beverages or coke type drinks. The main reason for this is because at work we have FREE fountain drink cokes at our disposal through the day, and honestly it's just not that healthy... I find myself drinking much more coke that water... and that's never a good thing! If this sounds like a crazy thing to you, that's ok, but I'll explain my reasoning a little. I just feel like throughout the day at work and as the week goes by from Sundays and Thursdays (small group day) that I feel my focus on God is slowly slipping away and getting taken over by all the things and busyness of the world. I just feel like if I challenge myself to give up something that I really enjoy for a month, that everytime I go to get a coke or think about getting something to drink, I stop then I think about why I am doing this, and it helps me refocus on THE thing that is most important in my life. It's just a little reminder to me that GOD should be number one no matter what's going on in the world around me... On another note, I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago just for a check up, and they did some blood work and it came back that my B12 levels were low, which didn't surprise me since Mom and Grammy both have this same problem. I talked to the doctor and am getting a B12 shot once a week for a month and then we'll see where we're at after that. Thankfully I am going in to the doctor to do this. I don't think that I could stick a needle in myself... eek! Anyways, I have had 2 shots now, and besides the fact that my arm feels like it's going to fall of for about 2 hours after I get the shot, I have been feeling TREMENDOUSLY better! So amazing... maybe it's a mental thing, but that's fine, because I sure do feel better! So, no more coke and a B12 regiment = a new ailment free Jen! Yay! :-)

Lucas has been on-call for two weeks straight now, and I HATE it! We can't ever go anywhere without the threat of having to leave early because he got called and has to get back home to get to the computer. Of course the next pay check will be nice, but it's totally not worth it! I can't wait to get back to leaving work at work! I'll be glad to have my stress free Lucas back so that we can enjoy life again! Until he has to be on-call again that is....

Of course I forgot to take pictures when people were actually there... oh well! It was a fun day!

Not our kitchen... but we did spend part of the day on Saturday helping our friends Grant and Sam completely strip their kitchen! They took all of the cabinets, paneling, doors, floors and appliances out, and even moved a few walls around. The house is going to look fabulous when it is done! We are so excited for them and can't wait to see the finished product! Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take ANY pictures! Oh well, I'm sure that you can get the picture... a big mess, and nothing left of the kitchen except the studs and original vinyl tile flooring. We had a great time and now can say that we know how to put down a floor and take up a floor on a house with a crawl space... Laying the floor down is DEFINITELY easier! I never knew that you could have SO MANY nails in one floor! ha!

Well, Lucas and I decided to take a "fast" from the TV for a week. We enjoyed the olympics FAR too much! I feel like I didn't accomplish anything that I needed to while the olympics were on! So we decided that once the olympics were over that we were going to stay away from the TV for a bit! It has been interesting, and I guess I didn't realize how often I go to turn the TV on... if I'm home by myself to just have noise... if I'm going to iron or fold clothes... if I'm just bored... Now that it has been almost a week since I've watched TV I can honestly say that I don't miss it! I feel like I have so much more time and that my evenings after work last a LOT longer... Maybe we'll just keep this up! On Sunday during the sermon they mentioned that the average American spends 16 YEARS of their life watching TV (this is not why we decided to do this) but I was just amazed! What a waste of 16 years! ha!

Well, yesterday was the day that I have been waiting for! A couple of months ago, my boss told me about a job opportunity that might come up soon, so I have been kind of trying out the position over that last few months to see if it is something that I would like to do and something that they thought I was good enough to do. I have absolutely LOVED doing the things I have been doing, so of course I am hoping that it works out for the best! I had an interview yesterday with my previous boss, my current boss and my maybe to be boss. It was interesting interviewing with people that I already know, but I was not too worried about it, because I feel like I can explain myself well, or at least admit if I don't know something and make sure that the interviewers understand that I am more than willing to learn! But, the interview went fabulously! I will have to wait and see what happens! Hopefully I'll hear something next week, and hopefully I'll get a nice little raise.... Would be nice!!!! Current job Title: Manufacturing Technician II - Department, Manufacturing Hopefully to be job Title: Process Development Associate II - Department, Engineering and Reliability I'm super excited and I'll keep you guys posted! Love to all!

We bought our tickets yesterday to go visit Lucas' family. I am so excited! It has been over two years since we have been able to go see them! It really stinks that Lucas only has two weeks of vacation a year... It really limits what we can do! Unfortunately this will be our only trip for the year, but it's going to be a good one, so it's worth it!! I sure do miss all that vacation time we had when we were in school and would go to Brazil for a month over Winter Break! I guess that they always say... "When you have the time, you don't have the money, and when you have the money, you don't have the time..." Except for when you retire!! My parents are also going to get to come with us!! I love them being retired! :-) Trip is set for January 13-26, 2009! Anyone want to watch a PRECIOUS dog for two weeks?!?!?!? :-)

We ran the Triathlon this weekend! This is the second year that we have run this tri. 3.1 miles running, 6 miles biking, 400 meters swimming..... It was extremely hard but pretty fun! It was only about 65 degrees here that morning and a little rainy, but perfect for a big race! I would much prefer this weather to hot and humid! Lucas and I trained for it for about 2 months (I am so proud that he did it with me)! I always of course wish I would have done better, but the motto of the race is "To Finish is to Win!" So I guess since we both finished that we are both WINNERS!!! Of course my time would have been a little faster if I had not run all the way to the pool from my bike and realized that I had forgotten my goggles on my bike... OOPS!!!!! Silly me! Here is the website if you want to see our results! hahaha! Don't get too excited, it's not like we went in world record pace or anything! http://www.huntsvilletrackclub.org/results/index(r).htm Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us, so no pictures from this one! Maybe some of our friends from church took a couple. If we find some we'll put them up! We have several friends that like to run, so I think we are going to try to run several races this fall. My friend Annie and I are running a 5K in 2 weeks, and I am trying to get Lucas to join! Then there is a Duathlon in October that I am going to start training for as soon as my body recovers from yesterday! Duathlon is 3 miles Running, 10 miles biking and then 2 more miles running! Doesn't that sound like fun?!?!? I'll try to keep you all updated!