Hello Folks,

I haven't stopped in for a while so thought I would post a quick update to bring you all up to speed on what we have been up to since the end of October when I last posted !!

By the end of October we finally had the car situation resolved and the rear bumper was blemish free like it should have been all along !! Then there were a few quiet weeks before my Parents arrived for a week long visit from the UK over Thanksgiving. I was able to take off the whole week they were here so we had fun hanging out and enjoying the very mild fall weather.

The last weekend of November St. Louis along with a large chunk of the midwest was hit with a pretty crazy ice storm which knocked out power to over 500,000 people and made travel a nightmare. Luckily we only lost power for about 16 hours but some poor folks were in the dark and cold for nearly 2 weeks. Despite the damage and power issues, as an ice storm virgin I was amazed with how everything looked the following day. I posted some pictures in my webshots gallery if anyone is interested.

A few days later Debs and I flew to Vegas for 4 days which a nice little break. I had been invited to an IT "conference" being held at the Venetian and as work were willing to pay for my room and flights, we only needed to pay for Debs a flight. The hotel was amazing and of course Vegas was a bright and brash as we had expected. We had a fun few days and I even managed to get to some of the conference sessions !!

Since then It's been Christmas shopping and preparing for the big day. trying to get organized enough to be able to send pressies back with my folks was quite an accomplishment. Work suprised us all with a $250 visa gift card in with our paychecks last time around and we have a Christmas lunch on Thursday to look forward to. I'll only have to work 1.5 days during Christmas week so I'm looking forward to a bit of a break to relax and get over the obligartory overeating that is sure to take place.

For anyone who's interested the Ice storm pics and pictures from our trip to vegas are located below





I'm liking the new look areas to the forum.

Will stop by again soon

Mark

Hi and welcome back ! Yes, it was something with the ice storm, am close to you in Freeburg....remember we know the same woman with the Jekyl/Hyde name.
Which local office do we go to living in Illinois, do we have to go to Chicage or can we go to ST.L ?

Good to hear from you, Mark! Glad you and Debs are doing well.

Merry Christmas!

Omoba, Living where we do in Metro St. Louis our AOS interview was in St. Louis so I'd guess yours would be too. You'll find out for sure when you get called for Biometrics.

Tracy, Glad to see that you and Chas finally have the ball rolling towards your K-1. There is absolutely NO excuse if you guys don't breeze through the process as you've had the best part of 2.5 years to get acquainted with the system !! Best of luck.

Mark

Ice Storm Virgin......LOL......that you are. Yes it's beautiful in it's own freakish sort of way. But because I've lived with it all my life, to me it looks like frozen death. I loathe winter and the pallor it brings over everything. I don't really breathe right until the crocus start to bloom......

You're right - although I guess everyone is entitled to a 'blonde' moment! I had one when I mailed in the petition - I got back to the office and found page 4 of his G325a on the copier! Aaaaaaaaah! Suffice it to say I literally flew back to the post office and got it put in there before it went out.

All Chas said was 'Honey, make sure you check the copier next time.' Bless him. He seemed unimpressed by my near heart attack.

Anyway, thanks. We're definitely past ready to be together.

You two take care.

Nice to see you Mark...glad things are going so great for you and Debs! Wishing you both a great holidays and a Happy New Year too! M.

Hi Mark,
Nice to see you around here again, thanks for the update...it's good to hear from you.


We hope that you and Debs have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!

Jen

Hi everyone! Nice to see all these old faces and catch up on your news.

Great to hear everything is going so well for you Mark and Debs. Like you I never seem to get time any more to post, now that I am working full time. My Mum and my son came over for Thanksgiving. We met them in Chicago and did all the touristy things, then came on down to Indiana. We spent Thanksgiving itself in Nashville so that Iain could go and see the Predators (ice hockey). He had to go back to England after that, but Mum stayed a couple more weeks and it was lovely to be able to see so much of her. I think she was probably a bit bored while I was at work all day!

Tracy! At last! I am so pleased your journey is finally under way and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a swift one. One of these days we should actually get to meet up!

Jen and Ken ........... Speak soon!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hi Mark and Deb


Glad to see things are looking up and that you both have had a well deserve break. Have a great christmas and a wonderful new year.

Janice and Jon

Thanks for the well wishes!

I am a Predators season ticket holder, so too bad I was in London when you were here for Thanksgiving or we would have met up for sure! PM me and let me know what you thought of the Preds game!