Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

We hope all of our favorite blog readers had a great Christmas. We spent ours in Maryland with the Foys this year. We really didn't do much of anything but get some very much needed rest and relaxation! Unfortunately, a death in the family made things a bit heavy, but it was nice to spend time with everyone.

Here's a picture of Jeff and I at my office. I had to work an event one Saturday night and used some Mexican food to bribe him into going with me.

As for New Year's, its been pretty quiet here. I'm on day 12 of some sort of cold/sinus infection thing that keeps me coughing. So New Year's Eve I was asleep by 9pm thanks to some TheraFlu! We did wake up to some fireworks around 1am, but rolled over and went right back to sleep! Oh well! Maybe next year!

"No Accumulation"

We knew we'd have some flurries on Thursday evening, but the weather people (even weather.com) said there would be no accumulation. Guess they define that a little differently than I do!

At 7:00pm it measured exactly 1" and continued to snow the biggest flakes I've ever seen until 9:00pm.

This is what I saw when I left for work Friday morning. The windy back roads we have to travel to get out to a main road were rough, but most melted by the time we got home Friday evening. There is still some snow in our backyard even today!

I'm On The Radio...

... Well, kind of! Part of my job that I didn't learn about until after I accepted was the fact that I am part of a radio show every Monday morning (unless there's a guest speaker and then I'm off the hook!). The TMA "Green News" is broadcast from WAKM AM950, Franklin's "hometown radio station"! Tom, the on-air personality (they aren't DJ's on talk radio are they?), the Executive Director of our organization, and I are on each Monday morning at 7:40am to talk about the latest environmental news and what's happening in Franklin (Williamson County) as far as its related. I was scared to death last week, but it went okay. I was stuck in traffic so they stalled until I got there! We talked about November being Lung Cancer Awareness Month and how air quality can, in a few cases, lead to cancer and tips to reduce air pollution.

I have a feeling this won't spark any new found radio personality talents deep within, but it makes for interesting conversation. I also feel comfortable talking about it since its only broadcast in Franklin and there is no online streaming!!

We also have a tv show on government access in Williamson County, but I've avoided it so far. I must have a face for radio!

What I do...

Lots of people have been asking me what I do at my new job, so I thought I'd make a post of it! Truth is... I'm still figuring it out. But this is what I know...

As the program administrator, I'll be working with businesses and individuals to be more environmentally aware and, therefore, reducing air pollution in the process. So when we meet with people (at fairs, corporate information sessions, etc.) we try to make sure they can do at least one thing to reduce consumption of anything that might be harmful to the environment (especially transportation alternatives). Same with businesses. Then we recognize the ones that are making a significant impact. Part of this includes letting companies know when there are "air alert" days during the warmer months so they can inform their employees and make changes to routines to help the situation. So it sounds like I'll be out and about meeting with people/businesses quite a bit!

I'll also be doing some grantwriting and fundraising along the way. All part of relationship building! I may even be part of a Monday morning radio show at some point!

Since I will be working with two different agencies it will be a little tricky. Both are in very different phases of development so balance will be key.

Both would really like to expand into the schools to do air quality/environmental education with children. That is something I can wrap my head around and will get into I'm sure!

These first few weeks I'll be doing lots of reading about air quality issues and meeting lots of new faces! I've spent much of my days, so far, online researching terms as they come my way. Everyone at the office has been very helpful in showing me around and helping me figure things out.

The New Office

Today was my first day at the new job. I'm still trying to figure out just what I'll be doing, but I've got some time. Today started with a breakfast for all the partners at the Williamson County Library. I got to meet a lot of the Clean Air Partners all at once and they got to meet me! Hopefully that will make it a little easier to call on them. Our Clean Air spokesperson is Taylor Ware. Taylor was a finalist on America's Got Talent the first season and wrote a earth-friendly song for the group this morning.

I spent the day "nesting" in my office, checking email, and doing some research. I also had to get a drug test.

Here are some pictures of my new office.

I can see the church we got married in from my office!

Everyone at the office seems really nice. I worked with Lisa, the executive assistant, at the Martha O'Bryan Center years ago, so it was nice to have a familar face today!

My Last Day...

Yesterday was my last day at the center... very bittersweet. While I'm very excited about my new job, I'm sad to go. My staff and the Martha O'Bryan staff and the CWA staff came for a potluck lunch in my honor at the center yesterday. Here are some pictures of that!

The CWA Apartments staff... Billy, one of our off-duty police officers is the one giving me bunny ears!

Me and Sharon... my Nashville mom who takes care of me, partly because her daughter lives a plane ride away and hopes someone takes care of her.

And me with Misty Moody, my partner in crime and supplier of tires the last several years.

Then once the kids arrived after school, we had another party! They made a slide show for me with pictures from my last eight years. Of course I had taken the majority of the pictures so they had trouble finding any with me in them! Some of my girls that are in college now came, as did one of my students that moved out of the apartments. I got lots and lots of cards! When I can get them all in one spot I'll take a picture of all my gifts. I really wasn't expecting it! Even one of my volunteers showed up with a gift. Very generous people! Probably one of my favorite gifts is a framed picture of my students (or most of them!) that was given specifically for me to hang in my new office. They all signed the mat around the picture. Here are a few of the pictures from last night. I think I might try to do a slide show on blogger later today with all of them.

This is Jalisa, one of my graduates!

These are the Eli sisters... Yasmine, Ilham, and Jihan. I've had them in my program for at least seven years! Ilham is at Belmont this year, Yasmine is a junior in high school and Jihan is in the 7th grade! I've known them since they were teeny tiny! In fact, Jihan was in Kindergarten I think!

My yummy, yummy cake!

This is Kenithia, our Education Assistant and one of my all-time favorite people! She's rescued me a countless amount of times since she came in August of 2006!

Catching Up!

So I haven't been the best blogger lately, so here's my attempt at catching you up on the few things that we've done lately.

It seems like most of our posts are about the garden or our niece... so here you go!

The last weekend in September, we traveled to Birmingham to spend a weekend with all the Taylors. Here are a few pictures!

Abby loves the camera... and more importantly, seeing herself on the back after you take the picture!

Abby playing with "Maddie", Jeff's mom

Then this weekend, my parents were here for a visit and to celebrate Kelly's 29th birthday. They ran errands with me on Friday and then Saturday we went to The Avenue, the new mall in Murfreesboro. I'm not that great at entertaining! Apparently, not so great at taking pictures either. They were here three days and the only picture I took was of the apple pie Mom made for Kelly's birthday. If you look close, you can see it says, "Kelly- 29" on the top! Mom's a nifty baker!

This Sunday we'll get to see Jeff's parents again. They'll be staying with us a few days on their way back from Tazewell to see Don's sister.

In other news, now that I'm having to do some research for my new job (air quality info), I've put a link on the right side of ways to help our air quality this fall. No political statement really... just trying to figure out if I could paste the info into a website. Thanks for being my lab rats! I'm also going to add links to the two agencies I'll be working for!