30 Hour Trip To Knoxville

This weekend I went to Knoxville to visit old friends from college! Evan & Marta hosted us Hokies for a fun weekend of catching up and eating good food! I stole this picture from her blog because it turned out so great!

In the picture... Marta, Evan, Elizabeth (with my new faux niece Caroline!), Missy, me (with Flat Becky B), Julie, Sharon & Drew. Kate, Evan & Marta's little girl, was asleep when we took the picture.

I had the idea to make a Flat Becky B since Becky Brittain couldn't make it. Marta, the PhotoShop wiz, made it and it was GREAT!!! We got some fun pictures of "Becky" hanging out with us!

This is Caroline (& Flat Becky B)! I stole this picture from her mom's Facebook page! Apparently I've gotten really bad about taking pictures. I think I took two while I was there!

How We Spent $$ This Christmas!

This year we decided to try and buy gifts in which the money would be put back into something worthy. I thought we'd share in case you needed some ideas for gifts this year!

We bought many of the ladies in our family products from Thistle Farms. Located here in Nashville, they take women who are living on the streets and teach them job skills through the making of all natural beauty and household products. Money from these products go back into the nonprofit.

For a few of the men in the family that like to cook, we purchased some soup and spice mixes from the Women's Bean Project in Denver, Colorado. They have all kinds of soup mixes, spice and chili mixes, cookie mixes, etc. As with Thistle Farms, participants in the program make the products and the money goes back into the nonprofit.

Our niece Abby got a "magazine" subscription for toddlers from the National Wildlife Federation! A new Wild Animal Babies board book comes about once a month.

And finally for my grandparents, we "purchased" one month of tutoring for an inner city child through World Vision.

Don't get me wrong... Walmart and Macy's still got a lot of our money, but it was a fun challenge to see if we could go a little nontraditional on the gift giving this year!

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!