I'd like to introduce you to J.J.  

I met J.J. a couple weeks after I arrived in Greenville. Here are some stats:

He's about 4 years older than me.
He's originally from Texas.
He's shorter than me.
We've been spending a lot of time together.
The first time we really did anything together, we went to Olive Garden with a group of friends after church.
We've been numerous other places too...Starbucks, Target (my favorite store!), downtown to the Reedy River bridge, shopping and numerous other errands.

Click here to see a picture and to read more about J.J.

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Alas, it has been delayed again.  

I got a call tonight saying my crate has been delayed again. Now it isn't going to be here until September 4th. How sad. I was kind of looking forward to having the weekend to unpack. Oh well. Maybe I'll work over the weekend and take time off next week. That's the beauty of being self-employed! :-)

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Oh, oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is comin' down the street!  

I got word the other day my crate cleared Customs, made it to Chicago and should be here on August 30th or 31st! Woo hoo! After 3 months without my stuff and almost 4 with most of it packed up, I'm ready to see it all again!

I've been getting pretty creative cooking with limited utensils and equipment! I have a pizza stone, crock pot, blender and a borrowed sauce pan. One must remember to buy only cans with pull-top lids since the can opener is not here yet! :-)

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It's up! It's up! It's up!  

My business website is finally up and running! You can check it out at www.progressivesynergy.com

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At least one person checks my blog...  

Jaime keeps hollering at me that I haven't updated my blog in awhile. Let me fill you in on the last few months!

On June 28th, I left Guam. sniff..sniff.. I arrived in Chicago on June 28th (I gained a day crossing the dateline). My best friend, Heather, picked me up & we did some shopping. Boy, did I miss Wal-Mart & Target! We spent the night in Chicago and I didn't have any problem with jet lag! That might be attributed to staying up for 48 hours straight and sleeping almost the entire trip, but that's another story! We did more shopping the next day, then continued on to Indianapolis, IN. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Union Station downtown. It was a really cool hotel!


We continued on our journey and arrived in Greenville late at night on June 30th. We were tired & there was no furniture in my apartment yet, so we crashed at some friends, who graciously let us stay at their house while they were gone. For the next couple weeks, we ran all over Greenville & even up to NC one day to look for things I needed for my apartment. We got to see Chad & Kelly a couple days while they were here. (Funny stories & good times!) On July 13th, Heather dropped me off at the airport to fly home to Iowa for Uncle Gary's 60th & Aayla's first birthday.

From July 13th thru the 28th, I was at my parents. We did some shopping, but not as much as last time I was home! :-) For Aayla's birthday we went to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. Aayla LOVES animals and really enjoyed it. Mike borrowed a Nintendo Wii from a friend and my parents got hooked! They bought one last week. It was good to be home. I'm looking forward to doing it again in September!

I've been back in Greenville for about 2 weeks now. I'm pretty much settled except none of my stuff from Guam is here yet. :-( It was supposed to arrive in LA on August 8th. It takes 3-8 days to clear Customs, then 2 more weeks by train. Hopefully I see it all again soon!

Life has been pretty busy. I'm keeping up with work and finishing up my website (should be up early next week). I don't have a car right now, so I've had to be creative with my transportation. My bike is on the crate along with the rest of my stuff. I have gotten rides to church with friends, walk to a nearby grocery store. I've walked to Wal-Mart and Office Depot. Today I walked to the mall. I had planned to walk part way then hop a bus, but Greenville's public transportation isn't exactly the most user friendly for a first time user. Maybe I'll try again next week. I've gotten some good exercise out of this! Last week I logged about 12 miles. This week I think I did 13. On my walk today I felt like a camel. I drank 60 ounces of water and 20 ounces of Gatorade!

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