Ohio . Week 3

We have had quite the adventurous week! Things in the office have gone smoothly. Cody is still holding on to to his 'Top Salesman' title in the office by 10 sales. He had an awesome day yesterday and is practicing some of the techniques we tried last summer. This includes visualizing your success and feeling the feelings of success. I think it's really helping. Our office continues to grow slowly, yet surely. We are now up to a total of six sales reps!:) I've made a few efforts to make the office more appealing for 12- hour days. I keep my exercise ball, journal, the six-hour version of Pride and Prejudice, a couple books Christine hooked me up with, and some ice cream all right here in the office. It's definitely a little more enjoyable. Plus, one of the wives came and hung out with me in the office the past couple days. We had a great time! She's so fun and has me laughing non-stop! We have a good team this year and an awesome branch manager. In fact, he took us all out to Chili's this week just for kicks! It gave the guys a good boost for sure!:)

Now for the adventurous part of our week... This past Friday, Cody and I were up late packing for our weekend in Tennessee for David and Amy's wedding. We were all set to go around 1 a.m. Considering we would have to wake up at 5 a.m. to make the 10 hour drive the next day, we thought why not just get a head start? So we packed up the car and were on our way for another all night drive through the country. Cody pulled through until 5:30 a.m. and then I took over. Things were going well for the first hour. The sun was flirting with the idea of rising, the birds were chirping, the radio was jamming, Cody was snoozing, and I was feeling great:) All of a sudden, without any warning, the back of our car swerved sharply to the right. I over-corrected and then swerved sharply to the left. We continued swerving back and forth for a short time before we ran off the right-hand side of the road through grass about 3 feet tall. By this time, Cody began to awaken when we found ourselves at a dead stop perpendicular across I-65. I hurried to shift down into first and then scooted off to the median. A little shaken up, I was able to explain to Cody why we were sitting in the middle of the grassy median. Just then, an EMT pulled over to see what had happened. He actually hadn't seen me fly all over the road, but didn't think we would just be chillin' in the grass for no reason. He spent the next hour with us while we changed the tire, pumped up the rest of the tires, and located a nearby Midas. We waited 2 hours for the Midas to open, and a couple more for them to fix everything up. Luckily, we still made it to the wedding in plenty of time. We're not sure how it happened, but somehow the tire had lost all of it's air in a super short time...running me off the road. It was completely flat when we changed it. Midas found a leak in both the back tires and was able to recover them. We think the tire wasn't completely aligned or something and that's what caused it to lose it's air. Who knows! We just feel so grateful to be safe and sound! We ran off the road right between a cement bridge and lots of trees. Not to mention, no other cars were around us! Though our back door on the right is completely dented and the top of the door is sticking out a few inches from the car, it's still drivable and we made it to Memphis just fine. Heavenly Father is truly watching out for us. We are so blessed!

Well the wedding was absolutely beautiful! It was so nice to be with family! Some cousins I hadn't seen in years! I feel like I was meeting my oldest cousin all over again. We figured it had been about 15 years since we saw each other. I'm not sure if I even remember that far back;) The reception was a total blast. Lots of food and lots of dancing! Austin, Asa, and McCoy were so fun to party with. They have grown up so much and are so stickin' cute! Not to mention little baby Madsen. He's so adorable!!! By the end of the night we were partied out and ready for bed! The next morning we found a nearby church and were able to attend sacrament meeting. Then we went to Amy's parent's home for brunch. We enjoyed a few hours with wonderful family members and then had to say our goodbyes. We were thrilled to make just one more stop in Franklin at the Brady's. They have such a beautiful home! Asa gave us the grand tour and did such a great job. We enjoyed some yummy dinner and then had to say our goodbyes again!:( We made it the last 7-hour stretch and arrived back in Columbus around 2 a.m. We managed to get about 6 hours of sleep that night and were back to work early the next morning. It was a little crazy, but such a fun weekend! We love seeing family!

Until next time. Loves!