My First Business Trip to Colombia!

Hey kids!
Sooo on Monday I flew to Bogota Colombia and on Wednesday I flew back to Fort Lauderdale. It was a whirlwind but fun. Bogota was rainy and cold...I was surprised. It's about 8,000 feet elevation. I haven't been that high up in the sky in a while. South Florida is probably -5 elevation. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel staffed by some handsome Colombia men ;) Don't worry I didn't smuggle any back.
Tuesday we visited a print press, QuadGraphics. We took a tour and had meetings all day. We are trying to negotiate with them to give us lower prices and better service. We have been in a relationship with QuadGraphics for a long time. They have plants all over the world. We use 4 of their plants in Latin America (Mexico, Lima, Bogota, and Brazil). We have 25 million books to print for next year and need them to step up to the plate, otherwise we will move some of their business somewhere else. It was definitely interesting to sit in there and listen to everyone talk. The Colombian people are very nice and very hospitable. They served coffee at least 4 times throughout the day. I only drank 1 and it was darn good. That's about the only thing I brought back with me...coffee.
The plant itself was very cool. Printing a book is quite a long process, especially printing a Bible which happens to be a third of what this plant produces. It's cool to see the process from beginning to end. Now I understand why Bibles are so expensive. The coolest part was watching how they put gold on the edges.
That night the printers took us out for dinner. The restaurant was really cool and delicious. I had some great Colombian food. I highly recommend it.
The next morning I left bright and early. I posted a few pics of the city on facebook. You can check them out if you want to. They aren't the best because I took them with my phone.
On the flight home we flew over Jamaica, Cuba, an the Bahamas. Visiting one of those places (or all) is on my bucket list. The water was so clear. It was almost white. It was beautiful. How about the chics take on Jamaica??!!!
Coming back to the states was a little eventful. When I went through customs in Fort Lauderdale I got questioned about everything. The main problem, I was only there for 2 nights. I guess that looks kind of fishy. Colombia is known for drug trafficking if you didn't know. ;) So he searched through ALL of my stuff. He even made me open up computer and open a program. He now thinks that my boss in my boyfriend. My boss told me to tell them that I was in Colombia for tourism, instead of business. That is why I got all the questions. So he asked why I went, who I went to see, if anyone came with me, what I do, etc etc etc. It was crazy. I have never been so nervous and I knew I wasn't bringing anything back with me. So moral of the story? If you ever go to Colombia go for more than 2 nights. Now I'll know how to answer their questions better.
The best thing I tasted in Colombia??? Fresh squeeze OJ. It was amazing. I got up early the day we left just so I could have some.

My boss asked me on the way back how I felt about going to South Africa in the fall. Um....YES!

Good thing I got this job. I was worried I was going to have to resort to the Bachelor in order to travel the world ;)

What's new in all your lives?

-Kath

Japan

I have never been in love with the Asian culture, specifically japenese, before meeting Kevin. As I picture my future kids they will be a quarter Japanese. The idea of part Asian children changes the way I look at Asian people in general. I am not trying to be racist. I have had a burning desire to go to Japan for the last several years now. I am interested in the culture, their people, their traditions. I love learning about Japan. While I sit back and watch Japan, in its devastation, it breaks my heart. I, in some small way, feel a connection and feel horrible. Though Kevin doesn't know many or if any oh his family that lives in Japan, a part of our family is there....my extended family, but family none the less. I hope the are safe and well.
My cousin Juliette, and her family are living in Tokyo. Her sister, my other cousin Emily, was on her way to Japan when the earthquake happened. She had to divert to Anchorage Alaska, then managed to make it to Japan but take a train to tokyo. Im sure it was a gnarly experience. It was Juliette's birthday and a crazy, scary one at that.

All this to say, I want to go to Japan. I want to help in the relief. I bit of my heart is in love with the Japanese people and I would love to go visit. One day.

On another note..... I AM SO EXCITED TO BE VISITING IN A WEEK OR SO!!!!

J.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!! I think I may be the only one without a Valentine this year. I don't say that for your sympathy....I'm doing just fine.;) but thought I'd tell you all that I love you!!
Accidentally wore black today. Woops.

-Kath

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Not to Be Inappropriate

But I thought a girl's blog should have at least one video like this..


-suz

Something to Ponder

I found this blog entry on Stuff Christians like to be really helpful. I figured I'd pass it on. Hopefully I'm not the only one who got something out of it.


The problem with the pigpen.

-Kath

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Emails please.

Hey Ladies,

I need everyone's email. I have jen, mer, and suz's. Can you let the others know I am looking for them. Post in the blog or email me...

Julianna.phillips@gmail.com

Thanks Girls!

Hey Girls

Hey!

So, not much has been going on in my little world lately. Just making sure little E man is fed, clothed & happy.

Christmas was great! We had a good time w/ our families and of course, celebrating our first Christmas as a little family of three.

Lately, I've been feelin' a little down. I'm just really struggling with being a stay at home mom. There never seems enough time in the day to do everything I'd like to do, or take time for myself. If I go somewhere, I typically take Elliot with me. I'm trying to be better about leaving him home with Steve. But whenever I'm at the store by myself, I just feel weird without him and generally don't enjoy myself.

I really feel like I'm losing my identity in a way. Now instead of being "Merideth", I'm "wife and mom". Not that those things aren't great identities to have. I love being both! I went out by myself the other day and I was just really sad that I didn't feel "myself" without having Elliot with me. I just wanted to stop and tell people, "Hey, I have a baby!" I just felt weird that people didn't know I was a mom. Obviously, if you look at my left hand, you can tell I'm married. But I don't have any type of marker to wear (other than my saggy boobs and belly) that I'm a mom. But even at that, people could just think I'm fat since they don't know I have a baby! :)

I got pretty angry and just didn't know how I let my identity get lost in the shuffle. I guess it's easy to do when you're providing constant care for a little one, and trying to maintain your marriage, keep up on housework, and prepare meals for everyone.

So, my goal this year is to find myself again. Find things I like to do, OUTSIDE of my marriage, and my role as a mom.

If you think about it, just say a little prayer for me!

Love you all!
Mer

Catch Up

Where in the world has time gone? Also where in the world is the blogging frenzy we started with? I am now wondering what is going on in all your lives since you wrote or since I have seen you. I guess I am guilty of not picking up my phone and calling...but for the benefit of everyone, maybe you should drop a line. ;)

I have completed 2 weeks of work at OneHope. I am enjoying it so far although it is MUCH different from my last job. It's taking a while for me to get used to sitting 8 hours a day. How do people conduct business and jam the rest of their lives into just some evenings and a weekend? At last I believe in and/or enjoy what OneHope does. I can't imagine doing this for some place I didn't care about...but that's just me. (I'm not trying to offend any of you) I think I'm just struggling with really knowing that this is what I want to do. I kind of miss my kids. I went to His House to visit them 2 weekends ago. It was great to see those faces and a little sad at the same time. I missed being in the know about their lives. I missed their hugs. I missed their laughs. I missed their funny sayings. I missed cooking for them. But then again, I didn't miss the stress. I think I will start volunteering there every two weeks or so. I just need to schedule it, that way I'm committed.

I'm still living with the Thompsons, a family from church. They are awesome. They are also hilarious and make me laugh all the time. I'm waiting on my friend Lauren to get a job so we can get a place together. She's looking for a job in the women's health profession. For now I'm saving up my pennies so I can replace the Diamond Jubilee. She needs to be replaced badly! She is sooooo loud. I squeak with every movement of the wheel. My car is like a bomb shelter. Noises outside the car sound like their miles away inside. So if I can hear those squeaks loudly from the inside, they've got to be horrendous on the outside. I'm always driving so I don't really know. Two of her windows no longer go up and down. One is actually taped so it will stay up....GHETTO! Still she lives on, about to make her 145,000th mile.

I'm reading two books currently. A Life of Prayer by Paul E. Miller. It is excellent! It has been so helpful practically for me and has been such an encouragement to pray, something that has been difficult for me to do consistently. The other...Decoded by Jay-Z. haha. It's sort of an autobiography/memoir/history of hip hop and rap and his songs. It has been interesting. African American culture has always interested me. This book helps me understand why the lyrics say the things they do, the history behind it all.

That seems like a pretty good update. Who knows if you'll even read it cuz it's so dang long....but here's to me! Now it's your turn.

Love you all!
Kath

Precious Football...

Guys, the older I get, the more I am enjoying the game of football and i love watching it. Yesterdat, I went to my first NFL game. Broncos vs. Chargers!! I especially enjoyed this game cause I once have cheered for the Chargers and secretly wanted them to win. At the same time, Kevin is willing and excited to start becoming a Broncos fan, so i had to root for them too. I loved being there. Yelling its tebow time or In-com-plete or go chargers (underneath my breath)... we had a blast.

Since kevin wakes up at the crack of dawn for work, he woke up at 6 on his day off and turn on the tube to watch some news in bed. We saw the sports section of the news advertising and previewing the game. Again, kevin wants to become a broncos fan and seeing this was the last game of the year to possibly go and cheer them on, we acted. AND they happen to be playing the chargers... a double win!! A craigslist find later, we were heading to denver for sunday football.

We had a blast! It was a great start to the New Year. Though the broncos didn't win, it was an exciting ending with 6 seconds left with one last trying to score a touchdown and win the game. Tebow, Tebow, Tebow,.... maybe next year he'll figure out how to throw a football.

Hope you all had a blast of a new years celebration. I haven't really talked to anyone to see how your holidays went, but I would love to know.... maybe everyone should post on the blog what you did, cause i don't want our blog to fade.

love you bias!