HAPPY NEW YEAR

I just want to start out by wishing everyone a safe and happy new year. May 2008 be a wonderful and blessed year for you!

I was able to go home for Christmas and see most of my family. This was a shock to them because, as best as they knew, the six day work weeks included the week of Christmas. However, we worked so far ahead, that my presence really wasn't needed on that Monday (Christmas Eve), so I drove home on Saturday to surprise my parents. My brother happened to be in town too, so I guess more family made my folks happier. I got to spend a good 2.5 days with them before driving home on Christmas Day to get ready for work on the day after.

Not a lot interesting has really gone on since my last post. Work has been incredibly easy since Christmas. I've even managed to leave at around 10:00am a day or two. We had a contest among the 14 facilities in my half of the region that ran from the week of Thanksgiving up until this past Friday. Going into the last week (scores haven't been updated), my facility is ranked as the # 1 facility in the contest. Like I have said before, I am blessed with a great crew of guys. I haven't decided what I am going to do if we win #1. I'll have to reward my guys somehow.

Of course, with a new year upon us, it is a time of reflection. 2007 was a turbulant year for me and my family, but we pulled through! This is the time of year that we all make resolutions to help and improve our lives. Of course, there are numerous ways that we can all better ourselves, whethere we want to admit it or not. I am convinced that the main reason a lot of people fail miserably at their 'New Year's Resolutions' is because they try to do TOO much. A friend of mine last year had 28 different resolutions on her list. Here's my theory. Find one or two major ones that you really do want to improve upon, because generally after that, the rest are quite frankly stupid and petty.

I already know which two resolutions I want to stick with and apply to my life. If I do those, then the other 'smaller' ones should be pretty easy to knock out. If you get rolling with the big ones, once they become routine, then the tinier ones will be a lot easier to start chipping away at. But if you're trying to knock out five big ones at once, if you fail and stumble at one, you are more likely to get frustrated and say "forget it" to all five. I hope that makes sense. It does in my head at least...just not sure about the naked eye LOL

Anyway, I sincerely hope that all of you have a very safe and happy new year. I pray for God's richest blessings upon you, your families, and your friends. 2008 is going to be a great year...say it...believe it...and more importantly LIVE IT!

~God Bless~
Greg

An Update

Hello everyone. First things first. I want to thank all of you who have emailed or called asking how my mom's surgery went. The surgery went well. She was naturally quite sore for a few days, but is making progress. She goes in tomorrow for her first check-up. She seems to be doing a lot better both physically and mentally. She hates being 'tied down' so to speak and unable to just get up and go do whatever she wants. Naturally, this surgery has kind of had her in an immobile position, in that, she can't get up and drive herself to the store or that kind of thing. Lord willing, she will be back to full strength soon.

I am hoping that I will be able to go see the family in Texas early next week. I have made arrangements with our Atlanta Hub driver to send our extra freight on Sunday night rather than early Monday morning. That way, my crew can go see their families for 2 days straight rather than having a day of work in between two days off. Also, selfishly, I am hoping to convince my boss to let me take Wednesday and possibly even Thursday off so that I can see my fam for about three days. We'll see.

I spent yesterday with my sister and (almost) five month old niece in Birmingham. I had a blast with them. I enjoy seeing them. That baby girl is just so sweet. I have already taught her that Uncle Greg is her favorite uncle. She'll be saying it any day now I PROMISE :-)

Work is crazy as you would expect. Christmas season at FedEx is indeed an adventure. Each day gets a little busier and busier. At this point, I have resigned myself to the fact that I just need to survive one more week and my life will be grand LOL It takes a lot of planning, preparation and coordination to get the packages where they need to be. It's a lot more complex than "box A goes on truck B". We just got mostly finished with coordinating the delivery of 1,200 small boxes of chocolates to 1,157 different addresses that a bank ordered for all of their customers. It wouldn't have been so bad if 90% of them weren't going to rural, small town Alabama where most people live on county roads and unmarked highways LOL

Everything else in life is going well. We just started a 23 week series of lessons at church on the Holy Spirit and how our lives are impacted by it. It should be a very interesting experience and hopefully, I will come out of the lessons with a much better idea of this relatively rarely discussed aspect of faith.

I hope and pray that all of you have a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy the time with your families and remember that it's never about getting someting, or really even giving anything more than your time and your love to those you care about.

I recently saw something on YouTube that might interest some of you. Look up Derek Redmond and Creed. There is a clip that runs about 2 1/2 minutes that is pretty inspiring. Hope you have time to look it up and enjoy it!

~God Bless~
Greg

*To D. in NY......call me, my friend. You are definitely missed. And Loved. Nothing will EVER change that.*

Does it ever stop??

Hey all...I hope that y'all had a great Thanksgiving and are off to a great Christmas season. I always love Christmas, even though I work at FedEx :-) I really do enjoy this time of year, even though it is one of the most trying times of the year. It's actually not THE most trying time, in part because of somewhat relaxed productivity standards, which allow me to have some flexibility in my scheduling of my employees.

I hope to be able to make it home for Christmas, if not immediately thereafter. It depends on if the six day work weeks extend to the week of Christmas or not. It's up in the air right now. I really NEED to get home truth be told, in part because of the title of this posting....

Now my MOM is in the hospital. She severely hurt her back several weeks ago at the house and it got progressively worse. Friday, she went to the ER and it turns out that she has to have back surgery. I believe it is on her L3 and L4 vertabrae. The area around her spine was too swollen to do surgery last week, so her surgery is tenatively scheduled for this coming Tuesday, the 4th. Please keep her in your prayers, along with the doctor performing the surgery.

I feel bad for my sister who is still in Texarkana. With all that happened to my dad, we all pitched in as much as we could, but admittedly she, and my nephew and niece did A LOT. He isn't fully recovered, but he is progressing slowly. Now, with my mom having surgery, my sister just has that much more on her plate. I will again try to get a few days off as soon as I possibly can, to go help. The problem is, naturally the entire month of December is blocked for days off. I *could* go home over a Saturday/Sunday, but then I'd have to be back by 4 a.m. on Monday to work. I dunno. I'll talk to my sister and see if she wants/needs my help.

The good thing is, my brother in law from Austin has a lot of vacation time and can probably go help out if need be. He is an incredible guy and has been such a blessing to our family over the years.

Anyway, that's what's going on around here. Like I said, I hope that y'all are having a wonderful Christmas season! Please keep everything in your prayers. The good thing is that the old adage says that things happen in threes. I was first, dad was second and hopefully mom's is the last health issue we deal with for a while!

~God Bless~