Life Lately [Winter Travels]
Happy 2020! We survived the first week of the year!
The kids finally went back to school yesterday! Finally! John worked Monday, so we used that day to ease back into Kansas living, after being gone for nearly 3 weeks! I have heaps of laundry to get through and suitcases to unpack. But why take care of housework when I could hop on the computer?!
Christmas Break Travel
We spent the holidays at my parents’ house in Franklin, North Carolina; where we were joined by my brother and sister, their significant others, my sister’s mother in law, and John’s mom. Plus Caesar and my sister’s dog. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it work. Shout out to my mom for providing everyone a cozy place to sleep!
We drove from Fort Riley to North Carolina, which was approximately a 15 hour trip. Thankfully, we have a good friend that is stationed at Fort Campbell, so we crash at his place anytime we’re passing through.
The house in Franklin is back in the woods, which meant zero cell coverage, but also that we got to spend plenty of time disconnected. There is a barn on the property, where two horses lives, so the girls had plenty of opportunities to feed them carrots and apples.
We used the lack of neighbors as an opportunity to have a little outdoor competition, with some skeet shooting and axe throwing. Adri was killing it on both. She truly is a little outdoors person.
I was surprised with all that Franklin had to offer. I was truly expecting a little po-dunk town. Once you make it out of the backwoods though, there was plenty of grocery shopping, breweries, even Starbucks. On the days that we left town, there was also plenty to do! A day trip to Asheville, a train ride, and waterfalls!
I’m excited to go back for my brother’s wedding in the fall.
#VerizonSalutes
Prior to our Christmas trip to North Carolina, I took a little solo trip to San Fransisco for a #VerizonSalutes summit. The thought of traveling by myself right before a family trip had me all sorts of anxious. BUT, the thought of sleeping alone and uninterrupted had me there!
Having never been to any sort of blogger event/conference, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Let’s just say I was blown away. Not only did we get an incredible look behind the scenes at Verizon, but I got to meet and hangout with some pretty amazing military spouses and veterans from every branch of the military.
During the summit at the Verizon office, we got a firsthand look at their emerging 5G technology, and it’s capabilities. It was astonishing to see how the technology will be able to be used in all facets of life when true 5G becomes available nationwide. They showed us examples of how 5G can be used in everything from fight crime, to boosting mall sales, to brain surgery.
The latter portion of the summit focused on employment opportunities for veterans and military spouses. I think the part that amazed me most was how the company strives to really take care of employees who may be activated for duty.Veterans, if you’re out there looking for jobs, Verizon is looking for you. The website even has a portion to help determine how military skills might translate into civilian careers. >> https://www.verizon.com/about/careers/military
A bonus piece of the summit was having guest speaker Jim Karol come in and blow our minds with his tricks. This man has memorized zip codes for the entire US, days of the week for every date back to 1 AD, and even memorized an entire deck of cards right before our eyes. At dinner the night of the summit, I got lucky and got to have him sit at our table. It was so much fun to have him rattle off cities and days of the week!
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Because of the #VerizonSalutes summit, I now have my eyes on other conferences/events that I might be able to attend this year. Trying to get to an event these last few years has been tricky, since we’ve had a move each summer. No move scheduled for this year, thank goodness!
Aside from traveling, there hasn’t been much going on. Well, I mean the holidays are kind of a big deal I guess so the focus was all there. Now I’m ready to nap and be lazy for the next 3 months. I got a head start by binge watching both seasons of You on Nextflix. The first season was better than the second, but I’m hooked and will be waiting for the third season!
That’s about it for now.. Lots of rambling today.