Balancing Work and Home

So November has been the craziest work month for me in a long time. Maybe ever! So far for the month, I have been out of town and traveling more days than I have been home. It's just how it goes, I guess. Work/life balance has been a bit rough and hard on everyone.

After my Texas trip, we had a special event with our NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and Mike Conley with the Memphis Grizzlies. Both wear the #11 and Denny came in town to do a special shoot around with Mike with a charity Veterans Day tie. Afterwards, Denny went to the St. Jude Target House for a tour and he gave a donation to the facility from his foundation. Then we went back to FedExForum for ceremonies tied to the reveal of our new FedExHub, the interactive space inside. Whew! An exhausting day!

I left early the next morning for Indianapolis for my 2nd work trip of the month to help with a Trees for Troops CSR event. It was outside of the city at the cutest, family-owned Dull's Tree Farm. We had Vontae Davis, Cornerback for the Colts, help us load trees to send to overseas troops and participate in media interviews. It was a quick up Monday, back Tuesday event.

I actually got in a pic for once! Ha!

I left again on Friday for Miami for the last race of the year at Homestead. The FedEx #11 did not advance to the final round of the Chase, so it was just another race weekend for our team. I had a little bit of down time once I arrived which meant reading and dinner out by the pool. And the next day, I was able to work on Christmas cards and such in my room and get in a little beach time before the rain came. #winning!!

My bag did not make my connection in Atlanta and was put on the next
flight out,  so I had to hang out in the airport for it to catch up to me. 

My evening view!

Looking through pics in the room! 

View of the hotel from the beach the next day. It was cloudy and rained a little bit later.

A bird fight over leftover food!

Where I parked to enjoy the beach for a little bit.

When it Miami...chips, salsa and guac for every meal!

It was a rainy, muddy day at the track and the race as delayed a little bit because of it. Tim McGraw did the pre-race concert and I got to watch a little of that from the infield, which was fun. The race was good for Denny... we started on the Pole and finished 10th...but teammate Kyle Busch won the race the Championship! A first for Toyota and first in a loooong time for JGR. We were excited for JGR and went to Victory Lane to congratulate the team, but was super bummed it wasn't us. :( Hopefully, it'll be our turn next year.

Suite view - Turn 1.

Muddy golf cart!!

Kyle's crew and media surrounding the celebration!

His chubby baby and wife.

Granna came in town while I was in Miami, but otherwise Russ was rock-star Dad while I was gone. When Granna was here, Russ worked his tail off in the yard and also built the dress up box for Caroline's Christmas present.

Russ posted this to Facebook while I was gone - Tyler decided his shoes
needed to be "made into a collection". There was no prompting, just
straight hereditary OCD. I will be shocked if Caroline received the gene.

This was the pic he posted of Caroline's shoes. Ha!

Russ was crazy and took several selfies during the process. Ha!

His job is done! My job is to paint it!

Tyler had fun building this!!

I'm home for a couple days before Thanksgiving, I have lots of comp time to fall back on, so I have taken a few days at home here and there to get our lives back in order. We are looking forward to more traveling to see family over Thanksgiving! And more time with my little family, in general.

Tyler is thankful for Trio Blocks! Santa is on the hunt for these, but they are now discontinued.

Sweet Caroline made this for me in her class. Love her!