Welcome Ryan!!!

Gerald's sister Carmen and her husband Ricky are the proud new parents of Ryan Elias Artis. He was born on July 1. Congratulations Carmen and Ricky!! What a cutie!

FIRE!!!!!!

We had some excitement today. I was trying to bbq a steak for Gerald for dinner. When I turned on the propane grill, only the right side lit up even though the gas was on for the right and the left. No problem. I'll cook on the right. I went inside to finish dinner.

After about 10 minutes, I looked outside and saw that the grill was on fire. Even though the lid was closed, flames were coming out of it and from underneath the grill. Panic set in.

How do I put out a propane fire? Water? Flour? Baking soda?
Will this blow up? When? How?
Should I get a neighbor? Call 911? Yeah. Call 911.

On the phone she asked me a bunch of questions, but wouldn't tell me how to put out the fire. The propane knob was stuck and very hot! I grabbed the big box of baking soda and shook it all over the fire. It went out on top, but flames were still pouring out from the bottom. Then I remembered the fire extinguisher in the garage. I ran out to get it and Gerald was pulling up. I was waving wildly and screaming FIRE!!! Neighbors were starting to notice the fire and coming out of their houses. It turns out the fire extinguisher was dead. Gerald pulled the fire-laden grill away from the house while I stood far away telling him to get away from it:).

Luckily, the fire department is just up the road. They brought the big truck with all of the bells and whistles and 4 big firemen and calmly turned off the propane. Just like that--fire out. It turns out there was a leak in the propane hose and that's why the fire kept going underneath.

Good thing that I had strategically put out the fire to "save the steak" from the baking soda (haha). This post is dedicated to Nicole and Cedric who waited many years before getting a propane grill.

We put our grill out with the trash on Monday. May it rest in peace.

Job Search Gone Wrong

I (Jeri) have been looking for a job for awhile now. Things in real estate have not been so prosperous for me and I think it's best for me to return to corporate America. So I found a Business Consultant job posted in Chicago. It was to help businesses turn things around and I thought that would be perfect for my background, skills, education and experience. The job had a lot of travel (leave on Sunday and return on Fridays), but Gerald and I thought it might be okay since it would only be for about a year.

The company name was International Profit Associates and at one time, it was #9 on Inc magazine's top 500 companies. I thought I couldn't go wrong. IPA sent me a case study that required me to complete a balance sheet, an income statement and a cash flow statement. I was pretty impressed with myself that I got them all done over the weekend. I submitted them to my IPA contact on Sunday. Monday morning he calls and tells me that I did great and offers me the job! Keep in mind this position is supposedly up to 85K and he just offered me the job sight unseen, no references and promptly sent an e-mail with my travel arrangements to start the job on August 7th.

I was on cloud 9 that I was getting my "dream job", but something was way too fishy (Thank you, Holy Spirit). After a little more research, I found all kinds of terrible web postings saying how terrible the company was (to those who posted). The types of things I read were:

• Lawsuits and customer complaints and unethical leadership
• The environment was filled with sexual harassment.
• Over 450 BBB complaints nationwide in the last 3 years.
• Overly aggressive sales and collection tactics
• Even Gerald has a friend who worked there for a short time who said it was terrible.

I'm so grateful I read these things before I went there. But I want to send a big thank you out to my Honey, who re-did my resume for me this weekend and it looks GOOD!!! Now maybe I can get a real job!!!

St. Thomas Heaven

In January 2006, we had an awesome time in St. Thomas. Gerald did a great job at work and the trip was free due to his efforts. Check out the photos.
Top: Jeri catching a Kingfish. Check out my Sisterlocks.
Second: A beautiful view of the harbor the morning we went fishing.
Third: A view of the ocean from our hotel room. You could hear the waves!
Last: Gerald with his kingfish. I think mine was bigger, but I don't have a photo to upload :(. Nothin' but love for ya', G.

We also went snorkeling together for the first time and the fish were beautiful. We had a great dinner on New Year's Eve by the sea, but an annoying critter (roach!) kept climbing on the pole beside us. Not cool. We went to the British Virgin Islands and stopped by the Soggy Dollar and Pusser's Island, where people like to shop and drink. We're not big drinkers, but it was fun to see. In BVI we also went to the Virgin Gorda Baths which are famous for their beauty and many Sports Illustrated models have had photos taken there. We went to Tortola and Jost Van Dyke with its beautiful white beaches. We're really grateful that we decided to take the day-long trip to the BVI because it was truly the highlight of an already wonderful trip. We hope to return someday.

When I'm With You

When I'm With you is a song by Tony Terry that we played at our wedding on 6/14/03. Since this blog will show a lot of our adventures, I thought it would be an appropriate title. Here are the lyrics.

When I'm with you, I hear a sound
That makes me laugh and smile and sing to you
When I'm with you, I feel so freeI love that love is going to take control of me
When I'm with you
It's for real (It's for real)
What I feel (What I feel)
When I'm with you (You), uh-huh

When I'm with you, I wonder why
People do stop and stare and smile at us
When I'm with you, the sun shines my way
Baby, our love reflects its rays of light on everyone in the world
When I'm with you
It's for real (It's for real)
What I feel (What I feel)
When I'm with you (You), Hey, hey, hey

Uh-huh (Special touch, a warm embrace)
A sweet and tender kiss, your smile, whoa
Body warm my heart, so pure
Chills when I look, look in your eyes

I wonder why
People (Do stop) and stare
(And stare and smile at us) and smile at us
When I'm with you, the sun shines my way
Baby, our love reflects its rays of light on everyone in the world

When I'm with you
It's for real (It's for real)
What I feel (What I feel)
When I'm with you (You), you, hey, hey, hey
Oh, I love you, baby
Ye-ye-ye-yes, I doYe-ye-ye-yes, I do
I'd give the world to you, baby
Oh...whoa...oh, yeah

When I'm with you, whoa...baby
It's for real (It's for real)
What I feel (What I feel)
When I'm with you (You), yeah, yeah, yeah, hey.

Everything, everything's alright
When I'm with you
It's for real (It's for real, what I feel)
What I feel (You're heavy on my mind)
It's okay (It's okay, gonna pray)
Every day (Every day)
It's so nice (So nice), so right now (So right)
When I'm with you (You), nobody but you
Honey, I love you, yeah, ooh

All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.