Happy New Year!

Dear Internet,

Happily, the work here in Joplin has increased a LOT! We have a couple of big volunteer groups coming in next week, as well as a surprise group for the past two days, so Ali and I have been scrambling to line up work for them to do, coordinate with homeowners, and update our databases. But it's a good kind of scrambling :)

We've also been dealing with a few problems over the last few days - oir only working truck,  Pickle, breaking down twice; our workers messing up homeowners' property, getting in crashes, messing around on the service site, being unreachable by phone - but when I say "we," really I mean Ali and Cody. I've been able to NOT have to deal with it, which makes me very happy!

So I've been really enjoying full days and meaningful work, the feeling of actually getting important things done for Joplin. The three of us are currently flying along the highway in Cody's Jeep, heading back to STL for New Year's with our ERT buddies who will be back in town. I get to pick up Will at the airport tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to, and I get to see a lot of other neat people that I've been missing. This is going to be a great weekend and a great new year!

I'll just leave you with this photo - last night Ali and I went to visit our ERT friend Marty and his family in Springfield. They fed us a great dinner, including sending us home with some red velvet cake, which we ate about an hour ago while driving down the highway.

xoxo,
Liz