The Tampa Connection

Nick's family at his grandmother's 75th birthday.

Even the dog is cute!Nick's super sweet parents My mom meeting Nick for the first time Our first gift- thanks Mom! Celebrating!

Dana had a wedding planner in my hands within 24 hours!

When I finally actually publish the whole story, you'll hear more about meeting Nick's family. But the day after we were engaged, we surprised his grandmother in New Port Richey for her 75th birthday party. It's only an hour from my mom so we visited everyone. My mom actually wanted to meet the guy, imagine that! When we sat down to eat at his aunt's house, we realized it was our first meal together. It felt like the most normal thing in the world to just sit around the kitchen table telling our story. When we got to my mom's house, she blessed us with a beautiful memory box. We were very grateful to find out that our families lived so close. I knew I always liked Tampa! Go Bucs!

A Home-Cooked Meal!

Mr. Malone, The cook in action! Now that's a real meal! Mr. and Mrs. Malone, aren't they cute? Shawn and Nick Last night I had the chance to meet the super sweetest people, Nick's friend Shawn and his parents from California. They invited us for dinner and it was so fun! I walked into the smell of the most amazing sauce to go on our tasty tacos. We hung out with Bailey the cat and talked about beautiful San Diego, traveling and flying. Shawn's dad was a plane mechanic and my dad and brother-in-law were pilots so we had a lot to talk about! It was the third home-cooked meal I've had in a week! I think that's the most home-cooked meals I've had in a week for about 10 years. This Jenny Craig and Lean Cuisine girl could really get used to eating real food more often. Anyway, I just so enjoyed my time hanging out with this family that I wanted to share their super cute pictures.

It is Finished!!!

Where I work

Love those palm trees!There's me! Top floor about 3rd window from the right Where I usually eat lunch- sunny in October! Got to love it! Yesterday I finished coordinating the move of about 15 offices at work, for the second time! I am so beyond glad that it is over! Since March when I first started this job, which is challenging enough in itself, I've been figuring things out like how to temporarily move 15+ people, their phones, their computers and their furniture. I've spent hours in meetings picking things out like carpet borders, accent walls and countertop surfaces while answering countless e-mails about paper towel dispensers, plasma screen tv's and signs. Interior decorating must be fun when you know what you're doing but as I kept trying to explain, I'm just the secretary! Somehow by the grace of God, we got it done. I am just so beyond relieved to get back to my "normal" job and not wake up thinking about how to get the keys to the one person I forgot. I am so thankful to God for the strength to get through it. I'm also glad that as Pastor George says, "This too shall pass". And it did! Now I have more energy to think about fun things like Rock UF, the Ladies' Getaway, wedding planning and catching up on my blog. So the next blog entry should be more fun!

An Amazing Family

The beautiful Tuttle familySaturday I had the chance to bring dinner to Donnie and Chris Tuttle. They welcomed their seventh child, Ephriam, into the world last Friday. I've been trying to hang out with them since April but they've been a little busy. The Tuttles and I go way back, they used to be my neighbors for 3 years before I moved to NYC. One Saturday many years ago, their small group and my small from church combined to put on Saturday Fun N Games, an outreach to the kids in our complex. With their love of kids and my love of organizing, we made a great team! So this Saturday, they needed a meal and I needed an excuse to hang out so we finally got together. Nick came after work so they could hear our story. While Chris took care of Ephriam and Nick and Donnie took off to the store, I got to play ball with the kids. They're really good! Since my nephews and neice live far away, it was great to get in some borrowed "aunt" time. We also had a lovely dinner with an amazing family. What a great night!