St. Pete Beach

Joe and I got home Thursday night from our little vacation to the beach. It was a great, relaxing week... other than finding our car in the airport parking lot with a dead battery... opps! We mostly spent the week laying around at the beach, eating, and drinking.... which was exactly what we needed for a few days!!

I took a lot of pictures, so I thought I'd share a few...

On the way there we had a connecting flight in Atlanta so Kirstin and my Dad (who was there visiting that weekend) brought us some breakfast (and mimosa's) and visited for a bit.... (I know, my big sis and Dad are awesome)

The bargain was Joe got the window seat to Atlanta, and I got it to Tampa... yeah.... this was my window seat....

This was our hotel... we ended up lucky and got a beach view even though we didn't pay for one because we were on the six floor

A little piece of heaven.....


Dinner at Crabby Bill's...


Sunset from the patio at Crabby Bill's

Handsomest guy I know




Beautiful.....

There were some fan chairs with parachutes we saw a few times at sunset... looked interesting

Our last evening....ahhhhh...... when can we go back??? :)

4th of July

So I'm only a little behind getting these pictures up. We had a great 4th of July weekend. Joe had to work till 3p on Saturday so after that we headed up to Wolcott to his parents for their festival. Unfortunately it was too cold and rainy so just about everything was done for the day and they ended up cancelling the fireworks. So Steve decided to set off some of his own for the girls and the rest of the crowd.

Here is part of the crowd waiting for the show to begin

Joe thought it'd be fun to hide behind a tree and throw a fire-cracker at Sue as she went by! :)

After the excitement wore off they decided to put them in a metal jug and pour some torch fluid in to liven things up... notice the torch in Steve's hand! Overkill maybe? :)

Maddison wore one of Joe's old football helmet's and wouldn't take it off till the fireworks were done

Joe's mom trying to show Maddison how fun sparklers were :)

On Sunday we went back home and found out Indy's fireworks had been cancelled too and they would be putting them off that night, so we went to the top of the parking garage at Methodist with Ash to watch them.

We are getting more excited about our Florida trip... I discovered we're actually staying in St. Pete... something I should have known since I booked the trip!!! Three shifts in a row this week and then we're off!! Wahoo!!!

Is it really almost July?

The last three weeks have flown by! We finally got our new furniture after sitting on lawn chairs in the family room for almost a month! The good thing was we didn't watch much tv during that time. We did enjoy having the cup-holders though! :) Since the furniture was in we decided it was time to start painting again. Ugh...

Sue had her first figure competition and did an awesome job. Joe and I were very proud and impressed with all the hard work she has done, as is everyone else. She plans to compete again in August. Last weekend was Maddison's 5th birthday so we spent Saturday in Fort Wayne with Joe's family before having a Father's Day dinner with Dad.

Joe is continuing his job as Lead Therapist at Community and getting more comfortable every day. I'm still working full time nights (sort-of! enjoying being cancelled every once in a while!) in the NICU. Some weeks I just can't stand the shift difference or the choice between sleeping or enjoying the day and getting things done, and then some weeks just go smoothly and work out great. It's amazing the difference of pushing a shift back by 4 hours!

We just booked our summer vacation for the mid-July to Clearwater Beach. Luckily I have a sister who has practically been to every hotel and city in Florida, so we followed some of her recommendations! :) Thanks Ash! Hopefully it wont be too hot while we are there and we can spend a week relaxing.




I caught my three boys getting a quick nap in the other afternoon!

Awesome weekend

It was an awesome weekend. Joe and I went to Wolcott Friday evening to watch Nicole's softball game. She got a couple great hits in and did a great job! Saturday was Colleens graduation party. Yay! She is heading to Huntington College in the Fall, I'm so excited for her. We got to see a lot of family and friends.

Then we headed to Nobelsville for the Rascal Flatts/Darius Rucker concert. I wasn't that excited about Darius Rucker but he did a great show. Rascal Flatts was awesome too, but we were further away then we had been in Fort Wayne, and at Verizon you always feel like you are dodging around people's heads no matter where you sit (or maybe just short people like me are!). It was funny to see all the different ages there. Sitting in the row infront of us was a mom with her probably 10 year old, next to a couple probably in their 80's! :)

While we were in Wolcott Friday evening sitting around a fire having drinks with Joe's parents we heard a kitten meowing like crazy. He eventually came out and hung around for a while and was the most adorable thing in the world! Joe is lucky we have already brought home a stray kitten once cause I would have taken this one in a heartbeat. He hung around all weekend, and tried to help Bob wash the car!

We went to a new sushi place this week recommended by Cindi and Mark, Tegry Bistro.... yuuuuummm.... I'm already looking forward to our next visit.

We are both already ready to get through the work week and for Sue and Steve's visit this weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend and 6 days off work! It will be hard to head back tonight. Thursday we were in Fort Wayne and I had lunch with some old co-workers. It was great to see them and catch up! Kirstin came down for a visit for a few days! :) I can't say enough about how much my sisters mean to me. I don't know what I would do without them! Of course I didn't whip out my camera till the end of the weekend, but here a few shots!

Miss Marley came for a visit too.......

Joe and his garden he's been working hard on! :) ...............

Joe power-washing the house in my pink Parkview poncho :)...............

Such A Rough Life

I think he wanted us to turn the lights out!

Six Month Anniversary

Friday was Joe and I's six month wedding anniversary (I know, it's not a real anniversary). What a crazy, exciting, busy six month's it has been. It started with an amazing wedding that we would change nothing about. When I think back to that day it brings a huge smile to my face. It was so much fun, and so great to get to spend it with so many family and friends.

December's highlight was our trip to Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. Ahhh.... talk about relaxation and pampering. If only we could make that trip every year.

January was full of house hunting, packing, and saying good-bye to our friends in Fort Wayne.

February brought us our first home! I can't believe how happy we are here. I love our home and I realize how lucky we are. February brought new jobs and a months full of orientation for both of us!

But I wonder where March and April went!!..... oh yes, working on that new home! :) But that's also when I started working night shift and I've tended to be little forgetful since then! :) The months have flown by! Marrying Joe has been the best thing that has ever happened to me. How lucky am I to have gotten to spend the last six months just such an amazing person?

We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate... and we forced ourselves to for once have room for cheesecake and boy was it worth it!!!

I can't wait to see what the next six month's brings us! :)

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day on May 7th, 2009 is a day to promote positive youth development, resilience, recovery, and the transformation of mental health services delivery for children and youth with serious mental health needs and their families. Awareness Day raises awareness of effective programs for children's mental health needs; demonstrates how children's mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery, and resilience; and shows how children with mental health needs thrive in their communities.
The theme for this year's national event is Thriving in the Community, with a special emphasis on how high school youth who receive the services they need are more likely to have positive outcomes, such as better grades, and less likely to have negative outcomes, such as involvement with the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Front bathroom

Before

I'd thought I'd share some before and after pics of the bathroom. We replaced the floor, mirror, and painted. Although it isn't a huge change, hopefully it was an improvement!

Tonight I was cancelled from work, by request, due to how slow we are right now. It was nice to have the night off. I was glad for the acuity and business when I started so hopefully it will pick back up, although I really can't complain about getting the night off every once and while. This is Joe's busy week, but we both have the weekend off. We are heading to Fort Wayne for Grace's birthday.