Happy "Non" Birthday Auntie K

My dear sweet Aunt Karen's birthday is February 29 which only exists once every 4 years. (LEAP YEAR!) So in honor of her I want to wish her a Happy Non Birthday! :) We normally celebrate with her on February 28 but she always jokes with anyone who tells her Happy Birthday or wants to make it special on this day, "You know, It's really not my actual birthday...." I remember turning 13 before she did! :) And, when I was in college she had a slumber party with my mom and several other of their best friends to celebrate her big entrance in to becoming a "teenager". :)

Auntie K, I love you so much and am so happy to be able to blog alongside you! I am sorry that you haven't seen your actual birthday in print that many times but know that this makes you SO special and unique. I am so blessed to have you for an aunt! You are precious to me. :)

My aunt is an incredibly talented quilter and you can check out her blog here.

Happy MARCH everybody! Goodness gracious, I can't believe it is March already.

A Scam and Lessons Learned

Well, my week started out on a pretty INCREDIBLE note...

For those of you who don't know what I do for a living,

I am the Sales and Catering Manager for the

Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn hotels here in Tallahassee.

Basically, in a small nut shell, my job consists of bringing in groups to these two properties (among a plethora of other things. :).

On Monday, I got a call for an incredible piece of business and

sealed the deal right there on the phone!

The client that I was speaking with seemed like SUCH A NICE GUY, and

I felt like we established a good working relationship.

I was really excited to welcome all of the group members to our hotel!

My boss sent out an e-mail to all of our ownership team and I was on cloud 9! :)

This meant awesome things for not only the hotel, but for me individually.

The owner of our hotels is such a sweet man...he is like our papa bear. :)

He called me directly and told me that the company loves me,

they are happy to have me, and after this group's payment has actualized,

I was going to get a substantial bonus.

{Que me doing a major happy dance...all the while my head is getting BIGGER and BIGGER.}

As the week progressed, things with this group went from great to sketch to sketchier.

The first individual was scheduled to check in on Monday and

we were supposed to recieve a package on Tuesday with the other group members'

purchasing credit cards.

Well, the guy didn't come....and the package wasn't delivered.

And my client was unreachable. As in, phone off and he wasn't returning my calls.

After a long week of trying to get a hold of this man (I won't go into further details because it would be A LOT of information.), I came to find out on FRIDAY that...

he was a CON MAN. And this incredible piece of business/group was a SCAM.

{Cue the "Dun. Dun.Dun." music.}

Basically, these guys take the identities (just names) of individuals who work

for a major company, say they are doing a project and will be staying

for an extended period of time, check in,

and then leave the hotel before paying for their rooms.

They have done this with MANY other Hilton and Marriot properties

and hopefully we can help catch them! :)

They never checked in to our hotel

but we were holding the rooms ALL week LONG!
This was a MAJOR let down but I have learned several things

from all that has happened this week.

1. Don't let your head get too big. :) Not once did I thank God for sending me this group....and only when things weren't working out was the first time I prayed about it. Sometimes it seems weird to me to pray about work things,

but then I remembered this verse:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters since you know that you will recieve an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." -Colossians 3:23-24

2. It is okay to think the best of people, but be careful and use your best judgement. When things seem too good to be true, they usually are. Don't let this hinder you from being the person God made you to be, though (I totally think the best of people and I don't think that God would want me to all of a sudden be super cautious)....continue to trust, but put your trust ultimately in HIM, not things of this world.

3. I have the best, most supportive husband. He let me vent this week when I wasn't getting answers, gave me a hug when I needed to be comforted, and made me laugh more times than I can count. Case in point: A facebook status dedicated to me. :)

Well, I am not going to let this hinder my weekend....Matt is working today but hopefully this afternoon we can get out and enjoy this gorgeous day.

That is if I can get out of my pajamas and clean some before he gets home. :)

You Say Goodbye....and I Say Hello

These sad chairs are currently sitting in my office.

After reorganizing I realized I don't need them anymore.

I never meet with clients in my office because it is pretty atrocious anyway.

But my boss almost threw them away while I was on vacation.

And I almost had a panic attack.

Just kidding.

But really, aren't they just oozing with potential?

A fresh coat of white paint and some new, beautiful fabric.

I am so excited to take them home and reupholster them.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

But I'm excited to teach myself. :)

Have a great week!

Fruit.

Via

"Blessed is the one.....whose delight is on the law of the Lord.
And who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither--
whatever they do prospers."

Psalm 1:1a-3

Recap of Week/end & Luke 21:27-47

Oh, Sundays in Spring...you are glorious.

I hope everyone has had a weekend as lovely as we have.

The Lord is good because Friday night I was in a funk....and so was my husband.

And that is a bad combo. But I thank God for answering my prayers of restoration

and drawing us together and to Himself.

So, on to my recap of last week.

It was filled with lots of To Do Lists and coffee at work.
And these beautiful flowers from my Matthew Ryan.

And a dear friend's baby shower. Cute pregnant lady alert....isn't Julia just adorable and glowing? I can't wait for her tiny precious new bundle of life!! :)
Then.....on to the weekend. Saturday we took Lucy girl to the dog park and did some laundry. Then, that night we went bowling with our precious friends, the Rousseau's.

Me and Ashley....she is a nurse and one of the most genuinely sweet people I have ever met.
We both married Matt's and they are both fun and silly so we always have a good time together. :)
Here is the cute couple :)

SO. MUCH. FUN.

This morning we went to church and took a Sunday drive. :)

It was absolutely GORGEOUS outside today.

I tried to etch the memories we made this morning in my mind

so I won't forget them.
Because it was one of those days.

Those days that you look back on and treasure.

That even though we are going through a period of waiting and testing

God has given us each other to share life with.

And it is a blessing.

We drove with the windows open, Brooks and Dunn playing on the radio

and talked in our super country accents. :)

We ended up in the tiniest little town in Georgia

and ate lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant

that wasn't even opened but because we came "all the way from Tallahassee"

Miss Mary herself said, "I can make you some sandwiches."

It was so precious.

And I will try really hard to remember this day.

I will leave you with one of the points that hit home from our sermon this morning.

Neglecting God's word means neglecting Jesus.

My prayer this week is that I can spend quality time in the word, allowing it to penetrate my heart so that the gospel could go forth through

my.little.life.

Sweet Valentine's Day Memories :)

This year, Matthew Ryan and I will be celebrating our 5th Valentine's Day together.

This morning he had to be at work at a ridiculous hour and I didn't hear him leave.

I woke up way past my alarm and as I frantically tried to get ready, I texted him

"Have you fed Lucy and let her out?"

He answered that he hadn't but had a follow up text of

"Happy Valentine's Day...I love you!"

which of course melted my heart because I wasn't even thinking

about what day it was...

just how I was going to get to work on time. :) This morning I have been thinking of our very first Valentine's Day.

February 14, 2007.

I got all dressed up and was excited for my first ever Valentine's Day date

with someone who I loved and could really see a future with.

:)

At this point we were quite serious and by the next Valentine's Day we were engaged.

We braved the crowd of people and had a 2 hour wait at Carrabas.

But during that wait, he took me to a local park where we froze and opened up

the presents we got one another.

I made him a huge posterboard card with our pictures on it that he could hang up in

his apartment. :)

He handed me a ring box which I freaked out about until I opened it.

50 tiny little pieces of paper came out and each one had a quality

that he loved about me on it.

:)

I am super blessed with a wonderful man who is my valentine

but also my Heavenly Father who created love and loves us so much he

sent his son to die for us.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and enjoy it

with the ones you love!

Psalm 86:15

"But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness."

I love this verse. And one particular day this week I needed to write it out and put it on my desk right next to my computer and remind myself that not only is this how God lovingly treats his children, this is how we are to emulate him to the world. MYLANTA, is this hard to do sometimes. But it is incredible to see that when you hide His word in your heart, your attitude changes as He works through you. I have decided every day I am going to write out a "Verse of the Day" and as I am going about my day, I will look at it and let it penetrate my heart.

Birthdays, Chicken Tortilla Soup, & The Governor

My week was a bit on the crazy busy side so I totally meant to post last Sunday night recapping our weekend but the week got away from me.

I'll start today's post by wishing some sweet people Happy (Belated) Birthday! :)

My mama's birthday was February 5.

We love you so much mom and you are so dear to us!

Maren Elizabeth Wilson, my precious tiny neice turned 4 years old on February 6!

Happy Birthday Marebear! You are so loved!!

I can't wait to play with your Dora the Explorer walkie talkies and your new bat and ball! :)

We had quite a lovely weekend. :) Friday night Matt and I went to see The Tourist. It was a great date night movie with equal parts romance and action and I would definitely reccommend it. I know it has been out for quite a while....we saw it at our $1.00 Theatre which is now more like a $3.50 Theatre (Still better than the ridiculous amount of money they charge you at the normal theatres :))

Saturday was quite relaxing and I made one of our favorite meals, Chicken Tortilla Soup. I found the recipe here.
I made a couple of changes by omitting the hominey and adding a can of tomato paste as well as a little more chicken broth....it is really good.



Sunday was a great day....we invited some friends to church who came with us for the first time and we had no other than the Governor of FLORIDA there! :) It was pretty stinkin cool. My pastor saw him at Starbucks with two of his advisors and walked up to him, started a conversation, and invited him to church...and 2 weeks later he came! :)
This week was a little bit of a blur with a long work week, dentist appointments, networking events, association meetings, and coming home to find out that our sweet Lucy ate practically a whole jar of nutella (no worries, she's fine) so I am VERY much looking forward to the weekend. Tonight I bought a really cute suit at Express that was finally on a good sale and had frozen yogurt for dinner while Mattypookins is working. :) I thought I would start out the weekend with a bang.


Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dear....

• Dear husband, it really made me smile when I sent you a text message of my new haircut :) (super short...WOO HOO...pictures to come) and you said you reaaaally liked it and it was a "blast from the past"....which I immediately knew you were referring to the time before we started dating that your chin dropped and all you could say was "wow". I.feel.super.loved. :) Can't wait for you to come home from work and see it in person!

• Dear Tuesday, thank you for not being Monday. Dear sweet Emily Beth my seeeester, thank you for forgiving me for being such a jerk to you on the phone simply because it was Monday.

• Dear bartender at Level 8.....thank you for making my Flirtini very delicious. I had fun with my coworkers after work today and the cocktail you gave me was quite delicious....and has a really cute name which makes the experience all the more fun.

• Dear Leslie my precious hairstylist.....you rock. And I love myhair. I seriously have been looking in the mirror WAY too much today.

• Dear Maren Elizabeth, my munchkin neice....I can't handle the fact that you are about to be 4. Seriously it just feels like yesterday that I was holding you and you were a tiny little baby. Oh how your Aunt and Uncle love you so much!

• Dear college, why do you seem like you ended forever ago? I am looking at pictures of you and I know its only been 2 years...but wow, it feels like a really long time.