She's a Delta, Tri Delta, you can tell her from the start.
By her walk and her talk and her uh-huh, sets a Delta girl apart.
She's a Delta

I had a wonderful five days in Orlando with my mom and 750 Tri Delta sisters. Here are some highlights of all the fun we had!

Our home for five days, the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando

With Florida Gulf Coast University Tri Deltas - current and alums

Walking a 5K for St. Jude (we raised $10,000!)

Listened to a wonderful speech from Tri Delta Deborah Norville, met her and had my book signed too.

A fun night exploring Sea World

Met a real Sea Lion (he smelled like fish!).

Celebrated at the final banquet.

Florida Gulf Coast University Tri Deltas at the chapter roll call.

Happiness pulses with every beat of my heart.
Terri Guillemets

Five full days at a beautiful resort in Orlando, Florida + my mom + the 2010 Tri Delta Convention = a happy, happy girl!

Can't wait to get away from work and life, spend time with my mom while enjoying Convention slathered in pansies and pearls.

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
Russel Baker

My mom told me that when my grandmother was young, in the mid-1920s, she came to do modeling work in the summer in St. Louis. Obviously, there was no air conditioning so she used to put all of her sheets in a tub of cold water and then wrap herself in them to sleep.

This was the temperature on my back porch at 10:30 p.m. last night.

Oof, it is hot. I'm seriously considering wrapping myself in wet sheets!

I'm used to hot weather having grown up in Florida. Even hotter than my hometown, Sarasota, was the Fort Myers/Naples area where I lived for seven years. I clearly remember July days where the asphalt was actually squishing underneath my flip flops in the Target parking lot.

It's not to say St. Louis is any hotter than that but it still amazes me that six months ago there was snow on the ground. Now it's just as hot as an area of Florida that never sees those cold temperatures.

So that's my plan - sheets, cool water and a snugly Beagle.

Every child begins the world again...
Henry David Thoreau

This past weekend I took a trip to my hometown, Sarasota, for a little Florida getaway. It was a great chance to spend time with my mom and also host a baby shower for my dear friend Casey.

She is due June 3, what a wonderful reason to have a party!

Main table with gifts and the betting game.

Yummy spread!

Daisies everywhere (plus a picture of us at my wedding).

Old friends (yes, we're getting "old" but I mean friends we've known for a long time!).

Beautiful rocking chair - a gift from her mother and mother-in-law.

He'll be all decked out in his parent's alma mater!

With my mom and fellow hostess.

The clothespin game winner, Melissa, and the mom to be.

There's nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

Heading out early tomorrow morning for a mini-vacation in Sarasota to visit my mom and host a baby shower for Casey. Looking forward to a long weekend getaway and spending time with some of my very favorite people!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
G.B. Stern

Sunday gratitude:

• tulips in full bloom in my front yard.
• one week until a mini-Florida trip for Casey's baby shower.
• Trader Joe's chicken salad on Wheat Thins.
• finally finding a pair of comfortable work flats.
• fresh cut Daffodils in a vase on my desk at work.
  

The success of the dinner depends as much
upon the company as the cook.

Ward McAllister

Nick has been talking forever about wanting to go to a Japanese steakhouse. There was in Florida that we loved, Tokyo Bay, and haven't been to one since moving here to St. Louis. Nick heard of a good one, Oishi in Chesterfield Valley, from a coworker and was dying to go but we need some friends to join us! Not too much fun to go by ourselves.

So on Saturday night, Heidi and Dan were toddler-free and up for dinner too! It was delish, we stuffed ourselves and enjoyed the different atmosphere (including catching tossed food from the chef in our mouth! I missed.). Nice just to try something different than a regular restaurant.

Nick's excited!

Heidi and Dan.

Me and Heidi.

Yum - look at that steak!

Onion volcano, that's the best part!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
G.B. Stern

Sunday gratitude:

• we finally got a renter for our Florida house - woot!
  
• homemade French toast with warm syrup.
• Corrina, Corrina on TBS. Gosh, I love that movie!
• purging and shredding all the junk in our files.
  
• Welsh potato chips and rarebit from Llywelyn's.
  

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

This was a busy but certainly nice year! Here are my favorite photos, one from each month, from 2009. Can't wait to look back at 2010 to see all the fun we had!

January: Shoveled my first driveway

February: Saw the penguins take their walk at the St. Louis Zoo

March: Traveled to Las Vegas to be in Ashley's wedding

April: Finally "get" why people love Spring! The Dogwood trees blooming.

May: Nick turned 30 and we hosted a backyard BBQ party.

June: Enjoyed a Cardinals baseball game with two for one scalped tickets

July: Continued to enjoy the beautiful summer weather

August: RaeAnna and Ashley came to visit

September: Headed over to Illinois for Sarah's sister's wedding

October: Visiting Chicago for my mom's 60th birthday

November: Celebrated our first anniversary with a trip to California and Las Vegas

December: Went to Florida for Christmas

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Charles Dickens

We returned yesterday from a great five day Christmas vacation in Florida. It was a nice chance to relax as well as spend time with family and friends.

This week is busy too with a St. Louis Blues hockey game tonight, dinner for my birthday tomorrow and then New Year's Eve! I'm looking forward to a quiet three day weekend to take a vacation from our vacations!

Enjoying the nice weather on the back porch

Beautiful tree

All the stockings hung - including ones for the dogs!

Pups with their Christmas bows

On our way to Christmas Eve service

With my pretty mama

Chilly morning (see, it isn't always hot in Florida!) near Tampa Bay
- on our way to the airport

Home to a snowy car - back to the Midwest weather!

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.
WC Jones

Nick and I are heading to Florida to spend five days with my mom for Christmas, visit friends and check on our house (especially clean for new renters - super fun!). A little vacation and much needed rest for us both, a little work and all around enjoyment.

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
G.B. Stern

Sunday gratitude:

• our first "sticking" St. Louis snow.
• two days until Florida!
• Christmas bonuses.
• yummy corporate holiday gifts at the office (the brownies were the best!).
• The Coronado ballroom.

Random: lacking any definite plan or order or purpose

• I saw real, honest to goodness snow flakes on Wednesday night. Nothing stuck but it did snow!
• It's Friday! I have to work the Part-Time Job tonight but then it is officially the weekend!
  
• Our first St. Louis' friends and Nick's college roommate, Luke and his wife Mel, are coming for dinner tomorrow night. I always have a nice time with them and with my house decorated for Christmas it will be my only time to really entertain with Christmas spirit!
• Bella not only sits in front of the heat register but now gives her self a mini-kitty facial with the new the humidifier.
  
• On Sunday we're having our STL Blogger get together. Really looking forward to it!
• If I see one more news story of the White House "party crashers" I might scream.
  
• Booked all nights next week with Nick's work holiday party, St. Louis Blues game, Junior League Cinnamon Roll making shift, Tri Delta Pine Party and Part-Time Job working. Phew (but fun)!
• Our neighbors across the street have the cutest, old school multi color Christmas lights. Just a line of lights across the front but it looks so classic with their tree in the window that matches. I want to go tell her how festive it looks!
  
• Heading to Florida for Christmas in just two and a half weeks!
• ...which means my 27th birthday is in just 26 days!
  

Football is an honest game. It's true to life .
It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life.
Joe Namath

Perhaps it was those years living in Southwest Florida but my Midwest-loving husband is a true Miami Dolphins fan (see the time we were at the coldest game in Dolphins history, that's wife-points people. Major wife-points).

The games aren't always on TV here so we've started a bit of a Sunday afternoon tradition when he gets home from work to head to Helen Fitzgerald's to grab and early dinner and watch the 'Phins game.

Recently there is a big group of guys that are also cheering for the Dolphins so it makes Nick as happy as a clam. I'm just happy to spend time with him (although teal and orange are not my best colors)!

Heading out to cheer on the Miami Dolphins

PS: On another football note, this evening we're headed to Columbia to see the Mizzou v. Huskers game. My first trip to Columbia (I love college campuses, it's all those years working on one) and my first Huskers game (Nick's other sports-love)!

The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence,
but you still have to mow it.
Proverb

Reason number 437 why it is so nice to be a renter.

I pulled into the driveway last night after work and the whole lawn was freshly mowed, weed-eated and edged. All of the beds had a layer of fresh mulch and the big Honeysuckle in the front yard was neatly trimmed.

Sweet! It all looks so nice. The benefits of having a fabulous landlord who works for Monsanto.

Too bad we still have to have take care of the lawn service at our house in Florida. But at least where we are now does not involve me having to mow the grass!

Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a
spare bed for my friends.
Samuel Pepys

I have a treat arriving tomorrow evening, my college roommate RaeAnna! I've known RaeAnna since 2004 when we roomed with Ashley in college. We also lived together while I was in grad school and she finished up her nursing degree.

Her 25th birthday is on Saturday and she decided instead of spending it in Orlando, where she lives, she will come see me and celebrate in St. Louis (her first visit here). Looking through some photos I realized just how many birthdays I have celebrated with her - lots! It will be nice to add another to our list of memories.

I have a weekend of fun stuff planned and a few birthday surprises up my sleeve too!

Rascal Flatts concert

With Ashley at a fraternity charter event in college

RaeAnna's 22nd birthday

Golf in Florida

RaeAnna's nurse pinning ceremony