Home sweet home...

So... WE MADE IT! Our cruise to Mexico departed as usual and we were able to go to all the scheduled ports of call. We left on Saturday afternoon and Sunday was what Carnival calls a "Fun Day at Sea." Though I'm sure this is often true, when you depart on a cruise into a hurricane, the fun is over-ridden by the nausea of a rocking ship. The first night out, we got a bit crazy... singing karaoke and generally drinking more than we needed too. On the days at sea, I was overtaken by the drowziness from my Dramamine and spent a couple of the morning hours in the bed. Day 2 brought us to the Yucatan Peninsula, home of Progresso. We took an excursion that day to an all-inclusive four-star resort and paid our server Jose $20 to keep the beers and margaritas flowing. We hardly got out of the pool all day, but did take some time to swim the beautiful waters of the Gulf. Day 3 was Cozumel and I was pretty sick that morning. The rest of the gang took a fabulous catamaran trip out into the water to snorkle and they really enjoyed themselves. I met up with everyone once they were done and we spent the whole afternoon at Senor Frog's just off the ship's dock. It was so much fun to sit and watch the waiters dance and swim in the pool there. We were pretty tipsy by the time we had to head back to the boat, but that night we went to a Captain's Reception and had a great dinner. Then another day at sea and home on Thursday morning. The pictures are hysterical... ENJOY!
http://picasaweb.google.com/mindy.dees/CruiseToMexico#

After the cruise, we were so lucky to spend a few days in Mobile. Thursday night we spent the evening with Nick's family just catching up and chatting. And Friday night we met up with all our friends for dinner at our favorite sushi place, Liquid Lounge. As always, the food and company were wonderful and made me miss Mobile terribly.

Saturday night was certainly an event... my best friend Karl proposed to his girlfriend of 6 years, Michelle. He invited her family and his, along with all of us to meet at the Double Olive (the place where they first met) where he got down on one knee and finally asked her to marry him. I was SO happy for them and SO glad that he waited for us to be in Mobile to witness this very special event. They are so happy and the smiles from that night were just bigger than ever.

And finally, Sunday was our nephew's baptism in Milton, Florida. We attended Mass with our families and went back to Christal and Scott's for lunch. It was GREAT to spend some quality time with our families and our sweet nephew, Michael. I got to feed him and he fell fast asleep on my shoulder. Bless his little heart. Here's some photos...
http://picasaweb.google.com/mindy.dees/OurNephewMichaelScottNeidecker#

So we're back... back to life and a tad bit of normalcy. I do have some good news on the job front... the company I do contract event work with has called me to say that they have picked up 2 new high-end venues in Nashville, and may want me to come to work with them full time doing the sales and events in those locations. So cross those fingers! I'm meeting them tomorrow (Wednesday) to find out details and I'll update here soon.

xoxo, Mindy and Nick

We're on our way...

So even with Hurricane Gustav bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico, Nick and I (along with some buddies) will be embarking on our cruise to Mexico tomorrow. The anticpated stops are to Cozumel and the Yucatan, but with the storm out there, it is likely that we'll get re-routed. That's okay though... a vacation is a vacation and we're so excited to be going!

In the meantime... please pray for our families in Mobile that they escape the wrath of what could be a really nasty storm. And please also pray for everyone on the coast from Pensacola to Texas, because there is no telling where this storm will end up touching down... New Orleans is already evacuating as a percaution and after personally experiencing Hurricane Katrina 3 years ago, I would do the exact same thing.

So... we'll have plenty of fun pictures and stories to post once we return. We do get to spend the few days after the cruise with our families in Mobile, and also will be attending the baptism of our first nephew. We're looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating a few birthdays as well... my big 3-0 is officially less than 1 month away!

Cross your fingers and pray that we make it out and back safely and for the people who will ultimately have to experience the Hurricane.

God bless,
xoxo... MSD

The latest...

Friday and Saturday of this past week I was able to do my first project management assignment with the HC Events and it was a blast. It was a wedding, which of course I love... and it was my first Jewish service! Though it was incredibly hard work, it is always gratifying to work on an event that has the parents of both the Bride and Groom thanking you and the team immensely at the end of the night for making things go smoothly and helping things look beautiful. I also had the opportunity to watch the ceremony (which as a planner is very rare) and it was gorgeous! I love to see how different religions and cultures celebrate the union of marriage. The Bride ordered the most beautiful Crane programs in which she outlined all of the symbolism used in the service... I learned so much! So come 12:30 a.m., I had a blister on my foot and some tired eyes, but it's always worth it. I can't wait to do another one!

The next couple of weeks are chalk full of fun events... I'm heading to Gulf Shores on Thursday for the wedding of one of my oldest friends, Mike. I'm so excited to see all of our old friends again and spend a couple days soaking up some sun and wedding fun at the beach! I'll post pictures once I return, as I'm sure they'll be all kinds of crazy. And then next Friday Nick and I leave for 9 days of vacation!!! We're cruising out of Mobile for 5 days with several of our friends from Birmingham. We're going to Cozumel and the Yucatan. And as if that weren't awesome, we are able to spend 4 days in Mobile after the cruise with our family and friends that we've not seen in months, and we also get to be present at the baptisim of our nephew, Baby Michael. Stay tuned for all kinds of fun pictures!

xoxo,
MSD

Totally Tourist...

A day out in Nash-Vegas! Nick and I spent the entire day out and about in Nashville doing as many "touristy" things as we could find. We toured Centennial Park and The Parthenon (which are right across the street from Nick's restaurant) and spent the whole afternoon downtown going through some of the souvenir shops and bars and restaurants. We had a great day which ended with sushi for dinner and ice cream for dessert. Here are some pictures of the day... more to come as we do more fun things in town... stay tuned! Love to everyone!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mindy.dees/TotallyTouristADayOutInNashVegas

Welcome to the world Michael Scott Neidecker...

So I'm a few days behind, but my sister-in-law, Christal, and her husband Scott welcomed their first child (and our first nephew and the family's first grandbaby) on July 24th. Mother and Baby Michael are doing well now... though Christal had a difficult time with the pregnancy, she's doing really well now, and is getting to enjoy being a first-time Mommy! Nick and I can't wait to meet this sweet little man. Welcome to the world Michael Scott! We love you already!

Last hoorah...

The weekend before we left Birmingham, our friends Cindy, Katie and Alicia had a birthday luau for all the July birthdays... Katie, Paul, Jenny, Arrah and Alicia. We knew it was going to be the last party we'd get to go to with all our Birmingham buddies for a while, and we knew it was going to be quite the celebration since the Hunch Punch was being made a day in advance! Here's a couple photos from the party, even though they're a few weeks old... we had such an awesome time with all our friends and we miss you all so much!

Nick and Paul ... It was a "Luau" so Nick thought he'd wear the LOUDEST shirt ever made!

Nick and me... we laid by the pool before the party and I got pretty pink!

Haley, me and Jana

One of our best buddies, Tony ... also known as T-Pain!

Back-o-practor...

Nick and I hung out at the pool yesterday after church... we went to the 9 a.m. mass so we could be at the pool early. We didn't really love the church we went to this week, so we're falling more and more in love with the Cathedral and think it's really worth the 12 minute drive it takes to get there. I really felt so at home with the Cathedral, so I keep thinking that that is the right place for us.

So after church we hit the pool... and we were out there for HOURS! It was a fun day and we grilled hot dogs and just spent some nice quality time together. But we were so drained, we ended up going to sleep at 6:30! Then we woke up at 9:30 and watched TV for a couple hours before going back to sleep... but my back was hurting terribly! I am not sure if all the moving and stuff has finally caught up with me, but I was in tears this morning when I woke up. I've had this issue before... my hip flexor get's cranky and then the nerves in my pelvis are on fire... leading the nerve pain to shoot down my right leg and up through to my neck. So I spent a couple hours in the Chiropractor's (back-o-practor as Nick calls it) office and I'm feeling a bit better. I need to go back a couple more times to fix my screwed up leg. I need to take better care of myself for sure!

So... Nick and I are getting SO excited for our cruise with our buddies in a couple weeks!!! I am hoping to go to Gulf Shores for Mike Randag's wedding on the 23rd, and then one week later we are floating for 5 days, and we can't wait! We talked about it all day yesterday. I'm sure we'll have tons of fun pictures after that trip!

Here's a pre-pool photo from yesterday... with our tiny temporary apartment kitchen in the background!

In training...

Today I had to go to an Alcohol Beverage Control training course for 5 hours. Not exactly how I'd like to spend my Saturday morning, but hey, not like I have much else to do right now! All those who serve alcohol or work in a place where alcohol is served have to go through the course. I was so surprised at this fact, but I found the class to be so much more informative than I had prepared for! We got a bit of info on some of the antiquated laws of the state of Tennessee... Did you know that it is illegal to bathe your horse on Sunday here? Who knew? It's also illegal to serve one person 2 drinks at the same time after 10 p.m. Weird! Anyway... I have to have this certification to work for the event planning firm. I have my first event on August 15-16th... a wedding and reception... so I'm super excited because you all know I LOVE weddings!

We're attending another church in town tomorrow... we figured we'd try them all out before settling on just one, but I am in LOVE with the Cathedral of the Incarnation downtown. It's just beautiful and I had such a feeling of home when we went there last weekend. Here's a couple shots of the gorgeous building.... have a wonderful weekend!

Movin' on up...

We made it! Nick and I moved on Thursday, July 24th to Nashville for Nick to start his new job with PF Chang's in West End. He had 4 weeks of training at the PF Chang's in Birmingham, giving me just enough time to come visit Nashville a couple of times and get an idea of the city and rent a temporary apartment. We moved with the help of three of our awesome friends (thanks Paul, Izzy and Tony!) and we left Birmingham about 3 p.m. that day. We had a 24 foot truck, my Volvo on one of those car-carrier things and we were STILL bursting at the seams with CRAP! I can't believe that our little 1120 sq.ft. condo held all that junk. We have decided that we're NEVER moving ourselves again... even Nick agreed that it was worth every penny to pay someone to move! Anyway... the car carrier thing is crazy heavy and it took all 4 of the guys to hook it onto the truck when we were in Birmingham, so imagine how excited I was that Nick and I were the only ones on this end to unhook it and unpack that entire truck! NOT!!! Well... I found strength I didn't know I had and we were able to unhook the trailer just the 2 of us, and we woke up crazy early Friday morning and unpacked the entire truck ourselves. We were so tired, but we did it and no one had to be rushed to the hospital... YAY! Our apartment is a 1 bedroom "executive" which means it is a 1 bed/1 bath with a 2nd bedroom slash office. So the office has become our storage unit. You can hardly walk into it because it's packed to the ceiling with boxes and furniture and luckily Nick and I haven't tried to kill each other just yet in this tiny space! We will go out house-hunting again on Thursday and hopefully start to narrow down where we want to live. During our first Saturday here, we went out in downtown Nashville. There was a Brew-Fest going on that afternoon, and the line to get in was wrapped around 4 full city blocks. It was amazing the number of people! We also went to the Mall at Green Hills to play in the Louis Vuitton store... it was the highlight of my weekend!

Nick started work here this past Monday and I have been offered the opportunity to do contract project management with a very successful event planning firm, which I'm very excited about! I've decided that there is no way I could be a stay-at-home wife because I would be so incredibly bored. Last week I spent 3 hours out in town looking for the best price on a microwave... boring! If only I could lay by the pool with my buddies it would be awesome being out of work, but laying out there by myself drinking beer sounds desperate and would likely land me in Alcoholics Anonymous. We definitely don't want that!!!

We've also started house-hunting, so here's hoping I can find the right house, close on it and move in in less than 2 months!!!

Hope you're all doing so well, and we miss all of you!