We're moving :)

Blog addresses, that is :)

Over the last year this blog has been seriously neglected. To be honest, for a while it was just too much of a reminder of rocky and it just made me incredibly sad to come here. While its no longer as difficult, it kind of feels like with the wedding and our newly minted married status, maybe we should start a new space. So follow us (the 3 of you that read this).... www.SarasotaScaravilles.com! I promise it'll be a good time!

Mack the prisoner

New china hutch

Wahoooooooo!

Mack relaxing

Wedding things

With the recent lull in friend's weddings - we've actually started contemplating our own!

There's a couple Catholic churches in Sarasota, none of which we're particularly attached to - so we knew the driving force behind most every decision would be reception location.  Enter headache.

Siesta Key would be ideal - 2 miles from home, where we met, and added bonus? It was just voted best beach in the world. Why the headache? There are NO (read, zero, zilch, nada) reception locations on Siesta for more than 100 people. And even 100 is just one place. Most of them are restaurants that have a separate room for up to 70 or so. None are hotels. Realistically, we're going to end up with 100 people, but aren't comfortable enough with the hard cut-off of 100 - what if there's 105? 110? We tell those people to sit outside?

Through some friends, we heard there was a private clubhouse a little south on Siesta that could hold up to 150 people. They don't DO weddings. It's just a few walls, on the beach. A couple phone calls and we go to check it out. I think maybe we're kinda in love with the space :)

The view:

From Sanderling

Looking back at the building:

From Sanderling

Towards the parking:

From Sanderling

This 'building' would hold the dance floor, cake, dj, bar, etc..

From Sanderling

Gorgeous water:

From Sanderling

Room:

From Sanderling

Upstairs (put the dj up here?)

From Sanderling

So that's it! Hopefully we can make it work!

Happy 30th Birthday to Me

"I took all the twenties and kissed them good-bye tonight...tucked them away in boxes with all their sweet memories and sorrows...

...and once the twenties were safely stored and a proper farewell was said, I brought out the new box. I can't see in it yet, but I can tell just by the outside that there is beauty inside. Sorrow too...yes, I'm sure. But there is in every box, and this one seems to come with more coping skills. More growth. More experiences. More challenges. More love.
I can't wait."

(quote by Kelle Hampton - but I thought it still applied)

1 Month

One month. It's been one whole month since we said good bye to our sweet bug. Obviously, it gets easier. But still, not a day goes by that something doesn't make us catch our throats remembering he's not here. Walking in from the garage, dropping food in the kitchen, going out in the yard. Though his stuff is packed away, he is everywhere - and we miss him so, so much.

With the help of friends and family, we have gathered quite the collection of pictures of his too short life. Then, through the generosity of a friend -we set to building a photo book of Rocky. His life and his loves. We did so much with our sweet dog, thank goodness we took lots of pictures to remember it all. Though it will never, ever, be enough.

Because of some strange happenings with usps - the book was delivered today, when we were already sad to begin with. It's impossible to look through it without crying, for us anyhow. So much personality on 30 pages. So much love in such a little dog.

While I won't subject you to the whole thing, here are a few spreads.

My sweet, sweet bug. We know you don't hurt anymore - but it doesn't stop us from wishing you were still here.

Flipper!

When Joe went fishing a few weekends ago - check out who followed him along for the ride a little while!

New toy!

Because we don't already have enough internet ready devices, we decided to get one more! We did a bunch of research (you know, Googling for a week) - and narrowed it down to the ipad or the Motorola xoom. Even though I'm a big Mac fan, we ultimately went with this little lovely:

10.1 inches of HD wonder that we can use anywhere! We got a data plan through Verizon that allows us to be online at any time - it's essentially a nice go between of laptop and phone. Great for portfolio/freelance work, but also for watching movies on those long drives/flights to New York...

It's got a pretty nice rear and forward facing camera for fun pictures like this!

And we can write those ever-so-infrequent blog posts on it, from anywhere!

Bonus? I have no clue where these pictures are going to end up with this blogger app - huzzah!