Boating Season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike and the kids



Travis, Tal, and Morgan

Travis' new boat

Mark and Deborah

McCune and Company

Kids at Gators

Abhi and his new kids. :)

Abhi - Master of the Ocean

The beach

The boat

The waves - Mike's video to show how clear the water is - Makes you want to live in Florida, doesn't it? :)

Yipeeee! After a long, hot day of baseball on Saturday (the kids did well, see pictures), we went on the boat today! First time since October, but we will be out a lot now. :) We took a friend of Mike's from work and his wife (they are here on vacation) out with us and all the kids. Travis had his new boat out with Tal, Abhi, Mark McCune, Mark's friend and her daughter. We had a great time crusing around, getting in the water at Shell island, and going to Gators for a late lunch. We all got a bit wet on the trip to Gators, but it was still fun. We came back through the Intercoastal where it was a lot calmer.

Travis' boat is beautiful and FAST. We didn't get to ride on it as we had a boat full, but we will next week. It was so nice to see some of the Tampa crew again. I miss seeing the dev crew (and the Implementation crew) every day.

Baseball

Michael batting

Katie on third

Katie at bat

Chris crossing home

Chris on first

Chris batting

Chris getting a hit!

Michael connecting with the ball!

Sorry Katie, I tried but didn't get a hit recorded on you...Next time.

We had a long, hot day of baseball games today (Katie had two, Michael had one, and Chris had one). We haven't gotten to go to a game yet this spring with travel, cheer, and a few fevers along the way, so we were excited to finally get to see them play. They have continued to get better, and it was fun to see them play.

I will say that the parents are still mouthy as ever. I can't believe how rude the parents are as they comment about other kids. Really not nice.

Trip to Nashville

View from G4063 at Opryland Hotel

Site of doom - I mean Marriage number 1

Cathey and Jennifer in our ultra cool limo

What a weird trip to Nashville! I found out I was going last minute to the show in Nashville, and it was at the Opryland Hotel. I had a hard time finding a room and a flight at the last minute (looking on Tuesday for trip on Wednesday). I finally got a Southwest flight that worked in the times, and I got a room at the Opryland Hotel. I hustled out on Wednesday, and of course the Southwest line was eternally long again. I really love Southwest, but I cannot stand their baggage check lines in Tampa. Horrible. Seems to be ok in other cities. Tampa is always bad for some reason.

I am an A even though I forgot to print my boarding card until late the night before my flight. Flight is EMPTY. Only 45 people on the whole thing. WEIRD but wonderful. We land on time, and Cathey and Jennifer were waiting for me. Awesome!

We headed toward the convention, and we stopped for lunch at Macaroni Grill (we didn't have time for Monell's - bummer!). Then, I checked into my room. It was in the Garden Conservatory which is where wedding number 1 was. WEIRD. I could see the spot, but it wasn't right out of my room. It did bring back a lot of really odd memories - the pre-wedding drink at Jack Daniel's bar that caused a fight, the bridesmaid who was offsite getting her hair done and almost didn't make it, the weird Christmas decorations on November 2nd in all the pictures, the bridesmaid failling down the grand staircase, the beautiful surroundings at the hotel, and the fabulous reception. Too bad the wedding was so much better than the marriage! :) I do absolutely love the Opryland Hotel though, so it was nice to go back there.

The only drawback to the Opryland Hotel is that it is a bit challenging to find your way around at times. My room was in the Garden area, so it was a G room. It was on the 4th floor, so it was a G4063. It is G, so it has green carpet. Easy enough, right? Well, the first day (without ANY alcohol), I am heading to the room to put the computer away, and I see green carpet. CAKE! :) I find 4063, and I stick my card in the slot. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. Then, the door opens. Uh Oh...older lady. I am in trouble. She says, "Don't worry honey, we got lost too." She helps me find it on the map. OHHHHHHHH, the Cascades is DARK green and the Garden is LIGHT green. Brilliant. Lovin it.

The convention was super great, and we talked to a lot of people. On Thursday, the exhibit hall opened at 7am. Never heard of that one before. Oh, how I love mornings...I have to say that the ASC show was fantastic though as they had drinks and food in the exhibit hall on Wed, breakfast and lunch in the exhibit hall Thurs, and breakfast in there again on Friday. It is a great way to get the attendees INTO the hall. On Thursday night, we were planning on going to dinner and then to Tootsie's (no trip to Nashville is complete without a trip to Tootsie's). So, we decide that I will get a cab and pick up Cathey and Jennifer (they are across the street). So, I called down and asked if I needed to have a taxi called, and they said they would be ready outside without calling. So, I walk out front (after the journey through the atrium), and there is this cute guy standing next to a stretch white limo. He looks at me as though I might be who he is waiting for, and I shake my head. As I am looking around to see where to get a cab, he asks if I need a ride. I tell him that I am getting a cab. He says that he can take me downtown for the same price as a cab because they have fixed rates. In that case.....

So, I pull up to get Cathey and Jennifer in this amazingly beautiful limo. They are cracking up. We giggle and enjoy the ride. He lets us out at the Stockyard. We had a great dinner with a somewhat odd waiter who kept calling us my darling as he asked what we wanted. Anyway, we had a great dinner. The limo guy (Chris) had told us to call him when we were done, and he could take us where we needed to go. Really? Lovin it. So, we call him and he comes. Lovin it. We ask if he can take us to an ATM on the way to Tootsie's. Sure, no problem! Lovin it. :) We arrive at Tootsie's, and everyone looks to see who is getting out of the limo. LOL. Too funny. We go in, and there is a great band playing. Lots of Johnny Cash songs, but good. Then, this chick starts singing, and she sings "All Jacked Up" and was amazing. She danced on the bar right in front of us, and then she asked the girls to dance up their with her. I wasn't nearly drunk enough for that! The next band was even better. They played a great variety of country, southern rock, and rock. We had a few shots, danced, and heard Rocky Top and Darlin almost back to back. Loved it. We called Chris to take us back. I struggled with finding the G rooms again, but I finally made it. :)

Friday morning was awful. Make it stop. Thankfully, it was over quickly. We head to the airport where I had the BEST salad ever at O'Charley's. I had the pecan chicken salad but with regular chicken. Yummy chicken, yummy blue cheese, yummy pecans, yummy oranges, yummy rolls. Hangover heaven. Thankfully, the flight wasn't full, and I made it back to Tampa on time. Woo HOO! Friday!

Busy Day...

Today was crazy busy as I tried to clear some items of of my to do list. I do have some exciting news to share for anyone who might be dealing with an ex-spouse. http://www.steptalk.org/ is a site "where stepparents come to vent." Whoever might need this, I thought I might pass it on.

Of course, I prefer Facebook for these types of posts as it has privacy settings to determine who can see them.

Bad Blogger - Overdue Update

Sorry for the pictures being out of order - update is below the pictures!
Morgan soaking wet

Morgan after swimming in uniform

Morgan with Sam and Krissy

Chris the Rapper

Mark and Chris hamming it up

Mike saying he is from the WC

The kids table

Dinora and Jamie

Allison, Eric, Jamie, Mara, Kraig, Becca's Mom

More Morgan soaking wet

The kids in the water - beautiful view

Going in

About to go in

Preparing

Mike, Chris, and Morgan in the water

Chris and Morgan

View of the Beach

Hysterical

Picture I forgot to post earlier - the whole dev team taking up a long bar in the WC

The last few weeks have been so incredibly busy that I have been a bad blogger. I have been to HIMSS in Chicago where it snowed in April. A bit of a weather change for a girl living in Florida. :) We had a great show though, and it was fun to see so many current and past colleagues. I went to the HIStalk reception and was anointed with the "Inga's BFF" sash to wear. What an honor! The reception was fun, and I had a great time. That same night, there was a past/current Medic/Misys gathering. It was great to see some people who I hadn't seen in forever. The show itself was much busier than I expected. I guess the stimulus funding really did have an impact because I think it would have been slower without that.

After HIMSS, I went to Nashville where I hadn't been in over a year. It was so fantastic to hang with Grams, Papa, Morgan, and Mike. The Brentwood/Franklin area continues to grow and it is always amazing to me when I go back. We saw the Hannah Montana movie, and it was actually good. I wasn't expecting a lot, but I liked it. I love the Hoedown Throwdown song. My mom and I went shopping, and we had a great time. It was a bit of a rush as we were on our way to dinner. We really just went to look for shoes, but we ended up looking at clothes as well. We met the boys and Morgan at Buca di Peppo (we were late and the boys were grumpy). We had great food and wine, and it was just so nice to be with my family. :) After dinner, Grams persuaded me to go shoe shopping again since we didn't get to look the first time. We found some shoes at the mall, but it was quite the hysterical shopping trip. We laughed and laughed and laughed which was great.

After we got home from Nashville, I had a crazy busy two days and then flew to Salt Lake City for a meeting. It was a long flight, but I did get upgraded on the flight which made it a LOT better. It was snowing there too - brrrrr....it was more of a snow/rain though so it didn't stick. I flew home Thursday night, and I got home after 1:00 to relieve Uncle Mark who was my hero by keeping Morgan for me at the last minute. THANKS MARK!

I slept for a few hours and then Morgan and I were off to the beach for her last cheer competition. We were delayed in the morning by some client issues at work, but we still made it to the beach by 2:30. We hung out in the afternoon and waited for our room to be ready. We were staying at the Oceanwalk resort, and they said that it would be ready at 4:00. So, we hung at the beach and didn't go up until after 4:30. Still not ready. The guy at the desk (Dan) was very flippant and said that the room might not be ready until 9:00. The manager tried really hard to get the room ready, and he kept telling me that their system didn't allow any changes or account for when people arrive. We didn't get our room until almost 6. At least it wasn't 9.

The condo was beautiful even thought it was not oceanfront. It was two bedrooms and had a huge wraparound deck. We went and got pizza across the street, and then Mike and Chris arrived. We didn't stay up too late, but Morgan and I did get a little silly late in the night. Morgan was making up songs and tickling me. We giggled hysterically. We certainly missed Grams and Papa who have been the last two years with us to Daytona. We also missed Katie and Michael who decided to stay in Tampa for baseball/softball. We hung on the beach Saturday until Morgan had to get ready. Uncle Mark joined us around noon. We watched the senior team at the last minute before we had to rush off and get ready. They did really well.

Morgan took another shower and we did her hair with the wet/dry flat iron again (we had done it the night before). I have to say that I have gotten way better at doing hair and makeup as it only took a few minutes. It used to take me 30 minutes to do just the makeup. Improvement...:) Once Morgan got with her team, they did the Hoedown Throwdown 17 times in a row. We left them after a few and went back to the beach. We decided around 4:30 that we needed to crank up the margarita machine. WOO HOO! Party in the Gleason room! Mark and I tried to practice the Hoedown Throwdown, but we were pretty slow. :)

We rushed down to see the girls around 5:40, and they went on at 6:07. They did awesome. Thankfully, Uncle Mark put our name in at Bubba Gump's before the girls went on because it still took until 8 to get a table even with that. The girls went into the ocean in their uniforms because they got 1st place (tradition). They weren't competing against anyone so they got first as long as they scored a certain amount of points.

Saturday night, we went to Bubba Gump which has become a Saturday in Daytona tradition. We had fun hanging out and being a little silly. The kids couldn't stand to not do the Hoedown Throwdown. I had the shrimp poboy (every single year this is what I get even though I think I might try something else one day). They sang happy birthday to Dinora. After dinner, we went back for more margaritas. The kids went swimming in the indoor pool. It was a fantastic day.We drove back to Tampa today and went home to play with the dog for a while before going to see Morgan's coaches compete on an adult open team. Their team was awesome! I was amazed to see these adults doing so many flips and twists!

We are now home chillin on the couch - it has been a long time coming! I don't think I have gotten to chill on the couch in a long time. Cheer season is officially over for the 2008/2009 season. It was a great one!