Care Package Delight

I happen to have the best co-workers ever. It is true. And I have the evidence to back it up!

First of all, before I left, they took me to everyone's favorite restaurant for lunch- The Wooden Spoon in Gentry. Check out that link if you haven't heard of the place. They're famous for pies & desserts. At this lunch, they presented me with a lovely framed & signed photo of our team. How thoughtful! :)

But that wasn't all! Miss Gina promised me a care package with gifts to open daily! Oh my! I was so excited when my care package arrived on Good Friday!

I have to confess.... I was so excited I lost my mind and immediately opened two gifts! Then I came to my senses and remembered that I was only supposed to open one gift a day! (sheeze... insert embarrassed face emoticon) Each gift came wrapped in brightly colored, unique tissue paper with a little explanation note taped to the outside. Here is a list of all of my cool gifts and what the explanation was:

• "Miami office work pants"= 2 pair of pajama pants.
•  "Your favorite format from your favorite people"= the most awesome journal because of the size, flexibility, paper texture, pocket inside back cover, AND it had handwritten notes on the inside from the most awesome co-workers!!! (I think this is my favorite gift) It also included a much sought after DVD video of me and two co-workers rapping & dancing to present our department vision statement a few years ago. That's right- DaySpring knows how to get down! Ha.

Cool pocket in the back

Sweet notes from the co-workers

• "If you could munch on anything in the world, what would it be? Bet we can guess!" = Two boxes of cereal...one being my absolute fave- Fruit Loops WITH marshmallows. Yum!
• "Miami office work shoes"= 2 pair of flip flops.
• "Stock your office"= neon post-it notes and spiral, colored paper clips.
• "We know you get chilly often. Keep your hog spirit while you keep warm!" = a razorback throw. The cats have taken over the throw. They love to sleep on it.

• "Katherine's top 3 picks. Now you can love it when you look at your hands."= Three bottles of nail polish in 3 fun colors. (They knew my new years resolution was to stop biting my nails... and I've done prettttty good so far.)

• "Better not be biting your nails!" = Nail files, and a nail buffer thing, and toe separators for painting my toe nails!
• "This can only be filled with DP." = An aqua color tumbler that doesn't sweat and is dishwasher/microwave safe! (Very important)
• "You are such a nerd!" = TWO boxes of Nerds candy. Abby Barnett and I share this love.
• "Power lunch it up! Your fave..." = TWO boxes of macaroni and cheese. They didn't skimp, either. It is the blue box.
• "What's better than warm toes and always knowing the day? Not much." = Colored socks with the day of the week printed on them. Strangely, you are expected to wear one pair the whole weekend, because it there are no Saturday or Sunday socks.

• "Oh yizzow! Cool pens!" = Rainbow colored marker pens and the sharpie pen styli. 

Wow! Talk about spoiled! I'm so blessed with my job, my coworkers and my company! And I miss them all terribly. 

My goal for the next post is to give you the scoop on Adam's job. Stay tuned!

Super Saturday

Today it was actually rainy! That really cuts down on the number of activities to do in South Florida. We went to lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe. It is similar to the Cheesecake Factory b/c it is owned by the same guy. The weather was wonderful!

After we got home, we decided to hang some stuff on the walls. Adam was using a laser level, and it was driving Biscuit crazy!

Check out this video. It gets awesome at the end...

Super Saturday to you!

Welcome Ethan!

We're celebrating the latest addition to the Bradley family this week! Ethan Christopher Bradley was born Tuesday, April 10th. The stats: 8 lbs, 4 oz, 21" and the spitting image of his two older brothers! Proud parents are Brian & Cynthia. We're so excited to have Ethan join the family and can't wait to meet him! Brian & Cynthia are hopefully planning a trip to visit this fall so we can smother him with hugs & kisses.

Things of Note in South Florida

Adam and I have started a list of strange, interesting, or noteworthy differences of life here in South Florida. This is what we have so far:

1. Pretty much every neighborhood is a gated community. They don't reserve the gates for the fancy, million dollar home neighborhoods. I can only imagine how much cheaper our rent would be if we weren't paying for a 24 hour guard. But it does make me feel safer and maybe it will impress our guests when they come visit. Ha.

2. Most of the highways or roads are divided. It makes for lovely driving because there are usually trees, grass, and such in between. We wondered why the GPS was always telling us to make a u-turn, but soon caught on... it's those divided highways.

3. Stop lights are long. You may guffaw at this and think we are just being impatient, but it is true. It was not so in NWA. The positive side to this is that you usually get a long green light and while you are waiting you can catch up on your twitter feed, check the map out, post something on Facebook, and call your mom.

4. The weather is always the same. Right, I know... we've only been here a couple weeks. But I think it's always going to be sunny & hot. In NWA, I would stand in my closet trying to figure out what to wear that day, wondering what the weather was going to be like. I would grab my phone and check the weather channel app for guidance. That is completely unnecessary here. My thoughts are now: "Am I going to be mostly indoors or outdoors today?" Because if I'm indoors, I'm going to need a cardigan and if I'm outdoors, I need shorts/a dress/a tank top, etc. Rain does happen, but it doesn't usually last long... so, it's not worth really planning ahead for. I find the unchanging weather both relieving and disappointing. I know I will definitely miss fall in NWA!

5. Everyone here eats late. If we go to a restaurant at 6:00pm, we're the only ones there. Example- Saturday we ate a late lunch and didn't end up going to dinner until around 8:30pm. An 8:30pm dinner in our books is kind of unheard of. We chose a burger place just down the road from our house. There was a line all the way to the door to place your order. By the time we left around 9:20pm, the line was out the door! And there were children there.... so weird. And it's not just a weekend thing, either. We've witnessed it on weeknights as well. Since we typically eat earlier, it makes the lines, crowds, & service much better for us!

6. Instead of spiders & crickets, we are plagued with ants & lizards. The lizards are mostly outside, although I did find two small dead ones near the storage closet under the stairs that I'm pretty sure Biscuit killed. Go Biscuit! The ants are the worst. They make me feel dirty when I find them crawling in the kitchen. Our community has a pest service that treats the outside of our units twice a week. I'm sure it could be much worse. I've become much more conscious of closing containers and keeping the sink clear of dirty dishes. Hopefully, those habits will stick with me. Please don't judge me when you come visit, if one crawls across the counter in front of you. I'm doing everything I can.

7. To quote Adam, "Every weekend feels like a vacation." We have declared weekends are for exploring, not unpacking. So when Friday night rolls around, we're trying to plan something fun or adventurous to do on Saturday. When we explore, though, the weather is gorgeous, there are beaches, breezes, sidewalk cafes, new foods to try.... it really does feel like we're on a vacation.

That's it... it's not even a top 10 list or anything... just some things we've noticed. I really want someone to come visit and confirm we're not crazy about the stop lights.

A Tale of Two Cats

Several people have asked me how the cats are transitioning. And I'd say we've come a long way since the plane ride. Here is a picture of Biscuit & Bear at the airport when we were waiting to get our rental car.

Biscuit was silent in anger. Bear was silent in fear. They seem to have recovered quickly, though. Here is where I found Biscuit yesterday:

Keeping an eye on things...

And this is where I found him today:

Not sure what he's digging for in there...

He really likes the stairs...

And.... Biscuit figured out how to open doors by jumping and pulling on the handle. Thankfully, he's only been driven to such extreme measures when we shut him in a room for a moment. (That sounds quite terrible, but we put them in the bathroom with their litter box when the Comcast cable guy was here. It's really not animal cruelty....promise!)

But what about Bear you ask? The fat, black cat is not quite as curious as Biscuit. He spends his day at the top of the stairs sleeping.

Bear really doesn't photograph well. You can never see his eyes. He found this spot at the top of the stairs in-between a box and the wall. He's pretty much there all day long.