MORE WITH THE MEEKS

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

So work has been busy lately, like REALLY busy. But as my wonderful husband reminds me...it beats the alternative!! Thank you Nic for being so optimistic!!

I'm in Little Rock, AR tonight and JUST got here about 30 mins ago...... @ 8:30pm! I'm pooped! I've had a long day... stayed in Cleveland last night, worked Clarksdale today then drove to Pine Bluff, AR to teach a 4 hour training class.Where are you Friday?? Tomorrow I drive to Russelville, AR, back to Little Rock then some small towns outside of Little Rock and BACK TO JACKSON!!!!!

I took off work Friday and for anyone that knows me... I NEVER take off anymore so this is soooooo exciting!

I've been too busy to even blog or facebook much lately... now thats sad!
So far, 2011 has treated me well, other than my crazy work- A few pics of our year thus far..

Engagement party in Vicksburg

Nic decides to treat himself to some gun he has been wanting?! I could have bought a new camera lens, king size bed, piece of art...hell, LOTS OF THINGS. Have I mentioned, I HATE guns=)

My mom and her "little girls"

Jane Ellen Yerger aka "Ellie"

My cousin's baby wearing a cute little Valentines outfit I sent her=)

My wonderful Christmas gift-an oil painting of Rem dog!! (Remi)

Nic turns 27 and this wonderful wife surprised him with his favorite, a DQ ice cream cake!

After living in my house over 2 years, I figured it was time to PAINT! Our builder never gave us an option to choose colors so our whole house is ONE color...time for change! I had a lady come in and help me pick out paint colors because I'm way too indecisive and Nic told me...once this paint goes up, WE AREN'T CHANGING IT.

I personally never would have thought of blue but....she suggested and now I LOVE IT! She said blue is a formal color used in dining rooms.

Boca Raton Blue

Little Big Town

So for Valentines, I always put in a request for Nic to cook me dinner rather than dining out. It ends up being lots of work for Nic and quite costly but...its so enjoyable! Nic is a WONDERFUL chef. He can cook ANYTHING and usually he'll try something different to surprise me. We love eating in the dining room, using our china, drinking ALL the wine we want, enjoying each other and not being on a set schedule.

Our appetizer-Grilled stuffed mushroom with fetta, tomatoes and spinach

Main dish-Beef tenderloin with blue cheese bruschetta and sun dried tomoatoe rice pilaf

Desert-lemon raspberry mousse with chocolate covered strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries are a tradition for us. For the past 4 years, Nic has given me these with a nice bottle of wine. Chocolate and Wine, doesn't get better!

That's it for now.. next blog will be the patio=)

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the 3 islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre.

A captive (aka:group-- called Southern Construction Group) of 21 companies that we provide loss control/consulting for has an annual meeting, which is always out of the country. Last year was Ireland, year before Cabo, this year Caymans! Basically I busted ass at work last year plus my boss wants me doing more work for this captive so he invited Nic and I! As if that wasn't exciting, we stayed at the Ritz Carlton-for those of you who have stayed at a Ritz, you know... its about as nice as it gets! We had a blast.

Beautiful view of one of the pools

The Ritz -beach view

We left out on Wednesday morning-short flight to Charlotte, NC-then direct flight to Grande Caymans. We had a cocktail party/meet & greet that night. Thank God for name tags because after a long day of traveling and a few glasses of wine-I was AWFUL with names! I had a meeting Thursday morning (only mandatory "work" thing I had to do the entire trip..woo hoo) and I tried looking around the room to remember who I met, what company they were with, etc.. GAVE UP. Thursday and Friday night we had group dinners (name tags again, thank God). We ate @ Grande Old House Thursday night, which was an old plantation...beautiful scenery.

Friday, we chartered a boat with 3 other couples and went to sting ray city- swam with sting rays which was AWESOME! We went snorkeling and then diving for star fish. Our captain stopped the catamaran and jumped off, then comes back up with conch shells. He ended up cracking them open, pulling the conch out and making us a fresh little appetizer with conch, green onion and some other seasonings. Of course I tried it and LOVED it! Crazy thinking he just jumped in and pulled out an afternoon snack?!

Of course, I dont have 1 picture of me in the water=( I really did swim with them AND feed them!

Nic checking out the sting rays

Cleaning the conch

Preparing the snack

Nic's star fish

You could only hold the star fish for 20 seconds before it needed water

That night we ate at Papagallos Italian Ristorante. Of course since it was the last night...EVERYONE was throwing back the drinks. There were approximately 60-75 people in the group and I had decided by this night which ones were fun and the ones that weren't! After dinner, we had a private party back at the Ritz. They had an open bar,a table with a lady rolling cuban cigars-of course my husband was in HEAVEN,a DJ, picture slide show, etc. I tried not to "let loose" too much since I was the "new girl" and these people were our customers but after seeing the way those people act-I headed for the dance floor! I ended up dancing the night away while my husband sat outside with all the men smoking cigars.

The lady rolling cuban's

Dinner at Papagallos Italian Ristorante

Saturday morning most of the people in our group left so we took a cab into Georgetown and did a little shopping and ate at Guy Harvey's. After shopping, we had a lazy day by the pool drinking Cayman Lemonade's, Pina Colada's and other fruity drinks.

Sunday, Nic and I walked the beach and ate breakfast out at the pool. Our flight wasn't until 3 but of course that means get to the airport by 12=( None the less-the trip was a blast and I just hope to be invited on another!!

Jingles

Remi in his cute "Merry Christmas" outfit

Family Christmas Pics!

So....every year on Christmas Eve we go to mass then go to my parents and my sister and I open 1 gift a each. Usually my mom chooses the gift because she knows what we'd rather have early (usually clothes, jewelry, etc). Well this year...everything went as planned-my mom had huge wrapped boxes for Heidi and I to open. I actually had wrapped them and knew exactly what was in them...mine=nothing, heidi's=DIAMOND RING.

Heidi and Rob met 3 years ago, on Christmas Eve, so his plan was to propose to her on Christmas Eve of this year. Heidi, like most girls, is very unpredictable so...we were worried the plan might fail if she didn't' want to go to mass, couldn't find something to wear, didn't feel like coming over or was running late, etc...Plan worked. Mass, moms for gifts=proposal then off to my aunt and uncles' for a wonderful sit down dinner and ENGAGEMENT CELEBRATION!

Molly & Mattie after mass....having absolutely NO idea what is about to happen

So I made Nic hide in another room and take pictures=)

The newly engaged couple!!!

The bride-to-be and her matron of honor!!!

Hampton

Jane, Jordan and baby Ellie!

Allen and Diane

All the girl cousins

Christmas this year was a bit different than most but I think it was by far my most memorable! Christmas morning I went to my uncles to see what all his kids got from Santa and needless to say their faces were lit up and all they could do was go on and on about all the wonderful stuff they got. I cried. My heart was so filled and I was soo soo happy. As I mentioned before, they lost their mom this past October so as you can imagine...the first Christmas was going to be a rough one but...guess what... WE MADE IT!

Silly string was a bad idea, Santa.

Stratton loved everything he got and even told me this was "the best Christmas ever" and that he was bad all year!

Mattie

Mattie & Molly

Townsend

Everyone seemed to have a good Christmas this year. After the Derivaux's, I went home and did Santa and gifts with my parents, then to my grandmother Derivaux's, then Haden grandparents for lunch and THEN... to Morton to spend Christmas night with Nic's family. EXHAUSTED!

I racked up this year...got jewelry, a new ipod, oil painting of Remi (quite possibly my favorite gift), shoes, and lots of girly and house stuff=)

More posting later..pictures take too long!

Exploring the Western Caribbean

My sweet husband took me on a wonderful trip for our 1st Anniversary to Costa Maya, Belize, Roatan Island Honduras and Cozumel. This was our first cruise and it was a BLAST! We went with Norwegian Cruise Line....freestyle cruising!

Day 2 was at Sea- We laid out, played basketball, challenged each other in ping pong, and had lots and lots to drink! That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal at Cagney's Steakhouse.

Frozen Drinks by the pool

My cute husband catchin' some rays on the top deck

Pool party at the main pool, day 1 (at sea)

Dinner at Cagney's Steakhouse

Day 3 Costa Maya, Mexico- we shopped ALL day, got massages on the beach and had lots of fruity drinks

Arriving in Costa Maya

Wonderful entertainment while we shopped

Having a drink at a local bar

Shops EVERYWHERE

Nic and I both had massages

Livin' it up!

Bye Costa Maya

Day 4 Belize City, Belize, Central America- When we arrived to Belize, we had to get on smaller boats and be taken to the Island. Belize is known for its WONDERFUL shopping...so we had to check it all out. While Nic browsed the watches, I checked out all the wonderful designer jewelry. As we were leaving for our excursion, Nic pulled out a John Hardy bracelet that he somehow snuck by me. We then got on a catamaran that took us way out where we went snorkeling along the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world!! Still haven't developed those water cameras but we saw some amazing reefs and colorful fish!