April...

We are starting to settle in and find our new normal for life here in Naples.

Random beach time? Yes, please.

I even dusted off my rollerblades! 

MacKenzie found ALL of her tennis balls

Tiger Woods delighted me to no end by winning the Masters

My dream house in Naples
"Only" $4M

You can tour the home here. It is just so lovely. Maybe they'll drop the price by $3.5M and we could almost afford it! ;)

I MADE THIS ALL ON MY OWN!

I'm trying to get more comfortable in the kitchen so one night while Jackson was traveling I made myself oven-roasted salmon and potatoes along with a brussels sprouts salad! Sure, Jackson cut the potatoes for me before he left, but I did it pretty much on my own from there with only a few panicked calls to him and some frantic Google searches. HA!

I read "Where the Crawdads Sing"
in a single day. IT WAS EXCELLENT.

Susie taught MacKenzie some bad things like
begging for goldfish crackers. Tisk!

MacK snuggling her new Easter bunny!

We had some gnarly rain on Friday which meant that the beach was really churning on Saturday. Jackson didn't mind!

Jackson braving the waves

Susan headed back to Indiana so we moved into the master bedroom for the summer season.

MacK "helping" us to unpack

Golf course views during our evening stroll

MacK in her "Easter best" bandana

Coffee and golf-watching.
It doesn't get much better!

This week we plan to join a gym and I've got a dentist appointment. This place will feel like home in no time!

Settling back in...

Thankfully, we both took Monday off of work so we were able to sleep in and recover from the stress of flying our worldly belongings back home. I always get extra freaked out when we have MacKenzie with us, but she was fine and that's more of a mental thing anymore. Jackson offered to take me to Skillet's for breakfast so off we went!

Cannot beat the Denver skillet!

Watching hoops inspired MacK

We watched the shocking Virginia win with a kid who should have stayed in Indiana and played for IU. I've still been finishing up work on taxes and settling in to work with Ball State. Jackson had some work travel this week and more next week so life continues to keep marching on.

Relaxing stroll at the beach

Catching sunset

Last night, though, we had dinner and then decided to go to see sunset. It was still a pretty crazy feeling to drive our own car down to the beach after dinner at home and a long day of work. It felt like a vacation, but this is life now. I think we made a good choice to relocate!

Indiana for tax season

It turns out that our quick move to Florida made us weenies when it came to the cold quite quickly! We had to be back for just about a month so we staged at Susan's Fishers apartment and I worked for Ball State during the day and for my CPA on the weekends and some evenings. Jackson commuted a few times back to Florida and also helped out his old team at work. It was kind of a hassle to be in such limbo, but we did it. 

MacKenzie speaks for the entire family: BRR

We did get to go see the Porterfield's!

I love these little old buddies!

MacK even babysat for Ella!

MacKenzie made her own bed with Grammy's pillows!

We made it down to an IU game!

The Hoosier won. Barely! In the NIT. How embarrassing!
They ended up losing their next game.

It was a gorgeous day in Bloomington and we were
glad to have gone down! 

Family photos by Fishers' new
"Instagram wall"

Besties.

We got to see the Bates family

We did some house-sitting for the Porterfield family

These dogs are onto something--this bed was
THE MOST COMFORTABLE PLACE TO SLEEP EVER!

This was when MacK demanded we come home.

"I'm serious. Get me back to Naples" 

Magic toast.

I met my friend Megan for brunch at Cafe Patachou and they had the world's best toast. I mentioned to Megan how much I loved it and when I went to the restroom she ordered me a whole loaf to take home. I was beside myself at her sweet gesture. Jackson made good use of it and made us BLTs that were amazing. 

Billy!

I had a client who is a farmer and I got see his pet goat. I love him! 

We got to visit Upland a few times!

I miss Ella the most
*don't tell my Mom.

We tried to visit everyone we could, but I was just working a ton. We plan to back "home" in Indiana sometime this summer.  MacKenzie was the world's best little passenger on our flight back. For now, though, it is good to be back actual home in Naples!

Leaving Tampa...

MacKenzie got a fresh haircut for the move!

She does well with transition and sleeps wherever.

She even found a huge ball!

We said goodbye to the waterfront..

And packed up all of our things...

And headed even further south

Happy to be FINISHED.*
*for now

Home*
*for now!

Rewarding ourselves with a trip to the beach

and a good book...

before heading back to Fishers for tax season!

Savannah, GA

I had a work conference to attend in Savannah, GA and due to scheduling issues Jackson could not attend with me. Bummer. I did my best to still have a nice time re-visiting the gem of a Southern city.

The first morning of the conference was a late start so I went for a walk/run/walk more through the city. I met some of the nicest people and just enjoyed soaking it all in. The weather was just perfect, too!

A trees are unreal.

The view from where Forrest Gump's bench was

The famous steeple from the Forrest Gump intro

Even the staircases are fancy in this town!

Forsyth Park didn't disappoint

I loved this church!

My work colleague was attending this conference, too, so I enjoyed having someone to have dinner with each night. We branched out and tried grits and they were surprisingly good! I don't know that I'll ever crave them, per se, but they were quite enjoyable.

Fish & grits!

We tried out a few local places and also visited Paula Deen's restaurant. Her place was markedly less busy than when Jackson and I visited in 2011. We didn't even need a reservation for dinner. That would have been unfathomable a few years ago.

Dinner with Paula Deen: a fried grit cake
and bacon-wrapped shrimp! YUM!

It was a pretty dull conference, but we made it through. I was even able to get switched to an earlier flight (bless that Southern hospitality) and made it back home to Tampa many hours before I expected to.

I had to connect in Charlotte and on the flight from there to Tampa I was seated next to a nun (in her full "habit" or uniform) and a young girl. The three of us ended up chatting the entire flight and it was just lovely. I love when you meet kind people as sometimes flying can be just a trying experience. It was a great way to end my trip!