Thursday, November 29, 2007

Guilty Pleasure!!!

I love watching “Dancing with the Stars”, anyone else?
I’m addicted and I hate it when it ends. I’m not that into reality TV but this I love. Rob could take it or leave it, mostly leave it…LOL. This week was the final episode of this season, and now I can’t wait to see who the next group of (washed up/out of work) celebrities will be. But in the meantime between seasons there is a spin off. I can’t remember the name of it but it’s going to have two of the judges (Bruno & Carrie Ann) assembling two teams of dancing/singers and they have a contest to see which team wins and it’s another call in an vote situation, and it’s hosted by the former Dancing Winner Drew Lachey!!!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Crazy Time of Year......

Hi All - Well I don't know about you but it seems that after Thanksgiving the world goes crazy, I guess it's the panic of the Holidays and the year end frenzy to tie up loose ends, meet objectives and christmas shop but today at work it was crazy and everyone I dealt with was crazy also, from vendors to fields reps. Then I get home and my phone doesn’t stop ringing.
It's going to be a long Month!!! Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's stressful, but I've decided to make this Month (December) a fun one, no matter how crazy it gets, I'm going to just laugh and make it fun, who's with me?
One of the good things about this time of year is the parties!!! We are invited to a Christmas party next Friday and we can't wait. Our friends Sharon & Wayne are having a Christmas Party and they've recently moved into their dream house, and we can't wait to see it. We're very excited to see the new house and spend some quality time with my old friends.
I’ll be sure to take pictures!!!

Fixing up the condo....

We've been fixing up our condo, basically just painting, but going from white walls to a color really makes it a big change, and can I just add I HATE change, but this so far has been a good change. We spend all weekend and we're still not done yet.In the middle of our painting project, house is a mess, stuff every where, my husband brings home a new wall unit. Which is great since our current one was just horrible (according to my husband). It was brand new when I bought it 14 years ago!! One of my husband's customer's was moving and gave him the wall unit and he just came home with it without even sending me a picture first, so of course I freaked out, but I actually like, so I’m glad otherwise I probably would have told him not to bring it. It's so much better than the white-ish one we had and the price was right....FREE!!! It matches the floors and the new wall color. But the unit is really for a LARGE Screen TV and we have a normal size TV, so it looks a little funny but we hope one day our normal TV can grow up into a BIG TV. Here's a picture of the new wall unit and check out our new wall color, what you think? Also, the coffee table is going and the gold rod iron stuff is going to be painted black.

And since this wall unit did not have any room for my bubble fairies (I'm into Angles & Fairies) we needed something to put them in. So off to IKEA we went. IKEA is my new favorite store, we love it. Have you been to IKEA yet? It's new to South Florida, it's awesome, go check it out when you have a chance. The curio we got from IKEA for pennies is in the corner, but I think I might need just one more because that one is full. Rob said he was waiting for that...LOL

Monday, November 26, 2007

Happy Birthday Gina!!!

Today is my Sister Gina's Birthday. Happy Birthday Gina!!! She gets to spend her birthday driving home from our house today, bummer but its a short drive about 3 hours. They were able to spend the Holiday with us. We hope you have the BEST birthday ever!!!
This picture is not Gina's cake...LOL, however If I could I would have made one just like it for her. We had a delicious cake "The Green Cake" that Aunt Dot made especially for Gina, and it is so yummy, and Gina's favorite, but my junky camera did not take a good picture of it.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi All - We would like to wish all of our family, friends and fellow bloggers a Healthy and Happy Thanksgiving!!! Don't eat to much turkey or pumpkin pie.
We hope you get to spend the holiday with your family and/or friends as we will. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to post soon from our Turkey Day.
We have so much to be Thankful for this year. Even those things going on in our daily lives get us down sometimes, it's easy to bounce back because we are so blessed with such a close family, great friends and happy and healthy kids, it makes everything else seem so frivolous.
So Our Wish to you is that you can be with your family and friends this Thanksgiving. Be Happy and Healthy we hope all your Thanksgiving prayers are answered.
Love to All -
Pattie & Rob

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Condo Living is a Bummer!!

Hi All – I hope everyone is having a fun weekend and getting ready for Thanksgiving. We recently received a love letter from our Condo Association telling us they were raising our already extremely high maintenance by 10%!!! This is already on top of our 3rd Assessment since the hurricane. This last assessment is supposed to start December 1st, and in assessments and maintenance we are talking over $1,000 a month plus our mortgage payment!!! What are they thinking? Why would they start an assessment in December during the Holidays?!?! At this point we can not afford to live here.
So this weekend we have started painting. We are painting the entire place and getting it ready because it’s going on the market!! I know, I know, it’s a horrible time to sell but if we don’t sell I don’t know how we’ll be able to keep up the payments. So please pray for us that is will be a quick sale for a decent amount. There have been 9 foreclosures in our association already and more on the way, so everyone has to pick up the slack and that’s why the maintenance is so high, I guess. I don’t know how we’ll be able to get a good price when there are so many foreclosures being sold, I’m praying for a miracle.
Once we sell, and I am keeping the faith that we will, then we are seriously thinking about moving North to the Jacksonville area. It’ll be extremely hard for me to be away from my family but we’ll be closer to the kids and I should still be able to stay with the company and we’d have a better chance at buying a larger house for a cheaper price in that area. If I can’t find a job in the company then we’ll probably stay around here, as I do not want to change jobs and Rob can work anywhere as there is cable everywhere. But we will NOT buy a condo again, it’s a house without an association or we’ll just rent until we find something or until the Market stabilizes.
I told myself this blog would not have any negative posts on it, but this is part of our lives and this blog is about our lives and somehow it feels better to share our frustration…LOL
Well I better get back to painting; Rob says break time is over.
LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!

Friday, November 16, 2007

FUN AWESOME WEEKEND

Amazing Weekend for the Millers……….
This is going to be a long post, so get comfy people!!!
First of all let start by saying I work for an amazing company. Most of you know I work for JM Family Enterprises, if your not familiar with the company then Google it. We are in the Forbes List of Best 100 companies to work for and it’s true!!
The Founder of our company, Mr. Jim Moran (I promise you’ll want to Google him for sure) was truly the most amazing man I have ever met and he’s changed so many lives, including my own. He has probably done more for our community than anyone before and has left an amazing legacy behind, which is evident in the Jim Moran Foundation. The mission of The Jim Moran Foundation is to improve the quality of life for the youth and families of Florida through the support of innovative programs and opportunities that meet the ever-changing needs of the community. www.jimmoranfoundation.org
Being part of JM Family gives us so many opportunities ourselves to give back to the community in ways we would never have known before; through volunteering and fund raising events through out our community.
I read so many blogs that talk about helping all the children in other countries that don’t have opportunities and I completely and totally support them, but today I want to talk about some opportunities for some youth that are forgotten in our own backyard. Mr. Moran created the YATC back in 1989 which stands for Youth Automotive Training Center and it has evolved into something amazing. www.yatc.com, check it out. It helps get the kids off the streets that otherwise would end up in a life of poverty and crime.
This weekend was the 21st annual YATC Jim Moran Golf Classic in Orlando, Florida. Which is a fund raising event for the YATC, as this center is run strictly on donations alone. It’s one of the largest golf tournament events around with well over 400 golfers, including many celebrity golfers, Dan Marino, Jason Taylor, Joe Montana, just to name a few. The minimum buy in for this is event is $2,000 and goes up from there, the event includes Two or Three nights depending on your sponsorship at the Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, truly one of the most amazing resorts I have been fortunate enough to stay at, all meals, golf tournament at the Grand Cypress Golf Course, auction, raffle prizes, banquet dinners, etc. During this event a brand new Toyota Tundra was given away as well as two Harley Davidson Motorcycles that were all donated for this event.
So that brings you to our Amazing Weekend…..As all of our family and friends know there is no way that Rob & I could afford $2,000 for this event, so instead I donate my time selling tickets and we buy raffle tickets, the tickets were only $10 for the truck and $50 for the Harley’s. We did buy some truck raffle tickets as we do every year. The tickets are sold in all parts of the country and you don’t have to be present to win the truck or a Harley. We did not win, boo hoo, but that’s okay the money goes for an amazing cause. BUT we did get to attend the event on Orlando!!!!
Let me just say how GRATEFUL and THANKFUL we are to have had that opportunity, it was so much fun and to get to see all the great rewards that the YATC provides for these kids was truly inspiring and amazing. Someone I work with was unable to attend the event, so he let us take his spot at the JM Classic, and after attending once, we definitely want to make sure we get to go again next year either by volunteering, as there are so many volunteering opportunities at this event or somehow figuring out how we can come up with an extra $2000 by October next year, that’s how much fun it was and how much we support the YATC!!!!
We arrived Friday night; there was a cocktail welcome reception and registration. We received a tote bag with golf shirts for both of us, golf towels, golf balls, a small cooler, some golf tools, a camera and some other goodies. Our room was amazing, the bed was so comfortable and we were on the 10th floor and could see all of Orlando, it was great. Saturday morning was a huge breakfast buffet and the golf tournament which lasted about 6 hours. Included in our stay at the Grand Cypress were all the amenities at the hotel, golfing, the amazing grotto style pool area with several waterfalls, paddle boats, sail boats, motor boats, water cycles, hammocks on the beach. The resort was amazing. There were little brooks and streams everywhere, I tell you ever place you looked was a Kodak Moment!!! We walked forever around the property. There was even a Wedding Gazebo on the lake and a small western town. Then Saturday night was a silent auction, cocktail reception and Banquet Awards Dinner. It was a GREAT weekend and it didn’t cost us a dime, except for the raffle tickets we purchased and our gas to get to Orlando and back, it was a 3 hour trip. Thanks so much to KFC for this opportunity!!!
Below are some of the pictures I took of the resort…….it’s so amazing. If you ever have the opportunity to stay here, I promise you, you’ll love it. www.grandcypress.hyatt.com
Hammocks on the beach at the resort

The Resort had a little western town behind it...

Me on the swinging bridge over the pool
The Pool area was amazing
Me at the Western village


More of the amazing pool area, all grotto style




We had fun on the Pitch-n-Putt course



Yes, even I was golfing!!!





Friday, November 9, 2007

Happy Birthday Shalon!!!


Today is Shalon VanDielen's Birthday. Our Cousin who lives all the way in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Happy Birthday Shalon, we hope you have the best birthday ever and we hope all your Birthday wishes come true!!! We Miss You and We Love You!!!

Above is a picture of my beautiful cousin Shalon and her family, husband Randy and son Shane, we miss you all so much!! Happy Birthday girl!!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!!


Nick Moschette turns 4 today!!! Happy Birthday Nick, we hope you have a really FUN Day.

We won't see Nick until Sunday when the family gets together to celebrate, but I know tonight at Nick's house there will be Cake & Ice Cream fur sure!!
This a picture of Nick from last years birthday when he got his 4wheeler. This year, it's all about Spiderman!!! We Love you Nicholas Miles Moschette!!!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

I'm still new to the blogging world and I'm not sure how often I should post, I was thinking of waiting until something exciting happens in our lives, but we are just pretty normal people and nothing all the exciting happens on a regular basis..LOL, so instead I'll just post as often I want to keep everyone updated on the goings on of our family and friends

We did have the pleasure of spending our Friday night with the Moschette Kids (Frankie 9, Jessica 8, Carlee 6 and Nick 4). Their parents Jen & Frank (my cousins) had a night out. We always have so much fun with kids.

Oh, here is some exciting news, at least we think so. We have officially booked our Cruise to celebrate on 1st Wedding Anniversary and we are so excited and the best part is that we hope to have our family and friends join us on the cruise...I've been on two other family cruises and they are so much fun with your family. More on the cruise later....

Let's see what do we have planned for November....
First, next Thursday 10/8 we'll be celebrating Big Nick Moschette's 4th birthday. He is really into Spiderman these days and we even had to watch the Spiderman movie last night with him. Nick also loves doing yard work with his Dad and loves his power tools, or if your lucky he'll cook you a nice meal in his kitchen, we may have a future handyman/chef on our hands. Here's a few cute pics of Nick



Then next Friday, Shalon VanDielen, another cousin who lives in Arizona with her her husband Randy and their son Shane is having a Birthday. We miss you Shalon, Randy and Shane and we are all thinking of you. Then the following week I'm off to Jacksonville for three days to attend a training class for work. I'll be missing my husband!! Then I believe it'll be Thanksgiving again, and I'm not sure yet but It'll probably be our Normal family celebration!!!
So that sums up our November, and then before you know it, it'll be Christmas!!!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloween Pictures from the Office

The 3rd Floor Witches!! Pattie & Vicky

Here are just a few pictures of the kids who came trick-or-treating in the office.

So cute!!

Giavanni
Katie Cat!!
Jeff's scary office
Joey Roberts
Sammy Parks
Will Natour
Caylie Cox
Batman Hayes!!