11th Anniversary

We celebrated our 11th Anniversary on June 12th. We celebrated all weekend though. Friday night we kicked off our celebrations by going out to dinner with some dear friends of ours, Brian and Anastasia. These are our friends that we like to go to different steakhouses and special restaurants. We decided to try a Brazilian Steakhouse in Tampa. It is all you can eat MEAT and salad bar. Mike and Brian skipped over the very detailed and extravagant salad bar and cut right into the meat. The Gaucho's walk around with skewers of meat. They serve 14 different types of meat that they slice and place right on your plate. You also got all you can eat warm cheese bread, mashed potatoes, and fried bananas. (They were better than I thought they were going to be.) It was a great way to spend our Anniversary!
On Saturday, the date of our anniversary was fun and casual. We have a tradition that we go out for breakfast on Saturday mornings, so this Saturday was not different. We headed to our usual place, Clubhouse. Mike's Dad and Grandma joined us too. We enjoyed some yummy food and headed to the mall to do some shopping. We were at Countryside Mall in Clearwater and realized that there was an Ice Skating competition and soon found out that Olympic pairs skaters, Jeremy Barrett and Caydee Denney were there and going to be skating within the hour of when we were there. Jeremy and Caydee did a great job skating and loud cheers were heard throughout the mall. The Olympics are special to me because I remember many years spending time with my Grandma and Grandpa and watching the Olympics together. I was also fortunate enough to attend the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and see the USA Women's Gymnastics team win the GOLD medal. The Olympics always take me back to my childhood, so it was a treat to "Remember When..." while I was watching them skate. (And believe me, I took more than one picture!!!)

In one week I will get to see my sweet niece, Maggie. It's been since December since I've seen her and I can't wait to hold her. Hope she's ready for some Aunt Amy time!!!

Birthday Celebration

I'm going to share about my birthday celebrations! I had three surprise celebrations. My In-Laws had a family birthday party, my 2nd graders threw me a surprise party including cake and ice cream, and my husband invited some of our closest friends to celebrate my special day for breakfast. Mike "kidnapped" me and took me to Tiffany & Co in Tampa to pick something out!!!! I picked out a necklace. I don't have a picture of it because I had to send it to New York to get sized. I also bought a new outfit to wear to the Theater. My mom surprised me with tickets to see Mary Poppins and what a treat that was! I'm still talking about it!!! We went over early to eat at Maestro's Cafe. It was fun to sit by the water and eat.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to a very special Mom. It amazes me how God knows exactly what I need in a mom, even being grown up! I enjoy talking to my mom almost every night on Skype. I'm so glad we were able to take a cruise together back in March and I'm looking forward to vacationing again together in July. I love being with my mom and doing special things together or just chatting about school--which we do often. I also have the privilege of having our classes be pen pals. Its a tradition we have started several years ago. My mom continues to give selflessly of her time and energy for me. Over the last six years she has jumped on a plane or in a car to come be with me during difficult times. Even when I had surgery in November, she came and took care of me for a week and a half over Thanksgiving. (And as a teacher, we know how busy the holidays can be and she just wanted to be a mommy.) Thank you for your wonderful employer who knew your heart was with me. Thank YOU for coming and taking care of me.


This Mother's Day was different for me. For the first time, I knew for sure that I would never be a mommy to children of my own. My sweet hubby was sensitive to my feelings and had a special weekend get away planned. He had a sitter for Cooper, hotel reservations and packed the bags! We had a great time at the Happiest Place on Earth, Disney World. We stayed at Pop Century and had a wonderful dinner at the Nine Dragons restaurant at EPCOT. We went to the "Flower Power" concert and saw Davy Jones. It was a relaxing weekend away going to our favorite place to get away. Thanks Mike for helping me through a hard day.I keep believing that God has something very special planned for us this year and I'm waiting for God's perfect timing. I'm also praying for those of you who are hurting this Mother's Day.