Love The Holiday Season!

Wow, how this Holiday season has flown by for us!  We enjoyed being home for Thanksgiving and getting to see a lot of our friends and family.  It was also nice to catch an NC State Basketball and Football game while we were in town! Since we've been back in Tampa, things have been so busy!!
I really enjoyed having a house to decorate this year.  It really helped me get in the Christmas spirit!  Most of our weekends have been full of Christmas Parties, and spending time with our friends and family here.  It has been a lot of fun!!  We are looking forward to heading back up to North Carolina for Christmas!!  We can't wait to see everyone!  From our family to yours......... Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!!

Thanksgiving is almost here!!

This month has gone by so fast so far! I cannot believe that in 2 short days we will be heading to North Carolina to see our family and friends!  It is such a blessing that we can go for over a week and that we will get a chance to see almost everyone. November has brought cooler weather to Florida, which has meant fires in our fire pit outside and our fire place inside! We are loving the fires and we have enjoyed them!! I have also began making homemade soups to match the cold weather, and they have both been successes!  I am going to attempt another one tomorrow. This past weekend we went to the Greek Festival at our church and we had a great time eating yummy food, catching up with friends, and hearing the live Greek Band.  It was also a great weekend for the Wolfpack in both football and basketball.  We loved watching the first official game.  We are PUMPED for Basketball Season! Other than that we are just as in love as ever, and enjoying the simple things in life! More updates later! <3

Parties and Pumpkins!

I cannot believe we are in NOVEMBER already!  We ended our month on a great note. Last weekend we attended the Junior League of Tampa's Patron's Party at Attorney General Pam Bondi's home, and we had such a great time.  It was a pleasure to meet her and to see other Junior League ladies! Last Saturday we went to the Baptism of our neighbor and fellow church member Julie Sofia.  We love her and she is such a great baby.  We have gotten extremely close to our neighbors and also to their whole family through church, which has been such a blessing! We attended a Halloween party that night at Britt and Tye's house!  Sunday Ryan left for Atlanta for the week on a business trip, and I took it easy!  Ryan has enjoyed his time in Atlanta this week, and even got to see our friends, Merri Ellen and Harvey, who live there.  I have had a good week just getting caught up on my workouts, the house, and I even got to see a few friends.  Halloween was fun because I went over to our church friends home and spent time with the whole family.  We missed Ryan, but it was fun seeing all of the kids dressed up!  Ryan and I are looking forward to having a relaxing weekend at home this weekend! :) More updates soon!

Yummy Restaurants and Florida Breeze

October is just flying by so fast! I cannot believe November is fast approaching, and then the Holidays!  I love Fall, and I am really ready for some cooler weather here in Florida.  It is slowly cooling down here, and it is feeling so nice!  I am ready to pull out my boots and wear them for a few months! :)  Recently we have been trying some yummy new restaurants for our date nights, and we have discovered some new favorites.... TOne of our recent finds is Samba Room, which is a neat Tapas style restaurant in South Tampa.  We had a blast there and it was a neat environment too! Ciro's Speakeasy is another favorite.  It is a 1920's Prohibition style restaurant and bar.  You even have to give a pass code to get into the door. I had been there with Junior League for an event earlier this year, but this was Ryan's first time and he LOVED it just like I did!!  It is so nice to have so many great restaurants right out our back door!  This past weekend we enjoyed a day at the beach on Saturday and a boating day with friends on Sunday!  It's great weather right now for boat days, and that is one of our favorite Florida past times! I have been cooking up a storm for Mr. Ryan lately, and he seems to be liking all of his home cooked meals.  I really love to cook, and I am excited to learn some new recipes and to also get into baking more regularly too!! More updates soon! <3

NC Wedding Weekend and the start of FALL!

  We had the pleasure of being back in NC last weekend to help celebrate the marriage of one of Ryan's best friends Andrew and his now wife Becca! We were so glad to be a part of their special weekend and Ryan served as a Groomsman. It was also great to be back in Greensboro. Becca and I are both from Greensboro and actually knew each other before either of us knew our husbands, and it just worked out that we married friends. I think it is so neat how that worked out.  They are a great couple and we are excited to hopefully see them and the rest of the "Tailgating Gang" soon!  It was awesome seeing everyone! We also got to 

attend Church on Sunday with my parents in Winston at the church where we got married! We have not been there since we got married over a year ago, so that was so neat and Father Demetri was so happy to see us!  We arrived back in Tampa Monday, and the week has flown by for us both. I enjoyed reunited with some friends at Junior League and also got to attend a Book Signing for the mom of one of my Tampa friends last night.  Ryan has been busy with work and he's so glad to have a long weekend this weekend for the Columbus Day holiday! We are going to spend our weekend having a Date Night tonight at a fun place, watching NC STATE tomorrow      with some of our FSU friends ( we will see how Ryan does... this is a test! ), and then getting to visit with Ryan's family and see his Grandmother who is visiting from NC.  It's going to be a great weekend this weekend too!!  Hope everyone has a great one and GO PACK!! More updates to come!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

We celebrated Ryan's Birthday last weekend!! Friday, his actual birthday was pretty low key. He took the day off and I made him breakfast, and we just enjoyed spending time together doing things around town. Ryan caught a fish on his morning trip, which was a great way to start off his big day! Lunch at our favorite Deli was delish, and after some R & R we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Bella's! Saturday was jam packed with fun! We spent the day boating, and having a blast with The Blumes!  We love boating with them and we caught several fish so it was a successful day too!  That night we went to Mary and Chris' house for a Cookout to celebrate with more friends! Ryan had a blast, and it was so nice to be able to celebrate! :)  Sunday we went to church, and after church we got to socialize with some new friends we have made and we also met an entire greek family (I am talking cousins, sisters, mothers, in-laws, neighbors.. the works) who all seemed to have some connection to NC, and they were so sweet!!  Everyone at church has really opened their arms to us and been so friendly.  It is so nice to be able to go together regularly to church!! What a blessing that we can do that! It is also wonderful to be meeting new people! :)  This week I had my first Book Club get together, and it was fun!! I am so glad all of these JLT and other events are starting to pick up because it is great being able to see my friends! Ryan had a busy week at work, but some great things happened for him there and he is doing a great job! I am very proud of him!  Well that is all for now, but I will update everyone again soon! It's gameday so GO PACK!!

Vero Beach Fun and JLT

Hope everyone had a great week and a wonderful Labor Day Holiday!  We really enjoyed going to Vero Beach with Ryan's side of the family!  It's was such a nice vacation for us, and we enjoyed being away together.  Vero Beach holds a special place in the hearts of the Ridnones, so I was excited to be able to share this place with them.  The beach itself was beautiful.  Being on the "west coast" we miss the Atlantic Ocean, so it was nice to get back to that!!  Here are a few pictures from our trip:

When we got back this week it was WONDERFUL to see our puppy man!  We missed not having Morgan Dog with us, but he had a great time at Aunt Britt and Uncle Tye's so he was a happy camper!  Junior League kicked off on Tuesday, and I am so excited to get started with the year!!  I love being apart of Junior League, and being able to help the community.  We had an amazing speaker too, and I cannot wait to get her book! That's all the updates for now, but i'll be back with more soon! :)

GAMEDAY! GO PACK!!

August has flown by so fast..... We have been out of town visiting family and staying busy every weekend! But, we are so excited for today because it is GAMEDAY!! We have long awaited football season, and it is finally here!  What a great way to kickoff Labor Day weekend. We are also excited about spending Labor Day weekend in one of Ryan's favorite places with his family!!  It's going to be a great long weekend!!  More updates soon, but in the meantime GO PACK!!!  We will be watching with friends tonight and cheering on our Wolfpack!!  Looking for a WIN!!!

Happy Friday Y'all! :)

Happy Birthday and Happy Wedding!

Wow, this has been such a fun August so far!!  It started off with a wonderful surprise from Ryan for my 27th birthday.  He took me away for the weekend to the Ritz Carlton in Palm Beach!  I had no idea where we were going, even as he was driving there, and I was so surprised when we pulled up to the Ritz.  It is just gorgeous inside and out, and it has beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean! We spent the day Saturday and Sunday at the pool just relaxing.  Saturday night Ryan took me to dinner at one of their restaurants, and it was amazing.  What was also really neat was that we were able to have a sushi chef make us hand rolled sushi on the spot in the lobby before dinner.  It was so yummy.  What a wonderful experience!  Needless to say I had one of the best birthdays, and it was so nice to get way just the two of us together.  We vowed that we will do much more of that!! So far 27 has been a great year.  Last weekend I was able to be in North Carolina to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Chris and his now wife Amanda.  I enjoyed being apart of all of the events and festivities and it was so wonderful to be able to spend that time with my extended family and also to see some friends I had not seen in a while. Ryan was with his best friend Andrew in SC for his bachelor weekend, and he enjoyed fishing, and hanging out with the guys.  I know he wishes he could have been in two places at one time, but I am so glad he was able to make the trip up to celebrate with Andrew. Here are some pictures from both of the trips in August!  I will post more soon!  Have a great week everyone!

What a WONDERFUL trip home to NC!!

We are back!!  Our trip was so nice, but WAY too short for our liking. We would have loved to have had longer so we could have seen more people like Ryan's parents, and our other family and friends! We do feel so fortunate to have been able to see so many of y'all though!  We arrived Thursday and immediately we were served "real Bojangles sweet tea". We were able to go to Pastabilites, my favorite childhood restaurant and one of Ryan's favorites too for dinner that night and celebrate family with my parents, my cousin Chris, his fiance Amanda, and Scott's better half and fiance Jenn! YAY for a yummy family dinner.  Ryan and I then met Amanda and Grant at Green Valley Grill for drinks.  It was wonderful to catch up with the Marshalls and to hear about their furry new addition (puppy Hoss).  Friday was a fun day in Raleigh for Ryan and me and we enjoyed eating at one of our favorite places in Cameron Village with our friend Andrew and shopping at Baileys, and some other Raleigh favorites ( Ryan had "fun", but not quite as much as I did haha).  That night in Greensboro two of my closest friends Heather and Morgan and their husbands Jimmy and Andrew met us for dinner at Green Valley Grill to celebrate my upcoming birthday and just reunite! In one word.... WOW!  We had such a blast!  Whenever these boys get together it is a crazy time, and we all enjoyed catching up and planning our next vacation together. I was so thankful that I got to see every member of the "Steel Magnolias" and their wonderful hubbies on our visit home.  Saturday we attended a Greek wedding for my childhood friend Katie.  It was so nice to be in the audience this time and we had a great time visiting with all of the Greeks, and cutting a rug on the dance floor. My parents really enjoyed having us with them too, and we even got Momma Gwen up and working out two mornings in a row, and she held her own with us!! All in all the trip was wonderful.  Now, we are back and it's my birthday week!! Ryan has some surprises he's planning, so I am excited to see what he has in store for us this weekend!  We have really enjoyed watching the Olympics this week!!  Go Team USA!!  Hope everyone else is having a good week, and I will make sure to update you all again soon! :)

Two Days Until North Carolina

We are so excited to go to North Carolina to visit with some of our family and friends.  Wish we could see more people, but glad to have the opportunity to see some!! I appreciate being home in NC so much more now that I don't live there.  It will be a nice break from our hot Florida summer.  Nothing too new here on the home front for us.  We had a nice relaxing weekend, and didn't do much! I will have much more updates next week!! Have a great week everyone! :)

A weekend with the family!

This past weekend was so much fun!  We arrived in Oviedo Friday after work and spent the weekend with "The Leiss Family"! We really enjoyed seeing most of the nieces and nephews, and getting a chance to relax a little bit. I helped Jenna go back-to-school shopping Saturday, and looking at all the cute "little girl" clothes made me want a little girl.  I came home and informed Ryan that Morgan Dog needed a sibling haha! No, no... I can wait to have kids, but I am very excited to one day have children with Ryan, and for now I am blessed to be able to enjoy our nieces and nephews. We are getting excited about going home to NC in less than two weeks and seeing my side of the family, our friends, and all of the close Greek friends that are like family! It will be an awesome trip and kickoff my birthday week! :) I cannot believe I am turning 27 this year! Tonight I went to my first JLT Fundraising Committee meeting, and I am really excited about this year and my new committee.  I really like the ladies, and I think it'll be a great year! Hope everyone had a great weekend and start to the work week today!

Happy Birthday Morgan Dog and Happy July 4th

Morgan Dog turned three on July 3rd!  He enjoyed a special present that Grandma Gwen bought him and Ryan and I spoiled him with lots of yummy treats from Downtown Dogs.  They have birthday cakes, and so much yummy stuff for dogs there.  I always enjoy going in and picking something out for Morgan.  Our dog is sooo spoiled, but he's the best so I am okay with that! :) I cannot believe that it has been almost 3 years since we got Morgan Dog.  I remember that day well. Ryan and I had only been dating for 5 months, and we had talked about maybe getting a dog at some point among some other serious topics. :) I had left my house to go grab our parking pass for that weekends NC State game on campus. I was in my sweat clothes with my hair on my head and my glasses on.... Ryan calls me on my way to campus and lets me know "he has found our dog" and he is going to Smithfield in 30 minutes to go get him. He asked if I would like to come, and of course I was not going to miss this special first meeting, so I hurried to Ryan's and we headed to Smithfield.  When we pulled up to meet the lady I saw this little 20 pound ball of blonde fur and he came straight to me. I have always wanted and had little dogs, but oh my goodness in that moment I fell in love.  I joke with Ryan that that is how he hooked me, because of course I was never leaving this dog! :) "Captain Morgan" rode in my lap back home that day, and I was such a happy girl.  He has just been the best dog for us, and we are so lucky that he is such a good dog and so sweet. He's our little puppy son, and he still curls up in my lap at 42 pounds like he's that little puppy. Words cannot describe how much our puppy man means to us. We love our Golden Spaniel so much!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th holiday.  It was weird for us this year for a few reasons.  Ryan and I have now spent four July 4th holidays together, and this was the first year that we were not at Wrightsville Beach with my whole east coast family.  With July 4th on a Wednesday, it through us off a little bit.  We had a very low key celebration, grilling out here with our friends who live on the water and some of their friends, and then taking the boat out to watch fireworks.  It was neat to be on a boat watching the fireworks! Ryan and I really missed being with the family this year and being at Wrightsville, so we decided we will plan ahead and make sure to be at Wrightsville next year!  So all of you Wilmington people, get ready for us! :)

We are just enjoying a relaxing weekend this weekend. It is nice to live at the water, because you can see it anytime you want to.  That is one thing I love about my ride home everyday! I will update everyone again soon! Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Anniversary, Engagement, Birthday, Wedding, and then a Storm! :)

Hello Everyone!  I cannot believe that June is almost over!  My half year resolution is to become better about blogging and keeping everyone up to date on The Rindones!  Since I last blogged several fun things have happened:

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend celebrating our ONE YEAR anniversary.  We went to the Animal Kingdom Villas and enjoyed lots of good meals, animal watching, EPCOT, and some pool time, thanks to Bonnie and Richard!  It was a nice weekend away for us. Mom was nice enough to ship down the top of our wedding cake from NC, and so on our actual anniversary (Monday) we opened up a nice bottle of champagne and enjoyed eating what was still surprisingly good cake!! Shout out to Delicious Bakery in Greensboro! YUMMY after even a year and lots of traveling to get to us! June has proven to be an exciting wedding month too.... We have made so many wonderful friends and couple friends since moving to Tampa and we feel so blessed to be able to share in some of their exciting times.  Two weeks ago my friend Mary and her then boyfriend Chris got engaged, and Ryan and I got to go out with them that evening and celebrate! We then had the pleasure that next weekend of watching two of our great friends, Britt and Tye, get married.  Ryan was a groomsman in their wedding and we enjoyed all of the weekend festivities at The Vinoy and the Museum of Art in St. Pete.  In addition to all of that excitement, Momma Gwen came to Tampa to visit for her birthday, and we enjoyed treating her to Berns for her birthday! She of course loved it!  Ryan was in Texas this past week for work, so I enjoyed taking mom around to the beach and showing her more about Tampa.  We had fun bonding over girl time.  Morgan Dog was so sad to see his grandma leave, but it was a great visit! 

So that is what we have been up to recently. Hurricane Season has now started with this beautiful tropical storm here in Tampa, so Ryan, Morgan Dog, and I are staying in and enjoying some family time.  I am really hoping we do not have a hurricane.  We are doing fine right now, but not to worry, Ryan has stocked up on rice and some other yummy things along with matches and some sort of light that is "neat" and will help if we lose power.  Leave it to my manly husband to think of all of these great things.

Look forward to filling you all in again soon.... It really will be soon!! :)

We're Back!

I know, I have not updated our blog in quite a while, BUT I promise to be better about it now that I am done with Relays for the year. I ended with a great event in Lutz this past weekend! I am still trying to recover from lack of sleep, but naps are helping!  Ryan has been working hard recently too.  He has been given some additional responsibilities at work that are keeping him very busy, but he is still enjoying what he is doing. In eight short days we will be celebrating our One Year Anniversary!  I cannot believe it has been a year.  We feel so blessed to be married and starting our lives together and every day gets better and better.  Ryan has planned a special long weekend trip for Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate our one year, so look for some details and pictures soon. :) In other news, we are enjoying our house and Morgan Dog is a happy puppy, making friends with the squirrels and lizards outside and running around the yard.  I was also recently appointed to the Junior League Fundraising Committee, so I am super excited about starting that up soon.  It is going to be a relaxing and wonderful summer and I cannot wait to see what is in store for The Rindones! Wedding Season has started and I cannot wait to see some of our close family and friends get married! Bye for now! :)

It's Almost April!

I cannot believe that it is almost April.  Time just keeps flying by for The Rindone's here in Tampa!  Ryan is getting back today from having been in Raleigh for the past three days on business.  To say I am a little jealous is an understatement.  He has enjoyed staying with and seeing a lot of our friends and frequented some of our favorite spots (Porters for shrimp and grits, Cafe Caturra, 42nd St Oyster Bar, and Flying Saucer) just to name a few.  We are both so excited to go back to NC this summer for some great weddings of our family and friends! I am gearing up for Relay Season with my first two relay's in 2 weeks! Oh goodness!! Luckily, I have a wonderful husband to be by my side! I am so excited that my parents are coming to visit in one short week! YAY!  I have missed them so much and it will be awesome to be able to spend time with them and also for them to visit with Ryan's Florida Family, which has become an extension of The Varsamis Family over the last year or so....! The house is coming along.... I think it'll be after Relay before it's 99% complete, but it's a work in progress! Morgan Dog is doing well.  He is excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, and he will enjoy his walks with them by the water.  He has been nursing his Mommy back to health this week while Dad has been gone.  I have had terrible allergies, and I can attribute that to my first spring here in our beautiful city of Tampa. Hopefully my body will become immune before next year!  Well, those are all the updates for now, but I promise to post more soon! :)

Crazy Beautiful Life

I am still trying to get better about updating everyone, but we have just been so busy. We are settling into our new house nicely and slowly but surely getting everything set up.  I am looking forward to having a party in June after all of my Relays are done and I have some time to get things finished! We have enjoyed being out boating and at the beach enjoying all of this nice weather. We enjoyed having Morgan and Andrew come visit us in Tampa.  We miss all of our close friends back in NC, so we always welcome house guests!  I have also enjoyed being closer to my Tampa girlfriends, and being able to see them more regularly. Most recently, we have been enjoying the NCAA tournament! GO PACK!! We are so excited to watch our boys in the Sweet Sixteen!!  Morgan Dog is loving his new domain, and he enjoys chasing little critters outside and parking on the deck to "guard" mom and dad from the squirrels. Our little family of 2.5 is doing really well, and we are so excited to see both sides of our family soon and also for some fun weddings this summer that will bring us home to NC a couple of times! More updates soon! :)

Welcome to South Tampa

We moved into our very first house together on Monday! This is so exciting for us, but it is taking some time to get everything sorted and put in the right place..... It's a work in progress! We love our neighborhood.  We see the kids walking to and from the elementary school down the street every morning and afternoon, our mail man knows us by name, and Morgan Dog has even met a friend next door.... We are living the suburban life a couple of blocks away from the Tampa Bay.  We are loving it!  This was also our first married Valentine's Day, and it was a special one in our new home.  Ryan got me 26 roses for "all of the years I have been wonderful", and took me to one of our favorite places Berns!  It was a great time. I am excited to have the long weekend to do some house unpacking and decorating, so stay tuned for more updates!

Catching up with the Rindones

Oh wow! January has flown by..... Between working hard, packing up to move, and socializing Ryan and I have barely stopped!! I will get better about updates once we move!  Which brings me to my next piece of exciting news: WE ARE MOVING TO SOUTH TAMPA! As of February we will be living in our first house in Palma Ceia (South Tampa) within walking distance to the Tampa Bay.  We feel so fortunate and we are so excited to get down to South Tampa and be close to all of our friends here and all of the fun places we frequent. I will update you all on more details soon with regard to the house! We are also prepping for our first Gasparilla here in Tampa.  I am so excited to go to some great parties in some beautiful homes on the Bay and watch the pirates invade Tampa! I will take pictures and share the fun with you all!  Tonight we are getting ready for the BIG game, GO PACK!! Nothing more to report, except almost 8 months of marriage and loving everyday together!! Catch you all up again soon! :)

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!

Hi y'all! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! The Rindones certainly did! For Christmas I got Ryan tons of stuff for his wardrobe and he surprised me with an iPad (which I'm using to write this blog) and the accessories for it! My husband is the best, and I'm so thankful he knows me so well. I was surprised to say the least, and I've been loving getting to know my iPad and learning how to use it! I hope to master my iPad and iPhone soon. I also got Tory Burch flats and a Michael Kors watch and several other things, so Santa was good this year! But the best present of all was getting to come home to North Carolina! We started off in Shelby with Ryan's family, and it was nice to be there with them and also get to see my best friend Heather and her husband Jimmy! We then made our way to Greensboro on Christmas Eve. I got to see all of my Greek aunts and enjoyed getting to visit with them! Then, we headed to Kenansville, where I got to meet the newest addition to our family, Andrew Bond Wilson and visit with my family. Finally our last stop was Wilmington to see all of the Bellamys! It was an awesome holiday for us and Ryan and I loved being with everyone. It was just too short! Once we arrived back in Tampa, Ryan and I regrouped with a fun date night at PF Changs and saw New Years Eve. It was a cute movie and it really got me in the spirit of things! Ryan and I felt so blessed to be able to spend New Years with our Tampa friends this year, and we had a great time ringing in 2012! This year is going to be a great one for us, and we start out by moving into our first house in just 1 week! We are both so excited! Look for more updates soon!