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! :)