A weekend trip with some great friends!

Over the past weekend, Paul and I were able to spend a few days at the beach with some great friends that we lead in a small group at Buckhead Church. We had a great time just hanging out with some of the people we love and got some well needed R&R as well as got some sunshine and ate lots of yummy seafood! It was a pretty dang good weekend :) That is, except for Paul's deep sea fishing escapade. He went out with the other guys and had a pretty miserable 4 hours of throwing up over the side of the boat! Poor guy, I felt so bad! I knew he got some motion sickness from time to time but now I know we need to drug him up before hitting the sea! He recovered after about a 3 hour nap.

Erin, me and Joanna enjoying the sun!

Chilling on our beach chairs

Hooray for sandcastles

A cool pic by Paul

Ahh! A little R&R for my hard-working man!

My pretty toes all done up for the occation

A little walk along the beach one morning. It defiantly looks like we just rolled out of bed!

A night on the town!

Just waiting for some seafood. I definatly got a little too much sun that day.

Chillin by the pool

The Big 6 Great Date Experiment!

Paul and I have now been attending North Point Community Church for the past 3 years. They always have cleaver new ministries for people in every stage of life. And a new one for the marrieds is, The Big 6 Great Date Experiment. Once a month for 6 months the church challenges all married couples to go a date following their specific instructions for the date. It has ended up being a lot of fun with times of reflection, learning new things about one another and most importantly, just spending some quality time with each other. We have greatly enjoyed it so far and we look forward to our next big great date. This week we tossed the Frisbee around, asked silly questions to one another, went out for some yummy Mexican, I had to scream in public that Paul was a hottie and had to pick out a dessert for one another that we thought the other had never tried (this is very hard for a couple who has an extreme sweet tooth). Below are some pics we took to send into the church (as part of our assignment) and a link that has one of the dates. You and your spouse should try it out :)

The Big 6 Great Date Experiment

We went to this crazy restaurant called the Bone Garden Cantina.
Very different from Paul and I's norm!

Bone Garden Cantina

Busy busy bees!

It seems as though life never slows down. At least this is how Paul and I have been feeling lately. It has just been go go go without a moments rest. Paul is working as hard as ever at The Home Depot. And might I add, it showing! He just got a perfect review. I am so proud of him!

I am now knee deep in my new job and am loving it! Today is my first event at the gardens. I am so excited! It is amazing to see where I am at now as compared to when I started my wee little business back in 2007! Who knew that a fun little part-time thing would turn into full-time work. I have to say, the event industry is a ton O fun! On top of my contract job at the Cator Woolford Gardens (check out the new website I just helped to finish), I still have weddings I am planning from start to finish at other locations and was just asked by my previous boss (you know, the one who laid me off) to come back to my full-time job. To that I laughed and answered "that ship as sailed my friend" but offered to train the new manager a consultant price :) So least to say, I am busy!

And another thing that has been eating a lot of our time, is the foreclosure we are trying to purchase. I know most of you are thinking "Didn't you start looking at this house in December?" The answer is yes. And here we are in April and we still don't have it. Buying a foreclosure, I am finding is a crazy amount of work! And we are doing a special kind of loan for run down houses in urban areas. So, between our fist mortgage company crumbling in the process of doing our loan as well as all the inspections done, contractors bids and lots of phone calls and e-mails, this house has been a job in its self. But, its not over yet. We are awaiting a new contractor bid and after we ge that and the number is not astronomical, we will hopefully close mid May! Please keep all of your fingers crossed!

This is the house for any of you who haven't seen it. Don't be fooled by how cute it looks in this picture!

We hope that each of you are well and we apologize for not keeping you all better informed about our lives. We have some big plans for the summer, backing on the beach, an anniversary trip to Charlotte, a trip with friends to Destin and another trip to Florida with family! Woohoo! So, I promise we will be writing again soon.

Happy Birthday Lyla and Pressley!

Over this past weekend Paul and I were able to visit some friends in Greenville, SC. Our good friends David and Joelle were throwing a huge bash for their now one-year-old twins! It is hard to believe Lyla and Pressley are already one. I can still remember landing from my 3 weeks in Africa to drive straight to the hospotal as they were born 3 days before I got home and I couldn't wait to meet them! We love these girls so much and were glad we could be there for the occation. Joelle did a fabulous job with party. Everything turned out so cute, I wish I could take creidt for it :) Happy Birthday Lyla and Pressley!

My new job!

You may think, "What? Didn't Erin just get a new job?" Yes. You are right! I have new, new job. It has been a rough last couple of years for me (as many of you know) in terms of jobs. And I thank you all for the encouraging words you have given me along the way. It just has taken me a while to find my niche. :)

When we first moved to Atlanta, I just couldn't find a social work job anywhere for more than $7/hr and when I did, I ended up getting bitten and kicked by crazy jr. high girls. Then I manged a Pilates studio, not my ideal job bu,t a job that I wasn't afraid of being murdered at! Then I got restless wanting more responssibility and something to call my own and so started my event planning company. A year into starting my business, a catering company that I had worked with as a vendor then came along offering me a full-time job in event planning. I was so excited and felt that I had broken into the event field (it is a tough one, as everyone thinks it is uber glamerous, which I laugh at). But, not even a year later, he had to let me go for financial issues! I was heartbrroken. Since then (October) I have been a secretary desperatly searching fo something I could be proud of and something I could continue to build my business in. And God is good! He brought me something.

I had interviewed for a sales/event planner position at a wedding venue over a year ago. At that point they were not able to hire me because of budget reasons but about a month ago they called me and said they had heard of me being laid off and said they had the budget to pay me and desperatly wanted to hire me. I was shocked and flattered that a year after I interviewed there, they remembered me! I started last week and am loving it. It is so fun to plan weddings! I just love every second of it. I truly feel like event planning is my niche! It is an outdoor garden venue. I love spending so much of the time in the great outdoors! And the coolest thing is that the Cator Woolford Gardens was created as a venue to help support a school for disabled children and adults. So all the profits goes directly to the school. I think it is an awesome model and a great example to other non-profits. I am excited and honored at the opportunity to work there! It has been a long journey for me :)

Erin (You didn't really think it was Paul did you?)

Christmas 2008 (a little late)

Paul and I had the opportunity to spend 2 weeks in Colorado over the holidays and we had a great time! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family and was then able to drive down to Durango for a Christmas with the Stroup family. We got to meet our new niece which was so much fun and also took advantage of the snow. We went snowshoeing as well as skiing which was a nice change from the city. We miss the mountains! Too say the least we had a busy, but relaxing trip. And since we landed in Atlanta, we have been making up for being gone for so long! So, sorry for the late post. It has been catch up time these last few weeks. We hope you all also had a safe and fun holiday season. We enjoyed seeing so many of you and for those we didn't get to see, you were in our thoughts. Love and miss you all!



Christmas Eve with the Cinocco's


The standard Christmas picture

The whole Cinocco fam

The Cinocco kids

It was a big Christmas!

The whole Stroup Gang!

Auntie Amy meeting Elise for the first time

Micah enjoying is first hot chocolate!

Elise sooo excited about her Christmas gift for uncle Paul and Auntie Erin! (don't you see it in her face?)

Chris definatly very excited about his gift from us :)

Micah with his huge pile of gifts

Micah wishing he was still a baby

Paul making faces because he was getting board taking pictures

Ashley, Mark and baby Elise, such a cute little family!

An attempted family pic


That's better (although a little blue, sorry Chris and Amy)

The Durango Train that Micah was dying to see, he loves choo choo's

Auntie Erin meeting Elise for the first time, so tiny

Looks natural eh?

One of the snow blowers at Wolf Creek Pass. They were the only way we made it to Durango!

Paul being cute with his favorite nephew

We had a chance to go snowshoeing and had so much fun! And as always, Paul took some amazing shots!

There was a ton of snow everywhere!

Steve and Ginger's cute puppy Coco