Lately...

Stacey started her new job today at Mactec, a consulting firm, as an Energy Auditor. She has her own cubicle and a big, big project that covers the entire National Park Service! Maybe she'll get to go to the Grand Tetons or Mt. Rainer?! It's a very different atmosphere than the Dermatology office (greater men to women ratio = less drama). After 1 hour of paperwork and orientation, she was put to work for the rest of the day-- getting down to business fast!

Stacey has been getting more involved with the children's ministry at church. She volunteered at a back to school bash this past Saturday and worked children's church during worship on Sunday wish 3s and 4s. She has been taking on several different crafty projects including sewing aprons and crocheting with plastic bags... what will be next? Hum...

Zach started school a week ago, and he has a test this Thursday. Med school gets down to business fast, too! We've been working on getting into a good routine between school, studying and work.

Our last weekend of summer we took a trip down to the beach. Ty and Rachel, Stacey's step siblings, were at Delray Beach and invited us down. We had a wonderful weekend laying out by the pool, playing on the beach, deep sea fishing, old school video games, apples to apples and, of course, EATING!!!

This is a view of the house from the water

Woke up to this sunrise in the morning

We got up early Saturday to go deep sea fishing!

Eric, Stacey, Rachel
We caught our dinner! Yellow tail! Yum!
So did Eric... but we all shared
Ocean kyaking!
And... of course, Zach had to take some artsy pics!

answered prayer

we had quite the weekend! on saturday morning, we got up early and went to the church for a work day. we cleared a path through the woods and really enjoyed spending time with some of the church members. we're getting more and more plugged in each week, and we are loving christ community church! waturday night, we drove to st. augustine for the mississippi state university send-off party with the northeast florida alumni chapter. it was only a two hour drive east. dr. jimmy abraham was the featured guest that night, and although we didn't send off any incoming freshmen, there were a couple current students there. visiting with fellow bulldogs was so much fun! stacey got recruited to plan a tailgate for the msu vs university of florida football game this fall in gainesville. stacey may also get involved with some recruiting for msu in the near future- what fun to tap into that roadrunner nature! we took a late night stroll around historical st. augustine since we were in the area. it was raining, so we didn't stay long.

sunday morning after church, we went to lunch with our pastor and his family. we so enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with them. rob, the pastor, is an msu grad and was also a roadrunner! his wife went to the “school up north,” but she is still wonderful nonetheless. people remember us and speak to us after the service, and every week we feel so welcomed by the church family! sunday night we had a significant others orientation for the medical school. we met some great couples, and we are going to a farmer's market with a couple from georgia tech this wednesday. it will be nice for stacey to have some friends when zach is busy studying.

the wonderful weekend was topped off with even more wonderful news monday morning! stacey got a job offer from mactec, an engineering consulting firm, and she will start an energy auditing position on august 20! what an answered prayer! she is said to leave the wonderful women she works with at the doctor's office but is excited to start a career in her field of engineering. one of the women stacey worked with, margie, had a contact through her church at mactec, and opened the door for stacey with this company. three godly women at the doctor's office then lifted up stacey and this job prospect up in prayer, and 3 weeks later there was a job offer! we prayed again this morning thanking God for providing and for being so faithful.

the lord is just blowing us away with new friends, a church family and now a job for stacey! praise be to God!

Lately

We were road warriors last weekend. This was definitely our longest road trip yet, and we had a great time. We went to Pensacola to see the Greenes and loved seeing Alex and Robyn, too. We went skeet shooting with the boys' toys, and the girls were actually pretty decent! We went to the beach Saturday night for dinner. It's beautiful out there! We scoped out some beach houses and yachts we'd like to own one day and took a stroll down by the water. Stacey had never really seen sea oats, but they are absolutely beautiful close up! Robyn collected a tar ball for her classroom, and we saw a late night clean up crew on the beach. We spoke with them about how clean up is going, and they had really positive things to say. Jimmy Buffet's new Margaritaville Hotel just opened up complete with a Landshark bar! We hope the gulf gets its visitors back soon.

Pensacola was just a stop on our way up to Jackson, MS for the wedding of dear friends to us- John and Anna Clemmer. We got to see Stacey's college roommates and stayed with the Thomas couple! Stacey misses those girls so much, and being together felt like old times again. We missed Brian, but other than that- it felt like the whole gang was together! How about we all go to the beach this spring before the Pages experience PCSing (did I use that term correctly?) and move to El Paso?

The wedding was beautiful. It was the first wedding Zach and I have been to since we got married, so that made it extra special. We heard the vows and remembered the promise we had made to each other a little over one month before. As always, seeing friends was such a joy! And instead of saying “see you later”, we were able to tell them that we'll be back in Starkville in one month for the first MSU football game! We're so excited to get back home!