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!

back in the game!

a lot of people have been blogging about the workout classes they are attending and all the running they are doing. so i thought i'd jump on the bandwagon and talk about what we've been doing! married life has been making us fat (it's true!), so something extreme had to be done...

we started p90x last weekend. it's a 90-day home workout program. we move the living room furniture around and pop in the dvd everyday! so far, it has kicked out butts, but that just means it's working, right?

zach really did well at plyometrics x, but stacey was better at yoga x!

also, stacey has registered for a half-marathon this february. it's the disney princess half marathon in orlando! so exciting! it's still a ways off, but by the time p90x wraps up, marathon training will begin!

when handy meets crafty

so before we got married we had a few ideas of somethings we'd like to do around our place. stacey had some creative ideas, but they could only be accomplished with the help of a true handyman. luckily, zach is just the guy for the job, so we make the perfect team!

project #1: headboard
zach's parents had gotten us a bed frame last year. we had an idea for the headboard and spent a year looking for what we needed for the project. on our way home from south carolina, we found just what we were looking for- an old door! old paint was peeling off of it, but it had wonderful hardware (the skeleton key hole was our favorite part)! zach pressure washed and sanded the door to get it ready for painting. we wanted to maintain the rustic and aged feel, so we were fine with the bits of paint that were not removed plus it added some great texture. we painted the door, and it currently resides over our heads at night.

project #2: sewing room decoration
just south of where we live is the quiet town of micanopy (featured in southern living magazine). it is known for it's antique shops, so last spring we went to take a look! stacey found these colorful industrial bobbins found in a rundown textiles company. she bought them knowing that she wanted to use them in the sewing room but wasn't quite sure how the piece would come together. a few months later, on our honeymoon, we were at an antique store in chattanooga and found an old printer's tray. a $1 ball of tweed and some nails later, we finished our project! plus, zach always loves an opportunity to use his drill!

project #3: curtains
who knew that curtains were so expensive? well, to set the stage- we have a large glass sliding door between our living room and florida room (basically an indoor "porch" area), and we needed some curtains to help divide the room. stacey had found some anthropologie curtains for $40 at a great local store called urban thread. the store sells catalog returns from free people, j crew, urban outfitters, madewell and anthropologie (great store!!) at prices way less than in store, but they do not accept returns. unfortunately, the curtains were too short, but stacey loved them and wanted to figure out a way that they could still work. we bought a double curtain rod and two duvet covers for $40 from IKEA. stacey made the covers into curtains, and now we have a lovely window treatment for $80!


i wonder what our next project will be...?
(aren't these buttons adorable? i got them off etsy! perfection!)

"may the LORD bless you and keep you" Num 6:24

The past couple of weeks have gotten away from us! Over the past couple of weeks we have spent a relaxing weekend up in Pensacola, finished organizing our home (thanks, IKEA), obsessed over our wedding pictures (we love altimx photography!), celebrated our one month anniversary, and hosted friends for dinner (well, one friend, but he comes over a lot!)

We are also getting back into running. It's so hot here, but we go after Stacey gets off work in 100 degree heat index (yuck!) The first run we went on was at Paynes Prairie. It's a state park preserve that is absolutely gorgeous. We were surrounded by enormous 100+ year old trees that were covered in spanish moss (Stacey thought it looked like the tree of souls from the movie Avatar). We saw about 10 alligators (no joke) about 35 yards away from us. Stacey was not too wild about having no barrier between us and the gators, and after Zach almost ran right into a snake we decided we would only go to Paynes Prairie for some wildlife viewing.

The Lord has blessed us in BIG ways lately! Stacey had a job interview with an engineering firm a week ago, and they reported back that they were "very impressed" with her. A Mississippi State University grad works at the firm, and we are awaiting a final decision (hopefully an offer). Stacey really enjoys where she currently works because she is surrounded with very uplifting and encouraging women. We'll just see where the Lord leads us! On that same note, we have been led to a wonderful church. It's called Christ Community Church (PCA). The young congregation is so warm and welcoming, and to top it off, the pastor is a Mississippi State University grad (are we seeing a trend???). Additionally, the pastor is Zach's uncle's first cousin. The second we walked in the door last Sunday, the associate pastor remembered us from a year ago and took it upon himself to pull over other newlyweds and medical professions to make introductions. We ended up staying over an hour after worship meeting and getting to know other members. It didn't take long before Stacey was volunteering to help with the children's ministry (It grew from 45 kids to 95 in the past 2 months! Stacey better not drink the water there), and Zach was seeing if he might be able to add worship leader to his list of activities for this fall. We really feel that the Lord has provided such a wonderful body of Christ for us to grow with and serve beside.

How has the Lord been blessing you lately?

happy birthday, america!

we spent the fourth of july up at lake keowee in south carolina with stacey's family. we drove up friday and stayed until tuesday. it was our first family appearance as husband and wife, and zach fit right in! stacey's grandma has three children- cindy (stacey's mom), tim and patty. we stayed at grandma jacob's house for the weekend, and uncle tim's house had the rest of the family down the street. we had a great time boating, riding on the jet skis, tubing, wake boarding, playing cards, watching movies, setting off fireworks, swimming, floating, skiing and, of course, eating! uncle tim is a wonderful cook and manned the grill all weekend. his girls, emily and rachel, came up from atlanta, and aunt patty, uncle paul, katy, paul jr, alex and michael drove down from maryland. we missed mom and tom, but they were having a great time on their european cruise!

of course we had some fireworks. the older guys shot off the big fireworks, and everyone else enjoyed a sparkler or two.


tubing was fun for everyone! michael got a mild ride with katy and rachel.


the older kids got a rough ride. katy and stacey tried their best to hang on!


alex showing off and getting some air. uncle tim wasn't able to throw him off!



the trademark "timbo landing" involves being thrown off the tube by uncle tim- here is stacey's graceful landing.


paul, jr got up on skis! stacey stayed in the water to give him some last minute coaching, but he was up like a pro on his first try!

he even tried "slalom" skiing on his first run!


uncle paul had his turn on the skis and did a great job! he is eager and ready to try slalom skiing now.


here's rachel on the slalom. hard to believe that stacey was teaching her how to ski about 9 years ago. we are getting old!


skiing is what stacey likes doing best.


stacey and rachel went tandem skiing one morning.


zach is a pro on the wakeboard. as you can see, he got some good air but wasn't quite able to land that one!



we loved spending time with grandma! thanks for letting us stay with you!

aunt patty and uncle paul were spectators for most of the weekend, but at least they varied from where they watched.


and, of course, we had a lot of fun taking pictures with our camera! zach took this great shot of the lake early in the morning. the undisturbed water had a haze resting on top.


thanks for a great weekend! we loved spending time with the family. we can't wait for another vacation, but now it's back to the real world!