Expensive Cargo

My job often requires me to go above and beyond to get the job done right. This was one of those days. My biggest residential client purchased a very expensive vanity mirror (upwards of $12,000) from an artist in New York. This mirror is 2 of 2 ever made... and after all the trouble we had getting this mirror to Tampa the artist informed her rep that this is the last mirror of this style that she will be making :)



You see, we ordered this mirror back in March... March of 2007. It had a really long lead time to begin with, but then the artist ran into trouble with the glass breaking every time she tried to insert it in the mirror. After 10 months she finally got it to work and shipped this mirror to Tampa. We waited and waited with anticipation for it to arrive, and three weeks later it had still not made it to Tampa. Our procurement manager got on the phone with the artist's rep and low and behold the freight company could not locate our $12,000 mirror!!! Seriously!! A few days later the mirror mysteriously showed up at our office, via a different freight line than the one that it had been shipped with... we still don't know what happened or how it got there. Needless to say we were ecstatic and decided to take it over the client's that very afternoon.



One huge problem, the mirror seriously weighed about 60lbs (solid stainless steel) and we were not about to turn this precious cargo over to the moving companies that we use. So this is how the mirror made it to it's final desination...



in the back seat of the Mazda 3, strapped in, with our Procurement Assistant sitting back there with it. This is no joke, this is serious design business. Well as they say "all is well that ends well." The mirror made it safely to it's new home, the client is ecstatic, and the Mazda 3 once again came through in a BIG way!!

My, How Our Boy Has Grown

Rage celebrated his 3rd Birthday on January 27th. In honor of this little guys birthday I thought it would be fun to take a look back down memory lane and see how our little Ragie has grown and changed over the years.

Not long after we brought him home... all 2 lbs of him!!


One ear up, one ear down... that was a funny stage.

1st Birthday party!

1st Birthday Picture... yes this was the picture on his party invitations!

Christmas 2007

3 Years Old!!!

Every Vote Counts!!

That's right friends... the Graham's did their civic duty today and voted in the Florida Primary! It was our first time voting at our new poll, Parrish United Methodist Church. And YES, we both proudly wore our "I Voted" stickers all day.

The Graham's Go To Colorado

This past week Luke and I made a quick trip to Breckenridge, CO so that I could finish up some work at Blue Sky. Early flights, layovers, 7 degree weather and 13.5 hour work days made for a very busy and tiring trip. But Luke and I definitely made the best of the trip, and had a great time traveling together.

There was a ridiculous amount of snow on the ground, and it snowed constantly the first two days we were there.

I am so happy that Luke got to go Blue Sky with me, and see this project that I have worked so hard on for the past two years.

Arriving in Denver... 7 degrees!!

Our ride, covered with snow.

So Much SNOW!!!

Blue Sky

My husband... the most efficient man I know!

Oh little town of Breckenridge...

Hot Stuff!!

The Western Unit we stayed in.

Leaving Breckenridge at 2:45am!!!!

4 Year Anniversary

To celebrate our 4 year anniversary Luke and I went back to where it all started...

On Wednesday night (1/16/08) we went to Clearwater and had dinner at Post Corner Pizza. This is the restaurant that we had our rehearsal dinner at. It was fun to go back and reminisce.

We then went to the Belleveiw Biltmore for the night. Four years ago on the night before our wedding we stayed here along with all of our wedding party and about 40 of our closest friends and family members.

Having coffee and dessert at Maisie's!!

The Halls!!

The winding stairs... Powers captured this great shot on this exact stair case!

4 Years... WOW

It is amazing to think that tomorrow Luke and I will celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary!! For me the past four years has definitely flown by!! I was inspired by my sister Elizabeth's anniversary post to look back over the past four years and document what we did on each anniversary. So here goes...

1/17/04 Wedding Day

Our wedding day... it could not have been more perfect than it was. The weekend was filled with fun, friends, and family. A lot of our friends, family, and wedding party stayed at the Belleview Biltmore the night before our weeding. We all had a blast running the ridiculously long halls, and singing Praise songs in the lobby while Ashleigh played the piano. (This is definitely one of my favorite memories from our wedding weekend.) The wedding was perfect! The boat was fabulous! We could not have asked for a better start to our life together. After the wedding we spent two weeks at the Greatest Place on Earth... Disney!!

1/17/05 1st Anniversary

On our first anniversary we spent our annivesary weekend at Calypso Cay... the place we had stayed at for 1 week of our honeymoon. We went to Disney and used our Annual Passes that we had received as a wedding gift for the last time.

1/17/06 2nd Anniversary

We spent this anniversary doing many random things to celebrate. We went to the circus... Ringling Brother's and Barnum Bailey, we went to Disney for the day with Emily and Robby, and we went to our favorite restaurant Makatos for dinner.

1/17/07 3rd Anniverary

This anniversary was the one we spent apart :( Luke was on the road on our actual anniversary, so the actual day was pretty low key. Because we did not get to do a grand anniversary trip, we decided to take a Valentine's trip to celebrate both Valentine's day and our Anniversary. We went back to Calypso Cay (the place we honeymooned) for the weekend and we went to Island's of Adventure for the day. That was super fun, but super cold! That's the great thing about getting married in January... it is usually cold on your anniversary.

1/17/08 4th Anniversary

Who knows what tomorrow will hold. I have taken the day off from work so that Luke and I can spend it together, however, he does have to leave for a few shows in Tennessee that night. But whatever we do I know we will have a blast, becuase we will be together.

Happy Anniversary Luke!! I am so happy to have you as my husband and as my best friend. I Love You!

GRAHAM

While in Vero for Christmas I took these super cute pictures of baby Graham. He is such a happy baby and Uncle Luke and Aunt April love spending time with him!!

Bringing in 2008

Since October had a show on New Years Eve in Rockhill, SC... so the wives all decided to head out with the boys for a weekend on the road. As you will note there are NO pictures of that weekend. Driving thru the night, sleeping in the van, and sleeping all day at the hotel does not make for fun and exciting pictures. Not to say we didn't have fun... it was definitely a ONCE in a lifetime experience.

But we do have some pretty good shots from the show. It was a lot of fun for the 7 SO members and wives to get to spend some quality time together.

Boys trying to ruin our picture

Audie

He's so crazy!

Signing after the show...

Clown Car

The Mazda has definitely proven itself a worthy car over the past 3 years and 82,000 miles, but last night Luke and I put it to the test.

We decided after 20 months of living in our house that we would finally do some renovating and organizing in the garage. So off to Lowes and Walmart we went to purchase an 8' ladder, hooks to hang the bikes and ladder, etc. However, until we got to Lowes we never really thought about how we would get the ladder home. While there we decided that we would lay the seats in the back down, push the ladder in as far as we could, and tie the trunk down... but when we started to load the car the Mazda came thru for us in a BIG way.

We were able to push the ladder all the way thru to the front window, over the passenger seat and shut the trunk. Amazing I know... considering how short the Mazda appears to be. Amidst all our celebrating we did not stop to think were I (April) was going to sit. Well as you can see from the pictures below I ended up in the floor of the passenger side UNDER the ladder. Scary...

But by far the most comical part of the entire story is that we stopped at 2 Walmart on the way home and I had to crawl out of the floor of the front seat and back in way to many times!! It was a Circus Clown Car moment to say the least.