We are happy to announce another addition the family…..Mather George Taseff!!!

Congratulations Ashley, Damon, and Alta!

A little catching up…..

First off, Happy Birthday to Maddy and Cayden who turned 3 this past week!  We are very excited to see the Chicago Mann clan in this upcoming weekend, it  will be a fun time.   We have had some great times the past couple weeks;  we got to enjoy our first experiences of our brand new deck by grilling and cooking smores, be guests at the Trappe wedding, playing with Alta, watching the Cleveland Cavs implode, wedding planning (note to all guys: the cake testing is the best vendor to go too),  mowing the new lawn – yes its starting to come in, painting the kitchen, attending the Rib Festival, watching Ashley getting larger as we wait for Baby Boy Tasseff  to arrive hopefully sooner than later, and many other events and projects.  We will be posting more pictures soon of our trip to Chicago and BBT!  Here’s a couple pictures of the finished deck:

Please keep praying for Mike and his family!

almost done …

When we told people we were moving into a house, the most common response was “good luck with lots and lots of projects”.  What an understatement!  We have painted three rooms now and they are looking great, we like to call them the “green room, yellow room, and blue room”.  We decided to put the pianting on hold and wait for a rainy weekend to do the next room, but we have new projects!  We have been putting in some long hours trying to get the lawn growing, we are finally seeing it come slowly.  I will probably regret saying this, but one of the best days will be when I can mow the whole lawn.  Check back in the summer to see how I feel about it then! 

Secondly, we have decided to build a deck off of our morning room since we love to be outside and have a few beverages (oh and the grill in the driveway is getting old). Now when I say we decide to build a deck we actually hired someone to do that.  It’s been a quick process so far, just last Friday they drilled the holes and as of end of business today (Tuesday) the frame is all done!  Oh, I can not wait until Saturday to enjoy our first of many beverages outside. Here are some pics of the deck building process…..

After a long time waiting, Sophie Rae has arrived this morning, April 23.

Congratulations to the proud parents Scott & Nicole!!!

Yep, I’m finally home again and done traveling for a while. Overall it was a great experience, it was just a little too long. Living in hotel rooms, out of a suitcase gets old and lonely quickly. I’ve never been so happy to be home. There’s nothing better than sleeping in your own bed, in your own house!

It was nice that I was able to spend a few days with my family after all the work was done. While I was in Munich, my sister drove down for the weekend with her husband and 2 kids. That way I didn’t have to go sightseeing by myself and we had some great, fun times together. Below are a few pictures from that weekend in Munich.

Now that I’m back, we can get into all the details for our wedding planning. Only 4 ½ months left!!! Meeting with each vendor, food tastings, cake tastings, flower arrangements, song selections … fun times!

We’re also working on a few house projects, such as painting each room, getting a deck, “upgrading” our lawn (basically making it green) J Since we were used to spending a lot of time outdoors from living in Texas, we really want to make our backyard a beautiful place that we love and can relax at. This means A LOT of work in the yard as soon as this sun decides to actually stick around for awhile. This weekend, we’ll be shopping for patio furniture; oh I can’t wait!

Even more excited I am about the Easter dinner at Tom & Maureen’s; so looking forward to see everyone again, especially little Alta!

It’s great to be back!

Happy Easter to everyone!

It’s been 15 days since I left and I’m starting to get “home”-sick.

The first city London, UK was pretty interesting. Even though I was jet-lacking badly, and no sleep, I got to do some sightseeing the first day. Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, St. Paul Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge … all pretty awesome!

Second and third day, I met the UK team for the first time, after only talking to them over the phone. All are very nice and everyone is from a different country, so many different accents in this office.

After 2 days ‘London business live’, I started getting used to it. Taking the underground train “Tube” everywhere is convenient, but VERY fast paced. In the financial district, if you don’t walk fast enough, you get run over, literally. The Tube is not a good idea of transportation if you have too much luggage with you

One thing, I had the hardest time with was the traffic and the people driving on the other side. I can’t describe it; it’s just weird and messes with your mind. Crossing the street alone is strange because you get confused which way to look first.

3 days London was enough and time to move on to beautiful Germany. Oh, I was so happy to land in Bremen, especially after the experience of flying with Ryanair. Ryanair is a big, low-cost carrier in Europe with the emphasis on LOW (service). I’ve always heard about the bad rumors, but this was definitely “different”. You pretty much felt like cattle being shipped somewhere. Anyways, my team and I made it safely to Bremen, a city in the northern part of Germany. We stayed at a very nice hotel from the Swissotel group. We met and trained the German support teams at their office the following 2 days. It was great talking to them and finding out they’re dealing with the same exact things/situation that we are. It doesn’t matter on which side of this globe you are, we’re all in the same boat and now can help each other. There was no time for sightseeing in Bremen. It was Friday evening and I had to take the ICE train to Hamburg, another northern city. Btw, the ICE train is a great way of transportation through Europe, comfortable and fast.

By the time I got to my hotel in Hamburg, all I wanted to do is sleep, I was pretty beat. I relaxed a lot that whole first weekend and got to do some sightseeing. I took a boat tour around the huge harbor and through the many canals, was very interesting! Then I visited the St. Nikolai church, the famous city hall, the main church St. Michaelis and climbed its tower. In the evening I strolled down the Reeperbahn, the ‘red-light’ district of Hamburg. Strange place, didn’t feel too safe there by myself. Well, now I can check it off as “have seen it, don’t need to see it again”. After an adventures and relaxing weekend, it was time to start the training for Sales & Account Management (SAM) in Hamburg from Monday through Thursday. It was every day a different group of people with various backgrounds. Each session was mixed with S&A Managers; some who handle huge accounts and others who handle many small accounts. Every day was challenging, but rewarding at the end of the day when hearing the positive feedback. We had dinners every evening with people from the office, which was nice but also exhausting.

Thursday night, we had to catch a flight on Lufthansa (great service!) to Frankfurt located in the middle of Germany. We only stayed one night, so no point of unpacking. The first SAM training in Frankfurt went well too; now it was time for the weekend and to finally see my family. After the 3 hour train ride, I arrived in Bamberg (in the south), where I was welcomed by my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, mom, and brother – yep, I had a whole ‘welcome committee’ at the train station. J Oh, it was so nice to see them all!!! I stayed that night at my sister’s house in Steinsdorf. The next day, Saturday, I unpacked, repacked and drove with my brother 1 ½ hours to my grandma’s house to Pöllwitz. There, we celebrated my uncle’s birthday and visited with grandma. Dad came to visit the next day too, and then it was time to pack-up again and head back to the train station in Bamberg. There, my ‘welcome committee’ came again to send me off and my sister brought back my laundry that she took care of over the weekend. Thank you so much Sandra! Thank you ALL for everything you did for me this weekend! I know it was short, but wonderful and very energizing, being surrounded by family. Love you all!!!

The 3 hour train ride back to Frankfurt went by quickly; I checked in my hotel by 11pm, unpacked, got ready for next day and got some rest.

Today, second training day here, went well again, and we got more great feedback. It’s late by now, but I wanted to send a note of my journey, finally. Sorry, it took a while; it’s just been a ‘little’ hectic lately.

Tomorrow, is our last day in Frankfurt, in the evening we have to catch a ride with the ICE train to Munich (in the south), where we’ll be the rest of this week. I’m excited to see Munich; it’s such a beautiful city. More to come, stay tuned…

Gute Nacht!