Its Time to Sine Die

Sine Die literally means "without day". For those of us in the legislative process it means the end of the most chaotic 60 days of our live each year. Today the Florida Legislature will adjourn the 112th legislative session, sine die. For Jim and I it is about 55 days overdue.

This was my first session with Enterprise Florida and my first session lobbying in over 5 years. When I left lobbying before I was miserable- so I was really hesitant about this session. I LOVED my job as a legislative assistant, but I needed to be in Tallahassee full time and the pay was less than stellar. That left me with limited options for employment so back to lobbying I went. So far I have really enjoyed the new job. I want to qualify that statement though, I don't love my job like I loved working for the Florida House, but I like my job and I enjoy going to work everyday. What I really love is my life now. My job has allowed me to have a life that I LOVE- and for that I am extremely happy with my decision.

Session was probably one of the toughest I can ever remember - and all the "old timers" agree. Our budget is non-exsistent and it seems that people are afraid to do anything out of the box. It was a real battle to get the smallest things accomplished and I can't believe some of the things I saw happen this year. That being said, we had a really good session overall and I will stop complaining about it. :-)

Jim had a tough but productive Session as well. His fertilizer legislation, before it was all said and done, included animal beastiality and a guns to work amendment. At "press time" the bill had to be killed because of all the garbage added onto it. A year's worth of work down the drain. But he did have two other pieces of legislation that passed both the House and Senate and now are on their way to the Governor. The Florida Nursery Growers and Landscapers Association should be very proud of the work he does for them, of course I am biased on that.

Tomorrow morning we will wake up and life will hopefully settle into a more controlled pace and we will be able to enjoy some down time. Unless of course the Governor vetoes the budget. I am looking forward to our wedding in a mere 120 days, and our honeymoon to Alaska. Oh, and my bachelorette trip to New York.

With that, may the Florida House adjourn Sine Die...

My New Hobby

I've always loved photography- even if I do not have the time to really learn the art. I started a new job in January, and one of the perks of quitting a state job is they pay you for all of your saved vacation time (480 hours for me). Besides paying off my car and such, I splurged and bought a Nikon Digital SLR camera. I started taking lots of pictures of Polly and Tebow, with the occasional picture of Jim that he didn't know I was taking. The last two weeks I was able to visit my friends in Alabama and take pictures of their newborn son, Eli. I wanted to share a few of the pictures I was able to take of him - I can tell already he is going to be quite the looker and I really really hope that Jim and I don't have a daughter first :-) Thanks Alana and Davey for letting me practice my new hobby with your family.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Ok, so I am not actually Sharon Spratt, yet. That won't happen until August 28, 2010 (approx 127 days from today). But in my mind we have already begun our family, so why wait until then to write about it?

Ironically a "blast from the past" yesterday inspired me to once again begin blogging (I have another blog, but have not been good about keeping it up). The reason I say ironically is because of the title of our blog, Living Life Forward. At this stage in life, most people come with baggage. Lord knows that I bring along more than my fair share. But I know we have learned from those experiences and do not have to live in the past.

So- where do we go from here? Jim and I plan to go far :-) Maybe not in physical distance, but definitely in our goals and dreams. I think the next few years are going to be exciting for us as we grow and expand our family and lives. If you are reading this you probably know all about us, so no need for me to go into details of who we are. But I invite you to watch us grow into who we were meant to be- living our life forward.