Day 4: My Job

On this 4th day of my 30 Thankful Days I am thankful for my JOB.

I am very blessed to have a job that I love and to be able to work with my partner, her son and my family. I am an office manager for Home & Condo Rentals and Property Management Inc. in Siesta Key Florida. My older sister is the Broker for the company, my mother is her partner and is a property manager in our Venice office. My brother in law handles the maintenance department. My Partner and her son are the agents in the Sarasota Office. We all work very well together and enjoy what we do.

I'm very fortunate to have almost always loved my jobs. I truly believe that life is too short and you spend too many hours at work to be doing something that you don't enjoy.

October 2011 in Photos

Spent time with my best friend since 4th grade 10-1-11 and many other childhood friends at our 25th class reunion.

Sarasota Pride with Friends 10-22-11

25th Class Reunion Oct 1,2011

8 foot tall Lego Man washed ashore on Siesta Key Beach

New Nail Color For Oct. Man of LaMancha 

New Pink Purse 

Sarasota Pride Fest 10-22-11

Dakotas 6th Birthday 10-19-11

Dexters 3rd birthday 10-30-11

DJ's 2nd birthday Oct 16,2011

Cards win World Series for 11th time!!! 10-21-11 (beating the  Texas Rangers)

Friends across the net

Several years ago Vic and I became friends with Deb and Lori on Myspace. We left comments on each others walls and followed each others lives through the pictures and blogs that were posted. We later moved them over to facebook and became even closer thru moves across the country, job changes, new pets and so on.

This past week we had the opportunity to actually meet in person when they came to Siesta Key and stayed in one of our rental properties, and the impact of how much you learn about people from social media really hit home. It was as if we had known each other for years and we had such a great time!  We already knew what picture "whores" we all were from the thousands of photos we've shared online so it was no surprise when the cameras and phones came out and pictures started appearing on facebook and twitter. Our night out to dinner was great but I think we laughed even harder once we got home and started reading all the comments on facebook about our photos!

Here are a few from our night at Sharkys in Venice..

What a weekend!

My partners son was here visiting last week from California. We had four days together and you would not believe what we fit in to those four days without ever feeling rushed. We went parasailing over Siesta Key and spent about five hours out on the boat watching others parasail ,watched a few dolphins (check out my youtube page for dolphin video) and then swam on a sandbar before they brought us back in to shore, Went thru the aquarium at Mote Marine and then a two hour boat trip/nature adventure, caught the sunset drum circle two different nights at Nokomis Beach and Siesta Beach, went out to eat at Gilligan's twice (best nachos!), Sharkys, Pelican Alley,Pita Shack,Ihop,Fridays and while shopping on St. Armands circle we ate at Tommy Bahamas Grill.

Today I am back at work and trying to get back into work mode but there were just so many great memories made...good times indeed!
Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Parasailing above Siesta Key

Sorry I've been MIA lately, we are enjoying our company from California and will have lots to blog about next week!

Tried parasailing for the first time yesterday. I screamed my head off for much of the time but towards the end started calming down enough to sort of enjoy it! ha!

Day 24 in the 30 Day Blog Journal

Day 24: Where you live.

I live in southwest Florida. About an hour south of Tampa in a beautiful town called Venice. I work in Sarasota on Siesta Key and love the beautiful white sand beaches!  I have not always lived in such paradise. I was born in North Dakota, have lived in Ill.,Nebraska,MN,GA and grew up in a small town in Missouri (Moberly, have you heard of it?) Anyway...here are some pictures of the area I live in..

Photo Credit on this one goes to my dear friend Emma Lisa Gordy

Another Beach Day

If I had to come up with a downside to living in paradise I would say it would be having to go to work when the beach is calling your name! After our great time in the sun last Sunday it has been very hard to go to work everyday. We've packed our suits and made plans everyday to maybe go on the way home. Today I made it until noon at work when I got a call from Vic saying she was going to the beach! I wrapped up things at the office and jumped in the jeep (after forwarding the office phones to our cell phones).

I got there first. Today, I remembered my camera!! I took a few pictures while I was waiting on Vic to pick up some fried chicken and get there.

It was another picture perfect day. The water was clear, we remembered our snorkel gear today! There were lots of fish to be seen and we were lucky enough to swim with several dolphins! No pictures of them because we were out in the water.

I found the coolest thing at Target this week and got to try it out.

It is called a spring float and was only about $16 I think. You blow up the inter tube around the float, the middle is a mesh seat that you sit on/in.They had a large oval one for a few dollars more but the round one worked perfectly! If I wasn't so worried about drifting off to sea I could have easily fallen asleep.

The news says we may get rain towards the end of the week because of a storm that is out there, so I am really glad we got the chance to go today. Here are a few more pictures that we took.

OK ,so I don't feel like a total slacker let me give the company I work for a shameless plug.

YOU too can enjoy days like these in sunny southwest Florida. When planning your next vacation think Florida and call Home & Condo Rentals and Property Mgmt., Inc!

We are a family owned and operated company with both seasonal and annual properties located in Sarasota,Venice,Nokomis,Osprey,Casey Key, and Siesta Key.

Today I am Thankful

Today I am thankful for...
1. arriving early to church so we had time to drive around downtown Sarasota.
2. seeing my mom at church
3. the wonderful music at church
4. the great sandwiches from Crescent Market we took to the beach
5. water so blue it almost feels like your skin will be stained that color when you get out
6. water so clear even when neck deep I could see my toes
7. seeing my sister at the beach, reminding me how lucky I am to live so close to family
8. finding tons of cool shells
9. getting caught in the rain while out in the water and having a raft to duck under
10.spending 3 hours playing in the surf with my best friend (Vic)

Blog What You Know

I've been brainstorming lately and checking out ways to make money doing something that I have a passion for. (Writing,blogging, making videos and photography) In many of my searches it was suggested to do paid reviews on my blog. I've signed up for a few but have not heard anything back yet. The more I got to thinking about it the more I'd like to do blogs/reviews on all things local. Local businesses, events, people. I live in Venice, work in Sarasota (Siesta Key) and have been a consumer/business owner/resident for over 25 years. I love the beautiful area that we live in and can not say enough good things about our community!

If you would like me to dedicate a blog to your business or event please drop me an email hollylingley@gmail.com I'd love to hear from you! 

No Oil In Sarasota County

If you've watched the news at all lately I am sure you've seen the oil covered birds and tarballs on the beaches and even news of the oil reaching the beaches here in Florida. Let me start by saying we have NO OIL on our white sandy beaches here in Sarasota County Florida. Had to get that out there incase you don't finish reading.

We just had friends visit from Oregon and were surprised to hear that when they told their friends that they were coming to Florida to visit most of their friends questioned why they would want to come to a place where tarballs were washing ashore. It is much like hurricane season, if you watch the news it would appear all of Florida will be blown away when generally one single storm only affects a few counties.

From someone that makes a living on tourism in our area I am constantly watching the news and visiting the beaches. I spent last weekend on the beaches here and paid close attention to every rock washed up on the beach, I even smelled the sand and swam in the water. We have no oil here. As I watched the pretty white egrets land around me I couldn't help but feel a little sad for the areas that are dealing with this nasty oil spill right now.

If you are planning to vacation here, and I hope you are! Check into trip insurance. I know the oil spill is a man made problem and not a covered reason to cancel your plans but check into "Cancel for any reason" coverage. I googled trip insurance and found several companies.

I will continue to post updates on my facebook page, company website and blogs. I hope that you will continue coming to the beach!

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