© 2014 sarahfortune.

HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.

© 2014 sarahfortune.
+
Photos, Words

Busy, busy, busy

Girls Dinner

Busy, busy, busy. Story of my life! Here’s the breakdown on what’s been going on:

+ local540 officially launched! Our boys worked hard (and are still working hard), but I’m so proud/excited for them. They’re of course still busy with the Fayetteville Flyer too!

+ I successfully planned my very first convention. Months of event planning led up to five, 15 hour days of adrenaline fueled work in Virginia. The resort was gorgeous (what I saw at least) and I tons of amazing seafood. More than anything though, I’m just glad that it all came together so well.

+ Going to Chicago two weeks from today for a meeting/event planning convention. It will be good to ATTEND a conference, rather than worrying about the details of one. Not to mention I’ll get to learn a bit too! Only downfall is that I’m going all by my lonesome..

+ Planning not one, but two trips to Vegas! One for work, one for fun. Looks like we’ll be staying at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay for work and at Paris two weeks later for our annual LV girls trip.

+ Went to Little Rock (another girls trip) to dance to Girl Talk. We made the night of it by staying at a nice hotel downtown, eating good food, & drinking a little Patron. Fun fun!

+ Tons of other random stuff: Tasty dinners, the last few home basketball games (I cheered till the bitter end), birthday celebrations, rock shows, enjoying the new season of American Idol (with two people from Memphis and one from Arkansas), getting a corner office of my very own at work, and who knows what all else…

The guys' new website launched today!

Kitten chocolates from my Valentine

Beebs’ surprise birthday party!

Beebs' Surprise Party

Beebs' Surprise Party

Beebs' Surprise Party

Beebs' Surprise Party

Beebs' Surprise Party

Beebs' Surprise Party

Williamsburg, VA / Kingsmill Resort

Kingsmill Resort. Williamsburg, VA.

Williamsburg, Virginia

Girls dinner hosted by Laura

Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner

Thanks Aunt Wawa
Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner

Girls Dinner

Morning in the new office

First morning in my new office

Hazy shot of Brains on her 25th birthday

Brains!

At the American Princes show

Patron!

Cindy Crawford sayin’ See ya LATER!

Waiting.

Photos

Play Your Part

View from out hotel room. Little Rock.

This past Thursday, I made the 3 hour drive to Little Rock with Brandy & Laura in celebration of Laura’s upcoming birthday. Unfortunately I’ll be out of town on her actual birthday, so we decided to treat Laura to an evening at the downtown Marriott, dinner, drinks, & Arkansas’ first GIRL TALK show! Everything about the trip was so much fun. We got there just in time for some drinks in the hotel lobby and then we were off to Bosco’s for a round of Patron shots and a delish dinner. Girl Talk was amazing, as always. Lots of dance dance dancin. The next morning we had brunch at the cutest little crepes shop called Lemon. After a pit stop at Whole Foods, we were headed back to Fayetteville. Oh and to top it all off, I found a $10 bill on the ground in the parking deck! The trip flew by too quickly for me, but it was such a great lil get-away with some super great girls.

As for Valentines day, Todd & I played it low key like usual. We got a heart shaped pizza, Sunshine beer and just stayed home. Too bad the pizza looked nothing like a heart. Sad.

Girls trip!

I luv cheeseburgers!
Girls trip to Little Rock!

Girls trip!

Drinks in the hotel lobby

Crepes at Lemon in Little Rock

Kitten chocolates from my Valentine

Words

Home Again

1980s Dad

That’s my dad on the right in the early 80s at a catfish cooking contest in downtown Memphis. One of his friends posted it on Facebook & I just had to grab it.

So we FINALLY got our power back (just shy of a week with it off) and it also happened to be Sadie & Olive’s 2nd birthday. Needless to say, we had a lot to celebrate that night. The one good thing that came with the ice storm is that it forced me to go through tons of old boxes that were stored in our back sheds, which were damaged in the storm. I found old photos, letters to old friends that for some reason I never sent, my journals from growing up, and lots of old flyers from my punk rock days. I’ll be sure to scan some stuff as soon as I have some time… which might be a while.

We are very busy over here at the Gill house. The first big convention that I’m planning is in just a few weeks. It’s at The
Kingsmill Resort & Spa in Williamsburg, Virginia (Obama is actually going to a convention there tomorrow). I’m in charge of every aspect of the planning – tons of contracts, travel arrangements, event space set-up, setting the menus, registration, advertising to potential attendees, organizing meetings, hotel reservations, lining up the presenters, and so much more. I will breathe a huge sigh of relief once I get through it, and get through it successfully!

Todd is even harder at work with his new company, Wonderstate Media. He and his business partners just leased a new office and have not only been keeping on top of everything local with the Fayetteville Flyer, but they’ve been working on an exciting project that’s coming soon. I’ll talk more about it when I can.

So yeah, it’s busy around here, but in a very good way.

Now on to the photos…

Old patches (I silk screened the Fifteen one myself)

Old stuff. Patches!

Champagne toast celebrating power & doggie birthdays

Cheers! We got our power back AND it's Sadie & Olive's birthday!

Todd, Me, & Bruce Pearl on TV during the Arkansas/Tennessee game

Dang!

Photos

Sunshine Please

Dickson Street / University of Arkansas area

Picnic on campus

So this is what my lovely campus use to look like. After the past couple days, it’s changed to what you see in the top pic. I swear, pictures don’t even do this justice. Losing all these trees is so sad. I’m just happy our home is okay so far. President Obama (I love how that sounds btw) officially declared our area a disaster, meaning FEMA is on its way. Most places don’t have power still, so we’re stocking up on stuff when we can. We’ve been toting around little Cindy Crawford Kitty and Sadie Pup wherever we go to keep them warm. I actually tried to go to work today (with my animals) just for something to do, but they don’t have power either. Thank goodness for Brandy & Dustin’s house though! They have heat, cable, & internet. Last night we opted to sleep at Todd & Dustin’s office so that our pets could run around freely. Tonight the Razorback game is actually going on as scheduled and will be on ESPN. We’ll be there, so keep an eye out for my terrible hair and two day old outfit!