Because you're just dying to know...

jordan: month 22

2012-01-11T15:53:00.004-06:00

Jordan’s vocabulary exploded this month! She likes to point out and name almost everything she sees, which is cute but can get annoying because she will keep repeating the word until you acknowledge her. It makes story time particularly drawn out because she will point out everything on the page while I’m trying to read. I’m glad she is enjoying learning new things though.

Jordan started saying “please” and “thank you” this month. It was so cute and it is nice that she is so polite. Another new thing she says is Frank’s name. She LOVES her big brother Frank and will get all excited and say his name when she sees him. She also calls any dachshund she sees Frank as well. We have a book called The Halloweener that I read to her frequently about a dachshund named Oscar. She will point to Oscar on EVERY page and call him Frank. There is also a pastel I drew of Frank hanging above her dresser that she always points at and says Frank.

Jordan also started asking about what color things are. She seems good at picking out things that are pink (which might possibly be her favorite color at this point) and will occasionally note if something is white or blue. She gets her colors confused sometimes, but she has plenty of time to straighten them out.

Jordan is beginning to get a bit pickier in what she eats. A lot of her “go to” favorites she doesn’t seem interested in anymore. She used to love yogurt and cheese, but a lot of the time now she doesn’t want them. She has been asking for a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast most mornings. She seems to love it. She’ll eat any cereal, too. One day all I had was Wheat Chex and she gladly ate it all! She also loves to pick up the bowl and drink the leftover milk when she is done. Some of her other favorite foods are french fries, macaroni and cheese, and apple wedges. She also asks for cake and cookies a lot, but rarely gets them.

December also meant it was Christmas and time to see Santa. Jordan did fine with him last year and didn’t seem fazed by him. This year was totally different. She was truly terrified of him and would sob and scream at the top of her lungs. The first time we took pity on her and left, but we went back about a week later to try it again. She had the same reaction, but being the mean parent I am I still wanted the picture. And a picture we got. Don’t worry; I don’t think she’s scarred for life.

Christmas was more fun for Jordan this year since she was able to open her own gifts. Once again, she cleaned up in the amount of gifts she got. She wore herself out that day playing with all her new toys and her Papa, Grandma Franklin, and her Great-Grandparents. She also enjoyed eating a huge quantity of potatoes and corn casserole at dinner. All-in-all I think she had a great day.

jordan: month 21

2011-12-23T18:56:00.002-06:00

November was a pretty uneventful month in terms of new things for Jordan. She did get to experience her 2nd Thanksgiving and partake in the food this year. I was more excited than she was. She didn’t want to eat anything other than mashed potatoes and pie. Go figure! All Thanksgiving morning she kept asking for pie! She had never had it before so I’m not sure why she was so fixated on it.

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. Last year Jordan was not very mobile and didn’t show much interest in the tree. This year was a different story. She loves to look at all the ornaments. We play a game where I say the name of an ornament and she will point to it – stars, balls, Santa, and the picture ornaments of Jordan (she just says baby).

One weekend this month we rented the game Just Dance. Jordan loved it and always wanted to play. She also had to hold the Wii controller as well. She’d even wake up from her nap and ask to play it. Too bad we only had it for a day. It was fun to watch her dance to the songs.

jordan: month 20

2011-11-28T14:22:00.002-06:00

Jordan continues to grow up so fast and learn and do new things every day! A few new firsts for Jordan this month was her first ear infection (and a double one at that!), doing a somersault (didn’t know she even knew how), dressing up as Muno for Halloween, and going trick or treating.

Jordan’s vocabulary is also growing rapidly. I’ve lost count on how many words she can say. She is starting to talk more and use words instead of gestures. It can be hard to figure out what she is saying sometimes since some words sound the same.

Jordan is also entering the “terrible twos” early. Wow! She can get so mad so fast now and really tests us. She also screams no at me when she doesn’t want to do something. It can be very frustrating, but I just try to remain calm, breathe, and sometimes just ignore her since she is just looking for a reaction. We have good days and bad. I just tell myself it is just a phase and I must remain consistent with her.

Jordan went to the pediatric dentist for the first time this month. I kept meaning to take her, but let it get away from me. The dentist’s office was great! It is decorated in a jungle theme with animal murals painted on the walls and a Tiki Hut in the exam room. The hygienist and dentist were great with Jordan and were very patient with her when she got scared when they reclined the exam chair. She really liked getting her teeth brushed with the bubblegum toothpaste and also when they squirted water in her mouth. The dentist said Jordan’s teeth looked great and she was rewarded with 2 stickers.

Another great development this month was that Jordan is showing signs of interest in the potty. We noticed she would tug at her diaper and hide when she goes #2. If you can ask her soon enough if she needs to use the potty she will say yes and run to the bathroom. As soon as you get her stripped down and on the toilet she freaks out a little and says she’s done. When we were at the dentist office she even asked to use the potty. I took her in and she didn’t go, but I was impressed that she asked to go. These are great first steps! I think I need to get her her own small potty to help make her feel less scared by the big one.

jordan: month 19

2011-10-13T16:57:00.007-05:00

Jordan had an exciting September with her first trip out of the state and her first trip on an airplane. My sister, Beth, got married in Denver, CO and we flew out there for the festivities. Jordan did pretty well on all the flights, but we did have a few bad moments. Jordan decided to bite the tip of her purple crayon off while on the flight to Denver. She proceeded to scream and cry for several minutes while we frantically scrambled to clean her mouth out. She also lost it when I took her chicken mcnugget away because she was just holding it and not eating it. I didn’t want her touching every surface on the plane with it. Speaking of plane surfaces, Jordan decided it was a good idea to lick the airplane window! Eww! I couldn’t help but think of the death flu she’d probably catch by doing that.

Sharing a hotel room with Jordan was a whole other issue. The whole time we were there, Jordan would wake up every 1.5 hours crying in her sleep. We’d have to go pick her up, hold her for a minute, and then lay her back down. Then we’d repeat the process in a few hours. She also would cough. A lot! Since it is so dry out West Jordan would get congested half way through the night and start breathing through her mouth. Her throat would dry out pretty quickly and then the dry coughing would start. As you can probably tell, Chip and I slept pretty terribly that whole weekend. The last night we were in Denver we moved hotels to one closer to the airport. Once again Jordan did her cry-in-her-sleep thing. Unfortunately, the first time I jumped out of bed to calm her down I tripped over a coffee table that I forgot was there, and knocked it over. Not only was it loud and made Jordan wake up and cry even louder, but I got a lump the size of a ping pong ball on my shin and a large bruise on my knee. Ouch!

The wedding itself was nice and Jordan behaved ok, though she had numerous meltdowns during the reception since she was up until 11 pm. She hung in there. Chip and I did barely. We did a lot of passing Jordan around to her relatives. She got to see her great-grandparents again as well as meet my uncle and cousins.

One really cute thing Jordan started doing while we were in Denver was calling my dad “Papa.” That is her way of saying Grandpa. It was so cute! Every morning she’d wake up, stand up in her pack n’ play, point to the front door and say “Papa.” When she’d see him she’d squeal with delight and have to walk with him holding his hand. She is definitely a “Papa’s Girl.” I don’t think my dad minds one bit.

As for the rest of this month, Jordan has now mastered climbing on to furniture. She will climb on the fireplace, the couch, the recliner in her bedroom, and even my bed! She always seems to look so proud of herself when she does it. Unfortunately she also likes to stand up and jump on the couch or bed, which she knows she’s not supposed to. This has led to quite a few time outs. Another new thing Jordan started doing this month is twirling her hair around her index finger when she drank from her cup. Not sure why, but it is cute. Jordan also sounds like she sings songs. She doesn’t say any discernible words, but you can tell by the melody she is singing. Songs we’ve heard her sing include “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and her “ABC’s”.

jordan: month 18

2011-09-10T20:47:00.001-05:00

I can hardly believe Jordan is already 1 1/2 years old already! Time seems to have gone by so fast. At Jordan’s 18 month checkup she weighed 24 lbs and was 32.5” long. Her growth continues to be nice and steady.

It seems like Jordan keeps developing new skills and words all the time. It amazes me how much she understands! I need to give her more credit than I do. She may not be able to say a ton of words, but she certainly understands them. A few new words she said this month were color and outside. Jordan can also point out her ears, eyes, nose, mouth and belly button when asked. She is proud of showing off her belly button and even spent most of a trip to Walmart with her shirt pulled up showing it off.

Another thing Jordan started doing this month was helping put Frank in his crate when we go out. I guess she’s seen me do it a number of times, so now she mimics me. She’ll help me corral Frank into his crate and then once I close the door she says and waves bye to him and blows him a kiss (that part is hers, I merely say bye).

Jordan has also developed quite an opinion on things. For some reason I started showing her clothes to wear each day when I’d pick something out for her. She’d say no if she didn’t want to wear something and yes if she did. It was cute at first, but quickly got old when she wouldn’t like most of the things I’d show her. I’d go through like 7 or 8 shirts before she’d agree to wear something. Most of the time now I just pick something out for her and don’t give her a choice. She can pick out her own clothes when she is older!

Jordan still loves to dance, but reading is a close second. Jordan loves for Chip and I to read stories to her and will frequently bring us books to read to her. She also likes the recordable storybooks my parents gave her since she can feel like she is “reading” on her own.

Jordan is now getting to the age where she is testing us a lot. It can be pretty frustrating and has resulted in her getting numerous time outs. We’re having to set more boundaries now and trying to get her to understand what she should and shouldn’t do. She can get very angry, very quickly if she is told no. She now likes to scream at the top of her lungs if she gets angry. Big fun! We just have to be consistent. She’ll even try to do cute things like give us a hug or a kiss if she’s about to get a time out to try to get out of it, but we have to be strong. It’s almost like training Frank all over again! He’d do the same things…except for the screaming J

Jordan has her trying moments, but for the most part she is a wonderful addition to our lives. We won’t sell her to the gypsies just yet ;)

jordan: month 17

2011-08-26T09:54:00.002-05:00

Jordan is quite the chatter box now, though no one can tell what she is saying most of the time. This frustrates her sometimes. She is using her sign language more now and will “say” please for things. Thanks to our friend Robyn for teaching her that! A few new words Jordan said this month were baby, amen, and nana (in reference to her Grandma Jan).

Jordan is getting better at running around now, but still trips and falls a good bit, too. She seems to always have bruises on her knees and a periodic bruise on her forehead. I’m sure she’ll get many more as she is now trying to climb things like the bricks on the front of the fireplace. Jordan is also starting to get better at throwing things. She will occasionally toss a dog toy to Frank.

This girl LOVES to dance! Anytime she hears any music she starts to dance. I’ve heard from several volunteers in Waumba Land (our church’s nursery) that Jordan loves to dance during the music time every Sunday, so much so she has been known to lose her balance and fall down. Ha! I keep trying to sneak in there and see it for myself. It always makes me smile to “spy” on her playing and having fun with others.

Speaking of dancing, Jordan’s new favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba. This show is just up her alley with lots of music and dancing. I like it myself! She will actually watch this show. Most other shows she loses interest in quickly and doesn’t really watch. We haven’t really let her watch tv up until this point either because I didn’t like how she’d sit there like a zombie starring at the screen. At least with YGG she is up and dancing most of the show so it makes me feel a little better about her watching tv.

Also this month the whole Flater family spent the week at a beach house in Destin. Jordan had fun hanging out with the family and getting to see her cousins Jacob & Shawn again. We enjoyed getting to see everyone as well.

Well, I think that about sums up this month!

jordan: month 16

2011-07-12T11:52:00.001-05:00

June was a fun month for Jordan. She got to go to her first wedding, the Niceville Children’s Spray Park, and welcome a friend home from deployment. She also got to help her daddy celebrate his second Father’s Day. Jordan also sat on Grandma & Grandpa Flater’s motorcycle – which she enjoyed greatly!

Jordan said a few new words this month: ugh oh, and possibly something that sounded like I love you. She may have not said it, but it was after I said it to her and what she said back was three syllables. Wishful thinking by me, perhaps :) Another new development, though not a good one, was that Jordan now says “no”…a lot! It is kind of annoying, but I know all kids go through this phase. Hopefully it goes quick!

Jordan also can follow some commands. We can ask her to go get a certain toy and she will usually do it. We have also asked to her pick up her toys and she did that as well. Maybe the most impressive one was when she walked all the way from the kitchen to our bedroom to put Chip’s Father’s Day card back. We didn’t think she understood what we asked her to do, but then she did it and we were quite impressed. She may not be able to say a ton, but she certainly knows quite a bit! It is amazing how kids learn a language!

This month also brought back the dreaded teething! I had forgotten how miserable it was until she started to cut 3 of her cuspids (fang teeth). She would be drooly, grumpy, and would wake up crying several times during the night and during naps. I think she is good now, but the 4th cuspid appears to be making its way out now. I think after this she is good until her 2 year molars come in. Hopefully!

jordan: month 15

2011-06-10T14:18:00.001-05:00

At Jordan’s 15 month check-up she weighed in at 22.6 lbs and was 31” long. She is growing nice and steady. This baby girl is on the move now! She loves to walk, run, dance, and twirl. Her favorite thing is to be chased, which can be fun but now means anytime time I try to go near her she starts to run away. Jordan also loves to be outside. Every time I let Frank out to potty she throws a fit if she can’t go outside either. Some things she likes to do outside include playing with bubbles and “riding” the tricycle her grandparents bought her (she has to be pushed since her feet don’t reach the pedals yet.) Jordan also loves music. If she hears music she will immediately start bopping up and down. She is also getting more and more chatty. A few new words this month were OK, buh-bye, and cool.

This month Jordan spent 2 weeks with her Grandma and Grandpa Franklin while Chip and I enjoyed a vacation to Venice, Florence, and Rome, Italy. She had a great time and I’m pretty sure exhausted my parents. Chip and I had a wonderful time exploring 3 different and fun cities. We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to go.

Another milestone this month was that Jordan was moved up the “walkers” room at the church nursery. After escaping the nursery several times last Sunday, they finally conceded that she was ready to be promoted. It’s a bittersweet moment…my little girl is no longer a baby :( Kitti, the woman who watched her in the nursery, had done so since she was 8 weeks old!

A random thing we learned about Jordan this month was that watermelon makes her vomit. I had fed it to her once and she seemed to like it. Then the following day I diced some up and added it to her applesauce and she gagged a few times and then vomited it out on her highchair. I initially thought she had picked up a stomach bug, but 2 days later I fed her watermelon again and once again she threw it up. I guess she must not like the taste or something. So now watermelon is on her “do not eat” list. I guess she can try it again in a few years and see what she thinks of it then. Oh well!

jordan: month 14

2011-05-11T16:01:00.000-05:00

This month marked when Jordan went from a full-time crawler to a full-time walker. She started out the month taking several steps and then falling and by the end of the month she would walk all around the house. It was an exciting thing, but also an exhausting thing. I now have to constantly follow her around to make sure she doesn’t get into trouble. I’m not always successful, as was the case a few weeks ago when I was putting away laundry and Jordan walked in the bathroom and proceeded to unroll an entire roll of toilet paper. She was quite amused, I was not.

Jordan’s vocabulary has been expanding as well. I think she’s said yes, no, dog, all done, and milk. She will point at things and say “that” wanting to know what they are. Of course she doesn’t say them perfectly, but that was our best guess as to what she was saying.

A funny thing Jordan started doing this month was the “raging bull” face. She would scrunch up her face, flare her nostrils, and breathe in and out like a bull that is stamping its foot about to charge. She seemed to do it when she would get frustrated. Jordan also started shaking her head side-to-side like she was shaking her head “no”. Luckily she doesn’t do it when she means no, she just does it because she thinks it is fun. Silly girl!

Another new development this month was her need for her mom. If she fell and got upset or was overtired and grumpy or even scared she would cry “mama” and reach for me. Even if Chip was trying to console her, she still only wanted me. I have to admit it was kind of sweet. We’ll see how long this phase lasts.

jordan: month 13

2011-04-11T12:17:00.005-05:00

How quickly another month has passed! Jordan just keeps doing more and more things that remind me she is not a baby anymore. She will wave hi or bye if you ask her, she can point out certain things on command, and now she will blow kisses. Too sweet! She will also give kisses, but it’s more like she leans her wide open mouth into yours. Still adorable! Jordan also took her first steps this month. She was so proud of herself. She can take 8 or 9 steps and then she’ll fall down. She’s still a ways away from being a full-time walker I think, but who knows. She gets so excited to walk that her bottom half doesn’t move as fast as the top half and she usually just lunges forward and falls. She has some bruised up knees right now. Jordan’s vocabulary seems to be growing as well. Several times I feel like she has said yes “ya” when I ask her a question. I think she also said yogurt “go-gur”. She also says ooh and wow, or at least I think that’s what she is saying.

Jordan also had her first trip to the ER this month. Earlier in the day I had taken her to the pediatrician because she sounded congested. The Dr. said she had a sinus infection and gave her some antibiotics (another first), but that night we heard her wheezing in her monitor and just didn’t feel comfortable letting her suffer. The ER Dr. said she had croup. She had a nebulizer treatment at the hospital and was given a prescription for some steroids. It was about a week before she was better. Luckily we caught it fairly early, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least our first trip to the ER with her was a relatively calm one. Jordan did great and even smiled and waved at the doctors and nurses :)

Another not-so-fun development this month was the temper tantrum. Jordan had a few days where she would get very angry if she was told no or caught doing something she knew she shouldn’t. She would scream, cry, flail her arms and legs, arch her back, and generally do anything to let me know she wasn’t happy. She got several time outs for her behavior. It certainly tested my patience. Hopefully I will learn ways to diffuse her anger before she gets to the tantrum stage. Fun times!

jordan: month 12

2011-03-16T08:41:00.002-05:00

Jordan is a year old now! I can hardly believe my sweet baby girl is 12 months old. Time sure did fly by. At Jordan’s 12 month well baby check she weighed 21.4 lbs and was 28.5 inches long – 50th percentile for both. Also at her checkup she got blood drawn for an anemia and lead test. I felt so bad for my little lamb, but she was brave. She of course screamed bloody murder, but that was remedied with some hugs and kisses from me.

We had Jordan’s 1st birthday party on February 12. We had a house full of family and friends to help us celebrate. It was a great time. Watching Jordan smash into and devour her cake was wonderful. She loved it so much she licked her fingers clean and then ate the extra frosting off her face. She must get that from me :)

Jordan’s new favorite things to do are pointing and waving. I can ask her where Frank is and she will point at him. The other day she was in her high chair eating breakfast and she starting waving. I looked out the window and saw our neighbor out doing yard work. How cute that she was waving at him! Jordan loves to stare and smile at people. If we’re eating out she will usually find someone at another table to stare, smile, and wave at. She seems to be a sweet natured little girl.

That doesn’t mean she always behaves though. We have started giving her one minute time outs when she misbehaves. She will sometimes be too rough on Frank and yank his ears or hit him, so she’ll be punished. She’ll also get a time out if she continually throws her sippy cup or food off her high chair. She clearly doesn’t like her time outs, but maybe if we’re consistent she will stop doing things we don’t want her to do.

Jordan’s separation anxiety hit an all-time high this month. Let me tell you it was not fun! I couldn’t leave her sight for a second without her bursting into tears and crawling after me. That made for some dicey days for the church nursery workers. Her separation anxiety certainly wasn’t helped by the fact Jordan got all her 1st year molars and an incisor in 5 days! Hopefully that teething perfect-storm doesn’t happen again. I felt so bad for her; her gums were so swollen and painful looking. I’m certainly grateful for Tylenol and Orajel.

This month we took Jordan to the Gulf Breeze Zoo. Jordan seemed to really enjoy seeing the animals and would happily shriek at the all. She liked the petting zoo where she could touch the animals – and steal their food. She grabbed some of the food pellets they sell to feed the animals and tried to put it in her mouth. Yuck! Luckily she didn’t eat it.

Jordan is quite adept at crawling now and can really move. She is also standing up fairly well on her own now, but it makes me nervous because she will sometimes fall backwards and hit her head. We have to watch her like a hawk now. She certainly wants to be independent, which is fine, but I just don’t want her getting hurt. To help her with standing/walking, I bought her her first pair of shoes. The rubber soles on the bottom help her not to slide around so much.

Well, I think I’ve remembered it all. It’s fun to continue to watch Jordan grow and develop. Chip and I are certainly enjoying this little girl.

jordan: month 11

2011-02-16T11:45:00.002-06:00

Month 11 was certainly not as exciting as month 10 for Jordan. Not much to report this month. Jordan did get her 7th tooth – her bottom right lateral incisor – much to our surprise. I didn’t realize she was teething again. It must not have bothered her too much. My favorite moment came on January 19 when Jordan said “Mama” for the first time. It was a wonderful word to hear. She still by far says “Dada” a ton more, but at least I get some acknowledgement now. Right before Jordan’s first birthday we stopped giving her bottles and gave her only sippy cups. She protested quite a bit at first, but luckily within a day or two got over it and doesn’t seem to miss her bottles at all. Phew! We’re trying to feed her more table foods now, but she is beginning to develop a picky palate. She doesn’t seem to like texture too much, but we’re working on it. Another highlight this month was when Chip and I got to get away for the weekend without Jordan. We spent a few days in Orlando together and went to Disney World. It was nice to get a break from Jordan, but it was hard not to miss her at the place people crawling with kids. We’ll take her one day when she is older and will be more likely to enjoy it.

jordan: month 10

2011-01-12T19:28:00.002-06:00

Jordan’s tenth month of life was quite possibly her busiest yet. In one month she got 3 teeth, started crawling on Christmas Eve, and now pulls up on everything! Needless to say life has changed for us quite a bit now that we have to constantly chase after her. She is fast! We had to finally drop Jordan’s crib now that she can stand. We noticed she chewed on the rail. It now bears her tiny teeth marks. It irritated me at first, but now I think it is kind of cute. It was a sad milestone for me to drop her crib - just another reminder how my baby girl is becoming a toddler. When Jordan smiles now you can see her 6 teeth – 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. Jordan celebrated her first Christmas this month. She went to Chip’s work Christmas party and got to meet all his coworkers. Then we spent Christmas with my parents and my dad’s parents. It was nice for Jordan to meet her great-grandparents. Jordan cleaned up on gifts. She got lots of toys and some clothes. Jordan had yet another first this month – she projectile vomited. She was acting totally fine before it happened and was happy and smiling immediately after. About two days later I caught it and 2 days after that Chip got it. I guess this is just a taste of what we can expect in years to come. Other things that happened this month: she loves cold weather and gets a big smile on her face when a cool breeze hits her, she clicks her tongue on the roof of her mouth and will start doing it if you do it to her first, she “dances” when she hears music, smiles when I sing her Feliz Navidad, shows interest in what Chip and I am eating, she doesn’t seem to like grapes or oranges but likes yogurt and pierogies (much to the delight of my mother), and she also prefers Earth’s Best baby food. We discovered this after she was refusing to eat other brands’ stage 3 foods. She would clamp her mouth shut and cry. I happened to have a jar of Earth’s Best and she happily ate the entire jar. So now I gladly spend the extra twenty cents a jar for a more pleasant experience for both of us. Well, I think that about does it for what happened this month. It was an action-packed one. Ten months down, only 2 more until she is ONE!!

2010: year in review

2011-01-02T11:10:00.016-06:00

baby:
2010 started off with me being around 31 weeks pregnant and pretty swollen. Jordan was due March 4, but I felt like I was about to split open and didn’t know how I would ever make it 2 more months. Luckily, God, Jordan and my body had a plan for an early escape - like 3 weeks early! Labor went relatively quick once my water broke. After about 5 hours, an epidural, and 40 minutes of pushing Jordan was here! Our precious 6 lb 4 oz baby girl had made her arrival into the world on February 10. Life hasn’t been the same since, but it is good. We’re now the parents of an almost one year old, so we’ve survived the first year! The reflux, sleep deprivation, teething, crawling, separation anxiety, and impending walking have all been worth it. I can say that now at least :) Jordan is such a beautiful, sweet, fun little girl. We’re looking forward to more fun with her in the years ahead!

house:
2010 was also the year we FINALLY bought a house. After looking at what seemed to be close to 100 homes, we finally found the one for our family. We literally walked in, toured for 10-15 minutes, and decided to put an offer in. Two days later it was accepted as-is and that was that. We moved into our new place the end of May. Chip and I crazily decided to remodel the kitchen ourselves in 2 weeks– with no prior experience and a 3 month old baby! Needless to say it was a tremendous amount of work; Chip suffered a few sleepless nights and a 15 lb weight loss, and it was more than we could have ever bargained for. BUT, now we have an awesome brand new kitchen to show for it. Thanks again U.S. Government for paying for it (tax credit was the best!). We’ve now been in our house 7 months and have really grown fond of our place. We are truly blessed to have this home. We love the house and the great neighborhood it is in. Our patience definitely paid off!

family:
2010 also brought my parents back to Florida. First they came to visit in March after Jordan was born. Then the next week their house in Kansas City sold and within a few months my dad got a job in Pensacola. They moved to Pace in August. It is nice to have them so close. The last time they lived this close to me I was still living at home, so a while! They got to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with us this year, so that was fun. We’re glad to have babysitters so close by should we ever need to leave Jordan and Frank for a vacation…say to Italy this Spring ;)

sad times:
2010 also had sad times as well. First, Polly Sauter passed away in early January. Polly was like a Grandmother to me. I met her when I was in kindergarten through her granddaughter. Over the years my whole family has stayed in contact with her and her husband Jack. For several years they would come over to our house for Christmas. Polly and Jack were also at my wedding. I am grateful to have had many years to know her and a lot of good memories.

Another loss our family suffered occurred in late October when my sister-in-law Erin passed away. It was a shocking and unexpected loss. Sadly, Jordan never got to meet her Aunt Erin. It will take us quite a while to process her loss. My heart goes out to Chip and his entire family. It can’t be easy, and probably never will be.

final reflections:
2010 was a year filled with highs and lows. It had its challenges, but also its rewards like Jordan’s smile, all of our family being so close now, and our great friends. All of which we’ve relied on this year. Who knows what 2011 will bring, but as always I look forward to another year of growing and learning as a family.

jordan: month 9

2010-12-17T20:49:00.001-06:00

Jordan is 3/4 of a year old! At her 9 month check-up she weighed in at 19.8 lbs and 28” in length. This month marked Jordan’s first Thanksgiving. Both sets of her grandparents joined us as well as her Aunt Candi. Jordan got to try some our turkey and mashed potatoes. She didn’t appear to be a fan of either. Not surprising, since we started giving her baby food with chunks of veggies this month she won’t open her mouth and doesn’t want to eat it. We’ve also started giving her more finger foods, sometimes as a snack and sometimes just pieces of things we’re eating. So far she’s had puffs, grapes, chicken, steak, fish, and green beans. Jordan’s gotten much better at feeding herself and not just dropping everything into her lap. She also got her 3rd tooth, one of her front teeth, this month. Jordan is developing more emotionally now, too. Overall she is a very happy baby. She laughs and smiles often, especially when I sing her favorite song “Skidder Marinky Dinky Dink.” She has begun to experience a bit of separation anxiety though, and that is not fun. She cries almost every time we leave her in the church nursery. She seems to get over it in a few minutes, so that is good, but if she sees us in the room and we don’t immediately come to her she will start to cry again. It breaks my heart every time it happens. One word she doesn’t like is “no.” Jordan will throw a fit and cry if I tell her no. Oh joy! I thought she was too young for this. Jordan has also mastered getting into the crawling position from being seated and standing up with assistance. The thought of her walking soon is just crazy to me. She’ll no longer be a baby and will graduate to being a toddler. Slow down Jordan, I don’t know if I’m ready!

jordan: month 8

2010-11-16T11:27:00.003-06:00

Month 8 wasn’t the most eventful month for Jordan. A few of the highlights included Jordan doing the sign for more (maybe), spending the whole day with Grandma Franklin so Mommy & Daddy could have a date, eating meat for the first time (a jar of Earth’s Best Apple Turkey Cranberry dinner), holding her own bottle during feedings, and saying “Dada.” We had a less-than-exciting trip to the Pumpkin Patch at the Methodist church in Niceville. Jordan seemed very disinterested – maybe it was too noisy with the loud traffic sounds and jet noise from Eglin. Month 8 also brought a sad first for Jordan - her first funeral. Chip’s sister Erin passed away unexpectedly this month. Sadly, Jordan never got to meet her Aunt Erin. Chip and I are committed to making sure Jordan knows about her through pictures and stories. Chip and I travelled to Naples for a memorial service for Erin and left Jordan for the first time. We were away from her for 5 days. She did great at my parent’s house. We are so grateful to have them so close by now. Because we were in Naples, we missed Jordan’s first Halloween. Not a big deal since she is so little and has no concept of the holiday. Jordan was going to be a sock monkey, but I couldn’t find a costume so I ended up buying her a cute pink sock monkey hat. At least she can wear the hat during winter so she’ll get some use out of it. Besides, it’s adorable :) Jordan’s still not crawling yet. She doesn’t really seem interested. She can roll pretty much anywhere she wants to go. She is getting up and rocking on her knees now, so she’ll probably be crawling in a few more weeks. For now I am just enjoying her while she’s still not too mobile. Once she is I’m sure she’ll be off. My little girl is growing up so fast!

jordan: month 7

2010-10-12T15:05:00.002-05:00

Month seven was a big month for Jordan. My little girl got her first two teeth…at once! Jordan also got her first fever, not related to an immunization. She had it for about a day and then it went away. Luckily Tylenol came to the rescue. Jordan continues to learn and do new things all the time. She reaches and grabs for anything and now I have to watch her even more closely as she almost pulled a dinner plate off the table! Jordan’s “vocabulary” has also expanded. She says “la-la-la” quite a bit in a sing-songy voice. She also is making a gurgly “G”. Jordan still isn’t crawling yet, but is quite adept at scooting and rolling to get to where she wants to go. When Jordan tries to crawl she just ends up pushing herself backwards. I’m in no rush for her to be mobile…just yet. Month seven also brought the demise of the pacifier – mostly because I was sick of getting up in the middle of the night to put it back in her mouth when she woke up looking for it. It was really not bad. As long as she doesn’t see it, she doesn’t miss it, though I have slacked a bit lately and brought it back a few times because it seems to help her when her teeth are bothering her. Taking her pacifier away has helped her to sleep from 8:30 p.m. until around 7 a.m. soundly – hallelujah! On September 26 Jordan did the sign, or what looked like the sign, for hungry. I have been signing to her hungry, milk, all done, and more since she was around 4 months old. I’m still not 100% convinced she really did it, but our friend who was there at the time said it sure looked like it to her. Jordan also learned to clap her hands, which she demonstrated for the first time at our friend Lexi’s baby shower. Several of Jordan’s firsts happened in front of a group of people. I guess she likes to impress people with her skills? She is also waving, though usually not when you wave at her. She’ll just randomly wave. Jordan also reached out for her Daddy when he came to pick her up from the church nursery on October 3. I didn’t get to see that one, but Chip said it was really sweet. Since he is usually at work during her firsts, I’ll gladly let him have this one :) I think that is about it for this month. Jordan just continues to amaze us with all that she learns and I continue to be amazed how fast she is growing up!

jordan: month 6

2010-09-11T10:20:00.007-05:00

Jordan’s sixth month stats: 16.2 lbs, 26.5” long. She’s in the 75th percentile for both height and weight – yay! Based on those numbers, she has certainly caught up since her slow start. Jordan reached several milestones during her sixth month of life. She can sit up on her own unsupported now and she can also roll from her stomach to her back. Jordan also reaches for objects, which I place just out of reach to encourage her to crawl. She looks like she is trying, but just hasn’t gotten all the mechanics down yet. I’m OK with her not being mobile just yet. Jordan likes if you sing and dance for her and will smile when you clap your hands. She also seems to recognize her name and will look at you if you call her. Another “skill” she gained this month was the ability to put her foot in her mouth and suck on her big toe – lovely! Jordan continues to enjoy eating and began eating apple sauce, squash, green beans, peaches, pears, and oatmeal this month. Fun things we did with Jordan this month included: lunch with Grandpa Franklin in Pensacola, welcoming back our friend from deployment in Afghanistan, and going to the Fort Walton Beach Greek Festival. I can hardly believe my baby girl is already half a year old! I am looking forward to more adventures and developments!

jordan: months 0 – 5

2010-08-02T18:52:00.024-05:00

I’ve been meaning to update my blog month-by-month with updates about life with Jordan, but obviously I haven’t. So, I plan on recapping the past 5 months of her life in one post and then hoping to be diligent in keeping up each month from now on. We’ll see. Here we go!

Month 0 (February):

Life is a HUGE adjustment with a newborn. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life! I can’t seem to remember anything since I’m so sleep deprived. Luckily we write down every time Jordan eats and when we change her diapers so we don’t forget - seriously. Jordan is a tiny little baby, maybe only 6 lbs. She sleeps a lot. Her cries are quiet, cute, and lamb-like at this point – which earns her the nickname Lambie. We watch the winter Olympics pretty much 24/7 since it is the only thing on in the wee hours of the night/morning. On a side note, I am now familiar with the ins and outs of curling :) I feel like I’ve been hit by a semi, but at least I started feeling more like myself within a few weeks. Chip is exhausted as well and has been my total support during this time. I seriously couldn't do this without him. Frank is not sure what to think. He knows something is different, but isn’t quite sure what to make of this little screaming “thing”. He tries to sit on our lap when Jordan is there and always wants to be around us. I guess maybe this is how an older sibling feels when the new baby comes home, like they’re being replaced? We try to give him extra attention to make sure he doesn’t get sad. When Jordan is about 3 weeks old she gets a cold, or so we think. She sounds awfully congested so we take her to the doctor. The doctor says she has Gastro Esophageal Reflux and prescribes baby Zantac for her. She had been spitting up so much it would come out her nose and the stomach acid would inflame her nasal passages. My poor little Lambie :(

Month 1 (March):

Jordan is getting slightly bigger; she may be 7 pounds now according to our bathroom scale. She still has issues with her reflux and spits up quite a bit even a few hours after she eats. She is getting more and more alert and expressive, but still sleeps most of the time. She smiled for the first time on March 26. It was beyond adorable and totally makes up for the lack of sleep, daily crying fits from 4 – 6 pm we affectionately refer to as “the witching hours”, and the total chaos our lives have now become. Jordan HATES bath time and screams the entire time we bathe her. I hope she grows out of this! Jordan likes to look at some simple black & white pictures I drew for her of a smiley face, tree, checkerboard, and a lamb. March brought my parents from Kansas City, MO for a visit. I enjoyed getting some help caring for Jordan for a week. Chip and I even got to go see a movie together, Alice in Wonderland. I’m surprised we were able to stay awake through it though! Jordan got to go to the beach for the first time and to Destin Commons, a local outdoor shopping center.

Month 2 (April):

At 2 months old Jordan is up to 9.2 lbs! Yay, she is finally gaining some weight. The reflux is now under control and she isn’t spitting up most everything she eats. April brought Jordan’s first Easter. Not that she cared; she was red-faced and screaming most of the day. I did put a pretty little dress on her for Easter Sunday at church. It was much too big on her. Jordan slept through the night from 9:30 p.m. until 5 a.m. on April 25. When both Chip and I woke up that morning and realized neither one of us had to get up with her during the night we were SO excited. A full night’s sleep never felt so good! And with more sleep, my memory started getting better. Now more triple-checking to make sure I locked the front door because I couldn't remember if I had or not. Yes! Month 2 also brought the demise of half the hair on Jordan’s head. I figured she wouldn’t be a brunette baby since both Chip and I were blonds, but I guess I thought I’d be more gradual than it was. April was a big month for our family as we decided to purchase our first house! We were excited to find it and to soon have a lot more space and a yard. We decided to remodel the kitchen, ourselves, before we moved in.

Month 3 (May):

May was a busy month for all us! Jordan now weighs in around 10.5 lbs and is getting heavier by the day. Jordan’s feeding issues are a thing of the past, and our baby girl is thriving now. She is now a little chatterbox! She makes all sorts of fun “oohs” and “ahhs”. Jordan also loves to smile at us and anyone she encounters. She loves to sit in her swing in our sun room and look out the window at all the trees. Jordan also loves to play on her undersea toy mat and bat and grab the toys and rings on it. She enjoys her baths now too. She smiles excitedly as she kicks her legs to splash the water. If she gets startled or scared by a loud noise, she screams and cries…so sad! We celebrated my first Mother’s Day by participating in Baby Dedication at our church. May marked my and Chip’s 6^th anniversary. It also was the month we became homeowners…and home renovators. Chip and several friends and family members overhauled our kitchen by ripping out counter tops, cabinets, and knocking out a soffit. We are so grateful for all the help. It was a stressful and exhausting 2 weeks, but in the end our new kitchen looks amazing! I have loved cooking in it so far and am looking forward to putting it to use for the holidays.

Month 4 (June):

Jordan now tips the scales at 12.6 lbs and 24.5”! She has now doubled her birth weight. She also drools like crazy now and sucks on her hands. June was a big month for Jordan. Not only did she roll over from her back to her stomach on June 2, in front of a group of friends no less, but she also started solid foods. I wondered if she’d be too young for it, but she took to it instantly and seems to love eating solid food like a big girl. We started her on rice cereal on June 5 and then a few weeks later gave her peas, which she made the funniest face of disgust when she ate. She got over her disdain for peas and still eats them. Jordan continues to love to chat and smile at us and others. Jordan also laughed out loud for the first time. At first I thought she coughed, but then I realized it was a laugh. She’ll laugh if you kiss her on the cheek or blow on her belly. It is so cute!! She also likes to play “Super Jordan”, where we hold her up in the air and fly her around like Superman. Jordan is also a bit of an observer. She loves to just sit and watch people in the room and sometimes finds that more interesting than her toys. She also smiled at Frank! It was precious. She was playing on the floor and Frank walked in her room and she smiled at him. June brought the celebration of Chip’s first Father’s Day. We celebrated the day by spending it with his family in Bonifay. We took Jordan to Chip’s parent’s church and introduced her to their friends. June also brought the exciting news that my dad got a job in Pensacola and my parents would now be living one hour away instead of 16. We’re very excited that Jordan will get to have both sets of her grandparents so close by.

Month 5 (July):

Jordan’s weight is now up to 14 lbs and she is 26.25” long. She’s getting more and more active and looks to be getting close to being mobile. She loves to roll over on to her belly, but often gets frustrated and cries when she can’t roll back over or get anywhere. She moves her arms and legs when on her belly, but just hasn’t gotten it together enough to move anywhere. Her hand eye coordination has gotten really good now and she puts everything in her mouth! She even tries to put her pacifier in her mouth, but sometimes she misses and bops herself in the cheek. Jordan is also quite vocal, shrieking and squealing whenever the mood strikes her. She also loves in sit up and see the world from that vantage point. We have to support her when she sits up since she’ll fall over if we don’t steady her. Jordan reaches out and “pets” Frank now when he’s near her. It is SO cute! Jordan still loves her veggies and has now added carrots and sweet potatoes into the rotation. Jordan has had a few cranky days this month due to her teething. No teeth have cut through yet, but we suspect they will sometime in the next couple of weeks. Jordan likes if you sing and dance for her. During 4^th of July she’d get a big smile on her face if you’d hum patriotic songs for her. Jordan had her first 4^th of July. She slept through the fireworks though. Oh well, maybe next year. Chip and I are enjoying a newfound sense of stability in our lives. We know have 5 months under our belts of being parents and feel like we are more prepared and enjoying things more now. We’re definitely more easy-going parents. We tend to not let ourselves worry too much about things. If Jordan is healthy and happy, then we are good.

jordan's story

2010-02-22T19:13:00.003-06:00

Well, our baby girl did not want to wait until March 4 to be born! I had been feeling pretty uncomfortable the last few weeks of pregnancy. My feet were very swollen. I was having more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, and I felt like the skin on my stomach was going to split open. I truly felt like I couldn’t get any bigger. I was supposed to work until February 26, but my boss jokingly said on Friday, February 5 when I was having a contraction that this better not be my last day. I laughed it off. Little did I know…

Without going into too much detail, the next morning I started having early labor symptoms. I shrugged it off at first thinking it was just a sign labor would be coming in the next month. When I consulted my “What to Expect” book, it said the symptoms I was having meant the baby could be born in 24 – 48 hours. Then I began to panic. So that day Chip and I went into overdrive washing every outfit, blanket, and burp cloth, installing the car seat and packing our bags for the hospital. I felt fine most of the day and didn’t even have any contractions. By the end of the day, I wondered if it was just a false alarm. Sunday morning I woke up and was still experiencing the same symptoms, so we decided to call the hospital. The Labor & Delivery nurse said not to come in until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. At that point I wasn’t having any. Of course, I felt fine most of the day but then at 3:30 pm I began having contractions. They were pretty painful, but were 2 hours apart.

Monday morning I called my doctor and she had me come in. She checked me and I was already 2 – 3 cm dilated and 80 – 90% effaced. She agreed that I would be having this baby before March. I asked her when she thought I might go into labor and she said it could be a day or two or a week. All we could do was wait.

I was having contractions off and on for the next 2 days, but they never seemed to progress. Most days they even stopped. I was having constant lower back pain, which I know now was actually still labor pains.

That Wednesday afternoon I took a nap on the couch around 3 pm. About an hour later I was awoken by a contraction - a quite painful one! Before I could get off the couch to walk it off, I felt a pop and then a gush. My water had just broken! I knew that meant I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. Chip and I grabbed our bags and the car seat and headed out. Within 5 minutes I was already having contractions, luckily not very painful. They were less than 5 minutes apart within another 5-8 minutes. Once I got to the hospital I was taken by wheelchair to labor and delivery.

The nurse hooked me up to the fetal heart & contraction monitor. My contractions started getting really intense and my back was killing me! Plus the contractions were "coupling" and coming in waves of two back to back. Not fun! The nurse checked me and I was already 6 cm dilated in just a few minutes. The nurse said I’d be having this baby tonight. I knew my mother would be excited – she liked the idea of the baby being born on 2/10/2010. My doctor was called in and she checked me out and said this little girl was down very low and that was why I was having such painful back labor. It wasn't much longer until I wanted an epidural.

I debated getting one since I didn’t know how bad the pain of child birth would be. Chip and I did take a Prepared Child Birth (Lamaze) Class where I learned breathing techniques I used up until it got to be too painful for me. In the end I am glad I got the epidural, it made things much more bearable. After I got it the nurse showed me the at least 4 inch needle that was stuck into my back - at that point I didn't care, I felt so much more comfortable. The only bad thing was that the epidural made my blood pressure drop suddenly (a potential side effect that I was concerned about since I have low blood pressure to begin with) which in turn made the baby's heart rate drop. I was put on oxygen and laid on my side and my pressure and the baby’s heart rate came back up in a few minutes.

By 8:45 pm (4 hours later) I was already 9+ cm dilated and by 9:15 pm I was fully dilated. I started pushing at 9:30 pm and the baby was born at 10:21 pm. When the baby's head came out the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. I had to stop pushing while the doctor tried to get some slack on the cord to loosen it (she couldn't), tried to get it off the baby's head (couldn't, it was too tight), and then she clamped it and cut it. A few seconds later the baby was out. We decided to name her Jordan Elizabeth.

Jordan was laid on my chest for just a second. She was so blue and looked like she wasn't moving. The nurses took her immediately to the warmer and began to clean her and suck out her nostrils and throat. I asked if she was breathing because she didn't cry nor did she seem to move much. It seemed like a long time, but in reality was a few seconds, before I heard Jordan let out a cry and squirm around. She had a much more normal coloring to her by then. The nurses noted she seemed to struggle a little when she was breathing and they thought they heard fluid in her lungs, so she was immediately taken to the NICU. It would be 3 hours before I saw her again. Chip went with Jordan when they took her off to be examined. He would take pictures of her and then come back to the delivery room I was in and let me see them on the viewfinder. He also told me she was 6 lbs 4 oz and 20 ¾” in long. Not too bad for being born 3 weeks early.

At 1:30 am I was wheeled into the nursery to see her. She looked so much better! The nurse said she was breathing fine now and that she coughed out most of the fluid in her lungs. All her tests came back good and she was in good health. We stayed and watched as the nurse gave her first bath. I noticed how much hair Jordan had! There must be some truth to the old wives’ tale about heartburn during pregnancy! After they put her in the warmer to get her temperature back up, she was brought to me and Chip at 3:30 am and we got to hold her for the first time. She was so tiny, but so adorable! We are truly blessed that Jordan had a safe and healthy birth and that my health throughout this pregnancy was good as well.

2009 - a year of change

2009-12-31T10:29:00.006-06:00

Here I sit on this New Year's Eve thinking about all the things that happened in 2009. I remember Chip and I driving home from my parent's house in Kansas City last January and talking about what we thought and wanted to happen in 2009.

To borrow a much overused phrase from our then president-elect, I wanted 2009 to be a year of "change". I had a few specifics in mind when I made this statement - some happened, some didn't. Some were good, some were not so good, some where expected, some not-so-much...overall I'm grateful for what this year brought and what lies ahead in 2010. Here are a few of the highlights...

A change in church
2009 started off with Chip and I feeling led to look for a new church. After five + years at our previous church, we felt that we were looking for something that would give us more of an opportunity to feel more involved and invested in not only the church and its members, but the community as well. We visited over 5 churches in the local area, but didn't feel like any of them were for us. It was getting to be depressing. I happened to be reading the newspaper at work one Monday and came across an article about a program called Kidstuff being put on by a church called Beachside Community Church. Why I read that article I have no idea, we didn't have any kids. Anyways, that article led me to do some research into that church. I liked what I read, so I mentioned it to Chip.

Chip did some research into the church as well and was interested in meeting with the pastor. We met up with Shaun, the church's pastor, at the Dairy Queen in Niceville. Chip came prepared with a typed up list of questions to ask him (what can I say, I am married to an engineer!) and Shaun answered everyone of them. We felt good about this new church and the goals and direction they were headed in, but it still took us a few more months to commit. The church didn't start having Sunday services until the end of August (which was 5 months away at the time), so it was hard to commit to something we couldn't "see" in action for a few months.

In the end, we did start serving in and attending the church and have really enjoyed all the new people and friends we have made, getting to be a part of starting up a new church (and all the hard work that it entails), and feeling like we are where we are supposed to be now.

A change in travel (a dream realized)
2009 also brought us many new and exciting travel adventures. Our first trip was to Albuquerque, NM in March. Chip had a conference out there so I decided to join him and explore the Southwest. Highlights included a hot air balloon ride, a side-trip to Santa Fe, and a death-defying tram trip up to Sandia Mountain.

Two days before I joined Chip in ABQ, he called to say we were a go to be on the Rick Steve's London & Paris trip May 24 - June 1. I cried when he told me that! I have dreamt of going to Paris for as long as I can remember - and now I was getting to go!!! I've blogged about this trip before, so I'll spare a regurgitation, but this trip was amazing and one I will never forget. All of the fabulous history, artwork, landmarks, and pastries and I saw and ate will linger with me for the rest of my life. I can't wait to go on another international trip - hopefully to Italy in 2011 ;)

2009 also took me to Austin, TX to visit my good friend Bethany. I had a wonderful time visiting her, her husband Ben, and their daughter Violet and thoroughly enjoyed Bethany and my "girls day out" which included hiking, pedicures, creme brulee french toast & frozen peach Bellini's, and a movie. Also worth mentioning was our lunch earlier in the week at Flip Happy Crepes - it was delicious and still fresh in my mind :)

I also went to Kansas City in August to visit my family and to belatedly celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. I got to give them both a fun surprise - the news they were going to be grandparents - disguised as a birthday gift. I'll always remember the look of shock, surprise, and then excitement on their faces once they realized what they were looking at (a framed ultrasound picture). I'll also remember my sister's reaction - priceless :)

A change in family
2009 also brought us the exciting news that our family would be growing by one, though not until March 4, 2010. We found out I was pregnant in late June. I was happy, but still in shock. Don't get me wrong, this was planned - as much as you can I suppose, but still it was a surprise when you realize that it is actually going to happen.

To make things even more fun, I found out Bethany was pregnant too when she called me to wish me a happy birthday...yay!! It has been fun to go through this with her and get to call or email her and talk about all the strange and new things we're going through. Then a few months later our other friends Austin and Ashley called to say they were pregnant, too. A baby explosion! It is fun to all go through this together.

When I was 12 weeks along we found out we were having a girl. We have a name, but have chosen not to reveal it until she is born. Not so much so we can pull a "I know something you don't know" type thing, we just want to make sure we are set on this name before people start calling her this and also because we don't want to know people's opinions of the name. We know someone will always not like it. Too bad, go have a child of your own and name it whatever you want :)

We are just 9 weeks away, give or take, from our little girl coming into this world. We're eager to meet her and begin this new phase of our lives. Her room is just about ready for her - whether Chip and I are is yet to be seen :)

So, what statement will I make about 2010 and my hopes for it...I don't really know. 2009 did bring some change with it, which I tend to enjoy and sometimes welcome. I'm not one for "routine". I welcome whatever 2010 brings as a chance to learn and grown, to have fun and make new memories. Life isn't always easy, nor the things that happen always enjoyable or predictable. But one thing I have learned this year is that those struggles and challenges remind me we aren't in control and can't control things. These things do, however, serve to make us stronger, develop our character, and teach us to be grateful for the blessings we do have instead of focusing on what we don't have.

As a close to this long-winded post, here is one of my favorite videos (and memories) from our trip to Paris. It is Chip and me eating some ice cream on a bridge in the Île de la Cité listening to an accordion player playing "Que Cera Cera".

Happy New Year to you all!

be my friend

2009-09-19T10:57:00.003-05:00

Dear friends,

I don't condone caving in to peer pressure, but I have. Inadvertently, really. I have now joined Facebook. So, all you people out there that told me to do it need to now go on Facebook and add me as a friend, if I haven't sent you a request already.

That is all. Thank you. :)

my girl

2009-09-04T15:29:00.004-05:00

Say hello to our little girl!

I had my 12.5 week check up a little over a week ago and the doctor told us she could tell us the gender if we wanted to know. Chip and I both wanted to know...I don't think I could have waited the whole 9 months. Anyways, she did the ultrasound and said we are having a girl! We were both very excited - especially since we won't have to deal with the whole Philip John Flater V name debacle. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she really is a she and that we won't get a surprise at the next appointment that it is really a boy. Which would be fine if it did happen, honestly. We'd be excited either way - just as long as they don't find a hidden twin in there :)

Now that I'm in the second trimester I am feeling much better! The queasiness has pretty much disappeared and food is starting to taste better again. Woohoo! I'm not craving anything yet, but at least sweets seem slightly appealing again. I ate chocolate the other day - the first time in months and it actually tasted good!

In other news, Chip and I are looking to buy a house in the area. No luck yet. We've seen probably close to 30 homes over the past few months, but I've only seen one I'd consider putting an offer on and it was way over our price range...of course! Most of the homes in this area are old, which I'm fine with as long as they are well maintained. Most aren't. Some don't even look like they've seen a fresh coat of paint since 1983. So who knows what will happen. Our lease doesn't run out until the end of April, but with the first time home buyer tax credit expiring the end of November and now a baby, we have a little more motivation. Though I finding it hard to "give up" and call Niceville my permanent home. Moving out of state doesn't seem like a option anytime soon. Oh well, I'll deal.

I'm so excited that this weekend marks the start of the college football season. I'm ready to park it on the couch and watch a few games. It somehow makes me think it is Fall even though the 90 degree temps outside remind me it clearly isn't. FYI to those of you with a Chick-fil-a, if you wear your team's shirt on Monday you can get a free chicken sandwich. Yes!! I love Chick-fil-a!!

Last weekend also marked the first Sunday service of our new church, Beachside Community Church. Chip and I have been involved with it the past 5 months. Up until this past Sunday we had only been meeting in small groups on Wednesday nights and occasional Saturdays for planning meetings. The first service went very well. Everything looked great, we had over 250 people attend, and over 70+ volunteers all make it happen. Hats off to the Shaun, Jim and the rest of the Beachside staff for their hours of hard work over the past 2 years to make this a reality. Chip and I are blessed to get to be a part of it and help invest our time and resources into helping start up this church. Our next service is September 13 at the Boys and Girls Club in FWB.

One last random story. We bought a new vacuum cleaner 2 weeks ago. Our old one wasn't broken, but it was a 10 year old hand-me-down that just wasn't cutting it. I know everyone says how great a Dyson is, but I refuse to spend that much on a vacuum. For that price someone should be doing the vacuuming for me. Anyways, we bought a Shark Navigator which is basically a Dyson but less than half the cost - plus if you buy it at Bed, Bath and Beyond and use the 20% off coupon it gets even cheaper. All I can say is wow, and eww! I couldn't believe how much dirt, dust, lint, pet hair, etc it sucked out of the rug!! It was really gross, but our rugs looked and felt clean. They even looked fluffier. So we are very pleased with it and recommend it to anyone in the market for a vacuum.

Ok, I'm done writing for now. I'm sure you all enjoyed the bit about the vacuum. I know, I'm a dork. Whatever! I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend watching football, relaxing, and eating free Chick-fil-a :)

Summer Recap

2009-08-17T19:49:00.004-05:00

I'm still here! I know I've been really bad about updating my blog the past two months. After surviving the terrible 4-day work week with the incredibly long days, I just didn't want to come home and spend anymore time on a computer after being on one for 10 hours. Can you blame me?

Here's a quick update of our summer (I liked Emma's Facebook-style list so much, I am going to copy it):

July:

-4th of July weekend we had our 4th annual "Party till the Cows Come Home" at Ashley Henkel's parents house. Fun was had by all. No diving contest; it's just not the same without Emma plus no one wanted to compete with me. I did eat plenty of homemade chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Mmmm!

- Double Birthday Weekend - Austin and Ashley came later on in July to celebrate Austin's birthday and mine as well. We went to see the college's summer musical Beauty & the Beast, I got to be Queen for the Day (awesome!), and we went to the beach where I burnt the tops of my feet really bad. Not fun! I did get a steam mop for my birthday (yes, I wanted that). I really like it. It is a Shark Steam Pocket Mop.

August:

- Chip went to Monterrey, CA for the annual Bombs and Warheads Conference, yes there is such a thing.

- I went to Kansas City to visit my family and celebrate my dad's "milestone" birthday a little belated. (I'm a good daughter, I didn't even mention the age he turned). I was able to give him his birthday gift in person, which was the news he was going to be a grandfather. Yes, you read that right.

Introducing....

our wee one! I'm currently 11 weeks along and due March 8, 2010. I seem to be feeling better now. I had a few week bout of all-day sickness. As long as I had a little something on my stomach at all times, I was ok. I still don't want any sweets, which anyone who knows me is rare! I'm feeling a little less queasy now, so maybe I'm getting past the morning sickness part? Woohoo!

It was priceless to surprise my parents in-person with the news - especially since this will be their first grandchild. I made a print of this sonogram picture and put it in a frame that said "grandkids". I'll never forget the expression on my dad's face when he opened it! He just stared at it for a few seconds and then his eyes widened and he asked me "are you pregnant?!" My mother, who was on the other side of the room, said "WHAT!?" They both were speechless for a few seconds, a rare occurrence, but then were excited. Telling my sister the news went even better! We simply put the picture frame on a table along the wall in the Family Room. She walked by and it was liked her eyes just found it. Her first words were, "is this a joke?!" Once she realized it wasn't, she was speechless too and then had to sit down. I think she was a little shocked. I guess she still sees me as a kid, so it is weird a "kid" is having a baby. Need I remind her I just turned 29?

- We need to watch the Weather Channel a little more. Apparently there was a Tropical Depression/Storm something off the coast that was coming towards us yesterday. We figured it out after a call from my mother. It wasn't so bad until our power went out at midnight...until 4:30 am. And then as soon as it came back on it went out again for another 30 minutes. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep last night. No AC=no sleep for me. I'm going to bed early tonight! I also noticed when I came home for lunch today that a big old oak tree fell on our neighbor's townhouse. They are out of the country right now, and we're looking after their place. Luckily after going in the house and looking around, it missed breaking any windows and doesn't look to have caused any damage to their place. Phew!

Well, I think I have sufficiently covered the past few months. I'll try to be better about updating my blog a little more frequently. I probably will also cave at some point and setup a Facebook page. Apparently people might be looking for me on there? Whoopee, yet another thing for me to try to keep up with...and fail :)

they always come in threes

2009-06-25T20:04:00.002-05:00

Thanks Mother for reminding me today that deaths usually come in threes. Ed McMahon, Farah Fawcett and now....Michael Jackson!! Say it isn't so!

I talked to my mother at lunch today to see if she had looked at the CD of pictures I had mailed to her of our London/Paris trip. We talked briefly about Farah Fawcett dying. She then mentioned, "You know, these things always happen in threes. David Carradine died a few weeks ago, so it has been too long. I don't know who'll be next, but I bet someone else will die soon."

Well, two hours later Michael Jackson dies. Seriously, did she jinx him?

I have always enjoyed his music. I mean, come on, who hasn't danced like a zombie to Thriller?? Who hasn't mimicked his moon walk, crotch grabs and high-pitched shrieking? Well, maybe not the crotch grabbing.

Michael, you'll be missed...for your music. Not all the alleged things that you did behind closed doors.

a tale of two cities

2009-06-08T18:06:00.006-05:00

We're back from our trip to London and Paris - actually we got back last Monday night, I've just been too busy to update my blog. It's hard to whittle down 1800 pictures to 30 or so of the highlights.

Our trip started in London. After our 9 hour transatlantic flight (LOVE the tvs in the back of the headrests on the planes and the 200 free movies!!), we landed in London around 9 am (3 am US Central time). After making our way through immigration we got on the Tube and went off to our hotel. Around 3 pm we met up with our tour group. There were 26 other people in our group from all over the US. Our tour was through Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door. We highly recommend his tours - small group, they take care of everything, and you really learn about the history and culture of a place. Our guide's name was Martin. He was from Wales. Martin was great fun and had a fun personality. Chip and I ate dinner with him one night in London at an Italian restaurant called Ask. It was nice to get to know him more and talk about life in the United Kingdom and how their economy is going through a similar time like ours is.

I found London to be clean, friendly for the most part, and full of interesting history. It was weird to see all the cars driving on the left side of the road. After nearly getting run over by several taxis, I finally figured out which way to look when crossing the street.

Some of the sights we saw in London were: the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, took a Thames River cruise, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the British Museum and Library. We saw the crown jewels, Henry VIII's armor, the Rosetta Stone, the Gutenberg Bible, pages from Leonardo da Vinci's journal (in his own handwriting), and many other neat things.

One of my favorite places to see was Westminster Abbey. You couldn't take any pictures inside, but I wish we could have. The architecture was amazing, especially the ceiling detail in the Henry the VII Chapel. One neat thing were all the people buried there: Sir Isaac Newton, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, and George Fredrick Handel just to name a few. Like them or hate them, these people had an impact on our lives. The Abbey is also where every king and queen of England was crowned.

After a few days in London we took the Eurostar train to Paris. The train ride lasted about 2.5 hours and went under the English Channel. We arrived in Paris' Gare du Nord. I was SO excited to be there. From the train station our group got on a bus and headed out to our hotel. Along the way we saw the Moulin Rouge, the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Triomphe, and made a quick stop at the Trocadero to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower - one of many for Chip and I.

Paris was as wonderful as I hoped it be, though there was a lot of graffiti and pigeons everywhere. We found the people to be very nice and treated us well. It was fun to get to use my french. I was very proud of how hard Chip worked to learn key phrases and how he always tried to speak french when we went out.

Some sights we saw in Paris were the: Eiffel Tower, Seine River cruise, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, Saint Chapelle, the Conciergerie (prison where Marie Antoinette was kept before going to the guillotine), countless museums including the Louvre, Montmatre, and several others. We saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Rodin's The Thinker, Whistler's Mother, several Van Gogh paintings, and Monet's Waterlilies. All were amazing! I still can't believe how many original paintings we saw! I was so happy when Chip finally agreed with me how cool it is to see the real painting as opposed to a print. You can see the brush strokes these famous artists made on the canvas as they painted, the globs of paint, and their signature. That is just the coolest thing to me!

Our last day in Paris we took the train out to the Palace of Versailles where King Louis the XIV, XV, and XVI lived. The size and opulence of the palace was still amazing even considering today's standards. Again, it was just the coolest thing to be in a place where so much history took place. We tour the palace and saw the famous Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed that ended WWI. We also saw Marie Antoinette's bedroom. Our audio guide said 19 princes and princesses were born in that room and 2 queens died there.

After 10 wonderful and action-packed days we boarded a plane for home. I always get vacation let-down when I have to come back to real life. This time was no different. At least I have the 1800 pictures and dvd of videos to remind me of what a wonderful time we had.

Ok, ok time for the pictures! Click here for about 30 of the pictures from our trip. I'd love to write more about my trip, but know most of you are falling asleep at the keyboard right now. Even my mother won't read it all, she'll just scroll down to the pictures so don't feel bad :) Enjoy!

anniversaire heureux et bon voyage

2009-05-22T18:48:00.003-05:00

Today is Chip's and my 5th Anniversary! Yay! Five years have gone by pretty fast it seems. I'm very grateful to have such a wonderful husband who takes such good care of me and loves me.

In celebration of our anniversary we are taking a trip to London and, drum roll please....Paris!!! I'm over-the-moon excited to be going to Paris!! I can't wait to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, go to the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa (!). I also plan to eat my weight in crepes and pastries :) I promise I'll post tons of pictures when we get back. Until then....au revior mes amis!

old friends, new town

2009-05-19T20:38:00.006-05:00

This past weekend we went to Tallahassee to see some old friends, help some other friends move to town, and see a show 15 years in the making.

On Friday afternoon we went to the Leon County Civic Center and saw Cirque du Soleil's show Saltimbanco. I have been wanting to see it for 15 years. Long story short, when I was turning 13 this show was in Chicago (where I lived at the time) and I wanted to go for my birthday. I ended up not getting to go, but 15 years later I made it! Chip and I both enjoyed the show. Cirque's shows are always artistically beautiful and fun to watch.

While in Tallahassee we got to see our friends Joel and Kristine. It was great getting to hang out with them and catch up. Kristine is almost 12 weeks pregnant, so it was cute to see her starting to show. I also realized this weekend that I have known Joel for 10 years - that's a long time! I can credit Joel for introducing me to Chip - thanks!

On Saturday we helped welcome our other friends Austin and Ashley to Tallahassee from Jacksonville. Austin is starting FSU's Medical school in just a couple of weeks. I still think it is too perfect that the biggest UF Gator fan I know is now a Seminole! Life can be funny!

As part of their welcome to town, Chip and I took them on a tour of FSU's campus. I showed them my old dorm and buildings I had classes in. Ashley even asked about the location of a certain "incident". The highlight of the tour was taking them to Doak Campbell Stadium. As luck would have it, the gate was open so we went inside. Austin, being the staunch Gator fan he is, was hesitant to enter, but we made him. Hello, he's a Seminole now!

Once we got inside we noticed the gate to the field was open, so we went out. It was SO tempting to go run out on the field, but there was a "Stay Off the Grass" sign. Not very official looking though. So after a moment of hesitation, I made a break for it. I didn't go far, but for those few seconds it was pretty awesome. How many people can say they ran on the turf at FSU's Stadium?

We had a great weekend! It was so great to get to spend time with everyone and help some great friends move closer to us! :)

too perfect not to post

2009-04-19T20:53:00.005-05:00

I had a moment of eupohoria a minute ago while logging into my Yahoo email. On Yahoo's homepage they have a highlight box of recent news & human interest stories. The one that was on there a few minutes ago was entitled "Eradicate this font." I said out loud, "I hope it is Comic Sans", and wouldn't you know when you click on the story it was about Comic Sans!! I'm glad to know there are others like me out there.

My distaste for Comic Sans began a few years ago when I first got involved in the world of graphic design. It's not that I hate it completely, it's just used too much and in the wrong places. Comic Sans is great for something geared towards children, though I think there are better fonts. It is not, however, suited for anything meant for anyone ages 10 & up. The article sums it up best when they say using Comic Sans on anything and everything is like "showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume." I couldn't say it better myself.

So please, next time you are doing a PowerPoint or making a flyer think about the font you are using - and refrain from using Comic Sans.

deep in the heart of texas

2009-04-14T20:32:00.002-05:00

For my spring break this year I went to Austin, TX to visit one of my closest friends, Bethany. As always, we had a great time catching up and hanging out. It was sad to go home; I wish we lived closer to one another so we could see each other more often.

Heres a few pictures of the highlights...

al-b-quirky

2009-03-29T19:21:00.009-05:00

Last week Chip and I returned from a trip to Albuquerque, NM. Chip was out there for a computer seminar for work, so I decided to fly out there at the end of his training to see the sights.

ABQ is quite different from the humid, flat terrain of Florida. It was nice to see something different. My sinuses, and skin, didn't quite adjust so well. I had nosebleeds and very dry skin. Oh well!

While in ABQ we went to the Biological Park, home to the zoo, botanical garden and aquarium. I loved the zoo! It was well set up so you could see all of the animals closely, plus they were active since it was a glorious, non-humid 65 degrees. We also went on the Sandia Tram. It was fun to ride in a glass box dangling from a cable thousands of feet above the craggy rocks below. It is the world's longest tramway as well. From tower 2 to 3 is over a mile! You can barely see tower 3 in the distance when you pass tower 2! The view from the top was great, you could see for miles.

The highlight of the trip was going on a hot air balloon ride. Albuquerque is famous for their international balloon fiesta every October. It was fun to glide through the air in a big, colorful balloon. Our captain, Randy, was very nice and has been flying hot air balloons for 28 years. Can you imagine doing that as a job? Man, my job is boring!

Here is a slide show of some of the highlights:

In addition to all of the activities and sight seeing we did, we ate a lot too. Chip and I try to stick to a "no chain restaurants" rule while on vacation. We pretty much stuck to it the whole time we were there.

Of course, ABQ is full of new Mexican/southwestern food. So our first night there we ate at El Pinto. It was pretty good. All dinners were served with sopapillas - fried bread. You pour honey on it and eat it to fan the flames of the chilis - that are in everything! If you aren't a spice fan like me, go for the green chilis since they tend to be mild.

Another restaurant I enjoyed was called La Provence. We had a friendly french man named Jean Francois as our server. He was very attentive and very nice. Chip and I had croque monsieur's - a ham and Gruyere cheese sandwich with bechamel (white sauce) and baked in the oven. Delicious!

We also ate at the Frontier Restaurant which was right down the street from La Provence. This place should totally be on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." It was a fun place that is crazy busy! It has been there for 38+ years and apparently is popular. The food was pretty good, too. Most of the places we went to eat were around the University of New Mexico. There just seemed to be a lot of fun places to eat there with a wide array of food types.

We drove by a place called the Dog House on our first day in ABQ. I loved the sign because it reminded me of my dog Frank! It is an old place that serves, you guessed it, hotdogs. I'm not a big hot dog fan, but we ate their one night after eating a big lunch. The food was actually pretty good.

Before we left for ABQ I looked online for places that sell cupcakes. Ever since going to the Magnolia Bakery in NYC and I have renewed love for these tasty treats. I did a google search and found 2 places to go. Both had the most amazing array of flavors I've ever seen. I knew I had to eat a cupcake everyday I was there - and I did. I had a chocolate chip cookie dough, s'mores, grandma betty, and red velvet cupcake. All were tasty! We got them from Cupcakeology. Check out the website and drool!

In the mean time, enjoy these pictures of our tasty travels!

Well, that's the highlights of our trip. It was a lot of fun. This week I am headed out to Austin, TX to see Bethany. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures and stories to share from that trip. We always have fun and crazy times when we get together. I'm so excited to see her!

doing my civic duty/the bachelor sucks (yes, i watch it)

2009-03-03T17:09:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago I got the dreaded summons for jury duty in the mail. I had to call Sunday afternoon to see if they needed me to come in or not - most of the cases plea out before they go to trial so they don't need the jury. They did release the jurors - numbers 220-500...my number was 123. So I would be heading down to the courthouse the following day.

I have only been summoned one other time, while I was in college. Since I wasn't in the county I was excused. This time I wasn't so lucky.

I got down to the courthouse at a little after 8 am and went through security and was taken to the Juror Waiting Room. There were about 200 chairs in there. Eventually the room filled and the Clerk of Courts came in and swore us all in. He said that there were 4 cases on the docket that day and that a computer would randomly select the names of the potential jury pool. If selected, you went on to be questioned by the attorneys who would decide if they wanted you or not. Then we watched a 15 minute video about what you do as a juror and the different types of cases you would hear.

After the video they called the first group - my name wasn't called. About an hour later they called 2 more groups and again my name wasn't called. Another hour passed, and they called the final group...again my name wasn't selected. They held the remaining 30+ of us who hadn't been called for other cases to wait until the first group came back. If the attorneys had rejected them all they would need us. Of course, they didn't and I was eventually sent on my way.

I was a little disappointed. I was kind of hoping I'd get picked. I've never been on a jury before or in court and thought it might be a neat experience. Instead I got to miss 3.5 hours of work and sit in a room watching Fox News. Oh well, at least it made the rest of my day go by fast!

Changing subjects, I watched the finale of The Bachelor last night. Yes, I watch that show. Every time it comes on I say I'm not going to watch it and then due to a lack of other interesting programming being on I get sucked in. This season was much like other seasons. A previous bachelor reject gets the tables turned and now gets to be the one doing the picking and since they know what it's like being dumped on national TV, they won't be anything like that. WRONG. Jason, the bachelor, is just like every other moron who goes on that show hoping for true love...in a completely unrealistic, highly-staged-for-ratings ploy by ABC. Needless to say, this bachelor sank to a new low by proposing to one girl, dumping her on the After the Final Rose show following the finale, and then proceeding to hook-up with the girl he didn't propose to some 30 minutes later. It was awful. Judging by the backlash I've read about online today, most others agree.

While I type this entry, I just saw on the news that yet another person Obama has picked for his cabinet has "accidentally" forgotten to pay a portion of their taxes. Seriously?! Several of his appointees have had this same "unfortunate lapse of memory". What is wrong with people!? Can anyone be honest anymore? Everyday I watch the news and see billions more of money we don't have being spent on some ailing bank or company and then I hear about the president's budget that apparently contains "earmarks" that he swore once he got into office that he'd eliminate. Like the high speed railway from CA to Las Vegas and something about tatoo parlors. Give me a break! Can someone with some integrity, a backbone, and some decent ideas please step forward and run our country! So much for change! We need it. We're not getting it.

Anyways, off my soapbox I step. I didn't intend to rant, but I couldn't help my self. I'm sure some people may disagree with me. That's ok. You're entitled to your opinion, I'm entitled to mine.

Well, off I go to make dinner. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing interesting to talk about. Hah!

The Christmas/New Years Post

2009-01-10T13:03:00.004-06:00

Finally I have had a chance to sit down and update my blog!

Chip and I spent 2 weeks in Kansas City for the holidays. We decided to drive this year instead of flying since it would be a lot cheaper. It took us about 16 hours to drive there. We split it up over 2 days, so it wasn't so bad. We made a few stops along the way to see various points of interest like Graceland and the St. Louis Arch, so that made it more fun.

Here is a slide show of some of the pictures we took. As you can see there are a lot of pictures. We got two new cameras for Christmas this year - a Nikon D60 (love!) and a Canon Powershot - so we needed the practice :) While in KC we went to the Truman Presidential Library and saw an exhibit on WWII photography and went to the casinos a few times. We also spent a good bit of time playing the Wii. We particularly liked doing the Wii Fit so we didn't get fat over the holidays because we did a lot of eating.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

hitting the highlights

2008-12-07T16:49:00.005-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month. I've been out of town and busy...you know how this time of year goes. Where do I even begin? I think I'll just type stuff as it comes to me...

Thanksgiving leftovers
Chip and I went to Dahlonega, GA for Thanksgiving. Dahlonega is a small town north of Atlanta. Chip's aunt lives there as well as her daughter and her family. Chip's parents and his sister Erin met us up there for the holiday as well. We had a good time with his family and did a little sightseeing in another small town called Helen. It is a fun little town that resembles an Alpine Village. A fun place to stop there is Hansel & Gretel's Candy Kitchen. Is the candy good? Not really, but the name of the shop is fun to say.

One of my Thanksgiving traditions is to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have done so since I was a small child. This year's parade was hands-down my favorite parade EVER! It started like any normal Macy's parade with the scary clowns and the bobble-head pilgrim people, then moved on to the old-timey looking turkey with the blinking eyes. Some more balloons and floats passed and then a float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" came on the scene. Apparently it is some show that is on the Cartoon Network. Anyways, the muppet-type characters begin to sing a song and Matt Lauer said to lookout for a muscial surprise. I figured it was another Disney teenie-bopper pop star. All of a sudden I hear the familiar sounds of a classic 80's tune. Could it be?! It is!! It's Rick Astley singing "Never Gonna Give You Up"!! I just got Rick-rolled watching the Macy's Parade!!! AWESOME!!! That stunt put the parade over the top for me. Here is a video of it for your viewing pleasure. If you aren't familiar with Rick Astley or Rick-rolling, go Google it. It would take me too long to explain.

Christmas is coming...and soon!
I can't believe Christmas is only a little over 2 weeks away! Where did November go? This year we decided to drive to Kansas City to visit my parents. Airline tickets are really expensive this year, and with the falling price of gasoline we decided it would be better to drive. KC is an 18 hour drive from Niceville. Ugh! We decided to split it up into a 2-day trip to make it a little more manageable. We plan on stopping in Memphis since it is a good half way point. What else is in Memphis? Graceland!! I'm totally not an Elvis fan, but if I'm in Memphis and I can see Graceland, than I'm going to do it. So that should make the trip a little more fun.

Tims Tams...available at a store near you!
We were at Target today and happened to wander past the food section and saw that there was Tim Tams! I guess Pepperidge Farm is bringing Australia's favorite cookie to the good ole USA. We snatched up a pack of the chocolate cream flavor, which I will happily slam in some hot chocolate tonight. Yay! Go out and grab yourself a pack!

New cell phone = big headache
I got a new cell phone today. It is a touch screen phone kind of like an I-Phone, but Verizon's version of it. I thought it would be really cool to not have a keypad and just have a touch screen, but I'm starting to reconsider. The touchscreen "keys" are really small and it is very easy to punch the wrong key. We'll see if it gets easier the more I use it. Stay tuned.

I think I have a toothache
Recently I have spent quite a bit of time at the dentist. About a month ago I noticed I cracked a tooth, so I called the dentist and went in. The bad news was I needed a crown, the even worse news was I had several cavities. Lucky me! So after 4 office visits, a temporary crown, several fillings, and $700 I am all fixed up. Thank the Lord I have dental insurance, otherwise my bill would have been twice as high. I never had a problem with cavities until the past few years. My teeth have apparently gone down hill, and fast! I guess it is just another reminder that I am getting older. Apparently I have inherited my father's not-so-great teeth which he got from his parents. Of course, Chip has never had a cavity and still continues to be cavity-free. Maybe there's hope for our kids.

Well, I think that is all of the updating I'm going to do. I hope you have enjoyed my random musings and feel like you are all caught up on my life.

A Pres I can vote for

2008-11-01T20:12:00.005-05:00

Last night Chip and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Destin called Callahan's. We like it because it is locally owned and serves good, reasonably priced food. They are currently running "early bird" specials for $8.99 - and no, you don't have to eat before 4:30 pm. Being the bargain-lover that I am, Emma knows this well, I ordered from the list of specials. I got enough food for 2 meals, plus soup, and yeast rolls! I was a happy girl.

After Chip and I ate we decided to go to the Fresh Market for dessert. Our first stop was the gourmet chocolate section. We were scouting out some Joseph Schmidt Truffles, thank you to my parents for raising a little chocolate connoisseur (or chocolate snob), when we hear a voice say "you two are in the right place at the right time". All of a sudden a man comes from behind the counter and asks what chocolate we were looking at. We point to a box of Joseph Schmidt truffles - no Hershey's for this girl! He picks up the box and takes off the plastic and tells us to eat one! He just opened a $13 box of 4 truffles and tells us to eat one! Of course we do, and of course it is divine. He introduces himself as Pres and tells us anything else we want to try he will open for us. He then proceeds to give us white chocolate covered pretzels and yogurt & peppermint coated pretzels. He then gets out his favorite - a dark chocolate bar with pieces of applewood smoked bacon in it. It was definitely different, but not necessarily bad. In the end Pres probably gave us $6-7 in free chocolate. Who says you are too old to Trick or Treat?

My parents recently went on a trip to the Southwest US. They went to Albuquerque, NM, Las Vegas, Sedona, AZ, and a few other cities to look for a place to move to when they retire in a few years. They must have had a good time because my father sent me this picture tonight...

My mother is sure letting loose and having some fun. Good for her! Though I'm pretty sure she is yelling at the computer right now :) I'd better get going. I think my mother is calling me on my cell phone...

a post for the sake of a post

2008-10-21T18:09:00.003-05:00

I had a few free minutes before dinner was ready so I decided I'd update my blog. This post is pretty much going to be a long string of thoughts, so try to keep up. :)

Chip and I were both sick last week with the stomach flu. It took me down on Monday and Chip on Wednesday. We are finally feeling back to normal and in to eating again. Food was not our friend for several days. We lived off of Gatorade and chicken noodle soup for most of last week.

This past weekend our friends Austin and Ashley were in town from Jacksonville. We always enjoy getting to spend time with them. Saturday night we hung out with A & A, Austin's parents, and Austin's parent's friends Steve and Gail. We played dominoes (chicken foot) and ate pizza...we'll they ate pizza. Pizza was what I ate the night I got sick, so needless to say I wasn't interested in partaking in it so soon (sorry for the TMI). I had never played dominoes before. I never really knew a game was part of it. I just figured you lined up the dominoes to knock them down. After a brief lesson we started the game. It was fun. I wasn't too bad at it, but I certainly wasn't as good as Chip who won the game. Of course! :)

I'm so glad the election is drawing to a close - I don't think I can take anymore! Every time I turn on the TV that is all they are talking about. I've even received 3 phone calls from Barack Obama's campaign. Apparently his campaign bought a bunch of phone numbers of voters in FL and mine was one of them - lucky me! I asked them to remove me from their list. I don't know who I am voting for at this time. I have issues with both candidates. I just want to know the facts - in an unbiased way. I don't trust the news, the newspaper, or either candidate's website. If anyone knows of any good non-partisan websites that list the stances of the candidates please let me know. I originally wasn't even going to bother voting since I can't decide, but the thought of all the "you can't complain about the way things are if you didn't vote" people running through my head prompted me to change my mind. * Chip just told me about a website where you answer several questions about your stance on issues and it matches you up with the candidate whose answers most closely match yours. Click here to go to it. I did it and my closest match was only a dismal 38%. It was still interesting to find out nonetheless. Check it out if you're lacking direction like me.

Work has been very busy lately which is a good and bad thing. At least I have job security this way. A lot of businesses in the area, and nationwide for that matter, are cutting back jobs. One of the largest employers in our area, other than the Air Force base, just laid off a bunch of people. I wish the economy wasn't in the crapper like it is, but if I had to find a bright side in all of this maybe people are learning the valuable lesson of want vs. need.

And with that, I bid you all adieu! I promise I'll try to update my blog more than once a month.

that's our boy!

2008-09-27T20:19:00.005-05:00

Today was Dog Daze at the Fort Walton Beach Landing. It was an all day event for dogs which included agility tests, obedience training, booths from local pet-related businesses, and the best thing of all, dachshund races!!

Frank had never participated in a dachshund race before, so I wasn't sure how he would do. Any of you that have met Frank before knows he tends to get easily distracted and scared. A few days ago I started "training" him for the race. Basically I would get him to sit and stay in a particular spot and then I'd walk 10 - 15 feet away and then call him to me. I would also have a squeaky toy with me to keep his attention. We would practice this 4 or 5 times a day. He picked it up pretty well, but again, who knows how he'd do at the actual race with tons of people and a bunch of dogs.

Well today was race day. There were about 25 doxies participating. Frank's competition included: Oscar, Crazy-Eyed Molly, Paco, and Rhemus. I am proud to say my little turbo weiner dog won every one of his heats and came in second place in the final!

Frank won a prize bag that had dog treats, a pair of dachshund socks (for me, not the dog), a sticker from the Florida Dachshund Rescue, and a beaded collar that said "Second Weiner".

Here is a video of the races.

In other news, I wanted to wish a Happy Birthday to my sweet husband. His birthday is tomorrow. As I write this Alabama is beating Georgia pretty badly, FSU won, and Frank won 2nd place in the races - not bad way to start celebrating. Not bad at all!

a trifecta tribute

2008-09-02T19:28:00.006-05:00

Yes, I am still around. I have been lazy lately and haven't felt like posting. Well, that and the Olympics were on and I was glued to the tv. Those were some good games! Alas, they are over now and I have found new things to occupy my time...mainly spider solitaire and channel surfing.

Now it's that oh so wonderful time of the year when military families PCS (permanent change of station) to new places. Our friends Mark & Emma are one of the families that are moving. Mark & Emma moved here the same time we did 4 years ago. Chip and Mark worked together at the test range and became friends. We all happened to go to the same church and that is how I met Mark's wife Emma. We all hit it off and have been friends ever since. A few weeks after that we met Austin & Ashley. Answering their call for friends at our Sunday School Christmas party, we all hit it off. That started the super power known as the trifecta, as Emma affectionately dubbed us. Here is a picture of all of us at another Christmas party in 2005.

We spent many a weekend hanging out, going to movies, playing Goofy Golf, and going to movies. Last July Austin & Ashley moved to Jacksonville, but we all remained in contact and still got together every now and again. But now Mark & Emma are moving to Ohio so that kind of diminishes the chances. Of course, there is the phone and the internet, but come on, it doesn't replace actually spending time together.

A few weeks ago Austin & Ashley came into town so we could all hang out one more time before Mark & Emma moved. We went out to eat at the Crab trap in Destin for Ashley's birthday. We also all cheered on Team USA together watching the Olympics. One highlight of the weekend was playing Rock Band on the PS3. Few of us had played that game before, but we had a great time living it up. From me belting out Creedance Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate One"(oh yes I did!), Emma playing the heck out of the cowbell on Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", or any of the guys playing the guitar or drums, we made quite the band. It was a lot of fun.

Here are a few of the pictures from the weekend.

This last picture cracks me up. Yes, I am well aware that it isn't remotely in focus. After we ate at the Crab Trap we walked out on the beach and took a few pictures. We thought it would be nice to get a picture of us all together. So we asked the first guy that walked by to take our picture. We don't realize until after he takes the picture that he is drunk and doesn't hold down the shutter on the camera to focus the picture before he takes it. He didn't give us warning when he took the picture either. I mentioned to him I wasn't sure if we were all looking and he said "It's too late now" and handed the camera back and staggered away. Thanks!

We'll miss you Mark, Emma & Sarah Beth! Best of luck to you as you move on to Ohio! Enjoy having seasons again - I'm jealous!!

hello mother, hello father

2008-08-05T17:33:00.008-05:00

I just got home last night from spending 5 days in Kansas City, MO visiting my parents. I hadn't seen them in 8 months, plus I had never seen KC in the summer. I struck a deal with my parents to pay for half of my ticket for my birthday present. They agreed, and so I went.

My first night there we had a little belated birthday cupcake treat to celebrate. My mother made them and frosted them with real chocolate frosting. They were pretty tasty.

I was watching the news the next day and noticed that it happened to be Missouri's tax free week. Perfect timing! So of course, I did a little shopping since we don't have the best selection in this area. Sales tax there is quite a bit higher than Okaloosa County's 6%. One place the tax rate was 9.5%, so think of the money I saved :) Sure...

Besides shopping, we also played my dad's Wii. We played Mario Cart, Wii Sports (baseball, tennis, bowling, boxing), and Cabela's Big Game Hunter. It was nice to have two people who are worse than me playing Mario Cart. For once I wasn't last...yes!! The highlight of the Wii playing though had to be when my mother and I boxed. Let me tell you, electronically taking out 28 years of frustrations on my mother never felt so good :) Just kidding...well, sort of. She still loves me. I knocked her out. I think we also knocked my father out with laughter. He was dying watching us air punch and throw jabs.

Of course, no trip to my parent's house would be complete without mentioning their dog Charley. Charley recently had knee surgery, but has healed completely. She is one spoiled bichon frise. She lays around and eats treats all day. But at least she does it looking cute, as my mother would say.

One night my dad decided he wanted to take pictures of me and his corvette at the front entrance to the neighborhood. It has a waterfall/fountain feature that he thought would look nice in the background. After we took a few pictures, I thought it would be fun to stick my foot in the fountain to see how warm or cold the water was. I thought my dad told me to get in the fountain and he'd take my picture. I thought that might be fun, so I stepped in. It appeared to be only knee deep, but no, it was about waist deep. So I lose my footing and fall in. Fabulous! Now I'm all wet and really embarrassed. My dad is laughing and so am I. All of a sudden some dude on a bike rides up and asks us if we want him to take our picture. Why not? At this point I can't be humiliated any more.

The next day we went to the Ameristar casino to play the slots. I only had $3 in my wallet so I didn't last long, but I still had fun. My mom and dad had better luck and made their $15 last a while longer. We had some good luck on the "Mr. Cashman" machine. Ultimately they lost it all, but we had fun playing.

One thing I wanted to do while in KC was eat some barbecue. I saw on the Food Network that a famous place to go was Arthur Bryant's. There just happened to one inside the Ameristar. The special of the day was the beef sandwich, so we each got one. They were huge sandwiches. The meat was good and had a nice smoke ring and flavor. There were 3 different sauces to choose from as well. I liked the sweet heat. We all enjoyed our sandwiches and a little taste of "legendary" KC barbecue.

And with that, my five day trip drew to a close. It went by pretty fast. At least I'll get to go back for Christmas in 4 months. I'm glad I got to see my parents. Shame on a certain sister of mine, who lives in KC, and was "too busy" to come see her only sister. She knows who she is. Don't worry, I'm not bitter :)

Two week recap

2008-07-27T19:46:00.008-05:00

I'm feeling lazy and not wanting to post multiple messages, so I decided to combine them all into one. Sorry!

Two weeks ago we went to Grand Ridge for the 3rd annual "Party Til the Cows Come Home". For the past 3 years Chip and I have gone to Grand Ridge with our friends Mark & Emma and Austin & Ashley to Ashley's parent's house to swim in their pool, bbq, and have fun. Ashley's mom always makes us homemade ice cream in chocolate and vanilla, and I always eat 4 bowls. Emma and I also have a diving contest. No winner is ever named, but she kicks my butt in technique. I'd like to think I get her in creativity. I like to name my dives.

As always, fun was had by all - even Frank. We swam most of the day, ate a lot, and had fun spending time together. This, unfortunately, marks the last year we will have this party. Austin and Ashley moved to Jacksonville a year ago and will be moving within the next year to wherever Austin gets accepted to medical school. Mark and Emma are moving to Ohio in 2 months. Mark is in the Air Force and got orders to go to his next station. It is sad we will all be in different locations, but at least we had 3 years of fun.

Here is a picture of us all - the trifecta, as Emma refers to us all. Good times, good memories!

In other news, I celebrated my 28th birthday on Friday. Am I seriously 28?! Where has the time gone? I had a pretty good day. For my birthday I asked Chip if we could do a double-feature at the movies. So we saw The Dark Knight and the X Files movie. I enjoyed both. It was fun spending the day, literally, at the movies. The last time I did a double-feature was about 8 years ago when Bethany and I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Gift in one day. Both were totally different movies, but they were good. I recommend trying a double-feature movie day in the near future if you haven't ever done that.

The day after my birthday we went to Mobile, AL to see what's there. Chip and I had never been before and decided it would be fun to check out. Our first stop was the Eastern Shore Center. It is a big outdoor mall-type place. It was ok. We then drove around some more and got stuck in some traffic around the George Wallace Tunnel.

One of the things I was looking forward to on our trip to Mobile was stopping at the Dew Drop Inn. Our neighbor recommended eating there because the food is good. He even gave us a cooler and some money to buy him a few of their hot dogs. Apparently this restaurant serves excellent ones. It also happens to be Mobile's oldest restaurant. So we find our way there and pull into the parking lot. I go to get out of the car and notice a girl is outside turning the open sign to closed. WHAT!! I look at the sign and see that they close at 3 pm on Saturday. I glance at the clock and it is 2:55!!! GRR!! We just missed it. I was crushed!

So we leave disappointed and probably destined for something lame like Krystal hamburgers. We get back on the interstate and make our way back to Niceville. We see a sign a few miles away for a bunch of food at the next exit. Since we were starving we decided to stop. We start driving down the road, but nothing jumps out at me. Since I was so bummed, nothing sounded good. We keep driving and driving and end up nearly to Foley. I remembered our other neighbors, Mike & Stephanie, talking about a place in Foley where they throw rolls. So we call them up and get directions to the restaurant.

It's called Lambert's and they really do throw rolls. We get there about 4 pm and there are literally a hundred people waiting outside to get in!! Something tells me it must be pretty good for so many people to be willing to wait. We had to wait 45 minutes before we got seated.

Lambert's prides themselves on big portions of southern style food. Chip got country fried steak and I got meatloaf. We both got mashed potatoes and fried apples as our sides. The servers bring "pass arounds" to all patrons. These include fried okra, black-eyed peas, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes and onions, and the aforementioned rolls. The roll guy comes to the front of the dining room and all you have to do is raise your hand if you want a roll and he'll throw you one. It was quite funny to see bread flying through the air!

The rolls are quite large - one did me in, but boy was it good! All the food we ate there was quite good. Real mashed potatoes, yummy gravy, a huge piece a meatloaf. I was stuffed! It was good and helped sooth the disappointment of the Dew Drop being closed.

Well, I think I've hit the highlights of the past 2 weeks. At the end of this week I will be going to Kansas City to see my parents. It'll be nice to get away for a few days. I'm sure I have more stories to tell when I get back!

a kayak, a grill, and a "thank you" bean

2008-07-15T17:43:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday Chip and I went kayaking in the Shoal River up in Crestview with our friends Greg, Lauren, and Gene. It had been almost a year since I had gone kayaking. Last year Chip and I tried kayaking in the Boggy Bayou (SO not even kidding about the name. Need I remind this is Niceville?) but there were too many boats wizzing around which made the water choppy. Prior to that I had been taking a little sabbatical from kayaking after a wildlife-filled trip down Turkey Creek in Niceville with our other friend's Nathan and Leigh Ann. We had several run ins with spiders, a snake, and I had a 5 foot gator about a foot away from my kayak! So I wasn't looking for another experience like that! Lauren and Greg had gone down the Shoal River before and told me I would be fine and have fun. So I decided to give it another go.

We got in the river around 9 am and started off just fine. It was a nice day, slightly overcast and a little humid. The river was a decent width so we weren't constantly ducking trees. Shortly into our almost 4-hour trip it started to sprinkle. No big deal. Then it started to rain pretty steadily for what seemed to be 30 minutes. We all got soaked to the bone! Then the sun came back out and helped dry us off a little. Luckily the rain helped to cool the temperature down a little, so it actually made it nicer.

A little while later, I didn't wear a watch so I had no concept of time, it started to get dark again and then the thunder started. So we all started paddling faster so we could get to the end before the lightning started. My shoulders got quite the work out! We finally got to the end and the sky opened up, so we got a nice soaking again. Oh well, at least we didn't get struck by lightning. My poor weenie shoulder muscles were SO tired from paddling I could barely lift my arms to have Chip help me out of the kayak. As soon as I got back to Lauren's house I took some ibuprofen...I know, I'm weak!

All in all it was a fun trip, one that I'd do again. Though, Chip apparently saw an 8 foot alligator. Luckily I didn't find out until we were way past it. Other than that we only saw a few turtles. Now that's my kind of kayaking.

After kayaking we went back to Greg & Lauren's house to grill out. Michelle, Gene's wife, was their watching the babies so we could go kayaking. At least she got to stay dry :) The guys grilled the meat while I made some less-than-stellar mac & cheese. I have got to find a better recipe! If you've got one, send it my way please!

On a random note, Chip and I received a gift two weeks ago from our neighbors, Mike & Stephanie. It was a "thank you" bean. Basically it is a tin can with some sort of metallic soil-type stuff and a bean inside. You water the dirt and a bean grows up and out of the dirt and the word "thank you" will be written on it. The bean then turns into a plant and you can replant it and enjoy it. Mike & Steph were intrigued by it and decided it was a fun way to say thanks to us for taking care of their plants while they went on vacation.

So we've been faithfully watering the dirt and little by little and stalk and a pod appeared. Then yesterday afternoon the pod fell off revealing the bean. Sure enough, it did say thank you! It grew pretty quickly, almost so fast I swear you could stand next to it and hear it grow! In a few days I will probably transplant it and try to keep it alive. We'll see...I don't exactly have the best track record with plants. I have been managing to keep an aloe plant alive and kicking! :)

one hour and $75 later

2008-07-08T20:33:00.008-05:00

**I forgot to mention in the original post that this isn't contagious to pets or humans. Those of you who have pet Frank or had your dogs around Frank recently need not worry.**

My poor, sad puppy! As you can see above, Frank is wearing the dreaded lampshade - or an Elizabethan collar as the label on the cone called it. Sure, try to make it sound like a fashion accessory! It doesn't make him hate it any less.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed Frank had a spot near his butt that looked a little reddish and the fur looked like it was falling out. There were also small black spots on the skin. Chip and I thought it was a mild skin irritation, or hot spot, and bought him some hydrocortisone cream to put on it. We did that for about a week, but nothing happened. Then it looked as if the spot was getting larger. Luckily Frank wasn't biting at it or scratching at it, so at least we knew it wasn't really bothering him. Since it didn't appear to be getting any better, I decided to take him to the vet.

The vet took a look at Frank and thought it could be one of two things. So she did a skin scraping so she could check it out under the microscope. It was quite a sight! Frank was already freaking out being at the vet with all the other dogs, but now the tech had pinned him down on his side while I held his head down and the vet took a scalpel and scraped his spot till it bled a little. Luckily he didn't yelp. It did bring back memories of a similar incident that happened to my guinea pig, Dusty. He had scarcoptic mites that caused him to itch until he bled. My mom and I took him to the vet and they did a similar scraping. I'll never forget the screams, yes screams, that came out of that tiny animal's mouth. You would think we were killing him!

Anyways, the vet looked at the skin under a microscope and diagnosed him with Demodex or Canine Demodectic Mange. It is a parasitic skin disease caused by microscopic mites that live under the surface of the skin. All dogs, and even some humans, have this mite on their skin. As long as the body's immune system is functioning properly, these mites cause no harm.

Apparently Frank has a "immature immune system" as the vet called it. His immune system isn't strong enough to keep these mites in check, so they can flare up and spread rapidly and erupt into an irritated patch. This immune system problem could be a temporary thing, something that he could grow out of, but there is a chance he won't and he could have flare-ups of this for the rest of his life. The immature immune system is a hereditary trait passed on by Frank's parents. So the other puppies in Frank's litter have this too. Apparently when this trait is discovered, the affected dog shouldn't be bred and the parents should not be bred together again. That was kind of sad. I have a defective dog :(

The vet gave us some ointment we are supposed to put on him and hopefully it will clear up the spots. We also have to put the cone on him so he won't lick off the ointment. The poor dog is like a statue when we put it on him! He just stands there paralyzed. It is kind of funny. The cone has to be a little longer since Frank has a long snout. Sometimes his upper lip gets stuck on it and it looks like he is smiling. It's hysterical! I laughed so hard I cried.

Anyways, so that is the current drama going on in our house. I know, I have the most exciting life!

a little more than a 3 hour tour...

2008-06-17T19:02:00.004-05:00

This past weekend Chip and I went boating with Chip's Mom, Dad, and sister Candi. We rented a pontoon boat from the Eglin Air Force Base Marina. Chip served as our captain. BTW - this was his first time piloting a boat. The marina makes you take an open-book test to get your license...makes me feel safe! :( But seriously, he did a great job driving the boat.

Our first destination was Crab Island. It's not really an island. It is a shallow spot at the foot of the Destin Bridge. Most people drop anchor there and hang out, throw a frisbee, float around, snorkel, and socialize with other people. We got there early in the day, so it wasn't quite "jumpin'" yet. The water there is very pretty - it reminds me of the Caribbean. We hung out there for a while and even bought some ice cream from the "ice cream boat man". The boat even plays the traditional ice cream truck music.

After Crab Island we cruised around the bay some more and then ate lunch. We started to head towards Fort Walton Beach when we noticed the storm that was building over land. We knew the weather was going to be sketchy that day, but we hoped it would hold out. It started to lightning pretty bad, so we headed for the marina. They told us when we picked up the boat that if it started to storm, we needed to come back in.

We tried to get there as soon as we could; it was getting really stormy. Anyone that is familiar with a pontoon boat knows they aren't known for speed, so it took us a while to get back. Of course we got caught in a torrential downpour! At least we didn't get hit by lightning!

All in all it was a fun day and a good way to celebrate Father's Day.

a visit from the governor

2008-06-12T18:08:00.003-05:00

Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, came to OWC (the college I work at) to sign the new state college bill into law. Well, technically he already signed it...this was just for show. This bill turns OWC and 8 other community colleges in Florida into state colleges. State colleges still offer 2-year associates degrees; they just can now offer bachelor's degrees. OWC already offers three, but this new law will make it easier for us to add more. The reason the state did this was to increase the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in FL. Currently we rank pretty close to last.

Anyways, when we heard the bill would be passed, the speaker-elect of the FL House of Representatives (who is from Destin) asked for the Governor to sign the bill at our school. The governor obliged. So today was the day.

The event went well, except for the Governor changing his schedule at the last minute and arriving an hour early. So we had to scramble and alert the media and community, but got it taken care of.

I didn't actually get to meet the Governor, but I got really close to him (see the above picture I snapped). He's extremely tan - like fake & bake brown. I stood about a foot away from him at one point and he asked me where the college president was. Other than that, that was my only interaction with him. I really wanted to say, "hello, gov'na", in a really cheesy British accent, but I didn't think that would be very professional.

After 30 minutes his motorcade swept him away to his next destination and the event was over. I was bummed that I didn't get an official Charlie Crist blue sharpie. That was his ceremonial bill signing pen...a blue sharpie with his name on it! I guess I thought it would be something more executive looking. Only the legislative delegates and college presidents got them. I hate being a peon!

So that is about the most excitement I've had lately. That, and playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. For some reason Chip and I were talking about that game the other day and remembered how we used to play it a lot as kids. We googled it and sure enough they still sell it! You can even download it so you can have it right away (for those of us with no patience). It's not the same version I had when I was twelve, they've fancied it up a bit, but it is still fun. Writing this made me think of the old TV show of the game they had on PBS. It has a catchy theme song by Rockapella. I found a video of it on YouTube...enjoy! :)

happy anniversary to us!

2008-05-24T19:59:00.003-05:00

Chip and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on May 22. I can't believe 4 years have gone by so fast! It seems like just yesterday we got married, but in other ways it hasn't. I have very much enjoyed the first four years of our marriage - the things we've learned about ourselves and each other, the new places we visited, and just going through life knowing someone is always there for me. Here's to many more!

Chip surprised me with a very sweet anniversary gift. When I went into work the day of our anniversary, I noticed there was a digital picture frame on my desk that wasn't there the day before. Near it was a card with my name on it. I opened the card and saw it was an anniversary card from Chip. Inside was an instruction sheet on how to work the frame and a sweet note. I turned on the frame and on it was 100+ pictures from our engagement, wedding, honeymoon, and our trips to GA, SC, NC, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and NYC. It was great to see all of the photographic memories from the past 4 years of our lives. It was such a sweet thing for him to do! It made my gift of the DVD of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade seem pretty lame. In my defense we said we weren't going to buy each other gifts. I should've known better. Oh well, I'll do better next year.

weekend trip to jax

2008-05-06T17:41:00.007-05:00

This past weekend we went to Jacksonville to visit our good friends Austin & Ashley Henkel. They moved there about a year ago from Niceville. Lately Chip and I have been suffering from a case of the Henkel-withdrawals, so we packed our bags and headed east for the weekend.

Above is a picture of Austin & Ashley we took in front of the surprisingly polluted St. John's River. We forgot our camera this weekend (!) and took this picture with our cell phone. Hence the poor quality.

Austin and Ashley are doing well. Ashley is still enjoying being a nurse and Austin is getting closer and closer to his goal of going to medical school to become an ophthalmologist. Congrats to Austin for getting straight A's this semester!!

We had a great time with them while we were there, as always. We went down to the Jacksonville Landing and even went to the Jacksonville Zoo. I love zoos, and this one was pretty good. A few of the highlights were the giraffes, the monkeys, seeing an anteater (I don't believe I've ever seen one in person), the train ride, and the Hawaiian shaved ice.

Another thing I saw at the zoo was a century plant. I hate those things! They are like a giant, freak aloe plant. They are huge and ugly! After a bunch of years (25 I think), they grow a big asparagus-like stalk out of the top. The stalk gets about 20 feet tall. It blooms a few flowers and then falls over. Then the whole plant dies. Great, huh? I don't know why I hate these plants so much, but I do. I think they are disgusting in a way. It looks like it could lie in wait for a person to walk by and then swallow them up in its large "arms". Eww! (This century plant rant is for Stephanie)

While we were in Jacksonville we met up with one of my former college roommates, Lindsay, and her new husband Stephen (they have been married for 4 months now). I hadn't seen Lindsay since my wedding almost 4 years ago. It was great catching up with her and reminiscing about life in our old apartment. We also enjoyed meeting their dog, Bella.

While at Lindsay & Stephen's house, she showed me her craft table. I was way impressed with Lindsay's jewelry and other artsy projects she was working on. She is a music teacher by trade, but she could have a side career with all of her projects. I was inspired by a t-shirt she created for her sister for her birthday. It looks like something you could buy at Anthropologie, but obviously way cheaper and a one-of-a-kind. Maybe one day soon I'll try my hand at doing something like that. Thank you Lindsay for the creative inspiration!

Since we forgot our camera I didn't get a picture with Lindsay, so I dug through my photo albums from college and found these two. The first one is Lindsay and I at our BCM's State Student Conference. The second is Lindsay and I at our friend's "tacky mismatch" party. Good times!

After a full and fun weekend we had to leave and come back home, darn real life! Thanks to the Henkels and Kellers for hanging with us. Come and see us in Niceville anytime!

chocolate snuffs out life with gusto

2008-04-29T19:20:00.006-05:00

Chip and I were on SNL's website tonight watching video clips (why, I don't know). I thought these videos were funny, but also kind of disturbing. "Chocolate" has this eerie clown-ish face painted on. It reminds me of a mime, which I find terrifying. But, the faces he makes at the end are really funny and the cartoonish jingle that goes along with it is funny as well. Here are the series of three videos for your viewing pleasure. FYI - they are pseudo-violent, comically...if that makes any sense. Please don't lose any respect for me as a person after watching them :)I have a weird sense of humor.

NYC Part III - Videos

2008-04-20T19:39:00.006-05:00

Here are a few videos. The first is of Times Square just after we saw Phantom of the Opera. It was about 10:45 pm.

The next video was taken while we were at the Today show.

The last video was taken from the Brooklyn Bridge. The Staten Island Ferry and Statue of Liberty can be seen first. Next is the Financial District and southern Manhattan. To the right of the bridge is the Empire State Building and Manhattan Bridge. Brooklyn can be seen last on the opposite side of the bridge.

NYC Part II - Food, Glorious Food

2008-04-16T20:32:00.008-05:00

I guess I should have mentioned in yesterday's blog about all of the sights we saw. I got carried away trying to get the slide show just right. Here's a rundown on the things we did/saw:

Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, Radio City Music Hall, Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Trump Tower, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Today Show (we were on TV), China Town, Little Italy, Chelsea Market, taping of the Conan O'Brien Show, Times Square, walked Brooklyn Bridge, Flat Iron Building, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park - Bethesda Fountain & Belvedere Castle, Phantom of the Opera. I think that is it...I know, it's a lot!

Today's slide show showcases the reason I gained 5 pounds in a week. As you'll see, I enjoyed every bite of it (I did over-indulge at Chocolate by the Bald Man and nearly got sick). NYC has a ton of different foods available and I wanted to try some of the most famous - pizza, cheesecake, cupcakes, hot dogs and soft pretzels, cannolis, and deli sandwiches. I did notice food portions are RIDICULOUSLY huge here. See for yourself...

NYC Part I - The Sights

2008-04-16T18:03:00.016-05:00

We're back from New York City. It was an awesome time! We saw so much and did so much. I was thoroughly exhausted when I got home. We had a great time with our friends Bethany & Ben. We have to go on another trip with them soon.

Below is a slide show with some of the many pictures we took. I'm new to the whole slide show thing and can't get the captions to work right, so if you want to know what's going on in the picture just click on it and the description will come up. Also, if you want to speed up the slide show, click on a picture and in the top right hand corner there will be a speed adjuster. Enjoy! Tomorrow I hope to post a slide show of all the tasty, and huge, food we ate so check back in.

spring break relaxin' - day 2

2008-04-03T19:03:00.013-05:00

Today was day two of my Spring Break. Again I enjoyed another morning of not being awaken by a screeching alarm. I did have to get up by 7:45 am so I could get ready for my dentist appointment. Luckily it was just a 6-month check up and not drilling. I was in and out of there in about 30 minutes.

I had a few minutes to kill before I headed over for my bread making lesson so I swung by the local Methodist church's Bargain Box. I hadn't been in a while and hoped to find something great, but I didn't. Oh well! Off to bread making I go!

I went over to my coworker Becky's house for my lesson. Her sister Sammie is in town from Houston, TX. Sammie is the yeast roll/cinnamon roll queen and I was hoping to glean some bread making wisdom from her...and some freshly baked rolls :) My other coworker, Carla, joined the bunch.

Bread making is quite a process - more than I originally thought. You have to "proof" the yeast and then add the rest of the ingredients. Then you mix that together and then turn it out onto the counter to knead the dough. Then you have to let it rise for an hour and a half. Now comes the fun part...making the rolls. Here is a picture of me, Carla, and Sammie forming the rolls.

Voila! Here is our finished pan of rolls. Now they have to rise again for another hour before they can be baked.

We saved half of the yeast roll dough to make cinnamon rolls. We mixed in some cinnamon, sugar, and butter chunks and kneaded it into the dough. We then took golf ball-sized pieces of dough and pulled it into a 4-5 inch log and rolled in melted butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Here is Carla and I getting our hands dirty in the tasty mixture.

Here is our finished pan of cinnamon rolls. Again, they had to rise an hour before they could be baked (and devoured). That hour was torture...the smell of melted butter and cinnamon sugar was filling the air and driving us nuts! And yes, I thought about licking my fingers when I was done rolling the dough. I didn't though, Sammie said that would be gross.

So after the hour of rising and then 20 minutes baking time, I got to savor the sweet taste of success!

I ate 3 yeast rolls and 2 cinnamon rolls! What can I say, they were good! I had a great time with Becky, Sammie, and Carla. It was fun to spend time with my coworkers outside of work. Thanks to Becky for opening up her home to us and thanks to Sammie for sharing her bread making wisdom :)

Another blog entry...two days in a row!? I'm on a roll! Wow, free time is a glorious thing. Can you tell I'm really glad to not have to go to work this week?

spring break relaxin'

2008-04-02T17:33:00.007-05:00

Woohoo - I'm on Spring Break! The college I work at was closed all week for students, but staff had to work Monday and Tuesday and then got the rest of the week off. So today I enjoyed a day of relaxing. Let me tell you, it was SO nice not having to get up and go to work this morning!!

Today I got my very first facial. Chip bought me a gift certificate for one for Christmas (yes, I'm just now using it in April). It was pretty good, though I don't think it is something I would do on a continual basis since it costs a lot and it was just "ok". It's not that I didn't enjoy it - I would just rather use the money on a massage. I enjoy those more. Plus my skin isn't so bad that I need it deep-cleansed frequently.

Facials are relaxing. You lay on a table in a dimly lit room with soothing music playing. Then they use like 7 different sprays, cleansers, scrubs, and masks on your face. My favorite part had to be the warm, damp towels they put on your face. That was very soothing. Each product had a different scent - cucumber, fruit, and cinnamon. So you also get a little aromatherapy, too. The whole facial lasts about 40 minutes. It seemed kind of fast, but it was still nice - especially since I could have been sitting at work!

Later on this afternoon I went to Sonic for "Happy Hour" with my neighbor Stephanie and her baby Addison. Sonic has half-priced drinks and slushes everyday from 2-4 p.m. We sat outside at one of the tables on the patio and talked. It was a good time. Plus we scored free refills on our cherry-limeades. We just asked one of the carhops if they did free refills and she said they didn't, but that she'd bring us one anyways. Nice! We did a double-take and had a good laugh when we saw the nametag of the girl who brought us our refills. Let's just say it was a part of the female anatomy. Since this is a "G" rated blog I won't say what it was. I'm sure that wasn't actually her name - which begs the question why anyone would put that name on there in the first place.

Anyways, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first day of Spring Break. Tomorrow I get to have my teeth cleaned - woohoo! After that I am getting a lesson in making yeast rolls and cinamon rolls from my coworker's sister. I've had them before and they are really good, so I'm looking forward to that. Plus I am getting ready for our trip to New York City. I'm kind of busy, but at least it is with fun things to do so I don't mind.

Oh, as promised, here is a picture of me from my church's Passover Easter production. No, I'm not angry, this is just a scence I'm in. You can find the rest by clicking here -> http://gallery.mac.com/thepianostudio#100083

short and sweet

2008-03-21T16:25:00.002-05:00

I have a free minute - literally - so I thought I'd update my blog (per Bethany's request). I have been very busy lately preparing for my church's Easter musical production "The Passover". I sing in the choir and am also acting in a few scenes. I have been at rehearsals just about every night the past 2 weeks. I'm exhausted! Hence no update to my blog in about a month. We have our first performance at 7 pm tonight and two performances tomorrow (at 2 pm & 7 pm). If anyone reading this is local, please come. It is at Rocky Bayou Baptist Church in Niceville.

I'll try to post some pictures from the show next week.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

d-day

2008-02-27T21:33:00.010-06:00

This past Sunday Chip and I went to Bonifay to help his parents get their new donkey. A friend of theirs bought a female donkey for his farm and unbeknownst to him it was pregnant. One day he went out to feed the donkey and there were two baby donkeys (I don't know the official "baby" donkey name - maybe colt?) in the pen. One was a female and one was a male. Because he didn't intend to go into the donkey breeding business he offered the male donkey to my in-laws. They have a lonely horse that they thought the donkey would keep company. So anyways, Chip and I were asked to come to Bonifay to help them load it in the trailer and bring it back to their house.

It was pretty funny trying to get the donkey out of its pen and into the trailer. Donkeys are stubborn and the poor little guy was scared as well. Eventually he went in and we brought him back to the house. He ran out of the trailer and into the fenced in corral they plan on keeping him in until he gets used to his new surroundings. My in-laws have named him Donkey, pronounced "Dun-key" like the way Shrek says it in the movie. He is pretty cute! The horse was kind of unsure of what this new animal was and what he was doing there. Every once in a while the donkey would bray fairly loud. Everyone would just laugh. I think he will make a great addition to their animal family. Here are some pictures of the donkey.

Here is the donkey with his mother and sister. He is the littlest one on the far left.

Here is Rose checking out the donkey.

Chip in the stall with the donkey.

He's pretty cute. I'm usually scared of large animals, but once I realized he wasn't going to kick me I had a little fun with him.

Welcome home Donkey!

valentine's day and other exciting stuff

2008-02-14T19:29:00.004-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thank you to my sweet husband for these beautiful flowers and the half dozen treats from Au Peche Mignon :)

I've been quite busy lately reading up on all of the places and things to do in New York City. Chip and I will be going in April with Ben and Bethany. I'm really excited to go and also to see the sites with such great friends. I think that will make the trip even more fun. We've already bought our planes tickets and reserved our hotel. Now I'm working on our itinerary. We plan on going to the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square, take in a Broadway show, see the Statue of Liberty, and even stand in the crowd during the taping of the Today Show. We are also going to try to get tickets to Conan or Letterman. If any of you reading this have ever been and have any suggestions of places to go or things to eat let me know.

Last night I went to a class at the college I work at about European travel. The teacher is the travel writer from the local newspaper and an avid european traveler. I am currently trying to persuade Chip to go to Paris and maybe London this fall. We'll see. Neither one of us have been overseas before and he is leary about going somewhere by ourselves where they don't speak english. I think we'd be ok. This class has already taught me quite a bit about how to plan and pack for such a trip. By the end of the class I should be ready to go. I can't wait! I have always wanted to go to Europe, especially Paris - as I'm sure more of you know :)

Recently I found out that I won an Gold Addy! Addys are awards for creativity in advertising. These were the local Addy's for the Emerald Coast region. From here the winning pieces go on to the district competition and then nationals. Addys are well-recognized awards in the advertising industry.The college/performing arts center I work for entered 9 different projects we did this year and 8 won awards! The one I am most proud of is the Art Center's season brochure. It is the only one of our pieces that won the gold, the rest won silver - which is great too. The season brochure was my project. I designed the front cover and worked with our graphic designer on the layout/design of the rest of the brochure. I'm very proud to have our marketing department win these awards.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I'll write more later.

a blog for my birthday dog

2008-02-06T17:09:00.000-06:00

Today is Frank's first birthday! My little peanut wiener dog is already one! This is the first picture of Frank I saw when I found our breeder's website. What a sad little puppy!

And here is what he looks like now...

Don't worry, I'm not one of "those" people that have parties for their pets. I know some of you are saying, "Now wait just a minute! Aren't you the girl who's family had brithday parties for your guinea pigs?!" Well, yes, we did...in a way. We would have cake, but who wouldn't want a reason to eat cake? Usually we did have a small birthday cone hat for the guinea pig to wear. Stop laughing! It's not like we sent out invitations and had guests over! In present day, people do a lot worse and more to celebrate their pet's birthday.

We, however, are not doing anything to "celebrate" Frank's birthday...other than this blog. I didn't bake him a cake (though I do have some left over from our Super Bowl party we could eat), he will not be wearing a party hat, and we didn't buy him any presents. Frank is a simple dog. Besides, it's not like he realizes it is the anniversary of his birth.

But I did want to mark the occasion with a post. I have really enjoyed having Frank around and he brings a lot of fun and laughter to our lives...frustration too. Like when he peed on me this morning! Oops! I still love him.

this, that, and the other

2008-01-28T18:16:00.000-06:00

Sorry I have written in a while. I figured I'd write when something interesting and blog-worthy happened. Hence the silence. But, after talking to my mother this afternoon and hearing, "why don't you update your blog?" I was guilted into it. So, here is the low-down on my January.

It has been a pretty uneventful month. I haven't travelled anywhere exciting (though Bethany and I are planning a trip to NYC in April...fun!), I haven't had anything funny happen to me, Frank hasn't done anything miraculous - I've just been "living". Not that that is a bad thing.

I do currently have a cold. It seems like I am always sick this time of year. Two years ago I had the flu (awful!!) and last year I had some sort of indeterminable viral infection (not the flu, mono or strep throat). So if a cold is as bad as it gets this year I will gladly take it. No fever, no body aches, no chills? DEAL! Other than some congestion and a raspy voice, I feel fine. Word of advice, if you feel like you are getting sick take Zycam. It really does help shorten the length of a cold. I use the nasal swabs and they do work. Yes, I still did get sick, but it could have been a lot worse.

In other news, my coworker brought a king cake to work today!!! She went to New Orleans this past weekend with her grand kids to see Hannah Montana and picked one up. So this king cake is from NO, so to me that makes it even better since it is authentic. It was delicious - it had a tasty cream cheese filling and lots of icing. I don't know what it is about king cakes that make me like them so much, but I do. I had my first king cake when I went to Mardi Gras my senior year of college with Bethany and Holly. We enjoyed it then and I have gotten one just about every year since. Who wouldn't like a big cinnamon-roll type bread with icing and sugar sprinkles? I highly recommend it. So if you are at a grocery store anytime soon, pick one up. They sell them in most bakeries. I think you'll like it. If you don't, send it to me and I'll be happy to eat it. Talking about king cakes and Mardi Gras prompted me to go find a picture of me and Bethany at Mardi Gras. Wow, I can't believe this picture if 5 years old now. Wow, I forgot how blond my hair used to be. You'll be happy to know I have come to my senses now and have opted for my natural mousy-brown hair color with some subtle blond highlights. :)

Well, I think I am tapped out of stories for now. Hope everyone is doing well! :) Until next time...

happy new year!

2008-01-01T18:56:00.000-06:00

Happy 2008 everyone! We just got back yesterday from spending 2 weeks in Kansas City visiting my family. It was good to see them, especially since the last time we saw them was last Christmas. We had fun hanging out, refereeing the dogs, playing in the snow, and gaining weight(there was too much food to pass up)!

I was SO excited to see snow again! It had been a while since I had been somewhere it snowed. It was so pretty to see it falling and how it made the trees white. The only bad thing was it made the roads really slick.

Me, Chip and my dad shoveled the driveway and played in the snow. I built a tiny snowman and made a snow angel. Even Frank liked being in the snow - he hopped around like a rabbit.

My family finally got to meet Frank. They liked him and thought he was an obedient dog -which makes me proud. Frank had fun chasing around my parent's bichon frise, Charley, and my sister's dachshund Petey. They ran around like crazy dogs and would steal each others toys. Frank has been very exhausted since we got home. I also think he misses the other dogs.

We had a fairly uneventful New Year's Eve. We stayed at home and vegged out since we were tired from the flights. It was nice to have some down time to relax before we have to go back to work tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope 2008 is a great year for everyone. I'm looking forward to all this year will bring.

relief

2007-12-13T20:54:00.000-06:00

Well, we've come to our decision about the job. We decided to pass on it. We ultimately felt like this wasn't the right time or right job for us to move for. We are saddened because we liked the idea of moving somewhere new, but know in the end that it is for the best we stay. The company understood, but said to call them in a few months and see if they have any open positions because they really like Chip. So that is encouraging.

I am relieved I can now focus on other things - like the fact that Christmas is only a week and a half away and I don't have any gifts for anyone! Guess what I'll be doing this Saturday...

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and has heard us out lately. We have been blessed with wonderful, caring friends. We love you all! :)

a fork in the road

2007-12-09T20:37:00.000-06:00

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. Life has been busy lately with holiday parties, baby showers, trips here and there and visits with family.

Funny story - we went to Bonifay yesterday to visit Chip's family and spend time with his aunt who was in town. Chip's family owns 14 acres of land and have a horse. We were outside trying to get a picture of me, Chip and Frank for our Christmas card when Frank trotted out under the barbed wired fence into the pasture. He was sniffing around and found a large pile of horse manure and proceeded to roll in it! His expression was priceless -it was like he was blissfully happy rolling in crap! Luckily it was dried horse poop, so he just ended up smelling really bad. I couldn't believe he did that. What a gross dog :) He got a bath as soon as we got home! Here is one of the pictures we got. It is so hard to get a dog to cooperate for a picture!

Anyways, life has been full of confusion lately. Long story short, a few weeks ago Chip met some guys in a training class he went to in CA. They had several conversations about work (they do similar things) and it was mentioned that the guys had an opening at their job in Huntsville and told Chip if he was interested he could send them his resume. So he sent his resume when he got back home and got a phone call a few days later. He got asked to come up to Huntsville for an interview. I decided to go with him because I have never been to Huntsville, wanted to see a place I could possibly end up calling home, and because I NEVER turn down a free trip. So we went up there right after Thanksgiving. Chip thought the interview went well, and the company must have agreed because they offered him the job 4 days later. Now we have to give them a decision...by this Tuesday. One may think it would be an easy decision, but it isn't. There are a lot of details to consider - which we have mulled over a million times. I won't go into them all because I don't feel like rehashing them for the thousandth time. There are several good reasons to go and several to stay put in Niceville. We just have to decide which are more important. So anyways...please pray for us. This is a big decision to pack up and move away and leave our life here behind for a new one. It is an exciting and scary prospect. I know we will not have a "ah ha" moment when the clouds part and the answer to what we should do is clearly laid out. We just have to trust God's will in this all and know that He is with us every step of the way.

I'll keep you posted as to what happens. If we do take this job, we'd move right after Christmas - so scarily soon. Thanks to everyone who has heard me out lately and given us advice and support. It means a lot. :) Hope every is doing well and getting excited that Christmas is just around the corner!

give thanks

2007-11-22T16:44:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful day counting your blessings, spending time with friends and family, and of course, enjoying a good meal.

This was me and Chip's first Thanksgiving where we cooked the meal. Since my parents live so far away now and Chip's family spent Thanksgiving with their daughter in Naples, we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house with Chip's other sister Candi and our friends Mark & Emma. We were intimidated at first since we were doing all of the cooking, but in the end it came out well and was actually fun. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, mac & cheese, rolls, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and some double chocolate gooey butter cake (courtesy of our friend Emma & a Paula Deen recipe). Everything tasted good!

I also watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I have watched that parade every Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember! I always look forward to seeing the old-timey looking turkey float at the beginning and Santa at the end.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving meal. I look forward to making it again next year. Hope you all have a great day!

vote for frank!

2007-11-06T19:13:00.000-06:00

I entered Frank into our local newspaper's "Best Pet" contest because, in my humble opinion, Frank is the best pet. He is very sweet and cute and loves everyone! Here are a few pictures to encourage you to cast your vote for Frank.

To vote go to http://www.nwfdailynews.com/bestpet/vote/?page=6 scroll down and look for Frank. His name and my name are there to identify him.

Feel free to vote as many times as you'd like. I know Frank won't win due to some problems the site has had with cheating already (several people used a program that would automatically vote for their pet - like 16,000 votes in 5 hours), but it is still fun to see how many votes he can get. Thanks for your help :)

ooh...scary

2007-11-01T17:18:00.000-05:00

Happy post-Halloween! Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been busy planning and throwing baby showers, a costume party, and now a dinner party. I should start my own business!

One of the parties I hosted was a costume party that was last Saturday. Chip and I procrastinated till the day of the party on our costumes, so we ended up with this...

What are we, you ask. Well...we never really quite figured that out either. We aren't goth, we're not bikers. I guess we are "Miami Inkers". We're not portraying characters on the show per se, just people who might be customers on the show. All we did was spray Chip's hair black and buy one of those tattoo sleeves for his arm. Basically it is pantyhose with fake tattoos on it. It is pretty clever. For my look I put on a black wig, slapped on some faux eyelashes and went to town with some black eye liner. Not the most original. Oh well, we can't win the costume contest every year!

Well...that's about all that is new and exciting with me! Hope you all are doing well :)

real classy

2007-10-21T18:27:00.000-05:00

Today after church I went out to lunch with some of my girl friends from church (all of our husbands are out of town either on a business trip, a youth retreat, or deployed). We went to the Ruby Tuesday in Niceville. It was fairly busy from the post-church lunch crowd. As we were sitting there enjoying our lunches I glanced over to another table to see a guy sit down. I got an eyeful of his t-shirt and my eyes bugged out! This guy was wearing a t-shirt that said "No, I'm not a gynecologist, but I'll have a look". Wow! And to make matters worse he was sitting at a table with his wife and 2 kids!!!! This is wrong on so many levels - where do I even begin?!

Do I blame him for buying such a distasteful t-shirt and proceeding to wear it out in public? Or do I blame him for subjecting his children (both of which, thank God, looked too young to be able to read yet) to having to look at him in that t-shirt?

No, I think I will blame his wife. What wife would A) let her husband buy a shirt that said that and B) let him wear it when they went out to lunch in a public restaurant and C) wear that in front of their children??? I mean, come on! If I were her I'd slap him and then take the shirt and burn it! But, then again, she willingly left the house with him in that shirt so I guess she doesn't care or maybe even finds it funny. I know no one at our table found it comical.

tim tam slam

2007-10-07T20:21:00.000-05:00

The other day Chip and I were shopping in the World Market in Pensacola when Bethany called. She and I started discussing all of the tasty sounding international foods they had available when she mentioned they sell Tim Tams. I just happened to be on the very aisle they were on. Tim Tams are actually called Arnott's now (the company was sold a few years ago). Tim Tams (Arnott's) are a chocolate dipped sandwich cookie Bethany brought back from Australia. Apparently these are real big there.

There is a certain way to eat them that is referred to as the Tim Tam Slam. Basically you bite the ends of both sides of the cookie off and dip it in a hot drink (we used hot chocolate, but coffee would work) and suck on it like a straw. The hot chocolate comes through the cookie and melts the chocolate. You then eat the warm cookie...mmmm.

About 7 years ago I tried the Tim Tam Slam when FSU's BCM had its annual Laguna Beach retreat. It didn't go so well for me! I slammed with some nuclear hot chocolate and burnt the crap out of my tongue. I didn't get to enjoy my cookie because my tongue was burnt and I couldn't taste it. Bethany ran out of Tim Tams and I never got to try it again. So years later I wanted, no needed, to redeem myself. I bought a pack of Tim Tams (Arnott's) and set out to slam the right and safe way.

Chip made some hot chocolate and I explained to him how to slam. He is new to the whole process. I proceed to bite the ends off and dip the cookie in the hot chocolate. I suck up the cocoa and it didn't burn my tongue! Success! I then ate my melty cookie. It was really good! Here are some pictures of the process.

If you are ever in a World Market I suggest you pick up a pack of Arnott's and try the Tim Tam Slam. It is really good! Thanks for reminding me Bethany! It was good to remember some old, funny memories again! :)

roll tribe!

2007-10-04T19:20:00.001-05:00

Ok, sorry it took me all week to post pictures from the FSU/AL game. Joel McAllister took the pictures on his camera and it took him a few days to send them to us because he went on vacation. Here are some of them.

The game was pretty cool. FSU and Alabama have a pretty strong fan base, so there was some good natured competition between fans. Alabama fans would shout to each other "Roll Tide" and FSU fans would shout "F-S-U" or do the warchant. Chip, Joel and Kristine all had matching "Roll Tribe" shirts - that was the game day t-shirt with FSU's spin on "Roll Tide". Clever, clever.

The game started off pretty boring. Nothing really exciting happened until the 4th quarter. Pretty much people were getting trashed since the game was not very interesting. The stadium was selling beer and hard liquor. There was a guy so drunk in front of us (not only was he buying beer, but he also had 2 flasks in his pockets!) that by the end of the 3rd quarter we saw him vomit into the aisle in front of him. Then of course, he began to drink again. Real smart!

Luckily the game got better after that. FSU pulled away from Bama and ultimately won (for those of you who didn't know - shame on you!)

After the game we met up with Curtis & Robin Cooper at O'Charley's. It was good to catch up with them. We hadn't seen them in a little over a year. We all caught up on life and then stood around and shared pictures of our pets. :)

The rest of the weekend we hung out with Austin & Ashley Henkel. It was great to see them again. We miss them so much since they moved to Jax. We all had a good time together living it up for Chip's 28th birthday. Chip wanted to eat at Sonny's BBQ, so we did. We pigged out on pulled pork and crinkle cut fries...not bad. We then went to Dave and Buster's (the equivalent of an adult Chuck E. Cheese) and played some games. I played one game and somehow won 300 tickets! Ashley witnessed my sweet redemption. :) It was a good time.

Here is a picture of Austin we took at a store in Jacksonville. Thanks for being great hosts Henkels! We miss you guys already!

As I promised, we stopped at Au Peche Mignon on the way to Jacksonville. It was as delicious as I remember. Mmm!

All in all it was a great weekend full of fun with a bunch of good friends. It was great to see everyone again! Happy Birthday Chip! I hope it was a good one! :) Love you!

subscription is free and easy!

2007-09-27T18:06:00.000-05:00

If you like what you have read in my blog so far and hate to be bothered having to remember to actually check for updates, you can subscribe to my blog and have it conveniently sent to your email for FREE! This isn't some great thing I have come up with - it is just a feature of the blogspot. On the very bottom of the page there is a link that says "Subscribe to: posts". Just click on that and follow the instructions and you'll be good to go. Then you will be sure to know all the juicy details of my very exciting life ;) Wow, you'd better get a rag to wipe the sarcasm off the desk!

I appreciate everyone who was left comments! It is fun to see what people have to say and hear from old friends. Keep 'em coming! Just so you know when you post a comment it will not show up on the blog immediately. The comment is sent to my email and after I approve it, it will be posted. I have chosen to moderate my comments since anyone is allowed to view and comment on my blog. I am trying to prevent spammers from leaving inappropriate messages on my blog.

Anywho...I am very excited to leave tomorrow to go to Jacksonville for the FSU game. I'm sure the game will be fun, but it will be really nice to see our friends Austin & Ashley and Joel & Kristine. I enjoy getting to catch up with everyone. I'll post pictures of our weekend on Monday for all of you eager readers. I am really looking forward to stopping in Tallahassee for some Au Peche Mignon - the most wonderful place on earth! It is a french pastry shop that makes the MOST wonderful individual sized desserts short of being in Paris (I can't actually back that up because I've never actually been to Paris)! I can't name a favorite treat because I love just about everything I have eaten there. If you are ever passing through Tallahassee you must go - you won't regret it.

Oh, here is a picture of my hair for those who asked. I guess it isn't that "exciting" looking, but you just had to have seen the mess it was before I got it done. Note Frank's expression in the picture - how funny!

Peace out, it's time for dinner!

why didn't someone tell me?

2007-09-18T19:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, why didn't someone tell me my hair looked HORRIBLE?! It was only overgrown and like 6 colors - literally. I got my hair highlighted about 3 months ago and it was a little blond. Needless to say 3 months later it looked a little skunky - black looking roots, bleached out blond streaks and chunks, and an overall reddish appearance everywhere else. Part of this disaster is my fault for waiting too long between haircuts, but someone should have politely told me to fix it. So anyways, I did today. I got my hair dyed back to a shade near my natural color (mousy blond/brown for those of you who have never actually seen it - my husband included!) and some SUBTLE highlights put in. The highlights aren't to stand out, but to add dimension. I think my hair looks a million times better! Plus the ratty dried ends got cut off. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a promotion at work, a starring role in a movie, or a free trip to Paris! Ha, dream on me! Good looking hair can make a person's self confidence improve.

I just got finished baking a cake for my co-worker's birthday tomorrow. I made a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is called "Busy Day Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping". Overall it was really easy and looks like it should be pretty tasty. I made some cookies from a recipe in that book the other day - Chocolate crinkles - they were a big hit! Sure beats break and bake or a brownie mix! It really wasn't that difficult or time consuming and it shows I care enough to take the time to make something from scratch. I guess watching all of that Food Network has paid off! I do enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes...it is just hard to find the time to do it.

Anyways - that's all for now. I've got to go order some flea meds for Frank. What an exciting life I lead! :)

surprise!

2007-09-10T18:25:00.001-05:00

I got a surprise at work today. A special delivery just for me - flowers! They were from Chip...how sweet :) He is in Albuquerque, NM for the next few days at some meetings at Los Alamos National Laboratories. He arranged for these flowers to be delivered to me today. The note was even in his own handwriting - so he actually took the time to drive to the florist to buy them before he left. What a guy! I have been blessed with a truly thoughtful husband. It'll be nice to have him home on Wednesday afternoon. Frank has been super clingy and whiney since he's left!

I saw FSU won the other day. It wasn't televised here so I didn't actually see it, but I hear it still wasn't that pretty. It could be worse - we could have lost to USF like Auburn did. How embarrassing!

I signed up for the Blockbuster Online DVD rental thing and I've got to say I enjoy it. It is nice to make a list of movies and have them sent to your house. I'm lazy and never think to go to the video store, so this is great for me. Plus it is fairly cheap depending on the plan you pick. It is about the cost of one ticket at the movie theater for a month full of movies...not bad. I'm sure you all have signed up for this already and are laughing at me that I just got on the bandwagon. I'm a little slow to get on board with these things...I have good intentions, I just never seem to follow through with them.

Well, that's all that is new with me!

It could have been worse

2007-09-04T17:17:00.001-05:00

FSU didn't get trounced...completely. I'll admit it was quite embarrassing the first quarter, ok make that half. We couldn't do anything right! I was about to throw out Frank's FSU t-shirt. Yes, I did say Frank's FSU t-shirt. I know, I know I broke the cardinal rule I set for myself that I would never put my pet in clothing. I promise this is the only item of clothing he will EVER own. You've got to admit he looks pretty dapper. Though someone really needs to make dog clothes for long dogs! Poor wiener dog's wearing a belly shirt!

At least the game got better the second half. The coaches must have cracked some skulls during half-time because the boys came out and at least showed some glimpse of promise. The last half of the game was actually exciting. For a moment there they had me fooled that they might actually pull off a victory. I guess I'll hold off giving away our tickets to the FSU/AL game that is in a few weeks. It is Chip's birthday gift, so I guess he should ultimately decide. Besides, the game is in Jacksonville so that means we get to see our friends Austin and Ashley...that is a plus! We miss them a lot, so any reason to make a trek over to the other side of the state is fine by me. I'm always up for a road trip.

Moving on...

Work was so frustrating today! My computer was acting up - freezing and running painfully slow. I also haven't been able to print in like 5 days. I've let our IT department know (many times), but they don't seem to concerned with getting it fixed anytime this century. So needless to say I didn't get a whole lot accomplished today :( I already need another vacation! Hmm...where to next?

I'm open to suggestions :)

Allow myself to re-introduce...myself

2007-09-01T17:12:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've finally joined the world of blogging. I figure it is a good way to keep in touch with people - especially those friends who live far away(as long as I actually update this thing every now and again.)

For those of you I haven't talked to in a long time, here is a quick update:

I currently live in Niceville, FL (a small town halfway between Pensacola and Panama City Beach) with my sweet husband Chip. We have been married for a little over 3 years now. We met at FSU about 5 years ago. Chip is a mechanical engineer with the US Air Force. He works on warhead design. I work in marketing at Okaloosa-Walton College/Mattie Kelly Arts Center.

We do not have any children at this point. Eventually we will start a family, but for now it is just us and our super cute dachshund, Frank. We've had Frank for about 4 months now. He is great practice for when we have kids one day. Judging by the fact he is still alive and likes us, I think we may be able to handle kids.

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We're very excited college football is starting back up today! I have to admit I am a bit nervous about the FSU game. Last year was terrible! Of course the one game we went to last year was the shutout against Wake Forrest :( At least we were able to go up into the skybox and drown our sorrows in the never-ending buffet. Since Jeff Bowden is no longer the offensive coordinator, we may do better. I feel like I could have called better plays...don't hold me to that!

I recently was in Austin, TX visiting Ben, Bethany and Violet Morrison. It was nice to finally meet Violet. She is a cutie! It was a good visit - full of eating, seeing new places, and laughter (how it always is when Bethany and I get together). I had a great time and can't wait to see the Morrisons again.

We were in Whole Foods one evening and came across this very strange fruit. I have no idea what it is called or where they grow it, but it sure did make us laugh!

Well, I think that will end my first entry. Hope everyone hasn't fallen asleep at the keyboard yet. Until next time...