Christmas 2009 (less of a blog, more of a novel)

A very late merry Christmas!

Matthew and I had a busy Christmas season. We drove down to Tampa last Tuesday to stay with Matt's dad and family. Jim, Brittany, Matthew and I went to Bonefish for dinner. Yum! After dinner, we opened presents back at the house. Matthew is so excited about the Nook that Jim and Jean got him. It is on back order until February, so that just gives us another reason to go down for a visit. :) I'll be honest, we haven't cooked since we got home, so we haven't been able to use our food chopper yet. Unfortunately, Jean and Brittany had to work Wednesday, so Jim, Matt and I went out to breakfast and then to the Tampa history museum. It was really interesting. There was a lot of information about the Native Americans that lived here, the Ybor city culture and the cattle that live here. Brittany picked us up for lunch (she only had to work a half day). We left after lunch to head to Matt's mom's house.

We helped Barbara finish wrapping some gifts and then Mimi and Gramps came over for dinner. After dinner we went to the Botanical Gardens to see their lights. It was fun but a little crowded. Here are some pictures from our time there.

Thursday morning we opened presents! (There are still more presents to come, Matt and I were very good this year!) Then we made ham omelets from the left over dinner ham. Later that morning we went out for a walk on the beach. The weather was perfect, though a little breezy. I was glad I decided to grab my sunglasses from the car. After lunch we headed to my parents house.

Nick and Robyn went to Christmas Eve service with Jonathan and Chat, so they weren't there when we arrived, but it was nice to spend time with mom, dad, Lisa and Erik while the kids were still napping. Ok, Kayleigh didn't nap, but she was lying down. I know mom and dad loved having all of the kids and grandkids at their house for Christmas Eve dinner. We had the traditional Noche Buena dinner of pork, black beans and rice and plantains. Yum! Chat made flan for dessert. We went to bed very full!! The kids had a great time playing together. It was so much fun watching them playing together, too. I just felt bad for Brian. He was too young to join in with everyone.

Christmas morning we had pancakes and French toast as we waited for Jonathan and Chat to finish up Christmas at their house so we could open gifts. It was a bit crazy with 10 adults, 4 kids that can get around and a baby. The kids did really well, but I think it helped that we didn't all sit around and wait turns to open gifts. Of course, the nieces and nephews got a lot of the same gifts, so they would have been opening at the same time anyway. And there were presents for me and Matt. :) Mom and dad bought Matthew a new computer keyboard. Unfortunately, it didn't come in time, so they wrapped up an old one for him to open. Nick did have the flash for his camera get delivered Christmas day! Who knew the post office would deliver Christmas day???

After opening gifts Matt and I headed over to Mimi and Gramps for lunch. Everyone was over there and apparently there were a lot of good boys and girls this year! The aunts and uncles bring gifts, so you just find your pile and open up. Poor Mimi was so worried about lunch that she didn't open her gifts with everyone and waited until after we ate to do it. Lunch was delicious. And Matt's mom brought her iced sugar cookies for dessert. We always look forward to them! After lunch we played "Which Came First?" where you have to pick between two items (indoor plumbing or toilet paper, Halloween or Valentine's Day). We lost, but it was fun and educational! Then we played "Mystery Mansion". One team picks a suspect, weapon, reason and location and the other team tries to figure it out by process of elimination. It's kind of like "Clue", but quicker.

Then it was back to Mom an Dad's for Christmas dinner with all of my family. Mom had the great idea to make a video of everyone "entering" the family, where they came in the picture in the order they came in the family, either by birth or marriage. The hardest part was getting Nathan and Brian in (Lisa had to go get Brian and Nathan kept stopping to check things out on the way). Scott was sick so April took him home, but Barbara and Jack offered to take the boys home after dinner so they could play with their cousins. I strategically placed myself by Barbara and Jack at dinner so I could talk with them because that was the only time we would see them on our visit. Grandma made friends with Taylor because Taylor is much more calm than the others. This year I got to make the family calendars and hand them out after dessert. Chat has done it for the past two years and wasn't able to do it this year, so I offered to. It was a lot of fun and I love the tradition Chat started and I couldn't imagine not having one this year. I don't know if the kids were able to take a nap that day, but they all were great and play so well together. It really was great having everyone together.

Nick, Robyn and Taylor left after breakfast the day after Christmas. I know they were hoping Taylor would sleep in the car, though the first thing she asked was to watch a movie. They were going to stop at Lisa and Erik's on their way home to get out of the car for a while and maybe to get Taylor to take a nap. Erik took Brian and Kayleigh to see Granny and Aunt Ola and Matt went to breakfast with his mom, aunt and grandparents so Lisa and I were able to get in some good Farkle time. It's much easier when Kayleigh isn't trying to take a turn or grab the dice. And she's lucky for Lisa, so I was glad to get rid of her! :) Matt came back to pick me up and we headed home around 1. It was a great time!!

If it's black and white and found in an igloo...

it must be a cat!





We took Juliet outside for some fresh air (and so she wouldn't try to run out the door when it was open) and let her try out the igloo. She tried to run out, but only took a few steps before stopping to check out a new patch of grass.

Picky Eater

We don't feed Simba and Juliet on a schedule, we just leave food in a bowl for them. They are grazers, they don't eat it all at once, so usually it's ok. There have been times when the food bowls have run dry, but the cats generally let us know by meowing until we get up to check or running into the office where we keep their food. This morning as I was getting ready for work I saw Simba run into the office. I followed him, but saw that there was still food in his bowl, so I just kept on getting ready. And then I heard the crash!



Please note the food in the food bowl. The orange things are Nerf darts that Simba likes to play with. They usually end up in either his food bowl or the water bowl.

P.S. - Yes, there is a lid for the box that we keep the food in and we do usually keep it in the closet. I've learned my lesson!

Thanksgiving 2009 (finally!)

I know Thanksgiving was last week, but I've been busy since we got back and haven't had time to post! This will be a long one with a lot of pictures, so hopefully that makes up for it!

We headed down to Matt's mom's house after Matt got off work Wednesday afternoon. We took back roads because we knew the interstates would be packed with extra cars on the road. We thought it was pretty good to make it down in 5 hours.

Thursday morning, Matt, Barbara and I went for a nice walk on the beach. It was a little windy, but I figured it was the best way to start a day full of food! We went to Mimi and Gramps house for lunch. Patrick, Mariruth and Caitlin came up from their time-share in Naples for lunch as well. I was impressed with how well Caitlin did with so many new people.

After lunch we headed over to Barbara and Jack's house for dinner. It's so nice to be with family, though I don't think I had a real conversation with anyone! Jill brought her dog Max. He was stuck outside while we ate, but she brought him in after dinner. We were all impressed that Mia was brave enough to pet him (though it took a while for her to do it!) because she isn't a dog person. We went back to my parent's house to stay the night.

Friday we went to visit my grandma at her new place. It's nice and small and she knows several people there, so that makes it nice for her. She took us on a tour and we left her at the dining room so she could have lunch. She said she might go play Wii bowling in the afternoon. Apparently she has gone before because she said it's really easy. I love it! Then we went to Chick-fil-a to see Jonathan while he was working. Well, that's the excuse I used so I could get a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake. Yum!

After lunch we headed to Toys R Us to help mom Christmas shop for her grandchildren. It wasn't too bad for being the day after Thanksgiving. It's much more fun shopping when you aren't the one spending the money! And let's just say that the kids are going to get some awesome gifts soon!

We left for Jim and Jean's house later that afternoon. Brittany was also home for Thanksgiving. We all went out to dinner before heading to see a Lightning hockey game. It was the first one I have been to since high school and it was so much fun. Jean got us great seats just a few rows behind the Lightning bench. It was also nice that there were only 5 seats in the row, just enough for us! There were a ton of fights (that's what makes hockey great, right??) and the Lightning won, so that just makes the game even better. I think we all had a really good time and I'm glad we were able to do it.

Patrick, Mariruth and Caitlin came up for lunch Saturday. We had really good pizza and salad from a local place. We brought Caitlin's Christmas gifts because we won't see them at Christmas. We bought her a couple of puzzles and one of the Veggie Tales silly song DVDs. I know all kids aren't alike, but Mia loved to dance along to the songs, so I hope Caitlin likes it just as much. We left shortly after Caitlin opened her gifts and luckily missed a lot of traffic. It was such a good trip and we are looking forward to seeing even more people at Christmas!

I know this isn't about Thanksgiving, but last night Matt and I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They are awesome! Of course, they played their two most popular songs "Christmas in Sarajevo" and "Wizards in Wonderland." They had the show divided into two parts, half for their Christmas songs and half for their songs on their new album. They had lights that blinked along with the music, laser lights, moving stage parts and lights, smoke, and fire during their show. I'm so mad because I didn't take my camera. It said that cameras aren't allowed on the ticket and I didn't want to get ours taken away. There were tons of cameras there, and I'm not just talking about ones on cell phones. And I totally would have videoed some of the songs. I guess we'll just have to go back again! :) We could have stayed afterward to get the band's autographs, but it was already 10:30 when the show was over and we just aren't as young as we used to be! Matt is sleeping on the couch now, and has been for about an hour. Simba is snuggling with him, too. We're both very tired, but it was worth it!

Happy birthday to me!

First off, happy birthday yesterday dad!

It has been quite the birthday weekend! I decided a while back that I was going to make my own 4 day weekend for my birthday, so I took Friday and Monday off. Friday I did the closest to nothing as possible! We headed down to St. Augustine to meet Lisa, Erik, Kayleigh and Brian. Jim and Shirley let us use one of the 2 bedroom condos at their time share. Their room was right below ours and they had us down for dinner Friday night and for breakfast this morning. They also watched Kayleigh and Brian Saturday night so we could go out to a nice adult dinner. Saturday Matt and Erik went to play golf while Lisa and I took the kids to the outlet mall for a couple of hours. After lunch, the boys watched the kids so Lisa and I could get pedicures. We were right next to Great Clips, so I got my hair cut, too. Then Lisa and I headed back to the outlet mall, though we did not have any luck. :(

We were disappointed to find out that there is not a Cheesecake Factory in St. Augustine and we were not up to driving to Jacksonville to go. I had heard good things of Conch House from friends, so we decided to go there for dinner. We opted for outside dining and were able to get a tree house table. They look like little huts and they are over the water. All of the fish know they can get free food, so there were a ton in the water that we could feed. We started with a banana pepper calamari appetizer, Lisa and I both got twin filet mignons, Erik had the grouper and Matt had the Cracker Combo, a mixture of fried seafoods. The waitress brought us a huge piece of key lime pie. I also ordered a piece of chocolate cake. That was my favorite part of the meal!

After breakfast, Lisa and I opened up our cards and our gift from Jim and Shirley. I also got Lisa a 30th birthday gift. I had the idea a while ago, so I was ready to give it to her! Later, we got subs from Publix and had a picnic in front of the fort in St. Augustine. Kayleigh loved running up and down the hills at the fort. We all took turns running with her. After lunch we walked by all of the horse carriages. While Kayleigh liked looking at the horses, so didn't want to pet them or go up to them. We parted ways after that.

When we got home, Matt set up a scavenger hunt for my birthday gift. The first hint lead me to the fireplace mantle. The second to one of the maps we got in Charleston. The third to the bookcase. The fourth to my pillow and the last to my gift!

We're going out to dinner to a Japanese steak house tomorrow with our Bible study tomorrow night, so we went to Mellow Mushroom tonight. It was still a treat!

Happy birthday Lisa!!!

Lisa's birthday gift:


My birthday gift:

Happy birthday to me!

Is it Labor Day again?

I only ask because we did the same thing today that we did on Labor Day: cleaned out the garage and finally hung the shelves we painted months ago. Other than that we haven't done much of anything and that makes it a perfect day.

The space where we'll put mom and dad's old refrigerator.


Just ignore the exercise bike (it's going to Matt's mom) and the bags of garbage.


Our painted shelves are finally up!!



On a more serious note, we are so thankful for the men and women that risk their lives to keep this a free nation. We are so blessed to live where we do.

Fan/Not a Fan

Simba is not a fan of cold weather. He was sleeping on the bed yesterday and I wanted to make it before Matt's cousin came over. After I pulled the sheets over Simba, I uncovered him and he buried himself back under the covers.



I am a fan of the dice game LRC. Our friends had a group of people over last night to play. We each brought $3 and the winner got to take home the pot. I was the winner! We played a second round, but just with chips for fun and Matt won that game. I was kicking myself for not wanting to play for cash again! I tend to have horrible luck, so for Matt and I to both win we were seriously considering going to play the lottery last night or making a quick trip to Vegas! :)



The stack of ones I won.

Hello November!

It's November 1st and it finally feels like fall here! We did have a few cool days before, but last week it was back up into the 90s. I'm really excited about November because it is such a short teaching month. I only teach 3 1/2 days this week, 3 days the next week, 4 days the 3rd week, then it's Thanksgiving week so no students then, then there's just one more teaching day of November (the 30th is a Monday). Of course, November 15th is always a good day, and I am taking a 4 day weekend in honor of that special day.

I had fun on the last day of October as well. Matt and I went to our friend's house to watch the first half of the Gator game. We came home at half time so Matt could grill steaks for dinner. The problem was, we were out of propane, so we just went up to Chick-fil-a. (Mom, how's that for a new excuse to get out of cooking?!?!) We had trick-or-treaters for about 1 1/2 hours, though it wasn't very constant. We'd have a couple big groups, then maybe just one or two kids come. We didn't even give out the 1 bag of candy we bought. I took a couple of pictures to show our set-up in the dining room that the people saw that did come. I'm sure glad they don't come in the house! We didn't put out all of our decorations this year. Matt said he's just saving his decorating energy for Christmas. He'll sure need it!!

Our table decorations. Everything but the placemats are from Yankee Candle.


The lit candles.


The chair that held the candy we handed out and the rest of the decorations.

Meeting Baby Brian

Matthew and I went to see the Eikelands this weekend. Mom and Dad were there as well, though I feel like I didn't see much of anyone but Kayleigh. She and I have a good time together. We're still trying to figure out why she doesn't like Matt. I guess we need to go over there more so she can warm up to him. We went over Saturday morning. After lunch we went to the country store to get sausage (Kayleigh: "Sausage for my pizza?" Not this time!) and then to see the cows (Kayleigh: "I don't want them to moo at me!). Kayleigh was given a stroller and other accessories from Brian, and she loves pushing her doll around in the stroller. Matt and I went with her on 2 walks Saturday around the neighborhood so she could push her baby. I gave Kayleigh her bath last night and Mom put her to bed. Matt and I stayed at a hotel just down the road, so we went back to the house after we had breakfast. It was so cute seeing Kayleigh run to the door when she saw I had come back. After they ate breakfast (even Romeo the bird got a pancake!), Matt, Mom, Kayleigh and I went on another walk with Kayleigh pushing her baby in the stroller, but we came back when we started feeling rain drops, though it didn't ever really rain. Mom went to the store to get stuff for sandwiches for lunch and Matt and I left after we ate.

Here is a video of Kayleigh popping out of her toy box to surprise everyone.


Pictures from the weekend.

Homecoming 2009

This has been a crazy week at school because it is Homecoming week. Our school does dress up days, though we don't have a competition for the best dressed. Monday was favorite Disney character day (I was Cinderella before the ball), Tuesday was make your own super hero day (I was the "Bedazzler", spreading sparkles where ever I go!), Wednesday was inside out and backwards day (yes, I did wear my jeans inside out), and today was pop singer or movie star day (I was Dr. Emma Russell from the movie "The Saint"). Tonight was powder puff (seniors won), the bonfire and the first ever carnival. I raced one of the sophomores on a blow-up obstacle course (I lost) and went down the big slide. Oh, I also did the Gyro Gym Globe. You'll just have to watch the video, though you may want to turn your sound off!!

No more car payments!

On September 25th, Matt's last payment on his truck was made. After I paid off my car we started putting more money toward his truck. Now neither of us have a car payment. We're looking into buying a new car. Just kidding! We are going to start putting more money into our ELOC so we can get that paid off. Oh, to be debt free!! That won't happen for us for a long time if you count a home mortgage as debt, but we're very happy to have a home we love.

By the way, we're out of propane, so we did not burn Matt's loan book like we did with mine a few months ago.

Cruising time!

Last week 6 of us girls from the NCS class of 1998 booked a 4 day/3 night cruise for our 30th birthday. We talked about it for a few months and Polly took the lead in finding us a cruise. I am excited about it. It will be so much fun getting to spend a few days with long time friends and I get to be roommates with my sister again. Hopefully it will work out better when we are 30 than it did when we were 10! We are making it a girls only cruise, so our husbands will have to find something else to do while we are out of the country (we're going to the Bahamas). Only 5 1/2 more months until we board!!

Out to eat

I made a big goof Friday night. One of my friends from my days teaching at a public school wanted to get us all together since most of us have moved on and are at different schools. We used to always get together on Fridays, so I thought that September 26th was a Friday. When we were the only ones at Chili's I had mom check my email and found out we were 24 hours early! Instead of eating there 2 nights in a row we went to MoJo's barbecue. Obviously we ate at Chili's last night with everyone. Today was our Sunday School's monthly lunch out. (We went to The Loop.) Tomorrow is our Bible study's dinner out. We are going back to Chili's tomorrow because 100% of the profits go to St. Jude's research hospital. I think that's for all Chili's everywhere, so if you don't want to cook dinner tomorrow night, I suggest Chili's!

New Layout

I can't wait for fall to get here! I figure we're in the month of September, so we're close enough to fall to be able to change the blog layout. I changed the toilet paper roll holder at the beginning of the month. I think we'll wait until next weekend to take out the fall decorations, though. We found cute candle holders at Yankee Candle and Matt's mom is going to try to replicate them for us. It's cheaper than buying them! I need to change the flag out front as well. I saw a cute flag at Michael's tonight, but Matt just wants to use the cornucopia one that we already have. We decorate a lot for fall, Halloween and Christmas, which is fun. I just don't like putting it all away at the end of the season!

Laboring on Labor Day

Matt and I had a great Labor Day weekend. Saturday we went to the Riverside Art Market and walked around. There are a lot of neat things being made out there, though we did not buy any of it. We also walked around UNF. I haven't really been there since I graduated almost 7 years ago (!) and it looks very different. We tried to remember where we had our classes and a few of the buildings were open so we could go in.

We didn't do much on Sunday, though we did continue our Zaxby's after church tradition.

Monday was work around the house day. We started outside. Matt mowed and I edged and weed whacked. We weeded the flower beds and Matt trimmed the azaleas. We put 2 coats of white paint on shelves for the guest bathroom. They will go better in there white, not the stain we had. We cleaned out the fish tank and put in new decorations. It looks great, but one of the hood lights is broken and the new one we bought was too big. We hung pictures in the master bathroom. I had found frames a few months ago and painted them, we just hadn't hung them yet.

I took pictures of our busy Monday. Enjoy! (There's a lot of pictures.)

Visit with the Eikelands

Lisa and Kayleigh came over Saturday afternoon. We tried to play inside, but the cats went on the porch, and Kayleigh wanted to pet the cats. Simba is a much better sport than Juliet, though I have to say both cats were really good this weekend. After Simba kept walking away from Kayleigh, she wanted to play on the grass. She let me spin her around and would run to the fence because Simba would watch her from the porch. Matt made wings for dinner and then we went to get shaved ice for dessert. Kayleigh made the funniest faces when she would get a mouth full of ice. I told her to breathe through her mouth to warm it up. Sunday we went to church and Kayleigh sat with us. An hour is a long time for a 2 year old to sit quietly, and she did it for about 45 minutes. We went to Zaxby's for lunch. Yum! While we were there Kayleigh was saying "Are you talkin' to me?" (Matt called her Kayleigh Soprano the mobster.) We took a video of her doing it when we got back, but it wasn't as good as the restaurant. Lisa and Kayleigh came back to the house for a few more minutes and then they hit the road to head home. It was a fun weekend and I hope they come back!!

Kayleigh Soprano

Another first week of school

Last week was my 8th first week of school, 5th at the school I'm at now. So far the kids are good, but that can always change. This is the 3rd year with the same team of teachers. It's fantastic because we are all on the same page and work so well together. I took my camera to work this week so you can see where I spend 8 hours a day!!

I was also surprised to see how many tangerines are growing on our tree!

New Tile Pictures....FINALLY!

After spending weeks trying to find a tile that we both liked, Matt and I had it installed about 2 weeks ago. It was my last week of summer vacation. I spend most of the time in the room with the cats while the tile guys were putting it all in. I checked up on them and take pictures. We had to let the grout cure over night and then we had to seal the tile and let that dry over night and then I went back to school, so it's just taken us a while to get everything put away. We had our Bible study group over for dinner last night to show off the tile. Here are some before and after pictures!

Lisa's Baby Shower

I went to Tallahassee Friday because Lisa was having a baby shower Saturday morning. I was glad that it was Erik's Friday off so he could watch Kayleigh while Lisa and I went to get pedicures. Mom and Barbara (our aunt) got in around 4 pm Friday afternoon and we were able to spend time together and Lisa made baked ziti for dinner. Yum!

The shower Saturday morning was very nice. I'm still saying I would have won the "guess the number of diapers" game if I hadn't seen the box of diapers and changed my answer. My first answer was 84 and then I changed it to 127. There were 83 diapers in the box. Oh well. Mom won the "name the baby animal" game, so it may have looked fishy if I won the other game.

I came back to Jacksonville Saturday because tomorrow is my first day back to work. Where did the summer go?

Silly shower pictures

More shower pictures

P.S. - Tile pictures are coming soon!