"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Tiffany's "Tiffany Notes" necklace (excuse my lovely, morning face)



"Glam Candy" earrings..LOVE them (One from Jenn and one from Austin)


my new Nano-cromatic iPod...AWESOME by the way :)


and last but NOT least, my Starbucks "Gold Card" membership....yessssss :)

Christmas Update

Whew! What a weekend! It was great but we were BUUUUSSSSYYY!
Let me just start with some highlight pics.....

The first few are from our adventure to see the lights in St. Augustine and the last are from Christmas Eve with my family






Awesome, awesome, Christmas. I would even go as far to say that it was the best we've had yet. Austin and I both were spoiled to pieces by our families! We were so blessed to be able to spend time with all of them.

Here are just a few pics from my "girl time" with my Best Friend Jenn:





We had a great time. We started off with breakfast at Starbucks, shopped the mall for a bit and then ended our day with a movie, Marley and Me. Very cute movie, all I'm sayin' is bring a BOX of tissues. All in all we had the best time, well we always do! :)

Today was back to the grind for me, Austin is still on vacation through the rest of this week. We are spending New Years in Orlando with my fam (again, lol) and to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We never sit still...can you tell? lol.

I will make a post with more Christmas pictures later, this will have to suffice until then!

I was a VERY good girl this year

....and apparently Santa agreed. ;)

All I can say is that I got everything I wanted and more this Christmas! Also, Austin and I were able to visit with BOTH extended sides of our families this year! It may not have been very long visits, but we were thankful we got to hug everyone's necks! We definately felt like we were living Four Christmases...except our families weren't crazies! haha.

I get to see my Bestest, Jenn, tomorrow! We are swapping our gifts :)

One of my lovely gifts from my wonderful husband was a new camera! So, I have been a picture taking fool these past few days! I'll be posting pics later, so stay tuned!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Ho ho ho!

Austin, Cody and I are spending Christmas Eve with my side of the family in Orlando. In the morning, (after presents of course) we are headed to Jacksonville to see Austin's side of the family. And, I am off for the rest of the weekend so we are free to enjoy ourselves :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!

I DID IT!

I have naturally dark blonde/light brown hair. Gross. So as far back as early Jr. High (when I was finally "allowed" to get highlights lol) I have always had some sort of blondeness to my do. Lately, I've been feeling the itch to "go dark", but I end up chickening out deciding not to. This time, I did not chicken out.....here's proof-

Priceless

My baby :)

"Not Me" Saturday

I can never do these on the proper days, so I am going to fit them in on my schedule ;)

It was definately not me that forced convinced my husband to tell me what my "big" gift was for Christmas.
...and then show him what I got him because I was SO excited and proud ...nope, NOT ME

I certainly did NOT snoop and try to find out what other gifts he has bought me, I do not like to know what I get for Christmas. Uh-uh.

I never end up buying things for me when I should be shopping for other people...no way!

And most importantly do I NOT sneak to the tree and when no one is looking shake and feel my presents....that would just be crazy!

Happy Present Shopping everyone!! ;)

Waaayyy behind

I know, I know. I can't believe I haven't posted anything since Thanksgiving...the sad thing is that I have nothing to blame it on other than pure laziness. Ha. Oh well.

Let's see...last weekend Austin and I went to Jacksonville for the weekend. I had a super fun time visiting with my Bestest, Jenn. Most of our friendship is spent communicating over emails and phone calls. Who thought 3 1/2 hours of distance would be such a pain?!? None-the-less, we are, what I would call, the true definition of best friends. We could go a month without talking and once we do talk or see each other, we pick up right where we left off. She is the emotional, tender-hearted friend, where I tend to be a little too, um, apathetic and laid back. We fill each other's gaps, lol. Anyhoo, we started at Starbucks, planned to get our toesies done first but catching up on our conversations took presidence!!, and shopped til our little hearts were content (or until we ran out of time before the Gator game ;)). **Note to self (and Jenn): PEDI's NEXT VISIT!!**And ofcourse, we had a nice time visiting with Austin's parents too :)

Cody's leg seems to be healing. He still has a cast but he is starting to put weight on it now and is very much back to his wild and crazy self. We take him in Monday for a cast change...the doctor told us last visit that he would most likely get a soft cast this time!! Yay, I hope it can come off by Christmas!!

That is pretty much the extent of our last few weeks. We've pretty much finished our Christmas shopping, minus a few things here and there. I have even wrapped everything, Points for me!

The next two weeks of work will, for the most part, be enjoyable. We have our branch Christmas party at Chili's Wednesday night and my B.O.R Meeting- "Christmas Edition" Thursday....yummy food! Then ofcourse, the next week is Christmas and I will only be working 2 days, because I have taken Cmas Eve and day after Cmas OFF, which means LOOONNNGGG enjoyable weekend! Ahhhhhhhhh :)

Turkey Day family pictures

Just a few family pictures from Thanksgiving '08 this year, enjoy! :)
The Waltons (my side of the fam)

my beautiful sisters and I

Austin and his brother John

my entire immediate family and my sister's bf Josh

The Rumseys

Wordless...um, Friday?

I know it's usually "wordless Wednesday" but I could not resist...



...this sums up their relationship to the tee

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Austin, Cody, and I will be spending the day in Orlando at my parent's home with my family and his family all together :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving with your families!! Try not eat too much!!

Poor baby

Sorry it's been awhile, we've had quite a week!
Last Sunday night, Cody, Austin and I were chilling on the couch. Cody decided to jump down and when he did, we heard a "snap" and he started screaming (worst sound I have ever heard BTW). Austin dove down and scooped him up and sure enough, his little leg did not look right. We rushed to the emergency vet where they sedated him and put a splint on his poor leg and kept him overnight for observation. The next morning, Austin picked him up, took him home and tried to make him comfortable. We took him to his primary vet later that morning and were told that we would need to take him to a surgeon. Meanwhile, Austin had to go out of town on business, so my sweet, sweet mother in law came to stay with me and help with Cody. After calling a few surgeon's and nearly fainting from the "estimated" costs, I found one that was not far from our home and was fairly lower than the others. They were able to squeeze me in that evening. My mother in law and I took Cody in, and to my suprise, after taking another xray, the doctor said that she did not believe that surgery would be best for him. I about fell out of my chair! She told us that if she were in it for the money she would do it but that with Cody being so young and the break being a fairly clean one, she thought it would heal on it's own. Praise Jesus!! She was such an awesome lady, she even offered to take him overnight (to her home!) so that I could finally get some sleep! Bless her heart!
Soooo long story short, Cody is doing much better, he is back to his perky little self, just with a cast on his front leg.....Austin and I have to keep him fairly still for the next two weeks so that the bone can fuse back together. That will be a task, he wants to run around already!

Please keep little Code-ster in your prayers, that his leg will heal quickly and that he will be back to normal in no time!! :)

"Here comes the cold"...

I wake up this morning to nice autumn chilliness, yay for cold fronts!!

"Cold" doesn't really happen too often in Florida, especially here in Tampa, so I am going to enjoy it :)

Any one want to go roll around in a pile of leaves???

Working weekend

My week...let's recap.

Austin returned home late late Wednesday night, well really Thursday morning, from Vegas. He was in Vegas all week but didn't get to enjoy it. Too many meetings! Yuck.

Thursday, Austin's mom and dad and cousin Lisa came to visit. My father in law had some work related things do do here in Tampa so my mother and law and cousin came along for the ride. After I got off of work we all grabbed some dinner at Tiauana Flats (my fav!) and had a nice time enjoying one another's company.

Friday was uneventful. It was my "long day"- 8:30-6:15, yuck! By the time I get home and change it doesn't leave much time for Austin and I to do anything but go to dinner, so that's what we did....and ofcourse stopped by Bruster's on the way home for some icecream :).

This lovely morning I got up early (again) to head to my Saturday shift (8-12, it was my turn to work, ugh) only to come home to my husband leaving AGAIN. Our current life makes me laugh sometimes. Anyhoo, it's my brother in law, John's bday weekend (the 20th to be exact) and Austin and their Dad are going to the FSU game with John and having some "guytime".

So here I sit, by myself, AGAIN. Humph. I was supposed to go to Jax to spend some "girltime" with my bestie Jenn, but that fell through. Can I just have a moment to wallow in self pity? Thank you. Here goes...I'm not angry, I'm just frustrated a little. Don't get me wrong, I am so very thankful to God for allowing Austin to keep his job with J & J and that I am in a stable job. I just get discouraged sometimes because if I can't have my husband home with me every night I would atleast like to have friends and/or family close by, but I don't have those either. When you think about it, just say a little prayer of encouragement for me. I need it sometimes :). Ok, I'm done. Thanks for letting me vent :)

What I deal with on a daily basis...

Happy Veteran's Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day off today! I sure am :)
And to those that do not have it off...I am truely sorry, there's always Thanksgiving!

Thank you to everyone that has served our country, we are a better country because of you!!!

Lazy weekend

Ughhh, this weekend is one of those weekends.
I have a good amount of laundry to do, cleaning that needs to be done, and dishes that need to be washed......I do NOT want to do any of it. :p

It is so crazy how the holidays are approaching so quickly! (I act so suprised every year, lol) Good news is, Austin and I have been picking up Christmas gifts where we can and I am happy to report that we are more than halfway DONE! :) Whoohoo! Every year we end up running around the week before, trying to buy gifts, but not this year!

As for this past week, it was pretty uneventful. Austin was out of town, in New Jersey. Cody and I toughed it out together! :) This next week, he will be gone again. This time he will be in Las Vegas for his company's annual sales meeting. Boo. Ironic thing is we are almost in the same situation that we were while dating. Ahhh, long distance marriage, how nice ;) While it isn't enjoyable, we are just thankful for the fact that he has a great job that allows us to be able to own a home and purchase a brand new vehicle. In these current economical times, it is getting harder and harder to get and keep a job. Thank you Jesus for his job! (and mine :))

Happy Saturday!

P.s.- Go Gators and Go UCF!

Wendy, I have a bone to pick with you!

Let me just share a little story that happened to me this past week.

It all started on Tuesday.
Me and the girls at work were talking about what we should eat for lunch (we tend to do this EVERY day). Diane proceeded to tell me about a yummy concoction she made from Wendy's. She buys their chili and a baked potatoe and pours the chili over the potatoe....how YUMMY does that sound?!? She also likes to point out that it is semi healthy. (That always makes us feel a little bit better doesn't it??) After hearing that, it was stuck in my mind. I had to try it. So what did I do for dinner that night? Yep. I went through the drive-thru and ordered my chili and a baked potatoe. "Mam, we are currently out of potatoes"...excuse me?? how can you be OUT of potatoes??...Yummy dinner plan ruined. But I like their chili so I dealt with it. Which moves me on to my next experiance that I had yesterday. I didn't bring my lunch so I chose to try Wendy's again. For my chili and potatoe. I go through the drive thru, order my chili and (hold my breath) potatoe...they HAVE IT! Hooray! I proceed to the window, pay, take my food, get halfway down the road and then decide to look in my bag. What is NOT in my bag.....my BLASTED potatoe!!! But they so graciously gave me sour cream and butter. I had already taken too much time to go there, and was too mad to go back (stupid, I know) so again, I just had chili.

I have come to accept the fact that I am just not ment to have chili and a baked potatoe....

To be or not to be...

Here I sit...possibly moments away from knowing our next president....I've never felt so nervous about an election before. Weird for me, because usually I do not "care" too much about "politics" and all that jazz. This year, it is different. I feel that this election will show what America has become and I fear the worst. Our country has strayed so far away from what it was originally built on. Putting selfish priorites in front of what is best for our country as a "whole". People care more about killing their unborn child just so that their life won't be inconvienienced. They care more about what can just be given to them, instead of working hard and DESERVING it.

I think our country is going to get a wake up call and I pray for God's mercy. Whatever happens, is God's plan, He is in control.

**EDIT**

Obama won. I'm extremely dissapointed. Our country needs our prayers.

24 years young

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!
I turn the ripe 'ol age of 24 today.....man I'm old, haha.

A little treat

Since I can't seem to figure out how to get pictures at the end of my last entry, here are some highlights from our trip ^

And....we're back!

We are back from Washington, D.C.!!
It was a great little trip, we managed to pack alot into it too! Austin and I really enjoyed spending quality time with my parents and my youngest sister, Lindsey. I'm not feeling up to typing about our whole trip just yet, but I promise to do it soon. Trip details and more pictures coming soon...

All I wanna do is.....

try to figure out the words........



Ever hear a song that is SOO catchy and you like it, yet if someone were to ask you what it was about, you couldn't tell them a dern word?? I have a song like that in my head right now, and it's driving me CRAZY! The funny thing is, the words circulating in my head are my own interpretation, haha. Austin and I crack ourselves up making up our own lyrics and dance moves. You should try it sometime ;)



This weekend was a low-key one. We haven't had too many of those in quite some time now. Austin's job has had him out of town for the past three weeks in a row! So this weekend he just wanted to be "guy" and stay in and watch some football. We rented some flicks and ofcourse (for my sake) got some icecream to go with. We leave this Thursday night for Washington, DC. We are taking a spur-of-the-moment, quick trip with my parents. I'm really excited!! I LOVE to travel! Then next weekend we are off, yet again, to Destin for our 2ND anniversary!! I canNOT believe it has been two years already...wow.



In two years, we:



1. Bought our first home (after only three months of marriage, mind you!)

2. Bought our first car together (my GORGEOUS, 2009 Mazda 3)

3. Moved away from family (really goes with #1)

4. Had two puppies...the first one, not a good story rip Max :(

5. Visited Arizona- Grand Canyon and all over

6. Visited Nevada- Las Vegas baby! ;)

7. Visited San Francisco

8. Now Washington!



Just a few major highlights. Austin and I are EXTREMELY blessed, and are SO thankful for everything that the Lord has given and allowed us!!



Well, work calls for a LONG day tomorrow, so I suppose I should wrap this up...consider it, done :)

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll figure this blog out!!

Whew!
I wouldn't go as far as saying I am a computer whizz...but I know a thing or two about 'em. All the format and HTML stuff usually does not confuse me, but I must say, trying to change the background on this, here thing, had me just about to pull my hair out! But nonetheless, I DID IT! :)

Here We...er, I, Go....

I gave in.
Myspace used to be my place for "blogging" but it is now losing it's luster. I don't need all of the "extra goodies" anymore. This new site has grown on me as I've read other friend's "bloggers". It is a great way to keep family and friends up-to-date AND save money on phone bills at the same time! haha.