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Happy August 1st !

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I can hardly believe AUGUST has arrived. This exact day, ONE YEAR AGO, Don and I sat down and signed our mortgage agreement for our new home. Still today I feel like we moved in only a month ago. We have put alot of time and effort into our home to make it ours and we still have alot to do. We had to paint every inch of the inside of this home… I ll even admit we aren’t even finished with that. I will also admit I currently am sick of painting ( PAINTERS WANTED!! hehe ) and probably will be for sometime. This sounds weird and wrong, but I wish a small, nondamaging hurricane would pass through so we are stuck inside and forced to paint… ehhhhhh! Don and our oh so wonderful neighbor (brad ) spent alot of time completely re-doing our back yard. It looks fantastic.

I will tell you home owner ship is a wonderful thing ( most of the time ). As a 24 year old, It makes me feel very accomplished and successful. I can only hope the next several years of us living here will be just as great as the first year.

Happy August !

 

Race results

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I am sure you have been sitting on the edge of your chairs, sweating and waiting on my result post ! NOT! Sorry to keep you waiting!

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So about the 5k… I was a little upset with my self. After several weeks of training I did walk about 10-20 seconds, but that was it! It actually was more painful to walk instead of run!

I was petty t’d off because we ran on red brick roads! Word to runners in training . . . It’s a pain ! It hurts! And it’s slows you down (slightly)! I ended up jumping onto the grass to make it easier on myself and my shin splints- I ran on the grass alot through training. It does help !

I was anxious as it was but to make this experience even more dramatic it was scheduled at 6:30 at night! Who schedules a race, in Florida, at 6:30 PM??? The obvious issue is that it was
Hotter than hell, humid and on top of those annoying florida traits …it RAINED!!! It is kind of an expected thing here on a summer afternoon… Right?

Anyways… I ran a 5k, barely walking and I was 3:40 seconds over my goal. Oh well ! My finish time was 33:40 ! Not horrible but not great either! For a ‘first’ 5k, not going to break myself down ! After all, I am already signed up for another race in 2 weeks! GO ME!

Booked, Bought, & Asked !

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Wow , what an amazing weekend we had! Don and I traveled to Tallahassee this past weekend to officially begin the wedding planning process. Planning a wedding is a tad hard being an out-of-town bride however it is wonderful having a dependable family back home to help !

To start the weekend off, we arrived to Tallahassee Friday night and pretty much finalized the guest list. I am sure from here on out it will be tweaked here and there ! Secondly, we had an appointment Saturday morning to look at a venue. The venue offers a site for lake side ceremony and an indoor reception with a ‘PLAN B’ option for the ceremony if it rains! We really liked the 2-n-1 venue because we are
Inviting several out of town guest. Actually a majority of our guest are from
Out of the area! We both really liked it, so we BOOKED it! Check !

Later that day, my mother, grandmother and my sister ( maid of honor ) met up at a bridal shop to look at dresses! Both bridesmaids and my wedding dress. I needed to kill two birds with one stone ! When we met our bridal consult, I advised her of everything I disliked and did not want in a wedding dress. Finally after trying on a handful of dress, three which I absolutely loved but just was not ‘the one’, she brought a dress to me to try on. This dress would have been put on my DO NOT try on list. I tried it on for her and OH. MY!!!! I loved it, tried it on multiple times (to make sure) and I didn’t want to take it off. MY MOM BOUGHT IT! Check !!

Still on the look out for bridesmaid dresses! I found one I loved but not getting great feedback from the few bridesmaids I have asked ! We will see!

We met up with my cousin and his wife ( whom is one of my great friends) to
visit with them! She is a few days shy of 6 months pregnant and hardly showing. I can’t wait to see little carter blue ;) I asked her to be one of my bridesmaids! I was a little worried she may say NO with her being a new mom but she didn’t !!! I was so excited !

Lastly , I signed up for my first orlando 5k which is July 12 ! Can’t wait!

Happy Monday !

Putt putt pub crawl

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I told you I was going to do a weekend recap at the beginning of the week but between running in the morning, biking in the afternoon, making dinner and working I haven’t had much time but to sleep … ( or atleast that’s all I want to do)

Last Saturday we joined our friends for the 5th(?) Annual putt putt pub crawl downtown. Not only was this event fun it was also to support local charities . It was hosted by Citrus Civitan’s Club which consist of members who are young professionals . ( GREAT WAY to
Meet friends)

All day Saturday we walked the streets of orlando to each Putting green. There were nine exactly. Little did we know they were not regular putting greens. Each hole was unique with twist, turns, directions and positions for the golfer.

Each hole was located at a local bar. We mingled with other teams, had some drinks, and moved to the next hole. By the VERY last green we were all so exhausted. Nevertheless, we had a blast and will be looking forward to the following year ;)

Pictures below are from my iPhone and not of quality ;)

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My team ;0)

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Rules . Scorecard.

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Get to know….

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The Sarah Mac Band !

Picture Courtesy of : The Sarah Mac Band

We spent the Easter weekend with my parents. We left Orlando Thursday night so we could enjoy the few days we were going to be in town instead of feeling like we just pulled in to just pull out and head home.

I have heard my parents talk about going to see this band several times in Tallahassee. It so happens that they were playing Friday night at a venue close to where we were. We were joined with my Aunt Debbie, Uncle Rick and handful of some of my parents friends. To be honest, Don and I were a little skeptical about going but The Sarah Mac Band was great. They did play at least one cover that I noticed and several of their songs off their albums. In my opinion, it was a mixture of Adele and Sugarland; the great voice, the dancing, the comedy between each song.

If you like music and enjoy listening to new things: Check them out here !

Backyard Project #3

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We are almost done with our backyard. Its finally starting to look like alive instead of a desert with a huge water hole. JUST IN TIME FOR POOL WEATHER…. :0) We have primarily concentrated on the one corner you see in the pictures. The next project and hopefully the final project will be in another corner you really have not seen in the photos in project one OR two .

We finally picked up the remaining rock and pavors …oh! my! goodness! that was alottttttttt of rock. Don has a friend who owns a landscaping business. We decided to call him and ask for recommendations about sod and where to purchase. He was actually able to purchase the sod and bring it to us. We were very thankful as we do not have the appropriate vehicle to transport the layers of dirt, grass, ants and whatever else crawls through sod ( however we will soon :D )

Enough of the blabber, here is the start and the ‘finished’ backyard.

Finally looks like a back yard…. HAPPY HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE !!

Our First DIY

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One day I was sitting in our family room and got the itch to sand down the mantle and re stain OR paint it. I instantly pulled out our electric sander and began sanding. Don quickly stopped me so we could go to Home Depot to purchase all the items needed to finish this project. **Beware… the photos REALLY enhanced my wall color… i can assure you they are not that color***

When we started the project, we did not have a clue on how to stain wood. Naturally we asked the person at Home Depot what to purchase and the process of staining wood. He recommended  paint stripper, prestain, stain and protective laquer.

We got home and instantly painted the mantle with the stripper.  We both were a little excited that we weren’t going to have to put the leg work into sanding… boy were we wrong…or misinformed I should say

It only took off the clear laquer. The employee said it would strip the entire stain off the wood. I knew it sounded to good to be true…so for the next couple of days and a few curse words here and there, the mantle was fully sanded. For any one who is going to be sanding down any kind of wood with intricate grooves and frame work , I WOULD NOT SUGGEST USING THE PAINT STRIPPER ( Its really hard to remove from the small hard to reach areas).

After all of  Dons hard relentless work, I was second guessing whether I wanted to stain the mantle OR paint it white to match the molding around the floors. Three people suggested  to paint it white. One of those three being an interior designer. Well… Dons mother is also an interior designer and suggested for us to stain the mantle. At this point I am going crazy and I literally have the rest of my work day to decide, because when I got home from work we were going to begin staining. I called Don and talked to him about it, He was very quick to state, we did not do all of that sanding just to paint the darn thing.  I agreed and we were to continue our original plan.

We prestained and stained the mantle. Finally after a weeks worth of work we were getting to see what all this work was for.

I am really happy with how it turned out. The wood stain matches all the furniture we purchased for this room and adds richness. The tile on the other hand was done very poorly, and will need to be redone soon.

There were a few disadvantages to doing this …

1.We had freshly painted walls, during the sanding process the walls around the mantle were scratched and will need to be repainted ( See above photo) .

2.The tile within the mantle was so poorly done that the grout extends onto the mantle so when you are close up you can see stained grout.

3.Due to our lack of knowledge about staining, we purchased way to much pre stain and stain. We could have saved a few dollars knowing that a little goes along way. Oh well…

I am glad we ended up doing it, I am much happier with this mantle than the old mantle :0)

Happy Pi Day !!!

One Year Ago Today

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Last year on March 5th, I made the move away from my family and friends to come to Orlando! I am very happy and enjoy living here! I still miss my family TONS and try to see them as often as possible.

To many more happy years in Orlando. Hope every one made the best of their Monday !

Backyard Project #2

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Its a whopping 75 degrees here in Orlando so we decided to continue working in the backyard. Thanks to our American Express points we cashed them in for a home depot gift card. We used them to buy plants and soil to continue our landscaping.

The picture above is before we started the second part of our landscaping. Notice all the rocks and pavers along the back fence. I am so sick of rock I want it out of my sight for a very long time. I almost paid a neighborhood kid to pick them up for us.

These pictures aren’t the best however you get the idea. We planted podocarpus along the fence line. The goal is to have them grow  up the fence to hide the neighbors back yard junk !!! They are supposed to grow very quick. Tomorrow we plan to lay mulch around the bushes !

Thankfully Dons parents came over to help us ! I was very grateful for that !

Next Project : Pick up more rock and pavers. Lay sod.

Tomorrow I am trying TWO new recipes for dinner. Will post results!