Let the Halleluja corus begin...

After 8 long months, it's time. This college-football-starved girl cannot wait for kickoff.

My Birthday, Southern Style...

So, I did it. I turned 30 this week. I still haven't reconciled myself to my new old age--how can I when I still feel and look so young!?! I took the day off work and enjoyed an entire day with my sweetheart, celebrating/mourning the end of an incredible decade and getting a little excited for the next 10 years. It's just hard to imagine that my 30's will be better than my 20's--they really were pretty great--but I know they will be.

We went to Tampa this weekend to celebrate mine and Ashley's 30th and Braden's 25th birthdays. It sure was a good time! I think the highlight was our southern-style shrimp boil on Saturday afternoon. It's hard to recall a tastier meal in recent memory! Delicious! After dinner, we went to the Rays/Red Sox baseball game, which was pretty exciting for a MLB game! The Rays won after a walk-off home run in the 10th inning!

Since we don't think we look 30, we've decided we'll just be turning 25 from here on out. Since there's two of us, I think that will lend to the credibility of that statement...





Jay, Ashley, Cassi, and Braden. Jay is Ashley's new man-friend. Aside from being a Seminole, he's pretty great!





Our boiled goods...







Jeff thinks he's such a funny guy (that's a sausage he's holding)...



Ashley and Jay at the Rays game



Greer serenaded us before we left this morning. She's a pretty talented (and smart) girl!

I Once Caught A Fish...

...this big! Jeff has gone fishing with his brother, Chad, a couple of times this summer and it's safe to say it's his new hobby! Sea creatures beware...

Jeff and his catfish...



Chad and his stingray...

A big thank you...

...to the National Institutes of Health for funding my student loan repayment application! Yahoo!

Date Night

Last week we decided we wanted to mount the tv in our room on the wall. So, for our date on Friday night, that's exactly what we did. Thankfully, things went almost exactly as planned--we only ended up with one extra hole that needs to be patched--and we now are happily enjoying our wall-mounted LCD tv. Perhaps for our next date we'll be patching the wall...



The view from my bed on Saturday morning. Not too shabby...

Problem Solved...

We've had a problem the last several weeks...a rather annoying, sleep depriving problem. It seems every mosquito in the great state of Florida (not really but, it sure seems like it) has decided to make our lovely little condo their summer vacation spot. Those little buggers are every where. Every time we open our front door, another handful fly in. The prey on us while we're showering, exercising, and most annoyingly, sleeping. I've been thrice bitten on my face, and when I awoke to an eye swollen mostly shut last week, I decided that I've had enough.

We are now the proud owners, and users, of a (not so attractive) bed canopy/mosquito net. And I'm happy to say that we have now enjoyed several consecutive nights of sound sleep and it's fantastic. No longer do we wake up swinging, or go on 3 AM hunts, or swat at sounds that are remotely similar to the high pitched buzz of our predators (does your nose ever whistle when it's clogged?). All I can hope is that the little buggers are suffering--starving and in constant state of frustration, seeing our bodies lying there as a perpetually unreachable feast.




(An interesting side note: We've had this problem for about 6 weeks. Apparently we are slow to adapt--thank goodness evolution didn't depend on us.)