The Impromptu Photoshoot

Thankfully I caught this serious one on Sunday...But then it all goes down hill from there (in the serious department)...
Who even knows...

I know it's hard, but don't be jealous... Open your eyes silly!
Oh shoot, he caught me.
Nerds Unite!
So it all started because I wanted to take pictures of Zane's new glasses, but it ended up being this goofy random moment with endless fits of laughing everytime we reviewed our ridiculous poses.

Denny's

I had to get my blood drawn on thursday morning so of course I was feeling a little woozy afterwards sooooo Zane treated Aidan and I to Denny's. Aidan was being so goofy and funny and fun! This table of guys behind us even won Aidan a stuffed bear from one of those machines with the claws... anyone know what I mean?! Haha, anyway it was funny.

Nuestro Fin de Semana...

Safety first! Me being annoying and taking pix while Zane is driving... at least he is smiling! His first drink!
Taken by Jacob
Us being... us.
You can tell he still can't believe he just got sang to... haha, love it!
I couldn't resist, duh
Happy birthday to you!
Make a wish!
We had a pretty normal weekend for the most part. We spent a lowkey friday evening 'in' just enjoying each other's company. We made this great spaghetti casserole that I think will actually become a regular in our house. I'm totally into all things fall right now so i'm lovin' all things warm and toasty, certainly including hot dishes! We even got some quality snuggle time and caught up on some season 3 Grey's Anatomy; we're so behind - season 4 is already out! It felt nice to take it easy, plus we both worked on saturday of course, unfortunately for Zane, his work day started at the unearthly hour of 5:30a.m so no crazy late nights for us. I hope it's just a phase because i'm kind of freaked out, but we've gotten into like a real live routine of going to bed early...get this... consistantly. It scares me a little bit, not gonna lie. It makes me feel like we're becoming old farts way before our time. Anyway i'd like to think maybe we're just 'maturing' (HA) and discovering that waking up after at least 8-hours of sleep is much much nicer than waking up after 5 or less hours of sleep...Anyhoo, after a depressingly slow day at La Piazza I had to muster up some more energy to go babysit for 3 little munchkins, Ben, Emma and their friend from out of town, Isabelle. Zane had the night off from the car wash so he was nice enough to accompany me, which I was really grateful for! We played barbies, swam in their freezing cold pool, ate pizza and fruit snacks, watched some Zack & Cody, played some on their Wii... quite a night. We were so exhausted, but it's always worthwhile! Sunday became Zane's official 'make-up' birthday... I baked him some blueberry cake, did the dishes (which is 'his' chore... and he'd been piling them up for a few days... so he got off the hook on this one, hee hee) while he was at work. I went to meeting in Port Orange and was invited out to lunch with some of the friends in Edgewater, Neil & Lillian... was great to get to know them better and spend time also with Ruth, Leala, Cira, Bob and Shirley too! And Lillian basically cooked thanksgiving dinner... it was uh-mazing! Then I came home and ran by Publix and thanked my lucky stars that they had an egg custard pie... Zane's absolute favorite dessert!! And I got some fun sparkler candles and the number 21 so he could have a 'real' birthday cake! Then he came home from work and we got ready to go out to TGIF's... his choice. He got this massive plate of ribs and fried shrimp... and he even got to order his first drink as a 21-year-old. He got a peach schnapps(not shocking) with Jack Daniels (totally shocking) and orange and cranberry juices. Anyone who knows Zane knows he's so not a drinker, but he's always surprising me with his drink choices on the rare occasion when he so chooses to partake. And the BEST part of TGIF's was our waiter, Jacob. He took the initiative to realize it was Zane's birthday when he checked out his license to ID him, and tooootally got like 7 waiters to come clap and sing and bring him an ice cream sundae. It was SO awesome because I didn't say one word, the waiter did it all on his own so Zane couldn't get me in trouble! HAHA! BRILLANT! It was so funny because he started to hear this clapping but it sounded like it was on the other side of the restaurant, and he instantly looks at me and says, "NO! You didn't did you?!" I was like, "psh, honey! i've been here beside you the entire time, there is no way I could've said anything... it's probably for someone else!" But sure enough, the clapping got louder and louder and they came around the corner and we both knew... it was HILARIOUS!!! Then we went to Regal Cinemas, also in Ormond Beach and saw Eagle Eye (his choice of course) with our FREE movie tickets... (yep that's what happens when you have tropical storms and the power goes out in the middle of your movie... you get free tickets, YAY!) And then of course when we got home he totally devoured his pie and I sang him happy birthday...so it was a fun little day... and I still feel like Zane got jipped out a 'real' birthday but he insists he had a good time. Thanks to everyone who reached out with cards and gifts and phone calls and text messages! I love it when people make my baby feel as special as I think he is. I'll post a few pix tomorrow probably!

I’m about to show you just how missin’ me feels...in my red high heels...

No there's no hidden message in my post title, just some lyrics from a song I love by Kellie Pickler. And still no outfit pix, probably due to the fact that i've been living in pajamas mostly (and until further notice) but here they are on my feet... instead of in a picture I stole from the internet, ha.

Stupid Belk's... their shoe department has like a spell over me. I'm not even a "shoe" person, I mean I have a very limited collection and I NEVER go shopping just for shoes, and everyone knows i'm a bargain shopper and these were hardly a bargain at 25% off (and telling you the original price would be a shame, much too high!) I swear, everytime I go into this store I find all kinds of trouble!!!

**And Sue, i'm very glad you've opened your heart to these wedges, hee hee!!!=)

And Then the Poop Hit the Fan...

The not so groovy souvenirs I got from spending some quality time in the emergency room My 'happy' place: getting some fresh air and lots of ZZZ's
Zane playing with our camera and he made a heart! His super cute birthday haircut!
His special birthday present... a nixon watch he actually found when we were in Hawaii at a surf shop near our condo and wanted really bad! He waited very patiently for 6-months for it... and must've wanted it badly because he chose this over a professional massage!
The sweet note I found in our bathroom this morning...
Ten days ago today, I came down with a stomach virus and it's been a hellacious week-and-a-half to say the least! It couldn't have been worse timing either with Zane's 21st birthday being on the 3rd, and our plans to go to Apopka convention this past weekend... it's all literally gone down the toilet. So we're both really bummed and hoping that this unwelcome virus gets the boot soon! Zane has been sooooo patient and has been so good at taking care of me and I can't wait to get better and give you a birthday RE-DO honey!!! Anyway these are a few shots to commemorate our week.

The Calm Before the Storm

Of course these pictures don't give justice to the real beauty of the night, but it captures a little of it.

Friday night turned out to be a true blessing. It was the most beautiful evening I can remember in a long time; the kind you wish you could bottle up and save for later. I'd had a rough afternoon with my anxiety so instead of going thru with our previous plans for the night, we decided to just take it easy and take a walk down to the beach together. The sunset was absolutely breathtaking, and the temperature was just perfect. It wasn't muggy, it wasn't hot, it wasn't cold, it was just perfect. We ran into this sweet elderly man who was just hobbling along with his cane and he commented how it was such a beautiful night to be out. It was touching to see him still being able to be thankful for the simple things even tho he could barely walk. So we get to the beach and the tide is so high it's over the bottom stairs of the boardwalk and all the way to edge of the rock wall which we've never seen before. And then something catches our eyes, and we see dolphins just a few feet away. We could've swam out to them, that's how close they were! The whole experience was just like magic. We just sat in silence on the top step until it was dark.

Thank You

How long do you want to be loved? Is forever enough, is forever enough? -Lullaby

Mama Lori sent me new pictures today. No words can describe how full my heart feels being able to see a glimpse of Landon's smiling face.

EEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I was so surprised when I walked out my front door at 8:30 this A.M. to be met with 'crispy' fall air; no muggy-ness to be found at all! So crazy to have a reality check that it is indeed officially fall. And then I treated myself with a pair of 'fallish' shoes to celebrate Lacey's 19th birthday today of course... Thanks babe, for the excuse to buy new shoes, ha. I have a thing for red shoes and have been looking everywhere for something along the lines of a Mary Jane shoe... So I found these BCBG's at Belk... on sale no less...and promptly fell in love! And Ash, I don't care what Pete's Mom says, I LOVE WEDGES!!!!=)

FOR THE LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE!!!

I have become seemingly obsessed with gaining as much knowledge as possible on anything and everything that intrigues me lately via books, 'books on tape,' movies and the internet.
I'm learning about 'Taosenos' (pronounced with an ~ over the "n") thru Tony Hillerman's, The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest on account of my brother and sister-in-laws, Dani & Jason relocating to Taos, NM this past summer. I am so intrigued by the town and wanted to learn more about it. I wonder if some of these quotes ring true for two new residents? Can't wait to visit someday!
"One of the few places where a man can still feel adequately dressed downtown in bib overalls."
"Taos is a tolerant village, well accustomed to whimsey."
"What seems outlandish in Columbus, Ohio seems fairly normal in Taos."
"A certain amount of eccentricity is required for conformity."
"A place of confusion concerning gender."
"Taos is a small community, and it's street are few, narrow, crooked and short. It is a completely innappropriate setting for a high speed automobile chase."

Next I watched two Globe Trekker presentations on Chile & Easter Island and Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands. I have a very strong desire to spend an extended amount of time in South America someday in hopes of strengthening my grasp on the Spanish language, and also being culturized. I have a strange draw toward Ecuador, having sparked my interest thru a report I completed on the country in middle school, knowing a family friend who came from there, and having a cousin who visited a couple years ago. I became especially intrigued with the Galapagos Islands tho after this particular presentation. I didn't ever know that these islands had contributed to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. There are a vast number of endemic spieces, meaning they aren't found naturally anywhere else in the world (because yes, I had to look up the word 'endemic')... and the speices found on these 40 islands have no natural predators so they fear no man so you can swim freely with the sea lions and other wildlife... it looks absolutely amazing! Plus the number of tour boats allowed to visit at one time is limited and the national dish of Ecaudor is ceviche! What's not to be excited about?!
And a word on Chile... known as the Valley of the Moon, with one of the largest observatories in the world. And it's home to the driest desert in the world, the Atacama Desert. I still don't feel like I know enough about this country...
I also watched a documentary on lightning this past week. Since we reside in the lightning capitol of the world I figured I could afford to gain some knowledge on this frequent act of nature. It was very interesting to be informed that lightning actually strikes upward but our eyes register too slowly to see this. Also come to find out, the saying, "lightning never strikes twice in the same place" is a myth. The Empire State Building is struck on average 100 times a year. And get this, a lightning bolt is 5x hotter than the sun. Wowee. I learned some more cool stuff but can't seem to recall all the details... I should start taking notes!
My next quest is the electric car...

And Ashley, don't you dare tell me i'm turning into Zane and Pete! I'm not glued to the history channel or the military weapons channel or getting daily historical tidbits on my IPOD ok! Gimme some credit! Hahaha

OPA!!!!

We made a fun discovery and found out that monday night at Rossi's is 'Greek Night' with an authentic Greek chef even, so Zoe and I decided to make an evening of it together! Actually the whole day ended up revolving around hanging out with Zoe, and I loved it! She just ditched me to move to Texas with her hubby (how dare she) so I had to steal her for some serious catch up time this week while she is visiting Florida! We spent two-hours chatting over coffee at Starbucks yesterday morning, and then two-hours over dinner doing much of the same! Good memories!

Our BOUDOIR...

I got an urge to do some rearranging in our bedroom and came up with this. It's bringing me ridiculous satisfaction... weird how a little "refreshing" can totally reenergize a space... and the best part is that it was FREE! And Laura, I invite you to overanalyze this photo and see what you find that may be of some interest to you...something very special to me that I happened to find in Washington when I went home...

Car Rider #273

Picking Evan up from school is always quite a trip... we have to wait in a very long line of cars and it usually takes about a half an hour so Aidan usually runs totally wild inside my car during this time...pushing as many buttons as humanely possible, preferably all at the same time...and then on the occasional peaceful afternoon, he'll sit and watch his Elmo DVD while eating pretzels and sipping on his 'zuss' a.k.a. 'juice.'

Girly Moments

I love my little "Evie"

What A Funny Little Man...

I turned around, and was completely surprised and amused to find Aidan had stuffed himself into Evan's dolly stroller. He was just as surprised and amused as I was I think.
Until this moment... maybe we shouldn't try this again...