I walk out the door this morning and BAM! COLDNESS! I was not expecting that. I get into my car and read the external temperature (yes, my car has a nifty feature, I LOVE my new car!) and it says 56 degrees!! I’m in South Florida People! The temperature hasn’t been lower than 70 in ages! It’s still mid to high 80’s during the day… and 56??? Major drop! I’m drinkin the hot cocoa this morning! lol. Too bad I can’t do coffee, I would love me a starbucks right now…

and PS, sorry to the cold states who are used to this already… it’s very new to me right now. First time I’ve felt cold this year that isn’t from the a/c! haha.

 and PS again… just a little funny tidbit of information… I was CRAVING tacobell last night… of course I didn’t get it, trying to save money here… and I had a dream about eating it! Not once, but twice. I woke up remembering the dream, and then i fell asleep again and had another related dream, almost like it continued. But I HATE when I dream about eating food. I always feel weirdly full when I wake up after I “eat” in my dreams, like I’ve been gulping down air or something lol. So weird, I know.

Hm I wish I had time to blog every morning, I would probably have more to say and get more posts out… TOO BAD!

ok I think I’ve warmed up enough, and over the shock,  to get to work now…

“Secrets, Secrets are no fun. Secrets, Secrets hurt someone.” (From “The Office” Season 3 Ben Franklin Episode)

In my family, I’m usually the last to know things. Possibly because I’ve always lived the farthest away, or maybe I just keep to myself the most, I’m not sure. But how things change! Not only do I know one family secret, but I know two! Now, I can’t share the actual secrets, so don’t get too disappointed on me…and they aren’t the type of secret that would hurt someone like the quote I used (I just really like the office and saw that episode recently and the rhyme has been in my head ever since and is somewhat fitting) so I dont have to worry about holding something bad in or keeping it from anyone in particular, so it’s not a bad thing.  But a couple weeks ago I called my sister for her birthday, we don’t talk on the phone much, and she was compelled to tell me something. I promised I would keep it a secret. Then yesterday, my little brother called me for some answers to a question and advice. Then at the end of the conversation said, “Let’s just keep this between us.” Sure thing! I won’t say a word. But in the back of my head said… oh great, another secret!! I can’t keep all these things bottled up inside! lol. But they are my family and I won’t tell a sole! (well… except my husband which I’m sure both knew I would have to do anyway, because we don’t keep secrets from each other! Actually I did tell my brother I already mentioned it to my hubby when he text’d me before he called, and he’s like, yeah of course, so he understood!)

so now that I got THAT off my chest… sort of!… on to the scary, but now happy stuff! The Hurricane Season is upon us!! And I’m sure you’ve heard lots about that. We’re already to letter J naming them!! That means there has been 10 tropical storms or hurricanes this season already! Yikes. And it’s not over until… I think Oct or November… I forget. So Hurricane Ike is a category 4!! OMG and it was projected to hit South Florida on Tuesday. LUCKILY!!! I just read my broward County updates email and read this:

Broward County Emergency Operations Center continues to closely monitor Hurricane Ike even though Broward County is not in the storm’s projected track or cone of error.

New Projection:

YEA! However we will still be in the outer bands with wind gusts up to 40mph! and they also say…

This is a very dangerous storm and the situation could change as the storm continues its track. All residents should be prepared and have their personal hurricane plan ready to implement.

So not only did my husband and I go on a “date” finally but we had 2 date nights in a row!! OOOOOO. lol. We never go out anymore, never to the movies (we’d rather rent and eat in and watch it, cheaper and more comfy) and we never go out to eat at restaurants (too expensive and we’d rather just grab fast food and go home and watch the movies we rented lol). But the hubby had to take his car in to get fixed this weekend and they didn’t fix it right away so he had to go back Monday to pick it up. There’s a mall by the dealership so we were going to go there and just eat at the food court. BUT it wasn’t fixed… another story for another time… so I think he was really disappointed so he wanted to go out anyway but not to the mall since we had to go that way the next day. So, we decided to try this place that I’ve been wanting to go to since we moved here A Year Ago! Everyone raves about it, its right on the beach, it’s called Aruba. and you have a great view of the beach from inside. It was actually really good too! The bread is delicious! it has some honey glaze on it. yumyum. so anyway… it was really nice to get out and do something, especially on a work night! Then tonight we go to pick his car up because it’s finally done and we were going to just eat in the food court (totally not like us  to eat out so much btw!) but nothing looked good, so driving home we found this little pizza joint that we thought we’d try out. it was a cute little pizzeria and very yummy pizza and cheese bread! 2 thumbs up! and also 2 thumbs up to 2 date nights! Yea!

So my hubby is leaving for me a week… well almost a week. It’s a “guys trip.” Two of his friends just flew in today and they’re going to go to Key West. I’m kinda jealous cuz I really want to go there! I’ve only been to Key Largo, we didn’t go any further. Then they’re going to Orlando. I think they’re going to Adventure Island but not sure which park. Then on the way back as long as it isn’t stormy, which it might be, they will stop somewhere in between Orlando and here and go golfing. Sounds like a good time. But It’s going to be weird having the place to myself. Coming home from work to  a quiet house is the norm since I usually get home first, but then when it stays quiet… I’m going to go crazy. I’ll have to leave the tv on 24/7 for background noise or something haha. I have nothing planned out either, other than a lunch with a friend on Saturday. I need to find something to do… But I am pretty stoked about having the quiet time and time to relax. Even though I am somewhat relaxed still from my “girls trip” I just got back from on Sunday. We had the best time in Northern Michigan! AHHH HOME! I really felt like I was home when we were driving farther and farther north, even though I’ve never lived that far north. But it just has this calming effect and welcomes you in to the beauty of the nature and the land. Here are a pics of my trip!

Sunrise over lake Huron…

Overlook of the treetops…

During our Morning stroll on the beach…

The start of a trail we used to hike, had to do it one more time for good measure… (i can’t believe we actually found it again)

And the best for last… the true meaning of FRIENDSHIP

Whenever I wear anything new, I don’t get to do anything fun. I have come to the conclusion that I must do a test run with new outfits as to not be disappointed when I’m looking forward to doing something.  The first example I can think of was last month. It was a work bbq on the beach on a Saturday. I wore this shirt i’ve had for a while but never wore, and this was the perfect time to wear it. It was a tube top type shirt which is why i never wore it yet, i lived in MI, there are not many chances to wear it. Now that I’m in FL it’s nicer a lot more often. I didn’t want to wear a bathing suit to the work thing, so a tube top seemed the perfect choice to get some sun… long story short I got ready and all dressed up and then we never made it…I just happen to have a picture however, because I was doing a “self portrait challenge” that month and had to take a pic every day for the month. So I have a pic from before i left…I’ll share it now so i can share my outfit I missed out on, even though its only part of the shirt and not the full effect but you can see how my necklace perfectly ties in, and of course the new shades I had bought… not the mention the fact it was perfect I took a pic With the glasses on because I dont have any pictures of me posted on here, so it kinda works out perfect to still “camouflage” my identity. haha.

Which brings me to my second event…Yesterday, I decided to wear this shirt, again never wore before but had for a while. Not as long as the other shirt, but I’ve had it since March. I decided I didn’t need a “special occasion” to wear this shirt, I would just wear it when I was meeting my friend for lunch and to hang out for the day. Again, got all dressed up and ready to go and then she cancels on me last minute! So I “wasted” another good outfit. Here is that one…isn’t it a cute shirt??? lol

And then to top it off… twice in one weekend i get disappointed! Sunday rolls around. My hubby and I were going to go play tennis, but we couldn’t get moving early enough because we were too tired. So then it got too hot to play tennis. So we decided to go play mini golf. Oh, I should have mentioned, since I didn’t get to hang out with my friend yesterday I went shopping by myself just to get out and do something. I bought a few articles of clothing. What I decided to wear today was a whole new outfit! Nothing fancy, but I got these cute shorts, I believe the style is called Bermuda. They’re really long, like to the knee. I’m into the capris now, which i never thought would happen because I’m so short they look kinda funny on me, like long pants. But its FL and I don’t like short shorts anymore, getting too old to show off the legs HAHA. So these seemed kind of appealing. I remember when I realized I should get shorts like that. I saw a girl walking down the street, a younger girl, with her family. She looked so cute in the shorts, I think they were pretty similar to the ones i found actually. And they just jumped right out at me at the store so I went ahead of bought them! They fit great. And then I got a plain black tank but its a scoop neck that gathers you know… its kinds of hard to explain and you can’t really see it in the picture, so I hope you know what I mean…but anyway… mini golfing… we start driving along and we’re about half way there when it starts to rain! well it’s Florida, it could stop in two minutes, or maybe its not even raining over there. So we keep going. We get off the expressway (yeah the closest one we could find is like 25 mins away) and it starts Pouring and lightning… yeah, guess we can cancel those plans. So we turn around… and there goes another outfit!

I kinda feel like I look like an old lady LOL but I like them, so shut up! haha.

So thanks for letting me finally share my outfits I so dearly missed going “out on the town” with.

well sort of… Im back online! this is the first time I was able to get online during the vaca… and it’s only because i’m up before everyone else lol.

So i owe pics for the past 2 days… I’m going with the nature for thurs and text for Friday.

Thurs. Nature. Flowers.

The lovely yellow flowers were located in Sea World. We actually got free tickets to sea world from my uncle! Free is always nice! so we did that on Thursday. The best part was the mime before one of the shows. he was there to entertain and keep you occupied until the show started, and he did a damn good job. He was hilarious. And it wasn’t the hands on the wall or trapped in a box routine if thats what you’re thinking! he was interacting with the people that were walking in for the show. if someone was on their phone he’d walk behind them pretending to be on a phone, or make faces at people until they noticed he was following. he did a whole bunch of hilarious things, and you know… i dont think i got a picture of him… damn. lol.

Day 2, Friday. Category TEXT. There were many yellow signs at Universal Studios…here are just a few…

Universal Studios was a little more fun then sea world. But I haven’t been there since I was in 6th grade, so I didn’t remember much. My Uncle (a diff. one than the one who gave us the free tickets to seaworld) and little cousin who is about 10 or 11 went as well as my parents and my husband. They live here so they have been a million times. Don’t get me wrong, it was really nice to see my Uncle and Cousin so it was nice they came and spent time with us, but they’ve done it all. So they had certain things they wanted to do or see and they knew their way around so we’d go here and there and back again. Well the way we (hubby and I) like to do it is just go around the whole park in a circle to be sure we see everything and don’t miss anything. If we dont want to do something we’ll just skip over it but at least we got to see it or see where it was and whatnot. But we obviously didnt get to do that so I feel like we missed out on the experience a little, and also there were a couple things at the end we were like, “Oh we didnt do that, we forgot to look for it, i didnt even see it.” The park closed at 7 so we didnt get to do everything… and then there is my dad. my poor dad, hes not even that old but his health is not that great right now. He’s sick and doesnt have much energy. So a lot of things he would sit out, and wait for us instead of waiting in line or if it was a jerky ride he would wait out as well. So instead of being able to sit in one place while we did a couple things, he’d have to walk back and forth with us across the park while we went here or there. So we walked more than what we would have if we just went though the park in a circle. So I felt real bad for him But he doesn’t complain, I just know it really wore him out.

Other than things not going as I completely wanted the park was great. We saw a lot of great shows, they have a fear factor and you can try out if you wanted before the show. They have an animal actors show, i forgot what its called somethng like Horror makeup show where they show you how they do the blood and guts for movies, that was pretty interesting. they have a couple 3D shows, terminator and shrek those were cool. And the rides we went on were great. This one roller coaster, the mummy, that was cool. it was shorter then i expected though. i was just happy it didnt go upside down though haha, and it was all in the dark. we bought the pic for that… i kno tourist scam, so much money… but i had to, our faces were PRICELESS. My uncle had his eyes shut, my mom was Screaming, my eyes were bugging out so big, and curt had this face with his lips puckered cuz he was going WOOOOOO! lol. it was great. My dad and little cousin sat that ride out. well anyway, it was a great 2 days off work and great visit with my family! Just sad it ended so soon!

Day 4 of Green, Category Nature. As I think I might have mentioned in the earlier post, I love the palm trees here in Florida! I never realized how much I liked palm trees until I moved here. I mean, I always thought they were neat, but I never felt the relaxed happy feeling like I do until I moved here. There is just something about them that seems so tropical that it makes it a happy place when you are around them. I have so many right here in my apartment complex and even some right out my front window.

On another note… anyone watch American Idol?? I can’t believe that Michael Johns went home tonight. Such a shocker!! I like Carly but I hate that pessimistic attitude, she really thought she was leaving. I mean, its good to know when you suck (haha) but don’t go over the top with it, I mean you obviously never know whats going to happen! I liked the Australian dude and I’m sad to see him go.   I really wanted Kristy LEE COOK to go… I can’t stand her, she idolizes Simon of all people and cares so much about what he has to say its annoying, not to mention the use of 3 names… and shes not that good… I can’t believe she wasn’t even in the bottom 3! But her time will come, I dont see her going much further.

And a 3rd topic… THE OFFICE started up again tonight YEAAA!!! Its my favorite show right now and I’m happy its back! It was kind of crazy tonight… but thats what I like about it lol. Very funny, always something to laugh or almost cringe about

Ok I think I’ll go to bed now… whenever I want to write a quick post I always have so much to say for some reason… haha

You can’t tell by the picture, but this duck is very entertaining. It is the silliest duck I have ever seen. It likes to play games with you and also his reflection in the window. This is Florida, so the office buildings have a very reflective sheen from the dark tint in order to keep the very bright sun out. This duck has so much fun with that, I’m not sure if he realizes it is just his own reflection! In the picture he’s taking a nap, he wore himself out, thats for sure. For days he’s been in that corner playing with his reflection, bobbing his head, squawking, and pacing about. When you walk out the door it almost seems as if he’s going to come after you, but then you realize when he doesn’t move from the corner he is either enticing you to play or just trying to scare you away. He can definitely wash away the stress of the day if you pause to enjoy his presence…

I Love coffee… and it’s so funny because up until just a couple years ago I hated it! Well not that I hated it I guess, but it was not appealing to me at all! It all started at work. Everyone would always get coffee and I would say, what’s the big deal? But people would want to stop on the way back from lunch so I started getting Starbucks Hot Apple Cider. Then one girl always got a frappucchino and wow did that look good, so I tried a caramel one and was hooked! Then the holiday flavors came out…. loved those, which expanded my range into the lattes now (fav one to order is: Grande NonFat Gingerbread Latte with whip- what a mouthful! who came up with all that??). Then Beaners popped up around town and I started going there getting different things. Then I moved to Florida… no beaners anywhere… Starbucks are actually scarce! Nothing at all on my way into work, not even a dunkin donuts. So I decided to buy my own coffee pot. Wow was that the best investment! I would, and still do, only buy flavored beans. I started with the caramel and french vanilla, playing it safe. And I also get flavored creamers (found I like the liquid kind best, and I have to add a lot of sugar… blame that on the starbucks coffees!) I have also recently tried Hazlenut and I was scared at first but liked that! I went for a training type conference for work and of course I didn’t get flavored coffee in the hotel, but I needed something so I wouldn’t get a mad headache so I was going to try to choke it down, but I added some cream and sugar and it actually wasn’t bad. Isn’t it funny how your taste changes? My cooking/nutrition teacher in HS, Mrs Salach, was so right with her thought… she would not let us say we didn’t like something,we had to say “I have not acquired a taste for that yet.” It is actually the perfect motto. And I’m not talking just coffee, coffee is just one example. So next time you hear someone say “I don’t like that kind of food,” say, “No, you just haven’t acquired a taste for that yet.”

 

The weather is sure cooling down! It’s a chilly 58 degrees right now (don’t kill me for those of you in the colder states!) It has been in the 80s all week with high humidity and lots of rain! But now it’s clearing up and cooling off, and by that I mean highs in the 70’s… It was stormy this morning, I woke up to the rain outside my window. And it was extremely windy throughout the day. But the sun shone through! So I had to get outside and go for a walk! So after the morning errands we went for a quick walk around the apt complex. I love the palm trees. it was the one thing that really made me feel calm and relaxed when I first moved here. I would drive down the road and just be in awe of the view. and so happy no matter my mood. I have since taken the view for granted and not spent enough time enjoying the palm trees lately. On my walk it actually surprised me to notice them again, I pass by the same trees at least twice a day but there I was dumbfounded by the view I hadn’t noticed in a while…

 Pictures Taken March 8, 2008