The Birthday Boys

I've often heard it said that girls marry guys that are just like their dads. In my case, I married a guy that has the same birthday as my dad! Both John and my dad were born on Sept. 28, just a few years apart! And when I think about it, they do have many things in common. Besides the typical qualities like enjoying football and other sports and the outdoors, John and my dad are both VERY hard workers, they NEVER STOP! They both try to act like tough guys but they are REALLY sensitive when you're not looking. They both have such passion for life and a love for all people. I'm so glad to have them in my life!

We celebrated their birthdays today at my dad's house. I made some of their favorite treats- yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting, lemon squares and chocolate chip muffins and we watched their favorite sport (football!) on TV. The Jags were playing today and they beat Houston! They're on a role this season, last week they beat the Colts and this week Houston! Go Jags!
Happy 29th John!


Happy 56th Dad!

Daytona Beach Shopping Trip

We've been bitten! Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line "Bitten" that is! Amyee, Daisy and I drove all the way down to Daytona Beach today to raid the closest Steve & Barry's store. For those that don't know, everything in SJP's clothing line is under $20, super fab and sold EXLUSIVELY at Steve & Barry's. We don't have a Steve & Barry's in J-ville so we took a little day trip down to Daytona where there was a store!
We had so much fun on our little shopping spree. After we shopped til we dropped, we went searching for a place to eat because we were starving from our hours of intense shopping!
Daisy told us she saw a Chili's up the road so we followed her directions. Before we knew it we were on I4 on our way to Orlando! (Way out of the way!) So I was like,
"Don't worry, we'll just turn around at the next exit."

About 10 minutes goes by and this is all we saw!


Wide open road! No exits in sight!

We saw a couple places where we could make a u turn in the paved median but every one of them had a huge no u-turn sign looming over.

We became a little unglued!

Amyee said: "Daisy! What are we going to do? Where are we going to turn around???"


Daisy said: "I see another paved median up ahead where we can turn around. Lindsay, make sure there's no pigs hangin around!"


Lindsay said: "The coast is clear over here!"


Daisy said: "Gun it Amyee, gun it!"


Amyee gunned it and made the u-turn.

Daisy said: "I can't believe we just did that!"


Amyee said: "I can't believe I just did that!"


Lindsay said: "Get me out of this car!"


We all sang along to Akon's She's so dangerous that was playing on the radio.

Eventually, we made it happily and safely to Chili's with no ticket (luckily!)


It was a fun day and I was able to get a lot of new things for fall.

That shirt at the top left is for John. They have men's clothes too. All these shirts cost me $8 each! You gotta love a great deal!

Find a Steve & Barry's near you! If you'd like to take your life in your hands and come along with us next time we go, give me a call!

Creamy Italian Chicken

I'm always looking for EASY, minimal effort recipes that I can make for dinner and my friend Amber recently gave me this AWESOME recipe that has less than 5 ingredients. It's SO EASY TO MAKE. All you do is throw everything in the crockpot! It's perfect for Sunday afternoons. I think Amber told me that this recipe originally came from Jill so I'd like to give a shout out to Jill as well! Thanks Jill!

I've made this recipe several times now and it is always a big hit! I'd LOVE TO HAVE MORE RECIPES JUST LIKE THIS ONE! Who else has any three ingredient wonders? I especially love the crock pot recipes. Send them my way!

Creamy Italian Chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8oz container of cream cheese (room temp)
1 packet of Italian dressing seasoning mix

Mix together and pour over 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in crockpot. Cook on low for 5-6 hrs. Once cooked pour over egg noodles.

John and "The Women"

John is the best husband EVER! For our anniversary, not only did he take me out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants, Stonewood Grill, and to a play that one of my coworkers was in, he also went to see a TOTAL Chick flick with me the other night! How many husbands out there would sit through a chick flick with a name like "The Women" with their wife??? I had the best time. The movie was SO GOOD! John even "sort of" liked it. I LOVED IT! Click here to view the trailer. It was so much fun to watch! LOVED the clothes, loved the shoes, loved the handbags, LOVED EVERYTHING! The movie reminded me of a mix between Sex and the City (a PG-13 version!) and First Wives Club. It was fabulous! It gets two thumbs up from me!

A few posts ago, I talked about how John's "frugal nature" has rubbed off on me. I still have my moments though! John knows that one of my FAVORITE CARS on the road today is the Lexus RX Series SUV's pictured here...

Well, this was Meg Ryan's car that she drove in the movie and I kept telling John, "I love that car! I love that car, that's my favorite!" (in case he could actually forget!) And after the movie was over he tried to strike a little deal with me. He said, if you let me name our first son "Jean-Luke" (as in Jean-Luke Pickard from Star Trek! He knows I despise the name but John is a major Trekkie nerd and J-L Pickard is like his HERO!) then we could get me a Lexus RX330. I thought to myself, is this kid FOR REAL??? I'd name our kid Blur if it meant a new Lexus! We'll see if he actually ponies up the car though! It's not the most fuel efficient OR inexpensive but it sure is pretty! So if we have a son one day named Jean-Luke, you'll know I didn't pick it but it was a sacrifice I made to drive my dream car!

3 Years!

It's hard to believe that it was 3 years ago today that John and I were married! Sometimes our wedding day seems like YESTERDAY and then sometimes it seems like we've been married FOREVER! I'm so grateful for my wonderful hubby! He's not perfect (as no one is!) but he is the PERFECT HUSBAND for me. He's logical and organized and I'm creative and a DREAMER! We balance each other out PERFECTLY!
John works SO HARD and makes it his NUMBER ONE PRIORITY to be a good provider for our family. I'm so grateful for him and am so proud to be his wife and his BEST FRIEND! The past 3 years have been filled with so many wonderful memories! I'm so excited for the many more years we will experience together. I CAN'T WAIT to have children with John! Hopefully that will be our next big adventure! I think he is going to be the best dad! He's so great with kids! And he doesn't even try (which can be annoying to me since I try VERY HARD), little ones just seem to be drawn to him! Maybe they can sense his TRULY SILLY, GOOFY side! John can be a total goofball, which I LOVE! You can't take life or yourself too seriously and I am so glad that we are able to laugh together every day!
Before we got married, I received some great advice from a friend. He told me that getting married will not solve all of life's problems, but it gives you someone to endure those problems with. I have learned that IS VERY TRUE! I'm so grateful to have John as my eternal companion and MY BEST FRIEND! Happy anniversary baby!




And look what I found....

Our wedding video!

Love this!

Have you guys seen Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on SNL? It was HILARIOUS! Take a look.
I really like Sarah Palin by the way! I don't think this made fun of her TOO MUCH. I read somewhere that she thought it was pretty funny herself.
Amy Poeller was pretty great as Hilary Clinon too! I LOVE these two! If you haven't already done so, go out and buy or rent Baby Mama! It's one of the year's funniest and best! I just bought it (on sale) from Target! So funny! You can come on over to my house and watch it with us! John loved it too!

A few pictures from this weekend...

This weekend was nice and chill. Unfortunately for us, it will be one of our last weekends that we will be able to chill since WE JUST BOUGHT ANOTHER INVESTMENT PROPERTY! We just closed on it today. This project will keep us busy every weekend for about the next month or so! We're not going to flip this one but instead we are going to hold onto it for a while and make it a rental. I'll post the usual before and after pics in a few weeks. Right about the time we finish this one, we will be closing on ANOTHER rental property (30 days from now). We just can't sit still for too long!

Out to dinner with my parents


Peter and mom



John's cousin Kendra was in town and came to visit us this weekend. We had such a good time catching up (and I had a great time meeting Kendra for the first time in person!) We've gotten to know each other over the past year through our blogs but since she lives in California, we've never met in person. We had a great time, even though her visit was TOO SHORT! Kendra, you and Dave will have to come again when you can stay longer. Bring the kids!


Chillin at the house with Kendra on Sunday night


Kendra and Robert

Happy Birthday Uncle Joe!

My uncle Joe just had a birthday recently and since he got such a kick out of my "vintage post" a few posts below, I decided to take another stroll down memory lane with him! Here's my uncle Joe through the years!

Here's uncle Joe back in 1952. What a STUD!


This was Joe (not Buddy Holly!) back in 1960


Sly Joe in 1976- All the ladies were after him this year. If a girl told him she didn't kiss on the first date he'd say "well how about the last?!"


Joe 1984- He had a case of Night Fever this year!



Happy Birthday Uncle Joe! You still go it goin on in 2008!
Want to do your own? Visit www.yearbookyourself.com

High Tide Heels

Now you can be fashionable even if you're stuck in a HURRICANE!

Just what I've always needed here in Florida!

Something OLD, something NEW, something BOHEMIAN and something USED

I'll start with what's new. I was at the mall the other day with my mom at one of my favorite home furnishing stores, Kirklands, and I spotted this beauty for 75 percent off. I thought it would be perfect over our mantle and John later agreed. What do you think? We're going for a Tuscan look in here.



Here's what it looks like in the room


What did we do with the mirror that was previously over our mantle, you ask? Well, we decided to put that in our formal living room over the couch. What do you think? (That's the "something old" I referred to in the post title.) It's new to this room though!



Now to my favorite element of this post, something Bohemian. Let me preface this section by saying that my friend Lesley and I are always trying to incorporate Bohemian styles into our wardrobe and when we do,we say to each other "You're looking very Bohemian today!"
Today, I was extremely Bohemian! Check out my new purple tie-dye shirt! I haven't worn tie-dye since like 1988! It was fun to wear this to work today! It was a big hit and a nice welcome to the weekend. Fridays at work are casual days by the way!



And finally, something used. John and I just bought another car! He wanted to get a used car that he can drive every day that gets better gas mileage than his truck so we bought a 2002 Nissan Maxima. We like it. So far, the only person that's driven it is ME. My car had a flat tire and we've been so busy this week, we haven't had a chance to go get a new one. I'll say this, the Maxima is a lot bigger and faster and has a better sound system than my Honda. John and I may have to trade cars! Here are some pics...







Sorry for the randomness of this post. I tend to be a little random from time to time! Have a great weekend!