Thanksgiving in Tennessee

We just got back late last night from our Thanksgiving vacation in Tennessee. I'm a little hoarse today from belting out songs from Sarah McLaughlin unplugged during our 9 hour drive back to Florida but it was a lot of fun! Especially for John, he just loves listening to me sing!
We had a great time in Tennessee with John's parents and it was so nice to see the beautiful fall leaves and feel the crisp fall air that we rarely have in Florida. While we were there, we went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which is about two hours away from Knoxville. It was so much fun to walk around the cute little shops and charming restaurants. It was really nice to visit with John's family, eat delicious food and watch good movies and marathons of I love Lucy, one of my all time favorite shows! What a cozy Thanksgiving holiday we had! Thanks Marlene and Nelson for showing us such a good time! Here are a few pictures that we took from our trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're off to Knoxville, Tennessee tomorrow for Thanksgiving with John's parents. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday full of good food and even better company! Don't forget to feed your pets a special treat too!

And I just realized that Emily tagged me like a week ago, so now I am supposed to share 6 facts/ habits about myself. Here goes....
6 facts/habits about me:

1. Embarrassing Fact: I cried last night while watching the season finale of the Bachelor! Poor little Jenni! And poor Deanna for that matter. He didn't choose either one!!! What kind of crazy is he???

2. Fact: I LOVE baking heart shaped cakes for my husband who thinks I'm a great cook! (Even though I'm not!)

3. Fact: I love my dog Molly.

4. Fact: My favorite holiday movie is Elf. That movie just keeps getting funnier every time I see it! Will Ferrell is so hilarious! Fine holiday fun!

5. Habit: Without fail, I hit the snooze button at least three times every morning. This drives my husband crazy! I would lay in bed til 10 am if I could!

6. Habit: I have a tendency to be a little on the late side sometimes. My concept of time is definitely what we might call a "development opportunity".


So there you have it! Now I tag anyone who would like to share 6 fact/ habits about themselves with the world!

Black and white wedding photos

I've been meaning to post these for a really long time now! Better late than never right! Enjoy!

Tribute to the "402 Girls"

This post goes out to Emily, Sarah, Michelle, Lisa, and Nicole- The best college roommates EVER!

Before the husbands, children, and "real jobs" came along, these crazy college girls spent their days laughing, watching old episodes of Friends, and getting into trouble! Oh how I loved the days of midnight Maverick runs, end of finals week breakfasts at IHOP, Woody's Fry Night, hanging out with "the boys" (Sam, Andy, Biehl, and Woody), our Vegas trips, Mill Hollow ice cream, intramural tennis, leaving Taco Time with empanada sugar on Sarah's ear (and Charlie brushing it off for her an hour later ha-ha!), shooting clay pigeons with Woody, $1 roller skating, snowboarding class, and most importantly, seeing my best friends every day!

I love and miss you guys! Let's get together for another reunion soon!
Love, Linds- your crazy old roommate that would leave half drank glasses of water everywhere in the house and was always the first to fall asleep watching a movie on the couch.

Football fun in the snow



Halloween



The night we stole the boys Play Station game



Vegas trip



Easter basket from Sam- Ben & Jerry's for all!

Boating and the zoo

This weekend, our friends Russell and Julie took us out on their boat. It was tons of fun! We cruised around the St. John's river and saw about 15 or 20 dolphins! We boated across the river and ended up docking at the zoo. The zoo was decorated really cute for Halloween! There were pumpkins everywhere and they even dressed up some of the animals (see pictures below). I haven't been to the zoo since I was like 5 years old! Russell and Julie's adorable and extremely well behaved kids were with us and a good time was had by all. We saw Jaguars, monkeys, apes, and we got really close to this enormous gorilla! So of coarse I took pictures...

Sold!

We finally have a signed contract on our flip house and we are closing in 10 days! Woohoo! The lady that's buying it from us is so cute and so excited! She has two little kids and this is her first home. It's so cute how excited she is and it's very gratifying for us to see how proud she is of the place and how much she is going to LOVE living there.



I've been trying to get into the fall spirit lately by putting out my fall decorations and breaking out the fall clothes. One problem though, it was 90 degrees today! It feels more like June than October! Don't get me wrong, I love the warm weather but it's almost November for heavens sake! I'm supposed to be wearing sweaters, not shorts! Hopefully it will cool down in Jacksonville so I don't feel so weird! Here's a picture of my cute straw man and scary pumpkins. I'm all ready for my trick or treaters!

A Proud Moment…

Every now and then, John does something that makes me SO proud of him! Tonight was one of those nights. After work, we went over to our flip property to show it to an interested buyer. Afterwards, we went to grab a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant. When the waitress brought us our food, I realized that she brought me the wrong thing, so I told her that this wasn’t what I ordered. I ordered the Fiesta Lime Chicken and she brought me fish. She began to apologize profusely and told me that she would take care of it. In the meantime, she brought me a free salad and all was fine. As she came to check on us now and again, I could tell that she was really upset about her mistake and she told us she was new and was really sorry about the mistake. She was so sweet and I felt so bad that she was so upset. I let her know that it was an honest mistake and not to worry. We started to talk to her a little bit and we found out that she was from a little town in Tennessee, really close to where John’s parents live. She and John began talking about Tennessee and he asked her what brought her to Jacksonville. She looked a little uncomfortable with the question and mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand. I asked her to repeat herself and she leaned in and whispered in my ear that what brought her to Jacksonville was a domestic violence shelter.
I was so incredibly humbled by this sweet girl and her circumstances. I told John what she said and we both agreed that we should leave her a generous tip. I was thinking maybe $10, which was over 50 percent of our bill. John told me that she could probably use a little extra money. He asked me if I would be okay with leaving her $20, which incidentally was more than the cost of our entire meal. Of course I agreed that it was okay with me. I was really touched by my husband’s compassion and generosity. Everyone who knows John knows he’s a little on the cheap side! And money has certainly been tight with us lately. I was really proud of him tonight! He has such a kind heart and I was very touched by his generosity. When we left, the happy expression of this sweet waitress’s face was so rewarding to us and it truly made my night! I realize that in the grand scheme of things, this was a small, ordinary thing that we did, but it was done with love! And as Mother Teresa once said
“Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”
What a wonderful night!