Big Cypress and Babies

Today was a long day. My cousin woke me up at 9 in the morning and told me to get dressed because we're off-roading in the Everglades. Huh? Too early. I had woken up like at 6am and ate crap and then went back to sleep two hours later...aka I was still tired.

Anyways, I was a trooper and got ready. We drove the 60 miles to Big Cypress Visitor Center and we both got Off-Road Vehicle Licenses. I find it amusing that I now have a ORV license but hey, sounds cool.

We were only out there for a couple hours. We were a. by ourselves so we didn't want to risk getting stuck out there and b. neither of us remembered to bring any drinks or food so we were starving.

This is the 'buggy' we went out riding in.

At this point in time, we were looking for gator holes. Yes that's a gun and he even made me carry one. :-/
Random wheat grass stuff.
Muddy.
After I got back, I raced over to D's house and saw our new nephew. I call him GMC for short and he was sooooo tiny! The little booger was sleeping but he eventually woke up and demanded food. I fed him a bottle and attempted to burp him.
And then I turned on Skype and showed our adorable niece, Victoria, how Uncle D and I video chat. She was so confused at first - she just kept looking at D talk on the screen. But after a couple of minutes she somewhat got it and pointed to the corner and yelled she could see herself. She then proceeded to give Uncle D some seriously cute kisses. I'm pretty sure she even slobbered over my video cam. I love that child.

This picture makes me happy

Dispacthes from the Island

Really happy and really excited for Tuesday night!

I went to Marshalls today. Actually I went to two Marshalls today.

Seriously, that place is going to be the death of me.

The first one I hit, I found a pretty awesome gift. And we all know that I loveeeeee to buy stuff for other people. So I did...woohoo!

The second Marshalls I hit, I literally had to let go and force myself to walk out. I had picked up a couple of really freaking cute, awesome kitchen stuff...for the imaginary kitchen in the imaginary house that I own.

I wanted to buy everything. I almost bought everything. But I was strong. And I stopped myself. And I am so very proud of myself.

Turks & Caicos = beautiful beach but broken camera

I'm back!!! I just returned from Turks & Caicos earlier today. And I have to say....IT WAS B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

I heard from people at work that the water is incredible but I wasn't expecting it to be so clear. I scuba dived and snorkeled and during both activities, the wind was strong and the water was extremely choppy. Now if I would've been in the Florida Keys, choppy water plus strong wind would mean no visibility. But...the water in Turks & Caicos was so clean and clear. I can only imagine how a calm day at sea would be - heaven!

This is me at the beach. The water was cold but I wasn't going to miss this - who knows the next time I'll be there.

I'd love to show you all these amazing pictures but my waterproof camera decided to crap out on me. It kept saying the cover to the battery was open but it wasn't. I don't know what's wrong with it but it makes me sad. This camera gave me some incredible pictures over the past 3 years so I'm sad to retire it. But at least I got some images from the first two days.

Speaking of which...I was just looking at new waterproof cameras. My old one cost me $300 back in the day so I was a little scared to see the prices these days. Thankfully, instead of getting another 30-foot waterproof camera, I think I'd suffice with the 10-foot model. And I just found one for an awesome price of $99.99!! I love BH Photo - if I would go to Best Buy, that same camera would cost me $180....rip off.

Here's the camera - I think I'm going to order it. It even comes in blue - so me...

In 10 hours I'll be on a plane headed towards the Turks & Caicos. In 8 hours, I'll have to hug D at the airport and (hopefully) not cry like a baby.

He's going away for four months of training - a very long, long time. We've been together for almost 8 years and we've never been apart for that long. Thankfully, we have Skype for video chatting and hopefully, I'll be visiting him when I come back from Italy in March.

Regardless, I'm going to miss his big bear hugs...he gives the greatest hugs. Actually, I'm just going to miss everything about him. But I'm really happy for him and I know that he's going to ace Oklahoma. He's awesome like that.

Night, night and see you on Saturday :)

Going away party

I've been putting off writing this post for the past week because I didn't have the pics. But finally, today, I managed to get my father-in-law's camera and upload the pics.

A week ago, I picked up D and we went to Perricone's for lunch. I wanted to take him out for a nice lunch before he left to Oklahoma and I also wanted to scope out this restaurant as a possible wedding reception venue. I know, I'm sneaky that way.

Lunch was delicious. I highly recommend Perricone's. After lunch, we headed back to D's house. There was this little thing going on, which was the primary reason I had to get him out of the house. Yes, I wanted to take him out to lunch and this little thing presented the perfect opportunity. What was the little thing? Oh, just a little SURPRISE GOING AWAY PARTY!

There's two ways to get to his house, so we had everyone park on one side and I took him through the other way. We parked my car and headed towards the door. He unlocked the door and instead of going straight in, he just looked back at me and motioned for me to go in. I started laughing and just pointed into the house. As soon as he looked in, our family and friends screamed "SURPRISE!" It was awesome. He was totally shocked and had no idea...I love me some good surprises.

You gotta love our faces...big smiles!
Our wonderful friends...
Me and Ana-Sofia. Yes that is my Mac and yes, we were discussing wedding stuff. It's not my fault. She asked me a wedding question and I had to show her the answer.
And here's D in his funny air traffic control glasses his parents made him...

It's been a while. I know. Let me get over this cold and I promise to get back to blogging. Pinky promise.

Happy weekend!

Running of the Brides!

So I did it. I can now say I've been to a Running of the Brides event at Filene's Basement. Sure I went after work around 7pm and not bright and early, but hey, I still experienced it.

Before I move on to the dresses, two quick things. I had two expectations going into this. First I was worried I was going to walk into pandemonium. And second, I was expecting NOT to find my dress. I didn't want to walk in there, leave empty handed, and be really depressed, so I told myself I wasn't going to find the one.

One of my expectations turned into reality. But you have to keep reading to find out!

When my mom, my sister, and I walked in, we saw this. I forgot to take a picture of the racks but I did take a video before I left.

That's a ton of dresses!

So I started at one end and my sister at another. My mom just wandered throughout. I had told them what I wanted - something possibly strapless with a sweetheart neckline that was slightly bohemian and flowy. Something I could wear outside either on a beach or under a big ol' oak tree.

I went through the racks and picked up not one, not two, but three dresses! Side note - wedding dresses are HEAVY. Moving on (with sore arms nonetheless)...my sister picked out a couple and after 20 minutes, my arms were caving so I moved on to the fitting room.

The first dress I had picked was very different and unique. It had a couture vibe and I really liked it on the hanger. I wanted so bad to like it. I did but I didn't love it.

I loved the top part. Really loved it. But the waist and below was too much. :(The next dress had POCKETS. I seriously was contemplating this dress.
But there were two reasons I didn't get it. A. I'm pretty sure I only loved it because it had pockets and B. It just didn't go with the vision I have for my wedding.
These pics don't do it justice, but this dress had simple gold stitching throughout and a pretty bohemian(!) embroidery thing on the bottom.The next dress had an AWESOME back. I loved it.But I wasn't a fan of the front. I actually liked the top part with the two boob flaps but I didn't like how the sheer fabric opened on the sides. Does that make sense?
This one was the typical look I was going for. I actually wasn't crazy about it and it was two sizes too big. Hence why my arm is holding the dress up.
At this point, I was getting slightly frustrated. Trying on heavy dresses in a small confined room with no air conditioning was getting to be too much for me. So I stopped. I really liked these dresses but I couldn't pick one. They were all beautiful but just not my vision. Sorry, no wedding dress for me yet! But I did have some fun getting swallowed up in the racks.
And by the way, if you wonder how they ship the dresses, they started taking out these mammoth boxes when we were leaving. They were about four feet tall and six feet wide. Huge boxes for huge, poofy dresses.

And thankfully, there was no pandemonium. It was fairly quiet....thank you!

A girl can dream

Curse Miami and its lack of unique wedding venues that don't require you to hand over your first child. Sure you have Vizcaya, which costs more than I make in a year...

Or fancy hotels on South Beach or even tropical gardens like Fairchild Botanical Gardens. Which, by the way, makes up half of my budget just to rent...i.e. no tables, no chairs, and no food!

Maybe I'm being too picky but I can't help myself. I read to many wedding blogs that don't take place in the Sunshine State.

Why can't I have my wedding at a barn?

Or in the middle of a forest?

Or my current favorite...under a bid ol' oak tree.

I know, I can't help but drool.

Life and its crazy timing

I have two cooking/baking posts in the works. I already took the pics but I haven't had a chance to upload it. Why? Because life always gets in the way.

Work is going well. I'm giving new tasks everyday and today was definitely packed. I actually found out two days ago that I'm going to the Turks & Caicos at the end of the month for work. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

But then life gets in the way again. And as soon as I found out about Turks, D got an email that he has to be in Oklahoma in less than two weeks....for a grand total of FOUR MONTHS. He's going to train and I really am proud of him. But. It's still shocking that he's going to be gone for four whole months....holy cow.

So, my plan of survival involves focusing on work, my family, and my hubby-to-be. And not on the actual length of time between now and June.

Monkey bars

Yesterday I headed over to D's house to have lunch, do some baking, and watch a movie. I picked up food and afterwards we started making Monkey Bars. These bars are basically like banana nut bread but in a bar form.

You start with brown sugar and butter. Whisk it together, then add egg whites, buttermilk, mashed bananas, apple juice (or dark rum), and vanilla extract.

Combine flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Mix together both bowls. It helps to have a strong man to do the dirty work for you.

Thanks D...my personal sous chef!

Then we take walnuts (or pecans)...

...and chop them up. By the way, the Slap Chop thing you see on TV is a-freakin-mazing!

Add the chopped pecans into the batter and pour into a 9 by 9 baking pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees and...

...dust with powdered sugar. Voila!

Screw tradition

I've been catching up with my Google Reader this morning since my internet has been down for a week. Thank you DSL technician for finally coming in and giving me a brand new modem that isn't fried.

Moving on. I was skimming through my 96 Reader items, mainly composed of wedding blogs when I had an epiphany. I had seen this before but had never really considered it. What if my mom walked me down the aisle? Since my father passed away almost 10 years ago, I always thought my brother would walk me down the aisle. But that would upset my uncle. Which would in turn upset my brother.

I digress. Anyways. So I think it would be AWESOME if my mom walked me down the aisle. I told my mom and of course, she pulled the whole it's-not-traditional crap. People, do you not know me? I say screw tradition! That's what I want and that's what I'm getting! Jeez, I'm spoiled.

Well I haven't mentioned it to D yet (this did just happen 10 minutes ago) but I think he'll like the idea. I like the idea. So there you go, yet another random non-traditional decision.

That's D and me with my mom.

I survived...

...my first week of work. Yay for me! I definitely learned a lot and yet, there's still more stuff to be learned. I'm excited though. They told me I'd spend every day doing something new and that's been the case. One day I opened job requests for new designs, another day I color corrected countless images on Photoshop and today I looked through about 1,000 images of new aerial photo shoots and selected some of the best. Yup, it's been a long week but I survived it. And I even got my first paycheck! Plus, I MIGHT be heading down to the Turks & Caicos at the end of the month. I don't want to get my hopes up but if there's space at the resort, then I get to go!

P.S. I need to get back on the cooking/baking bandwagon. I'm running out of things to say about work. Night!

New job + no school = an out-of-place me

I was in bed, catching up with my Google Reader, when a panicked feeling struck me. I had just returned home from my first day at my new job and I wasn't doing anything. Which was weird. Very weird. No school. No syllabi. No checking my online classes. I finally realized that I had actually graduated and I had NO MORE SCHOOL LEFT. It hit me. It's still hitting me. I still think I'm forgetting about a class. But thankfully, I'm not. Hallelujah!

P.S. First day of new job went well. I spent the day in orientation. Lots of information. Lots of people and lots of names to memorize. But so far so good. :)

D's Christmas gift

Before I start writing about D's gift, I want to explain what's going on in my head right now. Tomorrow I start my new job. I'm nervous. Really nervous. And I'm trying to keep my mind calm. So I'm laying in bed, watching TV, and blogging...trying to keep my mind from going 100 miles an hour. I think it's working. For now.

Back on track...I hadn't mentioned D's gift just in case he was reading my blog. He probably wasn't but I just wanted to make sure (insert laugh).

I actually purchased his gift back in the beginning of November. A while ago, on a roadtrip to Orlando, D mentioned that he wanted to try this beer. It wasn't just a normal beer, it was Sam Adam's Utopia.

Utopia is the world's strongest beer. It's released every other year and has an alcohol content of 25%. Normally beer is about 6%. Of course, this was something D wanted to get. It screamed his name.

I made a note of it on my phone and started talking to my co-worker about it. I really didn't think I could get my hands on it. But with the help of my amazing co-worker, we both did. A couple days before it was officially released, we purchased two Utopias at our local Publix. Apparently, only 30 bottles were being shipped to South Florida. And we each got one. Awesome!

We carefully opened the box and saw the shiny bottle. We were both hoping it would come with a glass and for $160, it should have. We didn't find a glass in the box but we read the note attached and realized we could order the free glass online! After a week, we had both the beer and glass in hand.

Now I had to wait. I teased D by telling him he had only one gift and showing him the wrapped box with the cup in it. If he suspected I got him the Utopia, he definitely wouldn't be able to tell by shaking the box with the cup in it. I know, I'm mean.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve when we exchanged gifts with D's family. I gave him the box with the glass in it and he proceeded to open it. Once he did, I explained that I couldn't get my hands on the Utopia but I did find a very 'rare' Utopia cup. He was actually buying it. After a couple of minutes, I yelled "sike!" and ran and got the second gift. He was smiling like a goof, as you can tell by the following images...

If I wanted Utopia this bad, I would've immediately opened it and taken a sip. But D waited till New Years Eve to try it. And I'm glad to say, he really enjoyed it.

New Years 2010!

Usually I'm not a big fan of New Years. I was contemplating staying home but I decided to head over to oneshoetwo's house to spend the new year with my friends. I'm glad I did.

I won't lie, I was struggling to stay awake. After we counted down, drank champagne, and ate my 12 grapes, we all went outside for some fireworks. My friend had just gotten a brand new Canon Digital Rebel SLR and I also brought mine. I had seen this trick done with sparklers and a slow shutter speed and I wanted to try it out.

As you can guess, it totally worked. Basically we put our cameras on manual with a shutter speed of at least 2 seconds. You stand very still (or use a tripod) and have someone go crazy with the sparkler. So. much. fun. Here are a couple of my favorites...

And this one has nothing to do with sparklers but I love how D and I came out. It's incredible what you can capture with a camera. :)