Krystal and Josh Visit!

The first of our guests arrived on Feb, 28th!:D I LOVE Krystal and Josh to death and was VERY excited about them coming to visit. They are our best friend couple and we all just get along so well :D We had such an exciting week planned and had so much fuN! Of course we didnt take many pictures, because I always forget but I'll include the ones I do have :D

Originally, John and I were going to go watch the shuttle launch that was supposed to happen on Feb. 27th. Krystal and Josh were going to be Disney before coming to visit us so we were gunna pick them up and drive them down here since it was so close. Well, they moved the space shuttle launch up, so we didnt get to go :(. But John still went drove up to pick up Krystal and Josh.

They got here a little after lunch time and our plan was to hit the beach! We packed up and took them down to South Beach. It was crowded! It's usually busy, but it was packed! We then realized (when seeing a lot of people getting tickets for alcohol) that it was Spring Break. There were also a lot of man-o-wars that had dried up on the ground. They are really pretty, but can still sting on land if they are still wet at all. That night for dinner we grilled some brats out and caught up. John ended up passing out he was so tired! We ended up going to bed pretty early because we were all so tired!haha

Tuesday after I got off work around lunch time we packed up again and took them to another one of our favorite beaches. This one was not crowded at all and MUCH cleaner. We laid out, played bocce, and hung out for a few hours on the beach. It was perfect beach weather again. There were a few man-o-wars on the beach here too. Krystal picked one up! CRAZY! I dont have a picture of her doing it though- I think she has it. After the beach we went to the grocery store to buy groceries for the week. That night we made crab cakes! YUM! THANK YOU KRYSTAL FOR TEACHING ME HOW!! We also made a lasagna for the next day because we knew we were going to the Keys and would not want to cook when we got back. :D Again, the amazing chef Krystal taught me how to make a yummy and quick lasagna. I need to keep her around:D This night Josh passed out early :D Dinner was amazing by the way!

Wednesday we had rented a boat for the day! We drove down to Key Largo early and loaded up the boat and took off. Unfortunately, there was a small craft advisory so we couldnt go out as far as we wished and it was really choppy. I got a little seasick :( but afterwards I wasnt sick anymore! We went out to one snorkel sight and because it was so choppy we couldnt see anything. It was too cloudy. We dared to venture out further than we were supposed to and went to another spot and was able to see a bunch of stuff! SO glad we risked it :D We had a lot of fun on the boat, but will definitely pick a warmer and less choppy day next time. :D Afterwards we drove home and put the lasagna in the oven, took some showers, and played cornhole. It was nice. I passed out this night! LOL. :D

Big blue fish! he was really pretty
You can barely see him, but the spotted blue fish was my favorite
Krystal and Josh! :D
This is such a good under water picture!
Barracuda! we saw lots of them- some much bigger


Thursday we took the day off from the sun :D I had to work some that day, so they hung out around the house. When I got home we played some more cornhole on our patio. Then we got ready and went out to eat this night :D We went to a place called John Martin's. HAHA. It's an Irish Pub on Miracle Mile. It was actually REALLY good and not that expensive! We kept waiting for them to ID John, but they didnt :( so we just had to tell them him name was John Martin. Either the guy didnt care or he didnt understand us. lol. Then we drove down to Bayside so we could walk around the harbour, but there was a Heat game and close by and parking was EXPENSIVE! So we just went back to the apartment and played games for the rest of the night :D So glad they like games as much as we do! Krystal and I won the first game we played and were SO excited because we always lose to them. They wanted to rematch and then proceeded to beat us twice in a row. lol. Oh well at least we won once!

At John Martin's

Krystal and Josh
Me and John Martin ;D
Friday morning I worked in the morning again (I felt bad I had to work so much, but it's just such a busy time of year and I am applying for the permanent position still that I needed to) then we packed up and took them to a different beach! This time we took them to the lighthouse beach- Bill Bags. We went up in the lighthouse first. I hadnt been up there yet because it was closed the last time we were there. Apparently, I am scared to climb lighthouse steps. I was fine once I got to the top but then I was scared again climbing down. Silly me. I dont know why. Then we went down to the beach part- it was really dirty :(. We had fun anyway. We played a lot of bocce. At one point John, Krystal, and I went to go to the bathroom and near the bathroom is a restaurant. The restaurant had a really loud pop and everyone started running from the restaurant. LOL. We kept waiting for it to explode or something. It didnt and everything was fine. It was crazy though. We also had some racoon friends that tried to make good friends with Josh. lol. The raccoon ran up to Josh and John while Krystal and I were in the bathroom (a different time, yes we have small bladders) and John had to run at him to make him go away. LOL. Unfortunately, it was too cold to get in and it started getting chilly the later it got, so we finally left and went back home. We played more games this night and had a really good time.
Walking to the lighthouse...tried to get a cute picture of them walking together :D

At the top of the lighthouse!

Saturday, we took them to the airport :( and they went home. Our visit with them was so nice:D and of course as always, lot of inside jokes :D I am VERY excited when we go visit them later this year! We have all decided that provided we can afford it, we will try to visit each other once a year. So aside from Christmas, we'll get to see them at least 2 other times during the year :D YAY!

Another new apartment!

How do I always seem to be behind in blog posts?! Time just goes by too fast! :D I have so much to update you on, but will break it down into multiple posts so it's easier to follow and read. I will start with our new apartment!

While I was away at my conference, all of our furniture arrived! We had our bedroom suit from Raleigh along with all of the stuff we didnt have room for initially sent down here. The same day our Rooms To Go order came in! I cant remember if I mentioned it before but we got to help pick out the furniture for the place- it was SO much fun! We had to keep is pretty basic as it wont always be our place, but I REALLY like the stuff we got and am so thankful that we got help! My sweet sweet husband also moved ALL of our stuff over while I was gone. He is great. He wanted to make sure that I didnt have to move much at all since I had so much going on at work. It's only about the 13th time I've moved since I started college. That's a LOT of moving!

We spent the next week before Krystal and Josh came to visit, decorating and unpacking as much as we could :D I like that stuff A LOT- well unpacking, I hate packing. But we have it pretty much set up now. There are still some things we need to do and buy (like hang pictures, decorate a little more, and get some more furniture) but that's on hold until we know if I get the permanent position here or not. I am also very excited because I can start having my RAs over too!

Here are pictures of the new place thus far!

When you walk in the front door to the left is the foyer, dining room and living room. In the distance you can also see the patio. This place is SO much bigger than the other one!! We actually have a place for ALL of our stuff! YAY! close up of the dining room

other side- above the table we are going to put some floating shelves to help fill that wall.

living room! I LOVE the couch! it's SO comfy!! and SO big! John and I can both lay out on it and still have room! It will be great for large groups of people, like when I have meetings with my RAs!

The TV and stuff is still ours and we need a new TV console still too. Also, in the right corner where the chair is, we want to get a living room chair to go there. We put the kitchen chair there to fill up the space for now.

shot from the patio

When you come in the front door and go straight, you head into the kitchen :D

One half of the kitchen

Other half! It's a bit out dated, but still plenty of room for us and gets the job done!

Straight back is a little hallway, the pantry is back there and around the corner to the left is the laundry closet. Across from the laundry closet is the man room/Johns
office! :D The chairs in the picture are "fun" chairs! The move every which way. The lady helping us buy furniture for the apartment thought they would be good for a room like that. The pattern is not our favorite, but it's the only one it came in. John keeps his Xbox in there too and that's where he hangs out a lot.

Johns desk area

When you take a right out of the man room, that back hall extends to the bedrooms

There is also a little hall that connects the dining room area to the back hall. The closet you see there is where we keep beach stuff and where I store all the stuff for my RAs.

The room on the left down that back hall is the bathroom

Then at the end of the hall is the guest bedroom (the quilt on the bed is from my mama and papa poor. She knows how much John and I like wolves and so she made us a quilt for our wedding present. :D )

The last room in the place is the master bedroom. The furniture in it, is ours. Johns grand parents gave it to him when he was younger because they knew he would need a nice set one day- thanks grandma! :D (back in the corner you can see where our puppy will sleep!)

Other side of our bedroom. There is also a door to the patio from our room.

Master bath :D

The shower and toilet are separate from the sink- I like it a lot. :D

CLOSET! IT'S SO BIG! YAY! This is Johns side...

My side!

Now the patio is probably my favorite! It's screened in (we still get bugs though and squirrels sneak in too. lol- the squirrels also bark when you get near their territory. I am not crazy. John witnessed it too!)Anyway, we LOVE to grill and there is barely enough room to play corn hole, so it's wonderful :D
This shot is from outside the living room doors

This shot is from outside our bedroom door :D


So there is still a lot of work to do, but we love living here! :D

The ZOO!

The day after I got back from my trip to SEAHO, John and I chaperoned a field trip to the zoo. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I have not been to a zoo since the 7th grade. I didnt even realize how excited I would be until we started seeing all the animals! The whole loop was about 3 miles and the sections were divided into the countries the animals were from. SO MANY ANIMALS! :D
MY FAVORITE!!!
So pretty!

A wild singing dog :D

KANGAROO!!

Koala- he was asleep. Apparently they sleep up 20 hours a day!

Mr. Turtle was my father :D

He was so cute!

Rhino!

I LOVED the giraffes! I didnt think there were any there, but then there were!!!

Elephant :D he kept kicking up dirt trying eat

Zebra! made me think of the gum. lol

The gorillas :D he ran across the grass and started beating his chest! it was AWESOME!

Silly guy!

2 humped camel!

Komodo dragon!

The otters were so cute!

Lions RAWR!

haha

BEAUTIFUL Peacock!!

caught him while he was swinging! my husband is such a good photographer!

This guy was so funny. We were all taking pictures of him so we went and crawled under the trash to hide. hahaha

Flamingos! Just for my sister :D

My "waterfall"!

John and some more elephants!

caught him swinging too! they were fun to watch!

My hubby at work!

I must say, one huge perk is being able to chaperon and go to these places for free :D I am just there in case something happens, so John and I were able to do our own thing. We sure did get our exercise too! We made it around the whole loop in the 4 hours we were there and saw almost all the animals :D SO much fun! I cant wait to go back!!