Our new digs

Here is a front and back picture of our new apartment in Tampa. It's pretty nice! It has been a crazy 4 days!!!! Let me chronicle this day by exhausting day:
Tuesday:
Anthony and I drove down to Tampa to sign our lease, get our keys, and move a few little things. We got there around 12PM and started going through the paperwork. The leasing agent didn't calculate the pet fee for our dogs in the email she sent us with the final amount due and you should have seen our faces when she said that it would be $300 for each dog!! She felt bad for us, so she got her manager to agree to let us pay for just one dog since they are both so small. Whew! Around 2 o'clock, we had everything and we found our way to the apartment (we'd only seen a model before this). I opened the door to find that the apartment was gutted!!!!! There was no flooring in most of the place, and where there was carpet it was filthy. The kitchen had no appliances and stuff was hanging from the ceiling. So, back to the office we went and the leasing agent apologetically told us that she made a mistake and put us in a unit that is being renovated. We got a new address and apartment number, new keys and we left to hopefully find our real apartment, promising to come back to sign paperwork with the corrected address. When we came back, we had to wait 30 minutes to sign the paperwork and then we finally started home to finish packing.

We got home around 5PM and started packing. Since I am so speedy, I did most of the packing while Anthony did trash duty and broke down all of the electrics with the maze of wiring. We finished around midnight, but I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up for an hour changing our addresses on things online.

Wednesday:
Moving, moving, and more moving!! After today I had bruises and sore muscles in places I didn't know could get hurt (like the bruises I have on my hip bones from jutting them out so I can balance boxes I am carrying). It took us about 4 hours to pack up the u-haul and my mom's van and we left for Tampa around 3:30. When we got to the apartment, it was just me, Ant, and my brother Daniel to do all of the unpacking. It went surprisingly fast and we got done in about 1 1/2 hours. We were all sweating like pigs, and Daniel made Anthony carry things downwind because of his manly odor :) We went to 3 different u-haul places to finally find one that was open so we could drop off the drop. As a side note, I had no idea that u-haul favored kwikie marts and discount clothing/cell phone stores to run their operation. Huh.
Being as sweaty and stinky as we were, we decided that a trip to a restaurant was in order. After that, Ant and Daniel dropped me off at the new apartment while they went back to Gainesville to get Ant's aquarium. I couldn't sleep in such a messy, disorganized, new place so I stayed up to 3am unpacking and arranging furniture.

Thursday:
Woke up promptly at 9am to LOUD construction workers. Apparently we are the only unit in our building not under renovation. Nice. Decided I might as well unpack as long as I was up. Anthony spent the entire day in Gainesville breaking down his aquarium and loading it in the car. He got home around 10:30pm and I had pretty much finished all of the unpacking and arranging (what a perfect ploy to get out of unpacking!!). We finally dragged ourselves to bed around midnight

Friday:
Finally a day of sanity! We got internet hooked up today, which makes life in a new place SOO much more bearable and getting things accomplished SOOO much easier :) Ant's still working on setting up his tank, but I think it is starting to settle in for both of us that we live in a different place. Here is what my living room looks like courtesy of Ant's hobby:

And just so you know, I plan on never moving again. I am going to live and die in this 2bedroom/1bathroom apartment. Either that, or if we ever do move again it is going to be for the wealthiest job imaginable so that I can just get rid of everything and buy all new stuff there. For real.

Our first yard sale

This morning Anthony and I had our very first yard sale! We had a lot of junk to get rid of, and now that it is all over I am glad to be rid of it. I was way too nervous about doing this!! I mean, what is there to be nervous about right? I couldn't sleep all night because I was thinking about how exactly we were going to set things up. We got up at 6am to start putting out signs and starting setting things up at 7am. Not very many people came, probably in part because we are in the back of a small neighborhood. Still, I told myself that I would be happy if we made $25, and we ended up making $40! What is funny is that the things I was sure were going to sell didn't, and we sold some things that I put in because otherwise I was going to through it away (like an old back scratcher that I have no idea where it came from).

I don't think we will be having very many yard sales in the years to come. We aren't patient people, and sitting there for hours we kept second guessing ourselves on what we could sell on ebay. We ended up taking things back and putting them in the house, vowing to put them on ebay tonight. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen :) After a few hours, we were tired and no one was coming so we packed the car FULL of 7 bags of stuff and one big box of books to take to Goodwill. Now I don't have any more excuses, I have to get to packing. If only I had some boxes...

Laughter is the best medicine

My family and I got back last night after a 3 day road trip to Mississippi to bury my dad in his family plot. The memorial service on Monday was wonderful, and so much that was said reminded me of my dad's sense of humor. Sometimes his humor was kind of morbid (I guess that happens when you spend your life aware of your own death), but it fits with my family and how we handle things.

Illustration: here is a picture of my dad picking out his spot in the family cemetery a few years ago Classic dad.

The trip was quite something. I don't think that we had all been on a car trip together since we were in elementary school. We rented a Tahoe so that we could fit all six of us, and let me tell you it was not big enough. Anthony and I got the very very back seat that was designed for children or people without legs because there was no floor! The seat was level with the floor, so we spent the entire trip with our knees pulled up against the seat in front of us. The trunk was right behind us and it was the size of a postage stamp, so everything was also spilling out onto our heads. Remind me to never buy a Tahoe.

It is a 9 hour drive one way, so we slept, ate, and played a lot of trivia and car games. We played an especially rousing game of "would you rather" which included questions like: "would you rather sweat cheese or wake up every morning covered in ham and not know why?" and "would you rather have a nostril that sharpens pencils or a navel that dispenses ketchup?" Who comes up with these things?

How did I live before coupons?

This week I had some especially awesome coupon deals. What makes it that much better is that some of the stuff I was getting ready to buy anyway, and I stumbled upon an awesome deal!

Walgreens:
5lb bag of Purina Cat food 4bags@$5each= $20
*Used (4) $3.50 off coupons from Purina website
*Used $6 in register rewards from last week
Total= $1.40 (basically sales tax)

CVS:
Kashi Granola Bars & Cereal 3 boxes@$3.33each + Colgate Toothpaste ($2.88)= $12.88
*Used (3) $1.50 off coupons from Kashi website
*Used (1) $1.00 off coupon from Colgate website
*Used $4 in Extra Care Bucks from last week
Total= $3.38 and I got back $7 in Extra Care Bucks for next week

Publix:
Cherries (2lbs @$1.99/lb) + Bananas (2lbs @ $.49/lb) + Vienna fingers cookies (2/$3.99) + Chef Boyardee (2/$1.70) + No sugar added yogurt (4/$2.00) = $12.70
*Used (1) $2 off $5 produce purchase from Food Lion
*Used (2) $.55 off Keebler cookies from coupons.com
*Used (2) $1 off Chef Boyardee from simplydelicious.com (cashier reduced them to $.85 each)
Total= $8.00

How fun was that? I didn't do any real grocery shopping since we are going to be out of town for most of the week, so it was fun just to pick up the best deals. As a side note, I only bought the chef boyardee because it was free. We don't eat that kind of stuff, but if it is free I buy it and give it to the missionaries on sundays. I gives me an excuse to use more coupons!

Proof that I am a nerd

Today we got our official reservation letter from the apartment complex we are moving to in Tampa with our address and everything. Guess what street we are going to live on? Matador Court. Who comes up with these names?? I've lived in Gainesville all of my life, so I am used to good ol' plain numbered streets. At least I have memorized our new address already :)

So, what was one of the first things I did after I got the letter today? After looking into all of the coordinating it takes to move (shut one service off, turn another one one, etc..), I had to look up the county's library website to see if it is as cool as the one in Alachua county. Then, I guessed at which library would be closest to our apartment and almost did a happy jig when it came up as 4 minutes away!!!! I had to bookmark it in my favorites right away. I seriously tried to think of a way that I could sign up for an account now so that I could start reserving books. Then, I started to get all excited about going into a new library and getting a new card and checking out all that they have there. I started telling Anthony all of this and of course, his response to all of this was to give me a "how in the world can you be this excited about the library" look. But hey, he is already checking out all of the Tampa reef-aquarium clubs and forums so he should understand :)

Superman wears Tebow pajamas

I went to the mall today to check out if there were any good sales on clothes and ended up in the Gator mania store looking at all of the gator t-shirts. I couldn't resist, I had to get a Gator Tebow/superman t-shirt! I love it and I love Tebow!!!! I still can't wrap my head around the fact that in the fall I will be working at another university where they probably aren't as gator-crazy as Gainesville. (Although you never know, we are awesome so they could worship us)

Case in point: when I am at the gym and I finish reading my magazine and there is nothing good on tv I play a game I like to call "count the gator clothes". Today I counted 10 gator t-shirts and basketball shorts and that was on a Saturday when the gym is usually empty. It is kind of fun, I keep a running count in my head and end up staring at random people across the room, trying to see if that sports bra they are wearing has a gator logo (have I blogged before about how many girls at the gym don't wear outer clothes? It's annoying). I also get disproportionately excited when a new person walks in the cardio room because they might just be wearing a gator shirt. And if I get some one with a gator shirt AND gator shorts: Jackpot!

Pumpkin is good all year round!

Since today is Ant's last day of work, I thought I would bake some treats for him and his coworkers to enjoy. My sister just introduced me to this awesome and easy recipe and I highly recommend it. Now, I rarely bake anything unless it is for someone else, but I might actually make this alot.

Pumpkin muffins: take a box of yellow cake mix and mix it with a can of pumpkin pie filling and then bake them in muffin tins at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. That's it! You can add cinnamin or nutmeg, but you don't need eggs or water or anything like that. It is so easy, and I thought it would be kid friendly too, because it is so easy and you can eat the batter all you want since there aren't any eggs. Cool!

As a funny side note, when I went to Publix to buy the ingredients, a worker told me that they didn't have canned pumpkin because of a problem with the manufacturer. He then told me that he was pretty sure that no other Publix was going to have it. What?? So, I drove down the road to Sweetbay, and they had at least 10 cans sitting on the shelf. Apparently the manufacturer is trying to pull a fast one on Publix :)

The best dad in the world: because he is mine

This is a sad post to write, but I feel like I have to write it. Early this morning my dad passed away. He had been sick for a very long time and we were all as prepared as we could be for it to happen. My mom slept in bed with him and he passed sometime during the night in his sleep, very peacefully. In some ways it still doesn't feel real, but in other ways it is a blessing to know that he is happier and free now. The last thing we said to each other was "I love you" which I am so grateful for because not everyone gets to say those things to each other.

I was thinking about some of my favorite memories of my dad. One was when I was in high school and we had a brat of a foreign exchange student stay with us. I couldn't stand her and the foreign exchange coordinator was always really mean to me and would call the house constantly to ask me why we weren't entertaining her enough (he was kind of a bully and would never say those things to my parents, just a 17 year old girl). When I told him over the phone that I didn't want to do the other part of the exchange and go to her country, he tried to talk down to me. Without me asking or knowing, my dad got on a phone in the other room and gave that guy a piece of his mind and totally backed me up! I still think about that sometimes because I remember how awesome it felt to have someone stand up for me.

Another favorite memory was actually not that long ago, maybe a few years. For some reason my mom couldn't take my dad to a doctor's appointment, so I drove out to Trenton to pick him up, take him to Gainesville for the appointment, and then take him back. When we were at the doctor's office he introduced me to all of the medical staff who know him so well and he was so proud of me. He kept telling them where I worked and what I was going to school for. The best part was that we had a great conversation in the hour we spent in the car together! We talked about life and he told me stories about his youth (he did some crazy things, bucket list things, way before he even met my mom!). It was that conversation that made me decide to go to graduate school because he acted like he had such confidence in me, and he gave off this attitude like "of course you can get a master's degree! You could get three if you wanted" :)

My family and I are going to miss him terribly, but we know that we will see him again. We love you dad.

The largest aquarium in the world

This morning Anthony and I finally visited the largest aquarium in the world, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, GA. We have been wanting to see it since it opened, and Anthony especially wanted to see the coral reef exhibit that has real corals (most places have fake stuff). It was amazing!!!! I felt like a kid because everything was so cool and new to see and all around awesome. We stayed in a hotel an hour outside of Atlanta and here are some pictures of us this morning:

Ant and I could not get over a peach tree in the parking lot of the hotel! I don't think either of us had ever seen a peach tree up close before. We even picked some, but they were definitely not ripe yet :)
On to pictures of the aquarium exhibits. I can't stress how amazing everything was! They also had little signs next to different tanks with a cell phone number to call and get a little guided tour of that part of the exhibit.
River Exhibit:
A big part of the river exhibit is a river that you walk under so you can see underneath all of the fish. These are some serious catfish beer bellies:
Cold Water Exhibit: All I could think about when I saw this guy, was how much good eating his legs would be! This whale was seriously loving all of the attention he was getting from the crowd. One little girl asked a worker why he chased away the other two females and he had to struggle to figure out a way to say that the whale wasn't chasing them, he was actually "interested" in them and the females weren't feeling it.
Leafy Dragons The jelly fish were so surreal! It is almost like they are some kind of alien creature or something.
The coral reef exhibit:
This is the view as you come to the main reef tank: They have a simulated wave that comes through every few minutes to mimic the ocean: I could just see the wheels in Anthony's head turning, trying to figure out how he could get his tank to do a wave like that.
Ocean Voyager Exhibit: The fish is bigger than the kid next to it! There was a moving platform that took you underneath the tank so that you could see all of the sharks and fish. We stayed a good 30 minutes just at this display window. It was so big!! The tank is the largest in the world and holds 4 whale sharks, which grow to be 30 feet long! Here are two of the whale sharks. Believe it or not, they are actually still juveniles and can grow to be twice as big.
It was so fun, and even though we had to cut our trip short, we are both so glad that we went!

Summer Semester Over!!!

The summer semester is finally over! Ant took his last test today at 5PM and ended up with a high B in the class. We literally fasted and prayed our way through this class, so we are so relieved that it ended well! "We" also got a 96 in Anthony's research class, so take that! I am so happy to have my husband back!

On Monday we are going to Atlanta for a few days so that we can finally see the aquarium there. We have been wanting to go since it opened, but we both hate to drive and have always come up with excuses to not make the 5 hour trip. Now that we are moving 2 hours south, we figured we have to go before it turns into a 7 hour trip! My goal is to take a serious amount of pictures since we have been such photo slackers lately. I don't think we have taken more than a few pictures together since our anniversary last December!

Who wears the pants in the family?

Apparently Bitsy does! I turned around and Bitsy had decided that my shorts were the most comfortable spot to be in for the night. She stayed in it for at least 3 hours without moving, I even double checked to make sure she was breathing after awhile. I swear, I have never seen a dog so obsessed with being comfortable!!! She will root around non-stop until she finds that perfect spot and then lay there as long as she can without moving.

Where did the time go?

I decided I should update this thing, since I finally have the time to. A few weeks ago I went from working 50 hours a week, to having all of my time available! My internship at Children's Home Society did not work out for many reasons which would bring back too much irritation to recount. Grrrr... I actually just got some residual irritation just writing that sentence. I was going to try to stick it out for the summer, but my family was having a bit of a crisis and I really felt inspired that I needed to spend this time with them before we move to Tampa. I also quit my weekend/nights job at Shands, so I now have Fridays and Saturdays open for the first time in 2 1/2 years. I must say, I still haven't figured out what people do on the weekends!

Anthony has been studying and studying and studying and studying (you get the picture) since the summer semester started. It is only 10 weeks long and there is a ton of material! But, he is doing really well and after this semester it will all be clinical work, which is where he really shines and what he actually enjoys doing.

The move to Tampa is looking good. We found an apartment we like for a good price and I found a paid internship at USF. Ant just needs to find a job (which really just takes a phone call) and we need to find renters for our condo. I am working really hard on trusting in the Lord that it will all work out, and so far I've been feeling good and not obsessing. It helps that we still have a month before we move and we haven't started the horrid packing process :)