waiting out ernesto

we went to walgreens and got tropical storm/hurricane supplies. anti-itch cream for a strange rash on my back, hot tamales and nerds. so we're set for the storm.

one of those days

today was one of those days that was so great. for a lot of reasons.
we're on regent break until monday so there was time to:

sit on the couch with matt in my pj's and drink 2 cups of coffee with vanilla nut creamer. we planned the next few months of youth group activities, other trips, things we want to do this fall - which involved my giant calendar and multi-colored markers (i love ever opportunity to bust my calendar and markers out!...matt is a good sport about it)

re-arrange the living room. again, matt was a great sport. i couldn't for the life of me decide which wall the bookshelf should go on. it needs to be near a plug, which limits our options, but there's still 4 possibilities. it ended up in the dining room near the kitchen...strange, i know.

replace the brake pads. well, we didn't, midas did. but apparently the back brakes were shot, so i'm glad we did that before some of our upcoming trips! gulp.

have panera soup (brocolli cheddar of course) and start our regent work early. even though the semester starts monday, we're supposed to be a week ahead in reading and work. i give myself a lot of slack the week before, though, because technically we haven't started yet.

take a beautiful run over the causeway. the sun was setting over the intercoastal, and we saw 5 or 6 manatees swimming 10 feet off shore. we went out on the rocks and could practically touch their little snouts. it's at these times i love living in melbourne, florida.

watch alternating episodes of gilmore girls and 24. i am equally addicted to both. and right now, i'm going to go start the 'rotation'......

i loved today.

a new teapot

i found a baby blue teapot at target today. for as much tea as we drink, i think it's time we had one. although it might be hard to find a tea that we agree on every time to make a pot...i like english/irish breakfast, vanilla, and any type of red tea. matt likes green teas, fruit teas and earl grey. so we'll see. half the fun is pouring tea out of a real pot, so maybe i'll develop a taste for earl grey one of these days.

we played golf this morning. by 'we' i mean matt, but i walked the 9 hole course with him before church. it was a beautiful morning outside. there was even a little alligator in the pond next to hole 1. but now our early morning is hitting me, so i'm off for a sunday afternoon nap...

bath time

the pink tankini

jodi amanda elisha and kerstin post-wedding

rehearsal dinner

emily and sumanth

so it's been awhile...

i've thought of a million stories i want to blog. a million pictures i want to post. and yet two weeks goes by and...nothing! i'm posting some pictures of emily and sumanth's wedding weekend - it was such a fun time. the wedding was beautiful. got to see everyone again, even for a few short days.
when we got back from the wedding, we left 3 days later for chicago and the wisconsin dells with matt's family. i'm also posting some pictures of ella. it was her first time in a tankini, so i wanted to capture it!

and now we're home for a bit - had our first 'official' youth group as leaders last night. it went really well - almost 60 kids showed up, which was a bit shocking but really exciting. tonight we're meeting my parents in tampa at berns steakhouse for a belated birthday dinner...i'm already craving the chateubriand tips and macadamia vanilla bean salad dressing.

so here's the pictures, along with my vow that i won't fall off the blogging wagon again!

what a headache!

we finally got packed for our long-awaited anniversary in flagler beach. to kick off the celebration, we stopped at our favorite sandwich shop - jimmy johns, on the drive up. it was then i first noticed it...i couldn't read the menu over the spots in the air. and i knew...a migraine is coming, and at the worst possible time (well, i've had a few others at worse times - like on our honeymoon when i got my first one...). i took two pills and managed to get my sandwich down and drive the rest of the way to flagler laying down in matt's aviator sunglasses. when we pulled up to the b & b, matt checked us in and started the tour while i stayed in the car. during his 'tour' of the spa and grounds, he noticed that i wasn't in the car anymore, but was in the bushes across the street, puking. poor thing (both of us!), but matt tried to distract the lady so she wouldn't notice my (rather loud) vomiting...it was so gross. you know how you have 'throw-up thoughts'? the last thing you think before you throw up that just sends you over the edge? mine was the 'provalone cheese' and avacado' on my sandwich!

i am glad to report that after a 2 hour nap with a cloth over my head and one more throw-up session, i was good to go. the rest of the time was so fun - went on a beach walk, had a picnic dinner, and went for a soak in the mineral pool (supposedly good for the joints). this morning, we watched the sun rise on the balcony with coffee then took a bike ride around flagler beach - followed by a really great breakfast - they would basically cook you anything you wanted, so i had pancakes and greek quiche, while matt polished off a 3 meat omelette. when we left, we drove A1A towards ocala and saw the ocean the whole way...