30 Day Challenge, Day 18 - My In-Laws

Who Are My In-Laws?

Mama T and Papa G, oh how I love thee let me count the ways.

I absolutely love, love, love my in-laws. God could not have blessed me with a more wonderful set of second parents.

(Sorry none of us are looking at the camera but that's my dad, my mom, me, Paul, Mama T and Papa G).

Not only do they love one another (they’ve been together since they were in middle school) but they love their family with more love than you could ever imagine and from the moment Paul and I started dating, they have accepted me and taken me in as one of their own.

I love you Mama T and Papa G, you are the most amazing mother-in-law and father-in-law!!!

(Paul with his mom and dad)

30 Day Challenge, Day 17 - My Favorite Restarant

What is My Favorite Restaurant?
Okay, so I can’t narrow this down to just one but I can narrow it down to two which is pretty darn good considering we really enjoy eating out. Paul and I love eating at tapas (small, snack-sized meals paired with a drink) restaurants cause you can try so many different things without breaking the bank or ordering too much so it just so happens that my two favorite restaurants are both tapas style:

1. Zhanras (pronounced genre) (www.zhanras.com) located in St Augustine Florida on the beaches side of the Bridge of Lions

2. Café Tu Tu Tango – We’ve been to both the Orlando, Florida (www.cafetututango.com) and the Orange, California (www.cafetututangooc.com) locations on numerous occasions and both were phenomenal.

30 Day Challenge, Day 16 - My Friend Farthest Away

Who is My Friend That is Farthest Away?
My friend who is farthest away would have to be my sister, Paige, who lives in the San Francisco area. She is currently finishing up her last year at Graduate Theological Union and she will soon be applying to go to school to get her PHD - she's so smart!!!
This is a picture of Paige marrying Paul and I in St Thomas.

I love you my sister!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Okay, so I know it sounds silly but I believe that up until you celebrate your 1 year wedding anniversary you can count month anniversaries too. That being said, today is our 9 Month Anniversary - Yippee!!!

Paul, you are the most amazing husband in the whole world and I know I say it all the time but God truly blessed my life when he chose you to be my husband. You are such an honorable and devoted man with a love for life, a love for me (and Teddy Bear), and most importantly a love for the Lord. I love you Paul and you have made me the happiest that I have ever been.

Can you believe we were here 9 months ago today?

What an amazing 9 months it's been!!! XOXOXO

30 Day Challenge, Day 15 - My Biggest Regret

What is My Biggest Regret?

I would have to say that my biggest regret would have to be that it took me so long to appreciate my family. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I actually began to realize that if you’re as blessed as I've been then your family is the only thing that will support you and stand by you through anything. For so many years I took for granted the fact that I have parents and siblings that love me more than I could understand and they will be there for me through good times and tough times – much like Paul is for me now. I love you Dad, Mom, Paige and Scott (and Paul) and I will never again forget what you have been and continue to be for me!!!

Fernandina Beach

Yesterday we decided to head to Fernandina to eat at this restaurant that we've been wanting to try called Cafe Karibo, and boy-oh-boy am I glad that we did because it was AWESOME!!!

Here are some pictures that we took on our little day trip:

We took the Mayport Ferry instead of driving all the way around and the weather was perfect.

Paul and I eating at Cafe Karibo. There was a breeze and with that and the shade from the trees it was ideal weather for eating outside.

Leftovers from lunch - yum, yum!

After lunch we headed to an Irish pub - with a husband who has Irish in his blood we have to hit at least one Irish Public House in each city that we visit for the first time. "A Mother's Letter" was hanging on the wall...pretty funny!

My adorable husband.

Me in a fountain.

A quick stop by Harris Teeter - they sell our favorite cheese (Jarlsberg) for a better price than anywhere we can find in Jax.

And, one last stop was to Safe Harbor Seafood Market for some fresh fish for dinner - we had never been before but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it reminded us of a Joe Patties Seafood back home in Pensacola - such good memories!

We had a great time on our lunch excursion and we'll for sure be making another trip back to Fernandina Beach and Cafe Karibo.

I Gotta Brag!

I was looking through the pictures we have on our computer and I came across a few of Paul surfing last summer:

I don't know too much about surfing but I must say he sure does look good :)

I love you Pauly Wally!!!

30 Day Challenge, Day 14 - My Dream Home

What Would we Include in our Dream Home?

Oh how I wish we had a home of our own. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love where we live. We have ocean views from our front porch and our little beach bungalow has so much character…but it’s not our own.
Here's a little proof of its character:

We just love the original hard wood walls and the comfortable feel that you get as soon as you come in the door. That last picture is of us around Christmas time with our tree and the fire blazing - I can't wait for the weather to cool down again.

An even extra bonus to our place and where we live is that here's what we get to look at in the evenings when we walk outside:

It really is amazing!

This December we will have been renting our place for 3 years and Paul and I are both pretty tired of putting money into a place that we don’t own. We would love to buy a place, especially with the housing prices as good as they are right now, but we also know that we could never afford a place as close to the water as we are right now so we want to enjoy it as long as we can. That being said, I still dream about what our first home together will look like and here’s a few things that I would love to be included (and in no particular order):

A comfy hammock.

A big ol' kitchen - cooking is a huge love for me!

A seat with a view - if not the water, then something involving nature.

A HUGE comfy King Sized Bed - right now we have a full and it's just not big enough for the 3 of us (Yes, 3, Teddy Bear sleeps with us too!).

We don't want our first home to be too big but we do want something that feels like our own. No matter what we end up with, when the time comes, I'm sure we'll just love it to pieces!

I love My Husband!!!

I wanted to post about this a few weeks ago but life has been insanely crazy for me, Pauly and little Teddy Bear - you can tell because I'm a little behind on my 30 Day Challenge entries. Anywho, I love my husband for more reasons than I could ever list but I'll tell you about one reason in particular. Paul loves to surprise me with little notes all over the house every so often and about 3 weeks back I woke up one morning to get ready for work and found these 2 precious notes (one on the bathroom mirror and one on the fridge):
I called Paul as soon as I saw the notes to tell him how much I love him and appreciate him and the first thing he wanted to know was which box I had checked. Seriously ya'll, they don't get any more adorable and precious than my husband. God truly blessed my life when he decided Paul and I should spend our lives with one another.

Paul, thank you so much for loving me the way that you do!!!

30 Day Challenge, Day 13 - My Next Big Life Event

What is the Next Big Thing to Happen in My Life?

Oh my goodness, this is a tough one, but I would have to say that my next big life event would have to be becoming an aunt. That’s right, Paul and I will soon by Aunt Suzy and Uncle Pauly because Paul’s sister and her husband are about to have their first baby. We’re getting super excited for the upcoming baby shower and even more excited about the new addition to our family.

We love you Annie and Alan and we just know ya’ll are going to be the most amazing parents!!!

30 Day Challenge, Day 12 - My Dream Vacation

What is my Dream Vacation?
I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve traveled to many different places all over the world (in no particular order: Germany, Austria, Holland, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, USVI & BVI) and there are so many more places that I would love to visit (in no particular order: Italy, Australia, India, Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, France, Greece, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand…just to name a few).

For me to name a particular place that would make my dream vacation would be so difficult because any type of vacation is great with me, but I do know that my dream vacation would include experiencing the natural beauty of an area with a little bit of local history as well as some hugging and kissing with my amazingly handsome husband.

30 Day Challenge, Day 11 - My Favorite Book & Movie

What is My Favorite Book and what is My Favorite Movie? I love reading and I love watching movies so it would be really hard for me to narrow it down to just one of each so I’m gonna make it into 2 lists.

My Favorite Books:
1. The Twilight Books (yes, I love Twilight)
2. The Sookie Stackhouse Novels (yes, I love True Blood)
(Please don’t think I’m crazy because my first two are vampire related)
3. Ishmael

My Favorite Movies:
1. The Twilight Movies

(Here are Paul and I at New Moon, he may be pretending to sleep in the movie theatre but it's all a show cause he really like it - hee, hee!)

(Paul got me New Moon for my Birthday)

2. Big Business (oldie but a goodie)

30 Day Challenge, Day 10 - My Favorite Part of the Week

What is my Favorite Part of the Week? This one is easy, I really like 5:00 on Friday but my ultimate favorite part of the week is date night with Paul. One thing we promised one another when we got married was that we would make sure no matter how busy things got that we would always make time for at least one date night per week - more if possible.

Here's a few pics of date nights past:

(Zhanra's in St Augustine)

(Cooking dinner at home)

(Island Girl in Neptune Beach)

(London Bridge in Jacksonville)

(Roy's in Jacksonville Beach)

Oh how I love our date nights, it really is my favorite part of each week!!!