FSU vs. OU...fun times in Tally!!

Whew!  It has been a whole month since my last post!  I hope I haven't lost my blogging groove.

(I think the fact that I just used the word groove pretty much tells me that I have...)

Life here in Jax has certainly been good.  (I think I say that every time I leave a whole month between posts.)  I guess since all of our adventures are quick little trips that don't cost hundreds of dollars, I tend to take fewer pictures.  I also don't have any tests, papers, or projects to procrastinate anymore.  What a shame...  Not.

BUT.  Last weekend (my birthday weekend, but more importantly the long-awaited match-up between Oklahoma and Florida State) was DEFINITELY picture worthy.  Aaron and I had a ball being back in Tallahassee celebrating FSU football being back in business.  Tallahassee was buzzing with people and had an energy about it that I had never really seen during my time as a student.  It was so much fun!  Even though the final score was 13 - 23 in favor of Oklahoma, the game was easily the best and most fun game I have ever been to.  Here's the rundown of our Saturday:

6am: Wake up in Jax, eat some breakfast, deck out in garnet and gold, get on the road.  (I love that we are able to to this...)

9:30am: Park our car at the BCM and high-tail it over to Langford Green for ESPN College GameDay.  The following are some of the sights we saw out there.

Oregon Trail references were a big hit.

Acknowledging a little Stoops sibling rivalry in Tallahassee.  (Mark is the FSU Defensive Coordinator and Bob is the Head Coach of Oklahoma.)

The GameDay scene.  Something I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that turned out to be a twice-in-a-lifetime experience.

Sayin' hi to the Good Year blimp.  Which was funny to see in our small town of Tallahassee.

12:00:  Lunch with Leshay and Baby Clu at Chili's.  Leshay took the pictures, which I will add when I get them from her :)

2:00 (ish): Back to the BCM to finish watching the Auburn/Clemson game.  And then a walk all around the west side of campus as a two-person tail-gate to meet up with numerous groups of friends.

Evidence of the Garnet & Gold guys at the BCM.  We had a fun time remembering all the friends of ours who dressed out for this, since BCM now has a wall (and cage, apparently) dedicated to the "history" of these guys.

6:30pm: in the stadium for pre-game festivities

8:00pm: kickoff!

In the Doak Campbell Stadium for the big matchup.

Having SO much fun!!

The energy inside the stadium was ridiculous.  SO LOUD.

Fireworks and everything, the place was pumped.

The team watchin' our defense rock.  Daniel, your buddy Parker is right there...number 35 or 36 I think.

The view from our amazing seats.  Row 2, 45 yard line.

Sean Powell and Dustin Hopkins parked it on that bike between special-teams plays.  I tried to say hello but Doak was a little too LOUD for that.

We had a BLAST!  And for those of you who sent your condolences for the loss on my birthday weekend, don't.  Because it was seriously the best time I have had on that campus...win or lose!  All I wanted for my bday after that game was a shower and a nice little nap, which one of my dear friends and former roommate provided :)  She even gave me these pretty flowers to top off the weekend:

Thank you Calyn & Kenley! :)

Anywho, it's game day again (a whole week later), so I'm going to get up and get a move on my Saturday.  Hope all is well wherever you are...and GO NOLES!

Happy Birthday, Hubs!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite husband!!!  He made it all the way to 25...a WHOLE quarter-century!

To celebrate, we had a good old-fashioned normal day, where I decorated his office at home with a silly Happy Birthday banner while he went to the gym.  We both had our normal work days, and after I got home, I gave him his gift.  (A real-deal corn-hole board and bags...come a play with us sometime!)

And not only did we escape the path of Hurricane Irene, we even got a lovely...DOUBLE RAINBOW after getting some serious rain bands this morning in Jax.  (Who doesn't need a reminder of that "enthusiastic" video every once in a while???)

For dinner, we headed to St. Augustine to grab some dinner at Caps on the Water...an awesome drive down the coast on A1A for some delicious food!

Sunset on the intercoastal waterway.  Home sweet Florida!

Caps waterfront dining :)  Reminded us of some dinner venues in St. Lucia.

Us @ Caps....Using my iPhone to take photos.  Sorry, 2 megapixels and bad lighting are all you get...

We also stopped by the beach on our way home to check out the surf that Irene has brought to the east coast, pretty awesome stuff!!  (no pictures...it was a little too dark!)

Anyway...here's to a blog-world HAPPY BIRTHDAY shoutout to Aaron!!!  I'm gonna go join him in a game of cornhole...the night is young!

She's Here!!

Introducing Kaitlyn Marie, our beautiful niece who was born yesterday (August 8th) at 6:36 am!

The first of many pictures.  Our family looked like the paparazzi swarming a celeb!

At 8 lbs, 13 oz and 21 and 1/2 inches long, she is an absolutely beautiful little girl!  She had 10 little baby fingers and 10 little baby toes.  And some cute little fingers and toes they were!  See?

Aaron and I left Jacksonville on Saturday afternoon to spend a little extra time with the family before Lianne was induced on Sunday morning.  As it turned out, we did not end up needing "extra" time together because we had PLENTY of time to visit with each other on Sunday...and Monday.  Both sides of the family took up residence in the waiting room at the hospital for about 24 hours, taking breaks for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks.  We had a great time and made it through the long hours with a lot of laughing, praying, and eating.  And Sudoku.

Lianne (my hero) went through a whole 24 hours of labor and AJ was an awesome partner and encouragement through it all.  At the end, they got an awesome prize...sweet little Kaitlyn!  Here are a few more pictures of our family welcoming KMW into the world...

Check out this beautiful family.

First-time uncle and aunt! 

I'm in love.

And pretty sure Aaron is too.

So happy to hold this baby we've been praying for since November of last year. 

Who looks this good after 30 hours of little to no sleep!?

Lianne and AJ get to kiss these cheeks every day!!  

We had an awesome time waiting for K to come into the world and cannot wait to spend more time with her!  We are so thankful for the blessing of this new little addition to our family!  Praising the Lord for keeping her and Lianne healthy through it all.

Finally...pics of our place!

These are kindof backwards, but here they are: the pics of our home in jax!  

The back porch where we like to hang when there's not a heat index of 100+ degrees.

The back sunroom that we don't really know what to do with.  Futon donations welcome.

Aaron's diggs.  His office.

The office finally gave him a place to put his framed pencil drawing of  Manhattan.

The guest room.

The kitchen! 

The dining room.  Orange, like it should be! ;)

The living room.  Come hang here with us!

Our room...with our new furniture to match our bed that granddad built!

Our room # 2.  Notice the window in my closet.  Weirrrd.

That's all for now.  I had a few minutes before heading off to work, but I hope you have a great Friday!  Last day of summer school for my kiddos...and then I prepare for 2 whole weeks off of work.  Hopefully I will have some new company to hang with (our little niece, Kaitlyn Marie!)

the (failed) photo update of our world in jax

It's been a while since I've blogged!  The hustle and bustle of the life of normal people has shrouded vacations and interesting news these days.  I could write about going to Target and to work, but I'm not sure that would quite capture your interest.  Or maybe it could.  The dollar bin has been rocking my world these days.

I have been LOVING my new job!  My little kiddos are great, and my coworkers are awesome, too!  A lot of laughing goes on during the work-day.  We determined that yesterday was deemed an epic Friday:  think pink eye, lice, barf, and crying. Needless to say we all made it out the door at precisely five o'clock.  But it's all in a day's work... and we've got one more week of summer school before a little summer vacay before the regular school year starts in the fall.  Not planning any big trips, as we are awaiting the arrival of our niece! (circa July 30th...)

Aaron is in Barcelona this week and should be coming back tomorrow.  I have taken up cleaning the house as my Saturday pastime.  How lovely.

I thought I would take a few pictures of our place, given that I never did, and some of you may be curious to see it if you haven't already.

....Annnnnd.  Photos are not working right now and I have given up on fighting them to get into this post from iPhoto.  I PROMISE once this begins working again I will post!!

Until then, HAPPY SATURDAY!  It's a contemporary singer/songwriter pandora station kind of day, so I'm gonna continue to get my cleaning boogie on!

Hooray for Mikey!

Good morning friends and family!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!  I hope you, too, are enjoying my favorite weekend of the year, whether you are cooking out, watching fireworks, hanging with family and friends, and/or sporting some patriotic red, white, & blue...like me!

Aaron and I have had a crazy weekend of catching up on all of the things that have populated our to-do list for the last several weeks.  And now that I've started work, the weekend is the time to get it done!  The main mission we had was to pick up and finish our new pine furniture that we bought to match the bed Aaron's granddad made for us (pictures to come!).  Also on my list is to post some of the pics of last weekend's trip to Stuart to celebrate the birthday/graduation of my sister's boyfriend, Mikey.

Here are some of the pics (courtesy of Rita Knepper, Mikey's mom) from the partay!

Surprise!! 

Noa was left unattended.  Stay away from the blue icing on the leftover cake.

Rita learned what happens when you put the Gehron girls in front of a camera and let us be silly.   Kardashian pose.

Aaron and I with fellow Seminoles AJ and Lindsay (Mikey's sis).

Aaron wouldn't get up to take a picture with me so I helped him.

That's better.

Mikey wearing the party decor.

Turns out the rookie Wilsons are quite good at beer/water pong.

Just a great pic of my parents at the party!

Julie, Nick, and Matt were there, too!

Congrats, Mikey!!

Love these guys and gal!

Ciao for now!  On today's agenda: Casey Anthony trial closing arguments (you know you're watching it, too), finishing the furniture, and beach time!

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend!