Day032

Ok this is going to be the last one before I go to work.

Day 32 was Sunday, March 27th.

Today we had our usual breakfast.. only a tad later in the morning due to the previous evenings festivities. Got ourselves ready and then went horseback riding! I was SO excited for this part :D

Our bus left the resort around 12:45pm to take us to the stables. Not really sure what time we actually started going, but they took us on a mountain trail through a little village and school. The trail ride lasted a little over an hour and ended up with us walking along the beach and through mangroves, back to the stables. Then we (and the horses) got changed and we went swimming with them! It was not quite what I had pictured but it was still awesome. We were in deep enough water that the horses were kicking to swim at some points, but we were only in up to about our waists (while sitting on the horse's back). Still an incredible experience.

Came back to the resort around 4 or 5 I think and hadn't eaten lunch yet. We knew we weren't eating dinner until about 9:30 that night because we had reservations at the Japanese hibachi restaurant... so we decided the smartest/most time efficient thing to do was to order room service so we could shower, etc while eating... or something like that. Well, we were wrong. Room service took over an hour to bring us our food, even after Ryan called to check on its status. And then... they left the wrong order! Ridiculous. We were both supposed to have the same sandwich, just on different bread, and an order of nachos. The man clearly did not understand what I was saying and ended up leaving Ryan's sandwich and a tuna sandwich for me (which I did NOT order)... and then AFTER I told him the nachos were ours, he starts to walk out of the room with them! Good grief. Good thing tuna is one of the few fishy things I will eat. Oh well...

Then we had dinner at the hibachi place, which was good but really didn't live up to the rave reviews people had given it, in my opinion. Otani's here is 10x better... but maybe that's because the cooks are actually Japanese, and not Jamaican. Who knows :) It was fun though and afterwards, since the weather was amazing, Ryan and I took a walk around the resort and looked at the starfish:

Day032: Stars and Ghosts

These little guys were all over the place in this one area. Oh and at this point, we really only carried Ryan's little camera around instead of lugging mine... hence the not-so-great quality of the photo. Anyway... we were standing there looking at the starfish when we started seeing these ghost looking things scooting across the top of the water. It's like 11 at night, so we really couldn't tell what we were seeing. We contemplated jellyfish, but they didn't move like jellyfish at all. Ryan thought maybe a type of squid or something. We didn't discover until about 10 minutes later when we walked a little further down that they actually were jellyfish. A few of them had washed up on the little sandy area so we could definitely tell what they were. There were only about 4-5 inches long and were shaped kind of like a computer mouse... seriously. And I wasn't joking when I described how they moved as scooting. They didn't move fluidly like you would expect a jellyfish to. Quite intriguing. Ha

After discovering the jellyfish, we wandered down to the St. James side of the resort and found where we would be getting our massage the next day. (Please see Day 33's post once I get to it to see how that part panned out) Then we wandered back to our room and passed out so we could get up at the butt crack of dawn to do probably the most fun activity we did the entire time...

Day031

I have to work at 12:30 so I'm gonna try to pump out a couple posts before then...

Day 31 was Saturday, March 26th- Courtney & Jay's wedding day!

It's getting harder to recall the smaller details about what we did each day, but I'm gonna try. We got up and had breakfast (this I KNOW we did because I wouldn't have missed out on a day of the amazing breakfast!). Pretty sure we just hung around the pool for a bit, had a couple drinks, relaxed... I think we had lunch with Ryan's Uncle John and Aunt Debbie at the little poolside restaurant. Went back to our room to hang out/get ready for the wedding. Took pictures of the jerky guy at his cart. Every now and then he would show up on the sidewalk outside our room yelling "Jerky jerky jerky jerkyyyy!" He was a resort employee... therefore the jerky was free. Haha. It was amusing nonetheless.

Our room overlooked the area where the ceremony and reception were happening so we got to watch them setting everything up all day. Ryan took a few pictures of that as it progressed and enjoyed that you can almost read the labels on the liquor bottles with dad's telephoto lens. I think around 3 or 3:30 I headed over to Courtney and Jay's room where Courtney and her bridesmaids were getting ready. Took a bunch of pictures for them and got this beautiful photo for today:

Day031: Anxious

This is my gorgeous sister in law... being quarantined in her room because she wasn't allowed out on the balcony for 3 reasons: 1- the dress. Didn't want to get it dirty. 2- you could see the wedding party and guests from where we were and she and Jay had played it traditional today by not seeing each other all day. 3- to try and keep her from smoking in her wedding dress. That part didn't really stop her, but it was worth a shot. Actually this picture is probably Courtney in the process of convincing Lindsey to bring her a cigarette. Oh well- she's beautiful anyway. :)

The wedding was gorgeous... but really, how could a sunset wedding in Jamaica NOT be gorgeous? I have a ton of stunning pictures of the bride and groom with the sunset as a backdrop, but this one seemed more real to me.

The reception was probably way too much fun for anyone's good... especially Ryan's (see pictures on fb once I get them uploaded). The wedding party went dancing at the night club on the resort (again, see fb pictures) and Ryan and I went back to our room... where I wasn't tired at all, so I ordered room service (also free!) and looked through all my pictures from the day while Ryan passed out in 2.5 seconds. :)

Day030

Alright- so since I didn't have internet access while in Jamaica, I couldn't do my blogs. What I'm going to try to do is give an overview of each day, explanation of the photo, and any other funny stories from the day. Cool? Ok.

So day 30 was Friday March 25th. Today was our first day waking up in Jamaica... and it was amazing. For some reason, we woke up wayyyy early... like 6:45 early... and were ready to go. So we had an early breakfast (which was incredible) and wandered around the pool/beach area until all the normal people woke up. Haha. Not even sure what time we had our first drinks, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere around 10am. :) No big deal.

Enjoyed a lazy day hanging around the resort. I think this was the day we had lunch at the little poolside restaurant thing with Grandma Vicci. I had a cheese and tomato flatbread pizza. Delicious. Then we did a free snorkeling trip just off the beach of the resort. We must have gone at the exact wrong time or day because we saw next to nothing interesting. Where as Courtney went a day or two later and saw LION FISH! So jealous. I also ended up with water getting stuck in my ear, which turned into an all day thing because it wouldn't come out and I felt like I was wearing an ear muff all day... that's how clogged I felt. Boo to water in my ear!

Dinner was phenomenal. We ate at  Portofino, the Italian restaurant on the resort, with Kim, Alan, Grandma, and Lynn. Seriously the best Italian food I've ever eaten. Jamaican's make amazing Italian food. Who knew? Unfortunately, they don't cook it very quickly and we ran a little bit late to Courtney and Jay's cocktail party which was supposed to start at 7. Woops. That also could have been due to the fact that there was a little art/craft type thing on the sidewalk between the hotel part and restaurants where local artists/craftspeople were selling their work. Ryan bought me a giraffe carved from cedar wood. It's pretty awesome. :)

Went to the cocktail party and hung out for a bit. The water was still stuck in my ear, which was annoying, but then I started having a reaction to something I ate. Greeeeeeat. It felt like the back of my throat/tongue were getting swollen and it got really hard to swallow. Little bit scary. So I went back to the room to lay down. Thank God for Lynn and her benadryl. Saved my life... ok that may be a bit dramatic, but I've never had a food reaction before, so it was kinda scary.

So that pretty much sums up day 30. Here is the picture I chose to use:

Day030: CRYSIS

I took this one earlier that morning, I think after breakfast. Used my dad's telephoto lens and we could zoom in so much that we could read that the side of his boat says CRYSIS in red. Not too shabby, Mr. Telephoto Lens. Haha. But I also love the photos I took this day because you can get a feel for how beautiful the water is! It was absolutely incredible. We watched this guy fish for probably at least 30 minutes, recognizing how far he had to have rowed himself to get all the way to where he is. I saw hi earlier that morning and he was not this close to the resort. He started out way off the our left from the land that took us over 30 minutes to get to by bus. Quite a haul.

So there you go... day 30 :)

Day029

Thursday March 24th

Ok... so... we are in Jamaica safely. It was not an easy feat, however.

We started out our morning at 2am. Which actually translates into about 11am Wednesday for me. We went to bed around 10:15pm Wednesday night with the alarm set for 2:30am Thursday morning. I literally did not sleep the entire time we were supposed to be 'napping.' Got to the airport before they would even check you in (around 4am). Almost threw up when the man at the counter told me my passport was invalid. (this was my first indicator that today was not going to go all the smoothly)

I guess he entered something wrong because it went through finally. First flight was out of Newport News at 6am, putting us in the Atlanta aiport around 7:45am. Had a 4 hour layover there. Flew out of Atlanta around noon, putting us in Jamaica around 2pm Jamaica time. Apparently they don't believe in daylight savings time, so we are back an hour from the east coast.

First impression of Jamaica=not very good. Stood in a ridiculous and poorly orchestrated line for over an hour to go through customs. Then a lady pointed us in the direction of where we were supposed to hook up with the people taking us to the resort. The next lady told us to look for a 'Jamaica Tours Dispatcher,' after which a man with a tan uniform and red hat came over and grabbed our bags (all 2 of them), tossed them on his little cart thing, and told us to follow him and he would take us to where we were catching the bus for Wild Orchid.

We had run to keep up with him through the crowd. No lie.

He takes us outside and realizes our bus is not here yet and drops our stuff on the curb, tells us to wait here, and then looks at Ryan an barks "Tip your boarder." We had no idea what he was talking about until he was shoving his open hand at us yelling "Tip! Tip!" All I had was 20's. Ryan asked if he had any changed and he pulled out a wad of cash. I handed him the 20 and grabbed the first 10 I saw and made him leave. So uncomfortable. All I wanted was for him to be out of my face.

Then we engaged in even more waiting. Over half an hour on the curb watching the people dart in and out of buses, pulling people's luggage around and tossing it on buses. When our bus finally got there, we encountered yet another man wanting a tip for tossing our bags on the bus. I refused. Then we sat on the bus and waited for it to leave for another 20+ minutes. Ridiculous.

Rode the little rickety bus through the teeny tiny streets of Jamaica to our resort. Where we waited. Again. Seriously all I wanted was to grab my own bags and check myself in... but you can't do anything for yourself here. It's obnoxious.

Gah! There's my novel of today. I did get some awesome pictures, both at the resort when we finally arrived and at the Atlanta airport watching planes take off.

But here it is, the only one (other than later tonight) that you get until we are back in the states:

Day029: Beach Party

So this was taken from our private balcony. Yes, private balcony. We went to dinner for Grandma's 80th birthday. Seriously incredible food. I ate shrimp for the first time in YEARS... like since I was in elementary school. And I liked it... weird texture but the taste was amazing. Oh, and I discovered my new favorite drink (sorry Dirty Shirley)... it's called a Mellow Mood. Coconut rum, cranberry juice, pineapple juice and one other thing that I can't remember. It's phenomenal.  I plan to drink many of them. But anyway, so after dinner, there was a live band and dancing on the beach. We did not partake in the dancing because it was super awkward... 50% of the people dancing were like resort employees just gettin their groove on out there. Weird.

But the view is incredible and the water is bluer than you can even imagine. Other than the whole airport experience, Jamaica really is paradise. Well, at least the resort is :)

Day028

Wednesday March 23rd

This one is gonna be short and sweet. Instead of actually going to bed tonight, I'm considering this a nap. We are going to bed around 10pm and have to be up by 2:30am in order to leave in time to catch our flight. That's barely gonna be 4 hours. aka... a nap.

So here's day 28:

Day028: Size Matters

To Apple, size does matter... how small can they make a functioning piece of technology? This is Ryan's first iPod sitting next to my iPod nano (not sure which generation mine is, etc)... but I just think the size/weight difference is hilarious. And if you threw in one of those iPod shuffle things, mine would look huge in comparison. I don't really have anything super intelligent to say about these iPods and the technology getting smaller and more advanced... just captured it on camera for ya.

My next post will be from JAMAICA and I'm sure the picture will be breathtaking. :) So get excited!

Day027

And here's day 27 following closely on the heels of day 26.

Made myself go to the gym this morning. Got a free smoothie from Tropical Smoothie (obviously the best part of my day). Carter at work is a GENIUS! We share an obsession with the Blimey Limey smoothie... but adding kiwi takes it to a whole new level. Thank you Carter for my renewed obsession with this smoothie.

Worked 12:30-7:30. Wasn't too bad of a day but had to deal with some really difficult stuff for a little bit towards the end of the day. Came home to Glee and steak. Hello, Heaven! :) Watched Raising Hope after and a little bit of this new show Traffic Light... pretty funny.

You may have noticed that nowhere in my day did I mention taking a picture. That's because I didn't until about 20 mins ago:

Day027: Feet

So basically I just wanna go to bed. I've had a headache all day that just won't quit. I sat down on the couch, set my camera to auto focus (which I NEVER do), and waited for it to focus on something. This is the picture I got. I decided to use it because I actually think it's pretty funny- Ryan's feet and his little call-of-duty-man's feet.

Anywho... I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow is going to be a bit hectic- lots of errands to run before leaving for JAMAICA bright and early (and by bright and early, I mean the sun won't even be out and I'm considering not going to bed at all tomorrow night) Thursday morning! :D

Day026

Forgot to post day 26 (aka: thought about it too late in the evening and didn't feel like posting).

So here it is:

Day026: Have Lucy, Will Travel

So the end of my day at work was particularly taxing on me and Ryan knew exactly what would cheer me up: packing for Jamaica! And he was completely right. We busted out our fabulous luggage that we got as a wedding shower gift (almost a full year ago...weird) and filled it up. It was wonderful... piling in cute tank tops, skirts, dresses. Oh, and Lucy. Haha. Obviously she thinks she's going to paradise with us.

Day025

2 more days of work. 4 days until JAMAICA! Yessssss!

It was actually a pleasant Sunday at Banfield... doesn't happen very often. Got to hang out and have dinner at my parents'. Now I'm posting my blog before I pass out.

Day025: That's Not Your Picture For Today

See above for Ryan's reaction to me taking this picture. Clearly, my response was: oh yes it is. This photo actually belongs second to last in a pretty funny series of photos. I basically had the camera resting in my lap/against my hip and just snapped a few pictures in a row until Ryan finally got out of the shower (...30  minutes later). I'm going to try and figure out how to put them in a little slideshow type thing and upload them. So stay tuned for that... but not too tuned because it probably won't happen until after Jamaica. In about 48 hours, I will be functioning on 100% Jamaica Brain. :) SO EXCITED!

As promised from yesterday's post: my report on ground beef quesadillas. Verdict: false alarm. We only had 1 tortilla, so we just had regular burgers. Dodged a bullet there, huh? :-P Haha.

Anywho... time for bed. Bonsoir, mes amis*. :)

*little known fact about Amy: I LOVE the French language and wish I was fluent in it.

Day024

Loooooong day at work. Halfway through my 6 straight days before leaving for Jamaica! :)

Typical Saturday at Banfield- complete chaos. The morning up until lunch was wonderful. I came back from lunch, and all hell had broken loose while I was gone. Horray for 2-3 hour walk in waits!

But then I got to come home early enough to get this:

Day024: Backyard Swamp

We are on the wrong coast to get cool sunset pictures at the beach, so I will settle for our backyard creek thing. I took a few other pictures, but this one ended up the best. The trees and their reflections have the silhouette that I was going for the the sky and its reflection both turned out much more blue than any of the others. I also discovered something very strange about my eyesight, but I won't go into that because I have a feeling no one will understand it and will think I am an alien or something. Haha

And now.. my husband is trying to make me eat ground beef quesadillas, which I am totally freaked out by for some reason. He keeps saying it's the exact same thing as the quesadilla burger I get at Applebee's, but I disagree. There is a fundamental difference between ground beef and a burger in my book.

I will report on my ground beef quesadilla experience in tomorrow's post. Stay tuned...

Day023

Wayyyy late.

Here's day 23.

Day023: Cuddle Bug

Ok, so this picture may not look like much, but let's think about something. I am right handed. I typically use both hands to take a picture with my beast of a camera (not a little point and shoot type camera... the real deal). Lucy is laying on my right hand. Try to picture how I might have been able to take this and you will get quite a chuckle out of it. I am sitting on the couch, right arm extended, Lucy laying on my right hand. The camera is balanced on my right shoulder, with my left hand wrapped around it, trying to stabilize it, while I also push the shutter release to take the photo. Now that's talent...of some sort. Haha

Day022

Day 1 of 6 straight work days.
Countdown to Jamaica: ONE WEEK!

Just gotta power through these next 5 days of work and I will be golden. Probably much easier said than done.

Day synopsis: gym, lunch, work, dinner, tv (NOT GREY'S...AGAIN!), blog, bed.

Photo:

Day022: Lazy Pillow Photo

I am exhausted, therefore, we get a lazy photo of what was closest to me at the time I decided to take a photo. Sorry kids. Lazy post, lazy photo; going to bed as soon as I hit 'publish.'

See you cats on the flip side.

Day021

Day off work: 2 of 2... my last until next Wednesday. Then Jamaica! :)

I did have a wonderful day today... a very long day, but filled with lots of things!

Started my day off with a cinnamon crunch Panera bagel. Hello new favorite breakfast food! Had an eye doctor's appointment at 11am with a doctor I had never seen before. He was wonderful, and awkward but in a funny way. Got updated contacts finally. Yay! Now I can wear sunglasses in Jamaica! :D No, but really... that was one of the driving factors in trying to get contacts.

Then I went and did more Jamaica preparation. I realized that I have these adorable tank tops but nothing all that dressy (ie: skirts) to wear them with. Every restaurant on the resort has a dress code; and said dress code does not include shorts and flip flops. Therefore, I shopped. Bought 2 cute little skirts, a tank top, a flowy shirt thing (incredibly weird looking on the rack, but the print/design made me try it on... so glad I did. It's amazing), and a tank/cardigan thing... not real sure how to explain it, but it's cute as well. And all my shopping resulted in this:

Day021: Color Me Jamaica!

This is the print on one of the skirts I purchased. Ready for a confession? It's not meant to be a skirt. It's one of those scrunchy tube top things that people with boobs like mine should not wear. Article name aside, I went to the store looking for a fun colored skirt, just like this one. At first I was a little bummed that it wasn't technically a skirt, but I tried it on (as a skirt) and loved it. The best part? The yellow matches one of my Jamaica tank tops PERFECTLY. So excited to wear this!

After this little shopping jaunt, I picked Ryan up and we went to TJMaxx in search of a water jug thing that one of the girls at work has... it's gigantic, which is perfect for me because I guzzle water like it's my job. Alas, I could not find it. However, I did find a new pair of sunglasses (since I can wear them again!). Went to wal-mart for a few things. Came home and finally got to really relax a bit. Watched a bit of TV while Ryan played Call of Duty. Got salads for dinner from Farm Fresh. Young Adult Group bible study at church.

We finished up the evening with a rather chilly bike ride to Skinny Dip, which was delicious, as always.

Now I am completely exhausted and so not looking forward to getting up and going to the gym before work. But, it must be done. Good night world :)

Day020

Day off work 1 of 2: slept in until 10:40 accidentally. It was amazing.

Went to the gym for a bit. Came home and played on the computer for a few. Applied for a graphic design job for the heck of it. Then made this:

Day020: Mm Mm Good

This is quite possibly the best combination of soup and sandwich ever: tomato soup and a grilled cheese. Perfection. It's about to get too warm out to want to sit down with a bowl of soup, so I'm cherishing the last few chilly days with this wonderful meal. My other option for today's photo is MUCH less appetizing... as in, it might make you nauseous. Check out my fb album for that one.

Relaxed for a bit after lunch. Facebook stalked. Realized that I am SO glad I am not still in college surrounded by nonstop drama. Dinner with Kim at Panera. Discovered a delicious soup (cream of chicken and wild rice... go try it). Came home and watched my all time favorite show: GLEE! It was amazing... loved the original songs, especially the loser one. I want one of those L foam fingers. Haha.

Now I am awaiting my husband's return home from work. Gonna go to bed soon... eye doctor's appointment in the morning. Which lead me to another discovery: I do not have vision coverage on either of the health insurance plans I have. Awesome.

Day019

Another late one.. I'll keep it short.

Extra slow day at work. 6:45-4:30ish... was supposed to work til 6:30, but it was so slow, they sent me home. Haha. Came home and saw Ryan right before he headed to Atlas. Had dinner at Atlas with Kim so Ryan could wait on us one last time. :) Took my photo somewhere between coming home from work and going to Atlas I think...

Day19: Quenched

I originally started taking pictures because this is Lucy's water bowl. Bailey and Sadie are Kim and Alan's cats... they have their own bowl, a very similar one, downstairs. However, they enjoy Lucy's much more for some reason. Bailey and Sadie, not small cats by any means, were both crowded over/around the bowl and it just made me think of like a coveted watering hole in Africa or something (think Lion King)... like they haven't seen water in years. But those pictures didn't come out without a flash (which I hate). But I gave in... used the flash for this one and caught her tongue out. Ha

As a side note: this is not how this water bowl is typically used. It is typically a water park for cats. Hence why thee is only about a half inch of water in it currently...

Day018

What a day. This is one worth writing about...

Daylight Savings Time is not cool in my book. Last night, we set an alarm on MY iPhone, figuring it would be like all phones and automatically switch itself, so we could still get up and go to church. We figured wrong. 2/3 of the other clocks in the room (including RYAN'S iPhone) updated the time. Mine, however, did not. Therefore, we did not actually get an alarm to wake up until 10:30am real time, 9:30am Amy's iPhone time. Not that I didn't appreciate sleeping in, I was just not amused that the one item that did not reset itself was the one we were relying on.

Anyway... then we went to lunch with big and Stephen. It was an absolutely beautiful day out, so we decided to go down to the boardwalk and rent one of those 4 person bike-car things. Real touristy... I've only been living in VB for 23 years.. no big deal. We ended up encountering this 12ish year old boy on a skateboard being a real butthole. Typical male middleschooler. He was zipping in and out of people waiting in line at Dairy Queen the first time we saw him. Really, kid? You are so cool. We saw him a few more times and every time made comments about the idiotic things he was doing. Then, while riding in our bike-car, I turned around and realized the SAME KID was crouched down on his skateboard, reaching for the back of our bike-car, trying to hitch a ride. What a moron. So I told everyone to peddle faster (as if..) to try and get away from him. This is about the same time my big turns around, looks this 12 year old boy in the face and says "You're a dick."

Don't worry, it gets better.

She then loses her flip flop as we are speeding (ha...) along. I seriously thought this kid was gonna pick up her flip flop and skate away...which obviously would have been HILARIOUS. On the contrary... he stops, picks up the flip flop, and returns it to Ryan, who had jumped out of our moving bike-car to save the abandoned flip flop from our little skateboarding scoundrel. As he skates past us, my big yells "Ok... you're not a dick anymore!"

Best. Day. Ever.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to my parents' house to hang out. Little did we know we (and by we, I mean Ryan) would end up helping to knock down a tree. There is a video depicting the beginning of this... if someone can convince Ryan to get the videos off his iPhone, you may eventually be able to witness the Carl-Ryan tree-tearing-down extravaganza. For now, this is my artistic take on it:

Day018: Warped

The second after I took this picture, I said "Oh.. I just got a bad ass picture." And of all the good ones I got today, including a hilarious picture of Sami (my parents' golden retriever mutt), this is still the one I chose. I love everything about this photo. I love the color of the branches, I love the way the wide angle lens made the branches look warped, I love the contrast in the reds and greens... I just love it all. I am going to upload the rest to facebook, but this one definitely deserved to be the one for today. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. :)

The rest of the evening was nice and relaxing. Dinner with my family, talked to Ryan and dad for a bit after, then hit up Rita's for some amazing custard and italian ice. SO excited it's open again... it means that spring is on the way!

Sorry for the lengthy post this time, but we definitely had an interesting day. Including just now, because Ryan had to wipe the cat hair off my nose after Lucy decided that my lap is where she needs to be... which means I typed the last half of this post with a cat laying across both arms. I'm pretty gifted...

Day017

Another late one...woops.

Synopsis: worked 7:45-5. Typical Saturday at Banfield. Experience karma at it's best: flipped off a guy who cut me off in traffic on my way to work, then broke that fingernail at work a few hours later. Karma. Had to go get my nail fixed after work. Had dinner/watched movies with big and Stephen. Came home and passssssssed out. All of which has nothing to do with this:

Day017: This Is Mine

This photo is the result of Ryan not having to work today and having the ability to run errands. Such as- purchasing new shoes for his new job. And then Lucy claimed the shoebox as hers. She has an entire queen-sized, extremely comfy bed to curl up on, but she chooses the hard cardboard shoebox. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

As a side note and my final statement for this post: I am not a fan of Daylight Savings Time.

Day016

Very tiring, but good day. :)

I have come to the conclusion (after very little deliberation) that I have the most amazing husband ever! But we will get to that in a moment with today's photo. The rest of my day was fairly mediocre. Work 6:45-12:30. Super slow, boring day. Running errands, slightly unsuccessfully, for a little bit...but I did finally get to go to this little consignment store called Worth The Wait. Really pretty, unique, handmade jewelry and consignment type clothing. Overall a funky little store. But they had Chamilia beads... which are basically Pandora beads with another name.

That got me thinking about my Pandora bracelet. I absolutely love the Pandora bracelets and I adore the beads/charms I already have. But if the bracelet is too small, you only put so many beads on the bracelet before it becomes too tight to wear. So we decided to check out a jewelry store called Either Ore Jewelers, where I knew they carried Pandora, and therefore the bracelet I really wanted. And cue, day 16's photo:

Day016: Prince Charming

This is my little Pandora charm collection (not including the glass beads I have as well). So I already had one of the silver bracelets. Somewhere along the way I saw someone with the leather braided bracelet and I fell in love. So we went to the Either Ore place where they were having a special- spend $75 on pandora products and get a bracelet free. Lightbulb! I want a new bracelet and I could use some new charms. Enter my amazing husband. He helped me pick out the giraffe, forget me not, and music note dangle... and then paid for them. He's also the one who picked out the other two for me originally (the butterfly and star). So I am officially addicted to Pandora/Chamilia/whoever else makes these charms. I also told Ryan he now has suuuuper easy outs for Christmas/birthday/anniversary gifts... there are charms for EVERYTHING! haha

Anyway... that's what I've got for today. I am now heading to bed (yes, it is well before 9pm) because I have to work all day tomorrow.

On the bright side: Jamaica countdown=13 days! AHHH!

((ps: congratulations to Courtney and Jay for CLOSING ON YOUR NEW HOUSE! so excited for you guys!))

Day015

This is wayyyy late. My bad. Here's the condensed version of day 15. I'm sure more interesting things happened but this is what I've got-

Less-than-stellar gym experience in the morning. Leftover El Tap for lunch. Work 1-7:30. Blah. Watched Wipeout (hilarious!) while eating my favorite Atlas salad that Ryan brought home for me. Got mad at Grey's for ANOTHER rerun. Went to bed. And somewhere along the way, I took this:

Day015: Lampart

No, that is not a typo. It's the word I just made up for the title of this photo. This is a super close up of the side of one of our lamps. It's a nifty little lamp we got for 20 bucks at Target. :) I also looooove my macro lens and that you can see the individual weave textures.

See? Short and Sweet. Day 16 is coming soon...

Day014

Been a long day. Alarm went off at 5:30am. Reset it for 6:00am and skipped my morning shower (I only worked until 12:30, so don't judge me just yet). I hated skipping my shower and truly regretted it later because I felt so gross... but I just could not bring myself to really get up at 5:30 this morning. It just wasn't happening.

Work was fine. Fairly low key for Banfield. Came home and finally got my shower. Had Moe's for lunch... also a decision I regret. Tried to watch He's Just Not That Into You... but when I put the DVD in Ryan's playstation, it made this God awful sound in the place of the normal sounds. So I resorted to TV. Ran some errands after Ryan got home. El Tap for dinner... wayyyy too much Mexican food in one day. Haven't felt well since then. Whomp. Came home to relax for a bit and realized I hadn't taken any photos yet. So I asked my husband what he thought I should photograph and he pointed this little guy out.

Day014: Like A Beach-ball, Only Cuter

I absolutely love Despicable Me. And I adore the minions. So my little brother purchased this DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital copy whatever set simply because it came with a little inflatable minion... and I wanted it. My little minion now sits proudly on our entertainment center 24/7. Anyone who has seen the movie knows that these little guys completely stole the show. Hands down they were the funniest part of the film. Well... they at least hold a close race with Agnus and her unicorn. If only I could get my hands on one of those fluffy unicorns...

But I digress. The rest of the evening has been very very low key. Finally got to watch He's Just Not That Into You because, naturally, when Ryan went to figure out the sounds his playsation was making... it worked perfectly. So we watched the movie ("Happy as a clam *clap clap*") and I watched Ryan fall closer and closer to sleep. He's not feeling well, which is why none of our planned afternoon/evening activities took place.

We ran one last errand (not counting a quick DQ run with the in-laws) to pick up some medication for Ryan and some sleepy meds for me so I can hopefully sleep. I should note that I took those about 20 minutes ago... so I should probably post this and say good-night. :)

Day013

I have been looking forward to March 8th for about a week because that was the day the postal service estimated my E.L.F. package would be here! :)

But I had to wait until after work (6:45-1:00) to open this:

Day013: Eyeshadow Galore

This is a palette of 100 different colors of eyeshadow. Is it a little excessive? Probably. Will I ever use all 100? Probably not... at least not for daily makeup application. But is it friggin awesome? Heck yeah! Oh and also... it was a whopping 10 bucks. I love E.L.F. (website: www.eyeslipsface.com) Inexpensive, but NOT cheap makeup. Looooove it. Anyway... I also purchased mineral concealer powder, a new makeup brush, and 2 new lipglosses.... both of which I adore and I am suuuuper picky about lipgloss.

But moving on... I also got to attend an interest meeting to start a Hampton Roads Sigma Kappa Alumnae group. Seriously can't wait for it to get off the ground! It's going to be awesome to feel like a part of something again. :)

Aaaaaand I made it home in time for GLEEEEEEEE! Not real sure I understand the relationships they're trying to develop but I'm just goin' with it. Haha and now Raising Hope is wrapping up... man I love this show. Best back to back shows everrrrr. :)

Well... I hope you're enjoying my photos and blog!

Day012

Enjoyed a day off today. Cuddled with Lucy for most of the morning. Watched TV, took my daily photos, went shopping at Target (and successfully found a super cute bathing suit for Jamaica), and waited for Ryan to get home from work.

It was a gorgeous day out today too... the sun was shining and filling our room with sunlight all afternoon. Which is how I got this photo...

Day0012: Soda Can Disco

I was drinking a Coke-Zero Cherry and looked over at the weird patterns that were reflecting onto our little side table. Took a few pictures of that... some were ok. But then I noticed the Fresca can and stuck that in the same spot. And voila! Soda can disco on my table. I thought it looked pretty cool, so now it's day 12's photo.

Not long after taking the photos, I went to the gym. Had a good little workout. Came home and ate dinner. Now I'm watching Two and a Half Men... which is really difficult to watch with all the crap Charlie Sheen has gotten himself into. He's a hot mess and a half. Ha... pun intended, even though it was accidental.

That's all I've got for now. Except for this: Jamaica countdown=17 days! :D

Day011

Aaaaaand here's day 11. Haha

I'm going to start off with the picture immediately, because its explanation begins before I was even out of bed...

Day011: Puddle Jumper

I freaking love these rainboots. Kim bought them for me a month or so ago... and let me tell you... apparently we were in a drought. I've wanted to wear these stinking things for so long. And FINALLY... this morning, Ryan got up and mentioned it was raining. It took a minute, but this is what followed: (gasp gasp) "RAINBOOTS!" At the top of my lungs. At 9:30am. Before I even got out of bed. Rainboots are a big deal, ok? Especially these... I mean, look at how cute they are. :)

I wore them to church this morning and got lots of compliments on them. Then I hung out at my parents' house all day... and FINALLY got to experience Skinny Dip since Ryan (aka Idontlikesweetsmcgee) has yet to take me... and yet I was nice enough to bring him some home since he didn't go with us. Good thing I like him. Haha

Day010

I blame this late post on the IRS. They made me do this silly thing called taxes, which took what felt like forever last night.. therefore resulting in a late post for day 10.

Since this one is so late, this will be a short one... day 11 will be following this post very shortly.

Day010: Blue Light Special

I've wanted to take this picture for a few days...mainly because I loved the shadow from my hairbrush. However, after many failed attempts to get a good picture of the brush, I resorted to taking a full shot like this so I could actually get enough light to make a decent exposure. I love the semi-creepy bluish light and the weird shadows it casts. I also love the Sadie blur on the other side of the counter... guaranteed she was trying to swat something off the counter.

That's all I have for now. I'll be posting day 11 in about a half hour or so.

Day009

Uneventful day.

Worked 6:45a-12:45p... boring day at Banfield for me, which I can appreciate after yesterday and looking ahead to what tomorrow is probably going to be like. Chickfila for lunch (yummm). Trashy TV for the rest of the afternoon. Like I said, uneventful day. But this little guy caught my eye mid-veg session.

Day009: Bubble King

This is Skyy, our new fishy. He is not camera shy, which amazes me. But what caught my eye today was his bubble nest (blurry whitish area behind him). He has been working nonstop since we got him pretty much to build his little bubble nest. I wanted to photograph the bubbles but then he just sat so still in front of the camera that I decided he should be the focus. The bubbles do look really cool in the photos I took, so I'll upload those to facebook. But Skyy is the star for day 9. :)

Now I'm looking forward to fajitas for dinner and trying not to think about having to work all day tomorrow. Sadddd...

Day008

As promised, here is day 8's post and photo.

Went to the gym this morning and tried to not let it kick my butt. Not real sure if I succeeded or not. Came home and did yesterday's post... and also snapped a few shots of Lucy (told you she'd make it into the project). And here she is... her blog debut!

Day008: My Black Child

I love this picture of her. She was sitting on the back of the couch trying to sleep and I kept sticking the camera in her face. This is her way of saying 'I'm ignoring the hell out of you in an attempt to make you go away.' Here's a bit of Lucy's background that will help explain the title of this picture. I adopted her around Christmas 2008 from the SPCA. I was looking around at all the kittens and had played with a couple (not Lucy yet)... and then a poster caught my eye that said something to the effect of black cats being much less likely to be adopted because of the stigma and superstition attached to black cats. Then my little brother suggested I look at Lucy (whose name was actually Beauty at the time)*.

The rest is history. I fell in love with her and ever since then, I have had a huge soft spot for black cats. I want to adopt them all and it makes me sad to see soooo many of them in shelters compared to other, more colorful kitties. So anyway... I always joke with Ryan that we are going to end up with multiple black cats, thus becoming the Brad and Angelina of the cat world with all of our black babies. Too much? Haha

Anyway... that's Lucy's story in a nutshell.

*I changed her name to Lucy because she has a white spot shaped like a diamond on her chest. It made me think of the Beatles song "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds."

Day007

Confession: I got lazy yesterday.

I realized around 10:30 (aka wayyyy past my bedtime) that I hadn't taken any pictures for day 7. So I whipped my camera out and snapped a couple. I then conceded that I would post my blog today, not last night. Sorry guys. But here it is anyway...

Day007: Feelin' Lazy

Let's recap my day yesterday. Worked 6:45a-12:30p-ish. Not a stellar day at work. Oh well... came home and had lunch with Ryan, then attempted a nap for a couple of hours. Around 5 or so, we ran some errands, which entailed me getting my nails done (yay!), Ryan looking for a new video game (as if he needs another one..), and getting a few things from Wal-Mart. Suuuuuper exciting, right? We lead exhilarating lives. But then we did get to have a bit of fun and had dinner with the Young Adult Group from our church at Buffalo Wild Wings (which I loooooove). We ended up being there right before they do a trivia thing where the winner gets a $50 gift card to BWW.

Since we had such a big group (15?), we played in 3 separate teams. One of our teams actually did win first (much to the discontent of the Kellam High School teachers/coaching staff who tried to get us DQ'd... really? It's that serious?) and the team Ryan and I were on took 3rd. We won a Corona t-shirt, size XL. Ha. Guess I have a new sleep/gym t-shirt. It was a lot of fun... but we didn't get home until around 10, and as we all know, that's past my bedtime since I had been up since about 5:30am. Which brings me full circle to my lazy lamp picture and late post. Kind of ironic that my laziest picture thus far gets the longest explanation. :)

Now I'm going to eat lunch and head to work. I have already taken a few pictures for today, so I can promise there will be another post this evening. :)

Day006

I'm pooped.

First day back to work after 5 days off... no bueno. 5:30am was NO fun. Not to mention it was a semi-rough day at work. Thank goodness it was a short day for me.

But then I got to have a bit of fun with Ryan, Courtney, and Jay. We went to the Virginia Aquarium and played with all the sea critters... especially the stingrays and skates. :) We also watched a cuttlefish change colors and spit ink at me (or whatever it is they spit out) for like 15 minutes. I officially want a fish tank with a cuttlefish. They are awesome.

But my favorite new addition to the Virginia Aquarium is the gigantic walk-through-like fish tank, which is where I took today's photo... with my iPhone... and then photographed the picture on my iPhone with my Canon. I just wanted a higher resolution picture is all. haha

Day006: Under Da Sea

I. Love. This. Tank. It's got crazy colored coral (yes, I know most of it is fake, but whatever), fish, stingrays, crabs... all these fun sea creatures swimming around and above you. So cool. And while I absolutely love (obsessed is probably a better word) my Canon Rebel... it's a lot to lug around the Virginia Aquarium, which I have seen at least 50 times in my life. Hence the iPhone photo. Oh well. I asked Ryan if we could have one of these fish tanks in our house and he said yes. Score.

But anyway... now I am showered and preparing to go to sleep... finally. I made myself go to the gym tonight since I didn't go yesterday when I should have or earlier today when I had plans to. I forced myself to go after dinner... and I'm actually glad I did. It felt really good... and admitting that is like a vegetarian admitting they enjoyed a steak. Seriously. Jogging and I do not have a friendly history but I think we are on the verge of making amends.

It could very well be the start of something beautiful... that is, if you define beautiful as sweating like a pig, panting like a dog, downing water like there's no tomorrow, and with a face red as a tomato... then yeah, something beautiful. :)