Last Post of 2008!

This last month has been busy as Decembers always are, but in a very different way as years past.  As I had mentioned my parents were able to come down the beginning of the month and we had a great visit.  My dad was only able to join us for a few days, but it was nice being able to spend his birthday with him, and he enjoyed the bar crawl he did with Jimmy.  One of my favorite parts of their trip was when we walked down the beach to the pier on my dad's birthday.  We lucked out as were able to see a dolphin, 2 sea turtles and a submarine going out.  All were firsts for me since we moved here and I was really happy I got to share those moments with my parents.  And as an added bonus, as we were standing on the pier, we got the phone call that my good friend Missy, who is like a little sister to me, had gone into labor!  My dad was pretty happy that Baby Miles decided to share his birthday.  After he headed back to MD, it was just my mom and I while Jimmy was at work, and we spent most of the rest of our visit talking on the beach and hanging out on our balcony enjoying the view.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from their visit:


Dad enjoying the birthday dinner I made him.


Playing cards with my parents.









One of the stops on the bar crawl we did.  (Mom and I didn't last that long since we'd already been drinking for almost 5 hours when it started.)



On the beach on Dad's b-day.



The submarine we saw go out.



One of the sea turtles we saw.



Awww!  Aren't they cute?


I was not prepared for how hard it was going to be when they left.  I think that because I had SO much going on right before we moved that I just really didn't have the chance to completely absorb the fact that I was no longer going to have them right down the street.   I am trying to stay focused on the good part, which is that I do get to spend really great quality time with them when they are here since I no longer take it for granted.

Not to long after they left, Jimmy and I decided we would not be able to go back to Maryland for the inauguration and instead would go home for Christmas and surprise our parents.  Why we decide that is a long story I won't bore you with.  My Uncle Bill picked us up from the airport Christmas morning and drove us to my parents house.  My uncle parked behind some large bushes in front of their house and we jumped out and hid behind the house while my uncle went into tell my mom he had brought her something he needed help getting out of the truck.  I wish I had a picture of my mom when she came out in her bathrobe and slippers!  I also wish I could remember exactly what she said when she saw us, but I do know she cursed at us before she started to cry.  Too funny!  Unfortunately my dad wasn't home for the initial surprise, but we did get him by jumping out from the kitchen yelling "Merry Christmas" when he did get home.

From there we had to drive to Frederick to surprise Jimmy's parents who were celebrating Christmas at his sister Lauren's house.  Our plan didn't work out exactly as planned, but when Lauren opened the door we jumped in yelling "Merry Christmas".  Jimmy's mom cried too.  I think everyone liked our surprise.

We spent the rest of our trip catching up with and having a blast with our friends and family.  The only problem with going home for the holidays is that other people are traveling too, so we weren't able to see everyone we would have liked to.  I ended up with way more pictures I love than I could possible post here, but here are a few.  


Jimmy's mom with her babies



Out to lunch for Mom's birthday



Out watching the Raven's game with some of our favorite people




What a year 2008 has been!  I can hardly believe it's over or how different my life was at this exact time last year when I was headed to work at Flip's to work New Year's Eve.  I hope everyone has a very safe and happy New Year and hope you will stay tuned to see what 2009 will bring!

Love,
Jenn

Merry Christmas from sunny Florida!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Endeavor Rides Back to FL!

I'm going to go a little out of order because my plan was for my next post to be about my Mom & Dad's visit this past week, but since that's going to take more time than I have right now, I'm going to just go ahead and post these now.

For those of you who live outside Florida and don't get the minute by minute updates on all things NASA like we do here and/or live under a rock, the space shuttle Endeavor landed in California on December 1st.  The first choice is always to land the shuttle back here in Florida, but like this time, that can't always happen.  Amazingly the same shuttle 
which takes our astronauts to space is not capable of flying back to Florida on it's own, so instead NASA has to pay $1.8 million dollars to strap it on the back of a 747 and fly it back here.  

These are the pictures I took about an hour ago from the beach in front of my house watching the Endeavor "ride" back home.


















It really is amazing what a huge deal the space program is, especially to the people down here.  I was very surprised how many people, of all ages, were down on the beach in the middle of a work day to watch it come back.  And I am also amazed by how cool it really is to live here.

Turkey Day

Well it was definitely an untraditional Thanksgiving for us this year.  For starters it was our first big holiday ever without our families, and honestly being here alone was a little sad.  But it was also fun because it made this move seem like a bit more of an adventure.

I started off the morning watching the sunrise, which amazingly I do most mornings these days. I'm hoping to get a nicer camera and maybe take some photography classes after I have a job, because these pictures just don't do it justice.






We headed down to Cocoa Beach for their annual Turkey Trot just after 7 am.  I know, it's hard for me to believe I watch sunrises and leave the house at 7 am by choice too!  After having such a blast cheering on Shelby at the DC Marathon last month with my girlfriends, I had high expectations, and so the Turkey Trot 
was a bit of a let down.  Only a few people dressed up, and maybe 
half a dozen carried turkeys, but Jimmy is talking about running it 
next year, so maybe that will add to the excitement.  There were some pretty interesting turkey carrying strategies:










From the race we walked over to one of our favorite new restaurants, a little Cuban place called Roberto's and had breakfast.  We realized it was the first time either of us had ever been out to eat for any meal on Thanksgiving.



After sharing a half pitcher of sangria we headed home to watch the Macy's Day Parade and enjoy a sangria inspired siesta.  I'm pretty sure the pilgrims would have been proud!  I then got to work preparing our Thanksgiving Day feast.  From here our day got even more untraditional.  I realized my turkey was absorbing a lot of juice and had already sucked up 2 cans of chicken broth.  To be safe, Jimmy and I decided to run out to the store to pick up another can.  We got in the elevator, the doors closed, and I pushed the button for the 1st floor.  Only nothing happened.  After pushing the door open button several times, and every other button for that matter, we finally had to push the "call for help" button.  Fortunately that one did work.  We were told help was on the way and proceeded to wait...and wait.  We were able to get the attention of one of our neighbors who was kind enough to offer to wait on the other side of the door with us.  I told him we were fine, but did ask that he check back with us in 30 minutes so I could have him break into the house to baste my turkey if we were still trapped.   He was very sweet and kept checking back with us, letting us know he had called and was giving us updates on how much longer we had to wait.  And after 40 minutes we were finally freed.  I was a little disappointed we were not rescued by the fire department because I thought having a picture of us with a firefighter would be really cool for the blog, but instead have this picture of us with our maintenance man.



After being cooped up in the elevator, we finally got our turkey basted and headed down to the beach.  It was a little chilly with the wind blowing, but still very cool the weather was nice enough for us to be hanging out on the beach.




And finally it was time to eat.  I wasn't willing to miss out on any of our favorites, so we ended up with a ridiculous amount of food for 2 people.    And thankfully, according to Jimmy, his mom's 
stuffing recipe came out just like she makes it.








The thing I probably missed the most was our annual post-Thanksgiving party with our friends.  We did head down the street to one of the bars at the port and had a good time, but it just wasn't the same.  By next year we should have some new friends and hopefully we can resume our party tradition.  But for now, we are extremely thankful that our wish to move and start a new adventure together came together this year!




As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Late Birthday Update

Well I'm late posting this, but I was hoping I would have some of the pictures from last weekend to post (hint, hint Mike, I'm still waiting).  My birthday was fantastic!  Lydia and Mike flew down on Thursday night and we met up with Mike's brother Matt, and Matt's wife Kelly for lunch on Friday.  Later on we watched the launch preparations on tv and headed down to the beach with our cooler of drinks and champagne about 45 minutes before the launch.  It was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen!  The beach in front of our house is about 15 miles from the launch site, but we could easily tell where it was because of how bright the sky was from the launch 
pad being illuminated.  We kept watching in that direction, and right on time (7:55) the entire sky lit up like it was daylight.  About 10 seconds later a huge fireball came up over the buildings and we watched as it went up in the sky, leaving an incredible cloud of smoke in its wake. Because of our distance we could never see the outline of the shuttle, it only ever looked like a fireball, but it gave me chills to watch it.  The sky was clear and beautiful and we were able to see it for a long time, until it looked like a tiny star in the sky and then disappeared.  It was so amazing to be looking up at the sky knowing you were watching people travel to space.  I've seen launches before on tv, but it is nothing like standing watching it.  The only disappointing thing was that we never heard or felt it.  According to some of Jimmy's co-workers at KSC, it is really unusual not to be able to hear or feel it and they suspected it had to do with the direction of the wind.  Even still, how cool is it to say the last night launch of the shuttle happened on your birthday, right after you move down, and you're able to watch it from your backyard???   We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and consuming to many alcoholic beverages, but we had a great time!  

Hopefully I can come back and add some pictures we took over the weekend, but for the time 
being these are a couple I snagged from NASA's website.


This one actually looks pretty similar to what we saw only from further away.



And this one give you a good idea of how beautiful the moon was that night.



Jimmy is planning to get us on center to watch the next launch, so hopefully this is what we'll actually see the next time.




"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream."  ~Neil Armstrong

How Quickly Life Changes

Hello from sunny Florida!  The weather is amazing here and despite missing my friends and family very much, I am amazed how quickly I am becoming comfortable in this new life.  Jimmy and I have been working hard getting things unpacked and have made amazing progress.   Some of us work harder than others.



Just kidding.  I just wanted an excuse to sneak this picture in because I love it so much.  

One of the most shocking changes to this new life is that I have somehow become a morning person.  I haven't been asleep past 7:30 am in over a week and I'm not even setting an alarm.  The verdict is still out on how I actually feel about this.  On one hand it's nice to have accomplished so much by 9 am, and it's nice this time of year to have more hours of sunshine.  But on the other hand, it's me, and I'm not a morning person.

The best change is how relaxed I feel and how active we've already become.  Sunday we took a long walk on the beach and this evening we went for a bike ride around the neighborhood next to us.  We also went to the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum this afternoon which was pretty cool.  We were bummed to find out they are no longer offering helicopter rides, and we were even more disappointed when we found out they'd only been charging $35 a person for the helicopter rides when they were still doing them.  But we had the place to ourselves and got to 
see some cool stuff.  




The first thing when you walk in is a car of an officer who died in the line of duty.  While is car was on display after the tragedy people from his  community signed his car.   The car is literally 
signed from bumper to bumper.  It was very moving to see.



The Fallen Officers Memorial



Not moving, but very funny was when I walked around a corner to find Jimmy having a puppet show with the McGruff's dogs.



Jimmy and I trying out the electric chair.





Jimmy checking out the forensic evidence display.  I was thinking about my friend Detective Jordan while we were looking at this.  Jordan, if you're reading this, I hope your first homicide investigation is going well!



Jimmy and I playing dress up with some of the uniforms they had.







I thought this was pretty cool.  Before towns had jails built they used to keep people overnight in "Tramp Chairs".  Prisoners were normally undressed and left out in the elements while neighborhood children would poke them with sticks.





And a really cool old police car.



So that's what we've been up to so far.  I'll be spending the next two days continuing to get our place organized before our first guests arrive and will be job hunting in full force come Monday.



"Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives."  ~A. Sachs

Look Mom, No Tears!

Amazingly it has been over a week since the last time I cried and I managed to get to our new home without crying once!  We got in safe last night, just got internet this afternoon and have the moving truck showing up tomorrow morning.  We have had some issues, most notably the fact that we went to the community office this afternoon to be informed no trucks over 24' are allowed on the property.  Our truck, which is WELL over 24', was supposed to be here at 8 am tomorrow.  Luckily the government transfer office is taking good care of us and 
have made arrangements to have our stuff unloaded onto a smaller truck so they can get to us.  It'll be later in the day, but our stuff should still be here tomorrow.  What a pain!  

And my plan was to go get our new FL licenses and tags this afternoon only I realized we carefully packed our lockbox with our birth certificates, social security cards, and other important documents in the car with us, but the key is packed on the truck and some of those documents we need for our new licenses.  So much for best laid plans!  

Anyway, I wanted to check in with those of you who I haven't talked 
to and let you know we got here safe.  We slept with our bedroom door open last night and woke up to the sounds of the ocean, so I have nothing really to complain about!  We will be very busy the next few days unpacking, but are excited to have Mike and Lydia coming down to watch NASA graciously launch the shuttle to celebrate my birthday!  I will update soon!

The House is SOLD!

The house did go to settlement as planned last Wednesday.  I was so thankful that not only did it go off without a hitch, but I also managed to make it through without crying or otherwise making an ass out of myself in front of the buyers, which I was concerned about beforehand.  We won't talk about how much we had to pay to sell the house because it's just depressing, but as sad as I am about selling our home, it is a relief to have it over.  It is weird and sad to be here knowing it isn't our house, but I am trying hard not to think about it and just enjoy the last week we are here.  I have taken some strange comfort in the fact that the buyers are around our age and are engaged.  For whatever reason I really like the fact that this will be their first house together and they will get to have similar first memories here.  I guess whatever makes me feel better.

Since I never got around to it before, I figure this would be the perfect post to finally show off all all the work we put into the house over the last 3 1/2 years.  Please ignore the dark shadows in some of the before pics, I'm not sure what the deal with the camera was.

The front before.  


The front after.





The foyer before.


The foyer after.





The kitchen before.  Can you say 1970???  Be sure to note the lovely plaid wallpaper, the disco ball light fixture, army green counters and of course, the crafty pineapple stencils.  Not to mention there was zero counter space.








The kitchen after. By far the hardest part about leaving our first house behind is leaving my FANTASTIC kitchen. Jimmy was thrilled when he realized by putting in the island that we had in fact installed a regulation sized beer pong table! We knocked down the walls dividing the kitchen from the living room and dining room, and installed all new custom built cabinets with soft close drawers (which I did not pay extra for and thought were completely pointless, but now do not know how I will live without), granite counters, a HUGE granite composite sink, under-cabinet lighting and more. There is so much room to work and I love that everyone hangs out at the island when they come over. I am going to MISS my kitchen!









The living room before.


The living room after.  Really just fresh paint and more stylish furnishings.





The dining room before.  Could that light fixture be any uglier?


The dining room after.



The hall bath before. It was my bathroom since I refused to use the tiny master bath. The sage green honestly wouldn't have been so bad with better accessories, but that wood toilet seat made me crazy!




My bathroom after.





The guest room before.  They must have gotten an incredible deal on that hideous green paint because it was everywhere, including the cement block walls in the laundry room.


The guest room after.  A word of advice ~ DO NOT EVER paint a room red until you have purchased the bedding, curtains, or any other furnishings you might need to match.  Red can be surprisingly hard to match/compliment depending on the shade.  



The office before.


The office after.



The master bedroom before.


The master bedroom after.



The master bathroom before.  I cannot begin to describe how much I HATED this bathroom.  So much so, that if I needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would still walk down the hall to the other bathroom.  




The master bath after. It KILLS me that we only finished it about 6 months ago. It's still small, but I finally like it and now we're leaving. I have to say the pictures really don't do it justice. The tile is really pretty with decorative insets and for some reason the colors in the room just didn't come out well in the pictures.





The basement rec room before.




The basement rec room after.  It is amazing what a difference painting over the dark paneling made.  Another project I am kicking myself for putting off for so long!





The basement powder room before.  Apparently mismatching the toilet seat to the toilet was in style at one point???  And more stencils.  I did feel a little bad painting over them knowing the last owner had lovingly applied them, but they had to go.


The powder room after.  I actually borrowed a wet tile saw from a friend and tiled the bathroom myself while Jimmy was at work.  He was super impressed despite the fact me, my cell phone and the cat were all covered in grout!



The basement bedroom before.


The basement bedroom after.  This was my office until a few months ago and I really love how it turned out after I staged it to sell.



There's really no before and after to these, but since the deck was one of my favorite spots I still wanted to show off the backyard.








With everything going on my life this quote is particularly touching to me right now:

"Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong.  Sometimes it's letting go."
~Sylvia Robinson