Day 91 ~ LAND!!!! Day 1 of Florida

We left the appartment last night at exactly 12:05 A.M  Dumb idea?  Maybe, but we made it here to Florida in one pieceand after 16 hours of switching off driving duty and several pit stops....

We finally made it to palm tree land (that's what I'm calling it)  Oh how I love the palm trees!  I want to hook one up to the top of the car like a Christmas tree and bring it home!  We have a gorgeous one right out of our awesome hotel window and I promised my sister I would take a picture!

This was three hours before when I was so excited to see the Florida state line because I knew it meant the promise of wonderful 80 degree weather and only three hours left to be stuck in the car! Makes me want oranges and orange juice seeing all the orange things around here!
Today's high temperature once we hit Florida was 86 degrees! Daytona Beach tomorrow :) Can't wait!

As of today, the shuttle launch has been postponed until Wednesday, it was supposed to be on Monday, so I'm really keeping fingers crossed they take care of whatever is making them push it back and they don't have to postpone it anymore!

Day 90 ~ "One big ugly eye looking for ME"

or in this case... two, but thats a quote from land before time so I couldn't resist!

I think my brother and his girlfriend were drawing on my family's windows!  I only think this doesn't scream something Andrew would do, but the other drawing on the other window said "Andrew did this!" Its kinda creepy now that I'm writing about it lol

Day 89 ~ Changing into Fall...

I took the little ones on a walk and we decided to look for leaves that were changing colors... Joel found a whole bunch of things he picked up too!  He, Kateri, and Sofia both carried handfuls of leaves all the way home :)

Day 88 ~ Tiny?

This is Tiny Twanda... I <3 her :)  She lives at the pet store that we go to get our hermit crabby supplies!  We hadn't been there since we first needed stuff for them, so we went tonight to get them new shells and coconut for their cage.  Isn't she awesome!

Day 87 ~ Let the packing and planning begin!

Today I started making my list for our trip to Florida!  We leave Friday night at midnight, 3 days to go!  First stop on the list... make sure I have pretty things to wear... and in this case new things to wear since it's a big trip in which lots of pictures will be taken :)  That meant a trip to my beloved thrift store was in order!  I need 6 shirts... two of which have already been provided by hand me down clothes from Jamie and Anna (They've been passing down bags of clothes to me and my sister for years now and we go through them together to claim things.)  My trip was successful in that everything I brought home fit (which doesn't always happen sincethere's no dressing room and I just have to guess) and I found two more shirts to add to the collection... here's what I have so far, only have to find two more!  Total cost of new vacation wardrobe thus far: $6

Day 86 ~ Speak Now! The most epic of all days!

After almost 2 long years of waiting..... it's TODAY!!  It's finally here!  Taylor Swift has done it again... a most excellent 3 album, initiated into my sisters and my collection of most important CDs on this Monday, the 25th day of October in the year 2010.  Even though spoilers were released to i-tunes over the last few weeks, we remained loyal and didn't listen... after work today, we went out and bought our own copy, added the label to my collection of CD labels in my car and listened to every song all the way through, not passing judgement until the last one had finished.  Our verdict: Epic!!! Not one song we don't like!  Well worth the wait!

Funny story:  We went to Walmart... their cardboard thing said it would be available there today, like we knew the release date was.  We couldn't find it!  Anywhwere!  We finally asked and they said the release date was Tuesday and perhaps today was just the "internet" release date.  We knew better!  So Target made our money this time :) I bet our Walmart lost out on a lot of money today from those who were as determined as we were to have it release day, especially considering my friend in Frostburg got hers at her Walmart this morning at 6:30 A.M.!

Day 85 ~ 1615 Oleander Avenue

My Grandma Julie (my dad's mom) passed away last year right before my wedding... we've always gone down to visit her and my dad's family, which is where we were yesterday in Virginia Beach.  With a four plus hour drive, it was always a relief  to pull into Oleander Avenue and get to see everyone! And as we would pull away after our visit, we would exchange the "I love you" sign in sign language until my Grandmas Julie couldn't see us anymore.  It's a past time I will never forget and now it looks like the house is going to be put up for sale by the end of this year so I wanted a picture of her house.  Seeing as it was a year and a half in between the last time we went down there and this weekend, I wanted to make sure I had a picture memory just in case it's not her house anymore the next time we go to visit the rest of my dad's family!



Day 84 (Saturday October 23rd) ~ Visting and Proof that Bendaroos are so awesome!

This weekend, Nate and I went with my dad, brothers, my brother's girlfriend and my sister to visit my Dad's familyin Virginia Beach!  These pictures are from Saturday since I didn't have access to a computer!

The main rwason for our visit was for my Uncles Danny's 50th birthday, the "Over the Hill" hat was officially passed down from my dad who recieved it last year at my wedding, to my uncle!

The day was especially beautiful.... so we took some pictures out in the yard!  The first is me, Suzanne, our only first cousin Abby (she's my uncle Danny and Aunt Debbie's little girl) and Stephanie, Andrew's girlfriend.  The second is my brother Andrew and Stephanie.

Then these are just two pictures that I thought were nice!

Suzanne was laughing at something and I thoughtshe looked pretty!

I'm a Tilley by name... but still a Rachid by everything else :) This is on the wall at my aunt and uncles house!

Oh and last one I promise... I almost forgot about the Bendaroos!  Abby has them and I was always skeptical of the idea of them... until this! Andyes, they come off the wall perfectly!

Day 83 ~ pret-t-y!

I was sitting in the waiting room of my doctor's office today and noticed how pretty it was looking through the blinds at the shaded yellow trees!  This picture doesn't portray the beauty accurately, but its representative of it :)

Day 82 ~ no heat?

We've been turning our heat on at night for the cats and the crabbies so they don't freeze... and we thought it was working fine!  Leasing office puts notices on everyone's doors saying that if we haven't turned on our heat yet, we should once to make sure it works so they can start doing maintainence tickets without crazyness.  We think "no problem there!" And then we realize it's cold in the apartment and ta-da... No heat :) So just as I'm sitting here freezing tonight... I have a revelation to solve my problem of having no picture yet again, and no heat! Welcome back good old electric blanket! It has always worked such wonders foor poor cold me!

Day 81 ~ Calm before the storm...

Steve and Ramona, just before they decided it was play fight time!

Day 80 ~ Most awesome chips ever!

I randomly picked these up on our way out of walmart off a shelf that wasn't for chips.... they are pretty darn good!

Day 79 ~ 7 days!!!!

Until...

:)

And, as promised.... presenting as of today at 10:30 A.M...

A "shiny" new Suzanne :) She kept saying her teeth felt shiny without her braces!

Day 78 ~ Before, Banished, and Mount Grocery

Before:
Tomorrow, my sister gets her braces off!  After counting down 28 long days now, the day before is finally here and I promised her a before and after slot in my photo blog!

Banished:
I was sorting laundry today and Steve would not stop attacking everything that moved!  As cute as it was, it was also annoying so I told him if he didn't stop then I was going to banish him to the laundry basket since he liked the laundry so much!  He didn't stop...

Mount Grocery:
Steve loves all bread type items... thus everything he could possibly break into in the kitchen now lives on top of the fridge.  Nate was being smart and putting everything up there after we got back from shopping this evening :) 

Day 77 ~ walks and wooly bears

Day 77!!!  Just throwing that out there :)  I like the number 7... a lot.... so double sevens make me happy!

Anyways... Nate and I went on another Volks march walk today in Odenton.  His mom and sister weren't feeling well so it was just us two and his dad.  It was beautifully sunny, but very windy so it was quite a challenge! We did a 6k walk today, the first that I did with his family was a 5k.  This was my firt one with Nate so I was excited.  I now have 11k in my walk "passport" book. 

We saw a great deal of wooly bears... so I wanted to take a picture of one since you don't see those all the time!  ^_^

Day 76 ~ TURTLE ALERT!!!

My mom has probably like ten turtles on her farmville on facebook... but every time she posts one that could be adopted that she finds, I always see it too late and other people have already taken them!  She told me about one she posted today and I forgot about it, so when I saw the post on my wall "TURTLE ALERT"  I beelined it for my mom's wall.  I thought I would be too late again and was upset that I forgot, but I MADE IT!!!  Little turtle is now happily adopted on my farm <3 <3 <3 Excited!!!

Day 75 ~ Took it long enough!

We had to pay a huge security deposit to get our BGE set up when we moved into our apartment and it was all based on the people who lived here before us!  Originally it was low, but they gave us the wrong apartment number to give to BGE.  It more than doubled when we gave them the right one.  We were supposed to get a return after 6 months... then in January they said it was a year... a year was in July! So finally here we are in the middle of October and I check the mail and there it was, the highlight of my day and just in time to add it to our vacation budget for Florida in a few weeks!

Day 74 ~ A good meal I didn't have to make!

We helped Nate's dad go pick up up his car by taking him to White Marsh after it was done being repaired.  He treated us to dinner at Panera Bread for our help.  Their new "Mac and Cheese" though I could repeat something like it at home, was really good and I was glad to have something that was as good as a home meal without me having to make it for once!  Plus it fell on the perfect day anyways... we had decided not to eat out during the month of October, but we allowed a sort of a mid way cheat day, which was today! So Panera Bread was perfect.. and I will be getting my Chai tea there from now on because it's so much better than Starbucks!

Day 73 ~ Dangerously Chocolate!

Yeah it's just been one of those days... theme was danger, this seemed fitting!

Day 72 ~ A monumentous event!

At least I think it is :)  My mom and dad are finally painting the down stairs of my family's house!  For thirteen years we have lived in that house, well they have because I no longer live there and for years now they have been saying they are going to paint! Well they finally started today!  Bye bye boring old white paint! I didn't think I would like the beige at first... but after seeing it, I think it will look lovely when the furniture is all put back!  My mom says she and my dad have never painted anything together like this, so I thought it was worth documenting this "first" and a new look for my pretty, old little house!

Day 71 ~ another sunday...

Today was another game day... Ravens won 31-17! Yay!  Nate and I made an awesome purple desert!  What started out as an indea to make purple jello turned into purple magic jello mousse :)  The magic part is that when you mix the cool whip into the jello and then refridgerate it... it seperates into a layer of purple cool whip mousse and a layer of purple jello :)  We also had pie... happy :)

Oh and then there's this :)

Taken at exactly 10:10 on 10/10/10! Just had to post this to be cliche ^_^  That and because I did the same thing at 9:09 on 9/9/09!

Day 70 ~ The end of an era...

Tonight was Nate's official... as in he's not even working there one day a week anymore... last day at Food Lion. 

It's where we met five years ago and where we all... myself, him, a bunch of his friends and the friends we have made there along the way... have worked on and off since then only taking leave of absences for school, internships, trying out other things etc. Pretty much everyone we know there has moved on by now or is about to, so we felt as  though it is our time to move on as well! I can't count the number of times I've been there until closing waiting for Nate to get off and so I went to meet him there tonight and it was bittersweet; knowing it was time to go, but also knowing it's the end of a long amazing chapter in our lives. 

I also took a picture of the store all closed up at the end of the night, figuring that it's the last time I will see it quite like this for the reason that I've been here at that time of night all these years! :)

Day 69 ~ Adrianne and Maddy

Finally, after a long time of not seeing them, I was able to babysit for Adrianne and Maddy <3  I lived with their family for almost a year as their nanny before I got married.  These girls are wonderful! I can't believe Adrianne is almost 9 now and in 3rd grade.  She was just in 1st when I lived there! How time goes by!

The last time I was there, maddy still used a crib.... this time, she showed me her "big girl" room.  Maddyused to watch Dora all the time when I was there, and so I wasexcited to see her Dora bed :)  She's almost 4 and so grown up now!

Day 68 ~ For the love of rocking chairs...

I've been wanting to get this picture for weeks... Kateri loves rocking chairs <3 She gets so enthusiastic and rocks it all by herself! She especially loves these big ones on her front portch and especially on a beautiful day like today!

Day 67 ~ Giant!

Note: See quarter to scale!

It was the cool thing to do when I was little to see how many marsmallows you could fit in your mouth.... anyone wanna take a shot at these crazy things??

Day 66 ~ this never happens!

I didn't have to wait behind anyone at the bank today!  I can't tell you the last time I wasn't behind at least 2 cars!  It was very exciting! :)  Oh the life of me... the things I find amusing astound me sometimes!

Day 65 ~ That feeling in the air...

That says this is Chai Latte weather <3  I love that first day when you know the cold is coming and you can transition from cold to hot at Starbucks etc!  From flip flops every day, to flip flops some days and clogs and jeans other days without being melted by the heat and feeling over dressed! I took this picture so you could see the weather... so rainy and windy cold!



Day 64 ~ Does Baltimore have a Football team???

The answer to that is YES!!!!  Take that Pittsburg!!!!

Day 63 ~ Presents!

Nate's parents went to Spokane, Washington last week to visit family. They brought back candy for us :) It was called Spokandy!!!



Day 62 ~ The pink thing...

I still don't understand exactly what this is... but it's some technology thing that Nate's dad gave him... he wouldn't come over to the keyboard and type what it is for me... but it is "something new" and it supposedly does cool things.  All I remember is that it can "download on its own without the computer being on and it uses less electricity than the computer or ever my radio." I call it the pink thing :)