Casual Fridays

Annnd...it's Friday again. Three quick topics for today starting with: Busch Gardens!

We went yesterday, and since it's Cody's birthday month, we got to bring Reagan for free. We had an absolutely awesome day, and since our passes expire in a couple weeks, this may very well have been our last trip for a while. We, of course, ducked into the Animal Care Center first thing, but all they were doing was a check-up on a disgusting milk snake so we didn't hang around too long. We then hopped the train, and it was apparently the perfect time to check out the animals. The giraffes were so close to the track, the train actually had to come to a complete stop while one of them crossed right in front of us. It was a pretty rainy morning so the park wasn't crowded, we had relatively short wait times on all the rides (we rode Kumba 4 times! well, I rode it 4 times. the boys rode it 3 times), and since we were already all wet from walking around in the rain, we braved the Congo River Rapids and got thoroughly soaked. No problem drying out because the sun came out, and it turned into a truly gorgeous day. We also rode the brand new rollercoaster, Cobra's Curse. Except for the very first big drop which legitimately freaked me out, it was a pretty fun ride. One final anecdote from our Busch Gardens visit: check out the pic of the tortoises in the very top lefthand corner of our collage. We stopped to check out the big guys, and the tortoise on the right in the photo was several yards away from the one on the left with several large boulders separating them. As we watched, he got up and made his way over the boulders to lay right next to the first one. It was like he just needed to be by his friend. I thought it was pretty much the sweetest thing ever. (Doesn't take much to make my day, I know.) All in all, a 10-star day at Busch Gardens and a great way to conclude our year as annual passholders. It's really such a great park. 

Our next topic: puzzle! We bought this puzzle shortly into our second year of our marriage, and our first attempt to put it together met with a little disaster in the form of one of our favorite nieces. We had completed the border and the entire heart when she decided it would be fun to destroy our progress, little sneak. 2 year olds, amiright? The puzzle went back in the box, and it was a while before we could bring ourselves to try it again. This puzzle has some of the most bizarre shaped pieces I have ever seen in my life, and what was most frustrating was trying to complete the border when apparently, flat edges do not always a border piece make. Oy. We finally decided to tackle it again though, and (thanks to some major help from the Puzzle Master, Amy, at our little '06 reunion a couple weekends ago) we finished it Monday night. And let me tell ya, it was a good feeling putting that last piece in place. #success

And our final topic: Jason Bourne. We went to see it last night, and I have to say: disappointing. Especially after watching the first three in anticipation for this event, the new one seemed even more poorly cast, predictable, and (dare I say it?) contrived in comparison. I really was so underwhelmed. And the thing is, I didn't even have unrealistically high expectations for this film to begin with so the fact that I still was this unimpressed is a pretty big statement. Meh. No stars for Jason Bourne. Give it up, Matt. If you've seen it and loved it, I would love to hear you try to change my mind down in the comment section. Make my day.

So that's it for today. Have any of you been to Busch Gardens lately to ride the new coaster? What did you think of it? Any other Bourne fans out there? (Because I am a fan of the original trilogy.) Would anyone like to share any heartwarming animal anecdotes á la my tortoise story? Feel free!

Casual Fridays

So remember way back when Cody and I were going to Busch Gardens like, every two seconds and hanging out in the Animal Care Center 'cause we're major nerds and love stuff like that, and I told you that Busch Gardens had two pregnant sloths and we got to see them do an ultrasound on one of them? Oh you don't remember? Click here.

Ok, now that you're caught up: we went back to Busch Gardens on Wednesday after not going at all in the months of February and March (because moving, duh), and we found out that both sloths had their babies! 

And not only that, they brought Grizzly's baby into the Animal Care Center for a little check-up because apparently he's been gassy and starting to reject some of his food. TMI? Sorry, but I find this stuff fascinating, and I'm about to tell you all about it. So here's a collage of our latest visit:

I think if you click on the collage, you might be able to make it bigger and be able to see just how stinkin' cute that teeny tiny baby sloth is. 

Okay, now stay with me. Busch Gardens had two pregnant sloths: Daisy and Grizzly. Back in January, we got to watch the vets do an ultrasound on Grizzly. Now Grizzly's pregnancy was kind of a surprise so they had not been training her to do these ultrasounds so she wasn't particularly cooperative. They HAD been training Daisy and monitoring her pregnancy very closely because apparently sloth pregnancies are kind of rare and not a lot is known about the gestation period of a sloth and yada, yada, yada. Anyway, Grizzly had her baby March 24th, and Daisy had her baby April 2nd (while I was in Miami). When we got to Busch Gardens on Wednesday, we went immediately to the Animal Care Center (where they were checking up on the swollen knee of a muntjac) and found out they were about to bring Grizzly's baby in for a check-up. Turns out, Grizzly rejected him so now they are hand-raising him. If you look up to that collage, you can see pictures of baby Kota in the top left and top right corners. They keep him on a fuzzy stuffed toy sloth to simulate him clinging to his mother. Now, I don't particularly care for adult sloths or think they're in any way attractive, but that tiny little guy was adorable. The middle picture at the top of the collage was the announcement for Daisy's baby. We tried to get a peek at her, but apparently, Daisy is Little Miss Perfect Sloth Mama and had her offspring all wrapped up tight out of view. They haven't named Daisy's baby yet, but apparently she is thriving and was born weighing twice as much as Grizzly's baby, and she's already starting to eat leaves which I guess is a big deal. I'm #teamkota just because come on, we got to see an ultrasound of him before he was born and then we got to see him! (Not to mention, I kindof have a soft spot in my heart--read: my whole heart--for the orphaned and abandoned, and apparently, that extends to animal babies as well.) Are you so bored with all this? Well, I just think it's amazingly cool, and Cody and I hung out in the Animal Care Center for like an hour and a half before we even went to do anything else in the park. It's just too crazy that we saw Grizzly's ultrasound and then more than two months later, got to see her baby totally coincidentally! We weren't even sure if the baby sloths would be born while we still had our passes. So cool.

Moving on.

It was time for another round of haircuts for the four-legged members of our family, and this time around, they did a much better job with Colonel. (Probably because I got a bit obsessively specific when they asked how I wanted things done.)

Here's a photo I snapped of them being sweet and snuggly with each other on Tuesday night. Don't they look like a couple of rugs?

And here's their after picture from yesterday afternoon. Aren't they the best? (The answer to that is, of course they are!) As you can see, Major isn't quite as filled out as Colonel, but he is every bit as tall and will probably keep getting taller. We finally upgraded him to a big-boy crate because he could barely fit in his puppy one anymore. 

And if you've kept reading all the way to this point and you're wondering why in the world you did and you were hoping to get to something more interesting or at least something about a book for crying out loud....I'm sorry. This is the end. Here's another picture of my cute, freshly-groomed dogs:

I know my brothers and sister will appreciate this post even if no one else does. And if you're really here to read something about books, check out yesterday's post where I recapped Sense & Sensibility by my favorite authoress Miss Jane Austen. 

Word to your mother.

Casual Fridays

Well, my brother and husband just made me watch A Walk to Remember with them, and I've cried out all the fluids in my body. I need to hydrate. I have such a love-hate relationship with that film. It's so good. But it gives me so many feelings. Let's talk about some happy things. 

First of all, how about a collage of our latest Busch Gardens adventure? Yay! for friends with passes!

01/30/16

We went last Saturday with Jon and Sydney, and as it turns out, Busch Gardens is even more fun when you go with friends. Especially for my husband because he finally had someone to ride Sheikra with. Because no matter how much he tries to talk me into it, I just can't. The more I watch that rollercoaster, the more terrifying it looks. In that picture of Sheikra on the right side of the collage, Cody and Jon are in the front row, enjoying their death-defying drop to the fullest. More power to you, guys. Sydney and I will stick with Kumba which all of us rode three times, by the way. What a fun day! Thanks for letting us tag along, you two! 

And now I just have to talk about yesterday because I had the greatest day. My husband let me skip off to the beach for the day all by myself. No dogs, no housework, no responsibilities. I've mentioned before that the beach is my happy place, so yesterday was really the best gift ever. 

02/04/16

This day was just perfect. It involved several of my "happy" things, and can I just say that never have I been more #happy to live in a state where the first week of February is beach weather?! #Floridagirlforlife

There was one dark spot in my day though. I don't know if I've ever told y'all this, but I hate birds. In 9th grade, I was made to watch the movie Birds (the Alfred Hitchcock HORROR FILM--why I was made to watch this in school is beyond me...then again, I was also made to watch Sybil...public school, amiright?!). Anyway, ever since I saw that movie, I've had a healthy apprehension around most winged creatures. Yesterday, as I was sitting in my most favorite place on earth, eating my most favorite beach snack (celery & peanut butter), an overly-bold seagull swooped down from behind me and snatched a piece of celery, already smothered in peanut butter, right out of my hand with his beak just before I popped it in my mouth. You guys. I didn't even see him coming. It was awful. I was so stunned, I didn't even move. I think my heart actually stopped. But you know what? The joke's on him because he got his beak covered in peanut butter, and he couldn't even eat it. I got immense satisfaction watching him struggle to get that peanut butter off his beak. So there.

If you'll also direct your attention to the bottom left corner of the Beach Day collage, you'll notice I'm reading The Last of the Mohicans. Which, consequently, is the reason I haven't been blogging. I can't stop reading this book, y'all. It's so good. Hopefully I can finish it this weekend and get back to normal life because I can't put it down and my dogs and house are ready for me to get back into the swing of things around here. 

Speaking of my house, I came home from my already-perfect day at the beach yesterday to a sparkling clean kitchen (which is really a big deal considering the absolute wreck it was before I left) and a vase full of the most gorgeous roses I've ever seen. #ohyeshedid

Oh and my husband called me his "bae". We're such grownups. But seriously though. Aren't those the prettiest roses you've ever seen? They're like, a coral color. So, so beautiful. All you husbands out there, here's a free tip: spoil your wife the week before Valentine's Day. She will not expect it, and you will get major brownie points. And if you think you lucked out because you have a wife who doesn't care about Valentine's Day, you're wrong. She does. I'm right about this, trust me. And read this, because it's so true and makes my point better than I can. 

Well, that's all I've got for today. Okay fine, I just want to go back to reading The Last of the Mohicans. Sue me. I hope your February is off to a fabulous start!

What movies always make you cry no matter what? (I have an entire list, believe me.) Do you have a secret animal phobia? What's the greatest thing about your home state (or town...or country...or wherever you live)?

Casual Fridays

Yes, helloo. I've hit a writing block, and I'm having a hard time thinking of something clever to open with, but seeing as I'm just about to drown you in PhotoGrid collages anyway....who cares, right?

So let's get to that. Cody and I have been wearing out our Busch Gardens passes so far this 2016. We've gone two Thursdays in a row now, and I'm game to keep it up because Busch Gardens has this new (I don't really know how new it is, but it's new to me so that's good enough) Animal Care Center where you can go and watch them do check-ups and actual surgeries on the animals in the park. And yesterday, we got to see them do an ultrasound on a pregnant sloth. It was so cool.

01/14/16

This was last Thursday, and on this particular visit, we met the elephant trainers and the tiger trainers and got to learn a bit more about those animals. Also, when we rode the train, the giraffes were actually ON the track. Seriously. I could have reached out and touched one (almost). And remember how I was just telling you about the Animal Care Center a second ago? Well, we went in there for the first time and I made hyena meatballs. Which, just to clarify, are meatballs for the hyenas to eat, NOT meatballs made out of hyenas. It was gross, but also fun.

01/21/16

This was yesterday and the park was a lot busier than last week. I'm not sure what's up with that, but we still had a fun day. Once inside, we went straight for the Animal Care Center where we discovered we had just missed them doing a procedure on a wallaby to clean out an abscess in the back of his throat. Bummer, right? But we checked out his x-rays and found out they'd be *hopefully* doing an ultrasound on one of the pregnant sloths later in the day. (Also, they haven't officially announced that they have two pregnant sloths so you didn't hear it from me. Capiche?) Anyway, Grizzly (the sloth in question) was cooperative insomuch as she came to the animal care center, but she wasn't as cooperative for the actual ultrasound so we didn't get a super-clear shot of her baby, but the vet was able to make out and show us the little skull. It was just so cool. I kindof want to go hang out there everyday to watch all the different stuff they do. Are you so over this? Well, too bad. Go write your own blog. 

But moving on, let's talk about my dogs now because haircuts!

01/18/16

This was them on Monday. You can't see any eyes, right? Right. Well, Major got his last round of puppy immunizations Monday afternoon so as soon as we got home from the vet, I called and got them grooming appointments for Wednesday morning because the amount of dog hair I've been vacuuming up lately is appalling. As you may or may not remember, when Colonel got his first haircut, I insisted on an entire photo shoot before and after. So of course, I had to do the same thing with Major. And look how cute he is!

I mean, right?! He is so stinkin' adorable!

Colonel, on the other hand, always looks a bit malnourished after a big haircut. Bless his scrawny little heart. And on this particular occasion, his groomer left his face and ears way too long making his head look abnormally large for that skinny body. Poor guy. He'll look normal in a week or two. But look at that before picture. I love his long hair so much. Cody can't stand it though. He likes to be able to see their eyes. 

Okay, last one. I mean, just look at him!! Such a cute little ball of fluff!

Well, that's it for today. Essentially, one big post about animals. Don't you just love Fridays around here? 

What's your favorite animal? Do you have any pets? Any guesses as to what my favorite animal is? (Besides my adorable pups, of course.) Hint.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm out there!

Casual Fridays

Well hello there! It's been a while, and frankly, I don't have the slightest idea where to begin so I've decided to grace you with another Photo-Prompted Post. But first, an update on the Pumpkin Predicament of 2015: I am happy to report that last Thursday, Cody took me to Coldstone (the one in Lakeside for any likeminded people who are distressed by the deplorable lack of pumpkin-y goodness), and they had pumpkin ice cream. And y'all. It was to die for. I got graham cracker cookie crust mixed in, and I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing. Loved it. Also, I bought a pumpkin pie from Publix. Because I can always count on Publix, hallelujah. And on Tuesday night, my parents took Cody and me to LongHorn for my birthday, and LongHorn is currently serving a pumpkin spice lava cake which, although I didn't actually order it, looked amazing. I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about life.

Anyway, on to our Photo-Prompted Post. 

First up: my Gracie girl is in college. And we got to visit her a few weeks ago. I can't talk about how much I love her and how proud I am of her without crying, so instead, let me just tell you that she took us to this place called Steel City Pops. They sell gourmet popsicles made from all-natural and local ingredients. And I had a pumpkin popsicle. (Are you so sick of hearing the word pumpkin yet?) It was amazing, and I wanted to try every popsicle on the menu (except for the smoked fig with cheese....too weird even for me). We had a blast visiting with Grace, and her new school and town are beautiful. We will definitely be going back soon. If not for Grace, then for those Steel City Pops. Holy moly.

Our quick visit with Grace was actually a pit-stop on our way to North Carolina for family vacation. Fun story: I was driving when we crossed into North Carolina, and as soon as I saw that beautiful welcome sign, I pulled off the highway. There was this steep--and I do emphasize the word steep--road leading up to a gated community right before you passed the sign. So I crawled up this hill, did a little U-turn, pulled off, and was quizzed by my husband on the proper direction to turn the wheels when we're parking on such a steep incline. (I passed the test, by the way.) We almost broke our necks running down this slippery hill, snapped a couple pictures, then we huffed our way back up to the car, during which I almost lost my flip-flops several times. We jumped back in the car, pulled back onto the highway....and almost immediately passed an entire parking area for what I can only assume is a place for crazy people like me who want to take a picture in front of the state welcome sign. My poor husband was just shaking his head. Bless. Welcome to North Carolina.

My family is the best and we know how to vacation. Here we are playing Golf late into the night. This photo really represents an entire week of fun games, the most memorable of this trip being Family Feud. (Good answer!) Even though we're extremely competitive people, we love each other and have a blast playing together, although to the casual observer it might seem more like one death match after another. And speaking of death matches, my biggest triumph in the realm of family games this year was definitely sustained during a game of Rack-O in which I completely annihilated my mom and two of my sisters. Fun times.

The leaves were all turning and the fall colors were gorgeous. We don't get any of that down here in Florida (what we do get is 70 degree weather in November--praise Him!) so we took all the opportunities to take pictures with that beautiful backdrop.

A sweet lady from our church sent all these cozy, handmade, stocking caps up with my dad for all of us to enjoy throughout the week. And let me tell you, we were grateful for any warm thing considering we're pretty much all tried-and-true Floridians and those temps were dipping down into the 40s all week. Also, have I mentioned my family is the best?

Personally, one of my favorite things about vacation (and probably the only thing in this post relevant to the actual purpose of this blog) is having time to read. I did some major damage to Theodore, but still wasn't able to finish it. I was seriously hoping to knock it out completely but apparently that was wishful thinking. As far as my reading goals for the rest of 2015 go, my only one is to finish this dang book. Vacation also affords my loving family members numerous opportunities to make fun of my hermit-like tendencies. While everyone else was out shopping or hiking or doing who knows what, I was holed up by the fire, reading a biography of a dead president. And loving every second of it. 

While I was snuggled up inside reading to my heart's content (#introvertsunite), my boys were out exploring and adventuring. I really don't have much else to say about this photo except I love those two with all my heart (the one in the hat especially). 

Last week, I got to take my BFF Erin and her firstborn to Busch Gardens. Since Cody and I have annual passes, I got a free day-pass for a friend during the month of November because of my birthday and I'm so glad I got to take Erin and her daughter. And there's a brand-new baby rhino! The first time Cody and I had BG passes, we got to watch a baby rhino grow up throughout the year. Now that we got passes again, another new rhino was born. Coincidence? I think not. Busch Gardens should just give us free annual passes for the rest of our lives, amiright? Anyway, call me a nerd if you must but I'm excited to watch this little rhinoceros grow. It's amazing how big they get so quickly.

And in case you missed the multiple times I mentioned it, I got older this week. But it was fairly painless thanks to this amazing guy. He had the six days leading up to my birthday off, and he really spoiled me. Those six days included dinner and a movie and Coldstone, new ChapSticks galore, a date night to Old Town, the new Cinderella movie on DVD, a full-body massage, more presents than any one girl should get, and all his love and affection (just to name a few). I couldn't be more blessed.

And I think that's about it for this post. Good catching up with you. Let's do this again soon. What have you been up to the past month?

Casual Fridays

Friends...countrymen...lend me your ears. Kidding! And no, I haven't been reading Shakespeare lately (but I offer up 100 Cool Points to the first person who comments on the post with the correct Shakespearean play I just quoted. and googling it is totally cheating, but I guess there's really no way for me to know if you did or not so...we're on the Honor System here). I just don't even know where to start with this post. As you've probably started to figure out, the summertime has not been great for my blogging habits. I've just been too busy living the good life which doesn't allow much time for writing about it. Also, I'm feeling a teensy bit peeved at the moment because I e-mailed myself pictures from my phone like a million years ago and they still haven't shown up in my Inbox. If my phone is so Smart, why can't it get my photos from Point A to Point B? My Dumb Phone did better than that. Does anyone have any insights for me about this? I finally just downloaded the Blogger app, created a post with all the pictures I was trying to e-mail myself, published it, then got on my laptop and reverted the post to a draft so I could actually create what I wanted. But then the formatting got all wonky so eventually I just saved the photos from the draft to my laptop and started a completely new post. This seems like an overly complicated and completely unnecessary way of doing things, but alas, here we are. C'est la vie for the technologically disinclined. Somebody help.

Moving on...

Last weekend, Cody and I roadtripped up to NC for some quality R&R in the Smoky Mountains. First of all, here's a picture of us in case you forgot what we looked like:

Aren't we cute?

Anyway, we headed out Thursday afternoon, and after some healthy debate, we decided to stop at a Chick-fil-A for dinner. On a whim, I decided I wanted to try one of their frosted lemonades. Apparently, it was Frosted Lemonade-palooza day or something and when we pulled up to the window, the sweet Chick-fil-A lady handed me this squeezy lemon stress ball and a big sticker. I promptly informed Cody that we should move to this town immediately. He laughed and said something about how we can't move just because the Chick-fil-A people are nice and give me cool stuff. Whatever. 

Here we are again chilling on the back deck at my brother's NC house. Don't we just look deliciously relaxed? Saturday night, my honey took me on a date night in Downtown Brevard. We went to a great hole-in-the-wall kinda book shop, and he bought me a stack of new books (more on that Monday), then we browsed through the funnest toy store ever (O.P. Taylor's), and finished off our evening with dinner and ice cream at Rocky's Soda Shop (yum!). I loved all of it especially because Brevard is where we spent the first week of our honeymoon. Such a sweet time reliving those memories and making new ones. 

Are you so over all this gushiness yet? Sorry I didn't issue a Sap Alert. I just can't help myself. I have the best guy in the world. 

Let's change the subject.

Colonel's Corner
This shaggy guy thoroughly enjoyed our trip to North Carolina as well, although I have to say, he calmed down noticeably and turned back into his sweet, chill self when we got back home. Which makes me happy because he knows where his home is.

Anyway, have I ever mentioned how he carries things around like it's his job? Because he does and it is the most adorably silly thing you ever saw. The other day, we were headed out on our morning walk, and he picked up this random stick and carried it in his mouth the entire walk. He does this with sticks of any size, pine cones (who knew "pine cones" was actually two words? not me till just now), moss, palm branches, pieces of tire....pretty much whatever he can get ahold of. It cracks me up.

On Tuesday, Cody and I finally used the annual passes I got him for his birthday and went to Busch Gardens. It was hot, but fortunately, not crowded at all. (I credit that to the fact that school started back up this week.) We had a blast, per usual, and I'm looking forward to wearing out our passes this year.

So if any of you have a pass (I'm lookin' at you, Christina) or want to go to Busch Gardens for any reason, hit me up 'cause my pass is good till August 25th of 2016, and I will totally go with you.

Basically, I'm telling you to get a pass. Busch Gardens is the bomb. 

Because how often do you see a giraffe just hanging out with a major rollercoaster in the background?

Oh and speaking of our Busch Gardens trip, get this: when we arrived at Busch Gardens Tuesday morning, we got out of our car and I noticed several pennies on the ground.

Fun Fact: I will always--ALWAYS--pick up any coin I see lying around (laying? lie vs. lay is one of those grammar rules I have never mastered--I know it has something to do with something reclining vs. something being placed...) no matter how disgusting it is. A penny saved is a penny earned and all that.

So we gathered them up and Cody, to my horror, just stuck them on the back bumper cover of the car and started to walk into the park. Something about how if someone steals the pennies off our car, they need them more than we do?? I'm super-spiritual and submissive so I sweetly followed his lead and silently lamented the fact that we just struck gold and were leaving it for someone else.

Well, yesterday morning, as I was loading Colonel back up in the car after our morning walk, I SAW THE PENNIES! Apparently, they survived the entire drive home from Busch Gardens, two separate trips to the church and back, and the jaunt over to the walking trail where Colonel and I went yesterday.

That or some penny fairy put more pennies in the exact spot we left the ones we found in the BG parking lot while Colonel and I were out walking.

The world may never know.

It was time to update my toes again, and since I obviously feel the need to tell you about this every time I do it, let the record show that Thursday, August 27, 2015, I gave myself a pedi.

I'm calling this my "Transition Into Fall" color.

And just so you know, the curse lives. One of my toes is already smudged. And it happens to be the same one that smudged last time. I tried Lyndsey's technique of two thin coats of color and a thin clear coat, letting each one dry before applying the next.

However, I'm not patient so maybe each coat wasn't totally dry before I applied the next.

Whatever, man.

Link Love
-Best Groomsmen Dance EVER : This is fabulous. Reagan, Oakie, where was this at my wedding? Also, that bride's bow is next level. You have to watch to the end to get the full effect of it, but wow.

-Dead Husband Walking : I just can't even. Cody showed me this and we both were rolling.

-Waiting : No explanation needed.

Well, that's it for today. If you need me, I'll be over here eating Pillsbury Chocolate Chip cookie dough straight out of the tube. #guiltypleasure  #totallyhealthy  #sorrynotsorry

What's been happening in your life lately?