better late than never?

Fourth of July around these parts was pretty great.  Maybe that's why it took me over a week and a half to post the recap? Or um... at all?

The day was full of swimming and eating, and the evening was a nice, warm walk on the beach with the most gorgeous sunset.

I also had a few opportunities to flex my photography muscle.  I've been overly obsessed with taking pictures lately.  Like, more so than normal.  So having a couple impromptu "photo shoots" was quite the little treat.

I hope everyone had a great fourth of July!

summer kickoff swim

I love summertime. There's nothing like busting out the bathing suit that has been tucked away since August or September of the year before.  

Anthony's family is renovating their beach house, and fixing up the pool was the first step!  It was finished last week, and then Monday, it was finally warm enough to dive in!  Don't get me wrong, we've had some pretty warm days, but not since the pool, and it takes a scorcher to be able to comfortably jump into a pool filled with chilly hose water!  

We were desperate to take the plunge into the water that looked so appetizing, so once the air temps hit 80, and the water temps hit 64, we went to lunch (Chinese Buffet, baby!), grabbed some cheap rafts, and rushed back to the house to get ready to possibly freeze our butts off.

Much to our surprise, while it was a little on the chillier side, it wasn't completely unbearable, and we were in it for a decent bit of time... I may have even gotten a jumpstart on my tan! (Not really.)

How were your weekends?

hello, new Facebook picture!

love this picture of my two favorites. :)

In other news:

- I'm thinking of finally adding AdSense to my blog... any thoughts?  Have you tried it?  Do you feel that it's worth it?

- I think Mark-Out Monday is coming back starting maybe next week.  I think I'm starting to slowing ease back into blogging again... so we'll see.  Stay tuned!

Happy Wednesday!

Easter weekend

Heya folks. Popping in from the "worst blogger ever" corner of the internet.

I swear it's not because I'm walking away from blogging or anything. I have just been so busy with school and work lately, that I haven't had time to jump on the computer much. When I get busy and don't have much time to myself to just chill out, unfortunately, when I do find a few minutes, sitting and composing a blog post is actually pretty low on the list of things I want to do. I hate to say it, but it is a chore lately. I'm trying to find some motivation, though. Once school is over, I will have more free time. Just about six more weeks! Bear with me!

I'm also going to put Mark-Out Mondays on hold until then. Making trips to the post office is, as ridiculous as it sounds, is just something I don't have much time for nowadays. I wish I did. I love doing that giveaway. Blah. It will be back though!

Anyway, how was everyone's Easter weekend? I hope you all had the fabulous weather that we did over in New England. It was like spring arrived literally over night!

Happy Easter from the most terrifying mall Easter bunny on the planet Earth!

Anthony was on spring break this past week, and despite his jerk professors weighing him down with work even over break, he managed to find a couple days to break free, and we went down to his beach house in southern CT Thursday-Saturday.

I had to work Thursday morning and squeeze in a hair appointment before Easter, and he was working on his project, so we left around 5pm, and got there a little over an hour later. It wasn't a bad ride at all. It was so warm out and the sun setting was so pretty.

Maddie's feelings about getting in the car. That is her "I don't think so" pose. We saw a lot of that this weekend.

The obligatory "and we're off!" Instagram shot.

After arriving and turning the heat and hot water on, we went budget grocery shopping (aka, bought peanut butter, jelly, bread, milk, cereal, and water), and then came back and pretty much went to bed instead of the casino as planned, because my 80-year-old ass got out of bed at 4 for work, and I was "too tired." What a buzzkill.

The full day we spent there (Friday) we had to be out of the house by 9:45am because the house is on the market and there was a showing scheduled. After getting ready, we loaded Maddie and her stink eye into the car, and went off to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and then waked Maddie from beach to beach. The weather was perfect, and it was just an overall great morning. It was awesome to finally have a day off (it had been a while since I had a day that didn't involve either work or school), and for it to be spent with Anthony (and Maddie!) and have nice weather? I was feeling pretty thankful. ;)

The Mad-ster got a lot of attention on the street. A mail main gave her a treat, and two women stopped to chat and show us every single picture they ever took of their golden on their phone. :p 

This town is so gorgeous. I think it's close to the top of the list of relocation areas. It's dirt cheap compared to our overpriced area, and hello, coastal. The mailmen walk and carry dog treats. How much better does it get? Not to mention, it's still in CT and only an hour from our family. Better yet? twenty minutes from Mohegan Sun. Hehe.

I definitely see a high probability of us living here one day. It was talked about a lot over the weekend. Gah. Love it.

Friday night after dealing with cousin drama, as usual (more on that later, it deserves its own post), we went to the casino. It was fun, but would have been better with one less person. Argh. Kid always has to find a way to muscle his way into everything.

Saturday was kind of blue because it was the day we had to leave. It was a bummer that our time there was so short. Hopefully once school is out schedules will be a bit more flexible and we can do this more often. Because, honestly, it was such a perfect weekend. It was depressing to get back to real life on Monday.

As for Easter Sunday I went to church early, got ready while Anthony was at church with his dad and brother, and then we headed to his grandma's house. Another great day. Overall this Easter was just short of perfect. I didn't get to see my mom for it, but she insisted she was fine with me spending it with Anthony's family. I still felt a little guilty though. But there will be other holidays. :)

Anthony and his youngest cousin. She is too adorable.

His grandma gave me an Easter gift with $20. So nice and thoughtful but completely unnecessary. She is so darn adorable I want to adopt her.

I hope everyone else had a fabulous Easter weekend as well! Can't wait to read all about them!

xoxo

Florida part two!

Part one of the Florida vacation.
-----------------------------------------

Here is where things got interesting.

Don't get me wrong-- the whole trip was an absolute blast from start to finish, and I wouldn't change a darn thing.

But it's almost like... you know how certain popular book series' (ahem, Harry Potter & Twilight) are made into movies so that Hollywood can collect milk from the same cash cow? And how the last movie has to be milked for all it is worth, in the hopes to gorge us silly Americans of our $12/film? Well, usually the first part is the intro, the build-up. Then the second is where all the hardcore action and excitement takes place like part two of the seventh Harry Potter movie.

It was kind of like that... except less end-of-the-world, and more civilized. Basically, this is where things got a little bit funnier. <--- Now that I've built this up to be some epic conclusion to a vacation, let me bring you back down to Earth. I just wanted to be dramatic and use the phrase "cash cow". :p More just, the first part was "ooh, Florida, pretty sunsets and thunderstorms." and this part is more "here is where we come in." More activity-based than sights... know what I'm sayin'?

Anyway...

Monday morning, Anthony's dad told us about a dream he had. He was walking through a basement with a crucifix and he was supposed to exercise a demon or something. He said it was really creepy and the demon thing was pushing him.

We didn't think much of it, figuring it was just a nightmare, and I continued to munch on my bagel. Then Anthony's mom came in, asking what kind of a crazy nightmare he had had. Apparently he had been moaning, and at one point he sort of grunted her name and said, "help me." So she tried to wake him up, and it took a few good shoves to bring him out of his sleep.

Then Anthony's brother comes out of his room talking about a dream where he was giving someone an exercism, but he couldn't see who or where. He just remembered saying "leave this body" or something, haha.

After that Anthony's mom claims she felt the bed shake. No one believed that because it was such an afterthought. She swears it was true, but, we concluded it was probably her imagination, or Anthony's dad rolling over or something, haha.

Anyway, after that, we went about our day joking about how there was a demon in the condo. That night though, for Anthony's brother and sister, I think it was more than just joking. His sister slept on the floor by my couch, and his brother opted for the balcony, lol. Dreams can really unrattle someone, I guess, haha.

For the record, I may or may not have heard little things during the night, and did get a creepy feeling from that bedroom on our first day, but beyond that, I don't actually believe the place is haunted. Maybe there was a visit, but nothing more than that, haha.

Tuesday we beached and clubhoused for most of the day, and, erm, returned to the Chinese Buffet place like a bunch of fat Americans. Haha. But man was that food good!

Wednesday was my birthday. I remember the night before, while sitting in the parking lot waiting for his parents to grocery shop, asking Anthony not to mention it, because I'm not big on a lot of attention on myself. So of course, he ran into the store claiming to go figure out what was taking his parents so long, and he let them in on the info. The day of my birthday, we went for a nice little walk on the beach. :)

That they were having family over to the condo for dinner anyway, and incorporated a freaking ice cream cake into it all. Ahh! Please understand: ice cream cake is the sole reason for birthdays, people! I know I said don't mention it, but I thought it was super sweet that he did it anyway, and nice of his family to make it special :).

Thursday was our last full day there. Anthony and I went to breakfast at this adorable little French bakery literally right in front of the condo. It was probably a 3 minute walk-- which was great, because it was always so hot, even in the mornings. Man I wish we had places like this up around where we live. It is my mission to find one.

I was starting to get bummed that it was the last full day. We decided we'd make it a nice full one. We beached it for a while (and the waves were awesome), and then finished up our final game of monopoly (we squeezed two into the trip.. they got pretty intense, hehe). Afterward, we headed back to Anthony' uncle's again so that we could print our boarding passes for Southwest. Since it's pretty much a cattle call free for all, the earlier you print, the earlier you get on the plane. The ticket pickup turned into a 3-hour visit that ate up a decent chunk of the day. After that we went to Anthony's cousin's house to check it out. Where we saw their fat cat (so cute!) and their extensive TV-show collection... impressive!

The final day, I was determined to get at least one picture of Anthony and I together. The down side of being obsessed with taking pictures is, I never get to be in any. So Anthony got his sister to take a picture, and then we got on a roll with a fun little photo shoot, hehe. Some of my favorites...

Sorry for the darkness.. we wanted to get the beach in the background.

Me smiling, Anthony making a crazy face. Hehe. :)

We were going to send these two to my cousin to piss him off... But don't worry, we thought better of it. Note the foot pop. :p

Anthony's sister Olivia and I had been mimicking Aaron Goodwin's (from Ghost Adventures) "big steppin'" thing that he does on Instagram. We did one in the grocery store, and then did one good one on the beach on our last day.... and? Not only did he like the picture, but he also commented! Win? I think so! Even if it's nerdy. Hehe! :)

And sadly... after this, we left. Plane ride was good, getting home was not. But all good things must come to an end right?

Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I didn't include before...

Me and Olivia on our second day with almost-matching sunglasses. And then on our second to last day, bored at Anthony's uncle's during the 3-hour visit.

Another view from the balcony.

Anthony cleaning something off my shirt. Like a true loser, of course I took a picture! :p Forgive the ugliness.. it was early and I didn't have any makeup on. Ew!

The monopoly game I mentioned. See all those houses on the far right side? Mine. :p hehe

One last picture from the little "photo shoot". It was too dark to do anything with. Wah.

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and I am so so so grateful to have been included!

xoxo

Flo-rida part one.

Hey everyone! It feels great to be able to blog again!

I tend to leave my computer at home when going on trips, and it's hard to type anything of substance on an iPhone. It doesn't agree with my man-hands, I guess ;).

But anywho...

Florida was fantastic! Easily the best week of 2012 so far!

But I won't bore you with paragraph upon paragraph of recap. Instead I'll let the photos speak for themselves, with a few comments from me in between. :)

The plane ride was surprisingly nice! As it turns out, I'm not afraid of flying! I think my main concern was getting through security, because I, as I'd imagine most, don't like to be looked at like a criminal. And whether or not the security workers actually feel that way, obviously they have to view everyone in that way. But, much to my relief, going through the process was so simple, and the plane ride itself was fun. Phew!

After first arriving at the condo. What do we do? Pull out the cell phones, obviously! :p The condo was super gorgeous. It belongs to Anthony's dad's brother, and it was right on the water. Second floor, with a great balcony!

The view (to the right) from the balcony. Loved drinking my coffee and eating my bagel there every morning. Not to mention, I chose the couch so I could wake up to this view every day too. :)

Is this not the most mouthwatering pool setting ever? My jaw dropped when we got out to the pool. Anthony's grandma belongs to this club, and we swam here a couple times. The water was like bath water, but in a good way. It was just cool enough to be refreshing in comparison to the crazy heat!

This was Saturday night, our second evening in Florida. We had gone out to Chinese Buffet with Anthony's grandparents and aunt and uncle (um, yum?!), and were on our way back when we saw this. The sky looked like this at least once a day. At one point it looked almost black. But, I guess this is normal for tropical climates. Once the storm rolled through, the weather went back to gorgeous, and people resumed their day on the beach. It was pretty cool. What wasn't so cool, was how a handful of idiots would actually stay in the water during the storm! It's like asking to be struck! A big crack of thunder would usually send them running. It was pretty entertaining to watch from the balcony.

Anthony & his mom documenting the morons in the water, and the lightening we kept seeing behind them. Gulp!

Aforementioned morons. They had a kid with them too. It's one thing if you want to gamble with your life, but don't endanger a little kid. Come on now!

Towards the end of the storm as the sun came out again, just in time to set. :) My first legit. lightening bolt shot too! :)

Everyone getting a lightening picture. I'm sure Instagram was blowing up that afternoon. ;)

The gorgeous aftermath of the storm. Such a pretty sunset! :)

Friday-Monday were spent mostly at the beach and at the pool. The rest of the week was a bit more active, but I'll get to that later. For now, I agreed to cover for a coworker tonight, so I have to go get ready.

Stay tuned for part two!

xoxo

p.s. I linked up here!