A resolve to do better

For all my friends who still read this blog I need to start keeping it updated. It's like a journal of my life and experiences I don't want to forget about. So this Sunday I am going to update the past year and then start from today.

My 25th Birthday

Since Paul was going to be gone for my birthday I thought we would celebrate before he left. I love the melting pot so we had to go there for dinner it was delicious.





Also during the week Paul took me to Islands of Adventure which is the Theme Park Associated with Universal Studios it is where the new Harry Potter land is. We loved it. We had butter Beer which I loved and they also had pumpkin juice which I didn't like so much thankfully Paul did. The Harry Potter Ride was amazing and lots of fun. What a fun time we spent together before he left.

Pictures to come

Car Accident

On Oct 1st 2010 the very day Paul came home. We got into a car accident. We were rear ended and as a result my back and neck hurt a bit so I was referred by my good friend Jessie to her Chiropractor and still continue to go and have found not only have they helped the car accident problems but have helped with other pains I had been having. Since Paul was leaving in a week that left me to figure out fixing the car and handling all of that. Thankfully I have great friends who helped me out. Thank you Lisa & Jessie for helping me drop off Paul's car and then helped me pick it up. It's nice to know I have friends I can count on.

Long Overdue

So for anyone who still reads sorry it has taken me so long to post anything. Paul has been gone since September 16th 2010 and then came home for a week October 1st-October 8th and just got home February 22nd 2011. Crazy how much he has been gone. Since he has been gone I have gone and done things but haven't posted about them so I will catch up on some major events and then try and be better about updating on a more regular basis. One of the main reasons I haven't posted is because Paul took my laptop with him on his deployment and I really dislike desktops because I hate sitting at a computer desk. That is my excuse!!!!!!

Lowry Park Zoo

My friend Jessie and I seem to be spending a lot of time together these days. Its our joke to each other that the only time we call or hang out with each other is when Paul is gone or when she is bored. We both know that's not true but we do spend a lot of time together hanging out. We went to the zoo one day when Beau her oldest son got out of school a half day and spent some time feeding the birds.

Paul TDY

Well as you all know Paul is in the military which takes him away from home often for days, weeks or even months at a time. This time he will be gone for about 2 weeks and is traveling to some pretty neat places. He is first going to South Carolina, Maine, Scilly, Greece and Germany. I sure do miss him when he is away but I know he gets to explore new places of the world. I also thinks he looks so cute in his flight suit.

Jet Ski

Last Saturday the YM in our ward decided to have a beach BBQ. One of the YM counselors has a jet ski that I drove and rode on for about an hour it was so fun. Although I don't have any pictures it was a great time and my first time driving a jet ski although I have rode on one before.

Bird Feeder

When we moved into our home I thought it would be nice to buy some feeders so we could see the animals in our area. I got this really awesome bird feeder and thought about all the neat birds I might see. I first hung it from a tree in our backyard but since we don't spend too much time outside right now because it is a bit hot outside I thought I would move it outside our big front window. Well no sooner did we get an animal visitor but it was not what I expected. Well we got a squirrel instead of a bird. We have yet to see a bird at our bird feeder but the squirrels seem to like it.

Fortune Cookie Making

For any of you that are in YW/YM you know how hard it can be to come up with ideas about what to do for mutual every Wednesday Night. Well last Wednesday my good friend Jessie was in charge of the activity and she decided we would make fortune cookies. It was such a great idea. I wont tell you how many we made to make sure we got the recipe right. They were so good every last one of them I mean we couldn't let them go to waste right? We had the girls make fortunes for other girls and make the cookies for someone else. We then packaged them up and they looked so cute.

Labor Day

Our friends the Felt's invited us to go to the beach with them on Labor day so we went to Clearwater beach. It was a nice day just hanging out with our good friends. Beau their oldest son loves playing with Paul and building stuff in the sand Bronson their youngest son like destroying the things that they make. They are such cute fun kids and we love hanging out with them. Beau is such an adventurous kid that sometimes he will wander off. Paul and I went for a swim near the pier and I stopped only to find Beau behind me saying I'm following you guys. I didn't think much of it and then after being out in the water for about 10 minutes or so we saw his dad Brock walking quickly toward the pier we told Beau that maybe he might be looking for him. We headed back to the beach and Jessie had the lifeguards and Brock looking for Beau they didn't know he had been with us and following us and neither did I. Thankfully he was fine but he had a talk with the lifeguard about why he needs to tell an adult where he is.

Beer Can Island

On Friday before Labor Day Paul and I rented a boat and went out to what is known as Beer can island. It is an island right outside of the base and is covered in beer can or at least that is how it got its name I did not see any beer cans though. It was a beautiful island a beautiful day and just a fun time. We even brought Brownie along and he loved it. We did get attacked by mesquites which was not fun but we made the best of it. We brought Paul's BBQ and made shish kabobs.

Date Night

Every Friday night Paul and I go out on a date which usually consists of going some place yummy to eat and maybe renting a movie or going to a few stores. Since we always do the same thing I wanted to try something different so I was thinking about things to do in Tampa that maybe we haven't done before and since I know that we wont live here the rest of our lives I want to do everything. There is a place called Channelside where they have restaurants and it is also where the Port Of Tampa is along with the aquarium. They have a trolley that will take you from Channelside to a place called Ybor(Yes Jessie I spelled it right this time) with more places to eat and a few shops. I had never been to Ybor before so I thought this would be a fun date night. We ate at this crepe place Paul ordered a panini and I ordered a wrap and for dessert we shared a dessert crepe with nutella, peanut butter, marshmallow, strawberries and whip creme. It was so good talking about it makes me want one. Then we visited a few of the stores my favorite was this vintage shop. We found a high top show with a fish in the heel that Paul tried on just like Pee-Wee Herman wore in the movie and he also found this really neat green suit that he tried on and although it was very mad hatter looking I loved it. It was about $200 which was more than we wanted to pay but Paul seemed to have fun playing dress up. We also went into this one store where you could draw on this marble slap thing I thought Paul's picture was so cute.

Good Samaritan

Well about a week or so ago I was asked by my friend Lisa Howard (Bishops Wife) if I could help her with moving some stuff in her house to the base chapel. Of course I said yes. On our way back I saw a dog roaming around. In the past I have always tried to see if any wondering dogs would come to me in hopes that I might find their owner or take them somewhere they could be safe. In the past no luck put that day I had the best luck and it turned into a pretty neat story. So I asked Lisa if we could stop and see if this dog would come to me she said "sure" I told her of I didn't have any luck we would just go on our way. So the dog came to me and I saw it had a county tag we called the county and they gave us the name of the owners,their phone number, their address and the name of the dog which was Champ. I called the number but their was no answer so I left a message. Just as I asked Lisa if we could put the dog in her car these 2 men drive up and said they could help us get the dog over to my house since Lisa didn't have room and their house had a dog that was not friendly. So they followed us over to my house and we put him in our back yard. Just as I was going to leave the house I check the backyard to make sure everything was ok with Brownie and Champ and I couldn't find Champ anywhere. He must have jumped the fence. Paul and I looked all around the neighborhood and could not find him. I called the number back and again there was no answer I left another message saying that the dog I had was gone and felt so bad about it. 2 hours after I found Champ his owner called me and asked about Champ I told him the entire story and let him know where I lived in case he wanted to go and look for him near my house. The man thanked me and told me he would call me to let me know when and if he found his dog. Hours went by and I hadn't heard anything about Champ so I decided to call again. The man had said he had found him and that the men that had helped bring him to my house had found him back where Lisa and I had found him and took him over to him he was busy working and said he had been meaning to call me. I was so happy that he had found him. The next day the door bell rang and who was there Champ with his owner the owner had brought him by to let me know that he was alright and to thank me for all the help I was to help finding him. These are one of those stories you hear and read about that happens to someone else not me but now I have one of those stories. Brownie & Champ really got along

Base Pool

At the Air Force base they have a pool with a water slide and a diving board and after living here for 2 years this is the first time I have been there because it was always closed. It was a nice day and we even ran into the Cantwell family (John, Cherry, Gregg, Maddy & Dan) there. There was even free Marco's pizza which was so good. We went down the water slide and Paul and the guys took plenty of dives on the diving board. We even played a game of keep away the teams were Paul, John & Dan and me, Maddy and Gregg. Maddy was ruthless and kept attacking Paul John kept doing shark bites which meant he grabbed my ankles. It was so exhausting. As we were leaving we ran into the Zitto family. It was a good Saturday.