Taking a break!

With as much work as we've been doing around the house on the weekends, we haven't had much time for fun stuff. On Sunday we took a break and headed on down to the Keys for the day to fish with my Godparents. The weather was beautiful, but the seas were quite bumpy. Much  more bumpy than the weather forecast called for. I get motion sickness and I held in there pretty good for most of the day, but it finally hit me and I decided I wasn't feeling too hot. I took my usual spot flat on the deck of the boat (trust me, you feel much less rocking) and missed out on most of the fish catching. Sad :-(  Fortunately, no chunks were blown and I felt fine as soon as we hit calmer water. We got to watch a beautiful sunset while the boys were cleaning fish....(no amazing catches to take pics of, just a few small Dolphin)

We stopped for a nice dinner, and then made our way home. It's so nice being 2 hours from paradise. It made for a very long day, and a sleepy Monday, but a break is a break, and it was nice to get away. Sickness and all. There is no such thing as a bad day in the Keys!

So sorry about my absence...

But not really...

You see, I've been very busy this month.

I spent 3 days in the Keys doing some of this....

Came home to un-pack, re-pack, sleep in my own bed for 1 night, and then took off to North Carolina to spend a few days with this sweet face.

Totally valid excuse for being absent, right???

So if you were upset about my absence, I'm still only a little bit sorry. Will you forgive me? I'll try and fill you in with some more adorableness soon to redeem myself.

Honey, I'm HOME!

So much for posting from my way cool new phone. Whoops... I was a little bit too busy for all that!

I had a great time on my road trip with Lissa. She only almost killed us once, and only almost blew up the truck twice. KIDDING! Mostly.... I may have failed to mention that her new truck is a stick-shift, and she hasn't ever owned one of them things before! It was interesting to say the least. I'll spare you the random pictures of clouds and Welcome signs I took along the way, but I have to share at least ONE picture in this post! It's pretty exciting too, well, I was excited. The whole way through South Carolina I kept seeing all these billboards for this place called "South of the Border". I figured it must be an awesome restaurant or something. Nope. It's an amusement park. And it wasn't even in South Carolina. It was in North Carolina.

I was amused....

The rest of my trip was fairly un-eventful, but really awesome! I got to spend 3 days with my amazing family in Kentucky! I hadn't seen most of them in over a year, and it was great! We didn't really take any pictures, because we didn't really do anything exciting enough to take pictures of, but that was just fine with me! There is literally only one picture to prove that I was even there. I was watching Dora the Explorer with my 2 year old cousin. Okay, okay, you really want to see more than one picture in this post? Here you go.

See, exciting, right?

I came home with a nasty cold and felt pretty crappy on Thanksgiving. So much so that I missed out on most of the yummy food :( Thank goodness my mom promised to make me some of my favorites for Christmas dinner since she stayed in Kentucky and I had Thanksgiving with the Boy's family. His Momma is a great cook too, but I sure do miss some of the traditional stuff my Mommy makes! I better not get sick for Christmas!

The next day, we headed down to the Keys. But.... I spent the weekend in our hotel room while the Boy went fishing with my Godparents. I tried to go out on Saturday, but wound up having them bring me in because I was so sick. Grrrr.... There are some GREAT pictures of the awesome catch the Boy got, but.... not on my camera, so I don't have any.

This post is turning out to be rather lame, huh? I blame my sickies.

Today was rather eventful. Not exactly in a good way... but, eventful none the less....

You'll have to check back tomorrow to hear all about it though. Right now, I'm gonna go take some cough syrup for the first time in about 10 years and try to sleep away the sickies.

And.... we're back!

We are back from our third, and final, trip to the Keys this summer. This time we stayed with Ed's sister and brother in law at a friend's condo. We fished... we lobstered... we snorkeled... fished some more, and had a fantastic time!

The first day of fishing was productive... At first, all we caught were these teeny tiny tuna...

But we progressed to some big ones after that and came in with 3 nice Black Fin for dinner. YUM!

The next day we went lobstering.

Then snorkeling at a reef.

These fish just come RIGHT up to you! It's the coolest thing!!!!

We fished for a bit after that but didn't catch anything dinner worthy. Just some big low quality tuna that we kept for bait.

On our last day we parted with the siblings and my Godparents joined us for the day. We went almost 30 miles offshore and had a fantastic day of fishing!

The weather was pretty gorgeous for most of the day. The water was smooth as glass, and we brought home a Wahoo, and 7 Black Fin!!! Unfortunately, a big huge storm blew in while we were out there so we got wet on the ride in and didn't take any pictures.

We loaded up the boat in the rain, drove home in the rain, lost the tread off our trailer tire in Miami and had to change it on the side of the road, got home at like midnight, and cleaned fish and unloaded until about 2 am. Thank goodness I got to sleep in the next day! The boy on the other hand had to get up early and go on shift at the fire department. I'm pretty sure he's still trying to recover....

Sadly, I'm back to school on Monday... and my summer adventures are over. But we are looking into going back down within the next few months and staying at Hawks Cay because they are discounting their rooms for "local heroes". I can't wait!!!!!

Did ya miss me?

Did you even notice I was gone?!?!?!

Maybe not... but in my absence, I've been a busy little girl!

I started my first semester of RN school.

I took a crazy busy trip to the Keys for Mini Lobster Season in the middle of my semester.

And I PASSED my first semester of RN school. YAY me!

I'm sure you're much more interested in seeing pics from the Keys though, right?!?!?!

Yeah, I thought so...

We travel in style - can't have just one boat!

Nope... we brought two!

One for offshore, and one for the flats - DUH!

Spent some time at the private beach watching the sunset where the Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker made an appearance and Mango Margaritas were had by all!

The catch! Day 2 of Mini Season

(I actually traveled back home mid-week for school, hence why it was "crazy busy", and missed the first part of Day 1, so I have no pictures. Sadness!)

Saw a gorgeous sunset while coming in from fishing 30 miles offshore!

(we came in with empty fish boxes, but at least we saw a cool sunset!)

Sooooo pretty!!!

And then we came down the canal to the house right as it was disappearing....

It was a gorgeous end to a wonderful trip!

Good news is, I'm out of school for 2 weeks, and I'm going back again this weekend! Ha!

VACATION!

All I ever wanted... Vacation.... Had to get away!!!!!

That was our theme song this past weekend as we took off to the Florida Keys with 2 other couples for a short getaway :) The perks of living 2 hours from Islamorada is that we don't have to plan these trips forever in advance and can be there in a heartbeat. Love it!

We stayed at a GORGEOUS townhouse...

The boy wasted NO time and got right to makin' some Bahama Mama's with his new Frozen Concoction Maker!

Very soon after our arrival, we packed up the blender and took off to the beach in our new boat!

We spent some time floating around with our Frozen Concoctions!

The girls had way too much fun playing with a noodle...

We watched for manatees in the canals.

We swam with the fishes and even saw a stingray and a turtle!

We caught some fishes... (but I spent more time un-hooking Jenn's fishes than catching my own!)

We dressed up pretty to watch the sunset and have dinner... and we visited the Tiki Bar after!

And then on our last day we did a bit more fishing, Kimmy caught some reef, and we said goodbye and headed back home.

With as much time as I spend in the Keys, I have NEVER stayed in a hotel down there. (I'm lucky enough to have grandparents with a vacation house down there that we usually stay at, or we rent a house with my godparents during lobster season) I have to say, I was pleased with the experience, and I would definitely recommend the Lime Tree Bay Resort to you if you are ever looking for a place to stay. It's a little bit south of Islamorada, but close enough to not be inconvenient. We stayed in the Zane Grey Townhouses (which was VERY nice), but they have lots of different kinds of rooms of various sizes and they offer great amenities such as free Wi-fi, Kayak use, Pools, boat dockage, etc. The rooms were very clean, and fairly priced. The only problem was that parking was a little bit tight for us at the townhouse because we had a truck, car, and SUV... but it wasn't anything we couldn't work out. Overall, it was a nice experience, and good times were had with great friends.

(and the bahama mama's were nice too!!!)

Just... Chillin'!

That's what I'll be doin' in just a few short weeks! I just booked a three bedroom townhouse at a resort in the Keys for me, the boy, and 2 other couples and I'm super excited! It's gonna be my last shabang before headin' back to the books for the next year in RN school. We're taking the boat, and just CHILLIN' for three whole days!

I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find me on one of these at some point, but I can't promise that I'll get up if you need me!

Farewell crazy mangoes...

My 10 day break just FLEW by! I knew it would, but it's still annoying! I'm not all that disappointed though. I got to do almost everything I wanted. I didn't have as many lazy/boring days to get little non-important things done as I thought I would, but that's okay too.

I let my nails grow out, and painted them a nice BRIGHT color.

Mangoes Loco to be exact!

I spent a day with my bestest friend from high school, and spent that evening with another special friend from high school. We went to see Time Travelers Wife, ate some pizza, and stood around in the parking lot reminiscing about the good ol' days for a few hours!

And then... thankfully... the storms that were heading towards Florida decided to stay far far away, and we took a last minute trip to the keys! So I packed up my shorts, tank tops, flip flops, and bikini's... and the boyfriend took me and my Crazy Mangoes down to paradise for 4 days :)

I love the keys, and our lazy days on the boat out in the sun!

I made it back in time for Jess's bridal shower on Sunday, and on Monday it was time to say goodbye to my Crazy Mangoes, and get back to the books! School started off in full force and we had our first test today. (In case you care, I got an 87) Tomorrow I have my first day of clinicals, so I was able to slack a bit and relax tonight since I don't have anything to prepare for.... Hopefully I have some time to get a little bit ahead of the game this weekend so I can spend some more time relaxing next week, but I doubt it. We have LOTS going on this weekend, and I have 2 tests next week, back to back! I'll try my hardest though, stick with me!

OH! And I almost forgot!!!! Happy 100th Post to ME!

A whole TEN. DAYS. OFF!

Yes, that's right... I have successfully completed Term 2 (with a B!!!!!) and I now have TEN whole days off from school! Yesterday was my first full day off, and I spent it doing productive things I have been meaning to get done, and then spent some time with family (which was also much needed). But now... what to do with the next 9 days? I'm not exactly sure of what all I will be doing, but here are some things I for sure will/will NOT be doing!

• I will NOT be filing my nails down on a regular basis so that they don't pass my fingertips
• I WILL keep polish on those nails, not just the colors you can see through
• I will NOT wear all white sneakers every day
• I will NOT wake up every day at 6:45 (really more like 7....but I won't do that either)
• I WILL spend time in/by my pool
• I WILL play with my puppy dog
• I WILL spend at least one day with my friends
• I WILL get some projects finished (and share them on my blog!)
• I WILL read a book, just for fun
• I WILL get the homework done that my teacher assigned (because she's a butt) so that I'm not behind when I start Term 3. (I'm not excited about this, but it needs to be done)

Anyone else got ideas for things I should do while I'm off? It's going to fly by soooo fast, I just know it! :(

We're goin' to Kentucky, we're goin' to Kentucky!!! So I'm a little excited.. Sittin' at the terminal, waitin' to board the plane. We'll be there soon!!