GEAUX TIGERS

As most people know, ever since I began working here in sunny Florida, I've had an on-going rivalry with my co-workers who are avid Florida Gator fans. A few weeks ago, LSU played and successfully defeated them in a notorious nail-biter game. It was glorious :) All week leading up to the game I proudly displayed my abundance of LSU gear around the office and wound up making a bet with the VP of our company (which he obviously lost) leading to an amazing day the following week during which he had to wear an LSU shirt of my choosing :) Anyway, Sayre and I actually got to go down to Gainesville for the game, and I'm sooooo glad that we did! Aside from experiencing the thrill of the game, we also got to reunite with one of our fellow NYLFers, Erik, that we met all those years ago in San Jose as well has his fiance. They were great hosts and we had such a great time tailgating with them! 

The following weekend (last weekend, actually) I flew over to Baton Rouge for a whirlwind trip to visit with family and friends since we won't get a chance to go there for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. Time flew by waaaaay too quickly, but it's always a treat to go home. I hadn't been to an LSU game in Tiger Stadium in 2 years, so I was so glad to have an opportunity to be there. I know it's hard for people that didn't grow up around the SEC to understand why everyone is sooooo football crazy in the south ;) but I guess for us, it's more than just a game - it's a community experience & an all-day event. Even if the game doesn't start until 7pm, everyone goes out to campus that morning to tailgate & catch up with old friends. It doesn't matter who you are - if you walk around campus for just a little while on game day you're bound to run into people that you know. It was just so much fun tailgating with Stacie & her friends & seeing old familiar faces. It brought back such great memories from my precious days at LSU.  :) Anyway, as game time approached, I met up with my mom and off into the stadium we went. That was the first LSU game she had been to since before I was born! We had great seats (thank yooooou once again stubhub.com) & a great time. We got home a little late since it tends to take awhile to move around the city once the game is over and 92,000+ fans are trying to leave, but when we got home dad was still awake so the three of us spent some quality time chatting about the game and looking at pictures before heading off to bed. Sunday came & went with a little more time spent visiting with family & then I was right back on the plane headed back to Jacksonville. Like I said before - it was truly a whirlwind trip, but I'm so glad I got the chance to go! 

So, what's next for us? Well, Sayre's wrapping up SWO school next week, we're going to try to use our passes to Disney World sometime in November, Thanksgiving & Christmas will be here before we know it, and then a new year will be upon us bringing about all sorts of new adventures! It's crazy... I know I say it all the time, but I just don't know where the time goes. 

Alaska & Sea World Adventures

Where, oh where, has the time gone? Tomorrow is October 1st! Oh my gosh, this year has flown by! Well, once again I've been a blogging slacker, but this past month was a rather busy one to say the least. I don't even quite know where to begin...

Well, let's see... at the very end of August I went down to Orlando with two other coworkers to take a class on Playground Safety for my job. On the third day, I took an exam to become a CPSI (Certified Playground Safety Inspector) and just last week I found out that I passed - yay!! Basically having that certification will just verify to our customers and installers that yes, I do know what I'm doing when I design these playgrounds and no, kids will not be in danger when they play on them :) The test was actually rather intense, believe-it-or-not, but I'm thankful that it's over and that I passed.

During Labor Day week we finally got to take our Alaskan summer vacation that had been postponed. Although it rained a bit while we were up there, we still had a blast! We spent our time segwaying, hiking, eating salmon, celebrating Kennan's birthday zebra-style, and enjoying some quality time up there :) It was wonderful! Annnnd we even had the opportunity to go down to Yakima, Washington at the end of our trip to visit Aly & Pat, see their new home, and celebrate Aly's white coat ceremony. Even though our trip occurred later than we had originally planned, it all worked out rather nicely.

To wrap things up in September, we decided to go on a spontaneous trip down to Sea World last Saturday. Neither one of us had been there before and we had a great time! The roller coasters were probably the highlight of the trip for us ;) but the shows there are really neat as well. We lucked out with some great weather despite the threat of rain and the temperature even seemed to drop a bit... hooray for the onset of fall! Now we just need to plan our Disney trip before the holiday season rolls around and the crowds get crazy ;)

As for the month ahead, we find ourselves once again with a busy schedule. Personally, I'm just looking forward to proudly and obnoxiously support my Tigers in the office next week because the LSU vs. Florida game will finally be upon us. They've been giving me a hard time about having graduated from LSU ever since I even interviewed there (that's to be expected though, I mean I am living in stinky old "Gator Country" now). During my first week I brought in my LSU flag and a few LSU accessories... but next week... it's ON! :)

To Infinity, And Beyond

Once again, it's hard to believe that so much time has passed since I've last updated. It seems like summer has slipped through our fingers so quickly... although, we're still definitely feeling the Florida heat! Anyway, August brought us a few more adventures including a weekend getaway to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center. We figured as long as we're living down here in Jacksonville we better take advantage of all of the fun activities around us! Anyway, above are some pictures from that adventure. We had both been their previously when we were younger but neither one of us remembered just how much there was to see there! I think they've added a few buildings & exhibits in the past few years. We spent the whole day taking it all in and we even got to see the last piece of the space shuttle that they're getting ready to bring up there. Pretty cool stuff. Also, below are some pictures from when we visited one of the very first little playgrounds that I designed when I first started working :) I happened to notice that it was built one day when I was driving home, so Sayre and I decided to go get a closer look.

Inspections, and Disney, and Planning... oh my!

It's hard to believe that July is almost over. I find myself, once again, wondering where in the world the time has gone! Sayre's been very busy lately with life on the ship... long hours and weekend workdays have kept him going non-stop, but he's been a really good sport about it. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that once they pass this beast-of-an-inspection that they have coming up, things will start to calm down a bit.

My job has kept my very occupied lately as well, but I find myself loving it more and more every day (which, for me, is hard to believe). Just this past week I was surprised and very touched to be given the first "Beyond Your Ordinary Employee" award from my bosses. Honestly, when they began saying very sweet things about the recipient of the award I never imagined they were talking about me, but then they passed the certificate my way and handed an accompanying pair of tickets to Disney World to me :) They sure do know the way to my heart! I'm so blessed to have found such an inspiring, fun, and unique place to work with such fun-loving & incredible people. Now the pressure's on to keep cranking out some fun playground designs and begin preparing for my CPSI exam at the end of August (Certification for Playground Safety Inspectors).

For now, our main focus is just making it through Sayre's ship's inspection. Unfortunately that seems to be the one thing that has been dictating our lives lately, but that's just the "Navy way." It'll all be over soon, thankfully :) and then maybe, at last, we'll be able to make our trip up to Alaska... I'm not getting my hopes up anytime soon though. If there's one thing I've learned in the past year as a military wife, it's that nothing is ever certain and flexibility is key to maintaining your sanity :) Keep your expectations low, rejoice when things work out the way you hoped, and just let it go & move on when things fall through.

The Fourth Times Two

Sunday night we celebrated the Fourth of July all over again... this time with Sayre! He's been working very long hours lately, but I guess since it was Independence Day his captain decided to have mercy on them all and gave them the day off. When he came home verrrrrry early Sunday morning after standing watch I was still half asleep as I asked him if he had gotten the day off and then subsequently told him something along the lines of, "Oh. Good. Well, Katharine & I are going to see some more fireworks tonight so you can come, but only if you want to." Hehe I'm not sure if he appreciated that at the time or not, but at least I invited him, right? Anyway, the three of us ended up having an all-American celebration complete with bar-b-qued hamburgers and some delicious lemon squares that Katharine made & a little patriotic dessert that I made as well.

After eating, we headed out to the beach to watch some fireworks. The beach was pretty packed and to our surprise (and slight horror) we found that they actually let you shoot your own fireworks right there on the beach despite the fact that it was packed with people as you wait for the real fireworks show to begin. There's no way that this is even a remotely good idea but we just made sure to duck when they were getting to close for comfort. Danger aside, we had a good time and the fireworks were, once again, a beautiful sight to see on such a wonderful holiday.

Continuing the Celebration

Ok, so maybe not everything went according to plan for my 4th of July holiday, but I'm making the most of the situation and celebrating in true patriotic-style :) Who knows... more fireworks may be in my future for the weekend too. After all, it's still only Saturday!

Happy Independence Day!

So, technically it's only July 1st, but for some reason this year (despite obvious downsides - see post below) I'm really excited about July 4th coming up! So much so, in fact, that I made these little cupcakes and brought them to work today in anticipation of Sunday and to celebrate my co-worker's birthday :) Tomorrow night = fireworks show with my neighbor!