Steven And Kristen

It’s almost that time again folks.  College football is about to return.  This weekend we will be enjoying our first tailgating session and football game of the season at UCF and we are really looking forward to it.

This year we changed our seats and we are not on the sidelines.  This also gave us the opportunity to get a parking pass and therefore we will be able to park near the stadium and our walk back after the game will be much more enjoyable.  No more trekking a mile across campus after the game.  I can’t wait for that!

Be on the lookout for pictures of our festivities sometime next week.  College football is back!!!

Go Knights!!

Most of you know that we take a yearly trip to Key West.  This year was no different.  Our trip usually takes place in August and this year our initial thought was that we would be able to avoid Lobsterfest.  We were wrong about that… but the trip was still great.

Wednesday morning I dropped Jack off on my way to work. He did fairly well in the new car.  I think he still was not 100% sure of it.  I don’t know that he likes being so far away from me in the front seat.  I used to be able to reach back and pet him at lights and this time he was definitely too far away for that.  Steven and I both took half days at work.  So, we were on our way fairly early after finishing up some last minute packing.

Steven driving us to South Florida

Wednesday evening we made it safe and sound to South Florida and Mom and Dad Y’s house.  We had a yummy dinner (chicken parm) and tried to get to bed at a fairly decent time to prepare for our drive the next day.

Thursday morning we were up bright and early ready to take on the Keys.  We left the house around 8am and started the 4 hour trek to Key West.  As usual, we stopped in Key Largo to pick up Subway before heading down to Bahia Honda.  We also stopped at Bass Pro (or whatever it is called in Islamorada) to get out of the car and stretch our legs.  The overcast sky made it difficult to see the Tarpon out behind the store.

Steven behind Bass Pro

Check out the sky in the background. That rain only held off so long...

The weather was not the best we have had in our years of taking our Key West trip but the rain held off long enough for us to have our picnic lunch and get into the water.  It was the first time I can remember that I have been in the ocean while it has been raining.

Our view at lunch

After swimming for a while we changed and finished the remaining hour or so drive to Key West.  We checked into the Marriott without any issues and were on our way to dinner fairly quickly.  As usual, we ate dinner our first night at Alonso’s.  They have amazing smoke fish dip and the entrees there are all really good.  I can’t recall what everyone else had but I had this amazing grilled shrimp with rice.

Outside of Alonso's

Mom & Dad Y outside of Alonso's

After dinner we walked down the boardwalk and stopped for ice cream at one of the little shops.  We didn’t stay out too late because we knew we would need to be up early to catch the Yankee Freedom II to the Dry Tortugas the next morning.

The moon from the harbor

Friday morning arrived very quickly.  I was still quite tired from all the activities the day before but we were all excited to take our second trip to the Dry Tortugas.  The only downfall was the weather.  It was definitely not as pretty as last year.  It didn’t put much of a damper on the day overall though.  We caught the ferry in the morning (I say that like we didn’t have tickets and you can just show up… but we did have tickets so it wasn’t like we actually “caught” it).  We had the continental breakfast on the boat and relaxed during the 2 1/2 hour boat ride.  We played quite a bit of Rummy 500 (and Mom Y demolished us).  We went up to see the captain in the bridge and to see the water from his point of view.

Riding the boat to the Dry Tortugas

When we arrived at the Dry Tortugas it was raining so we decided to put our stuff on a bench and go explore the fort a bit while we waited for lunch to be served on the boat.

The view of the ferry from inside the fort

The view from the top of Fort Jefferson

After eating lunch on the boat we ventured into the water to do some snorkeling.  Unfortunately the weather created a less clear water environment.  It was still easy enough to see the bottom and the fish.  We didn’t see quite as many fish this time as we did last time (and no sharks either) but the coral are still beautiful there.  The current was really strong and Steven easily swam through it with his fins but I had to take numerous breaks to rest as I couldn’t touch the ground most of the time and felt like I was constantly swimming against the current.

Resting...

The coral along the moat wall

More coral

On the way back to shore we passed through the largest school of bait fish I have ever seen and quickly realized if we wanted to see fish we should have been hanging out here. There were two huge tarpon (and reportedly a barracuda though we never saw him) hanging out here looking for easy food.

The huge school of fish

After changing we boarded the boat again for the 2 1/2 hour ride back to Key West.  As would be our luck, the weather cleared up beautifully for our departure.  Seriously… the same thing happened to use at Bahia Honda.  The weather was against us.

Steven on the Yankee Freedom II

On the Yankee Freedom II

You can also get to the Dry Tortugas by seaplane. I would love to do this someday.

Until next year...

Once arriving back in Key West we had dinner at Turtle Kraals.  Again, dinner was yummy.  After dinner we were pretty tired so we went back to the hotel.  We were lucky enough to beat the sunset back and I got some great pictures behind our hotel.

The dock behind our hotel at sunset

Some people live in boats just off the shore. This person was rowing back to his boat for the evening.

Saturday was our last full day in Key West.  We had breakfast at Denny’s before going to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.  Again, the weather was just okay.  It wasn’t raining like the days before (at least not right on us) but the tide seemed to be coming in or something because it was bringing some seaweed with it.  Other than that, it was another great beach day.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

Swimming in the ocean at Fort Zachary Taylor

The rain in the distance did create a gorgeous rainbow

Mom Y & Steven walking on the beach

After swimming we went back to the hotel to clean up and then went to Friday’s for lunch.  That afternoon Steven and I headed out to Duval to check out the Lobsterfest activities.  This year we really thought we were going to avoid Lobsterfest but found out a few weeks before leaving that we didn’t do so well with that.

That's a lot of lobster!

We bought a few items and went back to the hotel.  The only issue is that one of the items we bought was a shirt for Steven and upon getting back to the hotel and opening it, we learned it was a size too small.  So… we had to drive back to Duval and Steven dropped me off to go get it exchanged while he circled Key West.  That wasn’t fun in the heat.  Oh well.  For dinner that night we stayed away from Duval and decided to just have Outback near the hotel.  After dinner we went to Mallory Square for the sunset festival.  This is definitely one of my favorite things about Key West.  Even with all the poor weather we had, there was never a sunset that wasn’t more beautiful than the last.

On our way to Mallory Square... even the bronze figurines want pictures of me. Just kidding!

Sunset at Mallory Square

I can't claim this picture... Mom Y took it. I really need a telephoto lens...

It was another great end to another great Key West trip.  Sunday we packed it all up and headed home.

The next week were back in the swing of things.  It was preplanning week for me and of course, Steven is always busy.  School starts this week and I am excited to be back in my schools.  This year I have 3 schools and I am the OCASP President, Lead Log Facilitator, and I serve as the gifted rep for my learning community as well as one of the members of the gifted task force so it should be a busy/crazy year.  I’m tired just thinking about it….  I think it might be time for another vacation…

I’ll just have to wait until Vegas in September.

This weekend we found a new car.  We are now the proud owners of (not only a super useful Toyota Tundra already but also) a 2011 Chevy Equinox.  We had the most charming English salesman at Carl Black Chevrolet.  The Equinox is a super desirable vehicle right now so we bought this one sight unseen.  Technically we viewed it prior to any money changing hands but I never test drove it on Sunday.  I didn’t even drive an Equinox.  There were not any on the lot that fit the specifications that I wanted.  Okay, there was one on the lot and it was a V6 in lieu of a 4 cylinder so it would have driven different.  I drove the GMC Terrain instead which is essentially the same car with a different body style.  Based on that and my prior viewings of various Equinoxes, we were able to make a deal.  We got a great trade in on my old car.  It surprised us that they offered us more than Kelly Blue Book said the car was worth.  It was the end of the month though and they are getting ready to get the 2012s in so they likely wanted to get rid of as many 2011s as possible.

The car is equipped with a bunch of exciting features including On Star, XM radio, a backup camera, an Eco boost button (that increases your gas mileage), and more controls that I can name off the top of my head.

So, without further ado, here is the newest addition to the family.  (Jack even has “doggy airbags” in the back of the car. Though he’s not as excited about that as I am.)

I promised a few more pictures from the weekend that Mom and Dad Y came to spend with us for Steven and Dad Y’s birthday.  These are from Mom Y’s camera.

Mom and Dad Y visited Steven at the farm. This is my favorite time of year at the farm. It's when all the trees are pretty.

At Dinner at the Lobster Shanty.

The view from the pier at the Lobster Shanty.

Going to Cocoa Beach Pier

Mom and Dad Y on the pier

Last weekend we finally went through with it, and had a screen installed for our porch.  We have been wanting to do this since we moved into the house and had to put it off for a while.  It is perfect!  We are going to change the light fixtures out at some point and install fans.

We love having a place to sit (at night right now because it is way too hot during the day) and just relax while we are outside.  We both love the outdoors but we both have issues with mosquitoes so this is perfect.  Jack likes it too… except when he has to go out and then he can’t get back in unless someone opens the door for him.  I just know he must be jealous of thumbs.

See? He's looking at me as if to say "And we're going in now right??"

Oops!  I pulled out Mr. Rebel and realized that he still had pictures on him that were never posted to the website and they should have been…

These pictures were taken in May of this year (1 year… and 1 month) from our closing on the house.  Goodness!  How it has changed…

Steven’s birthday has a tendency to hang around for a while.  =)  Really, it is because usually his parents are unable to make it up on his birthday and so they often come the following weekend.  This year was no different.  In reality, I bet it’s kind of nice to have your birthday reincarnated a week later.

Before we get to that point though, I should mention that his birthday also last a couple of days sometimes if it falls on a weekend.  On Saturday (Steven’s actual birthday) we went to Cocoa Beach as you know from my earlier post.  On Sunday, Ryan came over to watch the Women’s World Cup and we were all disappointed with the loss to Japan.  We picked ourselves up though and still had a great evening at Texas de Brazil.  Yum!  For anyone that has never had the opportunity to experience the meat sweats or meat coma that come along with Texas de Brazil… You’re missing out.  We didn’t have to wait very long before being seated and Steven and Ryan did require just a bit of coaxing to actually eat something from the salad bar before turning their card from red to green and trying a bit of every type of meat brought to the table.

Steven and Ryan at Texas de Brazil... and no, I have no idea what that dude in the background is all about...

Steven and me at Texas de Brazil

Prepping but not quite ready to flip to green yet

The aftermath. What you don't see are the plates that the waiter already removed from the table.

Steven’s parents arrived on Friday evening.  The day had been really long for me as I was waiting around most of the day for the screen installer to get to the house.  That’s right, we finally went forward with getting our porch screened in.  It is SO nice!  We have spent a lot of time out there the past few days despite the ridiculous heat.  Anyway, he was still there when Steven got home and Mom and Dad Y arrived.  So, we had to push back dinner a bit.  That’s okay though, I made salmon dip for an appetizer so we held ourselves over on that.  Dinner was super yummy and cooked on our new porch.  Well, cooked on the grill that is on our newly remodeled porch.  Steven grilled barbecue chicken that I had been marinating all day.  I made mashed potatoes and we had a “mashed potato bar”.  I had bacon bits (that I made, not bought in a container at the store), butter, chives, onions, cheese, and sour cream available so people could add whatever they wanted to their potatoes.  It was a big hit.  I also made green beans with bacon and slivered almonds and Steven grilled garlic bread.  For desert we had my mom’s cheesecake.  Well, I made it, but it is her recipe.  Yummy!  Steven and Dad Y opened gifts after dinner.

Dad Y opening up the cigars that he thought we couldn't find and he really wanted.

Steven with his new bright orange shirt. He'll never be missed on the farm. This shirt is BRIGHT!

Steven also got one of the Guitar Hero games and like any other 12 year old in a 29 year old's body, he opened it immediately to play.

Jack gets excited with present opening too so he tried to bring Steven his bone as a gift. Unfortunately we all know he is just regifting and that's just tacky. Guess it's the thought that counts though.

Saturday we had a fairly busy day.  First we got up early to take a dip in the pool.  We had it all to ourselves for over an hour and a half.  It was really nice and a good way to beat the heat that was already climbing.  After that (and showers) we went to Froggers for lunch.  They have a really good cheeseburger there.  Joe had told me it was good and everyone (except Steven who had wings) decided to try it.  It was yummy.  Then we all traipsed down to Rooms to Go and picked out the sofa table for the house.  Granted, I actually picked it out a week before but Steven was finally able to see it and we ordered it.  It won’t be delivered until mid-August but I’m excited to get it in place.  It is technically the last piece of furniture for the house that we were originally planning to get when we moved in a year ago.  While we are still missing a few pictures and other odds and ends (like curtains in a few rooms) the house is done.  After that we went to a neighborhood right behind ours to look at the houses being built.  Mom and Dad Y are going to move eventually and it was just an option.  We all really liked the houses but the development is too far along and there are not any home sites that struck anyone’s fancy.  The builder has a development in Tampa apparently as well so that could be considered too.  Our day had been really long at that point and we went home to rest up before our drive to Cocoa Beach for dinner.

Later that afternoon we headed out to Cocoa Beach.  We had a yummy dinner at the Lobster Shanty.  The Lobster Shanty is one of those places where the actual dinner is actually not what you go there for.  They have phenomenal corn fritters and a yummy salad bar.  Then after dinner you can go out back to the pier to feed these ravenous catfish that act like they have been deprived of sustenance for, well, always.  Liars.

It was a bit dark and these things move too fast... so here is a blurry picture of the obviously deprived catfish.

The view from the pier behind Lobster Shanty

Hanging out on the pier. Did I mention how HOT it was??

There are more pictures but I’ll have to wait for Mom Y to send them to me.  =)  After dinner we went to Cocoa Beach Surf Shop and Ron Jons.  Steven and I both found new bathing suits for our quickly approaching annual trip to Key West.  After shopping we went to the pier.  Steven and I usually go during the day and we eat at the pier which gets us out onto the end of the pier for free.  Usually you have to pay $1 a person but we lucked out and apparently after a certain time each day, it is free to go out onto the pier.  The view was awesome!  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we were on the west coast and could have seen the sunset.

On the pier. I'd like to point out that these people in the background are swimming at feeding time in a location that definitely has sharks. You would never catch me doing that.

It must be sea turtle nesting season. We saw another one of these on a different part of Cocoa Beach last week when we went on Steven's birthday.

It was starting to get dark but still these crazy people continue swimming.

On our drive home that night we all saw something we had never seen before.  There was a lot of smoke coming from somewhere to the South of the road we were on and when we got to the point of passing where the smoke was originating from, in the dark, you could see a huge fire burning.  For anyone that doesn’t live in Florida (though I don’t think we have a lot of those people or at least ones that didn’t live in Florida at one point in time), these are not uncommon this time of the year but none of us had ever seen one.  It was actually sort of frightening knowing that this was fairly close to where we were and it definitely did not look contained.  It could have been since looks can be deceiving but it was still a sight.

Sunday morning we got up to discover that during the night it finally happened.  We have always worried that one day, someone was going to park their car on the side of the street our house is on and they are going to get clipped.  So, Steven goes out to get the paper in the morning and notices Mom and Dad Y’s review mirror in front of the neighbor’s house.  Sure enough, someone managed to sideswipe their car the night before.  It was definitely a red car so we are now on the lookout for a red car with damage.  Not sure what we would do or what difference it would make, but people sure are cowards that they just drove away and didn’t leave a note or knock on the door or anything when they did it.  Seriously, cowards.  Mom and Dad Y did go to the pool with us that morning which we didn’t have to ourselves but the left soon after since they were a bit concerned about driving with a missing mirror and they just wanted to get home.  Their car is now being fixed and will likely take a couple of weeks so we might end up renting a car to go to Key West in two weeks.

So, Steven’s birthday weekend definitely ended with a bang (or rather, it was probably a loud scraping noise).

I should have pictures of the new screen enclosure coming shortly.  As soon as I take them, that is…  We are also going to be going car shopping this weekend so there could be some pictures of that coming soon as well.  I can only hope!  My car is definitely on its last leg and the cost to fix the issues has now severely over-shot the value of the car itself.  So, if we find something that I love and we get a good enough deal I could be rolling in a new ride shortly.  Pardon my gangsta talk.  I’m just cool like that.

Then in two weeks, we are taking this show on the road.  The very long road (or couple of roads) that leads down to Key West.  Our annual trip is quickly approaching.  We are going to Bahia Honda, of course, and taking the day trip to the Dry Tortugas again.  Should be fun!  We thought we were going to avoid Lobster Fest this year but found out yesterday that it is going to take place on the weekend we are there.  That’s good and bad.  Bad because everything is more crowded but good because it brings with it a really cool ambiance.

Until next time… stay thirsty my friends.  (I have no idea what I’m talking about… I just felt that this entry required an obvious stopping point and that is the first thing that came to my mind.)

About 3 years ago here on the farm we were having problems with communication from our PLC controllers out in the field that control the pumps.  They are supposed to be in constant communication with the main computer in the main office so it can monitor pressure and flow and send out alerts if there is a problem with the system.  We had an older radio communication system that was failing so we invested in a new system.  It was the first time this radio company had ever worked with a farm before so they wanted to do a case study for some marketing material.  They did all the interviews with me and collected all the information but I never got to see the final outcome of the study.  Yesterday a member of our marketing team was searching the Internet and actually ran across it.  So below is the link to the PDF file for the case study.  It’s kind of technical so not everyone is going to understand everything.  Also, it’s made to be a fold-up pamphlet so watch the numbers in the bottom corners of each page as you might have to jump around to stay in order.  Enjoy!

http://www.data-linc.com/pdffiles/Rockwell/CherryLakeTreeFarm.pdf

July is always a BUSY month for us.  It starts at the beginning of the month with my birthday, the following week is our anniversary and the week after that has Steven’s birthday.  In between some of that and throughout July we also have Dad Young’s and Joe’s birthdays along with the birthdays of quite a few of our friends.  July is a popular month apparently.  While our celebrations are not quite yet over, it seems like time to share some pictures from my birthday and just a few from Steven’s.  I’m a terrible wife and while Steven took a picture of me opening each of my gifts, I took none of him.  I promise to do that next weekend when his parents are in town and he is opening their gifts.  For now, here are our birthdays in pictures…

On my birthday weekend my parents came to visit and stayed with us for the weekend.  Rick and his girlfriend, Rachel, came to visit for a BBQ on Sunday.  Mom took me shopping for my birthday to pick out some new clothes (that actually fit).  We went to dinner at Outback on my birthday.

For Steven’s birthday we went to Cocoa Beach.  We had a blast!  We swam in the freezing water, walked on the beach, visited the surf shops, and had lunch on the pier.  After the beach he opened his gifts from me as well as from Julie and Eric.  For dinner we went to Urban Flats downtown and then went to see Horrible Bosses.  It was hilarious!!  After the movie we got frozen yogurt and then headed home.  It was quite a busy day.  Tonight we are going to Texas de Brasil to be put into a meat coma.  It is a joint celebration of our anniversary and his birthday.  Should be yummy!

Somehow Dad Young made it up here in the middle of the night to leave a present for Steven. Interesting that his handwriting resembles mine so much...

On the pier

Steven with his birthday margarita on the pier

Steven's new cornhole boards. Bring on football season!!!

Hola everyone!

As many of you (like we have that many readers…) know, I have been working on losing some weight this year.  A quick recap for anyone that might not know:

In January I saw a picture of myself and determined that enough was enough.  It was time to actually follow through with what I have said I planned to do for years.  I was at the highest weight I have been in… well… ever.  Ugh!  Anyway, for the past 6 months I have been working on my weight loss journey.  I have been calorie counting and working out as much as possible.

Herein lies my issue… summer.  Yeah, summer.  I thought that since I work during the summer I would have no issues with being bored and overeating (I’m a bored eater) and that isn’t so much my problem.  My problem is the amount of birthdays and other celebrations we have that occur during summer.  Specifically, July.  Between my birthday, our anniversary, and Steven’s birthday I am definitely not sticking to my “diet”.  Oops!

Also, I work 10 hour days so the gym is out during the week.  To combat this, I am not meeting up with the devil nightly.  No, not the DEVIL-devil.  Jillian Michaels, the devil.  I have started doing the 30 Day Shred.  The 30 DS works on a circuit training method during which you do 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs three times (with warm and and stretching the workout is about 25 minutes total.)  Hence the “circuit” in circuit training.  By the way, you do all this with NO breaks.  I’m pretty sure JM has a camera in my house because each time I consider a break to get a drink or just not do what I’m supposed to be doing, she mentions how you can’t take breaks.  The woman is crazy.  The plus is that I am now on Day 7 (though I have taken a few breaks in days here and there so I should be on Day 10) and my stamina has increased ten fold.  The first day I found that I couldn’t make it through any one circuit (specifically the strength moves) without a 5 second break.  Now, I can not only do all the strength moves but I can do all the abs and about 90% of the cardio.  Jumping jacks really kick my butt (ironic that I can always make it through the butt kicks though when I really am kicking my butt).

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  So far I am down almost 35 lbs.  I have been plateau’d at the same weight for almost 1 month now but I’m so close to my “goal” weight that it isn’t bothering me too much.  I feel much better in my own skin and actually enjoy shopping for clothes now.  Perhaps too much.  Steven is not very excited with my new found love of clothing.