Blasting to Jupiter and Exploring a Magical World

As usual, I've been slacking on my posting. A lot has happened since my last post, so I've decided to make a few separate posts, in order of the events. I figure this will also help with the ridiculously long posts. :o)


Erik and me at Havana Hideout.

On April 1, we headed down to Jupiter, FL with some friends from our life group. We stayed in a three-story, four bedroom condo for completely free. We were just minutes from the beach, and even made a trip down to Havana Hideout, a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It's a cuban restaurant and it had really good food. Erik got the two-handed tacos and I got tamales. Everything was delicious! Affer lunch we went to the beach and then all grabbed some take-out food and brought back to the condo. We had a great weekend and really enjoyed fellowship time with the people in our life group. This is our community now, and it was nice to be able to spend a whole weekend with them.



Taking a break to enjoy our delicious butterbeer!

 After a fun couple days with our life group buddies, we ventured out to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios for Universal Knights. Every year, UCF hosts a free night at at one of the Universal them parks for students and their guests. This year they chose Islands of Adventure, and we were thrilled to go explore the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWHP). We had an excellent time and really enjoyed ourselves. I got Erik to go on the Dragon Challenge (formerly Dueling Dragons) and he loved it. We even rode it twice! I was very impressed with the WWHP and the authenicness. We of course had some famous butterbeer, and it was just as delicious as I had heard! For those wondering, it tastes like a combination of root beer and cream soda. The frothy part on top is not just foam. It's sweet and creamy, and lasts all the way to the bottom. If you ever go to the WWHP, you must try it! You'll spend some time in line, but it is worth the wait. I promise. We also went to other parts of IA, and had a great night walking around and riding rides.. It was definitely a highlight of the recent months! View my Facebook for a whole album of our day at Universal. I was so excited that I got a little picture happy. One of my friends said I posted so many pictures, it felt like she was there. =) Enjoy!

You can look forward to reading about my birthday and our one year wedding anniversary (which is actually today!) I promise to be faithful and post them within the next few days. Thanks everyone!

November News

Well I am now in my third week of working at Applebee's and it is going all right so far. I haven't been getting as many shifts or making as much money as I had hoped, but I have faith that it will get better as I am there longer and become more established. It's easy to remember how much they valued me back at the Applebee's in Bloomington and feel discouraged, but it took time for that to happen. Even though I am a transfer and not brand new, I still have to prove myself. Plus there are a lot of people who have been there a long time and of course they're going to get priority in scheduling. It's nice to be productive and making money though. Overall I am enjoying myself.

I have also been keeping myself busy by reading. In the last two weeks I have read five books. I've got one more to get through and three more on the way. The Orlando Public Library lets you order books online and then they ship them to you for free. It usually takes a week or two, but it's totally worth it. I've been reading Meg Cabot and Nicholas Sparks. Any suggestions on some other books I may enjoy??

For those who don't know, I decided not to take the sales position at David's Bridal. I put a lot of thought and consideration (even some research) into it, and I feel at peace with my decision. Apparently in order to even get a commission, I would have had to make $12,000 in sales per pay period. That's pretty high, especially with the low prices David's offers. If I was only working part-time it would be even more difficult, especially until January which is when the busy season starts. Until then I am almost positive I never would have made commission (which is only 8% after the $12,000 sales mark). If I didn't hit that goal I would just make minimum wage ($7.25/hour here). Not only would I have had to work every Saturday and Sunday, but that is a busy store and I have a feeling it would have been really stressful. I would have taken the job if it was my only chance at making money, but I would much rather work a job I am more familiar with, and I certainly don't need to be overloaded on stress by working both jobs. We don't need the money that much. I appreciate all the comments and help I received though!

Thanksgiving is coming up, can you believe it!? Erik and I have been looking for some good recipes. Is cooking a turkey hard? Lol, I'm afraid I'm going to ruin it. Why has no one ever showed me how to make a Thanksgiving dinner before? Although it'll be sad not being with our families, we're really looking forward to being home at Christmas time. We haven't booked our plane tickets yet, but right now we're thinking about flying in December 22 and heading back here the 29th. We weren't necessarily planning to stay that long, but those happen to be the dates with the cheapest tickets. Hopefully it'll be okay to get that much time off of work. Erik will have a whole month off for winter break AND he will continue getting paid, which is a huge blessing! The semester is wrapping up for him and he hasn't had a ton to do, which has been nice.

My grandparents (mom's parents) and me on
Easter Sunday when I was probably 7 or 8.

Yesterday marked the one year of my grandma's passing, and it was pretty sad for me. She was a really great person and I loved her very much. She was my last living grandparent, and probably the hardest to lose. I miss her a lot and can't believe it has already been a year since I received the terrible news of her passing. It was especially hard to hear because I had been planning to go home to see her just two days later. I resent not being able to say goodbye to her and the fact that she missed my wedding by just five months, but I know she is up in Heaven with our Lord, and that is very comforting to me. My grandfather has been gone for almost 10 years now, which is even more unbelievable. I wish I had gotten more time with him, but I will always cherish the memories I have with both of them.

Thanks for reading my long update, everyone! I guess I should post more often so these don't have to be so lengthy. Who's seeing (or has already seen) Harry Potter this weekend!? We're going tomorrow and I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!