New town, new job!

Ok, so pictures of the house soon! I have been busy busy lately! Nick and I have only been in Jacksonville a little over 2 weeks and already this is week 2 of work! We had exactly one week to get the house finished decorated and all the boxes unpacked before we started work....And, we did it! Our house is a home! But, onward we go and work, work, work it is! Who does that? Take a break...get settled, breathe before you start a new job...not me! Plus, I am going to school online! Actually, I am supposed to be finishing an assignment right now...must get back to it, but I will post pictures by the end of the week!

P.S.- People keep asking what my job is, I am the Assistant Director at the Sylvan Learning Center here in Jacksonville Florida. I am going to school to get my credentials to teach, so working with kids was an easy fit.

Younger for 2 more weeks!

It was Nick's 26 birthday this week! That means I get to be younger than him for 2 weeks before I also turn 26! I revel in these two weeks every year!!!

For Nick's birthday, we took a break from unpacking our house and went to the beach for a few hours... I am mad at myself for not taking a photo of Nick, he got so splotchy from not properly applying sun screen! He looked like he had hives on his chest and back! After the beach, I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen whipping up Nick a homemade birthday dinner!

Manicotti, tomato basil soup, asparagus, garlic bread and wine...yum yum! (Yes, Nick has quite a beard in this picture...he has been on strike from shaving!)
Then ice-cream cake for dessert...no, sadly I didn't make that. The cake is from Brewsters Icecream, an awesome ice-cream chain in Florida that is so delicious!
The next night, we had some Mexican food! We cracked open the bottle of Tequila Nick's dad got us...they were some of the best margaritas I have ever had! Thanks Pete!

Another day in the state of Florida

A lesson of cause and effect:

Movers were almost 10 hours late to pick up our stuff

due to the tardiness of the movers, we were not able to clean our house until way later

because it took so long cleaning, we were not able to leave the day we planned

however, I had a job interview the next day

therefore I had to drive to JAX on 4 hours of sleep to make it to my interview on time

Outcome=I still rocked the interview and got the job with little sleep and a horse voice

Lesson learned=expect the unexpected when the Military is moving you…the end

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Beretta in our new Florida room in our house in Jacksonville! We had to put her in her kennel in the Florida room while the movers were unloading our boxes, because she did not like the movers! Look at that poor face!

Out of her kennel, B is loving her new backyard!

This is our backyard in our new house. There are 2 lime trees and the middle tree, we think is not actually a lime tree but a nectarine tree of some sort...when it is in full bloom, we will find out! But the two outside trees are full of ready to squeeze limes!

Our beautiful limes! They are no small limes either! They are big and green and plentiful!

The move...

Our entire driveway was covered in boxes!
This is what our house in Milton looked like just before the movers loaded the truck!

My Puppy obsession!

Last night in between the movers packing and Nick and I cleaning, we decided to take a break and go see our friends the Butterfields. They just got a new yellow lab puppy named Henry! He is soooo cute!It is too bad we are moving, cause Beretta loved Henry!

Moving day!

This is my first experience having the Navy move us. The other two moves Nick and I have done, we moved ourselves because we were able to make a lot of money. However, for this move, we were not going to be able to make very much money, and so we opted to let the military move us. It has been nice having someone else pack our stuff. Next they are going to load our stuff, drive our stuff to our new house and even unload everything! That is what I call awesome!!! ...Until today...

Today Nick and I woke up early for movers that never showed! We were told they would be here sometime between 7 and 10 AM, and by 3PM they still weren't here!!! By that time, I had already gone to the doctor, the dentist, cleaned the light fixtures, and had lunch with our friends the Semke's! (By the way, they brought us Publics subs for lunch...wow! If you haven't tried them, you should, they are fantastic!!!) So after about 20 phone calls (literally, it got annoying), they told us, the movers were on their way. The movers FINALLY got here at 4PM! 4PM!!!! We are leaving tomorrow morning and still have to clean and shampoo the carpets! We can't clean until they get the boxes out of our house. Seriously, it is a maze in here! Beretta has had a hard time getting around the boxes. We are crammed and therefore can not do very much, but there is still so much to do! So, needless to say, we will be getting a LATE start tomorrow!

As I type this, Nick and I are sitting on our lawn chairs watching the movers sweat while they lift and load our heavy stuff! Heehee! Thank goodness it isn't me! I guess for that it is worth it! However, they did box up my phone yesterday! Yep, that's right, my cell phone! I couldn't find my cell phone and asked Nick to call it. So, we walked around the house listening for it, and sure enough, one of the boxes that the movers had packed, was ringing! I was told they would pack everything, unless told otherwise, but I still was surprised they would pack a working cell phone that was not only turned on, but that had been ringing all day!

We got the beat...

We got back home to Milton, Florida at 3:15AM after staying in Jacksonville to watch the Sooners play their first football game of the season. (Not a good game, don't really want to talk about it! Our QB got hurt and is in serious need of prayers!) But, Nick and I are dedicated fans, so driving through the night was a sacrifice to watch the game, we were willing to make!!! Then after finally getting home, and unpacking from our trip, we crashed only to wake up what seemed a few hours later to meet some friends at the river. After a few fun hours on a pontoon (where I learned there are lots and lots of gators, and therefore did not get into the water!!!), we came home to pack for the move. :( Thank goodness we are not moving ourselves...this in one of the things about the military I LOVE! However, we are doing a partial dity (do it yourself) move, so there are still things we have to do before the movers come on Tuesday. Not fun! I am already ready for this week to be over! However, saying goodbye to all of my favorite people who are still in the Pensacola area is going to be hard.

Hooray for a House!!!

I have been feeling like the Bachelorette lately and not in a good way!

After 4 days of house hunting, we had it narrowed down to 2 houses we liked. Nick and I went to bed last night weighing the pros and cons of both...we just couldn't decide between the two! But, just for grins, we decided to look at one more house this morning. Of course, we loved this house too! So we filled in our 3rd application and turned it in. Then had to play the waiting game...which realtor would call us back first? (Like the Bachelorette, which I admit I watch obsessively, we had 3 houses to choose from, we liked them all and couldn't decide which one we liked the best!) But, after talking about it all afternoon, we decided that the third house had everything the other 2 lacked and the cons really were non-existent! As fate would have it, even though it was the last house we saw, the last application we turned in, the realtor from the 3rd house called us back 1st!!!!!!

So, we have a house now!!!!!! Yeah yeah! (And it's a good thing because we move here in less than a week!) It is huge...3 bedrooms, 2 bonus rooms, a florida room (a screened in back porch where you can entertain without getting eaten up by mosquitos), 2 bathrooms, kitchen, dining, living room, 2 car garage, a laundry room (seriously, in all of the houses we looked at here in Jacksonville, the washer & dryer were in the garage??? Apparently this is a Florida thing, and I do not like it!) and lastly a fenced in backyard with 3 lime trees!!!! The limes are big and beautiful! Cocktails here we come!!!

I will be posting pics next week when we get the keys!!! Stay tuned...

House Hunting Blues!

Yes, we have had 3 full days of house hunting and still haven't found one yet!!! (I know Sarah, it seems crazy...but it's true!) Tomorrow is day 4, and I am hopeful (sort of). We have narrowed it down to 3, but of course, have found something wrong with all 3. Therefore, we are looking at more houses tomorrow! Thank goodness we are only renting...if we were buying, we would be here a month! Nonetheless, the movers will be taking our stuff in a week, so we have to find a house by Friday!

Hopefully, I will be back on here tomorrow with great news that we found our house! (Fingers are crossed!)