Monday Memories

Monday my school district had the day off to observe Veteran's Day. Luckily, Dan also had the day off, so we were able to spend some much needed time together running errands, visiting friends, and just simply spending time together. It was such a good day, that I honestly forgot to take pictures until dinner that night.

That is one happy boy there! He was seriously in heaven!

But let me start at the beginning. 

The day started off rocky. I had been up most of the night with some sort of tummy bug. Luckily after a small breakfast in the morning I was feeling better, and we headed out to my alma mater, UCF, to buy a flag for our front yard. When we got to campus, Dan was excited to play this game Ingress (it's like a combination of geocaching and capture the flag). The boy is obsessed. So we took our sweet time getting to the bookstore. Once there, were were a little disappointed by the flags they had in stock. We asked if the bookstore closer to the arena would have anything different, and they said it was a good possibility because it was the larger store. Rather than going back to the car, we decided to walk to the bookstore. Then it started raining, and I was already trying to figure out how we were going to get back to the car without getting drenched. Dan was willing to walk all the way back and come pick me up, but we both quickly realized he would never be able to find his way back to the car on his own. So, we sucked it up, and walked through the rain. It ended up not being a big deal. Fun actually.

We left campus and started heading towards Altamonte for my surprise. I've been having a lot of headaches lately, but I'm only allowed to take Tylenol while pregnant. Let's just say that Tylenol is never enough when you're use to much stronger drugs for migraines. The doctor recommended seeing a chiropractor or getting a massage. So, Dan took it upon himself to contact someone we met at friends wedding and make an appointment for me as an early anniversary gift. To put it simply, it was amazing! If frequent massages will keep the headaches at bay, sign me up!

For lunch we headed over to Chick-fil-a, and for the first time in a long time, I was able to finish my entire meal! Didn't quite finish my milkshake, but I'll take what I can get. Then we visited both of our mothers' offices and said hi to our former co-workers. I had my first experience with a stranger (well, stranger to me, she knew Dan) rubbing my belly. It was a full-on belly rub with kissing. I was told my face turned bright red. I don't know if I'm ever going to get use to people rubbing my belly....

Once my mother-in-law got off of work, we headed out to 4Rivers Smokehouse. It's a local barbecue place that has practically turned into a franchise in the last couple of years. Dan's never been, but had heard great things about it. He was totally jealous when I went without him a few months ago while at a work conference. So I promised him for his birthday we would go there for dinner. From the moment he smells hit his nose, he knew it was going to good. He tried a little bit of everything from everyone's plates at our table. I think it has officially become his new favorite restaurant. Too bad the nearest location is over an hour away from us.

Monday was seriously one of the best days we've had in a while. We didn't think about work. We didn't stress about how messy our house was. We simply enjoyed each others company and spending time with friends and family. 

Those are the good kinda days :)

Year Three

Daniel,

Today's the day to stop what we're doing, to ignore the demands, to put the world on hold.The day to remember how it all began. It's crazy to think that we've been husband and wife for three years already! It seems like just yesterday. And at the same time, I can't remember what life was like before "us." 

Three years down, many more to go! I love you! Happy Anniversary!

Hannah

Nearly a Decade

8/9/05. Second day of school. Senior year. This boy.

Student parking lot. Waiting for the line of cars to clear. Wraps me in a hug. Whispers in my ear. Girlfriend?

I cannot believe it's been nine years since we started dating! 

A lot has changed since high school. But one thing has remained the same...

You're still the biggest pain in my butt! But I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

Love you hun!

Just One: Tybee Island

"Brothers"

We just got back last night from a 4-day weekend trip to Tybee Island and Savannah. As much as I would love to have a post ready to go this morning with all the details from our trip, I don't. I promise to share everything this week though.

To hold you over until then, I thought I would share just one of my favorite pictures from the trip. I took this yesterday, the last morning of our trip, while we were walking the beach and admiring the sunrise through the clouds.

Jar of Summer Fun

Normally during my summer vacations I have a lot of time to myself. However, this year, thanks to Dan's work schedule, we have a lot more time to spend with each other. Should be a great blessing. But sometimes we run out of ideas of what to do together. So we end up spending the day in front of computer and television screens. Not exactly what we envisioned for our summer.

So, I turned to Pinterest for ideas. There were quite a few summer bucket lists out there, but none that fit everything that Dan and I wanted to do. Plus, we weren't exactly wanting a checklist. More a way to come up with an activity when we were feeling bored.

Solution? A jar and cardstock.

I took the ideas that I liked from the bucket lists and wrote them down on pieces of cardstock that I had stored away in a box. Then, I found a jar that was left over from our wedding decor and put all the activity ideas in there. But, before I did, I made sure to ask Dan if he liked the ideas that I put in there, and also asked him if there was anything else he wanted to add.

I put the jar in our dining room so that it was in a central location. Plus, we have to walk by it all day, every day, so it's a constant reminder that if we're bored, we can just pull something out of the jar. The rule is that if we pull it, we have to do it (unless its an outdoor activity and the weather is crappy). And, if it requires a little bit of travel, then we spend time planning the trip for the next day we're both home.

Here's a list of some of the activities we added to our jar:

• Go to the beach
• Walk around a local park/square
• Wash the cars
• Paper airplane contest
• Go fly a kite
• Feed the ducks
• Stargazing date on the balcony
• Play a card/board game
• Go to a local baseball game
• Have a themed movie marathon using DVDs we already own
• Make root beer floats
• Frozen yogurt date
• Go to a drive-in movie
• Go to Sea World
• Create a photo scavenger hunt competition
• Go bowling
• Try a new recipe
• Have a picnic
• Learn a new cocktail
• Random act of kindness for a stranger

Does your family make a summer bucket list? How do you organize your list? Any other activities you would add to your list?

When Your Uncle is an EMT....

....you never know when he's going to get a call. Sometimes, he gets called out 5 minutes before you show up at the station to visit. So, you go and hang out at the park behind the station until he gets back.

Luckily, on this particular trip, you brought along your cousins, so you have playmates while you wait. Time flies fast when you're having fun! Before you know it, your Uncle is back at the station and you hurry over to see him and the ambulance.

Your Uncle even brings out some of his gear to show you how it works. He answers all of your questions about what kind of calls he's been on today (although he leaves out the gross details) and why he was gone when you got there.

He stays long enough to take a few more pictures before he needs to go inside to rest.

But, he won't be able to rest because he gets another call. So you get to see him in action, getting the truck in motion and turning on the lights and sirens.

And you wave to him and the paramedic as they zip off to help someone else.

Thanks again Uncle Danny for letting us all visit you at work today!   -- Your Nephew, T

Biting Babies

So the other day we were hanging out with our nephew....

On the way back from our miniature golf adventures, our conversation turned to the topic of his mother and her relationship status. Basically it went like this:

Mother: T said the other day that the divorce needed to hurry up so mommy can get remarried and have another baby.

Danny to T: Do you want a baby brother?

T: No. A sister.

Danny: Why not a brother?

T: They bite!

I think someone has learned a thing or two from his uncles!

Genuine Smile

This past weekend we celebrated this special little girl's first birthday. It was a small gathering of family & friends. The weather was absolutely perfect! I seriously don't think her parents could have picked a better day for a birthday party in the park.

Of all the photos I took that day, this one is by far my favorite.

I've always known that Dan was good with kids. I've seen how he interacts with our nieces and nephews numerous times. But seeing moments like this are little reminders. And the fact that he didn't even know I was snapping this photo makes it that much better. The smile on his face as he's helping her walk is pure and genuine. Photos like this make me fall in love with him all over again. :)

Removing Gum from a Dryer

Two weekends ago, as I was taking clothes out of the dryer, I realized that a couple shirts had some sticky substance on them. Although I knew in my heart what it meant, I didn't want to think about the implications of it....

You see, Dan is an EMT. And as such, he wears these pants that have a million and one pockets. Why does he need so many pockets? I'm not sure I'll ever know the answer.... Anyways, I guess Dan didn't check all of his pockets before he loaded up the washing machine. And of course I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when I was transferring all the clothes over to the dryer. But, heat does wonders to a pack of gum hidden in pockets....

Yep. That happened. In our brand new dryer.

(Sorry for the blurry pics. These were taken on my cell phone pretty late at night.)

I tried my best to keep calm. It was only gum. Not the end of the world. What I was more upset about was the fact that three of my newer shirts were ruined. Into the trash they went. I kept reminding myself that it was only three - it could have been much worse. And, ironically enough, none of Dan's work clothes ended up with the green, spearmint substance all over it. Not even residue in the pockets. How does that happen?

Dan felt horrible. The gum was all over the drum of the dryer. We had no idea how to even start removing it all. It was too late to call our parents for their sage advice. Dan decided to read the manual and see if there were any recommendations. Nothing. Then, he decided to call the 1-800 number on the manual. Surprisingly, someone answered on the other end despite it being pretty late at night. Dan fessed up to his mistake and asked if they knew any possible solutions.

Their recommendation? Rub ice on the gum, then use a non-metal object to scrape it off the drum.

We used an old, expired debit card that we still had lying around to do the scrapping with. Took a lot of elbow grease, but worked like a charm! 

Since it was late, we didn't bother to remove all of the gum right away. Instead, we took the clothes that were in the washer and hung them up in our bathroom to line dry (like we did when dryer went kaputs the first time).

Luckily, we weren't in a rush to do any laundry the next couple of days, so we let the dryer sit the way it was until Dan had a day off of work to scrap off all the gunk. He said he used about 8-10 ice cubes to do the entire drum. And that it didn't take quite as long as he thought it would. He was finished removing the gum before the towels finished in the washing machine.

We decided to run a load of towels through first because I figured it would be easier (and cheaper) to replace old towels than it would be to have to shop for, try on, and replace clothes. Results? No sticky, spearmint gum! We both breathed a sigh of relief!

Hopefully, none of you ever have this problem happen to you. But, if it does, keep calm! Nothing a some ice and a little bit of elbow grease won't solve. As for the clothes that may get ruined, remember: they're just clothes.

Anyone else have to scrap gum off of their machine? Or maybe it was something else left behind in the pockets of your loved ones? I'm think crayons would be a beast to remove from a dryer....

Found

I mentioned yesterday that my primary USB that I use for all of my school stuff bit the dust over the weekend.

Wah wah wah.

So, since he wasn't on shift today, I asked Dan to call around to the techie places and see (1) if it was possible to pull the files off of the device and (2) how much it would cost. And in between classes, I got this:

I figured it was going to cost us to get that stuff off of the pen drive, but I never fathomed it'd cost that much!

At that point I pretty much resolved myself to the fact that all of the information that I had accumulated over the past 3 years was gone. I had made peace with it.

Then, I get the next text from Dan telling me to call him after the next class was over. When I was able to call, he told me that I would owe him big time....

He had figured out Sunday night that a small metal piece was broken/loose on the chip inside the device. I had asked him not to fiddle with it for fear of him making it worse. Well, since he assumed we weren't going to be paying Geek Squad to fix it and they were our last resort, that fiddling wouldn't hurt it. He got out his soldering gun and tinkered away.

And he got it to work!

Well, he got it to work long enough to get the information off of it. Which honestly was all I cared about. I can get another USB drive. But the information was what I was most excited about. No longer was everything lost. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief.

Lesson learned. Never, ever, EVER go too long without backing up the information on a USB or even on your computer. I hope I never put myself into this situation again!

Night Shift

Today my husband graduated from what his company calls their Milestones of Excellence. It's the last step before being put on a full-time shift rotation. There was a super simple ceremony where all of the new EMTs and Paramedics received their certificates of completion. So simple, in fact, that I was the only spouse who showed up. Awkward.... Afterwards they took the obligatory group photo.

Hubby on the far right

Once everyone's photo had been taken, they all waited to be told one-by-one what their assigned shift would be. Dan was the last one to be taken back into the office. Which means he pretty much got the short end of the stick...

For the next two weeks Dan is picking up odd shifts just to make sure he gets his 80 hours in. After that, he'll officially be on night shift. He'll have every other weekend off. But on the days he is working, the only time we'll be able to see each other is dinner time. He'll be leaving shortly after dinner and won't get home until I've already started my day at school. Our sleeping schedules will be totally opposite one another, so I can only imagine the issues that are going to come with that...

I shouldn't complain. I know I should be thankful that Dan even has a job. That wasn't a guarantee earlier this summer. But from previous conversations with the company, we had anticipated and started making plans for a totally different shift. We basically feel like we've been pitched a curve ball. But it still sucks. The only light at the end of this tunnel is that the night shift gig doesn't have to be permanent. As other shifts open up, Dan can bid for them; but, being the new guy means he'll be at a disadvantage in that bidding game. So fingers crossed that this shift change happens sooner rather than later.

So that's what is new with the Hubby. After graduation we headed over to my classroom to do a little more work on it. The new paint job looks great! Now it's just rearranging the furniture, hanging up posters, and cleaning everything. I can't wait to show you pictures! First day of school: 22 days and counting...

Happy News

I was brainstorming some posts ideas last week and was planning on sitting down and writing a post about how much pressure it is to be the only person bringing in any sort of income to the household. Before the Hubby quit his job, we knew that we'd be fine through the summer. It was when the school year kicked back in that I was growing more and more nervous about.

But then Monday, as I was coming home from a workshop, I got a phone call from Dan saying that he had been offered a full-time, paid position with the EMS service he had been volunteering for!!!

Words cannot express how happy I am! I'm so proud of him and all the hard work he has put into this dream job. Three years of hard work has finally paid off.

Now we've just got to get use to this new sleeping schedule that comes with working long shifts on odd days.... I'll get back to you on that :)

10 Ways We Are Different

Dan has been home quite a bit this summer in between volunteer shifts and it has led to a lot of random conversations. One such conversation was about how different we are from each other. So I made a list:

1. Let's start with something easy. Dan has blue eyes that occasionally look grey. I was born with brown eyes that, over time, have started turning greener.

2. He will eat practically anything that has chocolate in it. The darker the better! Me? Plain ole vanilla please! If I'm going to eat chocolate, I prefer white chocolate.

3. When making PB&J, the boy will slather on the peanut butter. The more the merrier! I put just enough PB to cover the bread, but slather on the jelly to the point where I think it won't squeeze out the sides when I eat it.

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4. Dan likes things because they are practical, functional, and comfortable. I like things because they are pretty. Although comfortable is a definite plus... I think this is how a lot of men/women are when it comes to decor.

5. My husband is very much an outdoorsy, get down and dirty type of guy. I, on the other hand, am your classic couch potato. I'm perfectly content with being a homebody.

6. He hates English, History and Government. He would rather tinker around and figure out how things work. And...Well.... I'm a history teacher....

7. When we travel to amusement parks, Dan is the thrill seeker. He has never met a roller coaster he didn't want to ride. This girl? Total bag holder. Spinning tea cups and ferris wheels are where I'm comfortable.

8. The more meat on his pizza, the happier the boy is. But you can hold the meat for me. Actually, no meat at all and extra cheese.

9. Dan easily tans when he's in the sun. Seriously! You should see the picture on his license from when he was a lifeguard one summer. I, on the other hand, burn if I'm in direct sunlight for more than 10 minutes. I wish I was joking...

10. He tends to fall asleep laying on his back and doesn't move again until morning. I'm a total side sleeper and it takes me forever to get comfortable.

Although we have a lot of differences, they give us the ability to playfully tease each other and keep us laughing. How are you and your significant other different? Is the old adage "opposites attract" true? 

Mini Vacation

Dan and I have been wanting to take a mini vacation ever since we got back from our honeymoon a year and a half ago. Get away, just the two of us, and relax. The problem? Mini vacations cost money. And since we've been working our debt snowball, vacations were never in our budget. But, since we recently paid off my car and Dan's car is the last thing on our debt snowball, we thought it was okay to reward ourselves a little bit. Nothing to extreme or over the top. Simple.

Considering Dan's last day at work is this Friday and he's got a couple days before he reports for training (more on that here), now seemed like the perfect time to escape. Some might think we're crazy. You're going to be a one income family. Are you sure you should really be spending money on a vacation right now? The way we look at it is if we don't do it now, there's no telling when the next chance will come along. But we've kept those exact thoughts in mind as we planned this trip and kept the budget low with the intentions of saving every extra penny this summer until we know what the future holds in terms of jobs and incomes.

Originally we wanted to go to the Keys, but realized that it was going to be way too expensive. So, I thought about our maps and all the places that we've said we wanted to travel to and, although it wasn't initially on our maps, came up with a semi-nearby location only a few hours away.

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The beautiful, historic Savannah, Georgia. And....

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....Tybee Island (yes, the place from The Last Song and The Conspirator).

We're so excited to get away for a few days and explore a new city! Since I've been out of school and home all day, I've spent lots of time online researching the local landmarks and restaurants. I seriously cannot wait to see everything Savannah and Tybee have to offer.

The next couple days I'll be getting the apartment ready and packing our bags, and hopefully this time next week I'll be back with a post full of pictures (even if they are all cell phone pics) of our adventures in Savannah and Tybee. 

Two Week Notice

Dan and I have been talking a lot lately about our future and what the next couple of years will look like for us. When do we want kids? Soon. When do we want to start looking for a house? Soon. Where do we want that house to be? Depends on where we are working. Are we happy where we are currently working? No. Well, I'm happy. Dan, not so much.

Dan has been working at the same place for 5 years now. He took a little hiatus for a couple weeks to test out his firefighting skills, but when that fell through, his boss graciously hired him back on. Since then, the practice was bought out by a local, big name hospital and things have gone down hill. Before, he had the opportunity to advance within the practice. Now, because he doesn't have a college degree, the hospital won't even look twice at his resume and consider him for a supervisory or managerial position. So, basically, he's reached the proverbial glass ceiling.  At 25 years old being told that you can't advance any further, you have no chance of a pay increase (with the exception of cost of living raises, which still aren't guaranteed), and you aren't as important to this organization as you were before you left to pursue your dream.....well, it sucks.

So Dan has been looking for jobs closer to home. Right now he drives two hours to get to work and two hours back. No fun when you hate your job. But he's had no luck in finding anything closer - he's only had one interview. The only light we're seeing at the end of the tunnel is the fact that he's volunteering with a local EMS company and they're willing to help him sharpen his skills. Considering its been at least 3 years since Dan originally got his EMT licensing, his skills are a little rusty.

It's because of this light at the end of the tunnel, that we've decided to take a big leap.... After talking it over (and over and over) and crunching numbers (over and over), we've decided to become a one-income household. Dan officially put in his two week notice on Thursday, so now I can freely talk about our plans and post them online without the fear of his job somehow finding out.

Every new hire at the EMS company goes through a six week new hire course. Being a volunteer, Dan isn't required to go through the entire six weeks at once - there would be no way since the company won't pay volunteers to do that. But, he's encouraged to work his way through the course as he can. But, if Dan can get the entire six week course done, he's as qualified as a new hire and could potentially get hired on the minute they have a new position open. He's gotten the first week of the course completed, and was trying to figure out how to do the rest over the weekends. Turns out they're starting a new course the first week of June.

So, Dan came up with the crazy idea to quit his full time job and basically work for the EMS company for free and get this course done. I'm trying to look at it like my teaching internship - you're going to put in a lot of time to a company, busting your butt to learn the ins and outs of the profession, and you're going to do it all at no cost to them. To say I was hesitant is an understatement. Having only one income to rely on is scary. Having to do so over the summer when I'm not getting steady paychecks is even scarier. But, Dan has faith that it'll all work out, and I have to have faith in his decision.

To say I'm not worried would be a lie. But I will say that I'm proud of Dan for taking such a big leap and putting in all the hard work that he has to achieve his goal. Fingers crossed that by the end of the summer I'll be writing another update post saying that all this hard work has paid off and Dan is officially a full-time EMT.

Weekend Adventures: Swimming with Manatees

Hello everyone. Long time, no posting. This semester is seriously kicking my butt. I'm at school an hour earlier than I need to be, everyday, and I'm usually staying two hours after the final bell rings catching up on grading or helping students study for their next test. Progress reports have already been handed out, which means we only have a few more weeks until Spring Break!

Anyways, I'm getting way off topic, aren't I? What does school have to do with manatees? Absolutely nothing. Time to get back on track.... shall we?

I mentioned that one of our new year's resolutions this year was to go swimming with the manatees. It wasn't a hard resolution to accomplish considering my mother-in-law gifted Dan with vouchers for his birthday back in November. We finally got around to booking a trip last month.

Early one Saturday we headed out to Crystal River, which was a little over an hour drive. We got to the dive shop a little early. Considering I had never been inside a dive shop before, this place was pretty cool. Equipment... souvenirs... anything you could need to go snorkeling or diving, they had it. They even had an indoor dive pool for their scuba diving certification course. Let me tell you, Dan was like a kid in a candy store!

We checked in, signed waivers, and got our wet suits, fins, and snorkels.

Now, I've never worn a wet suit before. The only thing I had to reference were all of those TV shows and movies where the character has the hardest time getting into one. In reality, it wasn't that bad. The only thing I really struggled with was zipping it up. Now, wet suits aren't flattering on anyone (especially at the butt crack of dawn), but we both sucked it in up and took pictures while we waited for the rest of our group to show up.

We saw that patch at the shop after our tour was over, and I simply couldn't resist posting this on Instagram!

Our tour guide was named Deanna. She was awesome! Really personable and answered all the questions our group had. Although, there weren't a whole lot of questions considering there were only 6 of us on the tour. Yep, 3 couples. Wanna guess which couple was the youngest? It's okay, we're pretty use to it where we live.

Anyways, we took a quick trip down Crystal River to get to the spot.

When we first got there, there wasn't a whole lot of people in the swimming hole. It was kinda nice being able to swim around without plowing into anyone. Because later on, another tour group of about 30 people showed up... yeah, things got a little crowded. But we still had a pretty good time.

We purchased one of those underwater cameras to take on the tour. The pictures didn't turn out all that great. People kicking around dirt in a shallow swimming area. Manatees eating plants on the bottom of the swimming hole. Basically, it was really cloudy once you got in the swimming hole. It was so bad, that you'd be floating on top, and all of a sudden a manatee would appear below you from out of no where trying to surface for air. 

So, interesting fact we learned on our tour: Citrus County is only county in Florida that allows you to touch the manatee. Manatee are protected by more laws than there are fingers on my hand (we had to watch a video before we went on the tour). If you come across them while boating or fishing, you're suppose to leave them alone. But, considering most of Citrus County is manatee habitat, they have been granted special permission to host tours into the rivers for people to get up close and personal.

Oh, and another interesting fact: Manatees are slimy, but rough and bumpy at the same time. Most will have scars on their backs. They'll also have algae growing on their backs because they are such slow moving creatures.

All in all we had a great time. The hot cocoa that was served back on board our little boat was the cherry on top (remember, we did this tour in the middle of January!). 

If you're ever in the area and you want to snorkel with the manatees, I'd highly recommend this place. It's a little on the pricey side (if you bring your own equipment you'll pay much less), but its definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Check one off the bucket/resolutions list!

Anyone else out there ever swam with the manatees? Or maybe dolphins? That's another thing on my bucket list... I've pet dolphins and fed them fish, but never swam with them. How cool would that be?!

P.S. While we were out in Crystal River, we dropped off the geocoin we found on our first geocaching adventure. So far, it doesn't appear as though anyone else has found it yet. But we keep checking in on it to see where it travels next!