A shining light amongst the stress...

So I've been busy. Another long day today, and two more long days ahead. But as I was sitting here thinking "I cannot write another post about school!"  a better topic hit me:

I could talk about how it's been two fabulous years with this guy. Exactly two years ago today, J and I went on our first date: a Jaguars game. A Jaguars game that kept getting rain delayed due to a ridiculous summer storm. A Jaguars game that once it started, I got soaked because it was still raining. (Side note: The Jaguars will be playing in London the next four years. I will make it to one of those games. Somehow!)

We've done some pretty cool things together:

SKIING!!! My first time skiing was on our trip to Asheville in 2010. So much fun (and in the beginning, I was better than him!)

CRUISE! We had such a blast on our cruise. He even surprised me with a balcony upgrade.

I know I drive him crazy with my school talk and my dramaticness. Sometimes, he drives me crazy with all his quirks. But I've never had someone who is so entirely there for me. The man bought me a heavy duty pencil sharpener for my room (those things are not cheap!). Last night, when I pulled my back, he took care of me and let me borrow his nifty little clay heating pad. (Thing felt amazing, let me tell ya!)He pushes me to be better, not for him, but for myself.

I love him bunches, and am so glad that he is in my life. I really wouldn't want it any other way!

It's Friday!

I can actually celebrate that it's Friday. WAHOO! Which means today is the last day of my math training. (I'm crying on the inside...not!) It's been fantastic actually, and I'm not going to lie: I might actually miss the Hippie. She's come up with even more amazing sound bites, but I keep forgetting to write them down. My mission today: write down Hippie quotes!


Anywho, I am once again linking up for High Five for Friday with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk Blog. It's fun to really look back at what made the week special. So without further adieu:

 

1. SEASON TICKETS CAME IN! WAHOOOOOOOO! Having these babies makes my brother and me even MORE pumped for football. We are first time ticket owners. This year's tickets feature some of the more prominent Jags players, including my absolute fave:

POSLUSZNY!!! He's an awesome linebacker, plus cute in that big honking football player kind of way!

2. I got to spend time with my new principal yesterday afternoon. It was a bit overwhelming, simply because of how on top of EVERYTHING she is. She told me I'm going to be grade level chair and help mentor the newbie teachers on my team. It's a bit nerve-wracking but exciting just the same!

3.  Thanks to this math training, I no longer feel like this: 

 

Source: computerrouterss.blogspot.ca via Christine on Pinterest

4.  I indulged in some amazing cheesecake yesterday at the Cheesecake Factory. Friends of mine from my old school (still really weird to say!) met up and caught up about our summers so far. It was fun. Totally forgot to take picture but oh well. (Oh and the cheesecake was the Wild Blueberry and White Chocolate Mousse one. DELICIOUS!)


5. In one week, J and I will be driving to Atlanta for the weekend. 

Drum Corps International is having a big competetion there and we've decided to make it our mini summer vacay! Kudos to you if you know what DCI is; if not, don't worry about it. I didn't know what it was until I started dating J. :)

Hopefully we'll catch a Braves game. (I will not wear any Braves paraphernalia however; got to be loyal to the dad and bro, who are HUGE Mets fans.)

There you have it! My five favorite things from the week. Don't forget to link up!

 PS. The Olympics start in one week! YESSSSSSSSS! 
PPS. I know my font's all funky; but I'm too tired to fix it. Hope ya'll don't mind!

Weekend Update

The weekend's almost over. But Nilda, aren't you on summer vacation? Isn't EVERYDAY a weekend for you? Why yes, dear reader, I am on summer vacation. But all this week I am slated to go to a Common Core Math Standards training with a focus on number sense (don't leave non-teacher friends, I promise this post is interesting!). Which means that I have to wake up at 7:00 a.m. all week long. THE HORROR!

Ha, just kidding. Not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to this training. I love the people that are giving it, so it should be a good time. On to my weekend recap:

Saturday
Yesterday morning, I woke up and went to the gym. Not only did I do my strength workout without crapping out, I also ran on the treadmill for 15 minutes and did this Pinterest workout three times:

Source: hipbonesandflatstomachs.tumblr.com via Nilda on Pinterest

I was definitely sweating up a storm by the end of it!

Later that afternoon, I went to my friend's birthday BBQ. It was fun and I got to see a few my co-workers from my old school. Plus the food was delicious!

Today
I had ALL intentions of going to the gym this morning. But I've been really diligent about going all week and it was raining when I woke up, so I chose not to go. Don't worry; my gym bag is already packed in my car. I'm planing on going to workout right after my training.

J and I decided to meet up for some lunch. I chose to wear my favorite dress because a) this summer weather is killing! and b) I wanted to look cute.

Dress is an old Forever 21 dress and shoes are old Madden Girl.

 I love the print of this dress. I can't help but feel cute and happy when I wear it!

After lunch, J and I went shopping for new shoes for him. I'm his personal stylist, so he can't seem to buy anything fashion wise without me. :) We found some great deals at Famous Footwear:

Skechers Trojo Shoes

Croc's Modi Flip Espresso

The top pair he bought because he has a similar pair but in white. He wanted a darker pair and I really liked these gray ones. J's been wanting a pair of flip flops and he got  really excited when we found this pair of brown Crocs flip flops. I approved, because they are ten times nicer looking than his beat up blue crocs! He spent fifty bucks total, because Famous Footwear was having a Buy One Get One 1/2 sale. Being the shoe lover  that I am, I was very very jealous!

All in all, it was a great weekend. Now I'm home. I'm going to ATTEMPT to go to bed at 10:00; I'll let you guys know if I was successful or not! Hope you all had fabulous weekends.

PS. Caitlin over at A Day in the Life nominated me for a Liebster Award. I'll post her questions and my nominees tomorrow. Meanwhile, go check her out!

Oh and linkin' up for YOLO Mondays and Weekend Update!

Opa!

I have the hardest times coming up with titles. I think this one SHOULD work.

Say did you know that I'm off this summer? I am. :)  I try my darndest to stay busy, but it can be tough. It helps that J works, so I can always meet him for lunch. Which is what we decided to do today since he needs to hit the hay early tonight. He has this crazy long bike ride at the crack of dawn... whoops that has nothing to do with my story! Moving on...

I went to pick him up. The guard at the front gate kind of flirted with me (he was older so it was a bit creepy!). I picked up J at his building. I'm so proud that I was able to find it on the first try! Every building in the complex looks exactly the same except for the numbers at the top...and I'm babbling so moving on!

Using Urbanspoon, I discovered that there is a Greek restaurant called Greek Isles Cafe not too far from where J works. So there we went!

When we walked in, I felt like I was in Greece. There was a huge photo of Santorini on one wall. One the other were really cute shutters painted blue like the ones in Greece.

 Cute right?

It smelled delicious when we walked in. J and I both ordered meals that came with the cafe soup. It was this delicious lemon chicken orzo soup. So light and yummy!

I order the Greek chicken tidbits over rice and J got a gyro.

Mine was delicious! Seasoned just right. J's gyro was humongous and, according to him, one of the best he's eaten.  The best part of the whole meal was that it wasn't that expensive. I got my plate and the soup for nine dollars and J got his soup and gyro for 7.

This is definitely on my list of fantastic hole in the walls. I'm pretty sure J and I will be going back; he wants to try their grape leaves and I want to try their hummus!

What's the best new restaurant you've tried recently?

Rollercoasters, water slides, and ice cream, oh my!

Happy 4th everyone! I just got back from Wild Adventures and I am BEAT! J and I met up at 7:45 this mornig. Which mean I woke up at 7, which for being summer is SUPER EARLY. I packed up some snacks and met him at his place. We were on the road by eight.

I adore road trips. Especially with J. I love talking to him (our road trip conversations included such topics as selling a house, the Publix warehouse, and road trips in general). Plus I love all the random things you see, such as this sign at the gas station:

Don' you just love it when gas stations announce their cleanliness? :)

We made it right when the park opened.

It seemed really dead to us (we are Disney/Universal Studios experts!) but that worked out because we got on all the main roller coasters fairly quickly. The first we one rode was the Boomerang:

This was one awesome roller coaster. It starts by pulling the train back up the tracks. When it lets you go you loop around a few times. It then pulls you back up and then lets you go, so you do the whole thing in reverse! AMAZING!

J's favorite roller coaster was this old wooden one called the Cheetah. Didn't get any pictures of it, but it was still a fun one. We then went on Swamp Thing, but that one sucked. No loops. No corkscrews. Nothing. At this point we were getting worried we'd done everything cool. So we went on the Ferris Wheel (the coolest thing at any theme park right?)

I should mention, J hates Ferris Wheels. I think it comes from the fact that the one at the fair is REALLY squeaky and you feel like you might fall to your death. This one did not feel like that.

J actually enjoying a Ferris Wheel ride!

While we were up on the Ferris Wheel, we noticed this cool looking coaster in the distance:

Look reallllllly carefully and find the blue roller coaster.

It looked like a roller coaster we would love, so after we got down from the wheel, we set off to find it. And we when we found it we knew it would be the coolest roller coast there.

 This was the Twisted Typhoon, a bottomless roller coaster that had so many loops and corkscrews I lost count. It was by far the best one we rode! It was also the location where I almost had to pull out the teacher voice a month early; I hate when kids are rude and their parents don't correct them!

After that, we hit the water park. I didn't take my camera to the water park; I'm a klutz and knowing me I'd drop it. But the water park was the best part of the whole park. Great slides, a nice wave pool and a relaxing lazy river. It wore us out! We decided to head back home. I really wanted some soft serveice cream, but right when we gott he stand, their machine broke. :(

But J is a great boyfriend and on the way home, spotted a sign for a Dairy Queen. It was in this Florida Welcome Center. They had some weird trinkets:

 

A little man made out shells, smoking a cigar TOTALLY reminds me of Florida. Or not? But even these creepy guys could not distract me from my goal: ICE CREAM!

 It was creamy, huge and delicious. I savored every single bite!

It's storming now, so I'm glad we made it home when we did. I hope that everyone is enjoying their Fourth!

It was a long and hot day...

Whew! Boy was it hot today! Luckily, J had the brilliant idea of going to the beach. But just like always, we went a few places before we actually hit the beach.

Place numero uno: Target. Why Target? Because my wonderful and BRAND NEW Magic Bullet broke yesterday. The little gear on my blade popped off. So we went to Target where the nice little lady let me get a new one. Cross your fingers that this one doesn't break!

Place numero dos: Subway! We were starving so we popped in at Subway. Mmmm, Subway. J and I split a foot long Black Forest Ham sandwich with all the fixins. It was delicious!

Finally, we made it to the beach!

We actually found a spot that wasn't ridiculously crowded. Now if I would have taken the picture a little more to the left or right, you would have seen the entire Jacksonville population lounging out. I kid, but seriously it was packed! (It was also 100 degrees today, can you blame them?)

J set up his awesome umbrella and we promptly got to just relaxing.

J looking at me like I'm crazy for taking a picture. 

Later, we went into the water. The temperature was absolutely perfect. The tide came in and created this great little section where you could just lay and the waves would cover you. Wonderful!

While we were at the beach, this boat came up really close to shore. You could tell they just wanted to show off to the hundreds of people at the beach.

Funny part is, they got stuck! Why? They were too close to shore! Karma sucks. :)

All in all, it was a good day. J and I had some interesting conversations, which is always a good thing. How did you spend this hot first day of July?

Date Jar: Completed!

Earlier today I wrote about how I wanted to make a date jar for J and me to use. Well mission accomplished!

Isn't it cute?

I painted the sticks green, blue and light blue. The green sticks are the ones that have more expensive date ideas:

The blue sticks have the stay at home date ideas. I left some blank so J could have some say in the dates. :)

Finally, the light blue sticks have the go out date ideas.

Some just have ideas, others have names of some of our favorite restaurants, and once again I left some blank for J.

I'm really excited to start using it. Like I said before, J and I can be really indecisive when it comes to our date ideas. I hope this helps!

Have any interesting ideas for me to add to the date jar?

Date Night in a Jar

J and I can be very indecisive at times. It'll be Friday night (our typical date night) and neither one of us can come up with anything to do. So a few weeks ago, I hit up Pinterest in the hopes of finding ideas for us. I came across this awesome idea from Life in the Greenhouse:

Basically it's a jar with different colored sticks. The different colors stand for different date categories. She even gives you interesting ideas for the sticks.

I went last week to Michael's and got all of the supplies:

I changed the colors to some of my favorite ones. They're also less girly, which is a good thing because this jar will be staying at J's place. :)

Even though I bought the supplies las tweek, I just haven't had the time to complete the jar. That will be today's focus. COMPLETE THE DATE JAR! I'll post pictures when I'm done.

How do you and your sweetie come up with date night ideas?