Visit to Nole Country

This weekend was full of many exciting things...starting with our first wedding gift! Rachel (one of Jess's bridesmaids) and her boyfriend, Fabian, sent Jess a medium-sized, fairly light box, which she was instructed not to open without Zak. Thankfully, Jess was visiting Zak in Tallahassee a few days later, so the waiting wasn't too unbearable. The box contained two gifts and two cards, with explicit instructions as to the order in which they were to be opened. We opened the first card and present and found a porcelain parrot (apparently no home is complete without one) and Rachel and Fabian were kind enough to supply us with our very own. Next, we got two "I heart NY" t-shirts (Rachel and Fabian live in the city). Finally, we opened a musical card that said WE WERE GOING TO NEW YORK! Rachel, Fabian, and the Reynolds family are buying Zak and I tickets to visit them in the city sometime this Fall. We were completely in shock and are so SO grateful and excited to go!! We're hoping to go sometime in late October.

We love you Rach and Fabian and can't wait to see you!

The rest of the weekend was filled with looking at apartments, wandering around FSU campus, eating yummy BBQ, shopping for mattresses, sweet tea, moving Becky in, and watching the Olympics. It was great helping Becky move in and seeing her awesome new apartment...we know where we'll be spending a lot of our time!! We'll be glad to help Becky make use of her pool, hammocks, full-size indoor basketball court, pool tables, big screen TVs, etc. :-) We also bought a mattress (so Zak finally has a bed other than an air mattress!), and think we found the area of town that we would like to live in. After driving by, we also decided that we are NOT living in FSU married housing. Just think: chain link fence, barbed wire, police tape around one building, playgrounds overgrown by vines and missing roofs. Sketchy. No thanks.

Jess started her internship on Monday. This week is pre-planning and next Monday the kiddies arrive. She's placed in an ESE resource classroom and will have 1st and 3rd grade reading and math groups. It's going to be a challenging semester, but definitely a great experience. Zak will start his orientation next week and register classes, which begin the following week. The rest of the year will be busy and exciting--especially December!! Only four and a half months!

love, z&j

it's official

Zak has officially relocated from Orlando to Tallahassee as of Sunday afternoon. He started work as a valet at a hospital in Tally Monday morning and will be working full days there at least four days/week until school starts. Right now he's sleeping on an air mattress in a room with no furniture (!) but should be getting a mattress, bed frame, dresser and desk in the next two weeks or so. Starting around August 20, he'll be attending FSU and history department orientations, registering for class and starting school! Hopefully he's able to get the classes that he's interested in and still be able to work two days a week as a valet for a little extra saving money. Less than 5 months to go! (15o days to be exact....)

love, z&j

oh those summer niiiiiiiiights

For the past two weeks, my parents rented a home in Pass-A-Grille, a small beach town just south of St. Petersburg. I took time off work and got to spend the whole two weeks there with my Mom and Max (our dog), while other various people came and visited for a couple of days. Over the course of the stay, we saw my aunt, uncle and cousins, my grandparents, Zak, my brother and his girlfriend, Chelsea, my Dad, Becky and her Mom, and our old neighbors, the Stewarts. At one point there were TWELVE of us staying in the little 3 bedroom house. It was a bit crowded and sometimes hectic, but so much fun!

Some highlights from the trip:
-Seeing dolphins while we were swimming in the gulf.
-Learning that crabs can swim on top of the water and pinch you. (Who knew?!)
-Eating a restaurants on decks overlooking the gulf and getting lots of seafood.
-Playing Canasta. A lot.
-Walking to the beach .8 miles from our house.
-Wedding planning.
-Swimming in a pool filled with 4 inflatable gators, 2 normal size beach balls, 1 ginormous beach ball, 1 frisbee, 4 spalsh bombs, 1 football, 1 Hannah Montana Raft, and tons of diving sticks.
-Beautiful sunsets.
-Getting to be with family and friends!

Here's a few photos we took at sunset on the jetty one night while Zak was visiting:





Can't believe summer's almost over, but this was a perfect end to it! love, z&j

Disney Fun!

My reading endorsement classes ended last Thursday, so after work I headed to Orlando for a weekend of relaxation and celebration. Friday and Saturday we went swimming, laid by the pool, made hot dogs, played Canasta, watched Olympic Trials, made cookie cake and read. If you ever want an amazing dessert, spread Publix chocolate chip cookie dough on a cookie sheet, bake, and top with whipped vanilla icing. Seriously. It's incredible.

On Sunday we headed to Disney Coronado Springs Resort where we met up with Zak's parents, and his sister and her family. Kerri and Charlie brought Logan (who just turned 4) and Emma (who just turned 2) down from Georgia for their first Disney experience and we were lucky enough to tag along! Emma has started talking a LOT more and calls Zak 'Gwak' and me 'Jexca.' It's adorable.

We headed to Magic Kingdom on Monday and went on Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain right away. Logan enjoyed Splash Mountain (he warned us all beforehand that we would get 'wetted') but was NOT a fan of Thunder Mountain. Unfortunately, after Thunder Mountain he assumed that all rides entailed darkness, loud noises, and really fast roller coasters. This led to a kicking and screaming fit as we were loading the boats of 'It's A Small World.' As we were on the boat he was yelling "I want to get off! Go the other way!" It took him awhile to calm down because he expected a drop around every corner but by the sixth repetition of the song he stopped crying and was doing okay. Emma's mouth was dropped wide open for the entire duration of the ride and she was pointing at everything! Even though Logan scared half the kids getting on the ride (who probably thought they were headed to their doom) we figure that it will be a GREAT story to tell at his wedding. Remember when you were scared to death of It's a Small World?

After that fiasco, we decided to skip the indoor dark rides like Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion. Logan loved driving the race cars, Philharmagic Orchestra and, most of all, meeting the characters. Emma was not such a fan and never let go of Kerri. She had her nose wrinkled the entire time she was anywhere near the characters, but she did tap Pluto's nose and exclaimed, "I touched it!" Emma's favorite thing of all was the light parade that night. She was waving at every single float and, again, had her mouth wide open. So, so cute!

It was so much fun getting to be there for Logan and Emma's first Disney experience and we're lucky to have such great family. Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy!

love, z&j

just stopped by to say

SIX MONTHS TO GO!!!

that is all.

love, z&j

officially a triathlete!

Yesterday was the Jacksonville Sprint Triathlon and I survived! Zak and I rode up to Jax with my friend Jenn, who also did the triathlon, and her husband, Adam, and were able to stay with friends of theirs. They live about 45 minutes away from Little Talbot Island State Park, so we got up at 5 Saturday morning, loaded the bikes, and drove out for the race. The sun was beginning to rise as we got to the race site, and we picked up our registration packets and checked in for the race. In our packets we had our race numbers to pin on our shirt, a sticker for the front of our helmets, and a sticker for the bike. We also got a swim cap, coded by color for each age group. Mine was lucky yellow!

Afterwards, you went to the body-marking area where they wrote our numbers on both arms, both legs, and put your age group on the back of one leg. I had an 'N' for novice.

Before the race, we had to rack our bikes in the transition area. You hang the bike by the seat on a horizontal rack, and then set up your towel, socks, sneakers, and helmet to be ready for after the swim. Around 7:30 we all went down the boardwalk for the first wave of racers to begin. Each wave started about 3 minutes apart and were sorted by men and women over 39 and under 39. My wave included novice (people who have never done a triathlon before), clydesdale (larger men) and athena (larger women).

When the siren went off to begin the race we ran into the ocean until it was deep enough to swim. The course was 100 meters out to a buoy, 200 meters parallel to the shore, and 100 meters back into shore. I was ready for the distance because I've been training in the pool, but swimming around and on top of a bunch of people was interesting. Also keep in mind that my group included clydesdale, men over 200 pounds, so I was trying to maneuver myself past them, and avoid being kicked. It was really hard to swim with the waves rocking you, no visibility through your goggles, trying to stay on course, and getting salt water in your mouth. I finished the swim fine, but when I got out of the ocean my mouth was tasting very dried out and salty! Not a nice feeling to begin running with, but it was time to begin the transition.

We ran up the beach, across a boardwalk, through the parking lot, and into the transition area, all in bare feet. Once we got there we had to take off our swim cap and goggles, put on shirt, socks and sneakers, clip our helmet before you unracked the bike, and run the bike through to the next transition line. I was afraid I would forget something, but it all went by too quick for me to think. From the transition, we began the 10 mile bike.

The bike was the most boring part for me because by this time most of the racers were pretty spread out. I felt like I was by myself for the majority of the ride, so I couldn't pace myself very well. I thought I was in last place, but I realized when I reached the turn around point that there were plenty of people behind me, I just didn't see them. After the 10 miles, we rode back into the same transition area, reracked the bike, and took off for a 3 mile run.

I knew that this transition would be difficult, but I had NO idea! My legs felt like jelly. By this point, the sun was up, and it was really, really hot. There was absolutely no shade on the run, and 1 water station 1/2 mile into the run, and the same one, 1/2 mile from the finish line. That means we had no water for 2 miles. I ended up alternating running with speed walking just because I couldn't make my legs do anymore. I was SO happy to see the finish line and get a bottle of cold water. My goal was to finish in under an hour and a half and I finished in 1 hour, 19 minutes, so I was very excited!!!


Zak was my personal cheerleader, and official photographer. He got some great shots of Jenn and I before the race, and stayed at each transition point to get some sweet action shots. You can see all the pictures here. Afterwards, we hit Cracker Barrel for an amazing after-the-race feast. We noticed that people were looking at us funny and couldn't figure out why until we realized that Jenn and I still had our numbers written all over us. We think that they suspected us as prison inmates, or mental patients on release for the weekend. After stuffing ourselves we headed back to gville to relax. All in all, a great, although somewhat exhausting, weekend!

decisions decisions decisions

We started registering for stuff a few weekends ago in Orlando, and it was so much fun! It was a lot harder than we thought it would be because there are so many options. A few of our many dilemmas: Do we want an ultra power blender? A blender that is also a food processor? A blender that coordinates with our hand-mixer and toaster oven? What exactly is the difference between 'mega-power' and 'super-power' blenders? We were also in the store wondering exactly how much fruit you would have to eat to make it worth while to buy a cherry pitter, mango slicer, pineapple corer, apple-corer/peeler/slicer, juicer, etc. etc.
We got a free super sweet red swiss army knife bag at Macy's, and were continuously offered free drinks and/or pretzels at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Zak stayed strong and didn't accept any bribery, but I went for the soda. Despite a few complications due to sales people not speaking English, we enjoyed ourselves, and were excited to pick out things for wherever we may be living! We bought our bedspread at the beginning of the summer because it was on sale, and I'm in love with it. Definitely my favorite thing so far.

So we are now officially registered at Crate and Barrel, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Macy's! We added the links to our wedding website, also. Our invitations have been ordered, florist and musicians are FINALLY booked, and we are moving right along!
This weekend we head to Jacksonville because I'm doing a triathlon with my friend Jenn. Zak and her husband, Adam, are going to be our cheerleaders. The race starts with a 400 meter swim in the Atlantic Ocean, then a 10 mile bike ride, followed by a 5K run. Pictures to come! (As long as I survive....) love, z&j