Friday August 28

A lot has happened since my last update. Carrie and I had our first anniversary so we now officially feel like an old married couple. Looking back on the first year I would have to say it was a lot easier than I expected. So many people tell you how hard their first year of marriage was, so I guess I was expecting it to be a lot harder than what it was. We have had the time of our lives this past year.

Our anniversary was spent on Daytona beach. We went parasailing, played mini golf, and rode go-carts. We also went out to two restaurants, on Sat. we went to Cici's pizza buffet, and on Sunday we went to Bahama breeze where we had a drink and a sandwich and listened to some island music.

Last night was awesome, we decided to have a date day since we both had off of work. It started by relaxing by the pool as most of our days off start. We then went and got smoothies from planet smoothie, which again, nothing different. We then went and got our Florida licenses, loved our pictures, so we were happy. We then went to Target, got some cheap frisbees and drove out to UCF to play some frisbee golf. The course, we soon found out, was built for seasoned professionals as there was a very narrow trail to follow with trees, thick forest, and brush on either side of the trail. Considering the amount of spiders and massive snakes there are here, needless to say we did not want to lose our frisbees. We actually did pretty good, we made it about 5 holes before I bombed my frisbee so deep into the forest that I was very okay with admitting defeat.

On our way back we saw a billboard for Cracker Barrel. Best restaurant ever. We looked at each other and immediately knew that we needed to fill our insides with smoked ham, mac n cheese and mashed potatoes with gravy, along with the added bonus of being entertained with the triangle peg game.

I then found out the next day by our insurance company that the DMV made a mistake on my license and that I am currently registered in the state of Florida as a female. I could go several different ways but I'll just end with the words of Shania Twain "I wanna be free yeah to feel the way I feel, man, I feel like a woman"

June 20, 2009

Not a lot has happened since my last update. Carrie is switching from working second shift to first starting tomorrow.

I got a job at InCharge Education Foundation as a bankruptcy counselor. I am excited about the opportunity to work from home. I can just answer calls in my pajamas. and since I don't have pajamas, I will be able to answer calls in my boxers. I am so excited about working in my boxers right now.

Anyway, Carrie and I have been hitting up Disney World quite a bit lately, taking advantage of the fact that we can get in whenever we want. That has been a good time. We have been on just about all the good rides. One in particular is just plain awesome. It is called Soaring and it makes you feel like you are on a hangglider.

Other than that, not a whole lot. I just found out that Pizza Hut is changing its name in an effort to revamp their image, they are changing it to simply "the Hut". I think that is gay. and by gay I mean homosexual. and by homosexual I mean just plain dumb.

On another note, Carrie's family is coming to visit next month and so is her friend Barbara. Looking forward to that. That is all for now.

Sunday, May 24

I think the person who built our apartment was dyslexic. Our screen door is on backwards. Which, how does one put a sliding door on backwards and not realize it? Also, our security latch on our door was backwards, luckily it was easy to take it off and screw it back in normally.

Anyway, we had an eventful week. Carrie started at Disney which she is loving so far. As excited as she is to be working at Disney, she is finding out that there are other people in the college program that are even more thrilled about it than she is, like this one man at one of her training sessions who, after receiving the question "are you happy to be here?" screamed at the top of his lungs "OH YOU KNOW I AM!!!" which exceedingly drowned out everyone else's light applause. The same gentleman also received the award for the most plastic Disney character figurines won after trumping everyone else in Disney World trivia. He even got extra credit for throwing in a Mickey Mouse quote in one of his answers.

We went and played a little mini golf in Disney which was a good time. Despite winning the 18th hole by 4 strokes, I still managed to lose my first game of mini golf against my ever so obnoxious winner of a wife. I have to hand it to her though, she putted a heck of a game of mini-golf. She timed the chomping clam shells perfectly, hit it through the spiral ramp flawlessly, and managed to knock it into the lighthouse just when the drawbridge was at its lowest point. I was thouroughly impressed. I'm also thouroughly impressed that I just spelled the word thouroughly right on the first try!

I did a lot more job hunting this past week and had mild success. I say mild because, while I still don't have anything, I have a couple of leads that might turn into something really good. I just have to be patient and persistent.

Since moving down here I have suddenly renewed my love for the Orlando Magic. It helps that they are in a playoff run right now in the Eastern Conference finals agains the Cleveland Cavs and the media hailed "Chosen One" Lebron James. I really hope they win this series.

That is all for now, more to come.

Sunday, May17

We went to a church called Faithworld Reformed I think. It was a primarily black church. It was really fun. People dancing in the pews, swaying back and forth, and the choir belting it out to the sounds of some uptempo, contemporary, gospel music. I thought the pastor was having an athsma attack but then when he didn't reach for his inhaler I realized that he must have been doing that on purpose. The organ player never went and sat down, he stayed up there to add some sweet riffs to add some emphasis when the preacher shouted something. Carrie got a headache from the guy next to her, she thought he smelled like a blend of beer, cigarettes, and cotton candy. But overall it was a great experience. The musicians were just ridiculous.

Changes

Being one of the most craziest times in our lives I figured I should start blogging a little more so we have some sort of journal to look back on. I say its the craziest because about 2 weeks ago we packed up our stuff and basically up and left our roots, our families, our friends, our lives. Why? Simply to see what else is out there, to experience life and learn to stand on our own two feet without the crutch of our family and close friends.

It was not easy at all to get in the car one night, with the uhaul behind me, and just drive away from home. Mom, Dad, Teej and Sarah holding a goodbye sign standing in the driveway and waving. I will never forget that image. It is still sad thinking about it, makes me mad that they couldn't have just said, "welpt, seeya!" =) It is our hope to move back next spring so it least it is not a permanent thing.

The next morning, however, was a new day, and marked a new era in our lives. As we drove further and further away, it was then it sort of dawned on me that we were actually going through with this! It was kind of a strange feeling.

Since we have been down here we have noticed quite a few changes.

It is HOT!! We picked a bad time to move because summer is just beginning and so is hurricane season. While Orlando usually doesn't get the brunt of hurricanes it still gets heavy rain and it isn't immune to them completely as hurricane Charley proved a couple of years ago. It is not even summer yet, only the beginning of May, and so far every day is what would be declared an "ozone action day" in Michigan. An average high so far has been around 90 or slightly higher, and a little humid. I actually like humidity so it doesn't bother me. Carrie likes the hot weather also but she is not a fan of humidity. We were told by a few of the residence's here that at the hottest point, july and august, the average temp is close to 100 but the humidity is around 90%! This makes the average temp FEEL like around 120 to 130!!! That is ridiculous.

Also, we have noticed that when we turn on a faucet, instead of waiting for water to get warm like in Michigan when you wait a couple of minutes to jump in the shower, instead, it starts out very warm and you have to wait a few minutes in order for water to become cooler.

Another change we have seen is something I am very excited about, the abundance of wildlife. Our apartment is overlooking a golf course and a small lake so we have a fantastic view with plenty of wildlife to look at. In addition to the infestation of small lizards running EVERYWHERE around this apartment complex I have already seen the following in just 2 weeks: Ospri's, a Swan that lives in that lake, ducks, cranes, pelicans, a fox, possum, vultures, and about 20 different types of other species of birds that I have never seen before. Also, I have not seen them yet, but I heard from some neighbors that there are gators in the lake and also iguana's that roam around. So I am keeping my eye out for those.

Yet another change is the amount of things to do around here. Being a tourist town, Orlando has an incredible amount of things to do that will meet just about any budget. We have been mini golfing, been to a Orlando Magic vs Celtics game, a Lakeland Tigers baseball game, we went and walked around downtown Disney, walked downtown Orlando.

On our agenda of things to do this year, especially if we win the lottery, is the following;
- find a home church
- go to Disney and see everything
- Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Wide world of Sports to name a few
- Seaworld
- Universal
- Ripley's Believe it or Not
- House of Blues
- Wet 'n Wild
- Busch Gardens
- Daytona Beach
- Florida Keys
- Miami
- Florida state park and the everglades
- an ice bar which is a bar made completely out of ice including the cups they serve to you
- go to the hard rock cafe
- not get mugged
- spend Christmas on a beach just so we can say we did (if work doesn't allow us to go home)
- be a light by showing love to our neighbors
- go to the U2 concert
- go to a Tampa Bay Bucs game
- go to the Capital One Bowl
- root for the magic to win it all, go to a Magic championship game if they make it that far.

Finally, we are loving the time we are having we each other. We have never had so much time to dedicate to each other and we are having a blast. We are growing in our marriage and becoming better friends every day.

And there it is. That was a long post, now that I got that out of the way hopefully my future one's will simply be little stories here and there. Carrie starts at Disney on Wed and I have a career fair to attend that same day which will hopefully allow me to find something. That is all for now.