Project 365 Days 28 & 29

Day 29:

At church this Sunday, we are beginning a series on the heartbreaking topic of human trafficking. We had a meeting last night to introduce the idea to all the leaders/volunteers and it's pretty intense - especially when they start talking about 8 year old girls who are forced into prostitution. I hope that people will really be touched and moved to action this weekend as they learn that this is not only a problem in 3rd world countries, but here in America as well. In fact, last week there was a raid on a home full of trafficked women right here in Palm Beach County! Today's picture is of my arm (ick, I know, it's winter I need a tan) and the "Freedom" bracelets we're giving out to remind people of the issue. For more information on the modern day abolitionist movement, check out Love 146 or the Not For Sale website.

Day 28:

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, Amazon had a sale with a bunch of $5 magazines, including my favorite, Real Simple. So I ordered it and it finally arrived! Hooray!

Project 365 Days 20-27

I'm really behind on Project 365. And I know nobody cares, but I'm really behind in a lot of life stuff right now too, so this is low on the importance list but I am still trying to take pictures everyday. Here are enough to get me caught up, I think! From least recent to most:

Day 20:

Today I flew to Athens, my home sweet home, to visit for a week. It's so comforting to realize that while I've been out growing up (college, wedding, moving to Florida), everything at home has remained exactly the same. Today's picture is my bedroom just as I found it when I got home. I don't know about that teddy bear, but everything else is just like I left it.

Day 21:

Athens has been cold and rainy and it really makes me miss the beach. This is one of my favorite spots in Athens/Watkinsville (where is this?) because it is so country. I think this picture really makes you feel the gross weather. Blah.

Day 22:

It's still cold and rainy outside but it's never too cold for an FO! For anyone not from Georgia, an FO is the most amazing thing ever - it's like a creamsicle milkshake and should be consumed every day one is in the great state of Jawja. A trip to Athens just isn't the same without stopping at the V.

Day 23:

Happy Birthday, Mom! Tonight we went to dinner at Chops & Hops in downtown Watkinsville to celebrate another year of my favorite mom's life. She is still adorable and I am beyond thankful that I left my giant, warm, red coat at home for cold nights like this!

Day 24:

I actually took a lot of pictures today, but this is my favorite. We got up early to walk The Granery for cinnamon buns, only to find out that they're closed on Sundays. So we went to Jittery Joes instead, and I found this little gem in the parking lot. It's a teeny tiny pair of underwear (with my foot for size comparison)! What teeny tiny person is going commando right now?

Day 25:

Today's picture is my parents' house, from my last night at home. I miss living in Athens and being just a few minutes away from my parents' house, even though I only lived there for a couple years before heading to college. And I think it's funny to see trees without leaves because we don't have seasons (except summer) in Florida.

Day 26:

Today I flew back to Ft. Lauderdale to be greeted by 2 of my favorite sweet things: David and ice cream! After he picked me up from the airport, we went to Jaxson's to stuff our faces with an enormous cookie bottom hot fudge sundae. We ate that whole thing (almost).

Day 27:

Today's picture is of my very least favorite thing about traveling...unpacking. I hate unpacking groceries, I hate unpacking clean laundry and I really, really hate unpacking suitcases. So it's all still sitting on the floor until I get motivated to put everything away. Or until David gets annoyed enough to do it for me :)

Project 365 Days 17, 18 & 19

Day 17:

After a most fantastic weekend with the Ganleys, Diana and Arianne, we headed back "home" to Jupiter. Lucky for me, David loves to drive and I don't, so I got to take billions of pictures. I got some really good sunset shots but this is still my favorite and I love that camera does it on its own - no photoshopping required!

Day 18:
Can you believe that my closet is this organized?! If you're shocked, you know how I felt when I saw it too. David's sweet grandmother, Mema, did some major cleaning of our room while were in Orlando. It took some time to find some of our stuff, but our bathroom and closet look great!

Day 19:
I feel like a beach shot is a cop-out when you live on the beach but this was really like nothing I'd ever seen before. There were 8 boats between our condo and the public, less than a 1/2 mile away, doing some major fishing just off the shore. Unfortunately, my camera could only take a picture of 3 but it was pretty cool. Apparently they were were catching Pompano, which look like little silver footballs through Granddaddy's binoculars.

Project 365 Days 14, 15 & 16

Day 14:

Thursday night, we put the pedal to the metal and headed to Orlando for a fun weekend. Our motivation? ZAXBY'S! We got to the restaurant just in the nick of time too - they were closing but let us revel in the glory of a Big Zax Snack and Zalad. Oh my!

Day 15:

For some reason, playing putt-putt at Fantasia with Diana has become a tradition. We always lose and the boys always win but I almost got a hole-in-one on this hole. This is my favorite Project 365 picture, thus far (and yes, I know it's only been 2 weeks).

Day 16:
By the end of a long day at the parks, I was getting cranky and craving real food so we headed over to Italy in Epcot. It was a $plurge but deliciously worth it for a little bit of peace and quiet while we killed time before Illuminations. And I'm a sucker for free bread. Yum!

Project 365 Days 11, 12 & 13:

Day 11:

I think this picture kind of sums up our new living situation. We had our first mix-up over grocery items, and all I could do was laugh when, after I'd been dreaming of strawberry jello cups all day, Mema came home with this box and its complicated directions. Doesn't she know that boiling water is way beyond my cooking skills?

Day 12:

David introduced me to "Cremes" at Starbucks, which are basically lattes without espresso. They're awesome. So when I learned that you can buy the syrups at the store, I stopped and got the Gingerbread flavor for David and Cinnamon Dolce (sugar free, 0 calories!) for me. Yum! Now we just need to figure out how to make steamed milk...

Day 13:

I live in my Rainbows, and that is no understatement. My current pair (#2 since 2005) was cracked and without any tread at all (quite dangerous in the rain) so David's mom got me a new pair for Christmas. I didn't know what color I had or what size I wore, so we went shopping while she was here and she ordered them online. They came in the mail today and I almost didn't recognize them. I love them and can't wait to wear them when (or if ever) it warms up!

Project 365 Day 10: Happy 150th Birthday!

This morning after church we ran back to the condo to layer up and then headed to Lighthouse Park for the 150th Birthday Celebration! Honestly, it may not have been the most exciting thing I've ever been to (especially because it was SO COLD and SO WINDY outside) but there was someone giving a speech about the history of the lighthouse (all I heard was something about how some guy's hand was "severely infected" - that was enough for me), free tours and most importantly...a cake off! We didn't stick around to eat any or see the winner, but this was by far my favorite contestant. Happy 150th Birthday, Jupiter Lighthouse!

Oh, and we also made a random stop at a place on the way home from church that claimed to have the "best Guatemalan bread" - it was definitely in the ghetto (I was driving, David never would have taken the scenic route...) but that's where the best cultural experiences are, right? Anyways, no one at this place spoke English so we had no idea what we were getting. Turns out we got this:

It was some kind of slightly sweet bun-ish thing with a sickeningly sweet icing (they called it "creme" even thought it was definitely more like "crunch") on top. I'm pretty sure it was at least a few weeks old. For $.50 I'm willing to give them another chance, though.

and this is documentation of how COLD it is here! Even colder than yesterday. And last night, it dipped into the high 20s - freezing, literally! I was not made for this kind of weather.

Project 365 Day 9: Brrr!

Today was cold. And rainy. I know that the rest of the country was getting even colder weather, but we were all bundled up here! In fact, on TV today, there was an announcement that said,"...if you must venture outdoors, dress warmly in layers" and then something about hypothermia and frostbite. Really? I don't know about frostbite but Orlando (just a few hours north of us) had sleet!

We braved the cold weather tonight for an amazing dinner at Season's 52, where David and I got a little camera happy. He's posting some of these pictures on his blog too, but taking them was a joint effort so I'm taking my share of the credit:

1 Week Down...

51 to go.

Project 365 Days 6 and 7:

Day 6:

Alabama won the National Championship last night. We watched the game with our friends James and Laura, true Bama fans, and had a lot of fun. Roll Tide! And I finally (hey, it was a long 2 day wait) got my iPod touch in the mail. I mostly wanted it to be able to check my email without being in front of my computer (because I'm not ready to commit to a blackberry) but found there are a million fun things for me to use it for. It's incredible and I'm completely obsessed.

Day 7:
This morning, I finished my first library book, "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Piccoult. It was pretty interesting, but definitely not my favorite book of hers. Luckily, the library has a bazillion more free books for me to check out and I'm heading that way asap for more!

Project 365 Day 5:

My routine has been tragically shaken up the past few weeks with having our families in town and adjusting to having roommates again, but today I started to get back into the swing of things. This picture really sums up how I spend Monday-Friday afternoons. I wake up when David leaves, work out, eat breakfast, watch Ellen, take a shower and head to my portable "office" at Barnes & Noble, where I sip on some Starbucks and work/people watch. I really enjoy this part of my day and am reminded of how blessed I am to have a job I love and people I love to work with.

Check it out!

Project 365 Day 4:

I ran a lot of errands today and got a lot done. But my favorite thing to check off the 'ol To Do list was signing up for a library card. I've been meaning to do it for awhile but it always seems like too much work. Anyways, I got it done today and took a quick spin through the Jupiter branch to see what I could pick up. They have books, CDs, books on CD, DVDs...everything you could ever want - up to 50 items at a time! I'm so excited about all the possibilities!

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

Project 365 Day 3:

David's family has been in town for the last week, and today his dad taught us how to work the kite he bought so we can play with it on the beach since they are leaving tomorrow morning. I think this is such a precious picture of the two of them.

The problem with trying to take 1 great picture everyday is that I take a lot of pictures. I found out that I'm a huge fan of macro though! Here are more pictures from lunch and kite-flying today (click to enlarge):

Resolutions

I'm not really into making New Year's Resolutions. Every time I've tried, I've failed (does anyone really keep them?) so this year I was just going to skip it....

Until I found out about Project 365, which I love. You take a picture every single day for a year, and post it. So see, this year I'm not making a resolution but I'll take pictures....in different resolutions. Get it? David's also doing the project from on his blog, which you can follow here.

I'm not really sure how the logistics of this are going to work - if I'll be able to upload every day...or if I'll do it once a week...or maybe I'll mix it up a little. It's my resolution, right? It's only January 2nd, so I figure I have lots of time to figure it out.

Anyways, since it's already the 2nd day of the year I'm a little behind. The first picture was from tonight but the moon has looked pretty similar for the past few days, so it will be my official January 1 picture. We took a lot of pictures tonight at the Cheesecake Factory with David's family for my belated "birthday dinner," so the 3rd one down is my official January 2nd picture. And here's a few from Christmas break with my family too, when we went to the Breakers (somehow the only day I took any pictures. Oops!) Happy 2010!

The view from our porch tonight after I finally figured out how to change the shutter speed on my camera...

David & I before dinner. Ignore my weird hair, it was windy and nobody told me it looked crazy...

Yum.

From the front of The Breakers.

My super cute mom with the nutcracker that later bit her. Don't stick your fingers in its mouth.

The Breakers, downtown WPB and the Atlantic.