Local Grindz

L&L BBQ Chicken, Mac Salad & Rice

Chicken Long Rice

Seaside, Florida

There is so much country to see around here! I enjoy getting to explore and since Evs lived in paradise his whole life, he mostly enjoys being drug along. There is an old movie that came out in 1998 called The Truman Show. Its about a guy whose life from birth is filmed and he never realizes it until later in life. I had heard about it and recall seeing parts of it, but Friday night we watched it to get a feel for the city we were planning on visiting the next day-

SEASIDE, FLORIDA

We headed there in the afternoon and our noses led us to a yummy place called Great Southern. We ate delicious burgers and sweet potato fries. We walked around all the very expensive little shops and walked out by the beach. It was such a cute little touristy town with restaurants, food trailers, farmers market, shopping, bike riding, kayaking, paddle boarding..etc.

 Beautiful pastel homes and buildings everywhere!

SEASIDE

A SIMPLE,  BEAUTIFUL LIFE.

(my phone pictures don't do the color of this town justice so I stole some from the internet)

We ate a late lunch in Seaside and had dessert at Cold Stone in Destin. Fun day of exploring together!

Baseball kinda night!

Pensacola Blue Wahoos!

Our friend, Shawna, had a birthday and her family invited us to a Wahoo's game with them! It was a great Monday Night activity. We filled up on hot dogs on the way to the game and Red Vines and Gummy Bears! We started to get a little crazy at the end-dancing and being loud-since half the crowd had left. Eleven innings later and a 0-1 loss made for a long night, but we enjoyed watching Shane attempt everything, especially his Gangnam style dancing, to get screen time on the jumbo tron and he finally got it!  Christian even caught a free hot dog! And when I say caught, I mean like superhero jump with his left hand-SKILLS! We had a lot of laughs and fun watching the game too! Happy Birthday Shawna!

Alabama travels

We headed to Alabama again this weekend and thankfully, this time we were able to sleep in a bed and take a shower and eat a good breakfast, before heading to the temple. It made all the difference and put a little spring in our step. So thankful for Heavenly Father and his simple blessings. We were blessed to meet a sister at the temple last month, who gladly gave us her number and opened her home to us and the dogs each month we come. 

I love to see the temple!

The dogs stayed back at the Gunters home with Chico, their 10 year old poodle, who LOVED having friends!

3..2..1..RUN!

Today, I enjoyed an amazing morning with some truly amazing kids @ the Special Olympics!

God has blessed me to have the opportunity to work with some of the most beautiful and pure spirits.

I am one of the lucky ones with  the chance to be a part of their lives!

Pensacola Blue Wahoos

You will NEVER catch me watching baseball on tv at home. Its just up there with golf as the most boring sport to watch! However, I will go to an actual game. I love the environment, the things drunk people (who paid an outrageous price for their drink) do and the people caught on the jumbo tron picking their nose or kissing or dancing crazy and then they realize they are on camera! Evs texted me asking me if I wanted to go to a baseball game. He said he had gotten some free tickets from work, for great seats, for opening night, for our minor league team in the area, the Blue Wahoos. I said,"Sure"! The stadium sits right on the Sound (Bay) and its gorgeous! We picked up a pizza on the way and had a great Friday date night! And they even won!

EASTER

Saturdays together

Normally our weekdays consist of work, meetings, eating dinner, watching our favorite sitcoms together and renting Redbox. We try hard to get out on the weekends and explore. The past couple weekends the weather has been so beautiful! The Gulf of Mexico has been calling our name!

It's so beautiful!

Sun Bathing

Sage & Jade

Local Grindz

Evan and I have been missing Hawaii so much! There were a couple days in a row that he had a local radio station playing on the stereo. I was loving it! It reminded me of so many good memories we had there. When we were deciding what to make for dinner for one Friday night, Evs suggested we make, Loco Moco. When I got home from work, Evs had Island 98.5 playing nice a loud and he had prepared the meat patties to be cooked. It was like we lived in Florida, but our home was in Hawaii! It was so nice. I loved it! So I suggested we do local grindz night every Friday night. It would give us an opportunity to use some of the great recipe books I have gotten over the years for local foods, it would allow us to have our own tradition (if you want to call it that-who knows how long well keep it up-its in a probation stage) and we could always count on having something other than our normal menu of food. We enjoyed our local grindz nights for the month of March!! Our food was so good!

Loco Moco

Chicken Katsu

Homeless Adventure

We were heading back to the temple for the weekend. We decided we would head out Friday night after work so we didn't have to get up at 3 am and make the long drive to the temple. I had made reservation a couple days prior for a hotel and made a reservation for the doggie daycare, since we would be gone the entire day at the temple. Everything was going great. We got a good start-picked up dinner and a big drink, we watched a movie on the way and made really good time. We got to the hotel around 11 pm. We got out of the car and went to go check in. We paid for the room and then the woman (who shall remain nameless) at the counter asked us to sign a paper stating that we wouldn't have animals in our room. Evan & I just looked at each other dumbfounded. I looked at the woman and said, "Uh, we have two small dogs in the car." The woman said,"Well as of March first we are no longer pet friendly." I said,"But your website says you are pet friendly." The woman said, "No, I know the person who does the website and it doesn't say pet friendly." I begged to differ. My phone was dead and I was so ready to show the proof, but Evan is not much for confrontation plus he didn't want us to go off on the woman. I said, "My dogs have their own kennels, we wont even let them out in the room." She said,"No." As she was doing the paperwork for our refund, there was just silence. Right when we were leaving a man walked in and said,"Do you have any rooms available?" We said to him,"You can have our room because we can't stay here" and walked out. I was so livid. I could feel the blood boiling in my veins. Evan was trying so hard to be calm and to just find another solution. I was ready to put my gloves on and battle it out with proof on my phone that they had to let us stay there.

Each of our spacious suites features a wet bar, microwave, refrigerator and sleeper sofa. Non-smoking and handicapped-accessible rooms are also available, and kids 17 and under stay free with an adult at our pet-friendly hotel. 

We called every hotel within reason to us and there was "No room in any Inn".  We ended up driving back and forth searching for places to stay. By this point, I just said lets sleep in the Walmart, there was a movie about a woman who slept in the Walmart. My humor was not making the situation better. We didn't bring any blankets or pillows with us because I figured I would stay up with Evan while he drove. We had one pillow from the cross country trip that was still in there and the dogs blanket. We stopped at Walmart to go the the restroom before a long night sleeping in the car. We talked about buying a blanket and pillow at Walmart but in our frustration we figured we would be just fine. We were warm enough, in 40 degree weather, at that point with extra sweatshirts and whatnot. It was around 1 am and about when we finally settled on parking in the church parking lot {seemed the safest}.We heated up the car and cracked the windows slightly. The dogs slept on me and I had the blanket. Evan had the flimsy pillow. We reclined the seats and tried to catch some ZZZs. The car wasn't that uncomfortable for a car, but then again I have never really had to "sleep" in a car. By about 3 am, My nose started to freeze and Evan was cold. We turned on the car and it got as warm as it could for just sitting there. I gave Evan the blanket because I had two furry babies that were toasty warm. We managed to get back to sleep and by 6:30 am the sun was up and Evan couldn't sleep with cold feet anymore. He was ready to find a place to eat, go the bathroom and get dressed. We ended up stopping at a McDonald's, got some breakfast and attempted to get moving for the day. We couldn't decide whether to be really ghetto and change, brush teeth and get cleaned up all in the same place we ate breakfast or to find another place to awkwardly scan whether it was clean enough to get ready. We ended up driving back to the temple in hopes we could find someone to get us a key to change in the church building next to the temple. Fortunately, looking like a bum, I went up to a guy all dressed in his suit, and asked him that very question. A bit caught off guard and perplexed, lets assume he didn't judge us, he said, "You can change in the waiting room in the temple," to which I responded,"I just don't feel right walking in with my holy jeans and bulky dog hair filled sweatshirt.." I am pretty sure he agreed and said,"Ok." He went into the temple and came out bearing gifts! The key! Lets just say, there is something about brushing your teeth that makes you feel a whole lot cleaner, even if you haven't taken a shower and you've had dogs sleeping on you all night. I can't even imagine how Mary felt carrying the Savior of the world and riding on a donkey for her journey and everyone denying them a place to sleep for the night. We had a bitter sweet day! What an interesting faith building journey! And all because we wanted to serve in the House of the Lord. Can you say the ADVERSARY had his name written all over this one? I am glad we pushed through and did our best to not have a contentious night, even if silence was the best solution. We enjoyed such a beautiful spirit throughout the day and we're hoping our next trip to work at the temple is less stressful and more uplifting! We are very blessed!

Birmingham, Alabama Temple Trip

In all the places that we've lived, we have been blessed to live within 30 minutes of a temple. Here in Gulf Breeze, Florida the closest temple in 4.5 hours away. We had a youth temple trip and since my calling is with the youth, Evan and I left early Saturday morning with two 12 year olds in tow. They chatted for a little bit but slept most of the way there and the way back. We had a great experience together and I am grateful we were blessed to make the trip. I cant imagine how much sacrifice those that don't live within a drive to a temple have to make to be able to experience the great spirit and joy that comes from serving.

We enjoyed the Spirit.

{Our first snow flurries since living in the south}

We enjoyed being together.

We enjoyed good fun.

While we were away the entire day, Sage & Jade were being loved and taken care of by our friends the Carleton's. We are so glad our babies could enjoy a fun day too!

LOVE

Since being called into the Young Women's Presidency a couple weeks ago, I have had the privilege to study the new curriculum called Come Follow Me. Its truly inspired and I feel like a missionary again, teaching by the Spirit from Preach My Gospel , the basic principles of the gospel. Its so wonderful! We have recently been learning about the Plan of Salvation. How we lived with God before we came to this earth, why we came to earth, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and where we will go after this life on earth. I came across this quote and really appreciated how it expressed our Heavenly Father's motive for the grand plan.

#Isnatchedagoodone

After I worked this morning, I holla'd at my Honey BooBoo to tell him I was on my way home. I asked him if we could go see the movie Safe Haven. Being the amazing man that he is, he said, "Sure" without any groans. So he got online and started looking up the times. He mentioned Warm Bodies and I said, "Lets go see that instead. I know you will enjoy it much better and I did want to see it too. I have already read Safe Haven the book, so its no big deal."  He agreed on that. Don't you love a compromise? I am grateful for a super hubby who deals with me when I am just not feeling as "compromisy". (Like last week when I wanted to go pick up some free carpet that a lady was getting rid of, since our floors are wood in the family room and with dogs its not as fun to clean up their estranged hairs, and tile in the bedroom where its cold when you hop out of the shower and try to get ready.) Anyways, we really enjoyed the movie. With us its like date night every night. But even though its just the two of us and you can always find us renting a Redbox and staying up late, we really love to get out and have a "real date".  This movie was really cute! We had a large Cherry Pepsi and sour patch on hand, and two Nathan's hot dogs I snuck in from Sams club. We enjoyed our movie and our treats a lot. thanks Honey BooBoo for a great date!

Amazing Race

We love this show! We're pretty excited for a new season. We walk through the scenarios the people on the show are going through, as if we were actually there, its like our way to bond on the show without actually being on it, nothing wrong with imaginative play! Maybe it's because we've always wanted to explore and travel around, but have always been in school and haven't ever had the money to pick up and go. I don't ever think we will really ever travel the world, but there are some places that we would like to go- like the very first leg of the race, Bora Bora! I've always wanted to go to French Polynesia! Maybe someday.

Our current picks for the winner-

Mine: John & Jessica, the Roller Derby Moms, and the YouTube friends.

Evs picks: the Hockey players, Father & Son,  and the Country Singers.

The last team to check in MAY be ELIMINATED!

Happy Valentines Day!

I love my Valentine. He is the very best. Full of unconditional love all the time not just February 14th and I am so blessed! He is my everything! We kept things pretty low key around here this year since it was a long day for both of us. We ordered a pizza and enjoyed what we had left of our "Valentines Day". 

XOXO

Kung Hei Fat Choy

The Year of the Snake

I told Evan one day I want to actually be in China for the New Year. It think it would be awesome! For now we will celebrate it in every non-Asian location we live in. Let the Asian culture live on in our family!

We will enjoy our Lucky candy!!