Florida Vacation!

We went to Florida last week and had a BLAST! We flew in to Tampa to see family on James' side. They live right on the canals of Tampa bay. Literally. It reminded me of Naples in Long Beach area. It was beautiful. They had wave runners and a nice boat so we did some playing!

this is their backyard:

This is us at the Tampa Bay Rays game:

After a couple of days in Tampa we drove over to Jacksonville Beach on the Atlantic coast side where the same family we visited, have condo right on the beach. It was perfect! But i ran out of battery on my camera and failed to pack the charger so you'll have to take my word for it.

Pics of the House

Here are some random pics of our house.. Hopefully as we update some things and make some changes we'll be able to post "after" pics. Let us know if you have any ideas for improvements. We love suggestions!

master bath:
master bedroom:

living room:

dining room:

family room:

A New House!

This is the front of our house - its not super beautiful but the inside has lots of potential!

This is our backyard - it has a woodsy feel. Its kinda small but on the other side of this fence is a huge commons area with trees and lots of grass. And just down the path are tennis courts, basketball courts, and 2 playgrounds as part of our HOA.

We are set to close on our home on May 29th! We'll be first time homeowners! We are super excited! We had to do some compromising - my top priority was to be near a trail - there are a lot of trails here in Lincoln. And James wanted a bit of a fixer-upper. So it has both. Everyone is invited!! There is plenty of room!

The whole purchasing process has been an adventure. James is competitive and was upset to hear that my credit score was higher than his by 2 points! Its been eating at him.

I have also been working at my new job for a couple of weeks now. Its with the Sate of Nebraska as an Administrator over "Financial Responsibility." Basically I oversee some of the collections process for the Department of Health & Human Services. Its off to a slow start but its getting better.

We can't wait to have visitors so everyone has an open invite.

The Mustache Bash

We got to attend a great birthday party of James' sisters' friends who we have gotten to know.. Everyone was required to sport a mustache of some sort. It was awesome! Handlebar, Charlie Chaplin, they were all there..... It was a great theme for a party. Here we are..very realistic, don't you think...?

Birthday Party in Oklahoma City

We decided this was the furthest any of us had ever driven for a birthday party. We drove 7 hours each way to OK City this past weekend to attend a good friend of James' surprise 30th birthday party. There were 6 of us friends from Lincoln who made the trek. And even though we drove all day Sat, played there Sat afternoon/eve and drove back the very next morning - we had a great time! Here are some pics of the quick trip..
Here is the birthday boy in the middle and Harmon & Scott that we drove down with. Kevin was SO surprised!!

We got there a little early so we had some fun before the party. Here are 4 of the 6 of us....

These trees are all over the city. I loved em.

This is at the OK City Bombing Memorial. Really neat place. The chairs were for each victim of the terrorist tragedy.

The Wizard of Oz in Nebraska

Yesterday we had a tornado watch which was then upgraded to a warning here in Lincoln. I had never heard the Tornado Sirens before but they were going off in the afternoon/evening. I kept trying to figure out where they come from. They would get louder and then quieter and then louder again. i kinda wanted to drive around and watch - i've never seen a tornado - i thought it might be like the wizard of OZ - and that didn't turn out too bad. But we stayed inside for most of it. The newspaper said that at least 3 tornadoes hit our county flipping vehicles and damaging homes. Looks like they were all just outside our city limits! Crazy. Its all fun and games until your vehicle gets flipped. But i have heard that the city of Lincoln is pretty protected because the geography is a basin so the tornadoes will skirt the city but never really hit here. Grr... other cities get all the fun.

Warning.... this is gross....

This is what i do to James - I tell him that there are toxins, and we need to get them out. His rule is - "No Nails" But i've never gotten these kind of results....