Now that the university is closed for Christmas break, construction on RBD to add the new Mell Commons Building will begin over the holidays. The staff of the library took a picture today infront of our building since it will never look like this again. Photo above by Jayson Hill – AUL libraries (Flickr) I also got some shots to remember what it looked like from different angles. See all the pics I took here. To see progress on the new building see this link: Mell Commons
This year for Thanksgiving we drove down to Spring Hill, Florida for a family visit. Rob’s Mom, brother, Nick, and adopted sister, Rachael as well as Rob’s sister Maria and her entire family came as well. We rented a home on VRBO.com. We split our time between the rental home and Gramma’s house. It was nice to catch up with my sis-in-law and her family since we don’t get to see them much. They live in Texas now and the last time we saw them was a little over a year ago. Seeing the cousins hang out made my heart…
Over Labor Day weekend, we went down to Spring Hill to visits Rob’s grandparents. One of the days we all piled in the car and drove down to Clearwater Beach. Rob and Drew hung out there at Spring Break when they went down for Baseball’s Spring training, so Rob knew the perfect spot to park Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach is a great location to park and costs $3.00/hour. We enjoyed a few hours on the beach before packing up and finding a place to eat. I spot a mermaid! Lots of building going on. A good amount of folks…
We got up early, had a nice big breakfast at the hotel in Cocoa Beach, and drove over to Kennedy Space Center. Driving there we saw several gators and even a wild boar, which you see below. Such an impressive view. We got their before the gates opened, but were able to ask a few questions, take some picture, and just hung out until opening. Rocket Garden is one of the first things you see when you enter. This is the spot where old rockets seem to scrape the sky at 80-100 feet in the air. You will see Juno…
Being married to an Italian decedent, I’ve heard stories of Rob’s great grandparents who came over “on the boat” from Italy to New York. With little money and lots of hope, the one thing they were armed with was tons of delicious recipes passed down from their family. This is much like the story of Assunta Cantisano, Ragú’s originator, who left Naples, Italy to immigrate to America in the early 1900’s. After arriving in the U.S. and getting settled in Rochester, New York, she planted a garden and began using those fresh vegetables to make her family’s pasta sauce. With…
The weather here is getting colder (at least a few days each week) and I love that because that means its soup weather. This Cheesy Potato Soup can be prepared in the crockpot and who doesn’t love that! Servings: 12 Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 5 and half hours Ingredients: 5 pounds russet baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup butter 1 cup half and half 12 oz. bacon, cooked until crisp, drained on paper towels, and crumbled (easiest way to cook bacon here) 6 green onions, chopped Salt and freshly…
4th of July Trip in 2015 was full of hiking and site-seeing LaFayette, GA, Chattanooga, TN, and surrounding areas. Day 1 – a Stop in Rome, GA Day 2 – DeSoto State Park Hike – Fort Payne, AL Hike at Cloudland Canyon – Rising Fawn, GA Day 3 – Tennessee Aquarium – Chattanooga Point Park – Lookout Mountain, TN We stopped at the Incline Railway to watch it come up. They do get some lovely views from the windows on the top. Rock City – Lookout Mountain, GA Day 4 – 4th of July – Chickamauga & Chattanooga It is…
On the 4th of July, we drove through the area of the Chickamauga Battlefield. We first stopped at the visitor center where we were sent to a link on our iPhones that we could Bluetooth to our car to listen to a guided tour (Audio Tour). With the controversy that’s been going around as of late with the Confederate Flag, we saw many folks riding through the area showing their support of it. Wilder Brigade AKA Chimauga Tower (more info) provided beautiful views of the surrounding areas. After leaving the main battle field area, we stopped at Lee & Gordons…
There are many sights and sounds that go with start of Fall. One of my favorite things about Fall is football and the sounds of the marching bands. At the end of the summer around here many times you step outside and you hear the tapping of the snares and the whistle of piccolos. My heart just jumps for joy. Here in town every year right before school starts one of the local high school hosts a gathering of bands from surrounding areas called Band-O-Rama. The Auburn University band comes too, which is very exciting and gets us all pumped…
This month I was happy about: getting a new camera and lens!! Rating system for books & movies: ♥ ♥ = Love it! A must read/see! ♥ = Really good! Highly recommend. ✓ ✓ = Good, not great. ✓ = Not much to talk about. X = Awful. Total waste of time. Movies I watched were: Standing Up based on the book called The Goats by Brock Cole ♥ Step Dogs ♥ TV Shows I watched were: Chasing Life (Netflix – Season 1) ♥ ♥ The Bachelorette (belch) – X – glad it’s over! Friday Night Lights (watching again for…
Back in March, Drew wrote his plan for his Eagle Scout Project Proposal and it was approved with flying colors. He had to get through ACT prep class and the end of his junior year. Summer rolled around and he was finally able to get the plan written, materials purchased, and dates arranged. He had large contingent of guys from his troop come out to help. Day 1 pics: Here’s the Scoutmaster’s daughter along with Drew’s girlfriend. They were so sweet to give up half of their Saturday to sweat and help Drew with his project. Here’s the Scoutmaster working…
Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be spreading my Dad’s ashes before I even turned 40! You can read all about his journey with ALS, which was a quick one actually. On my last visit to see him, he expressed to Rob and me that he wanted to be “blowing in the wind.” Well on January 1st, 2015 that’s exactly what he was doing before his ashes finally met the salty ocean waters just off the coast of Marathon Key. You’ll see in the video, me just standing there after the ashes are poured out.…
On New Year’s Day, we woke up early and stopped in at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast before hopping on a charter boat for a half day on the open seas. Yes, that loose end of spreading Dad’s ashes had finally come and I’ll have to say I was a mess while eating breakfast. We arrived at the marina a little before 8 am and Captain Dave was busy rinsing off the deck of the boat. When he was done, we discussed plans for the morning. I made sure he was aware that the main purpose of the trip was…
My other half turns 40 today! I wanted to write a special post to wish Rob a very happy birthday. Dear Rob, I hope you have the best birthday today. After all, it is a milestone. 😉 The BIG 4-0! WOW! I know I can’t give you too hard of a time about it, because mine’s soon to follow. Anyway, I wanted you know that am so very glad to have you in my life. I can’t imagine sharing life with anyone other than you. I’m so proud of all the things you’ve accomplished in your 40 years and I…
Key West is such an interesting place with so much character, history, and uniqueness to experience. When we were in the Keys, we spent New Year’s Eve morning in Key West. This post is just to highlight the 4-5 hours we spent exploring this alluring city. I plan to come back and write a few more posts about some of the cool places we came across. We got up at the crack of dawn, before the sun had even begun to rise. We wanted to beat the crowds and didn’t want to have to wait in a long line at…
Hey y’all. I gotta get real with ya for a second. You may or may not have noticed I haven’t blogged the much the last month. I am a bit burnt out with blogging. Since re-branding and slowly moving old blog posts over while trying to crank out a daily blog post, I’m just kind of over it. I love blogging, don’t get me wrong but for the longest time (even before moving over to this new blog home) I feel like I’ve been trying to go in too many directions with this thing. All the while being miserable while…
A few weeks ago, we were near Gadsden, Al looking for something to do, so I went old fashion and pulled out the atlas. I found a place called Noccalula Falls and wondered what that was, so we pulled out our phones and Googled it, where we found this link: Noccalula Falls Park We decided to head that way and check it out. If you view the falls from the top, it’s free. However, I highly recommend paying the park fee to go inside the park. When you enter the park, you’ll see the Pioneer Homestead which is comprised of…
Another must see and do while in the Florida Keys is to visit the The National Key Deer Refuge, which is located on Big Pine Key and No Name Key. We made a stop on Big Pine Key on our way back up to Marathon from Key West. click on map to enlarge click on map to enlarge The National Key Deer Refuge is a 9,200-acre National Wildlife Refuge that is inhabited by about 800 animals. This refuge was established in 1957 as a haven for Key deer as well as other wildlife in the Florida Keys. Many of the…
After an exhilarating airboat tour in Everglades City, we headed towards Shark Valley, which has an observation tower that provides amazing panoramic views of the heart of the Everglades. click on map to enlarge Right before arriving at Shark Valley (Stop #1), we stopped at Miccosukee Restaurant for lunch. This is a restaurant on the Miccosukee Reservation. The restaurant menu provided lots of variety, which included some traditional Native American dishes, like Frybread, alligator nuggets, and Indian tacos. I’m still kicking myself for not trying their tacos, but I was a bit concerned about having that sit on my stomach…
Over the Memorial Day weekend, we continued our tradition of going up to the lake with our friends. Last year they added boat riding and tubing to the fun. This year they got water skis. Drew tried water skiing a couple years ago with some other friends, but was limited to just a few tries, none of which were successful. He was anxious to try it again. Joe’s Dad, Ben, gave Drew some advise about what to do. However, Drew’s 1st attempt was short lived as you can see from this picture. The 2nd attempt was more of a success.…