Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Becoming a Student Again

    Wow, I have forgotten what it is like to study. The past two Wednesdays have been full of studying along with some studying in the evenings after work. You may be wondering what I'm studying for. Well the first is a Keeper II test that I have been putting off for a half year now. Not sure why I have, but I have decided to take the test. The upside is a small, very small pay increase and the fact I get to add the promotion to my resume. The other big thing I have been studying for is the GRE. Yep, we have decide that I should apply for grad school for next fall. A lot of though has gone into this decision, and we are very excited for what is to come in the next year or so. James will still be considering grad school, however, right now he is wanting to focus on his job and see what opportunities come about. He is looking into taking a class or two at the community college dealing with electricity and other classes that will benefit him at work!  For me, I have realized to get the job I would like, I need more schooling. So it's off to grad school for me! I'm excited, but also very nervous to take the GRE and enter grad school. James has been very supportive and very encouraging during this decision making, so I'm sure things will be fine :/ :)
   We enjoyed a nice few days with Jared and Brandi. It was so nice to just chill with them. We picked up like we hadn't spent the last 3 to 4 years living miles away from each other. We are so blessed to have them in our lives!
    I'm looking forward to going to Tampa next week to spend some time with Amber and Ben!! Should be a great weekend!! And I think James is looking forward to buying a video game that comes out on Tuesday and playing it the whole time I'm gone!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather! We are enjoying only being in the mid 80s with a breeze!!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Loving Life

    Wow, time seems to be flying by. It seems like only a few days ago we moved into the townhouse. We have been in here two months and have already had a couple visitors and more on the way!! We had a wonderful visit with Mom and Dad over Labor Day weekend! We enjoyed a great day at the beach, shopping for a grill, cooking out on the new grill, and Dad and James enjoyed fishing a couple nights even though they didn't catch much! It was such a great weekend just catching up and having family time! Only thing missing was Stephanie! We missed her, but looking forward to seeing her along with Nana/Pop, Uncle Chad/Tiffany/Austin/Aubrey, Kevin, and of course Mom and Dad in Orlando in December!! It will be such a great week filled with Family!
   We also got to spend a few hours with the Webbs! It was a great time watching the guys play the kinect and loving on Ben! I'm looking forward to going to Tampa in two weeks to see Amber and Ben and have some much needed girl time!
   We are also looking forward to spending some time with the Beltons this weekend!! We haven't seen Jared since our wedding and Brandi since the beginning of the year! So looking forward to some catching up time with them! God has blessed us with some really great friendships, and Brandi and Jared are one of them. It is great to have friends that you can go forever without seeing and still be able to pick up like you seen each other yesterday! Love it!!
   
    I love fall! Football, the smells of spices, and the wishful thinking that it may cool off soon!! lol! James and I decorated the house for Halloween! We have enjoyed picking up pieces over the last couple years to get our house in the spirit of Halloween! James would love to make it a little more "scary", and I prefer "cute" Halloween decor. So, I think we have compromised pretty good! We are looking forward to planning a Halloween party with some good friends Cari and Victor!! Should be lots of fun, stay tune to hear how that goes!
    It wouldn't be fall without FOOTBALL!! More importantly ALABAMA FOOTBALL!! The roughest part about working Saturdays is not catching the games, or not the entire game if they play earlier in the day. Luckily, this weekend they play a night game against Florida!!! Can't wait to go to the sports bar in my Alabama gear!!! Hopefully we play good and win, or I may be leaving early! lol!!!

That's the update on the King household! We miss all yall that live away from us!! Enjoy the Fall Season! And we will dream that we are somewhere that actually gets to experience the true Fall season!


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Our New Home

Hey Everyone!
We are now all settled into our new Home! We love it. I realized the other day when I posted pictures of the new place on facebook that I labled it "Our New Home". Lots of people thought that we bought a new home. We are only leasing right now. We still call it Home. It is were we live and were our hearts are no matter how we are paying for it. So just if you are reading this, we did not buy a house we are only leasing, but its still Our Home!
We both feel so comfortable here and love coming home. We love having all the extra storage, and the little space to grow into! We have almost everything in its place, just a little left in the garage and second bedroom to put away! And possible some more painting in the bathrooms if I can talk James into it :)
We are looking forward to my parents coming down for a visit over Labor Day Weekend! Can't wait to show them the new place!! And spend some much needed time with them! Hopefully some of the rest of the family (sis and Nana and Pop) will be able to make a trip down soon too! If not looking forward to seeing them in December in Orlando!! We love having family and friends down to visit, so come on down!!
Thats the update in the King House! Now I need to get back to the banana pie and taco soup I'm making for dinner :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Bitter-sweet Move for us

Wow, I can't believe I have not posted on here in so long. What can I say, life happen and I just forgot about writing. I have read so many friends blogging lately, that it has inspired me to beginning writing on here more. It's such a great time to update everyone on our life.

Next Wednesday, James and I get our keys to the town home we will be renting! We are very excited to make this move. It is a bitter-sweet move. Packing up the apartment that was the first place that James and I called home together has came with mixed emotions. I remember moving over here a little over two years ago right before we got married. It was so exciting. We have had so many great memories in this apartment. However, we are ready for the exciting change. The town home will feel more like a "home". We will have washer and dryer!! (I've not had one since I've moved away from home (6 years)) We are also getting some cool bonus; a garage, lots of storage, and plenty of living space! Once we have moved in I'll post pictures!

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary last month. I still can't believe we have been married 2 years! It has been so much fun! We have been able to take a few more trips over the last year and hope to take many more. We have been able to go home twice (quick but very great trips!) Family have came down to Florida (always a plus!). We went camping in the smokies!! And we were able to go out to Texas for Amber and Micah's first baby!! We look forward to additional travels in the future :)

Our jobs are the same. James is still at the farm. He is liking it and hopefully things will continue to go great for him there. I'm still at the zoo for now. The job is killing me and I'm ready to get something that I enjoy doing. And one with better hours. I've very thankfully for my job, but I do need a change. I want a job where I wake up in the morning and actually want to go to work, not one that makes me sick all the time from stress. So hopefully after the move, I will be able to focus on finding a better suited job for myself.

Hopefully that catches everyone up a little! Sorry about the absence in writing. I will try to do better.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Writing on a Rainy Day

It's been a long time...I have no excuse except that of exhaustion. Things in the King household are going good. We are mostly working all the time and trying to fit in some fun in there as well.

We have celebrated our 1st anniversary! It was great! We went to a wonderful dinner on the water front! Then we took a long weekend away to the Keys!!! The Keys were prefect. We mainly just relaxed and looked at the beauty of the Keys. We also celebrated James's 25th birthday! I got him paddle board lessons and new board shirt! We had so much fun! We are now wanting to get surf/paddle boards!! At the end of summer, we took a road trip to Alabama! It was so nice to see family!! I had not seen my mom and dad since January, my sister since May, Nana and Pop since Easter, Chad/Tiff/and Kids since October, and the rest of the family since Christmas. I'm so glad we made the decision to go home. I miss my family so much and treasure the times that I'm with them.

James is busy at the shrimp farm. Next week he is getting to attend an Aquaculture Workshop at Harbor Branch. I'm excited for him, and I think he is looking forward to it too. He has definitely been staying busy! I know he is stressed a lot, but I'm so proud of the work he is doing. I know it is going to pay off for them!

The zoo job is going. It has been a great learning experience and a great financial blessing. We have been able to live comfortably. However, the job is taking a toll on me. The hours have gotten some what better, but still pulling at least 9 if not 10 hours plus commute. However, the hardest thing is not being able to attend church on a regular bases.

James and I both work on Sunday. At first I thought this wouldn't be that bad, but as weeks go by something is missing in my life. It's church! A church family! We do have an opportunity to attend the Sunday night service in downtown West Palm Beach. This has been a blessing. However, it is sometimes so hard to commit to go every week or even twice a month sometimes. See, the service starts at 7:00. I'm lucky to get off work by 5:30 if not closer to 6:00. That's not bad, I just have to go to Nancy and Harry's house to shower or at least clean up. James on the other hand, gets off at 5, has to go by the apartment to shower, then drive 45 minutes south to meet me, then we go and shove down a bowl of soup at Panara (it's right beside the church) and the walk in to church right on time!! We do all this after a long, hot day at work! Needless to say, it takes great discipline to go. It shouldn't be like that. I want to go, I long to worship and learn with my brothers and sisters. We would just like to have Sundays dedicated to worshiping our God, fellowship, and family time. I never knew how much I took that for granted. I know this is just a chapter of our life, but I hope that it is a short chapter!

We did make an exciting purchase last weekend!! We bought a grown up couch!!! For those of you who were lucky enough to sit on our wonderful college couch, you are probably very excited for us!! For those of you who have not been so lucky, our couch was falling apart. The springs were breaking like crazy. It was so uncomfortable and we could not relax after a long days work. So we had been saving (with the help of family!) and finally broke down and bought the one we have been eyeing since Christmas! It wasn't an issue of do we like it? It was more like, should we really spend money on something we don't need, but just want? We could use the money to pay bills, buy food, you get the picture... but we thought about it and decided that we were always complaining. So we needed to do something about it! God definitely was in the working process, because we got the couch we wanted for $250 less than the original asking price!!

Hopefully I can make a better effort to write more often. If I get really behind, please forgive me and then tell me to write something!! I love sharing our life with friends and family that we don't see on a daily bases. We love you all and miss you all so much!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Wow... Long time

Hello everyone! Sorry for the LONG delay with my post!! I have been having difficulties adjusting to the new schedule I am now on! I will try and catch you up a little on what has been going on this last month!

The new job is going good. I'm having a little trouble adjusting to the long hours and weird weekends. A typical day is: wake up at 5:10, leave the house by 6:00, arrive and clock-in to work by 7:00, on average leaving work at 6:30 (I've left as early as 5:45 (actually 30 minutes late) and stayed as late as 7:30 (more then once!), hours long drive home, arrive at home some time between 6:45 and 8, eat dinner, try to spend so time with James, but end up going to bed by 8 or 8:30! Needless to say I have long days!! Thankfully it is summer and the sun is coming up when I leave and is not setting till 8:00 or 8:30! I don't know what I would do if it was dark both times!!
Besides getting use to the long days, there is also the odd weekends. No one is off on Tuesday and Wednesdays!! Including my husband!!! There is a possibility that he might can get Monday/Tuesday weekends, but no sure yet. It would be great for us if he could! I would love a full day to spend with him! However, I know it will be difficult for him to give up Sundays and church. That's another thing I'm having to adjust to. I haven't been able to go to church yet :( WE have tried to go to the night service on Sunday in downtown, but haven't been able to yet, but hopefully that will change! We also have J1Ten (our young adults service/meeting) on Tuesday nights that we can go to. For me it is my church! Unfortunately we haven't been able to go consistently the last couple weeks. It's hard to want to drive another time to West Palm and sometimes we just want to spend some time together.
Yet another adjustment is the heat!! I've been in Florida for 5 years and I know the heat, but it is totally different being out in the heat 5 days a week, 10 hours a day!!! I've never sweated so much!!

We have had some excited news... We were able to buy a car!!! We traded in Roxy (my 95' 275,000 ml Honda passport) for a 2009 Honda fit!!! I LOVE IT!!!!! It is sooooo cute!!! Even though my sister thinks it looks like a space car! I have named this car Sliver Mist!! I love naming my cars! I know I'm a little crazy!

Yesterday was James' s Birthday! I surprised him with paddle boarding lessons for this morning! It was so cool!! We both loved it! I'm thinking we need to get some boards!! I really wish we had a weekend together so we could enjoyed things like this more often! I miss that so much. We enjoy embarking on new adventures like this! I'm so glad his boss let him take the morning off so we could enjoy that together!

I'm so thankful for my job. It has been such a blessing for me and James. We were able to get another car, and are just sitting more comfortable financially. I just hope we are able to work out the challenging details!

I realized today that a year ago today I officially moved over to Stuart! I can't believe how quick this year has been!! In a couple weeks James and I will be celebrating our One Year Anniversary!!!!!! I can't believe it!!! This has been one amazing year!! Love being married to my best friend!!!

Well I've caught you up on whats happening in the life of the Kings, mostly just work and spending the time we get together and treasuring those moments!! Oh, and I'm looking forward to seeing my sister on Sunday!!! She is coming for a few days!! I miss her so much and looking forward to spending some time with her!!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Riding a New Wave in Life

I know, its been a long time since I've blogged!!! I'm so sorry!!! I have been adjusting to a new schedule, which has been pretty hard! The job at the zoo is going good. It is a lot of hard work, but mentally and physically. It has been an adjustment going from a marine biology background to more of a terrestrial biology background. I'm very thankful for this job at this time in my life (and with the state of our economy). The job is just causing me to learn how to adjust to different things!!
I'm slowly learning all my different kinds of waterfowl! I have so many different kinds of ducks/geese that its not event funny!! I'm starting to be able to do things on my own, which is good and bad! Good that they trust me and think I'm ready, and not so good because of all the pressure that comes with all that responsibility!! One of the hardest things that I'm having to get use to is the long days and weird weekends. I'm up at 5:30, out the door by 6:30 and clocked in by 7:30. So far the earliest I've left is 5:45. I've been normally getting off by 6:15, this puts me home around 7 or a little after 7!! A LONG day to say the least!! The commute is ok, just long!! The weekend thing has also been hard to get use too. As most of you know, James's weekend is Sunday/Monday and mine is now Tuesday/Wednesday :(  We no longer have a day to spend together :( It is a BIG adjustment, which I'm learning is probably harder for me then James. Or at least I'm showing it more than him! I try to remind myself that it could be worst. I could not have a job. And that I have friends that are spending a year apart because of their jobs. When I think about that it puts everything in perspective. Are friends in our life group encouraged us to set up a date night and stick to it, that way we can have quality time together! Love that idea and it will be in place this week!!!
Besides adjusting to a new schedule, things are going great! I thank God everyday for his provision in our life and for the job He has blessed me with! I will try and keep updating every week! Forgive me if I don't!