I Scream for Ice Cream!

There is this delicious ice cream shop here. We actually first went sometime during our first week of living in Tallahassee. It was the only ice cream shop we remembered seeing, and it was 15 minutes away. Now, that may not seem so bad to some of you, but it is. It was quite the commute. But we'd go there occassionally, mostly on Tuesdays. Tuesdays are double stamp night, and we have a punch card. Don't underestimate me when it comes to ice cream.

Anyway, a few weeks ago Lish noticed a new sign at a place basically across the street from us. The sign looked something like this

Oh yes. It's true. Ever since that day, I have been keeping my eye out for the open sign.

Yesterday when I was driving down the street, from one visiting teachee's house to another, I noticed a man standing on the side of the road close to the sign. I turned around to look at the sign he was holding, and you guessed it. It was the "Now Open" sign. I was so excited I squealed! I'm not usually a squealer, but when it comes to ice cream, I can't control myself. I immediately called Lish to tell him the exciting news!

Later, after dinner and what not, when Lish asked what I wanted to do I said, "Walk to Bruster's and get some ice cream of course." So we did. It was a 5 minute walk to this amazing place! (I think this could be bad for my health.) I chose the Pumpkin Cheesecake flavor in a waffle cone. It was delicious! A perfect choice to christen the new location and the fall season.

And I am happy.

2 People in 2 Days

Two people who are very close to me, more now through marriage, have had their birthdays. Well, one is today, one was yesterday. I will begin with yesterday's...

Happy birthday Scott! My step-father-in-law celebrated another year yesterday. Scott and I instantly connected when we first met. I think it's because we both grew up in Bountiful. And probably because we both have had to deal with Lish. Anyway, Scott is definitely a special person. He is such a hard worker and so talented at what he does. He has a very creative mind and can see how things work just by studying them for a short amount of time. This always impressed me because my brain does not work so well that way. He has such a sweet demeanor and is easy to get along with. It's easy to see how much his family and friends mean to him. He always seems to be working on something or willing to work on something for somebody. He has such a kind and giving heart.

I love ya Scott!

Today we are celebrating Stephanie's 40th birthday! (I'm not sure if she wanted me to share that, but oh well.) My step-sister-in-law (Scott's daughter) is partying it up today. Stephanie and Scott are the same in that they are both so willing to help out. They are both so creative. Steph is creative in a more "crafty" sense. She helped out so much with our wedding, making the sashes for all my sisters. She is extremely talented with scrapbooking and sewing. It's amazing. She has such a huge heart. She is so much fun to be around. She just brings so much joy into the room. I don't think I've ever seen her in a bad mood. She always has a big smile on her face. (And she grew up in Bounitful too! Bountiful is just full of wonderful people.)

I love ya Steph!

I love this family that I married into! Thank you for accepting me into your family so quickly. And thank you both for being so incredible! I hope you have great birthdays!

The Southern Town...

...of Savannah, GA! We visited it last weekend with our friends Kyre and Lolly, and we had a blast! It's known for it's delicious southern cuisine, which we ate a lot of, and for being one of the most haunted cities in America. We didn't take a ghost tour though, sad. But maybe next time. :)

We got to visit the place where they filmed Forest Gump waiting for the bus, and we got to eat at Paula Deen's amazing restaurant. Lolly and I belly danced at a Morroccan restaurant. We got to see the most beautiful street in America, as voted by Better Homes and Gardens.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

PoppySnaps

My best friend and her sister just started their own little business out of their homes. I think their little creations are so cute and I wanted to let you all in on their little goodies. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

http://poppysnaps.blogspot.com/

Good luck Brittany and Shelby!

To Whitney, From Dad

My Dad wrote this and I thought I'd share it. Don't think I'm full of myself because I reposted it.

Dear Everyone (and Whitney):

In keeping with her own tradition, I wanted to give a "shout-out" to Whitney for her birthday. Since I am not in the blogging generation, I thought I would embarrass her by doing it on her own blog.

Many of you know and realize how sweet and giving Whitney is, but the amazing part is she has always been that way. Ever since she was a little girl, Whitney exuded kindness. She took tender care of big brothers and a little brother and sister. She was the ultimate peacemaker in the family and just went along. She had opinions and a strong will but disguised it behind a sweet disposition.

Whitney is so thoughtful and selfless. She reaches out to anyone and everyone with an open and accepting attitude. I have so many wonderful memories of her but one of my favorites is just walking to church with Whitney and holding her little hand in mine while she talked with me about her life, friends and fun.

I love my little Doll and am so proud of the woman she has become. I feel so blessed to have her in my life. I continually find her amazing.

I love you Whitney,
Dad

Thanks so much Dad! I love you too!

Life Around These Parts

Why am I so bad about updating my blog this year? Honestly. My bad. Here are the updates for the past couple weeks in the Harris family's life.

Lish went into work a couple weeks ago for his internship job. School was out and everyone was just preparing for the fall semester, so he didn't really have to go in, but he thought it'd be a good idea, just in case something came up. While he was there, a secretary came into his office and said, "I thought you weren't teaching this fall."

"I'm not. That's what I was told."

"Well, we have your name on the schedule for teaching the intro class again. You might want to go ask someone about it."

Long-ish story shortened, Lish was on the schedule to teach this fall, but he's in charge of working in the internship office as well. They told him that if he does teach, not only will he get paid extra for teaching, but he'd get some award money from another teaching award that he won. Had he not taught this semester, he would get paid what he initially expected, but he wouldn't have gotten the money from that award. So, he's teaching again for these fall and spring semesters, which means he got a raise. Yay!

With the raise and having thought about this for over a year, we went out and bought a new TV. We love it. It's a 42" plasma screen. It's beautiful.My birthday came and went. I'm in my mid-20's now. That's weird to me. Good, but weird. Lish woke up early and made me breakfast. I headed into work, and when I got home we went out to dinner with some friends. Lish made me dinner the next night and it was delicious. So it was kind of like a 2 day celebration. We didn't do too much, but I was so worn out from work, so I was okay with that.
My little sister moved up to college last week. It's so weird. She's growing up so fast, which means I'm growing up so fast. I thought time wasn't supposed to get away from you like this until you were in your 50's or 60's. Why does it seem to be happening already? Anyway, she seems to be loving it. She's living in the dorms with her best friend, and although she feels overwhelmed about school right now, I know she'll do great!
Back to Lish stuff. He's starting the application process for jobs. The job market is looking much better than it was last year, which is great! It's fun for us to think that we'll be moving on to the next stage of our lives soon. He isn't being picky about where he's applying because we just want to make sure he gets a job. We both would love to move back out west so we could be closer to family, but as of right now, most of the jobs listed are on the east coast. We're okay with that too, just as long as where we live isn't as hard to get to as Tallahassee is. Anyway, he's busy working on that and continuing to do his dissertation.

Besides those few things, life is just about as normal as it can get. We love the experiences we have here in Florida and we love getting to spend so much time together. It's a good thing we like each other.

Stokes' Super Shower

This last weekend, I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend, Jen Bryan. Jen and Trevor have become some really good friends of ours here in Tally. They live just around the corner from us, so we see them often. Anyway, their baby is due Sept. 28th, so we had to celebrate!

Now, I'm not just saying this because I helped plan it, but it was one of the most fun showers I've been to. Rather than play the cheesy poopy diaper games, we had crafts and little creative projects to do. One of them was painting plain white onesies. We had some stencils, fabric paint, and different sizes of onesies. It was so fun and they got some cute ones made for baby Stokes. The other little crafty thing we did was make scrapbooking pages for Jen's baby scrapbook. We had a bunch of different papers, stickers, ribbon, and so on. After the shower was over, Lolly and I sat and scrapbooked for a good hour. It was a great shower! Thanks for having a baby Trevor and Jen!
(I made the "Go Lakers" one for Trevor, because he hates them.)

(The Hosts)The present I got for Jen was a "hooter hider" for breast-feeding. I actually made myself one (not to use any time soon) and it was easy, so I made one for Jen. Happy hiding!