Good Vibes

** Disclaimer, I am not a vegan. Except on the days that I binge on edamame. 

After breakfast with Grandpa on Saturday morning, then Dudley Farms -and a second shower!!- that afternoon, my mom went with me to a lunch spot I found on Yelp called "One Love Cafe". I liked it a lot. Yummy sounding choices with meat, vegetarian and vegan choices. The music (when the live band was playing) got loud, but next time we'll have to sit a little further away. Its interesting how different environments can temporarily change our personalities. Or maybe that's just me? 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much time we spend trying to make ourselves look good (according to our own standards- I wasted a good 20 minutes putting make up on for Peyton's baptism this morning) when our friends and family and husbands don't really care if we wear make up or not. Sometimes Michael suggests that I brush my hair before we go out to eat (ha!) but he tells me that I look really pretty even when I don't have make up on. And I've noticed that I get pimples less when I don't wear it. Plus I think it's my wonderfully straight smile that makes my whole face look nice. (Yay braces!) Happy people automatically look prettier. I have a lot of thoughts about wanting to be vegan simply for the cliche things that I feel it comes with- yoga, comfortable clothes, confidence, easy-breezy personalities, very go with the flow as Michael wants me to be. Full of the sunshine they breathe in by exploring the earth we live on. I want to feel awesome and proud of what I put in my body. "I feel awesome after eating those McDonald's chicken nuggets!" said no one ever. I want Michael to be healthy and excited when I cook for him. But I'm also lazy and get stressed out quickly about less important things. 

I heard that we need to treat our bodies as an investment. "Why should we waste time eating fruit and vegetables?" Because then we will live longer and be healthier in 30 years. We don't think too much about that in our 20s, but we may regrets it in our 50's when the side effects catch up to us. I have time to improve. And any day I do eat really healthy is a time I am excited to remember and repeat. The day after my birthday last month, when Mia celebrated with me, was such a great day!! A vegan day as I would call it. ;) We went to a yoga class in the park, then to lunch at a place that we passed on the way to yoga. It had tall, beautiful sunflowers in front and garden vegetables. Very inviting. I ordered the tacos for Mia and I to try. One with tempe (whatever that is) and one with jackfruit (another question mark). But they were really good!! Mia even ordered a second tempe taco. They also sold big doughnuts and various pieces of art such as cards and paintings. 

After that lunch we drove to a park to walk around and passed another spot that looked great (for second lunch!) in the middle of a neighborhood. There we split half of a mango poppyseed salad and a baked eggplant sandwich - oh man, so good!! We went back to Mia's apartment and swam for about an hour (and made a friend!) then played with puppies at a pet store that was celebrating a huge turtle's birthday. The employees were even passing out slices of cake!! We met Michael soon after at the Cheesecake Factory. He was such a sweet gem and waited with the restaurant pager for us while we went shopping. Mia bought me a snow-globe type thing to hold a mini Polaroid picture.

Baptism!! ✞ (and Dudley Farms)

If you like to read this in chronological order, I'm sorry. Sometimes I write it in the order of which posts I can get edited the fastest. When Michael took his parents back to the airport on Friday, I drove up to Gainesville since Peyton got baptized today! I got the great honor of becoming her Godmother and I will make sure to do a great job of it, starting with finding a Catholic church I like that is closer to our new house. Here are a few pictures from the baptism, performed by the very kind and accepting Father Steven.

On Saturday (yesterday) everyone went with me to Dudley Farms. I brought my Canon there, so that will be a later post since I have to go through the 108 pictures (not counting the 50 I already deleted). For now I will just post the ones I like that my dad took with his iPhone 6S. I want to get that phone soon - for the higher pixelated camera and more storage. And Michael's phone has been acting up, not ringing or alerting him when someone calls, so we may get new phones soon.

 ^^ Laundry day!!

^^ Peyton must have at least two photographers at all time. Essential for any cute baby toddler!!
She is 20 months now. And I'll be 350 months on August 11th!! ;)

A Visit from the Gores

This past Tuesday (July 26) Michael and I picked up his parents and younger brother from the airport. I was able to spend extra time with them that evening since the 911 Recruitment Panel I was scheduled to go to got postponed until the fall. We ran errands to Target (looking for a rug and chairs for the dining room) and then to Lowes where his parents bought us.. "a braaand neeeew griiilll"!!  Then we had Mrs. Patty's birthday dinner at Bahama Breeze. I worked the next two days, but was able to meet them for dinner. Cooper's Hawk on Alafaya Trail on Wednesday and on Thursday Michael grilled his famous lemon pepper chicken- so good! We also had potato salad, macaroni salad, rolls and ate baked beans out of Star Wars  and Wizard of Oz mugs! It was like a belated 4th of July** meal. 

These pictures below are from Friday:

Michael and I have wanted to try Keke's Cafe for a long time and finally went with his parents that morning. Our service was pretty fast since only about 10 other people were there at 8:45. They had a very nice sized menu and decent prices. I'd like to take my parents, but we'd have to split the meal -great portion sizes. The sausage was cooked really well, as was my french toast, and the bacon looked really crispy. Everyone ordered something different and it all looked wonderful!! 

After breakfast we stopped by our house so Michael could change into his biking outfit (the rest of us were already dressed for fitness!). We started at the Winter Garden station where Dr. Gore, Mrs. Patty, and Parker rented bikes ($7/hour per person). I tried to stay with the family, but sometimes my inner child had to zoom past everyone and keep going until Michael yelled for me to slow down. I really liked looking behind me on the ride back and seeing Dr. Gore standing on his pedals like a carefree child as we all rolled down the way. We rode 14.35 miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes, for an average of 8.7 MPH.

**For the 4th of July after work, Michael drove to Clermont with me and we watched the fireworks over one of the lakes. We were supposed to meet Alana and Cody there, but the place was so big and they ended up finding a spot way on the other end of where we were. So we didn't get to see them that time, but it was still very nice. Here are my pictures from that:

Achieving Greatness

Our life is so good! The worst thing that has happened lately is getting our old entertainment system "stolen" our of our apartment about 5 days before the lease was up. It had to be someone from the complex bc the door was still locked and they have keys to get in. Michael found out on Saturday when he went to meet a guy who was going to buy it for $200!! Ugh, frustrating. But as Mommy said once (and now I try to repeat it when I'm in a good mood), "It's just money." Thanks to Michael having steady work all year between Universal and VAMP, we haven't had to take any money out of savings for our minor house renovations! 

  My favorite part of our good life is definitely the sweet comments and thankfulness that Michael and I have exchanged over the past few weeks. It feels flirty and makes marriage seem so easy. The other day when I left VAMP after work to go home, I felt greasy and my hair was in a ponytail and I haven't been wearing any make up at work. He looked at me for a second and said, "You're so beautiful." And I really felt it. I've been thinking a lot lately about how much self confidence would boost if we didn't have mirrors. If I couldn't see what I look like, would I think I was pretty? Yes. Why? Because Michael tells me that I am. Sounds like a good system to me!! 

   Here are some more updated house pictures. Michael finished painting the kitchen cabinets, got the TV on the wall and stained/ hung up wood to give it a "Fixer Upper" look that he found on Pinterest. We painted the green wall in my scrapbook room a coral ombre (he painted it white first to make sure the green and pink wouldn't mix to a light brown!). I think it looks great! All that is left now is the guest bathroom and future baby room. Sasha loves the new chair Michael got. She won't get out of it unless we make her.  It is very soft, so is the rug we picked out a couple months ago for the living room.

The dining room is still empty right now, and Michael has plans to make the dining room table himself and then we'll buy chairs to match. But I really like the picture above. It looks like a small ballroom dance floor. Sasha likes to lay in the sunny spots in the morning. Michael's been on a crunch the past 3 weeks to get as much done in the house as soon as possible bc his parents and younger brother are coming for a few days, starting tomorrow. He's very excited about it and even did a dance in the car about it. But he's seemed to level out and relax a bit the past few days and coming home early from VAMP so we can have more time together. That's more important than paint! Yesterday he went with me to Publix. When we got outside it was down pouring so we stood under the walkway and I leaned against him and gave him back scratches until he said it let up enough for us to run to the car. 

PS- Edamame are my new favorite after sharing a bowl with Mia at Seito Sushi on Thursday after a work class. I'm going to start an edamame garden!! Today is Mia's birthday. And Michael's mom's birthday too. He's picking up some balloons, flowers, and a cake that his friend made for Mrs. Patty before he comes back to pick me up. Then we're off to the airport. Michael is very excited for his family to see our house. He has definitely put a lot of work into it. I've helped a little. ;)