Thankful for a lot...

So obviously, yesterday was Thanksgiving. And just like everyone else, I had a lot to be thankful for. It was a wonderful, relaxing day spent with the people I care the most about. So my 5 for Friday is going to revolve around yesterday, even though there were a few other bright spots in my week like first grade pulling off very fun and successful Thanksgiving centers, finishing my Christmas shopping while out and about with my best friend on Wednesday, and oh just the fact that I have 6 glorious days off from school??

1. Our first Thanksgiving photo that I made my mom take. I felt really pretty yesterday and I love how the picture came out! I'm uber thankful for J and feel pretty blessed to call him my husband.

2+3. I contributed not one but TWO very yummy things to my family's Thanksgiving dinner: Boston Creme Pie Poke Cake (um divine!) and Broccoli Blue Cheese Casserole (which everyone agreed was delicious!) It's fun showing my family I do know how to cook.

4. Speaking of yummy food, my mom and dad really outdid themselves this year. Lunch was AMAZING and I'm thankful that my parents are such amazing cooks!

5. J and I decided NOT to head out for shopping. So we came home, changed into our comfy and WARM clothes. We refuse to turn on the heat just yet!

So two thumbs up for an awesome Thanksgiving, and I can't wait until tonight where we will decorate our Christmas tree!

What was the yummiest thing you ate yesterday?
Did you go shopping and find any good deals?
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

As always, linking up with Lauren!

Family filled weekends are the BEST!

I'm completely exhausted right now, (morning duty + no prep time=tired Nilda), but I really want to recap my weekend because it was a blast from beginning to end!

My dad's 72nd birthday was Saturday, so we all went out to celebrate. My aunt and uncle came to visit because they were in Orlando the past week at a techie conference. I adore all my aunts and uncles, but my this pair are definitely one of the most fun!

Got to love my dad's expressions!

They all came over to J's and my place. It was so awesome having family and friends over for the first time. Grateful for how thick our walls are; pretty sure if they weren't, our neighbor would have complained about all the noise!!

Later that night, all of us (minus my Dad, I think we wore him out!) hit up Ragtime, this amazing restaurant at the beach. They have the yummiest seafood and beer. The night included B-52 shots made the wrong way, my brother swiping food off everyone's plates, a kind of jerky waiter, and plenty of laughs!

Grouper Oscar- pan seared grouper topped with crab and asparagus, smothered in Bearnaise sauce. YUMM!

Realized it we'd been married three months! <3

Needless to say, J and I PASSED out when we got home later that night.

Sunday= football around these parts, but luckily my aunt and uncle LOVE football, so they dind't mind! We hit up Sneakers, this massive sports bar at the beach that show every game on GIANT projection screens. My aunt was PUMPED that the Steelers finally won. Later that afternoon, we went back to my parents to watch the Jaguars actually do decently against the Broncos! Eh we lost, but the losses aren't as painful when they actually show some fight!!

Despite being stuffed... we all went to Bruster's Ice Cream. It's fall season there which means APPLE DUMPLINGS and PUMPKIN FLAVORS. My aunt's obsessed (just like everyone else) with pumpkin so she chose Pumpkin Pecan. Everyone else got apple dumplings!

I'm not in it because I'm at the window, trying to convince the scooper to not get mad because we ordered 5 apple dumplings!

Weekends SERIOUSLY cannot get any better than spending them with family. Especially when your family is as loud, crazy and loving as mine!

How was your weekend???

PS. Ignore the formatting! I'm too tired to fix it!!! :)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to the man that I call Dad! I am forever grateful that God put you in my mother's life, because without you I would have never known a father's love. You can be a grump and we bump heads because we are the EXACT same person, but I don't know anyone who cares about his family as deeply as you!

Have a wonderful birthday, (and don't hit on the waitresses too much...no need to become a creepy old man!)

Christmas fun recap

I admit I haven't been in the Christmas spirit this year. The weather's been weird and my surgery left me cranky. I've been feeling a bit bittersweet about the fact that next Christmas will be different from all my other Christmases past (even though I can't wait for my first married Christmas with J). So I'm glad that I had yesterday and today to spend with my family the way we always do:

Kicked off the holiday by rocking my new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. They were cute AND comfy!

Forgive the smile, my face was still aching from wisdom teeth!

Christmas morning opened presents with the fam:

Dad rocking the Santa hat... that hat is like 20 years old!

My family loved the gifts that I gave them, even though they weren't incredibly extravagant. I'm blessed that my mom and dad are paying for my entire reception, so I told them not to get me anything special, but they didn't listen:

Two beautiful shirts, a LOFT gift card, and a Kindle Fire! I'm a lucky girl. Spent the rest of Christmas in my pjs watching movies with my mom, dad, and uncle. My brother had to work (apparently people still watch the news on Christmas Day?)

Today, my brother, mom and I hit the mall in search of good deals and a good meal! I hit the jackpot:

 

I bought an adorable red blazer from Marshall's (never ever find stuff there!) and two cute blouses from Old Navy. Then I went to Loft where my mom found me a great coral sweater for 4 dollars and a pair of black crop pants for work for 14! I also ended up getting a graphic tee and a pair of jeans from there as well.

Afterwards, the three of us ate at Maggiano's. The food was so yummy. At one point I just looked at the two of them and told them thank you. My family has taken such good care of me this week and I'm such a lucky girl to have them in my life.

Off to finish watching Love Actually. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!

Overall, I'd give this week a 9.5

Like my Olympics reference in my title? Yea, I know, gymnastics stopped using the 10.0 system ages ago, but I think it fits. :P

Like I said, overall this was a pretty great week. Let's recap it shall we?

-On Monday, I went to the Jaguars training camp. Pretty cool seeing all the players out there, getting their practice on. But the best part? Paul Posluszny, my favorite player, signed my jersey! When I told him he was my favorite, Paul graciously thanked me and gave me a high five. ::SWOON::  Other players signed my visor, but Paul's trumps them all!

-My grandma came in to town on Tuesday to surprise my mom for her 60th birthday. Love this picture:

-The only positive from my otherwise atrocious training this week, was that I got to hang out with my closest friend from my old school, Megan. It really hit us that we aren't going to be working together this year, so we agreed to make time to meet up during the school year. Oh and I met one of my new teammates, Samantha. Seems like a super sweet girl.


-Paige over at The Eloping Stethoscope wrote some really sweet things about me for her sponsor post. I know I'm sponsoring her blog, but she didn't have to say all of those nice things. Love all the new friends I've made through this blogging adventure!

-Both Bethannee over at The BB Life and Nicole over at Me and the Moon nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award. Thanks ladies! If you want some random facts about me check here and here.

Like, I said great week. The only downer was the training. But it's in the past, and I have another fun weekend coming up! Happy Friday to everyone!

Just a spoonful of sugar...

No idea why that's the title I came up with. Maybe because it's the song currently stuck in my head. I have no idea why THAT particular song is in my head. I do love Mary Poppins though.

You can tell this is going to be a random post can't you? I just felt like writing today. Stick with me!

Today was a LONG day. What made it long? My beyond boring WAY BEYOND boring workshop. I learned so much at my workshop last week. It was on the new standards for reading. I just figured that this workshop would be the same since it was about the new math standards.

I WAS WRONG. It was the most painful, boring, useless workshop ever. They didn't give us our standards and they had us work with high school standards. The only positive part of the whole day is that my old teammate and good friend Megan was there, as well as my old colleague Laura. Laura was there with a teacher from her school. She was really nice and just as bored as we were.

Only reason I am going back? I get paid if I go every day. $120 dollars a day to be exact. So even though it was bad, I'll stick it out.

On the bright side, my grandma came in to town. She lives in Puerto Rico. My mom's 60th birthday is Thursday, so my grandma came to surprise her. I wish I had a picture of my mom's face when she saw my grandma sitting on the couch.  We ended up going out to eat to celebrate her being here.

Love her! My grandpa couldn't join her because he is in the beginning stages of dementia and his doctor didn't think it'd be a good idea for him to fly. But he's here in spirit.

Oh! Paige at The Eloping Stethoscope wrote the SWEETEST things about me. Go check it out!
And, I really, REALLY want to win the Erin Condren giveaway over at About Fais! I can't bring myself to spend $50 on a planner, but I know I would use the heck of it!

See? Totally random post. Hope you all had a terrific Tuesday! Off to watch the Olympics. Please don't tell me who wins!

What a great week, (If I do say so myself!)

Man, summer is just FLYING by! In one month, I'll officially be back at work for pre-planning. CRRRAZYYYY. Definitely have to enjoy the next four weeks. So let's kick that off by talking about what made my week shall we??

1. Bubble necklaces are the bomb!

I've seen the J.Crew bubble necklace all over the place. Obviously, you all know I ADORE necklaces. But I would never EVER drop 150 dollars on one. That's insane. But thanks to both Jessica at Lovely Little Things and Erin at Living in Yellow, I discovered Cheerfully Charmed. She makes these necklaces and the best part is they are buy 2 get 1 free! Mine came yesterday and I couldn't be more excited to wear them!

2. Birchbox

My July Birchbox came yesterday as well. I actually love everything inside of it. It came with a full size liquid eyeliner, some Boscia B.B. cream (which is great, I've been looking for a new primer), some hair products, a Larabar (yum!), Harvey Prince perfume (which smells divine) and some cool new headphones (cannot wait to rock these out at the gym!).

Source: fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net via Nilda on Pinterest

I've been slacking on the working out/eating healthy thing the last two weeks and it's affected me. I made a goal to go to the gym at least four days this week and I've done it! Plus, I'm going later tonight to my favorite class! Score!

Credit: Streetlight Republic Photography

 Don't you love this picture? This was taken last year. We were imitating Bridesmaids. :)  Anywho, the fourth thing I'm happy for this week is that last night I had fabulous phone date with my really good friend Lauren (aka the bride). She was my closest friend in college, and even though she lives in Nashville and I live in Jacksonville, we try our best to stay in touch.

Oldie but a goodie

 My mom is one hard working lady, and despite the fact that I do live with her, I NEVER get to see her. So this week, I got to go to lunch with her at Olive Garden. We split some soup and salad and a delicious apple tart. Love her so much!

So those are my 5 things! I'm linking up with Lauren at My Grey Desk Blog for High Five for Friday! Go link up! How was your week?