A Taste of Fall for the New Florida Girl

If you know me, you know I love fall and nothing beats fall in Kentucky. The leaves begin to change, you get perfect 70 degree weather and it is the season for boots and sweaters without having to bundle up too much. PERFECTION. 

Since it is still in the 90's here and "fall" in Florida won't come for a couple more months, I am REALLY looking forward to my work trip to San Francisco. I leave Saturday for a week and I get to break out my sweaters and scarves for this trip. I may be over packing but I want to get to wear all my "fall" outfits in just one short week. Nothing wrong with a few "wardrobe changes".

Just take a look at this amazing fall weather I will be experiencing next week:

I have LOTS of sweaters and scarves to get my through the colder months but my boots have seen better days. Trust me, some of those bad boys had to retire when I was cleaning out my closet for my move. So, to kick off my favorite season, I ordered these beauties and they arrived TODAY - just in time to make the trip out west with me! 

No judgement, I am wearing them now at my desk just to "break them in" but don't worry, I will make sure I get a picture of them next week when I'm in San Francisco. :) 

While I am traveling for work, this is one conference where work and fun go hand in hand: I will be seeing Maroon 5 in concert AND going on a night tour of Alcatraz. This girl is SO excited! As an added bonus Matt's parents, brother and sister-in-law will be in San Fran the same week so I will get to grab dinner one night with some of my favorite people! 

It is going to be quite the week, just wish Matt could go with me! I am going to get him to tag along on a work trip one of these days. 

I Heart Hondas

First off, let me apologize for my blogging hiatus. I have no excuse other than I promise we have been busy. Matt always says he is "on the go" and now that I am in Florida I think I have adopted his schedule! :) 

We have been spending lots of time with family and friends, watching some football, having awesome game nights, going to Run Club and then every now and then I do a little thing called work. Kidding, I promise I do work. A LOT. In fact, I think when you work form home you are more tempted to work at all hours of the day. Matt will get home and I'll often say "just let me finish this one thing" and then spend another hour at my desk.

Long story short, we have been busy but a very good busy. 

When I moved down to Florida almost a month ago I left behind something very special to me... my first car! She was a beauty and got me through high school, college, road trips and even started me off in the professional world. It was a great 10 years in the old civic but I knew she was getting old and taking her on a 14 hour drive to Florida didn't seem like the best idea. Instead, I decided to sell her in Kentucky and buy a new car after I moved. 

It didn't take Matt and I long to find a car that we loved. With Matt's BIG truck we both knew we needed one car that had good gas mileage and we were debating between the Volkswagen Passat and the Honda Accord. Both great cars that are well built and hold their value. I'll be honest, I thought I would have walked away with the Passat but after we both drove the new Accord we fell in love. I was just going to make a slight upgrade from the Civic to the Accord.

After deciding on the car, we got to work trying to get the best deal. Now I think we had perfect timing buying a car - end of the month - end of the model year - but we also were excellent negotiators. We called MANY Honda dealers and were getting quotes from all of them. It wasn't pretty, involved several headaches but we did it! We got an offer that was so good, 2 other Honda dealers told us that if we could buy it at that price we should go do it. 

On our way to pick up my new car I was feeling anxious, excited and nervous all at the same time. I told Matt "I feel like I am on my way to adopt a baby" to which he just rolled his eyes but hey, that's how I felt. ;) 

We spent several hours at the dealership and at least one of those hours consisted of us saying "No, I don't want the extra extended super protected warranty". I was very proud of us for not falling for their "traps". It was the first time buying a car for both of us and I think we did an exceptional job. 

So, without further ado, I introduce to you my brand new car! 

I'm a mighty proud momma car owner. ;)

"Meet The Parents" Weekend

We had quite the weekend here in Florida. My parents and younger brother, Doug, came down to meet Matt's family and... we all survived!

Actually, I could not have asked for a better weekend and feel so very blessed that we have two loving families supporting us. 

My family flew down on Friday and I think we kept them busy until the moment I dropped them back off at the airport. We had LOTS to do in 3 days.

We had a big family gathering Friday evening and it was so nice for my family to meet Matt's extended family. Now they have some faces to match with names! AND now they have a few good childhood stories of Matt to pull out at appropriate times. :)

On Saturday the guys and girls split. The girls did what we do best... shop. We drove to a cute little store called The Barn that has everything and anything! I think we all had a successful trip and walked away with lots of goodies: clothes, house decor, garden items, etc.  The guys did... well guy things. Matt showed them around some orange groves, shot some guns and watched some football. I think they were happy campers! 

We spent the rest of the weekend at the beach. Went fishing, went to the sand bar, got some great sun and had a wonderful dinner with our families. I even ate seafood... I'm working my way towards becoming a true Floridian now.

On the last night the Deptola's and Matt ended the weekend with a competitive game of putt-putt and some snoballs. Yes, snoballs. The much cooler version of snow cones. They were awfully good and left me contemplating opening up my own snow cone shop on the beach. Maybe that's how I'll retire???

All in all, it was a truly great weekend and the first of many visits between the two families. 

Scallops... They Don't Come Wrapped In Bacon.

Not that I REALLY believed scallops are picked all pretty and clean and wrapped with a nice thick piece of bacon. But a girl can dream, right?? 

I honestly didn't know much about scallops or "scalloping" (the act of gathering scallops from the water) but when Chad, Matt's friend, asked us to go, I jumped at the opportunity! I'm always up for a new adventure. I even came up with my own term for scalloping: "scallop hunting" but in this version of hunting no camo is required. :)

So last weekend, a group of us traveled to the Homosassa River and took that out toward the Gulf of Mexico. I don't know where I thought we would find scallops but in my naive little world I assumed we would park the boat by a nice sandy beach and be able to swim in shallow water and grab them. I was wrong. I am pretty sure when they stopped the boat in the middle of the Gulf I had a look of "you have to got to be kidding me" on my face. 

In my mind, big open water = big mouth sharks. 

But we were fine and surprisingly in pretty shallow water. We all jumped in with our masks and snorkels and a bag to hold the scallops we collected. It took me a while to figure out what was a scallop and dove down several times only to come up empty handed. Thankfully, Matt swam by my side and would point out scallops to me. I thought you would be able to see more of the white muscle and go down and grab it. Nope, we were looking for these:

All of those blue "dots" on the edge of their shells our eyes and sometimes, they'll actually try and swim away from you. To me, that only made "scallop hunting" more fun. Maybe this is why people enjoy actual hunting? The thrill of the catch? Who knows, I have not conquered that yet.

(Teamwork at its finest.)

We ended up coming away with a several gallons of scallops. I won't go into the cleaning part because they informed me it involves uses a shop vac to suction out... well, the gross stuff. 

But here is the finished product... minus the bacon ;)

And I couldn't have asked for a better group to go "scallop hunting" with; I am already looking forward to the next trip and would love to someday take my family. 

The Journey South

The last couple of weeks have been full of emotions both happy and sad. I am so grateful that my family, friends and Matt have been patient and supportive during this move because I was ALL OVER THE PLACE with my emotions. Seriously, all over. I would be fine all day and then just a glance at a suitcase would bring on the water works. 

Now that I have moved, things are much better. I am starting to get settled and know that in a few weeks/months I will start to feel at home here too. One thing is for sure, it is nice to no longer be in a long distance relationship! 

Before I left, I got to hang out with my sweet Kentucky friends who surprised me with some "moving gifts":

A very comforting Bible verse for my decision to move: 

A beautiful picture of my previous home:

And some new charms to wear. One for my old home and one for my new home:

Last Saturday was THE DAY and my family and I stopped at one of our favorite places in Louisville: My Favorite Muffin. It wouldn't have been a true Deptola morning without these:

After some yummy comfort food, I was off to sunny Florida! I told Matt I didn't pack a lot but I think our versions of "a lot" are MUCH different. Thank goodness for carts!
(I won't try and deceive anyone, I have more stuff coming soon but I thought this was a good start for now.)

As intimidating as moving can be, it was much easier knowing I have an awesome support system already here in his family and friends. As soon as we got home I had some lovely gifts welcoming me to Florida and spent the evening relaxing with friends. 

So a lot has changed this weekend but with all the love and support I have received I know I am one lucky girl with my old Kentucky home and my new Florida home. 

My Blog Birthday!

Today is a special day for me as I am introducing to the world (aka my family and friends) my new blog: Based On A True Story (or more simply, B.O.A.T.S.).

Yes, I am a blogger now. 

No, I don't think I have a problem. 

Yes, I can share this information on Facebook but having a BLOG is so much cooler, right??

Truth be told, I have thought about starting a blog for a long time and I was THIS close to creating one when I studied abroad but never got around to it. However, I have recently made a BIG decision and I wanted a way for my family and friends to stay informed on this next chapter of my life. So here I am now, a blogger. And this is my story...

My goal is to post several times a week so we will see how that goes. However right now, I am so excited about this blog I anticipate daily posts as I am still in the "bloggymoon" stage.

So I will end my first post with sharing my BIG decision: 

I moved to Florida and I get to spend everyday with this wonderful guy: