33. Become more involved with my church by finding something to volunteer in.

I am so excited to say I will be volunteering at my church. We have a lot of out of town guests that come to our church, especially to visit our printing press that we have on site that prints and sends (for free) hundreds of thousands of books all over the world. What is so wonderful is that we have a house next to our church that can sleep up to 15 people so that our guests have a place to stay for free. A couple of weeks ago, an e-mail was sent out asking for volunteers for 2010 to help in preparing our guest house for guests and then to clean the house once guests have left. I signed up for the Spring months. I hope by volunteering for this small part, it will open new opportunities for me to volunteer elsewhere in our church.

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (8/24)

Craft Project #8: Make a Gingerbread House

I picked up a kit at Target and was excited to start a new family Christmas tradition.
A friend told me ahead of time to assemble the gingerbread house 24 hours before decorating it so the icing had time to set. We all had such a great time working on this together.

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (7/24)

Craft Project #7: Decorate Christmas ornaments.

While visiting family in Chattanooga, TN the week before Christmas, my mother-in-law had a wonderful idea for the kids to decorate Christmas ornaments. Us adults couldn't let the kids have all the fun so we all made ornaments too. What a great chance to make memories!

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (6/24)

Craft Project #6 - Make a snowman out of construction paper.

I cut out all the shapes for the snowman and Avie glued all the pieces together and sticking them where she thought they should go. This was fun. We talked about each shape that she was gluing on and it was cool to see her know exactly were all the parts of the snowman's face went to when she had a blank canvas to work with. He is proudly hanging on our refrigerator.

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (5/24)

Craft Project #5 - Decorate Avie's 1st Christmas tree for her bedroom.

I got this craft idea from my wonderful sister-in-law, Jennifer.

Before I ever dreamed of having a child, I tried to remember cool ideas when I saw people who had kids when they did something fun. My SIL does an amazing job decking out her house in the most spectacular Christmas decorations and each of her kids have their own Christmas tree in their bedroom that they decorate. I've always loved that idea and wanted to do that with Avie this year now that she's at an age where she can appreciate having a tree in her bedroom. As she gets older, we'll buy a bigger tree for her room but for now she has this cute little one sitting on top of her dresser. She had a blast doing this!

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (4/24)

Craft Project #4 - Make turkey decorative settings for Thanksgiving dinner.

I found this craft at JoAnn's Fabric Store.

Avie glued and put together these cute turkey's to put at everyone's Thanksgiving dinner setting. She had a blast and everyone at dinner gave her tons of compliments which totally made her day.

13. Watch the sun set at the beach with Matt.

November 20, 2009 - While horseback riding on Florida's Forgotten Coast, we were able to watch a beautiful sun set on Cape San Blas.

93. Go horseback riding.

November 20, 2009 - I always thought I had to go some place exotic or over seas to ride a horse along the beach but when researching a trip to Florida's Forgotten Coast, I was pleasantly surprised. My husband had never been horseback riding so I thought this would be a nice surprise to give him as part of our anniversary. He knew I had something secretly planned but he had no idea what. I will never forget the look of shock and excitement on his face when we pulled up to the beach and he saw all the horses. We rode horseback along the beach of Cape San Blas for an hour, it was lovely and my bum hurt for the next 2 days! HA!

If you ever get the chance to go, please visit Two-bit Stable. Cheryl was wonderful!

Cape San Blas was recently voted in Coastal Living Magazine as one of the top 10 "Best Hidden Beaches" in the country.

My ride was a 30 year old lead horse named Buddy. Matt's horse was named Sassy and I think they had the names reversed.

40. Go to the Forgotten Coast with Matt for a weekend.

November 20 - 22, 2009

As soon as we moved to Florida two years ago, the first thing I did was get my hands on Southern Living and Coastal Living Magazines. Moving to a new area means a lot of fun exploring and adventure! Southern Living Magazine ran a spread back in January 2008 about Florida's Forgotten Coast (FC) and I knew it was a place we had to visit. So for my 6th wedding anniversary, I planned a surprise trip there for my hubby. For our 5th wedding anniversary we traveled 3 hours West to New Orleans so I thought it was perfect that this year we traveled 3 hours East.

I picked Port Saint Joe as the city we would stay in because of it's rich history and for it being the site of the first Constitutional Convention in Florida in 1838 where it almost became Florida's state capital. The FC is also known as the oyster capital of the world and its GORGEOUS beaches. Most of the beaches there show up constantly in Coastal Living in all sorts of "Top 10" lists. There were so many wonderful things to do and see so I will just post some pictures from our trip. With it's close proximity, we will be going back again.

The FC starts at Mexico Beach and this was our view driving.

It's not called the FC for nothing. We saw, maybe, 4 people on the beach - it was so quiet and it was sea shell heaven! We've never seen so many HUGE, untouched shells just washing on the shore. This specific beach is on Cape San Blas - recently featured in Coastal Living as one of the top 10 hidden beaches in the country.


Seafood Jambalaya, Oyster Po Boy's and Key Lime ANYTHING down there! So dang good. I think I gained 5 lbs just over that weekend. HA! This meal was at Dockside Cafe & Raw Bar.


In Apalachicola at my newly found favorite antique store: The Tin Shed with a view of the bay and some oyster boats.

In Mexico Beach, we visited Killer Seafood an amazing joint known for their famous fish tacos and key lime pie. They were featured in the May 2009 Coastal Living as one of Florida's best seafood dives. The food was all prepared fresh and right in front of us. These were the BEST fish tacos (they used fresh, local Grouper) and I have certainly eaten my fair share of them from all over the U.S.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Here is to the next 6 years! I love you!

65. Take the money from the yard sale and use it on a family event that we pick together.

We inherited a very gorgeous 150 year old dining room table from my sister-in-law a couple of years ago. It was the table that her and my husband grew up using and she got it when she began her family. She gave it to us when she inherited her mother-in-law's entire dining room collection. Obviously with such an old piece of furniture, the chairs originally matching the table are long gone. We had some make shift chairs to temperarily use until we found something to match. Finally, on a trip with a friend to the Foley Outlets, I found the Parson Chairs I've been wanting. They were originally $100 each and I got them on sale for $69.99 with a $20 off coupon!! I was super excited!! The left over money from the yard sale, we have decided to save and use for our trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (3/24)

Craft Project #3 - Make a Printed-Palm Tree

This week's craft comes from my September 2009 Family Fun Magazine.

Avie had a really fun time gluing "leaves" and "grass" to the paper and she especially loved mommy tracing her hand for the "tree".