Our First House

After a lot of praying and research we've decided to build a house on the Northside of Jacksonville. We are so happy. This past weekend we put up our "SOLD" sign on our lot. Yesterday we went to the design studio and picked out everything from our shingle, brick and stone color to the grout color! We are so excited for the upcoming months. Right now we are waiting on the permits which take about 30-45 days to get approved. We should be breaking ground in March and we should be moving in around mid to late July.


We are so excited!


Our backyard is all woods and to the right is a pond

We are so happy to be in a cul-de-sac ! Great for raising kids.

True Story ...

Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's already 2009, how exciting! Dustin and I were so blessed in 2008 and we pray that God may continue to bless us in 2009. There will be many changes within the next several months, God willing I will go full-time at my job, I'll be turning 25 (dear Lord) and Dustin will be 24 and we will be moving into a house, God willing. For the past couple of months Dustin and I have been researching and looking for houses. Our lease will be up on April 29th . We all know how fast time flies so it'll be here before we know it. We are so picky as to where we want to live because we feel as though there are so many important factors we must consider: neighborhood, future schools, location etc.

On a sad note, I LOST my camera ... yes, yes I did. True story. I'm SO sad. I went to grab it on the day of my graduation and couldn't find it. I was running late so I told myself I would look for it later and I have yet to find it! I'm so sad.

Have a great rest of the week!

Love,

2008 Has Been GREAT!

Hola! I'm officially a COLLEGE GRADUATE. As I was sitting in my seat listening to all the speeches, I couldn't help but think "wow, all those years of school and in just minutes I will be walking across the stage to receive my bachelor's," it's almost like a blur to me now. It feels great to just sit here on my comfy couch watching TV and playing on the laptop not having to worry about any research proposals, projects, papers, etc.

This year has been such a blessing. For starters, I married the most wonderful man (and my best friend), we got a sweet puppy who we consider to be our little baby, I graduated from college and I just know God has much more in store.

Thank you for all your support and love!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

I LOVE Christmas, it's such a great reminder of Jesus and His birth. I'm so grateful for Him and my family. I am also very thankful that I am able to spend time with the ones I love. We are very thankful that Toni & Kim (Dustin's parents) gave us our very first tree. We were very excited to put it up and decorate it.

Our little puppy Mia is going to be six months this month! She's growing up. I think she's in the "teen" stage of dog, she's so rebellious. She likes to run around the house as fast as she can and through the tightest parts of the furniture (such as the dining room chairs) and she likes to run a lap UNDER the Christmas tree...and it drives me CRAZY that she does this. She wrinkles up the tree skirt and sometimes she just hangs out back there. If anyone has any good ideas let me know!

Dustin and I before the Jag vs. Titan game it was so much fun and SOO cold.


Our Christmas Tree :)


Dustin and the baby sleeping


Our sweet little girl


Mia under the Christmas tree

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

I'm so relieved that it is finally December. I finally get to graduate Friday, Dec. 12 at 11 a.m.! I'm so happy. I've been in college for several years. I've changed my major so many times (Kim P. I know you're probably laughing if you're reading this) and never thought I'd be done. Ahh ... I can't stop saying how relieved I am.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a great time. We played croquet in the early afternoon and played boardgames the rest of the night! The Williams family is serious about our games ... well, especially Dustin and I (haha).

The weekend before Thanksgiving Dustin and I had pictures taken with Meg Doyle. She's so good at what she does. We had such a great time spending getting to know her better. Be sure to check out her site. Now we're just trying to decide which picture we're going to use as our Christmas card.

This is little miss Reagan on Thanksgiving playing croquet.


Her "Papa" giving her some pointers ...


She LOVES posing for the camera! Especially in her pretty dress that her great grandmother made for her in just a matter of days ... "Gigi" is very talented.

Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity ... The Shack

I'm not much of a reader but for the last month or so I've been hearing about a book called The Shack that a lot of people I know were reading or had read it just recently. I would listen and just think "that's nice...I have other things to do besides read..FOR FUN!" but I finally borrowed the book from a friend and I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN! It's seriously amazing. It's filled with so much truth. Below you will see the website link you can go to that tells you more about the book. I don't want to tell you too much and give anything away. At this website you can read the Foreword and Ch. 1 of the book.


I have a very busy schedule, but anytime I have a minute I read as much as I can. Recording Artist, Michael W. Smith put it best when he said The Shack will leave you craving for the presence of God.

You will laugh, cry and repent of your own lack of faith along the way. I urge you to check this book out at your local library, or buy it. I plan on buying my own copy soon. If you DO decide to read it, please tell me what you think about it! It's one of those books you JUST HAVE to share with your friends and family.

http://www. theshackbook. com/

Miss Mia

It's been a while since I've updated you all. Bare with me because this will most likely be a LONG post. We've been so busy lately, sorry! Here's the latest...

-We got a puppy!
-We survived TS Fay
-I started my LAST semester at UNF today!

Mia
This past Sunday, Dustin and I added a new addition to our family, Mia. Mia is our 2.5 month old toy poodle. She's so sweet,so cute and so small! As I was walking her this afternoon a girl stopped me and she "she's got to be the smallest puppy I've ever seen; she looks like a stuffed animal!"
I totally forgot how HARD it is to potty train a pup. She's doing good ... she has little pee-pee accidents every now and then, granted it's the size of a rain drop but I don't want her to think she can do that just anywhere. She doesn't really like the grass, she's quite the Diva! I'm reconsidering naming her that name instead...teehee. She is full of energy and I guess I'm getting old because I'm so tired! LOL I feel bad for her because she goes to the vet Thursday for her shots :(

Out little girl ...

Dustin and Mia

Reagan and Mia having a good time!


FAY
Tropical Storm Fay came through our area and stayed for a WHILE last week. Our apartment has a roof leak because of the storm and our area experienced a lot of flooding. Other than that we survived it!

University of North FL

Today was the first day of my LAST semester at UNF. As you can imagine, I'm very, very excited. I'm taking a total of three classes, this includes my internship with Jacksonville Magazine. My other two classes are Mass Communication Research, not too fun. It's all about how to research and ofcourse we have massive writing assignments. We have two projects due in this class. One involves groups and the group must write a 15-17 page research proposal. We also have a concept explication which involves a comprehensive explication of a mass communications concept and the analysis and evaluation of the past research on the concept and this paper is only 5-6 pages in length. My third class is Public Relations Campaigns and it's a hands-on approach to public relations planning. The entire class will work as a full service public relations/advertising agency to develop a complete integrated communication plan which includes research, goals and objectives, implementation, and evaluation, for a non-profit organization. The client is REAL and we found out that the client is Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary The mission of Catty Shack Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary is to provide a safe environment to many of the great cat species that are endangered or threatened due to loss of natural habitat. Our primary focus is in the rescue of cats from serious situations. As a class we will work with this client and create a plan that best meets its needs. The class is basically being transformed into a business and each class member has to apply for a position (i.e. account manager, account executive, campaign director, etc.). We have to have a cover letter and resume and we are to get in front of the class and tell everyone why we feel we are qualified for the position. I'm really excited about this class!

JACKSONVILLE MAGAZINE
Things have been going well at the internship. Some days are more exciting than others. I just finished writing copy for our Top Dentist issue that will come out in October's issue. I'm excited for the upcoming events we will have booths at (i.e. Caring Chef's, Southern Women's Show, Home and Patio Show).

Other than that we are doing very well. We're looking forward to our cruise in December as well as my graduation. It's been quite the year for us and we are stoked about everything!