Our Adventures Continue in.........DC!!!!

For the past 8 months Dan has know that he wanted to intern at the United States Treasury in August....bad. He has been dilligently preparing to apply and interview, trust me, no one was prepared as him for an interview ever. He kept up on the financial current events EVERY day, read tons of boring  informative financial books, worked on his resume until it was near perfection, and of course practiced interviewing with me as the stand in interviewer time after time. It was pretty stressful becuase we moved out to Miami for the Citi internship with no way of knowing what would come next. They didn't start accepting applications for the treasury until the SAME week his Miami internship ENDED. That's right, we packed up and moved out of our apartment in Miami having no idea where we would be heading to next.

We took our stuff to my parent's house and headed out to Hawaii for two weeks on vacation without hearing anything from the Treasury. (PS the internship was set to start on August 15, we left for Hawaii on July 11, talk about cutting it close). Well a few days after we arrived in Hawaii, the Treasury called Dan for an interview, which he did at 4 am Hawaii time. This interview was pretty easy, just discussing the internship and they asked a couple basic questions. He was then invited for a second phone interview. If the first interview was slow-pitch style, this was was fast-pitch. Rapid fire questions one after the other, but Dan did great! A couple days later he was offered the internship! So we left Hawaii with no word and came back with an offer! We will be heading to DC in a couple of weeks where Dan will intern at the U.S. Treasury in the Capital Markets Room until the end of December and we are feeling even more blessed for my job that I can do from any part of the country from home.

Now I just have to express my gratitude for being married to such a motivated, hard working man. His dedication was inspiring. He sets goals and does not expect the acommplishement of those goals to just fall in his lap. He goes above and beyond and works hard for what he wants, and that hard work paid off. Congratulations Dan Dan. I couldn't be more proud.

Now we just have to survive the apartment hunt....

Dear Miami...

Well its official...our time in Miami has come to an end. We made it through the last couple of days while we both worked full time and packed up our apartment into a million plastic bins, which by the way are the only way to go when moving, especially if you move often. Yesterday we loaded up a uhaul trailer and drove to South Carolina to my parent's house. As we were moving out, the next couple arrived and started moving in simultaneously...not the best scenario. We ended up rushing to leave and it felt so strange to see people moving things into our home. We may have only lived there for six months, but at this point it is the longest we have lived anywhere as a married couple. It was definitely bittersweet. We grew to love Miami but we are ready to start another chapter in our lives, whatever that may be. For right now...it's Hawaii. I am actually writing this post from the Dallas airport on my phone. We had a long drive from Miami to Goose Creek through many rainstorms and we made it too SC around ten last night. We unloaded the trailer, visited family, and prepared for our early flight this morning for Honolulu. It was craziness but we are so excited. So with all the craziness I haven't had the opportunity to reflect on our amazing adventure in Miami...so here goes...

We had our first experience living downtown in a high rise, we hot tubbed ALL the time, we strolled around the Miami Zoo, we belonged to a spanish speaking ward although we spoke zero spanish, we saw whales, dolphins and all kinds of sea creatures at the Miami Seaquarium, we learned the art of defensive driving, we were rear ended by a guy who offered us fruit to let him drive away, we went to the beach as often as possible and lived the high life a few times in our comfy chairs, we cruised to the Bahamas with Dan and Kelsey, we took in a spring training game in Jupiter, we welcomed Wyatt Waltrip into the world and spent lots of time with his mom and dad, we went to the Orlando Temple, we lived my dream of visiting the Kennedy Space Center with my family, we rode an air boat through the Everglades with the Gould's, we had lots of visitors including The Gould's, Courtney and Caroline, Kelly and Jackie, my momma, and Dan and Kelsey Itri, we watched the Florida Marlins play the Philadelphia Phillies,  we had an amazing view of Biscayne Bay every day from our balcony, I got to get some gelato from the Jersey Shore Gelato shop, we got to walk to a couple of Miami Heat games and attended a road rally during play offs, we discovered the joy of food trucks, I burned my leg pretty bad with boiling water and got a rash on my face from my translation headphones from church (haha),we para sailed and jet skied, Dan got some valuable experience at Citi and much much more. It was a great time for us to grow and learn as a newly married couple. We will always hold Miami close to our hearts.

*I know this post is late. My phone wouldn't let me post from it, so I wrote this before Hawaii and now I'm posting it after. Hawaii Posts to come!*

Happy Birthday America!

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! I personally love this holiday and all that comes with it. This year Dan and I had a simple and relaxing fourth. We were going to go enjoy our last beach day in Miami but the cloudy weather put a damper on that plan so we went out to lunch, did some shopping, and went down to Bayside Park which is right next to our building for some fireworks. I must say, Miami knows how to do fireworks.

When I Grow Up, I STILL Kind of Want to be an Astronaut

When most girls were little they dreamed of being a vet, or a rock star, or a horse trainer.....me not so much. I wanted to be an astronaut. I even went to Space Camp....twice. I was always fascinated with Space and the idea that humans had actually been on the moon...I seriously could not think of anything cooler than that. Anyone remember the glow in the dark stars that you put on your ceiling? Well I not only had a ton of those, I also had all of the planets....placed with thought as to the actual placement out there in the universe. I was SO not a dork or anything though.

This past weekend we had planned to meet with my parents somewhere halfway between Miami and Charleston to switch cars for our upcoming (this Saturday...ugh) move. Well somehow the Kennedy Space Center popped in my head and I became determined to go. All of the sudden halfway, turned into Orlando and we were going to rendezvous at the Kennedy Space Center.  Not only do I adore weekend getaways, especially with my fabulous mom, dad, and little sis....I was SO stoked to go to where space shuttles are actually launched into space. Dan was baffled by my utter fascination by the way. I guess he learns something new about me everyday. Well my visit to NASA was everything I cracked it up to be. I was in Space Geek heaven. Everyone else thought it was fine and occasionally interesting but I was enthralled. I really appreciate my loving family indulging me in my childhood dream.

Touching a moon rock! Waiting to see if he has any super powers...

Caroline decided it was just as good to pose with the sign

We waited in line to take this picture, most people sat in the seats but this pose came so natural

Just chillin in a mercury capsule..

realizing I'm not as young as I used to be when trying to get out

Caroline in a Gemini Capsule

The whole fam bam!

Love Story...Inspiration

Since Dan and I were married in the Temple, I felt it was extremely important to have a ring ceremony as well in front of our closest family and friends who have been such an important part of my life and whom we love dearly. Dan had never heard of such a thing and wasn't quite sure what to think of it, however, the bride get what she wants to we started planning the ceremony. Then I thoroughly freaked Dan out (and maybe even myself a little) my suggesting we write vows to one another. I have always had an aversion to "regular" vows but was also pretty intimidated at the prospect of writing my own. Well fastforward to our wedding day, and Dan and I agree that the ring ceremony was one of our favorite moments of the day. It was so beautiful (although extremely humid, but we have blocked that memory out) and there was something about standing there in front of those we loved and expressing our feelings for each other that was just truly special. It was really great for those in attendance because Dan and I had a rather quick engagement and most of them didn't really know Dan that well. During the ring ceremony they all got a glimpse of the man I love and how much I loved him as well. Ok enough mush.

Our vows turned out way more special than I could have imagined and since that day I have been trying to think of a way to display them in our home (now since we move ALL the time at the moment this project will be a future project but I wanted to document it b/c my memory is...well, crap. Today while blog stalking (don't judge) I came across THIS fabulous idea from The Precious Little Things in Life. She framed some of their best memories whether they be letters or pictures and displayed the collage of frames above their bed. What a fabulous idea. I can frame our vows, some pics, our wedding invitation, letters to eachother, oh my. I just had to share the inspiration I got today and it brought back such a wonderful memory.

 

 

Jackie and Kelly Take Miami!

Last week I was so excited to have Jackie and Kelly come visit here in Miami. It was so great to have them here...girl time was most definitely WAY overdue! I knew I missed them but you really don't realize how much you miss someone until you get to be around them and just love every minute of it! I have been through so much with these girls and really value their friendship. It is still so strange for me to not live near my friends so I really treasure time I get to spend with them.

So while they were here we visited with the Waltrip's and baby Wyatt, he's so adorable by the way. We hung out at the pool cloudy weather and all, watched Miss USA, ate entirely too much at Cheesecake Factory, lived the high life in comfy chairs at South Beach, went to the Gelato shop from Jersey Shore, went to a really swanky sushi restaurant called Tatu with Steph, watched the Justin Bieber movie (yea you heard me, I'm not sorry), and just laid around talking and talking. It was so much fun and I miss them already!

Snookie anyone? I'm pretending to climb because the sign was VERY clear to stay off

Carolina Girls pretending to be Jersey Girls

Courtney's Hollywood Themed Graduation Party!

This post is ridiculously late, the party was June 3rd, so sorry about that. I was so excited for my cousin Courtney to graduate from high school, and honestly it was all very surreal. I'm not ready for her to grow up, but what's done is done. Haha...how is that for dramatic?

So Courtney had her party with two friends and they wanted a Hollywood theme with Red, black, and white as their colors. Well as soon as I hear this I wanted to help so bad, so they were gracious and let me put my two cents in. Of course I forgot my camera, so I only have a few lame phone pics. I have GOT to be a better photographer.

One of my favorite parts of the party was the gourmet popcorn bar. We even had plastic popcorn boxes for everyone to use (super cheap at the Target one spot and Dollar Tree). We decided to make our own "gourmet" popcorn b/c it was crazy expensive to order. We ended up with chocolate, butterscotch, ranch, and buffalo flavors.

The poster is a super cute collage of the girls. At the top is says, "Class of 2011 Starring Amber, Ashley, and Courtney!" So cute!

You can't have a Hollywood Movie theme without candy, let's be real, and candy buffets are a thing of genius in my humble opinion. I mean who doesn't LOVE lots of different candies all displayed in cute glass containers??? Well I certainly do.

I wish I had a close up of the little sign on the left. FOR THE LIFE OF ME I cannot remember what it says, but man I sure thought it was perfect at the time. It says something to the effect of take a treat, its ours way of saying Thank you...but it rhymed and sounded way better.

Since it was a combined party we made each girl their own little table. It had their card box, a picture for guests to sign, and two scrapbook pages for everyone to sign. We made a congratulations banner out of scrapbook paper and glitter ribbon to hang above the tables. This picture does not do it justice but gives you a good idea.

The room was a HUGE white room so these pictures make it seem like it was lacking color. No worries, we (and by we I mean my little sis Caroline and her friend) made TONS of red, black, and white tissue paper pom poms and we hung those from the ceiling to add color. You can find out how to make those HERE.

I wish I had a picture of the full effect, it turned out really cute and was so fun! But the BEST part I had absolutely nothing to do with and that was the cake! One of the girls mom made it and she is amazing. She also made my Bridal Shower Cake and The Groom's Cake for our wedding and trust me, her cakes taste as good as they look.

See the film strip running around the cake? There's tiny pictures of the girls in every single little square...told you she was good.

I still can't believe little Courtney has graduated high school and is heading to College in the fall. She has grown into such an incredible young lady, I am SO proud of her and love her bunches!

Me, Courtney, and Caroline Christmas 2005

Caroline, Courtney, and I on her Graduation Day - 2011