14 in 14

Another year is coming to a close and 2014 was exactly what I wanted..low key, calm, and nothing crazy. 

2013 came with graduations, weddings, big moves, surgeries, and new jobs. 2014 was a welcome change.

{fourteen}

We celebrated my 27th birthday in Tampa at the Gasperilla Pirate Festival. The whole day was such a blast. Growing up with a winter birthday, I was always jealous of my friends who got to enjoy theirs outside, or have pool parties. 

I just booked the hotel to celebrate my 28th at the end of January!

{thirteen}

I was hired by a private school as a kindergarten science teacher over Christmas break to finish out the school year. I had taken an 8 month break from teaching when we moved to Florida and found out that life wasn't so sweet behind a desk. I had never been more happy to be a full time teacher again.

{twelve}

Enjoyed a visit from my bestie when her and her (now) fiancé went on a cruise in the caribbean and their port was out of Fort Lauderdale. I drove down for the day to see them, and enjoy the sun and heat of South Beach.

{eleven}

The next few months consisted of a lot of training and fundraising for my first half marathon in April with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I committed to raising $3,200 for LLS in exchange for running the Nike Women's Half marathon in Washington, D.C. It was a lot of hard work, but it is amazing how you actually see the results of training. The picture on the right is after i finished a 10k and was able to run the entire thing without stopping. At that point, that was the longest I have ever ran in my entire life.

{ten}

Brandon & I's vacations luckily fell on the same week so we planned a few days trip down to Miami & stayed on the strip in South Beach. On the way home we stopped in Jupiter to catch a Cardinals Spring Training game. It was my Christmas gift to B. I'm not the biggest Cards fan out there, but I do enjoy making him happy & catching a baseball game.

{nine}

This was at the end of my training, two weeks before the half & I had just finished 10 miles. My shirt has all of the my family & friends who had donated to my race. I couldn't have done it without all of them.

Fundraising was stressful & nerve racking & there were times I didn't think I would make my goal, but once I started my last campaign of 100 donations of $10 in 100 hours & that is what got me to my goal. I was getting donations from every one: best friends, family, strangers, acquaintances, & long lost friends. It was really the most humble I've every felt.

{eight}

I did it!!! I completed my first half marathon in our nation's capital. The race was perfect! It wasn't easy, but I could not have asked for a better race, event, & campaign to run for.

{seven}

Residency continues for Dr. Husband. Several things I learned while being on this journey with him through medical school and now the first year of residency: make your own plans, we are a TEAM, & remember in marriage you both have to give 100%.

The days are long, but the years are short.

{six}

We continued to enjoy being Disney Annual Passholders. It is our favorite place & the best investment we could have made. 

I also lived out my dream of being at Hollywood Studios during Star Wars weekends. It was seriously like I had become 12 years old again.

{five}

 We celebrated our first year of marriage! 

The best is yet to be..

{four}

We enjoyed trips to the beach whenever we could.

I scored tickets to see Jimmy Fallon when he was at Universal Studios. It was an awesome show & my friend Meg & I enjoyed the theme park after the taping.

{three}

I was hired in June to teach fourth grade at a Title I school in East Orlando. I was very excited for this new adventure & the experiences that have come along with it.

{two}

We enjoyed traveling to St. Louis & Dallas for two of our friends weddings. Brandon was in the wedding party for both, & both grooms were in ours. Both such fun weekends, which always made the first day back at work really, really, tough.

{one}

 October was a pleasantly exciting & exhausting surprise with the KC Royals making the playoffs & getting to the world series. I had never had a reason so watch baseball in October before (being a Cubs & Royals fan) so this was a great month…exhausting, with many trips to our neighborhood bar to watch the games, but I hope to see my other baseball love in October next year ;-)

{zero}

One more, just for good measure.

We celebrated Christmas in Florida this year. Dr. Husband had to work, so I had to find ways to make Christmas just as special, just the two of us.

I spent Christmas Eve baking up fabulous meals for dinner, Christmas breakfast, & dinner. 

I even got to cook "with" my mom. LOVE technology!

I finally used recipes from my bridal shower. I made my MIL's Macaroni Mouse, my mom's St. Louis style salad, two of my parent's neighbors & friends French toast casserole & Christmas Day Soup. I also made Surf 'n Turf (this may be an Alexander Christmas Eve tradition). 

I am not the most domesticated gal around, so I was pretty proud of myself for the meal & the fact that I enjoyed cooking all day!

Archer & I enjoyed a day at Fort de Soto dog beach.

Thanks for joining me on my 2014 year in review. This is much better than the Facebook version :-)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday & have the happiest of New Years!

Five for Friday

Does it count if I started this post when it was technically still Friday {11:59pm et}

I am currently sitting on the couch, much past when I should have gone to bed, watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one; you know, the good one.

It has been a very busy week & that's perfect for a link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching weekly Five for Friday.

I got the whole week off from school, a much needed break, & needed to prepare for my parents coming into town from St. Louis for Thanksgiving. They weren't staying with us, but I wanted to use the weekend & three days to get all my Christmas decorations up.

Holy Christmas decor inventory.

 Plus this FABULOUS find from an antique shop. You know that look/move you do when you find a $1 on the ground…I did that when I spotted the moose mug.

You serious, Clark?

No wall goes untouched in our apartment. The catch 22 about living in Central Florida is that we can't really get out of the state easily, but with the exception of the panhandle, we can get almost anywhere easily IN Florida. Our goal while we live here is to make the most of it & visit as many places as we can.

I purchased this 1920 map of Florida from Etsy shop WorkBox, printed it as an 18x24 & glued it to a canvas. Every where that Brandon & I have visited together gets a little pin in it. Still many places to visit!

I found the painting from Hobby Lobby.

Like I said earlier, my parents weren't staying with us in Orlando. We rented a condo in New Symrna Beach. We had a nice, low key Thanksgiving dinner, hubs was able to be off work for the evening to join, & we enjoyed the sunset & ocean view. B & I made the journey to Wal-Mart {ugh} & snagged a voucher to order the 50" TV. Black Friday just isn't the same anymore. Running through Target at 4am 4 years ago when we literally snagged our current 40" was so much more fun.

The weather has been really chilly the last two weeks, I feel sorry for my parents who were hoping for some hot weather. But anything is better than current Missouri weather.

And I have enjoyed getting to wear my "Wellies" & leggings!

Has anyone else had anxiety to go back to work on Monday? I had a legit anxiety attack this morning just thinking about my email {that I refuse to check till Sunday evening--at the earliest}

I really am not ready yet. But the positive side of it is that Thanksgiving was later this year, which means Christmas will come faster!

Princess Half Marathon is coming up in a very short 3 months & I am no where near ready. So what better way to celebrate the day after stuffing yourself than signing up for a 5k? 

As of my last running attempt I was only able to go a mile before I had to walk. Pretty embarrassing for someone who plans on running a half soon.

Another reason I love living in Florida, perfect running outside weather. Now..where is that motivation?

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving break with your family & friends.

Alexander Family Christmas

I was so excited to throw our first party and combine all the things I love! 

Decorating my home for guests, finally using a lot of our wedding presents that have stayed in boxes, downing sangria, and playing drinking games.

Brandon first introduced me to Christmas Vacation when we started dating, I have no idea how I had never seen this movie till then, but I've been making up for lost time. And what goes great with awesome Christmas movies? Awesome drinking games to play along with awesome Christmas movies. Thanks to one of my favorite blogs Little Baby Garvin I used her amazing rules.

All of my Christmas decorations come from pre & post Christmas sales. Almost all of it came from Target last year. I also hit the clearance jackpot at Target two days ago. They were getting ahead of the game, but I'm not complaining. I scored lots of clearance Christmas kitchen goodies--most expensive piece was a snowflake bowl for $8. Who can argue with that?

I made Winter Sangria the night before and created homemade potpourri, both were equally amazing.

Winter Sangria:

1 bottle of Pinot

1 bottle sparkling apple cider

Couple bits of mint

1 cup cranberries

1 apple sliced

1 orange sliced

Stove Potpourri:

4 cups water (boil)

1 cup cranberries

Couple bay leaves

Whole Cloves

Cinnamon sticks

1 orange sliced

Brandon's shirt is from Khols & mine is from the boy's section in Target

 Couldn't resist---I SAID FREEZE!

I have made it a mission to have the Alexander Family Christmas party every year from now on!

Ruffle Tree Skirt & Christmas Traditions

Ruffle Tree Skirt DIY

You will need:

Cheap Tree Skirt: Dollar Store

Muslin-JoAnns-2 yards

Burlap-JoAnns-2 yards

Glue Gun

Optional:

Sewing Machine

Rotary board & cutter

This can be done as a no sew, using only a glue gun, but I used my sewing machine. 

Cut the fabric into 3 inch strips.

Line your skirt with hot glue and start laying down the muslin. Pinch the fabric between your fingers and press down onto the other to make a ruffle.

Next, I did the same with in the burlap, use fabric pins to help hold it down. I found using a glue gun difficult, as it comes through the fabric and burns {ouch!}. So I used my sewing machine to sew the burlap, and went back to the gun for the muslin.

Give yourself plenty of time for this project, it took me a little over four hours.

Under the tree!

Christmas Traditions

My mom started a tradition with my brother and I starting with our very first Christmas and it's one I'm excited to continue. Every year my mom would buy us one ornament that signified something important in the past year. Whether that was our favorite movie, a new sport we played, or something big that happened to us. Something to remember that year by.  Included in that is The Lion King for 1994, my pacifier from 1988, or Missouri State ornament for 2004 when I got accepted to college. Under each ornament she wrote our initial and the year we got the ornament.

Brandon and I had our first Christmas in our own home and with our own tree last year and I started the tradition again. His memorable event was traveling to Mexico for a mission trip with his school and he got me a house for moving into together. If we had an important event/memory together it deserves an ornament too, so I found one for our first Christmas in our New Home and a picture from our move in day. This year I have been on the search for an engagement ornament that doesn't look cheap or having kissing teddy bears with doves...so far unsuccessful.

Trees with themes or all similar, colored coordinated ornaments look beautiful, but personally I love my tree with all it's mismatch ornaments; with each one I am taken back to that year and that moment and our tree tells a story. I can't wait for 10 years to go by and have a tree filled with Brandon and I's {&family} life events. 

New Chalkboard & 6 months countdown