The Red, White & Blue

My past Red, White & Blue...

My Present Red, White & Blue...

Nothing says, "I love you, Mr. Mahoney" like the gesture of securing yourself permanently to the U.S. of A.  A big step for me, an inconsequential step for the rest of the United States.  And today my passport arrived, just in time for us to go to England ;-p

March Visitors!

Cute guy at breakfast-springtime!

In mid March, we had a wonderful visit from Jack & Sharon Mahoney, all the way from Vincennes!  We had a fantastic long weekend, relaxing, eating, and seeing a little bit of the area.  On Friday, Mike and Jack went to play golf, while Sharon and I headed to the St. John's Town Center for some walking shopping!  We celebrated Jack's birthday with lovely evening out in Neptune Beach-we had drinks at One Ocean and a delicious Italian dinner at Mezza Luna!

On Sunday, we had a great day out in St. Augustine!  We walked, drank birthday Sangria, shopped and just really enjoyed the afternoon in the historic district.  On our way back from St. Augustine, we stopped at Cap's on the Water, a beautiful mostly outdoors restaurant/bar that face the intercoastal.  It was a great stop for an afternoon cocktail and appetizers, we're definitely excited to go back again!

Havanna Banana Sangria-smelled amazing!

Cap's on the Water!

It was lovely to see Jack & Sharon and we hope they come back soon!! :-)

The next weekend, Dani & Sergio stopped by on their way home from Miami for the night!  It was St. Patrick's Day and being the party animals we are, we all decided we'd have dinner and then head home :-)  It was a really quick visit, as Dani & Sergio headed home on Sunday morning, but we had a great time catching up and meeting Oliver for the first time! 

After dinner :-)

Next up, Meghan & Steve are coming to visit at the end of the month!! We love visitors!! :-)

Motivation to Exercise...

....Something that's sometimes lacking from my morning routine lately.  Last year, with a beautiful wedding dress looming in my future, I was really motivated to get up most mornings (4-5 times a week at that point) to workout before work, as after work doesn't fit well with eating before 8:00p-which we don't want to do.  I would crawl out of bed around 5:45a, but by the time I was dressed, I was ready to go and really enjoyed the feeling of actually having accomplished something useful before 7:00a.  But with the arrival of The Lloyd and after convincing Mike to marry me, twice, and having the dress behind me, I have slowly lost motivation to don my running shoes and get moving each morning.  Not to blame it on Lloyd completely, but we spent the first 6 months with Lloyd waking us up any time he felt like after 4:00a, and even after he was walked, he didn't quieten down, EVER.  So we tried to have him sleep with us, that didn't help either.  So we ended up two tired individuals and motivation went out the window.  Fast forward to January, and Lloyd's "giant" 40lb frame has been dragging me downstairs and around the neighborhood multiple times a day, leading to what turned out be a pretty nasty back injury.  A No exercise allowed for two months kind of problem.  Which leads to here and now, just a couple of weeks after I watched the 26.2 with Donna Runners coming down the beach on the world's coldest morning in Florida....

I came home from the race and immediately defrosted in a hot bath called my Daddy and asked him to run a marathon with me!  He used to be a marathon runner and I needed help!  He politely declined my insane proposal (neither of us are really ready for a full marathon at this point) but we did agree to partner on a marathon relay team, letting us experience how running a marathon feels (for me at least, I have no idea and am very nervous about how the whole race thing feels/goes), without actually participating in the entire 26.2 miles of torture that is the marathon.  Relay teams have four legs, each leg running 5-7 miles, depending on the leg,  Daddy thinks his friend, Tony, would run it with us for fun too, so we just need one more runner to complete our team and we'll actually be ready to do it!  The idea of running 5-7 miles is a very manageable goal, one that we can all comfortably say we can do well.  For me, personally, I'm hoping that the relay will be my start in to training for a half and then, eventually, a full marathon one day (far, far away it feels right now).  I even found some information on a long distance marathon relay in Vermont, pretty awesome idea if 11 other people want to take on this challenge with me?!?!?!

So, after trying to talk my friends in to a half marathon last year and the Warrior Dash this year (absolutely something I want to do one day....please someone participate with me!!!), I'm really hoping that we can commit and execute this really great, fun thing!  Fingers crossed, we will be running in the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh http://cityofoaksmarathon.com/! 

The point of this blog: to find our fourth runner, of course!  So, who's ready to train for a 6 mile saunter around Raleigh in November?!  It's going to be great, you know you want to do it!!  Daddy and Tony are fantastic, and no one will be upset if you have a slower (or faster) mile time!!  Seriously though, I'd love to have a friend participate in this too, there has to be a reason so many people sign up, right?!  Let me know, November will be here before we know it!  :-) 

Injury free and motivated, I'm pumped to race with my Daddy and friends!  Check one of the bucket list!

February has flown by!

I don't imagine that my day to day thoughts or activities are all that interesting to anyone, but cumulatively there have been a few great highlights from February!

Valentine's was awesome, Mike and I had a lovely dinner the weekend before Valentine's to celebrate and had a fun night in on Valentine's night!  Mike started Valentine's morning with my favorite breakfast, Italian-style, and we car-pooled work, which I think is super cute, even if it means Mike's car was in the shop and I was at work 2 hours early! :)  We came home, cooked dinner, and shared some fun gifts (I asked for Battleship, which I got, love that game!!)!  It was lovely!

Also that weekend, was the 26.2 National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer here in Jacksonville Beach.  I am going to address this at a later date in more detail, but I find it inspiring and motivating to watch people that can start a race at 6:30a in 30 degree weather (possibly the only day in Florida history it was that cold) and willingly run 26.2 miles!  Truly a great feat, and something that I would love to be a part of someday!  This year was not that time, however, so I can came to the beach at 7:00a (still 30 degrees outside) to watch the runners come down the beach for the 7 miles of the race that were on the beach.  It's incredible, people really deserve more than a medal that says that they complete it, especially when 7 miles of beach, wind, and COLD weather are involved!  Needless to say, I was awed and ready for action after watching the marathon, not to mention amazed by how much money is donated/raised with this race in the name of breast cancer-awesome!!

The weekend after "Valentine's" weekend (I'm just going to skip the ridiculous weeks that have been happening in between the weekends, work is madness lately!), Ivy came to visit!!!!!  Mike was out of town at a work conference/party time, so Ivy and I got to spend three days together, chatting about nothing and catching up!  We took a trip to "Catty Shack" in Jacksonville, a sanctuary for big cats and it was amazing!  They were having a "Baby Shower" for 5 new girl cubs: Cutest.Thing.Ever.!  We had a great time with the cats and had some fun meals along the way, checking out Metro Diner (famous from DDD) and my favorite, Salt Life!  It was a great weekend, it was so good to see my friend!! 

After that, we've just been mulling along and had a quiet weekend at home this past weekend.  We went out for beers at the Green Room Brewery with Mike's friend, Bob and his lovely wife, April, it was a really fun night!  Good beers, good company, great live music!!

So a pretty good February, all in all!  I have pictures, but I'm not motivated enough to make that happen, so you'll have to take my word for it that we did fun things!  I will leave you with-my office mate for Monday:

Probably not the best idea, but we had a good time looking at each other all afternoon. :)  Taken with my new Ipad2, courtesy of my lovely Husband who shared his work gift with me!! I'm a lucky girl! :)

Lately....

We've done the same thing for basically all of January-worked, eaten food (duh), and stayed close to home, watching movies, basketball, etc.  Nothing too exciting, but nice non-the-less.  Most notable in the last couple of weeks:

Dinner at Dwight's.  It's a tiny little place and Dwight cooks all of the food himself, where you can see him.  No really, he cooks every plate from scratch, including homemade pasta and all.  We had a glass of wine at The Wine Bar first then headed over to Dwight's and enjoyed Crabcakes (Mike had-they are Dwight's specialty) and Quail (I had-it was amazing!!!!), it was all amazing!  I didn't even know a tiny bird could be so delicious! 

Picnic lunch on the beach last Sunday!  It was only 65 degrees (I know, that's warm, but it's been nearly 80 for all of January and February so far), but it was a beautiful day for a picnic and a run around with the Lloyd.  He loves playing on the beach and having the freedom to run around (we went to a part of the beach that was completely empty so he wouldn't try and eat anyone!), it was a really great afternoon-one that makes me really love living so close to the beach and having a lovely little family (cheese, I know)!

Kangaroo Lloyd with his Daddy!

We watched Straw Dogs last night.  Still not sure how I feel about it, but I think it could have been better.  It was pretty good and the ending is, as we'd heard, pretty violent, but overall it was lacking somehow, the story could have been filled out more.  But worth seeing if you're in a "red neck viewing" kind of mood.

That's all I've got for right now, my brain is mushed after the last two weeks of insanity at work.  People just won't stop calling and stopping by, everyone is getting married, having a baby, or planning a reunion, seriously!  I was actually complaining that I have too much business booked and booking, which is ridiculous to complain about as a Sales Manager, but kind of true.  Oh well, I'm sure things will (fingers crossed) level out soon enough (who am I kidding, Valentine's is around the corner and EVEN MORE people will be getting engaged and planning wedding)! 

We're having a date with Sushi or Italian tonight and then spending some QT with that beautiful puppy of ours, and Milton, of course.  :-)  Poor Milt, always gets the short end of the stick! 

Windy ear!

LOVE that beautiful face!!!

February will a bit more exciting, we've got trips planned and 2012 visitors starting to roll in-YAAAAYY!!! 

Lloyd 8 Months

If the dog gets this many blogs, just imagine what a baby will be like (super hypothetical future tense, but seriously!)!  Lloyd had an 8 month check-up on Monday, complete with fecal inspection (yuck!) and de-wormer.  Oh, and a puppy pedicure.  We asked that they call it a nail cutting, as he is a boy and he's pretty serious about his masculinity.  He's completely healthy and happy as ever.  He's now 35 lbs., he gained about 1/2 lb in the last month, so we think he's going to stay a small fry.  He's a midget version of the dog we thought we had, but that works out wonderfully for us-there's no way I could be walked walk him and get down the stairs alive if he weighed much more!

We're calling this progress these days!

In other Lloyd news, we're finally getting it together and putting the monster in to training classes.  Let's just say Lloyd and I didn't have the best day off together on Monday, so I picked up paperwork and we're starting classes in February!  Yay for a semi-well-behaved puppy! 

Still in love, no matter what he does!

He owns us!

Beer Me....

Office reference, you're missing out if you don't know what I'm talking about.  Last night Mike and I ventured out to a couple of Jacksonville Beach's finest Breweries, also known as the only Breweries in Jacksonville Beach.  It's not a big place, two is really doing quite well. 
First we checked out Engine 15 for some beer and hummus (I was hungry, I get a bit cranky after 6 hours without sustenance, no I wouldn't make it on a desert island).  Mike had a delicious Dopplebock and I had an amazing Tangerie Wheat!  It was FANTASTIC!  The only thing that would have made this beer any better was sitting outside drinking it on a 90 degree day, it is definitely meant to be a heat-induced summer beer (probably at 2p on a Sunday, but that's another story). 

Tangerine Wheat=Delicious!

We tried a couple of other beers and then headed to Slider's in Neptune Beach for some Oysters, Shrimp, and Mahi Taco's!  Also delicious-which was probably the theme of the night.  Next visitors, we're going to Slider's. After that, we stopped by the Green Room Brewery in Jacksonville Beach for another beer, and to watch Tebow lose (enough with the Tebow-mania already!).  We had Green Room beers-they only serve their own beers and a few Florida beers-and enjoyed a fun end to our beer tasting evening!

Mmmmm.....Beer

A few high octane beers later and I can't remember the name, but it was a tasty wheat beer indeed :-)

Clean Ocean Brown Ale for the Handsome Husband!

A great night for The Mahoney's, just hangin' with the locals and drinkin' lots o' beer!  Beer me water today, please! ;-) 

January so far...

After an intense 2011, we brough 2012 in the way we are hoping the year will go (unlikely, but still)-happy and calm! We had a wonderful dinner at Aqua Grille, walking distance from our house, that included a delicious salad starter and Triggerfish for our main course!  Really tasty stuff, the waitress compared it to Sea Bass....Mmmmm! 

Yummy!

Happy about the Triggerfish!

So delicious, we both ate it!

We finished the night off with Dick Clarke and a bottle of champagne, and The Lloyd ringing in the new year!  A great start indeed!

Since then, we've been working and getting in to the swing of 2012! Last Saturday we had "tailgating and wing night" at home, whilc watching the Lions Vs. Saints game (we aren't going to talk about the actual game, that won't go well, but hey, at least this is the best season the Lions have had in a long time!), then we had a great Sunday Funday, having a fun lunch out at Mango Mango's in St. Augustine Beach and a nice walk on the beach afterwards.

Wing Night-Mahoney-style!

2012 is going well so far, it looks a lot like 2011 in pictures:

Milton was in the picture when I started taking it, but refused to be part of the shenanigans!

8 month old Lloyd says he's happy about being a grown up in 2012 ;-)