Happy "Birfday" JBizzle!

Today is my brother JB's birthday! He's 21... I can't believe it! We're not having a big celebration or anything tonight... We're just having some dinner and dessert at my parents' house. He even refuses to do the "Tennessee Waltz", which is a coming of age tradition at FSU, wherein when somebody turns 21, the birthday celebrant is dragged by his or her friends to all the bars along West Tennessee street... He or she then gets one complimentary drink at each bar... it's weird because the whole "ceremony" usually ends up on Copeland (not Tennessee), at the fountain in front of the Ruby Diamond Auditorium! FSU birthday celebrants (especially those turning 21) are notorious for vandalizing that fountain--making it one of the most historic AND memorable spots at FSU!!! Some common form of vandalism at the said fountain involves dumping tons of dishwashing liquid or detergent soap... This usually happens at least once a week and usually costs FSU thousands of dollars to clean up!

Anyways, JB's going to have the whole weekend to celebrate as we're going to Miami for the FSU vs. UM game on Labor day weekend! We already got a few invitations to some awesome parties... so, yeah, my brother will be well taken care of!

So... HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JBizzle!!! We're going to have a lot of fun this weekend!!! We'll see you tonight... and as you always end your e-mails... "Peace on Earf!!!" :-)

It's playtime!

Well, nothing spectacular happened this weekend... We weren't able to go to Lincoln's football game against Rickards last Friday night since it rained. We just stayed home and watched it on TV... The Trojans are lookin' mighty good this season. They beat the Raiders 33-0!!!! Their next game is out of town against Daphne High in Alabama (somewhere outside Mobile) on Sept. 8th... don't know if we're going to that one because it's about 4 1/2 hours away! We'll see...

Tonight, Rob and I are babysitting Jenny's kids (The Maddoxes)! We love playing with those kids... They have the cutest names too!!! The eldest is Miller... I think she's about 9 years old. Next is Bentley and she's 5... and the little one is Levy and he's 2. Both Miller and Bentley were in our wedding (Miller was one of my junior bridesmaids and Bentley was one of my flower girls)... and though Levy was too young to be in our wedding, he had the time of his life dancing with his older siblings and his cousin Jake!

Here's a pic of Miller and Bentley at our wedding

And here's Levy :-) with their dad Michael...

Well... this is a great way to start our week... tons of fun with the Maddoxes! Oh and we get to practice too before we have our own :-)

Another Week Has Come and Gone...

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last updated... Well, let's see... Thursday night (yeah, last week!!!) with the newlywed girls was fun... We were just chit-chatting, while enjoying our frapuccinos and mochas, which went on for hours. It was great meeting the newbies... there were several of them!

Then, Friday night, I went to Jenny's for the crop meet... That was a lot of fun too! I was able to finish cropping all the showers (though I still have some journaling to do!) and I'm about to start the Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner next time I have some free time. I think we cropped from 6:30 until about 11 pm... so, I was ready for bed when I got home! Rob, on the other hand, played basketball with Kevin... He was tired and sore... Hmmm... I guess they played with some really REALLY quick guys!!! Haha!

Saturday, Rob and I went to Madison to Uncle Pete's tire factory... The place was pretty big and Jimmy (Rob's cousin) was really nice to give us a detailed tour of the place... I did learn a lot about tires that day. I must say, he's quite the tour guide!!! We also went to his log cabin-style home... It was really adorable!!! Ok, I know I promised to take pictures, but Rob and I were in a hurry to leave Tallahassee that we forgot to bring the camera with us!!! Oops... Well, Jimmy was also in a hurry to go to Lake City for a race, which his buddy was going to compete in so we didn't stay too long... But he did invite us back for some BBQ and some fun on his large property. He said we should all shoot some shotguns and pistols next time but I'm kinda scared to do that, so I will leave all that to the boys... but I will ride the ATV though!

On Saturday night, we had another girls' night out... Jess, Emilia, and I went to finally see "The Devil Wears Prada"... We've been planning on going for weeks now, but we always had conflicting schedules. So, I'm glad we finally did last Saturday! Rob had his own boys' night as well... He went to play basketball with his buddies again... It's fun to do things without Rob every now and then... It makes me miss him more and I usually could not wait to come home to him :-) !!!

On Sunday, we did our usual chores and Rob cleaned my car again!!! So, here (finally) are some pictures!








We had a relaxing Sunday night, we went out to dinner and then came home to watch "Must Love Dogs" on DVD. We did our grocery shopping on Monday night, which we haven't done in a while! And every night since then, we've been hanging out at my parents' house... Rob and I love watching TV with my siblings... We always crack up, especially when my sister Kathryn says some random comments on what we're watching! Rob's also been helping my dad look for bigger wheels and tires for Kevin's new truck on the Internet... Like I said... I just don't get why guys constantly do stuff to their cars... In this case, a brand new car, with brand new tires and wheels!!!

Tonight, we're just staying home... I'm cooking Rob a surprise dinner (since I don't cook that often), dim the lights, burn the candles, and have a romantic night! Tomorrow night, we're going to Lincoln's first football game of the season against Rickards High... I'm so excited... Football season is HERE!!! I'm crossing my fingers... Go Trojans!!!

FSU Fan Day 2006

Finally... I have a few minutes before I drive to Jenny's house for the Crop Party... So, here are the pictures from last Sunday...

Quarterback Drew Weatherford

Me and my buddies (QB's Drew and Xavier Lee)

Rob and Spencer with the boys

Head Coach (Hall of Famer) Bobby Bowden

Ernie's Bro... Freshman Marcus Sims

And finally... me and THE man --> Lorenzo Booker!!!

There were thousands of FSU fans who lined up to get up close and personal with these guys... It was seriously a lot of fun... Can't wait for our first game to begin... Monday, Sept. 4th (Labor Day)... Here we come MIAMI!!!

Busy... Busy

I have been very busy lately... I know, I still have to post pictures from last weekend's FSU fan day... Also, haven't taken any pictures of my new car yet. Rob cleaned it (for the very first time since we bought it) the other weekend, but since it's been raining every afternoon here in Florida, my car's dirty again :-( Oh well, c'est la vie!

Anyways, I've been thinking... it's just bittersweet that my friends from high school (and college) and I have gone our own separate ways. Most of them have moved to bigger cities, but we still keep in touch through facebook. It's a lot more secure than myspace or friendster, because you need a university e-mail address (with a ".edu" domain) to sign up, so I don't get any junk mail or any strangers wanting to ask to be friends and what not... A lot of them are still single and it seems they haven't gotten tired of the party life yet, so I can't really relate to them any longer...

Because of this, I've been meeting with a bunch of newlyweds here in town. It's really fun... we usually meet at a restaurant or a cafe and just hang out. Sometimes, they hold poker nights and stuff... It's just us--girls having fun without our husbands... And sometimes, we go on group dates with our husbands too... Most of us are in our early to mid twenties, young professionals, mostly FSU alumni so we diligently attend football games (though we have a few Gators in the bunch), first time home-owners and we have no kids (at least for another couple of years)! Tonight, we're meeting at Starbucks on Thomasville Rd and there are a few newbies so I can't wait to meet them! I'm just really really excited to share similar experiences with these newly found friends who are in the same boat as I am...

Tomorrow night, Rob's cousin Jenny is having a Crop Meet... For those of you who aren't into scrapbooking, that's where you have someone--like Jenny--host a party where you get to browse and buy scrapbooking materials that will be used for the crop party where you get to work on your scrapbook with several avid croppers. So, I've been busy gathering the pictures from all our showers, bridesmaids' luncheon, rehearsal and reahearsal dinner so that I can get started on those... This will take me a few weeks.... So far, I have almost 200 prints. The next project would be our wedding and then the honeymoon... This should keep me busy for a while!

Anyways, my hubby is sick and he stayed home today.... He has a sore throat and a little fever, so I'm going to try to make him feel better... This weekend, we're going to visit his cousin Jimmy (our bestman). He lives in a huge property, minutes outside of Tallahassee, where he built an awesome log-cabin style home... Rob loves going out there because Jimmy's got some cool toys they can play with... I still haven't been out there, so I'm going to take pictures... Yes, I promise!

In awe...

So, I was stunned at the hype and controversy generated by my previous post... My dad asked me to delete it and since I love and respect him too much, this is the least I could do!

With that said, I think I got my point across! And I'm sorry that it takes the "dirty" route to get our voices heard, but it worked! Nevertheless, I think that our family would NEVER EVER be underestimated ever again...

For now... I am just looking forward to the future and am putting the past behind me... I vow to help my sister HEAL because I love her so much and I am hoping she will eventually be able to forget (forgive would be great, but I think she would never be able to do that given the circumstances)! Hopefully, everybody learned something from this... and I know I definitely learned quite a few... I learned not to get involved between TWO people's little spat (even if I am dragged into it)... I understand that it is between TWO people and NOBODY else's business and I will stick to this principle LIKE AN ADULT should because that shows maturity.

On a brighter note, Rob, Spencer, and I spent the whole day at the FSU Fan day yesterday... It was so much fun!!! I will post pics of that on a later entry.

Humuhumunukunuku Apua'a

"UA MAU KE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO O HAWAII"

- Israel Kamakawiwo Ole' - Hawaii 78

No.... I'm not crazy! I'm just really missing Hawaii. Lately, I have been constantly reminded of our awesome honeymoon spent there merely three months ago!

Blame my watching Dog the Bounty Hunter marathons on A&E almost every night, especially when they featured their wedding at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island last Tuesday... Or my all-time favorite The Travel Channel always showing Maui and Kuai... Or that many of my in-laws' friends decided to go after finding out that we went there for our honeymoon... Oh, and that one of our groomsman, Brian, is packing--as I write--to spend one magnificent week there with his family!!!

Rob and I decided that in the next few years, after our European trip, we're whisking away our family to Hawaii... Can't wait... That'd be double the fun :-)

Oh, this post's title is Hawaii's state fish... And the phrase on top is part of a song Rob and I fell in love with while we were there... We heard it on the tour bus, at the luau, while shopping or strolling on the streets and while lounging around in our balcony!

Next time, we will be back with a vengeance... hehe!

Shake n' Bake... baby!

I'm really exhausted from this weekend... We started off by going to dinner and the movies Friday night. Kevin and I wanted Japanese for dinner, but Rob wanted Mexican... so, a quick, easy solution was the Tallahassee Mall food court :-)... Then, we went to the premier of "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"... And let me tell you, that movie was so stinkin' hilarious... I couldn't stop laughing! All the time slots were sold out... We got there 30 minutes before the previews started and we still had trouble finding seats... Thank God, we found 3 consecutive ones, or it wouldn't have been fun watching it separately! Anyways, I can't wait for the DVD to come out... Rob and I love Will Ferrell; he especially likes "Old School", which to him is the funniest movie ever... and I love "Elf"! Haha...

Saturday morning, Rob went with Kevin to a car stereo shop... Kevin got his driver's license last Thursday... *sigh* Thank God, that boy will never bug me for rides again!!! See, my dad just bought him a brand new 2006 Nissan Frontier truck last weekend... and he's thinking of adding more stuff to it... I could never understand boys\men when it comes to cars... tsk, tsk!!!

Speaking of which, my husband just spent the ENTIRE weekend doing stuff to his BMW... It's just a never-ending saga when it comes to "pimping his ride"... lol... While I, on the other hand, spent all day Saturday cleaning our house... Yep, like I mentioned earlier, I'm a neat-freak... I clean every 3 weeks! There's a great sense of satisfaction and contentment for me after a long day's work of cleaning... Then, Saturday night, we went out to dinner with the in-laws and Rob's brother Spencer at Marie Livingston's... They always have the best pianist, for some reason... and he was playing some of our favorite songs!

Sunday was a slow day... Rob spent another day in the garage, while I did the laundry and ironed our clothes! I spent the rest of the day in my kitchen cooking some chicken terriyaki, which I brought over to my parents' house for dinner! Everybody thought it was good, so I guess I'm getting better as a cook :-)

So, it's another Monday... There's nothing major happening this week, except that I'm coding a new application and am busier than ever at work!!! Well, hope you guys have an awesome week ahead!

The Florida State University in Tallahassee

I was thinking it's about time to blog about our beloved Alma Mater... What brought about this burning urge deep within me? Well, it's August and school starts in a couple of weeks... which also means, football season is around the corner... So, how's football related to our school, you ask? Well, FSU is to football... as sugar is to coffee !!! That's the simplest--yet closest--analogy I can make. But without first talking about Tallahassee, there IS NO WAY we can paint the picture more vividly...

Moving to Tallahassee was such a culture shock... especially for a 15-year old, who had left her dear friends back home and the big city life she was used to... To those of you who don't know, Tallahassee is such a small city--one of the quintessential small-towns of America! And the saying goes... "This is as American as Apple pie."

At first, I hated living here... because driving is a necessity! (I didn't start driving until my junior year)... so, the first 2 years of living here was torture!!! Everytime I went out, I had to either ask my parents for a ride or bum a ride from friends who were older. The public transportation system (AKA Tal-Tran) was so useless to me, since it was only covenient for those who live closer to downtown!!! We only have 2 big malls, so if you were a minor (under 18), you had limited activities for fun... That is, unless you play sports or are in a rock band or go to a high school party every weekend--which was definitely not my thing!

Well, this all changed my senior year in high school... when I had to choose which university to attend. That year, I received tons of mail from pretigious schools like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--the best engineering school in Florida who offered me $9,000 a semester on scholarships (which wouldn't have worked out, because one semester's tuition is about $15,000--books and dorm not included), Stanford University, UCLA, Boston University, Northwestern University, Georgia Institute of Technology (aka GA Tech), NYU (New York University), University of Florida (UF), University of Miami (UM), and of course, Florida State University (FSU)... All these schools offered me some sort of a scholarship, but I did get full scholarships to UF and FSU... This was my chance to leave Tallahassee, I thought... but something in me changed that year...

Sending in a college application here in America is as tedious as applying for a Microsoft job! First you have to pass the FCAT (for Florida), you must have had 2 years of foreign language in high school (I took French for 4 years), you must take the PSATs, and then the SATs or the ACT. In my case, I took the ACT because Math and Science are my strongest points, you must write 2 ORIGINAL papers per university (meaning, you can't just send in the same papers to different schools even if you yourself wrote them!)...

So, after the gruelling process of college application, I narrowed down my choices to UF and FSU... UF is in Gainesville, which is 2 hours from Tallahassee... and since I already knew what to major in (that is Computer Science-Software Engineering), I researched both schools and compared them... Through this, I found out that FSU had a much better Department of CS... so, I spent a lot of time at the FSU campus, getting to know my way around, since we have a huge campus! I started loving my life in Tallahassee and thought about the pros of staying here... i.e. no staying in a dorm, no out-of-state tuition, no driving back and forth to Tallahassee for breaks, no student loans, etc, etc...

My last year in high school, I was dating a football player and although, he had his mind set to going to UF, I still opted for FSU... I learned to enjoy the sport that year, not only out of boredom, but because of tradition... Tallahassee may be a small city, but it also is a football town!!! We have the best high school when it comes to football... (Lincoln High)... We have a lot of seniors from Lincoln commit to FSU... and many alumni who are now earning millions playing in the NFL!

Ruby Diamond Auditorium

But the summer after high school graduation, my life changed forever... I fell in love with the man who is now my husband... He was already in his third year at that time at FSU's School of Business taking Management Information Systems (which is sort of Computer Science for business). As we learned more and more about each other, I learned to LOVE football through him! Our love also blossomed at FSU, as we spent many memories around our beautiful campus (see pictures below--there are way too many pictures and buildings at FSU, so I can only post a few)... lounging around at the Oglesby Union--where students hang out... walking hand in hand to classes, meeting for lunch at the cafeteria, studying together at Strozier, getting coffee at our school's Starbucks, going cosmic bowling at Crenshaw with our friends, working out at Leach Athletic Center, tail-gating at FSU football games with his family... and just hanging out and loving every minute of it...
FSU Campus
One of the dorms at FSU
North Facade of Doak Campbell Stadium

The Baseball stadium

Main entrance of Doak Campbell stadium with statue of Chief Osceola and Renegade

Oldest Dorm at FSU

Strozier Library

Woodward Avenue

Math, Meteorology and Computer Science buildings

So, amid the canopy roads of Tallahassee, amid the small-town charm... the city comes alive and bustling in the Fall... when the people crowd at Gene Cox Stadium on Fridays to catch a good high school football match... and the whole downtown shuts off to give way to FSU football fans for the evening downtown get-down... then come Saturday, the entire city is on a party-mode, as cars are parked all around Doak Campbell stadium for the traditional Tail-Gate parties--where RVs camp out the night before, the booze aflowing, the pick-up trucks and SUVs loaded with coolers and finger-foods, little kids and adults throwing footballs, the aroma of steaks grilling in the air, the occasional ever-popular Seminole war-chant echoing across the vicinity coupled with THE HAND CHOP (another very popular FSU tradition), the loud thumping music spilling out of the Saloon nearby as drunk college kids set sofas on fire(?)... haha...

Chief Osceola with Renegade

And so, here we are again... in a couple of weeks, students, alumni, parents and friends would be coming back to Tallahassee almost every weekend, to witness another great FSU football season... And on Saturdays, you'll find us here (see below), along with 90,000 other fans... rooting for our beloved Alma Mater....... Go Seminoles!!!!!

The Seminoles Marching Chiefs

We're STILL proud of you!!!

pictures ©Lincoln High School, Tallahassee, FL

I don't really know where to begin... But there comes a time in a boy's life when he realizes that he has to start deciding what's best for him and himself only... And through this, that boy slowly transforms into a man.

No matter what the parents say... no matter what the elders say... no matter what big sisters and big brothers say... it all comes down to what the boy thinks, feels, wants...

We all go through this phase--girls and boys alike... and God knows we've had our shares! At that point in life, we thought we knew it all... We thought we were wiser... We thought we were old enough to know what's best and that nobody else can dictate how our future would turn out but our own little self... Some decisions may have been well--even better--and yet there were some which we now wish could've been different... and we sit and wonder, what could've been if only we listened... if only we understood... if only we knew then that we should have done what we were told... If only......... And thus, we learn our lesson!

But for a boy to be a man, he must be given this freedom... This is his passage to adulthood. This is his treasured possession. This is what would make him wiser so that he can then later on pass down his wisdom to those after him...

His decision is only his... and he knows in his heart it will affect his future greatly! Then, in a few years, when he is wiser, he would look back to this day and weigh in what he had done... If he were right, he would hold his head up high... otherwise, he would swallow hard and think... If only....

Kevin, you know we all want what's best for you... but it ultimately comes down to your own decision... Thank you for the fun-filled years of basketball, track and especially football... For living the dream we wish we could have (if only we were physically capable of your abilities)... For the pride we felt everytime the commentator mentioned your name... For the thrill of chanting our Trojan fight song as we sit in a sea of Green and Gold... For enduring unendless pain touchdown after touchdown... For the excitement we felt at the sight of you on the field--holding the ball with great discipline, and executing the play with confidence... as we chant all together in the bleachers... L-I-N-C-O-L-N... Lincoln Trojans... Go... Fight... Win!!!

We're still VERY proud of you... We will support you... no matter what!

Down... Set... Hike...