Alpha-1 Bowling & Rainbow Springs

July 23, 2010:  I got together with my lovely Alpha-1 coworkers for dinner at BJ's and bowling at Alley Katz.  I love how I still got a pizookie (cookie with ice cream dessert) despite the fact that I was full and had 4 cookies from Subway earlier (I was only going to get two cookies, but they were 3 for $1 something...and then the lady ended up giving me an extra!)!  These businesses must really know that I can never pass up a good dessert!

Bowling was fun, but I think we discovered that 3 hours of bowling is a little much.  I don't think anyone broke 100 except for Tiffany who used to be in a bowling league.  I progressively got worse and finally gave up.  Then Geoff and I were all ready to sing Brittney Spear's "...Baby One More Time" karaoke style, but they had finished taking songs for the night.  :(  That definitely would have been a sight to see.  Haha.

Here's some pictures of the Alpha-1 Gang

   Goofy

July 24, 2010:  Kristina and I headed to Dunnellon, Florida to visit Tori and Tessa!  I hadn't seen Tori in years...and had never seen Tessa, so I was very excited to catch up with them!  Tessa was a trip.  I love her "squat" dancing (too cute!). We headed to Rainbow Springs in the morning and back to the Pott's house for lunch later.  It was a gorgeous day....sun bright and water crystal clear (and cold, but I enjoyed it).  Did you know Rainbow Springs is the fourth largest spring in Florida?  I definitely want to go visit again.

Tori and Tessa enjoying the spring water

   Kristina, me, Tori, and Tessa (look at that water...beautiful!)

Also, Jimmy Ho posted our engagement pictures!  You can check them out at http://www.pictage.com/844617.  I was very happy with them!  I still can't decide which one is my favorite.

Bachelorette Partayy!

July 9-11, 2010: Bachelorette Party in Orlando!

First, I'd like to thank all of my bridesmaids for an amazing weekend! 

Friday night we hung out at the hotel, ate a delicious meal, and played Heartthrob (which we were a little tooo amused by!).

They did a great job decorating our fabulous hotel room!

 After playing Heartthrob a couple of times we decided to guess which guy we had on our head, lol.

Saturday we woke up and went to Old Town to take old time photos.  I'll have to post the pictures once I scan them on to the computer...they are pretty funny.  We have one funny and one serious one of us all dressed up as saloon girls.

After the photos we went to the outlet mall and found shoes for all the bridesmaids to wear!  We got SO lucky that they had everyone's size...and they were relatively cheap --- SCORE! 

Saturday night, we got dressed up and went to City Walk.  We ate dinner at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  They gave us each our own balloon hat and then ended up connecting them all together.  It seriously amused us (and a BUNCH of other people) all night.  I mean...we couldn't even get out of the restaurant without people wanting to take pictures with us.  So we pretty much walked around City Walk all night taking pictures, dancing, and having a blast.

Right after we got connected!

Hanging with the popo--he told us not to make a face.

Selena really loving her balloon hat

A small sample of the people taking pictures of us/with us.

Sunday we relaxed.  Heather, Namrata, and I went shopping and then had to drop Heather off at the airport.  Namrata and I came back, hung out at the pool/jacuzzi, got some pizza, and lounged.  Great end to a great weekend (Wow I need to learn some more adjectives!).

4th of July Weekend!

Just if anyone was wondering...or didn't already know...I did not win the sing like John Mayer contest.  It was a lot of fun and I want to thank everyone who voted for me (especially Eric since he voted like 100 times every hour!).  The girl who won had a great voice and is a vocal teacher or something, so I'm glad she won (even though I would have loved another beanbag!  lol.). 

July 2-5, 2010:  My family came with me to Naples to visit Eric for the 4th of July weekend!  We really had a great time visiting the Everglades, riding an air boat, holding a gator, eating Rita's Italian Ice twice, and watching fireworks over the beach.  Here are some pictures from our Naples adventure:

Engagement Pictures and Singing Mayer Song

Hey!!!!

Last Saturday Eric and I finally had our engagement session with Jimmy Ho!  We had to keep rescheduling because of rain, but we decided rain or shine we were going to take the pictures!....and thankfully it actually DIDN'T rain!  Jimmy was really great.  You can visit his blog at http://www.jimmyhophotography.com/blog/.  Eric and I were super awkward.  It is SO hard to act natural/candid when someone is taking your picture.  People who know me know that I am always ready to pose for a photo...so this was a VERY difficult task!  I'm just hoping we didn't make weird faces in all of them, lol.  I will post the link to the photos when they are available.

A couple days ago I was avoiding cleaning my room (per the usual) and so I decided to make a quick video for a contest being put on by a local radio station (98.5 WKTK).  You have to send in a clip of yourself singing to one of three different John Mayer songs.  I choose "Waiting on the World to Change".  I don't think I will win because there are other really good singers, but if I did win that would be awesome!  The prize for winning the local competition is a guitar signed by John Mayer and a CordaRoy's beanbag chair.  I really want the beanbag chair/bed for our new apartment!  lol.  They announce the winner next Wed....so if you want to vote for me visit http://wktk.singlikejohnmayer.com.  I also put the video on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.  hahaha.

Alpha-1 Educational Conference

June 11-13, 2010 -  This past weekend a group from our lab went to Orlando for the Alpha-1 Educational Conference.  We really had a great time getting to know each other better, meet patients, and learn more about Alpha-1 deficiency.  If you want to know more about Alpha-1 (the deficiency we screen for in our lab), visit http://www.alpha1.org/.  Here are some pics from the weekend:

Our villa had swans!  lol.

The group out to eat at Rainforest Cafe

Eating some yummy chocolate covered strawberries at the conference

Blueberry Picking

June 6, 2010 - Kristina, Josh, and I headed out to Earlton, Florida to go blueberry picking!  If you are looking for something different to do...you should definitely find a blueberry farm close to you!  They gave us a small bucket to hang around our neck, a larger bucket to put all of our blueberries in, and then let us venture out to pick as many blueberries as our hearts desired.  It started pouring rain in the middle of our picking, but we had drove all the way out there...so we just kept picking.  We were soaked by the end, but it was worth it.  The blueberries are amazingly delicious!

Josh trying the blueberries out

 We picked over 12 pounds of blueberries!

Here's the information for anyone that is interested in picking some blueberries themselves:

Southland Berry Plantation
9308 North East County Road 1469
P.O. Box 536
Earlton, Florida 32631
(352) 468-2087

When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily May 31 through July 4
Blueberries are $2.50 a pound.

New Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich

June 3, 2010 -  A week or two before this date, I signed up to try the new spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A.  I went straight after work and I thought I would just pop in, get my sandwich, and head back to the apartment to enjoy it in the comfort of my home.  I walk in and hand the lady my reservation for the sandwich and she is like, "Right this way to your table."  I'm thinking..."What in the world?"  

They had a section of reserved tables that had little signs that read, "Spicy Chicken Sandwich VIP."  There was also cinnamon candy and a menu.  I got to pick what kind of bread, sauce, and cheese I wanted.  I got the spicy chicken sandwich on white bread, with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, and pickles.  I also got to pick a side item (waffle fries), drink (sprite), and got a small sample of the new parfait with oreo crumbs on top.  They had someone take your order and serve you....just like a restaurant!  It definitely was a nice surprise, even though I felt like a dork for eating by myself. 

If you like spicy stuff, I definitely would recommend this sandwich.  It was a little too spicy for me, but it tasted really good.  Eric isn't a big fan of food from Chick-fil-A, but even he said he would order this sandwich again.