Where I come from.

I thought it would be fun today to introduce you to my hometown.

Leesburg, Florida: Population 19,086 (As of 2005 and according to good ole' Wikipedia, ha). Who knows what it is now.

Located right smack dab in the middle of the Sunshine State.

 Welcome to Leesburg:

I'm a born and raised Leesburg girl. My Mom and Dad are both from here.

This is historic downtown Leesburg back in the day

What it looks like today.

They have really made an effort to beautify the downtown area. And it's really become one of my favorite places in this city. The law office where I work is located right off downtown.

They not too long ago built a beautiful new library.

Our one and only hospital.

This is not the hospital back in 1984 where a brown haired, brown-eyed little girl was born.

The hospital I was born  at was waaaaay smaller and turned into the North Campus of LRMC (Leesburg Regional Medical Center.)

Leesburg is surrounded by a chain of lakes. Thus, why it is called the Lake Front City!

This is what you can find while sitting at Venetian Gardens, one of our local parks.

My brother and I went to Leesburg High School. Home of the Yellow Jackets.
 
I'm class of 2002 baby!

My Mom and Dad also graduated from here.

Good times in these halls. Sometimes I'd go back just so I wouldn't wish those four years away.

So yeah, I found this interesting piece of knowledge while doing some research on good ole' Leesburg.

Ummm, do you see the orange? In the words of Antoine Dodson.... "Hide Yo Purse, Hide Yo wallet." Please do let this hinder you from visiting Leesburg.

Anyhow........

Just as a little history for you, Leesburg was first settled in 1857 by Evander McIver Lee. Several of Evander Lee's brothers followed him to the area. One of these brothers, Calvin Lee, was credited with giving the town its name.

More and  more people I went to high school with that left to go away to college are back, married, and settling with there families here. I have ALWAYS been the person that could NOT wait to get out of Leesburg. Not going to lie, nothing to do in this forsaken place. For real. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It kind of stinks for the younger people. Leesburg is a little less than an hour north of Orlando. Thank heavens or we'd lose our minds up in here.

I never imagined Leesburg to be the place where I'd stay put. Leesburg is growing by leaps and bounds but it still maintains it's small town feel. It will always be my first home. My permanent home, no. But will always have a piece of my heart. It's my hometown, how can it not?

Now that I've bored you to tears about Leesburg.... What's your hometown? What's your favorite thing about the place you call home??? 

It's that time again!

It’s so hard to believe it’s that time of year again where you start thinking of Christmas cards and getting your list together. My list grows longer and longer every year. Christmas cards are one of my FAVORITE things about the holidays, along with ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas… Ha!

Last year I went through Shutterfly and I’ll be using them again this year and taking advantage of their wonderful promotion for bloggers. 

My card last year. 

Yes, I know you must be thinking, get that girl a husband, ha! All in God's good timing, my friends :)

I was so pleased with the way it turned out and these are a few of my favorites I found on their website this year:

Really fun colors.

Love the black and white.

LOVE this one.

Thought this was unique and different.

And these are just a few among many. Such a huge selection. Shutterfly also offers calendars, photo gifts, Christmas invitations, and so much more.

And always love participating in Faith's Christmas Card Carousel she has on her blog each year. It's going to be held 12.14.11. So fun! Don't miss out on that this year.

So if you're a blogger and want your free Christmas cards, what are you waiting for? And get in the Christmas spirit!!! Ho Ho Ho!!!! :)

Attitude shift.

Yesterday was kind of a cruddy day all around.

I felt like death all day. I have an ear infection and my throat was really really scratchy and irritated. I went to the doctor yesterday morning. They wrote me some prescriptions.

I go to Walgreens to pick up the medicine to where the lady kindly says, "That will be $70."

Crazy lady say what?

I wanted to say I know my ears are clogged up, but I know you didn't just say $70. I felt horrible and this was not the cherry on my sundae.

You see, last Friday I was so excited because it was a paycheck where I had no bills to be paid that week. It felt really great.

Then comes the $35 I pay to the doctor and $70 for medicine piled on top of that.

Way to bust my "I have no bills and paycheck is all mine" bubble :/

But I as I drove away from Walgreens mumbling under my breath, it hit me like a ton of bricks...

Lord, you are Jehovah Rophi, the God who provides.

He knew I'd need that $105 dollars. And in that moment, my attitude began to shift., and I praised him for a no bills paycheck. Would I have liked to have spent that $105 dollars on something else, heck yes! I could think of countless other things, and might have muttered at the end of that praise these ears drops better be made of gold, ha.

The point of this post isn't about co-pays or prescriptions, but the truth is.... God knows our need, even before we do. He is always faithful

I know there are people in third world countries that don't have access to medicine and doctors. I'm lucky and blessed in so many ways and God is continuously showing me that and pray that my eyes will always be open to recognize that.

And happy to say that with sleep and medicine..... I'm like a brand new person today!!

Just $105 poorer, ha!! :)

Weekend pics.

The weekend started off with some fun. One of my BFF's Jill invited me to go Gator Growl with her. It was homecoming weekend for the Florida Gators. So I got out of work early on Friday and headed to the Swamp!!

Jill and I at Gator Growl.

The Gator Growl was so much fun!! Goo Goo Dolls and Sister Hazel were there and were great. The Band and the UF dancers were there. The Senior football players and the coach were there. There was a comedian. They crowned homecoming king and queen. And there were fireworks and so much more. It was my first time going, had amazing seats, and it was such a fun atmosphere and such a fun way to get pumped up before our game against Vandy on Saturday. So proud to be a Florida Gator and proud to be in the SEC. Only the BEST conference ever.

 

Saturday was the game. And unfortunately I couldn't go but of course I had to show my Gator pride!!

I look pale as a ghost but Gooooooo Gatorssssss!!!! :)

And we beat Vandy! We soooooo desperately needed this win after 4 weeks of loss.

Saturday late afternoon I went to go head over to my brother and SIL's house and spend the night and visit with my nieces and go to church. 

Being goofy!

This picture is so sweet. Sisters playing together!

It was a fabulous weekend. Hope yours was too!!!

Have a great Monday!! :)

Love at first sight.

Confession time:

One thing you should know about me, I'm a complete planner nerd. I love writing things down, staying organized and marking things off my to-do list.

Many in the blog/twitter world jumped on the Erin Condren bandwagon a long time ago. This is a great great company y'all.

I didn't jump on it right away but when a heck of a deal came to One Kings Lane a few weeks back, I could not pass it up.

Was so excited when I got this in the mail this week. Say hello to my beauty...

I'm in love.

I love the tabs. I put protection over the tabs, so hopefully they'll hold up good.

It's great how you can look at the month in a glance or weekly.

And it came with these fun stickers. As you can see some I've already used, ha.

And came with these fun extra little goodies.

And I have some pretty pens to write in it with. Seriously, having so much fun with it. Not getting anything for writing this but just really love it. Erin Condren has so much other stuff on her site that you just might love. Go check it out :)

Wordless Wednesday - Pure sweetness!

My niece the ice cream cone. I might be biased but this is just pure sweetness!!!!!

If I could turn back time.

Okay..... Do you have that song stuck in your head now? Ha!

It's November 1st. How is that even possible??? All day I've just been sitting here thinking where did 2011 go?

This time of year always makes me nostalgic. Pretty soon we'll be in the thick of the holiday season. This is the time of year where memories are made. The memories you just want to keep locked up and tucked close to your heart forever.

This is my favorite time of year. The time of year we all look forward to. As soon as it hits December 26th we're already looking forward to the next Christmas.

You know what though, if I could turn back time.... I would take back all the times I wished time away as time just goes was too quickly. I want to enjoy all 365 days of the year and all the memories and sweet moments in between. I would maybe tweet a little less, Facebook a little less, put the phone down a little more, put the laptop away. You get where I'm going with this.

This time of year always draws me back to what's important .....

Faith, Family, Friends, and Health.

This time of year just has a way of bringing you back into focus.

We're given 365 days a year, 24 hours in a day.... What is my time and energy being spent on?

This is just something I've had to sit back and think about.

Truthfully, I look forward to November because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but Thanksgiving is simple. It's a time of reflection and giving thanks. It's about being with the ones you love. It's looking around the table at your loved ones and you are overcome with such gratitude and thankfulness because you realize in that moment that this, THIS is what it's all about.

I just want to take these next couple of months to live in the moment (as really we always should), but really just want to take this month to just acknowledge something each day that I have to be thankful for.

These people, my family... I don't deserve them but I'm so glad they're mine.

And so THANKFUL!