Florida weather

Last week was really cold here in Florida and we even had a few days were the temps dropped into the low 20's and few pipes broke becaue it was so cold. I had a few callers at work that need to go to the lodge becuse of busted pipes here in Florida. Today it's so beautiful and warm.

Thursday began with some rain showers that will last for most of the morning into the early afternoon. By mid-afternoon the rain will end and the clouds will move out so expect to see that sunshine before the day is over. It will be another warm day with highs in the low 70s.

Skies will become mostly clear for the night with cool air moving in. Overnight lows will fall into the low to mid 40s with winds from the northwest.

Tonight I get off of 9 and I'm looking forward to going to the movies with Rich and Mianna to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Show me the money

I'm real happy about the increase in the BAH. This really helps out now that we have made a good choice in buying our first home. Mo money Mo money Mo money . eheheheheh

Amber Alert

This is so crazy and the lady that did it looks like a sick psycho

Temps in the 20's

A blast of very cold air will begin arriving during Sunday evening making for a frigid and blustery start to Monday morning. Temperatures will read in the 20s, but they will feel more like the teens. This could be some of the coldest air yet this season!

It was very cold out at the lake while we ate dinner and watched the light parade. It snowed here in jax about 15 years ago and it could happen again this year. I actually had to put on thermals, hat, scarf and gloves this past week because of the
cold.

December 25, 1989-
Tallahassee, FL has a trace of snow, the first ever for Christmas Day

Light Parade

We drove out to Mandarin this afternoon to the Sears Outlet to find a refrigerator. We found several good deals and will most likely buy a fridge in a few weeks. After that we took a look around Books-a-Million and got some paint and decorating ideas from a few Florida books. We decided to try and eat dinner at Clarks seafood, but when we got there they didn't have what we wanted on the menu, so Mianna and Rich ate the oysters and then we left and went to Whities Fish Camp. When we got there we were shocked to see such a huge crowd. As we got out of the car this lady that was leaving next to us, said that there was a light parade going on and good luck with trying to eat dinner. We had fun just watching all the decorated boats as they went along the river. There was this one boat that was decorated with all the Shark Tales characters and had a bubble blower. There were so many cool boats but that was the best. Whitie's puts on this boat parade every year and they also have a contest between the boats for first place. They also raise money for a woman and children charity by raffle tickets for 10 bucks and the prize is a 24,000 boat. We ate a good dinner and had a perfect seat outside on the dock, so we could see the light parade going on. I was just sad that I didn't have my camera with me. I really need to get into the habit of taking that thing with me. Today I had decided to use my smaller coach bag, and it was already full with junk. ehehheeh. Next time I need to bring the big one for sure and carry my dang camera with me. We also walked down on the pier to get a closer look at the boats that were in dock.

Shopping at Wal-Mart

Only in FL , this is the second time this has happen since we have lived here. Click the title to read the article.

First walk through

Well guys, we did our first walk through and the house looked really good. We only had 11 small issues for them to repair, but they are very minor. Lots of caulking to do and a few touch up paint jobs. The sprinklers and misters all work well and most of the outlet switches worked. Our house will get one last final walk trough on the 29th and then we close on the 30th and will get our keys and start moving in. The garage just seemed so big to me because we have never had a side-by-side 2-car garage. When we lived in SD we had a 2-car garage, but it was the type where you had to pull in behind the other car. We also found out from our neighbor that a tree fell on our house during the last two hurricanes. I talk to Jill from Armco and she said that was true and they would provide us with a letter for proof that that indeed did happen and that there was minimal damage and they made all repairs. There was no damage to the inside of the house, but only to the exterior wall of our bedroom. The down tree is still in the preserve behind our house, but they will remove it. I worry about next year, when we have hurricanes, since we live so close to the preserve and have so many trees in the backyard, but we will stock up on plywood to protect our big windows. I was talking to a caller the other day that lives in south FL and was hit hard by both Frances and Charlie and he has USAA, and they covered every last time of damage and even to his car. I'm so glad we have USAA. They are the best insurance company.

Walk through

O my goodness this is it. I just got off the phone with the builders and we scheduled closing for Dec 30th and tomorrow is our walk through at 11am. I'm so excited. This is really happening. We just found out that we do have to give the apt. 60 day notice, so we will be paying rent for Jan and 1/2 of Feb. That really sucks, but o well. Our first mortgage is due Feb 1st. I'm just so excited and ready to GO!!!! I can't wait to turn on that fireplace and just relax by it and look out at our beautiful view. Happy Happy Happy!!!!!

New home accent

Hayleigh got this for me in Hawaii. I can't wait to put it up in our new home because we have white Berber carpet. Hey Ingrid I bet that looks familiar... Hmmmmm.

Best X-Mas gift ever!

Today at work we had our secret Santa gift exchange and our before x-mas dinner. My friend Merranda cooked an awesome turkey and I bought Virginia baked ham. You know it's my favorite because it's named after me. LOL ehehhehe. We also had green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet bread, mash potatoes and gravy. For deserts we had chocolate cake in the shape of Santa, pumpkin pie and my favorite pecan pie. For drinks we had several different types of cider and Celines famous frozen coke, the reason it's famous is because Celines always forgets about it in the freezer here at work and it's all frozen when she goes to get it out.

I got up early this morning and ate breakfast with Mianna but after that I talked her into riding her bike to school so I could jump back in the bed. I was still sleepy since I had went to bed at 1:30 and got up at 5:30. I fell back to sleep at 8 and got up at 10. I had to run to Super WalMart to get the ham for the party and then I ran home to cut it up and get it ready for work. I also ran down to our new home to turn in some paperwork and then take some pics of the outside of the house. I will post them when I get home. I'm at work now just killing time and day dreaming about how its going to be when we move into our new home. I still can't believe we bought a house today. We still have to close, but that will be before the end of the month and We hope to move in before x-mas. I'm not sure how I'm going to move the x-mas tree, but I really would love to save it and put it up in the formal living room so that it's the first thing you see when you walk in the door. I must say this is the best Christmas present EVER! I signed all the loan papers today and it was kind of nerve racking to see all them $$$ signs. Wow, we will be living in a home worth a quarter of a million bucks :o) that just sounds too crazy. I haven't even called my mom to tell her the news. Every time I try her house the phone just rings and rings with no answer. I did call Erin and Ingrid and Davina. I talk to Pinky in North Carolina last night and told her. But I think we still have yet to tell Richie's parents and mine. Most of you online that read my bloggs know now I suppose. I'm just so dang happy. I hope it all works out and we really like living in our small town of green cove. I read all about the history of the town and it's pretty neat. Check out this link to read more. Here are the picture from today

Work X-mas dinner and gift exchange

New Santos Home

We almost have a home

I went to meet with Debbie at Hickory Knolls and I looked at a few more models to see if I liked them, but none of them were as pretty as the one Rich first fell in love with. We have decided to go with the house across the street from the one I wanted, and I must say it was my 2nd choice and I'm happy we are making it our home. YUP we will sign the papers again tomorrow and this time we are using another company that was able to give us a 5.5 on a VA 0/0. That APR is pretty average and so we were comfortable with it and locked it in today. I hope this all goes well and we can move in after all the inspection and maybe move in before X-mas. It is so cold here in FL today; I had to keep warm in my thick sweater, hat gloves and boots. Our home has a fireplace and right now is the perfect weater to use it. Click the title above to see the house. I will post pictures as soon as I can becaue the batteries for my camera are dead.

Location Location Location

Okay, so we were approved for the loan and we know how much of a house we can buy now. We really don't want to have that high of a house payment and so I'm going back to the neighborhood today and I will look at a few more models and maybe just maybe, we will go with the house that Rich first fell in love with. The payment on that house will be a little less than the two story I wanted and the difference is on ly 75 sq ft. Not much differenct in size, but they payments would be a lot less. HELP> ehehhehe. It will be so hard to live accross from the house I know I was in love with :o(. Or all together we might just give up and look around some more.

Good Credit

Well guys, the out is that we were approved for the loan on our dream home. I have excellent credit and my FICO score was much higher that Richie's and he was joking about not talking to me for having a better score, but together we really have excelent credit and they approved us for 234,000 for that house, but we decided that the payments would be a little too much for us, since we also plan on buying a new car after we buy the house. Tomorrow I will go back to the neighborhood and look at a few more models and we might just go with our second choice. The house that Richie really fell in love with is only 217 and we might try and go for that one. I do love the view and the many bay windows in that house. It was such a nice feeling to know that we have good credit and could be approved for such a good amount. If I was making more money a year, I would feel more comfortable with the payments of 1800 a month. So for now I'll keep you all posted.

9 days

Well guys, we got up early this morning and got ready to meet with the builders and our realtor at 11am. We took one last look at both houses and it was hard to choose but we ultimately went with the two story. We went back to the model home to sing all the paper work and put our offer in for 232,000. The house should really sale for 236,000 and if it wasn't going to sale this week, he was going to raise the price to 240,000 and so that makes me think that the house is really worth more that what we might get it for. Cross your finger and hope that every thing goes well. We will be talking to the finance people tomorrow and our realtor is also a broker so if we have no luck with their finance company we can always go with our realtor at Watson. We will try to get this house for the least amount of payment that they will give us and maybe even do an interest only loan or a convetional 30 year fix. We really only plan to live in it for 5 years and the rent it out or sale it and move again. I guess I was so excited I forgot to take pictures of the house, but if it all goes smoothly we will be in the house in 9 days. YUP before X-mas and we will have to move our x-mas tree to the new home, how funny. But it would be so nice to be in our new home for x-mas and maybe even light up the fireplace, it has been so cold here the past 2 days with the temperatures as low as the 30's and 40's. Today is such a pretty sunny day but very chilly out. I just can't get over the fact that we signed the contract on our home and could be moving in 9 days.

Portal Potty God

Well guys, the day after the x-mas part was kind of ruff on me. I must have had a little food poisoning with dehydration mixed in and needless to say I was on the toilet most of the afternoon. I took a couple hour nap and then woke up to pick Mianna up from school. I thought I was all better and so we decided to drive out to Green Cove to get the red car registered, but we had left one important piece of paper work at home. Despite our drive out to the cove, we had decided on going to check out the neighborhood that our realtor Pat Leroy had suggested to us. We stopped in Hickory Knolls Estates and as we drove around we were just marveled by the houses. All of a sudden my stomach starts to bubble and I break out in a hot flash and begin to sweat," O my god". I told Rich " I need the bathroom now, so as we turned this one corner I screamed stop!!! Right in the middle of the street was a blue portal potty. O my god I was in heaven and I couldn't get into that thing any faster. I almost had a near accident that would have been so fatal to all of us in the car. What or How in the world, was my prayers answered, was just so baffling to me. I walked out of the portal potty with a big old smile on my face and I really didn't want to go too far from it, but we drove around a little more and I found the house I liked. Today we got up at 10:30 and met with our realtor to go shopping around for houses. The first one he took us to was just across the street from his house and it was nice with the biggest yard I have seen in Jax. O man that yard was just so huge. You have to sit on a sit down lawn mower just to cut that grass. After that we ran around to many more models and then fell in love with this 5 bed, 3 baths home and thought for sure we had found our home. Mianna was already making plans to sleep in the bonus room above the garage. The outside of that house was made with seashells and it was actually pretty looking. But after we went into this all brick house, we had changed our minds again, and this was that first house of the day to make me say WOW, it's such a pretty home with a huge yard, big enough to put a pool. After we left that area, we drove in to Green Cove and went to Hickory Knolls Estates and finally I was going to see the house that I thought I would fall in love with, and yes, the minute we walked in, I did the WOW and was in love with it. Tomorrow we will sign some papers and get things started on buying the house. Our realtor was able to bring the price down 5000 bucks for us. I believe the house is about 230,000. It doesn't have a huge yard, but I think it's a perfect size to enjoy some backyard fun and it backs up to a natural preserve that will never be built on and so we will not have neighbor on the back of us. We will have neighbor on both sides of us and some across the street too. This community is very small and I believe it is less than 100 homes in the neighborhood, but a few still need to be built. We fell in love with this model called the Hickory III, take a look at it. I think the portal potty was a sign and one really funny story for me to tell. The house is brand new and ready for us to move into in a few days if all goes well. We did pay for rent this month ,but we can be out of this apartment before X-mas and have that in our new home in front of the fireplace. ehehehhe. cross your fingers for us. The resale value on this house is going to be out of this world, well not as good as resale in SD, but good enough for FL. After all that running around, we went to see Oceans Eleven and that was a good movie.

AIMD Christmas Party

Last night we went to Richie's AIMD X-mas party and it was so nice. It was at the Adams Max Hotel in downtown Jaxs and this place was so huge. There were several X-mas partys going on, that we had to follow the signs to our party. When we got there, people were already in line to get food. We found a table to sit at and then went to the bar to get our drinks. The ball room was decorated in gold green and red colored baloons with special engraved wine glasses with the AIMD insignia on them. We made sure to take our glasses home. The DJ played such good music , but with over 800 people at the party you can imagine how crowed the dance floor was. We opted to stay at the table and mingle with folks. Eveyong on the dance floor was doing the electic slide, to every single song. The night was filled with so much fun and then the suspence of the number calling for the drawing and the big winners of the night was the last ticket called for a 50 inch TV. We were not lucky that night, but lots of rio MP3 players, and george forman grills and other small tv's and DVD players were given away. I hear that last year the big give away was a cruise to the bahamas. People were really dressed up nice and lady's had there hairs DID and nails done. It was so nice to meet and see eyeryone. After the part we headed to a club called Christophers and we were in for a treat when we got there. It was actually gay night and when we walked in there were drags performing on the dance floor and it was so cool. I danced with Tiffany all night and Rich played pool and hung out with his friend. That is by far the most fun thing we have done in Jaxs. I'll have to tell you the rest of the story when we get back. but click on the title to view the pics, I didn't take too many.

Thank You!!!!!

Mianna would like to send a BIG thanks to Aoife, Coleen, Alex and Lorraine.
She got the package from Japan and was in love with all the goodies. Click here
to see more pictures.

Five dead after Ohio nightclub shooting

20 min. Countdown

Okay, this is my last blogg of the night, I have 20min. And I'm out of here. Tomorrow is my "Friday" and I'm having 3 days off. whoooo hooooo. We have the X-mas party on Thursday and I'm looking forward to going to that. I still have no idea what I'm going to wear but I think I want to buy a fur shall or shrug to accent my dress and keep my shoulders warm. I'm kind of planning and off the shoulder dress or maybe a strapless with some nice tall heals and lots of bling bling. eheheheh. O, I can't forget to go shopping for cute evening bag. :o) NO I'm only joking. I will find a bag in my closet...... NO more bags for me. Yeah, 15 minutes to go and I'm out of this ice box, it's so dang cold in here today.

Intelligence Overhall

19 hijackers on September 11 had more than 60 licenses between them as a reason for the provision.

I just finished reading the article on CNN, on how they will pass this new bill to give our intelligence reorganization. What or why in the hell would it take this long to pass such an important bill for some MUST needed overhall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some times people in congress really do need a clue!!!!!!!!! Freaking aliens allowed to get all them dang licenses to be able to attack us on our own soil. This country can be so dang backwards I sware. I guess you can tell I'm on an all politcal feel today. I'm at work and I have 40 more minutes to go, just catching up on some world news.
here is the article if you would like to read it.