The Traveler's Life

Both David and I have some travel required for our jobs.  Luckily, it is not full time and mine is somewhat flexible.  David's is mostly within the state so that makes it a bit easier too.  However, it sometimes works out that we won't be able to see each other for days or weeks at a time because of our schedules.  This happened to us last week.  


David had to be in Gainesville for the week, while I was in San Fran and Orlando.  We saw each other Friday night, but then David was off to Jacksonville for a boys weekend while I stayed in Orlando.  


While left to my own devices, poor Jangles had to pay the price: 

There are also certain things we like to always do together that get difficult when one or the other is gone.  One of these things is opening packages or fun mail.  When we started to receive wedding gifts in the mail, we quickly decided that it was totally not cool for one of us to open them without the other there.  This then translated into any fun mail (e.g., wedding invitations, party invitations, cards, anything addressed to both of us).  So, with it being Christmas Card season and all, I had a big pile of cards stacking up that I was DYING to open!  I have a cute wreath that I'm using to display all the cards we get (pictures of holiday decorations to come!) and I really wanted to be able to add some more cards to the display (at this point, it only had 1 there!).  So, I convinced David to let me open the cards and text him pictures.  He got a ton of text messages like this:

On Sunday, I was off to NYC before David was home.  Luckily, David had to go to Stamford, CT for work that same week.  We worked it out so that we could meet for dinner in White Plains, NY (half way between me and David) on Monday night.  It felt so weird to go to meet at a mall, go to dinner, and then each get into our respective rental cars to go back to our hotels.  I felt like we were in that movie, "Up in the Air".  We realized that his hotel was really only about 45-50 minutes from my office, so I canceled my second hotel night and went to stay with David.  It was great that it worked out for us to see each other.  I have a feeling that we're going to have to get creative like this more often! 

Thanksgiving in Chattanooga

This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Tennessee with David's family.  What a fun week!  We left here on Monday after Jangles went to the vet.  He got a new toy for the car ride - a lobster: 

He was REALLY good in the car.  He slept 90% of the time and just kept himself occupied in the backseat.  We borrowed Uncle Booker's Sling so that Jangles could have the whole backseat to roam around in. 

It is an over 8 hour drive to get there, so he had lots of energy on Tuesday that he was able to work off in the backyard with his Uncle Sammy: 

Jangles loves being under our bed.  I guess it is like his own little fort under there.  Now that he is getting taller, he doesn't really fit that well anymore.  Plus, we store stuff under there so he only has a little bit of space to play in.  At Shirley's house, all the beds are taller and there is nothing underneath them so he has lots of room to play! See a video of him here having a ball: 

Jangles also learned a new trick: how to climb into the toy basket so he can get whatever he wants.  We found him like this one afternoon:

We all had a fun time there visiting with family and enjoying the holiday.  We were wearing ourselves out with all the fun!  

On Thanksgiving, we had David's parents, David's grandma, David's sister and her boyfriend, David's aunt and uncle and two cousins and us.  It was a great night filled with cornhole, beergaritas (a drink we learned about at homecoming in Tallahassee when we went for homecoming), good food and lots of playing with the kids.  David found a fun new game called, "let's find clips of Disney Princess movies on YouTube to show the kids" that lasted for quite a while.  It was pretty cute! 

On Saturday, we all decided it was time to work off some of the food we had been eating all week so we loaded up all the dogs and went for a nature hike at a nearby park.  It was so fun and Jangles loved it!! He had to have been a landscaper in a previous life because he just loves anything to do with the outdoors.  

We got home and David's sister decided to give us our Christmas gift early since we will be here for Christmas.  It was these AWESOME FSU themed Cornhole boards!! We can't wait for tailgates next year with these bad boys: 

Of course, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is always the biggest football game of the year for us: FSU vs. UF.  I don't care if we lose every other game of the season if we win this game! Sorry Gator-fan friends! You know you all feel the same way about us!  


Jangles of course got into it and had on his jersey and had to destroy a gator toy.  We can't help that being a Nole is in his genes! 

Sunday meant that it was time to go home.  David had to go to DC for work so from Atlanta on, it was just Jangles and me.  We enjoyed our time together until we hit Gainesville.  I guess I was hitting that town right at the time that all the fans who went to the game decided to leave too because what is usually about a 1.5 hr drive, took me over 3 hours!  Not fun when you have already been in the car for over 6 hours at this point!  Jangles was starting to get antsy and spent sometime watching the exciting cities between Gainesville and Orlando go by...

What did you all do for Thanksgiving? 

Homecoming in Tallahassee

David and I had not been back to Tallahassee for a football game in Doak Campbell Stadium since we graduated in 2006.  As soon as we knew we were moving back to Florida during football season, we knew we had to get back for a game.  Luckily, the homecoming game was our last game of the season this year so we would be back in time for it.  We still have some friends who live in Tally and we knew that a lot of people would be going back for the game.  Our friend Chris had always wanted to sit in the front row at a game so he wanted in too!  He found us AWESOME seats in the front row on the 20 yard line!  It was great because we were right by the student section so we got to be where all the action was. 

Here are the Noles getting pumped for the game: 

There's Jimbo! 

Renegade and Chief Osceola!! 

It was senior night too so it was extra special.  Here is when the players are about to come out: 

It was exciting to be back! We really missed that place!!! Unfortunately, we lost, but it was still great to be back with friends in a place that we love.  

The whole weekend was fun.  We stayed with Peter, went to some of our old hot spots like Po Boys and Momo's.  We did some shopping at the bookstore, went to tailgates, saw the homecoming parade and, of course, went out.  

Thanks to our friends for a great weekend!! 

Puerto Rico!

Back in October, we were lucky enough to take a trip to Puerto Rico for our good friends' wedding! Check out the bride's blog! Viviana is from Puerto Rico so that is why the wedding was held there.  It was right around our 1 year anniversary so we treated it like a mini vacation for us too!  


The wedding and all the other weekend events were at the Ritz Carlton San Juan.  That hotel is amazing! It is right on the beach so it makes it so easy to enjoy the tropical location.  

While we were there, NYC was getting hit with that crazy snow storm in October.  This made us realize we left just in time! 

Here was the spot for the ceremony! It was BEAUTIFUL! They were lucky and had amazing weather:

This is what they got to look at when they said their vows! Gorgeous! 

I was just loving the beach.  I could have stayed there forever, sipping Pina Coladas! 

Here we are before the ceremony.  It was a black tie affair so we got to dress up a little more than usual! 

Everyone kept talking about the iguanas they were seeing everywhere.  When we were in San Juan on our honeymoon, I had seen several too so I knew that it was possible that people were seeing them.  However, we had been downtown in Old San Juan then and I hadn't seen any at the hotel! 


On our last morning, on our way to the farewell brunch, I was commenting to David that we hadn't seen any iguanas still! Luckily, I spotted this guy our our way out :)

We had such a great time in San Juan and at the wedding! We were so happy to be there to help V and K celebrate their new life together! 


Congratulations to the happy couple!!

Our New Apartment

Now that we have been here for over a month, we are FINALLY pretty much settled into our new apartment!  Do we have everything unpacked and put away? No.  Is the house perfectly picked up? No.  Do we feel like it is our home? Yes!  


Even though we still have some pictures to hang, some random items to find a spot for and some cleaning out still to do, it really feels like ours now.  I know I have been telling my friends and family for weeks now that we are almost done and that, "by the end of this week it will be", but I really mean it this time!  


Really, the worst of it is my office.  You can see here that it is kind of a mess!

It is partially because I haven't finished organizing, but I like to think that it is partially because of the way the office is set up.  I mean, how can you have an office with a built in shelf like I have that won't turn into a complete mess?!?! Any organizational tips would be greatly appreciated! 

If you read my post from yesterday about my Pinterest Obsession, you know how many projects I have done thanks to that website! You can see here one of those - I created labels for all of my fabric bins that I have around the house! They are super cute and have pink, purple and blue stripes on them.  The best part? They have a quatrefoil design! I just tied them onto the handle of all my bins using pink linen cord.  

The living area is probably our most finished part of the house.  With Jangles, it is has been hard to get organized in rooms that we don't want him in until we have everything put away.  He demands a lot of attention!  Since the living area is where all his toys are, it was easy to keep him distracted while we put things away.  Here's a view of the front door area: 

On the left, you can see the entrance to my office.  

One of the features that we like best about our apartment is the balcony!  We really missed having a space like that in NYC.  As you can see, Jangles loves it too! It's one of his favorite places to be in the morning:

Here's the view from our balcony:

The other very well used area is our kitchen.  It is a little messy at the moment, but that's just life! 

I'll be glad to finally have everything put away! 

Follow From Apples 2 Oranges via email!

I just added a new feature to the blog! Wayyyyyyyy down at the bottom, there is a place where you can enter your email address and follow the blog via email!  This way, you will get alerted once I post something new.  


Sign up before you forget! 

Pinterest Obsession

Do you all use Pinterest?  If you do, you know how addictive it can be! I have converted may people to become a part of the obsession!  I LOVE the site because of all the ways it inspires me. 


I made cupcakes that I learned about on Pinterest for David's birthday:

It inspired funny emails at work, which I then forwarded to David: 

I created our Moving Announcements based on this pin I found:

I just love it! I am even creating a few Christmas decorations and gifts based on things I've found.  (I'll post these later!)

If you're ever looking for inspiration, or just feeling bored, go check it out! I believe you still have to be invited to join, so if you need an invite- let me know! 

Welcome Bojangles!!

The day after we moved into our apartment, we welcomed little Bojangles to the family!  


Both David and I always grew up with pets so we have always wanted to get one of our own.  It is difficult in NYC and we knew it wouldn't be fair to a puppy to be left at home all the time by itself, so once we knew we were coming back to Florida and that we'd both be working from home fairly often, we knew it was the perfect time to welcome a puppy into our family! 


David had been working for weeks to find a breeder and was planning to surprise me with Bojangles as my anniversary gift.  He realized that I would want some input into what puppy we got, so he sent me a few pictures to choose from.  

Of course, I saw this face and couldn't dream of having any other pup:

Of course, Jangles had lots of presents before he had even come home with us! My mom made him this adorable bucket with lots of toys and puppy supplies! 

Jangles was born in Winter Haven, which is about an hour from our apartment. It is between Orlando and Tampa.  We left on Saturday morning to go pick him up.  We arrived and the breeder was doing some paperwork with another family so we had some quality time alone with Jangles before it was time to make it official! 

David is very excited to have Jangles in our family!!

My first of many hugs from baby Jangles! 

We had about 20 minutes to play with him in the front yard.  He LOVES water so we spent about 10 of those minutes trying to pry him away from the water bowl. 

We welcome Jangles back to our apartment and he seemed to be one happy pup! He fits perfectly into our lives and enjoys many of the activities that we do (watching TV, taking naps, etc).  :) 

Here are David and Jangles watching some football:

Not long after Jangles came home with us, was Halloween.  It was too much of a rush and hectic time for us for him to have a full blown costume (plus, I don't think he would have liked to have been dressed up), but we did get him an adorable Halloween bandanna! He wasn't too sure about it, but finally got used to it.  

It said, "Scary! Eek!" on it :) 

A couple days later we decided it was time for Jangles to meet his Uncle Booker.  Jangles, of course, LOVED Booker and wanted to follow him around.  Booker, on the other hand, wasn't so sure who this new kid in town was.  He basically ignored Jangles other than a few growls here or there.  

Overall, he was very patient! 

Here you can see a video of Jangles and Booker and you can really see how much Jangles loves him and how much Booker just wanted to get away! haha

Luckily, they are much more comfortable with each other now.  

We are loving having Jangles be a part of our family!  He is growing so fast and changing every day.  More pictures to come! 

1170 miles, 22 hours, and 10 states later, we're home! Hello Orlando!

We are finally in Orlando! After leaving NYC on Wednesday afternoon, we arrived in Orlando on Thursday evening.  


It was a very rainy day in NYC on the day that we had to pack up the truck and leave.  Luckily, our friend Will was there to help us load up the truck.  We took turns taking a break to hang out with the truck.  

Here is the view in the mirror of the type of day we were having: 

Of course, we had to have H&H bagels for our last meal in the city! Yum! 

We had elected to get a 16' truck solely for the reason that it could tow a car also.  We figured that would be more than enough space and it would be nice to be able to tow my car so that we could ride together instead of having to caravan all the way down to FL.  We ended up deciding not to tow my car, but it was very lucky that we had chosen the 16' truck! We had WAY more stuff than we realized.  

This picture was taken about 1/3 of the way packed.  We had this truck packed to the gills.  My car was also very full and could not fit another person in it.  

One more picture of our building! We'll miss that place! 

So, we finally hit the road.  David found a route that was a little farther millage wise, but it was going to be better in the long run because we wouldn't be hitting DC and other big cities right at rush hour on I-95.  It turned out great and we had hardly any traffic at all.  

I think we were in Pennsylvania when I took this picture.  It was pretty gloomy for most of our first day of the drive.  I'd like to say I was documenting the trip, but in reality, I just had to take the picture of the Bulldog on the billboard :)

We hadn't planned where we were going to stop because we wanted to be able to get as far as we could on that first day before we got too tired to drive any further.  We ended up in Virginia about 45 minutes North of Virginia Tech.  We got the last room at the hotel we stopped at and it turned out to be HUGE.  It was probably as big as our apartment in NYC.  

Here's one view:

The next day we woke up early, had some breakfast and hit the road.  Virginia was BEAUTIFUL! I guess I had never really spent much time there before because I was amazed at how pretty every single town was.  Since it was late October, the fall foliage was out in full force and looked gorgeous.  I think I called David and my mom about 5 times each to tell them how Virginia is now my favorite state and how pretty it is.  

Here was one of my attempts to take a picture: 

Take 2 (taking pictures on your iPhone while driving is not the easiest of tasks!!): 

As you can see, day 2 was much nicer than day 1.  We had sun the whole way and it was actually the perfect temperature to drive with the windows down! Since the truck had a maximum speed of about 50, it wasn't a problem to drive with the windows down. 

We stopped a few times along the way for a break and a meal, but we finally got to Florida at about 4pm!  

Here is my attempt to capture the "Welcome to Florida" sign:

 After a few painful hours (the last are always the worst!), we arrived at my parents' house to a very warm welcome! 

My mom had made this sign for us and it was hanging on the garage door: 

We had a nice dinner with my parents and then passed out.  We were exhausted and knew we had another long day the next day because we were going to pick up our apartment keys at 9 am.  

The next day, we woke up early again to get everything ready to go move in to our new apartment.  

Booker was so excited to have us back that he couldn't stand it! 

I'll post later about our new apartment and all the other adventures that we have had over the past month next week! We're off to Tallahassee for the weekend for FSU Homecoming.  Go Noles!!