Haircut

Jesson has had this idea for a while now that I should try cutting his hair with a pair of clippers. For those of you that don't know Jesson very well, he is VERY picky about his hair. Which is usually a plus because it always looks nice. It was not a plus when he was wanting me to be responsible for it's maintenance. That was WAY too much pressure. We decided to give it a try anyway (with lots of disclaimers from me that I had never cut human hair before and the lony time I had used a pair of clippers previous to this was to shave my horse). Below are the results. Not too bad for my first time. It's a little shorter on top than we would have liked so we'll just have to remember that an 8 guard on a clipper really is too short for on top. Past that, we'll probably try it again.

The Move

Okay, so it's actually been a month since we moved, but I never really wrote about it. No time like the present! The move itself was...not fun. We thought we were really prepared, we packed as much as we thought we could ahead of time. Let's just say you should never ask us to help you move, because we stink at it! We were up at 6:30 Saturday morning and didn't finish until 11pm in Tampa, and we didn't even get the truck unloaded that day! We had to unload it the next day because it took us so long to finish everything in Gainesville that we were exhausted by the time we finally made it down south. The day started with us dumping a full can of paint down the stairs (of course it opened and spun all the way from the top to the bottom). And really, it didn't get much better from there. I do have to say though, Jesson and I both agreed that we LOVED walking away from that house for the last time, we do not miss it at all! Below are the few pictures we did get that were move related, and they're not much.

When we were moving things out of the old house it was much easier to just leave the door open and go back and forth to the truck, rather than having to open and shut the door. This left us with a dilemma as to what to do with the dogs. They couldn't run around on their own, and we didn't have a back yard to put them in. If we closed them in a bedroom they would scratch the door. So we put up the baby gate and they watched us as best they could. They weren't happy about it, but they survived.

Buddy helped us unpack at the new house. Yes, that is him sleeping on our office floor. We didn't get much work out of him that day.

Our Adorable Nephew!

Our precious nephew, Baron Tanner Bateman, was born on July 28th, 2008. He weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and is adorable! The picture below is of him at his first hockey game. It doesn't get more Canadian than that! The hat he is wearing is a gift from his Uncle Jesson and I, we are so glad it kept his little ears warm! We don't get to meet Baron until December, but we have no doubt his cuteness will hold till then! Congratulations Nate and Rory! You can see more pictures of Baron on Nate and Rory's blog, there is a link on the right hand side of our page.

Time to Move On

Well, Jesson and I are moving. As we mentioned earlier, he was accepted into a Graduate Program at the University of South Florida starting at the end of August. We will be moving to Valrico (a suburb to the south east of Tampa where my parents live). We have found a really cute 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a fenced backyard for the boys and a screened in lanai for us. We will be moving this Saturday (the 26th) and are really excited about it. We have been packing for the last week and our house is in serious disarray. We didn't want to pay for boxes (they're expensive!) so we have been driving around to liquor stores and picking up free boxes. One day, we went on a real spree and went to 4 different stores in one day. We got A LOT of boxes from that. Below are the results piled up in our dining room (yes, somewhere below that mound is a table and 4 chairs!)

Key West, Fl

We had the chance to spend a week in Key West with Jesson's parents. It was a ton of fun! The hotel was gorgeous and the city was so interesting! We saw performers on the pier one night, shopped on Duval, ate a ton of good food, went snorkeling, and even saw a drag show! It was a very fun and full week! Below are a few pictures of our adventures.

Jesson and I at the Southernmost Point.

Sign at Blue Heaven, one of the best restaurants we went to while we were there.

Jesson battled a sponge monster on Duval Street.

We found a cool shop selling masks.

Jesson got put in the stocks for jay walking....just kidding.

Jesson ordered a burger with shrimp on it, the waiter was very confused!

Hmmm......

Jesson is a pirate and I'm his wench.

Waiting for the drag show to start.

The fabulous Randy Roberts dressed as Cher.

Taking the boat out to go snorkeling.

Jesson's Dad checking out the fish.

Just a sign we found while out wandering one day.....

Hanging out on Duval Street before the sunset.

At the pier at sunset.

The last rays of the day.

Outta Gas...

Jesson has this rule. He calls it the 1/4 tank rule. Allegedly, when the gas needle reaches 1/4 tank, we are supposed to fill it up. The trouble is, if I get a little busy or don't feel like stopping I might let the needle get a little past a 1/4 tank. Well, when Buddy came to visit I let the needle get way past 1/4 tank, so far in fact that we ran out of gas on our way to WalMart. Luckily, there was a nice bench for us to sit on while we waited for the AAA guy to bring us more gas. So the moral of the story kids......always pay your AAA membership!

We managed to push the car off the main road onto a side street near campus.

Jesson and Buddy waiting........

.....and waiting.

My view from laying down on the bench waiting.

First Horse Show

Jesson competed in his first horse show a few weeks back. He rode Maggie who he has been practicing with in his lessons. They entered 3 classes and earned a 1st, 3rd, and 4th. I went along as groom, photographer, and horse holder. Below are a few pictures from the show as well as a short video of Jesson doing part of his course. Unfortunately, before he finished the camera ran out of space. Jesson said it was a very rookie photographer mistake! It's true, he never runs out of space while he's taping me competing!

Jesson and his trainer, Pat Deasy, discussing the course ahead of time.

Jesson and Maggie ready to go in the ring.

Taking a jump in nice style.

The results of lots of practice and hard work!