Graduation Weekend!

Can you believe it that I am a college graduate?!?! I sure can't.  Seriously what the heck am I going to do now without school.  I think I will worry about that on January 7th when school is back for the Spring and I won't be heading to class. Anyway, I had a absolutely wonderful graduation weekend.  My family is so kind to travel to visit.

On Thursday, Parker, Lauren, Eliana, and Benjamin got in around 11:00p.m.  It was such a blessing that Chris and I had that afternoon off because we were able to get some laundry and cleaning done.  So again, the Fruehan clan came in and settled in.

The next morning I woke up early and went to the Leach one last time as a student of Florida State and then came home and Chris and I made them waffles.  Chris had a work winter holiday party so he went up there just for that but didn't work. HAHA Which is funny but hey it's the best party of the year at The Florida Bar.  Parker, Lauren, and the kids went out and about around town.  They haven't been back since they moved about two years ago. 

Around 1:30p.m. Ashley and Brian pulled in from Naples.  We all just chilled for awhile.  I had to take a book back to the bookstore, especially since it was rented.  Chris and I had to stop at Garnet and Gold because the only graduation gift I really wanted was a license plate cover that says "FSU Alumni."  Since Chris and I are both Alumni the word makes sense, verses if it was just one of us because then it would have to say Alumnus.  Then we had dinner around 4:30p.m. old people style.  I made everyone chicken tortilla soup which I was happy there was enough.  It was really fun having family all around our kitchen table.  OH plus this was every one's first time seeing our new home.  We have been in this house a year and three months already!

Chris's mom got to our place around 6:00p.m. and we all headed to the graduation!  It was pretty awesome having the ceremony on Friday night.  I'm not going to lie my eyes were definitely getting heavy towards the end.  It was a very nice ceremony and surprisingly I didn't cry (this is surprising because I am such a baby).  

Walking back to my seat after walking across the stage.  I had the best seat, right on the end on the outside.  I could see my family perfectly!

After the graduation we headed home since it was pretty late and we were all tired.  Saturday morning Chris and I headed up to campus to have some pictures taken by the ever so talented Freya! Here are a few (different from facebook FYI):

 

The Bellamy Building is where the history department is and I wanted at least 

a few pictures in front of where I spent a lot of my time. 

Freya did an amazing job! We haven't had professional pictures with a good camera done since our wedding so it's nice to have some new high quality pictures.  Thank you Freya!!

After pictures we headed to The Egg for breakfast.  It was soooo good.  My second time and Chris's first and it didn't disappoint.  Everyone enjoyed it.  After breakfast we came back home and changed and went to Sam's club with Ashley and Brian to get some pizzas for dinner later.  Then just came home and relaxed.  It was really nice.  Later that evening we all went to Dorthy B. Oven for the Christmas lights.

It was a great weekend!  I am so grateful for my supportive and loving family.  I was a little sad my dad and step mom and oldest brother and his family couldn't be with us but I understand.  It was just a great way to wrap up the semester and the year.  We have had a year full of ups and downs and this month has been absolutely wonderful. We wanted to have a stress free holiday season and it so far has been.  Hope all has had an equally enjoyable Christmas season!

The Perfect Tree

Picking the right Christmas tree is always an important part of the whole season, at least that's what I think.  This year I had some new ideas of how I wanted our Christmas tree to look.  I had for years seen trees in buckets, mostly on marthastewart.com, so my plan was to try and recreate these ideas.  We really wanted a small tree and one that wasn't "perfect and symmetrical."  So this is what we got and we love it!

 

One of our traditions that we have started as a family is to go to the Havana Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our own tree.  Plus, I'm a snob and think fake trees are a Christmas murder... but that's just me.  So we made our way out on December 8th to look for our tree. Here are some pictures of our tree finding adventure.  

 

We are set to find this tree; gloves, saw, go cart, and bucket to measure.

 

There she be!

 

Carrying her away.

 

Really scary spider we saw in another tree.  But a cool web!

 

Just how I wanted it to look.  We bought the bucket from Home Depot for $10 and the crate from Secondhand Sandie's... Chris did some nice haggling to get it for $2.99.  I decided to try making my own ornaments so I made these salt dough ornaments.  Unfortunately I used sewing thread to hang them and for some reason they all we soft so they're heavy and fall right off and the thread slices them at the hole.  Oh well... I'll know for next time.  Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas in the Hargrett Home Teaser

Just a little teaser look into Christmas at the Hargrett Home!  

More to come... plus pictures from picking out our tree.

Post Thanksgiving Trip

 

After Thanksgiving, literally, the day after, we headed down to Orlando.  We have been putting quite a few miles on our car and since we just drove down to Crystal River, Chris's mom allowed us to borrow her brand new car to take down to Orlando.  Such a blessing.  Plus it's exciting to be in a different car and it wasn't manual like ours.  We left around 8:30a.m. and had pretty decent traffic.  

Since it was a new car, it came with three months free of satellite radio.  Which was really exciting.  90's and old jamz.  

 

Rockin' out as usual

We arrived around noon and headed to the Temple first.  It was so nice to attend a session with one another.  We haven't been in a session in a few months since each time we've attended it's been to serve as Temple workers.  

 

After the Temple we headed over to Ikea to get some things for the home.  Afterwards we checked into our hotel.  We used Hotwire for the first time ever and got a great deal, another blessing.  Plus it had a free breakfast.  Once we checked in and changed we headed to the Premium Outlets.  FYI traffic was HORRIBLE.  The parking we already knew was going to be terrible so we had to park around a half mile or so away.  The black Friday deals weren't that great... we got a few things that we needed, mostly cloths for work.  

The next morning we got up had breakfast and headed to the Temple for our shift.  It was a slow day, they had to cancel two sessions.  Chris was in the baptistry the whole time, that was the busiest place in the whole Temple.  The last group to come to the baptistry was late by about 40 minutes.  So when I was finished Chris was still helping so I went to Publix to get our dinner and we left a little before 6p.m.

It was a great day... a little slow considering the holiday but we had a much needed get away.  Filled with lots of blessings.  Blessings have been flowing in too in our life.  I have been approved by Blue Cross Blue Shield for health insurance and Chris might have a potential full time job!  So grateful!  I know it's all because of Heavenly Father, He truly is looking out for us.

Good Southern Thanksgiving

We had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving this year.  Chris and I traveled down to Crystal River to his Grandmother's home.  It was so much fun.  This year I didn't get to run in the Turkey Trot but I still went for a 4.6 mile run to get ready for the massive eating.  We left the house around 8:30a.m. with Carmen and Eden (sister-in-law and niece) and got to CR around 11a.m.  We helped around with the dinner and set up for a little bit.  There was an expected 30 plus people coming so thankfully not all the meal was done by Grandma Copeland.  It was an awesome pot luck and OH MY GOSH the best banana pudding ever too!  Grandma Copeland's house is awesome, she has a dinning room PLUS a whole room they call the gathering room, special for big family events.

 

This is the gathering room.  Those plates are so cute! I wish I asked where they were from.  I think Macy's... maybe...

 

Beginnings of the food... not everything is out yet.

 

Dinning room.  The foil covered pan at the bottom is the banana pudding

 

The Line up

 

 I know you can't really read it but it says "Thanksgiving Dinner at the Copeland's" with the theme of the day and scripture.

We ate around 3:30p.m. and before Grandma gave a welcome, mom (Chris's Mom) gave the family scripture and theme for the day, and Nicole (Sister in law) led everyone in a song.  The eating then commenced.  Everything was great... especially the stuffing or as everyone else said there dressing.  One thing I have learned is Southern Thanksgivings are way different from the North.  But also, white people Thanksgivings are different from black people.  I know that sounds racist but it's so true.  I told Chris how since moving and living in the south Thanksgiving has been different.  We actually saw pictures of other people's dinner on facebook (white people FYI) and Chris was like "oh yeah... there dinner is different."  HAHA.  But no matter what everything is so good.

We were done eating and some how left by 5-5:30p.m. and I even stayed up the whole drive to keep Chris awake, which is a miracle in and of it's self.  We wanted to get home at a reasonable time because the next morning we were headed off to Orlando... another post to come. =)

Nursery

You want to know what's the best calling to become really tired after church and then take a nap and not feel bad about it... NURSERY!  Seriously I have never felt so tired after church in my life, since my new calling in Nursery.  Being the primary chorister never made so tired.  I'm really loving nursery.  I was nervous at first that I was going to not like being around other people like in Sunday School and Relief Society but so far I'm doing really well.  Sister Brock and Elizabeth Tew are SO SO awesome and help out a lot.  Plus, Chris is in there a lot of the time too which is great too. The kids love that he's there.  I have made a few little things and I thought I would share them.

 

This is a sign that I have outside the door on the wall.

 

The lesson title is on a magnet so I can change it each week.

 

This is just a little sign with all the kids names.  Since we'll be loosing four at the beginning of next year I just taped all the names on.  I got the little animals at a Dollar Tree in the teacher's section.  I thought they were pretty cool.  Plus I got 32 of each in a packet.

 

I have set up a strict schedule so the kids learn to have a schedule so when they get into Primary they'll be a little more prepared.  This depicts our activities of the day.  There are two clean up times but just had room for one.  But you get the idea.

 

So once we're done with on the the scheduled items we close the little flap and it shows that it's done.  I actually saw this on Pintrest but it was for teaching a child daily home tasks so I just converted it for church.  I thought it came out pretty well.

These are just a few of the ideas that I have actually put into action.  I have lots more I just need the time to get them done!  School will be over in less than a month so I'll have more time to get them done.

Veteran's Day

This past Monday was totally awesome.  We took the whole day we just did whatever we wanted and chilled.  In the morning we went for breakfast to Canopy Road Cafe.  We have been meaning to go there for awhile and finally made the trip.  It was so great! We both love breakfast and this place is a great place to go for it.  We sat in the back of the restaurant in a separate room that only had three tables so it was as if we had the place all to ourselves.  Another couple came in a little later but I was able to get a picture of us together with the camera timer and not feel silly.

 

In this back room they had a cool painting on the walls too.

 

Chris got french toast, eggs, and bacon.

 

I had multi grain pancakes with strawberries, bananas, and walnuts on top and then a side of fruit.  SO YUMMY! Also, I tried some sugar free syrup that was surprisingly really good.

 

The restaurant is located off Monroe next to the old abandoned Albertsons.  

There's also one in Killearn 

After breakfast we went to Target and the mall and I brought a notebook and we just went around making Christmas lists.  We just needed something to do where we didn't have to spend money but still get out of the house.  It was pretty fun!  It's way easier directly showing Chris things I wouldn't mind instead of trying to describe it.

 

Before entering Macy's they had this cute write a letter to Santa station.  

We got home and I was suppose to get some school stuff done and Chris was to study for the GMAT however... let's just say Parks and Recreation and a nap happened and it got to be like 3:30.  We tried afterwards to get some studying in but not for very long.  But we did go and get some Nuberri! 

Overall, a pretty awesome day.  We hardly get days where we just do whatever and take like a two hour nap, haha!  The Saturday before was busy so it was nice to just take the day and do whatever.  But seriously... Canopy Road Cafe is way good, you should check it out!

Much Needed Date Night

We haven't been out to eat and on a real date since August.  Whenever we have a little extra money any chance to get out is taken.  This past Friday we went out to eat to Mr. Roboto's.  We wanted to go somewhere we haven't been in a long time and to just jazz it up from the normal Moe's, Chipotle, Publix subs (I crave those at least once a week), etc.  Plus, I tend to have a problem that whenever we go out to eat I'm still hungry after and I knew Mr. Roboto's usually had decent portion sizes.

 

Three huge pieces of tofu did the trick... or a little while at least.

Not trick enough because of course we had to go for ice cream or I guess frozen yogurt since it was Nuberri.  I'm pretty much addicted to that place.  So good!  

  

 We end the evening by going over to some friend's house for a little game night around a fire pit.   Thankfully it was cool enough out for a fire.  This weather lately has been crazy... I would like it to just stay cold, but alas this is north Florida. 

 

On Saturday we went out to the Grissett's and got some sweet potatoes.  Yes, these two things I am holding are sweet potatoes.  I have never seen any vegetables this large before.  Crazy!  We didn't keep these ones they went to some other people but I had to take a picture because of how GINORMOUS they are.  I'm just excited now to make sweet potato fries.  Yum Yum!