falling in love with Jacksonville

it has not been a hard transition to Jacksonville so far.  granted we are still in the honeymoon stage.  the loneliness of not knowing many people here has not yet set in.  and summer, for us, is a usual break in seeing people on a regular basis, so when fall comes and we don't see familiar faces it is bound to be difficult. 

that said, we love being Duval County residents.  we love riding our bikes to campus.  we love the breeze we get from the ocean.  we love being 10 minutes from that ocean.  we love being really close to the public library (like true dorks), we love the adventure ahead of us of a new city to explore and people to get to know.

and most of all we have loved friday nights, which means a picnic dinner off of the beach as we wait for the sun to go down.  Once its dark we watch a movie projected at an amphitheater along with a few hundred other people.  And it is apparently legit to bring along a bottle of wine . . . so we do!

and while we wait we bring our books, from that library we live so close to!  Tonight's movie: Top Gun!  Highway to the danger zone was a hoot.  

Birthday Boy

Here are some reason why I am thankful that my husband was born 28 years ago . . .

He is a man's man, he can catch and gut a fish like the best of them!

He is really creative and great at design!  

He is over the top handsome and seems to be getting hotter as her gets older.  The older the better I told him.

He loves the beach, the ocean, (especially in shallow quantities) and splashing around like a little guy!  And I love it when he wears his train conductor hat!

He is clean!  And smells something good.

He indulges me.  This is him on his birthday a year ago, celebrated in China.  I made him wear a birthday crown the bakery gave him that resembled a Burger King crown.  What a guy.

He has shown me the ways of great coffee. 

He wore makeup and modeled just to please me in China!  Let me add here that I also appreciate that Asian women are specifically attracted to him.

He is a baller.

He is full of integrity . . . humility . . . and kindness.

He is good at pretty much everything.

He is winsome.  

Happy Birthday to my manly husband.

on The Chosen

I mentioned earlier that john and i have big plans this summer, one of which is to read a ton!  I have decided to do my own rating of these books.  With the disclaimer that I am not the best person to ask when it comes to great books.  Most of the books I read in my English, American and AP Literature classes in high school I did not care for.  And since then I have only read newer books with compelling covers.  I DO judge a book by its cover.
But after being a little bored with current fiction (at least what I was reading)  After a few Jodi Piccoult books I could write the next one and no one would know it wasn't her.  So I have taken a few cues from other books I am reading and getting a little more cultured.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free!

here is my criteria, I will give between 1 and 10 winks for how it rates.

title:  7 whole winks, major reason I chose the book

cover artwork: 1 wink, but it was written in 1967 so who can be picky?

"I want to finish this book": 5 winks

relational insight: 5 winks

emotionally charged: wink wink, I do not cry easily at books

better than Picoult?: Potok wins, much winks.

did I learn something?: 6 winks!  

The book is set in the 1940s in New York and is about a Orthodox Jew and a Hasidic Jew and their families.  Good read Potok.

p.s. something I like about using winks to rate books, is imagining you reading this and trying wink 6 times.  Fun!

On our bike ride home from campus a florida panther ran right in front of us . . . no big deal.

David and Pamela

It was just one week ago that our great friends and family were here!  Come back we say.

the beach:  perfect day to walk on the beach, learn how to ride waves and lay!

the food:  every time we are with David and Pamela they introduce us to a new tasty recipe.  Last time it was shrimp potato burritos.  This time, pineapple pancakes with cinnamon butter and whipped cream.  Yum.

And who better to get us to explore neighborhood parks then the park gurus themselves.  They approved of our local disc golf course.
We just found more fun things to do here, so come back soon to hang with us.
Love,
Melissa and John.

the move

We timed our move perfectly to get plenty of young blood help.  We had about 15 students show up to load up our moving truck!  Here is our crew sitting in our empty living room eating pizza.

Here is John in our new master bath.  There was some cleaning that needed to be done in order for some drainage to happen.  What a man I have.

Moving provided a great time for some DIY projects.  I kind of hated my old bookshelves so we painted them and added some whimsy paper to give it some kicks.

here is the final project!

Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 

my love!

John and I got married four years ago.  Four years ago I was eating breakfast with him before we separated for the day until I walked down the isle!

Four years ago I had no idea how much fun marriage would be.  Four years ago I did not know how well John would take care of me and lead me.

As John was putting this as his laptop background he said "Look at us we were so ignorant of marital bliss"

It is true.  Marriage has is downs, but mostly ups, blissful ups!  I am so grateful for the Lord leading me to John and for loving us, redeeming us, and providing us His grace and mercy daily.

Home Sweet Homeboy

summer plans

John and I just drafted our summer plans . . .
         :summer reading list
         :fundraising plan
         :my craft projects
         :his design projects
         :bible studies to do together
         :books to read together
         :prayer walks on campus and at the beach
         :people to get to know in Jacksonville
         :very easy workouts in our new gym
          (for me, John will do the real thing)
and most importantly
         :plans to celebrate our upcoming 4 year anniversary in Savannah
          bring on the sweet tea, spanish moss and southern drawls.

the we-arrived-at-the-reception-one-hour-before-everyone-else photo shoot.

the dress made a repeat appearance at another wedding!  although the belt makes it a totally different ensemble.

flipper's fam joined us for the shoot . . . we only caught one with the hipstamatic.

the hubs joined in too!  He is fetching.

the chucks.

and come on . . . really?  chillaxin'?

an iphone tour of our last two weeks.

in between staff meetings at St. Pete beach

headed to st. pete

hillsborough river, tampa

satellite beach

it may be pit-stink hot, but it is so beautiful in our state.

doctors visit

This centerpiece/fountain/artwork is in the lobby of my new doctors office.  Pat on the back to whoever can guess what it is supposed to represent.

graduation

some really great girls graduated from UF today.  And i am SO proud of them.  Congratulations!

tomorrow . . . 

I am blogging from Starbucks this evening because our internet is already turned off!  Dang.

Duval County, we are swoopin to your town!

gift time

My days in Gainesville are coming to a close.  So is my time with some very special women.  These women I have met with weekly for the past few years.  They have weathered the storm of meeting with me and growing in the Lord during their college days.  They are all graduating and moving on to experience what the Lord has for them in the next season.  They have been my joy.  It reminds me of Psalm 16 which says, "As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight." Saying goodbye to them has already held precious tears, more are to come I am sure as I reflect on our time together!  To love them well I made aprons for each of them.  Goodwill came through again and provided me with some cute fabric.

I tried them all on just to see what it would be like to have a head-to-toe apron.  I like what I see!

I LOVE them girls.  And I bet they will lovingly serve yummy dishes to care for so many people!

project pita

I am seeing a common theme in my life: food.  Most of my posts recently have revolved around eating.  Dang.  I am getting really good at it.

Back to pitas. I LOVE Gyros.  And it is not a gyro unless it is wrapped in a soft tasty warm pita.  Or flat bread.  That is my problem, I don't know which it is.  Pitas have pockets.   Flat bread doesn't?

Well since I have been grinding my own wheat for almost two years now I figured it was time to put the bread and scone making aside to embark on unchartered territory.  Mediterranean territory.  Flat bread land.  

Oops, I guess I forgot to tell you that I have tried this once before.  It is not something I like to remember, my flat bread turned into small hard discs the size of a makeup compact.  Not much gyro meat will fit in there.

So for this I turned to my handy Phylis Stanley cookbook (the mother of all whole wheat cooking)  rather then the internet.  She had a recipe for pitas, flat bread, leavened and unleavened bread.  I tried them all.  And the leavened bread takes the cake!  At least when cooking with whole wheat and using The Mother's cookbook, leavened is where it is at.  It was biblical.

I know it looks like a fried egg, but frying it rather than baking it gives it a toasty flavor.

On the horizon is my baking snack, coke zero and cheetos.  Right!

finally . . . pictures

my inspiration: Ivy's dress from The Exploding Girl

my medium:  $3 shower curtain from goodwill

my creation: 

it just took some sweat and tears, thats all.  

on dining in Gainesville

It is true, we like breakfast.  But if I were honest with myself, most of our out-of-the-home dining money is spent on dinner.  John and I date once a week.  For many couples a date is adventurous and fun and something radical.  For us, our hearts beat a little bit faster when we think of eating out.  It is truly a treat not to cook and to imagine all Saturday where we will eat (or sometimes friday depending on what sporting event is scheduled to air Saturday night, that is John's date with ol' Philips).

We like to try new things.  It is enough for me to get a little dolled up for my husband and pretend like I look that way all week.  Our search is always on for a local eatery that is both delicious and charming, inexpensive and hidden, scrumptious and leaving-us-dreaming-of-their-garlic-yogurt-dipping-sauce-all-night-long restaurant.

Oh wait, I must be talking about The Top, and how they have sweet potato fries that you dip in a finger-licking, creamy, drippy, garlic yummo sauce.  AND I cannot get enough.

Here are some of the selling points on this restaurant for us:

1.  It looks like it was decorated from a thrift stores collection.

2.  You can be sure that your waiter or waitress will have tattoos and a shaved portion of their head or        really long hair.

3.  There is a waitress who has a tattoo of a bird, and in place of the bird's head is her face!

4.  Organic and sometimes vegan food, if you are in to that sort of thing.

5.  Good beers

6. They have a photo booth!

This booth really caught us off-guard, which is evident in the first picture.  No countdown, no beeping sound . . . just "SNAP, you better look cute because we ain't stoppin".  Which is why I quickly made sure to smooch my husband before we ran out of film.   Wouldn't you do the same thing in that situation?  And then we do what we always do, smile awkwardly until someone stops taking pictures.

That said, if you live in Gainesville, go get you some fries.  If you don't go get you some photo booth pics.

on breakfast in Gainesville

Before we moved to Gainesville, John and I lived in Fort Collins.  And one of the defining characteristics of Fort Collins, along with great biking lanes, view of the Rockies, New Belgium Brewery and no humidity, is that they at one point in history had the most restaurants per capita than any other U.S.  city.

That said, we have our Fort Collins faves.  It is hard to believe that nobody does sushi better than Suehiro.  And a potato burrito from Big City is hard to match.  But most of all, you have GOT to love breakfast in Fort Collins.  Farmer's Table has been a long time family fave, and right up there on John's list of breakfast spots.  There is also Silver Grill, the Breakfast Club, the Blue Bird Cafe, and many others that have popped up since we have moved.  But my ALL TIME favorite has to be Lucilles.  You just cannot get a better biscuit for your buck.  Coffee, good breakfast coffee.  Tea, never had better.  Hank's eggs, awesome.  

So when we moved to Gainesville we were all about finding our new spot to get breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning.  We are still looking.  I mean, there is Ivey's if you want to spend a lot of money.  There is Peach Valley Cafe if you want local Perkin's-style fare.  And then there are spotty places around town where you can find eggs and grits with toast, but don't expect much more.  Oh and flying biscuit which is the Egg and I of the South except not as good.  So we gladly go to Cracker Barrel when we need some pancakes.

UNTIL TODAY!

We have found another spot.  Only 6 weeks before we must move of course.  This place has personality.  It is called The Jones, and while Lucilles would kick their butt most days of the week, we will take it!  We had some Jones Rancheros which was de lish.   All of their food is organic and local.   We are sure to stop by again before starting our search all over again in Jacksonville.  And for those of you lucky to be in Fort Collins, and don't know what I mean, your welcome, I have eaten a lot of food in that town to tell you exactly where to go out to eat.

Love,

Melissa "I want to a Lucilles biscuit" Teten