A little Michigan Christmas

We had a nice Christmas dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Johnson. We ate some delicious shrimp casserole and drank some exquisite wine sent by mom and dad V. We had a ton of fun opening all the gifts and truly had a Merry Christmas!

Amarillo by Mornin!

This Christmas, we went to Texas! As a Christmas gift, my parents flew us up to the Lone Star State. We were there for about a week and had a lovely time. Nick officially got "initiated" into the family by spending a day making tamales. We made over 30 dozen tamales!  It was a nice change of weather and we enjoyed having a brake for our everyday Floridan life. Thanks everyone for making our trip one to remember!

Gone to Texas for the Holidays

Christmas Party

We got to have some "shooting" fun at our small group Christmas party! To start the Christmas break, we got together and spent a fun afternoon shooting clay pigeons and having a barbeque. We had a great time and we had a photographer (Wendy, one of the small group leaders) there capturing every fun moment!

Christmas has arrived at the Vander Sys's!

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon decorating our home with Christmas decorations! We went to Home Goods and TJ MAXX and bought some modern style Christmas things. It was a nice treat that got us into the Christmas spirit! We chose to make the Austrian tree that Mom V gave us as our main Christmas tree. It's perfect! We also decorated our ornamental bamboo tree with lights and hung our stockings and nativity scene for everyone to see!

Nick's really to shoot a pig!

Nick has been practicing his bow so he can shoot a pig. Nick was giving permission by his boss to shoot a pig on the property when Nick works at. Nick is very excited! He has been shooting his bow every day and he is really pumped because his groups are getting closer to where he wants them to be.

Black Friday FUN!

I got the chance to witness the craziness of Black Friday. Tina and I got up at 3:30am and made our way to Wal-Mart. We were determined to get a great deal on a GPS for our husbands. It was CRAZY!! I have never experienced shopping like this. There were people yelling, taking things out of peoples hands! Thankfully we were able to get in and out. We spent the rest of the day (4 am-1 pm) at the mall finding great deals on everything. In-spite of all the craziness, we had a really great time and went home with lots of bags full of goodies!!When I got home I quickly wrapped all of the goodies and when Nick got home he got to open all the gifts and we both choose the gifts we wanted to keep! It was fun!

2009 Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!! Our 2009 Thanksgiving was a little different from last year's. We got to have a BIG thanksgiving dinner with our small group. We had a wonderful time and the food was delicious! This year Nick did not have to cook at all, I did all the cooking for us. Nick worked a half day and I got to stay home and bake, bake, bake! I actually really enjoyed it. I made mini blueberry muffins, mini cup cakes, brownies, and a cake. Our home smelt really good by the end of the day. We went to the McCurrey's home for dinner and to our surprise there were 3 Wendy's present (see pic above)! Overall, our evening went great and we went home stuffed and thankful for our friends and family!

Fun with Grandma Johnson

We got to open our doors to Grandma Johnson! Grandma Johnson came down to Florida for the week and we got the chance to catch up. We got to host Grandma Johnson for a nice Vander Sys dinner and gave her a tour of our home. She was delighted to see our home for the first time and she got to meet all of the new family members!

A Jumbo Shrimp Meal!

Unfortunately, at Nick's work they found s type of bacterial that you don't ever want to find in any aquaculture tank. This caused a huge dry out at the shrimp farm. Every tank had to be drained and cleaned and all of the shrimp had to die as well. Fortunatley for us, when they brought in new shrimp from North Carolina to put into the new clean tanks, Nick got to bring home the ones that didn't make the trip. Of course, we had another delicious shrimp feast but, this time the shrimp were HUGE!!! I had never seen shrimp so big before and according to Nick because of their size they were not supposed to be so tender. But they were!

DCOTA= Inteior Design Heaven!

As a student in the Interior Design program at IRSC, I get the chance to experience lots of unique and fun filled design opportunities! I got to head down south to Fort Lauder dale to attend DCOTA which stands for Design Center of the Americas. It's a 4 story mall-like building with hundreds of showrooms in it! Textile rooms, Lighting, Art work surrounded us for several hours! Every designer can be found there, names like Calvin Klein, Nessen, Subzero/Wolfe, ROMO ect.! It was like a interior design heaven! Afterward, we went to the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach for an private architectural tour. It was amazing! To end our design day we went to Robb & Stuckey Interiors for another personal tour. Robb & Stuckey was another great place which helped us truly grasp what goes on behind closed doors! It was a great experience and the day was filled with fun and lots of pictures to share!

Our M&M

When we have cool mornings we open the door to let the cool breeze cool our home. Before we got Mako, Mahi would sit on a box and look outside. Since Mako arrived Mahi hasn't been a fan of sharing. Well, the other day we opened the door and to our surprise Mahi had allowed Mako to join in on the fun! :)

Phi Theta Kappa

I was among 87 students to get inducted to Phi Theta Kappa last Friday. The ceremony was held at the new Fire/Science building at Indian River State College. Phi Theta Kappa is a scholar honor society that invites you to become a member when you have reached a certain amount of credit hours and you have obtained a GPA of 3.7 or higher. It opens doors for scholarships and other scholastic opportunities. My signature is now in the Phi Theta Kappa history book of Indian River State College along with the first induction class in 1918. :)

A day out on the lawn!

The Vander Sys' had an outdoor day! Nick designated one full day to the chicken coop. We both had the day off and while Nick worked outside I caught up on school work. Since Nick was going to be outside we decided to let the girls roam our yard. They did great. I got to take some great pictures of them and just had an overall great time! The chicken coop is officially finished! It looks great and the girls and I aren't complaining!

One fish, two fish…

I just started to volunteer at the Pet Smart Humane Society. Nick thought it was a great idea but made it clear I could not bring home any cats while volunteering. Yesterday I was very surprised when Nick decided to take me on a secret/surprise date and took me to the Human Society adoption center. Huh? What??? Yes! That's right we got a new cat! Nick and I spend several hours playing with cats and kittens to choose the one that would best fit with Mahi and us. We found a darling 1 year old cat who we named Mako. Mako is actually a name of a shark. So, far the house is divided because Mahi will have nothing to do with us or Mako. But we know over time Mahi and Mako will get along just fine!

Yey! For the handy man in my life!

Due to the fact that we don’t have a fence, our chickens are currently living in our screen porch. It is working well for the time being but we know we have to make other arrangements. Nick being the handy man that he is took this challenge and began building a chicken coop. We now have a more suitable place to house our girls.  I praise God for blessing me with such a handy and loving man!

It’s October and it’s still 90 degrees!

Living in Florida requires one to enjoy the sun and the heat year around. Sometimes it can be a little monotonous but, when you get to spend a perfect day at the beach it doesn’t seem so bad. After class, Nick and I headed to the beach! The weather was great and the water was very clear. The ocean was pretty flat except for the 5+ shore waves, which were a lot of fun to jump over and surf. We spent the time collecting some cool shells, then we skipped them in-between the waves, and ended up getting a a nice little tan. What can I say it was a perfect fall day!

Shrimp pimp perks!

Being a shrimp pimp has it’s delicious perks!(Nick works at a shrimp hatchery so I often refer to his job title as Shrimp Pimping) The other night on our date night, Nick brought home a large sum of fresh, jumbo sized, aqua cultured, FREE shrimp! It was a real treat! For dinner we ended up eating what seemed like endless shrimp, steamed asparagus, and applesauce. Yum, yum, yum! :)

Our new girls!

Unfortunately, our chicken eggs did not hatch but we will try again soon. In the meantime, while we were in Michigan mom and dad Vander Sys let us bring 3 chickens home with us. So far they are doing great and we are really enjoying their daily presents! :)

Michigan Adventure!

We got to travel up to the "Mitten State" of Michigan! Our good friends Jordan and Lisa Tibbe got married and we were blessed to be able to celebrate with them. We had a lovely time visiting the family and hanging out with friends. Our conversations and time spent in Michigan was a nice break from our busy Floridan life. We even got treated when Mom and Dad Vander Sys cooked my favorite Michigan meal.... smoked pork, fresh out of the garden green beans, and delicious sweet corn! It was such a great meal and we even got to take home a smoked pork butt! yummy!! Nick was one of the groomsman at the wedding so, it was neat to see a wedding from a different point of view. The Tibbe wedding was beautiful and the weather cooperated very well. Thanks everyone for making out Michigan trip enjoyable! :)

Mahi Moments

Mahi is now 1 year old and is over 15lbs. She is doing really well and loves our home. She still acts like her old self but, has gotten a lot quicker and smarter when we play with her. :)

Country living in the city!

We are so excited because our chick eggs have arrived. Nick and I eat a lot of eggs so, to help keep our egg cost down we decided to get some chickens! Right now they are in their incubator and in a couple of weeks, we should be the proud parents of a dozen chicks or so! Wish us luck!!! :)

Ice Cream scoop and Triple Tail Costas!

To celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary we had a dessert housewarming party! We had a great time eating a large assortment of sweets and hanging out with some great people! After the party, Nick and I cleaned up, watched our wedding video, and exchanged wedding gifts. I got Nick his very own stellar ice cream scoop and Nick got me a pair of triple tail Costa del mar sunglasses! Our 1 year anniversary was a fun filled unique day that will always be remembered!

Welcome to our new home!

***For those of you too far away to attend our housewarming I've made a slide show of what our guest will be seeing! Enjoy!

View all

Quick home renovations!

We are days from our housewarming party and we are busy finishing up little odds and ends around the house. Since Nick and I  now both have the same days off renovating has worked well for us.  We have finally put pictures in our picture frames. We got to spice up our room by adding some "made by Wendy" curtains, painting our room a nice grayish blue color, and Nick was able to put in our new faucet (that upgrades our kitchen up to the year 2009!!) We are super excited to be able to host our very first group party this weekend!