Week Six of the "52 Dates of 2012"

Visit the MOSH Planetarium. 

     This week and last week got a little messed up. We were supposed to do something else Week Five but switched it with "Eat at Maggiano's". Week Six started as "Go to the zoo", but with the frigid cold front that came through Jacksonville, we decided last minute to re-pick a date. The Museum of Science and History (MOSH) is so great, especially when you want something warm yet exciting to do. They're open 7 days a week, so Sunday early afternoon we headed downtown to see what it was all about.

      We arrived, purchased our Planetarium show tickets to see "Black Holes" at 3pm, and started wandering the first floor. There, we saw live animals, replicas of sea creatures, inside the human body, and where our water comes from, along with a dinosaur!

     We headed  up to the second floor and explored the hands-on learning section. Taylor especially loved the physics and music ones, and I liked looking through all of the microscopes. It was close to 3pm by that point, so we walked over to the Planetarium to present our tickets and get seated. You can imagine our sadness when we discovered that a private party had booked the entire Planetarium for a show about sea life, and the front desk people hadn't known when they sold us our tickets. It turned out for the better in the end though, because they gave us complimentary tickets to come back to the museum another day and see the Black Hole show at another time. Don't you love when things work like that? It always pays to be calm and grateful.

Thank you wonderful MOSH staff! This kind of made our day.

     The free time slot in our afternoon allowed us to take a look around the history sections, which explored Jacksonville and North Florida in particular. It was so fascinating, it's always exciting to learn new things about the place you live I think. The Victorian and Mid-Century sections were my very favorite, I kept asking Taylor "Can I just live here, please?"

So cute! I wanted to move right in. Why yes, I'll take that pink telephone please. Of course I'll have that bar on wheels in the corner. What do you mean I'm not allowed to jump over the glass and start moving my clothes into the closet?

This skirt needed to parseltongue its way out of the glass and get into my closet. The strawberries! The flowers and leaves! The creamy color!  It was just perfection.

     Taylor's favorite part was seeing the owls hoot and move their big eyes in the ecology section. I loved the above mentioned lifestyles of the late 1800's and mid 1900's. After a long day of venturing through the MOSH, we were both hungry and needed to get home to our puppy. We ended a lovely Sunday with another trip to Maggiano's as an early Valentine's dinner (so delicious) and snuggling up to watch the Grammy's and stay warm. We haven't chosen this weeks date yet, but he's got a home game and won't be traveling all weekend so it should be a good one. XO.

P.S. This also crosses off a 21 Before 21 list item! Yay!

In the Christmas Spirit

In between packing for New York (yay 21 Before 21 list item!), getting our apartment puppy ready, and finishing last minute Christmas shopping and decorating, I've barely had time to think straight. I have, however, had just a few moments to throw together some songs for you. These are the songs I've been humming to get me through the Fall Semester stresses and ready for Holiday happiness! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Now back to wrapping I go- there is SO much love going into these gifts this year.

Also, enjoy this picture of the newest member of my family, already being enhanced to show her future love for the holiday season! Meet Miss Philippa Rose:

XO.

21 Before 21 Update!

There are 102 days until my 21st birthday! I've been patiently awaiting it and slowwwwly marking off items on my 21 Before 21 list. Even Taylor is getting excited, as he's been helping me with almost every one. I thought I'd give you guys a quick update about the few I've accomplished so far/the few I'm working on...

Buy and play an ukulele: It's in the mail! It's in the mail! It's in the mail! And I'm so excited I can barely type it! I ordered it the other evening, it's a Lanikai LU-11 I purchased through Amazon after much research. It should be arriving any minute, so if I quit typing and put up a half written blog, you'll know why!

She's here! Now what to name her.. and how to play?

Have a picnic: Taylor had the idea for us to accomplish this the other day! It was my reward for getting our room cleaned, so after a long weekend indoors we trekked to UNF. Our campus is wonderful as it has a 300+ acre wildlife sanctuary and tons of walking trails, it's really beautiful. We just so happened to go during a Sunday LARPing meeting, and much giggling ensued about their costumes and fake weapons. Taylor's a big nerd and does some LARPing of his own, but apparently his is "cooler" than theirs. I suppose there are rules to these things that I don't know... We munched on sandwiches of chicken salad and yummy crackers, an apple and a pear, and cookies for dessert! Taylor drank tea and I drank lemonade. It was a lovely day.

Making chicken salad sandwiches.

Giggling over various funny things.

Go to NYC: Our tickets are purchased and we're on our way the 21st of December! I am so enamored with everything NYC right now, just the sight of the Big Apple makes me swell with glee. I've been planning every little detail, down to what I will pack and how I will dress and where we will go. Winter Break cannot come soon enough.

Unrelated, I know. This is actually us at Taylor's grandfathers wedding, but it was too cute not to add!

Perfect one dinner recipe: Well, I've cheated a little on this one. I haven't "perfected" anything really fancy, but I've worked really hard on learning to master my basic culinary skills and can sure make good sandwiches and cookies! I've also got chili down and I'm pretty good at tilapia.

These were the BEST sandwiches I've ever made. It was just a grilled ham and cheese, but oh were they good.

Eat a yummy banana split: Ohh this was one of the most delicious! Taylor and I went to Friendly's and had the cutest waiter ever. We discussed life and our "old age" and watched young high school kids get excited in the booth next to us. Wonderful date that I can't wait to do again.

Mmmm yummy!

And that is all my loves! I still have quite a few to go, but the pleasure I've gotten in achieving these few is absolutely amazing. My ukulele JUST arrived so I'll be off teaching myself how to play. XO!

Thank Gosh it's Thursday!

Plus a little Gala Darling TiLT thrown in, just because.

I'm the very worst most terrible no good blogger ever! It seems like I only ever want to blog when, well, I have some reason that I need to blog. I guess that's what this is for, I always just thought I'd turn OhmySkye into something that I would want to share with everyone every single day of my entire life. Guess I'm just getting distracted by life..

Life has been super overwhelming the past few weeks, so it's nice to finally get time to write again. I just changed the last thing on my 21 Before 21 list to something that I think is more reachable and something I want even more. But! I'm only 6ish months away from the big 21 and I don't have a single thing crossed off my list! So for the next couple weeks I'm going to take them one at a time and break them down and figure out how to accomplish them. Ready, set. Go!

And now for a little TiLT so I stop with the "weepy Wanda's" and the "feeling bad for myself Francene's":

• My snuggly bed, for always being there when I need it.
• Likewise, my snuggly Taylor, for always being there when I need him, even if I say I don't.
• Finding (and eating) the best pizza ever at Vino's.
• Finding (and devouring) some really delish Thai food and a cute consignment shop right next door.
• Getting to read little kid books for a class. Please go find and read Flotsam if you haven't before!
• The fact that it's almost the weekend again! Thank gosh.

That's all for now folks, now to change my email info on here and a couple other sites to my new email. XO.

21 Before 21

Finally (Finally!) I've decided on twenty-one tasks I want to accomplish before my 21st birthday rolls around next March. A lot of things have occurred since March of this year and I've been horrendous to my poor blog, neglecting it until just yesterday. BUT! That shall change, I pinky promise. So here it is, the official (may possibly change again but probably not) list:

1. Pet a llama.
2. Go to Hogwarts.
3. Gamble at a Casino.
4. Buy and play a ukulele.
5. Have a picnic.
6. Go to St. Augustine.
7. Plan my 21st Vegas Trip.
8. Bake a rainbow layer cake.
9. Get an iPhone.
10. Go to NYC.
11. Perfect one dinner recipe.
12. Go to at least one big museum.
13. See a fortune teller.
14. Visit NASA.
15. Finish my Ariel cross-stitch.
16. Eat a yummy banana Split.
17. All A’s and B’s in my classes.
18. Find Sailor Moon on DVD.
19. Camp in a tent.
20. Revamp my clothing collection.
21. Buy a Diana Lomo camera.

There ya go! Now just to wish and wish all of these lovely things into my life. Some are slightly easy and others take a lot more work, but, if I'm sure of anything, this shall turn out to be one exciting year! XOXO.