May Date

The First Date of Christmas:  JanuaryThe Second Date of Christmas:  FebruaryThe Third Date of Christmas:  MarchThe Fourth Date of Christmas:  April

The Fifth Date of Christmas

Remember how last month was a flop?  Yeah, that happened again.  Whatever...judge me all you want.  I blame it on my husband.  Isn't that why we all got married in the first place?  Now, I always have someone to blame my mistakes on!  Hooray!  Go marriage!  

Anyway.

I was SO excited about this date!  =)  I gave him an envelope filled with all sorts of treasures.

All he had to do was pick a place he'd like to visit for a one-day vacation.  SO simple.  He could go crazy here!  I was expecting for him to say something like "India" or "The Bahamas" or somewhere that has a theme.  The plan was for him to pick a place, and I would turn our extra room over the garage into the destination he chose.  If he chose India, I would decorate the room to look like India.  I would cook Indian food.  We would listen to Indian music.  We would play an Indian board game or watch a movie set in India.  Makes sense, right?  All he had to do was pick a place with a theme I could work with.

He chose "The Snowy Mountains."  Let me remind you that May in South Carolina tends to be rather warm.  That made the whole idea of sitting around a camp fire sound pretty miserable.  What do people eat in the mountains?  Oh...you know...regular food.  It was theme I could not work with.  And so the month came and went and I didn't follow through with the date I promised.

Oops.    

Vacation Advice

If you know me at all, you know that I tend to give my opinion(s) whether it's solicited or not.  Well, Erin from Love, Fun, & Football actually asked me to guest post for her while she's away on vacation and I'm so excited to be on her blog today with my expert vacation advice.  I love reading Erin's blog, especially her wedding posts since we both used the color orange, plus she's super sweet.  Hop on over and check out her blog...and some vacationing advice based on my traveling experiences.  =)    Click here!
If you're visiting from Erin's blog, I'm so happy you've stopped by!  I hope you'll let me know you're here but if you prefer to browse secretly, start here to learn all about how we met, fell in love, got engaged, got hitched, honeymooned, and where we live.  I also have tabs about everything else you'd probably be interested in..so, I hope you'll stay a while.    

Coo Coo Kachoo, 

Mrs. Robinson

Our Free Trip To Mexico

Yesterday was our 8th month anniversary of marriage.  :)  I love being married.  I love being a newlywed and I'm secretly dreading our first anniversary.  I guess I'm thinking that I'll feel less like a new bride once the first year is behind us.  These past 5 months have flown by!  The first three months?  They went on forever.  We didn't adjust to newlywed life all that well at first.  But, things are so great now...most day.  :)  But, one problem I have with being a newlywed is that we have no money.  We had a big time on our honeymoon and haven't had much money ever since.  Sure, it's probably our own fault.  We could save money in certain areas and we choose not to.  For example, we could hot dogs every day twice a day and save so much money on food.  Then I'd get nice and fat, comfort myself by saying "it's just more cushion for the pushin'" while really hating my body.  That's not good for business.  But, it'd save money and we could afford elaborate vacations.  So, it's just where your priorities are, right?  I get it.  Whatever.  The point is, we can't afford a summer vacation even if the reason is all of the money I spend on cooking really delicious meals.  Priorities.  He wont't eat healthy goods.  I can't eat only fattening foods.  So, that means we'll take one of each!  That's 6 separate meals a day.  That's 180 separate meals a month (in a 30 day month).  That's double what it should be.  Anyway.  {Focus} 
My parents, sister + her friend are going to Mexico in July.  They've been planning this trip for a while.  Mr. Robinson and I are invited and we'd get our own room.  Sounds like the obvious way to go, right?  Well, when they first invited us the mister and I both had jobs that offered us two weeks paid vacation.  We planned on using one week for a vacation and using the other week for a mission trip.  Then, Mr. Robinson had a new job opportunity and decided to quit that job.  We felt like it's really what God wanted for us at the time.  One thing about this new job is that it's 100% commission and he gets no paid vacation time.  If he doesn't work, he will not get paid.  His new boss told him he might be able to swing one week off during his first year.  So, obviously, before quitting his job we took advantage of the paid vacation time and went on a little road trip.  We'd planned on going on a mission trip to Africa in late July or early August.  Fast forward a little...and we were told that the mission trip to Africa was invitation only and they'd be taking the same people they took last year.  Um...so we went ahead and accepted that that wouldn't work out.  We didn't talk about vacation for a while.  We were both pretty bummed about the lack of foreign mission opportunities in our future.  
Eventually, we started talking about the trip to Mexico again.  My parents kept inviting us.  We wouldn't have to pay for our room.  Mexico is my favorite place in the world.  We wouldn't have to pay for our food.  It's a dream vacation that we couldn't afford.  And honestly, I'd love to take advantage of the opportunity to spend time with my parents because as I age I become increasingly aware of the fact that they won't always be around.  Then, they sweetened the deal.  We'd get free airline tickets as well through one of my job perks.  With time winding down, I felt like the opportunity was too good to pass up!  Mr. Robinson was worried about work and missing out on any sales.  His mom told him Mexico is dirty (she's been on a cruise that stopped in Cozumel before).  I tried to argue and tell him that the different between Cozumel and Riveria Maya is like the difference between box macaroni & cheese and homemade macaroni & cheese.  Well, go figure.  My picky eater prefers boxes mac & cheese so the analogy was lost.  Finally, I just gave up even though I really wanted to go to Mexico.  
Well, folks.  We've decided to go to Mexico on vacation in July with my parents!  I could not be more excited!  Want to see where we'll be staying? 

  I just cannot wait.  I may be visiting Best Buy and buying a new, super snazzy camera to take with me.  I do, after all, have a Best Buy credit card.  Hmmm... :)  If I were to buy a camera, what would y'all suggest?!  
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Anyway, that's the story of how we came to decide we'll be going on a free vacation to Mexico in...two months.  Hooray!!  

Coo Coo Kachoo, 

Mrs. Robinson

Vacation 2012 {Photo Overload!}

After months and months of heavy prayer (and lots of searching), my husband got a new job!  We were so excited, but decided to take a week's vacation together before he put in his two week's notice with his current job.  You see....his current job comes with two weeks paid vacation while his new job is 100% commission and comes with no paid vacation.  When he changed jobs, he'd lose his two weeks off.  And since I have two weeks paid vacation, my two weeks would have been useless if I couldn't spend them with my husband.  So....you guessed it.  Vacation 2012:  February 29 - March 7.  Enjoy the photographs from our fabulous 7 days off from work, peppered with some shots of my husband's "vacation beard."  Any pictures where one of my eyes look a little lazy....yeah, that means I've been drinking.  Haha.  =)

Day 1

I dragged my poor, innocent husband to the Dermatologist.  He didn't want to go...he actually refused to be seen although he said he would go with me.  I had found what appeared to be an irregular mole.  I threatened not to go if he didn't go, and since he was worried about my mole....we both went.  Happy Day One of Vacation.  =)  My grandparents have a house at the beach, so we decided we'd stay there after our Dermatologist appointments.  We acted like tourists, I showed my husband around an area that long ago stole my heart, caught a buzz over lunch... and we had a perfect first day off of work.

Day 2

We slept in...and woke up at 9 am.  :)  Neither of us can really sleep in anymore.  We walked around the community that my grandparent's beach house is in to get some fresh, salty air.  There are some really huge houses going up in that neighborhood... I can't imagine what the owners must do for a living to building or living in homes that size in this economy.  We had a delightful and relaxing morning at the beach before coming home.  Mr rocked out in the (pink) man cave (it was my bedroom growing up) for a while, and then we cleaned up and started to get dinner ready - we had the new preacher and his wife over for chicken parmigiana, green beans & new potatoes, with Texas Toast.

 

Day 3

These plans were already in place before we decided to take a week off from work.  My dad bought front row tickets to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey The Greatest Show on Earth {Circus} in Charleston!  My parents, my sister and her boyfriend, myself and Mr. Robinson made a day of it - stopping for Pizza along the way, getting to the circus early to have plenty of time to stock up on cotton candy & funnel cakes, walked around the mall for a bit after the show (I bought a new Bible!), and went out to eat at Sesame Burgers & Beer after the show.  They are known for having one of the best burgers in Charleston, not to mention a pretty intense list of beers on tap (but we kept it a family friendly outing).  

Day 4

It was a Sunday.  We went to Sunday School, Worship Service, Bible Study, Decipleship Training, and Worship Service Again.  =)  No pictures, sorry!

Day 5

It was off to Ashville, NC bright and early!  We made a few random stops along the way.  Mr. Robinson showed me the first house he ever lived in, in Columbia.  We stopped at a random park on the side of the road to stretch our legs and pose for pictures in a chimney.  We checked into The Renaissance Hotel in downtown Ashville (the view was gorgeous and had some pretty cool decor in the lobby), and then had dinner at Barley's Tap Room.  Great pizza, lots of beer choices.  My husband got hammered and road a pig.

Day 6

This was seriously my most favorite day of our vacation!  =)  We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then spent the morning checking out the shops down town.  My husband even enjoyed the antique stores ~ although they were way outside our price range!  It was so much fun walking around and window shopping.  The weather was perfect!  After we'd looked at everything, we went to The Biltmore House.  I'd never been before, and it was absolutely amazing.  No pictures were allowed inside, but we did take some pictures while we were outside.  We toured the house, ate at a restaurant on the estate, went to the winery and wine tasting, and then hit the road and headed to Greenville, SC!  When we got to Greenville, we walked around and saw the town.  It was crowded but the streets were all lit up and very beautiful.

Day 7:

We woke up and had a surprisingly good breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express we stayed at the night before.  After we stuffed our faces (we were only people eating breakfast!), we checked out and headed to the Greenville Zoo!  We loved it!  =)  Mr. R has been wanting to take me to the zoo since our beginning, and we never got around to it until now!  At the entrance, after we paid admission, we were each given a token.  We could choose which species our token would help save!  It was such a sweet sentiment and idea - we were both thrilled.  We had the best time looking at all the animals and fantasizing about having exotic pets.  Mr. favored the giraffes, while I was pretty obsessed with the black swan and polish hens.  We got to watch them train the lions with syringes full of goat's milk, which was pretty cool!  The zoo took a little over an hour to walk, since it was small, so after we finished we hit the road and headed home.  We were able to stop by and visit his parents for an hour or so, then we picked up Zombie from my parent's house....and then we headed home and passed out.  

March 8th, we returned back to work.  Mr. took one last photo of "The Vacation Beard," and we made sad faces over going back to work....but we really did have a perfect vacation!

On our first day back to work, "Day 8" if you will, my husband put in his two weeks notice, and it went over well!  For that, we were thankful.  We were hoping and praying for the best, but were prepared for the worst.  We knew that there was a possibility that he would get sent home or "let go" on the spot.  But, it didn't happen!  Hooray!

On our vacation, we were able to take back roads for most of our trip, we only argued once and it was about the Bible (haha), and we were able to see and explore parts of American that we hadn't seen before!  Most importantly, we relaxed and bonded.  We made memories.  =)  Here's to rest of our lives and all of the adventures we'll have, babe.