Please Be Over

I know Robert feels more ready than me for this "brief" assignment to be over, but please "brief" be OVER! I would like my husband back. It's been a lonesome week trying to entertain myself, especially since this has been one of the best weeks we have had weather wise. The weather is gorgeous, and I have no one to go outside and play with me. Sunday will be here soon, and I can't wait. Sunday at 6 pm this assignment will be officially turned in! Wish him luck!

Busy Bees

We are keeping busy these days. Robert has his brief due this weekend that he has been working hard on all week. He is pretty stressed out at the moment, and so to cheer him up, I will probably make him some banana bread with the large amount of frozen bananas I have in the fridge.

I on the other hand, have been staying busy with my new calling at church. I am the new Young Women's President. I oversee the girls in our ward that are ages 12-18. It is a lot of fun, and I am enjoying it so far. They keep me busy though. I am still trying to get organized and get use to this new role and no longer enjoying my free nights on Wednesdays. We meet every Sunday and Wednesday. I am also enjoying playing beach volleyball in a local league around here with some people from Stetson each week.

Robert has gotten more involved at school too, so that adds some extra time on his plate. He is the Secretary in the Entertainment Arts and Sports Law Society. He is a SBA (Student Body Association) class representative, and he was also selected to be a Stetson Ambassador. Recently, he was chosen to participate in the final interview process to become a Legal Research and Writing Teaching Assistant. I told him to get involved and look what he did, he practically joined every club. haha! No truthfully, he has been working really hard and going out for all of these positions isn't easy.

Well, it took us a little while to settle in, but we have finally gotten involved in doing more than just work, school, and play. It should be an exciting year!

Spring Break

My brother Jason and his cute family came down our way to spend their spring break and Easter with us here in sunny Florida.

So, we spent a lot of time at the BEACH soaking up some sun. The beaches are starting to get crowded with tourists. I miss our quiet beaches.

Look at his cute hat! He has to wear a hat to protect his fair little head from the sun. Kaden loved playing in the sand and water.

We collected lots of neat seashells.

This was their hot find of the day.

Soaking up some sun.

We constructed an awesome sand castle.

Note: if you want more privacy while at a crowded beach, just build a sand castle in front of where you're sitting and no one will bother you. It worked out well for us. :)

After dinner at the Friendly Fisherman, Jason, Robert, and Kayla got to experience hurricane force winds.

We also climbed some trees at the park.

Robert and I hosted an egg hunt.

Alas, we lost one egg! It happened to be the $2 egg too, maybe it will turn up one of these days. Although, I think one of the many lizards running around ran off with it.

We went out to eat a few times and grabbed dinner at home a few nights eating a couple of the Tolsma standards like sloppy joes with cottage cheese and chips, Texas sheet cake, Oreos and milk, cereal, and many other goodies.
I also cooked my first ham! It turned out pretty well, so I will have to venture out to a Turkey this year for Thanksgiving.

This photo is for Jason, Lori, and the kids - this is our almost steak dinner. Being naturally indecisive, at the last minute, we switched dinner plans and instead enjoyed a nice dinner at Checkers/Subway.
After our "nice" dinner out, we stopped at Congo River for a round of mini golf.

It was a close game, but I snuck out the win on the last hole from Robert.

We had a blast having them here to visit us and can't wait until they come again! I am sure they will enjoy getting back to their bigger/more spacious home where the kids can run around freely, so they don't get cabin fever.

Trip Highlights:

Snow Cones - Need I say more? It was probably Lori's favorite highlight, as she loves snow cones.

Sickness - Well like all Tolsma family vacations, someone has to get sick. Poor Kaden, and Kayla came down with a stomach bug. Which made for some eventful nights for Jason and Lori who didn't get a whole lot of sleep.

Ping Pong (aka pool as Keaton calls it). We played a lot of ping pong and pool in our game room.

The POOL - The boys loved to go to the pool and swim.

Texas Sheet Cake - Okay so maybe this is just my highlight, but I LOVE Texas sheet cake.

Pushing the elevator buttons/opening the doors with the keypad - This was the cause of some sibling rivalry of who was going to open the door/push the button. I love that such a little thing to us is such a big deal to kids. It was so funny to watch them race to the elevator or door ahead. They loved it.

Shelly - This is the name of Kaden's stuffed kitty cat, which he carried around everywhere in the house. He also had two other stuffed animals that accompanied him (a dog and bear). Keaton also had his own kitty as well.

Horton Hears a Who - We watched this movie twice. The kids love it.

FIFA Soccer and Spain - Robert and Jason played some PS3, where Jason beat Robert using the best team Spain. Robert thinks he should still be able to beat Jason, but so far hasn't.

Dyeing Easter Eggs - We dyed Easter Eggs out by the park. They all turned out beautiful!

Tennis - Jason and I (& Kayla) were able to get out and enjoy some great tennis weather.

Piano - The kids loved playing the piano. It was a hard toy for them to resist touching even late at night. Luckily, we never recieved any complaints of noise from the neighbors.

Well, that's all folks. Y'all come back now...

Happy Easter!

I love Easter time, where everything seems to be in full bloom and the songs of birds can be heard. Easter was always a fun tradition growing up, where we would go to the farm to hunt for Easter Eggs with my family. My Grandma Whitehead always made sure we had the best Easter possible. She was a very special lady who always knew how to have fun and celebrate.

Now, I try to continue some of those same traditions, as well as, spend more time reflecting on the true meaning of Easter, Christ's resurrection. I am really excited for this Easter for many reasons, but one is that my brother Jason and his family are coming to visit us! We are really excited for them to come check out our new place and spend time playing at the beach with them. They will be here tonight!

Pictures of course will follow later, but for now, I will leave with an Easter thought...

He is risen! He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered; man is free.
Christ has won the victory.

He is risen! He is risen!
He hath opened heaven’s gate.
We are free from sin’s dark prison,
Risen to a holier state.
And a brighter Easter beam
On our longing eyes shall stream.

"He Is Risen!,” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 199

I am so grateful to know that Christ did rise again on that third day. It truly is a reason to celebrate and rejoice!The bands of death have been broken, and we can return to live with our Father in Heaven once again.

"It's a Charity Event"

Monday night, we went to the Tampa Tennis Classic that benefits Jim Courier's foundation. It was part of my birthday present from Robert. The below pictures/video are the only shots I was able to get as my camera's batteries died! I had no idea I was running low on battery power, and as luck would have it there was not a single place in the arena to buy batteries. I was just lucky enough to get these, so enjoy them!

Jim Courier who played a charity doubles match with some local kids and Rennae Stubbs.

Victoria Azarenka who played against Vera Zvonareva

The grand finale, James Blake vs. Andy Roddick.

So, I was able to snatch one video before my camera really went dead, but of course...

the one chance I got, Andy missed his serve! Ugh. Oh well, it was a lot of fun to watch his serve live. It is amazing how hard it comes. One of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey players tried to return his serve wearing a helmet and cup. It was hilarious.

It was a fun night out and our first time ever watching pro tennis players live in action. I am definitely hooked, so I hope to attend a tournament in the near future. Thank you for the wonderful birthday present Robert!

Airfest

On Saturday, we went out to Macdill Airforce Base to watch their annual airshow. It was free, and included a performance from the famous Blue Angels.

It was a perfect day for an airshow because their wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Robert enjoyed playing around with all the weapons they had on display.

F-15 Strike Eagle getting ready to take off for it's performance. I love watching the F-15/F-16's fly, they always remind me of my grandma's house because she lives next to an airforce base and they would fly over often.

Just enjoying a hot day out in the sun for once! We are finally getting some really warm weather.

And, like every good airshow watcher, I came back completely sunburnt, regardless of all the time I spent under my umbrella.

One Year Older...

To kick off my birthday this year, on my birthday eve, we went to the beach to have dinner and watch the sunset. One of my favorite things to do is go to the beach, so we thought it would be a good way to start off the festivities.

We kept my birthday low key this year. I woke up and made a nice breakfast that was delicious. After eating and before work, we opened up my presents. Do you like my cake? I told you we kept it low key. Haha. These were some muffins I had made, and opening presents without blowing out any candles seemed a little odd, so we scrounged up some candles we had lying around. Can you guess how old I turned?

I had to upload this. This was my birthday card from Robert. He tapped into his creative side this year. This was a puzzle I had to unveil to see what presents his family and him had gotten me for my birthday. You may have guessed already, but this year's birthday theme was beach stuff. Since we live right by the beach now, we are going to have to gear up for summer. As you can tell, I got some toys to play in the sand with, a nice beach volleyball, and some beach towels, chairs and an umbrella from Robert's parents. I asked if the body below my head was included too...unfortunately, no.

I got a few other items to mention: my mom and grandma gave me their presents when I was out in Utah which were some beautiful church pictures and a few other miscellaneous items (EFY cd, clothes). My sister sent me a cute shirt and apron plus a nail polish kit. My best friend Jenny sent me some awesome jewelry from Iceland. Thanks everyone for the great gifts!

After work, we went out with some friends to a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game. Robert's mom, Teri, got us free tickets from her work. We sat in the 14th row behind their bench. It was a lot of fun because it was my first time sitting that close to the action.

Danny and Leigh, our friends from Stetson, actually, this is one of my high school friends too - small world huh? It is funny because now Danny and Robert are best buds.