Yes, Virginia, there IS life outside of Gainesville

So Matt and I ventured forth from Gainesville after church today. We'd basically been getting the idea that if you want something to do or want better shopping (the Dillards in Gainesville doesn't even have a home department--just clothes), you need to get out of Gainesville. I'm not saying Gainesville doesn't have its, well occasional festival or hidden cool store like the artisans' guild, but overall, I miss Knoxville the city SO MUCH (not to mention the people ;) ). I have been wanting a Kitchenaid stand mixer, and we had arrangements set up to get me one. But, the arrangements were through Dillards and our Dillards doesn't have a home store, as I mentioned above. Off we headed to Jacksonville.

We take back roads to get to Jax--there are some cute and quaint small towns on the way, and you don't have to take 75--which takes you NW when Jax is NE. It took about 2 hours to get up to Jax and to the particular mall we picked out. At first Matt thought we were going to end up in a "sketchy" part of town based upon the buildings we observed along the highway as we approached our destination. Let's just say that couldn't have been further from the truth. :) We ended up an an UNBELIEVABLE shopping center that's less than a year old! It's an outdoor center, kind of like the Irvine Spectrum center in Cali. It had everything from Sephora to a GIANT Barnes & Noble, to P.F. Chang's, Maggiano's, probably the biggest Dillards I've ever been to (although the West Town home department is probably bigger), Target, DSW shoes (yea!), and a bizillion other things--and that is just phase 1!! They have phase 2 planned, and a huge plot of connecting land IN ADDITION to both of those that's just as big as each of the previous phases! There is a HOTEL next to the center and they are building condos right beside it! It's was crazy, but fun. They even had the hidden speakers in the landscaping and all the trees were lit with Christmas lights after dusk. :)

We spent some time in Dillards. They gave us our full registry discount on the stand mixer even though #1: it was already on sale (we received conflicting information previously on whether or not the registry completion discount would apply to sale items), and #2: small electronics are only supposed to receive half the registry discount! Praise the Lord--WHAT a blessing!!! :) The sales lady also told us they would apply our discount to anything we wanted, not just items left "unfulfilled" on our registry. If I realize anything I need/want for our house in the next month or so, it's definitely worth a trip back to THAT Dillards for that reason alone! We ended up also picking up a set of really nice, melt against your skin sheets. We have one set the Hamels gave us that we LOVE, and Matt especially LOOOVES the jersey sheet set. They are both a lovely, deep burgundy color. We have a lighter colored set as well that really brightens up the bedroom, so I kind of wanted a lighter colored but high thread count set. We registered for another set of burgundy based sheets with a small stripe, but found the same sheets in the perfect shade of goldenrod. I am so excited about them! I can't wait to change our sheets this week. :)

After we acquired our stand mixer (they were out of black, but they had metallic chrome, which I had originally registered for and changed, so I went ahead and got the chrome-colored one) and fun new sheets, we browsed around the center (putting those purchases away, of course. I didn't make Matt lug the mixer around the stores :)) and treated ourselves to a "birthday cake & kit-kat" Marble Slab ice cream in a waffle bowl. And after we got home, I made Matt's favorite--chicken and biscuits.

After dinner I cleaned up Christmas decorations--that's why things are a little messy in the picture. I have everything all packed in boxes and labeled. I love the organizing part. :) I also talked to Erin for awhile, and that was really fun. :) Lastly, I folded some laundry and vacuumed up a few renegade Christmas tree needles. Tomorrow afternoon Matt has paintball with guys from work, and I have 1 or 2 fun errands in addition to finalizing my lesson plans--eek! I sketched them out on the way to Jacksonville, so I just want to type up my template and write them in. It's pretty amazing!

We had a GREAT time in Jacksonville, and we learned that there really are fun things to do, you just have to be willing to look outside of Gainesville some/most of the time. ;)

We hope you had a blessed Lord's Day, and we miss you very much!!! Come visit us soon, and I will make you something yummy with the new stand mixer. :)

Love,
Becca