Barbara Manatee, You are the One for Me

If you know the old veggie tales song, you should be singing along by now.  If not, I highly recommend you look it up for a good chuckle.
Today we headed up to Blue Springs State Park and watched the manatee.


AND (drumroll please) we saw our first Florida alligators in the wild today.  3 of 'em.  2 smaller ones, and a big 8+ footer that was huge.  The water was crystal clear in several areas and we saw lots and lots of fish that were huge.  We also about 10 turtles all lined up on a log.  I guess they were sunbathing.

The highlight was when we walked out onto a pier and two manatee swam right over to us and broke the surface before diving back down and swimming away.

The manatee are an endangered species, and every year they swim from the ocean up to Blue Springs where the water remains a constant 72* year round.

New friend

I got a new friend for Christmas, and I'm falling in love

Not to mention that winter in Florida is akin to fall in the Rockies - there isn't much not to love. 

I've been out three times this week.  Monday the girls and I did a 10 mile ride together.  It took a lot of breaks, snacks, and 2 hours (we also stopped at a friend's house and dropped a kiddo off there). 

Wednesday I got on my bike for a ride, and wasn't sure if my backside could handle it.  Ow! 

But, I got 10 miles in and was happy with my time - and just thrilled that I did it. 

Today, I got the same 10 miles in, but shaved off 2 minutes and felt really good because it was easier today than it had previously been.  

Yep...I wore a light jacket, and the sun shone through the trees and dappled the bike path which was littered with leaves.  The air was crisp, and a light breeze whispered by.  

Really, come August, I might be missing the mountains, but every morning when I head out to go walking (in my single layers), and see the stars, and feel the perfect 50-60* weather, I can't help but love Florida's winter weather.  

Thanksgiving Gingerbread houses

So, I just came across these photos from Thanksgiving.  We dropped by a friend's house and made graham cracker gingerbread houses.  Our friends just moved from the UK, and we had a blast going through all of the old Halloween candy that we used for decorations, and watching our friends trying out all of the US candies.  
It looks like my daughter got chopped off in this photo.  Nonetheless, she's here with her two best friends. 

Kids Bookclub blog

You know how in that veggie tales song "Where is my Hairbrush" everyone is embarrassed by the guy in the bath towel?  Yeah, I know, my last posting was a little embarrassing.  This one should be a little less uncomfortable.

When I moved to Florida, I was invited to join a bookclub.
I took my daughter with me since she's such a voracious reader.
My daughter went home and read the next month's entire book immediately.

Later, I was very gently told that while they all enjoyed meeting my daughter, she was a little too young for some of the discussions.  We were both quite disappointed.

I decided to put together a bookclub for kids and moms, and invited some people to join us.
We've got a couple of families who are really interested and they read as much as we do!

Here's a link to our bookclub blog.
I'd love suggestions of any books you may have read, or that your kids have specifically enjoyed.  

http://kidandmomreads.blogspot.com/

The Kali River Rapids incident

Some things in our home, have come to be known as the '....incident,' based on whatever the root cause of the incident.  For example, we have 'the icee incident'.  That's all you need to say, and we all know exactly what and who we are talking about.  But today's anecdote is purely anecdotal, and shall be hereafter referred to as the Kali River Rapids incident (or the animal kingdom bathroom incident for those of us who can't remember that long name).
Here's how it goes.
See this ride?  You'll find it at Animal Kingdom in Florida.
It guarantees that you'll get wet, and warns that you'll most likely get soaked.  No ifs, ands, or buts...you will get wet.


My family thoroughly enjoyed getting wet on this ride together last week.
My husband and I were in an interesting spot, and not only did we get wet, our seats (and thus our behookies) were also generously dampened.  That's putting it gently.

Shortly after going on this ride, we decided to take a trip to the restroom (after the adrenaline rush you know).  I calmly stepped into the stall, and pulled out a paper toilet seat cover which I daintily draped across the toilet seat.  "Isn't that nice that I don't have to worry about toilet germs?" I thought to myself (grandma had taught me to never sit on a public toilet seat before covers were invented).
I did my business, and as I finished and was tidying up, and I realized to my horror, that my wet backside and legs which had previously been VERY wet, now had the tissue toilet seat cover melded to them.
Nothing dainty here no siree.
Just think about wetting tissue paper, and applying it to a surface, applying firm pressure for a few seconds, and then think about how to get it back off.  Melded I tell you.  Melded.

I hope that I've sufficiently painted the picture of my embarrassment, and don't think I need to go any farther.

And now that I've publicly aired my humiliation, words of wisdom which I impart to all - make sure you go before the ride...not after.  :)   

Happy New Year!

I'm a week late.
The kids have been off school all week, and while I'd love to report that we just played and played (they did), I got sick on New Year's Eve.  On Sunday, I was too sick to go to church, but since everyone else was out of town on vacation, and I was covering someone on the organ, and covering all of primary with our secretary - well, I decided to drag myself there.
Monday was spent packing up Christmas (you know how Christmas cute suddenly turns to out of control clutter on Jan. 1st and you just can't stand it anymore?)...very slowly.  Mostly by my husband.  I laid and watched him work a lot.
I thought I was getting better later in the week and we headed to Magic Kingdom on Thursday (quite crowded still - we thought the tourists would have headed home!), and Animal Kingdom on Friday (not quite as crowded).
Our oldest daughter LOVED the Mt. Everest ride.  L.O.V.E.D. it.  It made me sick.  She went on it 6 times. I sat on a bench and chatted with Marcia from Brazil.  With my Spanish and her Portuguese we mostly understood each other. :)


I spent the first 5 hours of today at the Dr. office and pharmacy.  It seems that my New Year's Eve cold turned into a secondary infection, and I'm now fighting Bronchitis.  Lucky me.
The Dr. gave me cough pearls (?), an inhaler, and antibiotics.  That's what I really wanted - the antibiotics.  I'm told that I'll feel a little better tomorrow, much better Monday, and almost back together (hopefully) by Tuesday.  If not, I'll need to find a (non urgent care) doctor and get help.
I'm just happy about the drugs. 

Christmas Projects

Here are a couple of the handmade gifts I did this year for our siblings.
The family name is at the top as well as est - and the year of their marriage
Then the family member's names are at the bottom.
All of this information has been removed for this posting to protect the innocent.

I've been waiting until after Christmas to get them up!
Now, I just need to make one for my own walls :)

Hollywood Studios - our latest adventure

I took the girls and some friends to Disney last week.  Yes - what was I thinking??  During black out dates no less. 

It was a crazy crazy zoo of people.  But, we had some extra passes, and they needed to be used before the end of the year (I think we'll be burning two more this week as well).  The word insanity is coming to mind. 

In truth, we had a really good time. 

Despite the crowds. 

We spent the day at Hollywood Studios. 

We got to be part of a flash mob, singing and dancing in the streets while we waited for the parade.  

Then, the girls had fun making up words, and greeting strangers and passer bys.  Especially those who had birthday pins or first visit pins on.  And did I mention these girls LOVE LOVE LOVE to shop?  But they are little misers, and while they enjoy the looking part, there's no way they will part with their money at those prices.  (Guess we've trained them well).  Despite their miserly tendencies, I was amazed at the insatiable shopping appetite!

We got there around 10:30 am, and got home around 10:30.  

We hung out for a while at the Osbourne Family Lights and the girls found a corner that was mostly free of people where they danced, and sang, and spun each other.  We loved standing in the falling snow, and feeling it's cool tingle on our cheeks before it quickly melted.  

As we headed to the last show (that we'd been too late for earlier) someone dared the girls to start caroling. 

I was surprised, but they did.  4 girls walking together singing Christmas songs.  People would stop and look, trying to figure out what was going on.  Then, people started to join in.  Some humming, some clapping along, some singing out loud and clear.  It was really fun to see the reaction they caused. 

Happy Anniversary to us!

We recently celebrated our anniversary, and did something we've been wanting to do.
Pier fishing (I almost typed fier pishing there)
Yes, so romantic I know.
But, we've both been wanting to do it for several months and our mutinous children haven't wanted anything to do with it. So, we decided to try it out without them.

It really was fun.


Despite the cold weather.
I know, how can someone say "Florida" and cold in the same sentence? It doesn't seem legal.
We weren't really that cold.
Except that it was sprinkling when we started.
And the tide was in, and it was really windy.

And did I mention that it was raining?
The news crews were even there filming because flood advisories were in effect.

We lasted maybe an hour and a half.
Then we were hit with a deluge and the water was coming down in buckets.
We decided to cut our losses.


My beautiful kermit the frog fleece here, weighed about 20 lbs when we finished. I had to wring it out in the bathroom over the sink, and then it kept dripping pools in the restaurant where we had lunch. They kept getting out the mop!
When we left, 4 news vans were in the parking lot, and we had some fun seeing all of the water everywhere on the roads.  

My husband was victorious and caught 1 blue fin - he decided that he could ocean fish every day, and be quite happy.
I'd never been so grateful for the heater in our car, as we were chilled from the wind after we'd been soaked.
It was quite the memorable day.

Happy anniversary to us - and hoping for many more to follow!

What we are UP to

Loving the weather and all of the other months we get to play outside!


We met some friends a while back, who had just moved to Florida from the UK. We thought the move was tough for us, but they are starting a company on top of it all too! BOY!

Because I love to cook, and as we'd received several Thanksgiving Day dinner invitations, we decided to have an early Thanksgiving Day celebration. Since our new friends had never celebrated Thanksgiving, they joined us last Sunday, as well as their parents who were visiting from Ireland. While I didn't understand 'everything' my friend's father said, we learned all about the different sports in Ireland, the UK, and Trinidad. Ever heard of 'hurling'? I know, it sounds like a 'post Thanksgiving Day dinner, I've eaten too much sort of sport', or 'put your shoes back on, I'm going to hurl'. We laughed a lot! While we only had 14 people for dinner, I (of course) cooked for around 40. 6 pies, a 25 lb. turkey, and an exhausted me later, I didn't do much cooking for the rest of the week.
Later, on Thursday - the real Thanksgiving, I made 3 more pies, Hawaiian bread, and yams, for dinner with friends, we played on the golf course while the guys practiced a little bit, and then decorated gingerbread houses.
We headed over to our UK friend's home, and spent the remainder of the evening with them - meeting members of their family who had come in from Trinidad and California for the holiday. The girls all ended up with graham crackers and frosting, making mini gingerbread houses, and decorating the houses with left over Halloween candy. We loved giving our friends root beer barrel candies and watching their faces as they sampled the different candies here in the states.

Wednesday evening we took the plunge and bought Disney tickets. We headed to one of the parks - planning on staying all evening for the extended hours, but disappointed when rides took 3 times longer than indicated, and we didn't have a chance to find a good place afterwards for the parade. It didn't seem to matter where we went, we were directed by employees to find another place (in a not so nice manner). We ended up being directed right out the front doors - 3 hours earlier than we had planned.
We did spend the entire day on Friday at another park, and enjoyed our entire time there.

Finally, we finished up all of our daughter's allergy testing appointments, and got a final diagnosis on her eyes - convergence insufficiency-met with the school, met with the teachers, and have set up vision therapy which we are excited to start next week. From what we've read, usually within a couple of months, progress is pretty apparent.

I've been volunteering in the classroom and having lunch with our youngest daughter, and in the next couple of weeks I get to work with 3 of the classes doing science projects - my friend and I are the SUPER Scientists for this year. I can't wait for the science experiments!

Oh, and as for me, I finished my hardaanger project - the swedish cutwork embroidery one that I've been working on for about 4 years. Yep - I hit Michaels' 75% off custom framing sale yesterday, and am excited to put it on my wall.

We got our Christmas decorations up, and Christmas projects are officially underway.

The Waiting Game

We cleared the preliminaries, and we are now excited contestants in "The Waiting Game"!!!!
Whoop Whoop!!

Yes, a little ambiguous I know.
So, 2 weeks after moving into our rental home, we were served with papers from the county letting us know that the property we signed a year lease on was going into foreclosure.  It wasn't the greatest day I've ever had, let me tell you.

Of course, we went into a panic and started making phone calls.
We were assured that it was a mistake and that all was well.  So, we went on with life, and periodically kept checking to see if anything was going away on the court case.  While nothing much seemed to be happening, it didn't seem to be going away.  

Two weeks ago I got a phone call, and the owners of the property let us know that they were putting the house up for short sale.

Hence, another flurry of activity, questions, (and I'll admit - a little anger) trying to figure out what now?
They told us that they were working on listing it with a realtor who would want to begin to show the property.
 I felt a little rebellious and angry because we still have nine months left on our lease.  I would have NEVER signed a lease that allowed someone access to my home for the purpose of selling it while I was still living there.  NEVER.

After some prayers and consideration, we decided to put an offer in, and yesterday it was accepted.
As such, we are now waiting on the banks (like half of the nation) for a yes or no.  It could be 2 months, it could be 6.  No one seems to know.

While it initially came as a shock, as I've thought about it, I'm wondering how much might be 'coincidence', or better termed, Heavenly Father's guiding hand in our lives, and it may actually be a blessing - it's that shift in perception that turns everything around.
 
We initially wanted to purchase a home here in Florida when we began to consider our move.
I spent days poring over maps, trying to figure out which area we might want to live in.  Then, I spent days on the internet looking at listings and talking to realtors, and even banks.  They basically told me that it wasn't going to happen for 3-9 months because everything in Florida is essentially a short sale.

So, we started looking for rental properties - and we weren't very impressed.
We found 2 possibilities through people at church who were moving and looked at their homes.  While my heart was set on the other house, we got a very strong impression when we prayed about which one to pick that it should be this one.  I wasn't very happy about it because I liked the other much better.  But, I knew that our prayer had been answered, and so albeit a little grudgingly, but trusting that Heavenly Father knows what is going on better than I do, we chose this one.

This house is in a perfect location.  We have 2 neighbor girls who are the exact same ages as our kids.  We live 1/4 mile from church and 1.5 miles from my husband's work.  Our kids have lots of friends, we live in a really great neighborhood, and have some really great neighbors.  I found out that things would have been very uncomfortable if we had rented the other house.  The owner was going to move into an RV and continue to live on the property while we lived in their house.  Ew - that would be pretty uncomfortable for me...  We had no idea, but wow, we are sure glad in retrospect that we made this decision.

I think we are just learning over and over to turn things over to our Heavenly Father and let Him drive.  As we wait to see how things turn out for our future in this home, we hope things will work out, but also trust that if they don't, they will turn out for the best.

Happy waiting to me!

IT IS A GAP!!

This is what many of my relative's teeth look like.


Mine however, are so tight in the front that I have a hard time getting floss in there.

My gap is unfortunately, on the side.  Let's pluralize that now.  SIDES.
Instead of the lovely gap in the front genes, I got the 'gap on TWO sides genes'.
I'm so lucky.

After all, they are just teeth.

I wish the sunbeams in primary knew that.
There I am, singing away with the little 3-4 year olds, and suddenly one of them points to my mouth and shouts out, 'you lost a toof!!'.  Yes, I did.  I smile and we continue because if I don't, we'll have an entire discussion on lost teeth and gaps, and the tooth fairy, and I'll get to see lots of loose, or not so loose teeth.  And then the stories about when so and so's brother lost his tooth.  

Then the little 4 year old hasn't been to church in a while and viola - he re-discovers my 'lost toof', and once again points it out to EVERYONE.

Well, I was relieved when we moved from Colorado and I didn't think I'd be seeing that little guy anymore.  Whew I thought, I won't have to deal with that anymore.

I was so wrong.  Today in church, I was once again singing some songs with the sunbeams (3-4 year olds), when one of the kids stopped singing, pointed to my side gap, and said, 'you are missing a toof'.

Yeah, yeah yeah.  

The Pine Tree

Here's more of a body shot of the pine tree - really, it looks great from the front!

Halloween Costumes & Sunrise over the Atlantic

Our girls wanted a "Colorado-esque" costumes this year.
Here's what we came up with:
The quinnessential snowman.
She had a really cute carrot nose, and we painted her up and gave her a scarf and a broom for the trunk or treat last weekend. Unfortunately, she ended up with a weird rash on her face that still hasn't gone away. As such, we went with simple tonight.

We went next door for pizza and dessert before heading out trick or treating. The green pine tree on the back right is our oldest daughter. I'm still trying to find that other photo of her full costume. The dark haired girl in the back is our neighbor who is just the right age for our oldest daughter, and the other two girls are another door down -the little one is just the right age for our youngest daughter too.

Here's a picture that sneaked it's way in here.
We got up early while grandma and grandpa were here and headed out to the beach so that we could watch the sun rise over the Atlantic Ocean.  We got there maybe 30 seconds before the sunrise.  In 2 minutes it was fully up - unbelievably quick!
We played in the water for about an hour, then our oldest daughter got stung by jelly fish and tons of jellies started washing up on the shore cutting our beach excursion a little shorter than previously planned.  

Science Center

Last weekend we headed down to the science center.
They had a whole exhibit about bugs set up.
It was pretty gross.
Really.

As we walked in, we were dared to eat a bug.
They said - I'll eat one if you'll eat one.
So, we tried a few.
I didn't care for the cinnamon sugar wax worms,


I didn't care for the fruit dip wax worms,
but the Cajun crickets actually weren't all that bad... They tasted like hollow sunflower seeds.

After the bug eating, they had a bug spitting contest.
Now - let it be known, that the night before, we had headed out to an outdoor concert on the edge of a lake.
While there, the kids and I peered over the railing at the black water below. It was glassy smooth.
We discussed how quickly spittle would disolve in such glassy smooth water - whether spit was heavier than water, or lighter...basically - all of the properties of spit.
My husband was appalled.
I taught my girls how to curl their tongues, and to get some force and really launch it.
(Yes, pretty ladylike I know - and yes, there is a pertinent point here that I'm about to make).

Due to my kid's recently discovered mad spitting skills (from the previous evening) my daughter and I were both champion bug spitters, and we both launched our bugs (yes, from our mouths) over 15 feet.
I'd say that's pretty impressive.


We touched some really big bugs.
Looked at some really dangerous ones.
Watched (and cheered and screamed) a cockroach race

And had fun playing in the exhibit - one of the girl's friends came with us...under that sink is COMPLETELY filled with cockroaches - ew..!

Blue Springs II

We spent about 3 hours floating down the river. We bought a raft for the girls - which was a good idea.
It was a little trippy since we were swimming in a river where there was no where to touch the bottom, and only 2 places to get in or get out. While it was overcast - at first the water was pretty chilly (that brisk 72*), but after a while it felt great.
We swam up to the head of the spring, and swam over some spots from which the water was gushing. Our youngest daughter told us it felt like swimming over Sprite. She was right.
They took off in the raft and left me floating on my back, lazily down the river.
It got a little eerie when I heard the branches and twigs crackling on the other side of the riverbank, keeping up with me.
I was relieved when someone else showed up swimming in the area as well.


Later, from the dock we posed for pictures, and then thought that we had our first real alligator sighting!

It turns out it was just a log...bummer.


As we headed home from the park, we drove past several of these beautiful plants. They were pretty spectacular (and we were told - pretty poisonous)

Blue Springs State Park

We spent some time a few weeks ago at Blue Springs State Park.
It was BEAUTIFUL.

Notice the little message on the sign to the bottom right


We headed over to a dock and across the river saw this bird perched in the tree

We think that the poles in the water are some sort of gate to help keep the alligators out maybe?

The St. John's river.
Blue Springs is a natural spring that emits 100,000,000 gallons of water each day - and it flows into the St. John's River.
The water stays at a constant 72*.
During the cooler months, the manatee swim from the ocean, up the St. John's river where they enjoy the warmer waters of the St. John's river.
We didn't see any manatee yet though...

Downtown Disney

We found a sandwich shop we LOVE
Unfortunately (or maybe it IS a good thing), it is a ways away at Downtown Disney.

Grandma and Grandpa spent a week at Disneyworld after staying with us.
We headed down just before they left and met them for dinner at our favorite sandwich shop - Earl of Sandwich.
Mmmmm - my mouth is watering.

From there, we headed over to Little Miss Matched -
Have I mentioned that my husband took over the laundry duties here in Florida?
He gets upset if I even try to 'interfere'
He HaTeS, DetEstS, ABhOrs that our kids like to wear their socks in unmatching pairs.
If you check out his picture carefully - you can see the grimmace he is making in the background, as he considered the huge tub - filled with socks that didn't match.
Just for fun, the girls and I found some pairs, and started matching them. (The worker lady came by behind us and undid the matches)



Somehow the kids cooerced the grandparents into the sweet shop where they indulged them with their favorite "pucker powder".

Glasses

We hung out at the gift shop for a while, and had a blast checking out the different sunglass styles...

I say - self portraits never seem to be very flattering though..