The good, bad and every day.

I love the Spanish moss that covers the trees

This morning Grace rode the bus to school. It’s just down the road from our house. There were 6-7 kids riding at that stop so maybe she’ll have some neighborhood friends.

This week we’ve had workers in an out of our house. It’s been full of what are probably typical challenges when you do any renovations. Tomorrow our stuff arrives. I am looking forward to getting settled and organized. Moving is the worst.

Yesterday Grace had a friend from church come home from school with her. The youth had a temple trip and Berenice’s mom works. I think the girls had fun hanging out. We then picked up Saige and headed to the temple to meet the other youth.

After the kids got settled and found their group I went upstairs to do some inititories.  I was quicker than they were and was delighted to find that when I came back Ethan was in the font doing the baptizing.  It was really special to see him there and to know what a good young man he is.  When he raised his arm to the square and said " being commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you...." I got  that special warm feeling in my heart that I love.  A witness of truth and light.  I could see him being a missionary, being a disciple of Christ, being a godly, righteous man.  I am so proud of him for honoring his priesthood and being worthy to exercise it.  It was really special to see all the young priests baptizing, being witnesses, recording the work.  It made the experience so much more meaningful.

It was a night I will long remember and treasure up in my heart.

i don't like to complain but...

 Traffic in Orlando is heavy.  I need to change my mind set to one of living in a big city with lots of other people.  It takes me a long time to pick up or drop off the kids.  So that's a little annoying.

What is SUPER annoying is the 30/30 policy they have here.  If there is a lightening strike within 6 miles of the school the kids can't go outside for 30 mintues.  This sounds fine on first mention but how they define lightening strike is any lightening that they see.  We have a thunder storm every.single.afternoon.  So far twice the kids have had the 30/30 after school is already out.  And the time starts over each time the lightening flashes.  There was a school here that kept the kids until 9pm.
At Grace's school when the 30/30 starts they also can no longer switch classes.  Yesterday they called it during 5th period so she never went to her other classes.

You can go in and sign them out. This works pretty well at the high school because you can drive out of the line and out of the parking lot. At the middle school they have it set up so you literally get trapped in the parking lot.

So that was my day. I waited in lines. 

I also painted a room.

Weekend

Ethan went to a football game on Friday. Our school lost. It’s brand new, like second year open, first year with seniors on campus new. And these things take time. I am happy with the school. Ethan likes his teachers and has lunch friends and go to football games friends. He, of all of us, is most anxious to get in the house and hates hotel living. There are a lot of priests in our ward and a lot of kids in seminary so I think things are going smoothly.

While he was gone we took Grace to Cracker Barrel. It’s her favorite and usually no one else wants to go there. She likes the chicken and dumplings and was a happy girl.

Saturday we spent at the house. Our painting expectations have expanded. Our stuff arrives on Friday and our upstairs carpet arrives Wednesday so our goal is to have the upstairs painted before that. Downstairs will be done bit by bit. 

We have gone to Home Depot 3x for $$$ each time. 

Sunday was a nice day. I love our ward already. The second and third hour discussions have been so good. A few month ago in ward council Bishop Dunn was talking to us about ministering to our fellow ward members. He said that everyone goes thru ups and downs and this is certainly true. Then he said specifically to the people in the room that our ups and downs are not always noticeable to others because we are steady and diligent but that everyone has them and it’s important to minister to the apparently strong as well as to the weak.  This is something that I can really testify to. Most of the time my friends are who I would consider “alpha Mormons”. They, and I, are always there, always serving, always trying to be engaged. Yet each of us is so flawed and so completely dependent on the Savior and the blessings of His atoning sacrifice. Lifting and helping one another is so critical. 

Being 50 has been awesome because 1. I’m alive. 2. I am so blessed. But it’s also been really hard because I thought by the time I was 50, realistically more than half way thru my life, that I would be so much better. It is disappointing to still be so so flawed and full of sin. So I have particularly enjoyed the sharing and the strengthening that has been part of this ward experience. 

Last night Ethan and Rob went to stake priesthood meeting. They both said it was good and Rob reported that they

served ice cream sandwiches after:)

Grace and I floated around the pool. Leaving the hotel room is a priority for us so even though typically we don’t swim on Sundays the truth is we do when we have the grandkids visiting, or we are on vacation, or stuck in a hotel:) 

Lots of little inconveniences

We had some bank, water co, flooring, traffic issues yesterday. But let’s not dwell on that. This is the cute little path in our neighborhood that leads to the dog park.

Ziva and I walked on it yesterday. We came across a long black snake. Also we met another dog mom and her two doggies walking and we had a nice chat. I learned that in our two ponds lives an 8ft long alligator and that he walks this path between the two ponds from time to time.  So it’s a little like living in Jurassic world minus Chris Pratt.

We are having many fun wildlife spottings every day. We ran into a raccoon scavenging for treats early one morning this week.

The birds are amazing. I need to get a Florida fowl book. There are some that I have no idea what they are. 


Our new floor. I love it!

So busy

We own a home again! So exciting. It’s so cute! There’s a few things we need to work on (read: actually kind of a lot of things but that’s okay). I love this little palm tree in the front. 

Actually I like the whole house and think it’ll be really nice. 

Yesterday I was gone all day. (Poor Zivers). I went to the dentist (always hate that), went to two post offices, went to the store, drove kids around. It doesn’t sound like much but I was literally gone from 5:40-5:00. I don’t remember now what we did in the evening.

Today was the same amount of busy. Took kids to school. Went to the house closing. Went to the house. Picked up kids. Went to the music store (we finally got Grace’s schedule work out and she’s in advanced band now and so we needed a book), went to Home Depot and spent $800 (not even kidding) because now we are home owners again, took the kids to mutual, ate dinner with Rob and now it’s 10pm and I am just back home.

Sadly the next few weeks are going to be more of the same.

We went 1/2 a mile from our house for lunch at Toasted, a grilled cheese restaurant that was very delicious. I had the fig and goat cheese sandwich. They have the cutest turtle statues in front of the stores.


One more week of hotel living as we fix up the things we wanted to fix and wait for our household goods. 

Today

• Seminary
• School
• Walmart
• Laundry
• Catching up with Rob on the Marvel episodes I slept thru yesterday 
• Dog walk(s)
• Personal scripture reading
• A couple phone calls
• School pick up
• Ethan’s eye appointment 
• Dinner
• FHE
• Watch Marvel with Rob
• Bed

Sunday

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I love to watch Ethan prepare and bless the sacrament. Today in RS we were talking about things to do to keep the sacrament holy in our minds and in our experience. One thing I thought about that helps me keep my focus on the Savior is how the visual experience reminds me of His atonement. I think the sacrament table looks very much like the bed in the sepulcher where Jesus’ body lay while He was dead. The white cloth laying over the trays of bread and water symbolize the burial shroud. The bread symbolizes His body and the water His blood, calling to mind His atonement for us.  Exactly reminiscent of the last supper and a weekly renewal of our baptismal covenants. It is a very beautiful ordinance. 

Our ward is really interesting because each week we have lots and lots of visitors. I have heard that in the summer there are more visitors than members in attendance. Of course people who bother to find a meeting to attend in the middle of their Disney dream vacation are going to be pretty devout. We have had very interesting and engaging discussions in both Sunday School and RS. I have enjoyed it so much.

This week we had two families from South Africa who are here for Disney. That was fun. I talked to the two sisters a little and asked how they were liking it. They are but they said it’s very hot! Ha! If people from Africa think it’s hot here that tells you something!

FaceTiming with Sierra and Arrow and Clayna and the girls at the same time! 

Today in Gospel Doctrine we were learning about King Hezakiah and when he cleansed the temple and prepared it for worship.  We talked about things we can do in our lives to keep ourselves prepared for worship and our lives clean.
One verse really popped out to me:

2 Chronicles 29:11 My sons, be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

This made me think of myself, chosen of the Lord (hopefully) and while I don't have any trouble not killing or not stealing I do have trouble not being negligent.  Do I serve the Lord? Do I set my time aside to do His will every day? Do I serve others around me? Fast, and pray and ponder and study? Do I have a prayer in my heart at all times?  It's the little personal acts of worship and obedience that are easily forgotten when life gets busy and that I need to be most diligent in.
Good reminder.

Ward Beach Party

Today was the ward beach party and it was super fun. We got there a little late and found our spot. Quickly the kids found friends and we set about meeting people.

Brandon, Ethan, Joe and Tyler

Ethan played ball, frisbee, or in the waves the whole time.

Grace either was off with a couple of girls or sitting by me visiting. We also spent a lot of time in the water with dad. 

The water was so nice. The temps are just right and the waves are gentle, which I actually like.

There were a lot of people there and we went around and said hi to lots of them and got to know some of the families. 

There was a sand castle building contest and a watermelon eating contest.

Some of us “old moms” took our chairs to the waters edge and sat and chatted while the kids played. I watched the young moms chase their toddlers and little kids in and out of the water, applying sunscreen and brushing sand off crackers. I was happy to be sitting:)


Our evening plans were to take the kids to the stake youth skating party. When we got there they were out of skates so we went to see the Meg instead. We all liked it but agreed we wouldn’t see it again. It was a little more plausible than Sharknado. 

Also apparently we don’t know how to properly apply sunscreen because we all are pink. Doh!

Things I’ve learned since living in FL

• You shouldn’t buy an ice cream cone in the middle of the day. No one can lick fast enough and it just makes a melty mess.
• Alligators are shy and harder to find than you would think. Although I have seen one basking in the sun on the grass by a pond. 
• If you play outside, even at night, you have to take a shower before bed.
• Bugs are big.
• Traffic is heavy.
• English is not the most commonly heard language.
• Disney signs and stuff in every store and on every road do in fact make one happy.
• Long legged birds look like dinosaurs walking around.
• Waffles taste better if they are shaped like Mickey.
• Sitting on the beach and watching the waves is a great way to spend the day.

Gratitude

In my prayers each day I try to express a lot of gratitude. Fortunately for me it has always been easy to find things to be grateful for. I have been very very blessed, counting those blessings brings me peace and joy. It makes me more content and it makes me a better person.

In the interest of full disclosure I do my share of asking and lamenting too but I strive to tip the scales way to the giving thanks side. 

Tonight was no different. As I knelt by my bed at the close of day I began to think of things I was grateful for. 

Tonight I was grateful for the lightening storm out the window in “Ethan’s room”. It’s been lighting up the night sky long after the Disney fireworks ended. 

We see the fireworks each night from our window. At least each night we bother to look for them. (You miss a lot of beauty if you don’t look for it).  So that’s something else to be grateful for. 

I enjoy our afternoon rain, and the thunder and lightening that often come with it.

I am grateful for cool morning walks with Ziva while Ethan is in seminary. It’s still dark out as we circle the church parking lot. I like to look up and see the stars and to watch them slowly fade as the sun comes up.

Today I was grateful to be driving my own car again, and for a car wash to clean off the grim that was caked on it. I’m not sure what route between CA to FL detours through a tar pit but they found it and the flex arrived filthy!

I am grateful my family is safe and cozy under one roof with dinner and soft beds, clean towels, laptops for homework, and air conditioning.

I am grateful that Grace is happy with her classes and getting to know people.

I am grateful that Ethan is kind and that he is patient. It is so hard to move in the middle of high school and he, like his sisters before him, is handling it like a champ. It is hard and stressful for me as I worry and pray the first few weeks and months that they will make good friends and good choices. That might be the actual worst part of moving.

I am grateful for my dumb little dog. 

For FaceTime.

I am so grateful that Arrow’s surgery went well. Even though I’m so far away I was able to talk with Anna and know how things were going. 

I am grateful that Tanner is home safe and sound after faithfully serving a 2 year mission. What a great example he has set for all the cousins that follow him. I am so proud of him! 

I am grateful for tech and how it makes our lives nicer. 

I am grateful for my good health and that of my family’s.

I am grateful for the Savior. Sometimes I can’t believe what He has done for us, for me. 

I am grateful to live near the temple. 

I am grateful for the chance I have to repent and do better in my life. For personal revelations. 

And I am grateful for so much more. 

Amen

you've had a birthday shout hurray!!

This little girl is all grown up now!

Today is her 19th Birthday!!! 

What?!?!?

Of course the years went by too too fast!

We love our Hannakin so much!

Today she is celebrating in Ohio with Nana and Abba and her Sawyer.

I can't believe she's married.  Luckily she still likes bubbles:)

So, as per tradition,

19 things about Hannah

Hannah is an artist. 

She is good at photography, and is very creative.

Hannah is a reader.

Right now I think she's mostly reading stuff for school though.

She is a great student and very smart.

She is a wonderful friend.

She is an awesome cook and a delectable baker!

Hannah is a mermaid, she is such a good swimmer!

Hannah is funny.

She loves to play games and have fun!

She is kind.

She loves babies and little kids and is so sweet with them.

Hannah loves nature.

She is a great adventure buddy.

She love the Lord and loves to go to the temple.

She is faithful and loyal.

She has an infectious laugh.

She is brave.

She is a good wife, daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin and aunt.

She's a good listener, confidant and friend.

I love this girl like crazy!!

Hannah Birthday Hannah!!!!

starts and ends

 Started the day with seminary.  This week the kids meet at the ward building at 5:50.  Yikes! I was tired this morning (day 2). We had really gotten used to our slide to the right summer schedule of waking but late and staying up late.  Ethan likes his teacher.  They are studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

We ended the day with an evening in the temple.  It is such a pretty temple inside and outside and we had a wonderful evening together.  It's SOOO nice to live close.

weekend

waiting after church

This morning was the first day of school.  We did a lot of back to school stuff this weekend.  Ethan wanted to get a haircut but he didn't come with us on the afternoon errands and they took longer than we expected so he didn't get one.  I think we did everything else.  We got school supplies, at least things they thought they'd need.  I suspect they will both come home with supplemental lists today.

Grace wanted a new outfit for the first day of school and we had to exchange her reeds since she got the wrong size last time.  Between still learning our way around, and some areas having a lot of traffic, and not everything being super close to each other (at least as far as we know) we were driving far and wide on Saturday.  

Sunday we went to church.  Rob and I both got new callings.  I am the activity day leader and Rob is a bear den leader.  We are both looking forward to starting and will be working with other leaders so we'll get to know people.  Our ward is very friendly and nice and we enjoyed visiting with more members.  Rob spoke and he did a good job.

Sunday night was the seminary kick off fireside.  We met Ethan's teacher, Bro. Cole.  He seems awesome and he also has a son named Ethan:)  Seminary is at the high school at 6:10.  This is really nice, the kids don't have to worry about getting to school after seminary.  At Ethan's high school there are about 50 kids enrolled in seminary.  I am excited that he will have such a large group of kids to meet with.

first day of school breakfast

This morning traffic was crazy going to the high school.  School starts at 7:15.  We left at 6:30 and he ended up hopping out of the car and running in before I even got to the parking lot.  Around 9 he texted that he just got his schedule and it looks pretty good.  He was hoping to take first aide and that was full but other than that I think he got what he wanted.

AP Calc B/C

US History, honors

AP Eng

AP Psych

Spanish 3, honors

Principles of biomedical

Physics 1, honors.

I am anxious to pick him up and hear how the day went.  Hopefully he'll have someone to sit with at lunch, and hopefully his teachers are awesome.  And hopefully he doesn't get too lost:)

8th grade! What?!?!

When I got home Grace was ready.  Her school doesn't start until 9:25 however so we went downstairs and had breakfast, then came up and sat around.  Finally at 8:10 she couldn't wait any more so we left.  We got to the school early but the parking lot was full and we had to park on the grass.  I went up with her and we waited around until they unlocked the gates and told the parents to go home.

She texted me her schedule too.

Geometry honors

physical science honors

concert band

chorus

adv US history

Lang Arts Adv

French 1

Looks like a good schedule.  I hope she likes her band teacher and makes many friends and learns lots and lots.  I can't believe next year she'll be in high school.  We've been doing the school thing for a long time (26th back to school morning for this mom) and it will be so strange to be done (in 5 years).

Ziva and I are alone for the day.  I had to save her this morning.  We were walking out to the grass for her morning walk and saw two small dogs and their owner walking towards us on their way back to the hotel. They were barking and lunging and looked sort of aggressive so I made an arch and walked out onto the grass to give them the sidewalk.  We crossed the parking lot and were just getting to the dog area when all of a sudden one of the dogs appeared out of nowhere and lunged at Z.  He tackled her and was bearing his teeth.  I scooped her up and held her above my head while the dog repeatedly jumped up on to me barking and trying to get Ziva.  The guy ran up, dragging the other barking dog, and said "he got out of his vest".  He tried to get him back but the dog was circling me, barking and jumping onto my chest or back depending on where he was.  Finally he tackled the dog and was holding him.  I said "got him?" and he said "yes, sorry".  So Z and I left.  

People like that give dog owners a bad name.  And I was glad I wasn't Val because she would have had a heart attack.  And I am glad Z wasn't hurt. Or me.  I would be much more mad if I was bitten.

update: both kids report that the day was good.  Ethan had to wait in the office for two hours before they had his schedule ready.  He has one class that he wants to switch out of but the rest he is happy with.    Ate lunch alone, wasn't upset about it.

Grace had her schedule right away but they haven't hired a science teacher yet.  Other than that she said she liked her classes and made lots of friends. 

The lines for dropping off and picking up were CRAZY!!! Like it literally took 6 hours of my day to drive them, wait in lines, and get them home.  Hopefully it's just the first day crazy.  Also they will be riding the bus when we are in our house so then it won't matter...for  me.  For them yes.

Off Friday

The best! Every other Friday off is an awesome perk of Rob’s job. The beach was quite empty today and we had a really fun time bobbing around in the water, watching seagulls fight over goldfish crackers and pelicans dive for fish.

We played ball awhile and headed home when the afternoon storms came rolling in.  Then I did laundry and everyone showered. 

“On the way” home Rob wanted to stop at the hobie shop so we could see the kayak he wants to buy. 

It’ll be fun:)

one week

dragon's breathe

We've been in Florida for one week.  It's been hot.  Like two shower a day hot, only go out at night and in the morning hot, steam up your glasses hot.  I heard this is the worst time of year.  Still we love it.

Today we went to both schools for the open campus tours.  We searched out a music store for reeds and went to the mall to a) have lunch, b) stay cool, c) leave the "house".

So the mall is super really nice.  It has all kinds of stuff that we didn't have at any other mall I've lived by.  Living where other people come to vacation is kind of weird and kind of cool. There are many amusements available and many family friendly, wholesome recreational, activities too. We tried out dragon's breath.  Luckily we had decided to share one before we got any because no one loved it. It was basically fruity cereal that has liquid nitrogen poured on it.  It's steamy and fun to watch the smoke come out of each others nostrils and mouth.  It tastes okay and kind of hurts your tongue.

Our evening ended with another sweaty round of soccer.  We go out at 9:30-10:00 and it's still a swampy 90ish degrees out.  Ethan kicked the ball over the fence into the bushes..by the pond...in the dark.  We searched quite tentatively hoping not to step on a sleeping alligator and eventually found it! Whew! He only has one soccer ball here so that would have been a painful loss.

Full of life

Florida is full of life. There are little lizards, tons of birds, bugs, deer, gators, plants. When I walk Ziva we get to enjoy watching all of them. This morning I watched a little hummingbird for a long time. One negative is all these little burrs. They get all over Ziva’s fur even though I can’t see them or tell where they come from. At first we pulled them off with our fingers. But then we got splinters. Now we use a diggle hopper, which works great, but she hates. This post walk grooming ritual is not my favorite part of the day.

We went to the high school and got Ethan registered. I thought we had an appointment to meet with the counselor, really we had an appointment to hand over paperwork. Every state does school a little differently so I hope we got it right. Just in case we are making an appointment next week, school will have started but only just so we should be able to make adjustments if we need to.

Lego "nessie" in front of the lego store

We met with our new orthodontist, we liked her and her office is only 1/2 a mile from our house. That’s another thing checked off our list.

playing in the rain

For mutual tonight the kids went to Disney Springs for a scavenger hunt. Ethan and Grace both had fun. It was fun for me to see the big group of kids. They are very welcoming. Rob and I walked around while they had their activity and found a whole new section that we hadn’t seen before. We still haven’t seen it all.


I like to look at instagrams of different families, mostly moms with young kids. They are so cute and I miss those happy, busy, crazy, chaotic days. I was thinking today though that there are no accounts of moms with teens. I wonder why? Teens are a lot of fun to parent. I guess they don’t like to have pictures taken of them with spaghetti on their faces or sleeping cutely. 

When we left the park it started to rain. It was a down pour really. Ziva still needed her nightly walk. We tried to wait the rain out but eventually Ethan and I took her. We got very wet and I took a picture of him kicking his ball in the rain.

Tuesday

• 
• Did loads of laundry
• Walked the dog 7x
• Went to the eye doctor for Ethan
• Found an orthodonist to take over the kids treatment plan.
• Still looking for Derm, gyn, FP and dentist.
• Rob and I tried to go to the temple but my recommend had expired. Super embarrassing.
• Called for an appointment to renew it.
• Threw a ball at Ethan many many times so he could practice kicking it.
• Cancelled our home owners insurance because the house is officially not ours anymore!!
• Watched Agents of Shield with Rob.
• Bought a sweatshirt because I didn’t bring one (Florida) and Rob keeps our hotel rooms freezing!

Form: DH680

Today we went to register Grace for school. We went on Friday, you may remember, to find out what we needed to bring. 

So we got there, signed in, and waited our turn. When they called us we handed over the forms and info they said they needed and were told that although we had an official immunization record it was not on an acceptable form. It had to be on a Florida form signed by a FL doctor. 

School starts next week and time is running short. 

We ended up going to a minute clinic and having school physicals and the forms copied. $130 and 2 hours later we were back at the school signing up to wait again. 

It was a little frustrating but at the end of the day she’s in. Now we go back on Thursday for her schedule and open campus walk through. Hopefully Ethan’s registration will go smoothly.

Grace and I spent the afternoon in the pool, which is really nice. We got rained on and so had soaked towels.

Ziva is enjoying 5-6 walks a day. I am looking forward to having a doggie door again. 

Sunday

Today was a stressful day because we had to move hotels. In order to register the kids for school we have to have a Florida address and they specifically do no allow a contract to buy a house to count. 

We had 3 choices, one to go to the district office and file an exemption. Cubersome, long lines and you may not get it.

Two start school 2 weeks late. Unacceptable.

Three bring in hotel (or shelter) receipt because homeless kids can’t be denied an education. So we went the homeless route and moved into a hotel in the schools boundaries. 

The move was accompanied by a lot of bickering. 

We went to our new ward and I think everyone had a positive first impression. The Bishop was nice. The lessons were good. I enjoyed the testimonies. The kids seemed to be welcomed and Rob got asked to give a talk next week. 

We ❤️ Florida

This morning we went to see the house. I was a little nervous. I had only seen it online and even though Rob had seen it his reports were of a mixed nature. I was happy to see that I liked it a lot. Ethan and Grace liked it. We are excited to move in, plant an orange tree, and enjoy life as Floridians.

We are staying at a Marriott residence inn and the people are really nice. The cleaning lady made a cute dog towel for us today.

We ate dinner at Bahama Breeze, it was a lot of fun. I love the mellow sounds of a steel drum and we had live music out on the patio while we ate. Everyone liked their food. Ethan ordered jackfruit tacos, which I also tried. It was interesting and tasted good. I wouldn’t order it again though. I had a curry goat bowl which was super spicy!

The we went to Congo River Golf where we had a really fun time. We got to feed and hold baby alligators. 

We played ubanki ball, which Ethan won and we all enjoyed. We think Clayton would love it.

We mini golfed (Rob won) and panned for gems and played games. We all agreed that it was even more fun than we expected.

There are a lot of things to do in Orlando!