Hello from Sunny Florida!!

Oh, how I love this place!!! We had a perfectly smooth trip down here on Saturday - no hitches whatsoever, and we are now having the BEST vacation. This is our 6th time here (Sanibel Island) and I fall more in love with this place each time we come. It feels like home. It's beautiful, tranquil, unpopulated, unspoiled, uncommercialized, has the total "beachy" feel, and is SO relaxing. Just amazing. And the weather has cooperated PERFECTLY. Clear and sunny and 80 each day. And no wind. None. Now THAT is awesome. I'm definitely not missing the wind.

Even better is watching Jack and Noah fall in love with this place too. They can't get enough - always ready to do the NEXT thing. Each day, we've gotten up early to go "shelling" - a total adventure in itself (I could do 3 posts on that topic alone); we go biking on the bike trails; we sit by the pool; we play tennis; we sit on the lanai and chat; and we have been eating some really yummy seafood. Right now at 10:30 p.m. I'm sitting outside - it's 68 degrees - listening to the waves crash on the beach and feeling the ocean air on my face. Doesn't get better than this.

Here we are on a 5 mile bike ride - hard to see, but there's a "Caution: Alligators" sign above Jack and Noah's heads - - sure enough, we saw two down this path.HARD to get a picture of them, but here's one - the thing out in the water.

We'd been here less than 24 hours when Grandpa started in on Ocean Creatures 101. We're eating breakfast our first morning when Grandpa shows up with an octopus. Yep, the 8-legged kind. He was a resident in a shell that my dad had picked up, and dad didn't realize the shell was occupied until he came back from the beach. He also brought back some starfish. Jack and Noah were excited to have a pet octopus for a day. (We released him safely back to the ocean at the end of the day. I'm told dead octopus stink. I didn't care to find out). (He's in the shell):

The next day, Grandpa showed up with a hermit crab. Jack didn't like him. We didn't keep him for a pet. Here we are SHELLING. This is a totally addictive activity. Sanibel is known as the 3rd best shelling beach in the world and it certainly lives up to it's reputation. You can find TONS here, and you can find some real beauties if you put a little effort into it. Meaning: searching at the time of low tide, no matter when that may be (my dad has been known to go in the middle of the night - luckily this week, it's been between 7 and 8 a.m.); wading around in freezing cold water; straining your eyes and neck continuously to catch a glimpse of the prizes concealed by the sand; stooping over at the waist for hours, resulting in back pain and muscle tension; and yet it's so much fun. My dad is an expert, and we've all had fun learning from him. Noah has competely been bitten by the bug, attaching himself to my dad's side, hoping to learn from the master. It couldn't be cuter.

(This is at 7:00 a.m.!!!)

There's a stance people use here called the "Sanibel Stoop" - everyone at the beach is always bent over at the waist in search of treasures, and as you can see, we do it well:
Noah -

My mom:And Jack:
And I'll leave you with some gratuitous pics of our favorite vacation destination:
(This is my dad and his best buddy of 40 (?) years who joined us for a few days - more on that later) Jack and Noah in a dead run at 7:00 a.m. -
Have I mentioned I love this place?

Random Ramblings . . .

What a week! We have had SO many things going on lately, my head is spinning half the time. Updates:

Last Weekend
Uncle Josh and Aunt Marcy graciously invited Jack and Noah to come have a "date" with them on Friday night. They were SO excited, and had a blast of course. Bowling, pizza, Monopoly, staying up late - perfect! And it was so funny, when we went to pick them up on Saturday, Jack had tears in his eyes - when I asked why, he said he didn't want to come home. I didn't take offense - I was just glad he obviously had a MARVELOUS time. :)

Meanwhile, Mark and I had our own date! First to Red Lobster for dinner, and then to Marley and Me. I didn't want to go because I kept hearing about how SAD it was, but I was pleasantly surprised. VERY cute movie - and sad, yes, but not unbearable. I highly recommend it.

Single Moms
I have a new appreciation for them. Mark was gone on a business trip Sun. night and I was miserable. The house seems very big and empty without him here - even with the kids. And of course, wouldn't you know, we had the worst wind we've ever had that night. I laid in bed awake until 1 a.m. worrying about the stupid picture window and the roof. The NOISE also contributed to my insomnia. Uggh. It really is unbelievable. Plus I made the mistake of letting Noah sleep with me - I woke up at 5 a.m. with his feet on my pillow up against my cheek - ?!? We have a king size bed for crying out loud. The child always manages to sleep perpendicular. And I didn't sleep much again after that. I sleep better knowing there's someone in the house to take care of all of us, I guess. I also admire you military moms - you guys rock and are stronger women than I.

A Sad Goodbye
Our friend from church passed away last Thursday (I talked about him a few posts back - the young guy with brain cancer). I attended the funeral on Monday, and it was heartbreaking. Quite literally. Absolutely beautiful and touching, but so, so very sad. I think my heart will always carry a bruised spot for his mom. The amount of grief she has endured in the past several years is totally unimaginable. But yet this woman RADIATES Jesus. She is always smiling. Always. She always has the most kind, positive things to say, and she is always full of HOPE. No matter what her circumstances are. I came home and smothered Jack and Noah in hugs and kisses and wondered why it is I am blessed with two amazing kids and a loving husband, and she has been left alone. One thing I do know, when this woman gets to heaven, her crown will be one of the most glorious there.

Cub Scouts
Not sure if I've ever mentioned the boys are in Cub Scouts this year. They earned a badge on Tuesday night, so I had to post a few pics of them looking adorable in their uniforms:
The Inauguration
Umm, yeah. Maybe it would be better if I kept my mouth shut on this one. Let's just say after watching a small amount of it yesterday, I felt like vomiting. I will say this - I wanted to cry as I watched President Bush's plane take off and leave for Texas. I wanted to scream "don't go!!" I just kept thinking - now THERE was a great man. Wasn't in the office to be popular, just tried to do what was right for our country. And he protected us for 8 years. We'll just see how long Mr. Obama is able to do that.

Our Weather
Despite all the wind, here's one of the reasons I love it here - you can clean your garage in the middle of January. And that's exactly what I did today. It was 65 and BEAUTIFUL. Once I was done with the garage I was so motivated I then cleaned the Suburban. And loved every minute of it because I was outside in a tshirt. Gotta love January in SD.

VACATION!!
As much as we like the weather here, we are heading for "greener pastures," so to speak, on Saturday a.m. The beach on Sanibel Island, FL awaits us. We'll spend a week there with both sets of our parents. WE CAN'T WAIT. I've been losing my mind trying to keep us all healthy. I'll let you know how that works out for us. :)

The Stock Market
Mark's losing HIS mind again. The poor guy is really taking a beating at work. Wells Fargo stock tanked. Yikes. Keep him in your prayers.

I just keep reminding him that Obama will fix it.
Right?!?

Does the wind EVER stop here?

Seriously. It's just ridiculous - I think we live in the world's worst wind tunnel. Okay maybe not THE worst - Wheatland Wyoming is definitely worse. I'll settle for 2nd worst. In any case, we spent most of Sunday night NOT sleeping, just listening to the screaming howl of the gales outside, waiting for either the windows to shatter or the roof to peel off. Actually, gale doesn't even describe it - a gale technically tops out at 63 mph, and I think it's safe to say we are past even that. We got a brief respite from our tornadic conditions yesterday, and now the roar is back again. We have a big picture window in our living room and it is bowing in and out. Tonight Jack said "mommy the window is MOVING." Yep, sweetie I know. Stay out of the living room - we may be pelted with glass at any moment. We live in a newer house with tight seams (4 years old) and it's downright noisy in here. Constant howling. Because it's important for you to understand it HOWLS. Not looking foward to another sleepless night.

Last weekend we made a crazy fast trip to Fort Collins, CO to meet up with some of Mark's college friends and go to a hockey game (semi-pro). We did this same thing a year ago and the kids were STILL talking about it, right up until this trip. Mark's highly connected buddy has a box suite, which is definitely the way to watch a sporting event. Couches, bar stools, TV in case you're bored, food, drinks, etc. He arranged for the team mascot to come to the suite to visit the kids, and then got the kids into the locker room after the game. Us moms waited in the hall, in case you're wondering. After they emerged from the locker room, they were all giggling, saying "MOM, we saw the goalie's BUTT!" Oh my. Glad that's what we are taking away from that experience.

Anyhoo, last Friday my mom and dad came into town and brought little Miss Molly to visit me. I had a fun afternoon with her - she is SO gorgeous! Had to post another pic:
In other news, I joined Facebook a couple weeks ago, just for kicks. Nope, it's not a mid-life crisis. I had a couple friends who had been bugging me to get on it with them, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Oh my word. What an invention. I have now been in contact with friends I haven't talked to in AGES, which has been SO fun. Anyway. I was looking at one of my high school friend's page and found she had posted this hilarious picture of me and her on prom. (Yes, we had male dates, they just weren't in the picture). I had a good laugh - hadn't seen these pictures in about 18 years. Wow, do I feel old y'all!!!

Twin Phenomenon?

Okay this is the craziest thing. Back in October, Noah came down with the stomach flu on a Saturday night after we had gone to a matinee, at which he had consumed popcorn. After this episode with the stomach virus, he has a strong dislike of popcorn - sad, but true (movie theater popcorn is the BEST!!). We've all experienced this at one time or another - eat something, get sick, and then you can't eat whatever last entered your stomach again for quite a while. We actually couldn't get Noah into a movie theater for quite some time because he didn't even want to smell popcorn. Well, this weekend we got him back into the movie theater -went to Bolt (WAY cute movie - LOVED it) and thankfully, he was happy with his Crunch a Bunch and Coke (but NO popcorn, of course).

Here's the weird part - Jack can't eat popcorn now either. Jack never got sick. Has never had a disagreeable run-in with popcorn. But the poor dude has developed as strong a dislike for movie theater popcorn as Noah. I tried talking Jack into sharing some with me, but NO. All he wanted was his Incredibles fruit snack that I had smuggled in. What the heck? What's this about? I've chalked it up to a twin thing. It's not the first time, either - the incidents are quite infrequent, but they'll also have pains in the same part of their bodies at the same time. Sorta interesting. That's as far as their similarities go, however.

Meanwhile, they are NOT happy about returning to school tomorrow. No glossing it over - they just don't like it. I have some theories about that, but none that I can go into here. :) Truth be told, I'm having a hard time with the arrival of tomorrow as well. As my mom used to say, I liked having my "chicks back in the nest" the past two weeks. We've done so many fun things together, I just don't want to send them back. I don't want to go back to our SCHEDULE. I want to spend every minute I can with them. I'm having mommy growing pains. Uggh.

I think part of this stems from me watching a dear woman in our congregation losing her son (in his early 20's) to brain cancer. They have a matter of weeks, possibly a few months, left together and it just kills me. It's always in the back of my mind. My heart literally hurts whenever I think of them, which is quite often. She's already lost her husband and now she's losing her only child. It's given me the overwhelming urge to keep my family by my side every minute possible. Then I have to remind myself that Jack and Noah are not mine - they belong to God and I have to back off and allow them to go out into this world, and allow God to turn them into who He wants them to be. Just wish it wasn't so hard . . . .

The Retirement Gift

On Tuesday we had the BEST time surprising my dad with an early retirement gift (if you can call it early - he only has about 8 days of work left). Several years ago, my dad lost his best buddy in the whole world - a golden retriever named Duke - who had provided my dad with 13 years of devoted friendship. Wish I had a digital picture of him that I could post. We all still miss him.

Anyway, ever since saying goodbye to Duke, my dad has debated getting another golden retriever. With retirement right around the corner, my brother, sister and I decided to make the decision for him, and got him a sweet baby girl (we got the o.k. from my mom first, of course). We brought her to him on Tuesday evening and they are a match made in heaven. My dad was just like a kid, it was so fun to see him so happy. She is unnamed so far - if you have any good ideas, let me know! She is such a snuggle bunny, is very mellow, she sleeps through the night, and I'm sure she will live the most spoiled life with my mom and dad who are totally doting doggy parents. Happy Retirement Dad!