How's the Weather?

So how is Florida I feel like that's one of the first questions everybody asks me, especially since we moved here in the middle of the summer, and basically what I have to say is that it really isn't that bad. Of course I moved from Toledo to Columbus to Florida and there were plenty of days in Toledo where it would be 90° and 90 percent humidity. I guess what I'm really trying to say is I don't really feel that big of a difference if anything I really truly love the fact that it can rain and literally still be sunny out or that it's NOT dark and cloudy very often or for very long. All of these observations are general since we've only lived here for a couple of months but they seem to be true, which is great.

Just a balmy 80 degree day on November 5th.

The only thing thus far that I can honestly say has been disappointing is how long it has been hot! I guess there is a bunch of weather fluctuations this year because of El Niño. Of course there is! Haha I just lived through two polar vortexes so now Mother Nature is trying to fry my brains. Knowing that it's been unseasonably warm does make me feel better though. I'm sad we didn't get a more gradual cool down. Instead it's been hot, hot, hot then coooool then hot again. Back and forth- no in between. The first day of December I overhead that it was the hottest it's ever been since like 1930! Wow. Like I said as long as it isn't like this all 4-5 years we are here. The temperate days though are so amazing! It's so nice to just put on average clothes and go be outside while the kids play. Davie has already acclimated to the warmth here in Florida. The other day he needed to wear pants instead of shorts. He asked why and when I told because it was chilly outside (not really 60/70ish degrees) he said "I don't like it when it's cold!".

This was December 23rd. Still HOT.

The other thing I have been quite pleasantly surprised about is bugs. There really aren't as many bugs as I thought there were. (Insert me imagining bugs of all kinds and sizes swarming... everywhere... all the time and me freaking out a little) More than other places sure but not all the nasty swarms I was imagining. I feel like we get a lot of little fruit fly type bugs in the house. More than I have ever had before and it's weird because I'm pretty sure they aren't coming from fruits we have brought in. Another topic I was nervous about was spiders. I seriously haven't hardly seen any spiders. Maybe I'll get my chance (please no!) but there aren't a lot of those either. To be fair the bugs in the house came in through our sliding glass door that (whoops) the builder didn't put a brush guard on. So they were just walkin' in! Yeaaaa, as soon as we figured that out we called the builder ASAP. Thankfully it was an easy fix and it immediately stopped the bugs.

Lizard in my bug trap! 

There are however a TON of little lizards. And I like these lizards, I know they eat our bugs and they are pretty much harmless (not to mention kind of cute). The lizards still startle me every now and then when I walk to or from the house and they run in front of me but they never run towards you... or at least not yet! Either way they are welcome in my book.

Because of the warm weather I have gotten rid of more of my clothes than I had originally planned. I've been trying to get rid of my excess stuff for over a year now. And you know what is both amazing AND really sad? I have literally driven large garbage bags of "stuff" to the second hand stores and I haven't missed a SINGLE thing. I know getting rid of my warmer clothing might sound rash, but I figure most of it is already 6+ years old, we won't be visiting Idaho as much once Miss Macy turns 2, and by the time we do move somewhere that might be colder David will be making more money. So in the meantime it just didn't make sense to me to keep all my warm "stuff". A lot of it I didn't really even use in Ohio when it did snow so it's really not a big deal. 

Christmas Day
For those of you who know David he has adjusted really well to the heat. In fact the other day he basically said that he never thought he could ever live in a place that didn't have an actual winter, but after this winter he has completely changed his mind. He NEVER has to wake up earlier to scrape ice off his windows or shovel snow or so that he will have more time to drive if the snow is on the road. He's been super surprised with this conclusion of his and when he told me I think it blew my mind a little. I knew that while we lived here he would be a good sport because his job it great and so is our house and our ward and lots of other things. However him admitting to not caring if we ever move back to a place that gets cold and snows was completely shocking. I'm ok with that! So for now it is definitely-   Good-bye winter!

A Little Water Never Hurt Anyone

We have a 10x10 storage unit that we have been very quickly filling up in order to make our house as easy to clean as fast as possible, but also to help our place look as big as possible. Well this Friday David and I had spent our day being so very diligent about packing and cleaning (we had our relator coming on Saturday morning).Friday seriously just FLEW by but we got a LOT done and we were feeling pretty good about our progress. 

Frozen water on the ground

Once we had finally gotten to our agreed upon stopping point we loaded up the boxes we had spent all day packing into David's car and headed to our storage unit. Upon opening our unit we immediately realized there was ice/ water on the ground and that it covered a little more than half of the floor. Grreeeeat. 

Wet boxes that have books in them (my heart just dropped)

I won't go into extraneous detail, because it doesn't really add to the story, but the bottom line was nothing that was irreplaceable (like yearbooks or photo books) got wet. Also these pictures are lack luster at best since it was dark, but I think they rightfully portray our level of misery and work. The worst part was completely reorganizing our storage unit in the dark, cold, on slippery ice and in a super short amount of time. It took about 5ish hours (7pm until midnight) and I was not super helpful.

It was an easy fix for boxes that had material in them BUT I've since had to wash about 4 extra loads of laundry. Everything just takes so much time and effort! In the end David's brother again came to our/ my rescue and helped David move and re-stack all the heavier items. The good part is our storage unit is now SUPER organized safe from future incidents (we think) and more roomy (part of David's great organization skills). 

We emptied about 75% of our storage unit that night to put things on pallets and reorganize.

That wasn't the end of the night for David or I though. Around 11pm I took Davie and my little self home, laid Davie down in bed and just went to town on our place. We had scheduled with our relator to meet the next morning at 9:30. This phone call took place about... oh an hour before we realized our storage unit was flooded. 

So poor David came home at midnight and then joined me in the cleaning/ organizing, painting, shuffling, moving and everything else at our house. We stayed up all night, it was frustrating because before the storage unit flooding we knew we were going to be up late but after losing 5 hours we KNEW we were going to HAVE to pull an all-nighter. 

Some of you might be wondering why didn't just re-schedule our appointment with our relator and the answer is this was already our second visit with him to take pictures. The first time we met we went over basics, the second time we did paperwork to list the house and we were supposed to take pictures, but we just weren't ready.

David and I almost called to reschedule the second we saw the ice in our storage unit. For maybe two seconds. Then reality hit us and we realized with a baby being due a week away and my mom coming to visit pulling an all-nighter to just get-it-over-with was WAYYYY worth it. And it was.

This was all topped off on Monday when we went to go to our storage unit only to realize we had misplaced our keys.... It's no surprise since David was already a zombie after coming home at midnight from the storage shed. Then this morning as David was re-installing Davie's carseat and the new baby's in our car he looked on the garage floor and saw his keys. WHEW! Crisis averted, now to make copies ASAP!

I feel like so many incidents like this have been happening to us lately, and they all remind me of this Mormonad- 

Only the opposite... if that makes sense. All this kind of bad stuff keeps happening, but thankfully (so far at least) I feel like I have been able to say it all turned out in the end. Like on Sunday morning, when we realized that for some reason our stupid freezer door had popped open in the night somehow. I was really annoyed, and we did have to throw some stuff away BUT it wasn't as bad as it could have been, just like the water in the storage unit wasn't as bad as it could have been. I'm actually really proud of myself for being able to address these issues this way. It is so tough when you have a plan or action set out that is being executed so well and then "that one thing" happens. I'm learning that unplanned "incidents" can be lived through and as always they make great stories and conversation starters LATER, haha. 

Here's to hoping that in the near future your "incidents" can be lived through and laughed at as well!

Rainy Zoo

 While my Mom came and visited we went to go to the zoo for Boo at the Zoo but it was super wet and we ended up changing our mind before we even got through the gates. Turns out waiting in a long line in drizzly rain to trick or treat with a 9 month old just isn't worth it to me. Thankfully it wasn't really cold and there wasn't a chilly wind. But look how cute my baby was! 

Shortly after looking at this face I decided to nix the whole boo at the zoo idea. He wasn't exactly elated. The stroller fabric is an indicator of how wet it was. Instead I took my mom on a personal tour of the Victorian neighborhoods in Toledo. Basically it was awesome and the sun ended up coming out and the day was quite lovely :)

Everyone at the stores we went to loved Davie's little bear suit and nose.

Hope you like this little video, Davie was helping me shop and it made me laugh.

It's Sunny Outside

Just in case some of you have not read my previous post about the skies here in Toledo, they are grey... often. When David and I came home from Idaho on Sunday we were welcomed with a beautiful sky and about 60 degree weather. This was a big improvement from the cloudy rainy-ness that we had to fly above to see the sun when we left. We had every intention of taking a walk that evening but we laid down on our bed first and all three of us were out like a light! I knew we shouldn't have laid down if we wanted to go on a walk but it felt SOOOO good it should have been illegal. 

Anyways today proved to be another beautiful day so we pulled out the stroller, buckled Davie into it for the fist time and ventured out into our neighborhood. As you can see he was over flowing with excitement and smiles to go on a walk. One upside to being home here in Ohio is that we are just about to the real end of our winter, unlike you folks in Idaho who have until almost June :)

Me and my baby :)

This photo made me laugh so much! Haha David is so terrible at squinting when he is in the sun and he looks a little scary in this picture (I love you David it's nothing personal :)

The boys

Once we got outside it was lights out! 

Such a beautiful day!!!!!!!

 I have a million things I would like to post right now and about 2 seconds to do it. I have officially fallen dangerously behind in one of my classes and our house is a mess, oh yea and Davie is a little piglet who likes to eat as soon as I go to get stuff done. It's like he knows when I am about to do something productive. I could watch TV all afternoon, heck ALL DAY LONG and he could care less but as soon as I put him down to read or get on Blackboard or clean or shower he is hungry or wants to be held. Davie really is such a GREAT baby, I have had enough people tell me that I believe its true but he does tend to be to be fussy as soon as I count on him to be good. 

This picture makes me want to cry just looking at it but it also makes me laugh a little, he gets himself so worked up when he gets hungry and NOW is just not soon enough!

The Monday before we went to Idaho Falls he ate EVERY one and a half to two hours... very little got done that day and when David got home I was a little frazzled (we ate at Chipotle that night). Yup its just like they say "Your kids will make little liars outta ya."

Day #14- Umbrellas

Yesterday it rained, a lot. We carry around about 3 umbrellas in our car. One being the pretty green one you see below, a big black one and a little black one. Surprisingly David uses them more than I do. Yesterday as I pulled into Kroger it was feeling pretty muggy outside and as I walked into the store the sky rumbled. It had been a gray day (like usual) and it had already rained on and off a couple of times. Part of me thought about the umbrella in the car as I was just far enough away from my car to know that I wouldn't go back and get it at that point. After some small grocery shopping I go through the first automatic door and I see an absolute down pour. Shoot. I really need to just start carrying that umbrella with me when I know it will most likely rain. It is one of those small blessings that I am still trying to get myself to realize is important here in Toledo. Like when I bought a pair of rain boots last year. I almost took them back for style reasons before I realized, "hey it rains here enough for these to be useful"!

Here is an example of probably 80- 90% of my problem. In Idaho this is the kind of use my umbrella got. And let's face it a shield from the sun makes it more of a luxury item. I need to embrace my inner umbrella carrier, I think if I would do this my rainy days may not bug me so much. At the very least I won't feel as soggy. I am thankful for umbrellas.

Toledo Skies

This is Toledo.

When I moved from Idaho Falls I enjoyed the grey days. Some times living in Idaho Falls can get old. It is sunny 9 out of 10 days (I'm guessing) and the sun there can be VERY bright. I know there have been times that between the sun and the wind I have a headache by the end of the day. Here in Toledo October had about a week of grey days, November about 2 weeks, December about 3 grey weeks all mixed in. It only got better in January. By the time last month rolled around I only had about one week of sun and clear skies (mixed in, maybe two sunny days in a row). All I can say is it makes me lathargic. It has this weird relaxing effect that makes me want to sleep in, and spend my day in bed with a book or watching TV on the couch (YIKES).

Our house on a sunny day

A recent sunny day

Today.

I never thought I would say this but.... the grey days are getting old!