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!

Vegetables and Life

FYI- This is a long blog about a little bit of everything.

About two years ago we discovered kale. I feel weird being part of such a trendy vegetable craze, because I really don't care for vegetables. The ones I like are few and far between, or at least that is how I feel. I shared this recipe a while back, but it was the first time we had ever made kale and I am here to say that we have made some changes. 

First of all we love kale because it doesn't have strong flavor and we eat it baked so it's neither mushy (we are both texture people) or bitter. The recipe I originally followed baked the kale after mixing olive oil into the kale and then adding salt. Well that took quite a while, made a big mess AND some chips were a little too oily while others had almost none. Secondly we decided salt alone just wasn't cutting it for flavor. 

So we added these two wonderful things to our recipe. Now after rinsing the kale all I have to do is lay out the kale and spritz the olive oil onto all of the leaves, which means less oil and a more even spread. Secondly that garlic salt is soooo yummy on kale, don't be afraid to just dump it on because a lot of it doesn't stick/ stay on the leaves. 

Lastly I give you evidence of a stinker who also does not eat his vegetables very well but will in fact eat kale chips. He even asks for them! So when I see people on the internet complaining about kale or making fun of how it's trendy I roll my eyes because kale is a vegetable I can fully endorse. For example, Jim Gaffigan made fun of kale in an interview with one of the late night show hosts recently and he and I share a love of bad food things so when I say I like kale (like a lot) you can almost picture Jim Gaffigan endorsing this vegetable. People who dislike vegetables know good vegetables when they eat them, so you can take that to the BANK!

Subject change- Paczki season is upon us and I would just like to say that I feel I have controlled myself (and David haha) quite well so far this year. I kept thinking I would blog about paczkis after we discovered them in 2012, but I never got the chance. Basically they are Polish treats that are made for fat Friday and before lent. They are like powdered/ granulated sugar covered doughnuts with custard or fruity filling only SO much better. 

Davie and I went on the tour of the fire station a couple of weeks ago with some of the kids and mom's in our ward. I'm not sure how much he really cared, but there were other kids there, we got to get out of the house and he brought home a shinny red hat!

This hat is not compatable with a carseat haha, so he often wears it backwards. 

 He refers to himself as Daydee. So he will say "Daydee ret (red) hat".

This is a little hose that keeps exhaust from the trucks from building up all over the station walls. Who knew? So of course all the kids wanted to touch it.

We recently toured the hospital where I will have our little miss and once you get into the inner part of the labor and delivery section you have to wear a face mask because of flu control. These pictures pretty much sum it up. David had to abruptly leave the tour and I stayed to listen.

His face mask had Mickey mouse on it, which we thought MIGHT actually help. Nope. About 2 minutes into wearing the Mickey mask he was yelling "No Mickey, No Mickey!". 

We recently went to a snowman themed story time and because this little guy loves books it went quite well and was a great way to break up our day.

The activity was glitter glued onto a snowman, such messy fun!

Come on mom lets break out the good stuff, i.e. glue and glitter.

Davie isn't really into crayons or coloring but he will scribble a bit. The snowman theme was perfect because this is what Toledo has been like this last month and a half.

Like this

and this,

and this

AND THIS.

I have now experienced my first level 3 snow storm, our first year here was a big snow year and we had one level 3, but I was visiting family down south so I missed it. This year has been our worst winter, in terms of extreme weather, that we have ever had here in Toledo. 

While it is definitely beautiful and I enjoy the snow removal service our condo association fees pay for to clear our driveway and sidewalks (meaning I NEVER shovel EVER) the days of snow do have me dreaming of the possibilities of moving to Florida or Arizona for residency. I feel warm and happy, like the sun is on my face, just thinking about it!

This is a regular sight at our house. About every other day Davie decides he won't eat something that we KNOW he likes. This day was cottage cheese. For Pete's sake what is it with toddlers? 

This kid already is a little small for his age if only I could EVER rely on a single food from every food group. And before you say anything that's only 5 different foods which I think is completely reasonable. 

We LOVE Kroger, I think it is a little more expensive then Wal*Mart and some other stores, but it's always been the closest store to us and the couple of cents I might have saved by traveling to Wal*Mart are never missed. Back in November they opened a BIG HUGE brand new Kroger and it is such a nice store. Not to mention carts like this have been added to their fleet of regular ones. Davie Loves this cart and so do I! A little bulky maybe? Sure, but I don't have to buckle him in (I know you are supposed to so don't even bother telling me) and he just kind of hangs out but is still free to move around a little while I get the goods. 

This balloon here has been welcoming us into Kroger the last couple of weeks and Davie always begins to yell "sunbeam! SuNbEaM!!" when he sees it. 

I managed to make my sister in law Anna this sensory square/ Taggy (I don't really know what they are called) for her new baby, which I thought I would share. 

It actually turned out pretty good.... 

except for this one part. It's seams like this that make me hate DIY presents to people. I am a perfectionist and that big sideways off track seam gets me every time I look at it. It's a good thing I made this for a baby who will gladly drool on it either way!

Proof that this little boy does occasionally slow down.

After his 2 year old photoshoot this little guy got himself a new doo.

And instantly grew up a little :(

Davie LOVES the headbands I have for his little sister. I don't know how I am going to keep them away from him. I feel bad too because he gets so mad when I take them away and my biggest concern isn't any gender issues its that his head will stretch them out because lets face it these little headbands are cheap!

Towards the end of 2012 David finally caved and let me get a storage unit. It was essentially a small 5x5 closet that held things like our luggage, Christmas decorations, the baby swing once Davie had outgrown it and a couple pieces of nice furniture that we just couldn't fit in our place. And it was AH-mazing! By the beginning of last year (so 6 months after we got the unit) it began to look like this. 

Totally full already, right? Wrong! David is like an organizational whiz when it comes to organizing boxes in a moving truck, in storage and or in the garage.

This is how he did a lot of the boxes towards the top,

haha it always made me laugh because it was kind of like a game of Tetris.

But like all good things this unit was not meant to last.

Because we have too much CRAP! So we upgraded to a 10x10 unit about 2 weeks ago. 

Believe it or not this unit is already quite full. It's been great to pack all the extra blankets, towels, certain dish ware, decorations (although I do probably miss those the most), certain seasonal clothing and just about anything else we don't NEED. I'm still tempted to donate this stuff, but David might die if I did that, haha he's a big pack rat and I just LOVE my clothes. 

The day we moved our stuff it rained. All. Day. LONG! David did about 90% of the work because it was pretty slick outside and lets face it I'm barely useful even when I'm not 9 months pregnant. Thankfully our storage units were only a couple yards apart. I'd also like to give a special thanks to David's brother Mike at this point for helping David with the bigger pieces of furniture I know it really helped! Who needs movers when you have TWO Wardens close by! Seriously these guys are great.

Lastly this was what I walked in on last night. Davie just relaxing and enjoying a good book. That's just about all that's been going on around here... I think. Blogging this last year and a half has gotten tough between school and life in general so this year I decided to attempt the 356 day challenge by uploading a picture each day to Facebook. That actually makes blogging even more tricky because I don't want to repeat myself and not a whole lot goes on around here... or at least that's how I feel. Yesterday I blogged and I couldn't really find a picture moment to share on Facebook so my new rule is if I blog on any given day I don't have to post a picture of the day on Facebook. Call it a loophole. So blogging might be scarce until like July? this year. Thats hopefully when we will have settled wherever it is were are going and life calmed down a bit.

Old News

I have been so bad about keeping up on here lately! I would like to let you know that it is not all my fault. Early February our internet started being really spotty and wouldn't work at random times when I tried to use it, and then it stopped working all together. Reader's Digest version is this- 2 weeks without internet and 5 hours on the phone with At&t later, we switched to Buckeye cable. Our new internet is pretty darn awesome, it is 10 mbps instead of 4 AND it was only $5 more a month. Now when we watch Netflix we can both pause and rewind without a 2 min delay, so I am a happy camper.

I have switched jobs. I am back at Smart Style. It is no match in classy-ness to my previous salon but it has a paycheck and a boss that doesn't treat me like crap. I am happy. David just finished his BIG anatomy test on Friday the 5th. He received a high pass but not the honors he wanted. I'm still VERY impressed but I also feel like if high school AP class grades are worth 1 point more than regular classes then the same is true for medical school. If the class he was taking was a regular college class and not a graduate school class he probably would have gotten honors. Go David! He studied like a mad man and it paid off.

As of February 6th David and I ate the last two Zots from our wedding reception. This is proof

Tah-Dah!

One last sour apple fizzy goodness, it was a pretty momentous occasion.

The weather here has been a multiple personality disorder since the end of January. It will warm up to 40 and 50 degrees, melt 80% of the snow and rain for a week. The next week will drop back down to mid 20's and 30's and just DUMP snow, this has happened at least 4 times. I'm not really complaining but I also don't really know what to expect. In Idaho I know it always snows at LEAST once in April. without fail. every year. It used to bother me. Now I expect it. It is still sooooo funny to me to watch people just lose it when it snows in April, especially when they have lived in Idaho Falls for years on end. It makes me laugh. Get used to it!

We came home to this one night in Feb, this snow drift was a lot bigger than it looks.

On the driver's side it came up past the tire. I had to take an accelerated start just to get over it and into our garage!

When I went to visit my great-grandma, before she died, this is what my car looked like after the ice storm and the ground and the grass and the trees and the road and well you get the point.

As my Dad would say the road was slicker than snot! gross.

This picture is kind of blurry but if you look close you can see four deer. They live on David's medical school campus and I have seen them at various places. It's neat to feel like nature is still so close.

Last but not least I was going to share this picture with my 99 Years Young post but I forgot. This headstone is my Great Grandma's parents. Macie and William Burdsall are the ones we share our wedding anniversary with.

Last but not least-est while I was in Hamilton my grandpa Joe gave me this and I was SO ecstatic! It's Macie and William's original marriage license. I'm hoping to frame it and hang it with their wedding picture on the wall next to our marriage license and picture. This may sound funny but I have always felt some what distant from my Mom's family but sharing their anniversary really helps me feel closer to them.