Bated Breath

According to World Wide Words: "bated breath" refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe

I cannot wait for Winter. We are experiencing our first cold snap of the season (lows in the 50's and highs in the low 80's), and I can't help but think of all the things I get to do in Florida in the Winter. Here is a condensed list-- in no particular order:

• Take my kids to the park
• Use our fire pit and fireplace
• Get more use out of our Busch Gardens passes
• Open my curtains and blinds (during the summer, to combat the cost of running our a/c constantly, our house resembles a cave)
• Drive with the sunroof down
• Wear long sleeves and boots
• Use the swing set in our backyard
• Buy scented candles that can be described using words like "spiced", "toasty", and "burnt"
• Go for a run anytime of the day
• See the manatees in the Bay
• Go camping
• Buy a wetsuit and do some more scuba diving

I realize that Florida is the opposite of most other states and that some of you probably look forward to Summer for some of these same reasons. To each his own--

I love Florida winters!

One of the True Joys in Life

Television. I love it.

Lance and I are always looking for a great tv show. We don't spend a lot of time in front of the tube (lack of cable and dvr make that an impossibility), but we are always willing to rearrange our schedules for a truly great show. Lets just say-- Thursday nights, we don't leave the house (Thank you, NBC!)

On our quest for a great show, we have tried out the following over the past few weeks:

The Defenders
The Event
Hawaii Five-0
Chase
Running Wilde
Outsourced
(like we had a choice-- they threw into the Thursday night mix)

These shows range from unoriginal (Chase) to mildly entertaining(Hawaii Five-O and Running Wilde) to may have some promise (The Event). But we just haven't discovered a great new show this year.

What we have fallen in love with is a great old show-- Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. This 10 year-old show airs originally on HBO so we haven't seen it until recently-- when it went into syndication. Hilarious. Lance and I are addicted. Last night, I took a Tylenol PM at 10, but forced myself to stay awake until 12-- so I could watch the show. My brother makes fun of us for being so late to "discover" Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Side note: We are watching an edited version of the show. I can not fully endorse the content-- so watch at your own risk!

One last comment on this topic: I would like to take a moment to recognize a truly great show that went unnoticed by the general population and was therefore cut down in its prime:Any good shows that you can recommend?

Shark Hunt

(It was actually a shark tooth hunt-- but that makes for a far less gripping headline... yellow journalism at its best)

Since we no longer have the Discovery Channel, we put the Shark Week dvds on our Blockbuster Online queue and spent all of last week watching them as a family. While watching one particular gruesome show on shark attack victims, Lance turns to me and says, "We need to go scuba diving."

So we did. We went to Venice Beach-- about an hour south of Tampa. It is the shark tooth capital of the world. Scuba divers from from all over the world come to Venice to collect shark teeth. We went with some friends (our first time going without an instructor). It was awesome because it is a beach dive. So we walked past the "common beach dwellers" with all of our scuba gear and took off into the water. In my mind, we would be an extraordinary sight. People would stop and stare, mouths agape at our audacity and bravery. We would salute them as we resolutely marched into the depths of the sea. I even strapped on my trusty dive knife in anticipation of our "shark hunt" (very James Bond). My glorified vision did not come to fruition. If you have ever seen anyone walk with fins on-- you can imagine that our entrance into the Gulf was more of a an awkward, backwards shuffle. We swam/ floated out to the buoys and went under.

The water that seemed so crystal clear by the beach was unbelievably murky 20-30 feet under the surface. It was quite an effort to stay next to Lance. We collected shells, starfish, and sand dollars but only one shark tooth.By the time we re-surfaced, we had drifted so far out that we couldn't see the buoys at all and it took us quite a while to swim back to shore. This was when the panic set in. It occurred to me that the widely recognized "Shark Tooth Capital of the World" probably has quite a few shark residents. While on the ocean floor, they do not seem like much a threat-- with all of our gear and bubbles. But while surface swimming in murky water-- I convinced myself that I looked just like some kind of floundering prey to a hungry tiger shark or bull shark. Lance thought it was hilarious to look behind me and act startled.

Well, after driving my husband crazy with my "clingy swimming" (his fault for making me watch "Shark Week"), we made it back to the beach alive.It was our first (of many, I hope) successful dive since becoming certified.

More Chase

I just can't help myself...

More pictures from Chase's big day.

Our usually cranky boy began his day like this- (He may very well have inherited his love of birthdays from me)
The good mood continued throughout the day
At Gymboree class-- which he LOVED
And left him like this on the car ride home

Birthday Party
His Cake (Publix made him his own cake for free when I ordered the big one)

Presents
He's our last kid-- so please be patient with the over-abundance of pictures!

Birthday Boys

Its about time I gave a shout out to our resident Virgos...

This little guy celebrated his 1st birthday on September 16th.

I have dozens of photos of the event and will post more shortly....Stats:

Occupation: spoiled youngest child
Favorite Pastime: being held, growing teeth, drinking milk, standing up, singing himself to sleep
Birthday Fare: French Toast Sticks and his own birthday cake
Birthday Activities: First Gymboree class
Little known fact: He still only has one tooth and up until one week ago, could not roll himself over... must be a late bloomer-- like his Dad.
We really can't help but spoil this kid. He makes us crazy but makes us laugh out loud each day. We love his little cantankerous and expressive personality.

This not so little guy celebrated his 33rd birthday on September 2nd.Stats:

Occupation: Fantastic husband, Dad, professional Project Manager, and newly called Ward Scout Master
Favorite Pastime: If it has to do with motorcycles, classic cars, or guns...he's in!
Birthday Fare: Chimichangas and cheesecake
Birthday Activities: Shopping, eating out, family party, and celebrating a love of unicorns with his friends
Little Known Fact: My nerdy husband raised "prize-winning" pigeons when he was a kid.
We tend to spoil Lance too, but can't help it. The kids and I are so lucky. Lance is what makes our house such a fun place to be-- even in his "advanced years". If he's around, we are laughing.

Happy Birthday, Guys!

Crafty

Dictionary.com defines the word "CRAFTY" as skillful in underhand or evil schemes; cunning; deceitful

You will soon agree that this particular definition is far more appropriate for me than the archaic definition of "skillful, dexterous". deceitful; sly.

My friends tease me for being obsessed with the toy room in my house. There is good reason for my obsession: the room is right in the middle of my home-- with no doors to hide or obscure one's view of our ever-growing toy collection. I am always looking for ways to make the room seem like an "on-purpose" toy room, rather than an empty space that just happened to get filled with STUFF.
Over the past few weeks, I have taken on some projects in that room. I am not sure what came over me-- I found myself wandering the aisles of Joann's using words like "batting", "vinyl", and "yard". (In all honesty, I really only bought a glue gun... but its a major step for me).

Project #1- Art Display Board
I saw this in a Home Goods Store and thought it would be a perfect way to de-clutter my fridge of the kids' ever-expanding art collection.
It was an easy project that would be unsightly anywhere but in a kids' room-- where it seems to fit in just fine.

Project#2- Window Valance
This was a swing and a miss-- big time. I got cocky after the moderate success of the art display board and my ego caught up with me.
The window is once again bare.

Project #3- Bookshelves
I wanted to put some books in the room, but with a (almost) one year-old and a (almost) two year-old frequenting the room, I needed something other than a traditional book case. I saw this idea online and LOVED it. Rain gutter bookshelves. I mentioned it to Lance and 10 minutes later... VOILA! He screwed a rain gutter to our wall.
Zoie and Tobin keep their library books in there. It is too high for the "babies" to reach, and requires no order or organization.
The transformation of our dining room into a toy room is one of the best ideas we have ever had (Lance and I). It sees more use than any other room in the house and forces my kids to play and read-- rather than watch tv.

My most recent project was yesterday in Chase's room--
Transforming this--

Into this-Four full boxes of baby clothes that my giant baby has outgrown
And an organized closet

(In taking the after pictures, I woke Chase up from his morning nap, which led to this):

Kindergartener

Zoie started kindergarten last week. It has taken a while to post these pictures (Its a long story... but at the root of the issue was the blasted dollar store!).

All summer Zoie was so excited about starting kindergarten. A few weeks ago, we went to register her at her new school, and Zoie became very nervous and apprehensive. She kept insisting that she would be scared and shy and therefore, all the kids would "think she was a brat".

Zoie tends to be emotional and a bit dramatic, so this fear of kindergarten took over every waking thought of hers. She even told me that she had bad dreams about school. I was starting to get nervous myself-- wondering if this would be a very difficult transition for her.

Enter Grandma Ellen.

My Mom took Zoie school shopping. Even though Zoie wears uniforms to school, my genius Mom managed to find the cutest shirts and dresses, shoes (sparkly, of course) and crazy socks. Zoie also scored a pink Hello Kitty backpack and some kind of weird, sparkly, unicorn "lunch purse".

Zoie was no longer nervous at all and couldn't wait to get to class. That is when I re-discovered a universal truth: Whenever females are faced with a scary situation, peace and comfort inevitably lie in shopping and new stuff! (I am sure that there is a more eloquent way to phrase that).

Zoie has loved school every single day (all ten of them now). Her school is large and I am still impressed with her ability to navigate the grounds herself. She hasn't wanted or needed my help since the first day-- (which was tearless for both of us!)

I am so proud of her (and am enjoying a little peace and quiet until 2:30 each day-- and by peace and quiet, I mean only taking care of 2-3 little boys during the day!)