Settling In

I think we're finally getting used to being in South Florida. It's still not where I'd rather be, but it's not as bad as it seemed when we first got here.

Yesterday DD2 was about fed up with having a pool close by, but not being able to go into it. Last week the two girls got up early every day to go help out with VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the church we've started attending here. (A good thing, too, because unknown to us, they have to have accumulated a certain amount of "community service" hours to graduate from high school!) They would get back home in the afternoons just in time...for thunder showers. Can't go in the pool with lightening! So yesterday we went to the pool. Put on our 30 SPF sunscreen...and got our first BURN of the season. I guess the "won't come off in the water" line is just a myth. So today we were going to put on our winter coats and hats to keep from burning more, and go bike riding. (Ok, so I was kidding about the winter coats and hats. Oy! Just the thought makes me break out in a sweat.) Thing is, the bikes all have flat tires. And the tire pump is in the trunk of our second car. And both sets of keys to the second car are in the new car. And DH has the new car 37 miles south in the Keys where he went to work today. Oh well! Guess I'll have to play on the computer all day.

Or not. There are still a number of boxes needing to be unpacked and stuff put away.

But at least we're in and able to unpack. We might still be sitting in a hotel room waiting for some Home Owner's Association background check to be completed. Things must have been really bad around here for awhile. But God was so good to us that He got us into our place within two days rather than two or three weeks. And that was WITH the background check completed. :)

DH is liking his new job so far. Folks are nice, and seem to have a real vision for what hospital chaplaincy is all about. So things are falling into place very nicely.

And now, I'm off to work. Those boxes won't unpack themselves, the little stinkers.

'Til next time (tomorrow, hopefully.)

I'm Back!

Well, I hope to be, anyway. :) Although we're not exactly settled in--there are still boxes everywhere--we're in our new place, have the internet set up (finally!) and my kitchen is in order and I'm able to cook in it now. So I figured it was time to get busy online again.

This has been quite a move. A huge adjustment, to say the least. And there are plenty more adjustments awaiting us. I still have to get my girls registered in schools down here, and in August I'll be going back to work full time. The first full-time, outside the home job in 15 years. It'll be a HUGE adjustment for my family as well, to not have me at their beck and call at any time. I hope they handle it ok. Ha! I hope I handle it ok.

So yesterday we had our first gator sighting. It took longer than I expected. There's a pond/lake (whatever you want to call it...I think it's man-made, whatever it is) behind our apartment. We were told that occasionaly the gators would appear, especially after heavy rains. We had alot of rain yesterday and the day before, so I looked out the window every now and then to see what I might see. At first I didn't see the gator. I saw an odd looking, very green lizard head that almost blended in with the grass completely. Went to look closer, saw that it was an iguana. It splashed into the lake in a hurry, and that's when I saw the three little nubs sticking out of the water a little distance from the shore closest to our apartment. Curious and fearless, I went to check it out. The three little nubs disappeared under water, leaving behind nothing but bottom dirt swirling in the water. So it had moved, confirming it was living and not just a rock or some other type of flotsome. A little while later DH lookes out the window and sees the little guy out in the middle of the lake. We called management and this is what I hear. "Oh yeah, we're aware of him. He's just a baby. He won't hurt you. He's been here for about three weeks, now" Uh...ok. I'm not going to take their word for it. He might be a baby (and we can tell he is since his head is still quite little) but even baby gators have sharp teeth.

Yeah, welcome to South Florida! Needless to say, we will never, ever take our little doggie out without a leash. And never in the back yard. **grin**




In the above picture, you might not be able to see our gator friend too well unless you see the picture at it's regular size. (I think by clicking on the picture it takes you to a larger size?? Don't know for sure.) He's over on the far side, near the ducks, looks as if he's spying out a meal. If you look straight under the second palm to the left of the ducks, that's where he is.



This was this morning. He was back on our side again. But you can see how small he is. It's still rainy and overcast, but accoriding to management, when the sun's out, the gator comes out to sun himself. I'll be watching for that, you can be sure.

Remembering...Such Sacrifice

I realize I'm late getting this up today, but I don't want the day to go by without posting this. This was written by my pastor and dear friend, Chaplain (col) Larry McCarty, who serves as a chaplain in the US army. I asked his permission to post it here. I cried as I read it, and I wanted to share. So no more from me. Read what Larry had to say.



Last week was a good week but a very sad one. President Bush came to (Fort) Bragg for the 82nd Airborne Division Pass and Review. He then participated in the Division Memorial Service. I was able to be at both events.

A few images are burned into my mind. On Thursday morning The President reviewed the 15,000 plus troops and then headed back to the podium. Everybody stood up to get a good look. I noticed one little boy who could not see due to the crowd and the fence. As the President passed by I picked the boy up so that he could get a good look. The boy was so appreciative. He gave me a hug and then he said, "Thanks Mister...my daddy can't pick me up anymore...he died in Irag." I watched him as he walked over to his mother. She had a photo of her husband pinned on her dress. She smiled at me and said thank you...That is a smile I will always remember. Such Sacrifice

At the Memorial Ceremony I sat and watched as families of fallen troops laid flowers at the War Memorial. (Division lost 119 Paratroopers last year) It was probably one of the saddest events I have ever been a part of. The young man who sat next to me was a Wounded Warrior. He had asked to be released from Walter Reed Hospital to come and lay a flower for his buddy who was killed during the same incident that had wounded him. As the young man stood up to drop his flower I was able to see the extent of his wounds. His whole right side hung limp. He walked with a cane and had a serious injury to his face. He was about 19 years old. Such Sacrifice

On Friday evening Robin and I went back over to the War Memorial. The crowds were too large the day before and we wanted to get a closer look. As I walked to the new edition of the monument, the name engraved at the top of the monument jumped out at me. It was SPC Micheal Juanrique. I kew the name well. Last June I had traveled to Texas City, Texas to minister to the family and be a part of the honor guard as he was laid to rest. I remember sitting by the kitchen table listening to the stories the family shared about Micheal. Stories of his love for soccer, race cars and seafood. Stories of dedication about how he wanted to serve his country...how he wanted to make a difference. He was 22 years old. Such Sacrifice.

So why do I write?... Writing helps me make some sense of it all. Writing my friends and family helps me believe that I am making a difference. Writing helps me focus on these eternal truths: "Freedom is not free". "Some prices are so high that they can only be paid for in blood". The blood of the Patriot is the seed of freedom's tree." We must remember!...because people tend to forget.

When all is said and done and we too are laid to rest...may it be said of us: He lived for something bigger than himself. He was a man, she was a woman that made a difference in the world. We can go through this life in our own self-centered, self absorbed cocoon or we can choose to risk, to go the extra mile, to Sacrifice. May we choose the road less traveled.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Someone on my writer's list sent a link to this YouTube video. I was curious and went to watch. What a hoot! I'm not going to spend alot of time writing so you can have plenty of time to watch this. It's one woman's interpretation about the descriptions Solomon gave of his beloved in the Song of Solomon. But no more from me. Watch. :)

Have a great day.

A Little Spring

I went out this morning to take some pictures of the lovely spring flowers and foliage around here. Who knows when I'll see some REAL spring again. I mean, it'll be eternal summer down in Florida, which will be pretty, I'm sure. But there's something special about those first buds and blooms after a long, hard winter. I wanted it well documented. I even filmed a little, just so I could get the sound of the birds. We're supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon so I knew I had to get to it right away.

Isn't that the way it is with life, though? The trees have been getting prettier and prettier until they went into full bloom in the past couple of days. I kept telling myself I had to get pictures before the blooms all died...or blew or were washed away. There was always tomorrow.

Until today.

I don't know if the rain and wind really will remove the blooms from the trees, but I didn't want to risk it. As I walked through the park down behind our house, I couldn't help feeling a little sad. It's been there all along and I didn't take advantage of it nearly enough. And now I'm moving away.

It was a comfortably cool morning this morning, the sun was out, but the air was cool enough that I was able to wear a light sweater. Perfect weather, imho. And it's been like that for awhile now. Soon it'll be too hot, even here. I keep writing about missed opportunities, and hopefully it'll sink in one of these days. I really need to stop missing out on life. Well, some of the little pleasures in life, like a walk in the park on a beautiful morning.

And now I'll leave you with some of the pictures I took.

Have a great rest of the week.

Be Kind to Your Web Footed Friends

On Saturday we saw something I've only ever seen in pictures. A mama duck was crossing the road with her little ducklings all in tow. It was a busy street, where cars zoom by, and poor mama and babies might not have stood a chance. Except there was a sweet man, whose name I don't know, who decided to do something to help. He was in a white van and he pulled his vehicle across two lanes and got out stopping trafic until the ducks had passed. My only regret was that I didn't get the camera out of my purse in time to snap a picture. But it was a cute little procession, and admirable of the man who stopped to help them out.

We've been watching alot of the Animal Planet lately, and we see so much ugliness that's done to innocent animals. Sometimes it's just neglect, sometimes the owners are poor or elderly and either can't take care of their pets or just don't realize what's really happening. But then there are cases that just make you want to strangle people. Why be cruel to an animal? But seeing this man practically put his own life in danger to help a procession of ducks--wild animals, not even pets--get across the road gave me a little hope that there is still goodness left in the world of today.

Would that our society would care as much about the baby humans, especially the unborn baby humans. But that's a theme for a different blog altogether. :)

I've started to pack, so while I'm going to try to get back on track with my blog, my posts might still be sporadic. I'm ready for this phase to be over. As much as I don't want to go to Florida, especially with spring finally happening here (the flowering trees are just beautiful!) I'm still ready to get past the "temporary" stage of things.

Anyway, enough of that. It's SPRING! Have a great week. :)

Digression and More Randomness

I had a little digression this week. I apologize. There was just so much going on around here that I didn't get around to posting. But I'm back for today and hope to be back again on Monday.

Tomorrow I get to meet up with a bunch of other authors. Woo-hoo! A group of about 10 or so writers in the area are getting together at a restaurant to just chat writing and see what we can do to help each other. I'm really looking forward to it. It's not often I get the chance to meet with other odd balls writers. So I should have plenty to blog about after that.

Last night was opening night for my DD1's musical. It's an old musical that was put out in movie form in 1966. We rented the movie, and found it to be rather inappropriate for high school kids to put on. So we went not expecting much, but going to support our daughter. But what fun! We laughed so hard. It's amazing the talent some of these young kids have. I won't be surprised if some day we see some of them on Broadway or then on tv.

Did I mention that I've packed my first two boxes? I figure there are things I don't use often, and probably won't use within the next two months. So since I had two empty boxes, I figured I'd fill them with some of that stuff. It felt odd.

I keep going back and forth in my feelings about going to Florida. I'm ready to go because I hate to sit around waiting. But southern Florida still frightens me on mulitple levels. And the more I think of it, it's not just the heat that scares me. But I won't go into all that now. :)

We're supposed to get snow, but it's bright and sunny out right now and I'm hoping (praying, really) that it stays that way. We chose April 12 for our author get together because everyone figured the weather would be NICE by then. Ah well. God is letting it stay cool for me. lol. Giving me a break before sweltering down in Florida for the rest of my life.

Ok...off to clean house. Got company coming for the weekend.

Have a great weekend, and here's wishing everyone some SPRING!