Don't Go Away Mad, Just GO AWAY!!

Tropical storm Debby has spent the past five days turning the state of Florida into a soggy, flooded, dreary mess.  According to The Weather Channel, we've still got two to three more days to be dumped on.  Our back yard is going on two days of being flooded.  There are roads and highways that are flooded all over the state.  We've been asked to stay home if at all possible so we don't get stuck in high water somewhere.  Of course, when part of the country is flooding, there are other parts that are bone dry and on fire.  Colorado is having record high temps, and forest fires that are devouring houses at an alarming pace.  I know these things too shall pass, but what a way to start the summer!

Afternoon at the MOSH

Yesterday afternoon I took my kids, and one of Gabriel's friends, to the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History (MOSH).  Two and a half floors of exhibits, both living and not.  The one exhibit I liked the best was the Jacksonville history exhibit.  It chronicles life in northeast Florida from the beginning of recorded time here, up until the 1960's.  I thought that was exceptionally cool!  The kids, not so much.  I got no pictures of it because I was torn between being fascinated by the exhibit, and distracted by my children.  Ah well.  Maybe after they go back to school I'll go by myself and just wander through that part of the museum.  The exhibit took up 1/3 of the second floor.  The dinosaur exhibit, and planetarium taking up the other 2/3. 
I am very poor at planning outings, so we missed the planetarium show I wanted to see.  Next time we will plan better, and go to the planetarium show first. 
This museum has a few very cool science exhibits for the kids.  The first one we went into was the whale exhibit.  The second was the body exhibit.  The third was the local marine life exhibit, which is full of live animals, and also has a piece outside.  Nathan LOVES turtles, so the fact that they had tanks and tanks of live turtles, and tortoises, was a huge bonus for the day! 
I treat this visit as a preliminary, "lets see what's here," visit.  Next time, we will spend more time in the places we found that we liked.  The thing that really blew me away was that nobody was interested in the dinosaur exhibit!  I would have thought that that's where we would have spent most of our time! 

Entering the whale exhibit.  Nathan was not happy about how dark it was in there, and how big the whales were.

 I tried to point out the eye and the mouth of this humpback whale to Nathan, but I honestly don't think he saw anything other than a big gray blob with yellow spots here and there.

 Ahh, now this he liked.  Turtle shells.

 Walking into this big mouth was not an option for Nathan!  He was scared to death!!  He wouldn't let go of me!

 Finally, he let Gabriel take him and show him some bones.

 Nick and Gabriel discover how to make a robotic arm, hand, and fingers work, while Nathan looks on.

 Nathan ponders the inner machinations of the heart.

 The boy was fascinated by the video of open heart surgery.

 Gabriel tries his hand at the robot hand.

 Gabriel and Nick checking out some muscle tissue.

This is a stomach which expels air, like a burp.

 There's a sand box in the middle of the floor where kids could do their own dig for fossils.  It was FULL of kids, so we didn't get in there.

This is a T. Rex named Sue.  Nobody was interested in her.  :-(  Poor Sue.

 Hello Turtle!

 Looking at the turtles outside.

All in all, it was a pretty fun afternoon at the MOSH.  We will be more organized next time and spend more time in the different exhibits, and see some demonstrations. 

First Outing of the Summer

Last week, the kids and I drove up to Georgia to visit my parents.  We stayed for a week, and had a great time.  The six hour drive up, (and, of course, the six hour drive back), is difficult at best with our group.  Nathan doesn't sleep in the car, unlike most children.  He does not like to be confined to his seat, and he's very loud about his discomfort.  This, of course, makes everyone else in the car miserable.  And the car itself is not a good one for traveling.  A tiny Scion XA five speed, without cruise control, is not conducive to a comfortable six hour drive for anyone!  However, we made it and we had a great time while we were there. 
My parents have a beautiful front porch surrounded by gardenia bushes, and butterfly bushes.  We spent quite a bit of time out there since the weather was much cooler than it is here in Florida.  It's a great coffee drinking porch!  One morning, while we were sitting on the porch, I spotted a lizard poking his head out of one of the pipes on my moms wind chime.  I thought he was so cute!

Can you spot the lizard?

How about now?

Peek A Boo!

My parents live north east of Atlanta in a little town called Suwanee.  Suwanee is off of I85, one exit south of the Mall of Georgia.  The north east part of Georgia is the very southern part of the Appalachian mountain range.  There are a lot of beautiful places up there.  Water falls in particular.  We visited one water fall while we were there.  Tocoa Falls is actually on the campus of a small Christian College.  Most of the other water falls in that area are in State Parks.  Tocoa falls is beautiful!  If you've spent any time in north east Florida, something you will notice is that there are no rocks.  None.  Not one.  If you find a rock in north east Florida, it's been imported from somewhere else.  Rocks in north east Florida come in the form of sand.  That's it.  So even though we've only lived in north east Florida for not quite two years, we've sorely missed rocks.  I know that sounds strange, but if you are used to having rocks, and then you don't have them, you miss them!  I think half the beauty of Tocoa Falls was the rocks we got to climb on.  We had a blast climbing on the boulders and rocks at the base of the falls!  That is, until we saw a snake sunning himself on one of the rocks across the stream from us.  We figured if he was there, he probably had friends and relatives on our side of the stream.  Time to go. 

 

Getting Better

Three weeks ago, I told you that I had started a work out program called Insanity.  By all rights, I should be telling you that I have completed two weeks of the program, and have almost completed the third week.  Alas, this is not the case.  I am almost finished with the second week of the program. 
The week that was supposed to be my second week of the program was a difficult week.  Annalise was diagnosed with the flu on Monday of that week, and the doctor who tested and treated her gave Steve and I Tamiflu as a preventative, and told us it was extremely contagious.  I decided that my body needed all the energy and nutrition it had to stave off this nasty virus, instead of recovering from mega hard work outs, so I took the week off.  Good thing too, because Nathan got the flu too, and having two children down with the flu for a week is no picnic! 
By this past Monday, everyone was well again, so it was back to Insanity.  I was worried that I would have to start all the way over from the beginning after taking a week off so soon after beginning, but I didn't.  I started with the first work out for the second week, and it went really well!  Now, don't misunderstand me, this work out will NEVER be easy!  What is happening is that I'm getting through each day without having to stop and rest as much, and I don't feel like I'm going to die, or throw up afterward.  In my book, that's AWESOME!!!!  I keep working harder and harder, and I keep doing better and better.  Today I actually dripped sweat!  I've never dripped sweat before!  The reason I've never dripped sweat before is because I always got too tired and/or nauseous to work hard enough to drip sweat!  This doesn't seem like much, but I'm really excited about it!  I know I'm getting stronger, and I know I'm increasing my endurance, and that's really cool after not quite two weeks of a program!  I'm excited to keep going and see what I can do in the weeks to come!

Sitting In The Bucket

Sitting in the bucket, talking to Daddy on the phone.

Nathan's Hiding Places

I love being a stay at home mom.  I love the time I get to spend with my children when they are small.  I love the games we play and the songs we sing.  I love watching them grow and learn and explore their world.  I love watching their minds work, their wheels turn. 
Nathan, as you know, is the type of child who likes to push boundaries.  He's the type of child who likes to see what happens when...  He's also the type of child who likes to find small spaces and see if he can live in them.  There's an added element of fun for him if I make a big deal out of not being able to find him when his small space is a great hiding place!  He's going to be a champion hide and seek player one of these days! 

This is in the category of, "If I can't see you, you can't see me."  It's my favorite of his hiding spots, because I don't have to look too hard.     :-P

 Now this one, in Angelo's jungle gym, didn't work out nearly as well as he hoped it would.

 First he tried his left leg...

... then his right.  But he just didn't fit.

 This part of the jungle gym worked out much better.  (He's got a book in there with him.)

He could even grab a drink, if he wanted to.














This last small space is the creme de la creme of hiding places!  It took me a couple of minutes to find him in this one!  I was just starting to panic when he laughed and gave himself away.

Can you guess where he is?

Do you see him?  I'll give you a hint:  eyelashes.

Do you see him now? 

        How about now?