things you never think you'll hear on the news

"there are fish on the runway" (at the airport)

"be careful of standing water - there could be fish, alligators, or snakes in it"

"a fish just swam by me on the street"

"catfish are swimming up people's sidewalks"

We're ok. In our area, we've just had some heavy rains and just today we had some high winds. We feel fortunate that we weren't hit hard by Tropical Storm Fay. This afternoon I stood at my sliding glass door and watched as our neighbors' tent flew all around their yard - it nearly blew over the fence and into our yard three different times before it tore into several pieces!

It has not stopped raining all day. I rather like the rain, since it means the sun is not relentlessly beating down on us! But tonight we discovered some moisture around some of our windows. Yuck. The carpet in our bedroom is pretty damp under the window. We set up our dehumidifier, hoping to dry it out, but I'm worried about mold. Maybe we'll have to get new flooring! That wouldn't be so bad. (Except the part where it costs money!)

the lost has been found

That's right, I'm back. It has been so long that I have dreaded the thought of trying to remember everything we've done over the past month or so! I will try to give an adequate update, starting with this past weekend.

On Friday we headed out around lunchtime for Tampa. We visited the Big Cat Rescue and took an awesome tour! It was one of the neatest things we've done in a long time. Below are several pictures that we took of the cats. I was just fascinated, despite the heat. They were so adorable and you could tell many of them were pretty hot, too. One tiger named T.J. even got in his pool to show off for us. It was fabulous!!

After the tour, we went on to St. Petersburg where we spent the rest of the weekend. We stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast, Inn at the Bay. It was luxurious and relaxing. We spent the weekend doing a whole lot of nothing, and boy did we need that! We've both been working so much and we needed to unwind and recharge. Saturday Brian surprised me with a couples massage that he had arranged earlier. It was heavenly! Sunday afternoon we came home and then met some friends for dinner and a movie, Prince Caspian. It was great! All in all, it was a spectacular weekend.

Some other rather large news is that I resigned from my church. Yes, folks, we are now undergoing the great church search. Although we LOVED Winter Haven and really felt at home there, with gas prices climbing, the hour-one-way drive was getting pretty old. Not to mention that we were gone 7-8 hours every Sunday, meaning that Sunday had turned into another work day. April 27 was my last Sunday and I greatly miss my boys in the band. I'm hoping to still be able to play with them on occasion.

Let's see...my cousin Chris got engaged to his fabulous and amazing girlfriend, Gloria. We love her and we cannot wait for her to be part of the family!! We haven't seen them since they've been engaged, but we hope to get together with them soon for dinner. Maybe we'll try out their church. :)

The first weekend of May we went to Ft. Myers to see my grandparents. They have since gone back to KY, so we were at least able to get in a quick visit before they left. I don't know what I can really publicly say about the visit - I guess I'll say that senility is a very sad thing. Nan and Pops aren't who they used to be. :(

My Kindermusik semester has ended and I have a few weeks off. Summer camps start near the end of June and I already miss the kids, so I'm looking forward to that. The church is renovating my room and I'm SUPER excited about it! Stay tuned for pictures of the demolition and remodeling.

I have 2 days left at the Montessori school and I've already informed them that I won't be back next year. I really enjoyed the people there and the kids too, but my life has just gotten too busy. Health and exercise have taken a back burner and I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen again. I don't want to gain my weight back or let my life get out of control again. So now I only have ONE job, Kindermusik, and I'll be able to focus on my own studio and still have the time and energy to eat well and exercise.

Let's see. I think that's just about all. I'm sure there are more things to tell you about, but I can't think of them right now and I just want to get a post done so you'll all know that we're still alive down here! So, more later.

AND - YAY! DAVID COOK WON! :D

OK, here are the cat pictures. Amazing. I'm ready to go back.

the mold

OK, here are the pictures of what took place in our bedroom/bathroom on Saturday. The mold was behind the tiles in the shower. It was also all over the liner of the shower pan (the orange plastic you see in the pictures). We are getting a whole new shower! Yay!

Here's a picture from our bedroom side - we cut some holes in the drywall first to see if there was mold in there. There wasn't, thankfully. You can see all the way through to the shower here.

As soon as we took off the first tile, we found the mold. See how the bottom is black? You can also see how wet it was behind the tile. AND - we hadn't turned the water on in this shower for 2 weeks!! It was still that wet! Gross!

Here's when we got a bunch of the tiles off the wall. You can see the orange liner and how moldy it is on the bottom. Water was just sitting in there. It came through a tiny hole in the grout. (I think there was more than one hole!)


Aaahhhhhhh, our shower in pieces. Gotta love it!

Brian shows off the mold.

Eventually, the glass door and glass walls had to come out, along with the entire shower frame. Apparently, there was a ton of gross water inside part of the shower frame. Yuck!! Our new shower is going to be so wonderful! :-)


We are SO grateful to our wonderful friend Pete for all his help! We would not have been able to do this without him. I can't even tell you how much money he is saving us! Thanks, Pete! :-)

In other news, the cats are rather enjoying the bed being in the dining room:

And Sam is loving the dresser drawers on the guest bed:

Yep, nearly everything in the house is displaced right now, but - I'm sure we'll survive. Somehow! Ha!

man, i need to update

Sorry, this is all I have time for right now! :P

Monday - Italian stuffed shells (Dream Dinners)
Tuesday - chicken tacos
Wednesday - game night, no cooking
Thursday - Brian's night to cook, Boca Burgers
Friday - leftovers (chili and or chicken tacos)

The mold project is underway. Our bedroom and master bath are a complete mess. The stuff that goes in those rooms is displaced in all different places in the house. I have pictures...I will try to upload them soon. It's really yucky!

Instead of in the drywall, the mold was behind the shower tiles, and so we have torn apart the shower. The door and window of the shower are out in the yard - there was mold all inside the metal casings and everywhere. Truly disgusting. We are getting a new shower. I will explain more later - but thankfully, the mold was not on the wood in the walls. Yay!

Off to bed. I have an early day tomorrow! I promise to update with more than menus very soon!

a downside of living in florida

It seems that we have mold and/or mildew in the wall behind our shower. I am SO upset - if we do, we're going to have to tear down the wall and clean it out, and maybe tear out the shower too. I don't even want to talk about it. I'll keep you posted. We'll know more tomorrow morning, hopefully. This stupid state is made of mold. :-(


OK, on to other things: Menu Plan Monday.

Monday - day off - leftover minestrone - yum!
Tuesday - coconut chicken (Dream Dinners)
Wednesday - B's game night, no cooking
Thursday - turkey chili
Friday - out with friends

thankful for family

Well, the fam has come and gone and we had a WONDERFUL time! It was so great to be with everyone, especially Braden!! He is an absolute delight and he's just SO FUNNY! I thought I should share some pictures of our Thanksgiving week. Our first stop of the day was Magic Kingdom:
Braden on the Monorail with Papa, Daddy, and Aunt Sis

Braden playing trains on Aunt Sis' face while waiting for the ferry boat

Braden and Papa got to sing with the Dapper Dans on Main Street! (Shameless plug: some of the Dapper Dans are going to be featured on Papa's Barbershop Chorus Christmas Show in Ashland, KY on December 15! Don't miss it!)

Braden on the train with Papa and JoJo (and some people we don't know in the background!)

Braden and Daddy driving the cars at the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway!

Braden with his first ever Mickey popsicle!

Braden in line for "It's a Small World" with Uncle Brian & Aunt Sis

Braden riding "It's a Small World" with Mommy & Daddy

Our second stop of the day was Animal Kingdom. We rushed right in to ride the Kilimanjaro Safari! We saw lots of cool animals! (I won't share all of the animal pictures, there are too many!)Braden and Mommy on the safari

Our last stop of the day was Epcot. We were all amazed and impressed that Braden was such a good boy for such a long day! Papa, JoJo, Uncle Brian, Aunt Sis, and Daddy all rode Test Track several times and loved it! Even JoJo! Mommy is pregnant so she couldn't ride, and Braden was too little, so they played in the car showroom and went shopping while the rest of us rode. At Braden's request, we had dinner in China. ;-)

Braden riding "The Seas with Nemo and Friends" with Uncle Brian & Aunt Sis. In the middle, Braden called out, "Hey Nemo! Is that you?" Aunt Sis loved it!

We were at the parks for nearly 14 hours that day! It was an all-around spectacular day! Hooray for Braden's first visit to Disney!!!!

Wednesday night we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Braden wasn't so sure about the gorillas, but he loved the fish and the elephants! Afterward, we scooted over to the Contemporary where we hopped on a boat for the Wishes Cruise!
Braden & Mickey at the Contemporary

Braden got to drive the boat!

Braden and Daddy on the cruise

Uncle Brian & Aunt Sis enjoying the cruise

Papa got to drive the boat too!

Mommy, Daddy, and Braden cruisin'

Fireworks!

The whole fam as we left the Contemporary!

Well, those special adventures were lots of fun, but Braden's very favorite part of visiting Aunt Sis and Uncle Brian's house was playing with the cats! (Notice there are no pictures of Sam, he's the "grouchy and soft" cat!)

Braden & Max

tomorrow, tomorrow

Well, the fam is coming in tomorrow night! I am SO excited! We're having Mom and Dad, Brad and Kari (my brother and SIL), and precious Braden (my nephew) over for Thanksgiving! Tuesday we're spending at Disney, Wednesday night we're eating at Rainforest Cafe and then taking the Wishes Fireworks Cruise, Thursday is turkey day, Friday is shopping, and Saturday...well, we might go to a corn maze or something. We're gonna have a great time!

In other news, tomorrow is my first day teaching elementary music at Lake Mary Montessori. I'm nervous, excited, and stressed. I'll keep you posted!

so much to say

I keep meaning to blog, but there just isn't time. And when there is time, I can't stay awake to do it!

Sunday, October 28, was our 7th anniversary. We celebrated by going to the beach for part of the weekend. We stayed at a beautiful beach house and just lazed around and ate pastries - it was divine and just what we needed! I have a picture of us on the beach but my camera is at my KM classroom right now. :-P I'll upload it later.

Life just seems to keep getting busier. I really need to lighten my load. Some changes are in the works, but I will post about those later after proper notifications have been made and decisions have been finalized. I could use a few prayers, too!

Here's some really big, important, exciting news: We are going to have yet ANOTHER niece or nephew! Yep, folks, my brother's wife is pregnant. Braden is going to be a big brother! I am just ecstatic! This will make #5 for us! We have Emma, Braden, Will, Angela is pregnant with #4, and Kari is pregnant with #5! Yay for Uncle Brian and Aunt Sis!

Kindermusik keeps getting better. The kids are really opening up and getting used to me, and to each other, and to class. At one point yesterday I had like 3 or 4 kids on my lap at the same time. I LOVED it! Lately, I hate for class to end! :-) I am so fortunate to be able to do this. I love it so much!

The coolest thing happened yesterday. Last week, I had been complaining and joking with one of my piano students' moms about how Florida is made of mildew and mold. She was saying they had just pressure washed their house, and I was saying how bad my sidewalk was looking again. (In case you don't know how crazy the mold and mildew can get, check out this post from last year when we pressure washed our porch and sidewalk for the first time!) Anyway, she said that they had a pressure washer and we could borrow it and she would bring it next week.

So yesterday, this student shows up and her dad and grandpa were with her and they brought TWO pressure washers with them and they pressure washed my porch, sidewalk, and driveway while I taught the lesson!!!! I mean seriously...people just don't do that kind of thing anymore! We're all too busy for random acts of kindness! I was just so thrilled, and so grateful, and so shocked, and so amazed! They are the nicest people ever! (Of course, I gave them several free lessons!) LOL Anyway, my faith in humanity was restored yesterday.

(And it was lost again today because I had to go to Walmart and you know how I feel about the way people act in Walmart!) Ugh!

All right. I have to go and do something useful. Hope everyone had a great Halloween! I promise to post pictures soon. :-)

the aroma of autumn

As I left from my evening Kindermusik class last night, I smelled a fire burning. It reminded me of burning leaves and when my grandparents used to burn their trash when I was little. Bonfires, hayrides, pumpkin patches - that scent brought all things autumn to mind. Too bad we won't have any TRULY cool weather until November or December! (If you consider the 70s to be cool!)

Last week was a wild one. I interviewed again with the Montessori school to teach their elementary music, and thus started the figuring out of hours, salary, times, etc. I think we have it pretty close to being nailed down. I'm going again tomorrow to go over curriculum and do my final paperwork. I'm a little worried about being too busy, but I'm also excited at the prospect of doing something new. These are some great kids and I think they will be a lot of fun to work with.

My cousin Chris, who is the minister of music at our church, resigned last Tuesday. That was pretty weird. When he resigned, he made it effective immediately. So now we're not sure what exactly is in store for the band. The pastor gave us last Sunday off (a HUGE blessing, after the crazy week I had) and we're going to start putting things back together this weekend. I think we're going to be ok - I'm not sure who's going to lead. I'm not really sure about anything, but I know we love playing together and I'm really excited to see what God has in store for us. I've definitely shed a few tears over the past week, knowing things will never be the same, but I'm also anxious to see what this all means for us. I think we'll be taking baby steps and just getting a feel for how things will be.

Today I saw some love bugs. THEY'RE BACK! They come during certain times of the year, when the temperature is just right. They are a huge pain! I'll be glad to see them go - and get some cooler weather. Though it's starting to be nice in the evenings.

Well, I have one more class to teach in a little while, and then I'm done for the week. I also have a few new piano students! I went from doing nothing to doing everything! LOL Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share later.

dresses, sunshine, and love

Well, I had a post all fixed the other day, but then the browser crashed on me and I didn't feel like typing it all back out again! In it I had described our Valentine's Day dinner at Bistro de Paris at Epcot. It was delicious! Here are some pics of us:



Our weather has been getting warmer and warmer, tomorrow and Saturday it will be in the 80s, and I'm finally getting a little tan again since I'm walking several times a week again. I really really want to get these last 20 pounds off. It would be a shame to get this close to my goal and not make it! Plus, I want to get into single-digit sizes, and I'm not that far off!

Speaking of clothes, I went shopping today after I got my hair done. I've been looking for a dress or two, and I finally got lucky at Ann Taylor Loft! Here are the dresses I bought:





I know, I know, lots of brown - but apparently brown is big for spring. Good thing I look decent in it! I had fun shopping, which is still a shock to me. Although today it reminded me that I REALLY want to get rid of the extra 20 pounds I'm still carrying around!

Tomorrow we're headed to Animal Kingdom for the day. We're meeting Brian's friends Glenn and Lorie (Glenn was the best man at our wedding) and some other friends. For dinner, we made reservations for just the two of us at the Sci-Fi Cafe, which is probably our new favorite cool dining spot. It will be a fun day.

Sunday, we'll have church and then Sunday evening, the whole band and praise team and spouses are coming up to our neck of the woods to attend a service at Northland Church, and then they're all coming over to our house for dinner! So I've been cleaning. I'm making my wonderful friend Sera's Tortellini Soup. Yum! OK, gotta go dust.

Oh! I almost forgot! I've mentioned before that we have a clear glass shower in our master bath. Since it's CLEAR glass, you can see every bit of soap scum. Well, I finally figured out how to get it off. A DRYER SHEET! I took a NEW dryer sheet and wet it and scrubbed the door - it rinsed beautifully! I was amazed. Just another tip from me - your favorite lazy, short-cut-finding house cleaner. :-)