Garden update

Our garden update is this: the lettuce is awesome and the greens taste good too. We're still waiting on the broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and turnips to ripen. The carrots were planted a bit "thick" so they're still really tiny and the broccoli and cauliflower got hit pretty hard from the cold. We're still waiting to see if they will produce produce. (Ha! That was funny!)
Katherine actually ate and enjoyed the mustard greens the other night. She said, "I grow good greens!"
My beautiful hydrangeas were knocked back, but they're already showing signs of new growth. Hardy little boogers.

Make me blind, Lord

Jim and I had the rare opportunity to have a night to ourselves so we went out to eat and watched a movie. The movie we saw was The Blind Side. Here's the synopsis, just in case you've been vacationing some place where there is no TV or just haven't been paying attention:

Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.

Jim teases me for wanting to see movies just because they've been nominated for some type of prestigious award, and I must admit I do sometimes, but this one really caught my attention. Don't get me wrong, Sandra Bullock was officially nominated for the Golden Globes Best Actress award, and I must say, this is her best piece of work. GO SEE IT! It's only PG-13 and worth every penny.

So, here's where my introspective-self comes in. I have a history of doing this. After I walk out of a movie I've really enjoyed, I take on the mood of the movie. For instance, after seeing Charlie's Angels, I was ready to take a martial arts class and karate-chop anybody who might even consider attacking Jim and I in the parking lot. A Beautiful Mind, with Russell Crowe, had me pondering the intricacies of life, what it really means and whether or not I could sometimes fall into craziness myself for over-analyzing everything. And Mamma Mia had me wanting to go buy the soundtrack so I could belt out those Abba songs I was familiar with.

Since I'm starting to understand myself a little better, I started working on my thoughts first thing this morning to combat any crazy desires I might have after seeing the movie. Realizing that I very well could have the desire to: stop on the way home, pick up a homeless person, bring him/her home and turn their lives around worthy of a movie plot, I started the anti-thoughts immediately and kept them coming all day. I planned my route home to avert any homeless people we might pass and started mentally preparing for the "are you nuts" comments I might hear from anybody I told. etc.

And then we saw the movie.

What an awesome inspiration it turned out to be. The way home opened up a great dialogue we don't get very often. Jim's concern was the reality that there are children out there that grow up like that. We have not a smidgen of a clue what it feels like to live that way, which makes it easier to turn our backs on all of it. My reoccurring prayer towards the end of the movie was this: Lord, make me blind to follow your will.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Jim asked. It sounded odd, I know. What I meant was for God to "blind" me in the areas that are preventing me from following his will, trusting him and robbing me of a mustard seed's worth of faith. God, blind me to fear. Blind me to insecurities. Blind me to people's backgrounds and less than desirable histories. Blind me to selfishness. Open my eyes to see what you see.

We have been so guilty of seeing the world the way God didn't intend because of fear, being insecure, making judgments and just plain being selfish. Frankly, our lives have been handed to us on a silver platter and what do I concentrate on: it needs polishing.

Do I really think we'll run into a homeless child, take him/her in and turn them into professional athletes? Not really. Do I pray that our hearts are softened to God's will, so when that uncomfortable opportunity arises to follow him, we do, without hesitation. Absolutely.

I have a couple of friends who have opened up their hearts and minds to accepting an orphan from Haiti. The goal is to reunite the children with their own families once they're found, but some could possibly lead to permanent adoptions. These children don't eat the same food we do, don't speak English, possibly have diseases our country hasn't seen an outbreak of in years and have been traumatized. Bottom line is, they're children that need to be loved and cared for. I pray for that type of faith, softened heart and excitement to help others.

Caption contest

This picture is priceless. I thought I'd open it up to whoever is interested in providing a caption for it. What do you think? What would you name it?
My contributions:
"Even princesses have bad days"
or
" 'Cause wakin' up is hard to do" (to the tune of "Breaking up is hard to do" by the Carpenters)

Florida Aquarium

We decided to celebrate Jim's day off for MLK day by visiting the Florida Aquarium down in Tampa. We told Katherine about it the night before and that morning when she woke up, Jim reminded her that we were going to "THE AQUARIUM" that was far away in another city (notice the emphasis on aquarium and not the location, per se). She was like a little Mexican jumping bean that morning, excited out of her senses. So excited that while trying to dress her she was literally jumping up and down, raising her hands in the air chanting, "We're going to a different city. We're going to a different city. We're going to a different city." Funny how they process information and what's exciting to them.

I'll just start out with my favorite photo of the day...
Highlights were:

• getting to spend a day with our family, away from the house, doing something fun
• getting in that much needed practice on short trips/vacations
• Nathan being a pleasant child even though he skipped out on his morning nap
• quietness on the way home

Picture practice

A lack of having/making time to understand uploading pictures on my new camera hasn't slowed down my picture-taking endeavors, so there's a couple weeks worth to catch up on. Good news is, I figured it out.

Here are some of my test shots the first day. Trying to use natural light as much as possible...
My first attempt at understanding as much as possible of this piece of digital and technological wonder...
Some pics from my sister-in-law's baby shower...
My little girl dreaming...
My little man practicing the eminent dethroning...
Katherine teaching him "About Today"...Hear ye, hear ye...

Off to the royal ball

Our Princess preparing to take her Prince to the ball (as long as that pesky you-know-who doesn't come along also).

Back porch fun

She's perplexed as to how he gets the phone to work backwards...

And he's tired of waiting for his turn, again.
They pick up on everything, don't they? Even the head-tilt and annoyed look.
I edited Katherine out of this picture because her face was reflecting the effects of his head-bonking-in-the-process. Notice the hand in motion? I think he thinks it's like a love tap or he's full of his daddy and inherited the want to constantly aggravate. Usually about once a day, he walks by her and reaches out to bonk her on the head with his hand or whatever "tool" he's been totin' around and she's such a good sport about it. Her hair usually get tousled, she calmly straightens it and goes about her business of playing. He usually keeps walking and casually glances back to see if she's even noticed. I asked her if it hurt and she said yes. I asked her if she wished he'd stop and she said yes.
I'm not getting in the middle of that one. They'll both figure it out soon enough.

Camera Conundrum

I'm a little slow on the updates because (cue the music: the conclusion of Part II of Handel's "Messiah", most well known as the "Hallelujah" chorus)...

I got a new camera, a digital SLR I've been drooling over for at least three years!

This was my Christmas and Birthday present. Short of the "really" important things I want in life like family, health and being loved, this was what I truly wanted. My interest in photography dates back to 8th grade and earlier. My dad bought a SLR camera that he enjoyed tinkering around with and he let me take it on the 8th grade trip to Washington DC. Wow! I must have been really trustworthy or he was hoping I'd destroy it so he could get another one. (just kidding Dad). Taking a good picture has always been a desire of mine.

There's just one problem: I'm still figuring out how to use it.

Here's where I told my mom I feel like an old person. The old camera, although point-and-shoot and not what I really wanted, was very familiar and easy. With a husband, two kids and my normal household duties, figuring out this camera, even uploading the pictures, will take me much longer than I'd like.

So, I've got this fabulous new camera that is so much fun to play with and try to figure out, but I haven't even got to the uploading pictures part yet. We went to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa yesterday and I think a couple pictures are great. Have to do some more homework first. Got some cute pictures of my sister-in-law's baby shower that I'm sure she'd love to see, she'll unfortunately have to wait.

I think I better go read up on uploading pictures. More to come...

Man, it's freeeeeeezin'

I got this great email below that really summed up last week...

' WINTER '

by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre

Crap.... It's Cold

The End

We got some snow 'round these parts.
Our fifth generation native-Floridian children didn't know what in the world it was or what to do with it, and as you can see from their brave, (no, not brave), half-witted fourth generation native-Floridian mother, they probably won't get good coaching on how to keep their feet warm in the snow. Yes, I wore those flip flops outside to collect and take pictures of the snow. Good heavens.
The orange tree in our front yard did ok. Just ok. I couldn't get any more of an answer out of my fourth generation orange grower husband. I think his gut is telling him it will be okay, but his logic is telling him to not get my hopes up because I'll spread the joy to our neighbors and family members who really enjoy its fruit. This picture was taken after the freezes, right before I invited my grandpa (who would eat an orange every day if he had his druthers) to come over and harvest the entire crop. I thought there were so many oranges, they looked like a "bunch" of grapes.
We were especially hit hard north of us. This is what, believe it or not, protects the tree; running water on it constantly. Jim took this picture at his work, Monday January 11th. I believe it got down to 15 degrees and when he showed up at work earlier than usual that morning, this is what daybreak revealed.
Us Florida folk aren't prepared for cold weather; but rather than bring down the whole state, I'll just speak for myself. I don't have the right clothes for it, nor do I have the patience for bundling up children who get hot in the car 30 seconds down the road. I don't even have the experience to know how to dress if we're truly going from a warm building, to a warm car, back to another warm building. Are all those layers needed for a total of 2-3 minutes in the cold? I don't even own a pair of gloves. We don't have a good place for all the jackets that collect near the door. My husband goes to great lengths to make sure our pipes don't freeze and 90% of the time, I forget to turn off the warming lights the next day. The car of a true Floridian is who I feel sorry for also. Ice on the windshield has to wait for the defrost to clear it - who has an ice scraper handy? And forget the water hose to clear the ice because its frozen also in addition to the windshield wiper fluid! My sweaters are packed up so well and high and out of sight that I forget I have them.

More practice would make me better at all this; but I'm so glad I don't get more of it.

From what I hear, the last time it was cold like this was the late 80s, early 90s. Thank goodness it only comes around every 20-30 years.

Riveting heavy equipment videos

Who would have thought this could ever be so interesting...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

After dropping Katherine off at school twice a week, I usually stop along the side of the road so Nathan can witness the true awesomeness of tractors, loaders, dump trucks, diggers and scrapers in action. The road is getting widened from a 2-lane to a 4-lane so there's a plethora of construction equipment on any given weekday. Although, I'm pretty sure the workers along that mile-long stretch of road are convinced I'm certifiably nuts and out on "visitation" priviledges, because I will stop along the side of the road, drive our clean city-fied car up on the fill dirt dodging orange and white construction barrels, turn it around to get the sun out of Nathan's eyes, position it just right so he can see some type of real-time construction action and point excitedly at the equipment; all without outsiders realizing there's a 15-month-old in the back seat.

I don't mind. My children are still too young to be embarrassed of me, yet.

A softer side

Our kiddos being sweet with George.
Katherine fine-tuning her photography skills.

Boys and their toys

(Little guy helping daddy repair the chair)

As I was talking to my cousin J today, she told me something her mom said and it has lingered in my brain since. J has a little boy who is 3 and J's mom said that J will never totally understand her son. She'll have the best understanding of him above anyone else, because she's his mom, but she won't totally get him.

Boy, am I feeling that right now. Nathan got a book for Christmas with bright, colorful clear pictures of trucks. Up until then, I thought the child just didn't care for books because he showed little interest in them, or at least the ones we had. He picks this new one up every day, flips through the pages, makes truck sounds, carries it around the house (I've found it in every room since Christmas) and LOVES that book. (Yes, I've got it on the list to get him more). Why does that surprise me? His other books have a truck scattered here and there in between balls, dolls and animal pictures. I thought looking at something other than trucks might be appealing. Nope.

Another thing is this constant need to be carrying around some type of tool. The tool of his choice at the time might be a hairbrush, the dollhouse's table, the long skinny brush we use to clean out the dryer lint collector, diaper rash creme tubes, a toothbrush or a wooden spoon, all of course carried around like a club. And they each rank differently on their coolness scale according to the noise they make when banged against the metal closet doors, scraped along the wall the whole length of the hallway or bonked against his sister's head (so far the brush is superior in this category).
That's just what's available inside. Outside "tools" are way bigger, more dangerous and usually induce a back-arched-head-thrown-back-fall-to-the-ground reaction when I insist they are not allowed to be brought inside. For instance:
Now, I know what you're thinking and let me just stop it right there. In my defense, the day I took these pictures, the majority of the day we spent inside and I didn't plan on him waltzing outside in his rolled-up pants that are too long with a not-matching goofy Elmo shirt on. So besides that, I'll just thwart the next comment to come: Yes I know, if I ever plan on getting half-way serious about photography I must pay more attention to the placement of background objects that might seem a bit out of place. The point is he's still holding the small branch.
I guess Aunt S is right, I'll never totally get him. He's so stinking cute, though, I could never do anything but love him.

BTW: That is on my list of things to talk to God about when I get to heaven. What exactly were his motives when making boys and girls so different? 'Cause I still haven't figured it out yet.

My birthday & birthday-eve night

Today is my birthday and I'm officially half-way to 70. That's kind of a depressing way of looking at it, but not really. I choose to look at it as I've accomplished a lot in this life of mine so far and I've got the second half to finish off the "easy" stuff.

Katherine and Jim bought my birthday gift about a week ago and she has really shown her fortitude and stamina when it comes to keeping a secret. Jim told her to not tell me what the gift was and she did just that. Every day, with Jim around and not around, I would prod and entice her to tell me what it was. "Don't worry Katherine, I won't tell Daddy that you told me. It'll be our special secret" didn't work. She truly enjoyed knowing what was wrapped up, me not knowing and keeping a secret for a long time. And she did an awesome job. She didn't budge one bit after lots of attempts on my behalf.

Although, I did stump her this morning. When I woke her, I explained what we were doing today and that it was my birthday. She quickly perked up from her usual morning sleepiness and said, "Now I can tell you what your present is!" And I said, "Well, I'd like to wait until Daddy is home also to open it. It was from you, him and Nathan." Her furrowed eyebrows and slight frown told me that what I said didn't make any sense in her little world.

While little guy was taking his short and only nap for the day, Katherine and I made insanely-fudgey brownies. I sold her on the idea over cupcakes by telling her we could put icing on the brownies also and when I agreed to sprinkles, it was a no-brainer. So our friend Miss A made some homemade thick and insanely sweet icing for us to spread over the brownies. Can you tell it's my birthday and Weight Watchers has been forgotten about lately?

We believe Nathan is starting to outgrow his two naps. I remember this process 2.5 years ago and it was not very fun then either. He was quite the pickle to deal with for the afternoon and I thankfully had two grandmothers, two grandfathers, and a daddy to pass him off to for supper tonight at Sam's St. Johns. That was my birthday present.

After our, well, my relaxing supper, little guy opted to not participate in the brownie-eating and present-opening activities. So, Katherine and I opened them together while daddy sat behind the lens. It is so precious to watch her little face light up over the simplest gifts. She could have wrapped up a used sock and I would have enjoyed opening it with her.

Hand picked and wrapped by my little precious is a bath poof...(can you sense the anticipation)
and a foot/leg/back massage set complete with back massager thinga-ma-bob.
Last night was a cute little surprise my creative husband concocted with our daughter. She loves to cuddle right before bed and I told her I'd be in there in 10 minutes. When I came in, I found Miss cutie-patootie and hubby pretending to be asleep (with a great big ole' grin on her face)...next to my pajamas, stuffed with a pillow, with the arm of my pajamas cuddling Cathy-bear who was neatly covered with a blanket and maternity-issued socks placed in foot position.They can be so silly sometimes.
I had a great day. Thanks to the modern marvel of heated homes, we were insulated from the unusually cold weather outside, enjoyed spending time with friends we hadn't seen in a while, visited with loved ones, ate good food and I finished up the money collection for my Christmas/Birthday present - a new camera! More to come on that one!