Oh Spring!

Yeah, so remember yesterday when I was all "Spring!" "It's great!" "I love to be outside!"?! Well, today I'm keepin' it real.

We have a lovely (in this photo at least) oak tree in our front yard.

And tons of pollen on the ground.

And, for some reason, Spring in Florida brings lots of dead leaves.
Without the benefit of the beautiful hues of a northern Fall.

Every morning (& afternoon & evening) I see how my car & pollen have

really formed a tight bond.

And every time someone comes into the house, I get to sweep the foyer.

Good times. Good times.

*that being said, I AM MOST GRATEFUL that no one in my family has a pollen allergy. I know many people who are absolutely miserable this time of year, I'm just a little annoyed.

Outside

I love love love this time of year! We were out at a high school baseball game tonight & although the Bulls lost, it was such a beautiful night that I really enjoyed the evening anyway.

When the girls were younger, I was out at the field every night... but once they started driving themselves, I'm always home cooking dinner while they are out & about. I hadn't realized until tonight how much I miss it. This is the perfect time of year here in Florida... right in between the cold (for FL) weather & the super humid, mosquito-laden summer. I'm sure you won't be able to drag me out of my air conditioned abode come July or August, but tonight I was really happy to be a Floridian.

Very cute!

Hallelujah! Jesus Christ is Risen Today!

My favorite hymn of all time! Even though we aren't regular church goers anymore (heck, we're barely even Chr-Easters anymore), I do try to remember The Reason for the season. Every time I hear the bells ring during an Easter service, I cry. What a joyous noise!

Every Easter morning of my childhood, my dad sang this song VERY LOUDLY while we were getting ready for church. Let's just say that while God gave our family many gifts, the gift of a beautiful voice wasn't among them. But I loved it anyway. :)

When I was a kid, the Easter bunny didn't come while we were sleeping, he hopped on over while we were at church, so as not to distract from The Reason.

We would all get in the car ready to make the 7 minute drive to church, when my mom would say that she probably should use the bathroom before we left & she'd run back into the house & set out our baskets. Funny thing is, even though it was only a 7 minute drive, & we always had plenty of time to use the bathroom once we got to church, this wasn't unusual behavior for Mom. We never even batted an eye. :)

Hmmm... Maybe she did it all year long, just so we wouldn't be suspicious on Easter?! Clever. Clever. Clever. Maybe she STILL does that just in case she's ever called upon to make us Easter baskets again.

Mom, the gig is up.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Falls, Fouls & Funny

Need I say more? Jordan's section starts around the 4:00 mark. She's #5.

One Month

One month from today is my birthday. One of THE BIG ones. One month from today, I'll have to change my header. Crazy.

Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Today I ran into an old friend I grew up with. She's a year older than me & she was carrying her newborn son. Crazy. My best childhood friend is pregnant with her 2nd child. Crazy. Another wonderful friend of mine from school is going through infertility treatments & desperately wants a baby. Crazy.

Today I Skyped with my darling 20 year old as she's studying abroad in Spain. Today I took my 18 year old daughter to have her nose pierced. Today I listened to my 12 year old son bang away on his drums, imagining himself to be Niel Pert.

This decade will bring these friends of mine pacifiers & playdates. I'm thrilled for them, I loved that time in my life, but I've been there & done that. Suddenly, my birthday doesn't seem quite so ominous.

Bring it!

April, already?!

Where the heck does the time go? I keep thinking I'm just a couple of days out of this blogging thing & then I realize it's been 16 days! WTH?! I'm going to attempt to blog every day in April. Really. That's not an April Fool's joke. I seriously gotta jump back on the bloggy-wagon.

So, what's up around these here parts?

First of all, the banquet was a huge success! Everyone had a great time & the video was a hit!!! I'm so grateful that it's over, but mostly I'm grateful that Jordan had a chance to play with such a wonderful group of girls. Oh! How I love them!!! And Coach!!! Jordan has been blessed to have these people in her life for the past 4 years.

The day after the banquet, Jordan's got an email with a link from FSU. When I clicked on it (she was at school, I had her permisson), I saw this...

Woohoo!!! Although we know she was in, as she qualified to have an "official visit" with the soccer team, it was still good to see something offical from the school!

The month before Megan got accecpted to UF, I hedged my bets that she would get in & spent hours & hours making signs to hang all over the house to celebrate (I think there were hundreds of Gators hanging from our ceiling, but I can't find any of the pictures, darn it!). I was so busy with the banquet that I completely forgot about the FSU acceptance date, so I ran to the mall to buy a banner & then spent about 1/2 hour & made little "ornaments" to hang on a little tree outside our front door. These have since disintegrated with rain, but it was fun while it lasted.

In a couple of weeks, we'll have to replace the banner with one of these...

Because...

this girl will be home from Spain in 14 days!!! And I KNOW my Gator Girl won't tolerate a Seminole hanging on the house all by it's lonesome. We've missed Megan so much, but she has had an awesome time & I have to say that the time has flown by, I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 months already. Crazy!!! Here she is during Semana Santa in Gibraltar with one of her new friends. :) She hasn't blogged about this excursion yet, so I hope she doesn't mind me stealing her picture from FB (LOVE YOU MEG!)

We're all excited about her return, especially Jordan. She wants to put their bunk beds back together & have a sleep over every night. We've definitely got some organizing/cleaning to do to make that happen! Isn't that the story of my life?!

See ya tomorrow!