Twenty-Seven Minutes, Thirty-Five Seconds!!!

Today was a big day for us!!

We woke up at 6:00, threw the kids in the car and took off! We dropped them at a friends house, went by car  to here:






And spent a loooong tiiiime waiting around:




To get on a bus to go here:




In order to spend more time waiting around....



With all these people:


J: "Hehe... this is huge... if they gave each of us a spear, we could take over a small country."

And then

We

RAN



And when we were done (Twenty-seven minutes and thirty-five seconds later)...




We went to pick up the kids (who had been warned what we would look like when we got back and so were not actually totally scarred by the sight of their parents)



And then, for the first time that day (at about 11:00),

WE ATE!!






And next year, we're taking these adorable kiddoes with us!!!






Things I learned while writing this post:

1)When J has the camera, suddenly there I am in all the pics!
2) J's camera is way better than mine
3) If you forget to take a pic of something, you can probably fine it on the internet.

Strange things in my grocery store.

On of the local produce places I frequent here in Orlando carries some really exotic tropical fruits and veggies. I have never in my life seen such strange looking food... It makes me feel like I'm stuck in a Sci-Fi novel. Have any of y'all ever seen, or do you know how to cook any of these?

(some of them I haven't labeled, because between the time I first started this post and now, I've forgotten what they were... :P )

Tuna Fruit:

Tamarind


Tamarind in the shell:

Rambutan:

June Plums:



Dragon Fruit:



Dragon fruit, cut open:

Celery root:

Bitter Melon:





And this last one is truly the star of the show, because what you cannot see in this picture is the really terrifying nature of this "fruit". The thing is at least twice the size of your average watermelon and all those little spiky thing are SHARP! Who would eat a fruit that looks like it is only a few short steps away from mutating into a malignant life form???!!!

More of that amazing Florida RAIN

I just still can't get over the way it rains here. It rains like Judah cries when he's mad; with a VENGEANCE, and then is over oh-so-quickly, leaving behind a slightly watery sunshine.

Finally. (eta floorplan)

The Lord has answered our prayer for a home! Yesterday I took our final month's rent to the management, along with our thirty-day's notice. On April 8th we will close on Our House and begin moving! Hurray!

If you click on the link above, you'll notice that this is NOT the house we made an offer on back in October (which, unless you are a FB friend of mine, you won't know anything about...) That one was a short sale and the bank never did get back to us with a final word on our offer. Yes, that's right. We made the offer in October, and this is April, and they never got back a final word to us.

The story of this house is that back in February, in depths of despair over the length of time it was taking to hear back from the bank about our first offer, and wallowing in self-pity over my eternal captivity in this tiny apartment, I noticed a new property whose price had just dropped within our price range. Elfstone Drive. How cute, I thought. Elfstone Drive, in Casselberry. It sounds like an address from a fairytale. Let's go look at it. Just for kicks.

So we did. And we loved it. It's the perfect house. The yard is perfect. The kitchen is perfect. The pool is perfect. It has vaulted ceilings, a fireplace and a waterslide. What more could you ask for?

It was riiight at the upper edge of our price range. We took all of one night to talk it over. The next day we drew up an offer and submitted it on the Friday before President's Day. Early that Monday I had a notice from our listing engine that the price had just dropped $12K

???

Yep. $12 THOUSAND.

We spent the holiday rushing around, coming up with a new offer based on the new price, quickly submitting it, fingers crossed that they'd not realize that we were the same people who'd just submitted the (much) higher offer that they'd just seen that morning.

No such luck. We got a call that night saying they would accept our first offer. Bleh. We declined. They countered the next day with the info that there were multiple offers on the house and all parties had till noon on Wed to submit their highest and best offers.

OH, the agonies, OH the doubts, the second-guessing, and the trepidation... We spent ALL NIGHT trying to come up with an unbeatable, but still affordable offer. We submitted it the next day with only an hour or two to spare. And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then on Friday, we got the word. Our offer had been accepted! Hallelujah!! The house was ours!! In the weeks since then, we've been dancing around to all the bureaucratic red tape and vagaries that are the mortgage industry in Florida right now. But now the final piles of paperwork have been printed, signed and faxed, the last rent is paid and I"m picking out my paint colors! On April 8th we'll sign the closing documents and we will own 2200 sq ft, a pool (and waterslide) and over a 1/4 acre of the state of Florida.

Praise the Lord!

Oh yes... THIS feels familiar.

Since we've been in Florida people repeatedly ask us if we miss the weather in Va. My answer: not at all. I miss manymany things about my old home, but certainly not the weather.

In the summer in Va, depending on how far north you are, it can get every bit as hot and humid as it was here in Orlando this year. And in addition, we never had air conditioning anywhere we lived. In Florida, we have air conditioning AND a pool. Nope. I don't miss our Virginia summers.

In Hburg we had our first snow every year within a week of Thanksgiving. Maybe not much, probably just a few flurries, but snow, nonetheless. And EVERY YEAR all the longtime locals would walk around shaking their heads and going, "Can't believe it's snowing already! It never snows this early 'round here." EVERY YEAR. For nine years. And I bet at least two people are going to respond to this post by saying, "What are you TALKING about? It never snows that early here!"

In Florida, we went swimming the day before Thanksgiving. Not for very long, granted, and it was certainly cold, but still... Actually, to be perfectly honest, I didn't get in above my knees, but the kids swam for twenty minutes! So no, I don't miss Virginia winters.

But then this morning we woke up from a night of lows in the twenties, J turned on the heat before leaving for work (first time we've used it) and I made the kids cocoa for breakfast. Something about the combination of smells-- the hot cocoa, the just-turned-on-heat, the cooooold air swooshing in the door as he left for work... Suddenly I realized I was feeling just a little nostalgic, if not quite exactly for the weather we're missing, at least for that familiar feeling of being cozied up inside, out of the elements, safe and warm against the Winter.

Making new friends

What a wonderful morning we had! We went back to Downey Park, which was a blast last time, but this time we went with FRIENDS! Friends of all the right ages!! Plenty for Sofi and Judah both to enjoy. It was so refreshing to spend time talking to other moms and playing with their babies and sharing stories and tips. I really do feel like things are settling in at last. Good thing, too, if last night's and this morning's ctx are any indication... :P

I am a little concerned about Judah still, though. Have any of y'all moved with a child around Judah's age before? He seems to have become very shy and withdrawn in crowds these days. My memories of him from Va are of a happy-go-lucky child, content to pal around with whoever is nearby, not afraid of strangers and rarely moody. But today, for example, he spent a large part of the time on the very outskirts of the group, quietly picking up fistfuls of sand and watching them dissolve in the current. He swam, too, but wouldn't talk or interact with any of the other kids.

Towards the end, I got him interested in helping me and Martha (2) build sandcastles and that seemed to cheer him up a lot. He talked to her a little and they energetically stomped the castles down together. He seemed to enjoy her company-- she doesn't talk much and seems a quiet, gentle little one.

Perhaps it was just her quiet spirit, or perhaps some Middle Child Deep called to Middle Child Deep, but when we were leaving he leaned his head over on my shoulder and said, "Mom, there's lots of people. Too many people-- I don't know them."

"Yes, but we're getting to know them, they will be our new friends."

"I think Martha is my new friend now."

Thank the Lord for new friends!

Downey Park

Ironic to think that after living in fairly rural area of Va their whole lives, the first time my kids get in a lake is after they move to Orlando. Downey Park is AWESOME!! A splash pad AND a lake with lifeguards! What more could you want???

Dog days of summer

But don't feel too sorry for us, we've been doing lots of THIS:

Lake Eola

We spent a beautiful morning in downtown Orlando this morning at Lake Eola Park. There were swans and at least half a dozen other birds I couldn't identify. Please chime in in the comments if you see a bird you recognize (other than the swans, duh). There were also at least three different varities of swans (or species, I suppose). Black ones and white ones with thick yellow beaks, in addition to the traditional and familiar ones with slender red beaks. I think the yellow-beaked ones may have been trumpeter swans...?? Anyone? I'm including a short video with a quickie example of the call I kept hearing. It's not great quality and the ornery ole things shut up as soon as I whipped out the camera. They were FULL of music for the five minutes leading up to the appearance of the camera....

Such a beautiful place... There are swan boats to rent and a floating fountain in the center of the lake that kind of sprays water all around. We've promised the kids we'll go back one time this summer and rent two boats so we can ride out to the fountain :) I'll be sure to take the camera!

By the way, Judah earned himself a milkshake by walking the entire perimeter of the lake-- nearly a full mile!