And So it Continues...

I forgot to mention that when we got home from our weekend trip we had a nice gift in our mailbox from the state of South Carolina. They gave us a ticket for running the toll plaza. Yes, the toll plaza where we were hit by a truck because the ever so intelligent toll plaza workers changed the go light to red while we were in the lane. Anyway, they had given us a receipt to hand to the toll plaza worker so that we would not have to pay the toll (after all, $2 is sufficient compensation for the inconvenience we went through because of their carelessness). After all that, they then tell us we in fact ran the toll booth without paying and sent us a ticket. Isn't that nice! Well, after he calmed down, Brian decided to call and be nice and explain the situation. Thankfully, they took care of it for us so we don't have to pay it. However, Brian was sure to get the guys name because I am not confidant this is done :)

Here Comes the Sun...

Saturday morning brought a bright yellow ball in the sky that we had not witnessed in quite a few days. Yes, the sun came to visit for a while and we were thrilled. We were not going to Disney so we were definitely planning on spending the morning at the pool. Brian and I had already discussed various possibilities in case of rain but we were thrilled to be able to follow through with the original plan. Here are some pics of Savannah enjoying the pool:

Savannah made friends with some children from New York. She enjoyed having someone to swim with other than mommy and daddy! There were many different animals throughout the grounds. There were evening signs leading you to believe there were alligators about. Thankfully, we did not meet them face to face :)

After the pool we headed over to the playground next door. She enjoyed having some play time on ground instead of water. We also headed over to play basketball and Savannah was able to get close to the swans. I do not have the pics of the basketball or swans because I took them in the incorrect mode. Brian has to change them over for me.
After the park we rested for a while and then headed to Downtown Disney. We had a good time traveling through the stores. We got lots of ideas for presents for Savannah and have already planned a date night to head down there and get started on shopping. Savannah got some pixie dust in her hair and I got some pics of her with Lego sculptures and princesses but that would be the same issue with the camera. So, maybe at a later date I can share these :)

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel for their character breakfast. Savannah got to meet Goofy, Minnie Mouse and Pluto. She ate up a storm and had a grand time with the characters.
All in all we had a wonderful weekend. It was nice to get away and even better to get home and see our house had not floated away :)

Welcome to Sunny Florida

Well, we are going on 2 1/2 days of rain. But, we did actually get some rain free time this morning. However, it started up again in the afternoon. Savannah and I ventured out for some getting out of the house time. I was amazed at how much water there was all around us. I first saw it as we approached the golf course. Most of the surrounding areas were underwater. Then we turned the corner and the dog park was completely under water. The pavilions were filled up about half way. I couldn't believe how much water there was! The next major place was a the Duda grass farm. They now have two huge lakes. It is amazing! I was nice to get out of the house, though. I am thankful for the little bit of relief we received this morning but am definitely ready for some sun.

We headed down to the Disney area this weekend for some fun in the sun (hehe). We planned this trip about two months ago not realizing it would be raining a lot of the time. I am hoping that it will be a little less wet tomorrow so that we can at least let Savannah get into the pool. It sure would be nice if they had an indoor pool. Don't see many of those in Florida. As I watched the tourists walking all over the Downtown Disney area I couldn't help but wonder how I would feel if I came here for a wonderful week in the sun and had to ride out what has got to be the longest Tropical Storm in history. I imagine I would be a little fearful, especially if I had never been through this type of storm. I will have to say that the people I saw pretty much were grinning and bearing it. They were making the most out of what they were given. However, I know how hard it was to be stuck inside all day for many days with all of our items. I cannot imagine being stuck in a hotel!

Savannah's Real First Day of School

Savannah had her first day of PreK today. She was very excited. She picked out her outfit and had an added benefit of having a friend go with her to school. Here is a picture of her all ready to go:

I know, great expression. Unfortunately, it is the only one I have :( However, I would like for you to take note of what is in her right hand. Yes, that would be an umbrella. Now, I remind you that the reason Savannah's first day is today instead of Tuesday was because of Seminole County canceling school due to Tropical Storm Fay. Well, we had no school Tuesday and Wednesday and pretty much ok weather. Really not even much rain and no wind. Well, last night it started to get really windy and rainy. It pretty much has been raining since. At one point today they said that it had rained 13 inches today in Oviedo. It has been a few hours of constant rain since then. I have no idea how much rain we have gotten. And the weather is just getting worse. I think that Fay has just turned around and is coming back. I can't keep up with the reports because they change so much. They really do not seem to know what the storm is doing. Well, needless to say, there is no school again tomorrow. I have never been in a storm that stuck around like this! Enough already. One good thing is that Midnight has finally realized she either goes in the rain or she gets really uncomfortable :)

It seems like Savannah enjoyed her day. The three things she told me was that she made some art, played and that Mrs. Linda sat by her at lunch. She told her Aunt Carol Lynn that she also sat by Emma and Madison at lunch. So, all in all, that is a lot more than she has told me before, so she must have enjoyed it. Also, on another note, she was not nearly as tired coming home today as she was last year. I think the change from Zyrtec to Allegra has really made a big difference.

I hope everyone out this is dryer than we are. Enjoy walking outside without getting soaked for me :)

Savannah's First Day of PreSchool

I am suppose to be writing today about Savannah's first day of preK. She has been so excited! Last Friday night she got to meet her new teachers, Mrs. Linda and Ms. Rhonda. She took instantly to her class. She was thrilled to see one of her good friends Rishu from last year. They pretty much picked up where they left off, as far as their friendship is concerned. She has another little boy in her class from last year too. It was nice for her to walk in and see two people she new right away. However, she never looked at the other kids. There were actually two little girls in her class that she knows but she didn't look long enough to realize she new them! I know that it was a comfort thing, "I know them therefore I play with them." But, I really do hope she makes some new friends. There was one thing I did notice, though. At one point, Savannah was sitting in the "homeliving area" with four boys around her (ie, no other girls). I asked one of the moms "what does it mean when my daughter is the only girl surrounded by boys". Her response was "you are going to have fun when she is a teenager". Thanks :) Seriously, I think she is just really active and would rather play with children who want to play hard (as boys tend to do). Also, she does not like to be told what to do and I think that, even at this age, the little girls tend to have more to say about things than boys :) In other words, she can be the lone boss in the equation.

Anyway, back on topic. I would love to be able to post pictures of her all dressed up in her outfit heading off to school (without a backwards glance, I am sure). However, all I can share with you is:

This would be Tropical Storm Fay and would be why we are sitting at home watching Higglytown Heroes instead of running around getting ready for school. She handled the news really well when I told her. I said "I have something really sad to tell you. You can't go to school tomorrow because of a bad storm." Her response, "Oh. Well, I still love you." Hmmm, I guess she sees it as my fault :) Her next thought was "where will Mrs. Linda be." Nice to know she has some concern for her teacher.

Well, I thought I would take this time to catch up on last week. It was really busy. Savannah had a playdate almost every day plus she was taking swimming lessons. We finally got our car back! Thank you Brian :) He had to fly to Savannah, GA (by way of Charlotte, NC...makes no sense to me). Then, he had to drive all the way home. Meanwhile, mom and I went shopping where Savannah proceeded to have a major meltdown in Children's Place. I do not know what it is about this store but she is always very poorly behaved in it. Any of them! It doesn't matter which one we are at, she can't hold it together. Anyway, after that embarrassment, she was much better. And she scored a total of four outfits between mom and I. Now she is all ready for school. We were varied this week in playdate places. She meet one friend at the pool, another at Chick-fil-a for lunch and all out fun in the play area, a trip to Friendship park another day and we ended the week with a trip to the library (which was closed due to a tax break the taxpayers voted for and the county tries to find any and every way possible to punish us for). Friday night was the big "meet your teacher" night. And, I got to go out with my friend to the movies! Fun! Saturday started as a day of yard work. However, it turned into Brian spending the entire weekend trying to get the lawn mower to work (which never happened). Brian decided to start saving money by doing the lawn himself (I guess this is a bargain he made with himself when we bought the piano). This will be a great money saving thing to do once we fix the mower :)

Savannah had been enjoying dressing up in her clothes. She tends to forget the weather and puts on as much as she can. She really has a liking of tights. However, she hasn't realized yet that they should go on first, not last. Here is a picture of her latest style (notice the pink pants below the tights, oh, and that it was over 90 degrees outside):

Meanwhile, my nights (and Brian's by default) have been filled with the Olympics. I have been enjoying watching all the athletes compete. I have taken up a fondness for beach volleyball. Who would have guessed? Can you believe Michael Phelps? What an athlete! Not doing so well in diving :( I have been learning the finer points of fencing. (as a side note, I noticed that almost all of our fencers and rowers go to ivy league schools. Hmmm) Other than beach volleyball, I have not been able to get myself to watch any of the long sport games (like soccer, baseball, basketball, etc.) although Brian did watch the USA vs China men's basketball game. Gymnastics is one of my favorites. Last night they showed some of the apparatus competition. I have to say that I am not 100% sold on the new scoring system. On the first night of individual apparatus competition, a Chinese woman fell on the vault and still got the bronze. Come on! And then last night, a Chinese lady (ok, girl. Give me a break, they are NOT 16) and an American (our all around gold medalist) tied on uneven bars. And, instead of giving them both a gold, the Chinese girl got it! Do you notice a trend here? I know that they say there is no way for favoritism, but, come on! Anyway, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics (Brian says it isn't that I don't like watching sports, it is just that I do all my sports watching in a two week time every two years), but there are definitely some things that I think need to be rethought out. So, congratulations to all the people who are competing! There are only a few days left. Good luck to all!

Come back on Thursday. Hopefully we will have some pictures of Savannah wearing her perfect outfit and running of (with no trepidation) to her new class :)

Is it Bleeding?

I thought I would give an update on the last few days. On Wednesday, after Savannah's second swimming lesson, we met some friends at the pool. Savannah has carried on the title of "fish" from when I was little. She is a pretty amazing swimmer. She can now swim to the bottom of the pool by herself and swam almost 100 feet by herself across the pool. Her new swim instructor Zoe has been with Savannah on swimming on her back. She is doing very well. Especially since she would not do this with me at all. The main reason I really wanted her in class this summer is to start learning strokes. She told me the other day that she did not need to go to swimming lessons because she already knows how to swim.

After swimming at the pool, we headed home for a day of rest. We stayed home, had lunch, relaxed, watched a little tv, played some and just spent time together. After a while I decided we needed to get out so we took the dog for a walk. Savannah got herself ready: shoes, socks and her ninoculars (binoculars for those who are not use to speaking Savannah). She was so cute :) She would crawl right down on top of something (thoroughly defeating the purpose of having binoculars) and check it out. Then, I learned a lesson. Next time I take her on a walk I need a bag. She, being 4, had to collect every single thing she observed. After the interest of this ran out, she then decide to race herself. She would crouch down, say "get ready, set, go" and run. Well, after a few times of this, she ended you falling. She curled up and grabbed her knee and seemed ok. Then she asked if it was bleeding. Well, once she saw that it was she started screaming! Well, really just crying but I was trying hard not to laugh because she was fine until she saw the blood. I had the dog with me and could not carry Savannah so she had to limp all of the way home. She was fine, mind you. No child abuse going on here :) Once we got home we had to have a little mini surgery going on. We cleaned it up and put Hydrogen Peroxide on it. She thought that was really cool. She liked watching the bubbles. Maybe she is a future doctor or nurse. She was excited about getting to have a really big band aid on her knee.

Today we went to visit another friend at a different pool. We got down there and the pool was closed until noon because someone the day before had an "accident" in the pool. So, we had to wait 1 1/2 hours to get in. There is a really nice park right next to the park so they had a good time playing while we ate. However, I told Savannah we would go into the pool after lunch so every 15 minutes she asked if we could have lunch :) Well, we finally got into the pool and 10 minutes later they had to close it because of thunder. Needless to say, we gave up at this point. As I was driving home I drove through some horrible storms. I got up to the final road and there was debris everywhere. It just happened to be right by my brother's house so I called to ask what happened. He was like, "well, it rained and there was some wind". Well, for anyone in this area, if you saw the news report about a house in the Oviedo area that had a tree go through the roof, that was two houses down from my brother. Hmmm, some wind and rain, huh? :) There were 35 mph winds going through. Many trees down and stuff everywhere. They were fortunate because a tree limb fell on their brand new huge screen in the backyard but it did not puncture the screen. Anyway, the news was there and everything. Well, we got home and Savannah decided she needed to get dressed for the weather. Well, she has a bathing suit on, rain boots and a "Santa" hat. Hmmm...not sure what weather she is getting prepared for.

And, last but not least, tonight is the first night of the Olympics and I have been thoroughly enjoying the opening ceremonies. I think that China has done an outstanding job. I love to watch the Olympics. I joke that you would think I was more athletic. However, although I am not very athletic, I do know what it is like to train (practice) hard to do something well. What I really love about the Olympics is seeing these people who have worked so hard to get there finally get to compete at a venue that is, for many, the reason they are in their sport. The creme de la creme for them. I wish them all luck and pray for their safety while they are away.

Hi all

So I finally am making it back to the blogging world. This summer has been insane. And, I kid you not, this is about the third time I have sat down to do this in the past week. First, there was no internet. Then, my time got absorbed into something else and then I couldn't access my blog. I would go to it and the big ugly gray box would come up and I couldn't read by own blog! Anyway, I am back now and am ready to share with you the FUN things about our trip to Hilton Head.

We went to visit Brian's family (Meme, Grandpa, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Matt and Baby Maddux, who someday will be 21 and probably still called Baby Maddux :) ). Brian's parents have a time share in Hilton Head so every summer for the past three years we have gotten together up there. The place we stayed this time was really nice. It was pretty secluded with a smaller pool than last year and a lot less traffic. It felt more like a homey area than a touristy area. I love Hilton Head! Everything is set way back so it seems real woodsy but yet there is civilization behind those trees (Publix, Target etc). Also, and this is the ultimate highlight, they have bike trails everywhere! And I mean, these are real bike trails! Not these little spaces on the road like we have here in Fl. We pretty much ride our bikes everywhere. We could have ridden to the mall or various dinner places. We ended up renting bikes because the bike rack we bought did not work on the van. As a side note, we have decided to someday get a hitch for our van because we think it would be much more secure to travel with our bikes on there (of course, we need to get our van back first!) Although all of the days had the frustration of dealing with the insurance company, we did fit in a lot of beach time, pool time, and other fun stuff. Every year we visit this little Science Museum called the Sandbox. This is an interactive play area with all kinds of cool fun stuff for the kids. Savannah loves it! Maddux really had a good time as well. He found these little nets that were part of the ship play area. He walked all over holding one in each hand. He is awful cute!We took Savannah (and Meme) to play minigolf one afternoon. The one we went to was picked because it was shady. Boy, were we wrong. It was deceivingly hot and sunny. Savannah really did a good job. This is about the fourth or so time we have taken her but it is the first time she actually understood what to do. She is the only one of the four of us who got a whole in one! The first day we were there Savannah and I saw an alligator! I was a little nervous about walking all around since the alligator was just sitting by the side of the lake which was on the way to the pool. And, there was not really any fencing keeping them away from us! Well, we all survived with our toes (and legs, and arms ...) in tact so I guess it was safe. One day Savannah rode her bike (which we did bring in our van not knowing we would be driving home in a much smaller vehicle) to a nearby park. She was swinging (which she can do by herself) and Brian and I were sitting and talking. Suddenly, I turned to look at her and, I kid you not, she was asleep swinging! I have no idea how she didn't fall out of the swing! Brian ended up carrying her back and I got to push the bike back. The final night we celebrated Maddux's first birthday. It is amazing how fast that first year goes! He enjoyed the cake once he realized what was going on. Savannah enjoyed "helping him" (i.e. doing it) open his gifts. After Hilton Head we headed to see our good friends the Nelson's in Aiken, SC. They moved away from FL. about 2 years ago but this is the first time we have been able to go see them. It was nice to see their new place. We visited a really nice park up there and dashed between rain drops a lot of the time. We were able to visit the BEST wing place ever. It is called Wild Wings and we love it! Brian is a big wing man but we rarely eat them. Not so good for you :) However, anytime we are in SC we have to visit this place once. We really did have a good time. We enjoy the time we are able to spend with Brian's family and our friends. Hopefully we will be catching up with his parents again sometime in September.

Car news: our van needed a new bumper, grill, radiator and compressor for the air conditioner. When Brian last talked to them everything was done except the radiator, which was expected to be done today. Brian will be flying to Savannah, GA on Saturday to pick up the van and bring it back. The Camry is a nice car but I am looking forward to having my van back!

Savannah started swim lessons on Monday. She was the only one in the class! The only other child registered was a no show. So, she basically had a private lesson. She is in the pre-school advanced class which means they are teaching her strokes. She can swim, easily, 100 feet on her own. She is developing the ability to swim on her back. I am very proud of her! She is really our little fish. She also found out today who her teacher is for this upcoming pre-school year. Her name is Mrs. Linda. I am very excited about this and hope it will be a wonderful year in preparation for next year. Kindergarten! Yikes! Linda taught at UCP a while ago and then took time off to help with her grandchildren. She came back the same year I started, so two years ago. She mentioned that she has a child of her own who was very strong willed so I am hoping to learn a lot from her!

I hope everyone is well. I am truly going to try to get back to blogging!