First 2014 trip to the Beach

 What do you do on a warm, breezy January Saturday in Florida? (Normally, bundle up and play in the snow like most normal winter areas lol) We headed to the beach to enjoy the view and fun in the sand...

Kaylie was VERY concerned over an injured seagull... I swear she's going to be a vet some day!

 The coral was beautiful!

 This little crab just about nipped Kaylie's toes. Dannen was brave enough to hold him in a shell :)

 Really pretty water...

 Okay mom, here's a super cheesy, overly happy, "I found half of a sand dollar" smile lol

 Dannen had more fun chasing the birds lol

 Daddy and his kids...

 Found this guy at the picnic tables...

 Such a calm area to hang out...

 So much for "Don't get your shoes wet!"... the temptation won!

 Makenzie LOVED having Daddy to herself :)

 Braving the really cold water to get a sea slug back into the water lol

What a great day! Before the beach walk, we enjoyed a lunch with my mom and sister at the picnic tables. So nice to relax and enjoy time together :) Can't wait to go back!

Uphill Climb- "The Move"

You know how sometimes you end up in places you never thought you'd be, literally and figuratively? Well, our family is doing just that...

With crazy struggles since last March, we found ourselves trying to balance finances and living situations. No matter what decisions were made to hope for the uphill climb, there was always something holding us back. Both of us tried to help our family financially, from working for an insane cleaning man to working for a company who, in my opinion, was doing things illegal (did you ever watch "Mystery Diners"? Yeah, I swear I was in a few episodes...). Doing what's best for your family sometimes means going places to get back up "the" hill.

We visited my mom/sister for Christmas, and up until the last day of our trip, never thought anything of living back in the "hottest place on Earth" lol We had a few conversations that last day which in turn lasted all the way home to Tennessee. It's not fun realizing the place you love living was going to be taken away and the income you desired was not within grasps, no matter how much we tried. 

Once we figured that the move to Florida was needed, getting the ball rolling was "fun". It's one thing to move, another to move when you have kids! Lots of paperwork, phone calls, doctor visits, etc are needed to make sure they're taken care of. Thankfully, the internet is a wonderful thing... getting our kids situated was and has been very easy :)

Packing and moving wasn't as bad as I thought, but this time was harder on me. With every move we've endured, I was always the one who packed everything. And, it's not a complaint... I love it! You can organize as you go. But, when we were in Florida at Christmas, I tripped over the golf cart plug and torqued my back. Six months of NO problems or pain ended VERY fast in just a second. Packing was difficult physically. Plus, I babysat four children every day, most of the time for 9 hours, on top of caring for my three. Oh how I love snow days!?!? There just wasn't enough time in the day to get it done. Thankfully, William stepped up and helped take on some of the packing duties... so very thankful :) 

Our loading-the-truck day was filled with lots of friends! We had yummy donuts and coffee from our sweet church friend and previous 1st grade teacher to Makenzie, fantastic guys to move the heavy things, lots of friends helping with odds-n-ends and cleaning, quite a few kids helping and entertaining each other... I really couldn't have asked for better friends that day. It was definitely bitter sweet leaving the driveway... lots of memories... lots of friends, some of whom I would consider a hell-of-a-lot closer than family members... our true home :(

My mom/sister drove up that day from Florida to help caravan those of us who couldn't fit in the moving truck. Our van will explode any day, needing a new transmission, so it had to be towed. It was very nice traveling with them on the trip down. Kept the kids entertained and made the long drive memorable lol

So, as of today, our girls are comfortably settled in their cozy school, dressed up in cute uniforms and their favorite designed backpacks. We're working on getting Dannen into the free VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten) program. William and I are searching for jobs, though we're both technically hired for a merchandising company to start on a project mid-February. Lots of opportunities, just need to find the "right" one. We're staying with my mom/sister in their cute little home, just down the street from William's Dad... small world, huh? lol The kids get to take turns riding on the golf cart each night to walk his Dad's dog. We've met a few residents at the community's coffee/donut and pancake breakfast events... some of whom are VERY sweet. The job search continues EVERY day, more than once lol Hopefully we can get an idea of finances so we can find the right place to move into on our own. 

Baby steps... but at least it's upward :)

Urologist Appointment

It's been YEARS dealing with a few "potty" issues in our home. Having a family history of bed-wetting, it wasn't a surprise that our very own Miss Makenzie was going to endure the same "fun". Between being an EXTREMELY heavy sleeper (trying to wake her up to use the bathroom is both dangerous (I've been swung at a few times lol) and tiring (ends up in lots of tears and no success)) and physically altering her little body's ways, we've dealt with accidents ever since she was little.

We went to the Urologist to help get answers and advice to help get things back on track. Surprisingly, and oh boy does what we learned make sense!!!, Makenzie has trained her body to only empty her bladder half-way, thinking it's empty!?!?! She waits until the very last minute to use the bathroom 80% of the time. Between needing to change her diet and managing her daily activities, we've finally come up with a plan to help her re-train everything. Curbing the dairy in-take, adding more greens, cutting back on the four C's: caffeine, chocolate (let's be realistic now- it's not all getting completely cut, just modified lol), carbonation, and citrus (my orange juice loving kiddo wasn't too happy), drinking at least 40oz. of water/day, taking meds for #2 to help lesson that "stress", and a strict bathroom schedule is a lot for a very busy and mobile 8 year old. She has to drink 20oz throughout the school day, going to the bathroom every 2 hours no matter what, then continuing the drink the rest between getting home and dinner. Stopping all liquids 3 hours prior to bed is an absolutely insane time frame. When we would have basketball/soccer/choir, etc activities until 7:30pm, cutting drinks was out of the question. So, I think that's been the hardest part throughout all of this. Hoping to get on track with a good plan after all of the most recent "activities" slow down.

Makenzie was very interested in the ultrasound machine used to view her bladder. So many questions were answered with this image alone :) 

She was such a trooper and did a fantastic job answering questions and listening to everything the doctor told her. ALWAYS smiling... seriously, she's awesome! 

We're very thankful for the resources to get answers to questions after so many years of wondering. Hoping things get back on track and she can get a little more comfort knowing she won't have to deal with anything sooner than later!

Poor Peanut

 Nothing hurts more than when someone you love is hurting... in this case it was my sweet dog Peanut. After her morning bathroom break, she came into the house slightly limping. Over the next few hours, she began having a harder time walking, wanting to just lay around, barely putting any weight on her front right leg. It was sooooo sad! She's my shadow, and by shadow I mean it literally... always following Mommy around, even when I try to quietly try to escape her range of vision lol 

We were able to have a friend's daughter and veterinarian take a look at her that afternoon. Wouldn't you know it... I sat her down on the ground prior to her arriving and she began limping around, putting pressure on her leg. AND THEN, when our friend arrived, she started sprinting around the room! WHAT?!?! Not sure if it was adrenaline, or in William's words "she was faking it", but she was seemed fine. After a check-up and watching her move around, she could tell she did something to aggravate the leg, but said with no broken bones, Children's Motrin was the answer. Thankfully, Peanut was okay and only needed some extra tender-loving care. 

My little dog did great the rest of the day and hasn't had any issues since then :) 

Arctic Weather

Okay, so when I said I "liked" winter and the cold weather, I DID NOT mean frigid temps!!! We got down to 0 degrees with wind chills near -20!!! BRRRRRRRRRRR... 

We had hoped to get snow, but with only about an inch and rain prior to the snow, we got much more than the white stuff... we got ice. Our entire hill leading from the main highway up to our home was a sheet of ice.

William's boss was able to make it out and picked him up at the bottom of the hill. Though he didn't have to walk all the way to work, who the heck would?!??!, he did brave the weather and walked. What a guy!

 I shuffled onto the middle of the street to snap a few pics of the ice...

 Though it was absolutely freezing, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to BUNDLE up and head outside to say "we were in below zero temps". My kids weren't happy to wrap their faces... that was until the actually stepped outside...

 

 

 We were only out for about 10 minutes. Just enough time to wander the iced road, attempt to throw some icy snowballs, get numb glove-covered fingers, and yes, snap a few "selfies" lol

Thankful for the time with my kids... it was cold, but definitely something we'll remember together :)

Home Depot Visit

It's been a LONG time since visiting Home Depot for the free kid's workshops. After a quick shopping trip to Wal-Mart for moving supplies and groceries to get us through this ARCTIC BLAST coming tonight, we headed over for the kids to have some building fun.

This was the first time we all got to interact and get our hands dirty. LOVE LOVE LOVE how much they've learned about tools, reading instructions, and building on their own projects. These cute desk calenders are definitely one of my favorites they've ever done :)