Hmmmmm....what's next?

Just sitting here, waiting for Owen to get tired enough to go to bed. He had sort of a long nap, so he's not as tired as Mom and Dad. Especially Dad who got to work at 4:45am (unusually early) this morning.

Can't help wondering as I do every night (and day...and minute) what's coming for our future. Daniel's internship ends at the end of December (a week earlier than the date they gave him of Jan 2). So he's doing the job search thing now. He's applied a couple of places and will apply to more. Mostly in Utah, I think.

It's strange to think of moving. I've got mixed feelings. I think I'd much rather live a lot closer to family and we really liked Utah. At least the area we were in. And for the first few months of living here, well, the stresses of a new place, new schools (which y'all know I didn't like much) and new horrible Heat and Humidity (two H words that = a very big H word) ...hmmm...let's just say I wanted to go HOME to Utah or CA or somewhere other than here.

Now the weather is wonderful, the stress of school has subsided a bit (though homeschool has it's own stresses) and the kids and I are feeling much more emotionally balanced. And we've got some fun friends. Justin has gone from not liking Florida to not wanting to leave. I haven't gone there yet, but it's strange to be with friends who say they are praying for the Skinners to stay in Florida. We don't know what we are praying for. Just to be in the right place with a good job that Daniel enjoys. And really, I still think I'd much rather be closer to family.

Now, if Disney suddenly changed it's "poor mouth," "hiring freeze" tune and begged Daniel to stay...we'd probably snatch up one of these amazingly cheap houses with a pool and stay a while. As it is, we might just have to leave this paradisical weather right at it's best and move where it's cold again. If we were to stay here, I will fully admit that I'd be soooooooo ready to move again when the H-E-L-L weather started again. (I didn't say it! I spelled it!)

There are some neat things about living in a place where people aren't all Mormon. The kids are getting a better sense of the fact that not everyone is Mormon and that they might still go to church and believe in Jesus. Emily used to ask, "Does ..... go to church?" about anyone we'd meet and I'd have to say, "Maybe, but not ours." Oh...You mean there are other churches? I've realized a few areas I need to bump up our spiritual education! And I like the idea that the kids are seeing themselves as a little unique. We aren't like everyone else.

One thing I've liked about living here is seeing the new members in the church. They are pretty cool. They didn't grow up with the Mormon lingo, singing the Primary songs or going to primary. I like hearing about their conversions. It's neat seeing that people really are out there accepting the gospel, even when they are learning about it from scratch OR having to put aside preconceived notions or strange rumors about Mormons. And we've had the missionaries over for dinner 4 times and every time the kids are, like, "AGAIN? We have them over every week!" Yeah, 4 times in 5 months is not every week, I explain. I think we had Missionaries for dinner once or twice during our 6 years in Utah. They just do it differently there (or in our old ward anyway).

This post is getting too long. No one will ever read it. And I think Owen is possibly getting tired. I should try to put him to sleep. (Spoiled youngest child always stays up later in our family. And Owen will probably stay the youngest child, so he'll be spoiled forever. )

G'night.

Florida birds

Here are the birds we see here in Florida all the time!

I think they are Sandhill Cranes.
Justin ran out with the camera when they were all gathered in our parking lot one day.
--I would have gotten better pictures. ;)
The first time I saw them, I was so excited, yelling for the kids to look. They are so weird looking just walking around like this. You'd expect to see these only in the zoo or something.
And we see them flying around too with their long legs hanging out in the back.
Funny looking.

There used to be two at the school everyday when I picked the kids up.
Well, I'm sure THEY are still there, we just aren't.

Library Story Time Craft

We went to the library story time and then got to make these spider hats for a craft. It was fun and Owen LOVED his. He did a lot of dancing around in it. He was so cute. Garrett wasn't as excited about wearing his. And Owen would get so mad when Garrett wouldn't, so, nice brother Garrett wore his a lot just for Owen.

Dress up at the Library.
Owen the Police Officer.

More pictures of Bok Tower Gardens

We saw a lot of big spiders on amazing webs.
The kids would point them out and demand pictures at all angles. They were pretty cool.

Some pretty flowers. My mom could have taken better pictures of these.

I missed the cuter shot, but this is still cute. The oldest and youngest.
Owen loves his older brother and Justin LOVES Owen. They are so cute together.

The Bok Sanctuary

The Bok Tower Gardens

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Bok Tower Gardens, http://boksanctuary.org/ otherwise known as the Singing Tower. We visited this place because my mom remembers it from when she was a little girl. She was born in Florida and moved away when she was about 5. (Is that right, Mom?).

Anyway, it was beautiful and the tower plays bells every hour, and twice a day it will play a concert. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful. Got a few good pictures, but I'm still not very good with this camera and NO ONE has the patience to sit around while I figure out a setting. So I missed some cute shots. It's annoying that when I use the fully automatic mode, everything looks a little over-exposed. I can't remember much about my high school photography classes and settings to use. I got a few poses out of the kids though.

For much more beautiful pictures of the tower and gardens, go to the site. They've got some great ones.

Thanks for suggesting this, Mom. Don't know if we'll go back....it was 39 bucks for the whole family. Why does everything have to cost so much? :)

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween with great weather. We had Justin the Rocker in his maroon leather pants. Ian the pirate skeleton, Emily the girl from Camp Rock in her shiny silver outfit, Garrett Indiana Jones, and Owen Buzz Lightyear. They all looked great and had a lot of fun. We crashed a friend's house just as they were leaving so we got to trick or treat with them in their neighborhood. It was fun and the weather was absolutely perfect!! The kids even got occasional rides on their golf cart and the older kids got to go for another hour or so after the younger kids were done.

A few pictures

Here's Emily before she got her cast off. She would swim with her arm all wrapped in plastic bags and keep her arm up out of the water. Here she's riding on Daniel's back, resting her arm on his head.

Pretty Emily and her new haircut. Not sure if she's in love with it though, since we don't make it super cute every day. But I think she looks really cute!

Goof Balls.