wow, where do i begin?? it's been a long couple days since i last posted...it's been long mainly because we stay at home all day long, cause i just don't know where to go! we do go and venture outside every once in a while...but would you believe that 2 days this week, it was just too hot to be out for very long...i started sweating!! the weather here is
friggin' crazy...it's been in the high 70's, low 80's for a couple days, and then today we awoke to 50 degree temps. which, believe me...i would have taken 50 degrees
any day in
january in
kansas, but here...it's just plain cold. people showed up to church with their winter coats on...crazy folk. and, to top everything off, last night we were under severe weather watches all night...tornado watches too...yup, tornadoes...i guess i can't escape those. but, we were wondering what you do if there is a tornado, cause there are no basements!! yikes! anyways,
friday night we decided to go to the "mall of
millenia"...supposedly this luxurious,
upper scale mall here in
orlando...we needed to get out, and that sounded interesting! but first, i needed to pick up some pictures that i had printed at
ritz photo...well, we plugged the
addy into our GPS and headed towards
ritz...if you've ever drove in
orlando, you know that there are tolls EVERYWHERE...you can't get on a freeway without paying a toll...so, when we got to the exit, we accidentally took the wrong turn, and ended up getting back onto the freeway...heading the wrong direction...and heading towards yet another toll. well we didn't want to pay the toll AGAIN, so we decided to go through the side that said "south-no toll"...we thought we were being so smart, and we would head through that, and then get off at the first exit, and turn back around and find
ritz...only, the next exit wasn't for 6 MILES...yup, 6
friggin' miles! so, we drove the very
looooong 6 miles, and got off at the very first exit, and guess what we had to do...PAY A FREAKING TOLL! and to get back on the freeway...pay another freaking toll!! can you believe that? we thought we were being so smart by going through that exit, but instead, it took us an extra 12 miles, and an extra $2!! what a rip! then, once we got to the address, we couldn't find it...we drove around this one parking lot for like 30 minutes or so...so, we decided to stop and eat there, rather than driving to the mall to eat...and after that, we headed back in search for
ritz...finally finding it...only to be told that my order was not there, and if it was something i ordered online, that it would be across the street at the
ritz pix in the mall. (not the mall we were planning on going too, but hey). so, 2 hours after heading out of our house, we ended up at a mall...but not the mall we were trying to get too...it was quite an eventful/stressful trip...i still love you
keith :)
saturday morning, i made a trip to the local grocery store and spent way too much money...the super
wal-mart is opening down the street sometime this month, so we have to go to the store, and spend way too much money on things that we can get for a lot cheaper at wally world. oh, i can't wait for it to open!
last night, i stayed up late and
scrap booked! oh, it felt so good to be creative yet again...bummer for you all though, cause
i'm submitting these pages to a contest, so i can't show them until after it's over! :( but, i do love these pages...
i'm super proud of them!
we went to "summit" church this morning...this church is HUGE! they have 3 services, and have bought out an old movie theatre...they use every theatre for different things...it's really quite interesting, the way they have
renovated it...anyways,
i'm a church snob, and it's very hard for me to be impressed, cause i have high expectations, but i was somewhat pleased with this one. they had an awesome kids program, and that means a lot...we're going to try something closer to home next week (this one was about 30 minutes away)...but, we live out in the boonies, so a lot of stuff is that far away! there are some churches just right down the street, so we'll start checking those out. i met a lady at church today...and it turns out she just lives right down the street from us, and her husband works at
CRU as well! so, we exchanged info, and she's going to be in contact with me about some play groups and stuff like that...i need some connection, so this is great!
well, it seems like a lot longer, but we have officially been here for a week now. i already miss my family and friends so much that it hurts! it's hard for me to hear about what's going on back "home"...i so want to be there, and hanging out. it's just such a weird feeling...to know you're not a part of that anymore. it doesn't seem real quite yet...i still think that
i'm in
kansas...just on a vacation right now. and then it hits me...this is where i am. for good. at least for now. i miss you all...who's coming to visit first???? the guest room is cleaned and ready to go for visitors!
well, i leave you with a picture of my craft space! i got the desk top and legs from
IKEA...the top was only $29.99 and the legs were $5 each. the shelves are $14.99 from
IKEA...the tall, skinny shelf was
clearanced there for $40...and it matches perfectly! and then i just have a
modge podge of other stuff i was using before...but i love the space...it's so much brighter compared to my 'craft dungeon' that i previously had...i love having that huge window right there! this is the other side of our bedroom...so, it's nice to be able to work right there, and have
keith or the kids there too-unless of course you catch them opening your paint bottles and painting your new table. yup, caedmon you're officially a stinker (like you weren't before).
well, have a great night...thanks for stopping by...keep
updating your blogs...i love to read what's going on in your lives :) love you all!
oh my gosh! i haven't seen the internet for 5 friggin' days!! seriously, our dsl was hooked up bright and early monday morning, but we were having connection issues, so it didn't start working until late this afternoon. for real y'all, i never want to be without my love (a.k.a. the internet) again! so, as you can see in the pic...we made it to florida! yeah!!! the drive was a looooooooong one, but none the less we made it. 
it's amazing how slow time can go when you are stuck in the car for 20+ hours...it was probably a good thing that i couldn't get on to blog for a couple days, cause my brain has been so fried...i would probably have typed jibber jabber. so, the road trip. everyone wants to know about how it was, and what more is there to say than: 3 kids. 20 hours. one car. thank goodness that my step-sister came with me, otherwise, it would have been about a 48 hour trip, with all the stops i would have had to make. i so wanted to get out at each "state sign" and take a picture, but when it came down to it...getting to florida an extra 5 minutes later, did not sound very appealing. so instead, we just looked at the signs as we drove quickly past them. it was fine...at least i got the florida pic! now, if i ever thought about complaining about having to be in the van with all of the kids, i just quickly thought about driving this thing:
yah, no thank you. i'll take the van with the screaming children, rather than the 24 ft. u-haul, complete with an infiniti being pulled behind. keith still has a headache from the jiggling he did the whole 1246 miles. the worse part? he couldn't drive over 65 miles per hour. luckily for keith as well, my step-mom's dad, otis, drove with him...that made me at least feel better...ya know? in case anything happened to the u-haul on the side of the road, at least otis would have been there too. BUT, thankfully, nothing happened to either of our transportation...we made it in one piece!! this is a pic of the one nap that the kids took the entire trip. yah, one nap. fun. and comfy, don't you think? my neck has a kink in it, just from looking at this picture. 
here's our little caedmon driving. just kidding. but, isn't he cute?
well, when we arrived to our house, keith's new co-workers were waiting there to help us unload all of our stuff (and there was a lot of stuff!) not only were they there to help, but they had brought bags of grocery items that we may need the first couple of days! how nice was that?? their kindness blew us away...we were definitely so thankful for that! they unloaded the u-haul in less than an hour. now, we have the fun job of sorting through everything, and trying to make this house our "home"...which it won't take long, cause i'm loving it! we went to IKEA last night...and i spent way too much money :) i mean, come on though, i've never lived less than 10 hours away from an IKEA, so of course i'm gonna go crazy! our big purchase was a couch and ottoman...oh, it's a beauty! i love it!! and, i got a desk and shelves and some other goodies for my scrap room!!! yeah!!! so, otis and amy helped today by setting up my table and shelving in my room...i will take pictures soon! it's looking pretty :) well, i have soooooo much more to write, but it's late here, and i've got to get to bed and get some good rest. i am fighting this cold/flu bug...yuck. take care y'all...and thanks for stopping by...i missed you all!!! g-night!
