the Keys, the dock and special places

Do you have a special place?  A place where you feel most calm and peaceful?  A place where you can go or envision yourself when the world becomes too busy and crazy?  When I took Lamaze class years ago, they had us envision our peaceful place (instead I opted to meet with the anesthesiologist!)  When I took yoga class years ago, they had us meditate on our calm place (I was just trying my best not to get tied up in knots!).  But I do know where my special place is.  Back before I had my daughter, I used to visit the Florida Keys two or three times every year with my family and friends.  Those were some of my favorite times!  But, I always remember starting out our mornings having coffee on the dock and planning out our day.  And then in the afternoons, sitting out there waiting for the boats to come in to see what everyone caught.  Finally, later at night having dinner and telling stories out there until we got tired and drifted off to bed.  

This dock has seen some sights!  If you ask any one of my friends, they would be glad to tell you about the time that we had been out catching lobsters ALL DAY LONG, and when we finally got back, I jumped off the boat, and straight off the dock- right into the water- in front of everyone!  They will also tell you about the time that my brother saw some ducks "fighting" on the dock.  (Yeah, it was a boy and girl duck and they were so NOT fighting!)  After not being able to make it down to the Keys for nearly 9 years, I got to have my coffee on the dock yesterday morning.  

And this time, it was with my daughter! 

Welcome to my special place!

 

Florida Living Can Be a Little, um...

My daughter and I were cleaning out the garage last night and she spotted a palmetto bug in a box.  I sprayed it.  It didn't die.  Then it brought a friend and chased us throughout the garage screaming and spraying!  My left ear is still ringing from the squeals!  Some neighbors were walking by and had a good laugh (I hope they didn't post a YouTube video!)  
Florida may be a beautiful paradise, but be warned, we do have giant, flying bugs!

Also, today while driving home from church, there was a bit of a traffic jam.  No, it was not started by a tourist, but these:

Sandhill Crane Family

Only in Florida, people, only in Florida!

It's Love Bug Season!

It's Love Bug Season!  Those people who have ever lived in Florida or visited Florida around May, know that I am definitely not talking about an old Disney movie when I say that it is love bug season!

They know that I am talking about actual bugs.  I really do feel sorry for the bugs.  They are harmless little black flying bugs just trying to get their hump on.  (They are usually joined together with another bug when you see them)  I read that they are attracted to fumes from cars and that is why they hang out near highways catching their deaths.  There are also many rumors about love bugs having been genetically created by USF in order to control the mosquito population, but that turns out to be untrue.  Besides, they don't even eat mosquitoes.  Click the link for more info. about them.  LINK

After a long drive this morning, I came home with my car just covered in them.  At one point it was like driving through a love bug storm!  When you spray and swish your windshield wipers, they do not come off, they just leave streaks all over it.  So, I have been googling (again) how to get them off of your car and learned that if you don't remove them after about 24 hours, then their little bodies become acidic and can ruin the paint on your car.  I also learned that there is someone right here in Florida who invented a special spray to remove them.  I think I am going to run out and get some.  I only have 10 hours left!

Fill In Friday

This week seemed sooooo loooong! Even though I only worked 4 days, it still took a lot out of me. I guess that is normal for this part of the year leading up to spring break. There is just so much trying to bring me down, that sometimes I feel like I am literally weighed down with it all. I am just trying to keep my priorities in line and have a little fun every day. Like now, with my Fill in Friday questions~

1) I can’t help it, but every time I see _my daughter, the water, or my daughter in the water____ I smile. I am such a Florida girl! Just spotting the bay as I am driving along in my car makes me smile.

2) Every time I smell _vinegar and Old Bay_____ I am immediately transported back to my childhood. Even though I am a Florida girl at heart, I was born in Maryland, which means that I could pick and eat a blue crab on my own from the time I was 4 years old! My birthday is in the early fall which is when you can get the best crabs, so my parents would always throw a crab feast on my birthday and steam up a bushel of blue crabs. The smell of them cooking in vinegar and Old Bay always brings back memories- and makes my stomach growl!
3) When I was little I wanted to be a __Teacher________. I always think it is funny that I always wanted to be a teacher since I was in the 2nd grade, and that is what I am!
4) If I had to eat only one meal for the rest of my life it would be _ice cream_____. That was about the only thing that I wanted to eat when I was pregnant with my daughter. Nothing else looked good or tasted good~ only ice cream. I would not count that as a weird pregnancy craving though, since I have loved ice cream all of my life! I love chocolate peanut butter the best, with orange ambrosia as a runner up.

rusty swingsets and getting older

Remember the little aluminum swing set you had when you were a kid? You know, the one that jumped up out of the ground when you swung too high? The one with the two swings, teeter totter and slide attached? Like any good mom, I got one for my little one when she was about 3. Now that she is turning 8, I think it might be time for an upgrade. You see, hers is very rusty and home to a multitude of spider webs and lizards (I am too embarrassed to even use my own picture here!) I was thinking that instead of getting another swing set, we should get something a little more exciting this time. 
My backyard is very tiny, so I only have a very small area to work with.  I started doing some research, and I came across the idea of a tee pee, which would be so cool!  I also saw an idea for just putting a giant rock in your yard. It reminded me of when I was a kid and would go to my grandmother's house. My favorite thing to do was to walk up to the top of the street and play on these two giant rocks with all the neighborhood kids. We were drawn to that thing like it was magnetic (maybe it was!) Now the only problem I have is where to find a giant rock in Florida!

pollen season

Even though we can't measure the passing of the months here in Florida by the seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall; we do have different sort of seasons. We have lovebug season, when you can't walk anywhere without ingesting one of these small black bugs. We have snowbird season, when the northerners come down for a visit and test our driving skills by not using their blinkers, and driving slowly in all of the left lanes. We have a season in the summer where you stay inside, unless there has just been a thundershower, because it is just too hot. And we have pollen season. During pollen season, it looks absolutely beautiful outside, but do not be deceived. Even if you do not have allergies, you can find yourself sneezing and itching your eyes. Since I have allergies and asthma, I have to be extra vigilant in the pollen war. After I have been outside, I have to wash my face, hair and squirt out my nose with this big horrible squirter. Hot. I also had to break down and turn on the air conditioner, even though it is really nice outside. The good thing is, as all Floridians know, as soon as it rains, all the pollen washes down from the trees, and it then is OK to go out again. So, for now, I will be sitting on my couch in the air conditioning watching the Real Housewives re-runs, and waiting for the rain so I can go outside again!

Flip Flops and Winter Coats or please don't hate us cuz we're cold

Tonight I am going to give you the cold, (and I mean cold), hard truth about Floridians and wintertime. 
We do know that we sound like wimps because we are crying about the 40 degree weather. 
And we do know that it is, like 14 degrees where you live up north- 2 with the wind chill (what the heck is that?!) 
We know that you would trade places with us in a minute, 
BUT... you have one thing that we don't: SUPPLIES. Here is the truth. We are SURPRISED every year when winter comes here. It is 85 degrees or warmer 340 days of the year here, so when it all of a sudden goes from 85 to 40 (and it drops overnight!), we say "what the heck!?" and don't know what to do. First of all, our only choice of footwear down here are flip-flops, so our toes turn into little ice pops! Second of all, we have no winter coats, all we have are Gap hoodies, and they just don't cut it when the temperature falls below 65. Third, we don't own ice scrapers. God forbid we get a little ice on our car.  True story- the daughter of a friend of mine found an ice scraper in her glovebox and thought it was a comb. We don't even own gloves so our fingers could definitely get frostbite. I can only ever find one glove in the bottom of the sock drawer on the few days of the year that I actually need them! One of the strangest things is that all of our little trees and plants in our yards shrivel up and just DIE if we don't cover them up on cold nights- our yards look like they are full of ghosts! So you can see that Florida winters can be cold and tough on us, so thank God they only last about 3 weeks. I don't think we would last much longer than that!