Welcome Baby Carson!

My sister Katie had her baby girl early Wednesday morning, October 1st. They named her Carson Simone and she weighed 7lbs 11oz. Hudson and I were able to go to the hospital Thursday morning to meet her while Jack and Callie were in school. She is so cute and it also made me realize how fast Hudson has grown up in just 3 months. We are so excited to have a new addition to our extended family and for Hudson to have a cousin his age!

Staycation

A few months ago, we received two promotional fliers in the mail each for one free park hopper ticket to Universal Studios. At the time, we just had the baby so we were not sure if we were going to use them. Then, with the expiration coming up at the end of September, we deicided at the last minute to treat ourselves to mini vacation or "staycation" since we were vacationing in our area. Rob took a half day off last Thursday and we all picked up Jack from school and headed to the Hard Rock hotel--one of the Universal resorts. The florida resident rate for the resort was actually pretty reasonable and if you stay at the resort you automatically get a park express pass which means no waiting in lines and with three young kids that seemed like a necessity. When we arrived at the hotel Thursday afternoon, we headed straight to the hotel pool. Hudson and I relaxed in the shade and Rob and the kids swam and enjoyed the big water slide.





We stayed at the pool until it was almost dark and afterwards ate at one of the hotel restaurants and then went to bed. Overall, the hotel was really nice but loud. There was music playing everywhere you went and a very LOUD live band in the lobby. If we ever stayed there again, I may want to try one of the other resorts for a little bit more peaceful experience.

Jack and Callie loved staying in the hotel and even did great sharing the bed. They also loved their complimentary inflatable guitars that they received when we checked in.
On Friday morning, we woke up early and headed to the parks which was just a ferry ride away. We started at Universal and rode almost everything that the kids were tall enough to ride and took turns waiting with Hudson. Callie had to have a little boost to get to 40 inches which was the height requirement at several of the rides. But her Hello Kitty sandals gave her the extra half inch she needed so she was not left out.

Jack's favorite rides at Universal were Jaws and Men in Black.

He loved getting points shooting all the aliens and was excited that he beat Daddy.
Another favorite of both of them at Universal was the ball factory. A huge area where foam balls are flying everywhere and dropping from the ceiling. The kids loved collecting them and taking them to the second floor and shooting them out of the guns to down below.
Callie collecting balls and sucking them up with the giant vaccuum hose.

Jack with a full bag of balls he collected.

Shooting off the balls at everyone below.

After Universal, we walked next door to Islands of Adventure. First, the kids rode the spiderman ride and met the "real" spiderman which Callie says was her favorite part of the day.

By this time, it was late afternoon and everyone was tired and getting a little cranky. So instead of rushing around, we spent the remainder of the time in Suess land. There the kids got a chance to run around and play, ride the carousel at least a dozen times, and drag Rob on the fish ride where you get soaking wet over and over.


We ended up staying in that area until the park closed because the kids were having so much fun. Even Hudson had a fun day even though he didn't get to participate much.

It turned out that we could not have picked a much better day to be at the parks because it was actually during one of the first "cold" fronts to come through the area so the high was only in the mid 80s and the parks were not crowded at all.

As we were leaving, we still had not had dinner and were debating what to do. I had wanted to try one of the restaurants at a neighboring resort but we knew it was a nicer restaurant and wondered if it would be a place to bring the kids. Well, the hunger and the 12 hour day at the park must have clouded our judgement, because we decided to go. When we got there, we knew we were a tad more underdressed than most of the other diners and one of the handful of families with kids and the only ones brave enough to bring three kids but at that point we were too hungry to take the time and go somewhere else. Also, Rob and the kids were still a little damp from the fish ride. We felt like we were definitely being watched and everytime Jack or Callie would play with their silverware or move it at all, a waiter would come out of nowhere and move the silverware back to exactly perpendicular with the table. The kids actually did ok but were so tired and had a really hard time waiting for the food. Callie finally curled up in her chair and went to sleep. We knew that this was probably frowned upon
and sure enough our waiter found a way to entice Callie to sit up at the table again by constructing a napkin rose and waking her up to give it to her. Callie loved it and stayed sitting up in her chair the rest of the time.


Jack did so good and even ate all his food but he too finally gave into his exhaustion and put his head on the table and went to sleep.

We tried waking him up but had no luck. The sight of him asleep at the table did seem to amuse the other guests or maybe they were just talking about us. Who knows? We survived and it was definitely an experience. After dinner, we drove home and our short but needed vacation was over.

Mail

I remember the days when getting the mail was something I looked forward to and not just a task to do every day. It was fun anticipating what letters or cards you may receive. Now, with email and the internet, the main things that come in our mailbox are bills and junk mail. Recently, while feeding Hudson, I have become very good at browsing the internet one-handed and have signed up(using the great autofill feature on my toolbar) for a lot of free samples and coupons from the various websites I have come upon. Now, all the samples that I have requested over the last few months have started arriving and filling up my mailbox each day. Even though, the samples are not anything spectacular, it is fun to see what shows up and I am now a little excited about getting the mail again. Also, since I only request things that I will use, it is nice to get these things for free. Here is what showed up in my mailbox today:
A roll of toilet paper, a Pampers easy-up with Dora potty training sticker chart, a fiber one bar and fiber one cereal, and Netflix(I know Netflix isn't free but it was nice to see it in the mail today. Right now, I am watching the previous Project Runway seasons on DVD. I got hooked while on bedrest watching last season and I now am catching up.) One place I have found for free samples is on Walmart's website. They always have a good selection of samples and they are always offering new ones.

Labor Day

I was very ready for Labor Day weekend. The week before, Rob was working late every night till 10 or 11 so I was looking forward to not being a single mother anymore and for the kids to see him again. Our friend Greg Dahl and his wife, Lara, were in town from Atlanta for the weekend. On Saturday,we got a last minute babysitter for Jack and Callie, and met them and our friends the Barr's at Disney's Fantasia miniature golf course. It was raining pretty much the whole day but this did not stop the boys from wanting to golf. Lara was a great sport and played in the rain with them. I was happy that I had Hudson as my excuse not to play in the rain and we had fun visiting with Lianne and her baby Ian. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Bahama Breeze. Sunday after church, the Barr's had us over for a BBQ. It was nice to continue visiting with them and the Dahl's. We stayed over way too late talking and our kids got had fun getting into mischief with Adam and Lianne's daughter, Clara -- there was haircutting and big water messes-- but the kids had a blast. Thanks for having us over Adam and Lianne. It was so much fun to see Greg again and to meet Lara. I hope we see them again soon. Labor Day was disappointing. We were supposed to spend the day at my sister's house and were really looking forward getting together with my whole family there. That morning, we got everything packed up and ready to go. On the drive over, Callie, who had not been her usual sunny self that morning, threw up a lot so we turned around and headed back home. It was very sad to see Callie sick and to have to miss out on the fun family day. Callie slept the rest of the day and was feeling much better that evening. I was happy that we had a fun weekend to balance Monday's disappointment.



On Monday, Rob also went and picked up a shipment of food storage that we had ordered a few months ago. I am happy that with this shipment and with Rob canning two weeks ago at the storehouse, we are now finally making a big dent in our year supply. Now, if only we could find a good place to put it all.....

Lastly, here are the latest pictures of Hudson.

Rob's car

Last week, we finally said goodbye to Rob's old Toyota Corolla. He has had the car for the last 9 years and it has served us well. The car was 14 years old and has definitely seen better days. The gas pedal sticks, the car shakes a lot when you go over 50 mph, the windshield had a crack in it and the paint job leaves much to be desired. The paint started fading in the last few years and then it started rusting all over. Rob scraped all the rust off and sprayed it with blue rust protectant which was not the same color blue and it looked liked he spray painted the car--not attractive. However, I think the rust looked worse. While personally driving it rusty, I have had many people make fun of it right in front of me. The last straw was the air conditioning which stopped working last October and Rob has continued driving it 45 minutes to work back and forth which is quite an amazing feat in the Florida heat. I really do not know how he lasted this long. He would come home every day drenched in sweat and would get soaked when it rained since he always had to drive with his window rolled down. We finally decided it was time to let the car go. It was a little sad to see it go since it was always such a great topic of conversation. Rob's coworkers especially loved making fun of the car and it always provided entertainment with all the many things that have gone wrong with it(the trunk that would not open and the door handle that broke off) or its mere appearance. Rob liked to have coworkers guess his car by having them pick out the worse car in the parking lot but they never chose his car because they thought there was no way he drove that. Ahhh the happy memories. We had decided to donate the car but before we had the chance, I on an impulse, decided to list the car for sale on Craigslist out of curiosity to see if we could get anything for it. Within 5 minutes of posting it for sale, we got our first phone call and the person wanted to come that night and get it. While waiting for her to come over, the phone rang off the hook and did not stop ringing until I delisted it 2 hours later. We got about 50 calls in that 2 hour span interested in the car. We were shocked! We were also shocked that the very first call ended up in a sale and the car was paid for and picked up within 2 hours of listing it. This proved to us how amazing the resale value of Toyota's are even in the shape our car was in and I mentioned everything that was wrong with it in my ad. I think it also helped to know a family of mechanics bought the car and were planning on fixing it up for their sister so we are happy to know that it will be fixed up.

Rob now has a new car---another Corolla. I guess we are pretty predictable but we loved how much use we got out of the last one so we had to get another and you can not beat the great gas mileage. So we are hoping this one will last us another 14 years.

School Days

Callie started preschool the first week of school on Thursday and she loves it. She goes twice a week but I think she wishes she went every day. On the days she does not go, she gets very bored because she doesn't have Jack to play with and she ends up following me around.
Jack is still enjoying school especially lunch time. He is now hooked on the cafeteria food. We let him eat there once last week thinking it would be an every once in awhile thing when we saw that they were serving something he liked but now he begs every day to eat the cafeteria food and does not want to bring his lunch anymore. Since Jack is such a picky eater and his packed lunches usually came home mostly uneaten anyways, it is not an all bad thing and we are just glad he is eating something.
While the kids are at school, I just hang out with Hudson and try and get what I can done around the house. I am glad school is back on its regular schedule especially with such a strange first week we had. Now I am just hoping that the storms out in the Atlantic do not head our way again and school can continue uninterrupted.


Callie on her first day of school


Hudson at 2 months

Going Green

The recent "going green" trend has really made me try and be more environmentally conscious. I have been buying organic foods every so often, I have been really good with recycling, and I always keep my eyes open for small changes I can make here and there. Sometimes the whole "going green" idea can be overwhelming and sound really expensive and this is mostly what holds me back from doing more. My next green area I am currently working on is switching to natural household cleaners. As I have been researching natural cleaners, I signed up to receive free products to try out offered by the green office store. I thought this sounded like a good way to be able to test products out so I could find out which products I liked best. I received my first product to try out a few weeks ago. They sent me these Biodegradable Kitchen Trash bags. I liked the idea of the bags that they were biodegradable in a landfill and would not produce harmful chemicals during the process. When I first saw the bags, I thought they seemed thin and was skeptical if they would hold up when they were full of trash. I have been using them for a few weeks and they have held up surprisingly well and have performed just as well as my not so environmentally friendly trash bags. I was also surprised that they are competitively priced with name brand plastic trash bags so would not be a terribly expensive replacement if I decided to start buying them regularly. I hope they keep sending me products and hopefully I can start to integrate more green products into my life.