"Remember When" & Winter Haven

On Sunday, we spent a lot of the day in Winter Haven. On the drive down, we listened to a flashback top 30 country countdown from 2004. The number one song was "Remember When" by Alan Jackson. It is probably my favorite song of all time. I shushed the kids and sang along. Then, I realized how my perspective has changed since that song came out. In February 2004, I was in my final months of law school. I had just married Thomas and our whole life was in front of us. The song symbolized the start of my adulthood. I identified most with the initial verses, particularly the line, "remember when, 30 seemed so old, now looking back, it's just a stepping stone to where we are, where we've been, said we'd do it all again. Remember When..." At the time, 30 was still a few years away, but for some reason, I just loved that line. Well, I loved the whole song. But, I remember thinking, that yes, at one time 30 did seem old, but now it is just around the corner. And, I liked thinking of it as a stepping stone from my past to my future. It made me excited for my future with Thomas. I thought that one day, "the sound of little feet (will be) the music, we dance to week to week". It was all in front of us and I couldn't wait!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about that song over the past week. I hear it regularly, I actually have a jewelry box that plays the melody. But, I haven't thought about the words in a long time. And, I realized that now 30, and 40(!) have come and gone. We are still dancing to the sound of little feet. But, they are getting a lot bigger. We have experienced challenges I never anticipated. But, I am still so glad to be living this life with Thomas. I am so thankful for the love I feel for him, likely more than I imagined in 2004. I don't yet completely relate to the final verse: "Remember when, we said when we turn gray, when the children grow up and move away, we won't be sad, we'll be glad, for all the life we've had and we'll remember when." But, I thought about how in another 16 years, that will be my life. The children will all be grown and out of the house and I don't want to be sad, I want to be thankful for all the moments I am currently living. It is a good reminder for me to enjoy this stage of life. I tend to get so frustrated at the little things and I need to remind myself that this is just another short phase; it goes so quickly. I was shocked when I realized that the song came out more than 15 years ago. I "remember when" it was released so vividly. I imagine the next 15 will pass in much the same manner.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. On Sunday, we drove to my dad's house and had lunch with him. We played Spoons, ate pizza and chatted. Kim and Kevin came by to see us and Luke spent a few hours talking to "Hey Google." At one point, he came up to Thomas and whispered, "Dad, you might want to cover your ears." When Thomas asked why, he said, "because I am going to tell Hey Google to turn on the fire alarm." Thankfully, Google doesn't know that command! We had a really nice visit.

Then, we headed to Marta's house for dinner. Matt, Cristin and George were also there. The only one missing was Elizabeth. We had a good time with them. It is so nice to be able to spend time with our Florida family and it is why we moved here. I look forward to many more similar visits!

And, in other random news, the weather has been really nice lately. On Monday (President's Day), Jack, Kara and I finally set out to find the elusive Lake Nona. It was a short bike ride from our house and was really pretty. It is nice to be spending time outside in "winter". It makes up for it (a little) that it is too hot to be outside in summer.

Volunteering and Kara is 11!

Last Sunday, the girls and I had our first volunteer hours scheduled at the Give Kids the World Village. We were signed up for the breakfast shift, which required getting up around 6:15. We got assigned to tray duty, which basically entailed handing people trays and silverware and carrying things for them as necessary as they made their way through the breakfast lines. Anna is a little shy, so it was hard for her to go up to people and offer her help. I obviously had no trouble and Kara did pretty good. She liked finding smaller kids and assisting them through the line. Anna also did fine, but I usually had to volunteer her (e.g. "my daughter Anna here is going to be your personal assistant..."). I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I am an introvert, but it is easy for me to make small talk and it is a happy place. The families were all getting breakfast before heading out to do super fun Orlando things. And, breakfast was awesome. They had a waffle station, omelets, pancakes, yogurt, oatmeal, cereal. Pretty much any breakfast food you can think of, plus--an ice cream station! We saw lots of people getting milkshakes. So, naturally, everyone is pretty happy. Obviously, the food is donated for the families, so they are very strict that volunteers cannot eat any of it. But, they did have some pancakes in the breakroom that were delicious.

My goal is at least once a month for 2020, but even though it was fun, I don't love it. I feel like they already have tons of volunteers. When we were there, there was a group of college students up for the weekend with the sole purpose of volunteering. There are also people who plan a volunteer vacation. And, lots of other large groups. So, I just don't feel needed, and I kind of want to be someplace where they actually need volunteers. Well, they do need them at GKTW, but they have plenty of willing and able volunteers, you have to sign up months in advance for some positions! Regardless, I will still do a minimum of 12 sessions this year.

at GKTW

Kara's birthday was Wednesday. The big 11. I teleworked so that I could go to the school and have lunch with her and Luke. It is a lot different than it was having lunch with them at their Maryland school. You have to sit at tables in the lobby, you can't actually go in the lunchroom. And, there isn't a lot of space, and it all has to be prearranged, so we don't do it very often. But, I don't think we've ever missed a birthday at school, either Thomas or I always find a way to make it. Well, until this year when Jack and Anna started middle school and it's no longer allowed. But, this blog isn't about them.

So, I was home and started my telework at 6am. Then, I took an hour break and brought everyone to Dunkin Donuts so Kara could pick out donuts for her class and the other kids could pick one out as well. Donuts are the current trend in 5th grade. After I go them off to school, I worked a bit more and then walked to the school. I love being so close! We had a nice lunch and enjoyed chatting. I really appreciate that my job has some flexibility that makes it all possible.

Kara's chosen meal was lil' smokies (two years in a row!) and BLT's. It was super simple, so we were able to make it happen on a school/work day. She asked for a whoopie pie cake and I found a recipe online; it was delicious! Since we are holding firm on small birthdays thanks to the Disney passes, her only gift from us was a Harry Potter book--The Artifact Vault. Luke and Anna got her a fitbit type watch and Jack got her a Harry Potter cookbook. I think she had a good day.

Her cake was delicious, but total mom fail--we didn't have candles! 

Birthday Celebrations

Since moving to Florida and buying all kinds of annual passes, we have not been celebrating birthdays in the traditional way. Well, I guess in part we do. We still have cake and a birthday meal. But, instead of a party or big gift (their choice when we lived in Maryland), here, when it is your birthday, you get to choose a theme park and then dictate the day.

Anna wanted to go to Busch Gardens, but we convinced her to wait until the weather was nice. To reward her for her patience, we decided to go on a day when crowds are very light--which meant pulling the kids out of school. We haven't done that yet this year, at least not for something fun, so we figured one day was okay. We went on Monday, February 3rd, a mere 4 months after her actual birthday. (whoops!) We arrived at park opening and went straight to Cobra's Curse--a family favorite. We ended up riding it 5 times that day! Anna rode all the roller coasters, most of them multiple times, which I think was her birthday goal. We pretty much could just walk on whatever ride we wanted. It was very fun. We also saw a lunch time doo wop show and a pretty amazing ice skating show. Luke rode the log flume 5 or 6 times and absolutely loved it. They have two really cool playground areas, they are multi-level, with climbing nets, crawl tubes, and rope mazes. All the kids enjoyed running around. We ended up leaving around 3 and had an easy drive home. The day was amazing and a huge success and I wish we could skip school and work more often!

We loved the Sesame Street topiaries

The birthday girl!

Today, Saturday, February 8th, we celebrated Kara's birthday. She chose the Magic Kingdom. We got there at opening and went straight to Space Mountain. We were on and off in about 15 minutes. By the time we got off, the line was probably around an hour. And, by mid-afternoon it was over 2. We rode several rides in the first 2 hours and then our fast passes started. We had lunch and spent about an hour on Tom Sawyer's Island. The wait times were crazy by now, for example, 80 minutes for Haunted Mansion. I remember when February was a slow month! But, Kara had planned perfectly and we did all our rides during the first two hours plus our three fast pass rides (Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder and Peter Pan). After that, we got ice cream and did the show-type attractions: Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress and Monster's Inc. We left around 5 and had a relaxing night at home. It was a nice day.

On a funny note, Anna and I were both wearing Hollywood Elementary shirts. I teased her that we were twins and thought she might go change, but she went with it.

Luke was nervous, but has gained some bravery since the last time he rode. He loved it!

They look a little nervous...

My favorite ride photos come from Haunted Mansion

A nice family photo.

It's been a fun weekend. Friday night we went to Sea World. We bought the dining plan, so it is nice to go, have dinner and walk around for a couple of hours. They are having their version of Food and Wine and we got a special dessert--Cheesecake in a cone. It was pretty good and we look forward to trying more items. There was an amazing sunset and I had fun trying to get a good picture.

In random news, Luke got picked for Rocker of the Week. He was the first boy picked when school started (his teacher alternates between boys and girls) and was the first picked after everyone had their turn. It was a fun week for him. He got to bring in items for their estimation jar (fun sized M&Ms, there were 32 and he said guesses ranged from 5 to over 100), an item for show and tell, and his favorite book. He is really doing amazing in kindergarten.