Our daily routine...

I know I just updated you only a few days ago, but if I don't post pictures often, the girls might grow up before we get back and no one would recognize them. 

We are finally falling into a slight routine around here.  We have gotten used to getting up and getting out so that house keeping can come in.  As luxurious as it sounds, it's a little difficult getting three kids fed and out the door when there is really no destination.  So we have opted to skip the royal house keeping treatment to just stay in our pajamas a few mornings. 

But, on a normal day, we begin with morning devotions and breakfast. Then it's off to the gym, then maybe a walk to the supermarket. Then we have a snack, take a dip in the pool and back to the room for lunch. 

My competition!

We break up the afternoon with a few games in the game room and then it's to the pool before a nice afternoon nap.

If the girls are lucky, they can catch a swim with a couple of the hotel guests that they have befriended. Pictured above are Isabelle, Lucy from England, Macky and Bridget from the Netherlands.  Sarah, on the left was taking a break from swimming and visiting me by the waterfall hot tub. 

By this time, Mike is due home from work.  We may head back to the gym with him for a quick workout, then it's off to dinner.  We enjoy walking to one of the many restaurants near our hotel.  We've been to Pizza Hut, Sweet Tomatoes (Souplantation out west), Olive Garden, Chevy's and Kobe Steak House.  Then it's usually back to the pool or the super hot jacuzzi before bed. 

 

We've even enjoyed the late afternoon and evening thunderstorm from our balcony.  I'm not sure the word "enjoyed" is accurate when speaking of the girls, but Mike and I sure like the weather. 

A huge bit of good news is that Mike's company has given us the go ahead on finding more permanent housing.  Due to Florida's interesting Tourist Tax laws, we've had a bit of grief finding a place to rent for less than 12 months.  However, after much prayer and faith, we have a lead and are going to look at two possible homes this evening that would allow for any of our wonderful family and friends to come and stay with us should they be interested (hint, hint). 

Until the next chance I get to post, God bless!

We have arrived...

I know it's been a bit since I last posted, but this jet lag is killing me.  I can barely form a sentence in my mind, let alone put it down in writing.  So I will attempt to give a quick recap of the last week without boring you stiff. 

We had two wonderful flights on Wednesday.  We left Carlsbad at 5:55 am and all three girls were thrilled to experience flight.  Mackenzie had a dim recollection of flying, Isabelle had no memory and Sarah has never flown, so this was very exciting.  We then landed at LAX and had a short 2 hour lay over which allowed us to grab a bite at Starbucks and easily make our way to our gate where we settled in for our 5 hour flight to Orlando. 

Again, we had a wonderful flight.  The girls were well behaved and enjoyed watching a movie, eating the many snacks that I brought along and playing with all the buttons and compartments that are found in and around the seats of an airplane.  I had taken some pictures, but in my jet lagged state, I somehow erased  them. 


We were again blessed when we arrived in Orlando because according to Mike there were thunderstorms all around us, yet no part of our flight was delayed or diverted.  We walked off the plane, went right to baggage claim, retrieved our luggage and stepped out to the curb where Mike arrived within 10 minutes.  It was awesome. 

Goofing around at the hotel.

We spent the first few days relaxing at the hotel. There are two pools, a gym that the girls surprisingly enjoy as well as a game room that has various video games and air hockey. We have spent most of our time in the pool, but I did drag the girls down to the Winn Dixie one of the days. It turned out to be about a 2 mile walk and it was plenty warm but since we had just finished listening to the book "Because of Winn Dixie" which is about a dog that is named Winn Dixie, I was able to get the kids to keep going. I think they were hoping that they just might see a dog running around the produce department. 

It didn't hurt that there is an ice cream shop in the same parking lot.  This photo prompted the woman watching me take the picture to tell me that I would have my hands full when they get a little older.  Yeah, you think? 

On our walk we ate breakfast at an IHOP, visited one of the many Disney gift shops that are located on just about every corner, and we visited this nice man who allowed us to hold and take pictures with his parrots. Definitely a highlight for the girls. Sarah did hold the little parrot, but I couldn't get her to hold it for a picture.

We have had to eat out a lot because a mini fridge and microwave don't allow for many gourmet meal preparations. After eating out on Friday we took the girls miniature golfing for the first time. We had an absolute blast! Isabelle got a hole-in-one on the fourth hole that earned her a free round of golf on her next visit! 

Everyone say, "ARRRR". 

We've had a nice relaxing weekend so far.  We also took a few hours looking into rental homes. We haven't been given the go ahead on moving out of the hotel into more permanent housing yet, but as soon as we get the green light we want to get out! The trick is finding a property owner that is willing to allow us to sign a short term lease. This might be tricky. We are just praying and waiting.  I have faith that when it's time to go, the house that we are to move into will be available.  We also visited the First Baptist Church of Windemere this morning and the girls really enjoyed themselves. I was encouraged to hear they have a homeschooling ministry that meets once a month!  That might be a nice option for me and the girls. 

I will try and blog again soon and now that I am feeling a bit more rested, I'll be sure to load up on pictures.  We have plans to visit Disney World this Saturday, so that is exciting!!  Until then, we miss you all and would love to hear from you.  God bless. 

And away we go...

It is amazing how quickly the week between blog posts passes.  I feel as though I just posted yesterday, yet here I am trying to review almost an entire week in my head.  So let me begin with exciting news.  I have officially purchased tickets for the girls and me to fly back to Orlando!!!   Mike was given the go-ahead by his company late last week and after a few prayers and a few phone calls, Mike told me he would like the girls and me to be there before next weekend, so Wednesday is the day!  We are very excited and nervous and happy all rolled into one.  But before I let my mind wander to all the plans that I must make in the next few days, I will go back and tell you about our last week.   

We started out the week with a visit from Nanny as usual, but this week we went for a swim at the pool. We are so blessed to have such a nice, close community pool to use whenever it is open.

After missing a beach trip on Tuesday because our lack of sleep was a direct reflectin of our lack of manners, we opted to hit the local pool again, but this time with our FNF's. 

The next day, we geared up and headed for the World Famous San Diego Zoo!

I let Macky and Isa each pick a friend to join us.  We had a fabulous time!

 

We started out at the Children's Zoo where Isabelle befriended a very sedate lizard.  There are actually quite a few bronzed critters hiding all over the zoo, but this was the first one we saw and it almost fooled her.  After leaving the Children's Zoo we headed for the hippos where we were fortunate enough to see a huge mama hippo using her sweet baby hippo as a pillow underwater.  Mama's head was actually out of the water, but every so often Baby's head would slowly rise and just his two little nostrils would break the water's surface for a breath of fresh air. 

Next, we were onto Polar bear Plunge and Elephant Odyssey.  We narrowly missed a few arrows from some of the natives in that part of the park.  Here is one showing us her straight teeth. 

 










I purposely left out the insect house that we visited for fear we might actually retain some of the memories and never be able to sleep again.  But we did at least take this cute shot before running for our lives away from the four inches stick bugs, three inch roaches and some sort of tarantula that was the size of a salad plate!

We finished up the week with the best part of all.  Daddy!  Mike flew home late Thursday night after being delayed in Orlando due to a typical evening thunderstorm.  This delay caused him to miss his connecting flight from LAX to Carlsbad, but he was able to rent a car and drive the last leg home.  The girls woke up this morning to Daddy having a cup of coffee!  Ahh, just like it should be.

Mike was willing to join us for a time at our usual Friday park play date.  The poor guy was so tired after being up almost 24 hours trying to get home that he pulled up a piece of shade to try and rest a before heading off to play soccer with the guys.  He was of course shortly joined by Sarah and few other children from our play group, but seriously, how could they resist a daddy on the ground?

Mike will fly out early Monday morning which will give me two whole days to tie up any loose ends, complete the laundry mountain that usually reaches it's peak by Sunday afternoon and pack for an undetermined amount of time away.  I believe I have my work cut out for me.   Hopefully  my next blog will take place from a hotel in Orlando, Florida, across from the entrance to Disney World!!!

Until then, in the words of the alien toys from Toy Story, "We are eternally grateful."  Thank you for sharing this journey with us.  I really feel that God has stepped out before us and that He will choose our path and we will do all that we can to glorify Him. 

One week down....

I can finally look at my one week calendar and the day that said, "take Daddy to the airport" is finally out of view. Although it's felt like many weeks it has only been one.  Mike had quite a busy and educational first week.  The work before him will be challenging, but he is enjoying over-seeing the plans to get this project off the ground.  We still don't know what will come in the next few weeks and whether or not this adventure will be six months or just a two week vacation, but either way, it's exciting waking up each day watching what the Lord has in store.

Mike is still enduring those mid-afternoon thunderstorms and from the sounds of it, they are very impressive.  He said it's like walking or driving through a curtain.  One side of the street is flooded and there is a downpour, but the other side of the street is bone dry.  Here is a Doppler picture of one of the bigger storms that Mike was in the middle of this week.  You can see Orlando is in the center of the bright red portion.

Mike was able to take the trip down to visit our wonderful friends the Dobbins this weekend.  Even though Florida doesn't have a state tax, they collect plenty of money at the many toll roads that run through the state.  The largest toll Mike ran into so far was $13 and he learned the hard way that you have to carry cash on you whenever you plan on driving any where. 
Mike said seeing Bay and Teri and the boys reminded him of being home and he really missed it.  But that was forgotten temporarily when he and Bay revisited their days of bachelorhood and had a crazy exciting night, as you can see.  The only thing that was missing was Gunnar.   

The girls and I have been busy running around as usual.  The girls love to participate in summer reading programs and they had completed as much reading as the library required in order to receive prizes, so we cashed in on Thursday.

Sarah and Isabelle are in the same reading age group so they received the same prizes, but Macky, being older, received the coveted rocket launcher and you can see the resulting mayhem.

Yes, she was aiming for their caboose's. 

On Friday, we headed over to one of our favorite San Marcos parks; Snake Head park as we have nick named it.  These are some of the crazy kids that roam that neck of the woods.

A highlight of our weekend was going to the new San Marcos Cost Co. and meeting one of our favorite local celebrities, Sam the Cooking Guy.  He signed a few books for us and was a pleasure to talk with.  He is as funny and personable in person as he is on his show. 

On Sunday, our favorite neighbors friends (FNF for short) dedicated their beautiful boy, Keiji.  This gave the girls and I a good excuse to visit our old church, Maranatha Chapel San Marcos.  It's such a blessing that whenever we visit, it feels like going home.  We so dearly love all the families that attend here. 

The great news is Mike will be flying home this Thursday night and get to spend a three day weekend with us! We can't wait to get our hands on Daddy and make him some of his favorite meals. 

Thank you for all your prayers and I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon.  God Bless! 

Just Pluggin' Along.

This is Mike's fourth day in Florida and he is settling in nicely. He has begun working at one of the Disney corporate offices and started holding meetings and interviews with the employees that he will be working with in order to get some part of Disney's computer system up and running. Mike has been put in a very interesting position and I am excited to see how God works through him. Please pray the Lord would give Mike wisdom and discernment while working on a project that needs some major adjustments. 

He is slowly getting used to the afternoon thunderstorms that come out of no where and interrupt his evening jog whether it be for exercise or across a parking lot to dinner.  When I am speaking to him on the phone there is a strange buzz on the other end if there happens to be a lightening storm going on. 

 

Some pictures that I haven't been able to post due to them being far too small to appreciate are the beautiful gray, cloudy skies with blue peeking through right as a thunderstorm is on it's way in or out of town.  And because Disney is so prevalent, there are huge power line trusses that are shaped in a giant Mickey Mouse head. 

It's business as usual around here.  We have been trying to keep busy in order to take our minds off of Daddy being away.  Each girl has had her moment where she is in tears because she misses him.  I've let each of them have a sleep over in my bed so finally tonight I'll be able to keep the light on a little later than 8:30 pm. 

We've made home-made pizza,...

walked to the park, ...

completed the grocery shopping and...

celebrated 7-eleven's birthday with free Slurpees. 

But mostly we are just lying around, enjoying the summer and this perfect San Diego weather. 

We'll make it to Florida one of these days. 

 

And he's off...

The first leg of this journey has begun.  Mike has been safely delivered to the airport and is about to take off on his flight that will bring him to Orlando, Florida.  Now if only the girls and I could secure our departure time, I'd feel a bit better.  We took most of the weekend to get Mike's affairs in order, pack, and spend a bunch of time just being together.

Here he is packing enough clothes to last 5 weeks or 5 months....
It's so easy for boys.  He's got "work clothes" and "others".  I mean really, it's just not fair.


 

Here is Sarah underwater at our local pool.  We went swimming with our play group while Mike went down and played soccer with the guys. 

We went and watched Mike play soccer with his co-ed team.  He's going to miss soccer!

More pictures of soccer.

In case you weren't aware, my kids are ham bones!  They will pose for a picture any time the camera comes out of my purse.  So here are some from the soccer field. 

Sarah giving herself bunny ears!

Isabelle in jail.  Doesn't she look pathetic. 

I must ask that you all be patient with my ramblings over the next few weeks.  While Mike is in Orlando and we are here in San Diego, this will be a great place for him to stay in touch.  So you will probably see a few more day to day postings rather than the usual Florida updates. 

We are off to church.  Happy Sabbath!