Pros and Cons

For the past several mornings I have taken the dog for an early walk.  Early for us is 7 am.  I love walking at this time of day and seeing the neighborhood when most people are not out.  Our neighborhood is very nice -- large lots, tons of trees and foliage, every house different and unique as opposed to cookie cutter.  When we were preparing to leave Baltimore, I felt that I was going to miss the variety of plants and trees.  I assumed that down here there were only palm trees.  This was a very wrong assumption.  :)  I love looking at other people's landscaping to see all the different kinds of things they have planted, and in our neighborhood there seems to be a lot of area remaining as it was before the houses were built.

Lest you think it's all fun and contentment here... this morning I saw the second Florida roach in the house.  It was in the drawer under the sink where I keep my hair supplies.  The first roach was on the ceiling in the kitchen, Monday night, and Dan got up on a stepstool to grab it with a wad of paper towels.  This second roach I thought I would get with a wad of toilet paper, but I hesitated out of sheer disgust and terror and the thing scurried away.  UGHHHH.

I found an informative link from the University of Florida that talks about dealing with the roaches (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig082), but unfortunately for the moment we are apparently providing a perfect place for them to live and breed, with all of our boxes sitting around and nice tight dark piles of stuff.  It makes me even more motivated to unpack.

I have not yet told the girls about either of the roaches.

I could be writing about so many other adventures and experiences we are having as transplants to Florida, but you can see I am fixating on these nasty bugs.

Ouch

Seriously, really??

Slow

It does not inspire confidence in Verizon, my internet service provider, that the Verizon website is the slowest website I ever have to access.

Why So Serious?

Rain and traffic that make for over a two hour commute on a Monday morning... not a good way to start the week off.

Waking up to find your three-year-old looking like the Joker is not a good way to start Sunday morning off either. She got into her sister's purse.

It may have been mixed messages for me to take her picture and then scold her and send her to her room...

And here is a random picture of the dog wearing Minnie Mouse ears. Enjoy!

Sometimes I just want to tell people to put on their big girl (or boy) panties and get over themselves.

In other news, yesterday Holly asked me, "Does Jesus have a phone?"

Christmas In July

Overheard Holly singing:

"Jingle bells
Frosty melts
Jingle all the way
Old MacDonald had a farm
And ...unintelligible..."

Unrelated, there are ants all over the counter and the sink in the kitchen. I keep wiping and wiping but the little pests aren't going away. Usually we have two rainy periods a year and ants appear in certain spots around the house, but it's sure not rainy now. Maybe they were driven inside by drought this time?

Ugh

1. It is hot.
2. My truck died.
   
3. I don't have anyone to watch my dog next week while I'm away.
4. It is hot.
   

Winter -- Do Not Like

Woke up this morning, my first day having to go back to work in a week, to a chilly house. The thermostat reads 63 and that's upstairs -- downstairs is usually at least 5 degrees cooler. It appears my boiler is not working. Yay!

At least my state tax refund got deposited so I'll have something to pay the repairman with.

All I Need

Just sayin', if you ever come upon me and I'm listening to "All I Need" by Radiohead, it's a pretty safe bet that I'm under a dark cloud. It's my wallow song.

Now you know!

It's really freaking cold and I hate it.