Monday, January 28, 2008

A Belated Christmas Gift

As part of our Christmas gift to my step-mother this year, we gave her a ticket to SeaWorld.  The ticket had a bonus to it – she could go back another day for free.    David (husband,) Alexis and I also got Annual passes as part of our Christmas.  So… Alexis and I took Grandmum to see Shamu and all the other animals twice in one week.  



Alexis is excited to get through Sea World's Entrance Gate
A beautiful McCaw Parrot perched new the entrance of the park.
1st show we saw - Clyde and Seamore - Very Cute!
Penguin Encounter - It seemed these penguins were posing for the camera!

A Cuckooboroug outside the Penguin Encounter. 
On the way inside Shark Encounter - We encountered a Blow-fish.
We also encountered these Australian Leafy Sea Dragons.  Can you see them?
You can' go through Shark Encounter without watching sharks swim overhead...
It's hard to capture the awesome beauty of this gorgeous Clydesdale when he's behind bars.  :-(

A bonus that we weren't expecting - The Polar Express Attraction was still set up at the Wild Arctic.
Sleeping Polar Bears
The Polar Express attraction was enjoyable.  It even had the scent of Christmas!
Outside Wild Arctic
New since we were last yere - Shamu's Happy Harbor has rides!
A Dolphin at the Blue Horizons
More Dolphins

Alexis took this pic - Great shot!
Pets Ahoy - One of our favorites!  This dog is jumping rope with the girl!
Alexis petting a dolphin for the 1st time...
Alexis and Grandmum feeding a dolphin.

Me petting a dolphin.  Thieving birds grabbed the fish I was trying to feed it...
Notice the Bubble Ring?  It was truly a unique surprise!
Peaceful looking manitee
Baby American Alligators relaxing in the sun.

Grandmum and Alexis preparing to board the Flamingo paddle boats

Photos of ducks were taken while I waited them to finish the paddle boat rides.

This picture reminds me of one of our favorite "Five in a Row" books, Ping!

A Kodak moment...

Another Kodak moment - Doesn't Alexis look tall standing on a rock?

Note:  These posts are being added to a new blog in 2011 - This was one of the last times we were able to see the trainers swim with the killer whales.  It is an amazing site, and although above all we want the trainers to stay safe, we really miss this interactive show.
The trainer was giving this whale a little snack.

A little blurry, but wow!  Spectacular!
This might feel good in the summer, but not in January!  Look at the powerful splash made by the whale's fins!

Great shot of one of the Lord's sensational creatures!

  
Alexis and I had a great time at Sea World with Grandmum.  We look forward to going back with her Dad soon!   

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Home From College with Some New Habits 

What is that commercial?  Life comes at you fast...  Getting a credit card for this reason is debatable, but I can truly attest to the fact that life comes at you fast - and the years fly! 
 
As time was approaching for David to leave to go off to college, it was terribly hard on me.  I kept reflecting on my son’s life remembering many of the cute little habits or things he did as a child.  He had a passion for sports and when he was between 7 and 8 years old, every night he would line up all his stuffed toys along the top of his bed - after bedtime, and depending on the season, he would play football or baseball games with these toys.  Each animal actually had a position and he would have them make plays by throwing a plastic ball in the air and swinging the toys to hit, punt, or catch it.  Then he would move the toys to their new positions and wirte down all the statistics of the game - play by play.  I thought it was cute and I was even impressed with his sweet little strategic mind, but when he would stretch his bedtime by a couple of hours we would end up fussing at him over it.  As a young parent, I had no appreciation for the fact that he was using his brain in a productive way.  If I had it to live over again, I might just close my eyes and pretend that I didn't know he was still up.  The years are so fleeting!  When he was preschool age, it felt like I would have him around f.o.re.v.e.r.  Before I knew it, he was driving, working, and saving money for college.  My mind knew David would be leaving, but my heart was not prepared for the empty chair at the dinner table. 

Our son came home from college for Christmas break.  I can not express how ecstatic we felt to know that he would be here for 3 1/2 weeks.  He had been home for a few days at Thanksgiving, but that felt like a whirl-wind trip.  I was truly looking forward to having him spend time at home for a good long visit.

When the anticipated day finally arrived… he walked in the door, gave us all hugs and proceeded to head to the laundry room with close to 10 loads (counting bed linens) of laundry.  The good news is, he washed it all himself.  The bad news is he tied up our washer and dryer for about 2 solid days and somehow used up an entire bottle of detergent (that is supposed to wash 25 loads.) 

It was so good to have David fill that empty seat at the dinner table on his first night back as we ate a home cooked meal altogether.  He was extremely grateful to have it, and truly appreciated every bite.  He didn’t eat a lot, which surprised us, until we found out later that he has some new eating habits.  Did I mention that our master bedroom is right off the kitchen?  That is a great place to have your room when your children are young, but when they get bigger and can feed themselves, watch out if you are a light sleeper.  Let me explain… at 11:00 PM when our dear son was returning to the kitchen to feed himself, dh and I woke up and smiled at each other happy to hear the sounds that confirmed that our son was home.  We probably were asleep for less than a 1/2 hour at that time.  At 1:00 AM when he returned to the kitchen for a drink of water, we woke up and realized that we were going to have to get used to these new late night noises.  However, at 2:30 AM when David decided that he needed to graze through the kitchen again!   dh and I wondered if we were going to get any solid sleep until he returned to college!!!

The following day we found out about another new habit we weren’t aware of…  chatting, texting, IM’ing – all of it – and a lot of it.  Whatever happened to voice communication???  I think our kids have stepped over a threshold  that dh and I are either unable or unwilling to go over.  It’s called the generation gap!     It wasn’t too bad at first, but coincidently a few days after David arrived we connected a wireless internet system because my brother had just given me his old laptop.    I suppose it may have been naive of me to not understand the cause and effect of this, but I should have.  It’s called *have computer will travel*  And that is exactly what our dear son did – right to his room – and with his laptop and cell phone.  There he stayed for several nights (only coming out for food) attached to his mobile communication devices.  Thankfully after several days he backed off of this new habit – somewhat – and we got to see his handsome face again.

While David had secluded himself in his "cave," so that he could converse to his new college friends in the various forms of written exchanges without family disruption, I was pleased and yet just a tad bit aggravated to see his next new habit.  He has become much neater since living in a dorm.  So... with that nice new habit, he decided to de-clutter his bedroom.  I was pleased with this, because it is a terrific feeling when a parent can see that their child who had a tendency to be more than a little sloppy has finally arrived at the stage of taking care of their own territory.  I was a bit aggravated all at the same time, because he gave lots of his clutter to his baby sister who doesn't say no well.  Did I mention that she can be a little pack rat?  She has no room in her bedroom to take in extra items!  By the way...  This was just a few short days before Christmas.  Company was coming, gifts were inevitable - and I knew it would be my responsibility to make them fit in her room in such a way that it would seem spacious.  This was not a realistic feat in this - an already over stuffed room.  David did drop some of his clutter of at a donation place, really for the sake of space, I wouldn't have minded if he had been a little less "generous" to his sister.  

Christmas was great.  We have always started our day with just our small family before our extended family arrives for a big lunch/dinner and gift exchange.  It felt good to have our family of 5 altogether in the morning opening up presents and joking and teasing with each other.  As I watched my children unwrap their gifts, it occurred to me that there may not be that many more Christmas’ left before the dynamics of this family changes.  I am not saying that would be bad in any way – just different.  I can already tell you – I will miss our tradition of Christmas morning.  I have big dreams that my future daughter-in-law and sons-in-law will want to spend every Christmas with us.  I know that’s not realistic and actually selfish though.  Sigh…  For now I will stay thankful and aware of the gift of each of these years. 






The day came when we got used to most of David’s nightly noises.  About that same time, I watched my baby boy pack his belongings into his car in a very organized and neat manner.  I knew this meant that he was going to return to the place where parents aren't.  The place where children have to make their own decisions about time management, studying, work schedules, morals, and more.  He had already managed this for 1/2 of a school year - and did a great job.  Wow!  Lots of new habits!  Somewhere between the hugs goodbye and the tears streaming down my face, I took a moment to reflect on the fact that the Lord has allowed me to become the mother of a boy changing into a fine young man.  Sigh...  I miss the kitchen noises.  It's too quiet around here...

Monday, January 21, 2008

Florida Crackers

If you've read this book, you'll know what, (rather - who,) they are!


During the Christmas season, it's nice to lighten our homeschool load.  It makes our lives a whole lot easier...  There are just so many great things to do - I don't Alexis to miss out on anything, and I don't want to stress out during a typically hectic time of year.  So, this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, one of the things Alexis worked on was a Florida unit study.

I lived in South Florida for almost 20 years before we moved to the middle of the state.  Until we did, I had never heard of "Florida Crackers."  Little did I know then, but just a couple of hundred miles to the north west, there once lived a group of colorful mostly Scot-Irish pioneers who came from the deep south to try their hand at making something out of the seemingly un-farmable sandy soil.  Historically speaking, it was not all that long ago either.  The last of what are called "Cracker Houses"  were built somewhere in the 1930′s.  Now that we live in the middle of the state, my daughter and I have a great opportunity to learn about the Crackers.

Part of Alexis’ Florida unit study included reading Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski.  It is an amusing historical fiction book that is slightly hard to read at times because of the Cracker’s dialect, but it is truly enjoyable.   As we were wrapping up the final chapters, I noticed in the newspaper that Ft. Christmas was having their annual Cracker Christmas celebration.  I love when things like that happen.  How could we resist this field trip?  Well we couldn’t!  As it was a spur of the moment thing, we went by ourselves. 

Below are photos from the field trip.  Alexis took most of them.  As she was taking them, she was trying to capture things that "felt" familiar from the book.  Very cool!   I thought she did a great job! 

So… if you’ve read the book, (and you have a good memory) you’ll understand what some of these pictures are all about.


 
When Birdie went to church, we somehow didn't picture it being one this small!
Do you suppose the wood buring stove that Ma aquired looked something like this?
Remember when Mr. Slater branded Birdie's brother's heifer?
Images of Branding Symbols
This whip is at least 20' long.  When the gentleman "cracked" it, the sound made was similar to a gunshot.  The cracking sound of the whip is what gives Florida "Crackers" their name.  Many were ranchers who horse drove their cattle from Central Florida to Tampa to sell the cattle.
This is a Cracker house that was just recently brought to Ft. Christmas.  They will restore it, and add period furniture.  Obviously this house is not ready to be toured.
A guide who was giving tours in this home mentioned that a descendant of the original owner had been there the day before, as a tourist.  She was actually born in this home!  This was her Grandmother's bedroom.  Most or all of the furniture in the room was original to this house.  Alexis and I toured parts of Ft. Christmas before, but this time we went with new eyes looking for the many details that Lois Lenski described in Strawberry Girl.  In addition to the tours of historical homes and Pioneer demonstrations, the event included a craft show.  Normally the craft show would be the highlight of a visit to anywhere for both Alexis and me - anytime, hands down.  We both love crafts, and we both love to shop.  This trip was different though... History was the highlight!  Yes!!!  I encourage anyone who reads this to buy or borrow a local historical fiction book and go take a field trip~ 



This is the rear of one of the smaller Cracker homes in the background.  Most of these homes have breezeways right through the middle of the house.  The families would leave the doors in the front and rear of the house wide open to let whatever "breeze" that they'd be lucky enough to get pass through.  I can't imagine those pre-air-conditioner days.  :-P  This being the center of the state--- Ocean breezes just don't happen here...
With wide open doors on houses - comes - mosquito nets!
Alexis took this photo because we have one very similar in our home.  It belonged to David's Grandmother!
Add caption
This fireplace looked interesting to us.  It appears that it was built as an afterthought, with wood and mud.  If they were all built like this, I can't help but wonder how it wouldn't catch on fire?
How often would Crackers want to heat up their houses with stoves and fireplaces?  (Probably outdoors cooking was the better option.)  When we were here a few years ago, they actually let us use this kettle to make stew over an open fire.  It took a considerable amount of time to cook up, but the stew was pretty tasty.  We also cooked cornbread cakes that looked like pancakes.  We used a flat wood grill.  It's the most "pioneer" we suburban people have ever pretended to be!


This most likely was a local bear.  Florida bears are pretty small.  The coat doesn't seem as dark as I'd expect it to be...
Cracker's did not have many books available, or the means to buy them often.  This shows that they took extra care with their family Bible.
And last, a little Cracker House History