St. Augustine and Universal

This past week was a busy one. My parents and my brother came to visit us and although Cliff had to work and my dad had to go home one wed. for a meeting, my mom and brother and I had a blast! We had tour of central and northeastern Florida. We went to St. Augustine on Tuesday before my dad had to go back and even though it was a little chilly we really enjoyed ourselves. We went to the Alligator farm, (which is always awesome,) and we explored the city and it's shopping. We stepped into an art gallery and ended up staying inside for about an hour! The artists that they showcased were AMAZING. Even my little brother and my dad were impressed! We got to see the work of the sculptor known as TUAN. The White House just commissioned him to do a piece for them. Click here and ... --> Check out some of his work!
After my dad left on wed. morning my mom and brother and I drove to Orlando. We got two park annual passes to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I hadn't ridden a roller coaster since returning from Spain and I have to say - I was missing out! I know that theme parks aren't for everyone but I'm a fan. Especially when you don't have to wait in line very long! The three of us discovered the "single rider" line a few years ago and we all swear by it. The longest line we waited in was about 20 min. but most of the time we would walk right onto the ride. As long as you don't mind splitting up your party, (which who talks on roller coasters anyway?) it's truly the best way to go. We road some rides three or four times in a row! I can't wait until Cliff can can get some time off work and come with me! I think we are going to try and go at the beginning of May and make a Temple trip out of it too.
In other exciting..... sorta.... news - I am teaching this Tuesday. It's rather ironic actually. I always said that I would NEVER teach middle school and that I would NEVER teach math. So what am I teaching this week? 7th grade math. Fun! Wish me luck. I remember what I was like in middle school and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy... Having said that I also have to say that I am very grateful to be working as this substitute teaching thing has been a lot slower than I ever expected. It will be good to be out of the house and working.

Zoo Take Two

My family is in town visiting for the week and I got to go to the zoo AGAIN - this time with Mick and Mama G. I have to say that I have learned in my few zoo experiences that the best time to go is when the weather is just a little chilly and the sky is overcast. ALL of the animals were wide awake and moving around today. It was awesome. I wish Cliff could have come with us too! The cheetahs were moving around, the apes were moving around, and the lion was roaring/barking?! It was so cool! Usually the lions at the zoo are always sleeping so it was a lot of fun to see one making so much noise! I have to post these pictures my mom took because they were just stunning.

In non-zoo news... It was my parents' 29th anniversary today so we all went out to dinner after Cliff got home. We went to the Ragtime Tavern on the beach and enjoyed some delicious cajun stlye seafood and then went back to our place for a rather competetive boys v. girls game of cranium. We finished the evening with Dancing with the Stars and then I came back to the condo that my parents are staying in this week so that Cliff could get some sleep. Poor guy has a 5:30am brief tomorrow. My parents and Mick and I are going to go to the Alligator Farm in St. Agustine while Cliff is flying and we will meet him for dinner tomorrow evening. I wish he could come with us tomorrow but he has an incredibly busy schedule this week. They even having him flying on Saturday this week! I figured since I'm not subbing right now I might as well go out and do something with myself. I just wish Cliff could come too.

The Zoo!

Cliff didn't have to go in to work today until 3:00 so we went to the ZOO! I just bought us membership passes because we only live about 20 min. away from the zoo and they were a great bargain. I got a "friend pass" in my name which allows me to bring a "guest." This was less expensive than buying two individual passes and I can bring whoever I want whenever I want. I thought I might start painting animals so this pass is going to be great :)
Anyway, so we got to the zoo around 10:00 am and it was already packed from spring breakers and I guess just locals... but one of the things I really like about the Jacksonville Zoo is that it is also a botanical garden so even if the place is crowded and you can't squeeze in to see the animal you want - you can just enjoy the surroundings! It's beautiful! We really had a good time. They have a new South American exhibit with jaguars and capybaras and sloths and poison dart frogs and an anaconda and swimming lizards, and... and... can you tell I had fun??
Another nice thing about the membership pass is that you don't feel obligated to stay for the whole day. It got really hot after a while so we decided to go home and get some lunch! We can go back anytime!

In other news.... Leonard died :( He crawled under the oven and we didn't see him for a few days. We didn't think much about it because that had happened before, but I had a feeling he was dead and I didn't want a lizard body to attract any... well... unwelcome house guests - so we began a search and ended up finding him under the oven. I think we fried him actually. We used the oven a day after he crawled under there. Oh well.... on the bright side we found his body and Linus is still alive! He has relocated to the guest bedroom and seems to be doing well!

Check out my Slide Show!

Artwork

I just wanted to post a few of the things I have been working on. More to come later! (I'm dabbling in watercolors now.)

Revisiting Atlanta and the Beatles

Cliff and I drove up to Atlanta for Easter to see my family and to celebrate Mick's 17th birthday. Cliff hadn't been up there since October and I hadn't seen my Dad since Thanksgiving so we figured a trip to the ATL was due.
On the drive up (which is about 6 hrs or so,) we listened to all of the Beatles albums from "Hard Day's Night" to "Let it Be" and "Abbey Road." I've always had a casual interest in the Beatles but I don't know if I would ever have included them in my list of favorite bands. My parents never put them up there with "Led Zeppelin" as I was growing up but I've always been familiar with the majority of their songs. My passive interest in them has changed over the past few weeks though... and yes probably at least partially due to American Idol... whatever works I guess... MY POINT though, is that they have a lot of good songs! I think I had kind of taken it for granted how many songs I really really liked! Not only do I like to listen to "Got to Get You in to My Life" and "Carry That Weight," but I love to sing along with them too. My throat was getting sore by the time we got to my parents' house! I really like that Cliff loves to sing so much because it is contagious. I never used to sing at all - especially not in public. Cliff and the Beatles have changed a lot of that :) We had a great time driving up to Atlanta.
We had a pretty good time while we were there too. It's always a little disappointing to visit my old stomping ground as no one lives there any more and we are always too pressed for time to visit my few friends are still in the area. It was great, though, to spend some time with the fam and we got to go to the Temple with my mom and out to eat at the Flying Biscuit with Mick and Dad. Speaking of the Beatles again, we got my brother Revolver and Abbey Road for his birthday. He too has recently rediscovered the Beatles. Seth and Sarah came over to see us and Cliff had Jey and Geoff over too and that was fun. Cliff never gets to see his college friends anymore so I was glad they could stop by. Sarah is going to find out the sex of their baby pretty soon which is exciting. I feel like everyone and their mother is pregnant right now... but not us yet! We have to wait until we get to Japan ;)
Anyway... we will probably only visit Atlanta one more time before we move and then it could be the last time we are there for the next three years. That is really weird to think about. It's a little ironic because as I was growing up I never really though I would move out of Georgia - I mean I wasn't ever against the idea, I just didn't know if it would happen - and now... as long as Cliff is in the Navy we won't EVER live in Georgia :) It's funny how life works...

Leonard and Linus or maybe just Leonard

So about a week ago Cliff and I came home and I thought I saw a something on the floor by our kitchen table. I asked him if I saw a leaf, (my eyes aren't very good even with my glasses,) or if there was a lizard in our house. Sure enough, it was a little brown anole. I got really excited about it because the day before there was a ginormous spider on my counter... Those of you that know me well know that I don't care for spiders. I actually had to call a friend to come over and kill it. I stayed in a corner in my kitchen for 45 min because I wouldn't go near the thing - but that's another story.... Lizards... I like lizards - a lot actually. Lizards are fun and mostly clean I think and they eat spiders! Leonard (as we named him) was a welcome addition to the family right from the start. He seemed to make a home out of our water heater closet and would peek through the blinds every now and then. He even seemed to like music as he would come all the way out of the closet any time we put on a cd and especially when we sang along. A few days later, however, Cliff was on his way out the door when we saw a lizard by the laundry room door. It looked a little bigger than Leonard but we couldn't be sure. We decided to give it a day or so and see if we could spot Leonard in his area and this potentially new lizard in its area around the same time. I managed to get a pretty good picture of the one in the laundry room and I definitely think it was bigger so I have named him Linus for now. He seems a little more skittish than Leonard. He doesn't venture out much and if I steal a peek and him he will run for cover. Leonard on the other hand... is quite the little adventurer. I opened the dishwasher tonight to put a dish away and ... YIKES! he was in the dishwasher? I'll admit I was a little startled but that soon gave way to satisfaction and I pondered all of the bugs that would soon be in his blessed little stomach and NOT in my kitchen :)