fun times

Although we worked hard while the family was here, we also enjoyed doing some fun outings together. On Sunday (after church of course), we went on a drive to Key Biscayne to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State park. Key Biscayne is really beautiful, but the view from the 95-ft lighthouse is amazing. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed !! Apparently they only do 2 tours a day, which is weird because that was not the case the first time Kevin and I went, but we still enjoyed walking around the grounds. The Cape Florida lighthouse (built in 1825 and repaired in 1846) is the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County.

In case you care about the history, the island served as a secret meeting place and port for runaway slaves and Black Seminoles waiting to rendezvous with sea captains or board dugouts for a passage to safety in the British Bahamas. In 2004, Cape Florida was designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site and is still lit every night.
On Monday, we headed over to the Miami International Boat Show. I am pretty sure Kevin was waiting for like 7 months for this event. I don't think it was quite as amazing as he had planned because they were lacking in the ski/wakeboard boat category, but we did board a 3.9 million dollar yacht and some fancy fishing and cruising boats.
Kimberly and I inside the cabin of one of the large ships. They were actually more spacious than I had imagined, but I still wouldn't want to stay on one for an extended amount of time.
We took a water taxi back to Bayside, which is kind of like an outdoor marketplace with shops (with a lot of tourist garbage), restaurants, live music, and boat tours. We just snapped a few pictures, then headed off to dinner.
Tuesday, the boys stayed home to commence work on the floors, and us girls went out for an adventure. Kimberly determined that she wanted to go to the Everglades since it was possibly her favorite National Park. We had all already done the airboat tours to see the gators, but I had heard about going bike riding in Shark Valley, so we decided to give it a shot. I was not really sure why it was called Shark Valley because supposedly there are gators everywhere, but I have since done my research online and apparently it is called that because it is a very shallow valley that flows into Shark Lake.

We had a great time and the weather was perfect. It got really hot a few times, but then the clouds would cover the sun and it was perfect. It was amazing how much wildlife we were able to see. I still do not know how it was safe because we literally were a few feet from the alligators. My mom was really paranoid that we were going to get eaten, so when the gators were really close to the bike path, we made sure we kept pedaling, haha. Isn't my mom cute?
I mean seriously, this is a bit ridiculous. Can you see that gator in the water? Some of them were on the grass like where my bike tire was. I obviously didn't stop for pictures when they were that close. My favorite one was swimming in the water with a baby on it's back. If I had to guess, I would say we saw at least 80 gators in the 2 hours we were on the trail. And about a million birds, turtles, butterflies, etc. We are just lucky we had Kimberly and her "National Geographic eyes" with us, hahaha.
We stopped to drink water and eat cheetohs, and Kimberly stated that we needed a glamour shot. We were sweaty, so it was kind of a joke. So, we took our picture, then Kimberly told mom to go get her glamour shot.
My mom is hilarious, I am pretty sure she is getting funnier every time I see her. She walked right over to the bench, laid down, and just started cracking up. I am laughing just thinking about it. Every time I see this picture I am going to laugh and remember our hilarious afternoon together.

I was so sad to see them go, but I will look forward to when I see them again in June for Jeffrey's homecoming. I can't wait!!!

Mrs. Murder

I definitely have more important things to blog about, like the wonderful visit from the fam, but I just had a minute and wanted to share a few funny stories. Well, at least they are funny for me. The first story is about work. Let me preface this by saying that for some reason, the kids have a hard time remembering my name. The mentally handicapped kids are allowed to call me by my first name, and they have it down pat. The rest of the kids have a tendency to refer to me as "speech", haha. A few of them remember my name, but it is a select few. Instead, when I walk down the halls at school, the little kids yell "speech" and come and hug me :) It is kind of endearing, but also kind of pathetic that I apparently have no name.

Anyway, I decided that I needed to remind them of my name. I had just picked up my first graders (6 of them!!) and I reminded them of my name. I had them all say it aloud and they seemed to remember. Two days later, one of them called me "speech" again, so I asked the group..."Who can remember my name?" They all sit there, trying to remember, and one kid yells out "Mrs. Murder". And they all start saying, "I knew that", or "I was going to say that." LOL. I literally was cracking up. I told them they were pretty close!! Since last week, they have done a pretty good job of remembering.

My first graders are hilarious. I decided to do an activity with a book my mom bought me, called "Sloppy Joe." Once I got all the kids sitting correctly (which is a task in and of itself), I showed them the book and asked if anyone could read the title. They all sit there, trying to sound it out, and one kid shouts out, "Sloppy Hoe". Hahaha. And again, they all chime in with, "I was going to say that", etc. I probably shouldn't have laughed, but I did. Then I congratulated him on getting the first word right, but told him to look at the second word again. It is never dull with these kids.

And the last story comes, not from my students, but from Kevin :) We were talking the other day as we were making dinner and he made some comment about having 4 kids. I said, "Only 4?", to which he responded, "Katie, I'm almost 90, we will be lucky if we get 4." Maybe you had to be there, but I was cracking up because he said it totally seriously.

That's all. Just wanted to share a few things that made me laugh recently!!

slowly, but surely

So here is the update about the wood floors. As previous post indicated, we received the wood flooring the Saturday that we moved in. It came shrink wrapped in 44 different boxes. We were instructed to take the flooring out of the package and allow it to acclimate to the rooms where it would be installed for 2-3 days. So after a long day of unpacking, we unwrapped all 44 boxes full of wood planks, and Kevin and Dad placed them nicely in the office so they would be ready for project mode the following week.

Sunday night Kevin pulled off all the quarter-round throughout the whole downstairs. Mom and I figured we would make ourselves useful by cleaning up the caulking on the baseboards and the floor. Our little bummies were sore from sitting on the ground. I have a really great picture of Mom in her pj's, but I didn't figure she would appreciate that picture on the blog :)
Dad helped by getting the table saw all ready to go. Kimberly was probably upstairs being the unpacking machine that she was!!
Monday was spent at the boat show...but Tuesday Kevin made the first cut. Dad took over the saw duties while Kevin and Andre did the measuring, clicking, and locking.
Here is Kevin almost done with the living room. They did most of the kitchen first, then worked into the living room.
Currently, the living room is done, the kitchen is mostly done, and the area in front of the laundry closet in mostly done. What remains to be done is the pantry, a small area in front of the bathroom, and the third bedroom. Overall, I love it and I am proud of Kevin (and Dad and Andre) for the awesome job they are doing. Keep it up guys :)

new address

While I am thinking about it, I figured I would give you our new address.

810 SW 146th Terrace

Pembroke Pines, FL 33027

We would love to see/hear from our beloved family and friends :)

miss them already

So, we made the big move on Saturday, February 19th. The week prior, we were busy packing and making arrangements so that things would go smoothly. Friday night, the 18th, my sister Kimberly and parents flew in. What originally was planned as "a fun visit in the new house", turned into a "move/fun visit" due to the fact that the house wasn't done when it was originally planned for (February 4th). All I can say is that I am lucky my family is so easy going and willing to help because it would have been insane without them. I think I was under a lot of stress with work, the move, girl's camp, etc. because my face was a mess with zits. My family was amazing, and the zits cleared while they were here :)

Let's start with Friday night (for my records). Kimberly flew into the Miami airport around 6:30 pm. I picked her up and we met up with Kevin back at the apartment. We decided to head up to Fort Lauderdale for dinner because my parents were flying into that airport around 10:45 pm. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at Cantina Laredo, one of my favorite places. You have to try the brisket tacos! They are only on the lunch menu, but they will make them for you for dinner if you ask nice. (Note: for some reason, they are a little better when you go for lunch) Anyway, the manager thought we had to sit there too long before we ordered, so he sent for guacamole to be made for us tableside. It was amazing, but hilarious because we had already ordered a big bowl of queso. I was full after chips and salsa/queso/quacamole.

This was the first time we had been to The Village at Gulfstream Park, which is kind of like an outdoor mall, but behind the shops and restaurants they do horse racing and other such things. The whole place looks like a colosseum, it was beautiful. Needless to say, we took a few pictures. (Note: I actually hate the Simpsons and we were never allowed to watch it growing up, but it made for a funny picture.)

The shops were all boutique-y/miami style. You have to see the clothes to understand, or walk around South Beach at night to get an idea.

After picking up Mom and Dad, we headed home and got tucked in a little after midnight. The movers were supposed to be there at 9 the next morning, and they were almost on time :) Around 8 am, Home Depot called me to let me know that they would be delivering our wood for the floors in 30 minutes, so I jumped in the car and raced up to the house to be there to sign. We pulled in the gate right after each other, so that worked well. After receiving two huge pallets of wood flooring, I rushed back home to be there for the movers. We had one little hiccup when the guys showed up and tried to tell us that in addition to the price of the movers, they tacked on an additional hour for "travel time", and a $50 gas surcharge. This was news to us, because although most other companies Kevin talked to told us of such charges, the one we chose told us that there were no hidden fees...it was just the price per hour, nothing more. WHICH IS WHY WE CHOSE THEM!! Anyway, after going round and round and stalling for 30 minutes (and the guys grumbling and complaining that they shouldn't have to deal with this), we ended up having them do it anyway because we weren't about to haul all our belongings down from the 3rd floor, and the local U-Haul didn't have any big trucks-we called.

I was a little nervous that they would do a bad job because they were now disgruntled employees, but they were awesome and did the job in no time. I only panicked once when I saw all 3 guys coming up the stairs with hand-trucks. They would load 3-4 boxes, and start down the stairs, with a thump-thump as they went down each stair. I was sure everything was going to break, even though they were taking it slow. Kimberly assured me that this is what they did when she moved from New York, but I couldn't be assured until I unpacked and found all my kitchen stuff safe and sound! (The amazing thing: not one item was broken, chipped, or damaged.)

As the movers were doing their thing (we were carrying down smaller boxes/random stuff), my Mom was cleaning my whole apartment. I told her not to stress about it because we technically didn't have to be out of the apartment until March 8th, but let me tell you, it is such a relief that I didn't have to go back and clean. My mom is so selfless and didn't stop moving.

Once the truck was loaded, we headed up to the new house. Oh, Andre and Daleth were there as well :) The movers hauled all the big furniture up the stairs, which was a feat in and of itself due to the heavy entertainment center. We weren't sure it would make the turn at the stairs, but ta-da, they did it. Everything else went into the living room. Kimberly immediately starting taking kitchen boxes to the kitchen and unloaded my pantry and all sorts of boxes. We took a break for Chipotle, then the girls headed over to Costco so I could get a new vaccuum, hangers, and a few random supplies. When we arrived back at the house, Kevin and Andre had all the boxes in their respective rooms, upstairs included :) I was a happy camper. After Andre and Daleth left, the girls finished the kitchen while Kevin watched you-tube tutorials on how to do the floor, hahaha. Mom and Kimberly went up to take a cat nap and Kevin and I ran to the hardware store to get a few supplies. They girls obviously didn't sleep long, because when we got home, both our closets were almost unpacked with all my clothes color-coordinated just like I like them. I am getting emotional just thinking about the amazing service that they did on my behalf. From unpacking, to cleaning, to helping me organize.

I thought I would be in boxes for a while, but by the time they left, really the only things in boxes were the decorations and the boxes for the office (which are currently in the garage until the floors are done). I couldn't have been more grateful and I hope they realize that they saved me and my sanity. So, Saturday was busy, but then we had some fun. More posts to follow :)