Florida Trip Day 2

On Friday, Jan. 9, we flew out in the morning from Minneapolis to Orlando. Our last year's income tax return was more than enough to cover to cost of our entire trip, so that was a huge blessing! When we landed in Orlando, we went to pick up our rental car. We had booked a mid-size car online and had gotten a really cheap deal! We got to the car rental counter and they said they were out of the car that we had booked, but that they could give us a Mitsubishi Eclipse which would be similar. No, an Eclipse is not anywhere close to a mid-size car. It is under the sports car category. Technically, it was a free upgrade, but we did not want a little sports car. We had no other choice, unless we wanted to pay way more money for an SUV. So, we packed 4 adults into this tiny nice-looking but extremely impractical car the whole trip.


















This was the guys trying to pack 4 suitcases into the tiny little trunk. It only held 2 suitcases side-by-side and then we managed to squeeze another one on top. Oh, and I painted our black luggage with bright blue paint before we left so that they would be easy to pick out on the conveyor belt. They were easy to spot alright! On the backs, they have big happy faces on them.


















The 4th suitcase was in the back seat between Karen + I. Good thing it was only a half hour drive and that I'm not clausterphobic. This was all I could see of Karen. Notice that her head is basically touching the roof of the car. There was also no leg room. Definitely not my favorite car, considering I was in the back seat the whole trip. Nonetheless, I was thankful that we had reliable transportation.


















We arrived at our 2-bedroom condo that was a half-hour drive from the airport, Universal Studios + Seaworld and only a few miles from Disney World. This is the outside of the building (our balcony was 2nd from the bottom on the right)


















Our bedroom


















Walk-in closet (the baby chair was already there in case you were wondering)























Ensuite bathroom


















The kitchen


















The dining room/living room


















After getting settled into our condo, we went to Golden Corral (a buffet restaurant) for an early supper and then went to Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. They have an entire aisle in Wal-Mart just for alcohol! A bit different than our Wal-Marts here.


















We then went to Old Town and walked around for a bit. Part of it is made to look like an old town (hence the name) and the other part of it is an amusement park.


















This is a "slingshot" ride where you go shooting up into the air several hundred feet, come back down, then repeat. You could not pay me enough to go on there.























Then we went back to our condo and went to sleep in our very comfortable king-sized beds.

Florida Trip Day 1

Jared + I just got back from a 13-day trip to Orlando, Florida. We went with another couple (Jason + Karen) and left Kiera with her grandparents. She stayed 1 week at Jared's dad + step-mom's house and 1 week at my parents' place. We did very well without her and God gave me grace to not miss her too much. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and were very thankful to be there while it was -50 back home. We had 2 days of +25 and +27, several days of +20-22, and then the rest were between +15-20. I really can't complain about that! When we left Florida yesterday, the high was only going to be +9 (VERY unusually cold for them) and at home it warmed up to -7, so it was perfect timing!

The first day, we drove to Minneapolis, as flights there are $300 cheaper per person than from home. Along the way, we stopped at a gas station and they had these new Crazy Core Skittles that I had never seen before! They were one flavor on the outside and then a different flavor on the inside! VERY exciting!


















When we got to Minneapolis, we checked into our hotel, which was 5 minutes from the airport + across the street from Mall of America. We went to the Mall of America for supper to Famous Dave's and Jason + Karen ordered a big platter of food for themselves.


















It would have been a much more enjoyable dining experience had the ketchup not tasted like fermented disgustingness. They just leave the ketchup on all the tables and refill them without ever refrigerating them. They had gotten a lot of complaints and were looking into changing the way they handle the ketchup. Ummm....ya, good idea!

After supper we had an hour left until the mall closed, so Karen + I quickly ran down a floor or two and through the amusement park to find an Aeropostale store.

Amusement park in the mall


















Everything in the store was 50-70% off, so I found AMAZING deals!
The hoodie: $15
The red tank top and the striped shirt: $4 each
The pink tank top: $7


















After that, we went back to our hotel and relaxed in the hot tub and then went to the pub in our hotel and played a round of Bohnanza. We all love that game, so it was fun! We went to bed sometime between 1-2 a.m. which I am NOT used to, so I was pretty tired especially after the long drive. It was totally worth it, though. Vacation without Kiera = party time!

Another Break

God + I had a talk 2 nights ago and that resulted in Him telling me I need to take another break from blogging + facebook. Lately, I have been spending hours on those sites and have turned them into idols in my life. I find this really hard to admit as I am a perfectionist and hate admitting my faults. I knew this was something I was supposed to do for a little while, but I kept tuning His voice out which is NEVER a good idea. It really hit me when I read Psalm 10:4 the other day: "In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." I realized that I was one of those people as my thoughts have mostly been far from God lately. With His help, I need to get my priorities straight again, so I will be taking a week + a half-2 week break and then not spending hours and hours online once I'm back. I will be checking my e-mail once in a while if you need to contact me online. Talk to you later!

Happy Feet

Thank you all so much for the comments! I'm glad that my friends are still reading this and that I'm not just talking to myself on here. :) I actually just left the house this evening for the first time since Sunday. I am the biggest wimp when it comes to winter weather, so I stay inside as much as possible. I had a friend over on Monday, piano students have come, my dad came this morning, and my mom is here right now, so it's not like I haven't had any contact with the outside world. Jared blessed me by going to the store for me so I could stay inside. I used to love being out and about all the time, but since I had Kiera, I've been a lot more content to just be at home, particularly in winter. I never thought I would be like that. I'll leave you with a video that makes me laugh! Kiera was also very interested in this video and pointing and saying, "Ta!" That's what she calls almost everything.

When Silence Isn't Golden (it's dark greenish)

It's that time of year again...time for a new blog template. I'm done with winter, so it's on to beach mode now. I actually changed this template a bit...it was originally see-through so you could see the background through my pictures. I've been teaching myself to understand and change html codes...ya, I'm getting techie! I guess Jared is finally rubbing off on me, although even he doesn't know stuff about html codes!

Some of you may have read my most recent status update on facebook, but I'll share the story anyway (warning: contains poop content). I was on the laptop in the kitchen looking for a new template and Kiera was playing nicely in the living room. I should have known that since she was so quiet that something was wrong, but I thought she was just playing with toys. After a little while, I came into the living room and she was sitting there looking up at me with this dark green stuff on her face around her mouth. Immediately, I was like, "Oh no! That's poop! I forgot to clean up her diaper that's lying on the floor." Disgusting! Oh, and I had just finished giving her a bath 10 minutes before that. She didn't have that much on her, so I just wiped her really good with soap and water instead of giving her another bath. Thankfully she hadn't wiped it all over her clothes.

I have had 2 posts in a row with no comments, so if you're reading this, could you please leave me a comment? Even if it's just to say hi, that would be very encouraging for me! Thanks!

Adventures in Winter Wonderland

Last night, we went to our friends' house to play Bohnanza. If you haven't heard of it, it's a really fun bean trading card game that we bought on the week-end. Our friends live in the country, so they have a long driveway, and they have nothing to clear it with. Well, after the dumping of snow we've gotten, we were quite nervous driving onto it, but we made it to the house with only getting stuck once, which Jared managed to drive ourselves out of. When we got to the house, we discovered that our friends' car was stuck just off their driveway. I went inside with Kiera while Jared, 2 other guys, and my friend's wife spent an hour trying to push and pull the car out using a tow rope and our car. After an hour, my friend's wife came inside, along with Nyk because he didn't have proper footwear to be out in 3 feet of snow. So then, Jared + the other guy drove to town to get a truck. After another hour (including the 20-minute drive), they finally got the car out! I saw my dreams of playing Bohnanza going down the drain as it was 10:15 p.m. by this time and Jared said he didn't want to stay late because he had to go to work this morning. The guys came inside and Jared said, "Let's play Bohnanza! We're not going home yet after all that." Yay! We put Kiera down to sleep and had fun playing the game. Our evening didn't turn out quite like we had planned, but I think they learned their lesson and they're going to get someone or something to clear their driveway!

3 Pictures + a Song

I was tagged to do this meme a while back, so here it is.

On the computer where your pictures are usually stored, find and post these 3 pictures with a description:
a) from your fourth folder, fourth picture
b) from your sixth folder, sixth picture
c) from your eighth folder, eighth picture
... and see what you come up with!

4th folder, 4th picture...this was taken at Capernwray in England in either late 2004 or early 2005 by my very talented friend, Luke, and it's my favorite not posed picture of myself














6th folder, 6th picture...this is Dec. 2005 when Jared saw me in my wedding dress for the first time...he had his eyes closed and I came and stood in front of him and then the photographer said, "Now open your eyes," and this is that moment























8th folder, 8th picture...some tulips Jared gave me just because in April 2006


















Recently, I discovered a new singer who I love! There's a lot of Christian music that I don't enjoy the style of, but I recently heard a new voice (at least she's new to me) on the radio and I was like, "Who is she? I want to buy her c.d. She's AMAZING!" Her voice is SO beautiful and her name is Meredith Andrews. If you click on her name, it will take you to her site where you can listen to all the songs on her c.d. without downloading them. The song I heard on the radio was, "You Invite Me In." She kind of reminds me of Amanda Falk for those of you who know who that is. So go check it out (if you want)!