We Bought A ZOOOOOO!!!

When we announced our move to Florida, people had mostly the same reaction.

"The humidity down there!"

"The bugs!"

So we came mentally prepared and have not really been surprised by either.  I would actually considerable the humidity a welcome change.  It rains everyday, which gives a reprieve from the worst of it.  And there are bugs, but our complex is sprayed for bugs frequently, and it seems to take care of most of the problem.

But I was not ready for the animals.

We live on a nature preserve, and there are animals everywhere.  If you recall anything about me, I am perhaps the least knowledgeable person about camping, humans under the age of 8, and animals, so I am consider my interaction with these animals my fair turn for the next 25 years.

A pic of our surroundings:

Here are some of the animals we have found around our place:

These little guys are everywhere.  They often crawl across my kitchen window as I do the dishes.  Nothing startling about that.

There are tons of pretty birds here.  This is in our backyard.

This poor guy was on our way to church this week.  I will spare you the pic with the vultures . . .

That huge rat behind our car is a possum.  Daniel called for me to come look, but I couldn't.  Though I am not an animal person, a lot of animals don't bother me.  But possums do.  Daniel said its tail was so huge that it would flap really hard against the concrete with every step.

Yep.  Armadillo.  Right outside our front door.  I thought they were desert animals?  See how much I know?  Maybe I am just thinking "Amarillo", but is that even a desert?  The world holds such mysteries for me.

This was . . . nowhere.  Great dog costume though, right?  This picture is just to represent the alligators all around.  Our bishop told us that when it is mating season (for the alligators), I cannot run along any water's edge because they will KILL ME.  Luckily I have a black belt in alligator combat.  I will just have to make sure I wear it while running.

This guy lives nearby.  Who wants to visit?

The rarest and finest of creatures . .  trying to figure out how to work my camera.

And lastly . . . our Junebug. 

I know many of you have been nervous about the fact that I have not updated in awhile, especially following that last dramatic post about my incredibly difficult life.  Not to fear, I have not been eaten by the Anxiety Dragon.  I am just . . . boring.

Before I had a blog, I always thought of fun, witty things I could blog about if I had one.  Now I have one, and I feel like I am the most mundane person on the planet.  I feel like I could write a post of what I do every single day, post it, and then just change the date every week and re-post it.

I do love my boring life.  I'm grateful for some boredom because it means life has slowed down for me a bit.  Sharing a car with Daniel has caused me to say no to a lot of things, and I think that's been good for me.

Anyway, I managed to muster about some important events to write about.  (Now that I've gotten you excited . . . ha.)

First of all, June can lift her head.  (That's right--a "milestones" post.  That's where we are, folks.  Thrilling for all of you.)  But first, a thought about milestones.  I really don't like reading about milestones.  Experts say that we mothers should be aware of them to make sure our babies are progressing, but I would guess that the truth behind milestones is that they were made up by some super competitive mother somewhere to give the rest of us something to worry about.  Or maybe just some person who had never been around a baby before but who stayed up late one March 31st to play an April Fools joke on mothers everywhere and wrote a memo about ridiculous things babies should be doing by certain ages to give us all something else to have heartburn about.  I refuse to play into this trap!  I remember reading that by something like 6 weeks, June should be mimicking all of my faces.  BabyCenter said something like "Stick out your tongue, and your baby will do the same toward you.  Smile, and she will smile.  Quote Tennyson, and she will match you with some Wordsworth.  Give your child her first household chore."

I decided to try out this baby face matching idea with June.  I stuck my tongue at her.  She just looked insulted.

So, even though I try not to take milestones too too seriously, it has been neat to see some things happen that "they" said would.

Like lifting her head.

I make this same face when I exercise.

In other news, we are still moving into our apartment and getting projects done.  Nothing to bring a family together quite like a nice home improvement project, I always say.  We even had fancy equipment to use this time.  About a year ago, I attended an auction at church for our local scouting troop.  There were lots of great things to bid on, but being the bleeding heart I am, I couldn't help but just bid on things no one else wanted.  By the end of the night, I had succeeded in obtaining some precious gems, such as a cage for a pet we still have yet to own, a crazy looking doll that I gave to someone else before the night was over, and a laser level to use when hanging pictures and such.  Well we can now say that money spent that night was not in vain.  Not only did we send some grateful kid to scout camp, but we also had a LASER to help us hang out pictures in this new apartment of ours!

Hot dog.  Daniel is so nice.  I just directed where I wanted things, and he did it.  Though I did sometimes change my mind after the fact, which left me greeted with these faces.

And lastly, some more pictures of June.  She's just too cute not to.

Loving the bumbo chair.  

Following an at-length discussion we had one morning concerning the tax code.  Have you hit that milestone yet?

Definitely right-brained.

It's just EMOTION taking me OVER. That's it. NBD.

I actually really like the song "Emotion", even the Destiny's Child version, although the music video is an atrocity.

I might know a thing or two about emotions taking over.

I struggle with anxiety.  It stinks, but it's definitely not the worst problem in the world.  I mean, some people have no food.  Some people have no homes.  And some people are Kardashians.

So in the grand scheme of things . . . anxiety is fine.  I have done different things to learn how to cope with it.  I have taken medications.  I have gone to counseling.  I have eaten several bags of mini Cadbury eggs.

My cycle seems to be like this . . . take something on, take something else on, add another thing or two, feel productive, feel great, feel powerful, have a deadline, feel stressed, feel overwhelmed, think about everything that could go wrong, google solutions to every problem known to mankind, self-destruct, and bawl eyes out while watching a Chase Bank commercial where, thanks to a Chase Bank loan, a business was able to hire 20 new people who have been out of work for a long time.

While a missionary, I went through an extremely difficult time with my anxiety.  I even had a visit with the mission doctor.  He was visiting Romania from Germany, so I could only meet with him for a day.  Talking to him, I felt like I was talking to an old friend.  He cried with me as we shared difficult experiences we had both gone through on our missions and in our lives.

He had to leave to go back to Germany that evening, but he emailed me a psychological test to take to evaluate my struggles.  I filled out the bubble sheet and sent it back to him.  He called me very quickly thereafter.  I had scored in the 98th percentile for anxiety.  98%!  An A+, my friends!

We talked about some different options, but in the end, I felt right about just finishing my mission and seeking treatment afterward (I only had two months left.)  My mission was a wonderful experience, and I didn't want to spend the last two months trying out different medications.

Since then, I have tried different things.  I didn't like medication and was on it for just a very short time.  I have had some great counseling experiences.

Anyway, I am just writing this to get it out.  I always am surprised to see how many people relate to this sort of thing and was wondering what other people do to cope with stress and anxiety. 

Moving to Bolleywood.

Oh moving...how I loathe thee.

In my experience, moving isn't an event.  It's a temporary lifestyle one takes upon herself.  For me, the new lifestyle change is always quick to happen and always SLOW to leave.

It reminds me of the end of many a semester at BYU.  I seemed to move to a new apartment almost every semester at BYU, and combining finals week AND cleaning checks AND moving is a death sentence.  I always found myself wandering around unwashed and sleep deprived, eating meals that consisted of 6 slices of cheese or a handful of pretzels.

Moving to Tampa proved to be no different.  I had to finish major projects for work, take care of a baby, find an apartment long distance (not recommended), deal with utility companies, etc., all the while trying to fuss over Daniel's birthday, graduation, June's baby blessing, Daniel's first Father's day, etc.  Needless to say, not much fussing happened.  I am lucky to be married to a man I call Happy the Clam, who considers simple things like a red box movie and/or takeout Thai food a BIG deal.

Needless to say, I DESPISE moving.  I don't mind change, I just mind work. 

These pictures still make me shudder:

And yes, I realize that second picture does not so much portray moving as much as it shows how messy I let things get WHILE moving.  Equally disturbing.

Some of us helped more than others:

 I kid, I kid.  Actually, Daniel pretty much orchestrated this move by himself.  I was gone a lot during the day, and he packed up our entire apartment and took care of June a lot so I could work.  He is a champ.

The packing was small potatoes compared to the drive ahead of him.  We were very fortunate to have my father-in-law, Mike, help out with the forty (40! just in case you didn't catch it the first time) hour drive.  They broke it up into 3.5 days.  I stayed with my mother-in-law, Kristi, and we were able to watch lots of old Dr. Quinn episodes.  I loved it!  I had a baby just in time, I tell you!  I got to fly instead of make the drive.  Thanks to both Mike and Kristi.  They really helped us out a ton.

Leaving from Las Vegas for Tampa:

                                          With the truck.  Clearly.

                                         Bad to the bone.


Daniel took some cool pictures of the drive I will share another time.

Now we are in a larger apartment in Tampa.  We are so grateful to have more room.  3 people in 500 square feet was a bit crowded. 

Just some tidbits about where we live:

1.  The Lutz/Land O' Lakes area is known as the nudist capital of the world.  This will make for easy packing for all of our guests!  Another reason to come visit!

2.  It rained nonstop the first three days I was here.  As you know, there is a tropical storm out here.  Crazy!

3.  We have taken on a new identity in our new town.  Kind of like the Witness Protection Program. 
As shown on our most recent bill:

Lastly, some cute June shots:

                                          With Uncle Markie and Cousin Carson!

                                          Wearing her favorite shirt--thanks Linz!

The End.

Welcome to our bloggerooni! 

Today is Daniel's first day at work at his new job and my first day working from HOME and being with our baby full time!  So far, I have celebrated this by eating all day.

I flew into Tampa last Thursday LATE.  June was a dream on the plane.  We only had one majorly disgusting diaper the entire airport/plane experience (which is an all-time LOW for us).  She slept the rest of the time. 

I had about 298172 people question my sanity in flying with such a young baby.  Little did they know that this was June's third flight.  I don't know what these people wanted me to do--hitch up the wagon and come to Florida that way?

Which brings me to an important thought I have had lately.  Many people have written great posts about what not to say to a pregnant woman, including my witty sister.  I hereby want to discuss the things you shouldn't say to a new mother, aka ME.

1.  "You must be a new mother."  This usually comes after I ask some sort of ridiculous question at the doctor's office, like "Is it normal that my baby won't eat?"  "Is it okay that she is as yellow as a highlighter?"  (I will write about our experiences with jaundice sometime, maybe never.)

2.  "Have you been feeding her enough?"  This occurs whenever Junebug makes a sucking noise.  I understand that people are trying to be helpful with this one, but Junebug makes a sucking noise about 95% of the time she is awake and even most of the time when she is asleep.  It is her favorite activity after drooling.  She REALLY loves drooling, just like her mama.  To my utter shame, there was a day in the midst of moving when I fell asleep holding June and woke up to find that I had drooled on poor baby girl's head!    Anyway, the feeding comment sends me into Mom Guilt Mode, or MGM (shout out to Vegas!), and I have wasted so much formula trying to feed a girl I know isn't really hungry.

3.  "She doesn't look three months."  Again, I know.  She's small.  I promise I feed her.  All of the time. 

Thanks for letting me vent.

On a serious note, we just love having June.  LOVE.  I hated babysitting so much as a kid that I was completely nervous to have one.  People kept telling me that once I had my own, things would be different.  But even up to 38 weeks pregnant, I was not super excited.  My water broke at 38 weeks when we had friends over to play games.  I wasn't sure if my water had broken or if I had completely lost all control of my bladder.  The latter seemed more probable at that point.  So we went to bed.  The next morning, I really felt like I should probably get checked out, just in case.

I dreaded this.  Referring back to #1 above, I knew that I was going to face a lot of nurses who were going to look at my doubtfully and not believe that my water had broken.  I hate that.  Also, there was a good chance that it was a false alarm, and I didn't think I could handle that at my emotional, 38 week pregnant state. 

We arrived at the hospital, and everyone looked at me doubtfully.  "Is this your first time having a baby?"  "Your water probably didn't break, because it would still be leaking."  "We can check, but you haven't had contractions so there is probably nothing going on."  Then the nurse checked and my water HAD broken!  HA! 

I had a high tear so they ruptured it again in a lower spot to speed things up.  Then I felt contractions.  The nurse told me that many women like to feel contractions for awhile before they get an epidural and that I could wait too.  Who are these women?  I got an epidural right away and felt the best I had in nine months.  We watched parts of the Shawshank Redemption on tv.  Daniel was getting anxious but I was really okay with just watching tv all day.

Finally, Daniel begged me to start pushing.  I cried and said "but I'm not sure if I want kids." 

Long story loooong, I pushed and June came out right away.  They cleaned her up and put her on my chest, and I started bawling.  I just LOVED her.  Her eyes were wide open and we just stared at each other. 

She has been my pal ever since.  I have taken her to the office with me a lot (ever since she was just two weeks old!), and she has been so easy and so good.  We are truly blessed by her.

We had her March 26th.  7 pounds, 5 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Daniel graduated from UNLV in Business Economics and got a job here in Tampa shortly thereafter.  The job was a competitive one and we are so grateful to be here! 

June was blessed on Mother's Day.  Daniel's mother, Kristi, made her a beautiful blessing dress.