Florida cold

I grew up in north eastern Massachusetts and still have a lot of friends up in New England. They like to make fun of me when I talk about it feeling cold here in Florida. These last few days have been down right chilly. We have had overnight lows in the low 30s. The orange groves are very nervous, bet you never thought about the effect of these cold fronts on all the produce growers.

These last few days we have needed to wear layers including hats and gloves. The first morning the boys were a bit confused about putting on all the garb, but were happy when they got outside and stayed warm. Tuesday was windy and cold, our official high for the day was 49, which means it was actually colder at our actual house.

Now I know many of you are thinking if it was 49 here we'd be having a heatwave, but you have to understand that last week we were in the 80s, so that is a big jump in temperature. We also don't buy as warm of clothes as people in colder temperatures. My "winter jacket" here would have been a late fall coat up north.

So I'm looking forward to the weekend when the forecast is back up in the 70s.
Hope you are staying warm and enjoying your winter weather. (o:

ice??

ok so we didn't get snow, but we did get ice. all my bushes had ice this morning (I didn't take a picture of that). Richard went to uncover our "tropical plants"


Abby's ice water dish


ice collected on the screen door


huge chunk of ice


ice gathered on our tarps


Abby that's not one rock... that's a lot of frozen rocks

brrrr take 2

well we didn't get snow... yes they were forecasting snow for Orlando, FL. Crazy! But, when it's only 34 at noon and 36 by 2pm it's very cold for Florida. Today we had a stay inside all day day. The boys stayed in their jammies and I have chili in the crock pot for dinner. Crazy I tell ya! I can't wait to see the 60s again and soon.

Hope you are staying warm in your neck of the woods.

Hurricane season

One of the big down sides of living in Florida season is hurricanes. Our local news channel does weather on the 1's and from May- Nov they do Tropical updates on 21 and 51 past every hour. Right now if you turn on the news you are going to hear about TD Ana, Hurricane Bill and TS Claudette. I just hope we don't ever have a season like the one we did 5 years ago when we got SLAMMED ... can you say Charlie, Francine, Jeanne and Ivan?? That was the year we got married and let me tell you it was a fall to remember!

I hope all of my readers who are in hurricane areas have a calm and quiet hurricane season this year!

outside fun

Yesterday after dinner we took the boys outside on the porch. Blake had his first popsicle (yes, I know he is already 2.5, but this was his first popsicle). He wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but found his own way to enjoy it (you'll have to wait until Friday's videos to see his popsicle eating method)



Then they decided to play in the sandbox... Daddy helped a bit

Florida summers

Summer is tough here in Florida. For the most part even the early mornings are pretty hot and humid. I try to get outside with the boys in the early morning, even if it's just a walk around the block. They both love to be outside, but when it's hot we can't stay out very long. Blake gets hot very fast, and so do I for that matter.

The afternoons the heat can be pretty oppressive, or else it is pouring buckets. Summer is our rainy season here. We get rain almost every afternoon from June to September around 2:30/3:00. It's caused by the heat effecting the breezes off both coasts colliding and creating havoc!

We try to play upstairs in our bonus room every day/every other day too. But, we also try not to use the air conditioner up there very much to keep the costs down. So yet again that can not be done in the late afternoons.

We have been playing a lot downstairs. Blake gets his computer time in the afternoon, which gives Colby time alone with me too. We read lots of stories, run around like crazy people, ride on the ride on trucks, play cars and whatever else the boys are in the mood to do each day.

I love the fact that they are learning to play together, and can be left to play on their own terms more and more. This provides me the opportunity to cook, clean and whatever else needs to be done. We will continue to enjoy the cooler days (that would be days where the temperature is under 93). We will enjoy playing in the pool, popping bubbles, digging in the sandbox, watching the rain pour down, stomping in the puddles, and all the other fun of a Florida summer.

Heat

you know it is going to be a hot day when it is not even 7am and it's already in the 80s! At 6:30am I was watching the news and they said it was 80 outside and the heat index brought the real feel up to 91... at 6:30am that is not the forecasted temperature that was the actual temperature at the time. I normal low for this time of the year is 71ish not 81ish!

We have heat warnings again today (3rd day in a row) the temps are going to be in the mid to high 90s and will feel like 105-110

Gesh if it is this hot in June what is August going to bring??

Weekend trip

Here are some pictures that Richard and I took at the beach Friday afternoon. It was so gorgeous there... we would have loved to spend more time just sitting and relaxing by the beach side. We did go back and sit on the rocks before bed Friday night. (look below for more story)


I decided to make this one long post so here's the real reason I posted (but I figured you'd like the pics of the beach)

On our drive home we needed to stop and get gas. We got off the highway and found a gas station... they had the price posted on the big sign as normal... ok the price isn't too bad (yes it was highway robbery since we were right off the highway, but it was to be expected). We get to the gas station and realize that the price you see on the sign is the CASH ONLY price. To pay with a credit card is 6 cents more a gallon... talk about highway robbery!. We said... yeah right on to the next stop.

We go to the next exit and find more of the same. We found one station with a reasonable of price... hey wait they are out of gas. We finally got gas at the 5th station that we drove through... what is up with that?

Does anyone else find it strange that gas stations still have two prices for cash and credit. I understand they have to pay for the credit card services, but can it really cost them the equivalent of 6 cents a gallon??? Come on!

ducks

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on here or not, but on Friday we had ducks swimming in our backyard. No we do not have a pool, or a pond, or a lake behind our house. They were swimming in the puddles. I snapped a few pictures. If I knew they would actually come out I would have snapped more after it had really rained and they were swimming in the bigger puddle.

a little rain?

This was yesterday in our backyard. And it was raining again today... 3 straight days of rain... yeah we have a bit of water

frustrations

Last week, we got a phone call asking if Richard or I would like to be involved in an information gathering group in regards to Florida Prepaid College Plans. We purchased this for Blake last year. The premise of this program is that you lock in today's tuition rates for your child. You can pay for it in a lump sum, 5 years worth of monthly installments or monthly payments until your child is going to college. The amount you spend is dependent on the age of the child. We decided to choose this plan for Blake and then set up a 529 plan for Colby since both are interchangeable and we could decided when they are getting ready to go to college which plan to use for which boy.

Ok great... we locked in 2007 tuition rates for a child who is only 1.5... woohoo... how smart are we as parents. That was until we got a slap in the face at the meeting last night. I was no NOT expecting this at all.

I found out that they found a loophole in this plan. The state legislature passed a bill that will bring Florida's tuition from the 49th lowest to up the national average. In doing this they have allowed the colleges and universities to increase their tuition at a rate of 15% a year for the next 5 year. Ok fine... I understand that they need to increase tuitions to keep competitive, not sure they have to jump up that many steps, but still.

Ok back to my issue... when we signed up for the plan there was an alternate plan called tuition differential, which at the time was to cover the difference in cost of 3-5 big name schools in FL. But, since the difference at the time was stated to only be about $5000 we opted out of this plan. Yeah, now they are saying that if you bought the plan before July 1, 2007, you are grandfathered in, but if you bought it after that term... then you will be expected to either have the tuition differential or come up with this money on your own when your child goes to college. Hellooooo you are talking about coming up with a possible $20,000 oh by the way.

This is so wrong. If we decided to purchase this plan for Colby it would cost us $41,000 where as if they didn't have this up in legislature it would have only cost us around $21,000.

Is there an end to this? Is there a time when we are going to realize the importance of education. As I stated in the meeting, it is sad that our president just said he wants to make college eductions more affordable for everyone and here we go again out-pricing it for many! Gesh!!

just a little rain

We had just a little rain today...



Right after I took that video our tent, that you can see, blew over from a huge wind gust.

This is what our backyard looked like about an hour after the storm was over...

What is wrong with this picture?

As a former teacher, I have been closely following the budget deficits in the education system here in Florida. When Orange County Public school announced earlier in the school year that they were projecting a $102 million budget cut for the fall, I was disappointed and a bit shocked. It is sad to know that our students would lose out, the schools will have to close, the new teachers will not be hired, that special areas maybe cut... that the children in the state are not respected.

Yeah... that is nothing! The state has re-evaluated the budget again, and cut education more. Orange county now has $240 million deficit!

I don't get it! I really don't! How could you not see that you are harming children by doing this? How could you not see that the children of this state are going to lose out. This state is not exactly known for having a strong education system to begin with so I know.... lets cut the budget even more.

The sad thing is the state was just beginning to realize that things needed to be done to help the eduction system. They passed a class size amendment limiting the number of students in each class. They passed money to help children get pre-k not only in public schools, but also providing the funding to help them attain it in day cares / preschools. They upped the educational expectations of the people who teach these classes. The implemented the F-CAT test, a whole other post... for another day.

So what does the state now do.... SLASH the eduction budget. Yes, I realize that the money has to come from some where. And, yes I realize that the state also passed an amendment that effects property taxes. But, come on... there has to be other things you can cut some money from. Richard was telling me about an article he read that said the government was reviewing some of the pet project spending in the state and they decided that there was nothing to cut... ummm this money went to things like Super Bowl tickets, dirt, Bibles, plane tickets... hello... why are these things more important that the children of the state? Why are these things more important then the educators? Why are these things more important than the future?

I want to know when these people are going to realize that cutting things from schools effects everyone. I know lets make school less appealing by cutting sports, art, music, computer lab, that kind of thing. I know lets make it more challenging for students to get into college by making them less rounded not more. Lets up the number of students who drop out because there is less motivation for them to stay. Lets take away the children's outlets for creativity and athletic ability. Lets make more work for the teachers by taking away special area time... more time in the classroom... more lessons to plan. Less time to collaborate with each other, less time to get work done during the work hours, less time to set up materials for the next lesson, less time to make that call to the parent who needs to know something about their child.

I don't get it... I really don't!

Shuttle Launch

One of the perks of living in Orlando is we can see the shuttle launch from our front yard. So I filmed it for you to see!




(ignore the beeping on the video I had the baby monitor and Blake's room was beeping for some reason)

Winter in Florida

I know you all think I'm crazy when I talk about winter in Orlando. I know you all want to kill me when I complain about our "cold" snaps, but yes I'm posting another weather post.

I went onto Weather.com and pulled up the temperatures for every Thursday in 2009 (for some reason Thursdays seem to have been our extremes)

This is what it has looked like:

Jan 1st: high 67 low 53
Jan 8th: high 71 low 46
Jan 15th: high: 59 low 44
Jan 22nd: high 58 low 33
Jan 29th: high 82 low 62
Feb 5th: high 51 low 30
Today: high 80 low 57

got to love the yo-yo effect??

brrrr! (day 2)

ok yesterdays high here... 48! Yes, I said 48 degrees in Orlando. Ok do you believe me now that it was cold? Or wait... it was 31 here when we woke up this morning. (ok when we were done showering I don't know what it was when I gave up on sleeping at 3:30am... more on that in a minute). There was frost on Richard's truck this morning. We are still under a hard freeze warning right now and it is 8:22am. That is because the temperature outside right now is 34. But, at least they are predicting it to get to 61 today. Oh and next week we will be back into the mid-70s... welcome to winter in Florida!


*************************************************************************

As to why I was up at 3:30am.... Colby started fussing at 11:30pm and didn't stop until I finally gave up and brought him out on the couch with me at 4:15am and he slept on me until 5:55am when Richard came out to see how I was doing. At 3:30am I gave up on sleeping and that was good because between 3am and 4am I was in Colby's room 4 times. We aren't sure if it is because of his teeth (which are sooo close to breaking the gums), or the fact that it's chilly and each time he fussed the heat was just kicking on again, or the fact that our schedule has been altered that last few nights in combination of trying to help Blake's sleep issues and the fact that Richard has been at work past bedtime the last two nights. Who knows. But, after 2 days of not sleeping through the night... I'm TIRED! Oh I forgot to mention that this is the second night he's done this. And don't forget I'm not going to be home Friday for bedtime and Saturday night at all... yeah how about adding a bit more mommy guilt on this overnight trip!

If someone has connections with whomever is in charge of baby teeth... tell them Mommy is ready for those teeth to break through already. Oh and speaking of baby teeth... I figured out yesterday that Blake had one of his two year old molars break through the gum the other day... think that may have had something to do with his sleep issues too??

***********************************************************************

One more thing... I'm getting close to 10,000 hits on my blog... I am planning another give-away at that time. If you are the person who is the 10,000th on my blog and you get a pic to prove it, I'll make you a signature and a special added bonus that I'll announce later (already have one of my siggy's... we will wheel and deal with what you get). Yes, I'll remind you again as we get closer... unless it's this weekend when I'm not here... lol!

brrrr!

Ok people it is 7:30am and it is 32 out on my back porch... yes I said 32... yes my back porch is in Orlando, FL... hello... can we say cold? (yes I understand that some of you would be happy to see 32, but we were just in the high 70s on the weekend so the 30s is way too chilly in my book!)

Christmas in Florida (part 6)

Yes... this is my house

Christmas in Florida (part 5)

Sooo can you tell what it is??