Florida Chick Does Her Part

I have been completely offline for the last 7 days. I've basically been ignoring all of my friends, family, and responsibilities in order to completely submerge myself into the incredibly addicting world of Edward and Bella. If you have read Twilight you know what I'm talking about...honestly, I thought it was ridiculous that my friends were into vampire stories...until I read it...and ditched my entire life to become involved in their saga.

I did take one break this week...actually, I only had about 50 pages left in Breaking Dawn and I was trying to make it last as long as possible...so I took that opportunity to do my civil duty and go see the movie Earth. Now, most of you know that I fall fairly close to the tree-hugger range of environmental friendliness. I carry my envirobag with me at all times just in case I need to make an emergency trip to the store and God forbid they offer me plastic, and (to the embarrassment of my family) I've been known to pull recycleables out of public garbage cans to bring them home and put in the recycle bin. (Seriously people, stop throwing Gatorade bottles in the trash!) So you can imagine my excitement about this movie...landscape, animals, nature...disturbing animal death scenes. Yes, that's correct, I had to cover Carson's eyes multiple times to keep him from seeing the elephants being mauled to death by the lions and the gazelle being taken down by the cheetah. Yes, I know it's the circle of life and all of that...but I just wasn't prepared to answer my 5 year old's questions about animals dying...really Disney, prepare a parent ahead of time please.

Regardless of the animal deaths, the movie was beautiful. Amazing shots of gorgeous, lush rainforests and rushing rivers made me even more excited to do my part in protecting the Earth. In fact, I was so anxious to do my civil duty that as we left, my friend Maxine and I noticed the bloodmobile in the parking lot and made a last minute decision to continue with our warm fuzzy feelings of helping others and donate blood. Now you have to realize that we had 5 kids with us as well...which turned out alright since the bloodmobile is heavily stocked with snacks (usually for woozy post-donation volunteers, but apparently also for hungry, bored children of civil-minded mothers.) It wasn't actually until I was laying in the chair with a needle in my arm that I began to wonder about the legitimacy of the operation. I mean, honestly, at what point do you just walk into a glorified RV and let them stick a needle in your arm...oh that's right, it comes right after the high of knowing a tree was planted in your honor for attending an eco-friendly movie.

Oh well, it actually turned out to be a legit operation (I think) and I feel a certain sort of pride in knowing that in one day, I cleared some CO2 out of the atmosphere and helped someone who might need blood...which brings me back to Twilight...which I finished Friday night and I think might have contributed to my slight depression all weekend. But no need to fear, I'll snap out of it...I'm starting the series again tomorrow, like they say - reduce, reuse, recycle!

Florida Chick on Staycation

It always seems that for us, Spring Break ends up being nothing more than an extended period of Spring cleaning and errand running, catching up on doctor and dentist appointments, and hours spent listening to choruses of "I'm bored" which start at about 2pm on the first day of vacay...but not so this Spring break - oh no, we decided to go all out and take all of the economists advice and vacation where we live. Fortunately for us we live in Florida and not DesMoines(a staycation would be much less fun there I'm thinking) and taking full advantage of our vacation time...we did nothing.

I don't mean nothing in the bad way - you know - the kind that leads to kids whining on the couch because they have nothing to do and there is nothing on T.V. I don't even mean it in the way that that nothing is actually something but involves spending too much money on something you shouldn't have spent money on (ie: "Hi honey, what did you do today?" "Oh nothing." (while shoving a new pair of sandals further into the trunk of the car - not that this has ever happened)).

Anyway, we did nothing this week as in the only work I did was check the time to make sure the kids had a fresh coat of sunscreen every hour, and make one trip to the Dollar Store to replace the first set of water sprayers that were broken in a particulary tough battle by Carson against opposing 5 year olds. We ate out every night (I only had to wash one coffee mug every day - and actually I only rinsed it out since I was reusing it every morning). We ate chips and salsa, slushies, ice cream, and multiple bags of sour skittles and butterfinger minis. We walked the Broadwalk, sat in the sun for hours, read People, US and Oprah, and collected seashells on the beach.

I have to admit that even though Florida has its pitfalls (crime, taxes, home prices, July, jellyfish, mosquitoes, healthcare) it's really nice to be able to spend an entire week relaxing at the beach which is only .8 miles from home...especially when my friends back home (who have little crime, low taxes, and much better healthcare options) are still wearing winter coats...hey it's only fair...I'd trade tanlines for lower taxes - but not in March...I'd take tanlines in March anyday!