This is Emily's FANTASTIC drawing of Christ washing Judas's feet. She's done a GREAT job with it. Emily started taking oil painting lessons a few weeks ago and has really enjoyed learning the painting as well. I'll keep posting her most recent creations!
I woke up at 5AM yesterday to do a little photography before the fam woke up. It was really fun. I haven't been able to do much photography lately since the time change made it get dark so early here (5:42 sunset).
I spent almost an hour chasing this flock of seagulls. I wanted it to look just psycho with birds filling the frame, but the seagulls at the bottom of the picture didn't cooperate. There were HUNDREDS of gulls all together on the beach. People must have thought I was nuts running after the seagulls all morning. Just seeing scenes like this one makes me glad to live in Florida. It is SO NICE HERE!
For Emily's birthday last week we went to an art show. It was really fun. There was a lady who would put large photo prints on a matte and then she would paint the rest of the photo on the matte. It was REALLY cool. You couldn't even tell the difference between the painting part and the photograph.
Ruger has been loving just scooting all around the house and getting into messes. He's sure fun to watch.
School is going well but is very busy with finals coming up soon. The cases are really interesting to me for the most part--property is the exception.
We really enjoyed having Dad and Mom here for a day last week!
This is Ruger playing happiliy on a Sunday afternoon. We think he sure is cute! This week we did a lot of the same things. I went shopping practically every day. There are TONS of shopping centers close by. I love it! Jim studied lots and is studying some more! We are enjoying our time to be in school and play we Ruger. Last night we had a crazy thunderstorm with lightning left and right. Jim saw a bolt strike right next to our neighbors house and a firetruck came up in arms ready for damage control. Our GPS was stolen out of our car this week during the night, unfortunatley. Our first experience without it was driving to stake conference in Fort Myers. Even with google maps, we are hopeless without the help of Lola. We were an hour late to stake conference because we couldn't find the remote street the church is on. It was some what of a blessing for us to be so late because it was perfect for Ruger. He really gets upset and wrestless at church but he handled one hour VERY well. :) We did get to drive over a really long bridge in the middle of the ocean while we were lost and that was pretty cool. We have a really funny neigbor who loves to gossip. When we got home from church, she said, "Did you hear what happened this morning?" We said, "No, what happened?" Mary replied, "You know where Whipporwill is? ( a couple streets up from us) Well, a man murdered his wife and five children this morning and he's on his way to Hati now. I called Ruth (another neighbor) and told her, 'Don't open your door to anyone!!!' So be careful." Then she got into her car. Crazy things. And that's about all we have for the week. We love everyone!
Disney World with Corban and Rachel was AWESOME! We really had a fun day and liked seeing all of the cool stuff. My favorite was the 3d movie with smells and splashes of water. Emily liked Splash Mountain. Did you know that the Pirates of Carribean movie was patterned after the ride?
This week we were hired to photograph a wedding. It went really well, but WOW it was hot on the beach at 5 in the afternoon.
A heron was kind enough to pose for me this week for a little while and let me take pictures of him.
School is going really well. I've been reading like crazy, but really enjoying it. You wouldn't believe some of the crazy things that happen in those cases. I read one this last week about a lady who was paralyzed but someone hugging her and accidentally torquing her head to the side.
We watched the BSU game this week. Very entertaining... especially after the game.
Emily here. I've been busy this week decorating Ruger's room. Here's a pic of the sign I made for his wall.
Ruger is getting more fun every day. He prefers rolling around to sitting now. When he's playing on the floor and I leave the room, I often find him on the opposite side of the floor when I return.
I had a great trip hiking in the Whiteclouds for a few days this week with Emily's family. The hike in to the lake was only 8 miles, but it seemed like we were hiking up a wall. VERY steep with a 35 pound pack.
The fishing was really funny. We caught TONS of fish, but the largest one was about 8 inches long. They weren't even big enough to eat. The fish were so easy to catch that we got tired of catching 'em.
For our date last night, we made miniature hamburgers. It was pretty fun! The bun is made out of vanilla wafers with sesame seeds attached to the top with a drop of water, the hamburger is made of a junior mint, the ketchup is dyed frosting, the mustard is dyed frosting, and the lettuce is dyed coconut. We're going to take them over to a few friends today.
I went shopping with Edith for clothes for her new job. Four year old Aniseth LOVES getting her picture taken. She a totally girly. :) We have a lot of fun with her. I know you all wanted to see a picture of the mysterious Edith. She really isn't imaginary, despite what you all have been thinking.
This week hasn't been too eventful, but we did a few fun things. Ruger has been really upset with teeth comming in, but we found a miracle pill that makes him a little angel...well at least a happier baby... except for right now...
Anyway, here are some things we did this week:
We all went fishing in the holy grail of fish! Big ones were flying out of the water!! Florida is wicked COOL!
Emily and I have been playing tennis for the last several nights. She's getting really good! It's been fun to play each night after Ruger goes to sleep in the stroller.
Ruger and I were attacked by a rogue crab a few nights ago. I've been having nightmares ever since.
Ruger LOVES hanging out on the beach. We haven't had very much rain lately, so he's gotten to go quite a few times. The old ladies on the beach go nuts over him.
Ruger has been learning some incredible tricks. On Wednesday he learned to balance himself on the volleyball. Pretty cool.
Something tells me he wasn't expecting the sudden wave...
We've loved having so many visitors these last two weeks. It's been non-stop sight-seeing.
Working at the Dollar Tree has been quite the experience. It hasn't been so bad though. I just listen to photography, technology, and church podcasts for 5 hours while mindlessly slaving away. I'm glad to have a job.
We sold our car today! We were VERY happy to have finally sold it, but unfortunately we had to take a loss on it. This is the first car we've sold where we didn't profit at least $800. Nuts.
My camera died last week for some reason. Fortunately, it's still under warranty, so Canon is fixing it for me.
Oh, and I redesigned our blog to fit Naples more. The pier took me forever to draw on the computer, but it's the same pier that is on the Naples Beach, so I thought it would be more authentic that way :-) Oh, and I had to make Ruger look older (walking) because his silhouette just looked like a big black blob in my arms as a baby.
I've really been enjoying reading everyone's facebooks. Now we have Mike, Noel, Jake, Paul, Tyler, Sam, Dan, Danily, Jim, Jimily, Mom and Dad, and tons of extended family. Some of you are missing... I laughed really hard at Mike's post about the banana peel.
We're excited to have Ben and Laura here. They'll be here for a few days and then Janis, Hailey, and their foreign exchange student, Arina will get here on the 20th in the afternoon. We're really excited to have family here! Be warned, though. It's starting to get really hot. Bring on the SPF 9000.
The job hunt continues. I've applied all over the place, but this week I only had two interviews. One was stocking the dollar store until 2AM for minimum wage and the other interview was to work at a women's shoe store for minimum wage. Both only offered 20 hours per week. I haven't heard back from either one since the interview. Hmmm... I thought education was supposed to HELP you get a job. My bachelor's degree seems to have had the opposite effect.
Other than looking for jobs, we've just been hanging out like beach bums. We really got bad sun burns this week. I even got blisters. We went and had dinner with a couple who will be going to the law school here. It was nice to finally see some people our age since everyone in town is so old.
We're liking the ward. Last week the EQP came up to me and gave me my home teaching route of 4 families before introducing himself or welcoming me to the ward. It felt like something from Single's Ward. Very nice ward, though.
I've been looking for a job like crazy, but nobody seems to be real interested in hiring me. I've sent out at least 5 thousand applications... nothin' so far.
We took Ruger out for a walk tonight and I did some night photography downtown (as evidenced above). Turned out kinda cool.
We went fishing (no license required!) this morning at 5AM. Emily loves it when I wake her up at the crack of dawn to go fishing. I got so tired of catching fish that we eventually just watched the dolphins. The dolphins were EVERYWHERE! I doubt I waited more than 30 seconds to get a bite. There were fish everywhere. Most of them were just a foot long, but we also saw some big ones. We also saw a few schools of stingrays.
