Love is in the air... Everywhere I look around...

Days left of my summer break: Zero. And I don't love that.

Tomorrow is my first day of A.P.P.L.E.S., Accomplished Professional Practices for the Lee Educational System. Seven thirty to four p.m. Four sessions about mentor teachers, Florida laws regarding children, etc. I'm sure it will be riveting, and truly, it will get me excited to get back on schedule and in the classroom. I just don't feel like summer ever happened this year.

More about love. Today we got our official Florida drivers' licenses. We tried before as I wrote, with no success and a lot of attitude. Today was the opposite-- successful and attitude-free. We went to the Immokalee Road branch of the DMV and were met with no waiting and two amiable helpers. We were in and out in about six minutes. We love the Immokalee Road DMV people, especially the lady with the fun Boston accent (my dad is from Boston, so I know the Boston accent anywhere!) and the man who offered Brad a divorce. Explanation: the lady and guy were helping us independent of each other but next to each other, asking the same questions (have you been convicted of a DUI? could you please read Line Five for me?) and then they asked if we would like to register to vote, and which party if either we would like to register with. I said yes to voting, no to a party. Brad said yes to voting, and yes to one particular party. I overheard and said, "What? I married a Republican? I'm an issue voter, not a party voter! I've been duped! A year of marriage and I just learn this now?" (This is particularly unfair for me to say since I rarely follow politics and have voted only once, I'm ashamed to say.) The guy helping Brad said, "Well, Sir, if you step to your left we can help you with divorce papers." Ha. Very funny. We still love them for being so darn friendly in a government job. We don't love that our pictures are not self-esteem-friendly. We both agree that their camera adds at least 35 pounds in the form of multiple chins. And the darn things don't expire until 2011. No kidding.

Still more about love. Recall your favorite S.A.T. analogies. Love is to apathy as good pizza is to... what we had for dinner tonight. We're trying to find a good pizza place near our new house, so we tried "Pizza Planet." At first Brad thought the sign said "Pizza Pungent," which should have been taken as an omen. The cost was decent, the wait was short, the pizza was... absolutely void of flavor. It was hot, it looked tasty, the crust was handmade and chewy, like New York pizza. But the sauce? The cheese? The pepperoni, for crying out loud? I'm a two-Tums-girl after pepperoni, but except for the extra grease, this didn't even register. We both wished it was at least as bad as the stuff we got at half-price-Mondays-pizza at Mugs-n-Jugs near the house, for we could say that we surely hated that pizza. It was vile, horrid, and unfit for human consumption. But as the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy, the opposite of good pizza is not the Mugs-n-Jugs variety. No, it is the Pizza Planet stuff. Beware. And if we offer to take you there, take it as a hint that it's time to go home. (Just kidding.)

Even more about love. Much of the open land around southwest Florida has cows on it. I've heard that there's some tax break or something if the land you own is considered "farmland," so people who own plots of land put cows on it. There are cows at every turn. Across the street from the entrance to Ralph and Chris's subdivision is one of those said plots, with said cows. And tonight as we turned the corner to enter the subdivision, one particular bull was feeling frisky. I felt like we were having our very own live National Geographic moment. Thank goodness we didn't have any of the nieces or nephew with us... that kind of 'splainin is up to the parents.

How's this for love? We just received news that Grandma Bressler, who has been fighting cancer for about a year now, has been declared cancer-free. Praise God! We LOVE that news!

We love you all. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Comments

Thanks a ton for the comments, folks! It's really nice to know you're checking in and haven't forgotten about us. We love you all and miss you terribly! Keep checking back! I promise not to go more than a week without updating!

Some pictures I left off by accident.

This is Brad showing you how tall the kitchen ceiling is. It must be at least 11 feet high! It makes the kitchen look like it was made for munchkins, or more appropriate to the newest movies, oompah-loompahs. (Have you seen the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Any reviews?)













This is an example of the dramatic weather down here. It rains in one specific location for a short time. As our dear friend Brady put it, it's not like it's really raining, it's more like the air can't take any more humidity so it lets some go in the form of rain. Here you can see one lonely raincloud letting some of its excess go. It reminds me of the Winnie the Pooh stories where Pooh is sitting under a cloud and it's raining on him and him only.










This is one of our neighbors' houses. It's a mixed neighborhood, with some houses / structures that have been around for a while mixed with a whole lot of new houses. We think this one might be one of the former. Probably not so new. You can't see it too well, but the whole thing is resting on cinder blocks.

Tomorrow is mortgage decision day. Pray for wisdom for us as we voluntarily go into debt way over our heads. Ahh, homeowning.

Bathroom choices.

We've been making some decor choices. Let us know what you think. These mirrors are from Restoration Hardware (translate: crazy expensive) but we found them at Lowes for much cheaper.












This is the pedestal sink we put in the guest bathroom. It takes the place of the vanity cabinet, but there's a whole linen closet in the bathroom, so we'll have plenty of storage in that.














This is the lighting fixture we chose for the bathrooms. We were going to have the standard "showgirl" lighting strip but it's just not our taste. Cheap, but not our taste. So we found this at a lighting place in Bonita Springs and like it a lot. I think we're going to use two of the two-lighters for the master bathroom, and maybe this three-lighter for the guest bath. Not sure about that yet. But we like it.

Oh- and colors. The master bedroom is going to be blue (matches our gray-blue towels) and the master bathroom is going to be khaki (matches our khaki bedding). Hopefully this will tie the master suite together without being too matchy-matchy.

We're probably going to do white subway tile in the kitchen as the backsplash. I saw it in the movie Herbie (the new one) and it looked cool. (Brad said I should give the house stuff a rest and just enjoy the movie.) I'll see if I can find a picture of it somewhere.

Any other color suggestions for the living room, office, kitchen, and guest suite? We're all ears! Our style is pretty much Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.

Not so glamorous a name.

Yep, that's our house in the background. It's the lovely Suncoast model. And then I realized that the port-o-potties in the area also bear the lovely Suncoast name. No relation to the model of our house. How's that for glamour?

House update!

On Saturday we joined Ralph and Chris on a day trip to Sarasota, about an hour and a half north of Fort Myers. Ralph wanted to test drive a car he had his eye on, and the rest of us went along for the fun. The car deal turned out to be a bust, but we enjoyed the afternoon in St. Armand's Key, a little vacation town just west of Sarasota. We ate at Tommy Bahama's and then looked at shops until it started raining.

On Sunday we tried out the Vineyard Church in Fort Myers. At first no one came up to us or said hello, but after church we couldn't get out the door! The people were friendly and welcoming, and the teaching was right-on. It reminds me of the Mundelein Vineyard-- more families than college students. It's in the running as our new church home, but we're still going to explore. There's another one-- Summit church-- that we're considering. I went to Starbucks on Monday to get some quiet time alone to read. Captivating is the book of the day-- the women's side of Wild at Heart. It's about how women connect with and reveal the heart of God. It is changing my life. Anyway. I was at Starbucks on Monday eavesdropping on the conversation of the barista-on-break. I heard her mention "community groups" and "Chris Tomlin." Chris Tomlin is a worship-song-writer that we like, so I asked her if she knew of a church in the area that sang songs like his. She directed me to Summit, where she goes. Apparently it's a younger congregation and a newish church, sort of near our house. We're going to try it on Sunday.

I promised a house update, so here it is. Brad and I went up to see it on Tuesday after a car-shopping afternoon and a frustratingly unsuccessful try to get our new licenses. Argh. Oh, and Monday afternoon was spent at Wells Fargo trying to learn about mortgages. There are some crazy options down here since the housing market is booming.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon to see that the house has been painted! "Foggy Day" is the base color, and the trim is "Quilter's Thread." There's a job for you. Naming all the paint colors in a paint wheel. We love it-- a good neutral khaki with no pink in it. Lots of the khakis around here look pinkish in certain light. Ugh. You can barely see the house next door-- bright orange sherbet. Well, at least we won't match. Ugh.





We were greeted at the front door by a very large centipede. This thing was nearly the size of our pen. NASTY. Brad knocked it off the wall and smooshed it under a piece of cardboard. It squirted. VERY NASTY. Then, after taking pictures around the house for a half hour, we came back and it was still stinkin' alive. EXTREMELY NASTY. It made me wonder if I'm going to last in south Florida. I'm not so sure. Especially since we found a few other (smaller, thankfully) bugs inside. So nasty. Makes me itch to look at it.




Happier things. The kitchen is looking mighty fine. The cabinets are coming along! This is the view from the back of the house. To the left is the opening to the living room. Straight ahead through the door is the hall and then the office.









Here's our eat-in kitchen nook (I'm standing in the hallway.) The nook is cozy but spacious enough for my enameled-top table and a few chairs.











Here's our lanai. I'm standing at the far end just outside the great room / living room. You can see the eat-in part of the kitchen protruding onto the lanai.


Our closing date is tentatively set for Friday, August 26th. Tentatively. Not. Holding. Breath. But hoping.

Aunt-ing and Uncle-ing is the BEST!

Yesterday we got to celebrate little Bethany's sixth birthday! "Little B" is Shelley's oldest. (Chase is their youngest.) We all drove over to Jeff and Shelley's place near Fort Lauderdale, on the east coast of Florida.

Here are Rico and Makena. (Rico is Bethany's husband.) Kena is ten months old, 19.5 pounds, and enormously cute. She has the best disposition of nearly any baby I've ever met, and for some reason she has taken to me. When she sees me she crawls right over to me! Which of course makes everyone ask when we'll be having children... hence the title of today's post. We LOVE being Aunt Kafaleen and Untle Brad. Not so sure if Mama and Papa sound so appealing just yet.

Chase's birthday was just before we got into town in early July, so we bought him a belated birthday present. Brad had wanted to get Chase this big Tonka truck at Christmas but it just wasn't in our budget. So we got it for his birthday. I'm not sure who was more thrilled with it, Brad or Chase. I did at one point hear Brad say, "I wish I had had one of these."












And then Kena decided it would be a good idea to sit in it.

















As did Chase.

















Little B got a bike for her birthday. One of the best parts of the evening was when she was opening presents. She had opened nearly everything and was opening the stuff from Brad and me, when Ralph opened the door and brought in the bike. Bethany's eyes got real big and she got excited, but then turned and finished opening our present and thanked us! (Shelley had prepped her beforehand, reminding her to use her manners. This was just amazing, and we were all astounded at her self control!) After she thanked us she went over and squealed at the bike, and we all went out to watch the kids ride in the street. She's such an amazing kid. So smart, and so much personality!






And this is what she looks like when it starts raining when you're trying to ride your new birthday bike. Bummer.

Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get?

Boney fingers, as my mother always says. :)

Brad has begun working with his dad learning his way around Master Builder. MB is a piece of software which handles accounting for construction companies. Brad has been taking online classes nearly every day for a week now in the mornings. He says it's not too hard, but he's quite computer-smart, so I just think it's a good fit for him. We've had most of the afternoons together as he isn't working full days yet. I'm going to miss him when I have to go to work all day!

By the way, some of you have been asking for our information (address, phone). I don't know who has access to seeing this blog, so I'm not going to put it on here, but I'd be happy to email it to you if you drop me a line. kathleenbressler@gmail.com

And I just realized that up until last night I had the settings for "comments" to be "only allowed from registered members"-- sorry about that. You can now leave a comment without being registered. I hate all those hoops to jump through.

In fact, if you're reading this, why don't you leave a comment about what your favorite flavor of ice cream is. Last night we went to Royal Scoop, a homemade ice cream place down here. I tried the pistachio- tasted just like pistachio pudding and had tons of pistachios in it. Quite yummy, but I think I prefer the chocolate peanut butter. Mom must have eaten it while pregnant with my sister and me because we both love the stuff. :)

House details finalized

Today we met with Glenn-the-builder. He is a friend of Ralph's and is building our new house. We met today to finalize our choices for decor, and we are SO EXCITED! First of all, Glenn uses upgraded stuff as his standard, such as larger baseboard moldings and nicer lightswitches and 30-year shingles on the roof. He walked us through the floorplan of the house and we picked out the remaining details. The outside of the house is stucco-- khaki with a cream trim. There are two garage doors. The interior color is white for now-- we'll paint later. The entryway, great room, hall, and kitchen will all have laminate wood flooring. The laundryroom and bathrooms will vinyl and the bedrooms will have carpet. The kitchen is magnificent. Glenn's eye for quality and design is evident in the solid-wood maple cabinets. He even included a few banks of drawers in the lower cabinets and a tray cabinet next to the stove. And our appliances will be stainless steel by Whirlpool. Every ceiling is vaulted, bathrooms included. The master bath has an extra-tall vanity cabinet (usually an upgrade) with a white countertop. The guest bath will have a pedestal sink instead of a vanity as there is a linen closet in the bathroom. I could go on for hours with details. We're quite excited! It looks like we'll be in the house in about six weeks. Yay!!! Y'all come visit, now!

We survived Hurricane Dennis and all I got was this lousy picture.

We did survive the first hurricane of the season for Southwest Florida. Dennis came through on Saturday-- here's a picture of what the clouds looked like. Although we prepared for the worst (bottled water, food stocked up, and plenty of movies, thanks to Ralph and Chris), all we got was a bit of rain and some wind. Nothing to be afraid of, and it was fun to be part of the culture of "anything could happen!" We even got a booklet about hurricanes free from Home Depot which describes all there is to know about weather patterns and how to prepare. Quite helpful.

On another note, I had my first social experience here in Florida last night when I went to a Mary Kay get together with my sister-in-law, Bethany. She has just become a Mary Kay consultant and took me to their weekly meeting as it was guest week. I had a ball trying the skin care stuff and playing with makeup. Now I want the whole skin care line. Must wait until we have paychecks actually coming in, I guess.

Got to help the toe-toe cwoss the woad.

On the way home from lunch at Chik-Fil-A the other day we saw a turtle about to cross the road! We've seen quite a few as roadkill (sorry about the roadkill comments-- it's just so weird!). We looked at each other and both wanted to take a picture of it, so we turned around. By the time we got back to it a minute later, it had made it halfway across the six-lane street! Brad decided to help the poor turtle the rest of the way across, so of course I had to document it. Here he is pointing at said turtle (which we're sure talks like Elmer Fudd) just before taking it to its new home in the marsh across the street. We're almost sure we heard it say, "Thank you, Bwad" as we drove away.

Devastating news.

I received a voicemail this morning from Mom while I was on the phone wishing Dad a happy birthday. A friend of our family, Alex, was married in April and his new bride was killed in a car crash last night. She is now in heaven.

This news has shaken me to the core. Alex and his family have been close to our family since I was nine years old. We have done Thanksgiving together religiously for years and Alex and Rachael were at our wedding last year. His father even married Brad and me. Over the years we have gone our separate ways, but we all still keep in touch via our parents. My heart has been heavy since I heard the news. Why does God allow this to happen? I know He is a good God. I trust that. I just terribly long to know His reasoning. "Your ways are higher than our ways, and the plans that you have made are good and true. If you call us to the fire you will not withdraw your hand. We'll gaze into the flames and look to you." (worship song by Diane Thiel)

I can't imagine the agony of losing a spouse. I pray and beg you, God, for supernatural comfort for Alex. Please bless him and show him great favor. Let his righteousness shine like the sun and glorify you, Lord. Draw his heart ever close to yours, and cradle him in your hands. You give and take away. Blessed be your name.

Red touch yellow, kill a fellow. Red touch black, good for Jack.

Fun fact of the day: that little rhyme is how you tell the difference between the poisonous coral snake and the harmless scarlet king snake. If the bright red bands touch the yellow bands, stay away. If the bright red bands touch the black bands, it won't kill you. If it's a coral snake, apparently their fangs aren't too long, so in order to kill you, they chew on you to get enough venom in. Mmmm.

We saw one as roadkill about a half mile from home this weekend. I didn't get out of the car to see which of the two it was-- harmless or harmful. I don't care. I hate snakes. For some reason I cry and shake when I see them. I wish it wasn't so, but I just hate them. I know this one was bright red and yellow and black. That's enough for me.

(picture is from http://pelotes.jea.com/AnimalFact/Reptile/vensnake.htm)

Just Relax.

Relax. That's Kath's job these days. Finally, no to-do lists, nothing to do, really, but relax. There are three weeks until new teacher orientation begins, so I've been looking forward to this time, but how do I relax? I don't know the last time I haven't had things to do. So I've been reading magazines and planning our home layout and decor. This has been incredibly fun.

We stopped by my school this week. The word that comes to mind is "barrio," which is Spanish for "neighborhood." Just before school let out for the summer, I went with the seventh graders to Pilsen, a Spanish neighborhood on the west side of Chicago. The neighborhood around my school is much like that. All the stores have Spanish names, and the houses are run down and, well, just different from Northfield, Illinois, where CHA was nestled. I was scared.

But on Friday we stopped by to get a tour. The facility, once you get past the tall fence, is nice. I'll be teaching seventh grade (previously it was going to be sixth- I prefer seventh) and I have one and a half different classes to prepare for (preps). I'm used to three to five preps a day, so having a regular seventh grade math and an honors class is a treat for me! I'll have five regular classes and two honors classes. And the class size right now is at sixteen!!! That's much better than I was expecting. My room is air-conditioned and big, with a whiteboard and chalkboard, television and overhead. It's going to be nice.

Bye Bye, Jetta. Hello, Car Shopping.

Here's a picture of our dear Jetta, just before she was sold in Evanston.


July 1. Moving Day, part two.

We met the moving truck at our storage unit and got everything unloaded.

Over the next few days we worked on getting Maude taken care of. Maude is our 1988 Toyota Camry and our only car, as we sold the Jetta before we left. Maude had not been the same since we changed the tire in Indiana, so we took it in for a tire balance. Turns out the tires were 10 years old and not so supple, so they had come apart inside, thus the shaking of the steering wheel. It's really a wonder they didn't blow out on our long trip.

Oh- total miles: about 1390

So we got Maude some new tires, we explored a little and tried to get to know our way around, we tried a new church, and we looked for another car.

On Sunday we visited McGregor Baptist Church, where Beth and Rico attend. They had an amazing patriotic service! It's big-- like a Baptist Willow Creek but not that big. One really cool thing they did was to have the choir sing the songs of each of the branches of the armed forces. As they sang, the people who had served in each branch came forward, so by the end the front stage was filled with service people of all ages. It was really something to see the church honor those who have served us. I wish more churches would do this.

We spent the Fourth of July mostly inside sleeping. I guess the exhaustion of packing and traveling caught up with us, and we didn't really get up and at 'em until about 5 p.m. We swam in Ralph and Chris's pool and watched tv. Nothing too spectacular, but better than being outside.

By the way, the weather is really something. It rains every day for 10 minutes or so. The forecast on TV makes it look like everyday is a torrential downpour, but it's just a short shower and then it's done. The temperatures are in the 90's, so not much worse than Chicago, but the humidity makes it feel like we're swimming outside. Kath can hardly bear it, and gets cranky. Brad is ok with it, but we'd both rather be inside.

On Tuesday we went car shopping. We happened to find an obscure road that had dozens of used car lots! We stopped at more than 25 different lots to see what they had to offer. At the beginning of the day we didn't really know what we wanted-- maybe a pickup truck, maybe a Toyota or Honda sedan. By the end of the day we were pretty sure we wanted a Honda Accord. We have yet to find one. After 12 hours of looking through lots we came home, where after talking with Ralph we learned that we need to have proof of Florida residency (can't get that until we have a house) to get insurance, which we need to get a title. So even if we found a car now, we couldn't get it. Argh. Wish we'd done our research, but we had a really fun day. Although this transition period has been a little hard, it has been fun for our marriage. We're in it together, and we're having fun with it.

New Home Sweet New Home

Road Trip Day Three

Miles driven: about 375
Armadillos on the side of the road: 2
Gators spotted: 0, thankfully

We left Valdosta and headed into the most boring part of the trip. We were just ten minutes from the Florida state line, but we had a full day of driving ahead of us. Seven hours later, we arrived at our new house! Since we saw it last in April, the drywall has been put up. We arrived shortly after the workers had left as the first layer of mud was still wet. The rooms all have vaulted ceilings and the layout is open and breezy. We were there at 4 p.m. in the heat, and the breeze blowing from the lanai (for you non-Floridians, a "la-nigh' " is a screened-in porch) through the front door made the whole house cool. We were beside ourselves with excitement!

We headed down the half hour to Bonita Springs where Brad's parents, Ralph and Chris, live, and where we'll be staying until the house is done. Our proposed closing date is the fourth week in August. As long as we don't have too many hurricanes, we'll be in by September.

When we arrived, all of Brad's family was there! Little Chase ran out to meet us, followed by little Bethany and Jeff. Inside were waiting Ralph and Chris, Bethany and Makena, and Shelley. Rico came over soon after, and we all went to dinner at New York Pizza and Pasta-- good pizza!