Florida 2011

We are having a great time here in sunny SW Florida. Here are some snippets of our trip so far:
Floating in the pool after dark, staring up at the big dipper.

Smelling cocoplum, especially at night.

Crab hunting after sunset.

Learning to surf.

Riding bikes all over the island.

Catching lizards, Andy still has it!

Finding all the spots where we take pictures and updating 2011 style.

Pasta salad from the Publix deli. Why don't all Publix have this? Hint: If you eat it out of the plastic container, there is no dish to wash.

PB&J sandwiches, almost everyday.

Still wearing the SCUBA masks we bought before we were married. What a great investment!

Swimming with a manatee!! A - MAZ - ING! Also exhausting, they are faster than they look!

Posing with a woody surf wagon

Key's birthday dinner at Mi Pueblo. I love the shrimp avacado salad.

Balloon animals (or princesses, take your pick.)

Ice cream every evening.

Wi Fi at the pool.

Military-like pelican formations.

Cold tap water does not exist here. I knew that, but had forgotten.

The smell of sunscreen, even after a shower. Robbie can really coat us good.

Those darn turtles laying eggs in the middle of the night when I am not looking. (Update, I did start looking...it was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was. And I took Andy with me. I'll save the rest for another time.)

Seeing pool friends, year after year. Meeting new ones too.

Beach umbrellas as backdrops for cool pictures, and they second as a shady spot on the beach.

Three thousand shades of blue, no chance of picking they most beautiful. They all win.

Watching the old lady, straw hat society do water aerobics in the pool. (I almost snapped a picture. You're glad I didn't!)

Enjoying the interesting art downtown Sarasota. Some recognizable, some not.

Sun kissed highlights in our hair.

Tans so deep they make our teeth glow.

Reading the Sarasota Herald Tribune. I miss it.

Reading a so-so paperback til 1am, knowing I'll get those sleep hours back in the form of an afternoon nap.

Gallons of pink lemonade, gallons of ice cream, gallons of chilled peanut M&M's. Seriously, we've been buying M&M's in the party sized bags - and there is no party!!!

Sea slugs in a bucket. (Temporarily, of course)

Sporadic sightings of the resident black snake, although Andy swears it is a cobra.

CraigsList iPod Touches for the boys. They paid!

Free apps, free apps, free apps!

Foxtail ferns, unusual succlents..

Pink cheeks, peeling shoulders.

Getting lost underwater in a huge school of jacks. Awesome experience.

Diving for fighting conchs and assorted hermit crabs to live (for at least ten minutes) in the seaside castle built especially for them.

Forgotten flip flops means burned feet, and carrying children along with beach bags.

Dinner at The Columbia! Love Cuban food. Boliche!

Watching the meandering bike formation ahead of me. Robbie leads, Natalie right behind. Me in cow's tail position.

Dodging skittering lizards as they cross in front of the bike. "Oh, look Mom! Those lizards are hugging!" (Yes. Yes they are!)

Stopping the bikes to talk to anyone walking a dachshund. Robbie's idea.

Boat rides with friends.

Robbie's first attempt at wake boarding. He did great.

BOGO popsicles. Key almost died of happiness. They are his primary source of nourishment, year round.

Knives that wouldn't slice hot butter. We keep 'em sharp at Casa Goodson.

Sunsets almost every night that would knock your socks off, if you wore them here.

Drum circle on Casey Key and a five year old girl who shook her bootie til the sun went down - all while wearing a belly dancing scarf around her waist.

Getting a picture of a manatee sticking his snout out of the water. This is nearly impossible.
You'll just have to trust me on this one. I promise that is a manatee snout. I have a better shot of a dolphin fin, but you get the idea of how good a photographer I am when it comes to mammals who live in the sea.

Opti sailboats and a new sailor in our house. He is a veteran of Roberts and Dona bays, running slightly aground around Rattlesnake island, but nothing raising his daggerboard couldn't fix.

Nautical knot tying. Practice makes perfect.

Neon green pool pass bracelets that a 'blue hair' insisted we should all wear in the pool. Don't sweat the small stuff, lady.

Digging for sharks teeth at 'the property' (our old house). Didn't find much but the old man who lives there knew Andy would be back this year and saved him a two inch whopper of a tooth. Thanks, Harold, you made his day!

Pulling a kitchen chair up to an outlet at 11:30pm so you can play on your new (used) iPod Touch as it recharges.

Jayyyyy Leno

Storage Wars. Glad we don't have A&E back home, I could get used to that. Dave, you are a JERK!

Laughing at an anhinga who caught a fish too big to swallow.

People watching at Sharkey's Pier.

Slowing down to envy houses with for sale signs out front. Thinking either one of two things:

1) we could never afford that house

2) we could afford that one, but would we all fit inside at the same time?

Tropical Thai - won ton soup and pineapple fried rice with chicken. Throw in a summary of the life of Thailand's fifth president, because Natalie noticed his picture on the wall and asked if he owned the place. Fascinating character, actually. Google him.

Really expensive watermelons. We aren't buying many. Did they grow with golden seeds this year and nobody told us?

Being genuinely disappointed that the Eastern Screech Owl we found in that Pongam tree last year wasn't in there this year. Yeah, we looked. Twice. Duh!

This vacation is far from over so I'll just leave it at............to be continued.

Accutane

I get that it is Mother's Day. And I get that I should probably be writing about how great a day it was and that my children were angels and how incredible every single second of motherhood is. I get that. But you know what, I hate to break it to anyone who isn't a mother yet (because if you are a mother, you already know this)......it ain't always rose petals and pretty background music and sunshine. Sometimes it is just hard and frustrating and thankless. So when Natalie huffed and slung my Mother's Day card at me, birds were not chirping. I was more 'angry bird' at that point and that is the truth of it all. Seriously, who SLINGS a Mother's Day card!? But I felt like writing tonight and wasn't going to let the fact that it was Mother's Day get in my way. I have had this subject on my mind lately, for whatever reason, so I am going to write about it.

Have you ever heard of Accutane? It's that medicine that is mostly used for very severe acne. It also became famous for suicidal side effects, mostly in teenagers, the target patient of Accutane, one would guess.

Well, I took it once, but not for acne. I had roseacea, which is when you have a very red face, mostly across your nose and cheeks. After a hundred, "Wow, you sure got sunburned!" comments I decided to find out what was really going on with my face. The dermatologist took one look at me and declared I has roseacea. We tried multiple rounds of tetracycline which didn't help and then we pulled out the big gun, Accutane! I didn't realize what I was in for. Accutane shuts down the oil production in your body. Now, on the surface, this sounds pretty harmless. Trust me, you don't have a clue what grease can do for you until you don't have any!

The first thing that started happening was my skin started to crack. Under each fingernail, I started getting cracks. Then my ears, where they attached to my head, started to crack. Then my lips started to peel. I mean PEEL, like...OFF. As in one huge piece. As in I could hand you my lips! I remember being on a business trip and standing in the bathroom at the hotel HOLDING MY LIPS IN MY HAND. And the lips still on my face were raw and burning like fire. And then this started happening every second day for a few weeks. It got intense, to say the least.

And then I got sticky. I couldn't pet the cats without yanking out handfuls of fur. And then I'd have to wash my hands to get it off. I couldn't put pieces of paper down. I simply couldn't turn them loose. I had to have someone take them from me. I couldn't cross my bare arms or legs without getting fused to myself. Oil is a lubricant, folks! When you don't have any you stick to everything, including yourself. I would have to slowly peel my arms and legs apart or my skin would rip. I still have scars from cat scratches during that time. I guess you don't heal well without oil.

But the strangest part of having no oil production is the way I perceived smells. Quite simply, humans stink. I never realized that until then. I don't guess you would ever know that sort of thing unless you were in my situation. People smell like grease balls, and it is not pleasant! Robbie made the bed up one night and unknowingly switched our pillows. I really insulted him when I gagged at the smell of his pillow. It was amazing the difference it made to not be amongst the greasy population. I had to leave a meeting once when a lady with greasy hair sat down next to me. I couldn't stand being near her! Even just entering a room full of people overwhelmed me.

Thankfully, I was only in the sticky, peely, stinky phase for a few weeks. Then I was able to slowly decrease my dose and return to the land of oily and self stinky. You would think you'd want to remain in the non-stinky category, but life would be very difficult that way. The old saying is true in this case, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

And the doctor was right about the Accutane. It cured my roseacea. And it gave me lasting insights into how important oil production by our bodies really is. Who'd of thunk it, eh?

It was a Great Week

We had such a great spring break week. I can't believe it is ending. Tomorrow will be an early morning. Showers, bagels, backpacks, lunches packed and out the door five minutes later than I wanted. Yes, back to the grind. School, work, violin, dinner, bedtime. Routines are important, but breaking them, for a few days, is too. It is too easy to go on auto-pilot in our routines and miss the bigger picture.

I'm grateful for the break that let us be together as a family and slow down. We picked Robbie up from the airport on Thursday. The kids weren't expecting him until Saturday, and they thought he'd be driving home. So they didn't suspect a thing when I explained I had to check out a tree at the airport. (Having a Arborist for a mom makes "going to look at a tree" normal and boring.) When we pulled up, I asked, "Hey, who's that?". Key, who couldn't wrap his brain around what his eyes were seeing, sputtered and finally exclaimed, "He won't be here til Saturday!!!". Natalie flung her tiny arms around his neck and refused to let go. Tender hearted Andy had silent tears stream down his cheeks. Dad was home, back with us, and all seemed right with the world.

I could turn this into a travel log. We did get out and about during our week, but I think I'll just focus on the things that made it so special.

Watching Robbie cut the grass, with Andy riding on his lap. Hearing the made up verses of "Hush Little Baby" coming from Natalie's room each night. Hearing him criss cross the hall fulfilling back scratching requests. Watching him make pancakes and bacon for dinner. Hearing the gentle encouragement he gave each child as they showed him all the new things they'd learned when he was gone.

That was what our week was really about. The backdrop being the trips downtown for ice cream, our walking tour of the Clemson campus, etc. On his last day he made sure all of bike tires were filled and that the seats were at the right height and he appeared happy and positive to the kids when he explained it wouldn't be long until we finish school and join him for our summer vacation. But I could tell he was missing us already. And that is just one of the reasons he is such a great dad (and husband). We are truly blessed to have him in our lives. And sometimes it takes having someone out of your life to fully grasp how important it is to have them in your life.

And speaking of life, we are still in the midst of deciding where we will be living out the next decade or so. We have lots of possibilities (or, as Natalie would say, possumbilities) and all of them are good things. It is an exciting time to be a Goodson, plus a bit stressful if you really like knowing where you'll soon call home. But I'll take it, because I know where ever we land we'll be together. And THAT is home.

He is still here

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Robbie has been here all week but has to go back to FL tomorrow. I'll post more soon about of wonderful week together.

He is still home

Andy

Well, here is the last installment of the Goodson kids. Andrew Dean is our middle child and the most gentle soul I've ever met. He is so much like his father he is routinely referred to as 'Little Robbie'. He even sees it in himself and will giggle after a particularly 'Robbie' action or saying.

Andy was the miracle we never thought we'd have. We found out he was on the way when Key was ten months old. Stunned would be an understatement. Joy would also not do it justice. A 'free' child, out of the blue, not the result of testing and shots and endless waiting. A blessing we didn't dare hope for nor even deserve. All of his brother's firsts were going to be repeated, and it was just too good to be true.

We didn't find out the gender, yet again, but we were somehow convinced that Andy was a girl. He was so different, in utero. His brother slept for nine months. Andy kick boxed. He could literally throw me off balance as I walked. He kept his father awake at night with his constant motion. We were a bit scared at what this all might mean. We named him Natalie.

And then HE was here. And we couldn't call him Natalie anymore. We threw names at him until the nurse insisted that we pick one and stick with it. We gazed at him and he gazed back with eyes that seemed to say he'd been here for a long time. We called him a little old man and named him after Andy Griffith and his grandfather, Harold Dean. Andrew Dean it was, but don't dare call him Andrew now. He can't stand it.

From the start he was my shadow. He needed me, and only me, for at least the first year of his life. If there is a picture of us together, he is smiling. If I took the picture, meaning I was an arms length away, he is crying. Many, many, many nights he slept right beside me, my pinky finger as his pacifier. When dad isn't home, he still sleeps with me. Thankfully, I get to keep all of my fingers now!

Andy is the sweetest child I've ever met. And I am not just saying that because I am his mother. Any adult who spends time with Andy eventually finds me to tell me the same thing. As we walk together down the halls at his school, teachers I don't know stop to tell me what a special child he is.

Andy is helpful. He can sweep the house like nobody's business. He volunteers to help with anything I am doing. He is an extremely hard worker, never gives up. We spread mulch one day for hours and hours and he never left my side. His siblings abandoned us within a half hour, but not my Andy. When he has pulled all of the weeds in the garden he sits on the railroad ties waiting for a new one to pop up.

Andy loves to read. He learned to read within just a few days of starting kindergarten. It was as if they just flipped a switch and he knew. He read the first Harry Potter book to me before he turned seven. Every. Single. Word.

Andy is an expert lizard catcher. He loves all living creatures and has a shelf of reference books on fish, reptiles, shells, snakes, etc. He can name almost every vertebrate just by looking at it's skeleton. He is like a sponge when animal knowledge is available. His plan is to be an animal dentist when he grows up.

Andy started asking us if he could play the violin when he was three. We finally found a teacher, and a tiny violin, when he was four. He just turned seven in February so this is his 3rd year of lessons. He won an honorable mention from South Carolina in the Reflections contest recently. He composed and performed a song. Actually, he wrote over ten songs and chose one of his favorites to perform. The wobbly little notes he drew were adorable!

Andy isn't perfect. He has no use for napkins nor underwear and avoids using both. If he has eaten since his last bath, you'll know exactly what it was by looking at his cheeks. And you can tell where he sat to eat it. The underwear thing....not sure what is so offensive about them. He also couldn't keep his shoes tied if his life depended on it. We have a stash of new shoe strings just waiting to go in his shoes. He also routinely clashes with his little sister. Those two are like oil and water.

I wish I had more words to describe Andy. He is so much more than I can adequately portray here. But I hope you have enjoyed getting to know him a little through my thoughts. The boy is pure joy to his dad and me.

Scarves

I'm hardly fashion conscious but I have noticed a winter trend - SCARVES. Cute, cute, cute scarves. Which are also quite utilitarian right now because it is beyond cold this winter. But there is a problem with all these cute, colorful scarves. Well, I shouldn't blame the scarves. Really, it's just my problem. I can't wear the things! I am just not scarf material. There doesn't appear to be a body type that can't 'do' scarves. I've seen them on just about every body type. So it must be a mental block at work here. First off, I think I'd suffocate having that thing wrapped around my neck all day. Secondly, I'd be fiddling with it constantly which would be distracting to me and everyone else. Third, I think I'd look as if I tried tying a sofa cushion around my throat and left the house like that. I'm not too bummed about this mental inability to carry a fashion trend. I'm so rarely dressed to impress that it barely matters. But I do love seeing all of you wearing those scarves. You look GREAT!