Flyin' High

Thanks to Groupon, I got to fulfill one of my more adventurous goals from my list!

✔ 43. Go parasailing

Even though there are places to do this around here in Pensacola, the Groupon was for a place in Destin.  That's about an hour and a half east of here, and I had wanted to go visit anyway.  My mom was in town to come with us and watch the baby while we were out on the boat.

We had one hiccup in the day, where we found out the idiot who took our reservation had booked us for the wrong Sunday, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.  They had extra spots on the later cruise, so we went for some ice cream and got the last outing of the day at 6pm.   It was much more pleasant weather!  And sort of a sunset cruise, too, although the sun just sorta hid behind some clouds when it was done.

As for parasailing--I loved it!  Well, actually I was pretty scared watching the first couple go up.  Then I reminded myself that I had pushed a baby out of me, so I could probably do this.

Before we were out there, I had no idea how they got you from point A on the boat to point B in the air.  I had some theories, which were all wrong.

They strap you in, then have you sit on the back of the boat.  Then they let out the line and speed up!  It was actually very smooth, even though I look scared out of my mind there.

Up, up, and away!

It was so quiet and calm once we were 500 feet up there.  I felt like I should say something profound.  Instead, I think I just said "Ooh, pretty" and held onto the straps for dear life.

The deckhand was nice and took pictures!

My favorite part was when they dipped us in the water.  It was a lovely day, and the water was delightfully warm!

We were the second couple of six to go in the air.  This was good for my nerves to get it over earlier, but terrible for my stomach.  I've never gotten seasick before, not even when I was pregnant.  But by the time the fifth couple was in the air, that ice cream and the rocking boat had joined forces against me.  It didn't get too bad (all stomach contents stayed intact), but the last half hour of the trip all I could think was, "Please get me off this boat!"  I was immediately better the second I got back onto land.  I didn't even have that rocking feeling in me when I went to bed that night.

All in all, we had a great day in Destin!

He hates it when I do cutesy stuff like this.

Blueberries and Babywearing

Unlike last year, I made sure to remind myself that berry-picking season here in Florida comes pretty early!  We already missed strawberries, but luckily blueberries are in full swing now!

Don't mind my stupid hair that never stays put.

The friend I went with also has a baby about Cora's age.  She brought her in her stroller, which was fine, but I wanted to try a long carry with my Boba 3G.  It was pretty great!

That was the first time I used the sleeping/sun hood, and Cora pretty much slept the whole time.  I kinda take forever to pick berries, so that was very nice of her.

My half-gallon of berries

As much as I didn't want to get up really early, we definitely should have.  It was HOT!  We started around 9 and were out there until almost 11.  Luckily, I usually have a change of clothes for both baby and myself, so we were out of our sweaty clothes in no time!  The carrier actually stayed cool and sweat-free (and odor-free) though.  I was quite impressed.  And since I used all of my Amazon gift cards for it and paid about $20 out of pocket, we'll call it money well spent!

I guess you're wondering what I did with all those blueberries, huh?

I totally screwed up my first-ever attempt at streusel topping, but it tasted great anyway.

Big fresh blueberries are amazing in muffins!  However, these hardly put a dent in the amount of blueberries I picked.  I froze most of the rest!

Next month is grape-picking around these parts, and that will be a new one for me.  I can't wait!

waving the green and gold

I love my little 101 list, and a lot of the things on there I really have to work for (a post about my adventures in learning to crochet coming soon). But sometimes one of them just falls into my lap. Last week while B and I visited family in central Florida for the holiday, we were invited to go to the University of South Florida football game, thus fulfilling:

✔ 83. Attend a college football game again

B likes to make fun of me for having stuff on my list that I've already done before, but I put them on there for a reason!  I haven't been to a college football game since I was in college myself, so it's been 6 years.  I've been to a few NFL games since then and was not impressed.  Luckily for me, college football games are just as awesome as I remember, even though I wasn't watching my beloved Dawgs play between the hedges.

I have a lot of USF alumni on my mom's side of the family (including my mother); however, the school didn't have a football team until most of them were well past graduated. My cousin is a more recent grad, and they live about 45 minutes away so they go to a lot of the games.  B and I went with my aunt and my cousin, who have gone to most of the games this season and have their own little game-day rituals.

The game against Louisville was on Friday at 11am, which was . . . odd.  But they got it televised on ESPN2, so that's something.  USF doesn't actually have their own stadium, so they just use the one where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.  Parking was super-close to the stadium, but we still got to walk by some fun tailgates.  My aunt and I even got free gigantic t-shirts.  (I normally wouldn't care for an XL, but I had recently seen this tutorial for yoga pants made from a big t-shirt, so I went for it.  Can't wait to make my pants!)

It was a nice stadium, but definitely too big for a team like USF.  I know it was a holiday and all, but there was no one there!  They weren't even selling the upper decks.  B and my cousin bought the tickets at the window and said they were only selling three sections.  The student section was really really empty.  We sorta ended up sitting in the visitors' section, but there weren't that many of them, so it was fine.  And we were in the shade the whole time and the seats were actually cushy!  (I'd never actually sat down during a college game before--at the GA games, we would stand on top of the bleachers--so that was also new, but my swollen pregnant feet were very happy.)  I actually got a bit cold in the shade and ended up wearing my free XL t-shirt, so that was a good call on my part!

The game itself was actually pretty good.  It was back and forth on the score with some fun touchdowns and frustrating fumbles.  In the end, our USF Bulls lost 34-24, pretty much because of their fumbles.  Hey, at least it wasn't a blowout.

My camera battery died before we ever made it in the stadium, so here are some pics from watching the marching band play before we went in.

Yeah, I didn't need the sun hat in the shade, but it's better to be prepared!

 

pregnancy vs. the little things

Woohoo, I'm 30 weeks today! (And yes, I had to look at the ticker in my sidebar to figure that out.)  75% done, right?  Well, unless baby comes late, which is quite possible.  This pregnancy has been going rather well, with only one minor hiccup (I came this close to having gestational diabetes and now have to limit my sugar intake).  The rest of the issues are just standard pregnancy fare, but I thought I might let you know some of the fun problems I've had to solve.

• Shoes.  I was wearing flip flops and sandals, which were easy, but the weather is turning colder.  I don't like my feet being cold and needed something to wear with socks.  I was just using my regular sneakers, but it is so hard to tie my shoes!  I actually had to call my sister and ask her how to do it.  So, here is my $10 well-spent at Payless in the past month:

Yep, lace-less sneakers are my new best friend!

• Pants.  I've had a ton of people tell me that maternity pants are the "most comfortable thing in the world."  Yeah, not really.  I got two pairs from thrift stores, one from Target.  The problem is that I started wearing maternity jeans in September, and here in FL, it is still darn hot then.  The very last thing I wanted was something on my belly, so I just fold the full panel down.  Whenever I bend over or squat to pick something up (this is quite often, as I'm a total klutz!), the pants start falling down and then fall down every time I sit down or stand up.  So basically, every time I wear jeans, I am constantly readjusting all day long.  I will say that the gray slacks I "splurged" on from Motherhood stay up quite nicely, but it might be because I wear them infrequently and haven't stretched the panel out to high heaven yet.  One of the thrift store jeans doesn't have a full panel, but the elastic is really thick and too tight (oh well, they were $1).  I just got some black maternity slacks from a consignment sale ($2!) that just have an adjustable waist and no panel, so we'll see how those do.
• The weather.  I hate being cold; I hate having to change my clothes when it's cold (we keep our heat setting pretty low to keep the bills down, so it's only kicked on like twice lately).  I just want to cuddle up in my UGA Snuggie and not do anything or go anywhere when I'm cold.  On colder days, I have to do some crafty planning and layering since my coat won't button (and it's not worth it to buy a maternity coat when the cold weather season lasts 3 months at most).  But the good thing is that this is Florida, and some days, like yesterday, are just nice and in the 70's.  I own some cute elastic-waist skirts that have worked great for pregnancy!  I was able to wear one of those with some sandals to church yesterday, and it felt awesome.  
I will say that I've had a lot of comments about how I was "smart" not to be super-preggers in the heat of summer.  I honestly don't think it would've mattered.  I was actually miserable in the heat of summer this year even though I wasn't huge yet.  The first trimester is mean to everyone.  And the place I volunteer is on the second floor of an old building with no elevator.  I'm winded every time I show up!



Yeah, you're jealous now, but I could hardly breathe on those humid August days.



• My abs and sleep.  I feel like I have no core muscles any more, even though I can still hold a plank for 30 seconds.  At night, when I need to roll over to the other side, it takes a big orchestrated effort.  I currently sleep with four pillows--one for my head, one that kinda wedges under my chest (I had been waking up with a burning sensation there and this definitely helps), one between my legs, and a big body pillow that I really only use to push against when on my left side.  It's my little fortress, but it seems to be working.  The good news here is that I have rarely had to get up in the middle of the night for the bathroom since the first trimester.  I doubt this will last much longer, but I'm enjoying it while I can!
  Also, in regards to sleep, I have occasionally woken up with a "charlie horse" in my calf, and yowch! those things hurt.  I pretty much go from completely asleep to sitting up in 2 seconds flat with those (I guess my abs do still work).  I read the best tip about these recently, and it said if this happens, just to get out of bed and stand up.  Well, I can vouch for this now!  It totally worked and I wasn't sore the rest of the day like I had been the other times.

So, really, this pregnancy has been good to me!  I'm still working out on the elliptical a few times a week and walking a lot as well.  I'm super-duper excited about our Thanksgiving trip to my aunt's place in Lakeland, FL (a 9-hour drive to be in the same state but a different time zone).  My immediate family is coming down from GA to join in the fun as well--they're taking my nephew to the newly-opened LegoLand there.  

We'll be some taking maternity pictures with my camera while we're there--gotta put something on the Christmas card!--so I've been gathering up pose ideas for the shoot (I hate exposed bellies, and I have a pretty gnarly linea nigra so no thanks).  We're not telling anyone the name, but I'm totally doing some takes with Scrabble tiles to spell it out that will remain in top-secret custody until she is born!

And here's a photo I took on Saturday.  What I see when I look down:

Where did my feet go??

 

updates from my patio

The great thing about living in Florida? Our early growing season!

Check this post from March 23 for previous pictures so you can see how far it's coming. 

I've already picked and eaten 10 of these:

And two of these (with many more to come in the next few weeks):

I decided tomato cages weren't worth my money, so twine is my new BFF.

I learned that you have to be a plant-murderer if you end up with every single seed sprouting.

These were my 3 "pots of dirt" from the previous post.

The basil is on the upper left of that picture, and is doing awesome.  (I used some for bruschetta tonight.)  I obviously thinned out the tomatoes once they started running amok (top picture; I was apparently supposed to do it once they got to be 6 inches tall...oops).  And the blue pot on the bottom were some wildflowers I planted from seed that I don't think I thinned out in time; the leaves are turning brown and I haven't seen any flowers yet.  Oh well.

It looks like I'll be having tomatoes all summer, since my ones from seed are starting to flower just now:

Other than the wildflowers, I've had some other garden casualties.

My salvia has seen better days.

My pepper plant got some kinda blight?

My one little pepper--it had fallen to the ground the next morning.

And, saddest of all . . .

My "easy-to-care-for" orchid.  Not so easy if you don't have a perfect light level for it.

I moved that orchid around a lot, from this room to that room, trying to get it to live.  Nothing.  I finally chucked it, and I'll be reusing the pot for something else.

I'm pretty happy with the way my first attempt at gardening is turning out, though!  Lots of tomatoes and a steady supply of strawberries and basil.  I'll be planting some different flowers to replace the salvia this week.  I'm hoping that the 3 H's of the Florida summer (heat, humidity, hurricanes) don't kill everything off!

wordless wednesday: what's on parade?

In many places I've lived, some type of creature has been "on parade" around town.

Bulldogs in Athens, GA

Jaguars in Jacksonville, FL

Mermaids in Norfolk, VA

Pelicans in Pensacola, FL

Does your town have a signature creature?

crazy florida motorcyclists

There are some dumb people in Florida.  And I keep seeing them everywhere.  Ugh.  But this statute, adopted in the year 2000, makes their foolishness legal:

Florida Statute 316.211 (b):

Notwithstanding subsection (1), a person over 21 years of age may operate or ride upon a motorcycle without wearing protective headgear securely fastened upon his or her head if such person is covered by an insurance policy providing for at least $10,000 in medical benefits for injuries incurred as a result of a crash while operating or riding on a motorcycle.

I've been doing some research on helmet laws, and apparently less than half of the states in the USA have helmet laws covering all riders.  I must have been living in the smart states. Wait... what?!   Look at this insane map:

So that means a 17-year-old punk can ride his crotch rocket through the streets of Chicago with no helmet?  I find something seriously WRONG with that.

The only state I've ever ridden on a motorcycle was in Georgia, so I was always handed an extra helmet.  B got his Indiana motorcycle license since his dad owns a Harley, but even he didn't know that there was limited law there.  He thought it was ridiculous when we started seeing riders here in Pensacola with nothing on their noggin.

These dumb motorcyclists freak me out.  I already get paranoid when driving behind or next to a motorcycle, and these idiots without helmets really make me cringe.  I refer to them as "organ donors," and I don't think I'm too far off.  Heck, I get mad when I see people riding BICYCLES without helmets (guess I was raised right, since it's technically illegal in GA if you're younger than 16).

The good thing around here is that the military members have to wear helmets (at least on base, but I think their CO would be TICKED if they didn't do it always).  And if they're in uniform, I've noticed that they usually wear those orange reflective vests at night.  Thank you for those, Uncle Sam.

What do you think?  Should all states have all-rider motorcycle helmet laws?  Or should bikers have a right to let the wind whip through their hair whenever they go for a spin?