Hurricane Hermine

It's been nearly two weeks since my last blog, and you'd think I'd have all kinds of things to report. But, I don't really. Last weekend for us was a total wash thanks to our very first hurricane, and a terrible sinus infection for Asa. Seriously, his face blew up like a balloon. So between him feeling crappy, and then his prescriptions making him feel crappy, we didn't go anywhere Monday or Tuesday. And then Wednesday thru forever it rained. And rained. And rained some more. In all honesty, it was never that bad here. The actual hurricane made landfall far north of us. We had one night of miserable, terrible thunderstorms. I barely slept, thanks to my terrified chihuahua who was convinced the world was ending. But we had days of rain, and some winds. Some areas of our county are still under water. But that's about 20-30 minutes from here. We're all nice and tucked inland. We've lived here for 10 and a half years now, and this was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida since we've been here. So, it's an event worth noting I suppose. Maybe it'll be another 10 and a half before we have to deal with it again. 

We hunkered down at home, and didn't go anywhere or do anything. And, we didn't even play out in the rain like our last tropical system (this one had many more storms, so it didn't feel quite so safe to go out there). But, we did have some fun dinners- including a waffle bar. Waffles make hurricanes better. Remember that. 

For all the days at home, I did get a decent amount of packing done. No, we still don't have a closing date- which is driving me bananas. I don't want it to be sprung on me, but I wish I had any idea when we'd be moving. I've been trying to leave things open for us, but somehow in the next two and a half months I've now roped myself into two plane trips (we're visiting Ohio for a few days for my grandma's birthday! And Calib, Peyton and I might be heading to Denver), plus my super awesome cousin is visiting and we're staying at Universal. So much for not planning anything. 

Even with no moving date, I'm packing and trying to sort through basically everything I own. Last week it was about half of home school central, and all the pictures/albums/momentos I've dragged without question from house to house. We found these gems. Asa and I went on a date day (you'll read about that later), and listened to these in the car on the way there and back. It was every bit amazing as you'd expect it to be. 

When I went to stay with my grandma way back in March/April, she gave me one of the coolest things ever. We were just hanging out chatting, when she instructed me to go upstairs to the top left hand drawer in her bedroom and bring down the brown paper bag I would find. Now, my grandma may be about to turn 95, but she still has quite the memory (and tells good stories to boot!). Anyway, there was the paper bag, just like she said. I couldn't see what was in it, it was all paper towels on top. I brought it down, and she had me open it. The bag was full of campaign buttons, each one wrapped up in a paper towel, carefully stacked and hidden away. There were ones from Obama, Clinton, Bush and Reagan.  But it went back much further than that. There was Kennedy, and LBJ- even an FDR and a Warren Harding. (He was president when my grandma was born!). They are amazing. My grandma told me she wanted me to have them, and of course I was over joyed. Nobody would appreciate these more than me! I was super paranoid bringing them home in my suit case (I wasn't sure they'd let me take a bunch of sharp buttons on the airplane- so I checked them), but they made it home just fine. For months, they sat in their brown paper bag. Sure, I unwrapped them to show the boys, and various friends when they came over. But, then I would wrap them back up and put them back in their little paper bag. 

For my birthday, my mom and grandma each sent me $20. I thought long and hard about what to spend my birthday money on. At first, I figured I would get this awesome moose  at the Container Store, to hang our keys on. (Wouldn't that be a great house warming gift?) But, ultimately, I was really worried about my little brown paper bag getting misplaced during the move. And those buttons needed to be shown off, not sitting tucked away somewhere! So, I got a great deal with coupons on some shadow boxes. I even added in some buttons Peyton and I picked up when we went to the Obama and Romney rallies last time around (afterall, the buttons aren't just from the winners- they're from the losers too- which I think is all the more cool). So, anyway. Here they are. It's one of my favorite things I own. 

I also didn't want our president letters to get lost. If you missed it, we got letters back from all the living presidents except for Clinton. I knew I wanted to frame them, but with all the different sizes, I was pretty sure I'd have to get four different frames. Then, I found this on clearance at Target, plus it was on cartwheel AND I had a 10% off my whole order. I've decided I'm going to pull all my president's stuff together to have a 'Wall of Presidents'. You know, like Disney's Hall of Presidents. It's going to be so awesome, if we ever get to move. (I shouldn't really complain. They told us it would be 60-120 days to closing when our offer was accepted. And it's just short of 2 months). 

With the uncertainty and moving and all that, I haven't really started any new home school projects since the Olympics has been over. I think we're going to work our way through some STEM boxes, and a few lessons by dad. Mostly it's just boring old book work. But, we did get their certificates, so we're good for another year. 

As I type my blog, I'm watching the second week of college football (yay gators!), but last Saturday we celebrated the return of football with a taco bar! We usually do tacos for NFL Sundays, but by early September, I'll take any football I can get. We also are going to have to figure out a few more kind of bars to put out for football games. We didn't get season tickets this year for the Bucs. Prices went up, but more importantly, Asa works Sunday (and gets a big shift differential for doing so!), so it doesn't really fit into our schedule to go to that many games. That means every Sunday at home, and as much as I like tacos, I can't do them every Sunday. So, we'll try and mix it up. I am taking ideas! 

Speaking of customizable food, Asa and I went out on a date day to Disney. The boys weren't interested with the six on the crowd calendar (thanks a lot Labor Day), but we had to get our passes renewed. So Asa and I went out without them, and since we were at Disney Springs to renew anyway, we decided to do lunch at a variety of places. If you have not been to Disney Springs since it stopped being Downtown Disney, you should totally get there. There's so many new places to go, we haven't even scratched the surface. Our first stop was Blaze Pizza. I guess this place is a chain, so check for one near you! This is probably the closest to us (although I hear there is one in Sarasota), and we've been talking about going for awhile now. For those of you not familiar, Blaze is like a Subway for Pizza. They have some signature ones to order, or you can go rouge and pick all your sauces, meats, cheeses, and toppings all on your own. 

Then, they fire your pizza in something like 90 seconds. It's bananas! It's also totally affordable. One pizza ranges from $7-$9. They're kind of a weird size though. One is way too much for one person, but sharing one doesn't quite seem like enough either. However, we knew we were spending our 'lunch' at a few different new places at Disney Springs, so one was the perfect size for us! 

We went with the 'Green Stripe'. It had a pesto sauce with chicken, tomatoes, and arugula. It was awesome. Now I'll have that weird problem of wanting to order something new next time we go, but knowing this pizza was amazing, so wanting to get that again. 

After our pizza, we stopped and got our new passes (thanks mom!). We ordered our renewal from AAA, and it's always way more difficult than it should be- but Disney Springs Information Center always knows whats up, so we go there to take care of it. We've learned our lesson. After getting our passes, we also renewed our Tables in Wonderland, and sprung for the 'After 2pm Florida Resident Water Park' passes. Yes, that's a thing. And they are totally affordable. If you live here, check it out. It's SUCH a good value! 

After that we went over to the Hangar Bar for drinks. I mean, the Tables in Wonderland was burning a hole in our pocket! And the Hangar Bar just got added to the list! Asa ordered some crazy Scottish Professor drink (whiskey and stuff!), 

and I got my favorite drink on all of Disney property- Teddy's Tea! It's non-alcoholic, but I'm telling you, it's awesome. It's green tea, with tangerine and mint. Since I basically only drink water, most drinks are suuuuuper sweet to me. But, this is perfect. A little flavor, not sugary, and super refreshing on those hot Florida days. (The weather was lovely early this week- it was still hot, but the humidity was so low, that it was super comfortable in the shade. Fall is coming!) 

After our drinks, we went over to the new gelato place. They have a nutella brownie sundae. They had me and nutella, and just brought it home with the brownie part. It was good, but a little smallish for the price tag. I'm glad we got it. But the brownie wasn't warm or gooey like I expected. With all the dessert choices, I probably wouldn't get it again before I tried some other things. But if you are a chocolate person, give this one a try! 

We had one more stop on our Disney Springs lunch tour, The Daily Poutine! It's an entire kiosk dedicated to Poutine!! How amazing is that? There's five different poutines to try, but I figured on our first go around we had to go with the classic. It's a nice portion size, and it's every bit as delicious as I expected it to be. I cannot wait to go try the other's. (The Latin is next on my list). If you love potatoes even half as much as me, go to this kiosk. Like, immediately. 

We also wandered the Springs. But, not for window shopping- but for Pokemon hunting! Since it was just me and Asa we both had a phone to collect stops and catch Pokemon. Our bags were full by the time we got home. There are A LOT of stops at Disney. And, if you're into this sort of thing, make sure to go on the people mover at Magic Kingdom. So. Many. Stops. 

By now we were ready to use our new pass and hit the water park, so off to Typhoon Lagoon we went! We spent hours on the lazy river (being mostly lazy, our last time around we basically ran through to work up an appetite), which is always fun without fidgety kids. 

We stayed until closing time, and then headed over to our dinner reservation at Kona Cafe, which is in the Polynesian. As a bonus, if you have a meal here, you can leave your car and just take the monorail into the Magic Kingdom, which is always nice. (And kind of why we do it). Neither of us were all that hungry, so we opted for a light dinner, of plum wine, an appetizer, and sushi. 

We ordered steamed buns, because Asa loves them (Asa to steamed buns is like me to potatoes), and shrimp tempura sushi. They make their sushi right there, and it's fully customizable, so they made it not spicy for me! Both were good, the sushi was just as good, if not better than cowfish. Peyton is going to have to go try it out, since he's the sushi lover of the family. 

After dinner we hopped on the monorail and over to the Magic Kingdom. And we did the whole two magic band fastpass thing. You see, if the boys don't want to go, we can still use their magic bands for fast passes. (Fun fact: You don't have to scan a magic band to get in for it to work for a fastpass). Meaning sometime's we are Asa and Corinne, and sometimes we are Calib and Peyton. 

We got six fastpasses, but sometimes you have to fill a bit of time in between. But, there's always some good staples for that: like Philharmagic and the Hall of Presidents. Plus, I LOVE the Hall of Presidents, and they always change out their presidential memorabilia. They actually have some of Herbert Hoover's stuff right now! (But, Hayes's stuff is gone). 

Magic Kingdom was kind of crowded. But, with the fastpasses, we didn't notice all that much. I think we're going to go again soon, because we have to see the electrical light parade before it is gone forever. 

Wednesday morning, Calib was not feeling all that well, so he stayed home while the rest of us hit Busch Gardens. It's not hard to get Peyton out of the house, especially when you tell him he'll get to play Pokemon. Busch Garden's is totally Pokemon Go friendly too! Plus, that's nice for Hayden to play when we wait for Asa and Peyton to go on some bigger rides. 

We've never really done mid-week at Busch Gardens before (certainly not in the fall), and it was amazing. Parts of the park felt like a ghost town, and everything was pretty much walk on. Peyton and Asa went on the brand new Cobra's Curse without a wait! 

Hayden and I watched from the ground, although it looks pretty tame, it is a spiny ride, which doesn't go so well for my motion sickness. 

We rode the sky ride to the back of the park, where it was even more deserted. We climbed around Jungala, and we were the only people there the whole time. I don't expect Disney to ever be that dead, but wouldn't it be amazing if it was? Anyway, we're convinced we need to visit more often this fall, because having the park to ourselves like that was super fun! 

It might be empty, but it was also very hot. I'm excited for a little bit cooler temps. Hopefully that is coming soon. At least there's a place to cool off! 

And a trip to Busch Garden's wouldn't be complete without spending some time with the animals. 

In other news, you know how I make NFL inspired pizzas for the draft and Championship Sunday? Well, when the Steelers didn't make it to Championship Sunday, Calib asked if I would make their pizza anyway. I promised I would make it before the next season started. So, the night before the first NFL game, I delivered. I might procrastinate, but I always follow through on my promises. 

Thursday night, of course, was the very first football game of the season. Did you guys see the Broncos/Panthers game?! Oh my gosh, none of us here even picked the Broncos to win (not even Peyton!), so we were super excited when they did. We kicked off the NFL season with our typical tailgating food, even though we weren't tailgating. It tasted like football! I am super excited about tomorrow, you guys. It's like Christmas Eve around here, with the first Sunday of the regular season about to be upon us! 

This morning, Asa took Hayden over to his coding class in the Foundry at the library. He loved it, so hopefully we can register him for some more Foundry activities. 

I leave you with a cute picture of Hayden and the Els a Bells. 

Next Up: NFL Football! And, more packing and amusement parks. That's our life now.