Three Things We LOVE About Living in Florida

There are many places I have lived. There are things I've loved and things I've hated about each place. Or as the British would say, there are things I quite liked and things I rather disliked. 

Here's the beginning of our Florida list.

1. People have asked us many times what we loved about living in England. We always said, "Our church." People are now asking what we are loving about living in Florida. Our number one answer is the same - our church! The people there have welcomed us with open arms (literally... they're very huggy!). Nathan and I are so blessed to have a new church family that is warm, friendly, and loving. The church is incredibly diverse - so many cultures and ages and stages and family structures represented. They are an amazing picture of the body of Christ.

So what else do we love about living in Florida? 

2. Weather (the number one thing we hated rather disliked about England). It's warm every day. While the rest of the country is frozen over - I've heard of some cities that have experienced more than 70 straight days  of below freezing temperatures - Miami is experiencing the third warmest winter in its history. So shorts and t-shirts and air conditioning every day it is!

3. Produce. Most people know that I'm a huge avocado fan. I was a little sad to discover that most of the avocados around here are not the Hass ones from Mexico or California I would usually find in the supermarket, but instead the big, fat Florida ones. Well, I wasn't sad for long because we are staying near an avocado grove. We arrived at the end of the season and found several avocados just lying on the ground, begging to be eaten.

I ate this whole bowl of the stuff straight up. Just salt and pepper. This was only about half of the flesh on one avocado. IT WAS HUGE!

There is also a starfruit tree on the property, and we enjoyed a few at the end of the season. I've never had starfruit before. It's really tasty!

These beauties are wild lemons from a church friend's tree. I get so excited when she offers them to me. They are mild and oh-so-juicy, and tonight we had them with our salmon. Yum!

There are more thoughts to come!

Pregnancy: Morning and Evening

As per usual, over a week has passed between the taking and the posting of these photos. I'm not sure why that has been my blogging pattern. Anyway, Nathan asks to take pictures of my belly a few times a week, usually when I'm stuck in a chair, in the bed, or on the floor. Two out of three times he asks I cry. It seems in the picture below he just happened to catch me in a decent mood.

This was probably taken after a night of good sleep. The night we had a time change (two nights ago at the time of this writing) I only got one hour. Now, since we moved back an hour, does that mean I pulled an all-nighter? It was horrible. I was cursing that extra hour while I'm sure everyone else was relishing it - or at least the thought of it.

This picture and the one below were taken the evening of the morning of the first picture (make sense?). I'm very grumpy and have swollen ankles and calves.

Nathan is excited that there is another willing foot massage therapist in the house. Thanks, Daddy.

And, on a completely unrelated note, Nathan wanted me to take his picture the other day at our favorite Mexican restaurant. He's eating a chimichanga (a fried burrito smothered in sauce) to celebrate his recent weight loss. He has lost weight recently (the pre-shower push ups? the nightly sauna sessions? eating less?), so more power to him!

Kirby Time

These are our friends, Gary and Heather Kirby. We were buddies from church in Atlanta, but then they moved to Greenville, South Carolina, and we moved to England. When we got back to the South, we decided to meet them halfway in Commerce, which is a small town with a giant outlet mall and a colossal American flag. When we saw it, Nathan and I put our hands over our hearts and sang some patriotic songs.

Cracker Barrel sounded best, since we were on healthy diets (right?!). Nathan asked the waitress which was healthier, brown or white gravy. She said, "Probably brown." He said, "I'll have white." Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cheese grits, biscuits...

I went for the chicken and dumplings, mac and cheese, and green beans.

And then we rocked out on the porch for a few hours just talking away.

We miss these guys so much.

We love you Kirbys, Cracker Barrel, and America.

Southern Food Goodness

Continuing on the theme of Southern food and why Americans are fat, Nathan and I spent a night in the North Georgia mountains with some dear friends, and we got some barbecue on the way home. It was gooood.

So good I didn't even get a picture of our pork sandwiches, coleslaw, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. We were busy watching Hell's Kitchen on the TV.

This was just outside the restaurant though... Happy Hawg!

And then today we saw this lady eating fried chicken legs in her car on the freeway. It was about 11 a.m.

Little Mikey likes Southern food. Pickles and banana pudding are his faves. He does lots of happy dancing when I eat them. :)

A Beautiful, Blessed Baby Shower

Nathan and I were really, really blessed by some wonderful friends in Atlanta who threw us a gift card open house baby shower. It was wonderful. We caught up with a lot of friends who stopped by, ate lots of yummy, diabetic-friendly foods, and just enjoyed being loved.

Beverly, Anne, Paulette, Mary Lou, Anwhitney, Laura, and Julie hosted it for us. Thank you so much, ladies!

This is Laura's youngest son, Peter. He's so darling.

Mary Lou is putting her famous peach pie (made with Splenda, just for me) on the table. It was quite a spread!

Apple slices with chicken salad and pecans

A colorful veggie tray

Fruit salad galore

Cheeses and dips and whatnot. That artichoke and spinach dip in the back changed my life.

Yummy cupcakes with little blue safety pins

A close up

Friends enjoying the food... I asked Nathan to take pictures for the rest of the afternoon of people who came. He actually forgot but did a photo blitz the last five minutes of our time there. 

Thanks to everyone who came and spoiled us with love and generous gift cards for little Michael. We are so grateful and feel so blessed to have you in our lives!

Adventures in Chattanooga

Nathan and I took a little day trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to explore some more local cuisine and walk around the town. It's such a darling place. I would love to live there. It's Southern, it's on a river, it has lots of culture, and it's not too big and not too small. Anyway, we had a great time. 

We started out eating, of course. Nathan is really excited about his burger. That basket of fries and onion rings is the small. I can hear our English friends thinking, "This is why Americans are so fat."

And I don't disagree with you. This is the small burger.

Next to the restaurant is the longest walking bridge in the country.

There were lots of people exercising and one person asked if we were trying to walk the baby out. Uh, not yet, folks.

A few architectural features from the bridge

Smiling before a huge, HUGE storm hit and we got soaked by the fattest rain drops I've ever seen. Nathan practically carried me and we ran (well, kind of) across half the bridge. I haven't moved that fast in a long time, and I thought my insides were going to fall out! 

We dried off in an ice cream shop and then drove up to Lookout Mountain to check out the view of Chattanooga from above. I love this picture of us.

And this one of the three of us.

Chattanooga is a great place to visit if you ever get the chance. We were only there for the afternoon, but I highly recommend it. 

Our First English Visitors

Just after we got back from the beach in Florida, Nathan and I went straight to the airport to meet Rob and Robin, some dear friends from England. Well, Robin is American and Rob is English, but you know what I mean. When people ask us what we miss about Durham, we always say "church and friends," and these two were in both camps.

Please excuse the beached whale look. We were excited to see our friends and didn't have time to shower!

They greeted us with a sweet cuddly toy from Harrod's for the baby.

We greeted them with hot Chik-fil-A.

Wahooooo!

I think Rob is a fan. Robin promised to make sure he got more that was piping hot, instead of 45 minutes old. That makes a big difference in the taste. :)

We miss y'all already! Hope you had a great time on holiday in the States! English friends, who's next?

Crab Happy

We were in Florida with Nathan's family for about six days. It was hotter than blazes, but the sand and sea were gorgeous! Nathan and his brother, Philip, caught a crab, and Nathan was so excited to boil it and eat the meat. He asked me to document, so I did my duty.

The crab is inside that cooler bag. I did not dress Nathan.

Here they are cleaning it off.

Yikes!

After boiling it, Nathan pretended to snap a leg off and eat it.

Here he is with the spoils of victory... about a tablespoon of crab meat.

I'm not sure if this video will work, but we'll give it a whirl.

Have you caught any creatures at the beach? I just think of Kramer and the lobster traps in the Hamptons. :)