Updates…

It seems that I have only been posting once a month. This is hard to keep up with. Updates from last month -Carl and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary. We took a Segway tour of Tampa and had one of the best nights in a long time!  Instead of Trick-or-Treat this year, we took the girls to the Taylor Swift concert. One of the coolest concerts I’ve been to in a while. Carl and I bought a motorcycle for some more fun-filled travels. We haven’t owned a bike in 10 years, it’s good to be a rider again! The girls have been enjoying gymnastics more and more and our love for ice cream is growing and growing. (I think we have a problem) Now we are in November and I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. We have been in Florida for about 16 months and we absolutely love it. We miss family and friends from home so much!! The holidays are coming fast and we get to celebrate this year in Florida and begin our own traditions. It’s going to be tough, but we are stronger and stronger every day and can get through all the tough times together. Today we made it back to Disney (one of the perks of living in Florida and only an hour away) I would have thought we would have used our Disney Annual passes a bit more than we have, but we’ve enjoyed every trip so far. We are closing in on only 1 -1/2 months left on our passes and we have probably only seen a third of each of the parks. Today was Animal Kingdom. Each trip is always filled with new adventures. Pictures below show how close the animals were. It was like being at the zoo. We’ve been to all the parks and I love them all! I truly cannot choose a favorite. I will have to do a “Waters Disney Adventure 2015” recap of pictures at a later time. Pictures below show a recap of our last month. Hopefully, I can post a little more often than I have been. 

Peace out friends,

-Julie

   
    
    
   

 
 

   
  

School Pictures 2015-2016

School Pics…Enjoy! 💕 

 

You can do it Duffy Moon….

Whenever I am in the middle of a whirlwind of hard times, this phrase always comes to mind. Carl has always said this to me whenever times are hard and I can’t seem to see things clear. “You can do it Duffy Moon” – from a movie that seemed to have stuck with Carl since he was a kid. Such a small phrase, but a huge impact on the way we can deal with Hard Times.

It is a constant reminder to “Just Keep Swimming” as taken from a more recent movie Finding Nemo. A movie that I can always relate to from some of my early years (no its only been 12 years) I’m not THAT young- Yea I think I just called out the age of my husband, lol.

Whenever we are going through a bad morning, a bad day, or just some hurt feelings, just the idea that

1. I need to take a deep breathe, I can do this
2. I can push through this and make it better than it is
3. There is always a brighter side
4. I will move forward no matter what

Nowadays, I turn my focus on God and prayer. It always seems to calm me and remind me that He’s got this, He is teaching us a lesson, there’s a reason why I have to go through this. There is going to be a brighter side to this, or He has a Plan for me and maybe He’ll show me Grace through this tough time. I have high hopes that my girls can see His path and use this to guide them through these hard times.

Hard Times in the past couple of days:

Yesterday, I left Facebook. That is it – I quit Facebook. I know, some of you think “not such a big deal.” But at the moment I am trying to beat the feat of just getting the thought and the habit out of my head. It has been almost a 10 year habit. A task becomes a habit after just 21 days of repetition. Tough thought to process when you are trying to put a stop to a 10 YEAR habit. It will be an obstacle for me in the next couple of days, but we will get through it and “Just Keep Swimming.” Instead, I post on this new blog and focus my energy on more important things in my life that clearly need my attention.

Last night and this morning, one of my girls had a meltdown. A meltdown that I, too often, experienced in school because of studying and taking tests. I was always the kid that had to study HOURS and HOURS for upcoming tests, and still struggled to make the passing grade. This will be a trying year for some of us, but we will take one task at a time and “Just Keep Swimming.”

“You can do it Duffy Moon” – Thank you Carl, for teaching me one of my favorite phrases.

Some of our favorite places…

As if there is any question that one of our favorite places is an ice cream shop. There is no surprise to know that we visit an ice cream shop atleast once a week, and quite possibly twice a week. This would be why I can’t slim down to a more comfortable waist size. Tonight we give tribute to one on the top of our list. Cold Stone is a national favorite. My all time favorite flavor is the Founders Favorite but with French Vanilla Ice Cream. Yummy! Always a good way to start off my week…I think 😁