Moving?

So one of my favorite passtimes is surfing the net and looking at houses for sale. What can I say? I'm a sucker for real estate. In the current economy, investing in real estate is great for people who don't own houses they're upside down in. I can't believe some of the houses for sale and their asking prices!!! We bought our house in January of 2005, when the real estate market was really booming in South Florida. I can admit we paid more for it than it was probably worth, but even afterwards, we continued to watch our equity rise. Until the past year. Now we could by a house almost 3 times the size of ours for less than we paid for it. Isn't that pathetic??? Well...maybe not. So my passtime turned into an idea... I saw an ad for a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3 car garage house in our neighborhood. A house that in January of 2005 would've been sold for $450,000. Now? $250,000. What??? Is this for real??? Yes it is! So is it time for us to upgrade? Possibly. We have an offer in on the house and we have listed ours for rent. If it all works out, it's a great deal and we're very excited. Definitely sudden, and nothing is certain at this point, but we're hopeful. It really would be a wonderful house for Nate to grow up in. And we'd definitely have room for any little brothers or sisters that might come along! :D

Labels

So Nate had his 12 month well check-up last week and I've been chewing over a comment that his pediatrician made. Nate is very active and full of energy. He loves to run around, explore and get into things. He bounces from one activity to the next, and giggles and delights at every new thing he encounters. I see him as imaginative, curious and intelligent. His pediatrician, however, is apparently a fan of labels. As Nate was bouncing around the little exam room trying to open cabinet doors and pull down the paper sheet on the exam table, the dr. casually (and perhaps jokingly) says, "you're not going to have ADD are you?" ADD--Attention Deficit Disorder. A relatively new label in our society and one that unfortunately carries quite a stigma--especially in the public education system. Years ago, children were just active! Hyper at worst, but not "diagnosed". When did we become so obsessed with labels and worse--with drugs? Thousands of children across this country are labeled ADD and ADHD and then heavily medicated. What is wrong with that picture??? It does much more harm than good--period. Nate may be active, wild--even hyper. But I refuse to allow him to be labeled by a doctor or anyone else. I'm quite sure the dr. wasn't trying to diagnose him or attach a label--yet. He did say it rather jokingly, but it did strike a nerve nonetheless. Nate is inquisitive, delightful and oh, so much fun!

Now...if only I could get him to nap, LOL! ;)

Catching Up

Once again, it has been too long.  I was so determined to keep up with this blog...life gets in the way.  So much has happened.  My little baby turned one on December 14th and he is such a little man!  Walking--no, practically RUNNING around the entire house non-stop and getting into everything.  He is so inquisitive and curious about his surroundings.  It is really wonderful to watch his development!

Brent, Nate and I hosted Thanksgiving here at our house and had my family over.  We also hosted Christmas and in between those two, we also had Nate's first birthday party here at the house.  Needless to say, it has been a busy couple of months.  

We've also been busy with work and I for one, am so very thankful to be on vacation until January 5th.  I used to truly love my job because I love to teach, but with the current trends in public education, I no longer consider myself a teacher.  I do a whole lot of testing and test preparation.  I see very little real learning going on in my school and I'm pretty certain the same thing is happening in thousands of classrooms across the state and even across the country.  What a sad reality for education in America...but that's a whole other blog.

I am posting some pics of Thanksgiving, 1st Birthday and Christmas all together, LOL!

Nate playing with his cousin, Agatha


Nate's birthday cake--he's way into duckies, haha!


Mommy helping Nate blow out his candles


Birthday boy with Mommy and Daddy


Christmas!


Opening presents!



His favorite gift!


One of my favorite gifts was from my mother-in-law.  She sent me a BEAUTIFUL scrapbook of Nate's first year.  Flipping through the pages, I can see how much time and love went into making it and I can't look at it without crying.  Tears of pride, joy and a tiny bit of sadness to see how fast my little baby is growing.  

And my wonderful husband also spoiled me with great gifts.  Not only did he get me a new computer--this beautiful Macbook I'm typing on--but he also got me lovely diamond earrings and a diamond circle necklace that he says I've been crying for for a couple of years.  LOL, he's probably right! :)

Pumpkin Patch

Ooooh, two posts in two days! I'm getting better at this. We took Nate to his first pumpkin patch today. He was so cute. Granted, it was hot--too hot for October. But if you live in Florida, what can you do? You go to the pumpkin patch in a tank top and flip-flops, lol! I would LOVE some cooler weather. I love Fall, I love Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season, and 80 degrees and palm trees, just doesn't cut it. Who knows? Hopefully sometime in the not too distant future, we'll be making our way up north somewhere. We did get some great pictures today, thanks to my dad loaning me his AWESOME camera. He's got the Nikon D40 and since my little Canon seems to have mysteriously disappeared, my daddy was generous enough to let us borrow his wonderful camera. MAN, that thing takes great pictures. I'm debating whether or not to return it, hehe. Here are some pictures from the patch.

So apparently I'm not very good at keeping up with this whole blog thing, lol. Just been busy. What else is new? I had surgery to remove my gallbladder a couple of months ago and one of my incisions never healed right because of an old navel ring piercing. So I just had to go under the knife AGAIN to try to take care of it. Between that, and work, and keeping up with Nate, who has time?

Speaking of Nate, who I've recently begun calling the tooth monster, he's almost WALKING! Oh my...when did that happen? How is it possible that my little, tiny baby is going to be one in a couple of months? This past year has flown by quicker than I would have thought possible. But it's been a great year. And they boy has grown and learned so much--makes me so proud!

Okay...here is a picture of the "tooth monster" taken today. :)

My First Blog Entry!

Well, I'm joining the 21st century and starting a blog. Bear with me on with these early entries as I slowly learn the "ropes" and find my way around. Basically, this will be a way for our many, far-flung friends and family members to keep up with our comings and goings, and of course, lots of pictures of Nate, as he continues to grow like a weed. Why do they grow up so fast??? Here is an early picture of our family to get us started.