Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We sure did. Brye started the day at school where they went on a field-trip (her very first). They went to where "grandma's and grandpa's live" and had a pumpkin parade. I think they just went room to room and trick-or-treated with bags they decorated at school. Brye was very proud of her pile of candy she gathered and she got two packs of M&Ms, her favorite. She decided that since she got two she would share and give one to Abbi, how sweet! After we picked Daddy up from work we went over to my cousin, Laura's, house like we do each year to trick-or-treat with her daughters in her neighborhood. The neighborhood always starts with a parade and all the kids in costumes walk down the streets, then they start going to each door. Brye and Abbi were both princesses and they were so beautiful! Brye was really into the whole Halloween thing this year and even ran to the next bowl of candy. She was very good about wishing everyone a Happy Halloween and saying Thank you. Abbi would go to the bowls with candy that no one was watching and would proceed to fill up her bucket. Also, when someone tried to put candy in her bucket she would say "no, I do it" and then proceed to put handfuls into her carrier. I had bought her a larger bucket than the one she carried but she wanted the smaller one so after just a few doors her bucket would be full. I would then have to empty some of it out into the larger bucket that I carried. Abbi really didn't like that, she thought I was stealing her candy and would cry each time I did it. We all had a great time and after the little ones helped pass out the rest of Laura and Mike's candy we went inside. We didn't stay long after that because Reagan (the cowgirl) had school the next day. After we left we went over to Chris's house to show him and Miss Kim how pretty the girls were in their princess costumes. Little Kendall was so adorable in her lady bug costume and got lots of compliments as we went door to door. We are going to the Disney Halloween thing on Friday night, I am really looking forward to that too. I don't know what we are going to do with all this candy.

Preparation

I was trying to get an idea of what to do for the girls hair tomorrow night, and once I put the crown on Brye, she didn't want to take it off. This is Bresa in her princess dress that Tina and Noah got her for her birthday. This is her favorite dress because it has Ariel on it. Tomorrow night, Bresa will be wearing a big pink dress from Sleeping Beauty's story of Princess Aurora. Abbi is going to wear her big blue dress just like Cinderella.

Poor Peter

This morning Peter woke up and he felt fine but after doing some work up at his shop he got really sick. He came home to rest but he has been sick all day. I took his temperature a little while ago and he had a fever of 101. I hope it is just a bug that will pass in the night. I hate it when he is sick and there is nothing I can do for him.

Halloween Party

Peter and I went to Chris' house to pick him up for the annual Halloween Party at our mutual friend's house. We left the girls with Miss Kim after she got off work and we headed over to the party around 8 or so. When we got there, we saw that there was some band equipment set up out in the driveway with a guitar, a bass, and a drum kit. After a while some of the boys came out to play and after they decided they didn't want to any more Peter got on the drums and Chris picked up the guitar. They started jamming and having a great time. I really enjoyed watching Peter play the drums again, it had been a long time since I last saw him play.

**My cell phone was stolen on Friday, so please send me an email with your phone numbers so that I can put it in my new phone when I can afford to buy one again. Thank you so much!**

FINALLY!!

I have been a volunteer at the Sanford Police Department for about 15 months now. I started volunteering when I decided that I wanted to work in the Investigations department as a Crime Scene Technician. I couldn't put in a lot of hours until after I had the triplets and that is when I started working at the station on a regular basis. The main reason I did this was to have something to add to my resume but I ended up getting a lot more out of it than just that. I learned about positions that I never knew existed and expanded my desire of positions that I was interested in. Also, I became a familiar face around the department and everyone from the secretaries to the Chief of Police knew who I was (though not all by name). After just a couple months the position of Evidence Technician became available. I was told by the prior E.T. that the sergeants thought I should apply for the opening. I wrote up my resume and filled out the application and took it into City Hall. They are really slow. About 2 weeks after the position closed I got a phone call from Abigail from Investigations asking if I could come in for an interview. I went in yesterday at 10:00 and had a panel interview with the Investigations Lieutenant and the two Investigations Sergeants. I did really well and impressed myself on how nervous I wasn't. At the end of the interview Lt. told me "I just want to tell you that you gave an excellent interview." After that, I was really proud of myself. I knew I had done well and if I didn't get the job it was because someone else was more qualified and not because I somehow messed up. Well today, I got a call from one of the Sergeants and he said "Congratulations, you got the job." I was speechless, I have been working towards this, for what seems like, forever and finally I got to where I want to be! Now, I have to wait for City Hall to call me to come in for all the paperwork, and I have to do a voice stress test (like a lie detector test) and the typical drug screening. Hopefully, I will be able to get most of this done next week and start my job as soon as possible.

Walking with the Wagon

I had to go do some mainenance on my latest cache so I loaded the wagon up into the car and packed a lunch for the girls. The walk for the cache was about a mile so I wanted to make sure they were comfor-
table. They had a good time and ate well and the weather was beautiful so I enjoyed it also. We got there right when the sprinkles stopped so we stayed nice and dry.

Jammie Day

Abbi woke Peter up this morning to tell him she had to go potty. When she was done she told him that Brye was sick. Peter went in to check on Brye who was crying and found her in her bed where she had recently thrown up. Poor girl, she was scared and didn't know what to do. Peter cleaned her all up and put the sheets and comforter in the washer. I kind of rolled over and asked what he was doing and if he needed help but he told me to go back to sleep. He is so nice to me. When I woke up he told me all about it and after he went to work the girls and I had a jammie day. I put new jammies on Brye and she stayed home from school (of course) and then the three of us just took it easy all day. Later in the day I got the camera out and took some pictures of the girls just hanging out with me.

Shopping!

Today after I left the PD I went and picked up the girls and brought them back to Sanford. I met up with my mom at Old Navy near the mall where we started a great day of fun and shopping. I don't get to see my mom as much as I use to since she got a new job and works late hours so it was nice to be able to spend some time with her and she was happy to see the girls. She had some things to take back to the Old Navy so she swapped them out for a couple outfits for my girls. After lunch we went to the mall and got some final touches for the girls Halloween costumes, they are going to be princesses and they will be so pretty. Mom also bought the girls beautiful Christmas dresses, I can't wait until they get to wear them! Thanks Grandma for a wonderful day, we all had a great time spending the day with you. Thanks for all you did for us!! This picture is Brye while we were waiting for Grandma to come.

*On a side note, I just got an email from my friend, Belle, who lives in San Diego with her husband and little girl and little boy. The fires are getting closer to them and although they haven't been evacuated they chose to leave their home. Please keep Belle's family's safety in your prayers.

Shopping girls

It use to be that every time we went to the grocery store the girls wanted to ride in one of those big green cars. Well, one day all the cars were gone so we used one of the carts that just had the blue seats. I guess the girls liked it because now they always want to ride in the "blue car."

Cache In Trash Out

Brye and I returned to the ONF this morning for a CITO event at the same base camp as the event last night. All the local cachers get together to clean up a specified area and to talk and converse. Brye was a great helper and she picked up lots of trash. After the CITO we went out and did a bit more caching before heading over to an Ice Cream Social Event just down the road. We had ice cream and said good bye to all the cachers we had hung out with all weekend and then we drove home to rest. Well, kind of. Chris is over so Brye is playing with him but I am mostly resting. :)

3rd Annual Florida Finder's Fest

The largest FL geocaching event was held yesterday in the Ocala National Forrest. Cachers came from all over to compete in the Gauntlet and also to hang out and socialize with other cachers. It was an early start day and we got up before dawn and headed over. Some people drove over 500 miles to get to this cache, I drove about 30. From the Starting Point, teams hiked back to the end point (where the base camp was set up). Along the way it is necessary to find all the placed caches, 10 total. Also, there was a list of "Targets" to find to earn "Bonus Points". These are scavenger hunt type items. Some were existing features and some were planted just for the event. In addition, there was a number of special items placed at points along the trail. They were be numbered and each team drew a number unique to their team and needed to locate and retrieve the special items bearing that number for additional Bonus points. The final distance measured for "the Guantlet" run was just over 5 miles. Our team was the 8th group dropped off and we started at 10:00. It took us 2 hours and 5 minutes to make it to the end and although we found every cache we missed a number of the scavenger items (pictures of a bear, a horse, and snake, as well as others). We weren't expecting to win so when we didn't we weren't surprised. We all had a great time and then we did a bit of caching in the area and then later we went to a night event before heading home. I was so tired when I got home, I am not sure how I got up this morning without sleeping in.

Pictures, top to bottom: Our team on the trails, our team before we left for the Gauntlet run, me grabbing a cache after the run, the sunset at base camp, people I was caching with signing a log at night.

Bresa's Favorite Bug

Travel bugs (or geocoins) are trackable items that you find in caches. They usually have a set goal to travel to a specific place and cachers are the ones who help them along their ways. You find the bugs in geocaches and when you pick them up you log that you found it, using the unique number printed on the item. When you log the find online it tells you the name of the item and it's goal as well as all the places it has been and all the cachers who have helped it get where it is. This coin was found when I went caching last weekend with some friends. Before releasing it, I took some pictures to post on it's home page so the owner would know it is well loved. This is one of the pictures I took, the rest were with Brye's Moose and moose accessories.

Night Night

Tonight, when Peter was putting Abbi to bed she asked if she could sleep in Bresa's room in the big girl bed. We had been letting Brye sleep on the top bunk the last couple of nap times so Peter thought it would be okay for Brye to sleep there all night tonight. Abbi was a little scared at first (she in on the bottom bunk) but then she fell asleep and seems to be doing fine in there. If you look closely you can see one of Brye's feet hanging off the side of the top bunk and Abbi is curled up towards the head of the bottom bunk.

Abbi cacher

While Bresa was in school and Peter was at work, Abbi helped me put out a new cache. This is a special cache with multiple stages. You go to the first stage and find the coordinates for the next stage, which holds the coords for the next stage, and then again until you reach the final (fourth) stage where there is a decon container full of goodies and a log to sign. The round trip walk is about a mile so I put Abbi in the stroller and she helped me put out the remaining stages that I had to do some work on. She enjoyed the walk and we saw our friends, the Sandhill Cranes, and she found some cool rocks to take home with her. The weather was very nice so the walk was enjoyable and we took pleasure in the fresh air.

An evening out

While dinner was cooking we took the girls outside to give the cars a quick wash. My Dad came home from Maine today so we will be giving his truck back soon and I wanted to make sure it was nice and clean. Oscar also needed a bath so we gave him a quick scrub and now he looks white again, imagine that! While we were outside our neighbor Gary was out with his sister's kids. He was taking turns giving them rides on his ATV and asked if he could take Brye a couple hundred feet real slow on it. I asked Brye if she wanted to go and she was all for it. She jumped on and took a ride and had a blast. Gary was very careful and went pretty slow but Brye said he went real fast. We finished up and then went in for food and a bath before bedtime.

Lucy-Goose

I Share my chair

Day to Cache

Such beautiful weather calls for caching! My mom took the girls for the day and Peter and I went with some friends to pick up some caches. We ended up finding 50 for the day and came home exhausted. Poor Peter caught my cold and he didn't feel too great but he was a trooper and I think he had some fun. We saw many sights and some new clever hiding ideas. Always happy to up my numbers. Next week is a big annual event and there will be hundreds of cachers there, I can't wait to run the 5 mile gauntlet and pick up caches along the way! In the pics you can see me and then the one of Peter and the guys we cached with, hiddenrock and sailordave. Also in the picture with the "fence" sign, you can see that little black thing in my hand; that is the cache. It is one of the smaller ones you will find but most of the caches we found yesterday were this type, you unscrew it and there is a log inside that you have to sign.

Fish-heads

I have had a cold the last couple of days and I have also been working extra hours for the PD since they are having BikeFest this weekend. I went in yesterday morning like I usually do and then I went back last night to help supply the officers with water and food. I got home around midnight and was so exhausted. Tonight I have to go back and help some more. I don't mind it, it's fun actually. I just drive around on a golf-cart and offer drinks and such and I get to see everything that is going on. Since I had the day today off, I decided to get some cleaning done around the house. One thing that really needed done was the fish pond out front. A neighborhood cat comes by and knocks all the bricks into the pond, I pulled out 7 today. The pond is still getting drained and refilled with clean water so while that is happening I caught all the goldfish (I think) and put them in clean water. We have at least one sucker fish too but he hides in the dirt on the bottom. When the water seems clean I will put the fish back in their new clean home. We have one goldfish that is so big he was like trying to catch a hamster. He is bigger than my hand is wide and I can't even wrap my fingers around him. He must be one of the older ones. We only have one pretty one left (the white one with gold spots) we had another one but we found it floating one day. :(

I missed the movie

Tonight, there was another movie in the park in Winter Park. They were playing Ghostbusters and I really wanted to go but I had a midterm and couldn't miss it. Since my Dad went out of town again, we have his truck while he is away, so I took the truck to school and Peter took Oscar (our van) to take the girls with him to the movie where he met up with Michael (Angella is out of town). I called Peter when I got out of my class and he said the place was packed! I know he and the girls are having a good time but I am sure missing them here at home.

Upside-down puzzle

Abbi has this little 9 piece puzzle with a number on each piece from 1-9. While Brye was in school today Abbi wanted me to help her put it together over and over again. She got pretty good at it and left it on the floor when she ate lunch and then took a nap. When Brye came home from school and Abbi got up Brye decided to show Abbi how to do the puzzle backwards. She emptied the pieces on the floor and turned them all over so that there were no pictures showing and then she proceeded to put the puzzle together upside-down. It only took her a couple minutes before she had the thing completed. Granted, it is not the hardest puzzle there is but for a four year old I think that is pretty gifted.

Yay Disney!!

This morning I got the girls up early and we picked up my mom and went to Disney for a few hours. My mom works at Disney so she can get us in free with her ID card. Brye was being really naughty when we first got up and she ended up getting sick before we made it to Disney. She said she was really tired but since all she was doing was riding in the stroller I thought she would be excited when she saw where we were going. We went first to The Tiki Room where we could sit in the air conditioning. Abbi really liked the singing but her and Brye both didn't like the thunder inside. We later went to Pirates of the Caribbean, my mom and I both liked it but both the girls were scared. While we were riding the Riverboat, Bresa started to come around. She pointed out the animals that were on the island and started saying a few things that she wanted to do. After we ate lunch we got on the train to ride around the park and we were going to leave when we got to the entrance but Brye started saying all the things she wanted to do. She rode the train around a second time and then went on the Carousel and walked through Mickey's Toon Town. By the time we ended up leaving we were all exhausted. I was kind of disappointed that it was so crowded in the park today. I was really hoping that most people would be in school. We will probably go back next month when the weather is cooler, hopefully then it will be quieter there and the lines won't be as long so the girls can do everything they want to do.

Inflatable Fun

It's that time of year again. Peter mowed the lawn before dinner so it was time for our annual inflation of our Halloween decoration. Brye told me all about it while we were eating and described each thing inside the globe. They couldn't wait to get outside to see it get blown up. I put the rest of decorations out yesterday, the ones for inside the house. The girls had fun going to each thing and seeing all the details in them. They especially like the glowing pumpkins and the things that have light bulbs inside them.

Yesterday

This picture was taken of Abbi just a year ago. She has changed so much in one year, she is such a big girl now.

Movie Night

We watched Akeelah and the Bee.

Yet another new park

I found a great spot to hide a new evil cache at a nearby playground. Peter and I concocted a devious cache container and when we went to put it in place today the girls got to play on the playground. They had a great time but unfortunately we didn't get to hang around too long. We had to get dinner and it was getting late already.

Surprise

This morning I got the girls up and told them I had a surprise for them. We met up with Jake and Kendrah in Altamonte and took all the girls to IPEZ an indoor playground. It is basically three rooms filled with different inflated bouncers and slides. You pay per child and the adults are free. Brye was so excited when we got there, she dove right in and started jumping and sliding. Abbi, on the other hand, was scared. She didn't want to do anything and she cried a lot at first. She wanted me to hold her and jump and wouldn't let me put her down. Eventually, when we tried all the different obstacles she finally came around and had a blast. Her favorite things were the simple one room bouncer and then the little obstacle course that had little tunnels (the first picture). Brye's favorite thing was definitely the slides. She had so much fun there. We played until they closed at 11:30AM and then we went over to Jake's to have lunch. The girls never did get a nap so they went to bed early, they were so worn out. We will definitely have to go back there again. Peter would enjoy it too so we will have to go back with him sometime.