blessed.

where to start? once again, I find that I have waited too long to post. 2 weeks have been filled with so much!

and congrats to Em to getting into the grad school at the top of her list!

blessed in life:
*we finally worked out everything with our 2010 taxes (or at least we hope.) they took our money at least. I am also almost finished with 2011. woo.
*I got to see a full rainbow after a rainstorm at work the other day. what a wonderful reminder of God's promise.

blessed by rhett:
*last night, after an incredibly miserable day, rhett had planned a surprise for me after I got home from work. he bought 3 of my favorite foods (spinach artichoke dip, panda express, and cadbury eggs *hooray for easter*) and cleaned the house and set up a fancy dinner. we used real cloth napkins, wine glasses, and he pulled out my chair and served me. my favorite quote: "we have 2 choices for appetizers: spinach artichoke dip or dog's butthole." love him.
*rhett went to and got off work early so we could go to aquatica a few weeks ago. SO fun. we rode 14 rides in an hour and a half. best short date ever.
*blessed to still miss Rhett when he's gone. thank you to my sweet friend Angie for taking such good care of him while he's in Texas this week.
*we celebrated rhett's birthday by going out to eat, and watching Harry Potter (his gift from my parents). love that boy.
*in his sleep the other night, he said "I'm not a storm trooper."
*rhett says: "how do you spell guacamole?" me: "like it sounds." rhett: "so Q-U-A-C" me: "it's guacamole not quacamole."

blessed with pets:
*aggie is still doing well. we are so blessed by her veterinarians, who have poured out love and care to her and to us.
*I think also she is a dog caught in a cat's body. she sits on my lap, chews on my fingers, watches rhett pee, follows us around the house, and plays with everything. her toys include: the collar she can now wear because her cone is no longer a permanent accessory on her body, the bell on her collar, the fluffy collar she sometimes wears, and roscoe.
*roscoe has become so bad about begging that it is almost unbearable, but hilarious. it is, of course, our fault. but still funny. the best thing he has done is bring me a bone and set it on my lap, as if to say, "I'll trade you." and then they smell your breath like it's almost as good as eating it.

blessed by our jobs:
*more cool animal things I have had the opportunity to see in the last few weeks:
-a few months ago I had posted about the octopus shedding her sucker skin. the other day I saw her wipe her arms on the sea urchin to help get the old skin off. so funny. left the urchin kind of skinnish though. kind of like this.
-it was also cool to get to see a second polar bear training session. it was on a behind the scenes tour in the back den, from the ceiling. we saw johnny sit, and stand up against the wall...he is SO huge.
-so proud to be a part of this and this and this and this. all for the love of animals.
-on a penguin tour the other day, we got to see one of the aviculturist's hand-raised chicks chase her around the exhibit. so adorable. for the love of imprinting.
-on a behind the scenes tour the other day, my kids got to see a manatee rehydration procedure. so cool.
*I recently got a promotion! after getting the grades I needed on my tours, I got moved up to an Ed I! So I will continue doing my current duties, and will soon be doing field trips and sleepovers too!
*I came up with a cool idea to get to pick a few families to go get to see the penguins while their habitat is closed. it went over really well! I also got caught in a really great interaction with 2 little boys by my boss's boss's boss. he gave me a ticket for free lunch!
*I have had a lot of tours lately (which is SO awesome), I love getting to know the families and spend the day with them. In 3 weeks of work, I will have 8 VIP tours, 3 small tour shifts, and only 3 regular shifts in the park. I have also been blessed to have the privilege of meeting and "tour guiding" for this gentleman and this gentleman. cool.
*having the privilege to see each show in SW a million times, and it is still different every time. animals are so cool.
*working for a company where extra shifts available include: roller coaster testers post-inspection, and desensitizing stingrays to humans.
*being really excited by things like this. that book would be a great b-day gift idea!

blessed with laughter:
*me to penguin tour group: "so what do you think they use that fire hose for?" kid: "to put out fires?" touche kid, touche.
*seeing poor girl at aquatica wearing her swimsuit top upside down. that sweetheart neckline is for cleavage honeychild, not sag.
*seeing families with an obviously new camcorder, filming everything. including purchasing ice cream.
*why do fish live in salt water? because if it was pepper water they would sneeze all the time.
*why do flamingoes stand on one leg? because if they picked up the other one they would fall over.
*what did the judge say when the skunk entered the courtroom? odor in the court!
*this is funny.
*also, as plaguing as these have been lately, I still find them hilarious. here are a few:



blessed by family:
*we are looking forward to going to Destin with my family this summer!
*willie and carol (our adopted family) are such a blessing to us. they took us out to eat this past week, and we love them so much. prayers for them in this trying time of their lives.
*we are blessed by our small group, whom we had the privilege of sharing valentine's day with playing the newlywed game. we love you. we also got to celebrate the superbowl with some too!!

blessed by the Lord.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." -James 1:17

this might be torture.

sooo....obviously it has been a long time. at first, we were just busy. then, my list of things to blog became just too unbearably long and I kept putting it off. which of course made the list longer. so this might just be torture to read because it has been over a month, but enjoy anyway.

life news:
-we went and saw big miracle. I can't remember the last time we saw a movie on opening night! it was pretty cute! it's no dolphin tale though.
-we bought dolphin tale. and I watched it a million times. so many times, in fact, that when I was at work and saw a dolphin swim, I thought it was weird to see a dolphin swim with its tail up and down.
-rhett's rush went really well! and at the time, I was still working 5 days a week, so I hardly noticed he was working so much! both of our schedules have finally slowed down, and we are enjoying some much-missed down time at home together.
-angie and james called...and are planning to visit us next month! we are so excited!! what a fantastic birthday present.
-rhett's birthday is this thursday! 24!
-gianna and stuart came to orlando for a convention, and we are so glad they called to hang out! we went to seaworld and fed dolphins! what a great day.
-we have invented a new game...whoever solves more wheel of fortune puzzles in an episode gets to choose the pajamas!
-rhett forgets that he is taller than me, and when digging for something in the fridge/pantry will take stuff out and put it on top of the microwave (unreachable for me). when stuff goes missing, that's where I look. including little debbies cakes.
-we saw a rocket launch!! one night, while watching wheel of fortune, the local news split screened to show it...at which point we were able to sprint out the door and see it take off! and a night launch too! I finally did it!
-we saw a builboard for a titanic dinner experience. sooo...while eating they fill the room with freezing water? I mean..who would want the sinking experience?
-this is hilarious.
-more things rhett says in his sleep. "nostrils." & "they should strap a helmet cam to shamu" & "paper or plastic" & "I'm a pilot. I fly a stealth helicopter."
-have you seen this? funny.

pet news:
-the cat has left and come back! she lived at the vet for about 3 weeks where they compassionately slammed lots of medication into her, on our budget request, in a last ditch effort. she has now had 3 full days with no cone. so far so good.
-roscoe has started doing this cute thing where he goes and sits by the garage door when he hears rhett pull into the garage. but somehow we can't get him to do it on command. we are working on it. yesterday was the first time we have been successful.
-both animals very much find it concerning when I have on a band aid. they can't peel that thing off my body fast enough. they both kind of nibble at it, as if to say, let me kiss it!
- I am training roscoe to lick rhett's nipple.
-video soon to follow...when the cat has on her cone, she can't groom herself. so she licks roscoe's leg and then grooms herself with it. awesome. he is such a good brother.
-whenever anyone sits down, it is suddenly a target for both critters to sit on/under/or behind. especially when food is involved. makes it discouraging to sit down.

work news:
-I was informed the other day, that a fish I have never seen and told guests wasn't in the pool (there is a sign for it) is, in fact, in there. apparently it only makes an appearance about every 6 months.
-I am getting excited about this. the other day I heard the music that played in the old manatee exhibit and it made me miss them! from what I've heard, the new one is going to be nothing like the old one!
-I gave a dolphin tour the other day with 1 person on it. weird, but really special for her!
-I had a particularly frustrating evaluation a few weeks ago, which was made up for by an incredibly opposite evaluation experience the following week. consistency is not the name of the game here.
-you know you have an awesome job when, one day, it involves cleaning up penguin poop!
-a coworker and I had a discussion about how we sometimes find trash shoved really far into the bushes, wondering why a human would go to such effort to litter. later that same day, I saw a squirrel carry a food wrapper into a bush.
-one good thing about orlando roadways is the "time alert" signs. luckily, I pay attention to them. I avoided being late one day because I noticed a 20 minute delay on the roadway and could avoid it.
-it sometimes happens that, while narrating, a guest comes and asks me a question. I mean, I invite them to! but coming up to me, while talking, saying "bano, bano, bano" (like repeating it would make me understand if I didn't already know what it meant) and then coming up to me a second time saying "balea balea balea" is not a way to get your questions answered.
- I have been able to see some cool things working at aquatica, as much as we complain. a bald eagle, african fish eagle, roseatte spoonbill, tawny frogmouth, black and white tagu, mali uromastyx, prehensile tailed skink, kookabura, nene goose. the funniest part about it is, when they bring those things out, people don't even see them. there could be a bald eagle 5 ft from their face and they just walk on by. look up people!!
- I can also add a walrus fart and a frisky beluga to the checklist of things seen at seaworld.
-I have found that I also have a "no portugese smile" similar to the no english smile I described in an earlier post.
-I have almost killed 2 young children and their parents for feeding cheetos and sunflower seeds to a hawaiin nene geese. "junk food makes geese obese" is a obviously not even a cute enough sign for the most ignorant guest.
-I am now officially trained so I may handle the reptiles at aquatica! makes the day go by faster.
-I had the incredible privilege of piloting a tour at work one day. I can't tell you what was on it yet, because it hasn't been released yet. but to get paid to take this tour...incredible.
-in case anyone was wondering, the company that makes bathroom stalls is called "hiney hiders." haha.
-I have made friends in other departments, which is really exciting to get to hear about their side of the job, and some insider information that they get to hear that has to do with their jobs! I didn't know we used to have one of these!
-I had the privilege of watching a polar bear training session in the exhibit the other day! so cool! they had him come, sit, and open his mouth for the trainer!

some funny quotes:
-"roll out grandpa."
-me: "let me know if you have any questions."
guest: "ok you too."
?
-"why is the polar bear upset."
me: "he's not. why do you think he's upset?"
"well he looks upset."
me: "well bears just naturally kind of look intimidating. and he just went swimming so you can see through to his dark skin around his eyes."
"well he looks upset."
me (thinking): well how long have you studied polar bear behavior now?
-"you're uniform is so pretty"
me: speechless.