What's been going on?

1 Year Picture: John took Brooklyn in for pictures a few weeks ago. The photos are T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. and not because of anything John or Brooklyn did. It's like the photographer set the camera to auto fire and just swung it around the room. Photos aren't centered on the baby, there's crap showing in the background, baby's dress didn't get straightened out, some shots are zoomed in too much...and not in a cool photojournalistic way either. Oh well. At least it didn't cost anything.

BBR: We had another trip to the resort in Orlando with our friends. We refer to it as BBR because the group is comprised of families with the initials B, B & R. Compared to our last trip a few years ago, things were a bit more stressful. Last time there were only adults and barely enough space in the 3 bedroom townhome for us all. This year we all brought our kids (2 babies and a 16 year old) and were so stretched for space we needed to rent another unit. This meant that our group was split up. Not fun. Additionally, the babies require SO MUCH extra equipment and planning and entertainment. Brooklyn doesn't have a "Relax, we are on vacation" button. She's pretty much raring to go at all times. So all in all, the get away was fun but tiring. We will do the next one differently, for sure.

John's new job: Going fine. He started about 2 weeks ago and was unsure at first but, as with any new thing, is growing more comfortable with each new day.

House hunt: Ugh. I don't even want to think about this. I have the 'all clear' from John to look for a new house but we have to sell our condo first. Which means prepping it to show, which means getting a storage unit to store the crap we have that never really fit in our small spaces, which means spending additional money that we'd rather use toward the new house, and then it means waiting and waiting and waiting for a buyer to offer us 20k less than we owe. It's an ugly cycle I tell ya. But I need to just buckle down and move in a direction. Sitting and griping isn't making any progress toward the goal.

Baby #2: This isn't happening for a while. We'll have another baby when we are good and ready.

EPCOT: Food & wine festival = FABULOUS! We had such a great time. LOTS of great food, little bit of wine (for me) and lots of beer (for the guys!) Mom watched Bean for us and we enjoyed the day with our friends Dave & Kelly and Stephane & Amy with their son Luca. This is something I'd love to do every year in the fall. If you haven't been before it is totally worth it.

Halloween: We dressed Brooklyn as an astronaut. She was so cute in her big ol' black boots and orange flight suit. She's barely 16 months old so we didn't go trick-or-treating but we did go to our parents house for a visit and pictures. She seems to already know to hold out her bucket when the door is opened. Are kids ingrained with this when they are born?

And here we are. The beginning of November....temps are still in the mid to high 80's. Not fair but that's what we get for living in Florida.

Peace out!