The Last Few Weeks...

David's family to support him being awarded the Bronze Star

Cole and Nathan Bergren back from DC to visit us

Rachel cleaning her dirty kitchen floors--what a difference!

All three sleeping as we drive from one family's home to another.

Elizabeth riding a dirt bike with her cousin Caleb

How have we spent our time? Packing, cleaning, painting, swimming, traveling and visiting friends and family. We've had a really blessed time. Thank you, Everyone, for making time to work us in to your busy lives! We enjoyed our time with all of you! Here are just a few pictures. I really regret not having a picture with every single one of you!

Tyndall AFB, Florida

Our three foot snake skin
The view from the back porch

Our new Home

Hello to one almost empty kitchen...

...good-bye to another.

Where do I begin? After three weeks of living out of suitcases, the day before we arrived we realized we'd be living out of them for two more. It has been a good experience to be sleeping on mattresses on the floor, having limited toys, and enjoying the wilderness of Tyndall AFB, FL. And by wilderness, I really do mean WILD! This morning, as I went out to our lovely screened-in back porch to enjoy the gorgeous, wild forest and pond that are behind our home, I looked down into the grass immediately outside the screen and there was a freshly sloughed snake skin wound through the grass blades. I carefully went out to get it (after putting tennis shoes and socks on!) before the ants devoured it. The ants around here are crazy! The other day, they devoured a wasp I killed in an hour. We saw deer out the front upstairs window this morning, along with a Great Egret. We have seen deer all of our six days here so far.
And the noise! All the bugs loudly buzz all day and into the night. And, not just bugs. At night, behind our house, we hear along with the bugs frogs and toads, a large group of some kind of wood duck or ground bird quacking madly, and then over it all, another unidentified (thus far) bird in the trees bugling/honking. Others around it answer for a little while and then all gets quiet except for a few bugs. Soon the whole symphony begins again, starting with more bugs, then frogs and toads, then the quacking then the bugling/honking.
I have failed to mention the enormous black widow spider that somehow got her body under our screen porch door sometime today and made a web in a corner behind a patio chair that we bought. That shook us a little, especially because I was making dinner and the kids were playing on the patio (in my sight) and Hannah is potty training and had just peed, and I hadn't bothered dressing her again quite yet. David found her hiding behind the chair, not more than a foot away from this 1.5 inch monster. The patio has virtually nothing on it and is very clean, so we're very puzzled why she chose that spot to make her nest. David squished her, we ate dinner, then he borrowed a lawn mower to mow the grass. We think the long grass is the root of the snake and the spider--along with the fact that we live 20 feet from the woods.
I also have not mentioned the gators or the bears, but we're still waiting to lay eyes on those! We'll let you know!