Going with the Flos

Christmas Card Preview

2011-11-17T10:20:00.001-08:00

I am very excited about our first ever family Christmas cards! They are already ordered thanks to a Groupon I bought a month or so ago and I am feeling very on the ball. I am also so thankful for Neil's incredible photo skills and for the amazing shots he captured during our approximately 2 minute long photo shoot.

Here is a sneak preview of one of my absolute favorite pics!

Trip Update

2011-11-17T09:58:00.001-08:00

So we are back from our trip to Dallas and Arkansas last week and I feel like we are just making a brief stop at home to unpack, wash clothes, and re-pack before we head back to Dallas next week to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. We covered a lot of ground last week (literally -we hiked for 18 hours in 2.5 days) so I thought I would throw together a quick catch-up on the major events.

On Sunday we drove to Dallas after Zach finished practice for Behold the Lamb. I will have to post more about that later, but if you want to check out the music that they are rehearsing, click here.

The next morning, my mom and I went in search of a shirt for Vera to wear to the hospital the following day that said something about loving her grandpa. I brought her home in a sleeper that says “I love going to Grandma’s house” and we thought it was only appropriate that she should have one to support her Grandpa during his surgery. Unfortunately the lady at Carter’s informed us that they don’t actually make “Grandpa” shirts for girls-apparently they think that only boys love their Grandpas!

So we found this one that seemed gender-neutral enough and thankfully we got a picture of Vera and her Grandpa before she had the biggest poop ever and we had to bathe her with wipes in the lobby of the hospital. (It says "Grandpa's Little Sidekick" since that part doesn't show in this pic).

My dad’s surgery went well and we stayed until that evening to spend time with him. He went home this past Sunday and is now at home recovering.

That night we were able to get together with Mike, one of Zach’s best friends from college who is now living in the Dallas area. We had a great time splitting a pizza, catching up, and trying to get him to adopt our dog, Marley.

The next morning after stopping at the hospital to visit with my dad, we headed to Garland to leave Vera with Zach’s mom, who was taking off work to watch her for the next few days. We realize how blessed we are to have two sets of parents who are not only willing, but very excited to help watch and spend time with our baby! Tina had a wonderful few days playing dress-up with, reading to, and enjoying time with Vera. We are very thankful to her and Joe for blessing us with the ability to get away and spend some time alone!

After our stop in Garland, we headed off for the woods in Arkansas to begin our hike! It was amazing to be alone and feel like we had no real responsibility other than ourselves! We prayed that God would allow us to enjoy our time and not to miss Vera too much and we are thankful that He answered this prayer. We definitely missed her but we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. The actual hike deserves a post of its own, so you can read all about that here.

We finished our hike on Saturday morning and headed to Texarkana for a family reunion on Zach’s grandmother’s side. We arrived at the hotel just in time to shower and turn around to meet up with the rest of the family. The consensus from the extended family was that the last time Zach had been to that reunion was when he was still a kid, so it was definitely nice to be able to go and catch up with them. I had obviously never met any of them, and I enjoyed meeting and chatting with a few of Zach’s extended relatives.

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast with Joe and Tina at the Cracker Barrel by our hotel. Tina spotted these precious boots and now Vera is ready to brave the freezing temperatures that will surely make their way to Houston some time this winter season. After that, we hit the road and finally made it home that evening.

It was definitely a whirlwind trip and not our normal “vacation,” but we really enjoyed the time away from our responsibilities and our work at home. We are currently planning to head back up on Tuesday of next week, so it really feels like we are just barely here. But we are thankful for all of the time we are getting to spend with both of our families this month.

On the Road Again

2011-11-17T09:19:00.001-08:00

As I write this, we are on our way to Arkansas via Dallas to spend some much-needed time away in the woods. This trip will mark our third trip to the Albert Pike Recreation Center in Arkansas and we are very excited to return after a one-year break from our November tradition. Last year at this time I was pregnant with our now five-month-old daughter, Vera, and sleeping on the ground did not sound at all fun.

We have built some really special family memories on the past two trips and we have had fun on this drive reminiscing and laughing. On our first trip, we were a little over-zealous and decided to car camp for a part of the trip and backpack for the rest. We also brought our biking gear. Oh and we tacked that trip on to our Thanksgiving trip to Dallas. So the results were an incredibly loaded down car and way too much time packing and repacking our different bags. However that trip did afford us with some really cool pictures of us being hardcore with our mountain bikes and also with our first ever night in the backcountry.

The next year we decided just to backpack, but we had the brilliant idea to bring our dog, Marley, for his first ever camping trip (which somehow resulted in even more gear than the previous year). But again, we were able to come away with some pretty incredible photos of our dog that could easily be featured in an REI ad.

So this year we are keeping it simple. We are dropping off the dogs and the baby in Dallas with family and heading out on our own -planning to backpack the whole 27 mile loop in about 3 days. We are going about 2 weeks earlier than we have been in the past and are very hopeful that this will mean that we actually get to see leaves on the trees and maybe even in that beautiful array of fall colors. Either way, we are sure to enjoy the cool weather, and the time sleeping, eating, and playing outside. Zach has been teaching me to play frisbee lately and I think the disc might make an appearance on this trip.

I will write more later in the week and hopefully post some really magnificent pictures. But for old time’s sake, I will post a few of our favorites from our previous trips. Enjoy!

Bumbo Photoshoot

2011-11-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

I spent a few hours the other day transitioning Vera into her 6 month clothes and sorting and packing away all of her old clothes that didn't fit. As I was organizing, I came across this little onesie that was mine when I was tiny! I couldn't resist trying it on her. The results were obviously adorable. However, the funniest part was that the rabbit's tummy has a squeaky toy inside, so any time V would lean over the Bumbo, her tummy would squeak. Needless to say, Marley had a heyday trying to figure out where that squeak was coming from.

I am trying to get better about taking pictures on our "big camera" and not just on my phone, so hopefully this site will soon be full of lots of BIG pictures of our little V!

Playing with Picture Sizes

2011-11-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

I have been playing around with how to get pictures to be as big as I want them without having to edit HTML code (which I don't know how to do in the first place). Here we go! This is the fun bird mobile I made to go above her crib. Check out the pattern for the birds from Spool Sewing.

Updating the Blog

2011-11-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about starting this thing up again after about a 4 year hiatus. It seems a lot has changed since the last time I used this blog, so I have been playing around with formatting and such. Hope it all comes together and becomes something that is a fun tool to share a little bit about what we have been up to lately!

Apologies, Africa, and Alfred Hitchcock

2008-07-22T17:44:00.001-07:00

So obviously it has been a long time since I have posted on here. And really I don't have a good excuse. My life seems to be pretty busy and interesting for the most part, so it seems that there would be some good things to post about. But for some reason, I have been drawing a blank lately.

For a while, I considered giving the old blog up permanently and resigning myself to stalk...um...I mean "read" other people's blogs. However, I have decided to get back on the proverbial horse and give it another shot. I will go ahead and issue the disclaimer that my posts are likely to be few and far between, but that is an improvement over nothing, I suppose.

So as for what is going on in life right now, Zach and I leave for Uganda in two days. People keep asking if we are nervous and I can honestly say we are not...for now at least. I think a big part of it is that we don't exactly know what to expect. Our team has had a decent amount of training, but I don't think anything can really prepare us for what we will experience when we are there.

We will be away for almost two weeks but about 40 hours of that time will be spent on a plane in between Houston and Amsterdam or Amsterdam and Entebbe or the reverse. We will be working with a church in Mbale, Uganda and traveling to several church plants in the surrounding area. We will also be going into the schools, prisons, and a children's home and doing "hut-to-hut" evangelism. This is definitely the first trip like this for both of us.

We are really excited about the trip and feel very blessed to even be able to go on it. It doesn't actually feel real that we are going to AFRICA in two days. But I have about 200 lbs. of luggage sitting in my guest room to prove it, I guess.

Well I look forward to the work that is going to be done there and I am excited about the stories with which we will return. Our team has a blog where we will be posting updates as internet access allows. You can follow it at http://tbcuganda2008.blogspot.com/.

And now, I will get back to watching Wipeout, which I will admit, despite the risk of being incredibly judged, is one of my new favorites. Who doesn't love to watch people ricochet between giant rubber balls while their limbs flail about in all directions? Not me, that is for sure.

Until the next post, good night.*

*I have recently begun a kick of watching the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend. The relevance of this asterisk is that this is how Mr. Hitchcock signs off each week and as he is quickly becoming my new favorite, I feel that this is an appropriate tribute.

(Wo)man's Best Friend

2008-04-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

I really think we have the greatest dog in the world. I know a lot of people think that theirs is the best, but sadly they have not met our dog, and thus they don't even know that they are mistaken. However, I am wondering at what point your love for your dog goes beyond the normal limitations of pet-loving and actually becomes unhealthy.

I know you have all seen the crazy-obsessed dog owners out there today. The ones who take their dogs everywhere, dress them up in cutesy outfits, buy them super expensive dog food, or better yet feed them super expensive people food. So where do you draw the line as to your own love for your pet? Would you even know it if you did cross this line?

I pose this question because Marley has pretty much become like a son to us. We often find ourselves coming home from a long day's work and having conversations with Marley. He usually tells us about chasing birds and watching people walk down the street. He sits and watches TV with us some nights. And by that I mean that he actually watches (and responds to) the action on the TV; not that he just sits with us like most "ordinary dogs" would. Marley has always shown intelligence beyond his dog-years, if you will, and there are many times when he actually tries to use his smarts to trick us. It is almost like you can see the reels spinning in his head...

"If I just drop this thing I am not supposed to be chewing and then fold my paws and lay my head down, they will just think I was resting here and they wont even see that ________ (hanging plant, rubber hair tie, piece of firewood) laying 2 inches in front of my nose.."

Yes, we enjoy dance parties in the kitchen, family snuggle time, and long walks through the neighborhood together. All in all, I would say he is an integral part of our family. We even received an invitation to a birthday party that was addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Florence & Marley." (oh no, the news is spreading!)

But would you say that our love for him has become unhealthy? Where do you draw the line?
I guess if he starts appearing in any more blog entries, I will have the answer to my question.

What makes blogging so intimidating?

2008-01-23T18:39:00.001-08:00

So ever since making this website and including a page for blogging, I have faced a huge dilemma. It mays sound silly and insignificant, but to be honest, I am absolutely terrified of blogging. There. I said it. At least it is out there now and I can't hide behind excuses anymore.
I don't know why this seems so scary and believe me, I have really tried to figure it out. So I thought maybe if I took the time to explore the possible causes of my seemingly irrational fear, then I would be able to take the appropriate steps to cure myself of this problem. Sounds logical, right?

So the obvious go-to is that maybe I am terribly shy and afraid of people getting to know the "real" me. Well, I'm not really that shy, except when it comes to singing in public, so I don't think that's it. I have extreme doubts of whether anyone will ever read this, which seems like it should alleviate any fear of mass humiliation or judgement from the public. Plus for the most part, I have really nice friends, so if anyone does read this, hopefully all mockery and virtual-tomato-throwing should be kept at bay anyway. So why the dilemma?

Maybe a look back at my experience with blogs will shed some light. My earliest memories of blogging started in the high school Xanga-craze when you could get on a friend's page and read about everything from what they ate for lunch that day to what so-and-so said about what's-her-name during 2nd period today. I think that initially turned me off to blogging because I really didn't care all that much. When we went to college, blogging became more of a forum for discussing newfound thoughts, beliefs, theorems, and conjectures about life, love, the world around us, etc. -a place where the deep-thinking and the not-so-deep could finally swim together. Now, in my post-college days, I have been exposed to a vast array of blogs of all shapes and sizes. Recent grads blog about first jobs and newly-marrieds blog about first homes, while new moms blog about first words and the cycle goes on and on. And all the while, the thoughts that they pour out over the internet, unsure of who will read and who will connect, are shaped by their lives, their experiences, by where they are and who they have become.

I have a friend who has the funniest blog I have ever read. I don't remember exactly how I first came across his website, but ever since then I have been hooked. He is witty and clever and and his blog entries become reminiscent of Seinfeld episodes. He typically gets between 10 and 20 responses to each blog entry he writes, with all of his friends raving about how funny and well-spoken he is. I myself have come to expect this of him, and yet I wonder how he feels about being characterized solely as the "funny blogger." What if he wants to write something serious one day? Does he feel guilty or like he is letting his friends down? I hope not, and yet this whole thing makes me wonder...are we quick to stereotype people based on what they write rather than who they are?

Maybe that is my disconnect. It is not that I am afraid that I have nothing meaningful, thought-provoking, or even just plain funny to say. It is instead that I am still trying to figure out who this "I" even refers to now. I think I have been afraid that once I start to blog, then "I" will become shaped by this blog rather than the other way around. In other words, that I am defined by my blog, instead of realizing that blogging is just a small representation of who I am as a whole. Interesting.

I guess for now, I will do my best to blog without worrying about whether I am insightful, thought-provoking, or clever enough for anyone who happens to be reading. And who knows, maybe I will have a Seinfeld moment or two of my own someday.

And in case you are interested, check out www.whyjustinwhy.blogspot.com/.

My first entry. Ever.

2008-01-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

I have never had a blog before. I don't know if I will use this any more. We shall see.