We’d already had several boxes picked up a few days prior, and they would arrive at our new destination within a few months.

The day before we left, I had made sure to take photos all around town – afraid of forgetting what it all looked like. I took a blurry iphone photo of Dexter, as well, and it is one of the last pictures of him as the little English boy he is.

Once at the airport, Dexter had fun just running around, looking at airplanes and playing with random passengers. He’d flown several times in the past, despite being barely a year old. And I doubt he knew that it would be a long time before he would fly again.

We arrived in Florida just as it was getting dark. The first thing we noticed was the heat. By the time we got our bags and picked up our rental car, it was very dark. We drove nearly an hour, looking for our rental house that would serve as our short term home. We spent ages driving around, unable to find the correct road, and when we finally arrived, it was to a development that was less than ideal. But we’d made it, and that was what was important. It was just before midnight.

Over the next few days and weeks, we spent most of our time exploring and looking for a house to buy. We visited the Disney parks and SeaWorld, and we discovered all of the fun places nearby.

In those first days, we were always trying to find a playground for Dexter. We ended up trespassing on a community playground which was for residents only of a small development down the road from us. Ironically, the playground we found and used for a while is the same one which now belongs to US. It may have taken us nearly a year, but we moved to that same development and now own our home here. Dexter plays on that playground all the time – without trespassing.

One year ago, he had to crawl across the bridge. Now he runs back and forth like the big boy he is.

We’ve all changed in the last year. We’ve moved three times. We’ve had hair cuts for the boys, while mommy grew her hair out. We got pregnant and had a baby, giving Dexter a little brother. We have had family from both sides come and stay. We’ve bought a house to make a home. We’ve gone swimming in pools and at the beach. We’ve explored and discovered much that our adopted state has to offer. We’ve made friends and created new connections. We’ve fallen in love again and again, with each other and with life.

Me and Dexter a year ago…

Nothing worked the way we thought it would work. It’s been peaks and troughs all over the place. We’ve had the highest highs and the lowest lows, and in the end, we’ve come through it better people and a better family.

I think it’s safe to say that we are OFFICIALLY proper Floridians. Who’d have thunk it?

Back then, I’d never heard of Chuck E. Cheese, and I don’t even know if it existed. In fact, the first time I saw a commercial, I thought they’d actually ripped OFF Pistol Pete.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, thinking that Dex has finally reached an age where Chuck E. Cheese would be fun, I found our nearest one and took the family out.

Right from the get go, it was easy to see that this was a family joint. EVERYTHING was done with family fun in mind. In fact, one of the things that impressed me most was that as soon as we entered, we all had to be stamped with matching invisible stamps which show up under a black light. Every child who left with an adult was checked under the black light to be sure they matched. This makes it nearly impossible to kidnap a kid. Daniel was too little to be stamped, but they placed a sticker with the stamp on it on his carseat.

We immediately went up to the counter and ordered our package. For $20, we got a nice large pepperoni pizza, two fountain drinks and $5 worth of tokens to play games. At first, I was afraid that $5 wouldn’t get us very far. But I was shocked that each token was worth 25 cents, and there was NO machine or game that took more than one token!

Dexter was overwhelmed at all the colors and flashing lights in the main room, and as there were birthday parties going on in the main stage section, we figured the best thing was to grab a booth in the toddler section. It meant Dex had a level of autonomy, able to ride some fun rides without us standing with him every second.

In fact, once he figured out how the tokens worked, he took great pleasure in putting them in himself. Of course, that only lasted a few seconds, as he wound up stealing all the tokens and feeding them one after another into the Clifford ride.

Keeping him at the table was a trial, as he was SO excited by all the fun stuff to play with. And the other kids were fun for him to interact with. He didn’t even eat any pizza until Mark took him a slice in his magic school bus. He definitely worked up a thirst, though!

And while Baby Dan was too young to go on any rides or understand what the heck we were doing, he did have fun cuddling mama while daddy accompanied Dexter on some of the bigger rides.

In the end, we stayed for almost two hours and had to drag Dex kicking and screaming out of there once our money was spent. We came away with a few photo souvenirs (also only one token!) and a lot of happy memories.

We rode the train to Conservation Station, which had a petting zoo and lots of fun for the kids. Unfortunately, Dexter turned out to be utterly TERRIFIED of the goats which kept following him around, and when one of them butted him as he bent down to pick a flower, that was pretty much the end.

Luckily, ice cream solves all toddler woes, and as we sat in a shady spot to consume our yummy cold treats, I was even able to sneak Dash a bite – his first ice cream. It was lovely, as it reminded me of when we took Dexter to Virginia Water when he was the same age, and we gave him HIS first taste of ice cream. Such a lovely reminder.

Of course, there were tons of animals and exciting things for Dexter to check out. He LOVES fish, and being able to see under the water was such an excitement for him.

After a bit of lunch, we caught a cool African band playing some music, and Dex sat on his dad’s shoulders dancing to the rhythms. As Dan was sleeping, I grabbed Rowan and started dancing around with her, which I think she liked. :)

Mark and I were finding the love, appreciating the quality time together. The photo on the right was taken by Amy at exactly the right moment to capture a really loving moment. The one on the left was a self-portrait I took.

I love my adventurous fella.

And as we were surrounded by beautiful plants and waterfalls, it reminded Mark of a photo he took of me and Dexter at the Upwey Wishing Well in Dorset, England. So he had me try and pose in the same way with baby Daniel to recreate the shot.

And with all that greenery, it brought out the loving daddy in Mark, and he and the boys had some really special moments together.

We even got to see some really cool animals – like the Okapi – a sort zebra and giraffe cross! It was really cool.

All in all, it was a really lovely day, and we had so much fun together with friends. I love Animal Kingdom and am so happy we live so close to the parks.

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So I thought I’d better remind myself of all the wonderful things going on in my world today and every day.

For instance…

Love. True Love.

My new super comfy, super ugly, garage sale find.

Bath Time…. AFTER bath time…

Big Boy Haircuts

Lipstick marks on little cheeks. And freaky baby teeth coming in…

Best friends

Great friends.

Tickle fights. Stealing bananas. And pillow forts.

TUMMY TIME!

Those eyes….

Painting our house

Brotherhood

The best mother’s day morning ever

Watching a man be a daddy

Comparisons

And above everything else… just being a mother.

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But the truth is that right now I am fighting to keep depression from taking me over. It is something I’ve dealt with for years, but its been a long time since I’ve felt it this strongly.

So while I try and work through it, I hope you will all forgive me for being MIA.

Thank you all in advance.

I know – cute, right?!

But the sad truth is that I don’t really put a lot of effort into my style a lot of the time, so I actually look more like THIS most of the time:

Aw, boo! Let’s call this “Katie’s Sad Hair.” Bit of a difference between the two photos – not even mentioning the fact that I am wearing contacts right now because my glasses weren’t cutting it in the bright Florida sunshine today, even being WalMart’s best transitions lenses. Clearly WalMart are lying bastards! Or my eyes are just super sensitive. Whatevs.

(Also – I am getting twitchy noticing that I’ve managed to create a total run-on sentence which also happens to be a sentence fragment and not a real sentence at all… Seriously – I hate being a grammar Nazi sometimes, and my greatest fear is that my blog will one day turn into an incoherent mess featuring fAke ritin’ witch is totes misspelled & lyk compleeeetly gramatically uncorrect. 4 reals ya’ll.)

I digress.

So anyway, I was asked to watch and post ANOTHER video about styling bangs, and I figured this time I’d show you the results. Because I’m awesome like that. So here goes.

Easy, no? Wet the bangs, blow them out with a funky comb, add a couple of pins and a headband and BIBBITY BOBBITY BOO!

Except I don’t have a headband handy right now, and I’m too lazy to go and get one. In fact, I’m not even using my normal styling tools, as they are all downstairs in the master bathroom, and really I just would rather walk the four feet to the kids bathroom and do it there. So no photos of the wet to dry stages here.

BUT – here I am de-banging myself.

Behold my stunning lack of success…

Wait – what do you mean you don’t see any pins in my hands?

What do you mean you don’t think I really blew-dry my hair?

What do you mean you think I just took a few photos of my greasy hair and pretended to follow the video?

I mean… really! Come on! I have never been so insulted… I plan to talk to my lawyer about this. I’m calling him right now, and I’m going to totally sue you for insinuating I can’t follow directions…

Okay, fine, you win. I didn’t actually wet my bangs or blow them dry. I just kind of finger combed them sideways. But the grease is almost like wetting them down! And my bobby pins are SO FAR AWAY. I’d have to go ALL THE WAY downstairs, and then the KIDS would see me, and they’d be all like, “Mama mama mama mama,” and Mark would be like, “Are you done blogging YET? Because these kids are like totally hard work.”

And frankly, if I could deal with all of that drama, then I would have already done my hair today instead of going on day three without a proper wash…

Anyway, the video gives me big ideas for tomorrow, and maybe I’ll actually take the time to do my hair for once. But probably not. Hope you enjoy it anyway!

** This has been a sponsored video post. I have been compensated for posting the video.

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1. How to Organize Basement Storage

2. 31 Days to Organization – SUCCESS!

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4. Party Time – 7 Lego Theme Ideas

5. Potato Tower – Living Big on Less Money

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I have mentioned in passing that we were having issues getting things sorted and closing on our dream house. Well, it finally came through, VERY last minute, and we moved in about 10 days ago. And while we really and truly LOVE our new house, it does have more than a few funky pitfalls. Namely – it needed a top to bottom clean, and a new paint job besides!

Well, painting 30 foot high walls from floor to ceiling isn’t something we want to do right now, so we had to settle for a thorough cleaning. And let me tell you – we were helped HUGELY in the process by the kind folks at SC Johnson who sent us a fantastic new product to try out.

The Smart Twist™ Cleaning System is a brilliant new product which has THREE different types of cleaning products in one easy to use system. I was given the Kitchen/Bath system, which included Windex®, Scrubbing Bubbles® and fantastik® concentrated cleaner cartridges and a sprayer. With it, I was able to clean my ENTIRE house, which includes a lovely (yet filthy!) kitchen and FOUR bathrooms! And with a TON of windows, we had our work cut out for us.

The SC Johnson Smart Twist™ Cleaning System is a breakthrough, innovative tool that lets you have three cleaners in one hand. Twist, spray and wipe to clean your entire house with one system:

• No more lugging a bucket full of cleaners around the house
• No more searching for the right cleaner
• Saves space under the counter

My personal cleaning arsenal included the SC Johnson Smart Twist™ Cleaning System and a ton of paper towels!

The Smart Twist™ Cleaning System is available in the following varieties at the Smart Twist™ website.

Kitchen/Bath System
- Includes Windex®, Scrubbing Bubbles® and fantastik® concentrated cleaner cartridges and a sprayer for $24.99

Living Spaces System
- Includes Windex®, Pledge® and Shout® concentrated cleaner cartridges and a sprayer for $24.99

Cover Every Base System
- Includes two Windex® Glass Cleaner concentrated cleaner cartridges, and one each of Scrubbing Bubbles® Bathroom Cleaner, fantastik® Kitchen Cleaner, Pledge® Furniture Cleaner and Shout® Carpet Cleaner concentrated cleaner cartridges and a sprayer for $34.99

Total Easy Clean System
- Includes two Windex® Glass Cleaner concentrated cleaner cartridges and one each of Scrubbing Bubbles® Bathroom Cleaner, fantastik® Kitchen Cleaner, Pledge® Furniture Cleaner and Shout® Carpet Cleaner concentrated cleaner cartridges and two sprayers for $45.99

Replacement concentrate cartridges are also available for $7.99 for two or $11.99 for three cleaners of your choice.

SC Johnson Smart Twist cleaned all FOUR of my bathrooms with no trouble

SC Johnson Smart Twist helped to clean my kitchen (even my floors!)

I used the kitchen cleaner to make sure my table was clean for my family to eat at

To use the Smart Twist™ Cleaning System simply fill the tank with water, and then snap the concentrated cleaner cartridges into the Smart Twist™ Cleaning System. Twist the carousel until the cleaner you want clicks into the front position. For best results, pull the trigger back quickly and fully. Spray and wipe surface to clean. If cleaning a small surface, spray the cleaner onto a cleaning cloth.

The great thing about the Smart Twist™ Cleaning System is its ease of use. Smart Twist™ brings added convenience by automatically adding the right amount of water, giving you one less thing to worry about.

SC Johnson is offering free shipping on all Smart Twist™ Cleaning System orders and any purchases $24.99 and above. This offer is valid at the Smart Twist™ website.

Full disclosure: this article is financially supported by SC Johnson