My So-Called Life

A few things Miami lacks:

(These are not things I necessarily want or need or use. I'm just pointing out some stuff.)

1. Kids

2. Tanning beds

3. Sunscreen

You know why it lacks #2 and #3?! NOBODY NEEDS THEM. On the other hand, I need my SIL Karina here to make fun of my pasty white vampire skin that got HORRIFICALLY burnt the other day.

4. Mexican food

5. Walmart

6. Old, beat up cars

7. Big dogs

8. Feral cat control

****************segue to next topic****************

Job nightmare:

I honestly don't know how much to write about this, so I will make it as succinct as possible and surely leave out important details. 

First of all, I knew when Jacob and I were dating that he would be sent to another city/state to finish the last two years of school. That was part of the deal, the plan. I agreed, and contrary to what my family thinks of my decision making, I put a great deal of thought into this and how it would affect my life, my kids, by future, career, everything. So this whole Miami thing isn't a big shocking surprise and I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Except the part where we moved to Miami.

I made myself a three part, A, B, and C plan for employment. I thought it was fool-proof, that I had enough skills and experience to easily find work in Florida. Rather than type the lengthy explanation of why my plan has crashed and burned, let's just say that I'm on option D and I don't even know what option D is. Target? Florida refuses to accept my Utah teaching license unless I spend a year taking classes and more testing. The job market is turning out to be as elusive and confusing as the housing market. I'm going to give myself one more week of searching before I jump into piano teaching...a very low priority since most people around here don't own a piano. I have to remind myself that there is something here for me. We didn't just follow Jacob blindly to a foreign country. There is a life for me, too. I just can't figure out what it is, and in the meantime, bills are piling high and getting steamier every minute.

********************another segue********************

We went shopping for school uniforms and Hannah found this shirt. She said, in complete seriousness, "Why don't they have this in my size? It's so true." Humility, child. It goes a long way.

We brought a few things in the cars on our drive down here, and those things have turned out to be all we've had to use for nearly two weeks. Like the sewing machine. I decided to teach the girls how to sew one day. Leah would have none of it and Hannah spent almost 6 hours entertaining herself, which is an unheard of amount of time for her needy little mind. 

Jacob got busy with his own little sewing project, called practicing sutures on pieces of stew meat. We had a peaceful Saturday evening, Hannah sewing together scraps of fabric, Leah watching a Princess Bride documentary, Jacob and his meat, and me on a jigsaw puzzle, all while Enya was playing int he background. Jacob looked at me at one point and said, "Welcome to our new life."

One thing that made it into the cars and not the moving truck was a small pot set that Jacob had picked up at Ikea around the year 1902. We've been making EVERYTHING in those pots, from scrambled eggs to hamburger patties to brownies.

Still stir crazy and all of us coming down with a nasty cold, Sunday was a bit rougher. Jacob is now worshipping the God of Surgery and was gone all morning, so me and the girls hoofed it to church alone. After we were all home together, we decided to scope out a new beach. It's called Bill Baggs State Park (Bilbo Baggins, anyone?) and it pretty nice, but we still like Crandon better. It was our first experience with a crowded beach. I'd pictured us taking a nice stroll along the coast, maybe poking around a bit. Ha. Leah would've jumped in and swam to Africa if I'd let her. They both stood there in knee deep water, watching the people and feeling the surf. I looked at Hannah's face and she was lost in the sea--a look I've had on my own face many, many times. I could see her soul get absorbed by salt water and gentle tide, and I thought, It happened. That thing where you experience the ocean and the beach, no matter what the temperature is, and you are soothed and lost and found all at the same time. And you are changed. It happened to me and I didn't realize it until I couldn't have it anymore. I never tired of our family's vacations to the Oregon Coast and spent many Utah hours longing for the coast. Any coast. Leah has it in her, too, but she's bit luckier. She can be soothed by nearly any body of water. Jacob doesn't have this beach/ocean thing and doesn't really get it. I told him it's like Leah and her horses--no one really gets the connection that's there but you can't deny it.

So he dug a hole and put the girls in it.

I don't think the sunsets will ever get old. It's a beautiful place with so many fun and exotic things to do. I wish I was enjoying it more. I probably will once I figure out what is my purpose here.