Top 10 Things that are Awesome about Florida

Now that everything is done and settled that we are moving back to Kansas, I've started seeing Florida in a whole new light. There were a lot of aspects about the state that threw me off when we first moved here. Torrential downpours every night at 6 p.m.? Ants that BITE?!? Colonial Drive?

But I have come to truly love living in Florida (and Orlando in particular), and it is very bittersweet to think about moving. One of my resolutions is to truly enjoy everything that we can here as much as possible in the next 5+ months. Here are the Top 10 things that make Florida awesome:

*By we, that means "Me, Amy," because Will is on campus and all other family members are sleeping, making me the Official Hageman Spokesperson.

10. No sales tax on food!

9. No state individual income tax! (Okay, so maybe I am a little too interested in taxes...)

8. Warm weather. In the midst of this long cold spell, I have new appreciation for a winter season that does not require a coat.

7. The ever-present sun and blue skies.

6. UCF's can-do spirit. Want to start a medical school? No problem! Want a new, on campus stadium? Done, and we'll throw in a new arena, too!

5. Disney, Sea World, and Universal. Enough said.

4. Laid-back, causal environment.

3. No matter where you are in Central Florida, you're close to the beach.

2. Our church - a great music ministry and children's program.

1. Our wonderful friends. I wish we could pick up and move everyone with us. :)

K-State, Here we Come!!

Hello friends! Okay, so probably everyone in the world knows this since our poor blog is so neglected....but our family will be moving back to Manhattan this June! Woo hoo!! Will and I are both going to be assistant professors at Kansas State University, our alma mater. Go Cats!! We are in Kansas now for Christmas and have gotten started on the house hunt. It is only slightly overwhelming how much needs to be done before we move. :)

In honor of the changes on the horizon, here are the Top 10 Things we are Excited About in our move back to Manhattan. (Coming soon: the Top 10 Things We Will Miss about Florida.)

K-State (and Manhattan) Rocks - 10 Reasons to Cheer!

10. We'll be living within 2 hours of ALL grandparents!

9. No commute! Everything in town is within 5 minutes of K-State campus, 10 minutes if there is "bad traffic."

8. K-State football games...and basketball games...and volleyball...all within our fingertips....

7. Cost of living is low (word to the wise - always look at a city like Boston first. Then, everything else seems cheap!).

6. We'll get to experience the 4 seasons --> Summer, Road Construction, Still Road Construction, and Winter.

5. I think that K-State has a "no jerks" policy, at least in both of our departments - very nice faculty and colleagues!

4. Any college with a dairy barn ON CAMPUS (with LIVE COWS) is pretty darn cool. That also means...CALL HALL ICE CREAM any time we want.

3. Living in a small town really makes you appreciate amenities more. Seriously. I think that Will and I enjoyed all of the KC attractions more when we are visitors (living in Manhattan) than when we lived in KC itself!

2. Living in the same town as my sister and BIL = FABULOUS!

1. As I saw on one college review site, "You can laud it as Middle America magic, or you can write it off as institutional brainwashing, but there’s no denying that Kansas State has a way of winning the hearts of its students." :-)

Sorry - Email Hacked

Hi everyone,

 

It appears that my e-mail has been hacked. If you received a strange email last night with no subject and a weird link, that was not from me. Hopefully you will not receive any additional messages like that. I apologize for the trouble! I hope that you and your families are doing well.

 

Take care,

 

Amy

Has Facebook Killed the Blog?

So, if Video Killed the Radio Star, has Facebook killed blogger? Um, no, probably not. I think we are just slackers. :-)

It is BUSY BUSY here. I know, I always think that, but I swear that it is crazier than normal. I went to my first campus visit/interview last week - 1 down, 5 more to go, at least. It seems like a freakish amount of traveling. It will be interesting to see what I think after all of them are done.

The kids are keeping busy in school, as are Will and I. We also decided to celebrate our last year in Florida by purchasing Disney Florida season passes!! SO! EXCITING! Below are some pictures from the first day of school and of Animal Kingdom this weekend.

Annika is all ready for school - her kindergarten class is the Dinosaur Class. Here she is, excited for the first day.



Daniel is a handful!! But you can't tell it from his pictures. :-)


Enjoying the slide at Animal Kingdom this weekend.


Digging for dinosaur bones.


Thinking about digging for bones....


At the rate I have been blogging --> Have a wonderful October, all!

As Seen on our MIA Camera

Annika got a hold of our camera sometime in May (?) or June (?) and took a bunch of photos with it. (The awesome thing about a digital camera is that this causes no stress on anyone's part!) Here are some of the ones she took:

And of course, several exciting events this past week. I graduated on August 8th, also our 11th wedding anniversary! Here is the actual hooding ceremony:

And finally, this past week Will and I were very, very blessed to be able to go on a cruise by ourselves to the Bahamas! We can't thank Brenda enough for making this possible. It was a fabulous time! We visited a private island in the Bahamas and Nassau, but I think the most fun was reading books on the deck during the day at sea. We also enjoyed relaxing in a hammock by the beach:

On the homefront, Annika went to Dinosaur Camp this past week at the Science Center and adored it. She is going to Science Camp this coming week there as well. Daniel is in the final homestretch of the baby class before they move to their new building and he gets to be part of the toddler class. So August 24 is Back to School and lots of changes for both of the kids!

Kiddo Speak

Overheard around the house this week.....

Annika: "Mama, I wish I had a green iris like you. Because green is my very favorite color." Then later, "Maybe someday my blue iris will turn green."

Daniel: "Aaaaaaaagghhhh!" (said in a very happy, joyful voice, especially when standing on top of a table).

Annika: "I just can't stop asking questions. It is very hard to stop talking. I cannot stop asking questions because it is too hard."

Daniel: "Up-ba?" (obviously, "up" is a two-syllable word. He states it first as a question and it quickly spirals into a demand).

Annika: "I am so very happy that we joined the Y. There are two Ys. One is in Oviedo and one is in Blanchard. The one in Oviedo has a top on the pool, and the one in Blanchard does not have a top on the pool. When can we go to the Y? Can we go right now?"

Daniel: "No. No No. Eeeehh!" (you can have whole conversations with Daniel, asking him a whole serious of questions with his opinion. "Yes" means "the absence of no.")

Annika: "An iPhone is a half-phone, half-computer. It is things for computers and things for phones. Can I play the paper-toss game on your iPhone? Can I spell Annika H. on the iPhone? Can I take a picture of you on the iPhone?"

Daniel: "Baaaaaaaa!!!!!" (a super-duper wuper excited voice, said while running around with the iPhone, chewing on the carrying case.)

What have you overheard in your world this week??

Words and Work

Daniel is really starting to talk more! Now that he has mastered eating four-course meals, running at full speed, and climbing up any vertical object, he's decided to turn his attention to the fine art of speech. Will and I came up with the words he is saying - he's a social little guy!

Daniel's Words

All Done
Up
Here You Go
Thank You
Hello!
Hi!
Bye-bye!
Uh-Oh!
Yay!
Mama
Dada
Kitty
Annika

And on a completely different note, I found a hilarious description of the Top 10 Worst Jobs on one of the blogs that I read:

http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2007/12/top-10-worst-jobs.html

This got me thinking - I have had aspects of a lot of jobs that I didn't like, but I have never had a "bad" job. Even my first job, where I contracted some weird nail fungus (because people in the 1870s didn't wear gloves...), was actually an awesome gig at a museum where I had worked for the whole previous year for free and was now getting paid.

What is your worst job ever?