The Fat Iguana

I know what you're thinking, "Enough with the huge lizards!" Since we don't have kids, we have to keep our blog interesting somehow. Also, if you are like me then you will want to keep looking at things you don't see in Utah everyday. You can consider it like another episode on the Discovery channel. I'll even share something new I learned about iguanas. I learned that iguanas climb trees. Mark was chasing one and it hid up in a tree. Every time we see these lizards and iguanas it reminds me of how much our nephew Conrad would love all this stuff. This post is for you Conrad!

"Ketchup"

You are probably wondering why I have a picture of Mark in a ketchup suit. The reason is that I didn't have a picture for this posting. Lets be honest, a posting without a picture is boring... you should thank me. :) I thought since I haven't posted in a couple of weeks that I should "catch-up" on what we have been up to.
Here is the rundown since the last post:
A couple of weeks ago, I got a new calling to be Sister L's missionary companion. I was overwhelmed when they gave me this calling considering the fact I had never served a mission and sometimes cannot understand what Sister L is saying. I feel a little inadequate but am glad to have the opportunity to do missionary work. Before I met Mark, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to hand in my mission papers. I can't complain about this calling since Heavenly Father is probably giving me another opportunity.
I also just got another part-time job this past week. A girl in our ward just had premature twins about a month ago. Her husband is also in dental school so life is pretty busy for her. She asked me to come watch her twins in the mornings three days a week so she can get a little sleep. It is the easiest job I have ever had. The babies just sleep until they are hungry and then I feed one of them. They are so cute and it is fun to be around newborns.
The other job I have is teaching violin at a music studio. The students are mostly Korean kids who actually practice! It is such a nice change. I also like it because I don't have to worry about parents being irresponsible with payments since the owners take care of all of that.
What else....I joined a community orchestra so I can play my violin again. It has been really good for me especially since I have gotten a little rusty from not playing in a while. We have our first concert in a week and we sound really bad. :) It is not the most prestigious orchestra but I enjoy playing again.
Other than doing those things, I spend any extra time fixing up our condo and hanging out with Mark whenever he has time.
What has Mark been up to???? Studying. What more can I say? October is a hard month he tells me so I better get used to it. He also started switching out our bathroom vanity. Yay!! I have been waiting for that moment ever since we moved in. One of our bathrooms has been off limits since it smelled like...I won't even tell you. I don't want to gross you out. I finally got up the courage to go clean the toilet a couple weeks ago. It took me 3 hours.
Mark also helped me substitute teach the the sunbeams last Sunday. After that I was really grateful for my calling. We even had one little girl pee in her chair during singing time. Luckily her mom was in the room so we didn't have to clean it up.

My Future Dentist

Doesn't he look cute in scrubs? Looking at him in scrubs everyday is one of my personal favorites of dental school. :)

I thought since Mark is the reason we are out here, that this blog post should be an update on Mark's view of life in Florida. He spends most of his time going to school and studying (or talking about how he needs to study). I lied, that is really my view of Mark's life. :)
Besides the never-ending school work, Mark is pretty content with life out here. He has met some great friends in the dental program. Their group is also referred to as the "TMC" or "True Mormon Clan." Some of the other dental students were pretty surprised to hear that they were mormons. One of Mark's friends, who's wife and sister-in-law drop him off everyday, was asked if he was a polygamist. Pretty funny huh?
I asked Mark what his favorite class was and he said, "gym class." Yeah right, not falling for that one. What I think he meant was going to play basketball against the med students each Thursday. I know he also likes his Anatomy lab and making teeth.
Another thing he loves that may be up there with snowboarding is snorkeling. He went a couple of weeks ago with his friends to Red Reef Park. Since then, he has been so excited to go again and even brought his snorkeling gear with us to the swimming pool on Monday. We planned on going yesterday but ended up going to Fort Lauderdale Beach instead because of the rip tide warning from Hurricane Ike. Instead, Mark used his snorkel gear by the shore line for seashell watching and we played in the wakes. It was pretty fun especially for me because I hadn't been to the beach since we flew out here in March. The water was pretty warm and the waves were extra big because of the hurricanes.
Warning! You may want to put on some sunglasses to protect your eyes before viewing these pictures. We are still pretty white.

Are we still in the U.S.?

One difference that I am still getting used to is the diversity. I went to the doctor's office a couple of weeks after we moved here and I was the only white person. This even included pictures on the wall.
Our ward also has a lot of diversity. Our Bishop is black and has only been a convert for 5 years. You can tell he is really inspired and so friendly. I got a new visiting teaching companion on Sunday. The only thing is I have no idea how to say her name. This is how you spell it...Fiapito Leali'ie'e. Have any ideas on how you say that, let me know. I think for now I will just call her sister L. She is a 6o year old lady from Samoa. When she introduced herself I just said "nice to meet you" because I had no idea what she said her name was. She is really sweet, after we met she said, "You're new to ward? Don't worry...this land is your land, this ward is your ward, this family is your family."
My last experience wasn't such a good one. Over the weekend, I got lost in downtown Miami. I was driving around in a Cuban community where nobody spoke English. Before I knew I was in that community, I stopped at a gas station to ask how to get back on the freeway. The first guy I asked spoke Spanish. The only thing I got out of the confusing conversation was something about a car wash. After that I went into the gas station to ask the cashier. He also spoke Spanish and I don't have a clue what he said. I was trying to sort through all the French classes I took and remember how to say, "I don't speak Spanish" in Spanish. What came out was "No habla Espanol" so I'm sure that made a lot of sense. :) After wondering why no one spoke English, I walked out of the gas station and saw that all the signs around me were in a different language. Luckily I found a Walgreens a couple of blocks away where people spoke English again. Boy am I grateful for Walgreens. :)
Another diverse part of Florida is the wildlife. Mark and I have seen so many different species. A couple of weeks ago we were at a park and there was a possum that started walking across the sidewalk. It was so funny and random. We have also seen baby frogs around our condo, swarms of dragon flies, tons of lizards, toads hopping around our swimming pool, huge birds everywhere, and our favorite part-the wildlife in the canal that runs through our condo
complex. All of the canals in the area run to the ocean and people actually fish in them. We have already seen iguanas, turtles, huge fish, and these cool lizards that run on water and jump. I have to add one more...Just now we saw a raccoon climbing up our steps to our apartment. That was random. Here are pictures of some of the things we have seen:


These are the birds we see most often hanging around by the canal.



We went outside one afternoon and saw a family of iguanas hanging out by the canal. We probably looked more like tourists than Florida residents since it was our first iguana experience.





We saw this iguana on Sunday. It let us get about three feet from it.



Mark with the Iguana

Saying Goodbye

The only downer about moving here is that we had to say goodbye to all our wonderful family and friends before we left. Here are some pics the morning we drove out. We miss you and love you tons!








I have to admit, there is one person I miss the most. That is my little friend Mollie. Since she was about 4 months old I have had the opportunity to watch her a couple times a week. I was joking around before we left that I wish there was a slide-show of all our good times like they do on American Idol. In honor of all our good times I'll just write down all the funny things she does and post a few pictures. You should push play to get the real effect.

Famous Mollie Quotes:

We Did it!

We did it! We moved to Florida! Even though our condo is still a mess, we are excited to be here. We are loving the sun, palm trees, rainstorms, diversity, and new friendships. I 'm even learning Spanish. I know uno word. :)
One of our favorite parts of moving here was the long road trip we got to take in our Penske, believe it or not. It was filled with weird looking trees, Rush Limbaugh, Joseph Smith life story CDs, and my new favorite childrens' novel "The Little Prince". Of the ten states we drove through, here are our top five....
1. Utah-Obviously, there 's no place like home
2. Florida-voted for it's beautiful sunny skies, palm trees, beaches -- does that make you want to come visit yet?
3.Tenessee-voted for the greenest surroundings
4. Kansas-voted for the cutest hotel(Thanks to Jenny and Blake), best BBQ, and nicest people
5. Georgia-still really green, next time I 'm there I will make sure and stop for a peach and to tour a plantation
The tour guide. (You know he's a great driver when he is looking at you for the picture and driving at the same time.)The entertainer/lunchlady. I developed a new talent on the road. . .making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while in motion. "Lunchlady Baker"-has a nice ring to it :)

Remember this, Caldwells? This is the same tunnel we would drive through on our way to Wyoming that we would yell and hold our breath in. Good times.
I know this picture has a glare on it but I wanted to show you our favorite trees in the south. They are covered in leaves. They just look like big blobs on the side of the road. We thought they were pretty great.