I’ve never experienced such loud and looming thunderstorms as the ones Tampa produces. It seems like we’ve had an ominous thunderstorm every afternoon since the end of May. Ones with crazy amounts of lightning, booming thunder and torrents of rain. Maybe you’re not impressed if you’ve lived here for a while, but coming from Albuquerque where the storms are much shorter and inconsistent I’ve got to say I’m rather impressed.
So we haven’t even been here one full week, but Florida rocks! We’ve already been to the beach twice and the boys have had a blast digging for sea shells, following crabs, being mesmerized by seagulls, building sand castles and generally frolicking about. The weather is fantastic and so far I really like the humid heat combo vs. the dry heat combo of ABQ.
We had a great mothers day yesterday. I surprised Hannah with 2008 dancing classes, which I’m not sure if we’ll start before or after our daughter shows up, but either way it will be fun trying to tame my clumsy lead feet. The boys and I got her a beautiful seashell necklace and Conner and Tobias picked out a card that read “Juggling Mom Competition” on the outside and “You win!” on the inside. Very cute.
I hope everyone is doing well and thanks to everyone who has been so encouraging and supportive of the move, not least of which are my parents who spent 3 days and 1800 miles alternating between the mini-van and moving truck and then helped us lug boxes into the new house. Greatly appreciated guys and we can’t wait to see you this fall when you get to meet your new granddaughter!
And Dovya, aren’t you coming to Tampa in a couple of weeks? Light us up as we’d love to hang out!
(PS - there is an open invitation to all of our friends to chill anytime you are down here.)
In the words of the Governator “Hasta la vista baby”. After a long weekend of finalizing the packing, having a huge yard sale and packing the 16 foot moving truck we are officially ready to hit the road! The plan is to go Dallas to Mobile to Tampa. My iPhone is fully charged so hopefully I’ll have tons of fun photos to snap on the 1803 miles trek. Talk to you soon!
Anyone know of any good WiFi joints in or around downtown Tampa?
I read John Piper’s book Faith in Future Grace a few years ago and to be frank it didn’t make much sense to me at the time. I found the whole distinction between gratitude and faith to be rather insignificant. I recently picked up the book again and have been reading it with my wife. This time around it is much clearer and the distinction between gratitude and faith as drivers for piety is much more important. In light of the upcoming move chapter 3 has been especially timely. You can read it here. Have a good evening!
I’m chugging green tea this morning, trying to get back in the swing of things. Florida was great. My wife and I looked at tons of houses and we were shocked to discover how diverse Tampa was, namely, how different parts of Tampa felt like entirely different cities. South Tampa had small, narrow roads and a real sense of intimacy and community. North Tampa was traditional big city sprawl. St. Petersburg had a distinct beach town feeling. Downtown reminded me of San Diego. You get the idea. All in all a great trip and we are very glad we went to get a preview before the move.
I promised our boys I’d take lots of pictures of our trip. Here’s one I snapped while we were over the Gulf of Mexico. I hope they like it!
My wife and I are off to Florida tomorrow to look for our new abode. We’re checking out a few rentals as well as a few potential buys. I’ve been in the Q (thank our mayor for that nickname) for 20 years and for all of the nice things about this city (read big skies and nice weather) I am completely, one hundred percent, no question about it ready to blow this joint (read slow pace, big fish in small pond lame-o mentality, bad schools, lack of ocean, absence of pro sports teams, no Disney World, etc, etc). Depending on how the good Lord leads, perhaps we will be back in ABQ some time, but as of right now, it won’t be because we want to.