The Barlows Have Arrived!

On Sunday, September 28th, Jeff, Amy, Garrett, and Isaac arrived in Florida after a long two-day trip from Dallas. Jeff's brother, Mike, drove one big rental truck while Jeff drove the other. That helped out so much! Also, Cassie flew to Louisiana to see her family, then Amy picked her up after driving for five hours alone with her two young ones, and was she ever glad that Cassie agreed to drive with her! That was life-saving, or should I say "sanity saving"?!!

It took us two days to unload both trucks into two big storage units. One unit was up an elevator and then down a huge hall, through three more doors and halls, to finally get to the unit. It was certainly a challenge! The first day Craig and Cassie helped tremendously until the very late hours when they had to drive back to Gainesville. The next day we had more helpers which included the missionaries from our ward and a nice young couple. The whole thing was certainly a gigantic job--but mission accomplished! Then Amy tore into the two spare bedrooms where she put beds for the two boys to sleep in and then Jeff and Amy in the other. We are all like snug little bugs in a rug!

We are so excited to have them stay with us while they are getting settled in Florida. George and I can't believe we will finally be able to go to "Bring Your Grandparents to Lunch" day at school. We've never been able to do that!

We quickly got Jeff and Amy acclimated to Green Cove Springs by taking them to "Soul Food" day. It was lots of fun and we bought the most wonderful pound cake there --it brought back memories of George's mother's. She was the best at making pound cake!

Oh, yes, in case everyone hasn't heard--Amy and Jeff are expecting a baby girl in March! Isn't that exciting! Girls are really in short supply in our family!

"Wild" life in Florida

Throughout my 15 years of living in Florida, I have seen many strange creatures that I hardly knew existed, growing up in Idaho. One of the worst annoyances are the cockroaches--I will not post a picture of them because they are just outright ugly! But with proper pest control, you don't have to see many of them, thank goodness. However, I thought I would share a few that have become pretty commonplace that I never dreamed I might encounter.

First, we have the buzzards--when you see a group of them, you know they are feasting on something. Here, it was a fallen deer at the side of the road.

How do they all know exactly where to meet up for their dinner?

Next is the snake problem. You always have to beware of that--even on your yard. However, you don't often think about them coming into your garage.

A little startling to find this when you go out to get in your car!

Now, the wild turkeys are just plain fun to watch. They feed here and there and are definately afraid of you as you try to walk up closer to get a good picture. I think there were 20 or 30 when I took this picture. As people build more and more houses, they move further and further away. So sad!

George loves to walk around the golf course--not to play, but to find golf balls. He takes me along with his 15-foot ball snatcher, and believe me, he is eagle-eye Copeland! We have supplied all the sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons with all the golf balls they'll need in a lifetime! He stacks them in egg cartons in the spare bedroom. Well, we always walked around a little lake which George mentioned he'd heard there was a gator in it. We kept looking and finally saw its little beady eyes one day. After that, we saw him a couple more times. I asked George how big he thought he was--"Oh, about 4 or 5 feet," he said. I told him I thought he was bigger. Well, guess what! They finally took him out--7 feet 9 inches! Wow! I feel safer going walking now that he is gone!

Tyson's Baptism

When George and I became grandparents, we decided there were some important events that we just wouldn't miss. One of the great events is the baptism of our grandchildren. So far, we have been able to attend all eight that have been baptized. We even attended Parker's in Paris, France! However, with Tyson being baptized in Shanghai this month, we knew it was going to be next to impossible to be there since many of our family are going in April for a big excursion to China. Therefore, we had to live vicariously through the pictures and explanations we have received from Alison.

Alison, Tyson, and John--taken inside their home.

We are so proud of you, Tyson! We love you very much and are so happy that you thought of praying so that the rain would stop in order for you to have the baptism outside. The faith of a child--that's what we all need!

Tyson and his dad in front of the pool where he was baptized--no rain!

Bracken, Preston, John, Parker, Alison, and Tyson - John and Alison's family

Whew! What a Day!

After my last blog when I told you how unpredictable these Florida trees are after a storm, we got a call from Craig and Cassie telling us a huge tree fell in their backyard, luckily away from the house, and not hitting their neighbor's fence. So, today (Saturday) we headed for Gainesville to become tree surgeons again! It was sooooo hot and muggy, the tiny saw seemed no match for the big tree, but Craig and George got a great deal of it sawed up. We will have to wait for another day to work on the root part so that we can even begin to move that. After working what seemed like hours, we all went in and got cleaned up and watched the BYU-UCLA game--BYU 59 - UCLA 0!!!! Wasn't it spectacular! Way to go, Cougars! You did us all proud!

Then, what a pleasant surprise! My cousin, Craig Stallings and his wife Laurie, who live in Blackfoot, Idaho, have a son on a Mormon mission in Gainesville. I have never had the chance to meet him because he has always been in other areas. Now he is serving in Craig and Cassie's ward. So a nice ward member brought Elder Stallings and his companion over to see George and I at Craig and Cassie's house. I had such a great time getting to talk to him in the short time he was there. He is a very enthusiastic missionary and doing a great job!

Elder Jensen, Elder Stallings, me, and George

This was their D-Day--diversion day, so they were in old clothes and they helped George put some things in the truck that we were taking back to Green Cove Springs with us. So not only did I get to meet Elder Stallings, they really helped us out, too!