Miami?!? What are you doing in miami?!?

In the middle of April I got an email from Brad Arnowitz, containing an undertone of urgency, asking me to call him. So, i called. In typical Brad-no dancing around the issue-style he immediately asked me to come and work for him again. I was surprised of course, but intrigued. Thinking perhaps that it might be the change i was needing since i was starting to feel that typical Laura restlessness that creeps up on me and tells me it's time for another life altering, sudden, unpredictable (and as many of you have told me many times, unadvisable) change.

Stephanie, my best friend and truest confidant, had just moved to the US to live in glamorous Watertown, NY. She and I had been joking in our usual style of all the potential scenarios that would bring me back to the States so that i could work and live near her and Jerry. Then I get Brad's offer. I told him no at first of course. Because who says yes when someone calls them out of the blue after a year and a half and says "can you move back to Florida? and i need you within the next two weeks? and i need you to stay at least a year!" well, apparently i do. but at first i thought i couldn't. so i took a day and thought about it and made a list of all the reasons not to go. Then i called him and read him my list and he solved every issue until i had only fear of the unknown impacts of such a decision hanging over my head.

Since i've never really let that stop me before, sometimes to a good end and sometimes not, i didn't let it stop me this time. I went the next day to Ken and Geri, my most amazing bosses at the time and told them what was happening. That was probably my only regret about coming. Working at Rounds' Ranch was not only a learning experience for me in the professional aspect, but also in a personal. The growth which i feel i experienced in the short year I worked with the Rounds and the other employees is unmatchable. It was the first time i saw the beauty of what religion could be and the love that it can spread among people. Sigh, I digress. So, i agreed and two weeks into April here i was walking Cory and Alexa to the park and immediately losing about 15 pounds as i tried to learn the time management necessary with toddlers if you want to eat or shower or do anything that one takes for granted when we are young and indestructable.

So, now I am a professional nanny. What a bizarre and yet perfectly suited place for me to end up. The girls are Cory and Alexa. They will be 2 on August 13th. I am in constant amazement of what it is to be needed, really needed by a tiny soul (or 2 as the case may be). It is an interesting thing to watch twins develop (as i'm sure it is for singletons too, but twins is my perspective for now). They look to each other for cues on what to do and it intrigues me. I have taught them to always use "please" and "thank you" and it is so interesting to watch because Cory will always go behind Alexa and let Alexa say the "nice words" for the both of them. As though she thinks that if Alexa says it, then it counts for them both. At first i thought perhaps i hadn't gotten through in trying to teach them to her, but if she and i are alone she will use her " nice words" without being prompted. Everyday brings about another interesting, and many days frustrating, toddler-twin quirk. Nothing, however, can beat the snuggles that the girls like to have on my lap or the way they come to "Lawa" for comfort.