Where to begin?

Gosh, it's been a crazy few days and I've been a bad blogger. Friday night we met Jen & Jeremy at their new place in Jacksonville (Orange Park, actually) and along with their friends Larry, Dee and one of Dee's friends ~ we got the moving truck unpacked and up the flight of stairs (UGH). I had to rest a couple of times and I've never sweated so much in my life (attractive, yes?) but boy am I glad to have them closer. Afterwards we went to eat at Buffalo's. Now, this might not sound very exciting to you but to us ~ It's awesome. Buffalos was one of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Raleigh, NC. As a matter of fact every other Friday at lunchtime you would find at least half the staff of the Raleigh YMCA there. It was always good fun and good food. They have apparently branched out and now there is one literally down the street from Jen. She and I split an order of wings cause she only likes the drumstick part and I prefer the other half so we do well together... and their queso dip is "to die for!"
Saturday Rich, the kids and I spent most of the day in the pool. We now play pool frisbee. It's so much nicer to swim after a missed throw then having to run and retreive it!
I did find something disturbing... these guys eating these Any of you that now me know that I have a brown thumb when it comes to plants but these guys are pretty hardy and they are outside so I really don't have to water them much(especially in the summer when it rains for about an hour every day) and they are actually thriving! Now, along comes these two caterpillars who are literally munching away on my plants! Richard plucked them off and sent them out into the preserve where they can munch away and become beautiful butterflies and I get to keep my plants.

Speaking of plants, our new casa came with a landscaping allowance. We are still trying to figure out what to plant so on our nightly walk I spotted these and these which I thought would look nice. I've never seen a hibiscus tree with red leaves. How cool is that? I know I want gardenias. They've always been my favorite... and I'd love something like this.. I want to replace all the yukky mulch with pebbles and I really love the pots around the tree. Any suggestions on what to plant would be most welcome!