Bye, 2007

Current mood: calm


Bye, 2007-you'll be over in just a few short hours. It's been a good year overall for my family. We FINALLY moved to the Syracuse area after selling our condo in South Florida. I say finally because it took a while for us to be in a position, financially & otherwise, to make this big move. Selling the condo wasn't easy until we lowered the price a bit more than we had anticipated. I hear now the condos in that area we lived in are selling for even less than what we sold at (like 20G-ouch!). We talked & researched for quite some time about where we'd move and the kids were fine with the big move.

We visited Disney in April of this past year because we knew it'd be a good long while before we could do that again. We visited Epcot one day and the Magic Kingdom for two days. I remember Eric saying, "Visit Disney...the hottest place on earth..." quite a few times during that trip. I really don't miss the heat we experienced in Florida. The heat here isn't, on most hot days, like the heat in Florida. Florida heat is a special kind of humid, humid heat. Anyway...

So in July we packed up our two kids, our belongings, our three cats, a hamster, and a dog and made a three day drive to Syracuse. I think about it now, and it is amusing, really. Cats really don't like to be 'whisked off' to places. We captured them from the condo into little crates, moved them next door to a friend's condo for a month where we lived until the closing date of our house in NY was close. Then we captured the cats again and drove to Hinesville, GA and stayed the night with Eric's parents. I think besides the moving of all the furniture and boxes (Eric and I feared our backs were gonna give out), the cats were the most difficult to move. A lot of hissing and tiptoeing around sneaking up behind the cats went on.

Then we drove from Hinesville, GA to Richmond, VA to a pet-friendly hotel. It really wasn't in the nicest section of town in Richmond VA-we were nervous that our stuff was going to get broken into. Again, it is amusing now. In between driving from Richmond to Syracuse, I got a call from our real estate attorney saying there was some kind of delay with closing!! This is still not amusing to me. Anyway, we arrived here-oh, after I dropped the three cats of with my sister Jessica in Whitney Point, who was kind enough to keep the three cats so we could close on our house in peace. Only one day delay with closing, and we arrived at the attorney's office with two kids, a dog, and a hamster. That will always amuse me. Anyway, we left the hamster in the car, the kids and the dog sat in a room by themselves for a little while, and Eric and I signed a mountain of papers, got the keys, & got home.

So here we are. The kids like their schools, are making friends, and they really love the snow. They're begging to go sledding today, but even though it snowed last night it is a bit too slushy out. Soon, soon, we will go sledding-they each got a nice little sled for Christmas. We had friends over the other night for dinner, which was really nice, I'm feeling more settled at work, and Eric has steady work at home he was able to move with him. We went to Whitney Point yesterday and saw my sis and her kids, including new baby Allen, born Dec 18. We're doing fine. I'm looking forward to putting down more roots here in 2008 and seeing more of beautiful upstate New York...

Lots more snow....

Current mood: content


Eric, our two girls and I just got back a while ago from a long-ish walk in the snow...it is something like 26 degrees out, & we were all bundled up. I got into our Christmas stash and let the girls have their snowsuits my Grandmother sent them as an early Christmas present. We had a good time.

Walking in that much snow reminded me of how it felt on my legs to walk on a beach, as I'd done a zillion times while living in Florida. The girls made snow angels and slid down a snowbank or two left behind by snowplows. We walked to a park and the girls went down the slide a whole bunch of times while Eric and I watched from the swings we were sitting on. We took quite a few pictures of all of this. The sight of the girls on the slide was pretty funny; their snowsuits made for a slicker surface on the slide and they would come down the slide at a much faster speed than usual, flying out onto the snow at the end. Sophia somehow was flying out of the slide faster than Alissa, which amused all of us.

It's good to be off of work today-the snow is really coming down now. I just made a batch of biscuits that we'll eat with our stew in just a bit. It's cozy inside the house & I've been making good use of the warm slippers I bought just before we moved here. It feels good that I managed to get a little exercise. We're going in the hot tub in just a little while...because we can. Anyway, just wanted to write; I like to look back on what I was doing on such and such a day from time to time. Good times, good times...

Snowin' & snowin'

Ok it is Saturday evening, and it is now really snowing. And snowing, and snowing...and it should keep on through the day tomorrow, supposedly stopping sometime later in the day tomorrow. Fortunately tomorrow is Sunday and we'll all be home. Who knows if the kids will have school on Monday. I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong...just taking all of this in. I work on Monday, but I am sure the roads will be clear by the time I need to drive in. I have to say, Syracusans are organized about clearing the roads after a big snow. Oh, and they love pizza. Pizza is BIG around here. Another topic for another day.

Soooo, we're all doing pretty well with the cold, too. It is 16 degrees out now. We went out late in the afternoon to see the movie 'Enchanted' with the girls. It was a really cute movie, I have to say-one of the best kids movies I've been to. Of course Patrick Dempsey from Grey's Anatomy was the leading man in the movie, which helped keep things interesting.

As another aside about the cold, I got to wear a sweatshirt I hardly ever used when we lived in Florida. And another thing, when Alissa and I went out alone together after dropping Eric and Sophia off at home to take care of our dogs and just nestle in, I remembered a gas can in the back of the car we needed to fill up for our snowblower. What a different life my family and I are leading now. I honestly don't miss the endless eighty degree weather of S Florida.

I'm writing now since a friend asked if I'd given up on blogging. I pretty much have...I've been working lots lately, and so has Eric. But all is well. Jessica will be having her baby soon, my nephew, and I really hope I can make it in time to be there. I work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, but then have four days off around the New Year. It's all good...and I gotta go now and try and get some sleep.

Eleven

It’s Eleven Degrees Outside Now...
Current mood: content


I just spent a while writing the nicest blog about how great our day was. When I looked up the word idyllic to be sure I was spelling it right, I lost the blog. Grr. Both Eric and I were off today and the kids were also home...a big rarity lately. We had a really nice day together....

We shopped for goodies for a family dinner, then snacks for afterwards while decorating our tree. I think the high today was 20, and it didn't get any higher than that! It was interesting...the white blanket over the city stayed that way, pretty much, since we got a good amount of snow last night. I don't know how many inches offhand, but enough to leave quite a lot of the white stuff lying around-quite beautiful, actually. And there were icicles hanging off of buildings, we noticed-we were pretty intrigued by this.

We listened to Christmas music while we did the decorating of the house. Idyllic. As my sis Jess would say..."I'm greatful."

Our First Snow Here!!

SNOW!!
Current mood: amused

It was snowing outside just now...just before 2PM this afternoon!!! It was really beautiful, billowy and white! It is 37 out, so it's not building up on the ground or anything...Wow!!! That is my third (and yes, I know, I will be seeing LOTS OF SNOW HERE) time seeing snow!!! I know I sound out of my mind, but it's exciting for me to see snow!!!! WOW!!

Cookies!

Alissa, Sophia, and I are baking chocolate chip cookies today. It is getting quite chilly here in Syracuse. Sunday it is supposed to go down to 32 or so...maybe our first freeze of the year. It is cold and rainy out today, but warm and cozy in the house. We're all off today and plan to stay indoors...we may watch a movie or something. So far the chillier weather hasn't bothered any of us in the least. Oh, except maybe for Sophia, who had a field trip the other day to Abbott's Farm. It was cool and rainy that day, and the next day (and now) she had chapped hands. We'll get used to what we need to do to deal with all of the things that come with colder weather before long, I suppose. We're just not 'northerners' yet. Anyway, Sophia proudly presented us with a small bag of apples she had picked herself at the farm. Pretty cool!

My job is going fine, and I will be off of orientation the middle of November, which is when I start my 3pm-11:30pm schedule. I am really looking forward to that schedule, since now I wake up around five am to get to work by seven. I will also be able to park closer to the hospital, as the 'night crew' gets closer parking. Days parks in a lot that is farther away, and we get shuttled in to the hospital, which is getting a bit old.

Our puppy Thor is fitting in nicely with our family. He has had only one 'accident', he's feeling a bit ill today, since yesterday afternoon he managed to pull jalapeno popcorn out of the garbage and chow down on it while Eric was out getting one of the girls from their bus stop.

Ok, off to deal with cookies and a hot oven. I may take a picture of our cookies.

Pets

Ok, just so y'all know-the Millers will not be getting any more pets for a while...trust me when I say this. Three dogs, three cats, and a hamster will be keeping us busy for a while...

Thor

Eric and I went and got a new puppy today...about six months old, and we named him Thor. He is a German Shepherd, maybe a German Shepherd mix (we don't care what breed), and he looks like he is going to be a big dog when he is done growing. We drove out this morning past Constantia, NY (out in the country) and bought this dog for a small fee from some people living in a trailer. So far so good today, he appears to already be housebroken...I'll keep ya informed...

Apple Fest!

Lafeyette, NY Apple Festival
Current mood: happy


Ok, long time no blog again. I am on city water & sewer, to answer Melissa's question from a while ago. We live on the outskirts of Syracuse, in the 'burbs. We avoided country living so we'd have the conveniences of the city, though it sounds quite nice (and I am sure just lovely) to live in the country around here.

We're liking it so far, though the coldest weather we've experienced (and it's October already) is 39 F. I had a patient tell me the other day that he loves the snow, which is unusual-Syracusans often respond to me about why I moved here by looking at me like I'm daft. I then list off a number of good things about living here (good schools, affordable housing, affordable insurance for housing and cars, lovely parks for hiking, a zoo, museums, a symphony, plenty of restaurants, a relatively low crime rate, the place is not overcrowded like where I came from), and the person often says, "Oh yeah, I guess we sorta take these things for granted..."

I've gotten off track... Today's high was supposed to be 83, but it felt like 90 something to us while we were at the Apple Festival in Lafayette, NY, speaking of country towns. We drove to Lafayette, which took us less than 20 minutes & went to their Apple Fest.

The view of the mountains was beautiful, since fall is in full swing now-I think the girls and I will drive to Oswego tomorrow while Eric is working. Oswego is about 30 minutes north of us, and it's the place that got all the publicity last year for having so much snow. Anyway, the Apple Fest is big around here...lots of people went, and the line to park took us a while (lines to get into places around here are relatively rare, which is one thing we don't miss about crowded old S. Florida).

Once we got in to the Apple Fest, we walked around in the different tents looking at arts and crafts stuff. There was a lot of cool stuff-we ended up buying a four or so feet long stool with storage space inside for by the front door. It'll be a nice place to sit and put on or take off our boots when it gets really cold out. I found a cute little sign that says "Live well, Laugh Often, Love Much" which is already hanging above the sink in the kitchen, and a stained glass hot air balloon to hang in one of our windows. There were different farm stands, a tractor stand, and pony rides.

We ate fair food (steak sandwiches), though we opted not to wait in a line of about fifty people to get apple fritters. We all went on rides, mostly the girls, though: Ferris wheel, Tilt-a-Whirl, and Sophia's favorite, Bumper Cars. We left after almost four hours, got to the closest convenience store and got the largest sodas I could get my hands on, then made our way home.

Life is good.

In between household chores

Now, anybody who knows me pretty well knows I don't keep my house picture-perfect, but the work involved in keeping this place just 'lightly picked up' looking is simply incredible. I need a housekeeper! Ok, going to take a break now to iron a few things. Yup-iron. I don't, in general, iron, but my scrubs for work I do. Sigh. Ok, a little while later I am back, and three days' worth of scrubs are ready for wear. I got the ironing the scrubs thing from a teacher I had at the very beginning of nursing school who said we all needed to iron our scrubs. I remember thinking she was ridiculous, but here I am, a few years later, and all my scrubs are ironed before wear. Maybe just the tops sometimes, but they look nice. One must remember, I often have clientele who are quite elderly. They are from a time when everything was ironed before wear...

So right now Eric and the girls are off on another outing. Before they were walking the dogs, now they are off at a park teaching Sophie about bike riding. Sophie is so sensible, and careful, and gentle. She was all decked out in safety gear...and she did this all on her own. Eric took a picture of her on a throw-away camera. Cute! Now, our Alissa is still a daredevil, not afraid of getting hurt, and will use the safety gear and things like, oh, her glasses so she can see better ONLY when forced to.

I have been neglecting my blogging lately. Now that I am back to nursing full-time, I have time issues. I like to have time for my coffee, and I pretty much make time for that every morning. I ran from one thing to the next when I was off of work for the first time in a few days the other day. Got one car in for winterizing, got my hair cut, got baked goods from Marios, came home, then went back out and shopped for groceries. Eric was working during this day off, so I got back for the kids in the afternoon. We managed to have a relaxing day yesterday.

We went to the music store and rented a clarinet for Alissa, as she is going to have lessons now. She'll also be participating in track this year. I admire in Alissa the fact that she is up for just about anything, really. Anything we ask, do you want to do volleyball? Yup. Soccer, yup. Basketball, ballet, girl scouts, I could keep going, anything,,,answer is yes. And track? Puleeaase...only if someone is chasing me with a weapon would I ever do something like track. Ha. But Alissa, she is going to do track. Sophia is going to have dance lessons, either ballet or Irish-step. Both girls are excited about these activities.

Anyway, we then went to TSC, the Tractor Supply Store, which is sorta like a mini-Bass Pro Shop. I found four dollar thermal hats for winter (or next week) for all of us, but also enjoyed shopping around, looking at shoes and other stuff. There was country music playing in the store, and I was walking around humming the songs to myself until Alissa asked me what I was doing and did I know I sounded funny, then I realized what I was doing and stopped. I had that song in my head for hours that goes: "You look so good in love..."

Anyway, we came home and had lunch, then headed out with the puppy to Onondoga Lake Park, where we had a nice time. At least if the puppy is with us, we reasoned, we know he isn't wreaking havoc on the house. I saw a video on You Tube, where the people called their dog a 'Cairn Terrorist'...well, that is what we have. He's gonna be such a good boy...someday, I keep telling Eric. He's really not a bad dog, he's just a puppy. A wild, wild, nipping, barking, chewing, havoc-wreaking puppy. We saw a water snake at Onondaga Lake, about 4 feet long, in a little area of a canal that runs off of the lake. The four of us and two twelve-or-so year old boys stood and watched the snake for a while, we were intrigued, talking about how long the thing was, and look at the patterns on its skin, and ooh, ooh, there it goes...away under a rock. Wow.

So now it is Sunday morning, September 23, the first day of fall, the day before Eric's birthday. We're actually both off for the day tomorrow, so that's good. I gotta get signed off of this blog and get back to some chores. I'll try and write more again, and sooner than the last time. Oh, and yes, fall is about to be in full swing here soon. The colors are coming out more and more. There is still quite a bit of green, but now there are yellows and reds and browns, too. There are some flowers still in full bloom, lots of yellow flowers in particular, and some leaves are on the ground. It's pretty here now, and the weather is warm some days and cool on other days, just lovely!

Long time no blog!

Local Masons
Current mood: indifferent


A local Syracuse company named Rock On that does brick/stone work has a slogan on the side of their truck that says, "Are you stoned yet?"....

How funny is that? Eric saw this the other day on the road and told me about it.

Things are fine here. I have a four day weekend off, from Friday to Sunday. I have to say, floor nursing is some serious running around like crazy kinda work, but I do manage to get some cool days off. I don't have any serious plans, just some housework, some rest, some having the neighbor kids over for dinner...

I am off to go and watch some TV with Sophia...down time together is good.

School Days!

Quiet, Peace and Quiet...
Current mood: mellow

TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! The kids are outta the house!! AND Eric and I are both off of work today....aside from the occasional cat chasing another cat or our puppy Loki creating some chaos, all is quiet and peaceful here in our house. It's cool out today, enough to open the windows, but certainly not cold out. We even had lunch ALONE together at a Chinese buffet. Oh, the things I took for granted before I had children. Not that I'd change a thing about my life, and my kids really are wonderful, but a little time away from each other is nice. Tomorrow Eric and I may go see 'Superbad' at the Carousel Mall. Aaaah, feelin good.

Fall Colors

Fall Colors!
Current mood: happy

We are just starting to see color changes in the leaves on the trees here in upstate New York; it's going to be really interesting and beautiful for us to see fall! I actually scanned the leaf/photo that is my main photo. Today was pretty much a home day for all of us. The girls and I grocery shopped and Eric worked. It'll help me feel rested for my work week Monday-Friday this week. Not much else to tell. Oh, our windows are open again, and we are enjoying not having the A/C on. High today here in N. Syracuse: 74. Low: 55, just lovely.

(I do know that the temps will be increasingly colder, and my blogs may sound increasingly desperate...hmmmm...it'll be interesting)...

The Fair!!

The New York State Fair
Current mood: content
Category: Travel and Places

Today my two daughters and I went to the New York State Fair. We had to leave Eric behind since he was working, I work all next week, etc. Work sometimes gets in the way of the four of us doing things together, but such is life. The New York State Fair is held in Solvay, which is super close to where we live. I think it took us ten minutes to get there, which was great. We found the fair easily off of Route 81, then 690 West. The Fair was Huge!! It was really the biggest fair I've ever been to. I haven't seen that many food vendors anywhere. We had a rack of ribs from the Dinosaur BBQ stand-which were delish. We had salt potatoes, too, which are a local thing. We ran into someone I know from work from the education dept, which was cool. I said hi to her, introduced my girls, talked for a sec. My job is going well, by the way, still in an orientation since I have less than a year's nursing experience, so I'll do patient care next week. Anyway, the fair...it was sooooooo HOT today, a high of 89, I think, and it felt like it, but we had a great time. The girls rode some rides, the three of us rode the ferris wheel together, and I even got on the Tilt-a-Whirl with the girls, even though I no longer enjoy fast/scary rides. The girls begged me to ride with them. I really did enjoy it-we laughed and screamed. Sophia said, "Mom, you're a kid again..." It was one of those 'moments' I think I'll remember forever. Ok, gotta run right now. It is dinner time at our house. I'll write again later.

Loki

Loki is the pup's name: for the norse god of mischief/fire/chaos; sort of a borderline personality, sometimes good and sometimes evil. He is also a gift-giver: but the gifts he gives are things he has stolen...all of this is depending on which myth you're reading. I totally and completely stole this name from one of my brother's dogs...Great name, James! Thanks for letting me rip it off of ya.

(?) Loki (?)

A Puppy!
Current mood: drained

Got a puppy today!! A cairn terrier, 16 week old male. We are still deciding on a name, but we think it's going to be Loki...pictures to follow soon. A cairn terrier is the dog used in the Wizard of Oz, Toto. I'm totally tired, & am starting a new job tomorrow, too. All's well, tho, just need a leetle sleep. Blog more another day...

Wild Berries!

A copy of myspace blog:

Wild Berries!!
Current mood: exhausted


Today really was an exceptional 'family' day. The four of us went to Pratt's Falls, which is about 20 minutes from us, near the city of Pompey. The drive out to where the falls are is really gorgeous. It is more of a rural area, and we saw some farms and dairies, lots of rolling hills. Everything is still a beautiful summertime lush green up here.

At Pratt's Falls, we saw a waterfall and did some hiking on trails, then had to break for lunch (no, of course we didn't pack a picnic, this would have taken some planning). We ended up having lunch at Ann's Country Store in the town (or village) of Fabius, closeby. This small country store had a little of everything: groceries, a deli, and even an antique store in the back, where I found two small hot air balloon pictures, which I love to collect, one an acrylic and the other a watercolor. I asked the woman who rung us up if she was Ann (I'm a dork!); she kindly pointed across the store to Ann's daughter and said that she's the owner now. I paid a little more for the two framed paintings than I really wanted to, but I'm glad now I have them.

After the store, we went on to Highland Forest, another county park. Here we really settled in to hiking. The four us us walked up and down trails and talked and laughed for quite some time. Alissa and I paired off, and Sophie and Eric walked up ahead of us. Alissa and I kept picking up little stones, round ones and heart-shaped ones.

The perfect little round stones remind me of what my Grandmother always called 'worry stones': they're perfectly round or oval shaped and smooth, they're small, pocket sized, and you keep them in your pocket, and when you're worried, you rub your fingers on them. Not that I ever actually keep a worry stone in my pocket, but I always think of my Grandmother's story when I see flat round little stones like the ones we found today. The heart shaped stones were just a little something different, and Alissa and I liked them. I told her the worry stone story; maybe she'll remember me and my Gram and the little story of worry stones when she's hiking or at the beach when she is much, much older. Who knows.

After we decided that the 3.5 mile total hike would be the one we'd do, we decided to start to make our way back. On this trail, we found blackberries and raspberries growing alongside the trail. At first, we though we would have to go far off the trail to get at them, then discovered there were practically zillions of wild blackberries growing along this sunny patch of trail. The raspberries were there, growing close to the ground, and just here and there, but wonderful all the same. Alissa and I drove Eric and Soph nuts prolonging the hike and delaying us getting back to the car. We were apparently on a mission to get as many blackberries and raspberries as we could-eating every single one of them as we picked them and walked and waved at Eric just to go on ahead. We finally got back to our car, drove through rolling hills and rural areas, stopped again at Ann's for a soda, then made our way back to North Syracuse and home.

79

So, it's been a while since I've written on blogspot. I have been on myspace, and that website is just plain addicting. I have six days now until I start work full-time. It'll be good to be getting paychecks again. Today is just beautiful outside, though I haven't managed to get changed out of my pj's. I'm doing house stuff, cleaning and putting things away and laundry and such. And signing into myspace at times. I managed to call my friend Gula and talk to her a while. She and her family live in Coconut Creek, which is close to where we used to live in Pompano. Today's high is 79, which is just wonderful. Our windows are open and there's a nice breeze blowing through the house. Eric and Sophia are going off to a park somewhere, and Alissa is hanging out at home hoping I will take her to the mall or something, even though I've told her that's not gonna happen. Maybe I will watch a movie with her on the on-demand TV feature. It is just a home-kinda day. Oh, good, Alissa is going to go with Eric and Soph to a park. I should go. But I will stay home...I feel like I have such limited time left to hang out at home, now that I will be starting work next week. Yeah, a home day is just the thing for me today.

Salespeople will call

So I am cheating on blogspot lately. I have been myspacing a bit. I have two friends currently who are big into myspace, so I am trying to reconnect with the one friend, and continue the reconnect with the other friend. I have gotten one sales type of person who wanted to be "my friend" and another mystery person whose profile I could not read trying to be "my friend". Grr. A little annoying, but other than those two, myspace has been interesting. Hmmm. So I blog on myspace now, too. I guess once I start work on Aug 20th some of this will have to go by the wayside. Ha. I will be so much busier then.

I brought my niece to Cortland this evening, where her father was waiting for her. Nice of him to meet me halfway. We all really had a nice time with my 13 year old niece. Tomorrow I drive to Maryland to see my sister. My kids are really excited about that, seeing Aunt Niki and their cousins. I love to get snowballs at the Ice Shack, close to my sis's house, too. Yum! It is awesome that my sis is now just a day drive away-when we lived in Florida, it was a definite two day drive.

Ok, I simply MUST go and get some sleep. It is after ten, I have been getting to bed too late these days.

Hairspray, Nestico's, Etc...

Today my niece Sunni is with us. She and Alissa, especially, are getting along great-lots of giggling and playing with lip gloss and other make up items going on! Right now my daughter Sophia is standing here asking me what I am doing and reading every little thing I write. "Know what's embarrassing about you...?" I can think of many things. Ha. She goes on to say, "You hang my undies on the clothesline." Whew. Dodged that bullet. I really wasn't sure what was going to come out of her mouth. Oh, my-it is nearly 10PM and I gotta get some sleep soon. I have already asked/told the girls about the need for going to bed much earlier, all of us. I did all right today energy-wise, but I know I was about an hour shy of the sleep I need to function well. We ended up going to The Carousel Mall and seeing the movie Hairspray. It was pretty darned good, and the girls thought so, too-the ages of my girl companions today: 13, 11, and 7. I either was smiling or outright laughing the entire movie, and the girls were, too. We came home after that and went to an Italian restaurant within walking distance of our house, and yes, we walked to it-we had a great coupon "50% off Mondays", and I gotta tell you, the food was excellent, too. I simply gotta run now. Clothes to fold, kids to rope in, etc. Bye for now. All's well in Syracuse.

Ribs

Today Eric is making a big batch of ribs and we are having my stepsis and her family over. We've totally drained and refilled the hot tub, put horseshoes and a badminton net up in the backyard, and put all but one of our packing boxes away. That last box! We gotta get the stuff out of the last box. The silliest thing is it's a box that's only about a third of the way full. Oh, whatever. The other night we played badminton, the four of us, for a while and had a great time, so maybe we'll have fun with a whole bunch of people playing the backyard games. It should be a really nice day, too, since the scorching heat wave seems to have subsided for now. It went down to about 55 last night, which is just wonderful. High of 84 today. Ok, now I am off to do some sweeping and bed-making, just a bit to make the place look nicer. First coffee, breakfast, and coupon clipping, gotta run. Bye for now.

Not Much Going On Today...

After yesterday's busy-ness we are staying close to home today. Alissa and I made baked ziti early in the AM, and it turned out really good. Later, the girls and I dragged bags of cans and plastic bottles to Wegman's to get five cents each per can or bottle. We ended up with around five dollars-would definitely pick up a fiver if I saw it on the ground, so I will continue bringing cans and bottles to Wegmans for a nickel a piece. Anyway, not much going on here. I just ordered HBO, though I know it's costly...but it comes with HBO on Demand-I just love that on demand feature of watching shows when you want, not just when they are scheduled to be on, and you can pause the shows, too. We watched a couple of Bogey and Bacall movies with the free movies on demand feature on cable recently (The Big Sleep and Dark Passage-excellent movies). Gonna travel on Wednesday down to Maryland to see my sis and her family. It'll be fun. That's about all I have to say for myself today.

Banner Day

Today started off relatively quietly, then we managed to do a whole bunch of stuff! The girls are now registered for school-we finally stopped procrastinating and Eric helped by printing up a list of the stuff off the internet that we needed to have in hand to register them. All told, it took me 20 minutes to register those girls for school. Not bad. I then went shopping a little with just me and Alis, and we found some cool stuff (sweaters & tee shirts for the girls, and a Banana Republic leather purse for me!) at the local consignment shop. We went home, then the four of us went to the Carousel Mall and saw "The Simpson's Movie", which we all enjoyed. It was a good movie-pretty much like an extended show of the Simpsons, their usual irreverent stuff. After that the girls got their hair cut AND new bookbags for school at JCPenney. I am getting tired as I write this-it really was pretty much a mad dash from one thing to the next after a while. We didn't stop there. We went to Heid's, that awesome hot dog joint I blogged about previously. After that we picked up our snowblower we ordered a week or so ago from Ace Hardware. As a finale, we had ice cream at The Big Dip. Now we're home and wiped out, but happy. Zzzzzz...

The Beach

Today we went to Jamesville Beach, the four of us. Not the beach as in the ocean and sand, the type of beach we were used to in Florida, but the beach as in the lake and sand. We had a good time, though I was the only one who wouldn't go fully in the water. It was a little cold for me, and the icky stuff at the bottom of the lake kind of creeped me out, and I couldn't get my shoulders in since I was cold, and now that I think about it, I was really being a wimp. As we left, I saw a thermometer-umm 90 degrees! Next time I will go in for real. I took pictures on the throwaway camera, and the scenes were quite beautiful. we're definitely going back to Jamesville Beach, and we'll bring a picnic next time. Across the lake, we could see houses on the hilltops, along with many lakeside homes. There were plenty of trees close to the shore and throughout the park, and it was very nice in the shade, a luxury we often didn't have in Florida. It's just hot this time of year (about eight months of the year) where we used to live. Period.

IT'S HOT HERE TODAY!!

AAack! It's hot here! Omigod, what am I gonna do? Kiddin. It is going to be a low of 59, so soon it will cool off this evening. It is almost six now, high of 86 today-we didn't turn our air on out of sheer stubbornness, the girls must think we've lost our minds. We're turning into big ole cheapskates now. Ha. It didn't really start to feel hot to me until about two. It is definitely different here than what we were used to in Florida. Don't worry, we talked about it, and we won't let ourselves sweat to death, we are going to turn the air on as soon as we wake up tomorrow, since the next few days the heat wave is expected to continue. Thursday the high is like 95!

Tonight we're grilling out. Hoffman's hot dogs are big around here, we have some of those, along with some other sides. Heid's, a famous hot dog joint around here, serves that kind of hot dog. Heid's is great...and they have the very best, super-duper crunchiest onion rings I've ever tasted. I'm absolutely serious! Ever!

Eric mowed the lawn and it looks really nice. I will go and get my pictures from Rite-Aid tomorrow and hopefully will have some good ones to scan and post. I bought the greatest little clear glass cheese plate today from St. Vincent De Paul's Mission thrift store. I have to confess I've bought quite a few little things there, rather than having to pay full price for lots and lots of things we need. I also found a little stained glass hanging to put in one of my windows, and a bowl to put water outside the screen door for Pepper, our dog, to have a drink now and then while she is hanging out in the back yard.

Okay, bye for now. Time to go and spend time with the family.

Rambling On

Ok, it's late in the afternoon on Monday, and now we're relaxing. The kids have been playing in the backyard for hours now. It's good for them. Our boxes are still not all unpacked, but we'll get to them. I put more pictures up on the walls and Eric set up a composter in the back yard today. Yard waste is absolutely banned from the garbage! This is good, it's better for the environment, but we had to adjust. As I've mentioned before, people around here take recycling much more seriously than what we were used to. I brought a big bag of aluminum cans to Wegman's and got five cents each for them. We had breakfast at Denny's this morning, the four of us. It was nice to sit together, talk about things, etc. We've been much better about doing that at dinner time, too. In our condo, we'd gotten rid of the dinner table due to space issues, so we're liking having a dinner table again. The party in Whitney Point yesterday went well. The girls really enjoyed being around other kids, I think, and are looking forward also to starting school and really beginning to meet more people and making more friends. I heard Sophie whisper to Alissa in the backseat on the way home from Jessica's, "Hey Alissa, did you make any new friends?" We met our neighbors who live in back of us, seem like a really nice family-two kids, one boy around Alissa's age and a girl, an almost-grown-up teenager. I'm trying to savor my last few days of being "off of work"-I start work August 20th. Anyway, bye for now.

Whitney Point, NY

Today we're driving down to Whitney Point, NY to Jessica's (my stepsis) for a birthday pool party for two of her children. The drive is something we're not used to yet-it's got lots of mountains, it is really quite beautiful. At one point, close to Jessica's house, we feel like we are going straight up, then straight down a mountain. We felt the same way when we were driving to Sterling, NY for the Renaissance Fair, which was awesome, by the way. I'll have to take pictures one of these days. We did get a cell phone picture of the girls riding a camel (yes! a camel!) at the Ren-Fest. Our digital camera has been not working, or out of batteries, or lost, or something. There's been a little more disorganization than usual since the move. I've got another throw-away camera for today. I've got two throw away cameras being developed at Rite-Aid. I cannot put pictures of the inside of my house up yet, partly because of the camera situation, and partly because the place doesn't really have that "put together" look. Yeesh. Oh, today we put up a hummingbird feeder! The other day when the usual flock of birds was eating away at the seed we put out in a feeder, a lone hummingbird hovered, discovered no nectar, then left. One of the types of birds that visits our feeder is a cardinal-lovely, lovely bird. There are many other kinds...we have yet to figure out what they are. Ok, must go now and finish getting ready for the b-day party.

Snowthrower in July!

Got the snowthrower-5.5 HP, brand new, but in winter we will be happy we did this, I am sure. Ended up ordering it online with Ace hardware instead of buying the used one Eric set out this AM to look at. The thing was rusty, and had an asking price of over 200.00. We opted for the comfort of a warranty; there are a few things one shouldn't be cheap about, and around here, a snowblower is one of 'em. Today I went shopping with my kids in tow again. Got more stuff at K-Mart for the house, a couple of pictures, scatter rugs for the girls rooms, and at this moment I cannot remember what else. We went to lunch at New Ling Ling Chinese Buffet, which is close to our house, and very delish-and kinda cheap at 17.01 for the three of us including our drinks. Then we stopped at a consignment shop right here in town and cleaned up! Awesome sweaters, full length, for Alissa, along with some light jackets and several cute tee-shirts, including ones by Aeropostale, Guess, and Hollister! I didn't buy them, but I found a couple of Coach bags (one large white, one small brown)! Wow! The shop owner was really nice, and had very positive things to say about living in Syracuse. She is another person who states she has lived here her whole life and wouldn't live anywhere else. It was nice to hear. Oh, our air conditioner is still on today, it has been for two days now, so it definitely does get hot here. Well, off to take care of dinner stuff, do some cleaning, etc, you know the drill for those Moms out there.

Snowblower

Eric just left to go and look at a used snowblower. We've read and been told this is very necessary for up here. I'll blog later, gotta have my coffee now. I was up pretty late watching on-demand videos on the TV...

PJ's & Rainy Days

Today I stayed in my pj's way too long. I got dressed and went out to get a haircut just on principle. On what principle, I am not sure, but I ended up just a few streets down from my house, at house converted to a salon, called Mercedes Salon and Day Spa. A charming old house, probably built anywhere from 1900 to 1940...$23 for a wet cut, not bad, and a young woman named Amber cut my hair. I know she's a good one, she has my niece's name. Hi Amber, if your Mom is having you read my blog!! Love you! Anyway, Amber my hairdresser was interested in why on earth we'd move from Florida to upstate, NY. She's an upstate NY native, and as I meet more people here, I am finding many people have lived in this area their whole lives. I listed a few things, but the one thing that was really memorable and shocking to Amber was the fact that I could not deliver cupcakes to my daughter at her school in Pompano Beach, since the school was on lock-down that day due to a shooting down the street from the school. I also stated how much quieter the area is than what I am used to. After the hair, it was on to Wegman's, which I swear is just a little nicer than Publix. All the while it was raining, thus my title of this blog, but a soft rain, so not too bad. Not much happened at Wegman's, but I am enjoying the differences between here and Florida, that's all. I like that there generally aren't long lines anywhere here, people tend to be friendlier than I am used to, and I always get ID'd buying beer at Wegman's. Ha. Maybe that is why I really like Wegman's. Hmmm.

Success at the DMV and the Mall!!

Now both our cars are registered in NY!! My poor kids had to sit with me at the DMV and be bored silly, but it's done. Just have to get both cars inspected now at a local shop within ten days and that ordeal will be done for a year. We then went to the Carousel Mall (see the scanned postcard to the right) and had a nice lunch at Johnny Rockets. I asked our waitress, and yes, this is the same Johnny Rockets that Leo Dicaprio had a meal at not long ago-it was in the papers here, quite a bit deal. He was apparently really quiet, low-key, only recognized by one staff member at Johnny Rockets. Oh, and speaking of famous people, Richard Gere went to North Syracuse high school, I've been told. Homer Gere, Rich's Dad, still lives here and delivers meals-on-wheels, too! Maybe I'll get to meet him sometime. Anyway, the girls and I shopped away. I was surprised when Alissa didn't go for it when I offered to buy her a Hollister t-shirt. I think she didn't think it was a good value, or didn't care about the label or what. She ended up with three shirts from Old Navy for the same price of that Hollister shirt. Maybe she was as annoyed with the terribly loud music in that Hollister store, too. All right, the A/C vent, which is on the floor, is turning my feet to ice. Gotta go for now.

Mall, DMV

Today the girls and I (My daughters Sophia, Alissa, and me) are going to the Carousel Mall. There is an actual carousel in this mall. Sophia has been asking every day now for about a week when we are finally going to go to this mall. I went to this mall when I was up here in May house-hunting. It is a pretty big place, though I didn't see the carousel somehow. We'll have to find it today...I'll blog about it later. Today's high is 89, apparently, and I am a bit warm. May have to put the A/C on today. We shall see. Ok, off to the mall now. Grr-stopping by the DMV first to try and work on the registration of my cars in NY, which is turning out to be quite a pain.

High of 86 today?

I am sure I will be writing in the winter-time, shivering away and complaining I'm cold, but today's high here is 86, with a low tonight of 64. Yes, for my Florida friends, 64!!! That high of 86 may or may not happen, and if it does, it will likely be for just a few minutes late in the afternoon. My windows are still open in the house!! I am just not used to this...it's wonderful. It's funny-the newscasters here hesitate to say when/if a high temperature will be reached. One the other day said, "I'm not promising anything, but it may get into the nineties next week, we'll have to see." He sounded pretty skeptical. Sorry to go on and on about the lovely summer, but it is just darned nice not suffering away in the heat in South Florida. Remind me in February, after I've been snowed on/in a buncha times, how much I loved the summer here in Central NY. Onto another subject, my street I live on is quiet, and we've had to buy nightlights, since it actually gets really dark here at night. We don't have the light pollution, as I've taken to calling it, that we had when we lived in S Florida. Recycling is another thing that's different, people seem to take it more seriously here than where I've lived in Florida. Well, enough for today, I still have boxes lingering around that must be unpacked or, at the very least, shoved down in the basement.

Cool Days In July!

Hey-it's cool in July here! I am loving it. The girls and Eric are happy, too. Our dog, Pepper, is adjusting to having her own space, the backyard and the deck, to root around in and chase squirrels and birds, and to possibly hunt bunnies. Yes, we see plenty of little cottontail bunnies here! They're terribly cute, chasing each other around in people's yards, including ours. There is a groundhog or hedgehog or whatever-you-call-those-things, who lives across the street in a neighbor's front yard. This thing blatantly walks out in the yard, looks and digs around, then goes back to his hole-it's like he is their dog or something. Pretty funny. Today I am going to try and make some more progress on registering our cars in NY, which has really turned out to be a pain!!!! Other than that, all is well, the weather is nice, and we're all adjusting well to our house and neighborhood.

We're Here In New York!!

We made it to New York, safe and sound. All went well, except for a one day delay in the close of our home, but we closed and moved in on July 12. Right now I am blogging from the public library, since our internet is going to be turned on July 25. Today we went to the Great Northern Mall-once construction is fininshed it is supposed to be the 4th largest mall in the U.S. Wow-who knew? So this small-town place has some big-town features. I'll blog more later about the goings on with all of us. The girls are happy to have their own rooms! Ok, that is it for today.

Bye, Florida!!

Ok, this will be my last blog for a while. I am going to miss being on the internet for a few days while we are on the road. Our 4th of July was rained out after all. We did go and have dinner with my friend Gula and her family. They're from Uzbekistan originally, and speak Russian and Uzbek primarily, though they're learning English. Their daughters really have a good command of the English language already. Anyway, we are boxing up as much stuff as possible and cleaning away - we pick up our 22 foot truck tomorrow. We plan to start our drive on Saturday, July 7- that way we can spend an extra day at "Granny's"-Eric's parents. It will be good to spend the extra day with family. It should also make us more rested. I hope all goes well. I am nervous and excited about the big move. I bought a throw-away camera to take pictures along the way, so one day before long I can post some pictures of the adventures. I am looking forward to seeing the view from the PA/NY state line again-just breathtaking. Well, bye for now.

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July, New Year's Eve, and Christmas are my favorite holidays. We'll go tonight and see the fireworks at the beach here in Pompano with a friend of mine and her family. For the first year in I cannot remember how many years, I tried to get out of the trek to the beach (the crowds, the HEAT, the inconsiderates who sit three blankets over from us lighting fireworks on the crowded beach) to watch the fireworks, but Sophia, my seven year old, would have none of that talk from me. She is right, despite the crowds, the heat, the inconsiderates, I'd be sad if we didn't go...

So, Happy 4th of July!! Be safe!

On another subject, I finally got a great night's sleep last night. No trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, etc. Aaah. Nice. I wonder what else we will do today. We usually have a nice dinner 'out' for the 4th, the 4 of us as a family. Maybe we'll go to Flanigan's. That's a place I will miss. It's just a bar (with a family seating section, too), really, but with a nautical decor, and never had bad food there. It is also a restaurant/bar I used to go to when I was much younger, my early 20's and going to school, working away like a dog at Publix. I suppose the connection with my younger days is a large part of the attraction to Flanigan's for me.

Rambling. Omy-I had a good cry about moving away last night! It happened right after I read the comments from my friend Melissa on my blogs. Awww, I am sad to be leaving Florida, too, because of Melissa and other friends, and I'll also be leaving my Grandmother and brother in Florida. By the way, several family members, including myself, are trying to get my Grandmother to come and live with them. She's not budging so far! Anyway, Florida has been my home for almost 37 years-I suppose that cry has been building up for a while.

All crying aside, I know we are making the right decision to move-we'll actually be closer to many more relatives than we are now. My sis in Maryland, my Mom and Aunt and Uncle in Indy, my step-sis in Binghamton (45 mins away, or so!), a cousin in DC, aunts and uncles in PA, you get the idea.

I know it may sound like we picked Syracuse out of a hat, basically. The truth is, we picked Syracuse, NY based on lots of internet research on the area. Quality of life, affordable living, good schools, great place to raise a family, and less crowding/traffic/congestion due to it being a much less populated area than what we are used to made us pick Syracuse. Oh-also, the crime rate in the Syracuse area is a fraction of what it is here, per capita. The thought of how likely myself or anyone in my family is to be a victim of violent crime here in S Florida is terrifying to me. I could dig up some statistics, but that may bore ya more than this blog. Oh, and yes, we know about the snow. I'm sure I'll be writing some great blogs about driving and living with snow.

Today may be my last chance to blog for a while. Tomorrow, we'll be turning in the power cord and modem for the cable connection we are using, then Friday we pick up our truck for the big move. Sunday we start day one of our drive to NY. Bye for now!!

Tryin' to Relax

Ok, so I am trying to relax a bit, chill, not worry so much about the close date. Our attorney reassured me again yesterday that all looks good for the July 11th close date of our home in NY. Just five more days before we begin the drive to NY. We plan to split it up, the drive, into three days of driving, which I am not sure about. Will it just lengthen the agony if the kids and pets act up, or will it really break up the trip and make it more manageable and allow us enough rest? We shall see. We're doing the three day thing on the theory that it will allow for proper rest. On that note, I will go now and have a nap. Blog ya later.

The Cheesecake Factory

Had a nice lunch with a friend at the Cheesecake Factory today. Caught up on things with my friend, exchanged pictures, etc. Sophia and Alissa came along, and we walked around in the mall afterwards looking mostly at shoes. I love shoes, and I've passed this fascination along to my girls. Got a Ron Jon Surf Shop shirt for Alissa and a little tin sign we can hang in our new house that says 'Ron Jon Blvd'. I hope we won't miss the beach too much. I've lived in Florida my whole life, oh, and come to think of it, my kids are natives, too. I gotta say, though, the number of times I've been to the beach in the last five years could probably be counted on one hand. Stream of consciousness...OMIGOD-I DON'T HAVE A CLOSE DATE SET IN STONE YET FOR THE HOUSE WE ARE BUYING IN NY!! Our attorney, yes, attorney-closings of properties in NY are handled by attorneys, told me in an e-mail that he sees no problems with the close date being on July 11. I think the attorney is tired of me asking if the date is set yet. I slept poorly again last night. I really hate things being so unsettled. Hopefully all will go well and we will close on July 11 and two weeks from now I will be blogging from my home in NY, and I can just settle down. Spaz. Ok, better go now, gotta run to Publix and get some beer so we can have our neighbor over and we can talk and have a few too many and say our good-byes.

Medicine

I'm thinking of how my husband Eric can make me laugh, I am talking tears streaming down my face, ribs hurtin' kind of laughing at times, something we should all do more, but that is a lecture for another day, and how he and I had a funny conversation about a blog topic yesterday. I think I just committed some kind of grammatical error crime with that previous sentence. Geez. Good thing there aren't grammar police living here in my house.

Anyway, Eric really is a much better writer than I am-he's got such a wicked sense of humor, a great knowledge of history, etc, etc, a master's degree in English, and really should just be doing our family blog, or, as I have told him many times, writing "the next great American novel." Ha, no pressure there! Don't be embarrassed, Eric, if you are reading this!

In any case, I will try and relate the conversation. It stems back to about five days ago, when I went shopping. I bought many things, among the items were refrigerator dough crescent rolls and a package of hot dogs. I came home, put them in the fridge, and stated that the hot dogs and crescent rolls were for pigs-in-a-blanket, just like my Grandmother used to make, and I was going to make them soon, to please not touch the crescent rolls or hot dogs, save them, save them, because I simply must make pigs-in-a-blanket, and I will, I will, and soon.

There the hot dogs and the crescent rolls sat, in the fridge, for several days until I was left to my own devices one morning when Eric got up early and took the girls somewhere like a park or something, as he often does nowadays while we are living this semi-vacation sort of existence. I got up nice and late like I like to, yawned and stretched a bit, and had my coffee, then started looking around for some breakfast. Well, I cooked the crescent rolls, which really ended up looking like blobs, then ate half of them slathered in butter, one after the other, standing in the kitchen. Ugh. Insert self-loathing here.

I am just doing a write down of whatever comes to mind, the stream-of-consciousness-thing that Robin talked about a bit in her blog. I am now thinking of you, Melissa, and your friends. I am a fat blogger. I don't self-loathe too much, or I really try as hard as I can not to, and I won't put my weight on my website. I won't diet and weigh in this Wednesday, because likely by the day after tomorrow I will rationalize some reason that I am not on a diet. I am the world's worst dieter. Another story, another day. I did not like to read you beating up on yourself, though, Missy Melissa. You have three beautiful kids, a lovely life, too. Oh, and I think your picture is great-you look great!

Anyway, Silly joke: Why did the woman wear a helmet to the dinner table?
--Because she was on a crash diet. I do wish you luck on your diet/healthy eating. I'm just worse weight-wise when I am paying too much attention to my eating.

Anyway, on with my blah-blah-blogging.

When Eric came home with the girls a little later that morning, he and I talked about blogging, about how I went berzerk and cooked the crescent rolls and then ate half of them, standing in the kitchen, what a humorous/hideous scene it was (after so many years of marriage, I really don't keep enough secrets from my husband, I swear I gotta work on that one). Eric said something like, "Now that is your story you could blog about. You should talk about how you were going to make pigs in a blanket, but instead you just made blankets, and now the blankets are in the pig." It got me really laughing at myself, and now I think the story is not so funny as I remember it in my head. Guess you had to be there. Ha.

I titled this blog 'Medicine' because of the reference to Laughter being the best medicine. Anyway, I should have had a separate piece of paper off to the side here to take note of how many times I was interrupted by my children while I was trying to write this blog. Grrr. I think it was no less than ten times, and all my Sophia, whom I think Alissa sends as the messenger.

I felt like I had so much more to say in this blog today. I'm writing and writing with the assumption that my friends and sister will just read it simply to hear what is going on in my head at times. It can be a scary place in there, with the cobwebs and all, and, well-lately with the worrying about the move and when is my close date, and will the closing happen smoothly, my not sleeping too well of late, etc, my brain is on overload with neurotic worryings. I have to say, all in all, though, all is well. I really can't complain. Ok, bye for now.

Love to all.

Last day of June 2007

I can hardly believe today is the last day of June and tomorrow will be July 1. Where does the time go? I'm about to have my coffee. I don't think I can function without my coffee. I can hear my husband channel surfing in the other room. He and the girls are going out for a bit, and I should have some quiet time at home, alone. Well, not home, not our home. Some friends of ours who live next door to us-in apt 102, have allowed us to move us and our stuff into their apartment, since they are in New Jersey much of the year. We are here until our house in New York closes. "So, where do you think we might go?"-I can hear Sophia saying in the other room. They'll go to Home Depot or something like that. Maybe they'll go to a park or something. I feel pretty sideways today-I haven't slept well this week. I seem to be dealing well with the move and all that extra stuff that comes with it (like living the way we are, with our stuff crammed on top of another apartment full of stuff), then I have some nights where I cannot fall asleep, then wake up early. I cannot really complain. Our condo sold, we didn't have any problems with the buyer or anything. We've found a lovely home in Syracuse. It's just that feeling of being unsettled, I guess. I often say, "Well, this time next month, we should be in our new house...." I've looked at the temps in Syracuse for this week several times....70's during the day, 50's at night. Those are my favorite temps here in Florida in January, IF we get a cold spell. Should be in the 80's and plenty humid today. Well, I will go now and get that cup of coffee. I'll blog more later.

Just Before Bedtime

It's just before bedtime for my kids, so this'll be a short first blog. Alis and Soph, ages 11 and 7, are now playing a board game with their Dad in the other room. We're in the middle of a big move right now. The girls just helped me pack up a huge box of clothes we are not using too much right now, but we will need in New York. Yup, we're moving far away from Pompano Beach, FL. It's time for a change...