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...