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!!