Summer 2008

I'll write more later, but I have to say, summer up here is beautiful. It is a very different kind of heat than we were used to in Florida, it doesn't 'get in the way'. A friend described the heat in Florida as being similar to 'living inside someone's mouth', kinda yucky reference, but true. I have to admit the pools up here have so far been way too cold for me, as are the lakes that we swim in (no ocean swimming for us nowadays, not that we went to the beach all that much in Florida). Rambling. More later.

Spring

So, it is May 19. I don't blog very much. Lots going on here, though. Alissa is playing soccer now. Her team is undefeated...three games, three wins. She seems to enjoy soccer; she is about the only kid who hasn't played before, so she is learning.

I actually got a little sunburn while Eric and I watched Alissa's game on Saturday. It was still pretty cool out (probably no higher than 65), but the sun was shining sooo bright and the skies looked like they were clear for miles. Anyway, just gorgeous. What a direct contrast from the South Florida heat we were used to. Heard the temp in S FL was 93 the other day. I really don't miss that.

Sophia is done with her Irish Step Dance class for now, I am sure she'll want to do that again next year. Second grade is going well for her and she and Alissa both have made a lot of friends and have gone to lots of birthday parties. Sophia seemed to like the snow and cold more than Alissa. Alissa told me she liked the snow, but would like it to not be so cold. She also has told me that the 'kids up here are happier, nicer, than in Florida'. I thought that was an interesting statement from a 6th grader.

I work nights now and it's interesting. I may never go back to working a 'normal' 9-5 schedule again. This wacky schedule allows for having stretches of time off and for me to be there for plays, games, etc. It also demands that I sleep during the day quite often, which Eric has pointed out may be part of the reason I like it so much. Maybe I feel like I am getting away with something. Ha.

I am still learning lots with my nursing career, too. I am still working in Oncology, which is the fancy word for cancer. Sad, but I have met some of the coolest people that I otherwise probably wouldn't have met. I can't mention names, but I am thinking right now of a particular lady who passed away recently that I'd really gotten very attached to. I told her while she was dying that if I lived to be a hundred years old I'd never forget her. At that point in her dying process, she was hardly ever opening her eyes. She never lost her dignity, the woman I am writing about. Even in her very last days and hours, she seemed to be trying to smile when people came in and talked to her.

I won't continue on about my work experiences; they are really moving experiences at times, but I know they're so sad and even can freak people out when I talk about them. All right, had a good cry just now. Sheesh. Blog later (probably in several months again!!).

Springtime!

High of about 60 today...
Oh my-today was a gorgeous day...high of about sixty and it was clear, beautiful, blue, and with very sunny skies. It seemed like everyone was out. The Big Dip, the ice cream place on the corner, is now open and had lots of people waiting in line to get their awesome treats. People were out washing cars, walking dogs, mowing lawns (there really isn't grass to mow yet, but it was so freakin' awesome out I don’t blame the guy I saw doing that), riding motorcycles, grillin out, and just lookin' happy overall. The seasons are just so beautiful to see up here. It's about 45 out now, at almost midnite...perfect sleeping weather. Gnite!!!

Alissa will be 12 on Sunday!

Gawd, my first baby will be 12 on Sunday. We're having a little party for her here at the house. She is pretty excited, I think. I guess I'll get her a day of shopping with Mommy. It'll be fun...she and I like to go up and down the aisles of stores and in the different departments of department stores looking at stuff and imagining how this and that would look, just kind of mosey around stores.

On a sadder note, we had our first pet death this past week...Our hamster Pumpkin passed away...she lived a long life for a hamster-we had her for over a year and a half. Sigh.

We're due to have another winter storm....today it was warm, though-in the 50's. Lots of melting piles of snow! Well, not much else to tell...I am working nights now and adjusting. It is one AM now and I am trying to stay up a bit late on a day off so I will rest more during the day tomorrow. I work 7P-7A tomorrow...

Checking in...

Okay, so now I am just awful about updating my blogs. Life is busy nowadays, but I have to say overall things are really going well. We have had about 83 or so inches of snow here so far, and much of that was in December. We've had an unusually mild January and February as far as snow goes, according to the records. Anyway, Eric, the kids and I drove out today with the two puppies...Loki and Thor, who are now each about ten months old. We drove around Oneida Lake and stopped at a couple of parks so we could check out the iced-over lake. Oneida Lake was covered with about a foot of ice, according to one of the fisherman on that lake. Today's high was about 36, and it was clear and sunny out...just gorgeous, really. We're all adjusting well to the snow and cold. Syracuse, as I have said before, is pretty organized about clearing the roads when we get a good snow. I felt like I had so much more to say when I sat down to write this blog, but that is about it for now. I swear I will get better about writing more blogs...

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.