Bye 2008!!!

I, for one, am quite happy to see this year go away. Aside from the fantastic trip to Disney we got to take in September, this year was not kind to us. At all. Only God knows what 2009 will bring, but I am oh so hopefull that it will be better! In some ways, it really cannot get any worse.

And, as I write this, it is snowing again. Messing up our plans for the day. SO sick of winter plans hinging on whether or not you can get out!!! DH nearly took a header yesterday just trying to bring some wood in for the stove. The last thing we need is him laid up and unable to work. Two weeks of the flu last month were bad enough!

I wish I were more hopeful as I look ahead to '09. I guess two years of being mentally and emotionally battered with "almost"-s has taken its toll on me. I just can't get excited about any of it anymore. I just want out. I need to turn that corner in my life and move on to the next thing.

On that note, I think I'll spend today scrapbooking more pictures from our Disney trip and listening to park music. It's the next best thing to being there!

New Year's Resolutions!

So I'm wondering....can you actually make "resolutions" that you have no control over the outcome?! I mean, we all resolve to lose weight in the new year. For the most part, the success or fail of that is 100% in our hands. But I'd like to resolve to relocate this year. I have NO control over that. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nil.

Alas, without further ado, here are my 2009 Resolutions, for whatever it's worth:

1) To exercise more and eat healthier.
2) To write every day! Preferably in my journal, but blogging counts too.
3) To get out from under this house (!!!) and move to Florida. *
4) To de-clutter my house and my life and stop procrastinating.
5) To move to Florida.*
6) To finish all my unfinished scrapbook projects.
7) To move to Florida.*
8) To take charge of my spiritual life and get it back on track.
9) To take up jogging once the roads are clear....
10) To move to Florida.*



*No guarantee expressed or implied. Must take opportunities as they arise; no rainchecks will be given. Examples given are based on 2008 plans. Actual results may vary.

Eight-below....

It was eight-below zero when I got up this morning.

Honestly does a body need more of a reason than that for getting the heck out of Dodge?!!!

Well, it's winter again....

....and so begins the slow decline in my sanity for the next 4 months. Three if I'm lucky.

Winter arrived with a bang here in NH, gracing us with an ice storm last week that left over 300,000 people without power at its peak (some are still without, 11 days later....). It was unprecedented in this state. And just when folks were starting to get back on their feet from that little gem, we got a major snowstorm exactly a week later, followed by a second one two days after that.

There are now a solid 2 feet of snow on the ground.....

Have mercy I need to get out of here!!!!!!!!!

Somewhere in Florida, there's a house. With a palm tree in the yard. With my name on it.

There are HOW many people there??!!.....

I have been realizing the last few days what a culture shock it's going to be for us - and esp. the kids - moving from our tiny hamlet of barely 1200 residents to central Florida where a "small" town is more like 10,000 people! The two examples that woke me up to this were first of all looking at the web site of a church. It had an ad on one of the Ocala newspaper's web site, so I clicked it to see what it was about. It turns out to be something right up our alley, but I tell you there is nothing in all of New England quite like this place!! The segment they had on their children's programs was amazing, and there were a ton of kids. Then I thought, wow...my kids now are lucky if they have 15 kids in their Sunday school class!!!

Then, the other day I was looking up schools and school districts in the area we are looking to move to. The site I was on listed the various schools in a given county, followed by a few stats and then the school's population/enrollment..... Again, WOW. My kids' elementary school has a total pop. of maybe 80 kids. The average down there is well into the hundreds, and the middle and high schools are huge!!!

So, it's going to be interesting to say the least! But I hope it will also be a positive experience as well. While there are some aspects of rural NH living that are great, there is a whole other world out there that we don't get to see very often.

On our way to Florida!

Well, not "actually," yet. But the decision has officially been made. And I am so many kinds of excited. There are not enough Dancing Babnanas in the world to properly express it!

Hmm.....can't seem to insert any kind of emoticon here. Will have to investigate that.

Anyway, in between all the holiday stuff that goes on this time of year, I'll be going through "stuff" and trying to lighten our load. I have things that have been in boxes since we moved here! That was six years ago! If I haven't missed it, I don't need it.

I'm watching the cats tear it up around the house this morning and realizing what a treat that's gonna be, moving them 1,400 miles in the back of our van!! We've actually got a good-sized rabbit type cage that will comfortably fit them both, where they can ride most of the time. They will wear a harness and have a leash so we can take them out at rest areas for exercise. At night they can roam freely inside the van while we sleep in the camper.

The camper!!!!....that I will finally get to take to Fort Wilderness!!! Oh yeah baby!

I am so getting Annual Passes for the World when we get there. I will do the full AP for the first year; no water parks and such, but just the ones that have no blackout dates. We want to do Star Wars weekends once or twice, and those normally fall in the summer blackout zone. Plus, during the first year when it's all new and we still can't get enough, who wants to worry about not being able to go on any given weekend!?

Well, I'm off to go browse rentals again, and dream of my new Florida home....

Would someone please turn down the silence?

Wow....

So the kids are away this weekend and DH is at work.

It's quiet in here...!

I almost don't know what to do with myself. Read? Scrapbook? Watch a movie? (or blog! lol!) These are rare moments. And it's really weird for the house to be this quiet. When DH and I go away for a weekend, the peace and quiet is "normal" and doesn't seem out of place. But here in my own home, which is usually bustling with some sort of noise or the other, it is quite out of place!

Which is not a complaint, mind you.

I do have a nice fire crackling in the wood stove; haven't heard that sound in a while. This is the first year out of 6 that we've had a stove hooked up here. But with fuel prices as they are, the less propane I have to burn this winter, the better. Most of our wood we've acquired for free, which is a huge blessing! And somehow I'd just rather my money go to local forestry operations than foreign oil companies.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Nice as the fire is, I would so much rather be sitting on a lanai and listening to the breeze rustle through my palm tree.....

*sigh*

Welcome to my blog!

Ok, so it's one of probably millions on the Web, but it's mine and I like it.

I've always been a writer, to one degree or another, so blogging comes naturally. And when you're living my life, there is plenty to write about! It may not be Nobel Prize material, but when you view life through the spectacles of wit and humor, you're bound to find something amunsing now and then. Sharing my life with a husband, three boys, and 2 cats...well, I have to do what I can to keep my sanity!

I currently live in New England. I was born and bred here, but I'm a Florida girl at heart. On a recent vacation there, we experienced what I call "rising-off-the-pavement-and-slappin'-you-in-the-face" kind of heat. I loved it. By contrast, this afternoon I took DS6 to his soccer game, and by the time it was over it was a scant 49 degrees and I was a walking (barely...) popsicle. Hate the cold... Cold hurts. Heat is uncomfortable, but not painful (unless you hang by the pool all afternoon without your sunblock).

I want to move to the Ocala, FL area. I've researched it and it seems right up my alley. It's not a huge metropolitan area like Tampa or Orlando, but it's certainly bigger (and funner...) than where I live now. But not "too" big. It still retains a rural character and offers ample opportunities for outdoor recreation in the nearby National Forest and the Silver Springs area.

It also has lots and lots of horses. DS6 and I are bona-fide horse lovers. I've been one since Day 1. I was blessed enough to ride and take lessons fairly early on, and got my first pony at 13. At 15 I upgraded to a larger model, and had that one until I was 26 and getting married and heading off to Alaska for the summer.

And to think that after that trip I actually wanted to live there....! There's no denying it's stunning in the summer and early fall, but winter would do me in. Mentally. Bye-bye frayed thread!

I digress...

So, an abundance of equines in the Ocala area is a huge bonus. And so is being less than 2 hours from Walt Disney World! My favorite place within my favorite place. Home of The Mouse Himself.

Besides giving me an outlet to write, vent, share and laugh, this blog will eventually serve as my connection to "home" once we get out of New England. I don't have any idea when that will be, but what the hey.... Might as well start the chit-chat now!