universal

 

one of the things i really want to do for the kids is expand their world beyond our little town and give them new experiences so chris and i decided to buy annual passes for the universal theme parks and try to go there at least every month or two. why not take advantage of living so close to orlando and all it has to offer?

i think the best part was keeping it a secret from the kids until we got there. they had all sorts of guesses but never figured out where we were going until they saw the signs for universal and the harry potter rides and then there was pandemonium in the car when they realized; it was a priceless moment.

to be completely honest, the kids weren't the only ones thrilled to be there. i have always enjoyed universal. taz and i were annual passholders for a year and i have a lot of happy memories at those parks. it was nice to be able to come back and make new happy memories as well as see my favorite hello kitty store and statue.

hello kitty is a favorite with my 8 year old as well. there is a whole store of hello kitty merchandise and we want to buy 2 of everything...we are really going to have to save our allowances.

my 6 year old was more interested in the giant donut than hello kitty.

we rode a lot of rides, stood in a lot of lines, walked our feet into the ground and had an amazing family time that day. i look forward to many more days just like that.

in other news, i received my first dose of the vaccine (no side effects) and will be fully vaccinated by the end of this week. with more and more people being vaccinated, i have hopes that our lives will return to some form of normal as the year goes on. it's an experience that none of us will ever forget, i imagine. i certainly know people who refuse to be vaccinated (and who subscribe to conspiracy theories that i have no use for) but i consider it not only for my benefit but for the benefit of society as well and i'm happy to do my part.

we continue to work on our house and have finally gotten cabinets in the kitchen! i'll do a house update in another post but for now we're getting ready to head off for a new weekend adventure, a road trip to celebrate our grandson's 5th bithday!

my unexpected weekend

 

sometimes you can do all sorts of planning and things just don't work out the way you intended but they work out the way they're supposed to.

my life is definitely a prime example of that - i never planned to have another relationship after taz because taz was always going to be there. i certainly never planned to be a bonus mom and grandmother at this point in my life and i definitely didn't plan on cooking dinner and doing multiple loads of laundry each week when i'd spent a lifetime avoiding most of that, lol, but here i am, living my best life...ok, not the cooking and laundry, i could do without those.

this past weekend was certainly unexpected and yet, i think it was one of the nicest weekends i've had in a loooooong time.

we were supposed to go to alabama to help a friend of chris's build a deck. i had planned the whole thing - found a great boarding place for charlie, rented a car for the long drive, packed my suitcase for the 3 days.

friday morning went according to plan - i dropped charlie off at her pet resort and wished her a happy weekend. taz and i never spent a night away from charlie so it's a little weird to board her now but i know she's getting good care. this place even has a tv in each room tuned to animal planet although i have no idea if she enjoys watching.

i came back home to pick up the rental car and that's where things fell apart. the rental company had rented out our suv to another couple and didn't have anything of similar size to give to us. we objected strongly and spent some time on the phone but in the end nothing changed so we didn't get a rental car. i was reluctant to put so many miles on my car and then we heard from family and friends about severe weather in the area where we were headed which caused us to reconsider the advisability of the trip. the final straw was when the friend called and said they hadn't been able to get all the materials for the deck and we probably wouldn't be able to work outside anyway because of the weather.

it was unanimous, the universe was sending us signs that we needed to postpone.

now the fun part - since Chris had already taken the whole weekend off from work and the kids were with their mom and charlie was already at her pet resort, we had a whole weekend together...just us. this almost never happens, i can't even remember the last time it was just us. so i quickly suggested that maybe we could run up to st. augustine on saturday, just for the day.

st. augustine was always a favorite spot for taz and me, we both loved the quaint old part of the town that reminded us of european villages and our beloved carmel-by-the-sea in california so a part of me wanted to relive old memories but most of me wanted to make new happy memories with chris in a place i love. he had been there a few times as well and was all for the trip.

one of the things i love about st. augustine is a gourmet popsicle shop called The Hyppo. they have the most imaginative flavors and it's lighter than ice cream. i pretty much propelled us straight there as soon as we were out of the car.

chris, unfortunately, was not a big fan of the flavor he chose but my blackberry goat cheese popsicle was amazing!

we spent a few hours just walking around all the shops, bought some organic soap and a very cool skull mask...we both have a thing for skulls, fun little souvenirs from our first getaway.

we were having so much fun that i didn't want to go back home just yet so i asked if we could spend the night even though we hadn't planned for it and had no luggage. lol

but finding a room was almost impossible. there was nothing in st. augustine so we decided to drive down to daytona which is where chris used to live. unfortunately this was the last official weekend of spring break and everything was sold out so i was losing hope until i made one last phone call and, yippee, i found a room! it was a hotel on the beach and the only room they had was facing the parking lot but i grabbed it.

before checking into our room we grabbed some dinner. i had been wanting to try a burger that had donuts for buns for a while now. i wasn't sure i'd like it, i was just intrigued. turns out i'm not a fan...at all. i had 2 bites and then cast it aside. luckily we'd ordered some appetizers so i didn't go away hungry.

we got to the hotel and found out they had put us in an oceanfront room and everything was perfect. it's a small place, very quiet and peaceful and each room has a small balcony overlooking the big, beautiful atlantic ocean.it was very romantic.

the hotel had a pool and we thought we really needed to go swimming so we walked across the street to get some swimming items and then chris jumped in the pool. he should have checked to see if it was heated first because he let out a scream and got right back out of that pool. i was laughing so hard all the way back to our room that he actually had to push me up the stairs because i kept stopping to laugh and then i had to catch my breath. he didn't think it was nearly as funny but i'm chuckling right now just thinking of it.

we walked on the beach, we took selfies with the beautiful background that's too dark to see, we unwound with some wine coolers and just relaxed for the first time since december. it was exactly what we needed.

of course the next day it was back to reality but at least not right away. we had breakfast at a local diner and then spent some time with chris's grandson at the flea market.

none of it was planned and yet, i'm pretty sure it was exactly what we were supposed to be doing.

back on track

 

sometimes you just need to talk things out...and talk...and talk. relationships can be hard and two people can look at a situation from very different angles but communication is key.

and sometimes you find yourself coming to an even greater understanding of what you want. this is NOT an engagement ring but it is a promise and i love it and i look forward to our future.

selling my house was very stressful and emotional and even though the process was seamless, it seemed to take forever to get everything cleared out of that house. and then it took even longer to get the last of the stuff cleared out of the uhaul truck but as of last night, that has been accomplished and now all that's left is to go through everything in storage and see how it fits into our new house but i'm willing to let that process take a couple of months because i need a break.

one thing that helped me feel a little more normal this weekend was taking my 8 year old for a spa day. she'd never had a mani/pedi and i haven't in a long time so we indulged a little and it was awesome.

and one final thing that helps put me back on the road to normal is  being able to get my air conditioning fixed. it had been failing since october and finally just quit working in december. luckily it's mostly been cool this winter but this past month has seen more than a few 90+ degree days and making the almost 2 hour commute (each way) to work in that weather with no air has been brutal and given me more than a few headaches. with the sale of the house i finally had enough money to get it fixed this week and i'm so happy. i don't dread tomorrow's commute now.

so life has its ups and downs and goes on. coming up is a road trip or two or three, can't wait!

change

 

i went online just a little while ago to check on my mortgage account and it says it's "inactive" which means it's been paid off and i no longer have that obligation.

sweet!

after paying that mortgage for over 20 years along with a rent payment for whatever california house we were living in at the time, it's amazing and weird to not have that hanging over my head anymore. of course the downside is that i also no longer have access to the house. lol

but it also means that i've finally achieved something i wanted for a very long time - i'm unencumbered and fancy free. i could grab charlie, jump in the car and head west or north and be a free spirit blowing in the wind, heading wherever the road takes me...and i could do it for a very long while until the money runs out. not the smartest thing to do, i admit, but today it's very tempting.

i find myself questioning a lot of things lately. i'm having trust issues, sitting back watching a situation develop to see where it goes knowing that either everything will be fine or i'll be starting over yet again but at least this time i'll have taz's last gift to me cushioning the blow.

stay tuned, things are going to change one way or another.