October

 

October has been a busy month so far, that's for sure.

My son turned 9 at the beginning of the month and we had a little birthday party for him with some of his school and basketball friends. He had a great time running around at the park, playing on the playground with all the other kids. He's a very social kid, just like his father, so having a bunch of friends around him was the best birthday present he could have.

On the other hand, maybe the remote control car that he got to help build at the mall was his best birthday present. Either way, that kid had a great birthday.

When not picking up all the crap the kids leave behind in the living/kitchen/dining rooms (and trust me on this, I'm doing you a favor by not posting all the pictures I've taken of their piles of things that belong in their rooms and not left out in the rest of the house) I've been busy working on my new hobby - jewelry designing.

I've always been interested in jewelry design and I've taken a few classes over the years but have always lost interest because I don't have a dedicated space to do my work and I never have enough supplies on hand (and no money to buy them) but I've decided to stop with all those excuses and just start building up my inventory because I'm going to start my own little business and work the vintage fairs and craft shows and see if I can sell a few things.

I still don't have a dedicated space (unless you count the dining room table that I'm currently occupying and won't let anybody move my stuff to eat there) and I need to order more supplies but Amazon has inexpensive stuff so I'm just going to allow myself to spend money on myself and not always on kids. My goal is to spend the winter building up inventory so that I can rent a space at the spring Fancy Flea.

Fall I basketball season ended and Fall II has already begun with the first games coming up on Saturday. We will be at the Y from 11 to 2 that day which means any Fall Festivals that day will have to go on without us. I have at least 2 festivals each Saturday that I would have loved to have gone to between now and Christmas but it is what it is.

My nephew/brother, who lives in Atlanta, came into Florida last week on business and we were able to meet up for dinner one night and catch up. We hadn't seen each other in over 5 years so there was a lot of stuff to talk about. We both lost loved ones in that time and we got a chance to talk about that. He was the last member of my family to hang out with Taz and me just a month before he died. We are just months apart in age and spent pretty much every day of our childhood together since his mom (my older sister) worked and my mom took care of both of us kids until we went off to school. I always call him my first best friend and although our lives went off in different directions and we haven't always been close as adults, there's a bond there and it was lovely to see him. I love his wife so I was sorry she wasn't along on this business trip.

This past weekend we didn't have a basketball game or the kids which is probably never going to happen again in this lifetime so Chris and I got to spend a little quality time together for the first time in a while.

There was a car show downtown Friday night with food trucks so we attended and it was a blast. I absolutely love events like this, there were so many fun cars to see and the pizza cone was delicious. 

I don't think Chris loves events like this as much as I do and he, at first, acted like there was nothing good to eat but he finally relaxed and found something that he enjoyed. He loved looking at the cars too and even found a guy that does custom painting on vehicles that might be able to help him fix up his truck when the time comes.

It was a lovely night but it was nothing compared to the next day. I had been looking forward to visiting Gulfport, Florida for at least a year and a half (I discovered it when I was researching honeymoon destinations) and it didn't disappoint.

Gulfport is a little beach town on the bay (so the beach has a harbor view, not an ocean view) with a downtown area full of restaurants and quirky shops. The town motto is "Keep Gulfport Weird" so you know it's a perfect town for me.

Since we didn't have the kids this weekend we used this day as an opportunity to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary a week early and I had stumbled on this restaurant that looked perfect for an anniversary celebration. It had atmosphere up the ying yang plus it looks very similar to a restaurant in Carmel so it gave me warm, fuzzy feelings since I love Carmel so much.

Although it had the perfect romantic atmosphere, the food didn't live up to the hype which means we'll probably never eat there again but I sure enjoyed the views and luckily Gulfport has many other restaurants to try.

We finished our visit with ice cream (always a winner in my book) and then left town after a perfect visit.

Just a little ways from Gulfport is a scenic rest area, also on the bay, which also gave me Carmel vibes with the water, rocks and pine trees. If I had drinks and snacks, I could stay there all day just enjoying the water views and peace. If I didn't have to drive through Tampa traffic to get there, I'd probably want to go every day.

Sunday we did a little shopping so that Chris could get 2x4s to rebuild our deck railing and I found the cutest jacket at Walmart. Now, I live in Florida and it's rarely chilly enough to need a jacket and I have a shit ton of other jackets (including Taz's beautiful leather jacket that he picked up in China) so I didn't NEED this jacket but I wanted it...badly...and I'm kind of in a mood to give myself treats these days so I got it and now I just have to wait for the temps to get out of the 80s so that I can wear it.

So that takes care of the first half of October, can't wait for Halloween/anniversary weekend...well, maybe not the hours we'll be spending at 2 basketball games on Saturday but I'm sure the rest of the weekend will be great.