Happy Birthday!

Today is my beautiful "Snew" 's

Sweet Sixteen!

Just enough time for a quick celebration with just the three of us before it's time to head to band practice.

The rest of family will join us in marking this momentus occasion on Saturday night.

Almost there...

Tomorrow is my Snew's Sweet Sixteen.

At 6:21am, sixteen years ago, my best friend came into my life. She saved me, and she gave me something, someone, to live for. I am so blessed. In addition to a Happy Birthday, my little girl (and she will always be my little girl) gets a big Thank You. For everything. My everything.

Performing at the United Way Family Picnic in Brooksville, FL with the Springstead Marching Eagle Brigade...

Which Witch?

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We've been trying out Halloween costume possibilities for Li. I have a dress leftover from Snew's costume a couple years ago. It is devine. I need to figure out a way to make it work for Li. I bunched it up and tied it in the back to see how it might look:

Might just work...

And with a couple accessories picked up at Target yesterday:

Amazing...

I wish I knew how to sew.

What a crazy day yesterday turned out to be!

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First and foremost *I* was actually commented back by the amazing "mariaferlo" from Rate My Space"! That makes me giddy. :) I'm such a fan of her beautiful home. I would pay an entrance fee. It would be like my Disney World, lol! If you can, please check out her blog and web page over in my blog list.

I took the kids shopping at Joanne Fabrics & the Dollar Store for any potential Halloween items that might look interesting. We found a few, and at JF we found a great little kit for making a gingerbread haunted house. The kids put that together this morning and I'll share pics with you later in this post.

Once we were done with our shopping, I dropped off the kids at Mom & Dad's so that I could *finally* accompany my poor honey to see the Dark Knight. He has been waiting, and waiting...and it didn't seem like we were going to make it happen. We finally had our opportunity and went for it. About a half hour in I started not feeling well. I mean reaalllyyy not feeling well. I just sat there concentrating on getting through the movie. Minute by minute I held on. I couldn't ruin this for him. How unfair. And so I held on. And at every point that it seemed that the movie might end I breathed a sigh of relief only to realize it wasn't over! Now I was going to pass out, and I knew it. I had to let him know so that he wouldn't think I was just sleeping. I tapped him and whispered "I'm not feeling well". His immediate response (and an example of why I love him) was "let's go". "No, it's okay" I whisper. "Are you sure, I have no problem leaving right now" he replies. I nod my head, realizing this might be my chance to walk out instead of being carried out, and he helps me up and supports me. I'm walking out as though seeing through a tunnel. It was bizarre. It took all I had to get to the car and plop into the front seat. He drove to the hospital. I'll spare you all the details but basically my blood pressure was sky high, and it seems I was probably having some sort of panic attack and esophigal spasms. I'm now on anti-anxiety meds that make be feel out of it. I hate feeling like this so I'm off them ASAP! My thyroid is also too low...hypo something or other and I have to follow up w/ my primary. So much for a movie date w/ my sweetie! ACK!!! Anyone know how it ends? Because we don't, lol.

Here are the pics of the kids' Haunted Mansion. I needed a centerpiece for the kitchen table and am thrilled to have this object de arte because it is perfect!

Candy...yummmm

Decorating

Snew's Side

Li's Side

Only 54 days until Halloween! Eeeeeek!

We need more space.

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Three years into our new life in Spring Hill, Fl, and we're still having the same debate. I don't want to get into it all, as I don't think you've got the rest of the day to read this post, lol, but to give you a quick synopsis: When I came down to visit Mom & Dad's new place in this far off land called Spring Hill I fell in love. I had their real estate agent take me around and show me what was available. My plan was to find something we could spend a year in - max - which would give us time to figure out what neighborhood we wanted to live in, find a builder, and build a custom home that met our needs.

I was then returning back north to prepare my previous home for putting it on the market. It is a custom build that I miss bunches, but can't say I'd pick it up and bring it with me because the layout just doesn't work for our lifestyle down here. While if I ever play the lottery, and win, I will definitely be knocking on their door and asking how much to buy it back, lol. As far as living in Florida, and the right home for us down here, I still like how our new home wraps around the pool. The star of the show is always our lanai, pool & landscaping. It's what I love most about living down here and having it as part of every day, and every moment is fantastic. I saw soooo many homes back when I was looking, and this one was my favorite head & shoulders above all. With all the homes we've seen here, being in the Real Estate industry, we've yet to see one we like as much. One came close but at DOUBLE the price range of our current, how could we justify spending that much and it still not being perfect.

Well, we bought here, sold there, and moved in. We got to work renovating and updating. In the mean time we've really fallen head over heels with this place. The market has absolutely nose dived since those times, and right now I think we could get what we paid for, plus or minus a few thousand. Sounds good? Nope. We would not recoup the 40k we've put into it. That doesn't make it a clear cut "so we stay" situation either. We know that right now we could more than make up for that loss by purchasing the right home at the right price. And on and on goes the debate. We take turns sitting on either side of the fence. Heck, we switch off in the midst of one conversation, lol. We need more space. But...what is the additional space needed for? So we don't let go of stuff we don't use anyway? Doesn't seem like a wise investment. Paying $ more per month, higher taxes, utilities, etc. for my unused treadmill, dining room hutch, and Josh's bass amps, etc., just isn't working for me.

Our Place

We never used our dining room and needed a larger office. Old office became my daughter's room, daughter's old room became niece's, dining room became new office. We never used our formal living room. Formal living room is now the happy home of Josh's baby: the pool table. Problem solved? Nope. There is no storage. Our formal areas are part of a larger great room, so our office & pool table rooms are what you walk into from the front door. We have no storage for all our office "stuff". There are no basements here. There's no where to tuck away holiday decorations, landscaping equipment, staging supplies, and all the other misc. things you need to tuck away and bring out periodically.

There's a local company called Create More Space, and we keep wanting to stop in and see what they could do for us. We're thinking built-ins, built-ins, built-ins! But that is no small investment in a home with a definative ceiling to it's value because of it's size. Do we want to invest any more $ into a home that we know we probably won't recoup because we're not actually adding sq. ft.? My niece's room has a window seat, and I'd love to do something like Brown Design (see by blog list for a link to this awesome resource) did here:

Window Seat Inspiration

One of my regular customers...

http://www.hernandoluxuryhomes.com/ HernandoLuxuryHomes = Spring Hill FL Real Estate


...came by, even in all this wind, for a late lunch:





This Cardinal is at the point where as soon as I turn my back he's on the feeder. He's come to realize that I'm no threat to him, and he has no reason to be scared of me.



Spring Hill, FL is classified as a bird sanctuary, and as a result there are so many beautiful birds seen through out the area. I love hanging out and watching them stop by my place for a snack. I find their nests in my trees and even in one of my rose bushes and I'm always blown away with the ingenious way they create their little homes. Yes, I'm even obsessed with bird's homes, lol. Like the way the twigs are just perfectly intertwined...so uniform and sturdy. All done with a little beak and no hands. Amazing. And then to see the little torn piece of plastic the bird found and used right at the bottom to provide something to keep the the cushy items from falling through.



When my Miicoh was still with us I used to put clumps of his fur out on the trees to give the birds something to line their nests with. He was a prodigious shedder and I'm sure he kept many a little egg warm and snuggly. I miss him so much.

Miicoh

I'm sure he's still watching those feeders and keeping track right along with Nermal of the comings and goings.

End of the summer!

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Summer came and went so quickly. I haven't even had a chance to comment on it and we're a week into school.

This summer we had our neices visiting and it was so much fun. I miss them bunches already, and I wish it could've gone on and on. There was so much more I still wanted to do with them!

In any case, I thought I'd share a pic:

This was taken at the Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Orlando.

One of my top 5 favorite things about living in Spring Hill, FL is being a short drive away from so many of the Florida attractions. It is awesome. Simple as that. We go to Disney, Sea World, Universal, or Busch Gardens and then we sleep in our own beds at night. It makes going to these special places with the kids a possibility because it is so much more affordable when you don't need to worry about hotels, flights, etc. Just as an example...we've been to Disney 3 times just this year. Before moving to Spring Hill I had been twice in my life. And I was one of the lucky ones.

Stop this train

This morning I woke up with a realization prompted by two of the girls returning up North, and Tasha & Liya heading back to school. Summer, for us atleast, is over. The day was here. It had felt so far away.

The realization was that I was on what felt like a fast rolling train. It's moving full speed ahead. I catch glimpses of my life through my window. Sometimes the view makes me smile, sometimes I truly can't help but laugh out loud, sometimes I desperately look around for a pull chord to stop the train and enjoy my view just a bit longer. Unfortunately there never is one, and on the train rolls, and I'm sorry to see that moment end and pass into memory.

Other times the view makes me sad...or mad...and in those instances I am glad that this train cannot be stopped and thankful that soon those moments will be behind me. As I barrell through them, down this bumpy track, I press my cheek against my window full of hope for what is around the corner.

I realized we're all on the train. Some close to finally reaching their stop, some just getting on and beginning their own journey.

A bit before it was time to bring Tasha to school I had the additional realization that Mr. John Mayer had a song that darn closely resembled how I was feeling. Thought I'd share it here with you:





John Mayer - Stop this Train

Lyrics:

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
Don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can
Cause now I see
I'll never stop this train

Chasco Fiesta

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We're heading down to New Port Richey for the Chasco Fiesta parade today! Really looking forward to it and hope you all can join us. The F.W. Springstead Marching Eagle Brigade is participating and they always put on a great show!

The link to the official website is: http://chascofiesta.com