hello from michigan :)

hello. well, we've been in michigan for 11 days now. yikes. feels strange to be away from home for so long. 'specially since i still consider this to be home. when i'm in florida i am homesick for michigan and when i am in michigan i am homesick for florida. go figure.

camp update: so far, so great! les seems to be lovin camp. she calls almost every day and her little voice is just joyful. she is meeting new people, having new experiences, testing those little wings of hers. can't wait to see her this weekend though. driving up there with sal and kar to visit and drop off a care package. it will be 2 weeks since i've seen her! then she has one last week of camp and i'll have one last week of fitting in all of my favorite things to do in my home state: garage sales, antique hunting, lunching with friends, eating at junky big boy, catching up with all of the people i love and miss so much, walking along paint creek, enjoying all of the gorgeous flowers in bloom, talking hour long walks through the streets and looking at all of the cool old bungalows that bret and i would like to own one day, checking out fairs and farmers markets and all things michigan.

update on the new house: bret is going crazy getting our new home ready for us to move into when we return. painting. cleaning. building. planting. can't wait to get into it and start nesting. then i can finally turn my attention to the new school year . . .

last post for a bit

We closed on both houses today. Hooray!!! Feels like a big weight has been lifted. Bret and I have both been a little stressed - worrying that something would go wrong at the last minute.

Leslie and I leave tomorrow (camp for her and relaxing with my pals in Michigan for me!) so I won't be able to blog again until August. I'll let you know how the camp thing goes. This is the first time L has been away from me for more than a few days. I am really going to miss her. I hope I can make it 3 weeks! How will I cope?!

Bye for now . . .

yumminess

I don't love restaurants. (Yes, I do realize it is because we eat out so much. The irony.)

I don't love cooking. (Although I do love cookbooks.)

But I do heart having my friend invite me over to cook for me! This weekend we struck pay dirt. We drove to Boca for Jim's birthday party on Friday and were fed by Pam. And when we came home on Saturday we went to Jen's for a Fourth of July barbeque. She always makes us really yummy, pretty food. (See cake above.) Eating home cooked food that someone took the time and care to prepare for you is really better than anything.

turning over a new leaf

kay, b. & l. & I have turned over a new leaf.  we are not going to say negative things about this paradise we live in.  we are not going to complain about too many cranky seniors, or the lack of this or that, or even the weather (welllll . . . maybe the weather).  here is my list of reasons to love swf:

*the beach

*the boating

*lots of sunshine

*everything here is new and they were picky about zoning so there are no weird signs all over the place and no tacky stuff like in ft. lauderdale

*the rest of the world vacations here

*there are lots of nice places to drive to for a weekend away

*cafe normandie, miss saigon, food & thought, passage to india & all of the other little places we like to eat

*our cute downtown

*the new gelato place

*the farmer's market

*our new whole foods

ps  found that missing post . . . it just popped up out of nowhere

*

Hey, I could swear I posted another blog 2 days ago!  Disappeared!  Oh well, maybe in my moving haze  I accidentally didn't publish the post.  I do have a bit of a full plate right now.  Moving is not just boxes but also a million little details to tidy up.  Going on an almost 4 week holiday right after the closings isn't helping matters much.  Leslie and I won't even actually spend a night in the new house until we return from the trip.  Bret will be busy getting the new place clean, painted, shelved (new built in shelves and desk for me! yippee!), and sealed (the floors that is).  Then he'll have the furniture delivered right before we return.  

On top of the move and the trip I'm also a little distracted right now by the whole Leslie school thing.  Turns out we were given misinformation in regards to which high school the new house is zoned for.  Changing from private to public and middle to high is already a big deal.  But my poor little trooper has now been gearing herself up to start school in 3 different schools.  The school that it looks like she is actually zoned for would not be my first pick.  Or even my second.  But one of Leslie's good friends is going there and she seems happy with it.  I know that I tend to over think things & worry about the "what ifs".  I guess I need to just step back and see how it goes.  I am so proud of what a good student she is.  And the kind of person she is. I know that she will make good choices & the best of whatever situation she is in.  The mama in me just wants to keep protecting and watching out, I guess.  But I also know that I need to balance that protection and guidance with giving her some independence right now.  All part of growing up - for both of us, I guess.  

I have to end this little post.  A day of insurance agents, finishing up the packing, mailing out change of address cards, and lunch with my mom and Leslie awaits me . . . 

Okay, I will have to admit that I would not choose to pack up everything I own into millions of boxes.  But since I don't have a choice . . . I am enjoying some aspects of this dismantling of our home: 

It's really fun to find things that I haven't seen since I unpacked them 5 years ago.  

It feels cleansing to get rid of so much stuff that we don't need any longer.  (And nice to pass it on to someone who thinks they DO need it.)

It will be nice to be dust free for a bit.

Asking Leslie to pack up her old Legos and finding her sitting in the middle of the floor immersed in playing with them.  (She may be ready to go off to high school but the lure of Legos is still there.  Love that.)

Asking Leslie to pack up her old Barbies to give to a friend's little girls and . . . (see Lego entry).

Knowing that this job is almost finished and soon I'll be relaxing in Michigan . . .

I was going to change this song but it is just SO appropriate for what I am feeling right now.  This is our 14th move in 22 years of marriage.  14!  You'd think I'd be used to it by now.  (I am pretty good at packing boxes, thank you.)  I am just a little overwhelmed by all the stuff we have to cart around in this life.  Do I really need all of my little collections?  Do I really need all of Leslie's baby stuff?  Do I really need all of these shoes?!  Do I really need all of these books?  I guess I must.  Cuz I am packin' em up once again.  

In the song he talks about some stuff he leaves behind and he wants it back.  I always leave stuff behind.  I don't really mean to but somehow I do.  A few years ago, Les and I were back in Michigan and we were driving by all of our old houses.  One of them still had all of my cute little cement garden bunnies and squirrels in the yard.  Les said, "Those are still ours!  I want them back!"  Ha.  Just like her mom.  I really regret that I had to leave the painting that Arnold did for us.  When we moved to Florida I had a really mean mover and Bret was already in Florida so I was doing it on my own and I didn't stand up to him when he was doing such a lousy job and refusing to take certain things.  The painting was so big that I couldn't even fit it in my car to take it to a friend's house.  

I guess this nomad life we have is exciting in some ways.  It lets us try lots of different things. We've lived on the lake, near the sea, in an arts and crafts bungalow, and a noisy apartment, a neighborhood where all of the houses looked the same, a neighborhood with a gate, houses with a best friend for Leslie next door, and neighborhoods where I knew everyone on the block. What will this new chapter in our lives bring?  (And what do you suppose I will leave behind?)