April update

A little update on where I am at:

Eating - too much crap again, I must return with a happy heart to healthy eating. I was doing so damn well until a month ago.

Feeling - grateful for this life, even though the weather sucks.

Waiting - for summer to turn up, this weather sucks. I am, as usual, sick and tired of the cold. I want to ride in long grass in an endless evening, walk the dogs before work, have windows open so that I can listen to the crickets, lie with one foot in the pool, soak up the heat and humidity that everyone else bitches about, feel that I simply have to put AC on in the car just to cope. Bring.It.Back

Watching - North Woods Law. I rather like it and it has the wonderful effect of sending me to sleep at night after about 20 minutes, why did I refuse a TV in the bedroom for all those years?

Planning - road trips this summer - yay!!!!!!!!! And how to get to Florida next winter now we cant just go when it suits me. Oh and what to do with Ace this year, primarily how to get him to showgrounds.

Wishing - we had pushed the plumbers to locate the backwater value inside the house instead of allowing them to dig up the entire front garden. The fight against their outrageous over-inflated final invoice goes on whilst we face a new bill to repair the construction site lawn. By the time this is all over we will have paid around $9k - ugh!
Hindsight is always 50/50.

Pondering - how much life changes as you grow and how many lessons I have learned from watching Marley and Me. The movie thats not just about a dog.

Considering - all my shortcomings as a person and how to work on them. There are many.

Facing - children that are growing up too fast and the fact that university for the oldest feels like its literally around the corner.

Frustration

This week I have been more than frustrated.
Since we have lived in this house, which for the record, I adore, we have changed the windows and the roof and the front and garage doors. Yes, these are indeed big ticket items but were necessary and compared to how big a deal it is to put a new roof on a UK home, its somewhat cheaper here to redo a roof. I think it helps that no actual tiles are going up, here they use shingle that looks a little like wallpaper to those that are not used to it (me at first!).

Old windows, roof and doors - leaky rook, windows that let in cold air.....

New windows, roof and doors- warm and dry! (oh and stylish!)

We have also put in drains for the back garden to remove the never draining water and resulting black stinky mould:

 practically rebuilt the pool, put in a new bathroom and built a fenced in area for the dogs.

Old pool liner that was changed along with pump and filter

 

 

 New bathroom

 

New fence going in:

Over time I have hankered for a pool heater to increase the time we can use the pool in the summer, a downstairs powder room for those littlies that suddenly need to pee the moment they hit the pool and then have to trapse either upstairs or downstairs trailing water, oh and a new kitchen.

Each year we have deemed all the above unaffordable for various reasons and then suddenly over the Christmas period we found we had to dig up our drains and replace them. The ensing chaos is almost over, the new drains are in at massive cost and stress and the front garden now resembles a construction site which will soon be covered in the requisite dandelions that seem to have taken over in the last couple of years.

Front garden being dug up to resolve drains issue..

So now we have to correct that and in tallying up the costs of this drainage emergency, its coming to close on $8k!
I am pissed as dreams of a pool heater are starting to wither and die once more and the thought that this $8k would have put in a powder room or been a massive chunk of a new Ikea kitchen is hard to stomach frankly.

But.... it is what it is (Canadian saying now adopted freely by me) and I have to suck it up (another one) and get over it. I guess you could say these are good problems to have.
The remaining kitchen will see another year at least...

My BFF in said kitchen....

The last February week in Florida

In February we went on our final February 10 days trip to Florida for a very long while. Our oldest starts high school in September and therefore we can kiss goodbye to a week off in February going forward. The toughest part for me is the thought that a Spring time fix of the South can only be a long weekend for the next 8 years and once thats over the girls will have finished high school so it will never be the same again, anyway.
I struggle with the thought of these types of changes. It makes me sad.

Anyway, this trip was lovely. We had the Friday through to the Sunday morning in Davenport in Bahama Bay. I know we frequent Bahama Bay every year but it never gets old. The pure joy of driving through the gates remains, the being there every second is incredibly precious, the leaving sucks big time! Those two days were the mosrt packed in, drink in every moment as usual time. I miss it alot.

On the Sunday morning we joined Don for a week back at Spinnackers Captains Quarters in AMI and it was just as relaxing as the previous year. Its no Keys, you dress up for dinner in AMI and there are a fair few snarky seniors there but its beauty doesnt fade.
I walked. Alot. Beach, neighbourhood, beach, neighbourhood again. The meals at Mar Vista Restaurant on Long Boat Key and "The Feast" on Holmes Beach delivered as before.

It was, as always, a so very important time in my year. The time of great happiness, relaxation, family time with people I love in a State I adore.
We have to get creative going forward to have time in the Keys and in Davenport so as to not create an schooling issue. Thank goodness we are but 3.5 hours direct flying time away.