Page 4 of 18

Posted on

Arduous Week

It’s been an arduous week at work. Unfortunately, the workload continues to be super light. I have been able to make the most of the resources I’ve been given. In fact, I’m one of the top in the department, but I’m bored. I like being busy at work. Boredom is not a friend of mine. Although the quizzical characters I get to talk to some days do keep it interesting.

I’ve been continuing the BBG program. I’m re-doing last week’s workouts since I missed the ab workout. It’s an arduous, but productive program. It’s super challenging like P90X, but it takes less time. The reasonable time investment is a huge plus with the program. Moreover, the program includes four cardio and three stretch workouts, so your week is well rounded with strength, cardio and stretch. This was a problem for me previously and most likely why I injured myself.

I’m going to work tomorrow since the hubby has to work as well. We’re required to work two weekends during the open enrollment period, which isn’t terrible. Hopefully, it will be a productive Saturday. Typically, the lead flow is light, but if the quality is high one can have a great production day. I’m hoping for high volume and high quality. Otherwise, I’ll be cleaning the waxy surface of my desk. This weekend we have no hockey, so Sunday will be spent relaxing.

Yesterday we got to talk to Jake, which is always a treat. He looked great despite being exhausted. The last couple of weeks he’s looked tired, but yesterday he looked great. I can’t wait to see him again. It will be so special to have all my boys under one roof! That day can’t come soon enough! Did I mention I can’t wait?!?

Posted on

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A happy Valentine’s Day poem courtesy of Lord Byron.

“She Walks In Beauty” Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Posted on

Grocery shopping

It is me or has grocery shopping become a super painful experience? Now mind you, I don’t actually go to the store and shop, but the prices in my Shipt and store apps continue to go up. Last summer, a gallon of milk was $2.49. Now that same gallon of milk is $3.99, which adds up when you’re going through more than seven gallons in a week.

Fortunately, I don’t do a lot of driving, so I haven’t experienced much pain at the pump. My hubby, who had been driving to Miami for work, experienced the misery at the pump in full force. Between the increase in costs of food and fuel, I feel like my mortgage will soon be my cheapest bill. Thankfully, the butcher box prices haven’t gone up yet.

Anyway, when I was lamenting the pain off grocery shopping today, I was killing it at work. Today was one of those days that you don’t want to step away from the phone because every call is going you way. Those days don’t happen early, so I was all about that life today. I did, however, take a short lunch break to get in my run. Fortunately, the break in the action didn’t muck up the mojo. Of course, the highlight of the day was getting our weekly call from Jake. Here’s hoping tomorrow is just as good!

Posted on

Palm Tree

So today’s prompt is to describe oneself as a tree, so I chose palm tree. First of all, the palm tree is happiness in a plant. Who can’t be happy while sitting near or beneath a beautiful palm? It usually means you’re somewhere tropical with a beautiful beach nearby. There also incredibly strong and built to survive hurricanes. Their shape is perfect as the wind whips around their trunk, while leaving the tree up right. Sure they’ll lose some fronds, but most palms survive the storm.

Like the palm tree, I’m able to survive’s life’s worst storms. Thankfully, my parents raised me to be confident, strong and full of faith. My life is filled with incredible people that have supported me and my family through thick and thin. I’m forever grateful for the strong support system in my life. These past couple of months they have been absolutely incredible.

Fortunately, this weekend I was able to get out and see some of my non-hockey friends. It’s nearly impossible to do anything social during hockey season, so this weekend was a treat. Yesterday I met my friend Stacy for drinks at Batch. I haven’t seen her since before I got laid off. God, I’ve missed that woman. We had the best time.

Today I made a Swiss cake roll in the morning. While that baked, I took care of the laundry, the dishes and the floors. Afterwards, I headed to Boca to spend the afternoon with my dear friend Terri, who just happens to be Jake’s girlfriend’s mom. I always have a fabulous time with her and today was no exception. We had tried a couple of weekends ago, but Covid and Flu exposure put a damper on those plans. Thankfully, we were able to get together today.

It was quite cold this morning, but we didn’t see any frost. Even if we did, the palm trees would be fine. After all, like me, they’re quite resilient. I was a little worried, however, that the passion fruit tree wouldn’t weather the cold. Fortunately or unfortunately, it still looks quite robust. It had literally taken over the entirety of our back garden. We’ll have to trim it back and train it on a trellis or it will cover everything.

Posted on

Dreams Are Made

Dreams are made of these is today’s prompt for bloganury. While I was in Savannah, I had the most vivid dream that Anakin, my sweet puppy disappeared. I never established if he was taken, ran away or dead; I only knew he was gone. Consequently, I searched high and low across the globe looking for my sweet boy, but he was nowhere to be found. It was awful!

Fortunately, it was just a dream and he’s currently laying down next to me on the couch. Outside of my vivid dream about Anakin, I find myself dreaming of traveling a lot. Obviously, I’m missing the amount of traveling we did prior to the pandemic. My dreams predominately take me to Europe and Scandinavia to be specific. It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading a novel set in Norway.

Work was the stuff that dreams are made of today. I had one customer that was frustrating, but only because she made absolutely no sense at all. As for the rest of my clients, they were buyers today. Moreover, I even had a few clients from last week that called back to buy today. You can’t ask for a better Monday than that. Of course, Athena had to keep it interesting by pooping right in the path of the Roomba, so that was fun.

Posted on

Road Trip

We left the house this morning for a road trip up to Charleston via Savannah, Georgia. Originally, we had intended to drive all the way through to Charleston, but the Mayor’s first game isn’t until late Saturday night. Consequently, we thought we’d take the opportunity to spend a day in Savannah. It took a little bit longer than I had hoped to get out of the house this morning. I definitely was not moving very quickly, nor was the hubby. We finally got on our way at 10:30 this morning. The trip is arduous and long, but the drive up I-95 is literally pretty straightforward. While the 95 is a pretty easy drive, it is as boring or even more boring than it is easy to drive. There’s just nothing interesting to look at.

We made brief stops in New Smyrna and Ormond Beach for gas and Chic-Fil-A. I usually love their grilled chicken sandwich, but I wasn’t feeling it today. Fortunately, the french fries I split with the Mayor were very good. The two stops pushed back out ETA for nearly an hour. Thankfully, as we got closer to the larger metropolitan areas off of I-95 the traffics jams lessened and we made up some time. We finally got into Savannah around 5:00 pm. Tonight we’re staying in an AirBnB, which is my preference when traveling, in historic downtown Savannah. It’s a cute two-floor apartment in an older building on a busy Savannah street. Honestly, it’s just perfect.

I prefer AirBnBs to hotels because you have a lot more room to move around. If you’re traveling with your family, a hotel room is way too cramped. Also, I like being able to keep eating meals when on the road. If you’re in a traditional hotel, you can’t cook your meals. This helps save money and ensures the diet doesn’t go too far off the rails. We’ll be staying in a hotel once we get to Charleston because we don’t have any other option. This tournament is a stay-to-play tournament, so we must stay where the tournament directors put us. Honestly, it’s one of the most annoying aspects of youth sports. I hate spending $50 more a night for a room, so the rink and tournament director can get a kickback. Moreover, not only are the hotels overpriced, they’re not always high quality.

Day one of the road trip has been a success. We ate dinner at a cute restaurant off Broughton St in downtown. Before dinner, we walked downtown and down to the river. The riverside was absolutely stunning. It’s a super cute area lined with shops, bars, restaurants, and hotels. The famous Savannah City Market is there too. I wanted to stop and buy some chocolate but the Mayor was hungry. Since the Mayor turns into a monster when hungry, my mission to get chocolate was quickly and sadly aborted. Needless to say, I’ll be walking down that way tomorrow morning before we head north to Charleston.

Posted on

Perfect Day

So today’s theme for bloganury is perfect day. How fitting that yesterday suck and today was a much better day. Was it perfect now? But on the whole it was significantly better than yesterday. In fact, even the puppies were on board for a better day. To be fair, however, they did lose their morning front yard privileges. Their morning and afternoon trips outside were relegated to the backyard, which apparently is not as interesting.

At work, things were much better as well. It wasn’t the knockout days I’d come accustomed to during AEP, but it was good. Goalielocks was able to go back to school after staying home the last few days with the flu. Tamiflu is definitely a wonder drug. It knocked out the worst of his symptoms pretty quickly. We kept him home until he had been without a fever for 24 consecutive hours. Yesterday would have been just short of the requisite 24 hours, so he stayed home.

Since the new year started, my ability to wake up early and workout had disappeared. Consequently, I ran two miles and walked a mile over my lunch. It’s actually a really nice way to breakup the workday and collect my sanity. Moreover, a good run always helps improve my energy and erase any negativity from the morning. The puppies would love for me to run outside, but the impact is just too much for me at this time. Hopefully, once I get back from Charleston, I can get back into my early morning habit.

Today may not have been the perfect day, but it was a great day! The highlight, of course, was talking to Jake. He looked and sounded really good today. In fact, he didn’t look as tired as usual. Thankfully, work and school continue to go really well for him. I just love getting the call from him and seeing how good he looks and sounds. It definitely puts this mom’s mind at ease.

Posted on

Back To It

Well I was back to it today after taking most of last week off. Unfortunately my computer, or more to the point my wifi, didn’t want to cooperate this morning. Fortunately, I was able to resolve the issue relatively quickly and then had no issues the rest of the day. Thankfully, I was much busier at work today than I have been. Woohoo!


It felt good to be back. Admittedly, I like and need the structure. Before going back to work today, I spent the weekend relaxing at home. I baked a tiramisu and prime rib roast on Saturday, which was mighty tasty. Yesterday, the hubby and I took the puppies for a walk in the Glades. It was an absolutely beautiful morning. The puppies had a great time. I, however, was disappointed that we didn’t see any alligators.

The rest of the day, we binge watched the Office and It’s Always Sunny. We had planned on having leftovers for dinner, but I changed my mind. Consequently, I sent Goalielocks and his GF to the store to get supplies for homemade pizzas. The only crust they had available was mini pizzas and a brand I’ve never eaten before. Thankfully, the new crust was mighty tasty and the perfect size.


Hubby and the Mayor are back to it tonight. That is back at hockey practice as we resume our normal schedule. This of course means a mad dash until SAHOF (the state tournament.) I’m loving my new planner and productivity stickers. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay on top of our collective, crazy schedules.

Posted on

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my friends, family and the blogosphere. It’s hard to believe 2021 has come and gone because quite frankly it feels like 2020 never left. 2021 is a year I won’t soon forget although I’d definitely like to forget some of it. In late January, we said goodbye to my Great Grandma, who was a sprite 104 years and 10 months old. To put her age in travel sports terms, she was a 16. Much like Betty White, she lived a full life and had her faculties until the end.

We had some great trips to Charlotte and Utah. Although we’d all like to go up to Minnesota to see our family. We haven’t been up there since 2019, which is the longest we’ve been away since we moved to Florida. Hopefully, we will be able to make the trip as a family in 2022. I’m also looking forward to Momcation 3.0, which has been two years in the making. I can’t wait to see my girls!

2022 will be another landmark as Goalielocks will be graduating high school. This is absolutely crazy since I’m pretty sure he was born yesterday. When he graduates, he’ll graduate with some great credentials. He’ll have his medical administrative certificate, telemetry, phlebotomist, medical assistant and pharmacy tech certificates. Thankfully, he’s been able to do clinicals this year, which is great. This will help these kids decide if they really want to pursue a career in medicine before spending money on college.

We had a great New Year’s Eve at the rink watching the Mayor and his friends play in a 4-on-4 tournament. The kids had a blast, but I think the parents may have had more fun. Perhaps, they had too much fun. I’m only kidding there’s no such thing as hockey parents having too much fun. After the tournament, we headed to a friend’s house for dinner and then all drop. Unfortunately, the Mayor had a headache, so we left around 11:00 pm.

Now we’re watching the Winter Classic. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Wild decided to show up. To be fair, we are missing some key players. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have a competitive game and not a blow out. By the way, it’s so cold there that they have to warm the ice. And people wonder why we moved to Florida! Happy New Year!

Posted on

2021

2021 is almost over and I can’t wait. It’s not been an awesome year in many respects. On the other hand, it’s been a fantastic year. Professionally, I excelled an am a top producer on my team. More importantly I love my job. I look forward to what 2022 will bring me from a professional standpoint.

2021 saw us move our son out of his first apartment. This was quite the milestone for all of us. Fortunately, we had a great deal of support from our family both emotionally and literally. My folks travelled to Utah to help us get Jake packed. We wanted to take as much work of his shoulders as we could. Thankfully, we did a great job getting him situated while maximizing his free time.

This fall has brought a number of challenges, not all of which will be shared here, that seemed insurmountable. First, I broke my little toe. How something so little can hurt so much is a mystery to me. Also, I learned to avoid MD Now at all costs. Then the Hubby nearly sawed the tips of his fingers off. Again this experience reiterated why we should continue to avoid MD Now. Next a goon kicked the Mayor in the thigh with his skate resulting in a large gash. Fortunately, MedExpress was able to treat him .

Of course one of the biggest challenge of the early fall was saying goodbye to Maya. She has been such an important part of our life for the last twelve years. I miss being greeted by her deep bark when I come home. We miss here dearly and so do Anakin and Athena. They’re adjusting well, but Athena was depressed for a couple of months after Amaya passed.

This year I did a great job of running and doing BBG regularly. I’ll definitely look to continue this trend in 2022. Although to be honest, I’ve taken off the last week and a half due to a cold. I finally started running again Tuesday and my lungs felt like they were going to explode. My run today and yesterday went much better and my lungs feel good. Tomorrow we’ll ring in the New Year with a 4 on 4 tournament at Skatezone. Should be fun.