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Two Days

We’re now two days away from the big day. I’ve spent most of the day fending off a tension/migraine headache, which is so lame. Hopefully, it will be gone by tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ve been alternating between cold and heat to loosen up my neck and shoulders. Fortunately, I’ve still managed to be somewhat productive. I got the pictures ready for the rehearsal dinner and wedding. And I got the cookies under control. I’ll be baking a double or triple batch of butter cookies tonight.

I binge-watched Netflix’s Decameron as I alternated between the heat and ice. The Decameron, by Nicholas Boccaccio, is one of my favorite books. It follows a group of friends who leave Florence for the countryside to try and avoid the plague. While in the countryside, they spend their time telling short stories daily. The stories are amazing. It’s said that the Decameron inspired Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The limited series on Netflix doesn’t follow the book per se but follows nobles taking refuge in the countryside. I have quite enjoyed it.

Tonight I’ll have all three boys under one roof. What a gift! They’ll be playing video games and eating their favorite snacks. The Hubby is making jerk chicken with black beans and rice. One of Jake’s, and all of ours’, favorite meals. While they play video games, I’ll be mixing up more cookies and binge-watching a different show. Poor Ani will have to sleep in his cage tonight since he can’t be trusted with visitors. Before I forget, I have to say thanks to my dear coworker Sherry for the beautiful happy hanky. Two Days!

What’s the story behind your nickname?

My great great Grandfather’s name was Andreas. He was born at the Trandem farm in Romskog, Norway. We were lucky to visit the place where our ancestors were born in 2017. The doctors thought I was going to be a boy, but I surprised them all. My folks named me Andrea and my nickname became Andie because they thought I was going to be a boy.

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Six More Days

Six more days until Jake and Melly get married! This morning I crossed a couple more things off my list, which felt good. We needed a few things for the bar and then photos for the in-memoriam table. Tomorrow I’ll pick up the photos and frames for the table. I still have a few more items to go. Honestly, the list seems never-ending just like it did when I was preparing to get married. Nonetheless, it will be here sooner rather than later and I can’t wait.

Yesterday I baked mini chocolate chip cookies with great success. Today I attempted sugar cookies with cookie cutters in the shape of birds and Daschunds. Unfortunately, the sugar cookies were an unmitigated disaster. The birds look like overcooked blobs, while the Daschunds look like dicks. Perhaps if you were hallucinating, you could see they’re birds or dogs, but probably not. They were so bad I threw them all away. I’ll be making the sugar cookies for Friday in their regular, boring, circular shape. Oh well, there was no harm in trying. Six more days!

What do you listen to while you work?

I like to listen to heavy metal between calls at work. If it’s not super busy, I’ll watch a live Wild Life Safari filmed in South Africa instead of listening to music. While on a call, I mute the safari but keep the closed captioning on so I can still watch it live. It’s amazing!

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Thirteen Days

We’re now thirteen days away from the wedding. Yesterday, we checked quite a few items from our rehearsal dinner to-do list. Goalielocks went to Men’s Warehouse yesterday and they fitted him for his tuxedo yesterday, which was a relief. He’s the last one to get equipped. He has finals the week of the wedding. Hopefully, his finals are early in the week, so there’s no interference with the wedding. Fortunately, we can pick up his tux on Wednesday, so he won’t have to worry about it. Meanwhile, Jake is at the Reserves this weekend. He was greeted at his hotel by a nice, big black bear.

A couple of big items on the to-do list remain. Namely ordering food for the rehearsal dinner, picking a dress for said dinner, mani/pedi scheduling, buy shoes and a handbag to go with my dress. I’ve found a couple of options on The Real Real and Poshmark. I guess I’ll have to decide on it soon. Since I won’t wear the outfit outside of the wedding, I decided to buy the items consigned. After the wedding, I’ll consign the items again. It’s a lot less wasteful and much more practical. Anyway, I’ve been managing the event in a project planning document, so it wouldn’t turn into a giant cluster.

Unfortunately, I did have a bit of a setback yesterday when I sprained my shoulder or tore the rotator cuff. My range of motion is a lot better than it was yesterday, but I still can’t completely raise my arm laterally. Consequently, I’ll have to heavily modify my workout plan to work around the injury. I have my shoulder in a compression wrap that has a built in ice pack. It’s been a godsend. I’ve been icing the shoulder pretty consistently to help with the inflammation, but I’d love to take a nice hot shower with a lavender shower steamer. The urgent care doctor said to avoid heat for the first couple of days. Anyway, I have thirteen days for it to heal!

List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

  • My family is my world.
  • I will never not have a dog. I’m a dog person and can’t see myself living without one.
  • My boys have grown into amazing adults.
  • The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup Champions! Watching them win was surreal!
  • Dogs should live a lot longer than they do. It’s cruel that they leave us way too soon.
  • Traveling and exploring the world is the best gift you can give yourself or your loved one.
  • I love getting lost in the mountains of the American Southwest. Hiking in Utah with my boys was one of my favorite experiences.
  • Attending concerts is an absolute must!
  • In summer, it will rain in the afternoon.
  • Take pleasure in life’s small moments because life is fleeting.
  • After reading social media responses to yesterday’s events, it’s clear we’re being given the options we deserve. People are terrible and our candidates show it.
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Twenty-Five

Twenty-five is how old my eldest son Jake turned today. What’s odd, however, is that I’m only 33. Somehow the math just isn’t mathing. I can’t believe twenty-five years have passed since this amazing person entered the world. My Hubby and I were just kids when he was born. Now, especially today and with his impending wedding, I’m feeling a bit old.

Twenty-five years ago there were no digital cameras and I hadn’t even purchased my first cell phone yet. My hubby was still rocking a pager. My parents had cellphones, but they were the size of bricks and you had to pay by the minute. I can’t believe how much has changed in our world since he was born. We’ve gone from an analog society to a fully digital society. New Star Wars movies no longer have the novelty that they did in 1999. Who wasn’t excited to see the Phantom Menace.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to celebrate the big birthday with Jake as he’s home in Tally. Fortunately, he’s coming down for the 4th, so we’ll celebrate him then. Meanwhile, we’ll watch the Panthers continue to choke in the Stanley Cup Finals. I’m not willing to get my hopes up at this point because the Cats will break my heart. No matter what, this team has been so fun to watch this season. I’m excited to see how their success will continue growing the Florida game.

Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

There are a couple of foods that bring me back to my childhood. Creamy cucumber salad is one of them. I used to love it when my great-grandma would make this with cucumbers straight from her garden or the farmer’s market. Pickles roll-ups, aka Minnesota sushi, are another food that transports me back to the 1980s.

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Bridal Shower

Yesterday we celebrated Melly at her bridal shower. Her aunt Cathy threw the shower and it was magnificent. I felt a little bit older as the shower progressed. It feels like just yesterday I was celebrating at my bridal shower. It’s almost incomprehensible that my son is now the oldest to be marrying the woman of his dreams. She’s also the kind woman that we hoped and prayed our boys would marry.

For the shower, they served brunch, which I love. I baked some caramel rolls, especially for the occasion. They were so decadent and tasty. I can’t make those too often or everyone I know would be diabetic. Meanwhile, Cathy and Kylie had prepared a buffet of incredible brunch food to accompany the rolls. Both also served as brewmasters mixing up a signature strawberry Bellini cocktail for the event. It was mighty tasty and mighty strong.

It was a lot of fun celebrating Melody. I was so excited to be able to give her a shower gift finally. I bought her and Jake matching bride and groom aprons. Additionally, I made her a family cookbook with pictures of them and our family together, it was my favorite gift. It’s very similar to the cookbook I made for my family earlier in the year. I plan to customize a cookbook for each of the kids and my nieces and nephews when they get married. This way, we will preserve our family baking traditions.

The bridal shower was the marquis event of the weekend, but there was something else we had to celebrate. The Panthers are going back to the Stanley Cup!!!! Hopefully, the boys can get it down this year and bring Lord Stanley home to Sunrise. The cup starts on Saturday. I’d love to go, but the fees on these tickets are utterly ridiculous. The actual ticket prices are reasonable, I think, but the fees are something else.

List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Three books that impacted me are The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho, Resurrection, by Leo Tolstoy and Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. I found each of these books inspired me to by my best, to choose forgiveness, and live without regret.

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Cold Weather

How do you feel about cold weather?

How do I feel about cold weather? Well, I moved to South Florida in 2005 from Minnesota and haven’t looked back. To be fair, however, I would love for the heat index to be lower than 100 today. That said, I prefer the steadiness of Florida’s heat to Minnesota’s rollercoaster weather.

Ironically, I couldn’t tolerate the cold when I lived in Minnesota. Now that I live in Florida and have been diagnosed with Graves, I can’t tolerate the heat. Thank god my kids play hockey! One of the nice things about a warmer climate is your old injuries don’t hurt as much. Those old injuries resurface as soon as I travel north into the cold.

Enough about the cold weather though, we had an awesome weekend. We played games, ate pizza, and watched the Panthers beat the Bruins with Jake, Melly, and Company on Friday night. It was an awesome hockey game and fun to share the experience with our expanded family. Saturday we headed to Fort Lauderdale for a birthday party. We had the best time. It was nice to actually leave the house.

I spent yesterday trying to shake off the sinus headache that had started Saturday. It took all day and several Aleve, but I did feel better by the end of the day. I did, however, manage to make some bread and get the laundry done. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to making the cookies our graduate wanted. The hubby and I started watching the Timberwolves game last night. It was game 7 of the series. Sadly, it didn’t start well. Consequently, our superstitions from hockey left us to turn off the game. It was a happy surprise waking up to see the Wolves win.

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Milestone

We hit another milestone last week as the Mayor turned 18. It’s incredible to me that I no longer have any children under the age of 18. It’s been a lot of milestone moments, but can someone tell me where the time has gone? I’m pretty sure I just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. Also, I can’t possibly be getting old this quick. Time is an absolute thief and someone needs to stop it.

We celebrated the birthday with Jake, Mellie, and the Hubby with dinner around Sushi Yama. Unfortunately, Goalielocks couldn’t join us as he’s staying in Orlando for the summer term. As for the waitress, I think we either impressed her or horrified her with the sheer amount of food we ordered. The Mayor and Goalielocks always order chicken fried rice and the chicken katsu meal. It’s a perfect double order because the fried rice is still phenomenal the next day. We left the restaurant well-fed and happy. It was a great way to celebrate his milestone birthday.

After dinner, it was pretty late by old people’s standards, the kids headed to Menchies for dessert. Afterward, they headed to Mellie’s to play some Dungeons and Dragons with her family. Meanwhile, the hubby and I headed home, so we’d get in before bedtime. I find keeping my sleep schedule consistent has been super important to my well being. Consequently, I try not to deviate from the schedule too much. It was nice to have Jake and Mellie at the birthday dinner. They’re quite obviously two of the Mayor’s most favorite people.

The Mayor with his brothers

Are you a leader or a follower?

It depends on the situation. When I’m hiking through a national park in search of a monument, I’m a leader. After leading for too long at work, I quite enjoy being a follower.

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Spring Cleaning Essentials

Spring cleaning essentials: the must-have items to refresh your home. As the days grow longer and the temperature rises, it’s time to shake off the winter blues and embrace the freshness of spring. Along with the blossoming flowers, spring brings the annual tradition of cleaning and decluttering our homes. Having the right tools can make a world of difference when sprucing up your living space. Here are some essential items to consider adding to your spring cleaning arsenal:

  1. All-Purpose Cleaner: A versatile all-purpose cleaner is a must-have for tackling various surfaces throughout your home. Look for a cleaner that is effective yet gentle enough for use on countertops, appliances, and bathroom fixtures. Opt for eco-friendly options to minimize your environmental impact.
  2. Microfiber Cloths: Ditch the disposable paper towels and opt for reusable microfiber cloths instead. These cloths are highly effective at trapping dust and dirt without leaving behind streaks or lint. Use them for dusting, wiping down surfaces, and cleaning mirrors and windows.
  3. Vacuum Cleaner with Attachments: A reliable vacuum cleaner is essential for keeping floors clean. Be careful to not overlook the importance of attachments for tackling hard-to-reach areas. Look for a vacuum with a crevice tool for cleaning those areas. Finally, It should also have a brush attachment for upholstery and curtains. I love my Shark Rotator vacuum.
  4. Mop and Bucket or steam mop: Give your floors a deep clean with a mop and bucket combo. Choose a mop with a reusable microfiber or sponge head that can be easily wrung out to prevent streaks. For hardwood floors, consider using a gentle cleaning solution specifically formulated for wood surfaces.
  5. Scrub Brushes: For stubborn stains and grime, a scrub brush is your best friend. Keep a variety of brushes on hand, including a stiff-bristled brush for scrubbing tile grout and a soft-bristled brush for delicate surfaces like glass shower doors.
  6. Organizational Tools: Spring cleaning isn’t just about tidying up—it’s also an opportunity to declutter and organize your space. Invest in storage bins, baskets, and drawer organizers to corral clutter and make it easier to find what you need.
  7. Air Purifier: Improve the air quality in your home by investing in an air purifier. These devices help remove allergens, dust, and other pollutants from the air, creating a healthier indoor environment for you and your family.
  8. Squeegee: Keep your windows sparkling clean with a squeegee. This simple tool is highly effective at removing streaks and water spots, leaving your windows crystal clear and letting in more natural light.
  9. Odor Eliminator: Banish unpleasant odors from your home with an odor eliminator spray or diffuser. Choose a fresh, clean scent like lemon or lavender to impart a welcoming atmosphere throughout your space.
  10. Rubber Gloves: Last but not least, protect your hands from harsh cleaning chemicals and bacteria with a pair of rubber gloves. Opt for gloves with a textured grip to prevent slipping and ensure a secure hold on cleaning tools.

With these essential items in your cleaning arsenal, you’ll be well-equipped to tackle any spring cleaning challenge that comes your way. So roll up your sleeves, open the windows, and let the rejuvenating spirit of spring inspire you to refresh and revitalize your home. Happy cleaning!

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Mother’s Day Weekend

Mother’s Day weekend was fabulous! I had all three of my boys home, which was simply amazing. It started with a BBQ and the Panther’s game at our friend’s house Friday night. The game was incredible! Thankfully, the Panthers came away with a victory. It was a great night with great food, great company and some great hockey.

Saturday I went dress shopping with Mellie and her mom. We ventured out to Boca Town Center, which was more crowded than I’d ever seen it. The goal was to determine Terri’s preferred styles and explore color options. As the mother of the groom and mother of the bride, shopping becomes complicated. You want to compliment the wedding party but don’t want to be too close. Also, you want to be age-appropriate without being too matronly. It’s a delicate balance. Nonetheless, it was a great time.

While the girls were shopping the boys enjoyed golfing at Drive Shack in West Palm. Goalielocks impressed his brothers with his golfing skills. After shopping, I headed up to Gardens to have dinner with my fellow hockey moms. It had been way too long since I last saw them! We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Avocado’s Cantina. I had two tacos that were out of this world. While I had dinner with the girls, the boys hung out and played video games.

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Sunday started with strawberries and waffles, which is always a great way to start the day. Before heading to Melody’s, I completed a nice run and yoga session. The kids, my boys, Melody and her cousins, cooked the Moms a special Mother’s Day dinner. The kids did such a great job decorating and cooking the meal. They decorated the table with photos and frames they had made for us. Additionally, they arranged to have photos taken of each family, which you know is Moms love. The best part was the video they created about mothers. It was the sweetest, funniest thing I’ve ever watched. They did such a good job! Another Panthers ‘ win was the cherry on top of a phenomenal Mother’s Day.

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

Financial freedom and the ability to pick up and go whenever I want would be amazing. Perhaps this is a bit offbeat, but I’d also like for health insurance to not suck.

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Blah

Blah is exactly how I’m feeling now that I’m back to work after a spectacular week in Mexico. There’s something about coming back from vacation that makes work extra miserable. Of course, my AC stopped working last night, which makes it even worse. I just hate not being busy and being hot. It’s not a great combination for me. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get some work down in our room during my downtime.

While everything is feeling blah, I’m pretty excited about my new bird feeder. It’s got a camera! I set it up with the hubby’s help on Sunday afternoon. It’s so cool! The video quality is higher than our ring. Also, it’s really fun to see the birds and critters up close. We’ve consistently had the grackles, blue jays, and squirrels at the new feeder. I’m pretty sure the squirrel is a hoarder. He likes to fill up his cheeks, disappear, and then come back. The close-up view gives you a chance to appreciate the beautiful colors and patterns on the birds.

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

My favorite is Christmas! I love all the baking, family time, and laughing. It’s always fun to host brunch. Later in the day, we usually play games. It’s a great time.

Apparently, it’s” long list of ex-lovers” not star-crossed or Starbucks lovers