Back to Life, Back to Reality!

Ouch. That's all I can say. Whata rude awakening. We leave sun, sand, the ocean...for this: drift covered roads, sub-zero temps, at least the sun is shining. Made the trip home in record time-we left Tim's place at 3:30 and got home here at 11:30 am our time, after a one hour trip to Cracker Barrel in Rockford. Boo yah!
So it's back to life as usual, I guess. Or not. Our new Service Advisor, Valerie, starts at the shop on Monday. Shelli is starting to get close to having her baby boy, and we figured out a way for her to carry on shop responsibilities while not having to have daycare, and the same for me (still work at the shop, but be home with the kids after school). Valerie comes to us from having worked at a shop in Madison for 2 years. She has been trained by ATI (our business coaching firm in Baltimore), and will hopefully take minimal training. So we have a bit of an adjustment period, then hopefully things will settle themselves down, allowing some type of a balance in our schedules---I won't hold my breath just yet!
You'll be able to tell the load change by when this gets updated next--a sure tell-tale sign that I've got an ounce of free time to update and not feel guilty about goofing off!!
Shhhh...the ocean is calling!

News of the Day

We left our lazy days back in Orlando and headed over to Ormond Beach today. The kids had their faces painted and played in the (thankfully) heated pools. It was still in the mid-sixties yesterday. No complaining here, though. I saw the temps back there in WI and 4 inches of snow...no thanks!

Big news here in Ormond-by-the-Sea yesterday-a 15.5 foot whale washed up on shore. Tim wasn't here to see it, but his neighbor said she saw it and it headed down to Daytona before they were able to take it in. There's an article on it at:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newFLAG03ENV012708.htm

Just found it interesting!

We're just catching up on some homework today with Mallory. It is amazing how much they do in a day at school! This is why I don't like taking the kids out of school for vacations during the school year!! It's all worth it, though.

Here's your "Are you smarter than a third-grader" question for the day:

Name 10 perfect squares under 100.

I had to look it up on wikipedia!! Maybe that doesn't say much for me, but Dand and Tim didn't know either.

Long story short

Almost 3 months since the last post. Hmmm...holidays, year-end for the business, back to school...the excuses go on and on. The truth is that I've gotten so wrapped up in living life that I'm not taking any time to reflect. I can say, though, that I've gotten closer to that point that I wrote about at my last post of being able to be just a little bit more organized, both time and space.
It doesn't really even make sense for me to go back and recap the past three months. You all know, there's no, "long story short" in my world!
Ironically enough, we are in Florida again. We did not use up our "we're not buying a timeshare" points last time, so we mustered up a return trip.
-Left on Tuesday night about 10 pm
-Got here Wednesday night about 11 pm
-Spent the night at Pulford's apartment in Ormand Beach
-Thursday, went across the street to the ocean, the boys fished. Mal and I went for a little walk on the shore. Had lunch at the Golden Lion, (mid-day cocktails said, "Let the vacation begin!"). Back to the low-tide to catch some Whitings, not enough for supper, though.
-Packed it up and moved it out-Orlando, here we come.
-Friday: According to Dan & Tara-relaxing with some work inbetween; Mal: some fun, but became boring when nobody would play in the pool with her (i.e.-homesick for friends); Christian: lots of fun between the pool, the hot tub, and our room.
-We are staying at a Hilton Grand Vacations Club. Last time we stayed at the other one, closer to Sea World. This one is a bit smaller, but has many more ammenities and is much newer. It is nice, because we save $$ by eating here and just hanging out.
-Yestarday, it was mostly sunny with a bit of a breeze. It was one of those days that if there's not any breeze, it is warm, but if the wind blows, you feel chilly! Probably in the high 60's. Eat your heart out, Wisconsin!!!
-We'll be heading out tomorrow to head back over by Pulford for a day or two. He has a big test to take on Monday, so we'll see how that goes.

Check out Mal's own blog at: www.thelifeofmalgal.blogspot.com