Play Ball!

You may all recall that my aunt/uncle and gang have been visiting us from IL every March for the last several years.  Their trips are planned to coincide with start of the Cardinals Spring Training Season in Jupiter and while I am too busy (see previous post...LOL!) to attend any games this time around, they have been at the ball field nearly every afternoon.

They arrived to gorgeous weather and have been staying in an equally gorgeous 4 bedroom three bath home complete with a resort style outdoor living area. My parents were also here for a few days and needless to say, we've had some absolutely wonderful al fresco gatherings.  They are such a fun group and we look forward to their visits every year.

Great company, great food and of course, great drinks.

My compliments to Pat, our resident bartender.  :-)  It was beyond yummy.

Feeding Frenzy

The last week has been crazy to infinity and beyond.  Securing new jobs was easy.  Finding a decent rental home was beyond insane.  I won't go into all of details of my week but house hunting (which soon turned to apartment hunting) consumed my every waking moment for over a week.  Who knew the rental competition was so fierce????  It's like sharks circling chum around here.  Seriously.

I was fortunate enough to be one of the first callers on a home that went up early, early Sunday morning.  (Fortunate because I was stalking all of the rental sites hourly.)  The owner had stipulated "No Pets" but I charmed my way into letting me see it an hour later. By the end of that afternoon, he'd had 30+ inquiries.  Within another twenty-four hours he had over fifty, many of them offering to take the house "sight unseen."  (Feeding Frenzy!)  The charms of a grandma, some very cute photos of Fin with Marley, along with a great credit report on their part finally convinced him that we were "the ones." The deal was finalized on Tuesday and I cannot even begin to tell you the relief I felt at that point.   Had this fallen through their only other option would have been a second floor apartment. Definitely not ideal with a baby.

On the afternoon that I was meeting him to (hopefully) close the deal (he had two others lined up immediately behind us) Colleen sent this photo to me along with a cute little message...

              
        "Here if he needs a family photo, aren't we cute! We deserve a home!"  

Seriously, how could anyone not rent to them?

They will be driving the moving van down on the 20th, there are meetings at the hospital on the 21st and 23rd and somewhere in between they'll be moving into the new place and finishing up the details on their current place.  Their jobs officially start on the 28th. The next few weeks will be just as crazy but at least they will be in a nice home in a quiet neighborhood.  The best part?  Fin will only twelve minutes from Grandma.  :-)  

Slam Dunk

As most of you know, both my son and daughter-in-law are RNs currently working in Orlando. They've been discussing moving here for quite some time but had to wait until Jay's contract at his hospital had been honored, which it now has.

A week ago they both applied for nursing positions at our local hospital and amazingly both had interviews scheduled immediately.

They arrived Sunday night, each interviewed on Monday (she in the morning and he in the afternoon) and both left their respective interviews with great job offers which they both in turn accepted. (Same departments but different campus locations.)  I do believe that was the most productive day ever.

The plan is that they will each work three 12 hour shifts a week, one of which will overlap.  The overlapping day will be a Grandma day.  :-)  That way they both have two days home alone with Fin as well as two days off together.  The new jobs start on the 28th.  (Yes, March 28th!)  It's going to be crazy for awhile but I have no doubt that we will all fall into a nice routine.

They applied, they interviewed, they conquered.  Easy-Peasy.  :-)  

Brief Hiatus

Good morning.  Just popping in really quick to let you know I'll be offline for a bit.  Fin and Fam arrived last night so things are going to be a bit hectic here for a few days.  I'll be back at the end of the week with updates.  I hope everyone has an awesome week.

More Musings

More random musings on my part today.


Two of my all time favorite television shows are the original Star Trek and The X Files.  (For the record, my top three would include The Walking Dead.)  While I haven't been able to interest Meg in the former, the latter two have grown on her and we look forward to watching both the old and the new episodes together.


As many of you probably know, The X Files premiered in 1993.  I caught that first episode and, with the aid of a VCR, watched every single one of them until the series finale in 2002. (Yes, I was very sad.)  When it was announced last year that Mulder and Scully were making a return in the form of a six part mini series, I introduced Meg to the show via online streaming.  It will come as no big surprise that her favorite episodes are those dealing with monsters (think BigFoot) rather than aliens. :-)  We've been anxiously awaiting the mini series which sadly ended Monday evening.  While I would never publish any spoilers I will say that I am heartened by the fact that the producers left it open to the possibility of another season.  :-)


On the Star Trek front.  When it comes to gifts, I am a very hard person to buy for so I'm making it easy on all of my family and friends this year.  Roll your eyes all you'd like but this is tops on my wish list.   USS Enterprise Drone.  'nuff said.


Finally, what blog post would be complete without including an adorable photo of Fin?

Given the opportunity I have no doubt that the kid would have immediately started gnawing but thankfully his mama cut it into toddler sized pieces.  It goes without saying that he loved it.  LOL!

Snippets

There's really not much to "report" on my end lately as it's been rather quiet around here.  This is definitely not a bad thing.

My local book club, Fine Books & Spirits, met last week.  (Love that name!)  Our book was The Stranger by Harlan Coben.  It's an interesting whodunnit that earned 4 stars from me on my GoodReads review.  Our upcoming March selection is In the Fall by Jeffrey Lent.  I'm anxious to get started on it but first I must read A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, the February selection for my Miami bookclub that meets next weekend.  So many books, so little time.

I'm really wanting to watch the new JJ Abrams mini series based on Steven King's novel 11/22/63, which I read not long after it's release. The eight part series is available only on Hulu so it looks like another streaming service is in my near future.

Now for some random photos....

My Valentine's gift from Randy.  He knows me oh so well.  :-)

A silly screenshot of Meg using some SnapChat filters.  I thought it was rather cute.

And now for Fin.  Here are a text and photo that I received from Colleen last Saturday....

"Fin in a food coma after eating lobster, 

salmon, filet mignon and a 

peanut butter chocolate dessert 

at Seasons 52"

This kid may look like his mama but he definitely eats like his daddy.  LOL!!!

I Like Big Spoons and I Cannot Lie

As I mentionedin my last post, we had the pleasure of Fin's company for four days last weekend. Thankfully we also had the pleasure of my parent's company as well.  I'm not sure Randy and Meg would have been fed otherwise. Seriously.

This little guy is THE BUSIEST boy I know.

He has a very consistent schedule starting at 6:00 AM every morning. His only nap comes at 9:30 and lasts only until 11:15 AM.  Bedtime is at 7:00 PM. Every single minute in between is spent either eating, moving or playing.  

He is a very, very good little boy with the best of temperaments but man oh man is he ever busy. There's not a knob he didn't pull, a lever he didn't push, a latch he didn't wiggle, a bookshelf he didn't empty, a drawer he didn't open, a table he didn't clear, a dog crate he didn't relocate, or a remote he didn't try.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.  If he knew something was off-limits he would first look at me (awaiting my "No, No, No"), proceed to do it and then come and give me a hug.  Such a cute little stinker.

His favorite "toy" of the weekend, by far, was a slotted plastic spoon which I gave him while I was cooking breakfast.   It began like this...

He used it for breakfast...

He helped the dogs eat...

He carried it everywhere he went...

(He loved Miss Catherine's peaches, much to Meg's chagrin.)

He even took it on our trips to the Starbucks drive thru.

You might notice that he does not appear very happy in this last photo.  There's a reason for that. When it comes to big spoons, he's not a very good sharer.

Needless to say, we let him take the spoon home with him on Monday afternoon.  :-)