Ok. So, if you thought I went MIA because I hadn't posted in forever, I assure you, all is fine and well. BUT, for whatever reason, Blogger stopped wanted to upload pictures. I finally decided to catch the blog up, just sans pictures, hoping maybe someday I can go back and add them. But, in the meantime, I had months worth of things to tell you all about. But now, I've done that. I'm actually in the current month, which is awesome- because I had to tell you about my last cruise way back in November, before I filled you in on my next one I have coming up next week. Also, our month is about to be BANANAS. Literally, Asa and I will be home four days in a 28 day time span. So, buckle up. You're about to get vacation after vacation from us.
For now, though, we've just celebrated our Florida Anniversary. That's right, it's been 18 years since two crazy kids up and moved three babies, two dogs, a cat, and a beta fish to Florida. Best decision I've ever made. I can't imagine what life would have been like without living here. Yes, Florida has it's faults. The traffic is terrible. My god, the traffic. There's SO MANY people living here now (I contend I've been here long enough, I'm not part of the problem). The summers are down right brutal. And the current political climate is not exactly freedom and inclusivity. That sucks. But, day to day, I do love it here still. I do appreciate all the things I have in my life that I love so much, I would not have had it not been for moving here. My house. My pups. My homeschooled kids. My neighbors. My library. My animal shelter. Just, all of it.
We celebrated by having a pretty blow out weekend. It started Friday with tickets in Orlando to see Fall Out Boy. It had been Hayden and Calib's big Christmas present, and they were finally cashing in. It was an awesome concert. For real, it was SO good. There was fire, and beach balls and snow and magic tricks and piano and a giant dog that sang along. Jimmy Eat World opened, as did the Maine, and they were all pretty awesome. We finished up with a midnight run to White Castle, and I never felt so 22.
Asa and I also had date night to see the first Rowdies match of the season (it's Tampa's soccer team out of Saint Pete for those of you who don't know). The weather was perfect, and the game was exciting, all though it did end in a tie. Still, a fun night out.
We filled in the weekend with a trip to Lake Eola to see the swans (though we couldn't feed them thanks to a bird flu outbreak), drinks at outdoor bars (No Vacancy may be a new favorite), awesome food including bbq, crepes, and seafood nachos. And of course, there were gorgeous water views. All things I love about my home state, and all things I'm grateful to have in March. (Don't ask me that question in August).
In other March news, we've been a bit dog crazy here. Taking care of neighbor dogs, and walking our favorites at the shelter. We had social media training the other week, and we're going to start helping with some pictures and outreach for the Pasco County Pups, plus we've been working with these two, very scared bonded girls named Cherry and Blossom, and making some progress to get them out of their shells.
Teen D&D is over for Asa until the end of April, but he's still been running Chess Club at the library. I, meanwhile, had a crafting and a cricut class for March. We've also been going once (about to be twice) a month to the Senior Center to play chess with some of the seniors there. So, you know, volunteer work is going well.
In non-volunteer, but kind of volunteer work, we also all had our training to work the polls. Today (the 19th) is Florida's presidential primary for Republicans (literally president is the only thing on the ballot). But, here I am blogging- because I was an alternate for Ballot Distributor, and I didn't get picked. But you know who did get picked? Calib and Asa. Asa is running the machine that tabulates your ballot, while Calib, for whatever reason was assigned PRECINCT SUPERVISOR! He is running his own precinct. Not even fair. He had to go pick up his bag and keys and stuff yesterday. The downside was everyone got up at 5 this morning to get it all set up- and I was up at 5 in case they called me as an alternate (though, I didn't have a car to get anywhere, since Asa and Calib are at two different precincts.) They will get paid for their work though, so it's not quite volunteer. But, yea. That's why I've been catching up on blogs today- I've been up for hours and theres nobody but my puppies to talk to (Hayden is still asleep, and later today they'll be at the library for hours).
In other news, we did celebrate Dom and Nando's birthdays a bit late- we all got together and went to Beasley Farms to feed the animals and buy some plants, and then went roller skating, which was super fun. Not everyone was great at it (sorry, Hayden), but we all had fun: Dom's dad and sister, OG Teresa and Mike, Marcus, Dom, Nando, Hayden, Genesis, Asa and me. Jake and Ama even joined us for the Beasley part.
Another day we took Hayden and Genesis to the aquarium. We pet jellyfish, said hi to the axolotls, identified bird poop frogs, and even took the Wild Dolphin Cruise, where you get to go out into the bay on a boat to spot dolphins. It was really pretty cool (and a great deal for passholders at $12), we spotted lots of birds and pelicans, but also quite a few dolphins, including some bow jumpers at the front of a cargo ship and some jumpers behind our boat in its wake. Afterwards, we took Genesis and Hayden over to Sparkman Wharf and split the taco deal, and got a few donuts at Everglazed. And, we spotted our cruise ship in port that we'll be on next week!
Of course, we did the whole Pi Day pizza thing at Blaze: twice in fact. Asa and I went for lunch since we were over that way after spending the morning at the shelter, and then we took Calib for dinner. And, it was Thurs-yays at Starbucks so we got bogo drinks both times too (since Blaze is right next to Starbucks).
And per March traditions, we have all filled out our brackets to see who will be the winner of dinner. I'll miss most of the tournament, but I'll get the first round and part of the second round in before we head off on our cruise ship to Mexico, Belize, and Honduras.
I think that about covers up to today, so I am officially caught up. Color me impressed.
Next up: A week on the Jade
