moving

Dec272011

Insane in the Membrane or Wow, I Really Need a Normal Sleep Schedule

My life is insane these days. For the last 2 weeks I have been alternating between jobs. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ve been going to my current job as usual. Which means leaving the house around 11, meeting my dad and driving into Coral Gables. Tuesday and Thursday, I’ve been getting up at the ass crack of dawn, leaving the house by 5:45am and getting to my new job before the sun even rises. Then sleeping in the car for 20-25 minutes until work time at 7am.

Tuesday and Thursday, I am also seriously dead to the world by about 8pm. Tonight I am fighting to stay awake until at least 10pm. Normally I stay awake until 1-2am with no problems. Well, except for in the morning when I don’t want to get out of bed! This morning I slept late (4:50am) and still managed to get out on time.

Perhaps my body is aware of the fact that in just a few short days, this will be my new schedule Monday through Friday. A girl can hope, right?

The good news is that I will get out of work around 2:30-3pm. The bad news is I am unbelievably exhausted and have zero energy to do anything but sleep.

On the flip side, I absolutely adore my new boss R and my new job. She is about my age (possibly younger) and a big bundle of energy. She’s like the Energizer Bunny. We seem to be a really good fit with my extreme [office] organization skills. Just the few days I’ve been working there, comments have been made about the differences with past employees. Hey, I can’t help it. I’m not trying to make anyone look bad, that’s just how I am.

We really do need to find a closer place to live. I currently have a 45 mile/ 1 hour trek from Homestead to Miami Beach whereas hubby drives about 4 miles. No, I don’t begrudge him a short drive bc the tables were turned in NC. I drove 5-6 miles to the YMCA and he drove 30-35 miles into Raleigh every day. Plus, my car is a lot newer and in better shape. I’ve been looking at the Cutler Bay and South Kendall area for us, but without a good realtor helping us out, I don’t know that I’ll be able to find anything good. It seems as though only about 20% of apartment complexes are posted online and Zillow hasn’t been much help either.

So, if you live in a good neighborhood in Miami – Kendall/ Cutler Bay preferably – I would seriously appreciate it if you could check around your neighborhood for For Rent signs and shoot me the phone numbers. Yes, that warranted being bolded.

Dec182011

Catch Up Post & a Pumpkin Cranberry Biscuit Recipe

So, um, hi there. I can’t believe it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I’ve been here. Lots been happening in my time away. Such as, in chronological order…

I ditched my iPhone for a Samsung Infuse 4G. Yep, I went Android. And I freakin L-O-V-E it!
I designed a knitting pattern for a Checkered Ribs Cowl. And had it tested by a great group of ladies on Ravelry that loved it so much, they each knit 2 versions of it.
Discovered Texts From Bennett – which turned out to be a fake blog, but that doesn’t stop me from laughing until there are tears streaming down my face.
Hubby got back into twitter bc he finally upgraded to a smart phone. His. Mine.
And then he joined FourSquare. His. Mine.
I cooked a lot. Potato soup.
And baked.
Re-read the whole Hunger Games trilogy. Mmm love.
Found some old friends of Facebook.
I interviewed for a job – which required lots of shopping for “modest” clothing due to the religious nature of the position.
And then I got that job. What what..! (I will actually do a full post on this once I begin on January 2nd.)
Thanks to Facebook, I saw a friend get engaged. Another give birth. And another get married.
Looked for a new place to live. After all, driving from Homestead to Miami Beach and sitting in traffic for 2 hours each way every day does not sound like a fun plan to me.
Lola got worms. Eww, I know, but they’re being handled.
We toured Babies R Us one evening and picked out the nursery furniture and crib bedding for out future kids. No, I’m not pregnant. They had the nearest bathroom and then we didn’t leave for another 45 minutes. If you’re wondering, dark wood and monkeys.
Hubby found out he has a nasty respiratory problem – inherited from his father and could pass it to our kids. Well, if we have biological ones, that is.

And all this is courtesy of the new timeline on Facebook. Damn, that thing is helpful!

And now a recipe… Cranberry Pumpkin Breakfast Biscuits
(Snagged from Dig This Chick. She adapted it from this recipe.)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used fresh cranberries, chopped into pieces.)

Preheat oven to 375*.

In a large mixing bowl, or your stand mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Or, you know, don’t sift it. I sure didn’t.
Stir cranberries into mixture until well blended.
Spoon heaping spoonfuls of batter on a prepared cookie sheet. (This means parchment paper… until I ran out of trays and used muffin tins.)
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

They will be soft and moist and divine! I made these for my aunts 60th birthday party and had to walk out of the kitchen to avoid eating more than one of them. Oh yes, I probably could’ve eaten the whole batch. So good!

Jul262011

Adoption Progress through the Foster System

Saturday night at a friends birthday bash, we spoke to one of her co-workers that specializes in placing foster children into homes. SCORE! Unfortunately she only works in Broward county, but we were still able to get some great info. Seeing as we aren’t certain what state we will be living in, we aren’t planning on starting anything in the next couple of months.

She said the home study and other approval processes can take anywhere from 4-9 months. Considering we want a sibling group of 2, we would likely receive placement quicker than parents wanting a single child. Sibling groups fall into the “Special Needs” groups as they don’t want to be split up and can often be more difficult to place.

She offered to be our contact if we ever needed any help even after we move. I love nice people. They’re completely awesome!

Also, every state has different benefits for their children. Florida offers Medicaid for the children until the age of either 18 or 21 depending on circumstances, free college tuition up to age 28 (though maybe it’s age 23; it was loud in the bar) to any public FL university, community college or vocational school, as much therapy as the children (and family) requires, and a great support system. I had to look some of that stuff up on AdoptFlorida.org.

Texas offers the right to inherit (from both adoptive parents and birth parents), adoption reimbursement fees, Medicaid coverage up to age 18 or 21 again depending, counseling/ therapy/ other services for the children (and family), state college tuition assistance. All this (and more) came from the Texas DFPS website.

Great foster adoption resources:
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/
http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/foster/
http://www.theadoptionguide.com/options/foster/

Lots to think about and research now.

May112011

No Dice… Moving On

Well, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now due to the lack of ecstatic posts stating otherwise, I didn’t get the job in Gainesville.

However, being up there surrounded by so many amazing friends that were excited at the prospect of us moving back was a truly fantastic experience. It was pretty eye opening for both of us. Even the people that had never met hubby and only saw pictures on my FB/Twitter pages welcomed him.

It made us realize that we belonged somewhere else where we could be surrounded by friends – our chosen family – in order to be truly happy. So, while the Gainesville trip didn’t yield a new career, it did help us out immensely.

…The search continues…

Mar282011

Coming Atcha From MegaCon in Orlando

Hello from Orlando, FL!
[well, technically we’re home already.. but I’ll still write it like we’re there.]

Steve and I are here for a long weekend for MegaCon, a huge comic/ sci fi/ fandom convention. We drove up early on Friday and after checking into our hotel, came to the Con for a few hours to wander, gawk, snap pictures, and attend a few panels. It’s my first Con and a total blast!

After a few hours at the Con, we had dinner with Marie and Eric at Adobe Gilas at Pointe Orlando. Dinner and the company was fantastic, but poor Steve had been up for 27 hours by the time we crashed back at the hotel around 10:30. It was an early night for us all due to Steve’s 27 hours awake and Marie’s working at the butt-crack of dawn the next morning.

Kevin Sorbo

Saturday we got up super early (a by-product of going to bed super early) and took our time getting ready, eating at Golden Corral (surprisingly good!), then heading back to drop my car off and head to the Con via the I-Drive trolley. I’m actually pretty annoyed that no one at the hotel told us it took exact change only. We didn’t want to spend another $8 on parking, so we walked the 0.8 miles. I know, this doesn’t sound so horrible, right? However, we’ve been walking the equivalent of several (10+) miles each day and my feet already hurt.

C’est la vie! We walked. As Steve sat in on panel after panel, I wandered the main exhibit hall with my cousin Audrey and her daughter Melanie. Mel had her Yellow Rick Road Productions sign and was having fun snapping pictures of costumed attendees and comic book artists holding the sign. I sat in on the James Marsters and Stan Lee (!!) panels with Steve, until he went off to others he was interested in.

Stan Lee!

After a full day of panels, pictures, gawking and enjoying ourselves, we slowly walked back to the hotel and had an early dinner at Johnny Rockets at Pointe Orlando. Mmmm milkshakes and sandwiches. From there, we drove out to East Orlando and spent a few hours with his great aunt and his cousins. Mr. Up-at-4:30am was perfectly fine being out till after midnight. I, on the other hand, was falling asleep on the couch.

Sunday we were up early again, had breakfast at Golden Corral again, then drove to the Con. To me, it was a much more chill day after the insanity and thousands of people on Saturday. We attended a few panels together, then I took off to walk the entire exhibit hall floor, row by row, as he sat in more panels. Seeing Steve so excited was great. He was in his element learning about publishing comics and furthering his passion for drawing. We had dinner at Cattleman’s on I-Drive then ended up back at the hotel where we fell asleep early, yet again. Cattleman’s was good food, but grossly overpriced! $80+ for 2 steaks, a la carte everything and $6 small soups is ridiculous in our opinions!

On Monday, we slept in, checked out of the hotel and then went off to look at the house Steve lived in for several years, then visited again with his family for several hours before getting on the road home. Sadly, it rained like crazy the entire day and followed us back to Miami.

All in all, the weekend was fantastic and I couldn’t be happier that we went. It was like a mini-vacation perfect for our 6 months (almost) of being married.

** These are crappy iPhone camera pictures and I do apologize for their graininess. I have hundreds of higher quality photos that I’ll be posting soon enough. **

Mar212011

Operation New Life Under Way

Several things have happened in the past few weeks that have pushed our timetable up considerably. Most noticeably, I’m sick of moving sideways and ready to move straight up. Ya know, when you hit rock bottom there’s only 2 ways to go: straight up or sideways. Also, getting out of Miami will be the best thing for my mental health. Being here feels like I’m drowning very slowly. More on that below..

In other words, when we’re in Orlando at MegaCon this weekend, we will also be checking out some schools for the hubby and driving around checking out different areas. I know it’s too soon to expect a job interview for Monday, but hopefully that’ll happen soon. At least now with a plan, I can focus much more on the perfect Orlando career and moving ahead with our life.

The down side is that in the off chance that I get a job quickly, we might end up living apart for a brief time. The up side to this is that we will only be a few hours apart. But we are strong and we will be able to handle it! (Honestly, we see each other so little nowadays with our opposing work/sleep schedules that it might not make much of a difference.)

Sure, being in Miami is great as we’re so near to my family, but Orlando is a very short drive up the road. At least coming to visit won’t require a 2 week minimum plane reservation to get a decent price. Hopping in the car and filling up the gas tank a few times to get back for a visit is easy peasy. Getting out of the city I swore to never return to has done some pretty hardcore damage to me over the past year. It’s almost like I’ve reverted to the girl I was when I last lived here. And I really don’t like that girl. Not one bit!

The last time I moved to Orlando, I got a new lease on life. I got rid of the girl I despised so much and became a much stronger person. This time, I will have my husband and partner-in-crime with me and things can only get better. The best part is, we both have family in Orlando and I have several friends that I made the last time I lived there. Unlike my move to NC and not knowing a single person, we will have a great base of friends right off the bat.

And let’s not forget that Orlando = Disney and I have 2 very Disney loving godsons living a mere 2 hours away from there.

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