Sunsets Are My Addiction

As the title of this post implies…sunsets are my addiction.  I’m never (rarely) awake for a sunrise…otherwise, I’d be posting about sunrises too!  The ones that I HAVE been fortunate enough to see have been incredible!

I started this post because I think I’m making some of my Facebook friends sick and tired of my nightly posts of sunset photos.  I figured I could maybe write an occasional sunset report & that will be sufficient to satisfy my addiction of capturing the moments at night when the sky becomes like a living being, almost animated.  And, not piss off my friends.

Here’s a few photos that I’ve taken in the past couple of weeks.

I’ll just say that since we moved into our new house in early April of this year (2013) I have been anxiously awaiting each and every evening as if it were Christmas!  My sunset every evening (or nearly every evening) is nothing less than spectacular!  I can’t help but take pictures!  It’s fun for me to poke the screen on my iPhone in different places in Camera View and see how it changes the photo I’m about to take.  If I touch the trees and allow the camera to focus on them, the sky will sometimes change to a more or less vivid color.  If I touch on the sky and allow the camera to focus there, the colors can change then as well.

What types of things do YOU obsess over?  Leave a comment and let me know.  I know I’m not the only one that has these quirks.

A Long, Busy & Fun Memorial Day Weekend

Our long weekend actually started on Thursday afternoon with lunch at the Hurricane Bar & Grill and running some errands.  Nothing too exciting but I really did want to get the boat out of the garage and go fishing and  I also wanted to get to the beach at some point this weekend!  Neither was in the cards for Thursday though.

Friday started with me taking a quick trip to the local greenhouse with my friend Liz for their “Orphan Sale.”  This is where they mark down plants that have had special care or maybe need some special care.  I was pleasantly surprised to find very few things that looked like it had extra care at some point or that needed it.  I left there with a total bill of $26.00 & the back of my Jeep fully loaded with various plants and blooming flowers that I planned to plant in pots for the front porch at the house sometime during the weekend.  

Jon & I had a few errands to run Friday morning after my trip to the Greenhouse, then we ended up in Melbourne, FL at Best Buy to purchase another Sono’s component for our music system in the house and pool patio areas.  We’re now just waiting for the outdoor speakers that Jon ordered.  While we were in Melbourne, we decided to try to find a decent Mexican restaurant.  Something we’ve found to be very scarce in our area of Florida!  I’m flabbergasted at how hard it is to find a decent Mexican restaurant around here.  You’d think, with the Latin American population & Spanish-speaking folk…there’d be one on every corner, but this is not the case.  Anyway, we found Fiesta Azteca and had a very long, overdue, decent Mexican meal.

The Love Bug season in Florida is now over until the fall.  When we got back home from Melbourne, Jon had some work to do in the office so I took his car to the car wash and got it all clean and shiny inside and out.  No more Love Bug guts to contend with for several months now & if you don’t get that stuff off of your paint, it can damage it quickly.  I think the hand wax we got on both vehicles a couple of months back, really helped!  Here is a pair of Love Bugs that I caught fornicating on our pool patio about a week ago when the season was in full “bloom.”

Friday evening, our friends Liz & Howie came over for a barbecue and a dip in the pool and hot tub.  Jon cooked some huge chicken breasts on the grill and made his special watermelon & cucumber salad which also has a bit of lime zest and chili powder…sounds strange but boy, it’s delicious!  Potatoes & onions on the grill and roasted corn on the cob made our meal complete!

Saturday, we had a few things to do in the morning and one of them took us over by the mall.  We took a shortcut through the mall parking area and on a little mound of grass that created a parking area, were a pair of Sandhill Cranes and a little hatchling.  It was the most adorable little fuzzy thing, still a bit wobbly on his feet.  We pulled into one of the parking spaces to get a closer look and just sat & watched them cruise around and peck for bugs around the base of a tree.  The coolest thing was one of the adult cranes pulled a bug from the dirt and gently held it out for the baby.  The baby tried hard to get a piece but dropped it several times as it seemed too big for him to eat the whole thing.  Finally, the adult that gave it to him, ate what was left and off they went, meandering along in the grass.  Such a treat!

We went back home, did a few odds and ends around the house and finally loaded up the Jeep & headed off to the beach for a few hours.  Yay!!  Here’s a shot of me goofing off and trying to get Jon to smile while the sun was in his eyes.

Sunday, I was anxious to see the “Super Moon” that many of my friends were talking about Saturday evening on Facebook and when I did some research on Google, I learned that for our time zone, it would be best viewed at around 7 A.M. Sunday morning!  If you know me, you know I’m not up that early in the day unless the house is on fire but, there are times when I get excited about something and can’t sleep because of it so I found myself awake at yep, you guessed it…precisely 7 A.M.  Saturday night, the moon was rising in the front of the house but by morning, it was behind the house and was very bright, even through the sunrise over the lake.  I’m glad I got up early and got this photo of the Super Moon (Sunday, May 26th, 2013). 

Jon made an awesome breakfast for us…fried eggs, bacon, leftover potatoes & english muffin…Oh my goodness…filled me to the gills!  He had to roll me to the Jeep so we could go back to the beach for a few hours. This time, we went up to the more secluded beach by the Sebastian Inlet just  a bit north of the Treasure Museum.  We practically had the beach to ourselves.  It was nice but I think we both got bored quick without people around to watch.  We left the beach and came home and cleaned up and headed up to Suzi’s Tiki Bar on the Indian River to meet our friends Liz & Howie & their daughter, Jillian.  There’s a guy that plays guitar there on Sundays that we really enjoy.  David Goodman ( http://www.davidgoodmanonline.com ) .  He’s kind of like a Jimmy Buffett type.  Anyway, we sat there for a while and enjoyed the sunshine and music and our friends and then decided we’d come back to the house and fire up the hot tub again!  I sure will be glad when the outdoor speakers arrive!  We had a great time anyway.

Liz & Howie at Suzi’s Tiki Bar

Me & Jillian at Suzi’s Tiki Bar

 

 

Last but certainly not least, we finally managed to make a day of fishing in the Indian River in the boat on Monday!  Did we catch anything?!  Nothing we could keep.  Each of us caught a tiny little fish…the one I caught, we weren’t even sure what it was but it was too small to be trying to eat the lure I had on.  Jon caught a baby Jack which aren’t good for eating anyhow so it went back in the water too.  We had both gotten a bit of sun at the beaches earlier in the weekend so we stayed covered up as best we could and went home around 2pm to get the boat cleaned up, re-organized, washed & back in the garage.  Then, we cleaned ourselves up a bit and went out for dinner!  I’ve craved sushi lately so we found a little hole in the wall place called Bangkok in Downtown and it was to DIE for!  Oh my goodness, it was one of those meals you eat out that you just can’t leave anything on your plate and while you’re eating, you have to consciously suppress the “nom, nom, nom” noises that you SO want to make…but not in a public place!  I was SO full after that, that Jon had to roll me to the car!  OK, maybe he didn’t roll me but you get the point.  I had the Lobster Roll which wasn’t just a lobster roll, obviously.  I did share a few pieces with Jon but after he finished his dish, he mainly watched as I gorged myself on mine.  Here’s what sat in my belly that night.

Jon’s is the little plate behind mine…

Yes, I must say we had an awesome and busy weekend but I’d do it all again tomorrow if someone asked me to!

What did you do for the long weekend?

Road Trip!

The entrance plaza to Universal CityWalk in Orlando, Florida, United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, it’s been a while, I know, but here I am!  The past few weeks have been insanely busy with packing up all of our worldly possessions, moving them across town, unpacking and now trying to decide on shades, blinds, paint colors, what decor to use and what to get rid of now that I see what’s going to work and what’s not going to work with decorating our new home.  I’m in no hurry to “finish” decorating because I know it’s never really finished so I’m taking it slow and easy, thinking things through, and getting advice from other people.  I don’t think I have an eye for such things so I don’t want to rush.

Jon has been traveling SO much the past several weeks and this week he was due to be in Orlando for a few days.  Instead of staying home by myself, I decided I’d tag along with him on this trip and take a few days of downtime for myself as well.  I call it, “Take Your Wife to Work Week!”

We arrived in Orlando this afternoon and after a couple of hours of computer work in our hotel room, we’re going to go across the street to Universal Orlando’s City Walk for dinner and maybe a drink or two and do some people watching.  It seems like it’s been weeks since we’ve been to the ocean and I contemplated staying home and forcing myself to leave the house and sit on the beach and get some sun on this ever-whitening body of mine.  But, I opted to hang with my buddy and at least share some meals and the same bed while we can.  While he’s working his event tomorrow, I’ll go down and lay by the pool and get some sun that way.  Yeah, I know…don’t say it…I’ve been told lately by several people that I’ve got a rough life and that my life is a vacation and to shut my pie hole and that people “hate” me.  All said in fun of course and not to be mean but for a brief moment when I read these comments, I felt hurt.  Then, I stepped back and thought…why would their comments hurt me?

I DO have a good life…I have very little drama to report (& if I did, I wouldn’t talk about it openly on Facebook or my blog!) I have very little negativity in my life.  I’ve designed it that way.  I try to stay out of gossip circles, away from people that thrive on drama and negativity & instead, I surround myself with happy people and people who are silly and like to have fun and love life.  Twenty eight years ago, I married my best friend & am thankful every day that he puts up with my craziness.  He continues to dote on me and spoil me rotten even when I’m at my worst.  He works hard & makes a good living that has allowed me to stay home and take care of our business so that when he IS home, he can relax and we can enjoy each other.  I have nothing to complain about.

I’m SORRY that it’s cold where you are and we chose to move to Florida last year.  I’m SORRY it’s warm and sunny and we’ve built a nice home and are happy to live where we do and I’m SORRY we eat out a lot…I’m sorry, but Jon travels a lot and we’re apart more than we’re together so when we ARE together, we make the most of our time together by doing fun things and this makes me happy.  I post about the things that make me happy.  That will not change.

Now, come on Jon…let’s go EAT!

Word on the Street

Well, it’s about time I sit and write again before I start losing my support team.

I’ve been holding out for something new and exciting to tell you all about, especially hoping to give more progress reports on the new house we’re building but as it goes, things got delayed during the holidays and we found out yesterday by doing our own online research and making a phone call to “the county” that the application for our building permit didn’t go in until January 10th!  Our builder assures us that the house will be their #1 priority and they will have it ready in time for us to move in by the time our lease runs out here at the end of April.

Word on the street is that our permit should be granted next week and within a couple of days of that, the place will have the concrete forms poured & be rough plumbed…AND & trusses will be delivered next week as well.  We hear.

I guess if Ty Pennington of Extreme Makeover Home Edition can build, furnish, and landscape a monstrosity of a house in 3 days, GHO Homes should be able to build our little humble abode in 3.5 months…right?

 

A Family Again!

Today is day 2 of our son Justin’s second visit to Florida since we moved down here.  It’s great to see him again of course and it’s great to have him in the house again!  His girlfriend, Harvest wasn’t able to join him this time as she just broke away from her previous employer and started working for herself.  She’s busy with the start up of her business and couldn’t swing it this time but we know she would’ve liked to come.  Justin brought his dog Kane though and Kane is enjoying his vacation as well.  We wore him out yesterday, that’s for sure.

Yesterday, we took Justin for a drive up to see the model home that we’re building so he can see what it’s  going to look like, then we took him up to the lot where we’re going to be building it.  (On a side note, we’re still waiting for the building permit before they can break ground on the house.)

After this, we went up to the Sebastian Inlet and did some fishing.  The wind was gusting and the current was extremely strong so we didn’t have much luck catching anything except for our bait with the cast-net.  Jon has become pretty efficient with the cast-net!  Later, we went on up to Suzi’s Tiki Bar and had dinner and a couple of beers before heading back home for the night.  It was a great day for sure.  Here’s a picture I took of me and Justin while we were fishing.

On Our Way Home Again!

I’m going to try to keep this brief but we all know how that’s gonna go…

For those of you that are recently following my blog, you may not know that Jon and I have been living in “limbo” for what seems like an eternity.  We sold our farm in Lathrop, Missouri almost 2 years ago (May of 2011)  in preparation of our relocating to Florida to be closer to his dad and step-mom.  We spent almost a year in an apartment in Liberty, Missouri while Jon waited for a transfer with his job.  Several months passed and not much was happening there but as perfectly as things had been going otherwise, we tried to be patient and sure enough, making a REALLY long story short…we are now living in Florida and Jon has a new job that he absolutely loves and is very rewarding for him.  But, moving here from Missouri, we really didn’t know exactly where we wanted to live other than somewhere near his dad so we rented a house with a year-long lease so we could scout out the areas and neighborhoods and get a better idea of where exactly it was that we wanted to put down our roots again.

We’ve been in Florida now for almost 7 months now and unfortunately have lost Jon’s dad.  He passed away the day we were packing our truck for the move down here from Missouri.  We continued with plans and have been focused on finding a nice neighborhood to live in.  We started out looking at homes with a couple different Realtors in different towns from Vero Beach, all the way down to West Palm Beach.  After many, many miles of driving, many, many days of travel and looking at many, many homes for sale, we have finally settled on a neighborhood right here in Vero Beach.  It just so happens that this neighborhood is still under construction and new homes are going in pretty regularly.  We are excited about the prospect of building another house from the ground up!

Papers have been signed, deposit has been paid & we’ve picked out all the basic things like, cabinets, countertops, tile, paint colors, carpet, etc.  Groundbreaking will happen (hopefully) around mid November after the building permit has been secured by the builder.  The builder, by the way is GHO Homes and we’re building in one of several of their neighborhoods…ours being Fieldstone Ranch.  They’re estimating a completion date of Mid-February which would be great timing (once again) as we have company coming to visit from Kansas City and it would be great for them to be able to visit us in our new HOME!  Not a rental.

Ok, so here’s a few photos and links:

The front elevation:

The basic floor plan:

This is basically it but the entire house is flipped, so the garage is actually on the right side of the house etc.  Also, we’ve added a bathroom over by Bedroom #2 and our kitchen is laid out different than this one…it’s more open to the Great Room & Dining Room.  If I can get a hold of a floor plan with everything the way we’re doing it, I’ll post it but this is all I have for now.

Until next time…