Can You Hear Her Laughing?

"Sitting here, I am pretty freaking happy".   That is what I said to my BFF just the other day.   She says I should begin and end a novel with that line.   I decided to use it to restart my blog.

I could not tell you when exactly I went from abjectly miserable to "pretty freaking happy".   No doubt it was a process helped along by settling in to, rather than fighting, my life here in FL.   Sitting outside at Starbucks in December while my sister tells me about the next blizzard to hit NJ (aka home).   Knitting on the beach in March is pretty wonderful and friends to do it with can't be beat.

The realization came when Hubby and I started talking about finally moving.   Our oldest is living on campus now and our youngest leaves for college in less than two weeks (I am going to be an empty nester! Be prepared for tears).    We could downsize.   With two kids in college, we could use the extra $'s.

Then it hit us.   We've made friends it would hurt us to leave.   Hubby likes his job and hates change.  I have become (dare I say it?), rather fond of our house.   Did I mention the weather?  So, it was decided, we would stay (at least until the boys are out of school and maybe to Hubby's retirement). 

I would participate in a Cozy Minimalist workshop (at www.Nester.com) to cozy up the place.   We  made a plan to rearrange the secondary bedrooms so that Hubby and I would each have our own office (Niether of the boys plan to come home for the summer and they can share a room for visits).

Surely, you've heard about God's sense of humour.   Can you hear her laughing?   Half way through the Cozy Minimalist thing, Hubby called to tell me that is job will not exist after Jan1st (really?!).   Will he find another posiiton in Jax?   Will he move to his current employer's Orlando headquarters?   Will he find a good position somewhere else (please, let it not be a state without an ocean)?   Jax & Orlando are tied for our first choice, but we will go where the money is (two kids, college?).

The thing is, even with all of this uncertainty, I am still pretty freaking happy.

Just Bullets Today...

Lots going on at Chez Serenity these days:

• We are finally back in our house.  YAY!    Okay, so I miss the apartment a bit and still run over once a day to use the internet (better than ours) and the pool.    But, we are sleeping in our house.   Most of the rooms are done.  The last of the furniture was delivered on Friday.   There were some glitches.   The a/c did not work in the living room (fixed).   The satellite TV worked for a day and then died (fixed).   The only outstanding thing is the leak in our roof.   As part of the re-contruction we had the vent in our kitchen changed from circulating to venting.   Now we have a leak around the roof vent, causing water to come in through our dining room ceiling (Summer in FL, it rains every single day, really hard, but not for very long).   We are hoping to hear from our contractor later today with a repair plan.

• T2, our youngest, my baby, started college last week.   College!  Even now, a week later, I am stunned by the fact that I have two sons in college.   We are not yet in a position to give him a car. He is not only at a different school than his older brother, but in the other direction from home.   That means that I drive him and pick him up.  So far it is going well.   He LOVES college and I found a very nice coffee shop to knit/surf/blog from each day.   Hubby's car is paid off early next year.   At that point, I will get a Prius, and T2 will get my car.   I am looking forward to that.

• Do you remember my talking about running away from home a few months ago (more about that here)?    The men were grumpy so I took my toys (aka knitting) and ran away to a the Sew & Quilt (& yarn) Shop, where I was, as usual, welcomed with humor and affection.   While visiting the other day, one conversation led to another, and it looks like I will be teaching my Simple Comforts Wrap sometime in late September or early October.   How cool is that?    I will post the details when we have them.

• Two kids in college and a wake-up call (i.e. house fire), have us looking hard at our spending habits.    We are committed to not replacing much of the stuff that we lost in the fire and (gasp!) not eating out so often.   With that in mind, T2 and I came home yesterday after school with the intention of virtuously eating lunch at home.    While he made the veggie pizza (we are doing Meatless Mondays), I made iced tea.    Unfortunately, the tea pitcher burst as I was pouring in the boiling water.   I now have third degree burns on my belly and second degree ones on my leg.   T2 had me wrapped in wet towels and at our local ER in a matter of minutes.   They sent me home with creme, bandages, and instructions to rest and apply cool compresses.   Yesterday was pretty bad but I am in considerably less pain today (None, if I don't move, so I move rarely and carefully).    T2 pointed out that it would have been less trouble and expense if we had just gone to Panera.