A New Dishwasher

 I have not bought a new kitchen appliance since Cameron was a toddler.  The ones in our home in Syracuse looked nice and were functional for over fifteen years, so there never was a need to replace them.  We had bought them so long ago, that I didn't really remember shopping for them.  We purchased the trio at Curtis Appliance in Syracuse shortly before they went out of business.  Thankfully, we had no problems with them except for few overused drawers in the refrigerator that needed replaced.

When we bought the house in Florida, we knew that the dishwasher did not work.  The previous owner gave us $600 to buy a new one, but we put that into replacing the shower in the second bathroom instead.  That was a much more needed change at the time.  Once we moved to Ocala full time, however, I decided that it was time for a new dishwasher.  I didn't mind hand washing dishes for Doug and I, but knew that once we had visitors I would definitely enjoy the help of a new kitchen appliance.

I started my search before we even moved, looking at reviews online of different appliance stores in Ocala.  I also looked at several types of dishwashers sticking with Whirlpool as we had a great experience with the brand in the past.  It didn't take long for me to pick out the dishwasher that I wanted and narrowed it down to MVB appliance vs. Lowe's.  I started with the appliance store first.  I liked the dishwasher, but was surprised at how much it was to deliver and install it.  From what I read, I actually thought that was part of the purchase price.  Therefore, I knew that I wanted to check out Lowe's as well.  Five minutes in the store and I had already made my decision, Lowe's carried the same dishwasher at a comparable price, but the delivery and install fees were triple those of MVB.  I was also told that it would be closer to two months before I would receive it.  

By the end of the day I had bought and paid for my first kitchen appliance in over fifteen years.  I was very happy that the six hundred dollars that we were given when we closed on the house was exactly how much we needed to replace the dishwasher.  It took close to two weeks to have it delivered and installed, but most of the delay was from the store closures during the hurricane.  In the end, the install process was easy and as an added bonus they upgraded our dishwasher due to the delay.  We now had even more room to clean dishes as the new one had a third row rack for trays, long utensils and lids.  I was extremely happy not to have to wash dishes anymore by hand and to have a shiny new appliance decorating my kitchen.  

My Dad is Brave

 Cal texted this to our group chat last night and I laughed out loud when I read it.  I could see the truth in it from his point of view, but knew that Doug wasn't really scared of me.  I knew instead that Doug  respected me more than feared me.  

Either way, it was a nice reminder of how brave Doug really is.  The last few years have been extremely scary.  Doug has not backed down from the challenges that life has thrown at him both personally and professionally during that time period.  He's met them head on and has impressed all of us.  The best part is that I know that Doug has made a positive influence on his children.  Working hard, facing ones fears and remaining positive - traits that I truly admire in the best husband in the world (even if he is "frightened" of me.)

 

Florida and the Flamingo

When we first bought our home in Ocala, I decided that I wanted a flamingo bathroom.  It seemed to make sense as I always thought the flamingo represented Florida well.  I bought flamingo hand towels, flamingo candle holders, a flamingo bath mat and just recently flamingo curtains.  Cameron even said that I could hang his flamingo drawing from middle school in my bathroom, giving it a personal touch.

Although I absolutely love the decor, I have to be honest, after living in Ocala, I now realize that the flamingo is not found widespread in the sunshine state.  Instead, the two birds that I see the most are the crow and the ibis.  I definitely enjoy seeing the second one on my daily walks.  They usually travel in groups and are always walking through the lawns in our neighborhood searching for food or just hanging out.  

The crows in Florida, however, absolutely petrify me.  They are the size of a hawk and caw at us constantly from the light pole outside of Cameron's room.  Every time I hear or see them, especially in large groups, I instantly think of the movie, "The Birds."  I told Doug that I thought about taking a tennis racket with me when I walk, just in case they attack.  If I ever change my bathroom, I would seriously consider decorating it with the ibis.  I would never, however, think about putting any type of crow in my house.  Hitchcock talk me long ago to respect the power of a flock of angry birds.  

My Mom's Cousin Susie

 I heard from my mom yesterday that her cousin, Susie, had died unexpectedly.  I was shocked.  Susie was Bobbie's oldest sister.  Although my mom didn't talk to her as much, we did both hear from her a lot through Facebook.  She had messaged me after the recent hurricane to make sure that we were ok and had made plans with Bobbie and Garry to come up to visit us once we were settled.  I was sad that she would never get the chance to do so.

When Meg called today, I let her know about "Susan Dazey."  She was even bummed to hear the news.  She had seen a lot of positive comments from her on my Facebook posts over the years and was sad to hear that they would be no longer.  I wished that I could tell Susie how much we appreciated her notes, but for now I'll just send good thoughts to her family and hope that my comments on their posts of sadness make them feel just a little bit better.  

CrapPa

Yesterday was my CrapPa's birthday.  Even though he died sixteen years ago, I have thought about him a lot lately.  I had spent so many years of my childhood visiting him in Florida.  Even though he and my Grandma were gone, being in the state where they lived, it felt like they were closer to me now more than ever.  Everywhere I go I see reminders of them.  The trees, the cow pastures, the grass, the birds, the smells, the sun - it just all feels like it did when I visited them years ago.  

I never would have dreamed back then or even when Doug and I got married that we would follow in their footsteps, moving to Florida after all of our children left home.  I didn't understand why they left when I was ten, but after being here for just a short time, I get it now.  The weather, the environment, the people - it all just seems to fit this phase of our life.  I can't wait to share it with my own children just as they did with me so long ago.

Tailgaiting Fail

Last night, IU football played Indiana State.  Doug, Cameron and I were really looking forward to it and our first tailgate of the year.  Brett was even going to be able to join us after work.  When we moved to Florida, we had left our black foldable table, four chairs, the IU tent, our red cooler and the IU corn hole boards in Brett's storage unit for the fall.  We realized, however, that we still needed a large crock pot and a portable generator before our set was complete.  We didn't want to use the ones from Florida as we would need them there.  I spent a bunch of time last weekend researching the perfect ones for a tailgate and ordered them to Grandma's.  She and I even tried them out to make sure that they would work.

Doug and I arrived at the grass lots at 3 p.m. yesterday.  IU Athletics had changed the parking in our favorite tailgate spot.  They had individuals parking the cars which we noticed were way too close together to set up much of a tailgate.  We did our best to get out our table, tent, chairs and corn hole boards, but it was pretty tight.  We made the best of it, however, and were looking forward to Doug's Italian Beef.

Cameron arrived close to 4 p.m.  He had talked about bringing a few friends, but decided to come out on his own.  We had a lot of fun talking about IU football and playing corn hole.  We each had a sandwich along with the chips that we had bought and some of Grandma Jane's cookies.  While we were enjoying our afternoon, all of a sudden, some jerk from the other tailgate went running at his friends, dove and missed them.  Instead, he knocked over our table, spilling all of the food including the Italian beef and severally dented the crock pot.  I was dumb founded.  He tried to apologize, but Doug told him to get out of our area.  I don't think that I have ever been that mad at someone that I didn't know.  Brett arrived shortly after it happened.  I didn't know what to say.  We had spent a lot of time, effort and money to have a nice tailgate and someone acting stupid almost destroyed it all.  I think what I was most mad about in the end was that the adults with him didn't even offer to help clean up or to share the abundance of food that they had brought.  They just stared at us as if it was a normal occurrence.

Thankfully, we didn't let the incident ruin the night.  There was enough Italian beef left for Brett to have one sandwich.  Grandma had duck taped shut the lids on the cookies so they were still safe as were the chips.  Thus, no one went hungry.  Cameron said that he was so mad that he almost left, but then decided to make the best of it.  We did put the corn hole away as we didn't want that damaged.  Brett left shortly before football started to go to Sean's.  Cameron headed to the game to sit in the student section with his friends.  Doug and I enjoyed an IU victory and appreciated that Cameron spent the third quarter with us.  Overall, it was a fun evening, and I was proud of us for not letting an epic fail get the best of us.  

My Dad vs the Fan

Doug and I left for Bloomington last night after work.  We had packed the Pilot full with almost everything that we had left at my parents.  I was a little nervous about having everything sitting in the car at Brett’s for two days.  Doug felt that it would be alright.  I knew that I couldn’t unload it all at Brett’s, so I decided to take up a load of pictures with me.  They were ones that I didn’t have duplicates of and would be devastated if I lost.  

Before we left I did get to watch my dad fix my mom’s fan.  Meg was on the phone with me while he was working on it, so I could give her a play by play.  First he forgot to put the lock screw on last night after he cleaned it.  Therefore, it was made an unbearably loud noise last night.  Thankfully, my mom had just bought a new one so they could use instead.  Today, he got the lock screw on, but put the blades on backward.  That was really funny!!  In the end he did get it fixed and working like new.