by Sarah | Jun 20, 2019 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Disney, Disney Mom, Florida Dreaming, Make-A-Wish, Redefining Perfect, Universal, Universal Studios Mom
Our road to Disney and Universal was not paved with flowers and sunshine. That goes without saying. I could go into logistics about Make A Wish’s former CF rules, refusals, and hope coming our way again, but that’s another story for another blog post. Suffice it to say, it was a bumpy, long road…until it wasn’t.
When the time came for us to approach the kids and say they were getting wishes, and to ask what they wanted, both of them thought pretty hard. I, myself, hoped for Disney, but didn’t push either of them in that direction. I did mention to the obsessed-with-Harry-Potter Kennedy that there was this magical place called Diagon Alley at Universal Studios, but we discussed other options. Things like trips in an RV, remodeling the bedroom were discussed among others.
When the day came, the wonderful Wish Granters asked the kids what they wanted.
Kennedy said, “I want to see Harry Potter World!” (It was only then that I learned when you wish for one FL theme park, you get both) I was not upset by this declaration.
From that moment everything flew by in an instant. Before any of us knew it, we were in the limo and on the plane for Florida.
Months of planning, talking, anticipation all came down to that one moment…
You know the one…
The one where we stepped through the brick passage and onto Diagon Alley.
Every moment after when Kennedy’s face looking like this —->>
Excitement. Spotting everything left and right, pointing out everything.
When Ollivander selected her and her sister (believing them twins, methinks) to get their own matching wands.
When she saw, and felt, the dragon breathe fire down on us.
When she sat in the sidecar (look how tiny, my goodness).
Every moment in Diagon Alley that day was so much magic we could have gone home right then and never complained a moment that it wasn’t worth it.
To see K become completely immersed into the world we both loved so much.
Every single second was one I wanted to bottle and hold onto.
That was the moment I knew magic was real.
And the look on her face made every struggle that led us up to and through the brick passage way was worth it.
So damn worth it.
by Sarah | Jun 17, 2019 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All About Ripley, All of Us, Blogging Life, Disney, Disney Mom, Florida Dreaming, Oola, Redefining Perfect, Universal, Universal Studios Mom
It’s been over a month since the last update and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know where we are at.
WE ARE IN FLORIDA!!!
After my last post, things went very quick.
I moved ahead of the hubs and kids, and my first month here in Florida deserves (and will soon get) a post of its own. It was an adventure, I’ll give you that much. A good adventure, or a bad one, I still don’t even know.
Anyhow…the husband and kids have finally joined me.
We have a home.
We’re settled around The Villages area, which my self-adopted pops calls “Heavens Waiting Room”…and he’s not wrong. lol.
However, it’s beautiful here. Our new (rented) home is much bigger than our last, and though it needs a lot of work, we’re looking forward to making progress.
We’re still waiting on our main piece of furniture (another month, oy)…but otherwise we’re settling in.
Erik has a lead on a potential job in a surprising place (more when I know more. No jinxing it).
The girls have been granted placement in the charter school, I just need to get all of their paperwork together and get them in for physicals so we can make it officially official.
The girls have their own rooms, and I still have an office space of sorts.
I’ve been at my new job for a month, and it’s going well. I’m looking into some new possibilities in my plans for the future, and life is just opening all sorts of possibilities.
In short…life isn’t perfect (it wasn’t before and I didn’t expect it to magically right itself because of our location)…but we are excited to make it work.
So from now own, there will be no more countdowns, but plenty of updates.
by Sarah | May 13, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Pagan Me Happy, Personal, Redefining Perfect
Once a month I’ll be posting a new Spirit Animal. This is both for me to study and learn, but also to help inspire each month.
This month the animal made itself known to me in a way that should seem obvious to have happen, but it was truly a first for me. During meditation at the beginning of April I had an experience that I wasn’t expecting. Often during meditation not much happens except a sense of chilling out, stillness.
This time, though, several images appeared as silhouettes in my vision…and they were all of my recent spirit animals. First, the lumbering form of the alligator, followed by the skunk, and the graceful giraffe…then out of nowhere flitted a bat, so clear and strong I knew not to ignore him.
Given that I’m not currently writing this from Florida…the immediate message might have been obviously clear, but I didn’t research him right away so I had no way of knowing what was about to occur and why he’d made himself so obvious so early in the month, when I hadn’t yet even posted about the giraffe.
Today his first and most pronounced meaning is blatantly obviously clear:
When the bat flies in as your spirit animal, he signifies a time of great changes.
Uh…well..I would say DUH, but that would be rude…so…yeah, he totally and completely did.
Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped there in my research, because I’m often digging deep into the meaning of the animals that approach me.
This time his appearance is so utterly clear and in my face, I saw no point in looking deeper. Sometimes, just like us, those spirits are BLUNT. lol.
What animal is speaking to you this month? Do they have lessons for you?
by Sarah | May 12, 2019 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Gratitude, Redefining Perfect
As part of my Oola journey, I’m making an effort to be more grateful. My daily planner has a place specifically labeled for Gratitude. I’d like to spread some of that love here, too.
I am grateful for –
Florida
Crowd surfing
Free activities
Free wifi
Lovely views
Gorgeous hikes
A perfect little house
Last days.
First days.
Anticipation.
Quiet evenings.
New lessons.
Small blessings.
Huge blessings.
Every road block.
Mountains turned to mole hills.
New adventures.
A different view.
Unintentional time away from social media.
Exploring.
Hello again, my old friend Canon….
by Sarah | May 10, 2019 | All About Family, All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Friday Feels, Personal, Pour Your Heart Out, Redefining Perfect
One of the biggest struggles I’ve faced in recent weeks with us moving is my dad being ill.
To be fair, it was his encouragement to not wait that helped us move up our original timeline, but still…
Add to that the fact that my mother and I had made steps to heal our fractured relationship, and it’s been a tug-of-war on my heart.
Then one day the call I’d dreaded came, or so I thought.
My mom called from the hospital.
My head and heart spun with the possibilities of what on earth could have happened to dad…
But it wasn’t him.
It was HER.
The “healthy” one of the two. She has some ailments, to be sure…but my dad is the one that’s truly ailing.
So when your healthy parent goes in to the ER with chest pains, and has to follow it up with a heart cath.
Everything goes upside on you.
Then you have two parents to take care of.
The “healthy” one isn’t as healthy as you thought.
Who do you check on first? Who do you keep an eye on, and who watches who?
One’s issues are expected, almost commonplace now – but now new panic and worries arise.
And you have to struggle with how to deal with all of that – especially with a parent that doesn’t like to be a bother.
Than, you get the call that you have a job and you’re moving in a month.
While I know they’ve got plenty of help here what with my brother and aunt living close by…it’s still rough to have gotten this job and be moving so quickly after this sort of chaos.
In so many ways I’m still struggling to make sense of my dad’s illness – and I’ve known about it for almost 15 years.
It’s hard to think that I’ll be so far away. That I’ll need to keep an emergency flight fund on hand at all times…and now not just for him, but for mom too because we still don’t know what happened or why she ended up in the ER (the heart cath came up clean, thank goodness).
It’s put a damper on our course.
It’s added anxiety to a relationship that was just starting to mend.
I feel a strong sense of guilt leaving…even though I know this is the right path for us.
I suppose now, more than ever, I’m feeling what my mom felt almost 30 years ago when she had to pack up her family and leave Buffalo to move out here to Hickville.
I knew I was leaving one sick parent…now I worry about them both.
I always thought Mom could survive on pure stubbornness alone.
Apparently not even she’s that good.
Our road to Disney and Universal was not paved with flowers and sunshine. That goes without saying. I could go into logistics about Make A Wish’s former CF rules, refusals, and hope coming our way again, but that’s another story for another blog post. Suffice it to say, it was a bumpy, long road…until it wasn’t.
The one where we stepped through the brick passage and onto Diagon Alley.
When she sat in the sidecar (look how tiny, my goodness).
