Otono

If there is one thing I miss about living up north it is fall time. My most favorite thing was to wait for Mom-Mom to rake the leaves, jump in them with my little sister then get yelled at and have to rake them up again ourselves. My Mom would always say "There's snakes and spiders in there!" But we never cared. It was just so nice to feel and hear the crunching leaves as they were jumped on. Ofcourse there would always be a few soggy leaves but it didn't matter. I miss the real fall time. In Florida we don't get a fall season. I just hope that when I have children, they will be brought up in an area that has the beautiful changing leaves, followed by the excitement of winter and the whole holiday season, the anticipation of spring and warm weather and then the bbq and outdoor fun of summer. In Florida it's non-stop sweating and moaning and "Please don't touch me, or hug me, or get too close!" There's only about one month of cool weather (aka 60 degrees). One day I'll get out of the Retirement State.

Autumn...

I am longing for the autumn time. Unfortunately I live in Florida and don't get to experience the true Autumn season. I hope that someday soon I will be able to move up north, preferrably Virginia, and get to experience the seasons. In Florida we have Hurricane season (current) followed by tourist season (winter) then love bug season (spring) the entire year feels like summer with a few weeks in march that feel like early spring up north. I long to wear comfy trench coats and cute boots.

My fiance's best friend and I are trying to convince my fiance to move up north. His friend is in the AirForce and will be stationed in DC for 4 years (or more). I really want to bring my children up in an area with seasons like I was brought up in. Unfortunately cost of living is cheaper in Florida and in this economy making that sort of move isn't the best idea. But I can still dream...and even begin my search for where to work IF we were to move there :)

(photo credit: bittersea)

somewhere over the rainbow

Have you ever wanted to move away? Go to a place where noone would know your name and you could start all over? Many people would love to move where I live, the east coast of Florida. Only 10 minutes from the beach...may seem like "the life" to others. I though would love to move to a place with actual seasons. In Florida we have a joke as to what our "seasons" are...Tourist season (winter), lovebug season (spring), hurricane season (summer-fall) and all year-round it is summer. I would love to move to an area where snow is looked forward too, as well as leaves changing colors, the first signs of spring. All we get here is looking forward to our oranges growing in the winter. My dream is to run off to Virginia. Not too hot, not too cold, mountains, close to ocean, historic sites, the whole nine yards...
Where would you go?

(photo credit: ranhar2 )

A day with my neices

I spent the day with my neices today. I am on vacation (from last thursday to this wednesday) and I have been doing nothing. I basically had to take vacation because my 3 years is fast approaching and I needed to take my second week's worth of vacation. I didn't want to be confined to my apartment for 5 days so I told my older sister that I was going to take my neices for a day. Our first stpo was ron jon's surf shop (where the above photo was taken). We tried to go to the cocoa beach pier but didn't realize during the week I'd have to pay $5 to park! Then we headed off to cocoa village so they could run around in a water fountain:

It was there that a little boy pulled down his bathing suit and attempted to pee on a fountain but his mom caught him in time. We were all starving and tired (my younger neice fell asleep on the way to get food and woke up with a big red blotch on her face) so we headed off to my most favorite quick delicious beachy burrito place.

It was after this that my older neice, Angelina, said "All the places you've taken us we've never been before!" That was my goal. Spend as little money as possible and let them have a ton of fun going to places they've never been. My fiance and I actually want to travel like that. Go places none of the Florida tourists know about. And write about it. Anyway, back to the day... the three of us came back home swam in my apartment's pool then I brought them home. It was a fun-filled day in the 96 degree without (with heat index about 105 degrees). Now I have 2 days to accomplish the rest of the items on my to-do list. I don't even remember what they are!