Busy days around here

We have shifted into high gear into what is always the start of a very busy season around here with school in full swing, soccer starting, and we are beginning the last business quarter of the year and off and running towards the first of three big year end holidays with Halloween only a month away quickly followed by Thanksgiving and then AHHHHH Christmas!! I also just hired a new employee and in the process of doing that, one of my other long time employees showed some ugliness, foolishly resigned her position, tried to get me to take her back and after giving it good thought I opted to accept her resignation. The right thing to do is ALWAYS more painful in the short term but I believe I made the right decision in the long term so now I am in the midst of thankfully only the start of our busy season and not in full gear on that but having to do my normal work, plus pick up the slack for the one that left and train the new one. My other staff is also pitching in and we are rounding the bend from the curve ball that was last week, ugh. I swear to GOD there are not many people that are 34 years old and have the business ownership experience I do and most of the time I am thankful but sometimes it really catches up to me. This is a new week though and we are marching forward. We are headed to the lake this coming weekend and we are all really looking forward to some down time together. Jackson has the first Friday of the month noon dismissal this weekend and he also does not have school Monday so we are getting away for the long weekend. The circumstances as to why they don't have school on Monday are down right horrid as a child was hit on a bicycle this weekend that is a freshman at the local Catholic school and had attended his school his entire k-8 years (Jack's school is small, only one class per grade) so this has hit his school community and our entire little beachside community very hard. The boys were riding bikes at 1:30 in the morning this past Saturday after having snuck out of whoever's house they were sleeping over at (3 of them) and they were RACING on the bridge nearest our house that connects the mainland to the island while riding the bikes in the dark and a drunk driver hit one of them on the bridge, and he was ejected off the bicycle over the bridge and into the inter coastal waterway down below. Needless to say he did not make it and after two hours of diving the EMT people located his body. It is horrible and our entire community has been rocked by this. One thing my mom always said is true...nothing good every happens when kids are out after midnight. What a week it has been!!! It can only get better from here!!

rejuvenating weekend

We've been busy this summer and now into this fall (still feels like summer here) getting the cottage set up and settled in, and finishing the three bathroom re-models and new plantation blinds installed throughout the house and we are ALMOST DONE. Phew!! After all of that, Jon and I needed a break so this past Friday we booked to go stay at a Disney hotel on property and we golfed Disney's Magnolia course. It was really fun and something nice to do together. Friday night we were looking forward to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, we still went but we got SOAKED. There was some sort of a front that dropped steady misting rain all over the entire state of Florida Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. We did not let it ruin our time though, but we were back to the hotel room sooner than later and opted NOT to go back out anywhere after that, we were soaked, even though I wore one of the terrible plastic Disney parkas that I gladly bought for $8.50...seriously...I don't know how Jon made it without breaking down and wearing a poncho!! Saturday despite the rain we had big plans to hit Ikea and get some things checked off our list...we did go to Ikea and shop however as we were nearing the exit of the maze of a store and preparing to checkout, we were strangely approached by a cashier that calmly told us to leave our cart and exit the store, at first I was totally confused but Jon caught on quicker than I did that they were evacuating the store and we had better GET OUT OF THERE!! As we exited the store, still totally confused police cars were pulling up to the store, people in the store were still spilling out equally as confused and suddenly we realized not only were there police everywhere, but they had guns drawn...I forgot about my purchases that I had REALLY WANTED TO MAKE at that point and we decided to get the heck out of there, we did not need to be in the midddle of a mass public store shoot out. As it turned out two armed criminals were in the store, they had been involved in a prior crime outside the store and fled into the ikea store and the store was evacuated as a pre-caution. At the time though, no one had any idea what in the heck was going on or could have happened. The store employees handled things very well, everyone was calm, they did not panic people and I have to hand it to them for that. It was a really ODD experience though and really made us both think about reacting in an emergency type situation like that. Jon was definitely quicker than I was. I can only describe it as my mind was like in slow motion going through the gears trying to figure out why the heck the woman was telling us what she was, and then I quickly went from dismissing a fire (the employees were in the store and no alarm was going off) to dismissing a bomb (people were right outside the building as we were walking out) and the next thing my mind went to was someone has a gun in there..........yep...sign of the times we live in but no joke at all. Thanks to social media, despite the fact that we left the store and got on with our day (we had a sitter we were paying and things to do and I had already now wasted over an hour at Ikea with NO purchases, ugh) we were able to get pics and piece the story together quicklY! What a day!! We returned home later yesterday afternoon after running a few more errands and grabbing lunch and other than doing some work at my office this morning (we are preparing to hire a third employee ahead of our busy season) we have been to the park and then home bound just getting things done around the house all day. We are all battling the last of a crummy head cold that Sarabeth infected us all with (all except for Jack who has immunity of steel) so we are laying low today!! Happy weekend all, hopefully this coming week is a good one for everyone!!

Browns Fans

Our family roots for the Cleveland Browns during Football season thanks to Papa teaching Jon all about his love of Cleveland teams!! Here are some pictures from this afternoon's Browns vs. Saints game!

pictures from last weekend at the lake

Well it took me literally an ENTIRE week but here are the pictures from last weekend at the lake!! Needless to say it was a very busy work week in between and the only time I seem to have to keep up with pictures and the blog is over the weekends. Last weekend we did some water sports including wake boarding and tubing and we also took the kids back to the local farm and winery. This place will really be fun come the cooler months and as the seasons change and the strawberries and blueberries can be hand picked! Raspberries too, we can hardly wait!!! On this trip to the farm we once again fed the many chickens and roosters, we got to see a few chickens laying eggs, and we encountered a HUGE pot belly pig...I am not sure how we missed him the last time!!

the merry go round of life has hold of me!!!

We have been going at high speed at our house really all summer with the purchase of the lake house and the move in and furnishing and set up of that along with our normal busy lives, oh, and three (all three bathrooms in our house) are being re-modeled.....almost finished with that! Thank goodness, my wallet needs to cool off and rest before the holiday season is upon us as well as my busiest work season!!! We spent another weekend at the lake this past weekend. This morning Jack and I went for an early morning (8:30) am jet ski ride and for the first time we both had GOOSE BUMPS while riding! We've had warm hot sunny days but the nights are beginning to cool off and we've had rain in the later parts of the days which also helps to cool off the air, cut the humidity and cool the water!! I think we better ask Santa for some wet suits for this lake family as well as long sleeve rash guards for all of us as well! We got soaked from the spray while riding which was ok since it really was not that cold out (temps were in the 80's I am sure) but the breeze was cooler and I felt the first hint of Florida fall in the air...yipee...the air conditioners are going to get a rest, our power bills will go down, and the windows will be open once again! We cannot wait to experience the lake as we go through fall and into the Florida winter months down here with bonfires and smores and wetsuits for jet ski rides!!! I've got a ton of heavy blankets and extra throws that the previous owners left behind and I'm thinking it cools off more in the center of the state than along the coast line where we live so this could be good!!! We had to really close up our lake home after this trip because we won't be back until the first weekend in October! Jon did get the outdoor security cameras up and installed this weekend though and we both have an app on our i phones where you can literally see real time photos of the front and back and dock of the property. Awesome!! We also got two beautiful paddle fans with lights installed under the boat house (jon did it all himself, amazing) and we finished up a few other pesky projects like hanging cabinets in the laundry room and hiding tv cables in the tvs in the guest rooms. We will see the lake again in October, for now we'll be home for a bit getting settled into school, and starting the fall soccer season and gearing up for what is sure to be a busy work season for both Jon and I. Real estate and new home building is booming again in Florida which fuels lots of work for both of us!! I will post some pictures from this weekend tomorrow night, too much to do tonight getting ready for the week to come! I also need to post updated pictures of the bathrooms, we have a true walk in shower that looks like it belongs in a swanky hotel in our master bath, and Sarabeth's bathroom looks like it is out of a magazine! Jackson's is coming along too. Next up this spring, sometime when we can be gone for a week, we are having the main part of the house crowned out as well as re-painted. Now that the lighting, shutters inside and bathrooms have all been given a face lift I am noticing how bad these walls really need painting.....

Labor Day Weekend at the Lake with Mimi and Papa

We were fortunate to spend this past weekend, Labor Day Weekend, With Mimi and Papa who made a special trek all the way to Florida to spend some time with all of us and to see our wonderful Lake June home! We were blessed with the best weather we have had there all summer, 4 sunny days, flat calm water, little to no wind (a little wind was not a bad thing to cut the extreme late summer heat) and good times together including boating, tubing, and jet ski rides and a dinner one night at Jaxson's restaurant and breakfast out one morning at the local breakfast diner that turned out to be really nice and more than we were expecting!! Here are some pictures from our fun filled weekend with Mimi and Papa! Thank you for coming to visit, Jackson and Sarabeth are already talking about when we will plan our next visit..they want to see snow and visit "in the wintertime".....we will have to see about that!!