Yes, I am still alive. Sorry for being away so long. I don't even know who reads this anymore... I have converted to Facebook. This site is more like an online journal and I feel like the things I need to journal are not for public eyes. I had thought to start writing a book... but just haven't started. If I start a book any suggestions of what it should be about?

So Joel was being all hush hush about what he planned for me for my birthday. But it turned out that the weather was not on his side and last minute changes had to be made. So instead of his big plan to go play tennis at the park and ride bikes then eat out didn't happen. : ( I love playing tennis and we don't get to play hardly at all. It is hard to get a sitter during the day so we can go play. oh well.
Other options weren't working out either:
1. Camden Aquarium - closed at 5pm
2. Baltimore Aquarium - closed at 5:30pm
3. Philidelphia orchestra - no concert that night and not until next week
4. Movie - none playing that we wanted to pay $10 each to see
5. Rock climbing - my left wrist is still not healed all the way to do that (I play tennis right or left handed so that would have been fine)
6. Target shooting at the range - I shoot left handed and my left wrist is still not healed all the way

So, instead we went to the ski bum and picked up our skis and snowboard (Joel had dropped them off a couple days earlier to have them waxed and sharpened), Joel got some gloves on sale. I tried talking (pleading) him into letting me get a new ski coat that was on sale but was still more expensive than a small zoo. Then we went to Goodwill and dropped off the few bags of clothes we didn't need. We got a bike for Jessica, Joel got a Skillet CD and I picked up a jacket. We ate out at TGIF and had a nice dinner. Then we stopped at the Mall and walked around and found a really nice cast iron griddle that was on sale and a nice 6 quart pot I have been needing that was also way on sale. : ) So all in all it was a very enjoyable and random evening.

Saturday Night Game night -

Saturday was bright and sunny and a beautiful day. (should have gone to play tennis!) But we got up early and Jess and I made a strawberry cake and I finished up making food for the game night later on. We headed out after lunch up to PA to Paradocx Vineyard for some wine tasting. After some direction issues we got to the vineyard and everyone else joining us (My parents, Brandon and Anna, my sister Judi and brother Jeremy) we got down to some wine tasting. The place was in the middle of being constructed so it was very rustic and looked like a construction zone. Anyhow, there were a lot of other people there coming and going and all was relaxed and fun. We got to try out about 6 different wines most of them were red wines which I am not a fan of. But it was great to try them and not have to waste a whole bottle seeing if I liked it or not. I actually ended up liking one of the red wines too, but red wine gives me migraines so I didn't get it. My favorite was a white wine that was sweet and fruity tasting called Whitewash and came in a paint can looking can with a spout on it. Very fun looking! They even gave us a wooded stirring stick with it!

We were there for about an hour and learned a lot about the vineyard and how they grow grapes. The name of the vineyard, Paradocx, is so named because the owners are all physicians! a Pare-a-Docx with a sense of humor! Last year they had a great year so hopefully the 2007 bottles will be as good as they hope! After getting our favorite wines to take home we headed back to our house for game night. We had about 25 people show up (wow)! We ate pizza, chips, strawberry cake, pineapple banana pudding and played lots of games. We were able to get a Wii on friday morning too! So that was a lot of fun too! Most people left around 11pm and the rest left by 11:45pm. All in all it was a very fun day!

Thanks to everyone who came and I hope you enjoyed hanging out and playing games as much as we did!

 

Sorry for keeping everyone hanging. My wrist is not broken thankfully. Just really sprained. The next weekend I went to Vermont and went snowboarding. It was so nice! The highs were in the 20s which is much better than single digit highs and negative wind chill! It was such a fun weekend and thankfully all my working out made it possible to snowboard 3 days in a row with only minimal soreness. I wanted to try out the terrain park this year, but with my wrist still sore and no wrist guards on I decided not to. Guess I will have to try it out next year.

We got back from Vermont late monday night. Tuesday I went to my sister-in-law's baby shower. Wednesday I hung out with my kids all day. Thursday, my brother and I flew down to Miami Florida and met up with our sisters for a long weekend! The whole weekend we had great weather and no schedule. We pretty much did the same thing everyday - woke up late, went to the beach, went out late to eat, late getting to bed. Lots of sun, beer, food and talking with no real agenda other than relaxation. Now if you knew my family and my siblings' daily schedules you would be amazed that we all were able to cut out this weekend to spend together. But, since our brother died we have all had a shift in priorities and this weekend was high on the list of "this is what we need to do". So, I know for me it was just the mental break I needed to refuel my energy so when I got home I was "rested" (mentally) and ready to jump back into the crazy schedule of day to day stuff. While in Miami we made a road trip to Key West and got to walk around town and see some really cool historical buildings. We spent some time at the most southern part of the US. Having grown up in a touristy town all our lives, we were all so non-awed with the tourist section of Key West. We preferred and enjoyed walking around the residential areas of the small town before we hit the touristy part. We walked the loud and bar laden streets for a bit and ended up eating at a quiet restaurant off the main strip.
What made the trip all the more enjoyable was the convertible we rented. It was so nice being able to drive around in a sporty car and see everything! It made all the driving we did worth it!
So I got home late monday-early tuesday morning to 18 degree weather!! BBRRRRR!!!! I so miss the 75+ degree weather we had in Miami. My sun burn is not keeping me warm either! But it is good to be home again. Thanks to Joel for letting me get away for along weekend with my siblings and allowing us time to heal together and relax together. We most likely will never have a chance like that again.

Back to reality...