Happy 40th

I decided to give a friend the gift that every mom needs, time to herself for the whole weekend. It is Friday night and all 5 little ones argue about going to bed. They want more time to play and think that staying up past nine, eating pizza, cookies and going to a gladiator party for 3 hours isn't enough. "Off to bed and all lights are going out in five seconds"! Within ten minutes everyone was sleeping like "angels".

The next morning I hear too many foot steps coming my way @ 6:30 a.m. ! It is time to get everyone dressed, fed and into the car before the rain arrives. I have 5 hours to wear them out before I have to cook pulled pork for 6 hours, make sides and pick up the house before 2 friends and their 2 "angels" arrive for dinner.

The first stop is Dunkin Donuts for fuel and bottles of water for the kids and the puppy. Off we go to the water front that is under construction for 2.5 hours. We climb, play chase, ride in a boat, chase the puppy, meet other puppies and finally all aboard the vehicle that drives us to another park.

This time we get snacks, have a picnic and get really dirty. This still isn't enough, so I agree to take all 5 children and the puppy to rent a movie. I walk in with a 2 yr old in one arm and a puppy in the other arm, a9yr old, an 8 yr old and a 5 yr old. People suddenly are holding the door for us, letting us pass in front of them and stare as if I am crazy with great empathy. At this point I will do anything to have them quiet and interested in something without any interruptions. It did not work, the kids were full of energy and I was the one who needed a nap.

The pork is now ready to roast and the 2 yr old is helping me crack eggs for the cake. The others are outside getting soaked and loving every moment. I love happy children...... I now need another coffee to keep me going and a few minutes to clean up and get changed. Time is getting closer and the kitchen is a mess and I am about to cry.

My husband comes to the rescue and takes the oldest four and the puppy to little league practice. I knew that I married him for a reason(hehe). I clean the kitchen feed the 2 yr old and pray that my cake will not taste like pulled pork because I didn't have time to bake them separately.

Dinner is ready, the drinks are chilled, the house is clean(some what), and the children are happy. I am exhausted, hungry, cranky and I look like I haven't showered in days. The guests arrive, the children eat, and the 2 yr old has a melt down.

It took me a few days to catch up with some sleep and every night I have fallen asleep on the couch by 10p.m.

It was all worth it because one mom got a weekend to relax and enjoy some time to herself.

Are we there yet?

Still trying to make the right choice for my family, we have taken another trip to sunny Florida.


This time we decided to drive with a 7 and 9 year old, an 8 week Jack Russel puppy, an ex marine now head chef at a prestigious hotel in Boston, my husband, and of course me the master mind of all this! Nineteen hours from door to door. Not as bad as I thought, considering that we left Rhode Island at 8 pm on a Wednesday. My hubby and his cousin talked the whole way to South Carolina(now 5 a.m.). He talked my husbands ear off but I didn't care because it was keeping him awake.


It is now 5a.m. and my time to drive and the cousin isn't so talkative now. I stop at this small gas station where all the truckers get their morning fuel(fuel and gas). The people were not very friendly to the girl who talks like a Yankee. I bought coffee from a gas station! This is a girl that lives in a state where Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks on every main road. I needed to stay awake and had to drink the fuel, yuck!


Finally the sun was coming up and I called my sweet friend Jen who gets up before the birds. I figured she could help me stay awake for a bit of the drive. This is the friend(one of them) who does not want us to move.



We made it to the sunny state all intact and happy to be at abuela's.

Searching for Sunshine during December

Yes it's true that we have spent Christmas in sunny Florida for the past 3 years. The sun shining and the weather warm and inviting just like it should be. What more would one want?
I met my husband 20 years ago the day before leaving for school in Florida. It was a bummer that I had just met this really nice guy and now I had to leave to sunny Florida. We wrote to each other by snail mail(no one had email back then)and talked on the phone once a week. We became close friends who eventually fell in love with one another. He was so charming and loved everything that I loved. We both had Latin roots and strong family values. Most importantly, we both loved Florida!
Five years later, we get married and start our lives in the Northeast where we both complained about the cold. We always talked about moving to Florida, but we never made any serious plans. We would visit, look at houses and then we would forget about it until the next winter.
This year I have decided that 20 years is a long time to plan for something and I need to lite a fire under my husbands ass! He doesn't like change at all! He hates when I move the furniture, paint the rooms or even change my hair style. Now, here we are spending 15 days in Florida to relax(so he thought). I had a plan and it was to find and area that we loved and somewhere to raise the two other loves in my life. We drove around, looked at model homes, contacted Realtors and looked at schools. We had long conversations every night and discussed the pros and cons in moving to Florida. The sun was at the top of my pros list and the hurricanes were at the top of my cons list.
We have decided that this is probably the best time in our lives to move. It didn't become real until he started telling everyone that we were moving to Florida. It became scary and a journey that I have never taken. If my parents could cross the Atlantic(on a plane legally)with a 14 month old(me) and a 6yrs old to a country they had never visited, then why was this move so hard for us. We have wanted it for twenty years and now we have it.
Life is full of change, growth and fear. We got married(scary), bought our first home(scarier)
gave natural birth twice(crazy on my part) and bought our second home(lots of work). Why is this so scary? Now we live our lives for our children. It's not about this couple who meet when they were eighteen and made a vow to grow old in each others arms. We will always be happy wherever the other is, but our little ones now have lives here and history in this cold place we call home. Do we interrupt their lives to make our own dreams come true?

first time

This is my first post and I hope it all goes well. My laptop is hot and I am getting tired.