Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for Florida
And we’re off…
…to Florida! We all can’t wait to spend time with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott while enjoying the sun, the beach, and a whole bunch of family who will also be down there. It’s going to be a great week.
We’re leaving at 4:00 this afternoon, and as always we’re hoping that the trip is a smooth one. Hopefully I’ll have lots of pictures to share when we get back!
Happy Spring Break everyone!
The countdown is on
March has hit, and with it comes the big time anticipation for Spring Break. None of us can wait to get back to Venice and hit the beach, hit the pool, hit the ice cream shop, and do everything else we love to do in Florida. As soon as they heard that it was March, both kids were asking how long it was before we leave. So, I’ve started making our March calendars to have them ready to start on Sunday. It’s so much easier for the kids when they can X off each day before bedtime. That way they can actually count the days until we leave themselves.
So now we just need to figure out how to make those days fly by…
Should we stay or should we go?
The first day that we got to Florida Emma was asking when Jamie and Lauren were going to get here. She loves them, and sadly our spring breaks were not the same week this year, so they didn’t get here until about 8:45 tonight. We planned to leave tomorrow evening around 6:00, but now we’re thinking about waiting until Saturday evening to leave. There are big plans for heading to the beach tomorrow with Brad, Jamie and Lauren, the Laurvicks, Jen O’Reilly and her kids, and all of the grandmas and grandpas. It’s going to be so much fun, and I hate the idea of packing up early just because we have to leave for home.
Right now I’m very torn. Dave is being so great about it, and he’s really kind of left it up to me; I think he could be swayed either way quite easily. I’d say it’s a 50/50 chance right now. I think we’ll sleep on it and see what the morning brings.
What could be better than this?
Our trip has been going so great so far. Truly, we’re having the best time ever. So far the weather has been absolutely perfect, and the forecast is calling for more of the same…sunshine and mid to upper 70s…all week. What a fantastic get away for us. We’re so lucky to have the opportunity to:
Swim in Grandma & Grandpa’s pool,
Hit the beach,
Get ice cream at Nokomis Grove,
Climb on the rocks at the North Jetty,
Watch the dolphins play in between the jetties,
Ride scooters down to Aunt Lois’s house,
Go to the county fair,
and eat a bunch of YUMMY seafood.
We’re so lucky that we get to spend our Spring Break in Florida. The weather has been better than I can ever remember it being, and we haven’t had to change our plans, which usually consist of heading to the beach, once. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here three and a half days! I hope that time slows down for the rest of the week. We have so much more fun planned…
On the road again
In just about 2½ hours, we’ll be hitting the road for Florida. Right now, the kids are so wound up that it’s impossible to imagine strapping them into their carseats and containing them. They are literally running around the house. We’ve finished all of their packing, which meant trying to limit Ben to about a hundred cars, animals and guys and trying to convince Emma to pick more than one thing to take. We’ve brought everything downstairs and have it ready to load into the van. Dave even put some things in the back of the van last night to make sure we’d remember them.
Now I just have to survive the last couple of hours of craziness. Dave’s going to sleep a bit when he gets home so he can drive the first shift. I am definitely looking forward to crawling into the back of the van and sleeping the first leg.
I’m not going to lie…the 20 hour drive is not fun. But man, is it worth it. Happy Spring Break, everyone!
It’s St. Patty’s Day?
I think that everyone is wearing green today, but I have hardly noticed. I am so stressed out about getting ready for our Spring Break trip that there is no time to even think about St. Patrick’s Day. Thank goodness we’re not Irish…I would probably be tried for treason. At this point, I am still waiting on one load of laundry to get dry before I can finish packing my suitcase. I’m done packing for the kids, and I have a very detailed list that his helping me stay organized, but I still feel like there is a lot to do. I need to organize our snacks and our car items and I need to make sure that Dave has some of the things on my list squirreled away somewhere in his suitcase. Oh, and at some point I really do need to get some sleep.
*Sigh* Thank goodness getting out of here for a week still seems worth all this work.
Wish me the luck of the Irish to get everything done tonight before St. Patty’s day is over!!
Getting it out of our system
Ok, we have had enough sickness in our house, thanks. Time for all you germs to leave now, mmm-kay???
Wednesday morning Dave was up early and was getting sick again. This has been happening off and on for almost two full weeks now with him. I feel so badly, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. It’s like he just can’t shake this thing. And then last night around 12:45, Emma came into our room and said, “I frew up in my bed.” She was not kidding…throw up she did. Oh, man, this is nothing worse than cleaning up puke in the middle of the night. But the little trooper just chilled out and waited while we got everything stripped off her bed, got her cleaned up, put new sheets on her bed, and got her all settled again.
Needless to say, Emma and I stayed home today. She is doing great…had some toast for breakfast and kept that down and then ate a relatively normal lunch and kept that down, too. It’s like she’s not even sick at all…even though she barfed up what had to be every morsel of food she had eaten the day before just 12 short hours ago. I’m certainly not complaining, but it is weird.
But now I’ve had enough. I really hope that Ben doesn’t get this second round, too, because I’m just sick of everyone being sick! I want the flu and all its germy friends out of this house!
Grandma’s home
What a wonderful day we had today. First of all, it was just about perfect weather outside. It was sunny and warm, and as soon as we got home from church we changed our clothes and headed outside to play. 
The kids were riding the tractor, drawing with chalk, and playing with bubbles. It was like none of us could get enough of the outside. But a lot of the excitement was due to the fact that we were expecting visitors for lunch.
We didn’t have to wait very long until the biggest treat of the day arrived…Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott came to see us. Yes, Grandma is finally home from Florida for the summer, and the kids could not have been more excited to see her. As soon as they pulled up the kids ran out to the car yelling, “Grandma!!” I think she was pretty happy to have that kind of reception. She and Grandpa played with the kids while Dave and I got some lunch together, and we had some burgers on the grill. Even lunch was pleasant, believe it or not.
After lunch we decided to head up to the school to ride bikes at Safety Town. Dave had gotten Ben’s big bike down, and he thought he was big stuff riding it up and down the sidewalk. 
Safety Town is a little area behind the fire station that has all kinds of streets for kids to ride on. There are intersections, stop signs, cross walks, and pretty much everything you’d find in a real neighborhood. Even though the bike is actually a little too big for him, Ben loved riding there. Emma actually loved it, too, because we brought her tractor to ride around on. Plus there was good dirt for digging in, so really that was all she needed.
We finally had to head home, although I don’t think anyone wanted to. Grandma and Grandpa headed back north to Sycamore, and we settled in for the night. We had two exhausted kids by the time bedtime hit, but they definitely went to be with smiles on their face. It was a good day.
We made it to the beach!
Yippee…the weather cooperated enough for us to get to the beach for an hour or so today. It was beautiful out there, and the most amazing thing happened. I walked from the car to the beach carrying one thing in my left hand and a bag on my right shoulder. That was it! I can’t even remember the last time I wasn’t loaded down with toys, towels, kids, and a variety of other necessary items to enjoy the day. Today, I only needed my chair, a couple of towels in a bag, and my “Entertainment Weekly”. It was awesome. And, even better yet, once we were settled in our spot, I never even had to once worry about where anyone else was. I simply sat and enjoyed the sun while listening to the waves crashing. Perfection.
Sadly, the wind picked up and we started to get cold. But again, Mom’s pool was the perfect consolation spot. We were protected from the wind and were sweatin’ in no time. I don’t want to keep saying how great it was being there without any kids, but I have to. It was really great, and I felt more relaxed than I had in months.
Grandma Judy’s party
Well, today is the big day…Grandma Judy’s 70th birthday. I am so glad that I was here for this. The plan today was just to have a relaxing day doing as little as possible until we’d go out to dinner and then have the big party. Connie, Nance and I ran some errands in the morning. We had to go to Publix to pick up some party supplies and a birthday cake. We took everything down to Chuck & Rita’s, the party site, and then everyone (Rita, Paula & Deb as well as all of us) headed back to Mom & Dad’s so we could hit the pool. Even though the weather wasn’t super warm, the sun was shining bright, and next to the clubhouse we were protected from the wind. It was perfect out there, and we all enjoyed it immensely.
About 4:30 Mom, Dad, Connie, Nance and I went to Marker 4 for dinner. I absolutely love that place, and I was very excited to get some seafood. It was a great meal, and it was nice to just go out with the five of us. It’s rare that I get such great dinner conversation these days. Usually I’m busy keeping someone entertained, or convincing someone to eat their food, or trying to keep someone quiet so the entire restaurant isn’t annoyed. But tonight was actual conversation and a really enjoyable dinner.
We left the restaurant and headed to Chuck and Rita’s. Before long the party was in full swing. 
I think that we had about 20-25 people there before it was all said and done…a wide variety of family and friends. We had some cocktails, ate some snacks, and all enjoyed sitting around the table while Mom opened her many gifts. I know I made a hit with the photo book of our Christmas holiday. She got teary eyed just looking at the cover! 
After she finished with all the gifts we lit the candles on the cake, sang “Happy Birthday”, and enjoyed some cake & ice cream. 
Overall, it was a pretty low-keyed party, but I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. I know that Mom had a great time and was really appreciative for everything.
