Finally found some time to write on the blog! Here we are soon to be packing up for the long drive home again! The whole month has just been a whirlwind it seems. First of all, we were one week late getting here, then Roy and Pat were here for 10 days, and now this is the last week here; we plan to leave Monday morning although I wouldn’t be surprised to see us leave Sunday instead.
This year’s rental condo has been a disappointment. We decided to find a place right on Siesta Key so we could be closer to the beach but we have both decided that we actually like it better on the mainland. It is too busy traffic-wise here. Then, the condo is an older condo and although the common areas and pool, etc are very well kept; the condo we are renting is not ideal. Everything in here is old and musty, the kitchen pots/pans and other utensils are well worn and need replacement. I hate using non-stick pans that are totally scratched up and these are bad! Then to top it off, we think the place has fleas. The first few days I was here, I noticed I had gotten some bites on my lower legs and feet especially when sitting/lying on the couches. Of course, I was paranoid about bed bugs too and I checked the bed with a fine tooth comb! Then, this last week, I found a couple of fleas on Timmie, so either Timmie picked up fleas outside, or this condo has fleas already in it and I am thinking it is the latter. I am now totally freaked out as I don’t want to be bringing fleas back home so I am disinfecting and spraying everything before we bring things into the house once we are home I went and got some flea stuff for Timmie and I have been vacuuming here every day hoping to help get rid of the fleas. Since I have bathed Timmie and treated him, I haven’t seen any since but it nonetheless is bothering me big time. I would have left here 3 days ago if I could as it has totally ruined our time here.
Brian has been doing amazing with his training here; I thought with him having that illness that delayed us getting down here would make him a little weak but he has made up for lost time; going biking and running every day and swimming in the pool here as well. The weather has been really great for January too, so that has really been nice for us. It is a bit cooler here now but still 100% better than the freezing temperatures at home! We actually only have been out on the bike once together and as you read below when Brian wrote on the blog, he complained at how slow I was. But, I haven’t biked that far in a couple of years, so I was pretty sore after that trek. Timmie loved it in his bike carrier though and it was fun bringing him along and not having to leave him in the condo. When Roy was here, he took my bike out to drive along the keys and he ended up falling off the bike and injuring his hand! He also was a bit stiff after that and had to take a day to recover! Hopefully he is on the mend now.
Roy, Pat and I had a good day exploring Sarasota for the homes and schools we went to when we lived here as children. At one of our homes, we were taking a picture of the house and the owners of the house came out to ask us if they could help us and we felt a bit awkward that we hadn’t asked permission but when we told them that we were the original owners of the house, they asked us if we would like to see inside, so that was great that they allowed us to do that. Brought back some long ago memories! I did not know the school I attended so we couldn’t find my school but we were able to find the schools that Roy went to and that Bob went to – Bob was in High School here and when we returned back to Canada, Bob actually had stayed in Sarasota to finish up his final year of High School and stayed with some friends of my parents during that time. Afterwards I talked to dad on Skype and he enlightened me a lot about our living here that I didn’t know as I was only in Grade 1 and 2 while here and didn’t remember a whole lot about it. Roy was in Middle School so he remembered more of it than I did.
Now tomorrow we are meeting up with Bob (my other brother) and his wife, Gwen, to go out for lunch together. It just so happened that Bob and Gwen had a chance to come and stay in Clearwater for a couple of weeks this year, so they are driving down to Sarasota to meet up with us for half a day.
It seems funny that we are 2400 miles away from home to come down here for a month and we spent some time with both my siblings and their wives!!
Unfortunately my camera is broken and I never bought another one to bring with us but I did use my Iphone, I have to figure out how to save pictures from my Iphone to my computer so unfortunately I won’t have any pictures to post.
We are looking forward to coming home now despite the cold weather but it will be nice to give our 2 little ones a huge hug; we miss them when we are away and then we can settle down and hibernate the rest of the winter away and then I will look forward to the spring. I am really looking forward to planting some flowers/plants and making our patio area out the back a cute comfortable place to relax in! Life is good!
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