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Showing posts from December, 2015

Wrapping up 2015, Welcoming 2016

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It's that time again...putting the finishing touches on 2015 and looking ahead to 2016. This year went by the blink of an eye, it seems! Christmas is all wrapped up (pun intended?!), and Cam and I have been enjoying a quiet week at home. Unfortunately, much to his chagrin, Mark had to work Monday-Wednesday, this week, and Annalisse is enjoying the mid-80s temps of Orlando with Alex's family (stinker!). Christmas was nice, but pretty low-key overall, with the realization that our family keeps getting smaller and smaller - a far cry from the cast of thousands when I was growing up. On Christmas day, in fact, there was only four of us for dinner - me, Mark, Cam, and Grandma Pat - as Annalisse flew out on Christmas day (her flight was supposed to leave at 1pm but was delayed because of technical difficulties until 6pm - not pretty). So, since we were such an intimate group we celebrated with lobster tails....yummmmm!!! Christmas morning we hosted with the Nara, Lena and Ken or

Almost There!

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Seven more days of work and I am HOME FREE and off until 2016. Hurray!!  This morning I am enjoying a very chill day at home as Mark is raking and mowing the lawn at the church ON DECEMBER 12. I'm loving this mild weather, I'm not going to lie, and trying not to think of any possible payback like snow in May. ERASE! ERASE! ERASE! that thought from my mind. The tree is beautiful, everything is decorated, and we it's wonderful to bask in the soft evening lights. After a very intense week, the kids are on the downslide of the semester. Annalisse was particularly stressed (we heard about it) and Cam could have been equally stressed (but we did not hear about it), and next week they are finishing up projects and Annalisse has several finals. By Friday afternoon both will be nestled back at home, and Jasper will be ONE HAPPY DOG.  I also spent this week feeling annoyed and disappointed that the Massena house sale fell through. Unfortunately, I had mentally come t

34 Roosevelt Street - SOLD!

We were surprised and happy to sell our parent's house on Friday. After being vacant for 5ish years, and on the market since July, it all ended up happening very quickly. Apparently the buyer (a man) was interested in the house a couple of months ago, then came the Alcoa announcement, so he put his plans on hold, then came the other Alcoa announcement, and he decided to go ahead with it. The selling price was lower than we had hoped, but we are just relieved to have it sold. We will all get a little $$ out of it once all the bills (including my mother's funeral) are paid off, so now we wait (holding our breath a little) hoping all goes through without a hitch. This week the home inspection will be done. We let the realtor know the property is "as is" - we are not willing to make any improvements which my be identified in the inspection, since the house was priced so low.  The buyer will surely have to put a chunk of money into it, bringing it up to date and probabl