January 21 2015

Good morning.  I'm surprised to see the date of my last post. It HAS been a while. 

Since then, Thanksgiving has come and gone. We went to some local friends for Thanksgiving.  It was pleasant. Christmas came and went, we had our traditional Jerusalem supper, and had Christmas dinner with some friends/adopted family/fellow sports fans/long lost relatives.  It was very nice - I didn't have to cook. Our neighborhood had it's second annual holiday lights contest - that I championed.  I didn't win it, but I planned it, handed out fliers, and did the judging and prizes.  We also did luminaries throughout the neighborhood.  It was pretty. Until it rained. And then cleaning them up was kind of gross. At least we used rocks. 

The new year came and went - we made our traditional yuletide log cake, and sat on the back patio with some friends, playing crack the case, and eating the yuletide log, and counted down to the new year, and then banged our pots and pans and screamed...I'm sure the neighbors loved us.  

Some dear friends from Colorado came into town, and we spent New Years Day with them at their beach house, walking along the beach.  It was drizzling and raining and the waves were rough so we didn't go in (we would of, but they thought we were crazy).  We saw a portuguese man of war on the beach. We didn't touch it, even though we wanted to. 

My major stress since September has been dealing with fellow members of our HOA.  In Sept. I suggested that we look for a new management company, and called a few companies to get an idea of what was available.  A few of the board members took issue with this, since they hadn't been properly consulted on the idea (I guess), and I spent 4 long months of personal attacks and struggle as we worked to find a new property management company.  In November our current company of 30 years actually fired our board.  They couldn't keep up with my (high) expectations that they actually answer phone calls, or respond to emails in a timely manner.  Or, to the fellow board member's constant email queries, back seat driving and requests.  It has been a very interesting ride.  While it was probably the most productive year the HOA has ever had, there were some individuals who were very difficult to work with, and couldn't seem to agree on anything.  It has been a tough year, and I stepped off of that ride last week. Hooray! 

I'm teaching 12 students, all piano except 1 violin.  I've just managed to shift all of my students from Fridays to Tuesdays and Monday afternoons.  Which is a huge relief, because the LAST thing I want to do on a Friday afternoon is work.  :)  I'm excited to have a recital at the end of this week, so that my students can show off their skills and progress.  

So, I've dropped the HOA, and I've consolidated my teaching.  It feels like I've had 3 huge pressures I've been trying to juggle, and I've been able to set down two of them.  The third one is primary.  Our stake was recently divided and a third stake was created - the Lake Mary Stake.  As part of that, our ward received a large influx of families from another ward.  And so, we've spent a lot of time trying to figure out who is who, and getting everyone updated on our scout rosters and rolls.  Getting there.  

And...I cleaned out our spare room, and it was ready for last week's house guests beforehand, and I didn't have to stress about it - it was already cleaned and ready to go.  I feel like I'm slowly coming up for air and resurfacing after a long hard winter. And yes..I live in Florida :) Kind of crazy huh? 

Lots of small slow steps. 

Next up, I'm hoping to place the final nail in the coffin of our old water heater that went out 2 weeks ago.  It has now been 10 days since I've had a hot shower.  I'm getting grumpier by the minute, but I'll share that saga once it is resolved.  Oh, the joys of life! 

After that - taxes.