We're back safe and sound!

[milivica]

The whole entire vacation was fantastic, not a single complaint outta me, just wonderful.

I've never been so physically uncomfortable (sore muscles, shin splints, mosquito bites, etc...) and so spiritually and mentally HAPPY at the same time in my life. I feel so great!

If I had to pick who to vacation with in the future, Vince by far and large would be my pick! No whining or complaining, both of us totally fascinated with every living thing. The one time it rained (for an hour - that's it!) he and I went down to the parking garage and checked out all the reptiles and bugs we could find. Neither of us wanted to spend a second inside. What for?

I have tons of pics so will narrow down drastically to post here - or post on YouTube if I can figure out how (more likely on Walgreens, I already know how). The highlights were several:

*Our Atlantic snorkeling in Looe Key - the Parrot fish were MOST amazing and my favorite, also got to see and take pics of barracuda (one was 5ish feet, darn big) and a black shark (6-7 feet) but I dunno what kind. I have to develop the pics from the underwater disposable camera. The barracuda was antagonistic, but the shark was shy.

*Another highlight was an air boat through the Everglades in Everglades City.

*A trail (only yards long) through Big Pine Key where an alligator approached the little dock we were on, a deer walked just feet in front of me without fear, and there were huge iguanas all over.

*Another highlight was Tiger Tail beach, just FULL of life, which I swam across many times, and, the last and best funnest day walked the length of through to the Gulf of Mexico in Marco Island.

*Also a highlight was finding a jellyfish big as our bucket (but it was dead but fascinating still) and the wee fish we scooped up with it that must have been under it.

*The hare snails (or was it rabbit snails) that I'd find and throw back in the water when I got up real early, that INKED me!

*A walk on the beach in the evening for hours along the Gulf of Mexico, nothing happend yet it was so so fun. Not so much because of the absolutes (the ocean, the fish, the 104 degree heat index - hee hee) but cause I am able to enjoy the whole thing with my family. I see now I tend to enjoy things within myself and others that are there are there but not 'with' me - sort of like your dog enjoys rolling in the grass or on the carpet getting a good scratch on - you are just 'there' and not a part of the emotion he's feeling. Dh kept saying I am changing, he feels so much closer to me (ok great, but why does that translate to wanting more 'whoopy' instead of more snorkeling! ).

The very best part, was realizing every day that my friend was entrusting us at her condo there in Florida, it was such an honor. It was like from the start, with that in mind, everything went right - even the things that didn't go as planned had a great outcome cause I made it so. It might sound sappy that it wasn't the money that meant so much - that did make a big difference, allowing the kids to do things no way could they have otherwise. But when I planned the trip, I didn't even know I had a friend with a condo. Any of you that are relatively friendless, then finally get a good one (I have two so am twice as lucky) it just means the world to know they believe you are a good person, and feel trust toward you, and you feel the same toward them. So really, the 'sentiment' behind the whole trip was so strong, it just made everything perfect before anything had even happened yet. Set the perfect mood and tone for the whole time there.

We got home safe and sound, all of our animals are just fine, even the plants are fine. The air conditioner/furnace is dead, it won't click on to anything not even the fan, so that's a bummer, but it's not like it's the winter and we're freezing. We'll get it worked out. We spent our tax return on the vacation, so can use credit for the furnace...what ever, I don't care, dh always wanted a sauna, now our house is one, hee hee, (sweat) hee hee.

[peglem]

Glad you're back- this place just ain't the same w/o you! Sounds like such a great time!

[Mother's Heart]

:D :) :D my heart is full. I"m delighted you had such a 'right' vacation. :) :D

[Isabelle]

What did you bring us? :D :D :D

[Mother's Heart]

What did you bring us? :D :D :D

Probably just one of those dumb t-shirts. ya know, the ones that say, "Our dearest bestest friend spent a WEEK in the FLorida Keys and all she brought back to me was this t-shirt!"

I'll takes pics of grinning folks, fascinating critters, and interesting stories over a t-shirt any day. (Okay....maybe a pretty shell woulda been nice too, ;) but..... pics and stories are still better.)

[mrsjerome]

Hi Milli
Welcome back to the Heat. It'll be hot today but should get cooler tomorrow.
Hope you get your air fixed. Glad you had a great vacation. Waiting to see some of the pictures.
Keep Cool
Mrs J

[Mother's Heart]

no chance it's just a circuit breaker, I don't suppose?

[milivica]

Air is fixed, darn happy about that - thought we needed a new unit but didn't. $127, so bad, but not the end of the world.

Still have to play lots of catch up here...cages and tanks to clean of course. Just got back from dr's appt with Vince, poor kid has a bad swimmer's ear but has meds for that now.

Some piccies, random order...more to come when I set up something somewhere to do a slide show like YouTube or something.

First attachments, some things in Big Pine Key, 30 minutes north of Key West.

[milivica]

Then Everglades pics, Everglades City...

[milivica]

Then pics from the Gulf of Mexico in Marco Island where we stayed all but one night...

[milivica]

Tiger Tail Beach, Marco Island...

[milivica]

Various pics...Marco Island, Key Largo John Pennekamps Marine Sanctuary, Looe Key snorkeling in the Atlantic Ocean...

[milivica]

Caxambas Park Marco Island

[Pamster]

Awesome you had such a grand time Lisa! Thanks for posting the pics, it's like we were there right with you! :eek: ;) :D

[gynwhyver]

Milli!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Home! We missed you. So glad you had a fantastic vacation. Your kids are much braver than I - parasailing? Yikes! And all of you are braver than I - gators? Umm, no thanks. I'll pass. But the rest of it...so jealous.

The photos are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing.

[Isabelle]

Thanks, Mili! I fully enjoyed your vacation through your pictures.

[Isabelle]

Probably just one of those dumb t-shirts. ya know, the ones that say, "Our dearest bestest friend spent a WEEK in the FLorida Keys and all she brought back to me was this t-shirt!"

I'll takes pics of grinning folks, fascinating critters, and interesting stories over a t-shirt any day. (Okay....maybe a pretty shell woulda been nice too, ;) but..... pics and stories are still better.)

me too! i am very visual, pictures anytime. sorry, btw, i meant to ask that is your dd? celebrating her b-day?

[milivica]

Oh boy, I didn't get even get everybody stupid T-shirts....guess you'll have to all make some saying you didn't even get a stupid t-shirt!

I hope all of you feel an 'Ahhhhhh' just looking at the pics. I can't believe how different this vacation was than any others we've tried over weekends and stuff...and by different I mostly mean the way I experienced it, WITH my family instead of just in the physical presence of them. Looking back, I was more like a spouse having an affair - my mind and spirit and heart was elsewhere, my body was there only. Not that I don't love my kids and husband, there was just always this distance with them and everyone really - but like only in person, when everything has to be instant, where as online or in letters, you have time to absorb and become a part of the feel or emotions being written.

Well I'm still high as a kite. Got the pics back from the ocean, you can totally see the shark...it was a nurse shark turns out. I recognized it in the photo. The kids had some nice underwater shots too - Vince especially seemed to be in many shots. I'll have to get them posted some time, for now I just have the printed photos, nothing on cd.

I'll get on board here and read the posts I've missed, but might have to wait a bit more - Monday both kids have camp and dh has work. Cripe he's a bigger handful than the two of the kids together, what a baby! Lucky I have my ongoing appraisal, flexible thinking, and car keys to cope with his time off work, lol. How can anyone be whiny with so much to be happy about? Reality is coming soon enough (with my next court date, having to file due process, and next school year), I'm ready to enjoy the present as long as possible!!!! Soon enough, I'll be posting in tears and for support, why rush it!

Thank you all for looking at the pics, again, I hope you all felt the wonder and the relaxation factor I do when looking at them. I just feel like I could recreate those feelings right in my own back yard if I set my mind to it - or at least in the yard of a neighbor with fewer dandelions and crab grass, hee hee.

[Lara]

Welcome back. Haven't had a chance to see all your photos yet, but wanted to say G'day!

You sound as if you had such a wonderful time. You must have needed it so badly after all that's gone on this past school year.

Thanks so much for sharing the joy of it all with us. Can read it in your typing how well you're feeling. It's so great to see, Mili. :D

I'll check out all the pics now.

[Mother's Heart]

me too! i am very visual, pictures anytime. sorry, btw, i meant to ask that is your dd? celebrating her b-day?

Hi Isabelle,
were you asking about the photo in my signature? the one with the balloons?
If so: that is my son, celebrating the day of his Baptism in April. That's the day I noticed how much his face has changed. I thought it was the camera angle, then I kept noticing he keeps looking like that. :) He matured while I wasn't looking. He looks like his dad, through and through.
cj

[Mother's Heart]

I love the pics Mili. I'm so happy you had a great vacation...and the wheels are turning here, thinking how I can pull off a visit like yours to that wondrous place. So glad you all enjoyed it.
cj

[Keggy]

the crab traffic at marco island and birds feeding at sunset are worthy of being enlarged, framed and displayed in your house... both beautiful photos.
Your kids look great too, Carmen is going to be a real looker.

My tee shirt reads...

"Moldy and her kin had a great time in the Marco Islands, and all I got was a saying to put on my own crummy tee shirt!"

[sadge]

Mili glad to see your holiday was all you were hoping for. Pictures are fantastic, making me jealous as all we have over here at the moment is monsoon type weather, floods gales you name it, so was wonderful to see you photos cheered me up no end. Only the frog one freaked me out,:eek: they scare the life out of me, comes from when we live in Malaysia as a child when it rained they all came indoors and were everywhere all over the walls beds etc., arghhh, they still make me cringe today. your son is very brave being so near that one.

Thanks again for sharing the photos.

Susan

[milivica]

Glad the photos are being enjoyed!

Sadge, that totally amazes me when I hear how folks live in totally different countries - not so much cause of culture and stuff but I'm into learning about how different people live WITH nature. I really don't understand my fascination. I was raised in a city on a hot top floor apartment where getting a house spider was an 'event', when I first moved to a suburb I hated it cause there was too much grass and trees and no buildings - I thought it was so vacant looking.

Yes, the vacation was the best...though I don't like to be hot or in the sun or whatnot, all that stuff was detail and totally ignored. The heat index was over 100, and honestly I think the water was too! Any details like that were easy to overlook as herds of crabs ran about, huuuuuge iguanas towered over us in the trees, fish everywhere in the water - one day I high tailed in out of the ocean cause something bit my finger as it hung over the mini surf board thing I was floating on. What ever it was didn't have teeth, I heard the loud 'suck' sound like koi goldfish make in a pond when they want to be fed, but for some reason I really freaked in my head - and even that was FUN! Once I was back on land I mean. Just everywhere I turned, there was something that I marveled at, though, most of what I marveled at other folks were complaining about.

Here are some shots of us IN the Atlantic ocean in the Keys, at Looe Key which was off Big Pine Key. It was again, one marvel to see after another. If there's a way to describe what God is, my definition would have to include every living thing on earth, rocks and dead stuff too...it's all just too big for my mind to take in all at once - in a good way I mean.

Vince was just as he usually is in nature, in his element. Carmen did very well too but got really pooped out. It was a 5 hour trip...an hour to get out to the reef, three different reefs each an hour to explore, then an hour back. We all kept taking a deep breath then fighting salt water to swim down to see everything. It was at most 20 feet deep so doable. Vince and I wanted MORE! Carmen slept all the way back to Marco.

[frogmama]

Really, knowing you Mili, I can't imagine a more prefect vacation for you! I knew you would love the wildlife (and I don't mean the "girls gone wild" at daytona beach kind!!!) and have so much fun there and the kids too. I'm so glad you all got this opportunity to be together having so much fun. I'm also sending mental good karma thoughts to your friend who loaned you the condo in Marco Island! My youngest looked at the pictures with me and is ready to go now herself, she is a waterbug and loves anything to do with an ocean, lake, river, creek, puddle,garden HOSE...lol :)

[milivica]

I think besides all the cool critters, so much of the fun was 'mental'. The first time since 1999 that I wasn't consumed with autism and all things autism related. Matter of fact I wasn't even consumed with anything 'reality' related, like bills or whatnot. Things like 'its too early to wake up' didn't exist, getting up early was a treat...words like cholesterol and calories didn't exist, hee hee.

Since coming home, I still feel that vacation spirit...today Vince and I walked through the park he gets dropped off at after camp, it's like I'm looking at all things Wisconsin with new eyes.

He had a great first day at camp...he's there with two other kids with autism, one who is in his boy scout troop and special olympics team. It was so darn funny, apparently Vince fell asleep on the bus on the way home per the counselor, so, in the car I asked him about that and he said, "Oh yes, me and my friend fell asleep together just like two husbands." baawawa, so nice to be unincumbered by 'gay' sounding comments like most boys would be, I love it. I'm super glad his friend is there with him plus another boy on the spectrum - can't say I'd have ever expected three kids with autism in an nt camp even a couple of years ago. I really liked the young counselors too, they give good vibes (for lack of a better explanation).

[The Pogue]

Great pics!!

[milivica]

Heyyyyyyyyy! Finally you're here!!!

Glad you liked the pics Pogie-Keet - so when ya coming over to see the album I put together of the whole trip, hint hint (ok maybe not subtle a hint, but you're always welcome here).

I must have spent I have no idea how many hours, on that scrapbook. My first. Paper was 6 for 96 cents, still a lot of money just for paper! It's like 40 pages long! I tried to make it look real nice, make all the pages cohesive. Actually I said, "Cohesive" a lot while I was making it and showing each new page to dh, and I don't ever remember using that word, so, just a little fast fact there for ya.

Ok, off to drink my non-alcoholic beer, cause for the past year at least I'm going through some strange not liking a buzz phase, perhaps my most concerning problem to date, pretty alarming to know I'd rather feel like 'me' than not, hee hee.

[The Pogue]

I'm in the midst of a redecorating disaster. Ok, that was too dramatic a term, but when you live in a 100+ year old house, there are always surprises, and they are never good.

What I expected to cost under a grand is likely to be twice that, when all is said and done. Meanwhile, I'm nursing bursitis induced by scraping tile adhesive off floorboards. Yes, some maroon actually desecrated a hardwood floor by putting uglyass vinyl tile over it. :mad: Anyhow, the carpet goes next. It should have been scrapped 3 dogs, 2 cats ago, and 10 years ago.

I'd love to come up again, with or without the lovebirds. (Yes, to entice them into reconsidering UW). When my life and house become un-topsy-turveyed, I'll sure plan a trip!! Even getting to the telephone is a hazardous enterprise right now, and I'll need to take the computer out for a few days. I'll holler when I can see daylight.

-Poguekeet

[milivica]

HA - I have no idea why, but I kept reading your post as 'uniglass' vinyl, not uglyass. I was like "wow, wonder what uniglass vinyl is, never heard of it".

Hope the bursitis gets better soon, is it in your knees I'm guessing? I had to actually look it up. Bursitis is inflammation of the fluid-filled sac (bursa) that lies between a tendon and skin, or between a tendon and bone. Sounds like a giant pussless zit, one of those kind with no head way under your skin that's way too huge to try and pop. Any chance you could reduce it with ice, anti inflamatories or depending on what exactly a bursa is could you just sort of put a needle in and let the water out, the best way is to go in through a pour, if you do it right it won't even hurt. Or is it like a bladder so full or not you wouldn't want to make a needle hole in it. I won't even try and tell why I know needles work to drain stuff cause since there's no edit, I have a feeling I (and everyone reading) might regret my story. But I will say if you need anything drained, and I was the last person on earth, you'd let me go for it.

I think an old house is way cool, except for repair type stuff of course. All the lovely woodwork, the personality of it. It can't be matched today, too much 'character'. Though vinyl on hardwood I have to say made me cringe. Going to be sooooo nice once you get it restored.

[milivica]

OH SEE..."Bursitis pain is rarely treated with surgery. However, it is used in cases of infected bursitis to drain fluid from an inflamed bursa and sometimes to remove the bursa entirely." you can totally stick a pin in it, you know that's all there going to do in surgery...make you take risky anestetics then talk about golf and stick a pin in it or syringe and suck the fluid out.

[peglem]

Mili, I'm thinking the inflammation is in the joints with bursitis, like shoulders. Don't see how to get a needle in there.

[The Pogue]

It's in my right wrist. I've had it before, after other major home repair projects. The solution is stretching, massage, ibuprophen, and rest. I'm not resting it as much as I should, because there is so much more to be done, over the next few days.

:D

[frogmama]

Hey Pogue, my sympathies to you, I am firmly convinced there is a special area of hell just for those people who glue carpet or vinyl to hardwood, it is right next door the the area for people who paint 100 year-old maple woodwork burgundy and teal! And just down the street from the people who put blue aluminum siding over my leaded-glass transom and sidelights!! Don't even get me started on the stairs.... While I'm sweating over my heat gun I imagine just which tourtures would be appropriate - such as having to use my heat gun for all eternity, lol...

[milivica]

Oh, you're wrist...would it help you to force it to rest by using one of those braces you can get at Walgreens...kind of looks like what bowlers wear, you can still use all your fingers, just can't twist and bend your wrist.

Frogmama...hee hee. Very funny, I like that. Don't forget to also include people that paint over wallpaper which you discover after YOU wall paper and the orig paper begins to fall off. And people that put up a border to not deal with the fact that the seam between wall and ceiling is a crumbling mess so when you peel the ugly thing off, you peel off parts of the wall.

Ever watch that movie Money Pit? That was darn funny.

[The Pogue]

Frog mama - OMG that is criminal!! Your house sounds to die for!

While my husband was taking a turn on removin the tile, forgot where he'd set the heatgun, and squatted on it. Guess where he has a half-moon scar?

;)

[The Pogue]

p.s. Guess I'll have to do some time in that special purgatory. I used to have an exquisite Queen Anne mahogony vanity and dresser set. During the 70's, my mother painted them vivid lime green (then shellaced over the paint), while I cheered her on enthusiastically. It is now in her house. One drawer of the dresser has since been stripped; the rest are patiently waiting. They are as vivid as the day she painted them.