Heaviest of Heart - My Amazing Mom

There is absolutely nothing that prepares you ever to say goodbye to your Mom.  The pain in your heart is debilitating.  For those that knew her, she was the perfect combination of strict, fun, loyal and truly the best listener and advice giver.  I talked to my Mom pretty much every day.   She was truly my rock.  

When I struggled to become a mother, she stood by my side and supported all of our crazy attempts to become parents.   She never even flinched when I told her that we were adopting from Russia.   She worried about us traveling, but knew that nothing was going to stop us from bring our family home.  

My parents were at the airport all three times we landed and our children became US citizens.   

I miss her every single day…  Everyone deserves to have the kind of love I had from my Mom.  

December 30, 2018

One more angel in the shape of my mom has her wings spread wide and is flying high - pain free and unencumbered in heaven today. It is hard to put into words how heavy my heart is in writing this. She was the foundation of my days. We talked daily and people often commented that when they saw me out running, I was always laughing and talking on the phone -- it was always to her. Even when she wasn't feeling the best the past few months she ALWAYS picked up. 

We are grateful to have 79 wonderful years with her but truly nothing prepares you for letting go. Fly high Mom... we miss you so so so much!! You will live on in us forever!

We had a beautiful memorial for my Mom and the church was packed.   She would have felt so amazing.  Her best friends showed up from all over and it was so wonderful to be around people that cared so much for her.   The day after the memorial, we decided to head to the beach for sunset.   It was by far the best way for our family to wrap up our weekend.   It gave us a some time to process, reminisce and to be together as a family.   

My Dad was quiet…  

He lost his High School sweet heart.  

Married 47 years! 

It was pretty cool at the beach - we warmed up at a fire pit off the beach and spent the evening sharing amazing memories… 

We will always have our angel looking over us all!  

December 30, 2018

December 2018...

My sisters first visit to our new temp pad in Florida…  We are out for the night with cutest Uber driver ever!   

We took a short road trip to the West side of the state to surprise my Mom for her birthday.   We brought the grand pups with us.   

The rain isn’t going to stop us from cheering on our New England Pats!    

Final score a bit of a bummer thought…. Miami stole it from us at the very end.  

It was a great game!

We are living in temporary housing about a mile from our new house being built.  It is so fun watching it get built and planning for our next round of adventures in Parkland, Florida.   

Love being back in the sun!!

My Dad has gotten so much better cooking…   Christmas cooking

Christmas crack for the holidays! 

This year we took our crew to the Keys to celebrate Christmas.   The kids have been working hard at getting SCUBA certified and will do their check out dives in the Keys while there. 

Ayden here testing out her mask in the pool.   

Enjoying a Christmas Eve out in Key west! 

Love my crew!

Meanwhile back at the condo… Bella was not disappointed we were going out.   Peace and quiet with her bone.  

The visibility was not the best but we all had two full days of diving and the kids were able to get their certification.   

It will be a lot of fun taking them our adventures now…   

Can’t say we had as much luck breaking out of the escape room though...  but it was the perfect way to celebrate Christmas.   

Great way to wrap up 2018 and kick off 2019 in our new home

November Update 2018 - Drove through 11 States!

Moving three teenagers and one big dog is an ADVENTURE!

We arrived in Florida on a Saturday and the kids started school that Monday. It was a bit of a whirlwind but proud doesn’t even cover the feeling I have for all three of my kids for taking the move in stride. Ayden spent the drive down staying connected with her friends from MA and sharing a lot of tearful anecdotes of each and every friend and special moment she had over the course of the four years we were there. The dramamine came in handy when we hit New York! All in all she was excited for the new adventure and tentatively yet optimistically looked forward to being launched into middle school. Jordan is always up for and adventure and was eager to start school and check out the sports available. She was disappointed to find out she missed tryouts by a couple of weeks for soccer, but managed to get a late tryout and was put on the JV team! MSD is a large school and it was so helpful for her to have enormity of it carved down with the quick friendships she made through soccer and being a part of a team. Garrett was very nervous about stating at a new school and tends to take things very very slowly… He chatted the entire way down so he seemed to not be affected by the transition, but was disappointed to not miss but one day of school in the transition.

We do have have one little big lady in the house that gave up her Boxford perch for some tight quarters, no yard and new smells and different textured grass. We are looking forward to getting into our new house in February. Until then, she is taking up a new residence on Garrett’s bed during the days… slowly processing her transition.

New weather… makes new adventures. We put up our skies this year and traded them in for paddle boards and snorkeling gear!

Getting up early brings new fun for us! Sunrise - kids still sleeping, we paddle board a couple of miles either on the intracoastal or on the ocean… Home before the kids even get up!

Love this weather!

Moving back to Florida brought me closer to my parents.

It has been a long time since we have had a holiday with them and this year we were lucky enough to spend a few days with them over Thanksgiving.

We had a wonderful dinner at a country club. It was nice being served for a change and the clean up for me was a peace of cake. It was a great time to be together with my parents and I love living closer to them to celebrate many more holidays!!

The Carey girls!

Love this girl… she is always up for Mom time - even if that means sharing me with Bella.

Nothing like a little girl time!

Starting back with our Friday night Beach nights. Loving our access to the beach year around!

So proud of this girl… the moment we arrived, she reached out to Parkland Buddy sports and started volunteering that weekend playing sports with children with special needs.