Dancing with Daffodils

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Rochester, New York. It is a wonderfully middle-sized city with four seasons, a gorgeous lilac festival every May, the best custard, fun beaches along Lake Ontario and many sites special to my church. It has a great highway system, access to lots of culture without the traffic and congestion of a bigger city, and you are close to Niagara Falls, Toronto and the Finger Lakes. I loved growing up there and I still love to go back to visit, preferably in the summer because living in the middle of the country has turned me off a bit to the extreme cold of the north. I just got back from 10 days visiting Rochester and more importantly, my family. We got to spend time with my in-laws, my parents, my sister and her family and then two of my other sisters came to visit too so at one point four of the five of us were together. My kids got to see 10 of their 15 cousins and it was wonderful. My kids are the youngest of all the cousins so they have lots of ...

Our family is going to Disney World this fall and we are all so excited. I have been many times and still feel the magic every time I am there. We took our kids for one day to Magic Kingdom two years ago while we were on a beach trip in Florida. It was a tougher day because of some weather, the terrible crowds and a few ride issues. My kids also didn't get quite as excited as I had thought they would about some things. This time we are going just to Disney for the whole week and I wanted to make sure my kids were going to be totally into it this time so in January, we set a family goal to watch all of the Disney animated movies in order of release before we go. It has been a fun experience and I think very interesting to see the progression of animation and style as we've gone through the years. Here is a quick run down of our journey so far. 1. Snow White--her voice is annoying but the kids really loved the dwarves and I'd forgotten how much personality they each have....

It has been awhile and I've decided to re-brand my blog. I'm going to use it more like a journal, as I suppose they were originally intended. No more writing thoughtful, feeling-based posts that I hope will mean something to someone. Now you're just going to get my thoughts and feelings straight up. Starting with a quick rant on moving. (I wrote this a few weeks ago and got interrupted) One of my very good friends moved this week and it was so sad. I know I will see her again because she moved to Orlando and I like to frequent Orlando as much as possible. But still, it is different. We have been having pretty much monthly dinners for 9 years. We've been a part of the every day of each other's lives and living somewhere else takes away that part of the relationship. I also found out this week that another one of my very good friends, and my daughter's very best friend, are moving in a few months. This was devastating to me because I will miss her but now I have...