News Flash - Hurricane Season ends in 5 Hours and 15 minutes (but who's counting?)

I am very happy to report that we are almost to the official end of Hurricane Season. I am making that statement while Tropical Storm Epsilon is spinning out in the central Atlantic. Thankfully they say it will never hit land...Whew!!

On the adoption front we just got word from our agency that they will be receiving referrals within 2 weeks for 60 families that will end with 4/14 LID. This means that we will probably not get our referral until February. On the bright side; the CCAA is reporting that all of May which we are in has been reviewed and is just waiting to be matched. I guess Katie Starr's pictures are creeping closer to ours. We can't wait for the day that we finally see her beautiful face and prepare to welcome her into our lives forever.

Hurricane Season is following me!

It's true...Marc and I went on our annual Disc Jockey Cruise before Thanksgiving. This one went to the Western Caribbean. It had two scheduled port stops (Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, Jamaica). Unfortunately Tropical Storm Gamma followed us (do I sound paranoid?) to Jamaica and we were not able to dock because the seas were too rough. Then we spent the next day and a half trying to sail to a calmer area. Needless to say that there were a lot of sick people. Thankfully Marc and I have great sea legs and were not sick. We still had a great time. How could we not have one since we were with a group of 100 people.

We spent a pretty quiet Thanksgiving with both sets of folks and Justin. Unfortunately, Marc's Uncle was sick again and had to be hospitalized the day after so we have spent the last few days tending to him.

Finally, on the breaking news front: Note*** this is not for the squeamish*** I get a frantic call from Justin last night. You see he works part time at the Hat Shack. They custom embroider hats there and Justin was doing just that when he made a false move and the needle went straight through his finger. He had someone at the store remove it from his finger. I called his girlfriend Judy and told her frantically what had happened. She ran over there and brought him to the emergency room. Thankfully, when the needle went in it was diverted by the bone instead of chipping it or breaking it. He had a hole clear through his finger. Of course I was a wreck all evening waiting to hear that the doctor had attended to him in the emergency room. As my people say....OH VEY!!

I know, I know...It's been awhile!

Hi All:

I know that it has been quite awhile since I last posted but it is with good reason. Hurricane Wilma gave us quite a spanking. I have lived in Florida for 33 years and I have never felt as scared through a storm as I did the morning it hit us. Thankfully we did not sustain any structural damage to the house. We lost trees and screens from our patio. The screen enclosure for the patio also needs to be re-bolted to the house. Our neighborhood was impassable for 2 days due to trees blocking all of roads leading out. 98% of the population of the tri-county area in South Florida was without power and now almost two weeks later about 20% is still without it. We had our power out for five days and phones out a little longer. The financial hit was large as well. Marc had two weeks of gigs cancelled and my real estate business is at a standstill. The properties that were pending to close all need to be re-inspected and appraised before the banks will close them and no new deals are being done because the last things on most peoples minds is real estate and who can blame them. There are a great many people who have lost their homes and their jobs so we feel truly grateful that we are in the position that we are in.

On a positive note...Last weekend we went up to Orlando to meet Justin and his girlfriend Judy for his 21st birthday. Judy also turned 21 the same week. We took my parents up with us and we had a wonderful time to say the least! The picture at the top of the post was taken in The Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Judy is a big Mickey Fan so we waited on line to give her a chance to take a pic with Mickey. The company was great and it was also wonderful to get outta Dodge as they say (South Florida). It also turned out to be perfect timing because we left the area when there were 3-5 hour waits to get gas if you could find an open station and when we got home the lines were gone.

It was so wonderful to see Justin and he looks wonderful and very happy. What more could a mother want!