~All the summer madness~

OMG, our summer has been crazy busy so far. At the beginning of June, Gabe got a new job. Technically, it is a sister company to the place where he was already working. He seems to really like it and all's going well so far.


Besides this change, we have kept busy. I just got back from an almost 2 week beach vacation and I'm about to go back for another week soon as well as again in August w/ my best friend and her kids.

We stayed so busy at the beach. I take HALO so I get a lot of walking in. Some of the things we did was go to the skate park twice, deep sea fishing, dolphin cruise, shopping, and went to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach. My family of 15 was also staying next door. That made it even more fun since my cousins are around my age and Tommy's. There was never a dull moment.

The deep sea fishing was a lot of fun! We did the early morning half day trip for me, Gabe, and Tommy. It was Tommy's very first time every deep sea fishing. We all took Dramamine before heading out because the older I get, the easier I get motion sick. I surely didn't want to get sick on this trip since I love to fish! Tommy ended up winning the 1st place trophy for the largest Sea Bass. We got all of our fish in fillets so we could cook it later. Once we got home, the Dramamine kicked in and we all took a very long afternoon nap. That really stinks since we were at the beach and no day should ever go wasted. HAHA!

The Dolphin Cruise was wonderful. We took the afternoon trip and there were dolphins everywhere. I LOVE dolphins and it was extremely tempting to jump over the boat and take a swim with them. :) If anyone knows me, they know I'm not afraid of swimming with dolphins but I do realize these are friendly creatures and could potentially be dangerous by pulling people under the water to play. Anyways, I of course fought my temptation and just took some video and pics. :)

One of my fav. days down at the beach was going to Wilmington. I have loved Wilmington since I was in my teens. I went down there w/ a friend of mine in my early 20's and met a guy in the Marine Corps. We dated off and on for about 8 months and remain friends til this day. One of the reason I know Wilmington so well is because I drove through there every single weekend visiting this guy. Sometimes we would stay in Wilmington so it is a very familiar spot for me besides also having a good friend that I stayed with some that lived there.

We packed so much into one day at Wilmington. We took 2 horse and buggy rides because each one was different, we went to the Cape Fear Museum, went on a boat ride, ate on the water front, went to Kilwin's, went to the Cotton Exchange, and also did some additional shopping. We also drove to Wrightsville Beach and spend some time on the beach before heading back to N. Myrtle. Wrightsville Beach is GORGEOUS! The water is so green and clear and the beach is always so clean. In all the years that I've been there, this beach not only has remained so beautiful, it is also my fav. beach to visit. The sunsets are out of this world. Who says Key West has the best sunsets? I've been to Key West, yes, they have amazing sunsets but Wrightsville has them just as pretty if not prettier. Every time I'm there, I always make sure to get a picture of the beautiful sunset. I've also seen the sunrise, but we won't go there. ;)

Every single time we leave Wilmington, all of us are bummed. This time we spoke to a local about re-locating. He gave us the pros and cons and suggested some neighborhoods. I've wanted to live there since I can remember. Gabe and Tommy also love it. Tommy NEEDS to be near an ocean. He is a beach bum for sure! He gets that from his momma. LOL! Gabe has already began looking at houses and we have 3 so far that we are interested in. They are all 3 amazing homes. They are much much nicer than the house we live in now. All we are waiting on is to see if Gabe will be able to work from home w/ his current job, if so, we are going to do all we can to re-locate. If he isn't able to work from home, he will begin looking for some jobs down there. No promises on us moving but I sure would love to! We all would! I've already mentioned it to my mom and she is very supportive in us moving. She goes to her beach house all the time so I would see her a lot. Plus, it is only about a 3-4 hour drive from Wilmington to Charlotte. That's not too far away so I can still come back to see my friends and fam.

Right now we just need to find out if we are going to be able to make it work and go from there. I want to make SURE Tommy will be in a good school system. I want nothing more but for him to get a good education. It's important to me and Gabe, that's why we have tried everything we can to get him out of the public school system. Thank goodness we did. Next year, he will be attending a Charter school. We are so thankful he got in since we've heard nothing but positive things about this particular school. Not sure if Wilmington has Charter schools but that will be something we look into or maybe even a private school. Their public schools may be much better than the ones here. If so, it wouldn't bother us if he attended a public school. They are laying off more and more teachers here which causes the classes to be more overcrowded not to mention most teachers can't keep the kids under control or lack the motivation to even teach. We have been blessed to pull Tommy out of the public school system.

Besides all of this, the adoption process is going well. There is a lot we need to do still before getting it into full swing but it is a "get it done at our own pace" kinda thing. Our case worker is so busy that she doesn't mind us taking all the time we need. It is really up to us to speed the process along. Right now, we have had so much going on that taking it slow is much better. First of all, I don't want to rush to fast and get into a position of rushing the adoption. I would rather take my time and find the perfect match for our family. This has been something we've been working on but hasn't been the first thing on my plate of priorities. Getting Tommy into the Charter school as well as my own schooling has came first and has taken up a lot of our time.

I only have a math class in August and one after that before applying for the nursing program. If we should re-locate, I would like to get my Bachelor's from UNCW, if we don't re-locate, I'm still torn between just getting my associates or Bachelor's. I'm just anxious to get into my core classes. One thing that's holding me back is Chemistry. I would have no choice but to take that class if I want my Bachelor's. I don't know why I fear this class so much. I've already taken A&P I, A&P II, and Microbiology and made an A in A&P II and Micro. and a B in the A&P I (which is the only B I've made, all others have been A's..yay for me!) so I'm not sure why Chemistry scares me so much. All of my classes scare me to some degree because I'm a perfectionist. I want to do the best I can and reach for that A. Some may not understand this, but nursing is a competition. To get into the program, you have be on your A game. I didn't like settling for the B in A&P I but that class was unrealistically difficult. At that point, I would have taken a C if it was passing. My B is an A in any others eyes that have already taken that class. Anatomy and Physiology classes are some of the most difficult classes there are to take. From here on out, I think all future classes will be challenging but not hard.

It's almost time for my next class to begin and one right after that one so I'm taking time to get ready for those which again, takes up so much time. I'm also having to figure out what nursing school I want to attend and how that's going to work out with me taking and picking Tommy up from school.

So besides wanting to move, we have the adoption, and mine and Tommy's schooling to focus on. It's a lot but I enjoy staying busy. It will all be worth it in the end.

Will post more after my next beach trip :)