Friday, August 31, 2012

Countdown to Becoming a Full Time Wife

In 21 days, I will be making a very big change in my life. I will become full time wife to my husband Chuck. We got married on August 1, 2010. I had 3 teens at me the time, 2 who lived with me, and their brother who lived on his own. The girls did not want to move into Chuck's house because it is 30 minutes away from my home that they grew up in, as well as their school and friends. There were some other personality issues that came into play as well, so we have each been living in separate houses, 30 minutes away from each other. The plan has been that this Fall, when they turn 18, I would move into Chuck's home and it would become "our" home. We have spent every other weekend together when the girls were at their Dad's, and as much time together as we could given our busy schedules during the days in between. It has been hard, and Chuck has the patience of a saint. BUT,on September 20th, my twin daughters will turn 18, and on the 21st, I will be leaving my home and moving into Chuck's home with him. One of my daughters will be leaving for college in September, and the other one will most likely move in with her Dad. My house will go on the market in the not too distant future. For the past few months I have been preparing for the move. I have been emptying out my house, clearing clutter, making a list of repairs that need to be done before the house can go on the market, and preparing for a huge yard sale to get rid of the excess items that the kids and I have accumulated over the past 24 years. For the most part, I have looked forward to this move. But then I hit a patch where I was concerned about how it will be to live with Chuck every day and night. Will we drive each other crazy with our little quirks? Of course I was most concerned with mine....hopefully I don't have too many that will drive him crazy! Will we disagree about routines since we already have our own routines that we follow separately? Last weekend, we had an amazing time together, and I could actually picture the two of us happily cohabiting and forgiving each others quirks as we get used to them. So, we are down to 3 more weeks. I am excited, nervous, and looking forward to being chuck's full time wife instead of the part time role I have been living for the past 2 years. And as each day goes by, I get more and more excited. Stay tuned for more blog entries as we get closer to the move in day!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Rabbit Hill Inn Getaway

Chuck and I just got back from a wonderful romantic few days at the Rabbit Hill Inn in Lower Waterford, Vermont. Oh my gosh, talk about an absolutely wonderful and relaxing experience. We have Chuck's friends Bob and Ken from the COLA group to thank for this experience. We received a gift certificate to this Inn from them and their wives as a wedding gift, and haven't been able to use it. But we decided that Wednesday through Friday was the right time. And we used it to celebrate our second anniversary. From the moment we arrived we had a wonderful, romantic and relaxing experience. The owners and staff could not do enough for us. It was amazing to have someone care about us and our needs so well. And it never felt phony. It always felt as though they genuinely cared about us. During our time there, we played checkers, read, explored Vermont, took a walk down a country road at night, took another walk in the morning through the woods to the Connecticut River, sat on the front porch in wicker rocking chairs and watched hummingbirds feed while drinking champagne, relaxed while listening to romantic cds in front of the fireplace in our room, and enjoyed home cooked meals of the kind I have never experienced before. One of the things I especially liked was that there were no TVs in the rooms or in the inn at all. Internet service was available if you brought a laptop, but I never even opened my laptop once! For those of you who know me well, I LOVE my computer and am on it daily, so that's saying a lot. In the past, I was never one to like inns and B and B's much because I always felt like I was living in someone's house, and that has always felt awkward to me. But this experience was very different. And the food was to die for. The breakfasts were especially good. And each afternoon we were treated to afternoon tea with pink lemonade one day, iced tea another, and delicious pastries each day. It was a truly amazing experience and we will go back there because the time alone away from it all helped us reconnect with each other and remember to stop and smell the roses...uh well, actually to rest together for awhile and watch the hummingbirds! I will be writing a whole review of the Inn and our experience there and publishing it on Hub Pages within the month. But for now, I just wanted to share our experience with all of you. It was a truly wonderful getaway and I highly recommend this inn to any of you that want a romantic getaway. Although browsing the website is fun, it doesn't do justice to the experience of actually staying there, but here's the website: http://www.rabbithillinn.com/ More to come when I do the review, and you will love the pictures I took!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Wine Festival Adventure

On Saturday, Chuck and I went to the Shoreline Wine Festival at Bishop's Orchards in Guilford, Connecticut. I had never been to a wine festival before so I was looking forward to it. My suggestion to anyone else who wants to go to one is that it's best to head later in the afternoon or early evening. The festival started at noon on Saturday and went till 7 p.m. We got there at about 1:30 or so. We had to pay an entrance fee of $30 each, which seemed rather exorbitant to me, but it was a new adventure so I was hoping it would be worth the money. We were given a punch card and a glass wine glass with the logo of the event and the date etched into the side. A very nice memento, but certainly not worth the $30 yet! The tickets had a listing of the 7 wineries that were giving testing samples that day. There were 2 tents that housed winery booths, as well as arts and crafts and other types of vendors. The object of the tickets were to go to each winery, have tastings of each type of wine they had present that day, and get your ticket punched so that the public did not leave totally intoxicated by having unlimited tastings throughout the day. Believe me, due to the heat, and the 7 wineries offering testings, I didn't need to go to anywhere more than once to feel the effects of the wine. Other than a feel of the winery booths that had samples of wine crackers to give out, there was nothing free to eat. It was possible to go outside the winery tents and purchase other food and sit down in smaller tents with tables and chairs.Each winery had a few pourers who would collect the tickets, punch them and give them back to the participants. Then they would pour small amounts of wine into our glasses, all the while explaining details about that particular wine. By the time we were done at each booth, we probably had 1/2 to 3/4 of a glass of wine. I must say here that out of the 7 wineries, I only found 2 that were interesting. One was a winery named, Hopkins" from New Preston, Connecticut that had really unique wines, including a dessert wine called, "Night Owl." I found it very sweet and delicious, and a wine that would have been the perfect end to a good meal. Of course I am a night owl anyway, so I was already hooked just by the name itself! I also was quite intrigued by the wines from Bishop Orchards. These wines are not made from grapes, but only from the produce grown at Bishop's Orchards themselves. This included an apple/pear wine and a peach/honey sangria. The sangria would have been great served with fruit and ice. One of the issues that made the experience less enjoyable was the fact that it seemed a bit too early in the day to be drinking wine. Had we gone later in the day, say 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon, and had our food as a dinner, when it was also less hot, I think the experience might have been a better one. We did go outside the wine tasting tents halfway through the experience to get some lunch. I had a wonderful piece of tomato pizza from a brick oven pizza truck. We ended up not buying any wine. Although I did enjoy a few of them, Chuck was not as impressed. What we were impressed with was the Bishop's Orchard's store. After the wine festival experience, we went into the store to see the produce. Chuck bought some fresh tomatoes, some cheese and a loaf of garlic/buttered bread that was still warm. On the way home we each had a piece of the loaf. It was honestly the best piece of bread I have ever tasted. It was the salt/butter and garlic tastes mingled with the rich freshness of the bread that made it a winner in my eyes...and in my mouth as well! That night, we had a simple dinner of bread, sliced tomatoes, the fresh cheese, and a bit more wine. I can honestly say that our dinner together was the best part of the day for me. And just thinking of how fresh and delicious that bread was topped with a slice of fresh tomato and the cheese is making my mouth water even now!