Which Hershey Are You??

After my parents divorced, my mom, my sisters and I coined ourselves "The Byrne Girls 4". We were all we had and fought hard and strong to be together and support each other. Over the years, many words have been used to describe our character - tenacious, strong-willed, Type A, stubborn, acid-tongue(that one was specifically aimed at me from a family member I won't mention), organized, hard headed, fighters, dysfunctional (our family has always put the "fun" back in dysfunctional - love that line), go getters. Basically, many have learned not to mess with us or to piss us off.

This past weekend my family, along with my dad and his wife, had a planned trip to Hershey Park. This was a one day event specifically for last Saturday. As I watched the weather over the past week, the 'weather weanies' were consistently predicting a rainy day for that day. I called my dad late in the week to see what the tickets said about rain. I knew the tickets were only for that specific day and didn't look forward to spending it in the rain - I was hoping that there was some contingency plan if that day got rained out. So, he read to me, 'rain or shine', right off the tickets themselves. Darn it, I thought. I hadn't even said anything to the kids just in case the day got called off. Well, I said to myself, I guess we're gonna get wet.

So, in the style that is so "Byrne Girl" like, I prepared my kids for a very wet, rainy day of enjoying Hershey Park. And, in a style that is so mirroring the tenacity that I resemble, all they could focus on was the fact that they were going to Hershey Park to ride the rides. Now, let me clarify, it just wasn't going to rain a little bit, it was going to rain a lot, hard, steady and ALL day. You should have seen the back of my van. I packed several bags of dry clothes, lots of sweatshirts, gloves and hats, the double stroller to keep the girls dry, umbrellas, rainboots, raincoats, rainponchos - whatever I could think of that I might need to spend a very wet, rainy day outside and away from home. And I wasn't surprised by the attitudes that my kids showed that day. There wasn't any complaining, whining, crying or bad attitudes. Yes, folks, it can be done - it's all in the training. They knew before we started our trek that it was going to be rainy, cold and wet. They knew they were going to be uncomfortable but they knew that they were either going to deal with it with their mouths shut or just stay home. And that is just what they did. They had a blast. My dad's wife and I gave up early and went shopping at the outlets nearby. I actually had to call my husband and my dad and order them to get the kids out of the rain. I was starting to get concerned about them getting sick (and for the record, they didn't, thankfully)And thank you Hershey Park, for acknowledging the craziness we portrayed that day by coming out in the pouring rain by rewarding us with complimentary tickets to return later on in the summer!! Hopefully this time, it will be less rainy, more sunny and when I go on The Comet with my son, I don't have to be wearing a winter coat and covering my face to shield it from those painful raindrops that hit when you are riding a roller coaster in the rain!!

My Reese's Cup

Another Reese's Cup

My Little Hershey Bar

Trying to Stay Dry

Drying off in Chocolate World

Stamp of Approval

This month will be a month of reflection, for one year ago this month, we put our house on the market in OH. I thought about this on April Fool's Day because that was the actual day. It was cold and snowing. I can still picture in my head our realtor putting the For Sale sign on our front yard and giving me the thumbs up. If only I had known what the next 5 months would hold, I probably would have thrown something at her. But here we are, a year later. We've been in our house almost 8 months. Wow, I can't believe that. Those memories of moving out and moving in are still so vivid, so fresh and still so raw and painful. I look forward to those memories fading away.

I still continue to struggle with feeling like this place is home. Something so simple as finding out where the FedEx depot is or where the bike shop is to repair my Gabi's tire on her bike. Instead of picking up in the car and just going to these places, I have to find them first. That process continues to be frustrating. But now, I know. And the next time, I can just pick up and go. These are the types of things that help me feel connected.

We had our 6 month house check-up last month. Our house already has a few bumps and bruises that our builders are happily willing to fix for us. One of the things that our customer service rep noticed was that the walkway to our front door was sloped. This is to be expected as the house/ground begins to settle. And just as prompt as our house was built, they were here this week to fix our walkway. The kids watched in amazement as several workers took a big pneumatic drill and punched holes in our walkway and then just picked up the pieces of concrete and threw them away. The workers came back today to fill in our walk with concrete. It was funny how both my husband and I had the same idea once the workers left our concrete to dry. It was only fitting and appropriate that we give this house our stamp of approval. This house is now ours. It now holds our names, our handprints (walls included) and our date of taking ownership. This is a small step but an important one. For some reason, this act cemented (no pun intended) our transition.