All in a year!

Hard to believe that our family has been living in NJ for a full year now. So many things have changed within our lives besides the mere geography of relocating from Tampa, FL to Randolph, NJ.  Simply put, and in no particular order we have bought a new home, transitioned our children into a new school, made new friends, been welcomed into our new synagogue community, finished out a basement, watched our daughter learn how to walk, saw how amazed our kids were over the huge amounts of snow, navigated ourselves each and every day thru the new grocery stores, unfamiliar roads and explored all the many parks, lakes, festivals, farmer's markets and restaurants we could!  It has been a great year of personal growth and exploration as well as family growth.  WE learned we can conquer and succeed together!  As this was such a "scary" decision to make when it was all presented to us about 2 1/2 years ago.  Now, however I can not imagine living anywhere else.  I truly believe that my family is at it's happiest in the "Garden State".  We are close to family (which was the silver lining to this entire relocation) as well as major cities that are filled with vibrant culture, arts and sports.  There is much to miss about what and where we left and we will always have a soft spot for Florida.  Not just because that is where my husband and I met, we got married, our children were born and my "die-hard" Gator fan of a husband went to college, but it was and always will be a special place full of memories.  Thank goodness we have many special friends who live there and we will always return to the "Sunshine State" for vacations, visits and special events.  What really boggles my mind the most about time and recognizing all that can be accomplished in a year is the level of comfort and happiness that I have for my new NJ life.  I know that this 1st post of mine may be a bit sappy for some, but what I am trying to get at is that when you completely uproot yourself and your family from every single thing that you know and love and move somewhere brand new it is a scary thing.  Not many would do this if it wasn't for "corporate relocations", however since we really didn't have a choice and needed to because of the above mentioned we were forced into a situation that we made the absolute most of.  I don't enjoy not knowing about my surroundings, more so I thrive on being the "authority" on all things fun to do! Be it, kids oriented activities, culture, sports, restaurants, festivals, etc.  In the past I would kid around with my friends and say that I liked to be considered the "concierge of town".  I love hooking people up with fun stuff to do, as well as even hooking people up with other people.  My husband has always said that I need to find a way to turn these skills into a "job", per se, now wouldn't that be perfection!?  I'll keep searching... There is nothing better than looking back on your past year and seeing all that you have accomplished and most importantly who you have been so lucky to accomplish it with.  Special friends have warmed our hearts when the harsh weather this past Winter was at it's coldest.  Our children's school has opened our eyes to how meaningful great education can go hand in hand with religious and cultural experiences for A & E as well as for us!  Some of our greatest friends were made thru the school's community.  So, as we are in the midst of celebrating the last weekend of Summer in truly great Jersey shore style, we look ahead to next week when we will celebrate the beginning of the Jewish new year, our high holidays, where we always reflect, apologize, repent and turn over new leaves so to speak.  It makes sense that I finally bring this dream of starting a blog to life.  I no longer wish to procrastinate, I know it may not be perfect (much in life is simply not), but getting the ball rolling and beginning to type is how it begins.  I may not always talk of everything "happy" I also, like you have my moments of doubt, sadness and worry, but when it comes to my family, my friends and celebrating all of life's little treasures I do feel immense happiness!  Now off to enjoy this gorgeous Saturday evening in Red Bank, NJ where I am surrounded by my hubbie, kids, brother J and Dad - we just finished a game of bocce ball in the backyard, the veggies are being grilled, and seafood galore is about to be served straight from the ocean that I now call home, someone please pour me that glass of chilled Rose I have plenty of points stored up as I jogged earlier on purpose because I knew what kind of goodies were on hand! Yum.