Wildwood New Jersey 2026 And Turning 60

My family headed out this month on an 8 day vacation to Delaware of Wildwood NJ. We headed to Cape May and jumped on the ferry to Lewes Delaware to stay with my sister-in-law for two nights before our trip to Wildwood. We had gone last year but the weather was awful. The beach had about a 1-2 feet of water on it as well as being cold and rainy every day except the day we headed down and the day we came back.  We were out to redeem ourselves and enjoy the sand and ocean for a few days and celebrate my 60th Birthday.

The weather was hot and I am NOT really good in 90+ temps but I was a big girl and kept up.

We were at the ferry way too early but that's normal when we travel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Stowaways and then jumped on the ferry. It was hot but eventually we all made it outside and enjoyed the beautiful breeze.

My sister-in-law is a wonderful host and our time with her is precious. I love her like a sister and enjoy watching my kids with her. 

We did some antiquing and relaxing. Very different from our Universal Vacations when we are on the go the whole time except when we are sleeping or eating. If you love antiquing I highly suggest Delaware.

Wildwood was nice! Relaxing with a few schedule free days. Just wake when we wake, walk to boardwalk and go to the beach. 

We stayed in Wildwood Crest at the Adventurer Oceanfront Inn. It was nice enough. Two rooms with a kitchenette, living room with balcony and a bedroom with two beds. The only problem I had with it was it smelled moldy and stale. It seemed like it needed a good airing out and some bleach.

The morning of my birthday my husband had put a birthday card on the table and my daughter came up behind me with a crown that she place on my head and a sash that read 60 and fabulous. It was very sweet. My son came over with a bag of two shirts and two bracelets he had purchased from the boardwalk. Very sweet way to remember our time here.

My daughter had also made me two dangles for my pocketbook with stones and gems. LOVE them.

We went to breakfast at the very delicious Station House where I had my favorite Eggs Benedict. I had been having it in a few places this trip and this was by far my favorite.

After that we went to the boardwalk and hung at the hotel for a little while. Before you knew it it was dinner time and I was so excited because they have such a good Italian restaurant in Wildwood called Little Italy which is really good. We had gone last year and loved it.

The best part of dinner was when dessert came out and the restaurant sang Happy Birthday with "60" candles on it. The waitress made my night. She kept telling me there is no way you are 60. You are all getting over on me because I am 63 and "kid you look younger than my 43 year old daughter."  The sweetest. 

I found out later that my daughter had brought the candles with her. Told her father when we were at the restaurant, he put them in his pocket and then "went to find the bathroom" where he gave them to the waitress. Very sweet! I loved that so much.

Wearing the crown and sash all day and all night meant a lot of strangers wished me a Happy Birthday and that made it all the sweeter. Turning 60 wasn't hard. My mom was 34 so I am proud and privileged to have made it to 60. Was it the best birthday not really. My husband and I are not in the most coupledom place we have ever been but at least we were all together and it didn't hurt hearing you don't look 60 a few times either.

Wow Time Flies

This year my son turned 23 and my daughter 21. I will be 60!

I have been blogging since they were June 21, 2005 two months after my daughter, Goddess was born. 

How? They are young adults and I am just older! It hurts my heart to know that I am closer to the end than I am to the beginning and I would go back and do it all again in a heartbeat.  I am so thankful that I have blogged a lot of their early years because I love going back to read it all and wish that work didn't keep me from still blogging their life in a more continuous manner. 

They are living their own lives and I am working more hours than ever. My son works on the weekends only at the same job for 5 years and my daughter is working at her job since October. They are both in school still and I am so happy they are still home with me and I see them daily. 

Goddess is a force to be reckoned with. She is a true Renaissance Woman. There is nothing she can't do. She is good at everything she tries and she will be good at the things she has yet to. She knows who she is and doesn't feel the need to be anyone else for anyone. Love that about her. I wish I was more like her when I was young. Heck I wish I were like her now.

Handsome is home since 2022. He doesn't drive so works only on the weekends but hopefully one day. He plays games, walks and everyone on the block knows him and speaks kindly of him. I have met his bosses and they all love him as well. Hopefully in the near future we can get him driving lessons so he isn't a prisoner to the house since I work two jobs that keep me out of the house 11-12 hours a day during the week. 

I thought as we got older, we worked less but I guess that is not the case with the cost of living. Looking for a new job often that will give me 40 hours a week but working a 24 hour job and a variable job that gives me at the very least 10 but as much as 20 a week to make the 40 hours you need to work in the economy. 

Life is good. Could always be better. If you have been following along all these years, thank you! I adore you and hope you are well. Leave me a message if you care to.  

LIfe Update

I have been doing so much journaling that I have failed to jump online and write here. This was always where I wrote about life. Now I pick up a pen and write all my thoughts in a book. It's not that I don't want to write here. I love going back to my posts and rereading especially when it has to do with my kids. But with two jobs I have limited home time. During the week I am out from 6:10 AM until 4:45 3 days out of the week and the other 2 days 6:10 AM until 6:45 PM. The weekends are all about sleeping past 7:30, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry and whatever else. It goes fast. 

Right now my thoughts are consumed with my current situation at home, my kids and trying to get through my week.

I do however miss my blog and think about it daily. Times were good! Hopefully I can get back to some sort of writing here. My goal is to create books for my kids of their lives from toddler hood until now. 

Handsome and Goddess are almost done with college for now. He is taking his time getting through. There is no rush. They are both doing it online. Mostly because neither was driving out of high school. She is driving for over a year and got her license last Spring. She works and goes to college. Busy girl. He works on the weekend 10 months of the year. It's hard when you don't drive and don't live near public transportation. 

One day! I have hope he will eventually drive.

I worry about him. Being home since September 2022, doing online college and only working on the weekends. What kinds of life is that? Hopefully he finds his way and lives a fulfilled and balance life where he has friends and is happy. Right now, I worry!

Goddess has come a long way and stands up for herself. She is strong willed, extremely smart and very balanced in her life with many hobbies as well as a hard working in school as well as at work. 

Prayer and faith gets me through my day and night. Thank you Lord for always being there. 

The Last Year of My 50s - My Birthday Month Has Been Busy and I Am So Grateful For Everything I Have

I thought turning 59 would be scary and make me really sad. Shockingly it wasn't and it didn't. Next year is the big 60 and I find myself between being excited that I am still here because my mom didn't make 34 year and I have always thought I would die young, and feeling sad about leaving my kids one day.  But are we ever really ready to go?  Don't most of us wish we had another 59, 60, 70, 80, 90 years? 

For my birthday I bought myself a shirt that read Last Year In My 50s to wear on my Birthday. I wanted to feel special for the day because well in case no one else was going to tell me damn it, I am special. We all are.

My Birthday was nice! The gifts were all so thoughtful. My daughter got me a crucifix for my car, a pill box for all my vitamins and a phone charger for my car, my son got me a pillow for "hot" sleepers.  Anyone else always too hot to sleep? My husband got me two different journals, and "beachy" stickers and scrapbook paper because we were heading down to Wildwood, New Jersey.

she made the box and the card too! SOOO Thoughtful

Then the day before my birthday I got a surprise gift from a dear friend. She knocked it out of the park with this gift.  Socks that say Fuck Off, I'm Reading, coasters that look like old library due date envelopes, and a tote bag which I have been using every day. 

We also headed to Wildwood for a few days after telling my husband I longed to smell the salt air and the ocean. 

After working through most of the summer it is nice to have three days off before meetings and back to work. I am blessed and so grateful for my life. I thank God every day for everything I have and if I am having a bad day I know that it will be better and can easily get through any moments that leave me feeling sad, lonely or empty because I know that God is always with me and I am truly never alone on this path we call life. 

God is Good, All The Time, All The Time, God Is Good

The Texas Roadhouse Was Amazing

 

My husband is a guy who likes what he knows. He’s not one who wants to try new things. If it was up to me, we would go somewhere new every time we go out. He likes to try and true so we usually end up at our favorite Mexican restaurant or Outback, basically somewhere basic he’s a basic kind of guy.

He’s not into special foods that are paired together for the pallet and create a magical tasting experience, he likes his diner size portions. The more food the better. He wants to be stuffed and rolling out of there if we have gone out to eat.

We were out and about and I put in Google maps restaurants with a destination of about 10 miles away. A few things came up and I knew that my daughter wouldn’t find anything to eat there. Knowing my husband is very particular I spotted Texas Roadhouse! We had never been there, and when we walked in, we were very excited.

It was a cool place first of all with a moose head on the wall deer heads lots of people. It was packed for 3 o’clock in the afternoon. That’s always a good sign. The first thing they asked was do you wanna pick out your steak? I’ve never been asked that before  so I walked over to the butcher display and peeked! The steaks all looked good to me. I would take any of them so I told them no.

We ordered three appetizers! My son and I got steak and rib combo. My husband got some sort of chicken dish and my daughter got boneless buffalo wings the only wings that she will eat. 

All of our meals came with two sides, except for the boneless wings, which was an appetizer and it was all delicious. Not a place that’s close to us. It’s about a 50 minute drive but my husband kept saying I hope it doesn’t get any better because we’ll never come back here. Odd thing to say and the kids asked why he would say such a thing but  I know exactly why he said it.  You can only go down once you’ve reached the top. The Texas roadhouse was definitely for my family, a 9/10.  I loved it. It was a little expensive but we did get a lot of food and I’m gonna talk him into going back. My birthday is in August and this is my pick for dinner.

Have you ever gone to a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant? Even the complimentary rolls and cinnamon butter was amazing. 

Window Views & Family Shares

 

I don’t know if this is everybody’s family but for some reason, my family has always been a sky watcher. We spent a lot of time sending each other pictures of the sky or having someone look at the sky or calling them into their room to look at the sky. It’s the sky. I mean we all see it. Everyone sees it, but there’s just something about sharing this love with my family that I really enjoy and I hope that they never lose this love. Praying that my children continue after I’m gone,  sending pictures, no matter where they are in the world, of the sky.

I will never tire of taking photos of the beautiful sky. The colors, the clouds, the framing of the trees. This is just through my living room window, but it is the window that we constantly call each other over to so we can share in the spectacular painting of changing vibrant sky. 

Does your family do this? 

Things I Am Too Old To Care About! Don’t Wait Too Long To Change

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed there are many things that I am unwilling to care about. For instance; I’m unwilling to care about what anybody thinks about me. I don’t need you to like me. I don’t care if you like me I don’t worry about how I look, or how I present to the world. It’s actually  a good place to be after so many exhausting years of worrying about everything. Do I look pretty? Did I say something stupid? Is my skin Ok? My teeth? Am I too fat?  Etc etc etc.

What I do care about is if I like myself. Liking yourself is probably one of the most important things you can do for yourself.

I also don’t care if I’m understood. I don’t care if you don’t like my clothes, hair, makeup, blah blah blah. The list goes on and on.

The things I do care about though like  am I doing right by myself? Do I want to do this or that? If the answer is no, I will not do it. I don’t have any problems saying no anymore. I used to be something that was very hard for me. 

I wish I didn’t take so long to get to this place in my life. I find peace and knowing that I finally made it there and putting I do sometimes Who cared about everything and worried about everyone, but honestly that was exhausting! It made me angry, unhappy and powerless!  If you are like I was, you can stop it. You have the power! If you wanna change, change! If you wanna say no! Say no! If you don’t give an F then don’t do it. Don’t  sell yourself!  Don’t put yourself and your needs or feelings last. Make sure you are putting yourself on the top of the list of important things in your life. 

You are worth it! 

Life Recap June 2025

Oh my God there is just so much going on. I am now waiting for my daughter to finish her 4th driving class after dropping my son off at his job. I do a lot of sitting in my car, which means I do a lot of reading, playing phone games, listening to podcasts and thinking. Right now I’m thinking about my blog which has been something that I get to once in a while and not as often as I like.

I’m not even sure that blogs are something that people read anymore and it doesn’t matter because really, I started this for me in the beginning. I would love it if people read it and if they get something out of it, but from the beginning I just was trying to create a story, a timeline that my kids can,  if they choose to look at or read, get to know me after I’m gone.

This is all from losing my mom when I was only 12 and how I longed to really know her, to know who she was, to see what she thought about, what kind of woman she was. I just really NEEDED to know her.  Since that could never happen, I decided my kids would never wonder who I was and started blogging.

As I wait for my daughter to finish her driving test, I am amazed at how fast time has gone. I still see her as a three-year-old,  as a seven-year-old, as a 10-year-old,  as a 15-year-old and now she’s 20 and man time has flown. 

Spending time with my kids is truly my favorite thing to do. Driving my son to his job means I get to talk to him in the car. My daughter sometimes comes sometimes doesn’t depends on what we’re doing but just the fact that she wants to hang out with me still at 20 even if it’s just to drive him to work really makes my heart so happy. 

June has flown by. It’s already June 22. I don’t feel like I’ve done anything exciting this year. I’ve just been working.  Two jobs please pet sitting. I work at a Bus Garage as a one on one bus monitor and I’m still at a preschool that I worked out for 11 years part-time so I spent a lot of time working. I also spend a lot of time driving my kids around.  My son to and from work. I live  1/2 hour away  and then there’s the waiting for him to get relieved. My daughter, I drive to her driving class or we just head out on the weekend because I know that she just needs to get out of the house so we just drive.  Sometimes it’s to a store, sometimes there’s no destination. I still feel like we have to be more mindful and find things to do to  create memories instead of just part of our mundane already boring lives. She’s getting older and I wanna create memories that hold her long after I’m gone.

My husband’s been busy with the garden, which looks beautiful, but I wish he was someone who would prefer to do things not just at home but outside the house. He could go for a walk with us, to the movies or just come out with us when we leave the house. He is someone who is very sad in his way is and very self driven. It’s not a bad thing. It just means we don’t spend as much time with him as we wish we did.

Hopefully in July, I can see some friends that I haven’t seen in way too many years. Life is getting faster and my days are getting shorter. I’ll be 59 in August and I know how fast 59 came and I know I don’t have 59 more years so it’s time to make some mindful changes that hopefully just continue to brighten my life and make me happy. 

Heartstrings and Sweet Words: My Daughter's Touching Take On Our Bond

Today my daughter said the nicest thing to me and I need to leave it here forever.

She was talking about a friend who hangs with someone because this friend needs to leave the house once in a while. Her friend doesn't like spending time with this person and complains but will go to their house or take drives with them. I asked why would she torture herself like that if she doesn't like them and she said "She is bored, has bad Wi-Fi and she doesn't have YOU to talk to."

This is probably the sweetest thing she could have said to me.  I mean I try! I believe we have a great friendship and lots in common but never want to overstep what I feel thinking she just deals with me because we are in the same house. It feels so nice to hear. I didn't make much of it in fact didn't say anything about it but my heart swelled. 

Christmas Day RoundUp

 Christmas was amazing and I loved all my gifts. 

My son bought everyone gifts this year. Two each! So sweet. My daughter made me something as she aways does and it was as heartfelt as ever and my husband actually got something for the kids from him which has hasn't done since they were toddlers. Oh my heart was full.

1:30 AM Christmas Morning! Instead of my husband and I running gifts upstairs while the kids slept, my son helped me. This was monumental because as a 21 year old Autistic it was only 2 years ago he found out who provides the magic and I think last year he was on the fence even though he knew. He was hopeful. I loved having him help with the stockings and placing the gifts.

Christmas morning! There is JUST something about the pictures of our tree decorated and all the presents under it. The gifts have changed over the years. There are less. They are much smaller. The four of us get for each other instead of just mom and dad providing and we have decorated empties for the days before and after Christmas. 

This guy had the best Christmas. He was having an 80s theme Christmas and wanted to feel like a kid again. He bought and had me wrap a few games for him.

My daughter's gift always makes me smile. It was a decorated box with a Safe Travel Pouch for my new job. I love to drive and as a bus monitor and not in charge of driving she knows I get anxious. I LOVED it. She also made me a cross necklace. BUT this box!!! Perfection.

 So beautiful

My kids do not like their pictures taken so none of them are of them looking but I will always take their picture. WHAT DO THEY KNOW?! One day they will want these.

It was a great day.

My husband got me cast iron pans which I never asked for but he has always wanted. They are pretty nice! He also got me the scent of my favorite hotel, some journaling supplies and a hat, scarf and mitten set for my new job which in the morning is very cold!

My son got me journaling supplies and a winter "ugly" sweater. He has one I got him from last year and wanted me to have one too for my "cold" job. One problem. The sweater isn't ugly at all. He did a great job picking it out. It is nice and my husband likes it. "I wouldn't call this  ugly at all"

Everyone was happy with their gifts and there was only 2 items of clothes that needed to be returned but one seller told me to not bother and refunded the money.

Perfect Christmas with my favorite people.

Christmas 2024 Round - Up

˜”*°•.˜”*°• Christmas was great! •°*”˜.•°*”˜

We spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws for the first time in 17 years. We usually go after Christmas but this year we went on the eve which was so nice! We stopped years ago because they tend to wait until midnight to open gifts and as a mom with two young kids. Didn't like having two overtired babies wait until midnight, drive 50 minutes back home and then get two sleeping children hopefully into their beds, put presents under the tree praying they wouldn't wake and try to get a few hours in before they woke to open their presents "from Santa".

PLUS they didn't get to do my tradition which was leaving cookies and milk for Santa, putting reindeer food outside, listening to a Christmas story or watching a Christmas movie and going to bed excited for Santa. I felt like that Christmas magic was being missed and I really wanted it for them. It is such a short lived moment in their childhood but the memories last forever. 

While one of my sister-in-laws was really annoyed when I told her that very first missed Christmas that she didn't understand "my tradition" because Christmas was about being together with all the kids and how important her families tradition was, I felt my families tradition was just as important but the kids enjoyed opening their gifts after a good night's sleep, weren't overtired and crying and then forced to go to bed instead of playing with their gifts. We usually went the day after Christmas to my in-laws because I found it wrong to have my kids open gifts then leave them to get in the car to drive out on Christmas Day.

People are different and I get it that not everything works for everyone but my husband was in agreement and I would never change my kids' Christmases. They were so much fun.

But....now they are older and Christmas Eve at my in-laws was really nice. We ate, played Uno, Facetimed my niece in CA and opened gifts earlier than they usually do which we really appreciated. 

I LOVED it!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. What was your favorite part?