Only 6 more sleeps until Santa Claus comes!  I'm sure he is checking over his list at this very moment.  

So much has happened in the past month and yet, so little.  Deanna, Christy, Miranda and I met yesterday to plan the Parkwood High School class of '91 30th year reunion.  Technically, it is now 31 years but you know...Covid.  Afterwards, we ate at Emmet's Social Club which is in the historic old mill in Waxhaw.  It was a great day.  

Christy took this photo of me and when I see it, I see my Mom.  Is it just me? 

Yes, I'm wearing my "Go Jesus, It's your birthday" shirt.  I'm sure that is only funny to people over a certain age.  

I am loving wearing Mom's socks...

And...I even broke out one of her most favorite coats.  She wore this one all of the time the past few years. 

Scott received a 15 year service award from Charlotte Radiology.  They asked him to send in a photo of himself holding the award.  He wanted the dogs in the photo.  Blossom obliged.  Balto had places to be. 

Deanna, Christy and I went to Waxhaw for a fun afternoon of food and shopping.  Miranda was supposed to join us; however, she was under the weather. 

For your photo viewing pleasure, I recreated my infamous (only to me) crawl across the Waxhaw Bridge during a 1978/79 class field trip to the fire station.  I was the only one in Mrs. Crawford's kindergarten class who was too scared to walk across.  I stayed in the back and crawled the entire way across.  My teacher assistant, Mrs. Hemby, and another student (Reagan Blythe) stayed with me.  

Mom's grave marker is in.  It is close to what I wanted except that the dogwood is just too large.  I wish it were smaller to look more proporationate to the cross.  I hope Mom would approve.  

There were so many things I wanted to say on the marker.  This like how she was the best mom & grandmother ever, her favorite Bible verse, that she and Dad were married 62 years.... I didn't.  The marker wasn't big enough to do her justice.  

Some photos of Laura just because.....

Daniel is still spending a lot of time with Dad.  He likes to sleepover on the weekends and now that he is out for Christmas break, he will be staying over a lot, I'm sure.  One morning I went over to wake Dad up and and I found this in his room.  This is so my Dad...

I hope that everyone is having a happy holiday season.  Work has been busy and Dad has been, well, Dad.  We have had a trip to the ER, the doctor and even a sigmoidoscopy.  He is a full time job on top of my full time job but I wouldn't change a thing.  Well, I wouldn't hate it if he married a Nurse.  LOL.  

Girls Trip - Part 3

Our final day arrived way too fast!  Mike Tomkowicz, one of my favorite Vermonters, didn't get to make it to our Friday lunch at The Shanty, due to work obligations.  He asked Liz if we could stop by the office on our way to the airport.  Not only did I get to see Mike, I got to see Bob Bouchard too.

Girls Trip Part 2 - Photo Heavy

Disclaimer:  My pictures are very dark.  It was NOT that dark.  

We started our day Sunday by visiting Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, VT.  According to their website, it is "a 1,400 acre working farm and National Historic Landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain". The estate was created in 1886 by Dr. William Seward Webb and Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb.  Those of you who are familiar with the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina will recognize that Eliza was a member of the Vanderbilt family.

The home is actually an Inn that you can stay in. Here is a picture....TripAdvisor gets the credit for this photo.

Girls Trip Part 1

Last weekend, Christy and I traveled to Burlington, Vermont.  Almost 19 years ago, I started working for a company based in Burlington.  I've wanted to visit Vermont ever since however, my fear of having a panic attack on an airplane kept me locked inside my own invisible prison.  After watching my parents struggle to get around as easily as they used to, I have been acutely aware of how short life is and that you need to do things while you can.  I had finally grown so tired of living in fear that I just decided to face it head on.  I handed my fear over to God once and for all and took the leap.  

My dear friend Liz, invited us up to stay with her.  Liz was a very gracious hostess; she thought of everything!  Not only did Liz let us stay with her, she showed us a wonderful weekend.  

Christy took a picture of me taking the bus from our car to the airport.  

Caturday

Scott woke up early today to paint the (garden) fence before the thermometer hit 90 degrees.  

Christy's Big Night

My grandmother Helms was born in 1897 (some records say 1896 but, she said 1897).  I grew up next door to Grandma and spent many, many days at her house while my parents were at work.  Anyone who knew my grandmother knew not to bother her between the hours of 12:30 pm and 4:00 pm because she was in her chair watching CBS soap operas.  

We watched:

The Young and the Restless

Capitol (later switched to The Bold and the Beautiful)

As the World Turns

Guiding Light 

The One Where Deanna Gets Married

One of my oldest and dearest friends got married yesterday.  I wish I could find the very first picture I have of the two of us.  In the picture, we are putting a puzzle together on the floor of Ms. Lathan's first grade class.  Ms. Lathan asked us to look up at the camera and smile.  Oh the stories we could tell.  

I had the honor of being a bridesmaid at Deanna's first wedding many years ago.  This time, her beautiful 15 year old daughter had the honor standing up for her.  Here we are, 40 years after that puzzle...

Bridal Brunch (Photo Heavy Post)

Yesterday, Deanna invited Christy and I out for brunch to celebrate her upcoming wedding.  

It's Who You Know

I have had my day in court.  Sort of.  Let me start from the beginning.  

Christy took a vacation day off of work to go with me to court so I wouldn't be alone.  

Ketchup

Well, it has been a while since my last post so I will catch you up.  Currently, my Dad is back in the hospital.  He went out to eat Wednesday night and was fine, but on Thursday he was a totally different person.  He had no strength at all to get around or even sit up. I wasn't sure if he had a stroke or just what was going on.  Long story short, the paramedics came and he is back in the hospital.  He has a very bad UTI but they also said his heart was doing "funky things".  It seems now that they are leaning more towards it was the infection that caused the majority of his problem.  

Here we are on Friday night watching The Masters.

Last Week in Review/Happy Birthday Mom

Mom turned 81 last week.  We celebrated by going to her favorite restaurant, Firebird's.  

President's Day

For reasons I don't know, my company has decided to give us President's Day off now.  This is very exciting to me.  I LOVE having a holiday where nothing is expected of me.  I'm happy to honor George Washington and those who were brave enough (crazy enough?) to follow in his footsteps. Happy Birthday Presidents.  I'll eat a piece of cake for you all.  

Yesterday, I took my nephew to his very first hockey game.  In true Daniel fashion, he said it was the "Best Day Ever!"  Daniel says that every single day; he has been doing that for years.  I actually heard him say to himself yesterday that even though he didn't get cotton candy, it was still the best day ever.  We should all be more like Daniel.  

Rembrandt

Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to take an art class.  Having hand tremors, I was always afraid to do so because I didn't want people to notice my shaky hands.   I'm SO over being afraid and.....

Catching Up

There's way too much to catch you up on so here's a brief summary:

I've enjoyed spending time with my two favorite people on the planet...

Daniel spent all day Friday with Aunt Julie & Uncle Scott.  We wore him out.  Here's one of him awake:

I noticed that I am wearing my work keyboard out in an unfortunate way.  What does this key do?

(Yes, I do eat a lot at my desk)
Blossom is still in her "puppy chewing" phase.  Here she is eating an American Girl Doll Catalog.

Sophie had more surgery but, praise God, she is doing AWESOME now.  Here's a photo before she got rid of her e-collar.  She wore it for 12 days and then she decided she'd had enough.  

I've been to hockey, hockey and MORE hockey games!

In fact, here's a picture of Christy and I on the train headed to last night's game...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Mom & Dad's house...

Well, those pictures are going to have to wait because the computer is not reading my photo card right now!!!

And, last but not least, Greta is still running the house!  We love Greta!

Wooooooooooo!

Last night, Christy and I went to the Charlotte Checkers game. 

Here we are on the LYNX headed downtown:

At the game:

 

As you can see, we were right behind the visiting team's bench.  

We had an awesome time!  We missed you Sandra!

Girls Night Out

Tonight, I had a "girls night out in the city" with my friends Sandra & Christy.  We took the light rail to the Epicentre, ate dinner at Libretto's pizza and went to the arena for a Charlotte Checkers hockey game.  The atmosphere was electric.  The crowd was so much fun and the Checkers didn't disappoint.  The game went into sudden death overtime but.....we lost.  (Frowny face)  Oh well, here's a couple of photos...

I would post a picture of Sandra and Christy but Christy did not like her picture and she said that the angle I took it at made her face look "as big as Lulu Roman's".  Now, for those of you who don't remember Lulu Roman....well, that would not be a good thing.  Christy actually looks great in the photo but I will respect her wishes!

Wild Weekend!

It has been too long since I last checked in with you.  I had a great but very busy weekend.  For lunch on Saturday, I ate at On The Border with my good friends Sandra and Christy.  I'd like to give a shout out to Christy for buying my lunch when I realized that I didn't have my wallet.  Thanks for having my back!

I was excited to show you some pictures of me and my girls but for some reason....they were all blurry.  I will, however, be introducing you to Sandra's cat later this week.  In the meantime...here's a picture of my favorite Greta.

Bath time

Not only will I be introducing you to Sandra's cat later in the week, but I will also be introducing you to the newest member of our family.....my cow, Amelia.  Tune in again....same bat-time, same bat-channel. 

Retro

I was looking through my Senior Class memory book and look what I found....a picture of me and my prom date.  I bet I'm one of the few people that actually still talks to their prom date.  I LOVE her.  The back of the picture says that it was taken by our friend Deanna.  Christy & I actually rented a limo with our friend Karen and her date Robert.  We had a great time and were all in bed at my house by midnight.  YES, by midnight. 

I also found a picture frame with all of the suspects that I mentioned above:

Clockwise from top left:
Karen & her prom date Robert.
Karen & ME in our cap & gown.
Deanna and her first love, Jared.
ME
Christy
Deanna

I'm actually still in close contact with everyone in this picture frame.  Well, except for the boys. Oh and for anyone who is wondering....Class of '91.

After reading this post again...I realized that I said the word "actually" like 15 times.  Maybe I should have said, "totally".  

MS Walk

Yesterday was our community's annual walk for MS.  MS has touched the lives of two of my good friends; Christy & Trey.  I, along with a group of friends, walked in honor of Christy and Trey AND to help find a cure.  Here I am in full walking attire:  

Don't worry Mom.  That milky white skin is covered with a very high SPF.  Here's a picture of Christy & Sandra (Trey's wife).  Trey couldn't make it this year; he had to work. 

Last but not least, Deanna and Craig.  (Just teasing Deanna)  

Thousands of people spent their Saturday morning fighting the heat and walking for a cure.  Here we are standing around waiting for the walk to begin:

Doggy Village

You were given a choice of whether you wanted to take a 2 or 4 mile route.  Naturally, we chose the 2 mile route!  Thankfully our route was shaded almost the entire way. 

And we're off!  Check out that cute little Bullfrog in front of me (Deanna).  I spent most of the walk looking at the back of her head.  She and Craig led us the whole way. 

You can't really tell from the size of this picture but the line of walkers starts WAY ahead of where we are

And looking behind us, there are hundreds more... (If you really want to see you can click on the picture to enlarge.)

We are walking...

After we completed the walk, Craig took a picture of of the hot and tired girls!  

Time to go home and take a nap!  See you next year at the 2011 MS Walk.