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.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy day after Thanksgiving Day.  I hope everyone had a day of good food and lots of thankfulness.  The heart of my family is no longer with us physically but due to the way she raised us we were able to move forward and have a great day.  I thought I had forgotten my phone so I didn't get any pictures to show you.  

Last week, Deanna and I visited UNC Charlotte to do a little Christmas shopping for the kids.  

I was so surprised at how large the campus had grown!  We had a great time exploring the grounds and seeing how beautiful it had become.  Sometimes it seems like I might be the only one I know who didn't graduate from UNCC.  

While working with Laura, I found out she had a surprising new school I didn't know about.  

What a glorious surprise!  Rana met with Laura's teachers for her IEP meeting this week and she has met all of her goals this semester.  How exciting; we are so proud! 

Wednesday, I received an email from Gaulden Monuments that the cemetery marker for Mom (and Dad) is in and will be placed on Tuesday.  I feel excited and nervous.  I'm just not sure that the design is exactly what I wanted.  On the rendering, it wasn't how I had pictured it in my head.  I hope that I love it.  I hope that it looks ok.  There will be pictures next week.  

4 weeks until Christmas, here we go!  

I Get it Now

My cousin, Angela, told me that it wouldn't hit me for a couple of months.  I didn't know what she meant.  I know now.  I was so surprised at how "well" I was handling the death of my mom, my best friend.  God was carrying me.  He is still carrying me but I feel like little by little he is allowing the shock to wear off.  We've all heard that grief comes in waves.  It does.  It knocks you off of your feet and tosses you around.  It punches you in the gut.  I'm sobbing as I type these words.  I'm bent but I'm not broken.  Mom taught me too well for that.  She introduced me to Jesus and I will never be broken.  

We had a "nice" Mother's Day.  Rana had to work so ironically there were no "mothers" at our dinner.  I picked up chicken alfredo from Olive Garden and the rest of the family celebrated the day.   I didn't try to go to church.  It was just too hard.  

Daniel has been busy designing a new hot water heater.  

Papaw explained to him why his design would not work.  He helped him work on a different design.  

Scott is still in training to be a Lumberjack.  No tree is safe.  

Mask restrictions have been lifted for those vaccinated in our State so Deanna and I enjoyed a lunch date and a much needed hug.  You may remember Deanna from previous entries.  She and I met in the first grade and have been close ever since.  You know - 20 years ago.  (Ok, maybe longer).  

Deanna is now a breast cancer survivor and has reconstructive surgery this week.  I'm so thankful that God has healed her from cancer and we are ready to put this chapter behind.  It has been a tough year for everyone.  

I cleaned the screened porch this weekend.  This is something I dread every year.  I moved all of the furniture outside, swept, vacuumed and mopped up all of the pollen now that "yellow" season is over. Balto loves spending time on the porch.  

Blossom is still busy exploring in her wheels. 

I lost and found my credit card.  Daniel and I went to Target 9 days ago.  After pumping gas, I put my credit card in my back pocket instead of my wallet.  Several days passed and I realized it was not in my wallet.  I checked all of my pants pockets and couldn't for the life of me figure out where it was.  Long story short, I found my credit card today.  You will never, ever guess where....

I kid you not!  If you look close, you will see my credit card in the dryer vent outside!!!  Apparently, I washed it in my blue jeans and it went through the washing machine, dryer and out the dryer vent to the outside of the house.  How is that even possible???  It is even harder to believe that I even saw it this soon.  I just happened to be using the garden hose which is right under the vent.  I was standing there filling something up and looked right at it!  

Onward to a new work week.  Here's my only prediction:

Still January

January is such an interesting month.  It is a month that usually provokes a lot of reflection for me; renewed hope and restored anxiety.  My favorite thing about January is that the sun sets later and later in the day.  I am sure that I have a bit of Seasonal Affective Disorder and I am so thankful that it is still daylight after 6:00 p.m. now.  Here are some highlights from my January week:  

Balto dug a hole.

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.  

Soccer Star - For Deanna

Two weeks ago, mom and I went to see Deanna's daughter, Jenna, play soccer.  Jenna is the only girl on her team. Here are some pictures of the little soccer star at goalie.  She loves to play this position and she was the goalie for 3 straight quarters! 

Check out this photo...she's really pumped up!

In the final quarter, Jenna saw some major action! 

 

Well, I can't remember the exact score but Jenna's team won by quite a few goals.  Mom and I had fun hanging out with Deanna and her parents and watching Jenna play soccer.  

PS.  I know I have been really slack with keeping my blog up to date lately.  I promise to do better and get caught up over the next few days week. 

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".  

More Festival Pictures

Since I was starting to feel a little lightheaded from all of the chemical fumes, I decided to take a break from scrubbing my shower tiles and post some more pictures from the festival.  Here's my beautiful niece, Laura:

Isn't she just perfect?  Here are some more Laura pictures....

 Can't you tell that I love taking pictures of my niece and nephew?  Here's Mr. "D" himself.....(Daniel)

 I have to thank my friends Christy & Deanna for helping me chase watch Daniel.  You see, I told Rana that I would watch Daniel so that she could play "Dessert Bingo".  It turns out...it took 3 of us to chase an 18 month old around.  I don't think that moms get enough credit for taking care of little children.  

Here's Deanna's daughter, Jenna:

Well, I guess I better get back to scrubbing tiles.  I guess they aren't going to scrub themselves....

I Told You So

I told you I would try to update my blog more often!   

After taking Greta to the vet on Friday, Scott & I visited with our good friends, Michael & Jill, who were in town from Ohio.  We had a wonderful night spending time with family & friends and playing with Michael & Jill's dogs:  Steely Dan, Bailey, & Saraya.  I'd love to show you some pictures but I didn't have my camera.  Just imagine a picture of Scott playing with the dogs.  Oh, there's a picture of me talking to Jill.  Notice how pretty she looks.  Wow, look how fit I am from my 2 weeks at the Y. 

Saturday, we had our annual Fall Family Festival at church.  I worked in the prize booth.  The weather was beautiful and frankly, a little hot.  Here are some pictures of my niece & nephew playing at the Festival...

Here's Daniel with Papaw:

I have more to post about the festival but I promised myself that I have to clean something tonight...anything.  I will post more from the festival next time.  In the meantime, here is a picture of Laura pushing Daniel in the stroller while a tiny bride runs over. 

The beautiful (and way too young to get married) bride is Deanna's daughter, Jenna.  Isn't she cute?