2017 has been a real year of change.  That's life.  In just a few short hours 2018 will arrive with all of its promise and uncertainty.  Welcome.  Our current situation is that I am sitting on the couch with Balto by my side and Scott is sitting in a chair with Blossom in his lap.  The celebratory fireworks have begun.  Unfortunately, I live less than a mile from South Carolina where pretty much any type of firework is legal.  I am not a fan, and the dogs are terrified of them to say the least.  

Balto is under the weather...

(The actual reaction to me asking, "Balto, do you want to go for a walk?"  I'm pretty sure he was thinking that if he didn't make eye contact I might go away & forget the walk. ) 

Under Construction + 10 Intentional Questions

As you can see, this blog is in the process of being updated.  I was inspired by my sweet friend Lorraine at As the Resin World Turns  to give the blog a facelift for the new year.  Don't worry - it isn't finished.  And no, that is not a picture of my hair.

Also inspired by two of my favorite blogs, No Sidebar & Cait Flanders, I am posting the answers to End Your Year Intentionally With These 10 Questions which was written for No Sidebar by Daisy.

1.  What makes this year unforgettable? 

This is the year my family got a second chance.  If you read this blog, you know that my Dad has faced a lot of health challenges this year.  He "left this world" on August 19th but, thanks to God and a wonderful medical team, he is here today.  This year has been hard and full of change but, it has also been full of second chances and joy.

Christmas Catchup

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted.  Christmas was a wonderful blur.  I was blessed to host my family.  Scott made prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes & gravy.  I made green bean casserole (dad's favorite).  Mom brought deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese.  Oh, and bread.  Mom brought the bread because I realized the night before that I had forgotten to buy any!  Rana brought grape leaves & salad.  

Sadly, my pictures came out too dark. 

Facing Your Fears

Today I went to Cat's annual Christmas Party.  Cat is a sweet friend of mine who just happens to have Down Syndrome.  Cat's sister, Allison, hosted the party in her beautiful new home this year.  The only problem is that Allison's new home is across town and requires me to take the interstate.  Those of you who know me, know I haven't driven on an interstate in quite a while.  

Picture it:  Snow in North Carolina (I watch too much Golden Girls)

We rarely get snow in my part of North Carolina but, it sure was coming down hard today.  Luckily, it was a balmy 35 degrees so none of the snow was sticking, nonetheless, it was snowing hard enough for everyone to drive cautiously.  

December

December is here and I'm getting excited about Christmas.  If there is one thing I have learned in 2017, it is how to appreciate every single day.  

Last Sunday, Scott and I went to visit his Grandmother.  She LOVES to play cards.  We barely got in the door before she was asking to play.  Nell is 89 and a card shark.  This time we played Skip-Bo and, of course, she won both games.  She ALWAYS wins.

Turkey Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving long weekend!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Scott and I hosted the family at our house this year.  Guess what?  I found out that, for the first time ever, I actually liked cooking for other people!!!  I don't have a lot of confidence in my cooking abilities but, it was fun!

The Very First Tuesday

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tu-Tu-Tu Tuesday...the very first Tuesday!

For any of my North Carolina readers, you know what that is from.  That is part of the Lottery Scratch Off song that we hear NUMEROUS times around the first of the month.  I don't even play the lottery but, thanks to those catchy commercials, I always know when it is scratch off time.  

Today I went for my annual mammogram.  

I'm proud of myself for going on my own.  Now...I just need to go to the eye doctor.  It has been over 2 years.  There's something I don't like about going to the eye doctor.  I think it is because I feel like he is invading my personal space.  I don't like strangers all up in my face.  My eye doctor is kind of handsome.  Handsome people make me nervous.  Doctors should be ugly.  Ugly people don't make me nervous.  Unless they are mean.  Mean people make me nervous.  

I thought it would be fun for the kids if I fingerpainted with them.  So, I went to Michael's and bought some fingerpaint and brought it to their house on Sunday.  Things did not go as I had planned.  Laura thought the paint was lotion.  

I should have taken a picture of their clothes after we finished.  Daniel's pants kept falling down and he used his hands to pull them up.  Thankfully, I was able to get all of the paint off of their clothes.  You have no idea how much paint they both had on their clothes.  Next time, I'm going to make them put on their bathing suits to fingerpaint.  

Daniel did say, "Aunt Julie is fun!"  Ha! I told him "Aunt Julie IS fun!"  

Mom bought a new outfit.  Look how cute she is!  

Well, that is all I have for the very first Tuesday of the month.  Maybe I should have bought some scratch offs after all.  

November, Already?

This year has been a blur.  I can't believe it is already November.  Is there a way to stop time?  As I type this, there is an episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on from November 1, 1983.  I wonder what I was doing on November 1, 1983.  Whatever it was, I'm sure it involved eating Halloween candy.  I would have been in the 5th grade.  Hmm...I wonder what I dressed up as that year.  

I've been pet sitting this week for my new neighbors.  Meet Kacey:

And Ty:

Blossom saw me outside with Kacey and had a lot to say about it.

I don't know if you can see her or but she is barking at me.  Here she is keeping an eye on our yard.

In other news, I can't remember if I told you about the cat that keeps showing up at my brother's house and also at my parents' house.  Well, here it is...Daniel has named the cat "Fuzzy".

When I was growing up, animals were NOT allowed in our house.  Fast forward to now...Mom and Dad have been letting Fuzzy come in for visits.

The cat is on their bed....(Dad does not know about this).

Fuzzy really is the sweetest cat.  I have no idea who he/she belongs to.  He/she shows up every few days and gets a nice meal and hangs around inside the house for a while.  

Several weeks ago, Mom and I were sitting at her kitchen table when we heard a knock at the door.  It was late at night so I wondered who it could be.  When I turned around to look, Fuzzy was peeping through the glass.  

Daniel was a Firefighter for Halloween this year (again).  He told me it is good to use your Halloween costumes for several years in a row because it saves money.  

Johnny (Carson) is reading lists from 5th graders about the "10 Strange Things That I Hate".  Hmmm...I'm going to try to come up with a list for you. 

1.  Hearing anything about the Kardashians.

2.  Getting stuck behind the same exact cars in traffic every day.

3.  Having my blood pressure taken at the doctor's office (I get white coat syndrome). 

4.  Chit Chatting with people in the bathroom at work.  

5.  That the same person parks beside me every day at work.  I don't know why this bothers me but, it does.  I groan every time I see his car beside mine.  

6.  That they rarely make family friendly TV shows anymore.  

7.  That processed food is bad for you.

8.  TV Personalities that talk too loud.  (I'm looking at you Steve Harvey etc.)

9.  The News.

10. That no matter how much I clean, the dirt keeps coming back.  

Maybe next time I'll post 10 Strange Things That I Love.  I'm not one to dwell on the negatives so posting 10 things that I don't like feels very uncomfortable to me.  

Where's Balto?

Find Balto in this picture.

The dogs are loving the cooler weather.

It has been almost a year since our sweet, sweet Greta passed.  I was just looking on my phone and saw that exactly one year ago today, I took the following pictures.  It is so hard to believe she was 17 years old!  Since I wasn't posting back then, I'm going to post them now.  

This was her very favorite spot in the whole world.  

I remember that bathtub picture clearly.  She was running around the house like a kitten having a great time.  Luckily, I had my phone with me.  

I really miss having a cat!  I do look forward to adopting a kitten in the near future (hopefully).  Scott says no.  Stay tuned to see who wins.  

Last night was my last night of therapy.  I don't find it coincidental at all that I started therapy on the night before my dad had to be rushed to the hospital in July and that he was released by his home healthcare nurse on the same day I was released by my therapist.  God put my therapist in my life at the exact time he knew I would need her.  I really don't know how I would have navigated the past few months without her help.  I went to her with the thought that after many, many years of anxiety, I would finally get some help.  I just didn't realize that it would be help for very different anxiety than what I had first thought.  The timing is just too perfect not to be divinely designed.  

I still have a long way to go with my "homework" but, I now have the tools to help me reach my goals.  I also know that I am much stronger than I ever thought I was and I can handle things that I would have never thought I could.  

Speaking of cats...I took this picture of my new yoga teacher.  

(Not really.  Photo by Gemma Correll)

My Week In Review

I'm typing this at my desk half covered in Selsun Blue.  For much of my life, I've battled on and off with a common skin fungus called Tinea Versicolor.  The treatment is covering it up with Selsun Blue for 30 minutes and then washing it off.  You need to do that for about 10 days.  So from my waist to my neck, I look like a Smurf right now.  

Not that long ago, I wondered if the birds would ever find my new feeder.  I'm pretty sure they are going to eat me out of house and home now.  I am having to fill it up several times per week.  

Like the commercial says, life comes as you fast.  I'm having to look at my phone to see what has happened since my last post.

My nephew, Daniel, is in the Cub Scouts.  Here he is last weekend, showing me his new tent.

He and his dad (my brother) went camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend.  I can't wait to hear how it went.

Mom and Dad sat outside with Daniel while he played in his new tent.  My brother said the tent cost him $30 at Wal-Mart.

Laura was outside as well. 

And, of course....

I came home and sat on the front porch with Blossom.

Balto prefers to stay inside

Daniel got a new rocket....

..which broke soon after I took that picture.  I do have to say, it was a really cool slingshot until it broke.

I asked Balto if he wanted to go for a walk. This is how he reacted...

We made him go anyway.

Yesterday, we enjoyed the nice weather outside....until a bee kept bothering us so we went back in.

Today I have been planting my winter flowers.

According to my phone, that was my week.  On Wednesdays I teach the Special Needs Awana class at church.  On Sunday mornings, I teach the 4 & 5 year old Sunday School class and during the worship hour, I teach the Special Needs class. 

Today one of my 4 year olds asked me what I was going to dress up as for Halloween.  I told her I was not dressing up this year.  She said, "You have to. You're a kid."  If only she knew!!!  I guess that explains why the class doesn't seem to "fear" me.  They tried to lock me in the bathroom once.  We have a lot of fun in there but, I think it might drive me to drinking soon.  

Dad went out to eat 3 nights in a row this week.  On the one hand, I'm so excited that he felt good enough to go!  On the other hand, it isn't good for his salt restricted diet.  We don't want him to start retaining fluid and have to head back to the hospital again.  He actually drove a car this week for the first time in several months.  Each day is a gift and I'm learning to take it one day at a time and live in gratitude.  

Friday Is Here

What a long week that has flown by!  Sunday, I decided to make a meal for my parents and since Dad is now on a low salt diet due to Congestive Heart Failure,  I made Cozy Beef Stew from the American Heart Association website.  Yuck.  I followed the recipe but it had too much pepper.  Mom said that once you ate a few bites, you got used to it.  (Bless her; my Mom is always trying to be positive!). Dad said, "It isn't that bad; it just needs salt.  Well, I guess that is the whole point though."  Spoken from a true salt-o-holic.  Oh well, on to the next recipe.  Meanwhile, I'm reminding myself of this quote:

Tuesday's therapy session was very stressful.  I had to visualize going over a bridge that I can no longer drive over.  Actually it is what they call a "flyover".  My nemesis is the flyover that takes you from Interstate 77 to I-485.  I used to drive on this flyover every day when I worked in downtown Charlotte.  Now, I can't drive over it at all.  

Debbie, my therapist, walked me through the exercise and I wish I had a video of it for you as it was very comical.  As I closed my eyes and she guided me across the imagined bridge and I started visualizing the oncoming ramp in front of me, I felt the adrenaline start flooding my arms and legs.  My heart started to beat faster and I was breathing faster. She asked me how fast I wanted to drive over the bridge and I replied "Five MPH". Actually, I wanted to get out of the car and crawl over the bridge.  Immediately I had a flash back to when I was in kindergarten.  Our class took a field trip over the historic pedestrian bridge in Waxhaw to visit the Fire Station across the street.  Immediately I was five years old again and everyone in my class was happily crossing the bridge.  Everyone except for me that is.  I was in the very back of the class with a classmate friend and our teacher assistant, Mrs. Hemby.  I CRAWLED across the bridge.  I was scared of bridges even then!!!!   For some reason I always remember the bridge with snow on it.  There are 2 problems with that.  #1 is that it RARELY snows where I live.  #2 is that if it did snow where I live, they would have never let us walk across that bridge.  #3 (OK, there are 3 reasons) if there were even one flake of snow on the ground where I live, school would be cancelled.

Snow or no snow, I lived.  I felt both relieved and ashamed.  None of the other kids had to crawl across the bridge.  

Yesterday, we took Dad to see his cardiologist.  Here we are in the exam room waiting on the doctor to come in.  Dad is pretending to fix his hair.

Thankfully Dad received a good report from the cardiologist and doesn't have to go back for three months.

Bring on the weekend!!!  

Who Do You Think You Are

I like watching that show sometimes.  I actually find genealogy a little interesting.  For most of my life, I thought my ancestors were from Germany.  I remember asking my dad where we "came from" and he said we were "probably German".  My brother said our surname, Helms, was probably a German name.  It wasn't until I researched my genealogy last year that I found out my family came  to America in the 1500's from jolly ol' England.  

Tracing my tree I found that my Paternal Grandfather's side came from England and my Paternal Grandmother's side came from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  I can't quite trace my mom's family.  The best I can do says the family name comes from England.  

Fast forward to August.  I was sitting in the hospital waiting area and decided....I'm going to order a DNA test.  So I did.  Here are my results....

I am:

58% Great Britain

20% Ireland

14% Western Europe (France, Spain, Germany etc.) 

and 2% North Africa

I was so excited to find that I might have some North African in my history.  Turns out...all of these years I was wrong about being German.  No wonder I love Jane Austen & Irish music so much!  

God Save the Queen

Maybe it also explains my love of Britcoms...

Hmmm...I don't care for hot tea though.  Maybe that comes from my North African roots.