How can it be that we are at the end of another year?  2018 was a good year; it wasn't always easy but, it was a very good year.  I think the highlight of my year was our family vacation.  Honorable Mention:  The super-fun girls' trip Miranda and I took to see John Crist.  

I spent the last day of the year having lunch in Waxhaw with Christy and spending time visiting my Mom & Dad.  I'm really enjoying the time off from work.  I don't look forward to going back on Wednesday as I know there are going to be a lot of angry tenants who received big increases in their rent this month.  I am so thankful that it will be a short week.  

Blossom went to the Vet for her checkup.  She's scared...

Christmasversary

This Christmas, we celebrated Jesus' birth and Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary.  

Mom and Dad were married Christmas Eve, 1958.  

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Blossom and Balto went to the Groomer yesterday.  I tried to get their attention with food so that they would look at the camera...it didn't work.

Wheels On the Bus

Mom's Good Report

Scott made pumpkin pancakes and Blossom wanted in on it.  

Is it Almost Summer Yet?

It's Sunday night; another weekend has come to an end.  My weekend started out very busy and ended very quietly.  Saturday, I had two parties to attend.  Those who know me will already know that is a lot of socializing for an introverted Julie.  I love being around my friends; just not all at once!  I don't know how much of that is being introverted and how much is having Social Anxiety Disorder. Or how much is just being Julie.  

Party #1:  Cat's Annual Christmas Ornament Exchange Party

I met Cat's family while serving at Elevation Church several years ago.  Suzanne (Cat's mom), Allison (Cat's sister), and Cat all served on the Sunday night hospitality team with me.  The Spantgos family are truly the salt of the earth.  I have never met a more generous family when it comes to helping those in need.  

Allison and Me

A Lot About Daniel

Aros got adopted last week! That makes my heart so happy.  

Mac Tabby Cat Cafe

I've been wanting to visit the Mac Tabby Cat Cafe ever since it opened last year.  Today, I did.  My awesome next door neighbors, Malissa and Samantha, were kind enough to join me for some feline fun.

Thankful Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  My family had a wonderful day.  We were blessed to have Scott's uncle, Ken, and his brother, Will, with us.  Oh...I just realized that I don't have a single picture of Will!  He was in the den watching TV when I took these photos and didn't get a single one of him!  

November 20th

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend...like my Dad.

Most of my weekend consisted of cleaning (and procrastinating cleaning) my house for Thanksgiving.  I'm like a kid when it comes to cleaning my house...I fight it.  I get distracted.

November 16th

What a week it has been!  It rained rather heavily Monday through Thursday and I am overjoyed to finally see the sun again today.  I like rainy days every once in a while but, not FOUR IN A ROW.  Even Blossom was starting to get crabby.  

My neighbors went out of town this week so I got to spend some fun time with Ty.  I miss having a cat in my life.  For this trip they boarded their Australian Shepherd, Kacey, so it was just Ty and me.  For the life of me, I could not figure out how to use their television.  I did find an advertisement on their TV home page for "Cats 24/7" which also said "Free", so I clicked on it.  I was not expecting what happened next.  

Ty was mesmerized!  He couldn't take his eyes off of the television.  One clip showed a kitten stalking another cat.  When the kitten finally pounced, Ty jumped!  

November 13th

It is a good thing I'm not grading myself for my self-imposed challenge of posting every day this month!  

Saturday, Christy and I went to the Sheep Dog Trials at Rural Hill Farm.  These Shepherds are competing to go to the National Championships.  I LOVE watching sheep dogs herd sheep and have been many times.  I didn't take my "good" camera this year so you'll have to settle for not-as-great pictures from my phone.  

If you see a black spot on the right side of my picture, that is the Border Collie herding the sheep to the Shepherd so that he can put them in the pen.  Border Collie's are the most amazing dogs.  I would love to have one but, I would have no business owning one because they need to work.  

November 6th

Today is Election Day and I voted.  I don't think your vote counts anymore unless you take a selfie wearing your "I Voted" sticker and post it on social media but, I did go vote.  

Here are a couple more pictures from our beach trip last week. These pictures of Scott are misleading. He is wearing a flannel shirt but it was in the 70's and quite warm while we were there.  

November 5th

Clearly, I'm doing a great job with my daily challenge!  (Not) 

Today is Monday.  One of my coworkers actually came in at 5:30 am because he forgot to change his clock.  Bless his heart.  

I don't wear perfume but, the last part of this is why I haven't gone inside a gas station in about 20 years (no; not exaggerating).  

Is that really a southern thing?  I just assumed it was everywhere.  I do admit that nothing beats gas station fried taters.  And....fried chicken.  Well, gas station food is good.  

November 1st

For reasons I don't know, I've decided to try to post every day in the month of November.  

Yesterday was Halloween.  Daniel wanted to be a Hamster but, I could only find 2 "Hamster" costumes online and one had a long tail.  Daniel said, "Hamsters don't have long tails; that is a mouse."  He was right.  That left only one Hamster costume and he loved it.  The problem wasn't the price of the costume; the problem was that it was only for sale in Hong Kong and I had missed the guaranteed delivery deadline.  So what do you do when your only nephew wants to be a Hamster for Halloween?  You pay to have the costume shipped expeditiously from Shanghai.  It made it!  He loved it!  I only wished I had made him turn around and show the cute little tail.  

Daniel had a blast Trick-or Treating with his dad and Uncle Scott.  Rana took Laura to visit with some of her friends.  

 

Overdue

I'm calling this post "Overdue" for several reasons.  One is because a family vacation was long overdue for us but also, because this was supposed to happen the week that Hurricane Florence showed up over a month ago.  Please forgive me for the picture overload....I want to document this for the future.  If you look at all of the pictures...I will be surprised.  

After almost 4 hours of driving across North Carolina, we made it to Holden Beach.  

Hurricane Willa

Boy did it rain today.  It rained from the moment I woke up and is still raining now....10:30ish p.m.  Hurricane Willa, a Pacific coast hurricane, brought rain to a large part of the U.S. and my area was included.   This rainy weather has me a little down and very reflective so, pardon me if I share my heart for a moment.  

Sunday Night

Sunday night always brings up conflicting emotions.  I'm sad that the weekend is over and I'm ready to start a new week.  Wait, I'm sad that the weekend is over and I don't want to start a new week just yet.  If I could do anything tomorrow, I would sleep late and spend the day on my couch watching a Golden Girls marathon with Balto.  (Blossom would be with Scott wherever he is.)

Daniel needs a haircut.  Saturday, I styled his hair like this.  I'm not sure if anyone got the hint...

Monday

It's early Monday morning and I already need a nap!  

Fall has finally reached the Carolinas and we have been enjoying cooler temperatures for a couple of days.  Wait, I just looked at the forecast and the high is back in the 80's today.  I'm not a fan of cold weather at all but I do really enjoy fall weather the best of all!    

Blossom had a rough weekend.  She started throwing up late Friday night and after a whole day of it on Saturday, we decided to take her to the ER that night.  $700 later and they weren't sure what was going on.  Her tests kept coming back normal.  They gave her some fluids and anti-nausea meds.  We got home at 1:00 am on Sunday morning.  She seems a little better this morning.   I took this photo on Saturday when she wasn't feeling very well.  I'm just now starting to wonder if it had anything to do with the essential oil diffuser I bought on Friday.  I diffused lavender on Friday night, which is supposed to be safe for dogs, and she sat with me the entire time.  I won't do it again.  Could that be it????  If so, that would be a good thing.  

Blossom doesn't look like herself in this picture.  Her eyes are very weak looking.  

Family Fun

Saturday, Mom, Dad, Daniel and I, drove to Chesterfield, South Carolina to visit my Uncle John and Aunt Sara. (Kevin and Laura were at Mitey Riders Equine Therapy) Some of my very favorite childhood memories are at their home.  Chesterfield is a small, historic town full of beautiful old southern style homes with wraparound porches.  Everyone knows everyone in Chesterfield.  

Forty-Five

I had a birthday this week.  

September Sunday

I made the mistake of leaving my phone lying around at Mom's house.  I just realized that Daniel recorded a video on it.  He also took a picture of the two of us but, I did know about that.  I love that he likes to tag our photos with a "Best Friend" sticker.

The Week In Review

Looking at the pictures on my phone, I see that this was a pretty normal week.  Monday, Scott cleaned up our yard after Hurricane Florence.  Thankfully, this was all the clean up we needed.  We don't take it for granted and are incredibly grateful that we were spared any damage.  We are trying to play our small part in helping others that weren't so fortunate.

Under My Umb-r-ella Ella Ella...

I can't get the song Umbrella by Rihanna out of my head right now.  We are waterlogged here in the Carolinas.  Thankfully, despite having nonstop rain for over the past 24 hours, the area that I live in seems to have been in a pocket that received less rain than everyone else around here.  The creek behind my house didn't even overflow.  The rest of my county was not as lucky; we are under a mandatory curfew from 7pm until 7am due to widespread flooding.  Officials are afraid that you won't be able to see flooded roads in the dark.  

Hunkered Down

We are hunkered down here and waiting for the "Biblical" rains.  My gosh, if they really were Biblical rains then I guess that would mean rain for 40 days and 40 nights.  I think we are expecting 2 days and 2 nights at most.  That will be a record here either way.  

Girls Trip

I can't tell you how badly I needed a girls trip.  Last week was a roller coaster on top of the roller coaster that I'm already on.  The week started out well (Holiday!) and with us finally planning a family vacation that I never imagined might be a possibility ever again.  Dad went into atrial fibrillation on Wednesday and there were moments I didn't know if we were heading to the ER or not.   He is still in afib but the doctor put him back on some medication that will hopefully get that straightened out soon.  After checking in with Mom and Dad on Friday, I felt comfortable to go on a super fun trip to Seneca, South Carolina with my friend Miranda.  Miranda and I went to the same middle/high school but we really didn't know each other very well.  We have connected on Instagram and Facebook of all places. 

Miranda invited me to go with her to see Christian comedian John Crist.  I'm not usually a big fan of comedians but I absolutely love John.  I follow him on Instagram and love his videos.  He is hilarious.  

Labor Day

I did not labor at all on Labor Day 2018.  It was a wonderful day but I'll get to that.

Last Friday, someone drove past my office window...

BBQ Night

(I meant to post this on 8-28)

For those of you who aren't from the south, BBQ means actual BBQ (almost always pork)- not hamburgers, not hotdogs etc.  

Confession

I need to come clean about something.  I have NO idea what I'm doing.

Long Time No Post

I didn't mean to go so long without posting but life got a little crazy last week. For reasons that aren't rational, I had been dreading last week for quite a while.  Actually, I've been dreading Friday, August 17th.  That was the one year anniversary of the day Dad (after a catheter procedure) went into cardiac arrest and had to be brought back more than once.  

Photo from August 17, 2017 - just before we left for Dad's heart procedure.

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...

The Week In Review...So Far

On Tuesday, Pawpaw and Daniel had a pillow fight.  

Birthday Fun

Yesterday was Laura's birthday.  No one loves birthdays or cake more than Laura.

Sleepy Saturday Morning

This was on my Instagram this morning...I feel like I need to tattoo it on my hand.

2:00 A.M.

It's 2:00 a.m. and I just got home from the ER.  

What If You Had Three Million Dollars

Daniel talks constantly.  I mean NONSTOP.   Tonight he couldn't stop asking me silly questions like, "What if 3 million dollars fell out of the sky and landed on your doorstep and then you got a letter saying "Congratulations.  You just won a million dollars?"  Mom and I did our best to answer his questions.  Daniel's brain is even more hyperactive than mine is.  

When I walked over to visit Mom and Dad tonight, I found this...

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.  

Funday Monday

I went out on Monday night. (Surprising, I know!) My friend, Miranda, invited me to see Heather Land at Ovens Auditorium.  I had never heard of Heather Land in my entire life.  Turns out, I was in the minority.  When I googled Heather Land, her Facebook page popped up with over 2 million followers.  It even said that 22 of my Facebook friends were following her page.  Who knew?  Certainly not me.  

Miranda, her friend Jackie (now my friend too), and I went to Lupie's Cafe for supper.  I had not eaten at Lupie's in...wait a minute....it was about 15 years ago after Scott had a colonoscopy.  He woke up, asked me how he had gotten dressed and said he wanted to go eat a chili dog at Lupie's.  I thought that was a rather risky thing to eat after his previous 2 days but, not MY colon.  

Back to last night.  Here are the 3 of us at Lupie's Cafe.

Sunday Night

This has been a restful, albeit non-productive weekend.  Friday night, I hung out with my sister-in-law while the rest of the family went out to eat.  I had eaten Mexican for lunch and couldn't bear the thought of eating out again.  

Saturday, I got a massage.  I go every 12 weeks.  I like massages but, I'm not sure how beneficial they really are according to "science".  At the very least, I enjoy talking to my massage therapist.  She always gives helpful advice.  

Friday Night - Where's Balto?  

I may have let my laundry situation get out of hand last week. 

I Said No

Those of you who know me will be really proud of me.  Someone I really care about asked me to volunteer to help her out at church this year and I said no.  I never say no.  Even when I want to say no, I say yes.  I told her the truth....I deal with anxiety and I want to just focus on my job, my 2 Sunday children's classes and taking care of my parents.  I really believe in the program that she asked me to help with but, I realize that I can't say yes to everything that I care about.  I have to learn to say no when I need to say no.  At first I had this overwhelming sense of guilt - even though I knew I had nothing to feel guilty about.  I realized that my feelings were lying to me and that I was just going to have to sit with that feeling for a while.  I still wish I could help, and physically I could, but mentally....I don't need an extra weekly commitment.  

This was my mom yesterday.  A family friend with a large garden called and asked Mom and Dad if they would like to come get some corn and tomatoes.  Dad and Daniel rode over and picked up several dozen ears of corn.  Daniel helped Mom shuck the corn and here she is showing it off for you. 

Slow Sunday

Breaking News:   I've gone 2 whole days with no stomach contractions.  Maybe it really was some sort of strange bug and I won't be having an alien baby after all.  

Yesterday, I went to the baby shower of one of my very best friend's daughter-in-law.  In simple terms, Linda's going to be a Grandmother.  I've known Linda since 2011 when her son was still in high school and we prayed away one of his girlfriends.  He is now a happily married school teacher with a baby boy on the way.  

Friday #2

Maybe I'm crazy but I think I would have rather gone to work on Wednesday.  The whole rhythm of the week was off and seemed extra long.  It didn't help that I have had some sort of strange stomach issue since Wednesday.  I have felt fine but at random times my stomach just starts squeezing and sometimes the pain even radiates to my back.  Twenty seconds later, it is all gone only to keep coming back randomly throughout the day.  Kind of like weird contractions.  

Once someone told Daniel it was the 4th of July, he was very excited. 

Two Mondays & Two Fridays

That's what happens when the 4th of July is on a Wednesday.  Two Mondays and Two Fridays in one week.  Monday #1 was a great day.  I had lunch with my friend Linda and she brought me this....

Check out the first candy bar!  It took me a minute to process exactly how large this chocolate bar is... 9 inches!!! Linda read about my chocolate bar fiasco and is trying to help me find a new obsession.  

Obsession

I'm obsessed with Newman's Own Chocolate Bars - 54% Cocoa.  I don't know why...I just am.  You can imagine my anxiety when the Whole Foods at SouthPark not only didn't have any but had taken their placard away.  

I sent an email to Whole Foods.  Then, I sent an email to Newman's Own.  Whole Foods quickly got back with a "We'll check on it".  Newman's gave me silence.  After 3 days, I contacted Newman's on Facebook.  This is what I received back.  

Tuesday

Today was equally as normal as yesterday.  Nothing exciting happened at work, well unless you count that  someone decided to scratch the word ass onto one of our elevator doors.  Who does that?  We are an office park with office buildings full of office adults.  I guess some are more adult that others.  Anyway, if you think about it, what a weird thing to scratch on an elevator (or anywhere).  I mean, someone had to stand there and think, "You know what I think I'm going to do?  I think I'm going to scratch the word ass onto this elevator door." Whatever.  

Dad asked me to buy some darts for his electronic dart board so that he could play with Daniel.  The darts came today.  Dad and I played a couple of quick games.  I tried to get a picture of him throwing but, I'm trying not to make him paranoid with all of my picture taking.  

Normal Monday

I'm drawing a blank on anything creative to call this post.  Today was just a normal Monday.

Laura finally is receiving some help from the government (took almost 12 years) and she has two helpers that will switch off "babysitting" her.  I've never met these ladies and there is so much trust that you have to put in their hands.  I hope these ladies fall in love with Laura and take good care of her.  

Daniel went to "camp" today.  I asked him what he did and he said he went fishing.  Daniel has been wanting to go fishing for a long time.  He said he didn't catch any fish and "The only thing I caught was a tree".  He also went kayaking for the first time.  He told me that he and his boat mate kept trying to ram their kayak into the other kayaks.  Mom said, "Why did you do that?"  I said, "Because he's a boy".  He will go back tomorrow for some more fun.  

He talked my Mom into giving him 2 cookies a piece for Laura, his dad, and himself.  He wrote their names on the bags.

If there were a camera filming me tonight it would have been video gold.  I was texting my friend Liz when out of nowhere, a super loud pop of thunder sounded and I threw my phone in the air.  Balto was sitting beside me and he popped his head up.  Thankfully, neither of our dogs are scared of storms.  

Not 5 minutes later, I had a spoon of tomato soup almost to my lips when I saw lighting spark a tree out of the corner of my eye and immediately heard a loud POW! I jumped so fast that I threw my spoon of tomato soup onto the floor.  Unfortunately, it was onto the light colored carpet.  

The storm passed as fast as it came and we didn't get a drop of rain.  We sure do need the rain.  

Sunday Sabbath

Since I believe God created us, I believe it is super important to follow His manual which says Sunday is to be a day of rest.  I didn't say I always do it, I just said I believe it.  I did today and boy, was He right; we need a day of rest.  

The day started as a normal Sunday morning of teaching my 4 year old Sunday School class and then teaching Laura during church.  This afternoon, Kevin and Daniel came over to watch The Incredibles.  Daniel had never seen it and now that The Incredibles 2 is in movie theaters, we thought it would be a good idea for him to see the original movie first.  I asked him how it was and of course he said, "It was incredible!" The boy is both funny and predictable.   

While Kevin and Daniel watched the movie, I went to their house and sat outside with Laura.  

We had a great time sitting in the swing.  I talked to her about everything I could think of and she kept saying "Pah Gegasi".  I have no idea what that means but she said it about 500 times. Whatever it was brought joy to her heart because, as usual, she was as happy as could be.  (No, I didn't cut my hair, it is all tucked up in that hat because it was super hot outside.) 

I decided to let Mom and Dad have a day off from me taking pictures of them.  They had a great day as well.  They even sat outside in the swing while the rest of us were at my house hanging out.  

Here's hoping for a very normal week!