It's the Monday after Daylight Savings Time and I'm dragging.  Currently, I am sitting in the waiting room at the Sanger Heart and Vascular Clinic while my mom is having a stress test.  We were told to arrive at 7:30 a.m. which, today, feels like 6:30 a.m.  Wait....it really feels like 3:30 a.m.   I didn't get to sleep late on Sunday morning since I teach a class of 4 year olds at church.  (I would have played hooky if I could, just to get my hour back.)  To add to my sleepiness, Megan and I went to see John Crist at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center last night and I didn't get home until 11:00 pm. 

John was hilarious as always.  

Forty-Five

I had a birthday this week.  

Itchy

I was able to cross something off of my bucket list last weekend....

Contract Head Lice...................Check

You see, I've complained to my hair colorist for the past 2 visits that my head has been itching a lot.  I told her that I thought I was becoming allergic to my hair dye (Praise Jesus that was not the case!)  She looked at my scalp (both visits) and said she couldn't see any reason why I would be itching.  We had even changed my shampoo.  Two days after my last visit, Laura & Daniel were sent home from school with head lice.  All of a sudden, it made sense.  I decided I better "Nix" my hair just in case, and I found quite a few inhabitants. 

The next day, I heard myself saying to Scott, "I've had worms, fleas and now lice and I'd choose lice over the other two". 

OK...so here's a picture of me with Olive Oil all over my hair.  You know, just in case Nix didn't kill them all (it didn't). 

And here's a picture of my beautiful and paranoid friend Megan.  Megan texted this picture to me on Friday night after coating her hair with coconut oil and covering it with a ziploc bag.  Megan also texted me on Saturday morning to let me know that she had shampooed her hair 4 times that morning and still had coconut oil in her hair.  I'm pretty sure that Megan is going to hide from me for a while.  I love that crazy girl. 

Head lice wasn't the worst thing that happened to me last weekend.  Please stay tuned to find out why I will NEVER eat popcorn again.  It will be followed by, "Hey, watch me spit watermelon seeds out the side of my mouth!" and hopefully, "Check out my temporary tooth!"

Oh, but guess what did happen last weekend....  I got a 98 on my first French test!!!!  Woohoo!!!!   

Exhale

Last week was a crazy busy week for me.  Friday night was the only night I didn't have something planned for after work.  I even went to bed early that night!  Besides, I had to get up early Saturday morning for a training session with Blossom and Katie at a nearby Greenway.  Blossom did amazing and frankly, so did I.  :-)

Tuesday was my niece's birthday.  We had a wonderful celebration at Red Robin and then went to her house for cake.  She sure loves cake! 

On Thursday, I lost not one, but two of my beloved uncles on the Helms family side....Uncle Dick - far right (below) -and Uncle Ken -far left.  Yesterday, we said goodbye to my Uncle Dick.  The service wasn't easy but it was absolutely beautiful.  We will have a service for Uncle Ken at a later date.  I can not tell you how much I love my precious family.

My Uncle Coy & Aunt Bobbie are not pictured in the above photo but I am happy to say that I got to see both of them at the funeral as well.  

My dad was diagnosed with the Shingles last Wednesday for the third time.  Yes, the THIRD time.  He was unable to make the service yesterday but he is feeling better each day.  Unfortunately, the third time has been the worst time for my dad.   

I'd like to publicly thank my Megan for bringing me & my family a "Mini Taco Bar".  How cute is that?  I should have taken a picture.  Megan is in New Orleans for business this week and I feel like I am getting a personal tour of the city via text pictures.  While I am loving all of the pictures...this might be my favorite.  Here's Megan in the "coolest hotel room ever!" 

 

And to wind up this terribly random post, I wanted to post some pictures of Scott & our nephew.

 

Daniel designed an "air conditioner" and Scott helped him build it.  Daniel is a little obsessed with air conditioners right now.  He can't wait to meet my friend, Brian, who gets to work on air conditioners all of the time.  

Well, there you have it.  That is what has been going on with me.  How about you?  What have you been up to? 

Megan's Deskable

So, Megan had a vision of a deskable.  Read what happened here:  (Hint:  It involves Scott)

That Wasn't The Plan 

Salud!

So Megan and I are full of great ideas.  Once, we were going to open up a boutique that specialized in designer clothes for your pet chicken.  If I remember correctly, we were going to call it "Just Us Chicks" and hire a chicken named Henrietta for our store mascot.

Then, we went to Food Truck Friday (which, by the way, was a blast) and we decided to open up our own Food Truck business.  I don't think we have named our Food Truck yet, but we did take a cooking class at the Salud Cooking School.  I'm pretty sure that we now know everything we need to know....

Wait a minute...I just went over to Megan's blog to steal some photos and I realized that she has already blogged about our cooking adventure.  So, forget this....you should read Megan's blog! 

https://thatwasnttheplan.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/salud/

To Be Continued...

Sunday

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!  I was fortunate enough to celebrate Thanksgiving twice.  First, we celebrated with my family & then we celebrated with Scott's family.  It was definitely a Turkey Day. 

Saturday, Megan and I did the Checkers 5K.  The worst part about doing the Checkers 5K was that is was FREEZING cold!  I learned a very valuable lesson:  I will NEVER do another 5K in the freezing cold.  That being said, I will NEVER do another 5K in the burning heat either.  So, unless your 5K is in October or April, I'm out.  

The best part about competing in the Checkers 5K was that they gave us free tickets to last night's game.  An extra special bonus was that it was Charlotte Hornets' night at the Checkers' game.  The team wore Charlotte Hornets' specialty jerseys.   The tickets that Megan and I received were for seats directly behind the player's bench.  

 

Not too bad, eh?  Not only did the Checkers' win 5-4, it was an epic battle filled with a lot of fighting (I LOVE fighting!).  Even the goalies fought and were both ejected.  After the game, the players' jerseys were auctioned off for charity.  Megan and I made sure to sit on our hands because we didn't want to accidentally make a bid and buy a jersey.  

After all of that excitement, I plan to enjoy Sunday the way God intended....as a day of rest!!! 

Sunday

Hi.  It's been a whole week since I've posted anything.  This past week was rather mentally draining so I'm just sitting at my computer, drawing a blank on what to post.  Since I can't seem to come up with anything good, I decided to share a couple of pictures that I found on my camera.  

Here I am with my mom on her birthday last February...

Last month, my friend Megan and I went to Buzz Fest for the Charlotte Hornets.

My birthday in September (with my niece, nephew & the world's best cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes).

Greta decided to join me in Bible study

Daniel is playing "copy-cat" with Blossom.

Because Greta's veins are hard to locate, the vet techs wrap her like a burrito and hold her down.  Here she is shooting hate beams at me with her eyes.  Coincidentally, this is the same look she gives me every night when Scott and I give her fluids to her... 

Finally, I came across the following quote this week and it has really left an impact on me...

Happy Sunday!

Old Time St. Patrick's Day Hockey Pub Crawl

The last time I saw my friend Megan was Christmas 2012 at an ugly Christmas sweater party that she hosted in her home.  Needless to say, it had been too long.  You can imagine my excitement when not long ago, Megan told me that she had never been to a Checkers Hockey game and wanted to go. Last night, we finally got together for a game. 

I was so focused on "Old Time Hockey" night at the game that it didn't even occur to me that people would be out celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  Turns out it was Charlotte's 14th Annual St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl.  Now get this, not only did I not even know about this pub crawl, it is known as the "World's Largest Pub Crawl" and has even been featured on the Travel Channel's show "Extreme" on an episode called "Extreme Parties"!!! 

Let's back up...I had taken Blossom and Balto to the groomer yesterday.  Due to an overbooked schedule, it took them much longer to get to the "Barker Twins" than it should have.  Fast forward, I picked Megan up about 30 minutes later than I had anticipated.  To try and make up for lost time, I decided not to take the train downtown and drive instead.  The closer we got to downtown Charlotte we realized that may have been a mistake.  Traffic was gridlocked by a sea of green t-shirts.  

As it turns out, over 19,000 tickets (shirts) were sold for yesterday's event and well over 20,000 people attended.  Here is a picture of the ticket purchase area...

 

Some other random photos from the crawl...

  

From the French Quarter....

(All of the above photos are from the @RichandBennett twitter account) 

If we had arrived "on time" we were going to grab a bite to eat at The EpiCentre.  It's probably a good thing that we didn't because this tweet was found on Twitter....

@ClevelandViking posted the above picture from The EpiCentre with this tag:  

"That #awkward moment when you come downtown for a @CheckersHockey game and have to deal with this. #StPatricksDay"

So...back to our night.  It is Old Time Hockey Weekend with the Checkers and the Hanson Brothers from the 1977 Paul Newman movie Slap Shot attended again this year.  If you've seen the movie, you'll remember the Hanson Brothers.  The "brothers" have aged well and almost look the exact same as they did in 1977. 

While Slap Shot is usually ranked side by side with CaddyShack as the best sports movie of all time, I really can't say that it was my kind of movie.  It's a little "rough" for my taste.

On to the game...  The first 4,000 to arrive received special glasses for the game.  Here's a picture of Megan and I.  Not only did Megan rock her glasses but she even made the shirt she is wearing!!!

Thanks for a fun night Megan!  We'll have to do it again.

PS.  Doesn't Megan look like a superhero in this picture?