First Quarter /Half Review

 Is anyone else so dang tired it's hard to keep putting one foot in front of the other? I overslept TWO HOURS this morning! Which reminds me, I need to check my alarms and make sure I haven't messed them up. I swear, I change things on my phone in my sleep. 

I'm totally in disbelief that we are already into April 2023. That doesn't seem possible! First quarter - GONE. So what happened in the first three months of 2023? Come along for the ride!

January: Mom's birthday (she turned 29 again!). It was tough, as you can imagine not having her husband there after 50+ years of birthdays together. But all in all, we are doing ok, including mom.  

I finally met my Charlotte co-workers as we returned to office 3/5 days. It's interesting getting to know people completely via a voice through Skype with little thumbnail pics to look at.  Occasionally we'll have video on, but it's not often. I am VERY fortunate to have the awesome team I do, because they are the best people. Even if there are a few I still haven't met yet. It's ok, they are still super cool people.

Leave it to us to celebrate the gingerbread house decorating a wee bit after Christmas, but it was still very fun! I love giving Macy these great memories of doing things like this with her mom, MawMaw and Aunt Beth. 

So I just discovered this in AUGUST. That it wasn’t completed or posted. Sorry about that (I apologize to myself)… 

Feb 11-18 was an epic adventure/road trip all across the Gulf Coast and meeting my penpal for the first time!!! That’s for another post but so amazing. 

Then in May we flew to LAX and drove to San Diego! Another great trip - I’m loving all the travel! 

June = beach trip with the family to Pawley’s Island! And somewhere in there I received a promotion at work. And bought a new hybrid Honda CRV. 

Which brings us to August. It is hot. Stormy. And the kids go back to school tomorrow. ;) One of the last photos I have of Dad is Macy’s first day of 5th grade. He came over to see her off. He looked so tired. As I made Macy’s sign for tomorrow, I couldn’t help but think about that. 

Because it’s 2am I should probably get some sleep. I’ll fill in some of these blanks later :)

Heaven help I need to The update some pics. I actually have started

ordering Chatbooks which syhows all my Instagram pics. I really like having those printed in book form to keep!  Check it out.

Pics of the nieces. Their family went to the mountains for vacation where Macy finally caught a fish! AH is so patient with her little sister and I'm so thankful. 

These two adorable cuties are doing well, too. Love them to pieces!

Thanks to my brother for getting a pic of me with both of them. Love snuggling.

And this pic!! Loooove it and have it on my fridge. My parents adore those boys!!

Macy and MawMaw after church.

Sweet niece #1!  She had her wisdom teeth cut out yesterday. Poor thing. She seemed pretty upbeat about it.

I swear Macy adores her big sister!! This is after Macy's birthday party. She's wearing her new frozen dress up dress.

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!

Her gift from my friend in LA. An HK sun hat! Super cute!!

My awesome amazing super wonderful parents!! So thankful for them. So blessed by God for giving me to them. They are such a support. And now, I can honestly say, they are my friends. Love you Mom and Dad!!

So now that I've dumped a million photos ... The update on my life! 

1- I'm still using my Young Living oils and I love them! De-stressor, chemical free, healthy wellness avenue. And they have makeup now. And I'm going to try it! 

2- Some punk keeps knocking on our doors late at night. Then Katie's furniture in her porch was moved  or, most recently, her grill. My parents had someone knock several nights lately. If they are knocking on my door, I'm sleeping through it. But they have before. And it's annoying. 

3- my work life is calming down and I'm finally getting to take some time off. Spent Friday with Macy and my sister's . This is what I try to remember when I'm putting in the hours. 

Ok I'm falling Sleep - dropping the phone on my face.  Sweet Dreams!

Sprang is Here!

Happy belated Easter and Happy Sprang!! So happy we are seeing fresh green and pretty pinks popping up everywhere. Hate the nasty yellow pollen causing everyone grief, but you gotta have pollen to have Spring.

Roger celebrated birthday 42 and had Macy's help opening presents and blowing out candles. 

A random night on Katie's deck. She's all about dressing up. 

Dyed eggs for Easter, of course. 

Serious concentration going on so we don't drop and break the egg. 

I'm not sure what Katie used but she made dye that pretty much dyed the egg the second it went into the liquid. Great for impatient Macy. We ended up with a ton of dye cups and a ton of eggs!! 

Easter Sunday. He is risen!! So thankful Macy is in a Christian family and already grasps so much about Jesus and His love for her. 

Family photo!! Missing sweet niece #1, but she's a teen now and doesn't come home here much. ;)  I try to remember that but it's been forever since I've seen her! 

Some of the cousins came to Mom's for Easter egg hunts. These two should be brother and sister they are so much alike - Macy and River. 

 The only girl in her family group. And she can hold her own :) What a sweetie! 

Cutie Rylan, closest to Macy's age and one of her good friends. 

These two are first cousins and great friends. Leilla and Gates. 

My aunt and uncle (mom's sister) and their grand babies!! Eddie has Rylan and Emmett, Ann is holding Perrin, Leilla Gates and River are standing by her. :) 

While we are talking about family, my aunt Brenda came up from Georgia for an extended weekend and the sisters got together at aunt Kathy's house! (And one sister-in-law!) Back row, Brenda, mom, Dot, Ann. Front row: Bonnie Jean, Kathy and Faye. Love this pic! 

Macy's first school program was last night! She had five songs memorized with motions. She did so well! 

Aunt Faye came, too! So she and mom made the sisters' trip and then came to Macy's program. Busy day! 

Very proud of this sweet girl! 

At least that catches me up on pics! All of them are of Macy, but that's what I see the most of these days. Looking forward to getting the work life calmed down, so I can spend some time with my nephews. Gosh they are growing so fast, learning so much. What blessings! 

Ok I gotta get my booty out the door and off to work! 

Nesting in 2017

Once I was so excited about blogging and obviously that enthusiasm has waned. Makes me sad because I loved having this as a type of journal to see what happened when. Maybe I'll do better this year :)

2016 brought a new school year for the ninth grader and put Macy into full-time school as a 4-K student. She loves it (thank heavens)! We'll overlook that one incident early in the year where she bit a kid for stealing her toy. Bet he didn't make that mistake twice. (I really shouldn't laugh, but I'm the aunt and can get away with it.)  

So thankful for the blessing of my nephews and watching them grow up. Christmas was different - we had two sickies here and after one twin ended up in the hospital after catching a respitory thing, they couldn't risk being around the sickies. But I had a day of keeping them and snuggling them leading up to Christmas. Already took another day off from work in 2017 to do it again. :) Gosh they are sweet boys! 

I'm very excited that 2016 brought me courage to sew, to sell bibs & burb cloths  in a local store and online, make pillows, it's been a great adventure! Now I'm planning a few quilts, and trying larger projects. 

Baby quilt for my friend, Paulene's, baby girl. Such a cutie!!! 

2016 is gone now and 2017 already brought us snow, sleet and freezing rain. That's some fun stuff (please note my sarcasm). While my sister took Macy to our neighbor/cousins' house to sled, I enjoyed a hot bath. That's the way to enjoy snow. 

Sweet niece #2 and her mama (my sister)

Sweet niece #2 

My sister and me this morning. 

One thing I'm trying this year is Nesting with Jesus, a devotional onAnc Instagram with Nick Holden. In addition to his great explainations of the passages, his pictures are amazing. You can join too by searching #nestingwithJesus. Maybe it will touch your heart in a meaningful way. 

Another thing I've dove into is Ancestry.com and a DNA test. It's been interesting finding kin folk and figuring out how we are related. Thankfully my cousin Floyd has a lot of family researched already and that makes it much easier. Met some strange folks, too, that I'll be backing away from shortly (related or not!). It's almost creepy how DNA works and how strangers are walking around with your DNA, too. CrazzzY. And fascinating. :)

One last photo to wrap up 2016 and welcome 2017 - I did this for Mom's birthday on January 3. I'm missing Aliah and Roger but they are part of the love, too. This family has experienced trials, but the Lord is always there with us. I'm not saying we always remember that, but it doesn't change the fact that He is still there. 

Happy 2017, y'all!! 

Vote for Me!

I'm dying to go to bed and can't seem to turn off my TV from watching the Mark Twain awards honoring Bill Murray. I don't even adore Bill Murray but it's a compulsion to watch it. I do love me some PBS. Downton Abbey. Poldark. Mercy Street. Antiques Roadshow. Daniel Tigers Neighborhood. America's Test Kitchen. Martha Stewart. Fons & Porter. Seriously good stuff!!

But to say I'm exhausted would be an understatement. My full time job is in the elections office. Imagine what that looks like less than two weeks out from a Presidential election. Ugh. Last night, a coworker and I worked from before 8 am until 1 am in the morning. So the job is kicking my butt. But I still find joy as I see my "students" aka people who work the polls. I love them and the relationships we develop through the years of training classes. Good people. 

Y'all my sweet nephews turned one this month! How can time have passed so quickly?!? Adore them. Liam's sweet flirty looks and Kellans sweet nonstop laughter when he gets going. Precious!! 

These two - talk about love. Macy goes bonkers for her sister and thankfully Aliah 1-Loves her too and 2-puts up with Macy attacking her in hugs constantly while she's home. 

You'll notice Macy is patching. Hopefully this will help her avoid surgery along with her eye exercises and glasses. 

Someone told me Macy should be featured in a Dr Seuss show ... Is that a compliment? But she's hilarious and comes up with the funniest stuff.  Last night in a restaurant, Mae moved to a table by herself. When mom told her to come back with the family she said she did her best thinking when she was alone. Hahaha!!!

Spirit week at school... Go Mountaineers! 

Let me share a lap blanket that went a bit wonky on me. I tried the easy hourglass pattern but didn't want to chop up the butterfly fabric too much. It's a hot mess but is being gifted anyway. The bright colors, the butterflies and cats fabrics, the flowers and pinks all remind me of her. I hope she finds joy in it :)

I'm still enjoying seeing for Pressed Clovers. The last two pics are from vintage fabrics that a friend asked me to see into sets for her first grandchild. Isn't it neat?! She bought the fabric almost 40 years ago when her own daughter was born. So special. 

Ok if I don't get some sleep I'm going to be in a mess tomorrow. Glad to get a few photos added for me to see later. :)