On the road again

Thanks to my work schedule, vacation happened in August instead of June. We feared the temps at the beach in August would be brutal. Instead, this is the best weather I've ever experienced at the beach in summertime! So thankful! Cool temps and low humidity. Yeah! 

That also means I spent more time on the beach than normal so I'm a lobster in places. Complete with water blisters. From day one. The joys of being a pasty white girl. I'll say this, however - the Young Living sunscreen impressed me enough to use it on Macy. Just don't try to apply it to your back without help. 

This child loved the beach! Where we go has a river that dumps into the ocean and the water is so calm on that point. So no breakers, just gentle water. She played and played. When we went walking on the beach, we found some waves for her to hop over. Is she not the cutest thing? 

These painted rocks are popping up everywhere. This came from our beach shopping trip at the grocery store.

This discovery happened in Gaffney, SC, at the Clock restaurant. 

This one at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia, NC. I'll admit, we left the spider. 

I actually love the painted rocks - they are usually linked to Facebook somehow - and it gets people interested in new communities and art activities. 

Both sweet nieces were home last week - so glad they have each other. 10 years between them hasn't been much of an issue yet. Hoping that continues. It's always good to have AH home. As she's become a teenager, her free time disappeared and it's rarer for us to see her.  Her little sister is crazy about her!! 

These cuties!!! I was blessed with three days close together of sweet nephew love. Most of our time together looked just like this - a blur of activity! Those two are so much fun and such blessings to our family! Such sweet boys, blessings from the Lord, most definitely. I like to watch them when they spot their mama or daddy when they've been out-of-sight for awhile. Their entire body lights up with happiness and excitement! 

Another sweetie whom I adore, little Miss Paige! Took advantage of some overtime hours and scheduled a day off to visit friends. And babies. :)  God blessed me with the people who have stayed close to me in life - this girl is one of those people. And watching her family grow has been a huge gift. She's crazy talented and a great mama. 

Sleepless

Ugh. I accidentally fell asleep last night about 8:30 pm, woke up about 1:09 am and haven't been back to sleep since. That sucks. Finally, I've decided to just be done with the attempts (now that it's about 4:30 am) and be awake. Maybe I'll get moving and go have breakfast somewhere before work! Yum!

So I left off here with frustrations about my niece. Hopefully, this situation will never happen to another student. But today, I'd like to share good news! More of God's blessings - Macy had her annual cardiologist appointment and everything looks great!! What a huge relief! Why does the 4-year-old have annual cardiologist appointments?  The condition she has - Marfans - typically impacts the heart. Feel free to google it, it's interesting to read, I guess. President Lincoln is a famous Marfans person.  

Anyway, her good news is a huge relief. My dad, who we also suspect has Marfans, also received a good cardiologist check up. He has all the heart symptoms - leaky heart valve and aneurysm in the aorta - but so far they have held off on surgery and continue to do so. Hooray! 

Mom couldn't shake a sinus infection - some serious steroids finally helped out. I'm not talking about that first round you get- this was scary amounts - but it worked! And after allergy tests, she doesn't seem to be allergic to environmental things - another great blessing! Woo Hoo! 

Mom and my brother have allergies to food. Mom: peaches, carrots, almonds, shellfish. Clay: tomatoes, black pepper, beef, oranges, I can't remember what all. And he has a tin of other allergies, too. He has sneezefests of 20+ sneezes at one time. Craziness. 

Macy and ree family went to the circus to see the last year of performances! So glad they were able to do this. She lived it!! 

 Katie, Macy, and I headed to Columbia to celebrate a very special girl's first birthda (with a quick stop at Krispie Kreme). Paulene and I became friends through United Way. 

And look at her precious girl!!! What a great celebration! 

The older sweet niece made it home. Our weather has been crazy warm so both girls rode bikes at Macy's school parking lot. Happy to have her home! 

We had no idea Macy was getting sick, but when you see her coloring in this picture, it makes sense. Her curls are so stinkin' cute! 

This is for my mom!! She's making bows now, doing such a good job!!! But she talks about the HUGE bows some mamas put in their daughters' heads. I had to explain it's kinda like big hair... The bigger the bow, the closer to heaven, right? HAHAHAHAHAH! 

Ok let's see if I can get one more hour of rest. :) sweet dreams! 

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!! 

Wrapping up the Birth Month

September has been wonderful, y'all! Loved the many blessings and celebrations - it's been one thing after another that I'll claim as a birthday celebration.

      My family, minus Roger and Aliah

Gifts on my doorstep night after night, beautiful star-filled evenings to greet me as I got home late, visits with friends and babies, it's just been so wonderful! 

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of it :) Truly thanks for making September and year 41 so special!

Nobody gets as excited about birthdays as much as this girl! Well, except for maybe me! 

It's been difficult and confusing, too. I live just South of Charlotte so seeing that situation play out on the local news... It's so hard to understand how totally destroying a city can be perceived as the answer. Hurting other innocent people cannot improve the situation. I hope and PRAY tonight is better and calmer. Thanks to all who have worked to bring peace to the city, to those who have prayed for peace. 

And work kicked into overdrive already, which is exhausting. For all of us. Therefore, sometimes those frustrations, stressors, and such are taken out on other coworkers. Pray for that, too. Because when it happens, cool heads are often difficult to maintain. 

I've been in a pillow making mood. These two are for mom - the Christmas pillow came first, the second is an autumn pillow. I love creating and trying new patterns. Glad I got these done before work became too chaotic. 

....and I've been sitting on this for who knows how long. :). That's what happens when you work in an elections office and it's a Presidential year. Sorry y'all. 

Sorry folks, I totally fell asleep on you - but I'm awake and in a rush now. No winning!  I know I'm giving a photo dump-sorry about that but I like looking back and remembering what all was happening around the same time frame.

Daddy and Macy playing on the iPad. 

Macy saw her first movie in a theater (a local place called Sylvia, you should check it out) and she loved it!! The Secret Life of Pets. I wasn't that impressed but it was talking animals and a cartoon so she loved it. 

Clay turned 45 and he and Angela had us all over at their house. Her family and ours! So good to visit with the whole group. Look at Liam-Is he not a cutie! 💗💗 Love those boys, Heaven help!

Sweet Kellan had some surgery and I kept Liam. I was a little nervous but he was good as gold. We snuggled and rocked, ate up our food like a champ, cleaned up and played tummy time and supported sitting, back to snuggle and sleep. I sent pics to his parents all morning because I knew they were missing him fiercely. Kellan came through surgery well and Liam was a sweetie with me all day. God continues to bless those sweet boys 

 I hosted a Keep Collective jewelry party. I wasn't too excited until I played with the jewelry and fell in love. This is my set with four hearts, one for each niece and nephew. No one can have any more babies because I'm out of room. Hahah! 

Caught up to this week. Macy's mom had a conference in Columbia so mom and I took Macy on an adventure. We stayed in the same town so she could see her mama at dinner time but she stayed with us. The highlight of the trip was Edventure, the children's museum. She loves that place. 

One event just broke my heart and it was when two older girls started making fun of Macy. I wasn't paying them any attention so I had no idea until it was over. But sadly, she knew it and as they were getting ready to leave our area, Macy said those girls were making fun of her in the saddest, most pitiful voice. My mom said they weren't and made one of the girls tell her they weren't but the snide laugh at the end negated all that. 

The kids were with a daycare from the county beside ours and were wearing the daycare's shirts with scripture on the back. As much as I wanted to find those kids and point out what horrible examples they were of God's amazing love for us, I knew I was also a horrible example. 

I was mostly saddened by the fact at age four, Macy knew they were making fun of her. That innocence is gone already. A do know it will get worse before it gets better but it doesn't mean I can't wish for something better. 

While we were in Columbia this past week we were able to visit my friend, Paulene and her precious baby girl, Paige. What a sweetheart this adorable baby girl is! So outgoing and happy. It was so wonderful spending time with them both. 

I'm still sewing, lots of bibs and burp cloths. But a friend asked for a pillow for her to gift so there you go! Flannel front so it's really soft. It's getting mailed tomorrow. :) 

This Saturday and next I'm in a quilting class, learning so much!! Our project was to make a star block and we did that in class one. I enjoyed it so much, this is what I created at home. I want to bind in blues. And if I ever get motivated, I"d like to do one for every season for wall hangings :)  we'll see how it goes. 

So we've had some interesting days recently. I've already mentioned baby Kellan and his surgery. He goes back to the doctor Monday. 

Mom's knee "popped" this weekend and she's on crutches. She doesn't want to go to the doctor because they'll tell her she needs surgery and she's not interested in that right now. Hopefully the two days of rest will help her knee recover. 

Then my brother-in-law has his third back surgery the first week of August. Big time surgery. It's his only chance of getting this pain down to something bearable. Please pray. We are very concerned. There is a team of surgeons coming in for it. Will take all day. As the doc said - this is the big league. We appreciate all prayers, spirit fingers and good vibes. 

Well, that's my life right now. Thanks for tuning in after weeks of silence :) 

Pray to God!

Oh gracious - I'm in a hotel room, my mom and Macy is in the bed beside mine. Macy has tried every thing under the sun to keep from going to sleep. But just now she GASPED and said, "MawMaw! We forgot to pray to God!" It made me proud of her. A lot of what she's done has made me proud this week. She's a very kind, loving, smart, perceptive girl. I'm so thankful I have the chance to see her grow from the house next door.

Macy playing at the children's museum earlier today. Holy cow, keeping up with her was a workout!!

I haven't blogged since May. Life became hectic with the work life. Thankfully we are all taking time off to spend with our families before it really cuts loose. 

Two of the cuties I miss when work kicks into overdrive.

I work for elections. We had two days of primaries because we had a run off. That's in addition to two days of presidential primaries and a smaller election. Another tiny one in August and the Mac daddy election in November. Heaven help because my life gears up in September. Sigh. 

I've really gotten into sewing bibs and some quilting. The bibs... Well I went a little crazy and signed up for a shelf in a local store. I have 40 bib/burp cloth sets and Katie has 7 paintings so our shelf is a bit crowded. 

Then I finished my first pieces pillow for a friend's birthday. I really enjoyed making it and was tickled to give it to her when she came to visit. 

Thankfully, an online friend sent me a link to teach about the envelope back-love it!! Thanks Renee!!

Macy turned FOUR and Clay and I bought her a bike!! I think she loves it and is learning to peddle :)

We also had a family reunion where the twins were introduced to mom's family. Those boys loved all the attention and were soooo good. Love these boys!!! 

Angela and Kellan 💗

Fourth of July nieces!!

 

A friend gave me a ticket to see Wizard of Oz with her. Loved it! Great props. It was a really neat show. :)

I'm literally am falling asleep now. Let me post this and write again soon. Night friends! 

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Crazy Cat Ladies...

Ya'll, I'm just happy right at this moment.  I'm not sure why - but I'm kinda wrinkling my nose and smiling.  Maybe because I feel accomplished at work: I'm getting the job done and feeling like I'm doing it well.  I'm managing some folks under me that will help take the load off by covering training classes for me and I just held an honest to goodness meeting where we covered everything I wanted to cover and it went smooth.  Let's hope that continues next week when they start teaching. :)

I'm also happy because I have a FITBIT! I'm so not into technology - I don't have internet at my house and the computer is so old I'm shocked it works.  Well, it used a modem to get online at some point but lightning fried that so... yeah anyway.  Fitbit.  I went to the DR and he basically said - your A1C is 6.5 and that's the threshold for medicine.  UGH.  HORRIBLE NEWS! Not what I wanted to hear at all!

Since 2014, I swear that June election tried its best to kill me.  Seriously.  Two ER visits. Thought I was having heart attacks.  I now have stomach issues.  I went from 2 medicines too 6 meds to try and get everything leveled out.  So when he said more meds, I just wanted to cry.  I knew I'd been being even worse than usual.  I really did.  I could feel it sucking the life quite literally out of my body.  But please no more meds.

So we made a deal - 3 months to get my life back in order and healthier.  I did something I so rarely do - I spent money on me. A Fitbit Alta and I love it.  I am not walking as much as they tell you to walk, but I'm walking more than I ever have been.  One of those reasons I'm happy today - I found a place to walk that is usually empty-ish, air conditioned, and big enough to make some laps around it and you know you've accomplished something.  They have a gym, too, so I'm hoping I can hit it after work a few days a week.  Free Free Free! (Part of the training for the police officers).  So I went on my lunch break today and did several laps before having a salad and chili for lunch. I'll keep you posted on how this continues.

Of course, it was Mother's Day this weekend.  The first picture is Macy and Katie, ready to go to church. I thought they were just so cute and we were late because I insisted on pictures. :)  But it is a great photo of them.  Below that is Katie, Macy and Mom - the three generations photo.  This one also needs a frame! I love it! Katie and Roger added a nice deck to the side of their house and bought patio furniture, this covered swing and a grill.  So Roger grilled for everyone for Mother's Day and it was DE-LI-CIOUS.  The weather was great, it was so relaxing.  Very thankful for a good day with family.   The picture below is what I made my profile photo for Mother's Day - me, my mom and my grandmother.  Another three generation photo from way back yonder.

My friend, Raynore - ALWAYS remembers me on Mother's Day.  It's really awesome, actually, because there isn't an Aunt's Day or anything like that.  But I so very dearly love my nieces and nephews and spend a lot of time with them (at least Macy right now! AH is a teen and is busy busy.  The boys I try to see when I can!) So it's very special to have someone recognize the love I have for my nieces and nephews on Mother's Day.  Her cards always bring happy tears to my eyes.

And look! I am a mama! To FIVE kittens. Oh yes.  Five.  One-two-three-four-FIVE.  I'm totally going to lose my mind if I don't find a home for these babies.  So stinkin' cute! But holy moly, I'm going broke in cat food!  But aren't they precious?  Yes, I'm smitten but not so much that I don't welcome a happy home for them...

I need to get home and figure out what halfway healthy thing I can eat tonight.  Tomorrow I teach a night class and will be home late, so maybe I grocery store run is in order to find food for the rest of this week.  Tomorrow morning I get to go with Macy to Muffins with Mommy (Katie is a teacher and they are in the middle of standardized testing, no way she could get off for this!). MawMaw is going with me, so she'll have extra "mommies" ... yummm... muffins. Ok, food is needed.

Night ya'll!  :)