And 2018 Begins.

Happy New Year!!! Since we are only halfway through the first month, surely I'm not too late. I made my "resolutions" for lack of a better word, and am working on my life. So thankful I am so blessed that resolutions are something I can focus on because I don't have to worry about my basic needs. So thankful.

In the recent cold snap...heck, deep freeze!...I gave thanks for a protective and warm shelter, warm electric blanket, and running water when I woke up in the mornings. I'm hoping I don't have frozen pipes this morning as I forgot to leave a faucet dripping! I have yet to figure out how you people in the north survived crazy cold winters and don't have frozen pipes. Baffled. Beyond my comprehension.

 So what have I been up to, you ask? Because it's obvious it hasn't been blogging. Last year was a tough work year. What should have been our down year, recuperation time, reorganize and get the office back in order year, became one of the busiest years I think I've ever experienced there. Including an election on Halloween!!! And the week of Thanksgiving! But my sweet nieces came to see me at work so I wouldn't miss out. Little Miss trick or treated from desk to desk.

I've spent my downtime exploring many interests, including family history and genealogy. I find this fascinating! This pic, my great grandmother and brother sitting on the porch of the house I live in now.  Wonder if the paw prints were in the concrete at this point or if it was repoured at some point. Anyway, I've hit a roadblock on my great great grandfather that will take some real digging and hopefully that will crack the case.  Although this is a "big" election year, I still think it will be less crazy than last year. So i should be able to find time to take some days off and Visit the historical center. I'll let you know if i figure it out.

Y'all, I started this entry early yesterday morning, having no idea what had happened overnight.  Our police officers were ambushed, four sent to the hospital.  One barely hanging on to life.  I'm not sure why it is settling so heavy on my heart, but it definitely is. I am familiar with two of the officers through my work.  Even if i weren't, the images in my mind of the chaos, fear, adrenaline, grief, anger, confusion...the families at home having no clue anything had happened.  Or maybe listening to it unfold over a scanner, and feeling so totally helpless.  My heart physically hurts for the officers, their family and friends. Please pray for them and especially for officer Doty.

Thanks y'all.

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. 

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!

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! 

Pride

I'm sitting in a small out-of-the-way restaurant in a very small town. Had to google map it to find it. Older couple is sitting in front of me and the man asked the young waitress if the local football team played last night. "Yes sir." "Did Jordan play? I know he did." Made me smile seeing the pride these folks have in the local community.

I can't remember the last thing I wrote and service is so bad here I figure I can't pull it up. So did I tell you my bro-in-law made it through his third back surgery... 10-hours! While it seems the surgery is successful, a nerve is very angry and causing him great pain. Please pray this sucker calms down!  This family could really use a break. (This photo is from the chapel in the hospital. Just beautiful) 

My sister moved into a new school building. She wasn't allowed in to unpack and arrange all her belongings until the day before Roger's surgery... A week before school started. So Dad and I spent some time in there making it look ready for students. Thank heavens for family :) My parents have really been here for all of us. 

Sweet niece #1 hit high school this year! I can't believe it!! She playing sports, sorta learning to drive, and is just beautiful. And sweet niece #2 is going to 4K at the same school all of us attended. She wore her tiara to meet the teacher and has already made a name for herself. After her evaluation, Katie asked her how she did and Sweet Niece said, "I rocked it."  Hahahahaha

My twin sweet nephews are doing so well. Growing so fast and changing every day. I stopped in to see them last week and was amazed at how sweet and friendly they are!! They'll be 1 in the beginning of October. That just doesn't seem possible. 

(Once again, I never finished this so I'm posting it as is)

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! 

Sleeplessness Sucks

I hate not being able to sleep. I woke up at 11:30 with my glasses on and the lamp on. Settled in properly to only wake up again at 2:00 am and not go back to sleep. Ugh. A coworker and I were saying today how getting enough sleep really impacts your health. And you have to retrain your body to want to sleep. Mine hasn't learned yet.

Y'all know I'm crazy for my nieces. Sweet Niece #1 turned FOURTEEN in February. Heaven help. It's hard to believe. Next year she starts high school. HIGH SCHOOL. Unbelievable. Already we see less of her, but she's a busy teen now. 

 This poor girl - she told PawPaw she was seeing "sun horns."  Since she already has eye issues we are concerned about, mom made an appointment with the eye dr immediately. We were so worried it was a detached retina. Not sure why there was a massive delay at the dr but she and mom were there FOUR HOURS.  A three-year-old. In a doctor's office. For four hours! She was exhausted, starving, stressed, just wiped out when they left. She slept all the way home and then on PawPaw's lap for several hours. The doctor thinks it's visual migraines. Her mama and daddy both get horrible migraines but PawPaw only gets the visual part. Hopefully, Macy won't inherit the headaches. 

If you have a little one in your life, you probably are familiar with Reading Across America and Dr. Seuss' birthday. Macy has preschool two days a week. One day she was to dress like her favorite Dr. Seuss character. She insisted on THING 2. Not Thing 1 because Thing 1 is the crazy one. She wanted to be Thing 2. And I thought she was an adorable Thing 2. (The other day this week she was to wear green for Green Eggs and Ham day).  

I'm doing a morning devotional that is emailed to me from GIG (Girlfriends In God). I've done it on and off again but I really do gain a lot from it. And they refer back to the scriptures which I believe is so important. 

In several places I keep seeing two messages: find joy in adversity and be positive in all situations.  It's tough. As one person said it, "Don't waste the hurt - learn what God is trying to teach you through it!"  

I've tried to make a concious choice throughout my day to be quieter, less sarcastic and less judgemental. I keep telling myself: reflect God in your actions, Beth. You are all some people know of Him. Give thanks. Know He will pull you through every trial and hardship in His way and in His time. It's still tough but with that in mind, there is always hope. 

Well it's now 4:30 am. Might as well get up an sew a bit. Accomplish something other than wadding up my blankets in a tangled mess. Y'all have a great weekend. :) 

Bring It, 2016!

Happy New Year, ya'll!  2016 is here and is already going wild in my office (where I still am on a Friday, but am heading home after this!).  It was a different Christmas, just about all traditions were tossed out the window as we adapted to the issues of the moment.  But that's ok, it was still good. Really good. 

Our family received so much good great news at the end of the year, it was just amazing. Let me just list some of it out for you... Dad: has an aneurysm in a main artery that the heart doctor just kind of watches - it's still doing "well," he still has no signs of bladder cancer, he has lost weight and his blood sugar is doing well, ... I think that's all for him.  My brother-in-law is doing good with both blood clots that landed him in ICU for almost a week in 2015 - GONE!  Hooray! My 3-year-old niece Macy, due to a genetic condition on both side of her family, she is more apt to have heart issues.  Went to the pediatric cardiologist and got two thumbs up on both tests they completed. WHEW. She loves her dentist (thank heavens! Somewhere along the lines she thought the dentist would drill in her teeth and she was getting very anxious about the appointment).  Her 13-year-old sister managed to ditch her boot from an ankle injury just before Christmas.

And the twins, sweet boys, are doing well, growing big and handsome!  Liam is probably over 9 lbs at this point, and Kellan should be about 7 lbs.  Their mama had to go back to work this Monday, so please say a prayer. I can't imagine how hard that is for her.

It was like the good news fairy just rained down happy sprinkles all over us! Hooray!

Celebrating Katie's birthday in December

We didn't do the large family Christmas Eve event, but the cousins did come down for some present opening.  It was still wild enough with just the kids! 

This family of boys are always crazy for AH!

Then Christmas morning, when we all sat down and ate some breakfast, opened gifts.  Well, Macy really opened everyone's gifts, but you know what I mean. 

 

 

   

My sweet nieces!!! 

I can't thank you enough for the prayers you have sent up for my family in the past year.  Or several years, depending on how long you have followed along. :)  We believe in the power of prayer, for sure! So thankful for so many blessings we have been given, and my goal for 2016 is to notice, acknowledge and give thanks for my blessings better.

I hope your family had a great Christmas, too. And welcome to 2016!! Let's see what is in store for a new year! :)