2014 Wrap Up

2015 has already been quite eventful, and I haven't even had the chance to wrap up 2014 yet! So let's do that before 2015 totally overtakes me and I just blow off the 2014 wrap up all together.

January - It seems I started doing a photo a day in January.  Here is the first post. I'm not sure how long this lasted - I guess we'll find out as I move through the year.  I kinda hate I quit because it's great to look back and see what you were doing on a day by day basis!

February - February brought snow to the South.  Yes, we kinda lose our freakin' minds when it snows because we don't see too much of the fluffy white stuff around here.  So photos galore and happy children playing in the snow is the theme of this Photo Challenge Wednesday.

March - I was pretty darn happy in March.  The ice and snow melted and Spring slowly started to emerge.  Lots of fun photos of pretty sunsets and flowers and all things nature. And sweet niece voting! See more here from one of my Photo Challenge Wednesdays!

April - I love otters, did you know that? I think otters rock! I also love Spring, flowers, mild/warm temperatures, and cuteness on babies. :)  April I only posted three times - all three Photo Challenge Wednesdays, which I find impressive.  Check one out here.
























May - Spring time photo shoot with the chappies!  Sweet niece #1 is a perfect princess to pose for photos. She is really photogenic, too.  Sweet Niece #2 ... well it's a bit harder.  You can check out some of the pics here. Just looking back over May, I can see how work was pushing me under without a breath, trying to drown me!

June - Things got ugly in June.  June was sickness for me and about 8 doctor visits?  June was sickness and emergency surgery for my sister, too, which was obviously stressful.  And an election, which is what my job is all about.  Read some here, which was written before we realized she would have surgery.  It also shows photos of my house all cleaned up!, thanks to the goodness of my mom and sister. But there was a lot of good in June, too, as this post shows. Painting party being one of them!

July - Let's finish up the medical drama, including mom getting shingles, in this first post.  You'll also get fighter niece! HI-YA! And then, because I know no one wants all that drama, I shared fun photos of both kids and great scripture verses.  

August - Ahhh... August.  With August came EDISTO.  (Or Edislow as it's called).  Man, if we all didn't need a break to soak up salt water mist and melt into warm sandy beach.  Yes, Edisto is good, and you can see how good here and here. I also got crazy crafty with my LOVE canvas here and the office-grown pumpkin, fru-frued up for the fall holidays, which is featured here. :) 

September - It's my birth month! But during an election season - yeah, it's not as much fun.  But I got Downton Abbey so WHOOPIE!  Also took Baby Sweet Niece to a pumpkin patch - loads of fun! Check it out here! 

October - Man I love autumn and the beautiful leaves of the season.  Love it.  Enjoy lots of it here. And a stroll down a Friday's Letters Lane here. 

November - This is a very excited Ellie! She's part of this Friday's Letter! Along with Shrek, Sunsets, Macy baking cookies, ... all kinds of funness.  And one little Thanksgiving blog with no photos here. 

December - Obviously, the Election is over bc I finally caught up on Halloween and Thanksgiving here!  A new kitten appeared in this post "Run Faster, Catch Up With Life!"

And I think I will end it there.  Of course there were dozens of posts outside of those highlighted here, but eh, that's the past! Onward to the future! :) And to the first post of 2015! :)  Thanks for joining me on the journey. 

photo challenge pics

Y'all know I quit trying to take a photo everyday. There are only so many pics of the same drive into work that you want to see. But I do still take pics and enjoy sharing them here.

May 24:  Happy Birthday to my twin aunts that turned 60!! My mom is one of 12 and all are still living. Here are the 11 that showed up for the party :) my mom is towards the left behind Linda, in purple. From left to right: Ann Jimmy Frances Barbara Linda Brenda Mack Faye Gary Kathy Dot

May 25: The family had nursery duty at church and I snapped this pic of Macy. Sundays are rough on her because we are at church during her nap time. 

PawPaw promised her a tractor ride after lunch, but it ended up being after her nap! So this is what I found in my backyard. 

March 26: Happy Memorial Day! Thanks to those who gave their lives to protect our nation!  Macy enjoyed a "swim" and ice cream cone! 

Happy Birthday, Donna! We had a paint party for her 39th - so much fun!! We had options of what we wanted to paint. Brianne ( bottom right) and I were looking at the same pic and look how different our pictures are! 

My finished product. It now hangs in the craft room :). SC gals are all about the Palmetto tree and moon!!

June 1:  two beat grandparents and a sweet niece :) 

June 5: oh yes, shortly after this pic is a blurry one where she tried to touch me. That took some quick moving to avoid!! 

June 8: my sister's family went to the mountains and she sent me this. Love it!!! These two are so stinkin cute and sweet. Love love love 'em. And missed them like crazy while they were gone. 

June 11: a beautiful rainbow!! So pretty, it was cool driving home with this peeking in and out of view :)

Ok folks. It's been several long weeks in a row and it ain't over yet. I'll keep posting when I can!  Miss keeping up with y'all! 

Goodness gracious

I'm still alive and kicking. Swamped at work and posting online is at the bottom of the list. But this morning, before I go back in, I thought I'd catch up a little.

I left off at May 7. This was on my way home, the net keeps most golf balls out of the road. It was just something about the sunset and net. :)

May 8 - do you see how tall this little girl is getting??? Nothing is safe, she can stretch and snag about anything. 

May 11 - Happy Mother's Day!!! I enjoy making new cakes for holidays and such so I tried a German Chocolate Pound Cake for my mom for Mother's Day lunch. It wasn't bad!

May 11 - My lovely Mother, sweet niece and Sister. Taken at church on Mother's Day. The two best Mama's I know!

May 13 - she was so happy about her apple!  Mom painted the cute chairs for her and sweet niece loves them. 

May 18 - Macy decided to let PawPaw wear her Cinderella sunglasses. They didn't quite fit his noggin! 

May 19 - someone dumped all her toys out to use the bucket at a hat. She was still in her hat when I left that morning. Do you see the one crazy curl in the front?? 

May 23 - Riding with Aunt Beth and MawMaw to see PawPaw's new shop. She definitely looks older than almost two to me. 

Well, that's a pretty good start to catching up. I hate all my pics are of Sweet Niece, but lately it's been all work and little play. Things will slow down in July ;) thanks for visiting and enjoying the pictures! 

Catching up again

I had to go back an see where I left off!  Finally, I'm into May!

Thursday, May 1: Somewhere behind Joey, Snoopy and Peter Rabbit is a Macy. She sure is crazy about her stuffed animals and babies. 

Friday I wrapped up classes for the week and changed locations for the upcoming week. And the crappy company car started acting weird so it was all around an adventure. 

Saturday I finally finished with my flower beds. So happy about that!! A truckload of mulch wrapped that up. 

After I rested I was anxious to get out for a bit. Thankfully, my sweet niece AH was game and we hit party City for some bday supplies. Baby Sweet Niece turns 2 in June. What a great time- AH is a trip. And our trip included candy and Krispy Kreme, so we were both pretty happy. 

Sunday pics are already posted- the photo shoot with the girls. Those kids crack up.   

Tuesday. Do you see how happy my roses are with their new mulch? And the guy gave me a free upgrade- awwww yeah! Cedar-which is a natural repellant for bugs and cats! Yay! 

There you go - life last week. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day! :)

Photo Challenge Wednesday - 15.

Week 15 of photos each day.  Are you impressed?  You should be!

The past seven days have been pretty good - especially since I took a few days off to enjoy time at home before my work schedule gets a little wacky.  Time off is usually a very good thing, right? :) So let's dive in and see what this past week brought my way.

Happy Birthday, Roger! How does it feel to be old? :) 

Angela and Macy.  Macy was allllll about some Aunt Lala!

Wednesday, April 9, 2014:  Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, Roger! We celebrated at Mom & Dad's house with spaghetti, cookie and brownies. Yum.  Macy was a total diva, demanding everyone's attention and really hamming it up for Uncle Clay and Aunt Lala.  It was kinda cute. :)

Real mail in my mailbox? YES!

Thursday, April 10, 2014:  My day started in an assisted living facility (as did the 9th), signing residents interested in voting absentee by mail up for their ballots to be mailed to them.  They are the NICEST people and are so thankful to us for coming out to their "home."  It really gives you a lift.  Then I headed to Gaffney to do dindin with Donna (always fun!) and came home to REAL MAIL.  Nothing beats real mail.  LOVE IT.  And I loved the surprises from my penpal/friend in Louisiana! Thank you!

I couldn't help it - she got her Easter basket early. 

Queen of the Leaf Pile! 

Friday, April 11, 2014:  This was one of those days I took off from work.  Beautiful day - loved it! Spent lots of time with Macy, which was wonderful.  Also worked in my flower bed and managed to get one of the three taken care of... not a great record but whatever. I couldn't (still can't) walk right after all that bending over. UGH.

Saturday, April 12, 2104:  I had every intention of getting stuff done around the house but GET REAL, none of that happened. Instead I hit yard sales with Mom and did a quick runthrough at the tractor show up the road.  Macy loves tractors and enjoyed a spin around our houses on the tractor. Cried when she had to get off and go inside! (Country girl all the way!)

Sunday, April 13, 2014:  Sunday I skipped church and slept most of the day. My allergies are killing me and I had no idea the meds were drugging me up severely.  I did do lunch with the family, and thankfully saw Macy in her cute new dress Aunt Beth (that's me!) bought her. Love the monogram! She was so precious. Just a babydoll. She has the wildest hair and it just cracks me up!

Monday, April 14, 2014:  Another off day from work. Whoo hoo! Katie (my sister), Macy and I went for a quick shopping trip and a stop at Chick-fil-a.  Ok, I don't eat chicken (bet you didn't know that) but I LOVE their chicken minis minus the chicken. And their regular biscuits. YUM. So I was a happy girl on Monday morning.  Slept all afternoon, most of the evening and all night. No more allergy meds for me.  Got absolutely nothing outside of one load of laundry done.  Pitiful.

Oh gracious, this looks bad. But no one sees it from this view thank goodness. Three of us are in this space with no barriers, but I think that's changing soon. Which is good, we are all loud ladies!

Tuesday, April 15, 2014:  Well, I made it back to work for this one day, suvived the entire day and am taking Wednesday off (will post this in the morning).  Work is piled up on everyone's desks, we all have random projects going on at once.  Fortunately things are slow for another several days before kicking into gear for me - a few weeks down the road for my coworkers.  So this week is a good one to spend with family before I'm busy busy busy.

And there you go - that's a wrap, my friends!
I hope you are having a lovely week, a great lead into Easter and an appreciation for the blessings we have each been given.  So much to be thankful for, wouldn't you agree?

(Oops, I was supposed to schudule this for Wednesday morning... oh well, enjoy a day early!)

Photo Challenge Wednesday - 13

I can't tell you how happy I am to see warmer temps, even if it is only for a few days. It's been great :)

So let's start with Wednesday and see where his past week has taken me!

Wednesday, March 26 - Just when I feared I would have a random boring photo, I saw this blimp on my way home! I'm not sure I've ever seen a blimp!!! I have no idea what it was up to, where it was going, but it was exciting for me. :)

Thursday, March 27 - I am a rebel - I turned my calendar early. Since I ADORE otters, I was tickled to see one for April! Visit Susanbranch.com for more cool stuff. 

Friday, March 28 - How cool is this book? One of those great pieces of history. And this rabbit - I won it at the Tea Cup Auction. A local church puts together all these items with tea cups by each one for you to put your tickets in. This is one of three things I won!!  

Saturday, March 29 - Look who finally has a ponytail!! Lol. Saturday's plans were scrapped when my friend got stuck on a last minute out-of-town project. But it's all good, we'll plan it again. I pretty much rested on Saturday, which felt really good. 

Sunday, March 30 - Saturday & Sunday both I had this odd abdomen pain so I didn't do much Sunday either. But I did make more felt animals, which resulted in orders for animals! Woo hoo! 

Monday, March 31 - Do you know how hard it is to leave when baby girl is crying that she wants to visit my house? So I promised she could visit after work. She runs in, starts dancing, then runs to my bedroom and yells, "Jump On The Bed!!" She discovered my Hello Kitty boots and fell in love :) 

Tuesday, April 1 - I hate April Fool's Day and I'm glad no one pranked me. But look who did visit the office, Little Miss Natalie! Adorable?? I think so! What a sweetie. :)

And there's my week in a recap. It's now time to test up before another work day tomorrow!! Thanks for following this journey with me!!!