I Have Not Forgotten About BlogsGiving

Yeah, pretty sure this is the first and last time I'll say I'm going to blog every day for a month! LOL! I have not even been by my computer since the Wednesday before Thanksgiving! I literally shut down for this holiday, it's been nice.

I'm sitting here with the sweetest dog in my lap.....a dog that I'm allergic to. That's not cool. I still love him and praying to see what the best fit for him is.

Thanksgiving was great. It's nice to be surrounded by some good people. Family is more then just blood. Grateful for The Streets and how much they are like family to us.

Our Black Friday tradition of bowling continued this year. I dominated....enuff said! LOL! I'm glad I still have my bowling ball with my name on it. How cool am I?!?!

Busy week and possibly a busy December with work. I'm actually in the office 3 possibly 4 days this week, although 2 of those days hopefully will just be partial days in the office and the rest spent at home.

Friday, December 1st, is a big day. I my mammogram that day! Yes, it's upon us! Luckily, I'll be driving to Chatt-Town that afternoon, so it will be a fun evening spent with some of my favorite people.

Not looking forward to going back to reality, aka work. I have a feeling that tomorrow will be a tough day, adjusting and what not. I'm sure it will be fine. I have a 1/2 day training, which is the only reason I'm going in on a Monday. It will also be Jack Jacks first full day home by himself. I got the baby gate for the bathroom, and he was in there while I went to Church today and then ran errands, about 5-6 hours. He did good. Chewed on some toilet paper....but if that's all he did, I'm ok with it.

Well, Christmas is a month a way and my birthday is 2 months away! Whoop Whoop!

The Day Before Thanksgiving

So, I know I missed writing last night. I sat down and it was blank. I stared at the computer and finally gave up on writing a blog. There was nothing there.

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. I'm working from home and boiling caramel as I type this. The sweet dog is just chilling. He got neutered yesterday and I'm pretty sure all of his anesthesia has worn off!

I'm making a caramel pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow, however I've been eating on one since Sunday. The Vernon Thanksgiving was cancelled, so I made my pie for my community group Sunday night and unfortunately had some left overs. I had caramel pie for lunch today! Whoo-Hoo!

I was thinking back on Thanksgivings of past and thinking how some of them were kind of weird. We had a 3 year period where something crazy was going on, and I remember for a few years afterwards, praying for a normal Thanksgiving.

Obviously, hands down, the best Thanksgiving was the one where Shelby came home from the hospital the night before Thanksgiving. She'd been in there for three weeks and it was somewhat last minute that she was discharged the day before Thanksgiving. Pop cooked up a turkey real fast and mom bought all of the Betty Crocker tubs of sides and we had Thanksgiving at Shelby and Johns house and we had so much to be thankful for that year. I still remember Caroline's cute little Thanksgiving shirt that Shelby got at the outlet mall in Destin a few months prior. She was so precious!

The next year was my grandmother having a stroke and mom and dad spent Thanksgiving at the hospital with her and the following year was when dad spent Thanksgiving in the hospital after developing an infection.

So, to say the least, I'm thankful for any type of normal Thanksgiving!

It Feels Like a Monday

Today totally feels like a Monday, even thought I worked from home. I'm exhausted. I'm sure I can blame this sweet doggy for it, but he's actually doing great, so not sure if I can blame him or not.

This is a short week. Thursday is Thanksgiving, which means only 3 days of work this week, and only 1 of those 3 days are actually in the office. Sometimes these short weeks feel long. I always say I still do 5 days worth of work, just in 3 days! So, today, I feel like I've already done 2 days worth of work! LOL!

Zealand Jack Jack is doing great. Still not sure of a name yet.....I really just call him sweet thing, but I'm trying to alternate between Zealand and Jack Jack. John Mark calling him Zealand was the cutest thing though! ZJJ, did good today. He snoozed in my lap all day. He snores too! He was sawing some logs at one point when I was on a conference call. Luckily, I was muted for the majority of this conference! LOL! May I have do something different when I'm actually more active on these phone calls.

I'm hoping he sleeps all night tonight. Last night he woke up at 1:00 and I took him to pee, but then not a peep out of him until 6:00 this morning. Tomorrow morning I'm dropping him off at the vet on my way to work for him to get neutered. He won't be happy with no breakfast in the morning, but he probably won't be very happy tomorrow afternoon when I pick him up either! LOL!

I'm assuming he is the reason that I'm dragging today, I may just blame him! He is just so sweet though, so far I'm smitten with him.

Still can't believe Thanksgiving is Thursday. Our Vernon Thanksgiving got cancelled this past Saturday, but hopefully it will be rescheduled soon. For the past few years, we do Thanksgiving with the Streets on actually Thanksgiving, so I am looking forward to that. Side note, since Thanksgiving got cancelled,  I had already made the caramel for my caramel pie. I luckily was able to take it to Community Group last night, however I still have some left over. I just want to eat caramel pie for each meal! LOL! I'm not though, but I want to. So good!

Well, hopefully this is a good, restful night! Maybe ZJJ will want to go to sleep early tonight! Even thought that's all he does....sleep!

Dog Mom

So, I'm sitting here typing this blog with the cutest little 7.5 pound maltipoo sitting on my lap. A maltipoo that will hopefully be my forever dog. This week, I'm on a foster to adopt with this sweet dog and so far, I'm in love!

I actually have a draft that I started a few weeks ago, with the title, I Think I Want a Dog! I didn't finish it, but I guess this can be that blog!

I've always wanted a dog, but knew I wouldn't have enough time to devote to one, plus there is the fact that I'm allergic to dogs. A few weeks ago, when I was at that craft show in Lewisburg, I saw the most perfect dog and I wanted her sooo bad. She was adopted, however I have been looking at rescues since for a dog like her.

Two nights ago, my crazy dog lady best friend called me and told me there was a 3-4 year old maltipoo in Mississippi that was an owner surrender, and asked if I was interested. I of course said yes. Well, today, this sweet little dog was on a transport to Spring Hill from Biloxi, Mississippi.

Caroline went with me to pick him up and sign the paper work. I was immediately taken with this sweet, but scared dog. So far, he is perfect, granted, it's just been a few short hours!

He slept in Caroline's lap the whole way home. We went to Shelby and Johns house where the kids, and the adults loved him. John Mark asked if he could spend the night and also told me that Poppa would probably like  him better if he stayed at his house! LOL! Luckily, I know I have some good babysitters lined up!

Mom and dad seemed to like him, he is too cute not to like.

In Mississippi, he wasn't properly taken care of. His hair was a wreck and he had been vaccinated at home instead of at a vet! I didn't know that was such a thing. So yesterday, after the rescue in Mississippi got him, they took him to the vet to be vaccinated and groomed. He looks completely different. He isn't neutered, but hopefully will be by the end of the week! I ain't got time to have a dog that's a baby daddy!

He is pretty skinny too, he came home and ate like crazy! I didn't want to over feed him though and mess his stomach up. He may not be used to good food!

I also have not heard him bark once! When we got to my house, he just looked at Knievel, didn't even flinch. I'm not sure Knievel realized I was carrying a dog in either! Hopefully tomorrow they are still calm like that.

I'm  not sure he fully understands how to walk on a leash and he is not interested in any toys that I have for him. He has seriously been sleeping in my lap since we got home. He better sleep tonight too!

I kind of felt nervous when I left my parents house, heading to mine with this cute baby.   It's like I was bringing home a new kid, which for me, I kind of am!

I'm thinking it's going to be a match made in heaven. He better not be tricking me with how good he is!

Friday

So, once again, not much to write about today, however, I think tomorrow may be an interesting post. Please come back again tomorrow......

Once again, it's a Friday night and I did middle aged stuff.....Cotsco on a Friday night is still pretty crowded.

Question: Does The Dollar Tree have Black Friday sales?!?!?! I was pondering that as I walked out tonight, can it get much cheaper than $1????

Wow.....I wish you could live vicariously through me and some really cool blog reading, but not tonight, tonight is not your night.

Tomorrow, I think it will be better.

Ramblings From a Thursday

I don't really have much to say today. I probably should, but this is still the world wide web, I don't want all my business out there! LOL!

I'm so thrown off on my days. Obviously, I love working from home, but I forget what day it is. Today is only my 2nd day in the office this week, and I keep forgetting that it's Thursday. I guess that's somewhat of a good problem to have.

I have a feeling this next month is going to fly by. There's a lot that's happening at work this coming up month, so it's keeping me nice and busy, just like I like it!

I found this to be funny, however, it's not really funny. I got an alert from Channel 2 news that said, 2 accidentally shot at East Tenn. church during discussion about Texas shooting. WHAT???? Were they having a re-enactment and forgot the gun was loaded?!?! I need to know more about this headline, cause that just doesn't make any sense at all.

I was excited to see that the Titans played on NBC tonight, you know because that's one of the channels I get. WRONG....I get CBS. I was bummed when I turned my channel to "NBC" and saw Big Bang Theory. I found an analog box that my parents gave me to get more channels. I tried hooking it up tonight, but didn't understand the directions so I didn't. They were TERRIBLE instructions.......seriously, it's the instructions, not this un-tech savvy person trying to hook this box up to her TV....the instructions.

I'm tired....it was another long day in the office and driving to and from the office. Seriously.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have something better to write about.

Caramel Pie

Tonight I went to Krogers and bought the items I need to make caramel pie for my Thanksgivings this year. I have made it for the last 12 years, and I'll continue to make it, cause it's yummy!

Anyone who frequented O'Charley's in the 90's probably tasted their caramel pie. That's my first experience with it and it was amazing. I then found out just how easy it was to make caramel pie and my world has not been the same since!

My first caramel pie that I made was for Thanksgiving 2005. It was the night before Thanksgiving and I had just moved into my house. I had came home from work and started boiling my milk and I started drinking beer. I decided to put my Australia picture frame together (the big collage that always hung in the living room at my old house) and it was not nearly as easy as it looked. This whole time I'm drinking lots of beer and refilling the water for my boiling milk. Ben, Jenna, Brandon, and myself had plans to go to Stampedes in Murfreesboro  that night. Ladies got in free and it was penny beer, aka free beer! Can't beat that! So, Brandon gets to my house first and was like, hey, can you iron my shirt....WHAT?!?!?! Being the nice, half lit friend that I am, I grabbed my iron and ironing board and iron his shirt for him. Ben walks in afterwards and was like, hey, will you iron my shirt too? I'm not sure what I looked like to them, thinking I would iron their shirts, but I did. I joked that I looked like a drunk Betty Crocker, making caramel pie and ironing shirts. Why am I still single?!?!

It just dawned on me, that was the very first night I met Bekah, Ben's now wife. They had just started dating and she met us at Stampedes. I bet it was his freshly ironed shirt that sealed the deal for her!! LOL!

A few years ago, I came home late and still needed to boil my milk for the caramel pie, and it takes 2 hours. It was at least 10 or 10:30 when I started boiling the milk. Next thing I know, I hear the timer going off on my stove! I had completely fallen asleep with my milk boiling. The thing with boiling the milk is that  you have to keep it covered in water, or the can will explode. And, for those who doubted that theory, it's the truth. No sooner then I run in there and see these cans on high heat sitting in an almost empty pot on my stove, does one of the cans of caramel explode! EVERYWHERE!!!!! Until the day I moved out, I was still finding caramel splattered around that kitchen. Caramel is not easy to clean up! Luckily, one of the can of caramel did not explode, however some of the caramel was burnt! So, to say the least, that wasn't the best caramel pie I've ever made!

Some of my Vernon cousins love caramel pie, if there is any left from Thanksgiving, they generally take it home with them. If I'm feeling nice, or actually, if I have the time, I'm always nice, I try to make one for the Saturday that they process hogs. Everyone needs some caramel pie when they are cutting up sausage!

So yes, I have two Thanksgivings this year, so there will be two caramel pies this year. Hopefully no crazy stories to go along with them!

Can't believe Thanksgiving is in a week! WHOA!

Netflix

When I moved into my house two years ago, I did not get cable again. I had it previously, and just didn't watch that much of it. So, when the cable company I liked didn't offer cable at my house, I forgoed cable. Luckily, I bought myself one of those smart TV's a few years prior, so I decided to finally utilize it and I subscribed to Netflix.

Let me tell you, paying $10 and some change every month is so much better than paying a cable bill. The only thing I've missed is watching football, but otherwise I'm good.

My first show to binge watch was New Girl, and that's the show that I like to keep on in the background, so I've seen every episode multiple times! So good.

The Bobby Bones Show has given me some good shows to watch. They are the reason I watched Narco's, even though I decided to rewatch the first two seasons, before watching season 3 that just came out, and I haven't made it through them yet to watch season 3.

They are also the reason I recently binged watched ManHunt: The Search for the Unabomber. OMGeeeee......so good. Granted, there was a part in there that I was disappointed to find out later on that it was not actually based on real life events. I won't spoil it for others, but I highly recommend watching it.

Last year, when the Gilmore Girls, a Year in the Life, came out and everyone was freaking out, I decided to watch it. I had zero idea what it was about, but now one of my favorite shows. It's another show that I keep on just specifically for back ground noise.

Even though I have a long list, I don't actually "watch" tv, so if it's a show I haven't watched, then it's hard for me to find time to actually sit down and watch it, hence the reason I watch Gilmore Girls and New Girls so much, as well as Friends. Always the best!

Last weekend I started Parks and Recreation. I was literally snorting from laughing so much at this show! Seriously! I made the mistake yesterday of watching some of the episodes while I was walking on the treadmill while I was at the gym. I was trying my hardest to stifle my laughing! It's such a funny show, kind of bummed I waited so long to watch it.

I also don't share my password...until recently. I'm not going to let just anyone steal my Netflix, however, I brought my parents up to times (HAHAH...me, that's a stretch!) and showed them how to watch my Netflix on their TV.  I'm pretty sure they watch it just as much as I do. They are the only people who will ever get my Netflix password!!!

Oh, and the best thing about Netflix, I can download a movie on my ipad and watch it while traveling! It's great, being able to watch movies or TV shows while on the plane or waiting at an airport. It makes life so much better. Granted, I also appreciate the airlines that offer free sudoku, because I will play a few games while I'm on the plane....cause I'm cool like that!

Too Much Stuff

Before I get into the fact that I own too much stuff, I saw the sweetest thing today. I was at the gym this afternoon when an older man and, who I'm assuming is his daughter with down syndrome, walk in. He helps his daughter onto the row machine and then just stands next to her as she rows. It was at least 15-20 minutes and she was still going when I left. He just stood there the whole time next to her, it was the sweetest thing! And, as someone who was on the row team for one semester in college, the girl had a really good form!

Back to me having too much stuff.....I have too much stuff! The room in my house, which is now my office, was always my catch all room when I moved in. It just had the random book shelves, I hung up my laundry to dry in here and things just got tossed in here when I wasn't sure where it went and then I closed the door. So, when I decided to make this room my office, I cleared it all out so I can paint it and set It up for my office. I wanted a simple space, not with a bunch of stuff in here!

Unfortunately, my extra bedroom has a lot of this "extra" stuff in it now. I'll get to it eventually. In my office though is a big walk in closet, and I've never been able to see the floor of it. I've had baskets of stuff in there, it's also where I keep my luggage and work out gear that I don't use and whatever else I've thrown in there over the past 2 years! Well, as of today, you can see the floor of this closet. Lots of floor of this closet! I decided to move my linens to the drawers under my washer and dryer and I tossed and good willed a lot of the stuff in there. This is the closet where I keep my dresses and skirts and I'm embarrassed at all that I pulled out to go to Good Will. Basically, if I didn't wear it this past year, it's going away!

My issue is, that I'm sentimental with certain things. I've traveled a lot and I've collected a lot of goodies from these travels. I see pictures and Nick knacks that I got while I was in Australia and I just can't part with them! I have no idea what to do with them, but I don't want to donate them or trash them.

The same with pictures. Any pictures from the last 5-8 years are either on Facebook or still on my phone. I have tons and tons of photo frames that are either empty or pictures from my college days. I don't want to get rid of those pictures, but I don't necessarily want to hang them up either. so, I have a basket with the frames in them and then I bought a small basket to keep the pictures in that aren't in an album. And this is not nearly as cluttered as it may sound like it is.

It's a start. My next goal is to go through all of my clothes and get rid of them. I have 3 walk in closets filled almost to the max with clothes and jackets, many that I haven't worn in a while. Plus, now that the majority of the week I'm not dressing up, I don't feel like I need as many clothes. I need to keep my few really nice, important looking clothes for work and then some going out clothes and call it a day. I also need to stop shopping for new clothes! LOL

So, yeah, it's a hard place to be in. It may take me a while, but I will get rid of stuff and lots of it! Who needs things?!?!

I haven't forgotten Blogsgiving

So, I guess my goal of blogging everyday during the month of November isn't going to happen! I'm back though. I had Friday off, and I completely forgot about it! I basically had a day with nothing on my agenda, which never happens, and I was a bum and totally forgot about Blogsgiving. Yesterday I had all intentions of writing in this thing, and then got busy and forgot and then got home super late and didn't feel like it then. So, I apologize.

Yesterday was Veterans day. I always attend the Nolensville Veterans Day parade. Pop always marches and this year Claire marched with her girl scout troop. It's always a fun time, seeing people you haven't seen in a while. Afterwards, shopping at the shops in Nolensville.

I bought my Christmas candle for the season. There is a specific kind of candles that Peacock Lane carries and their smells are the best and you can actually smell the smell! I bought eggnog this year. My house smells yummy!

I honestly can't believe Christmas is right around the corner. Sneaking up on me. It's going to be a busy few weeks for me. I also keep forgetting about my famous Tacky Christmas Sweater Party! I've already sent out the invites for it, but I need to start actually thinking about it. It gets bigger and better every year! Hopefully this will be another epic party.

I'm over here talking about Christmas, but haven't forgotten about Thanksgiving! Vernon Family Thanksgiving this Saturday! Whoop Whoop! I've said this many times before and I'll keep saying it. Spend one Thanksgiving in Australia, where obviously they don't celebrate Thanksgiving and I'll never miss another one! I love Thanksgiving!

In the meantime, I'll do better about blogsgiving and maybe I'll actually write about something good.

Uptight Hippie Women

So, obviously, anyone who knows me knows this post is not about me.....I love hippies! This post is actually about my sweet niece Anne Claire, who is also not an uptight hippie women....except when she is in the 3rd grade Veterans program at her school!

The 3rd graders went through different periods of time, and she was during the 60's with the hippies. She was dressed extremely nice and could not get over those hippies. She ruled this part! She was dramatic, loud, and hilarious! After the show, she was beaming with pride and rightfully because she dominated the role of uptight hippie women!

Anyone who knows Claire and is aware of her journey for these short 8 years on this earth, know that she is an amazing child. She has overcome so much, so it makes my heart so happy to see her on that stage, in her element.

These past two and a half years, she has proven how brave and courageous she is. Two and a half years ago, she was in Vanderbilt, fighting off bacterial meningitis. Everyone who knows me, knows that October 30, 2014 until the end of 2015 was a tough time for the Vernon's and this period when Claire was sick was by far the most difficult time.

The saying, "What the devil means for evil, God turns to good", is the truth  in Claire's situation. Two and a half years ago, the doctor told Shelby that she would be blind in one eye, Two and a half years ago, Claire lost complete hearing in one ear and significant hearing in her other ear, all due to bacterial meningitis. One year ago, she lost the rest of her hearing in her good ear. God proved that he is in fact the ultimate healer. She nows has almost perfect vision and even though she no longer has her natural hearing, she is lucky that technology has allowed her to hear again. She had her first cochlear implant 2 years ago and her 2nd implant back in May. She has to work so much harder to hear, but it hasn't slowed her down one bit.

We are all so lucky to see her journey and see how God is working in her life. She knows that God is her healer and although this has been a tough journey, she knows that God has this. The devil might have stolen her hearing, but he did not steal her spunky, outgoing, funny, dramatic, loving, and hilarious self. She is amazing and once again she proved how amazing she was tonight up on that stage as the uptight hippie women. Her future may be on the stage!

CMA Awards

Tonight, I'm sitting on my couch watching the CMA awards. I generally don't watch these types of shows, or any shows for that matter, but decided to watch it. It's all because of Bobby Bones and him making me interested in all of this all over again.

So, after the first minute I was hooping and hollering from my couch. Eric Church singing Amazing Grace, followed by Darius Rucker, Keith Urban, Lady A, and then tons of other stars singing some Hootie and the Blowfish! So random, but so amazing!  Darius Rucker is multi talented!

I still remember back when Hootie was pretty popular, my dad telling me that he really liked them. I remember then thinking how random it was and wondering how the heck dad even knew who Hootie and the Blowfish was! Pretty sure he was excited when Darius made the jump to country music.

Speaking of Bobby Bones, he is presenting right now. I love Bobby Bones. He cracks me up, the whole show does! After Gerry House retired, no one filled his shoes until The Bobby Bones Show started up in Nashville.

Total side note, messaging with my sister and was informed that Bobby Bones frequents Street Tuxedo......why has this never been told to me! Evidently my favorite brother in law did not realize my obsession with him!

Oh well, meanwhile, back at the CMA awards. I totally got distracted and missed the first of the Troy Gentry salute. Maybe a good thing, cause I probably would have cried. I watched the Luke Bryan thing with Robin Robins the other night and my eyes were a little misty. If you didn't watch it, totally should go and find it and watch it.

I should finish this blog....if not, I'll be here commentating on the whole CMA awards and home girl ain't getting paid for that! Still need to find a job where I can get paid to travel and blog about it. Anyone want to start this venture and hire me and pay me to travel and blog?!?! I'm your girl if so!

Tuesday

So, today I have discovered the pros and cons to working from home. Trust me, the pro wins out, but still.

We had some wicked rain over night. It was like sheets of rain falling down, hard, accompanied by thunder and lightning. I had originally set my alarm for 5:30 so I could be at the gym at 6:00, but once I heard the rain and thunder and all of the flood warnings in Nolensville, I decided to reset my alarm and go to the gym later. Here comes the pro part of working from home....all I could think about was that I was so THANKFUL that I did not have to drive to downtown Nashville today!!! I know it was a nightmare on the interstate and I wasn't in the middle of it. For the other commuters on 65,  yall are welcome, one less person crowding the roadways!


Later on, I saw a coworker post pictures of the MTA bus stop, which is where my window faces out of. Evidently there was a huge fight with multiple arrest and I totally missed it! I love seeing all the action outside my window. So, the con, can't be in the know and see all the crazy stuff happening in Nashville. Like I said, the pro totally outweighs the con!

I was also able to go to Cotsco on my lunch break. I went so I could buy a chicken pot pie (YUMMO if you haven't had theirs before) to take to a friend tomorrow night for dinner. Guess who got the very last chicken pot pie....this girl! Errands on my lunch break, I'll take it!

I had a 5:00 hair appointment, which means, I did not have to leave work early to make it back to Nolensville in time for my appointment. I worked right up until it was time to leave for my appointment. It was nice.

I went to the gym after the hair appointment. I always like to look nice when I get my hair done, however, I went to the salon in my work out clothes to ensure I would go to the gym. My hair stylist asked if I wore that all day since I'd been working from home. Actually, it was the 4th outfit I had on for the day....that may be a con, I can't be changing clothes multiple times a day while working! However, back to the gym, a pro is that I wasn't exhausted from my commute and I still had energy for the gym at 7:00 at night!

So, as usual, the pros outweigh the cons. I'll take this working from home stuff, I'm loving it!

BlogsGiving is Hard...cont...

Well, here it is November 6th and I'm writing my 6th blog of November, only 24 more to go. Whoo-hoo! I'm not really sure what specifically I should write about. So, this may be another random post with a few rabbit trails in there.

This is my first official week of being AWS, aka, working from home 3 days a week. I'm lucky, I'm off on Friday, which means I only have to drive downtown once this week. Yee-Haw! I feel like it was a productive day, so that's good.

Since I worked from home, I was able to make a massage for 4:30 and it was just what I needed. I'm considering joining the monthly club, so I can get either a facial or massage monthly for a discounted price. Of course, then I'm reminded that I'm not a baller, so that may not be the best idea! LOL! I'm all for some pampering though.

Getting the hair did tomorrow. I generally grow my hair out long, then  chop it off (donating it these last 2 times) and then grow it back out. 2  years ago, I chopped it all off and got hi-lights, for the first time in YEARS. I've actually kept it short for the majority of these 2 years, however, I've been growing it out, for Heather's wedding and because I'm ready to put my hair in a messy bun on top of my head. I'm soooo close. I'm loving the color as well, so even though it's fall, I'll probably keep this blonde in  it. My hair is fairly light to begin with, this just brightens it up. Like I said, I enjoy getting pampered.

The only thing  I'm missing is a pedicure. I'm in dire need of one, but since it's starting to be closed toe weather, I'm not as concerned about it. Granted, I wear a lot of flip flops and all my closed toes shoes are still slip ons and I refuse to wear socks, so I probably should keep them with a pedicure. I'm excepting donations for all of this pampering I feel like I all the sudden need!

Oh, to win the lottery! After I won the lottery and bought my canoe place on the river and got my self sufficient farm up and running, I'd hire a hair stylist, manicurist, and massage person to work for me 24/7!

I feel 25 Again

I've come to the realization the past few years that I have slowed down a lot in my life. I use to be able to go, go, go nonstop, however that's not the case. People use to tell me that they lived vicariously through me and all of my adventures, but these days I feel like I'm a hermit, compared to how I used to be. Well, not this weekend, I was 25 again and go, go, go all over again!

Friday night, after work, I met Angie and Heather to order my bridesmaid dress and then we went to dinner. Pretty chill night, see blog from 2 days ago!

Saturday, Angie wanted to go to a craft show down in Lewisburg that was benefiting a rescue she follows. She picks me up around 9:15 and we head to Spring Hill to pick up Kristi, before making the drive to Lewisburg. We got to the craft show and said, oh, we won't be here long! WRONG! We were there for over 3 hours! Such a great show with some awesome things! I'm excited for my findings.

While there, I almost got Knievel a sister. My dream dog was there and available for adoption! She was a 4 year old poodle mix, hypoallergenic. She was an owner surrender and kept outside in a pen. Who the heck keeps a poodle outside?!?! We bonded, sadly, I think a kid might have rescued her, which is ok, but I still may email to inquire about my dream dog.

Since it was late, we were starving and wanted lunch. Kristi googled Mexican restaurants and we choose El Fuenta in Lewisburg. We knew we'd love this place when we saw the banner hanging outside saying 1/2 price drinks on Saturday! Whoop Whoop! We each had a jumbo margarita!! YUM. The whole time we had wanted to stop at the winery, but didn't have enough time.

I get back home right at 4:00, which gave me enough time to freshen up so I could meet Heather, Lynn, and Kristen and go to Bingo in Kentucky. So, by 6:00 Saturday night, I was in Kentucky ready to play some Bingo.

Bingo is a blast! Just a whole new environment and you see some interesting looking people there! Love it! Heather and Lynn walked away with a little bit of cash, so it was good.

While at Bingo, my cousin in law Susan text to see if I wanted to go to the Titans game with them Sunday. Ummm....yes please! Susan and Jason  buy my parents season tickets, so I haven't been in a few years, and I used to frequent the games. I was at their house at 8:00 and we were tailgating by 9:00. It was an AWESOME game, perfect weather and we won! I'm supposing I'm the good luck. Since I took Blaise's ticket, I told him  he was now blackballed from his ticket since I was good luck and I would be taking his ticket from here on out! LOL! It was like old times being back at the Titans game! I just got home, at like 7:00! Such a fun day, I love my family.

So, yes, I was not a hermit today and I may be regretting this busy busy weekend, but it was totally worth it. Thankful that it's daylight savings time and I'm gaining an hour of sleep this weekend, I'll need it. I'm especially thankful that I am working from home tomorrow, so I can sleep in a little bit. Oh, and I'm getting a massage tomorrow after work. GO ME! Hair appointment Tuesday, which is always a favorite. So yeah, this is "slowed down" Becca! Should of seen me 10 years ago! LOL!

Belly Buttons

Last night, I was perusing through SnapChat and I'm watching the ones that came from my "sister in law" Rachael. They Streets are all in the mountains this weekend, so there were ones of my nieces with balloons in their stomachs pretending to be pregnant and they were dancing around. Pretty funny actually. As I'm watching, I hear my sister start to talk about me! WHAT! I hear her in the background talking about belly buttons during pregnancy and how her sister does not like them and didn't like her belly button when she was pregnant. I had to give her grief about talking about me on the SnapChat, however she is pretty accurate, belly buttons FREAK me out!

I'm not sure when I realized this may be a problem. I've always been some what weirded out by belly buttons, but it's recently dawned on me that I have a weird relationship with them.

When Shelby and I were younger the one thing that I absolutely could not stand was when she would "Pillsbury" me. Poke my stomach and say Pillsbury. Anyone else remember doing this as a child??? It would aggravate me to the point of tears and probably a melt down.

In college, Angie and Ben came to stay with me at my apartment in Chattanooga one Friday night and that Saturday we were getting ready so we could drive to Knoxville for the UT Game. In some freak accident, Angie and I both tried to walk through my bathroom door at the same time and somehow her belly button ring got caught on the door latch of my bathroom door and ripped her belly button ring out of her stomach. There was blood splattered everywhere. Me, the fainting goat, threw towels at her and then promptly went to lay on my couch to avoid passing out. Luckily, Ben was there to take care of her bloody belly button. She had a white shirt to wear to the game and there was blood where her belly button was! ARGH, still gives me the chills thinking about it.

And, with what I'm about to say, I hope I do not offend anyone. I cannot look at an outie belly button. My worst nightmare, if I'm blessed to be able to have babies one day, is that I will have an outie belly button. I'm gagging just thinking about it. Outies scare me!

So yes, please do not show me your belly button, keep it to yourself and we'll be just fine. And also, be careful when you SnapChat to make sure someone in the room isn't talking about someone who may potentially watch your Snap!! LOL!

#MiddleAgedLife

Yes, the title of this BlogsGiving is a hashtag. It's the hashtag my friends and I used tonight to describe our life. Even though we laugh at this hashtag and the situations we use it for, in reality, we are middle aged. Personally, I don't want to admit that.

Here is the TMI portion of this blog that I mentioned in my original BlogsGiving post. I went to my doctor this week and was informed that I fall into the age range that they recommend women to get mammograms. I'm pretty sure I had a blank stare on my face, followed by nervous laughter when she told me this. I knew it was coming, but hearing the words and making an appointment for a mammogram was a slap in the face from reality that I'm not getting any younger. I'm not concerned about the mammogram itself, but the fact that I'm old enough to need a mammogram! #MiddleAgedLife

Tonight, I met up with Heather and Angie so we could get fitted and purchase our bridesmaid dresses for Heather's wedding. Personally, I feel like the fact that I was able to pay cash for this dress because I'm responsible enough to start a Bridesmaid Fund in advance to be better prepared for these expenses that come along with being in a wedding deserves the #MiddleAgedLife hashtag!

Afterwards, we wanted to do dinner and drinks. We couldn't think of where to go and decided on Cheddars. Yes, we went to Cheddars on a Friday night #MiddleAgedLife. We sat and talked about adult things, like HVAC Units, #MiddleAgedLife and wanting to go to bed early #MiddleAgedLife. We discussed how 10 years ago, we would have been clubbing in downtown Nashville all night, and not even be worn out the next day. #MiddleAgedLife.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting Angie to go to a crafts show in Lewisburg. #MiddleAgedLife  Tomorrow night I'm meeting up with Heather and Kristen to go to Kentucky to play bingo. #MiddleAgedLife

Thanks for reading BlogsGiving. It's 9:00 on a Friday night and I'm sitting at my desk writing a blog. #MiddleAgedLife When I finish this blog, I will put my pajamas on, go lay in my bed (which I just bought a new mattress topper for this week, soooo excited) #MiddleAgedLife and watch some Netflix. #MiddleAgedLife

Cleaning Out the Desk

So, I cleaned out my desk today at work, and it's just weird! Starting Monday, I'm officially working from home 3 days a week and 2 days in the office. This means my desk is up for grabs and I'll sit wherever I can. I'll most likely sit in my same desk until someone else is assigned to sit there.

It's so strange cleaning out my desk. Luckily, when I started this job, I knew this would be coming quickly, so I only brought the essentials to my office. This is the least amount of stuff I've ever had to take home with  me!

I kind of feel homeless without a desk. I keep things at my desk, like lotion, tennis shoes, Kleenex, tampons, utensils, plates, hand sanitizer, change, pictures, etc. Now, it's just going to be me, a laptop, a pad of paper and an ink pen! What if I need something?!?! I think this part of working from home will take some getting use to. I feel like I should bring an over night bag with me on the days I do work from the office.

Granted, I'm sure I'll learn how to survive two days a week without all of my supplies!

I filled up my car on Tuesday, and I'm keeping track of when I fill up and how much I spend on gas, to see if I can tell a difference. I generally fill up weekly with gas, I'm hoping to cull that down to every other week, at the earliest. I guess that  is a perk of Nolensville becoming a booming metropolis, I do have a lot of necessities within a few miles from my house.

So, farewell to my office......well, I'll be in here tomorrow. But it's bare as of today. I've loved every minute of this new job and I know that I'm going to continue loving it working from the comfort of my new office at my house.

BlogsGiving is Hard

BlogsGiving is hard.....and it's just Day 1. I have written 2 blogs today and they are both in draft form. I start writing about what I think I should write about and then I change my mind. I think I have writers block, too much pressure of BlogsGiving!

However, I'm going to write anyhow and I'm going to publish this one....I think, if I don't, will you ever know? I have so many drafts in this blog that I've never posted. Some of them are rants, that probably should stay in the draft mode, but some of them have potential and I just never got around to finishing them.

Just like BlogsGiving, life is hard sometime. Granted, if my only complaint right now is that I can't think of anything good to write on this first day of November, then I have it pretty good.

Random fact. Papaw Vernon always said that if it rains on the 1st day of the month, then it's going to be a rainy month. It's raining today, but I sure hope it's not a rainy November. Rain + Cold, Dreary November weather makes my Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) flare up. Random Fact #2: I had to take a psychology 101 my freshman year of college, and that's the only thing I think I learned all semester. I finally had a diagnosis for my dislike for cold weather.

FACT: The only good thing that has ever come out of winter is me!!! If it wasn't for my birthday every January, I would be all about skipping winter as a whole.

Random Fact #3: I once had an 18ish month summer......a dream come true. If only I could justify living between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres every year, then I could  have a life full of only summer.

FACT: I can't stay on topic. This is what happens, I write one thing and it leads to a rabbit trail of something completely different. Story of my life.

This is totally not what I had in mind for Day 1 of BlogsGiving, but it's going to due and hopefully this writer's block will leave me.....or it's going to be a LONG month.

BlogsGiving

I'm really good at coming up with new words. My word for the month of November, BlogsGiving. Yes, my goal is to attempt to write in this thing every day for the month of November. I'm really not sure if it's a realistic goal, and I'll probably have to set reminders for myself to remember to write, but I want to attempt to write in it.

I figured there is No Shave November, which, well.......I guess I won't participate in. There are people who post every day of what they are thankful for, which I've done in the past. So, I think BlogsGiving will be a combination of that. TMI and a little hairy with some thankfulness thrown into the blog. I mean, what could possibly go wrong.....right....right????

I don't even know if anyone will ever read about BlogsGiving, but I'm going to give it a whirl and see what happens. If nothing else, I've always enjoyed journaling and I've gotten out of the habit of that, so this is my own personal journal.

So, if you do read this, let me know if there is something you want to know about. It can be ask BecBec anything. Well, maybe not anything, but you know. I'm sure I'm going to need suggestions for this BlogsGiving.

What Do You Do When You Gain Time Back?

How many times have I said, I need more hours in my day?? Granted, it's usually followed by the statement that even with more time, I'd still complain that I need more time. Well, I'm about to gain about 3 extra hours in my day and my goal is not to complain about needing more time. However, with this new found time, I'm kind of terrified, seriously.

Currently, I work 8:00-4:30 in downtown Nashville. Since I'm downtown, I am unable to park at my building (unless I want to pay for a parking garage near by, which I don't). I generally park at The Titans stadium (or the baseball stadium) and take a shuttle bus to and from my office. Working the later shift like I do, I should plan on 45 minutes, on a good day, to an hour on a decent day just to get to parking lot. I need to plan on 15-20 minutes for the shuttle bus to get me to or from my office. On average, my commute, including the shuttle bus, is about an hour and 20 minutes to an hour and a half one way. That's almost 3 hours a day that I spend commuting to my job.....3 HOURS!!!!!!

Officially in 2 weeks, I'll be working from home 3 days a week and only going into the office 2 days a week, with the hopes that that goes to 1 day a week in the near future. That means for those days I'm working at home, I'm gaining 3 hours to my day. 3 hours a day I'm gaining, and 9 hours a week that I'm getting back due to not having to commute to downtown Nashville.

I'm stoked for that. I worked from home today and I love it. I have zero stress, I accomplish a lot when I'm home. I get tons of work done with no interruptions and when needed, I can do some household chores, like laundry. WOW! Amazing. I don't even mind working longer because I can. I attempt to leave the office on time the majority of the days, so I can go ahead and conquer my commute, but now, I can work and I don't mind it!

However, I'm nervous about this new found time. I'm nervous that I'm not going to be a good steward of my time. This is a gift, this is 3 hours given back to me to do whatever I please with it. 3 hours added to my day. I complain that I don't have time to do stuff, but I can't use that any  more. What if those 3 hours slip away from me and I completely miss them? What if I waste them doing trivial things, like playing candy crush or perusing Facebook. What can God teach me in this time?

Yesterday in church, the sermon was discussing Joseph. The sentence that stuck with me the most from the sermon that  I have been pondering is, "We go to God when we are faced with troubles, but we don't go to Him as much when things are going good. We are short-sighting ourselves by doing that." (Paraphrasing, because I'm too lazy to get up to get my journal!) I'm giving an extra 3 hours a day, I have no excuse but to spend time with God. I'm not saying spend the whole 3 hours with him, but I  need to be better about making time for Him.

It's so easy put yourself on cruise control when things are going good, and things are going good for me. Every year I say I'm going to read the bible from front to end, I have yet to completely finish that. Do you know how many times I've read Genesis?!?! I should have that book memorized by now! It's so easy to find an excuse to put quiet time with God on the back burner, however that excuse is about to become extinct for me, at least for 3 days a week!

My prayer is that I can utilize this time I'm being given. Not everyone gets that. I can learn so much from spending some of that time with God. There are things on my heart that I'm specifically praying for, but I know I need to be more intentional and listen more. I'm great at praying, but not always great at listening.

I'm about to receive the best gift, I better put it to good use!

Slowing Down

Almost daily, I travel McEwen Drive to get to the interstate. There is a spot on the road with a sign that tells you what your speed is. Every morning when I get to this sign, my speed flashes really fast, followed by "SLOW DOWN" flashing really fast. Yes, every day I'm far enough over the speed limit to have slow down flashing at me. Every day, I ignore this and continue on at my current speed that I'm going.

It has dawned on me that that sign is a metaphor for my life. I should slow down, seriously! I go, go, and go until I wear myself out, take a small break, and then continue going at full speed.

The scary thing is, compared to 5-10 years ago,  I've slowed down considerably! I use to be able to go out multiple nights throughout the week and still have tons of energy left. That's not me anymore, but I still keep going and going, just like the energizer bunny.

That sign is telling me to slow down, and I don't. I've realized that is also a metaphor for my life. Why don't I slow down? I have a bright yellow sign flashing at me telling me to slow down, and I don't. I just smirk at it and keep going. It's almost a game to see if I can get it to yell at me on a daily basis.

That sign is a metaphor of how I've always been. I'm the youngest, I don't like people telling me what to do. The sign is no different. That sign is telling me to slow down, just like in my life, if you tell me to do something and I don't want you to tell me to do something, I may do the exact opposite, just to be a rebel and do what you told me not to do. I may be considering slowing down and going the speed limit, but because you told me to slow down and go the speed limit, I'm not, because I don't want that sign to think it can tell me what to do.

I then question, why doesn't that sign trust me. I grew up driving like a maniac on this road, long before it had a speed limit, long before it was paved, long before it was widen, long before people started moving here and traveling on it. Just like most of the roads in this area, I should be grandfathered in to speed on McEwen, because I know how to handle that road.

I also think, if I just keep speeding every day, that sign is going to stop flashing at me, and just be like, ok, it's Becca, let her go, she's good. She's not going to listen to me anyhow, let me get the next person.

And then I think, that sign is like God. How many times has God given me a flashing sign in my life to protect me, and I ignore him. How many times have I heard God tell me what to do, and I ignored him? How many times has God tried getting my attention, and I just blast past him? What if God is using that sign to tell me to slow down in my life? What if that sign is a metaphor, and I'm just writing a blog about it and not acting on it?

I need flashing signs in my life, like I need God in my life. How many times have I listened to God flashing something in front of my face and how many times has it made my life better. How many times have I sat quietly and listened to Him and gained wisdom and knowledge. How many times have I sat and soaked up his love for me? How many times have I been comforted by Him? Everyday, that sign is there, not giving up on me, just like God has been there every day, thankfully not giving up on me. Just like that flashing sign has mine and everyone else's best interest at hand, God has my best interest at hand as well and when I see God flashing a sign at me, I should listen to it, because it's going to be good. And maybe, just maybe, I may try going the speed limit on McEwen the next time I drive to work....maybe.

Growing up Vernon

Tennessee Crossroads came and did a feature on the old, old Nolensville school. Not the one that I attended as a child, that's now the rec center, but the one that my dad attended, that was once the rec center.

The old school is now a museum. I've only been once, when I found out that my aunts were in the Nolensville sports hall of fame!

Mom sent a picture of the show where it showed Grandma and Papaw Vernon and their display of their WW2 memorablias. All I could think about while seeing those pictures is that Grandma and Papaw are on TV, and probably the same TV channel that their man Lawrence Welk once showed up on! Any Saturday nights spent at Grandma and Papaw's house included Lawrence Welk!

My mind just went into overdrive with memories of my beloved grandparents. A lot of people may not know their story of how they met. Everyone knows that Vernon's sprout out of Vernon Hollow and Papaw was no different. He was born in the hollow, went to school at the little school house on Pleasant Hill Road and then dropped out of school after the 8th grade to farm. Grandma on the other hand, was born in Nebraska, and moved to Los Angeles when she was 13. Yes, Grandma lived in LA!!! She went to a high school with 500 kids in her graduating class. There are some cool pictures of Grandma back then in LA, all fancy and what not.

Both joined the army and both were sent to Europe during WW2. Papaw was on Normandy, a few days after the initial wave. He was injured and was sent to London to recover and to continue working in the army. That's where he met Grandma. Somehow they both ended up in Paris, where they got married, supposedly! Their paperwork got lost, so they remarried once they got back  home.

After the war, they moved to Vernon Hollow. It had to be love for Grandma to give up her LA ways for Vernon Hollow in 1946!!! As most know, they lived in Vernon Hollow, had 5 kids, a bunch of grandkids, me being the youngest, which I won't let anyone forget. Everyone loves the baby!

Vernon Hollow was a 2nd home to me growing up. I probably spent just as much time there than I did at my own house. Every day after school we would go to the Hollow. Shelby and I always wanted to go to Grandma and Papaw's house, but really we wanted to go because that's where our cousins, Tom and Jessica were for us to play with and get into trouble.

Tom is 2 weeks older then Shelby. He is like a brother I never had. Jessica is a few years older than Shelby and Tom, so she got tired of us while we were still young! I've said it many times before, and I'll continue saying it, they are the reasons I'm brave and not scared of very much in life. How I, or any of us for that matter, survived the 80's in Vernon Hollow is beyond me.

There are 2 things they would never let me do. I could never swing on the rope swing. This may be a good thing as there were multiple people who broke their arms on this swing, so it was taken down eventually. And they would never let me on the roof of DD and Mary's house that was an "A Frame" to slide down on the tin with them! It was safe for them to use the roof as a slide, but not me!?!?!

Tom "discovered" a path when we were kids and I thought he was an absolute genius!!! It has since dawned on me, that the path follows the road, therefore it probably wasn't that genius and our older cousins before us also used this path. We spent lots of time on this path, going up and down the road.

Somehow or another, we also ended up with this 1950's car that Tom found and managed to get started. Shelby, Tom, and I would sit in the front seat, as it was a bench seat and cruise all around Vernon Hollow. We would take it to a field and do doughnuts and since the door didn't shut good, it would fly open while we were doing doughnuts. We also thought it was amazing that the seat wasn't bolted down, so for fun, Tom would drive really fast and slam on the brakes so the seat would fly up and hit the dashboard. We LOVED this! (I'm not really sure if our parents were aware of this) The car also once broke down at the end of Vernon Road and guess who got to walk all the way up the big hill by herself to get help?!?! The best time it broke down was when Shelby and our cousin Christie decided to ride in the trunk of the car from our Uncle Earl's house to Grandma and Papaws house.  They get in the trunk and the car won't start!! They were in there for quite a while before we got the car going. I almost feel like we coasted down to the house, but can't remember. Why they felt the urge to ride in the trunk is beyond me, but they still get grief for it!! Of course, there is my extremely intelligent sister, who was shocked when she realized the car played regular radio stations and not just 50's music!!!

When Tom got his first 4-wheeler for his birthday, we were just too cool for school. Tom would drive, Shelby would sit behind him, and there was lil ol' me, on the back, flapping in the wind! Shelby refused to let me sit in the middle, even though I was the youngest. A few years later, once there was a 4-wheeler for each of us to drive, I got to drive that first 4-wheeler of Toms. It didn't have brakes on it there at the end. So, of course that meant that I got the 4-wheeler with no brakes. We would ride all around the farm and then to get back to the house, you had to go down a pretty steep hill, the hill that everyone would sled on when it snowed. At the bottom of this hill was an electric fence and a creek. I learned to coast down the hill and turn the 4-wheeler just in time to miss the fence! I did break my collarbone on that hill, but it wasn't due to faulty brakes on a 4-wheeler!!

Shelby and I would spend the night at Grandma and Papaws house and generally Tom would spend the night too. We would beg to sleep in their camper. Grandma would say, ask Papaw, Papaw would say, ask Grandma, and every time we'd end up sleeping in the camper. No clue why we always wanted to, but we did.

That camper was awesome. It was the type you drive, with the area in the back and a bed above the drivers seat, so you could sit up there and look out the window while driving. We used to load up in that camper and go to Twitty City at Christmas time. I also remember loading up in it and going out for Grandma's retirement dinner. Yes, rednecks coming to town!

Of course, my whole family were farmers. Papaw always had pigs. And of course, we liked to play in the pig pen! One year, Papaw let Shelby, Tom, and me have the runt of the liter. We obvouisly named this pig Wilbur and loved him, maybe too much. When he got big enough, we'd ride him around the pig lot! Eventually, we ate Wilbur. How I'm not scarred for life is beyond me. I've had too many pet cows and pigs that ended up being quite tasty at the end of the day!

I could go on and on about stories. We'd have Vernon Trick Day, we'd go to the house and make up recipes, basically pouring everything in a bowl (not the same as Vernon Trick Day)! We started building more treehouses then I can count. We'd "clean" the creek out. We had funerals for our pet ducks. We'd play SkipBo or Uno for hours on end.  We use to love Friday nights, we'd get together for pizza or go to Quincy's and chow down at the buffet! I've fallen off of a horse while riding bareback, I've kicked my foot through a pane on a window I was using as a ladder, and of course the famous broken collarbone. Luckily nothing too major happened to any of us!

I think about these times and it seems like a whole other lifetime ago. Even though I don't remember it, the Vernon's used to get together for Sunday lunch. This eventually stopped. According to my older cousins, my dad and Uncle DD were cool uncles until they had kids! Sorry guys! I'm thankful that the Vernon's are still close. My aunts and uncles are good about making sure we still get together. Of course, everyone still hangs out at Vernon Hollow every afternoon. The Vernon girl cousins go out to dinner occasionally, although we are way past due. Just to give a reference to these cousins, for those who really know me and my sister, there are basically 6 of us, all alike!! We all have "blonde" moments, we all have the same sense of humor, and we can all cry from laughing too much when we get together.

I tear up thinking about these good times we had together and how loving Grandma and Papaw were toward me and the whole family. I was blessed to be with them both when they took their last breath. I'm lucky to have received 28 years worth of wisdom from Papaw and to have my grandmother for 34 years. To say I miss Grandma and Papaw is an understatement. Anyone who ever met them, loved them.

To wrap this up, my initial thought of writing this. Being a Vernon in Nolensville in the 80's and 90's was amazing! I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything! Even with all of our crazy stunts that we pulled, I think we all turned out pretty well!

13 years

Today my memories on Facebook included a picture I posted a few years back in honor of a throwback Thursday. It was a picture of Leah, me, our house, aka Beckley, our car, and Jim, a Canadian hitchhiker. It dawned on me that it was 13 years ago, right around Labor Day that a small town girl from Nolensville boarded a plane to fly to New Zealand, then onto Australia, and Fiji for 9 months. All I had was one hiking backpack with my belongings.

College is great, but for me, graduating was somewhat scary. There were so many unknowns. I honestly had no idea what I really wanted to do. I had an idea of what would be ideal for me, but that becoming a reality was crazy! I had worked hard for 5 year, yes, as dad says, I squeezed 4 years of college into 5, and the end was approaching and it was not easy! I knew I wasn't ready to move back to Nolensville, but wasn't sure if Chattanooga was where I wanted to stay either. I was looking at jobs across the country, with the mind set that if I find a job I liked, I'd be willing to move for it and experience something new.

Graduation was approaching and I took a long road trip to Pittsburgh with my friend Leah to visit her family. Leah knew what she was doing after school. She was backpacking Australia. After this very long car ride to Pittsburgh and then back to Chattanooga, Leah had me convinced that I wanted to backpack Australia with her! I think I actually called my parents from Pittsburgh to share this news with them. I'm sure they thought it was another grand Becca idea and I would lose interest as soon as I got home. Nope, that wasn't the case. I graduated college, packed up my apartment, worked half the summer in Chattanooga while sleeping in another friends extra bedroom while her roomie was home for the summer and then moved back to Nolensville mid summer to do some traveling before packing up for Australia.

13 years ago, I knew nothing about Myspace or Facebook. There was no Snapchat or Instragram to make staying connected to your family and friends easy. I did not have a smartphone with FaceTime on it. This was pre texting days. I did not have a digital camara and I had to use a calling card to call home. Sometimes I could talk to my family and friends via AOL Aim! HAHA! Old School!

I sent frequent emails to a bunch of people of my trip. I still have those and would love for one day to print them all off and bind them into some type of book so I can look back and remember that I once was a hippie. What's so funny to me is who all my emails made it to. I found out that my emails were being forwarded to friends of friends of friends! Co-workers of friends and so forth. There were tons of people reading about my adventures and asking about it. There were people who have never met me that kept up with my adventures, which was pretty amazing to think about. I still cherish the file folder we found after Grandma died that I had all of my letters and post cards I had sent her over the years, including the ones from Australia.

For those who did not know me during this time frame of my life, here ya go. I flew to New Zealand for a month and traveled around. I've always said that New Zealand is the best kept secret in The Pacific. It's breathtaking! It was around the time that The Lord of the Rings came out, so that was all the fanfare back then. To this day, I've still never seen those movies.

We left New Zealand and flew to Australia, where I had my 4 month working visa and 3 month travel visa. Leah and I started up north in the Darwin area picking mangos, which is where I ended up in the ER due to my mango allergies! LOL! I'm pretty sure my parents loved receiving that phone call from me telling them that I was in the ER on the other side of the world! I should have their input on these thoughts!  Since the mangos didn't work out, we ended up in Perth, where I went to work in a road house (gas station) in the middle of now where. Literally. You could only buy green bananas from the grocery store! It had about 100 people in the town, if that many. The closest town with anything big in it was a good  2 hours away. It was a farming community, where you farmed during the day, came to my road house for lunch, and went next door to the bar at night. It was great. I also thought I wanted to buy this roadhouse, as it was for sale at the time! This is where I mastered driving a manual Ute (truck) on the wrong side of the road! I loved cruising those backroads.

After the stint ended at the roadhouse, I met back up with Leah in Perth. We knew we wanted to see as much as we could within the last 3 months. After researching, we decided our best bet would be to purchase a car, so we could see Australia at our own pace. So, we found an awesome Station wagon, that we named Beckley and this was our home for the next 3 months. We figured we could pay for the car, drive around, and not worry about staying in hostels to save money.

For 3 months, we drove the outter of Australia, from Perth, across the nollabar, to Adelaide, Melbourne, took a ferry to Tasmania, back up through Sydney and all the way to the top of the eastern side of Australia to Cairns, where we sold Beckley before flying out.

For 3 months, I was in the ocean daily. We would find random off the trail beaches in go swimming. This was part relaxation part shower! We lived in a car, the ocean was our bath! LOL! For 3 months, we parked our car on the side of the road or in a parking lot and sleep in it. We initially bought a tent, but decided the front seats leaned back were better. Since I'm shorter, I had the drivers seat, so I would lean my seat back, throw my feet up on the steering wheel and be fast asleep! This is something I would never do in America!

We had some amazing adventures on this trip and some crazy stories! We met so many amazing people, which is another reason I wish Facebook was around back then so I could have friended them and kept up with them. I do have a few still that I'm in contact with.

We left Australia and flew to Fiji. Fiji is the most laid back country ever, so it was a natural fit from our free spirited lifestyle we had been in for the past few months. We got a boat tour, and island hopped for 3 weeks in very remote islands. It was the life for me. Laying around in a secluded area on the beach, was amazing! I was blessed to be able to go back to Fiji for my 30th birthday and it's still one of my favorite places.

Coming home was not easy, to say the least. After this 9 months, my savings was non existent and my only option was to move back home with my parents. I had a hard time adjusting. I went from being carefree, sleeping in a car, to moving to Nolensville! I would forget that I could take a shower. I remember trying to go somewhere and contemplating taking a shower and was like, I took one a few days ago! WHAT! That was my wake up call that I was back to normal land and could take showers daily! I also went up to my dads shop one day when I was home and visiting with his employees and Kenny saying, "Becky (he is the only one who can call me Becky!), you see all that grey hair on your dads head, that's from you!" He was right, dad got a lot more grey hair in those 9 months.

Man! 13 years, 13 years, it seems like a life time ago. I think about and I don't regret anything. Yes, I did move back to Nolensville sooner then I had anticipated, but I always said I wanted to be in Nolensville if anything ever happened to my grandparents and when my sister started having kids, so it worked out.

It took awhile to adjust back and sometimes I miss those hippie lifestyles. Never thought I'd be in a job on the 8th floor of a downtown Nashville building! Leah is in the states for a while with her husband, which is awesome. However, Leah continued traveling and is now a dual citizen of the USA and Australia. How crazy to think about!  We are forever bonded by our 9 month adventure and for that, I'm eternally grateful!

My favorite quote was, Always pursue your crazy ideas. I pursued and conquered my crazy idea!

August is a good month to check things off my bucket list

In my mind, I have a bucket list. One day I'm going to write these down, but I'm excited to announce that this list in my brain keeps getting shorter!

A few months ago,  I received the best piece of mail for the whole year. I was summoned for jury duty. While most people moan at this civic duty, I took a picture and posted it on Facebook expressing my excitement. I've always wanted jury duty and I finally was one step closer. If they took volunteers, I would have signed up!

I was able to change my date and chose this week and next week. The lady at the courthouse told me that she highly doubt that I would actually be called in. I made my phone call Sunday night after 6:00 as instructed. Well, lo and behold my panel was instructed to show up Monday morning! I was excited,  but also a little bit not excited, because since signing up for these specific weeks, they became very busy and it really wasn't the best time for me to be taking off work.

I arrive extra early Monday, hang out in an extremely quiet court room With other fellow potential jurors. They call names to come fill the seats behind the half wall, and yours truly was #13! Yes, my name was called! After a lot of questions and conversations, they started dismissing jurors,  but I got to stay. Yep, I was selected for a 2 day trial!

I won't go into details in regards to the trial, but the process was very interesting. I work in appeals, so I see a different side if this, and it made me happy that I don't do hearings daily!

Just a few notes, at 5:00, after a LONG testimony, the judge announces that there is protesting at the Franklin Square and it's raining are we ok to keep going so we don't have to get into any of that. We kept going until 6:30 that night. I don't get headaches, but my head was pounding and I was mentally exhausted! Due to these protest, which I never saw, we had an escort to the parking garage. I do appreciate the concern for our safety.

Plus side of jury duty, lunch at Meridees!

We wrapped up the trial Tuesday afternoon, spent a while deliberating and handed out the verdict. Luckily I wasn't chosen to be the alternate. I invested too much at this point and wanted to see the end! It's somewhat intense, a lot rides on our decision. I felt confident in my decision, and was glad that it wasn't something crazy, like a murder!

So, jury duty has been marked off of this imaginary bucket list. I'm ok if it takes another 36 years before I'm called in again. I still have to call in each day next week, so fingers crossed the other panels get pulled before me.

The reason why this was  not the best week for jury duty is because Friday is my last day at my current job and I'm leaving early at that to drive to Chattanooga to see my favorite band Moon Taxi with Leah.

So, because I feel like I should  announce my change of employment, I'm putting it here to see who actually reads this thing and reads it to the bottom. This is my 2nd bucket list item for August. This is a job I've been working the last 11 years for and I'm super excited for it. I love my current job, I can honestly say that It has been an amazing 2 years of growth and learning and I'm forever thankful this opportunity. I work with amazing people that I'm going to miss seeing daily. Please pray for my transition this coming up week.

In 2007, in one of my first MySpace blogs, I said I was on my way to being governor. I'm one step closer now! Haha!

Southern Hippie Out West

Living for 5 years in Chattanooga for college, I met some wonderful people. One of those people is my dear friend Amanda. We met my sophomore year and bonded over Jesus and NASCAR. We both had similiar raising, her in a small town in East Tennessee and me in a small town Middle Tennessee. We were briefly roomies, between when my lease at my apartment was up after graduation and me moving to Australia. Back in the day, texting and social media didn't exist, so it wasn't as easy to keep up with friends. I traveled and moved back to Nolensville and she packed up her Honda Civic and moved to Portland Oregon. We reconnect via Facebook and after catching up one night on the phone, I booked a ticket to Portland the next day to go visit her. A few years later, she comes back to Tennessee to get a new car and needed a road trip partner, so we spent a few days in Penny, driving back to Portland from Nolensville.

Fast forward to 2017, catch up after a few months and the next day I book a ticket to Portland! Best decision, because I just got home and had an absolute BLAST! Since I had done the Portland thing and the Oregon Coast stuff, we decide on camping at Mt St Helens. Leading up to this, I was stoked. I'm a secret history buff, and have wanted to go to Washington since the 5th grade when I did a project on the state of Washington.

I should really name this blog, the trip of flight delays! Finally making it to Portland Wednesday night, we hit up a local brewery. Yes please. Blueberry beer, it's hard to go wrong there! I should mention that Portland was experiencing record high temperatures and it was projected to be 105 Wednesday and Thursday. The weekend before, I checked the 7 day forecast and immediately texted Amanda thinking that something was wrong with my WeatherBug app! Nope, it was true. I should also mention that people in Portland don't have AC! Instead of an air mattress in th  living room, my air mattress was in Amanda's room, with the small AC unit and fan!

Thursday, we packed up Penny and got the last minute camping supplies and headed to Cougar Washington to camp out for two nights. On a super clear day, you can see Mt St Helens from Portland, however there are some really bad wild fires in Canada, which made everything smokey and you couldn't see the mountain until you were right on it. The campsite was situated on a lake, situated between two mountains filled with pine trees. The site was shaded, thankfully, and the water was cool! After setting up camp, we drove up to Lava Canyon to hike. Basically, after Mt St Helens erupted, it exposed this canyon from all of the vegetation and topsoil over it. It was a nice hike along the canyon and the river with some beautiful waterfalls there. The ground and rocks are still gray from the lava. Crazy how Mother Nature works!

Friday morning we got up and drove to a lake and went kayaking. The guy in charge was from Mississippi and said that people had been canceling in fear of heat strokes. Not us southern girls! It was a nice float.

We left and finished the drive to Mt St Helens. It was amazing to see exactly where the lava went and the destruction from the volcano. There were valleys and canyons created by the eruption. We ended up at Johnston Observatory, which is in a neighboring ridge and is 5 miles from Mt St Helens. It's named after David Johnston, who was the person monitoring The mountain. He was suppose to be off duty the day of the eruption, but filled in for another person. His body was never found.

The history is crazy. They knew there were changes to the mountain after a few earthquakes. The mountain expanded, sometimes by 5 feet a day. The people monitoring it thought it was a mistake, so kept taking pictures and measuring and realizing it was expanding. Most volcanoes erupt from the top, spewing lava, which the mountain had done previously. This time it didn't do that, it exploded through the side of the mountain and spewed debris. There was a wall if debris that took 3.2 seconds to go about 20 miles! It caused flooding in the river around it and flooded 1-5, which is about 60 miles away. It coated areas around it with ashes and the ashes actually made its way around the white world.

What sticks out to me the most is that the landscape was completely changed due to he eruption. The valley between Johnston Observatory and the mountain is 609 feet higher due to all of the debris. The area around it is protected and hasn't been touched. You still see trees that fell and were never removed. Vegetation was gone and all of the animals died too. The elk was the first animal back to the area.

Yes, the volcano is still active and yes, I paid money to go within 5 miles of it!

Saturday was a Portland day. Lazy day back at the apartment and then dinner at Franks noodle house followed by the most amazing ice cream at Ed and Bean!  A Portland must if you go there!

Sunday was a day of tubing down The Clackamas River. There was about 20 of us and we just tied our tubes together and floated down the river. Luckily Ben was so kind to tie us to his raft and navigate us down the river. I only lost my tube once, and enjoyed a nice float down the river sans a float. It was so much fun! I wish our rivers were like that and we could float like that!

 Monday was back home. It was a perfect few days. It's always Good to catch up with Amanda. It's like we never missed a beat! I'm thankful that she opens up her home and life to me and enjoys the same crazy adventures that I do.

And, best flight delay was from  Portland to Kansas City. There were 2 extra people on board of the flight and they couldn't figure out who. After checking the ID of everyone, they realized it was a Southwest glitch and we were all good. An hour later we were off!

If you ever get the chance, go to Mt St Helens. You won't regret it! And here's to 17 years of friendships and 2 southern girls hanging in The West!

Honduras

So, I recently returned home from my missions trip to Honduras. I went with my church to Mission Lazarus and it was amazing! I first heard about Mission Lazarus a few years ago when my brother in law went on a trip there. The following year, my dad went and I've heard stories since and have been wanting to go. The coolest thing is that the guy who started Mission Lazarus went to Page High School! What!

Last year was the first year my church went and due to Bonaroo and my family beach trip, I couldn't go. This year the beach trip is pushed back to October and Bonnaroo was a no (that's a whole other blog!) when I found out my church was going back, I knew I wanted to go. It was a huge decision, and a lot of prayer went into it before saying yes. The biggest concern was the $2500 for his trip. In my mind, I'm an adult with a good job who travels frequently, however I don't go in $2500 trips! I felt weird asking for support during this time due to the above mentioned. The whole time, I felt God saying, if you don't have enough faith that I will provide this money for your trip, then you don't have enough faith in me. Well, I trusted God and was able to raise over my goal of $2500! Thank you!

The first day was a long day of flying. Our plane left Nashville at 4:00 to fly into Houston, but we had I fly around Tropical Storm Cindy! We had a 3 hour flight from there into Tegucigalpa and that is one crazy landing! The plane flew in sideways and the pilot just set it down! 2 of the guys on the trip who were sitting behind me had their phones thrown about 10 rows ahead of us! It was a crazy landing. After a few hours hanging at the airport, we got on the smallest plane EVER to fly the short 30 minutes to Choluteca. It felt like a 4 cylinder car trying to gas it up a hill when we took off, and I was happy when we landed!

We made it to the ranch and had dinner and set up in our cabins. We did a tarantula and scorpion  check and had a nice nights sleep before 6:00 breakfast.

The first day, my group went to work on Santos house, which took about 2 hours to get there. We removed the tiles from the roof and starting adding to the height of the house to get it ready for the new roof. Let me tell you, it was HOT! It was easily 100 degrees and humid. I've worked on a mango farm in Darwin,  Northern Territory Australia and I thought that was hot, but at least there we had mango trees for shade!  We worked until 4:30 and we exhausted and worn out! It was after 7:00 before we made it back to the ranch and we were so filthy and tired!

The next day we drove 2 hours to a village to install 3 Latrines. The families have to dig the hole, and some of these holes were pretty impressive and then we come in and put the latrine together and install it. The hardest part was carrying the 500 pound slab of concrete. The first House we had to walk a goat trail up the side of a mountain to get to the latrine. I might of fell down during this walk. Shocker!! The first latrine we put together in 70 minutes and the 3rd latrine was in 30 minutes. We were on it. We also talked to the families and prayed with them. Such s cool experience.

Sunday we drove forever to church! This is the village that we raised money for so they could drill a well and have water for the first time ever! Due to road construction, we were 30 minutes late, but they waited to start church until we got there. This village is in the hottest region of Honduras and as you can imagine, there was no AC in the church! They kept the service short, 1 hour, just for us! The music was so cool sounding, even though I had no clue what they were singing, but we all worshiped the same God! The kids then got up and performed a song for us and it was so cute! All of the people had to walk to church in this heat. I can't imagine walking to church and it's only 3 miles away! I almost late to church weekly because it's so close and I always think I have more time then I do in the mornings getting ready! I have no excuse not to be at church on time after seeing this!

Monday was back to latrines and Tuesday was finishing Santos house. It was great to see the progress on his house! It was great to see it being so close to the end and almost move in ready! The thing that stands out to me about Santos house is that it is 3 rooms for his family. About the size of my living room and kitchen combined. He is a father figure to many kids and has more then his biological kids living with him and his wife. He recently went to Haiti with Mission Lazarus and came back to Honduras and said he has never seen poverty like he did in Haiti.  I can't imagine living like his family does and here he is seeing how there are people worse off then him and him knowing how blessed he is.

Wednesday we spent touring the ranch. Mission Lazarus had vocational schools to teach locals skills. These 2 year schools for these people. Most do this in lieu of a traditional high school. There are multiple students that walk 2-3 hours one way to get here. Up hill, might I add! That's dedication. We got to see these schools as well as the coffee plantation. They roasted coffee for us up there and made it over a wood stove. I'm not a coffee drinker, but this coffee was amazing! So good! We spent the day riding around to these places and the roads are rough, and rough is an understatement. Everyday my Fitbit showed that I got about 1,000 steps each drive. This particular drive, I got over 5,000 steps! All from the rough roads!

I came home exhausted, but recharged from this trip. It's humbling to be able to go and do this and show Gods love. I keep calling this a vacation, but it wasn't really a vacation. Our group worked our booties off and it was amazing. It made me appreciate my nice office job and the comforts of my home that I take so Easily for granted.  Mission Lazarus is an amazing organization and there are some good things going on down in a country that is somewhat corrupt.  Please consider praying for he people who give their lives to this organization and for good things to continue to come out of this organization. Hopefully I'll be back on the ranch again!

http://www.missionlazarus.org

Insomnia Much?

In my 36 years, sleep hasn't been an issue for me. I can sleep anywhere in any situation, no problem! I can't sleep late, but I can fall asleep! Well, that's changed recently and I'm not a fan of it!

I'm convinced that my lack of being able to turn my brain off and go to sleep is a side effect of my anti-malaria medicine I started taking back in June, which is right around the time I started having sleeping issues. Last night I googled side effects of this particular medicine and  nowhere  did it say that  insomnia was a side effect. AARP and WebMD both confirmed this, I think they are wrong. Generally medicine has the opposite effect on me. If I smell NyQuil, it knocks me out  for 3 days! I avoid certain medicines because they take forever to leave my system and I'm loopy for about a week!

While I'm googling last night, instead of sleeping, I also searched for the following information.
-Is Mount St. Helens predicted to erupt anytime soon? The answer is no, but it will erupt again.
- Does crying make you fall asleep? Yes, it does help induce sleep. Crying may be inevitable for me if this keeps up.
-What are symptoms  of sleep deprivation? My favorite is "klutz". What?? All I could then think about was that I have been sleep deprived my whole life and had no clue.

Around 11:00 last night, I thought if I rearranged my bedroom furniture, maybe I could fall asleep. It's at this point that I realize that there is no good way to move my furniture around and give up on the idea.

My co-worker suggested journaling before bed....does blogging in the afternoon count?

I finish the malaria medicine tomorrow, so hopefully  I'll get some sleep soon. In the meantime, I'm wondering if malaria is really worse then sleep deprivation?!?!