Honey, I'm home!

I can't believe I've been gone for 9 months! Sheesh, I could have had a BABY in that time. Thank goodness I didn't...Lord knows I'm too old and way too busy for a baby. Now a grand-baby?  Maybe one of these days.

So, where did we leave off?  Oh yes, I do believe it was February.  Where oh where do I start.  Well, it's been a VERY busy year.  I'll do my best to catch up and not bore anyone to tears.

The most exciting thing that has happened all year is that my beautiful oldest daughter, known here as "Bear" got married in April.  Crazy, isn't it? I'm WAY too young to have a daughter of marrying age, right?  Hardly! Bear got married to her fiance Barry (I did NOT make that up.) and it was a lovely, perfect wedding.

We were all thrilled that everything came together beautifully. It was both exhilarating and a huge relief at the same time. 

After the wedding, we slid into a very warm summer.  Sometime in mid May, Kona managed to tear his CCL (the dog equivalent to our ACL)  He had to have knee surgery on July 9th.  Not fun, not fun at all! 

We are extremely lucky to have a huge support system, many of them coming from Kona's FaceBook page. If you are on FaceBook, be sure to like his page. He goes by Kona the Love Sponge. I may have been gone from here for a while, but I've been busy on his page just about everyday. Priorities, right?  Haha! 

Back in July I also did something that some people might have thought was a bit odd.  I shaved my head.  One of my dearest friends is battling breast cancer, and I shaved it in her honor and to share the experience with her.  My hair has pretty much grown back now, but she is still fighting, and if I had my way, I'd still be bald.  

I didn't mind the look, and it sure was easy!  It was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat...

Kona's rehab took quite a while, but in the long run it was totally worth all the work we did with him.  He had weekly cold laser therapy sessions and underwater treadmill sessions.  We were so thankful to find a fantastic place to take him.  Here is a little bit of what he went through.

Kona wasn't the only one who surgery this summer. The Boy managed to do a heck of a job messing up his knee and also had ACL surgery...He also had a summer of physical therapy and work to get back on his feet.

As they say, if it's not one thing, it's 15 others, right?  

So now, here we are, staring the holidays in the face.  I know I've said it before, but it's amazing how the time flies. The Boy is back at school at Purdue University for his final year. It was just yesterday that he was leaving and I was a sobbing mess.  Bear is married, and Pickle, my baby, is out and about, enjoying her independence and spreading her wings. She turns 21 in less than a month. I swear I was just taking her to kindergarten...

Hubby and I celebrated out 24th anniversary in Oct.  No Halloween party this year - the wedding was enough to take care of this year.  We are kicking around the idea of another Halloween blow-out next year, but that is still to be determined.  

The dogs keep us busy - Harley will be 12 in April, Jill tunrs 10 next month, Kona turned 7 last week, and our puppy, Lucas (aka Squirt) is already 18 months old! Remember when he was just a little guy? Yup - time flies indeed. 

Well, that's it for now...a little bit of catch up. I'm sure I've forgotten a ton of stuff, I mean it has been 9 months for goodness sakes.  I'll be back soon, and I promise it won't be another 9 months.

Well, so much for that!

I had every good intention of blogging at least once a week this year.  Ha! What was I thinking?  That I might actually have time to blog?  Silly, silly me.  Here it is Feb. 1st already and I've posted exactly ONCE so far this year.

January was busy month.  I did a LOT of visits with Kona, committed to working more with Lucas (aka Squirt) on his manners (he is a work in progress) and so much more.  I visited with some old friends, had a wonderful spa day with one of my besties, surprised another of my besties for her birthday, made a quick trip to Vegas, went to a bridal fair with Bear, had lunch with a couple of different friends on different days, attended the funeral of the father of an old friend, went to a couple of dog events, saw a movie or three, fell down and nearly knocked my teeth our, worked on wedding stuff, worked some gold parties and fundraisers,went on a super cool scavenger hunt, and so much more.  No wonder I didn't get the chance to blog!

But here I am now, so no hard feelings, right?  Here are some photos from the month just to keep you in the loop.

I won a couple hundred bucks on this spin!

 Nice fat lip, huh?

 Silk flowers arrangements we made for Bear's Bridal shower.

 Hard at work and having a blast!

 I got an "UP" by Jawbone, and it monitors how much I sleep (or in my case how much I don't sleep!)

Nothing more fun than surprising someone you love!

 We got most of the invitations out!

 Hanging with Syl and Bear at a bridal fair.  Lots of good ideas, and goodies to taste and drink test!

Playing with the pups- first pool fun on the year.

 Visits and more visits!

 If he were only as well behaved as he looks.  Haha!

Enjoying an evening out (doing a super fun scavenger hunt) and enjoying a walking tour of our lovely city. 

365 Days of Gratitude

Well howdy!  See, I told you I'd be back soon.  Here it is, the 2nd of January, and I am thinking about the year to come. I am so thankful that 2013 was a good (or at least BETTER) year for me and my family for the most part, and I am hopeful that 2014 will also treat us kindly.

Last January I stumbled across a post somewhere (maybe it was on Facebook, maybe Pintrest, I don't remember) about how someone made themselves a jar of "Happy Moments."  I loved the idea and decided to do one for myself.  Here is an excerpt of what I wrote about in on my FB page.

This is the best idea I've come across in a long while. I saw this at the end of last year, and added my own little twist. Last year (2012) was a really tough year for me - so I was determined to remember the good moments of 2013. With each note I wrote I included a little cash. This morning, on New Year's Day 2014, I opened up each note, reminisced about the happy moment, and started adding up the cash. When all was said and done, I have some incredible memories, and $826! AWESOME! This will be a yearly tradition for me for sure!

Here are some pictures from when I opened my jar yesterday...it was so fun! 

As I mentioned, I will be doing this again this year for sure!  It was a wonderful way to stroll down memory lane and remember all of the really joyful days I had in 2013. The extra cash at this time of year is pretty sweet to have too!

I've already started my jar for this year - and have my first "happy moment" note it in - with a bit of cash of course.

I've heard about 2 other really fun things I think I'm going to at least try to do this year as well.  The first is the "weekly bank" game that so many people have been talking about.  You start off the first week of the year, week 1 of 2014, and you put $1.00 into a piggy bank, or other safe place.  Then, at the end of week 2, you put $2.00 in the piggy bank, and so on...until the last week of the year, when you are supposed to put in $52.  If you do it every week without cheating, at the end of the year you will have $1378!  That's not shabby! 

I LOVE this idea, but once again I'm going to put my own little twist onto it.  I'm going to reverse the order. I'm going to do a count-down with the money (since my funds always seem to be tight at the end of the year with family birthdays, holidays, etc.) So, every Friday, starting with tomorrow, I'm going to put money into a piggy bank.  Tomorrow I'll put in $52.  Next week on Friday I'll put in $51, the week after that $50.  You get the point.  I think it will be fun to do, especially if I can remember to do it each Friday!

The other thing I'm going to try to do this year is to post my 365 days of Gratitude.  Again, someone mentioned this to me, and I thought it would be a fun and easy thing to do.  This one is very simple. Each day you take a photo of something you are thankful for.  You post it either on your blog, or FB or Instagram, etc, and you simply mention what it is you are thankful for at that moment.  You don't need a long explanation, just the date, a couple of words and the photo.  I think this will be really fun to do.

Since it's only the 2nd of January, I figured it wasn't too late for me to start doing this.

So, here goes for my first two posts.

Jan. 1, 2014 - I am thankful for this group of friends, and so many others that weren't able to be with us on the stroke of midnight. 

Jan. 2, 2014 - I am thankful for these lemons, picked from the little tree in my yard just this afternoon. Without lemons we couldn't enjoy the sweet taste of lemonade. Corny? Maybe. But certainly true.

So...give it some thought and let me know if you plan on joining me in any of these little adventures...I'd love the company.