Talking About it Tuesdays ~ 2016 Trends

 Good morning friends!  Have you seen the social media viral trend of posting photos from 2016?  I am sharing some photos from my 2016 year!

In 2016, I was still living in Bogota, Colombia South America.  I was in the states for Christmas and New Years though.

This is Brook and one of her best friends, Catherine, on NYE.  This summer, Brook will be maid of honor in her wedding!  And, we went to their house this past year on NYE too! Her mom is a dear friend of mine.

These 2 friends are still dear to me and we watched the season premiere of The Bachelor together.

Upon our return to Bogota, we prepared for Isabella's fiesta de quince....her 15th birthday celebration. It was one of our best nights!

Remember me going to see my Colombian friends, who now live in Australia, in Dallas in December? Here they are with Isabella 10 years ago!

My girls :)

This girl loved being the only American in her Colombian school!

We took a family vacation to Cartagena.  This was such a milestone for us to travel within the country for a vacation instead of a work event.  In our 3rd year of living there, we finally felt comfortable with our Spanish to do this and we loved it.

This was Mother's Day 2016...Edwin, Isabella, me and Brook.

This is Clara, our beloved Spanish teacher.  I love this woman and miss her so much.

Summer of 2016, I flew back to the states and went to my last Huey Lewis concert.

I love this picture of my girls! This was at one of our favorite places.

We took a team retreat to Villa de Leyva, a beautiful town a few hours from Bogota.

I miss the bread, juices, soups and hot chocolate from Colombia.

In the fall of 2016, Brook and I traveled to NYC and met my parents there for a few days.  Isabella was in school and Brook had returned to homeschool, so she was able to travel with me.

Later that fall, we began saying our goodbyes to dear friends in Bogota.  I met these 3 girls in Colombia during my first visit in 2009 & we reunited when we moved there in 2014.  I still keep in touch with them via social media & love them.

This is group picture of some dear friends on a farewell dinner with us. Edwin and Clara were with us this night.

This is my dear friend, Sarah, who I was able to see last summer when she was visiting Kentucky.

And of course, my dear Edwin.  

Brook and I on our way moving back to the U.S.A.!

One of the first things I did was meet my new and first great-nephew!  He is 9 now!

There were so many things to buy moving back to the states, but one of our first purchases was a car! We still own this car.

I am not sure why this is such a trend, but it was interesting to look back at 2016 at a glance!

Hope you have a great day!

Hello Monday ~ October 20, 2025

Good Monday morning to you.  Even though we have had some good weather days, I feel like mid October is when we finally make the turn and enter fall weather to stay and it is just what I need!

I hope you all had a good weekend.

I wasn't around home much, but here is a re-cap!

My Friday morning had a rough start, but I was thankful to go to my sister's after work and see most of my greats and get some hugs.  I had been in a hug deficiency with no hugs last week. This was the best way to make up for some hugs!  We took 6 of the kids to a pumpkin patch/farm.

My purse quickly became full of all the "can you hold this?".... cups, stuffed animal, camera, misc. Next time I will bring a backpack!

I shared a twin bed with this cute 5 year old and we had a big sleepover Friday night.

Saturday morning, I took these 2 to the local farmer's market.  One had shoes, the other forgot hers :).

We got one more with us and went to lunch and they ran errands with me.  It was a full Saturday afternoon!

We all gathered as a family to celebrate my great nephews upcoming 9th birthday!

After this, I drove in a rainstorm to celebrate my co-worker's 21st birthday.  She celebrates the same birthday and is the same age as my daughter.  I call her my work daughter and love her dearly.

Sunday, I went to church and had a few showings at my house.  I am still waiting on the right buyer and an offer.  Pray it comes soon!  I hung out at Jenn's house for the afternoon then went to my small group that evening for dinner. I was glad to be back home after being gone most of the weekend.

Hope you have a great Monday and thanks for reading!

 

Hello Monday ~ September 22, 2025

Happy Monday blog friends! It was a full weekend with a sweet celebration.

My weekend started with work Friday morning and I had two sets of workers at my home finishing projects.  I am so thankful for this! I am also thankful for the prayers on Friday. Later in the day, I got ready for a night out at The Peabody, the South's grandest hotel.  This is the nicest and most well known hotel in Memphis.  My father received an award for his work and it was an honor to be there to see this.

This is my family of origin, my sister, brother, me and my parents. Side note, my 12th great will be born today!  This will be sister's 11th grandchild  and my brother has 1 grandchild.  So my parents now have 12 great grandchildren!

There was a cocktail hour and the meal was fabulous!

Look at the cute butter!  The Peabody is known for their famous ducks!

Steak, salmon, cauliflower, and mashed potatoes

Cheesecake and brownie for dessert

It was such an honor to hear all these doctors tell stories of how my dad has influenced them. My father has taught over 14,000 medical students over the past 50 years.  He has earned more awards as a faculty member than any other professor. 

This mobile security rover was in the parking lot.  Have you ever seen one of these before?

I loved my Saturday morning and spent most of the morning cleaning, watching football and I made sourdough for the first time in a few weeks.

My afternoon went different than originally planned, so I went over to Jenn's for a short visit. Sweet Chloe was there to show me love!

Sunday morning, I went to my church, but streamed Jenn's church to see her sing a solo with her church choir.  She did great and I met she and her family for lunch afterwards.

Sunday afternoon, I cleaned a little more and watched the movie Swiped. This is a new movie/documentary about the co-founder of Tinder and founder of Bumble.  It was interesting to watch and learn more about this.

I met up with Jenn and Kendra later in the evening.

Overall, it was a great weekend and I am thankful.

Happy Monday and thanks for reading!