Hello Monday ~ August 17, 2026/Vacation - Day 1

 Happy Monday friends!

I have a few things from weekend to share, but then I am finally starting some of my vacation recap.  If you need blog content, I totally recommend you going on a 2 week vacation, ha, ha!  This may take a while to get through, so hang in there with me!

First, the weekend.  Friday, I worked that morning and then spent the afternoon and early evening with Jenn being at the funeral services and then spent some time with her family afterwards.  I have loved getting to know her family over the past few years and love them too!

Thank you for praying for Jenn.  She has been so well taken care of in so many ways by her family and community of friends.  It was such a sweet service to honor Chris' life.

I caught up on making some sourdough this weekend and also bought a new dutch oven Saturday at Wal-Mart.  The lid on my previous one was not closing properly and it was well used after baking sourdough the past 3 years.

Saturday, I caught up on some things at home since last week so busy catching up with work and friends and spending some time Jenn.  Clearly, I never really even got back to regular blog posting, reading or commenting much. As much as I love this space, I take advantage of face-to-face life as much as I can.  

One of my purchases on the Alaska portion of my trip was purchasing some postcards.  I was able to get these framed and on the wall Saturday.

I watched some of the Elvis candlelight service Saturday night.  Elvis died 49 years ago yesterday.  Every year on August 15th, there is a candlelight vigil at Graceland in his memory where people light a candle (that is distributed) and walk past the meditation garden at Graceland where Elvis, his parents, his twin brother, Lisa Marie and her son are buried.  I went 2 years ago with Brook and plan to go next year on the 50th.

Speaking of Elvis, when Brook and I arrived back into Memphis last weekend, this is what we were greeted with at the airport:

This also got me remembering the time I picked up my brother, who is also a huge Elvis fan, from the airport with this:

Well, somehow, this has turned into an Elvis post! I have so many more random Elvis pictures, but I will move on for now :).  

I left 3 weeks ago for a trip that I've been planning for 2 years!  I couldn't believe the time finally came! Brook took me to the airport early & I was on the way to Canada! My first stopover was Salt Lake City & seeing the beautiful mountains. Little did I know what was to come the next 2 weeks!

I once thought I would spend some time contemplating on some life things once I got on the plane, but nope, I was on the vacation of a lifetime, so I started it by watching my favorite movie, Rocky.  I love the original Rocky. Then I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  I forgot how funny that movie is. I may have shed a tear at both movies.

I saw this view of Mt. Rainier and so many other beautiful sights flying over the Pacific Northwest.

I landed in Vancouver, went through customs, collected my luggage and got an Uber to my hotel.  The drive into the city was so pretty seeing all the skyline. My room wasn't ready, so I dropped off my luggage and headed out to explore even though I was tired and hungry too.  I walked 10 minutes to an area called Gastown, one of the oldest areas of Vancouver.  The big attraction there is this famous steam clock that goes off every hour and draws a crowd.  There are lots of souvenir shops and restaurants in the area. I went into a food court and ended up having my first meal at a place called Fatburger.  What a way to start my vacation eating :). I skipped the bread, but the burger gave me some protein for the afternoon.

I was falling in love with Canada by this point.

I walked towards an area called Canada Place where all the cruise ships dock.  This was a huge Royal Caribbean ship, but I also saw about 4 other cruise ships here too.

From here, I took a free shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  This is a popular outdoor attraction that includes the highlight, a 460 feet long suspension bridge.  It also has a Cliffwalk and Treetop Adventures.  I walked all of these, shuttled back to Canada Place and walked 20 minutes back to my hotel.  I had clocked over 20,000 steps that first day and I didn't even leave the Vancouver airport until around 1pm that day, so most of my morning was sitting on an airplane.  Needless to say, I was pure exhausted and adjusting to Pacific time.  I was in bed by 6:30, but waited until 8:30pm to go to sleep.  It took a few days to adjust to the time change.  I went to bed a with a full, thankful heart knowing I was there and had a great first day!

Below, I was definitely falling in love with the Evergreen trees.  These were a theme of the Canada trip for me that I could not get enough of seeing!

For every tree picture you see, just know there are so many more on my camera roll!

Thank you for reading and have a great Monday!

Hello Monday ~ August 10, 2026

 Good morning.  I am slowly getting back into blogging again this week after a 2 week vacation. 

I spent the last 2 weeks in Vancouver & Whistler, Canada, Seattle & Bainbridge Island, Washington and on a 7 day Alaskan cruise.  It was truly the best 2 weeks of  my life!  I will slowly share some of the trip here, but don't worry, I won't do a daily update considering I had a 15 day vacation!  

This was a vacation I had dreamed about for a few years.  I booked the cruise over a year prior to sailing date and booked these airline tickets 8 months ago.  It was everything I hoped and more.  

I landed at midnight Friday and was home by 1am.  There was a little adjustment back to my normal time zone with eating/sleeping, but I finally felt a little caught up by yesterday.

I came home to some really sad news from one of my best friends, who you all know and love too.  I spent 4 hours with Jenn Saturday morning and 5 hours Saturday evening/night.  I was so thankful to be there with her during this hard time.  Please keep praying for her and for all the things before her this week and the weeks to come.  

I heard of some other hard stories from friends too while I was gone. While there is so much sadness on this side heaven,  I am so thankful for the hope of eternity believers in Jesus have and we are able to grieve with that hope.  Heaven always gets a little bit sweeter.  

This is all I have for today.  I wanted to keep it short, but will be back this week with life & travel posts.  

Hello Monday ~ July 20, 2026

 Hello Monday friends!  Here is a little recap of the weekend.

Friday night was a super quiet, slow night.  I was home by myself and watched some tv.

Saturday, I went to a funeral and then went by John Mark's store on the way home.  He had 50% off the store before they renovate.

Afterwards, I stopped by to get me some frozen yogurt for lunch.

I came home to go through some clothes and listened to music.  My playlist is all over the place as you can see below....

I did something I rarely do. Okay, I don't think I've ever done this, but I picked up a co-worker at 9pm and we met some other co-workers around 9:30 on Beale Street, which is the famous street in Memphis and it has all the clubs.  We went to one and walked a little bit.  I was on my way home by 11pm though, which was late enough.  I didn't want to be out much later.  

I baked these 2 loaves of sourdough Sunday.  The first is a cinnamon loaf and the other is regular.

Sunday afternoon, I went to watch the World Cup at my Colombian friends' home.  They had about 40 people over!  There was so much food, including Argentina beef and Spanish tostados.  (more food after these pictures were taken)

Even though Colombia was out, we still wore our jerseys! We were glad Spain won.

My daughter had been gone for 8 days house/dog sitting, so it was good to have her back home finally on Sunday.  We watched a few episodes of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader show from the new season and I got very sleepy.

I was thankful for a weekend with a few things out of the house and of course, always time at home too.

How was your weekend?

Hello Monday ~ July 12/13, 2026

 Good morning.  How are you?  I published this on Sunday, but Hello Monday!

Does anyone here remember the tv show Emergency?  It aired from 1972-1977.  My sister and I loved this actor on the show.  He was one of our first childhood crushes, along with Erik Estrada and Donny Osmond!

My weekend was super slow.  I was at home from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning when I walked to church.  It was super quiet and a little lonely, but I made it through.  My daughter was dog/house sitting, so it was back to just me.  Friday after work, I did have a quick lunch with an old friend and it was so good to catch up with her.  

I have tried to get out a few days a week for an evening walk and have found this trail nearby.

Last week, we went to a Colombian restaurant to watch Colombia play in the World Cup.  They eventually lost the match in a penalty kick.  What a sad way to lose a game. But, being with Colombians to watch a game was such an experience.  It was like we had been transported to South America for 2 hours. One of the employees came around and gave us Colombia flag stripes on our faces!  People were blowing fog horns and of course, the entire game was played with Spanish commentary.  Here we are when we were filled with hope of a win! Wade also came too to have the full Colombia World Cup experience.  Now that Colombia and US are out of the World Cup, I am too.

Wearing our Colombia shirt and jersey!

Not too much has been going on with me except for watching a lot of tv and trip planning.  I have finished season 5 of The Bear and season 4 of Sullivan's Crossing.  I still need to finish Outlander and the new Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders shows.  Two shows I want to give a try are Elle and The Five Star Weekend.  Have you watched either of these?

Hope you have a good Monday!

Hello Monday~ July 6, 2026/Independence Day weekend

 Good morning friends!  I hope you had a good weekend.  Here is a recap of what has been happening in my neck of the woods.

I mentioned last week a sleepover was happening here.  Thursday after work, 4 of my great nieces ages 9, 6, 5 and 4 came over to spend the night with us.  They were so excited and we were too. Shortly after they arrived, we went to the pool.  There were some other guests there too and they were adorable....

This momma and her babies were in the water when we arrived. After the pool, we came back and the girls had their hair and make-up done and got into costume to perform a Wizard of Oz play for us.  They are darling.

After the play, we did a dance lesson online and then popped popcorn and watched some tv before bed. I love my new popcorn popper! This is under $10!  All you do is add kernels and put this in the microwave. This requires no oil, so it is a healthy snack.  They did request some salt on the popcorn though :).

Friday, we had waffles, grapes, and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Afterwards, we took a quick 15 minute walk to get some outside movement.  Brook and I are on either end of the girls.

Brook did an art lesson with the girls.  We baked some cookies, had some lunch and they were all picked up by 1:30pm.  

After they left Friday, I did some cleaning and meal prepping because I had 3 friends coming over for dinner Friday night.  Other than hosting my parents the first week of living here, this was my first time to have multiple people here to eat.  I didn't get a finished picture of the main dish, but this was it in prep stage.  I made salmon with pesto and tomatoes in a foil packet with asparagus, seasoned with my bourbon salt and pepper. It was delicious!  One of my guests eats Keto, so  I tried to keep most things Keto approved.

I served this with broccoli salad and had this board of snacks to eat before/with our meal.

I made a cheesecake fluff for dessert with strawberries and blueberries.

Everyone liked the food and we watched the World Cup games.  Colombia won again! 

Saturday morning, I made breakfast for Brook and I.  I wanted to make something special for her, so I bought these Sister Schubert Cinnamon rolls.  We use to have these all the time when she was younger, so it was a blast from the past for her to have one of her old favorites.

Unfortunately, the father of one of my best friends passed away early in the morning.  I went to the grocery store and bought some breakfast food and lunch food for her.  I stayed at her house for a little bit to listen and cry with her. My heart breaks for her and her kids.  She became a widow herseslf in her mid-30's with 3 young kids.  Her father was such a huge part of her life and her kids.  She is remarried now, but the loss of her dad and their grandfather hits hard.  I spent some time praying for her and for the families of last year's Texas flood victims' families.  May we grieve with hope and long even more for heaven.  Oh what a day of rejoicing that will be!  

I went to my sister's house for a few hours later in the afternoon on the 4th, but was home way before dark & took a walk.  Brook spent the day on her own.  I was thankful to give her a hug that morning before we went about our day.  

Sunday morning, I walked to church and then had lunch at home by myself.  I saw Brook briefly Saturday morning and then we did cross paths Sunday afternoon, when I took her to go see the rose garden I mentioned week before last. Shortly afterwards, she was out again, so I had a fairly quiet day at home. I ate chicken meatballs, broccoli salad and some slices of cheese for lunch.

How was your weekend?  Enjoy your Monday!