Just Say Julie

     Thanks to Ginger 's Bring Back the Words linkups, I have been blogging a lot more recently. However, I haven't really talked much about what has been going on with us, just responding to her prompts.  As you all know, we sold our house and moved in May.  School ended and our summer began.  I'd like to say I'm one of those moms who plans all these fun activities for my family to do during the summer.  Truth is our schedule doesn't change much just because it is summer.  Sean went to camp at his school and Jackson attended the summer session at his daycare.  My office implemented summer hours which meant I worked 10 hour days 4 days a week with Fridays off (normally we do 4 9's and half day Fridays).  The only major change this year was having Sean here rather than heading to his mom's for the summer.  So I thought I'd do a quick recap of our summer now that it is coming to an end. June: I spent a week in DC with my boss attending a conference a

Prompt 2:  School is starting for a lot of people these days. Tell us your most memorable “back to school” related story. I didn't get this post in before the cut off for Ginger's link up last week but I still wanted to write my story so here it is.  I don't remember anything significant happening on any of my days heading back to school.  I can remember loading down the car to drive to Marion for college (my freshman year sticks out most in my head).  I can remember helping out with registration at Murphy when I was a cheerleader.  But mostly, the back to school moments never really seemed like a big deal to me.  What does stick out to me was the year I had to change schools in elementary school.   Growing up in Alabama, even in the 80's and 90's, racial tension was always an issue.  So much so that I was forced to change schools when I was heading into the 4th grade because they were cracking down on the districting that was in place as a result of segreg

Prompt 1:  Tell us a story that is “family legend.” In this week's installment of Bring Back the Words, Ginger is asking us to tell a story about a family legend.  Well, this prompt has been wracking my brain trying to come up with a story to tell.  I keep thinking back to stories I heard from my grandmothers and their sisters growing up but none really seem like legend.  So I decided to tell a story that isn't so much legend because I actually lived it.  It is the story of how I met the elusive Harper Lee. If you have ever read the novel To Kill a Mockingbird , then you know it is set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama.  What you may not know is that it is based on the town of Monroeville, Alabama, which just so happens to be my father's home town.  Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville and was known as Nelle to those who knew her in town.  That included my grandmother who taught Nelle (aka Harper) in the 4th grade before she married my grandfather.  I remember hearin

     I finished reading John Green's Looking for Alaska last week. As with many of the books I have read recently, I didn't really know much about the book before I read it.  I had just heard some recommendations for John Green's work and I decided to check it out.  I was pretty excited when I read the synopsis that the book took place at a boarding school in Alabama.  I just knew this book was going to remind me of my time in Marion and I was right.        You see, I went to college at a Southern Baptist women's college that was three blocks away from a military boarding school in small town Alabama.  MMI, the military school, was a high school and junior college.  While I was there, they added 8th grade to the school.  Most of the younger students were locals who opted to attend the school over the local public school so they could receive a better education. However, there were several students at the school who were sent there because they were behavior problems

Prompt 1:  Tell us about a hobby/addiction/obsession of yours. I used to have hobbies.  I would cross stitch and scrapbook.  I danced when I was younger.  I acted in musicals.  I was an avid reader. And then work got busy and I got married (again) and had a baby and my hobbies kind of disappeared.  I moved my scrapbooking supplies for the 3rd time and still haven't taken them out of the box because I have no time and no space to work on all the books I have wanted do over the last 5 years.  Same with the cross stitch work.  And the dancing and musicals fell to the wayside as I got out of shape thanks to sitting at a desk all day with no exercise.  I am trying to read more but even that is hard to fit in.  So I really don't feel like I have hobbies anymore.  But I am hoping that will change. As for obsessions, well, there is this certain college football team I am kind of fond of.  You know, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide.  Heard of them?  I mean they aren't v

Prompt 2:  A getting to know you list–share all the places you’ve lived (and if you want to, how you got there, and why you left). Bonus points for expanding on whether you plan to stay where you are now, or if you have a dream location you still want to get to. I'm not sure if I will answer Ginger's other prompt from this week because I have absolutely no idea what character from a TV show I would want to be.  So I'll have to think on that one and come back to it.  But talking about where I've lived is pretty easy because it hasn't been that many places. 1977-1995: Mobile, Alabama - Obviously, this is home.  I was born here.  I have spent the majority of my live (so far) here.  I wouldn't be opposed to returning here one day. 1995-1999: Marion, Alabama - I'm not really sure if I should count college but I did spend 90% of my time in this town while I was in college.  Although I like going back to visit Judson's campus periodically, I know I wo

Prompt 2: What are your top 5 favorite vacation locations? The second prompt from this week's Bring Back the Words linkup asked us to list our top 5 favorite vacation destinations.  This one was harder for me than I thought it would be because I realized when I started writing it that I really hadn't traveled as much I would have liked in my lifetime.  So I had to try to pick from the places I have actually been.  I didn't really want to include any of the traveling I've done around Texas, not that there aren't lovely places to visit here, nor did I want to count trips to see family.  So here are the places that my list. New York - My mom work for the University of Mobile Theatre Department for several years after I graduated from college.  Every other year, the director would take her seniors from that year & the upcoming seniors to New York to see shows and tour the city.  The last four times she took the trip before leaving the school, Mom and I were

Prompt 1: Share your top 10 favorite TV shows with us. One of the questions Ginger gave us this week was to list our top 10 all-time favorite TV shows.  Just like the movies last week, it was hard to narrow it down to 10.  I love TV.  I watch a lot of TV.  I easily have more than 10 shows scheduled a week on my DVR.   So I really had to think about the shows that I could rewatch again and again or the ones I was upset to see cancelled.  Here is my top 10 (in no particular order) with a few extras added in. Sex and the City - We didn't have HBO when Sex and the City was on so I didn't watch it until after it was over and I purchased the entire box set.  I loved this series.  I firmly believe there is a Sex and the City episode that relates to most of the issues women face.  I can think of several episodes that I have encountered personally.  (I'm a Charlotte by the way.) JAG - This was a show that my parents and I would watch each week.  It played into my love of men

One of the things we have been excited about in our new neighborhood is the number of kids Sean's age on our street.  We live on a cul de sac and there is a playground at the entrance so there are kids out playing all the time.  This is something we didn't see much of in our old neighborhood.  There were kids but they weren't out as much.  So it has been nice having others around for Sean to spend time with until Friday.  There is one little boy who lives across the street and he has just rubbed me the wrong way from day one.  If we tell him Sean can't come out because it's dinner time or too late then he starts questioning us.  He basically has no respect for our rules (I know...he's only 8 but still) and we know he has rules at home because we've met his parents and heard some of the things he gets in trouble for.  However, things reached a breaking point on Friday.  Eric was at our house and left only to be sent back a few minutes later beca

I am participating in Ginger's Bring Back the Words Link up ...check it out! Prompt 1: In another life, what career/job would you have, and why? I've thought a lot at different times through my life what I would do different if I was able to start over and select a different career.  There are a couple of ideas that have crossed my mind at different times and given the right circumstances, I could have made them happen.  But let's first start with my current career.  I decided to study business in college because I had a dream of opening my own dance studio and I figured a business background would help me know how to run the place and my school didn't have a dance major.  My first business classes included accounting principles and, much to my surprise, I was actually really good at it.  Accounting made sense to me.  Once I realized that, my path changed and suddenly I was exploring my options for completing an accounting degree and sitting for the CPA exam.  The

Prompt 2:  Give us your top 10 favorite movies of all time. So Ginger gave us something a little different to work with this week for our weekly link-up prompts.  We are supposed to list our top 10 favorite all time movies.  Well, most of my fellow bloggers couldn't limit it to just 10 and I'm not sure I will be able to either.  So I have decided to just list my favorite movies in no particular order. Mona Lisa Smile - This movie reminds me so much of my college experience.  Even a women's college in the 90s had a tendency to feel like we were still living in the 50s or 60s. Under the Tuscan Sun - I watched this the first time around the time I was going through my divorce and it just hit home.  While I didn't decide to movie to Tuscany, I did decide to move to Austin all on my own.  Not exactly the same (OK...not even close) but I knew what Frances was going through. Chasing Amy - I love Kevin Smith movies but this one is my favorite of his. Lion King