Just Say Julie

It seems to be a common theme among my fellow bloggers that we are all having a hard time finding time to blog.  Fortunately, my friend, Ginger, is trying to do something about that.  First she put out a challenge to write on her blog more and invited us to join her. Then she decided to start her Bring Back the Words post prompts again. Yay! I love these since they give me something to write about instead of just writing about whatever comes to mind. So here we go with the first round of prompts. 1.) First day of school. I honestly don't remember anything significant about any of my first days of school. I guess that means nothing major happened so they don't stand out for me.  So I will talk about the boys. We are about a week and a half away from school starting here. Sean will be in fourth grade this year. And Jackson, well, he starts 3 year old PreK. He isn't changing classes at his daycare. They did that at the beginning of the summer so the kids could get used to

Since downloading the Time Hop app a few months ago, I have enjoyed the reminders of my past life. Pictures of a chubby cheeked Jackson. Tweets from my single days. Flashbacks to being pregnant. Lots of fun memories are stored in the various forms of social media I play around with. But today I got a reminder of one of the best moments in my life. Two years ago today, we found out my mom was cancer free. Six months of chemo were done and she was OK. The sense of relief I felt in that moment wa overwhelming. The past two years haven't been easy. Mom still struggles with weakness and endurance. She misses the independence she had before getting to sick. But she is still here and Jackson still has his Gran and we are all so grateful for that. She has a PET scan scheduled next month. If that one comes back clear, her changes of the cancer coming back decrease greatly. But for now, I am proud to know that my mom is a survivor and pray that we have many more years with her here. 

Nobody tagged me, but it seems like all my pocket friends are doing this right now so I figured it was a good excuse to dust off the old blog and do a few updates. 1. What is your favorite kind of cheese? My current favorite would probably be Jarlsberg. We bought a giant block of it from Sam's and I will just stand in the kitchen and cut off chunks of it to munch on. 2. What are you excited about? My new job! I start in a couple of weeks and I am really excited that I won't have a long commute anymore so I can spend more time at home. 3. How did you celebrate your last birthday? I cannot for the life of me remember anything about my birthday last year. I can't even remember what Chris got me as a gift. I feel terrible but I have no idea. I guess that means we will have to have a big celebration this year. 4. What is on your bedside table? A lamp, a couple of books, my iPad, a picture of Maverick, the baby monitor, and all the remotes for our bedroom TV for certa

I read a blog post this week that really ruffled my feathers. In it, the author insinuated that working mothers did not love their children as much or invest as much time in their children as stay at home moms. Needless to say, as a working mom I was pretty angry about the whole thing. So I did what any sane person would do and took the matter to Twitter where I found my righteous indignation to be well matched. I felt better knowing that others agreed with my viewpoint but I was still upset about the post and bothered that it had gotten to me so much. That really got me thinking. Did I really want to be a stay at home mom? Was that why this was eating at me? Do I really feel like there was truth to the thought that I wasn't investing in my child or that I was letting someone else raise him or that I didn't love him to my fullest? The answer is no to all of the above. There is no doubt that I love Jackson with all my heart. Anyone who sees us together knows that. Nor is ther

Hi there! It's your wayward blogger here. You remember how I said I was going to blog everyday for a month and then disappeared? Yeah, that wasn't good. Sorry about that. I have all the good intentions to make that up to you. I can't make any promises because life is still busy. But I do still want to record what's going on if for no other reason than for me to look back and see what happened. I'd still like to talk about some of the topics I set up for November. So I'm back and I have plenty to write. Here's hoping I can actually get it down on paper. 

I liked the idea of a to do list last year better than resolutions so I decided to do the same this year.  I have a feeling I might add a few more things to this list as the year progresses but for now this is where I stand. Take a trip that doesn't include visiting my parents or any other family. Pay off a couple of credit cards and keep them paid off.  Go on at least 1 date a month with Chris. Take the boys to Disney World. Read 24 books that are being turned into movies. Spend an entire weekend kid free. See Alabama play in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Participate in NaBloPoMo. Complete the 52 Week Money Challenge. Read the entire Bible Celebrate Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary in January. Do at least 1 fun family activity a month. Keep money in our savings account all year. See my nephew graduate from high school in May. Lose the remaining 20 (or 25) pounds I need to get off. Find a new "For Me Only" activity. Watch all of Veronica Mars before t

2. Take Jackson to his first football game. Done - One of the local colleges started a football team for the first time in 68 years.  We decided to go support the Southwestern Pirates and, in turn, took Jackson to his first game.  He wasn't ready for it and we left at halftime but I'm glad we can say we did it. 4. Read  The Great Gatsby  before seeing the movie. Nope - I tried, I really did.  I got several chapters in but the language and the writing is strange to me and I can't follow it.  I still haven't seen the movie though so I added it back to my list and I am going to try again this year. 5. Get another tattoo as a tribute to Jackson. Nope - I can't figure out what I want or where I want it. Nor can I decide if I want to go through the pain again. 6. Take a trip that doesn't include visiting my parents. Done - Although this wasn't the way I expected to accomplish this.  I went to a training course in DC with my boss for a week in June.  I hadn'