Just Say Julie

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...

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 gran...

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 Crim...

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 ...

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 an...

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...

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 C...

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 favori...

Prompt 1:  What’s your very earliest childhood memory? (Courtesy of Kristina) This one is actually easy for me.  I was two and it was during Hurricane Frederick.  Frederick was the last direct hit to Mobile and it occurred in September 1979.  It actually hit on my cousin's first birthday.  However, that isn't the memory.  I have heard lots of stories about that storm but what I remember is sitting on the couch watching my dad and my oldest brother, Vincent, walking out the back door of our house to check the damage to our house. (A tree fell on the house and did a number on the roof over my parents' room.)  I was sitting on the couch right across from the door and all I could see outside was gray.  (I'm not sure if it was early morning or why it was so gray.)  I remember thinking they weren't going to coming back because it looked like the had been swallowed up by the grayness. Prompt 2:  Do you have a habit that wouldn’t make...

I’m participating in  Ginger‘s Bring Back the Words (BBTW) link-up! Prompt 1:  What’s something you believe/support that 20 year old you would be surprised about, and why? 20 year old me would be surprised that I am a mom and I love it.  In college, I was always the one who said I didn't want kids.  I was going to be everyone's favorite aunt.  Even through my first marriage, I had no desire to have children.  Until I turned 30 and everything changed and then I got divorced and it started to look like having a baby would never be an option.  Even more so, I loved being pregnant.  I would go through pregnancy again.  I just don't really want another child.  This is not a surprise to me. Nor was the fact that labor was miserable.  And if I go back and think about it, that was always my issue with having kids.  But now I have and it wasn't fun but I'm glad I did because then my little J wouldn't be here. Prompt 2: ...

Week 2  Prompt 1:  Tell us a favorite summer memory. My mom and I actually talked about this on the 4th of July. Growing up my extended family would get together would get together somewhere near a body of water to celebrate. As we all grew older and got busier, we stopped having these celebrations. I miss sitting on the dock of my step-grandfather's beach house, eating watermelon, and spitting the seeds into the water.  Those were the days! Spent in and out of the water and in a bathing suit all day. That was the way I wanted to live life and, if I had my way, I would live near the water now (and I don't mean a lake like we have here). There is nothing like early morning with the sun rising over the water or the calm of the waves at night. So that is summer to me.  Week 2  Prompt 2:  What is your quintessential summer supply list? One of the things about summer growing up is that it was the start of hurricane season so summer always meant th...

I’m participating in  Ginger ‘s  Bring Back the Words (BBTW) link-up ! Prompt 1:  What is your best dating story? I can't really think of a best date because I was never a fan of dating.  Not in high school, not in college, not after college, and especially not post divorce.  I know I should probably say that Chris and I had a wonderful first date and while it was nice, it was nothing special (sorry, Honey!)  It was just dinner out and time to talk and it was good for us.  I didn't need anything fancy.  But what I will say is that Chris has been trying this year to find opportunities for us to "date."  About once a month we try to get a night out without the kids when we can get the chance (and preferably free babysitting) so we can spend a little quality time together.  It has been good for us as a couple because it is easy to get stressed out by work and home responsibilities and forget why we are together in the first place. ...

Since I was late to the party for Ginger's Bring Back the Words link-ups, I decided to go back and do a catch up post for the prompts that I missed.  Here we go! Week 1 Prompt 1:  Why’d you start blogging? I originally started blogging some time in 2005 when I moved to Texas because I thought it would be a great way to let my family and friends back home know what was going on with us.  I closed that blog and didn't save any of the posts unfortunately so I can't show what I posted back then.  This makes me sad because we did some fun stuff when we first moved and it was all documented there.  Then I started blogging on MySpace (ha!) when they added that feature.  I moved those posts over here after I setup this blog.  I decided to setup this blog because I like writing and, while I am not super consistent with it, I love having the option to get my thoughts on to paper so to speak. Week 1  Prompt 2:  What’s the best decision you ...

I’m participating in  Ginger ‘s  Bring Back the Words (BBTW) link-up ! Prompt 2:  Share a small moment of happiness and/or peace from your week. While trolling through my blogs on Wednesday night, I happened upon a post for our local 4th of July celebration.  I had forgotten that the city puts on a pretty big event for the day.  With Chris working most holidays, I normally don't really plan for us to do anything.  However, I sent a text to Chris this morning asking if he wanted to head down to the parade after he got home.  I thought the boys would enjoy it and it would be nice to get out of the house for a little while. So we loaded up, grabbed some breakfast, and headed downtown to find a spot to watch the parade.  Jackson got a bit testy waiting for the parade to start but he really seemed to enjoy sitting on his daddy's shoulders watch the parade go by.  I had so much fun watching him point and wave at the different sights he s...

I’m participating in  Ginger ‘s  Bring Back the Words (BBTW) link-up ! I am a little late to the game on Ginger's BBTW challenge but I think it will be good for me to give me something to write about and a deadline to get the post up. Prompt 1:  What is your worst dating story? Oh, there are many bad dating stories in my past but I think the most appropriate thing to mention here would be how my anxiety would effect my dating in high school and college.  It wasn't until I was an adult that I understood what caused all my issues.  You see when I was younger, I would get so excited about something that it would make me nervous and would cause me to get sick.  I pretty much didn't go on a date in high school or college that didn't require me to run to the bathroom or else I'd get sick in front of my date.  Somewhere around my junior year in college, I finally got over this problem but man, was it miserable while it lasted.  I remember o...

As bloggers, we often talk amongst ourselves about those topics we cannot write about. Everyone one of us has a subject or subjects that are off limits for a variety of reasons. It could be work, in-laws, a top secret military family member. Many in the community of bloggers create an unsearchable space to place the thoughts associated with those topics. And others, such as myself, just keep those thoughts to ourselves because of the fear that there is no true secret space on the Internet. But we don't often talk about the things we cannot say. These aren't the subjects that are off limits. These are thoughts in our minds that we can't write because of the emotion behind them. The words we won't say for fear of making true. This is what I am dealing with right now. I have a lot I want to say and a lot I need to say but can't. Not here, not anywhere. I am afraid that I will lose it if I open my mouth and pour my heart out. It seems my silence is the only thing ...

From this point forward, the artist formerly known as The Sheriff shall here by be referred to as Chris.  After all, that is his name and most of the people reading this blog already know who he is.  And I am lazy and tired of having to using my brain to remember to type in a nickname instead of his name.

I only have 10 days until NaBloPoMo starts so I am working on several posts to get me started.  The smart thing would be for me to start typing them up so I don't forget what I was planning to write like I normally do.  I also have to work on a new post for my paying gig .  I thought today would be a good day to utilize the blog prompts I stole from the NaBloPoMo website (which reminds me I need to run over there and steal some more.)  I picked what I think is an interesting one today and I would love to hear from my readers the answer to the same question.  So here is the question of the week: Everyone has a trick they depend on, a shortcut for something like fixing a flat, curing a headache, making a kid stop crying, or choosing a cantaloupe.  What's yours? I can cure hiccups on everyone but myself (and I am still having a bit of difficulty with the 6 year old but I will get to that.)  Now I am one of those people who will get hiccups several ti...

As part of my quest to blog more, I decide that this year I would attempt to take part in NaBloPoMo next month.  I am getting a bit of a jump start on the month by trying to get into the habit of posting more frequently.  In order to do that, I have decided to start using topic prompts as a way to kick start my thoughts when I don't have anything better to write about.  I am not crazy about this idea because I prefer just to write about what is going on in my life but I figure this will be a good way for my readers to learn a little bit more about me.  So here it goes: What's one thing you can't start your day without? If you had asked me this question two weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have been able to answer you.  But now, I know the answer without having to think twice about it.  COFFEE!!!  More specifically Gloria Jean's Butter Toffee for Kuerig coffee.  Now that I am commuting 30+ miles to work one way, I am having to wake up earlier and...

Welcome to my new blog home. I decided that a long with a new house it was time to move the blog as well. Bear with me as I transition.