Stress-free Weekend

Hi everyone! Happy happy Monday! I hope everyone is as blessed as me on this holiday and was able to stay home and just watch the snowfall. If you had to go somewhere during Snowmageddon… I hope you made it there and arrived home safely. I personally stayed home for the whole day today… soaked in the tub… and did a little studying.

So let me share with you a little about my weekend! I go on a retreat three times a year. It has been canceled for the past two years due to Covid. They started it back up again this year. So I just attended the spring Jacksons Mill round up. It’s held at the Jacksons Mill 4H camp in West Virginia. The camp is now owned by West Virginia University.

It was an amazing weekend filled with speakers, fellowship, spirituality and love. 

When there’s downtime from speakers and activities we go on little shopping trips in the West Virginia area. We have different little local stores we got to and buy jams and jellies, canned beets and tonics, sometimes we even get knickknacks and homemade pickles.

We always go to this store below… They have all kinds of really fun country knickknacks and gifts for people. When we stopped this time we heard that the owner is closing the store for good. I guess they’ve lost a lot of money due to Covid. They have this giant Sasquatch out in front of the store. The store owner said he was purchased and he will be moved to his new location in March. So this will be our final visit to the store and no more pictures of Sasquatch… Here’s our final couple pictures …

These two people are my absolute heart and soul! They are the most amazing friends on the planet and I feel so blessed to have them in my life. We normally all see each other every time we go to the mill. In case you don’t know I’m the one in the Steelers jacket.


Another thing we do every time we’re at the mill is go to the Jane Lew truckstop. They have a restaurant there that has this painting on the wall. The painting is of the Civil War. You can see the blue side and the gray side. The meaning of signed by what we think is a local artist Charlotte Gerstack. We eat here every time we’re here and we get a picture in front of Jesus. As you can see in the picture below Laura is pointing to Jesus. Right in the middle of the fighting there is a man in all white with sandals. He’s holding a gun and fighting right along with both the blue and gray man. Has to be Jesus right? This is a bone of contention for everyone except me… I know it is Jesus. I just don’t know why he is holding a gun.


And here’s a close-up… Jesus, right?


I received a few check-in‘s from my cat sitter. She came twice a day to take care of the food and shots for Nermal. He did so great for her - here’s a screen capture of some of her texting… 

So she texted me each time she came and said he was great with the shots every time. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful cat sitter! She definitely loves my cats (and my home) like they’re her own.

They have lots and lots of photo albums from all the years gone by at the Mill. One of the committee members is always in charge of walking around and getting pictures of most of the people in attendance. We have been attending 3x a year for about 24 years now. I found these great old pictures. This one is from about 20 years ago. I am using these to inspire my diet… Lol! I was so thin and young!



I really love this old picture below… It was the three of us that I told you hang out together plus a gentleman named Vaughn. Vaughn passed away last year and he is so missed! The guy smiling in the back row is another guy we see all the time at the mill. Vaughn brought everyone so much laughter and joy. Love you Vaughn!


After that weekend of so much relaxation… I came home hearing about a snowstorm that was on the way to Pittsburgh. We made it home before any snow fell and I hunkered down to get ready to watch my Steelers beat the Chiefs. As you all know that did not happen… The Steelers are out of the playoffs. We lost to the Chiefs… Actually they killed us! But it seems like we might have a shot because of this guy… TJ Watt! He was amazing! The rest of the team just sucked- ha!


And here’s the snow when I woke up. I think we may be got 6 inches? Like I said I’m super blessed because I didn’t have to go anywhere and I hope everyone else stayed safe as well!


The absolute best decision we’ve made in this condo building is the assigned parking spaces. Soon as it finished snowing I went out and shoveled my space and shoveled the hump that the snow plow makes behind the cars. I have a nice, clean, reserved spot just for me! Yay! Every year before this I would shovel a spot, leave and someone would take my spot. Finally, last winter I ended up shoveling the whole freaking parking lot. But I’m happy to report… I only have to shovel my spot now.


I also made a big pot of homemade chili. It was wonderful to watch the snowfall and eat chili. I had it for dinner last night and lunch today. I’m now heating a bowl for dinner today. I think I’m going to freeze the rest of it because how many days in a row and how many meals in a row can you eat chili? Ha ha


And finally… I’m going to spend the rest of my evening prepping for my first class tomorrow. On Tuesdays I have Nur210 -Nursing Leadership and Management principles. We have some videos to watch and some reading to do. Then later in the week on Thursday I will have my first clinical for maternity. We will be working on Thursday from 2 PM to midnight at a hospital in the Pittsburgh area. I’m super excited for this first maternity clinical- I will let you know how it goes!!!


I hope everyone had A great weekend and has an even better week!

Update: thanks again for all your supportive and encouraging comments on my dosage calculation test. The retest is on Monday January 24th and I will let you know how it goes immediately after. Thanks again for all the love and support!!!

Do you get sick of food you cook and have to freeze it before you can finish it? How much snow did you get? We’re you off work or school today?

Hugs everyone -stay safe out there!!!!

Beach Break Anyone?

Happy Monday ya'll!!!! 

I am using ya'll in the best southern drawl I can do!!! 

I spent the weekend at an amazing Conference in Jacksonville, Florida called the Southern Women's Conference and it was AWESOME! It is the first annual Southern Women's Conference and it was phenomenal! I met a ton of great ladies that are in recovery, heard SO many awesome speakers (testimonials) and also got to escape the Pittsburgh cold for the weekend....what a win win win in my book!!

Here is the obligatory selfie at the airport as I was waiting to the shuttle for the hotel...

Speaking of the shuttle; the hotel shuttle driver told me when he picked me up at noon on Friday that it was supposed to storm and be under 60 the entire weekend. I am happy to report he was WAY wrong. It ended up being 65 - 70 and SUNNY the whole weekend in Jacksonville, FL! YAY!!!

It was a weekend packed with women speakers on recovery from alcoholism and every one of them was amazing! There was not a lot of down time at all so I figured I did not need a rental car and that is why I took the shuttle from the airport right to the hotel.  

Here is the program to show you how packed the schedule was!!

I was able to squeeze a walk in on Friday afternoon....I had to get that in because I was worried after the shuttle driver said storms all weekend...it was beautiful there!!!!

There was a cute little pond by the hotel...I was literally walking around the airport as my hotel was technically at the airport just down the road a little - HA!

Saturday afternoon I was able to find an hour to lay under this palm tree and grab a quick nap! Ahhhh...

Saturday night - this was the view from my hotel window when I went upstairs to go to sleep....so pretty!!

There were a lot of crafters there...I found this awesome mug to bring home!!! I love the thing that looks like a crack in the top...I found it very ironic...seeing how I "put myself back together" with the help of a fellowship!!! So I bought the damaged one...very representative! HA

So the event was over on Sunday morning and I decided that I could not leave Florida without seeing a beach!!! I called the airport and got a rental for five hours! HA HA! I had the hotel shuttle take me to the airport and got a rental to drive 1/2 hour to the Little Talbot Island. It is a State Park in Florida...you all know how much I love State Parks from when I was traveling!!!  This did not disappoint.  I was able to take a three hour walk down and back on the beach and it was breathtaking!
Here are a few pictures I took...

Beautiful, right?

Then I saw this little guy. I thought he was stranded on the beach and I was so excited to run and save him by tossing him back in the ocean.

Sadly, upon closer inspection, I think he was dead. He had the ends of all his arms broken off and was very still. But I threw him back in just in case there was a possibility he was just playing dead... :-(

I just love State Parks for the raw nature they show you...

It was truly beautiful there...

On my drive out of the park...there was a huge swarm of birds circling and squawking like crazy...I mean hundreds of them flying in circles. I had to stop the car and get a picture....It went on forever. I have no idea what they doing.

Jxjj

The pictures can not do not do it justice...it was so strange and I have never seen anything like it before! Weird...

Soo beautiful...

There is nothing I love more than water!! Ahhh...

I drove back to the airport and turned in my rental car. As soon as I started walking to check my luggage; I got a text from Delta that my plane was delayed for two hours due to mechanical difficulty. That is the downfall of being two hours early for your flight. So I was trapped at the airport for five hours until take off....I had a nice relaxing dinner and Candy Crushed A LOT!!! HA HA!

I am grateful that I had the opportunity to attend such a spiritual and amazing weekend with a ton of awesome and grace-filled women!!

Happy week everyone! Hugs to each and every one of you!