Daytona Beach 2012

Our View

This could be the good life...

What is there to complain about?

45 years-the past is wisdom

 Monday, May 7th, 2012 marked the 45th birthday of Mr. Jack Hardeman...

my father.

I sat at the table across from him at lunch on Sunday and noticed what 45 years of life truly is.  I saw his once solid jet black hair turned gray.  The wrinkles that have formed around his mouth from smiling.  The callus on his hands from a life of over work and under pay. Saw wisdom in his eyes with a twinkle of mischief that time will never fade.  In that moment, I realized for the first time that my father would always be wiser than me. Because, not only does time bring change, it brings life lessons that are learned from experience. From age. 





So, here's to you 'Cracker Jack'.  Happy 45th Birthday. 
I'm sorry that life dealt us an odd hand-that until a couple of years ago, we didn't get the chance to start a relationship we should have had since my birth. However, the best of us is yet to come.  


To you, Dad.  A man who will always stand out in any crowd.  A man that has lived a life worth living.  A man who will always be loved. 


Thank you for being you.

Five Christmases

This year Patrick and I were shown how blessed we truly are with family.  With that said, Friday the 23rd started our insanity.  To go to most of our family Christmas gatherings meant that we would partake in 5 different Christmases with a 3 day period.

Our Schedule:

Friday:
   Christmas Eve Eve.  Work, last minute Christmas buying, cupcake making, gift wrapping, and our First of Five with my side-The Hardeman's.

Saturday:
  Lunch with Patrick's family-The Johnson side.  Supper with my family-The Jones side.  Then it was one more stop that night to have Christmas with my side-the Dykes's.  More cupcake making and gift wrapping when we reached home.

Sunday:
  We exchanged stockings.  Lunch with my dad.  A visit from Patrick's mom to exchange gifts then it was off to our last Christmas stop-The Joiner's.


I'm so thankful that we were able to make it to see most of our families this year.  Thank you to everyone for opening up your homes and sharing these times with us.  I am so thankful that my husband is so willing to go with me to all of my family functions.  Thank you to the Joiner's and the Johnson's for making me feel like a part of your family.  I look forward to do it all over again in 2012!

Here are a few of the wonderfully decorated Christmas trees:

Now, it's a week off with a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains~!

Has it really been that long??

It seems that I have become somewhat of a lazy blogger seeing that my last post was in August. I honestly can't believe it has been that long.  So, I present a catch-up in picture form:




September 2011:

Russ and Riley turned 8-Braves game and Lion King 3D! { to name a few ;-) }

October 2011:

October we celebrated our 1 year Anniversary.  Wish I could have gotten more pictures.

November 2011:

Although there are not many pictures, November was a busy month. However, the most important thing was my husband's 29th Birthday. Happy Birthday, Baby-I love you and can't wait to celebrate your 30th (with LOTS of pictures!)

A few birthday pics

Happy 50th Birthday Kathy!

 Josh made her a peanut butter cake.

Friends, family, and the celebration of life.

This weekend has been less than desired.  I suppose from the beginning, yes?


Friday, to spare you, I will just say that work set the foundation of suck.  All I looked forward to was getting off to go to Macon with Patrick.  Both of us set out for attire to wear to our friends wedding, a few gifts, and I needed to get decorations for Kathy's 50th Birthday Party (both the wedding and the birthday party were the next day, the wedding 2:00 in Eastman and the party 6:00 in Dublin).  


When we got to Macon we decided to start at JcPenney (in the old mall) and work our way over since we only had about 3 hours to work with.  Nothing found there to wear for either of us.  We made our way over to PartyCity to work on finding decorations.  We decided to get a helium tank, purple and silver latex balloons, a Happy Birthday cellophane balloon, her name in confetti, and a few small table decorations to hold the balloons and what not. The first balloon had a leak in it so we had to get another.  When we went to checkout, my debit card would not work.  Fortunately, I had enough cash to cover it.  I thought it my be there old technology because I checked my bank account and there were no flags of theft and there were sufficient funds.  


Next, off Bed Bath and Beyond to get a few gift cards. My card wouldn't work there either.  The lady that was checking us out was kind enough to call the number on my card to see if she could find out what was going on. The only thing they told her was that there was a hold on the account. Only got one gift card and I used the last of my cash.  We got back to the car and contacted someone Patrick knew that worked at the bank I use.  Turns out that my bank changed card companies and sent out a letter with a new card.  The only problem is that apparently they only sent one letter and they forgot to send it to a few folks...several actually. Like a hundred or so...and of course, I was one of them.  For the whole weekend we would be without the money that was in my account which is what we were counting on using for everything we had going on during the weekend.  I. was. furious. 


It seemed like everything I did or touched went wrong. Finally, I told Patrick to go home.  I had it. The rest of the night followed suite of the day.  We were now at the house of suck.


Saturday morning was the same.  We got ready, wearing what we wore to Patrick's great-grandmother's funeral, and got in the truck to head to the office (the gift card got left in my car and we had to stop by to grab it before going to the church). About ten minutes down the road Patrick noticed that we had ants all over our clothes.  Apparently they had gotten into the air conditioning and were blowing out of his vents.  I picked off the ones that were on me and tried to get the ones on Patrick, a little harder since he was wearing a white shirt.  Made it to the office, brushed ourselves off, switched vehicles, and headed to the church.  Here is where I noticed my camera wouldn't turn on. I forgot to charge my battery from where I loaded pictures a few nights before onto my laptop.  No pictures but we made it to the wedding on time. 


After the wedding we headed back to his office to get everything prepared for the party.  Patrick got the helium tank out of the box so we could blow up the silver and purple balloons and when he turned the knob the tank started leaking helium through the top.  Faulty tank, awesome.  Thankfully my brother and his girlfriend were already there and were able to run around town for us and find another tank. The balloons got blown up and everything made it to Dublin.  We celebrated 50 years of a life. 


There were a lot of things that happened I feel shouldn't be posted due to length and so forth.  Overall, I am thankful that through everything that went wrong I was reminded of everything that is good in my life. There are many times that I could stop and feel sorry for myself based on circumstances but why should I? I am very blessed and so fortunate.  Especially for my husband who reminds me each day that love exists and just because things go wrong it doesn't mean they will still that way.  




So here's to friends, family, and the celebration of life.   

contentment and bad days

Yeah. That's right. Today is one of those days.  When getting out of bed is hard and going to work is even harder.  All the positive thinking in the world can't turn it around.   Trying to act on the words my husband tells me every morning..."Try to have a good day."  So friggin' hard sometimes!!  I only have 8 minutes left in my lunch hour and then it will be time to unlock the door and turn the lights back on; 5:00 please find me soon. Until then, this is my quote for today.  If you are having a good day, hats off to you, however...if you find yourself on my side of the line, maybe this will encourage you...at least until 5:00.

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”




Thank you Lord for my income and that my life is more than my job.