Hi there!  I’m still kickin’!  It has been a busy summer which has flown by.  We grew a garden, I worked a lot, we dog-sat Wrex for three weeks (which we LOVED!), Andy bought a car, and I gained a little weight back (boo…hiss…), but generally we had a great summer.  Now fall is quickly approaching, which is my favorite season.  I’ll post pictures soon, but the main reason I’m checking in is to tell you that my blog will be located back at it’s former home, at Karensramblings.blogspot.com by the beginning of October.  I plan to dual post on both sites until then, so I don’t have to back up anything else, and to give you a chance to update your bookmarks.  My domain contract is nearing renewal, and I can’t justify keeping it because I really didn’t use it as much as I thought it would, so I’m going back to my former blogspot blog.  So, I’ll see you there…or here…until October 1st, anyway!  I’ll leave you with these.  Happy Wednesday!

Thank you for your thoughtful messages concerning my whereabouts and whether everything is okay.  I’m still here, and everything is okay, just different!  My job is in transition at this moment and I’ve been enjoying some time off and thoroughly enjoying summer.  I feel like a kid on summer vacation!  I have basked in the sun, planted my garden, read books I didn’t have time to read before, decluttered my house, and sometimes just did nothing at all but sit on my swing in the yard and watch the grass grow!

What “transition” means is that the company where I worked for 21 years decided to close their doors.   But, another company that I have done work for is working on getting that contract so I can continue doing work for that hospital, just under another employer.  So, while that’s going on, I’ve had some time off and it has been lovely!  I will be starting again on Tuesday, though, so my summer vacation will have to be squeezed in here and there, but I’ll still find time for outdoors and sunshine.

I have more pictures to post and things to tell you, but right now I’m getting food together and preparing for Tom, Lucy’s and Wrex’s visit tomorrow.  We haven’t seen them in about four months and I’m looking forward to it.  I’ll write again today if I can.

Again, thank you for checking on me.  It’s very nice feeling cared about and having people check on you.  Ya’ll are the best!

 

 

Here is yet another picture I took on the way there.  I took lots of plane pictures!

Also, if you were unable to see the second video on my last post, please try again.  I think I fixed it, but let me know if I didn’t.

 

By that afternoon we were dragging.  My sister had been up early to get my brother in law to the airport (we coordinated my flight times for when she would be there with him so she wouldn’t have to make another trip – he was visiting Maryland while I was visiting Florida).  We decided to just go to the grocery store and pick up a few things and relax for the rest of the day.  I may or may not have taken an afternoon nap….

Publix is one of the grocery chains there.  I’m not used to seeing alcoholic beverages sold in grocery stores and this sign in the store made me laugh.

Andy works at Giant here at home.  I texted him this picture and told him I would like to make a suggestion for aisle 12 in his store!

My sister has different kinds of critters living around her than what I am used to here.  In her community on the way from the airport I saw this.  They are sandhill cranes and they just walk all around the neighborhood.  These two have babies with them.

 

Then a little further down the road we passed a pond in the neighborhood where I saw this.  It is a small alligator.  Definitely not used to seeing this in Maryland!

Well now I guess I’d better get some work done today.  I will write more soon.  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Happy Monday, everyone

 

I had a wonderful, wonderful week in Florida with my sister.  We did something every day except for one, so there is lots to share.  I’ll be breaking the trip down into different posts and because I have a book review overdue, there will be one of those stuck in there too.

I absolutely loved the plane ride.  I took a video of taking off and landing on my way there.  Unfortunately, it was about 6:00 in the morning and the plane was wet at takeoff so there is water on my window which makes the view blurry, but hopefully you can see it okay.  The video is pretty bad.  I watched the sunrise from the plane.  Beautiful!

Here is takeoff:

There were only 50 of us on the plane.  This was the view from my seat throughout the flight (well, except most of the time I was looking out my window!)

 

And here is about 2.5 hours later, landing in Tampa.  Watch the wings as we are landing, and listen, if you can.  Again my apologies for the poor video quality.

My flight was at 6:30, boarding started at 6:00.  We left home at about 2:30 AM and were at the airport at about 4:15.  It was a very early morning.

So that was my trip there.  I’ll be writing soon about the rest of the trip.  Lots to share!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

 

Just a quick note to say that I’m still around, and to announce that Andy, our youngest, got his driver’s license yesterday and drove himself to work today.  I cried.

 

Happy Wednesday y’all!

 

Dearest blog readers (all three of you, probably two now….)  I have not forgotten I have a blog.  I have been working 8-10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and that is not an exaggeration.  In a nutshell, there are three of us doing transcription for the whole hospital.  The other two are mother and daughter, and they own the transcription company, so it is the two owners and me.  They both had medical concerns at the beginning of the month so I offered to step in and do the work for the 3 of us temporarily.  Then the hospital added to their staff, which about doubled the dictation that we were getting.  One of the two is back working limited amounts but the third person is not back and may not be back.  I have been an employee for them for the past 21 years and I really love them both like family.  The hospital is concerned about the turnaround time of the reports, and rightly so.  So, what that means is I have to get caught up on the backlog.  It won’t be forever, though.  We just can’t risk losing the hospital contract.  The threat of work going overseas to be cheaper and faster is an ever-present concern.  I made the decision to put my Etsy shop in vacation mode temporarily.  In reality I would not be able to handle a cookie order right now.

On the bright side, I am typing my fingers off now, but I have Plans.  With a capital P!  Next month I am flying to Florida to spend a week with my sister, and I can’t wait.  Yes, me, flying.  Alone.  I told my sister I am scared, but it’s the good kind of scared, the top-of-the-rollercoaster-about-to-ride-down kind of scared.  I have only flown once and that was when I was about 14, and I don’t really even remember anything about it, so for all intents and purposes, this is my first time flying.  I bought my tickets yesterday so there’s  no turning back now!

Side note – Jerry, Andy and I were discussing this trip a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned that if they bought my airline tickets it could be considered an early Mother’s Day present.  Jerry looked at Andy and said, “I’ll buy her ticket out.  If you want her back, you buy her return ticket.”  Nice, huh?!   I bought my own tickets yesterday.  Not taking any chances!

We got snow this week and I took some pictures which I will share soon.  Today it feels like spring and I have opened the house windows to enjoy the fresh air.  My daffodils are just about to bloom.

So that’s about it.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.  I will write more and visit blogs when I can.

Happy  Tuesday

 

 

 

Casey Cox discovers her best friend murdered and because she was at the crime scene, evidence will point to her.  She can’t go to the police, so she runs.  This story is a gripping tale about what happens to Casey while she is a fugitive, and about a man named Dylan, a friend of the murder victim hired by the victim’s family to find Casey.  The story is written back and forth in first person, between Casey’s and Dylan’s viewpoints.  This story is so good that I read it in a day and a half.  It’s hard to write too much about the story in the review because there are twists and turns, and I don’t want to give anything away.  Please, read this book for yourself – it’s a great one!

If I Run is the first in a series of books so unfortunately I will have to wait until the second book is released to find out what happens next, and I am truly looking forward to reading the next one when it becomes available.  I had never read any of Terri Blackstock’s books until this one, but now I most definitely want to read more of her work.  She has a new fan!

 

I am a BookLook Blogger and receive books from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are my own.

 

Veronica’s fiance Seth has died in a tragic workplace accident.  His friend and coworker Jason was with him when the accident happened.  As Veronica mourns Seth’s death, Jason feels a need to comfort her as they both knew Seth, but did not know each other, but he does not know how to approach her.

Veronica discovers her grandmother’s recipe box in the attic and begins to bake to help her in her grief.  Her pies become famous when she starts to sell them.  Jason uses buying pies as an excuse to see Veronica but before Jason can tell Veronica that he knew Seth and was there when he died, he falls in love with Veronica and then she returns the feelings, which makes the truth harder for Jason to reveal.

This book is an okay read.  I thought it was slow going at times and the characters did not always seem realistic in their dialogue.  I had a difficult time believing that the men in the story would have said some of the flowery things that were said, and the point of Jason not telling Veronica the truth about knowing Seth was dragged out too long.

This book is an easy read and an okay one if you have a free afternoon or an evening and want something to fill your time.  It isn’t a page turner, though, and you’ll probably be muttering, “Just tell her already!”  as I found myself doing while reading the book.

 

 

I am a BookLook blogger and receive books in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  I know I haven’t blogged in a while.  Here’s what’s been happening around here.  Work has been extremely busy, which is a good thing, but keeps me from getting around to blogging.

To recap, towards the end of November the boys and I did the 5K we do every year.  This year it was rescheduled from its original date in October because of a weather system that moved in that weekend.  It was really cold the day they had it.  This year we just took it easy and walked – and tried to keep warm.  Also this year we had four others walking with us which made it really fun.  We had Lucy who is Tom’s friend, Jerry’s mom, Sarah who is Andy’s friend and coworker, and Wrex who is Tom and Lucy’s dog.  It was a good time.

I am in love with Wrex.  How can you not love this face?!

I gave Tom my bank card to use at Starbucks for us afterwards, and we both forgot about it until he got home and then Wrex did this before he could put my card in the mail….

But I wasn’t upset – he’s just doing what puppies do!  I am probably going to be a terribly spoiling grandmother when that time comes – I can’t even get angry at my grand-dog!

Thanksgiving was quiet and nice.  Tom and Lucy had to be in New Hampshire to attend a wedding so it was just the three of us.  We had a good time, as usual.

Then I got a cookie order for five dozen snowflake cookies needed by 12/27.   They were fun to make.  Here they are drying and then packaged and ready to ship.

On Christmas day Tom, Lucy, Wrex and my father came here.  We had a big breakfast and a good time.  While we were all sitting around the table we Skyped with my sister in Florida and had a nice virtual visit.

I forgot to take any pictures on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Too busy eating and talking, I guess!

I was sent a book for review just before Christmas which I haven’t even started yet.  I seriously need to get to that.

I have been reluctant to let Christmas go (as evidenced by the fact that my tree is still in the living room!), but i guess it’s time now.  It’s just finding the time to dismantle it.  Or, that’s what I tell myself as I’m still enjoying looking at it!

So, there’s a condensed version of my last couple of months.  I really hope that 2016 has started out as a wonderful year for all of you and I pray that you all have a healthy, happy, truly blessed new year.

Happy New Year

 

 

Lee Strobel has written another thought-provoking book in his journalist/reporter style.  In The Case for Hope, Mr. Strobel looks at different aspects of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.  He gives us proof of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus Christ, thus showing that we have hope that is beyond question of spending eternity with Him when we leave this life.  He also goes into hope for our futures while we are still here on earth and how we can live our days here hope-filled and joyous because God has a wondrous future planned for each of us.  Mr. Strobel weaves real-life stories into his journalistic facts which together create a book that is a pleasant read.

At the end of the book is a 30-day Journey of Hope, each entry beginning with a scripture passage and then a blank page to record your thoughts and observations.  I highly recommend this book for anyone who may be doubting about eternity with Jesus (a subject addressed in this book also, and assurance that doubt is normal), or for anyone needing a spiritual lift and confirmation that Jesus is waiting for us with open arms.

 

I am a BookLook blogger and receive books in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.