Julie's 365 Day Journey

 Today we showered Leah with love to celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby boy! Jenn (Aunt Jenn) was the super planner and everything was perfect. Maria (Aunt Maria) nailed the decor. Nana (Great Nana) made all the flower arrangements and most of the food. Leah (Mommy) painstakingly made the best candied bacon ever. Papa (Great Papa) was our gopher. Aunt Kirstian (Great Aunt Kirstian) and I (Grandma) did whatever we were told to do! Kirstian came all the way from Colorado to celebrate with us and I am so thankful.  Pictures below are of the food and set up. I’ll post the fun party pictures tomorrow.

Shop, work, prepare, cook, plan, laugh, eat, enjoy! 8 family members together means all those things. Best day ever! M

  I showed the house again today to the same family. They have asked a ton of questions too which could be very good or very bad. Who knows. I have a plan and know exactly where I’m going next but that story is one that will be shared next week when things calm down a bit.  My family is also arriving for a big baby shower to celebrate Leah and Eric’s first child. This little bundle of joy will be my first grandchild!! Every bed in my house is being slept in. I love it!!!!!

 I’m showing my house today!!!!!!!!!! Whew! It’s a lot of work to have every nook and cranny in presentable condition. I took 8 giant bags and 2 big boxes of stuff to Goodwill. 

 On Sunday I was invited to travel to Cincinnati to hear my friend’s son speak at his church. He is the pastor at City Church OTR. What a day!  The service was moving and enlightening. Most of the church goers are young so my friends and I looked like their moms. The church is very old and we poked around a little before the service started. Afterwords I felt energized and encouraged. I wrote this in my journal. “Be open to God’s voice and listen”.  We had a yummy breakfast after the service and then drove the 2 hours back to Indiana. Then I drove an hour north to have dinner with Maria and Nick. It was a great day!

 The actual date for Day 78 is March 20. Just hang in there while reading about this week. It was filled with tons of work. I keep a small journal of my daily life so I can expand on the blog when I write. It seems so counterproductive because I’m writing about my daily adventures twice. But my journal is not perfect and it’s more of a list of feelings, thoughts and activities. I started it a year ago when my life changed drastically and it’s been a wonderful outlet! 

 It’s kind of a bummer but I’m off basketball for a while. I tried to watch a game on this last weekend of the first round of NCAA play but the announcers kept talking about the horrible loss by Purdue. Grrrrrrrrr

 Purdue lost.  They were a #1 seed in the tournament and got beat by a #16 seed. Horrible.  Loosing this highly anticipated first game of March Madness is unprecedented. My analogy is, it’s like spending 6 months planning a huge family vacation. Everyone is excited to go. We have saved money and worked hard. We have planned all our activities and meals. Each place we will visit has been researched and vetted. And then the beginning of the vacation finally arrives. The entire family goes to the airport ready to board the plane and you realize no one has their passport, license or identification. The plane leaves without you and the vacation is canceled.  That’s exactly how it feels to be a Purdue fan today. 

 It’s game day!  Boiler up! Go Purdue!!

 March Madness!!!! I get to watch college basketball all day! That’s not really true because I had a whole bunch of other stuff to do like meet with my realtor and have lunch at a new place. My area is getting some fantastic eateries. I had a chicken sandwich with a jalapeño sauce and these special treats⬇️

  Great haircut! I said I was going to cut it all off and I did. It’s me again! 

 We got a little snow last night so it was only appropriate to work on a Christmas gift for my girls. I’ll try to show my progress on the blog. 

 Monday - Not the best day of the week  Mondays have a bad reputation. My Monday lived up to the hype but it was also a good day too. My friend’s son fell and cut his lip. I shared my star ice packs with her.  I walked 2 miles with my friends. I cleaned my oven from yesterday’s pizza disaster.  I got a phone call from my friend right when I needed her to call. I accidentally put my new blouse in the dryer. Ruined it. Found out I need to do some home repairs that cost more than I wanted to spend. I’m not sure why this guy suited up in this protection suit to go in my crawl space. It looked like he was ready for the worst possible outcome!

 Basketball 🏀  I love college basketball and March Madness is so fun!  I have filled out my official bracket and can’t wait to follow Purdue and the other 7 Big Ten teams who got an invite to the “dance”. Although most of the sports experts have not chosen Purdue to be in the final game of the tournament, I have confidence and I think they will win it all.  In my previous life I would have made plans for watch parties and travel to see the tournament games. But this year I’m happy to enjoy the tournament from my couch. If you want to cheer with me, come on over! 

 I’m enjoying the Big Ten Championship right now. I love basketball and I cheer for Purdue. This is a great year to be a Purdue fan! They beat Ohio St this afternoon so they will play tomorrow for the tournament championship. Boiler Up! It’s cold but sunny here in Indiana. It’s a great day to bake chocolate banana bread. 

 Here are the best reasons to take a cruise

 This picture from nine years ago popped up on my Facebook memories today. Why did I ever quit wearing my hair like that.? I think it was the pandemic that made me go to a different style because I couldn’t get it cut or colored. I’m going back to it!

 I can’t believe I drove all the way home in one day. Seriously that is crazy. I stopped many times. I did my mom’s trick of buying parts of a meal at each stop. Hamburger for lunch at one stop then fries at another stop. I did this for breakfast too. Buc-ees was one of my stops again on my return trip. They have the cheapest gas. I also got a brisket sandwich and cotton candy. Don’t judge me for being old and eating such a sugary treat! At that point it was 3:30pm and  I probably had 5 hours left to drive. I knew I had to either keep driving or stop for the night. Armed with water and a tub of spun sugar I arrived home at 8:30pm. Remarkable. 

 I’m driving home today. It’s almost a 14 hour drive. I wonder how far I can go in one day?

 I’m at Walt Disney World to have a little fun and check out the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. It is wonderful! The flowers and food are overwhelmingly beautiful!! I was able to visit Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom in 1.5 days. I rode 15 rides! Here are just a few (!) photos from yesterday and today.  The best food items at the Flower and Garden Festival  I had a a prime viewing spot for the parade!  Plus I think Mickey and I had a moment! Magic Kingdom was not crowded at all! One of my favorite rides!  3D rides are so fun!

 I FOUND MY SUNGLASSES! After days of searching and quite a few prayers, I checked one last time at the lost and found and there they were!  Today it Embarkation Day and I am headed for Disney World!  I will post pictures tomorrow of my WDW activities. 

Last day on the cruise. Boohoo 😢  I met lots of nice people on this trip. That’s not unusual since I like to talk. Every once in a while I meet people that I want to meet again. Betty from my first cruise will be a friend forever. The Smith brothers and their wives from my last cruise are a group I wish I could meet for coffee just to hear their stories and words of encouragement. On this trip I met Geri and Carroll. They could easily be a couple that I wish lived next door.  Cruising lends itself to meeting new people. It’s hard to continue the friendships but it’s really worth it in the end because you can truly broaden your life experiences by meeting people from all over. If you never wanted to meet anyone new, I guess you could really do it while on a cruise but it might be hard. You would just have to stay within your own little bubble. You would need to eat alone far away from anyone else. You shouldn’t sit in a bar with anyone near you. You shouldn’t be in common areas because

 I don’t have many pictures to document the day but I sure was busy. I had planned a beach excursion to Playa Mia in Cozumel. On a personal level my day started out horribly. My house is not for sale but I have 2 interested buyers. The idea of being able to sell my house without ever putting it on the market is sweet. The problem is I need to find a new house. I had an opportunity to build a new house but yesterday the plan fell through and I was really disappointed. I got my hopes up and I should not have. So here is how the day went.  8am  No new house 8:30am  Realize I have lost my expensive prescription sunglasses  9am  Take a walk to the port of Cozumel to shake it off and buy a pair of cheap knockoff RayBans 10am Relax in the spa and swim  11:30 Get ready for my excursion  12pm  Walk all the way down to the pier again and find out my excursion has been cancelled due to strong winds. All $ was refunded. 1pm  Return to the ship and get a lounge chair by the pool. Text with my frien

If you are ever in Grand Cayman, treat yourself with a trip to the Turtle Conservation Center. I had a blast with a day of learning, feeding, swimming, playing, touching and getting to know the hundreds of turtles.  Look at my face!!! That turtle came right up by me! Not a turtle He looks mean but he isn’t.  The younger turtles had darker shells.  Feeding frenzy Check out the bird on top of the turtles. He was stealing the turtle food piece by piece.