2021 Year in Review
2021 has come and gone, and while I hope you're patient enough to reminisce with me, I've included lots of pictures for those who just want to scroll through the photos. 😀
Many of you know that we started the year with a tremendous family tragedy. My nephew, Jared, was killed in a motorcycle accident on February 3rd and I ask that you continue to pray for his parents, his sisters, his wife, and his 2 yr old daughter as God brings them to mind. You never know why God brings particular people to mind at particular times, but GOD knows, and He always prompts us to pray when He knows that someone needs it.
In April, Joe turned 50 and I threw a huge surprise party for him.He thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many people and he felt so incredibly loved that day! I have since been let off the hook for any future parties because I could never top that one. Thanks to all who made the effort to send a card, letter, video, or show up in person. It was truly unforgettable!
Now for the pictures and updates from the rest of the year...
First, a picture of me and Joe from December 2020 just because I felt like throwing in one from the toilet-paper-shortage-year. The weather here is ridiculous. It was snowing in December 2020 while Christmas Day 2021 was in the upper 60s.
We had a scare this year that caused Joe to stop eating shellfish for 6 months. When the allergy tests came back with the all-clear, I was nervous about him attempting to eat it again. His solution was to eat it all in one day and hope for the best.
If Joe's brother reads this, no photo trickery was involved in this picture. I'm not even remotely good enough at photography for that. The fish really was that big!
We often go riding around in his "Zoom Zoom," as I call it. We frequently end up at our favorite ice cream shop.
His favorite ice cream was finally back in stock!
And this is Joe, cooking wings for the kids. Have I mentioned that Joe loves food, loves cooking food, loves serving food, and loves having people over to eat food? He's also one of the best wing-fryers I know!
I get the same thing every time...strawberry...and that never goes out of stock!
Seriously, though, I'm super grateful for this guy...and sushi. Sushi is also really good.
I randomly grab him and make him take selfies with me. He tolerates me well.
We took a trip out to Colorado this year to visit long-time friends. We both got alititude sickness, which is weird because we've lived all over the world and never experienced that. It was rough, but we ended the week on a high note. Because we were in Denver. (If you're not laughing at my dumb jokes, you should probably skip the reading and just look at the pictures.)
We stopped at a beautiful hotel alongside a river and it was breathtaking!
Joe is still a Federal Background Investigator for the Department of Defense. He is very good at his job and enjoys working from home. He is also still the go-to guy for fixing anything, hosting anyone, and cooking for large gatherings. I am still the go-to gal for cleaning up afterward. 😁
I still teach piano from home and online. Here's a picture of me playing the piano at 13 years old or thereabouts....proof that I've been at this for quite a long time.
Noah and Caylea are still in Pennsylvania where Noah is a C-17 pilot. I'm not supposed to write about any of the cool stuff he has done, but if you watch the news at all I'm sure you can infer. Caylea teaches voice, guitar, ukelele, piano, and songwriting online and SHE GOT SIGNED TO A RECORD LABEL!!! Because this is my blog, I do not feel like I have to refrain from bragging on my kids, and I am super proud of both Noah and Caylea. You can see her artist profile here: https://lulastreetrecords.com/artists and you can visit her music page here: https://www.cayleamusic.com/
The gorgeous couple at his sister's wedding:
She was cold. I was not. She is so cute, I just had to take a picture!
The times we get to be physically together are fewer and farther between, but the love only grows closer!
This is when they bought their first house! Brings to mind that song, "I'm a big kid now!"
Caylea and Noah have 2 dogs and a cat and I am unashamed to share pictures of them with you. Their German Shepherd thinks he fits in my lap and I have absolutely no problem with that.
Rusal & Shiloh - Rusal is short for "JeRUSALem," and he is one of the smartest dogs I've ever met. If I say, "Go get Papaw," he runs to Joe. We haven't figured out what they call me.
Funny story, Shiloh is one of Chloe's childhood nicknames (longer story within this story so I won't share that), so Caylea named their Golden Retriever Shiloh because she wanted to name him after Chloe, and Goldens are supposed to be so calm and sweet, and Shiloh means "peace," but lemme tell ya...this Golden is NOTHING like the Goldens YOU know. He's all sass and confidence and absolute lunacy when he feels like it, which is super funny because I basically just described Chloe. 😂
This is their cat, Maisy. Her face says it all.
Chloe graduated with her Master's in Worship Leadership in May and moved to North Carolina where she is a Kindergarten Homeroom Shepherd for a private Christian school. She is in charge of all things spiritual: Bible time, worship time, prayer time, and she helps the educator with math, spelling, reading, language arts., etc. She absolutely loves her job! You may remember that she was once planning to be a veterinarian when her severe allergies prompted an abrupt education/career change, during which time I opened a Music & Art Academy. Chloe was the "art" portion of that. She helped me for 2 years and further developed her love of children, which led her to pursue her education in Music, Art, and Worship Leadership. She is 100% made for this job!
She will literally hold any animal/insect/child and loves every minute!
I found this dress at a thrift store and immediately knew to whom it belonged. 😂
We've come to the same point with Chloe that we had to accept with Caylea...we just won't see her as often now that she's "adulting" on her own, but when we do, we love it! She keeps us laughing!
Chloe & Judah posing:
Chloe & Judah in their natural environment:
Her boyfriend, Judah, lives about half an hour from her and also has severe allergies, so they co-own some pets that are really cute in their own way. Have you ever seen a sassy turtle? Let me introduce you to Capri, who hisses when she's annoyed and looks right at you when you talk to her. I once saw her chase down 5 crickets and consume them. Yes, a turtle chased down crickets.
And then there's Griff and Rio and it is absolutely fascinating to watch them eat.
Joshua is in his third year of Electrical Engineering with a minor in Technical Studies and another minor in math 🤯 at Liberty University. This last summer he was able to do an internship at UT Knoxville partnered with Oak Ridge National Labs and he is already applying for internships for summer '22. He is making really good grades, thoroughly enjoys his classes, and surpassed us all in math during his freshman year. He is an incredibly hard worker and I enjoy it so much when he walks Buddy with me and talks about his projects and classes. He doesn't update it often, but he does have a YouTube channel called, "Maybe It's Not Such a Good Idea." https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtrFwEjJZYP92Iiz3lGupGg
For this one, I was trying to capture the color of his eyes without him noticing, and I failed miserably. Again, I'm not great at photos. However, Josh got amused at me and smiled, so I'm glad I caught this one. Also, I just noticed that he and the guy in the painting behind him are both looking in the same direction. 🤔
Josh and friends absolutely love rocketeering, engineering, building hovercrafts, shooting potato cannons over our pond, and just doing "guy" stuff with fire and stuff. Our neighbors let them borrow their long driveway for a launch this summer. It wasn't successful in the truest sense of the word...it failed...but they definitely learned a lot, and Josh says that the education received because of a failure is a form of success.
We took him axe-throwing for his 20th birthday. He will be 21 in 6 weeks. 😮
Joe took me and Josh to a Josh Turner concert for my birthday. Yes, my son is really that much taller than me.
Other things that happened this year...I took my first (and likely last) flight by myself in my adult life to TX to visit my childhood best friend and was able to see my grandmother, who is 86 years old.
And on the way home our plane had to be diverted for an emergency landing due to landing gear issues. We circled the airport for an hour to burn off fuel and landed to a very theatrical scene of emergency vehicles speeding toward us. Not gonna lie...it was terrifying. And Joe was terrified. And I will probably never ever fly without him again because every time I or one of our children has flown alone, without Joe, something weird has happened. 🤦
My parents moved to TN this summer and we helped them finish out the basement in a house they are sharing with my brother. We have enjoyed having them over for meals and seeing them far more than we ever have. They are in FL right now...snowbirding...but we will see them again when TN warms up! (Okay, my mom texted me shortly after I wrote this and it's currently 42 degrees where there are and it was 42 degrees here when she texted, so I guess they're not as warm as they'd like to be!)
My mom enjoying some snuggle time with Lucy. Lucy is a friendly cat, but she is persnickity about the laps she chooses to sit in. My Mom's is one of her favorites. I love my Mom's smile!
My Dad enjoying an espresso. It's dangerous to give him that much caffeine,but it is also funny.😄 I also love my Dad's smile. I love seeing them BOTH smiling so much!
And, lastly, because I know you're all desperately wondering...Buddy and Lucy are both fine. He's 9. He's spoiled. He loves everyone and everyone loves him. He injured himself chasing a squirrel this fall and he hasn't been quite the same since, but he sure was happy in that moment. She is both the most loving cat and the most vicious, and we like her that way. She loves piano students and is super patient with all children. She often licks new students or their siblings, which startles them, and I always say, "She's just tasting you. She knows she can't eat you," and then I laugh and the kids laugh and Lucy goes back to sleep.
This is Buddy with what we call a "shreddy teddy." I get them at Goodwill and he shreds them and he's happy. Everyone laughs because Buddy will choose a person, "ask" them to follow him (and if you've been around him, you know how he does that) and then he "asks" them to "hold my bear," while he shreds it. It's actually quite funny to behold. He is the second smartest dog I've ever met.
This is Buddy asking me to paint him like a model. Yes, that's a dog sweater. Did I mention that he's spoiled?
This is Lucy "booping" the camera because she thinks she's getting food.
And, finally, we are so grateful for our family and friends who have stopped to visit us here in our corner of paradise. You are always welcome. We have good coffee, good food, good fellowship, and usually a pretty good time. We pray that you have all had a blessed year and we pray for a blessed year to come!
I would also like to thank those of you who took the time to send us a Christmas card or photo. I hang them proudly in my living room all Christmas season. One day I'll have my act together enough to get a picture of our family when we are all together and when I do, I'll send "real" cards. Until then, I hope you enjoy catching up with our family and, from our family to yours, Happy New Year!
Me laughing because he made a duck face and I caught it on camera. Me still laughing because he has no idea I'm putting this one in my blog...
An addendum...after posting this blog, Joe remembered that he had several photos on his phone that we both really wanted to share. Better late than not at all!
Me after a very long trip, standing with some Christmas trees because Joe asked me to.
Chloe doing the Master's walk.
Me and my girls
My boys at Charlotte Motor Speedways, where they got to drive racecars and Josh's steering wheel fell off mid-race and he had to reattach it which is super impressive because he was so calm under pressure and it was all being recorded and the racetrack people tried to say there's no way that happened and then there was suddenly a "messed up" recording but they refunded the entire trip.
"Tori, stand this way and look directly into the sun so we can get this cool mountain picture."
While traveling, we seem to attract dogs. I'm only posting this one because this guy was so very friendly, but it was pretty incredible the amount of dogs that would randomly come up to us in various places and ask us to pet them. We are totally dog people, but we love Lucy.
Us with Josh on his 20th
Chloe may kill me but we have this rule that if you pose for it, it's fair game, and if you take a selfie on someone else's phone it's also fair game. I want you to pay attention to the jokesters versus the ones who just want to get away...
Chloe did a Chloe thing and Caylea giggled, which made me take notice...
And then Joe laughed which made me take notice even more...
And then I started laughing and Josh got mildly uncomfortable...
And it was like magic when I read Chloe's mind...
As she pulled her pants up and cracked us all up and...
As she threw her leg up...
I reached up to catch it...
And then we couldn't stop laughing. Short story here...the day before this picture was taken, Josh and Joe were in suits and they both looked very dapper and handsome. Josh's hair was styled very nicely, and I can count on 1 hand the number of times I've seen him use any hair products in the last year. Chloe and I were in nice dresses with pretty hair. Caylea was in a very nice bridesmaid dress, had her hair done all fancy and wedding makeup on. And we didn't get a single, solitary picture. Nope. Not one. So, before we left our friends' house, we jumped into a photo with no makeup, no hair, and some of us were still in our pjs, and yet these pictures are the most priceless.
Yup. That's Nacho Bean. He's still alive. He lives at Chloe's apartment and he holds me like he loves me. Someone is going to tell me I'm inappropriate over this one, but I didn't take the picture sooooooo
This is after a completely sleepless night because, if you remember, I chose a puppy for Caylea and a puppy for a friend and someone had to let them out to pee at night. I trained one of those puppies for 6 weeks. They're both fantastic dogs!
I felt inclined to include this picture because I put Joe's duck-face on this blog, so here's one of me looking crazy, smelling like dog, with morning breath and no coffee yet. You're welcome.
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