2023 Summary and a Happy New Year!

This is from the book Jesus Always by Sarah Young

 Hey ya'll!

We have made it through another year. Thank God. This has been quite the year. In case you are new here or haven't had the time to read previous posts; here is the cliff notes of this year.

• Popeye was moved to a new command. That was a nightmare. God bless him and all the other sailors at that command. 
• I started working out with a personal trainer. That was so much fun and I was finally getting stronger and toned. That had to come to an end due to health issues. 
• I ended up in the hospital on my death bed once again. I was there for quite a bit. Had to restart treatment at a higher dose and frequency.
• I was blessed with a visit from a best friend from my college days. Thank you again, Ink for coming to visit me. I hadn't seen her since 2009. Though we both were going through a hard time--it was just so amazing and healing in some ways to spend time together. Hopefully it won't be this long before I see her again. 14 years is way to long. She left me with homework, hahaha.. you can read it here.
• I quit my job. That was such a hard decision to make but it honestly was the right decision for me to make.
• God gave me a career pivot. I am still in the beginning stages of that so stay tuned for more details on that.
• I started group challenges on Stridekick. If you want to join let me know. Lets get our steps in. 
• We added a new member to our pack. His name is Luigi. You can read more about him here.
• Popeye made a huge decision that changes his career path and I am so proud of him. 
• Popeye and I went to his best friends wedding. It was so much fun and beautiful.
• I went to my little sister's wedding. It was so beautiful. She was stunningly gorgeous.
• I had major surgery--I might come back and explain that later. But for now, just know the recovery is very long, slow, and painful. At the time of this writing I am 7 weeks post-op. Home health Nursing comes out a few times a week to change my wound care. 
• I reconnected with my sister. That has been such a blessing.
• I read a total of 27 books for the year. You can see the list of books I read here.
• I changed my name on my blog from Simply That to Simply Me. It fits better. 

And with that the year comes to an end. I have had to deal with a lot and in some ways I am still dealing. I have grown in some areas and have learned some lessons. How was your year? Leave me a comment if you feel like sharing. I'd love to hear about it. 

So as I end this year and start 2024 I just want to first thank you all for stopping by and reading my ramblings. I truly appreciate it. I know you all have gone through life issues as well and I just want you to know that I am proud of you for overcoming and getting through those tough times. I have no idea what 2024 brings but keep on taking one step at a time and keep hope alive. I wish you and your family a very special and blessed 2024. May it be filled with good health, love, peace, joy, and great adventures.  Happy New Year, my darlings; see you in the new year!

Till next time,
Simply Me...

Sunbathing

One of the favorite things our dogs love to do is sunbathe... so on this beautiful sunny Sabbath.. that is what we did. 

Meet Luigi

 Hello dear readers!

Happy September! For some (like me) welcome to the beginning of the Christmas season. Anyway, recently Popeye and I adopted a new dog. His name is Luigi. He is about 2 years old. He is a Lab-mix. He is the sweetest boy. Definitely a momma's boy. He was in the shelter since February of this year. Poor boy. Anyway, we went to go meet him and just immediately fell in- love with him. Then the next day we had Mara Jade with us so she can meet him. They were excited to meet each other. We asked the shelter if we could do a sleepover for a few days to make sure it was a good fit. It's been a pretty good transition, as a result yesterday we officially adopted our sweet boy.  Here are some of our photos since he has been in our house. 

The first car ride home

We were so shocked how well they did in their first car ride together. It gave me so much hope that this was going to be a great fit.

Cuddles

He is such a momma's boy. He loves to cuddle with me (not on the furniture that is a no-no) and follows me around everywhere. 

adopt me, please?

This is the face he gave me when I asked him if he wanted to join our family. 

Silent Feud

Mara Jade is doing well. She sometimes just stares and glares at him from across the room. But I think she really is happy he is here. I will try to capture a video of them playing together. Its the cutest thing. 

Admiring the yard

I feel like he was admiring the yard and praying to doggie Jesus that he can live here with us. 

Adoption day 

Welcome to the family Luigi. I am so happy you are here with us. The lady at the shelter that helped us learn more about him was almost in tears. She was sad to see him go because she fell in love with him but at the same time she was overjoyed because he had finally hound his forever family. 

Mom is a chair

Besides being a dog mom, I now have the title of dog chair. HAHA 😂😂

A little annoyed

We gave him a bath today and I think he is still a little annoyed with me that I "violated" him. 

Well that's all for now. If you care to share, post a picture of your fur baby in the comments below.

Till next time,

Simply That..

Who am I?

Hey guys!

It's me again. Last week my friend Ink was visiting me. Its crazy we haven't seen each other in 14 years. Can I just say how amazing it was to spend time with her and just catch up in real time. She truly is one of my dearest friends. But we live on opposite sides of the planet most of the time, so this visit was extremely important to me. 

Anyway, while visiting, Ink, shared a video with me that she saw on Instagram and then turned the challenge onto me. The challenge is to introduce myself using 5 nouns. I can't use my name, profession, ethnic background, etc. I have wrestled with this for so many days now. This was not easy, not because I don't know who I am. It was hard because I have never thought about who I am in this way.

So while the introduction on my blog is still accurate, let me re-introduce myself...

Hello, I am a Jesus follower. I am a prayer warrior. I am a helper. I am curious. I am human. I think these words is the very basis of me.

Prayer and Jesus are how I make a lot of decision in my life. When I am in hard situations I rely on Jesus and prayer to get through.

I love helping people in any way that I am able to. If I see a need or someone asks for help and I am able to- I will help. I literally want to be in a place in life where I can help anyone at any given time where I don't have to consider my own work schedule or finances at the time. Maybe one day Jesus will allow me to do that. What a dream!

I am curious, so very curious. Popeye, likes to tell me that my curiosity is going to get me into trouble one day. I am curious about so many things and places. Hopefully, it never gets me into trouble.

Lastly, I am human. My role in other peoples lives change from person to person. BUT at the end of the day I am human. Humanity is important to me. I don't care what other people look like, their socioeconomic status, or ethnic or cultural background. WE all bleed red and deserve to be kind towards each other. One of my biggest pet peeves in life is how we as people are so mean towards other people. It makes no sense to me. 

I am throwing one last description of me because I want to post the following picture....I am silly and I love me for it. 

Thanks for reading and staying with me thus far. If you care to introduce yourself to me, leave me a comment. 

Till the next time,

Simply That...

A helping hand

I saw this video on Instagram. I thought it was cute so I am sharing it with you all. Go check it out. 

A helping hand

Fluffy Pancakes

One of the plates of pancakes from our pancake breakfast

I love pancakes. They are one of my favorite breakfast foods ever. Anyway, I have been working on a family recipe and trying to make it a bit better for my liking. And I think I finally found the magic. So for the first time ever. Here is a recipe out of my own cookbook. I use just the recipe to organize the recipes I create on my own or those from a website that I have tried and enjoyed. I have taken a screenshot of my recipe and attached it here for you all. 

Anyway, if you try this recipe out please leave me a comment and let me know how you like it. 

TV Buddy

Sometimes my little buddy, Mara Jade, watches TV with me. She usually finds weird spots or positions to watch TV. Today was laying under the coffee table. I love this dog. I miss Yoda. 

Lightning Storm

I have never seen anything like this before... no rain, no thunder.. just lightning. It's pretty in an eery way.

lightning storm

Tales of a dog named Mara Jade

Hey guys! 

Lately, Popeye, Mara Jade and I have been going on family walks. Tonight on our family walk Mara Jade made me look like a liar.  She historically doesn't poop on our walks. She will pee or do nothing at all but enjoy the good smells.

Well, today as we are walking she starts to slow down...here is how the conversation went:

Popeye: she is about to poop.

Me: no, she pooped earlier (she pooped a few mins before we left on our walk) so she won't poop again.

Mara Jade: squats and poops. 

Me: welp, I lied. 

Popeye: hysterical laughing.

Mara Jade: drops a droplet on the sidewalk

Me: tries to pick it up but end up smearing it on the street. 🤦🏿‍♀️

Our neighborhood doesn't have poop pails/garbage bins around so I made her carry her own poop (that's the green bag you see attached to her harness) till we got back to our yard and i could drop it in the garbage bin for trash day. 

So moral of the story: dogs have their own agenda and it will change when you least expect it lol. Do you have any funny stories about your pet? Leave a comment below and tell me all about it. 

Till the next adventure,

Simply That...

National Book Lover's Day

Happy National Book Lover's Day to my fellow book readers out there. I hope you were able to get some reading in today. 

Mara Jade

These are just a few of the many poses in a day that Mara Jade goes through. I just love this little potato dog. We sure do miss Yoda bear but this little girl keeps us laughing just the same. 

She judges me and is often times over my shenanigans

Not very lady like-- more like rollie pollie

Who knows?

Midyear update 2023

 Hello Friends,

This has been quite the crazy year.  Since the last update in this post, a few things have happened. I almost died again and ended up in the hospital. It was rough and that is putting it nicely. I had a really bad infection and my Crohn's decided it wanted to wreck havoc on my body. I am so thankful for Popeye and everyone's prayers. I switched doctors and medical facilities. Thank God for the Mayo Clinic. They truly are amazing. The doctors there literally worked hard to get me stable and better to a point to be discharged and go home. The GI doctor that I am now seeing (thanks be to God) is not only an IBD specialist but she specializes in my type of CD.

So, this whole experience, took a toll on both Popeye and I (not our marriage we are good on that front). But it was emotionally taxing for both of us. I was sick for so long (several months). But now I am back on a treatment plan that is working for my body and go more frequently than last time. 

We also had a major death in the family - my tia (the best tia anyone could have asked/prayed for). My heart is still so shocked and sad. I wish I could of been with my family but I am glad my parents  and brother were able to go home and be with the rest of the family. They did stream the service so I was able to be there with family virtually. This is such a huge loss for our family. But I know that one day we will see her again. 

In other news, I am in the process of a career pivot. I can't say much on that as of right now but once I can I will fill you in. But just know that I feel like this process has been a huge leap of faith. I truly believe I am walking on the path God has laid before me but its been a huge test of my faith. More on that later. 

Lastly, as for as reading books goes, if you have been following this post, you can see that I am so far keeping to my goal of reading at least one book a month. I still have 6 books checked out from the library that I need to start and finish. However, I have decided that if I don't finish at least one, maybe two of those books before I run out of renewals again--that I am just going to return all 6 books and start fresh again but only check out one book at a time until I am settled and things calm down a bit.

Well that is all for now, till next time - leave me a comment and let me know how you are doing. I'd love to hear about it. 

Always,
Simply That...

Art

 Hello Readers,

I seem to be on a roll this year so far with posts. Let us all hope I am able to keep this up for the year. Anyway, this post is going to be short. 

If you are looking for some original art that is different from what we typically see in the art world... check out this website. Its a new artist named M.Ash.B Art -on the scene who is trying to get her stuff out there. I like helping small businesses/crafts. So I think that may be something I write about again in the future. But for today....its art. I like her work. I will buy something and will tag it here when I do. Also, I am not sponsored by the way.. I just want to share the talent. 

Till then,

Simply That...

Books of 2023

Hey there!

A few of you have asked for my reading list this year. So here is the list. I will update it as I finish the books. I am doing the list differently this year as my goal is very different than last year. This year I have a goal of reading at least one book a month. My goal is significantly lower this year as my work life is a lot busier this year than last year so I am not able to read for hours during the work week like previous. So I am using this year as a benchmark to see how much I can read during  the month giving work and life events lol. 

If you have any recommendations on books, please leave a comment down below.

Till next time, happy reading to you!!

Simply That...

January

1. Spring's Gentle Promise by Janette Oke (Kindle)
2. The Christmas Angel by Thomas Kinkade and Katherine Spencer
3. Mr. Miracle: A Christmas Novel by Debbie Macomber (Kindle)
4. Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber (Kindle)
5. Brush of Angel's Wings by Ruth Reid

February

1. A Mrs. Miracle Christmas by Debbie Macomber (Kindle)
2. The Unheard by Nicci French

March

1. Murder In a Minor Key by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
2. St. Patrick's Day Murder by Leslie Meier

April

1. Miramar Bay by  Davis Bunn (Kindle)

May

1. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi (Kindle)
2. Back Home Again by Melody Carlson
3. The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Kindle)

June

1. Enchanting Pleasures by Eloisa James

July

1. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Kindle)
2. Jingle All The Way by Debbie Macomber

August

1. How to keep house while drowning: a gentle approach to cleaning and organizing by KC Davis, LPC
2. Someone Like You by Karen Kingsbury
3. Fool Me Once by Fern Michaels

September

1. My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke
2. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
3. Spare by Prince Harry and J.R. Moehringer
4. The Human Division by John Scalzi (Kindle)

October

1. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

November

1. The End of All Things by John Scalzi (Kindle)
2. Redemption by Karen Kingsbary and Gary Smalley

December

1. Love and Kisses Christmas Collection by Debra Elizabeth (Kindle)

What's next?

Hello dear reader, 

Happy March 1. How is your year going so far? Can you believe we are starting the 3rd month already? I feel like the year just started and its already March.  I hope your year is going well so far. My year has been a roller coaster so far. 

Treatment stopped working so they created a new treatment regimen for me. So, Lord willing that will work better and I can continue my healing journey. I also got tested for allergies; and as Popeye says often - I am "allergic to life". So I started getting allergy shots along with taking prescription allergy medications.

Work has been incredibly busy--so much so that they offer overtime at least 2-3 days a week. I don't participate often in the overtime but I do appreciate that the offer is there. 

Anyway, I have a question for you- maybe two. Do you want to see my reading list for 2023? It would be pretty much the same format as last year. I will just keep a list of the books I have read. My to-be-read (TBR) list is too long to cross over to the blog but I can put a few of the ones that I have determined I will read this year if you are interested in that list as well. With that being said, I have read 7 books this year so far. I, unfortunately, will not be able to make it to 40 or more books this year. So my goal is set really low and I will adjust as life allows me to read. I also started working with a personal trainer in December and will continue for at least another few months. Would you like to see my progress as I go on this journey. Please leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. I am trying to decide one these things, so I would appreciate your input. 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Take care,

Simply That

2022

 Hello dear reader,

Happy new year! I hope your year is off to a great start and I hope this blog post finds you doing well and in good health. Thanks for stopping by to catch up with me. Its been awhile I know and for that I am sorry. A lot has happened - a lot has changed. Definitely not as traumatic or life threatening as 2021, but just as life changing. Here's the scoop of how 2022 unfolded. 

The year started out with me still battling with my health and learning how to manage Crohn's disease. It was a challenge but that has somewhat smoothed itself out. I still have inflammation though its decreased. I have figured out for the most part my dietary restrictions. Well I thought I did and then I recently in 2023 did allergy testing and now I am back to the drawing board with food. I might share more on that later. Anyway, as of my latest colonoscopy my body is still very angry and not ready for a reversal surgery. Its okay, I am just thankful to be alive. 

Popeye and I moved to another state and another command. I am so proud of him. He got promoted--so well deserved. I know he will be an awesome leader. Pray for him you'll he is dealing with so much. I am not at liberty to give details but God knows so just keep him in prayer if you are of the praying type. 

Popeye and his friend Tom decided that I and Tom's wife would be good friends if not best friends but neither of us ladies thought that would be the case. However, we took a leap of faith and decided to meet up one day during the deployment. Her name is Jacqui and she has an adorable daughter named Liza. Anyway, Jacqui and I hung out at her house. I planned on only staying there for an hour so that I don't overstay my welcome. But we ended up really enjoying each others company and conversation. We laughed at how our husbands were trying to set up an adult-play-date for us. I am glad they were right, I adore Jacqui and Liza. We hope to get together again and hang out more in the future. 

Shortly after we moved, our beloved Yoda passed away unexpectedly.  That was so traumatic. He died at home while we were in the process of trying to find an emergency vet. He wasn't sick prior to his death. He had had an awesome Friday, the day before. Saturday morning, he didn't want to eat his food and he just wanted to lay down even when I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk. That wasn't normal so we both started calling around to find a vet that was open on a Saturday morning that could take him in and check him out. By the time we finally got a hold of a vet (over an hour drive away) Yoda was gone. As sad as it was, I am so glad that Popeye was home for it. It would have been 100 times worse if he was deployed--I would have had to wait till he returned home to tell him. 

We also rehomed Roxy. Roxy was a foster puppy we acquired prior to moving. She was a German Shepherd puppy of about 1 year of age when we picked her up. She was just too much for me to handle and because Popeye was going to be deploying soon we decided it was best that she went to a home that could handle her. It took several weeks but we were able to place her in a home that truly loves her and she gets to live her best life. I know we made the right decision. 

I traveled to visit my parents a few times this year. That was fun. The first time was a whirlwind. During that first trip to visit my parents, was the first time I would be traveling on a plane with Maria Consuelo. I was so nervous. I learned two things that trip: Maria Consuelo gets me stopped by TSA and I can indeed travel with Maria Consuelo and not need to feel panicked. Aside from that it was such an amazing trip. I  was able to see my favorite high school teacher, and two of my best friends. I've known them for 24 years. One of them got married that weekend and I was the matron of honor. I was so honored to be apart of their day. It was beautiful and so very busy. I love her husband. They are such a cute couple. 

Also in 2022 I found out that the job I started in 2020 was being eliminated. That was such a hard pill to swallow. I really enjoyed that job. It was nice of them though, the last few weeks they allowed us to use our working hours to look for another job. As only God could do--I was blessed with a new job within the same parent company. I like this new job but it is very different and has a large learning curve. 

2022 also brought me closer to my friend Jess. I've known her for about 10ish years now. Her husband and Popeye semi work together. Anyway, I adore her--she has been such a great help to me. There were a couple of times that I needed help with transportation to and from treatment/procedures and she helped me. This is the most we've talked and spent time with each other and I am loving it. I look forward to seeing how our friendship grows. 

So much more happened last year but this has been a very long post so I am ending here. Thanks for sticking with me this long. I will try to do better in 2023 with keeping up with my blog posts. 

Till next time take care, 
Simply That