A Southern Rehabilitation

A friend of mine asked me a question the other day and he prefaced it with this, "On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, how would you say your...??" Well, that question got me thinking in a different direction. I happened to be driving back from Asheville, so I had a 2 hour drive to do nothing but think. (sometimes that is good and sometimes it's not so good)  The 2 hours was a good chunk of time to think about the last week, the last year, the last 29 years, basically my life. What I thought about the most was the more recent days of my life. I asked myself this question:  "On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, how would I say my life is right now?" My life. How do I rate my life right now?  Well, at that moment, considering the way I was feeling and the week I just had, I gave myself a big fat ZERO. I had a lot of stuff swirling around in my head. Lately, I've been feeling totally "off." I feel off balance in every area of my life--home...

The last few days have been crazy. It started last Saturday when I decided to drive to Asheville to see my aunt. I received a "serious" text from my uncle on Thursday saying, "P not doing good. I don't know how much more I can stand."  Well, that was my clue to get myself to Aville to check the situation out myself. I finished my week at school and left Saturday morning. My visit was two-fold. My brother, Ray, just got back to Asheville last week and I wanted to see him and hang out for awhile, plus I wanted him to go with me to see our Dad. I had not seen my Dad in months. I picked Ray up at my dad's house and we drove downtown to find lunch and a couple of Bloody Mary's. :) We wanted to go to Tupelo Honey Café but the wait was an hour and a half to two hours long. NOPE! (I have yet to eat there! It's always so busy.) We ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings (they serve alcohol). After lunch, we went to the nursing home to see Dad. Ya see, the thing with...

  On January 8, 1966, my mother, age 22, was killed in a terrible car accident. I was three years old... Every January 8th, I remember my mother with much more intensity than any other day of the year, or rather I think about her more.  January 8th, also happens to be Elvis Presley's birthday. I know that's a random thought to stick in here with this post about my mother, but the thing is, I love Elvis. He's my favorite and he is very definitely the King of Rock and Roll! A little side tid bit... I saw Elvis in concert when I was 12 years old at the Asheville Civic Center. My friend, Michelle Tullis and I were dropped off by my grandfather and picked up after the concert! YES. We. Were!! It was one of those "most awesome" lifetime moments. Being there while Elvis was singing and sweating and throwing those scarves out in the audience... way cool to 2 12 year old girls!! I've loved Elvis since I was little. Graceland is on my bucket list. :)  Anyway, back to m...

Dear 2013, You were undoubtedly the worst year of my life...in so many ways. As people typically do when a brand new year starts, thoughts of the last year come to mind and new hopes surface for the coming year/the future. What was good about last year? What was bad about it? What gems can I pick out from a year that was pure hell? And more importantly, what is this "new year" going to bring and how am I going to step up to the challenge? It took some thinking and some collaborative brainstorming, but I did come up with my "Top Ten" moments or events of 2013 and truthfully, I could have come up with more than 10 if I tried, because always always there is some good in our days, no matter how sucky they seem to be at the time. So here ya go, Dawn's Top Ten of 2013: (these are in no particular order--just "top ten") 1.  I started a blog!!! I took the plunge and did it. I enjoy writing and wondered for a long time if I could actually "blog....

Although Christmas was wonderful and everything seemed to fall into place with little incident, there always comes an "After Christmas."  What happens "after Christmas?"  Typically, my family heads to Ghent, WV, to my brother in law's lake house for several days, including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.  Usually the house is full of family... cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. It has always been such great fun for everyone, but especially all the kids.  Well, my family left for the lake Saturday night--without me. This is the first time I have not gone and I'm not gonna lie, it hurt to watch them drive away. Actually, I couldn't watch them drive away. Before they were even out of the garage, I had to turn around, hurry in the house where I promptly burst into tears. I allowed myself only a few minutes of "cry time"; I knew I couldn't go "full out" or I would be in a big ole mess and unable to get a grip...

I hope you all don't get tired of hearing about "Christmas." This month was just the best. The best times I've had in a very long while. Christmas morning was a gift. I think it was a gift to all of us. "One more Christmas" like it used to be, or at least as close as we could get it. For the first time ever Katelyn did not spend Christmas Eve night at home with her family. She went back to her own little place and came back Christmas morning. I'm not gonna lie, it was strange and I didn't like it much, but at some point I have to realize my kids are young adults. She's 24 yrs. old and has her own apartment. I'm thankful she is at least "home"...same city, same state and only a 15 minute drive away. I got up long before anyone else in the house woke up. I just wanted to have a bit of Christmas Quiet before all the commotion commenced. I turned the tree on, all three of the trees actually, made some coffee and enjoyed the peace of t...

I believe I mentioned in a former post ( here ) that I was determined to make this a fantastic Christmas season for my kids no matter what was going on with J and me.  Well, People, we did it!! It was a wonderful Christmas for all!! One of the things I enjoy doing the most, but don't get to do every year, is going to Asheville to the famous Grove Park Inn to see the Gingerbread Houses . ( click here ) It is a BIG DEAL round these here parts. The winner gets to go to NYC and show their HOUSE on Good Morning America . It's really so very cool. This year I, and two of my children drove to Asheville on Sunday, the 22nd, so we could visit with my aunt before Christmas. Well, I made a little detour and didn't mention it to the kids until we were almost there. :) Yeah, Mom. Sometimes I have to "drag" my children to fun events.  First of all, The Grove Park Inn is spectacular in and of itself, but at Christmastime, it's flat out magical. Here are a few snaps of ...