Sunday Gratitude: What I'll Miss

Way back here right about 10 years ago, I told you about an impending move to a new job that also involved living in a new city ... not a new-to-me city since I attended college there, but a new-to-my-family city. Now here I am nearly 10 years to the day that I started this job planning my exit strategy. It's not a quick exit strategy - I'm looking at 12-18 months - but I definitely have a plan in the works. 

When my hubs was in Tallahassee with me a couple weeks ago for the football game, we were driving to the game when he asked me if I'd miss Tallahassee when I retired from this job. So yes, I will miss parts of Tallahassee. I will miss what is essentially the small-town feel of this town, where you truly can get anywhere you want to go in less than 20 minutes, and in my new place I told you about last week, it's even less than that. I can be anywhere I need to be - either work, Publix, Target, campus, my girls apartment - in less than 15 minutes. Last weekend, we went to a little arts festival at which I saw several friends and from which my husband was literally able to walk home when he got bored. You don't find that in a city as large as Jacksonville, the largest city by land mass in the 48 continental United States. But what I'll miss most is serving on the Chi Omega advisory board, a board of women who give their time to serve and guide our collegiate Chi Omega chapter here at Florida State University. Sure, I've loved having a group of "my students" again with the actives that I advise, but what I'll miss more is the board itself, and the women that comprise it. 

We meet monthly for our monthly "business" meeting, but truly, the business portion of the meeting is the smallest. We rotate hosting and have dinner together as a group at the host's home, and do the business of catching up on each others' lives over dinner before we ever get to the official business at hand. One thing that always makes me laugh in our group text thread is when, after the host has announced the main dish and we start throwing out sides, once a few sides and a dessert are claimed, there's a chorus of "I'll bring wine!" Seriously I have more bottles of wine in my house now from those meetings than I've ever had before because there are always a few bottles left over! In age, we range from our potential newest member, a sprightly 25, to our most senior member, me, 34 years her senior in a couple weeks! I've grown to love these women as the true Sisters they are. One has been a dear friend since the very beginning of my Chi Omega journey, one of my pledge sisters way back in 1985. Others I met through their involvement in this board, but even though all of them are younger than me, most of them in their 30's, we are still a beautiful group of multi-generational friends. 

So yes, I will miss this group. And I'm incredibly grateful I took the chance to reach out when I first got settled in here in search of community. I was involved in the alumnae group in Jacksonville years ago, and I'll probably look into getting involved in that group again when I get back home. But there's something about this group and how we've bonded over the challenges and successes with the chapter we serve and the challenges and successes in our own lives that makes it extra special. I had a catch up phone call with one of my former advisees Saturday morning, and I shared that with her. She's now graduated and starting her career in a new city, and I asked her if she's had a chance to get connected to the local alumnae group or local chapter there, and encouraged her to do so when she had the opportunity, for while being a collegiate sorority member is full of its own rewards, still being a part of that Sisterhood nearly 40 years later brings a whole different set of rewards, ones I'm immensely grateful for. 

I found this perfect little heart leaf in my driveway after walking the dogs one morning. It was just waiting for me. She sits on a little shelf in my kitchen now.

Best Shot Monday: Zodiac

I finally got back into the shelter last week after about four months out just due to a variety of things - lots of work travel, some family travel, dealing with a very cranky knee.  So it was a little slow going getting back into the swing of things photographing the dogs. This guy made it easy though!  He's a Border Collie / Lab mix named Zodiac. Super friendly and playful and quite the ham for the camera! 

Our shelter in Tallahassee is going through quite a sizeable renovation, and losing access to 50 dog kennels during this first phase of the renovation. Shelter staff did an amazing job getting dogs out to foster and pushing hard for adoptions so that the loss of those kennels wouldn't be quite as challenging. It's always still challenging as there is unfortunately never a loss of dogs needing sheltering, but it's been really great seeing all staff, volunteers and the city come together to work through these times. It'll all be worth it when the renovation is complete! As I write this, Zodiac has already been adopted!

Sunday Gratitude: Flowers in the Neighborhood

Well hello, old blog. Trying to get back to you so we'll start with a little Sunday Gratitude. I moved into a new neighborhood in Tallahassee in August 2023. It was actually quite the story and will wrap back around to this photo! We'd been in our rental in Ox Bottom for eight years, and unfortunately the owner decided to take advantage of the skyrocketing rental rates in Florida and raise our rent. They increased it by nearly $500 a month, too much to stomach when we really didn't need that much space anymore. My husband was working full time back at home in Jacksonville, and the girls were in their apartment for college, so it really was just me and the dogs most of the time, except for when the hubs came over to visit. The challenge was that I was notified of the rent increase in mid July while Sarah and I were up in Washington DC for a week checking out all the museums. I knew that if I was going to move, it really needed to happen by mid-August before we all went back to work and school for the Fall or I'd be moving with no help!

My daughter Olivia was home in Tallahassee so she searched out some options while I was in DC, and we thought we found the perfect spot! It had a fenced in backyard and allowed dogs, was in a part of town I was used to, and though it was half the size, the rent was the same as what we were paying before the rent hike. Liv visited it and liked it. Owner reached out to me with a "I have several others interested" text, and since Liv had visited it and liked it, I took the leap and signed the lease from DC. When I got back in town, I did a little drive by and it seemed perfectly fine. A few days later, I met up with the owner, and it seemed perfectly fine; there were just a few things I pointed out that I felt needed to be addressed before I moved in. She agreed and said she'd take care of it. I had picked up the keys, and a few days before we planned to move in, hubs and I drove by after going to a movie and went in to do some planning. Water was running in one of the toilets, so we checked the other and saw that the water had been dripping in the shower. I made a note to talk with the owner about those things. As luck would have it, the next door neighbor was outside (a police officer! a bonus!), and she shared some of the challenges the previous tenant had when the house was switched from well to city water, a $400 increase in water bill! Thinking maybe that was because of the toilet running and shower dripping, we made notes regarding what the neighbor shared for the owner. 

So .... when we touched base with the owner and told her about these things we felt needed to be addressed, she totally blew up at me! It was a super uncomfortable conversation, with her mainly yelling at me that how dare I insinuate she didn't take care of the property. "I'm the best landlord in town!!" I finally gave the phone to my husband hoping he could just talk water/plumbing issues with her, but even he could not get a word in. I finally said, "Okay, let's just take a step back and talk again tomorrow". Now, consider I had already paid the security deposit, first month's rent, and pet fees, all of which added up to nearly $5,000. My husband and I looked at each other with a "what the heck just happened?" look, and he said, "You absolutely cannot move in there. That woman is unhinged." But we had already given her nearly $5,000! He felt strongly that I wouldn't feel safe and happy there in the long run, and that if we had to, we'd walk away from the money we had already given her. So I texted her and told her I was not questioning her skills as a landlord, just pointing out things that needed to be addressed, and was sorry if I offended her. I followed that up with how taken aback I was with how she spoke to me and told her I felt like we were already in a combative relationship and I hadn't even moved in yet! I told her that if I was not who she wanted to move in there, then let's determine that now. And amazingly for my good fortune, she told me she'd refund everything I gave her to get out of the lease. She clearly didn't want someone in there who was going to question her! I said, sure, I'll take it! And she was true to her word and sent me back every dollar I had given her an cancelled the lease. 

What could have been very bad situation turned into really amazing luck. That night I jumped back on Zillow looking for another rental, and the house I'm currently sitting in had popped up. And it was perfect. It was smaller than our current rental but bigger than the nightmare rental and in a really great neighborhood with a $200 a month lower rent. HUGE backyard, allowed dogs, all hardwood floors. We met the owner at the house the next day and had signed a lease by the end of the following day. And I've been so happy here! It's a great little rancher built in the early 1970s, the neighborhood has earned neighborhood of the year in Tallahassee many times, and the owner is one of the nicest people I've ever met.

So back to these flowers in the photo. This is a great walking neighborhood, and I have several three-mile routes mapped out for morning walks. On one of my walks this past week, this bush had burst into bloom. In early November! After some researching, I discovered it's a cassia splendida, and that it's super hardy and can even do well in salty soil. Guess what we'll soon planting in our yard in Jacksonville! 

If this happens to pop up and reach you, I hope that you are doing well. I'm needing to add a little better structure to my life (more on that later) so I'm hoping that getting back to a regular blogging schedule will be part of that. Leave me a comment and let me know what's happening in your world. I know that it's been a week here in the states with the election we just had, and while I admit, I'm disappointed in the outcome, I accept that that's why we vote, and I vow to continue to work for goodness, compassion, and equality. And that'll take all of us working together to achieve, regardless for whom you voted. 

Best Shot Monday: Persimmon

Meet sweet Persimmon. Among lots of favorites, she holds my number one spot at the shelter right now. Her life before the shelter was (to put it lightly) rough. She came to the shelter in October, and it was clear she was accustomed to not knowing when her next meal was coming. She was mostly hairless, after years of flea infestations and allergies to fleas had taken their toll. She had clearly birthed more puppies than seems reasonable. She was just thrilled to get a blanket and a cot and meals and water every day. As the days went on, she started to learn that people were to be trusted, and we started to see her affectionate side. After 8 years, she was finally getting all the love she needed. The stress of kennel life started to get to her, and to ease her frustration, she made her way into a foster home where she learned what it’s like to have a home and someone who cares for her. Her former foster mom says she is "Always happy and prances around" and she "Loves getting petted, taking naps, and doesn’t mind clothes or baths." Don't let her age fool you - this eight year old, 62 pound girl has a LOT of life left in her, and enjoys a good long walk along with good long naps. I took the top photo on April 18, and the bottom one on January 14, when we first met. She needs her forever and has been waiting for a while for it. Are you her hero? ⁣If you are, I want visiting privileges. She's available for adoption through the City of Tallahassee Animal Service Center.

Snapdragons and Crazy Brains

Funny story behind this journal I finished up yesterday regarding how my brain works. Comically, I have this theory that I can clean up my studio by finishing up projects. This never works. Why? Because my brain has a tendency to go down rabbit holes pretty quickly. I had been saving my Dove soap boxes to create some tiny journals like this one and decided I could use up some of the off cut paper on my table to make signatures for those tiny journals. I had several signatures all folded and ready to go when I remembered some graph paper I had that would be a nice addition to the signatures. I just knew that graph paper was in one of the cubbies over there under my laptop. Searching for that paper, I found the paper I used in this journal, but we aren't nearly there yet.

I came across this box of Fabriano Artistico folded cards that I'd had for years and had yet to use, so I pulled that box out and started folding a few sheets to see how it would work together for signatures. Beautifully!  I folded a few and then remembered that I had sat down on the floor actually looking for the graph paper for the tiny journals, so I sat that box down and set those few signatures aside and went back to looking for the graph paper. In one of the cubbies on the other side, I didn't find the graph paper, but I did find some books I had picked up from Goodwill that I thought would make good junk journals. But really, I'd had them for a while and they were in great shape and I did have a garage sale coming up, so maybe I should just put them in the garage sale ... so I proceeded to take all the pricing stickers off those and set them in a pile for the garage sale. Oh, right!  Graph paper, I was looking graph paper!  Oooh!!! Then I came back across the more than 100-year-old Bible I picked up at a neighborhood garage sale for $3. (Of course, I had to rescue it.) It was in pretty bad shape, but I figured I could clean it up and maybe even find its rightful owner.  Holding it in my hands again (graph paper, what graph paper?), I decided that at that moment, it was about dang time I did something with that Bible. So on a whim, I grabbed some scissors and trimmed down the cover where it had separated to just clean up the edges a bit thinking, hmmm, maybe I could fashion a new cover out of Kraft-tex.  I cleaned her all up and then started flipping through it again, and I came back across the memorial notice of one Paul Taylor who passed away at the age of 74 in 1954 in Deland. Tucked in with dear Paul's memorial notice, a family member had included some newspaper clippings and his obituary. Among other family members, Paul left behind daughter Helen Milliken of Tallahassee. Aha!  Perhaps that's how the Bible ended up in a garage sale in Tallahassee.

So off to Google I went to try to find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee. Of course, dear Paul was 74 when he died, so Helen was likely in her 50s then - in 1954 - so unless Guinness missed her as the oldest living human, she was no longer with us. But that did not stop me!  Maybe I could find dear Helen's obituary and find other members of her family still in Tallahassee. But alas, I could not find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee.  But hey!  Helen Milliken of Michigan, she's done some stuff!  She was the First Lady of Michigan Governor William Milliken and quite the political force in her own right! This Helen was the longest-lived First Lady in Michigan history, living to 99 years old and first lady for 14, and was a women's rights activist and environmentalist. During the 1970's, she was one of the leading proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment had been passed by the United States Congress in 1972 and was ratified by thirty-five states, including Michigan, in the next few years.^. When the 1980 Republican National Convention, held in Detriot, removed language supporting the ERA from the convention platform, Helen, still First Lady of Michigan at the time, boycotted the convention's opening ceremony to attend a pro-ERA protest. You go, Helen! Thank you! (and thank you, Wikipedia, for that nugget.)  

Well, since I could not find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee, I put the Bible back in its cubby for now. I had completely forgotten about the graph paper at this point, so I sat back on the floor and created more signature with that yummy Fabriano Artistico paper I found. And three days later, I finished this journal.  I still haven't found the graph paper, nor made any further progress on the tiny journals, nor cleaned up my studio. But I did finish this journal. I'll keep you posted on the Bible rehab! 

Saying Goodbye to our Sweet Molly

We had to say goodbye to our sweet Molly yesterday. We knew this day was coming, but that never makes it any easier. We could tell she really wasn't feeling well last weekend when we were home in Jacksonville, but she started declining rapidly early this week. By yesterday morning, she had not eaten anything since early Wednesday and was having labored breathing. When she wouldn't even take a Pupperoni, I knew it was time.

We adopted Molly from The Jacksonville Humane Society in December 2009. We had to foster her first because she had a broken leg, but once her leg was fully healed, she was fully ours. JHS staff's best guess was that she had been thrown out of a moving car because she had quite a bit of road rash along with her broken leg, but none of the internal injuries you'd likely see in a dog that had been hit by a car. Until her very last days, she was always very selective in who she trusted and rarely trusted men. A few years after adopting her, I learned by her ID number paperwork that she actually started her journey to us at Jacksonville's Animal Care Protective Services, my long time volunteer home, and then had been transferred over to JHS.

The girls and I had actually selected another dog from JHS, but when Benny came in with us to meet that dog, Molly had been placed in the kennel just below the other dog. And she was quiet. That was the key for Benny. All the other dogs were barking, but Molly was just quietly laying their watching us. Now granted, she was injured and scared, so truly, that's likely the real reason she was quiet, but that didn't matter. But lo and behold, once Molly was home with us, feeling better and settling in, we learned that she was actually quite the gifted talker ... and singer ... and howler. Isabelle was two when we adopted Molly, and they became fast friends. Isabelle was the perfect big sister, even staying downstairs with her when she realized Molly could not navigate the stairs with her cast. They were inseparable from the beginning. Molly remained shy and hesitant around strangers her whole life, and she followed Isabelle's lead in just about everything except that - Izzy never met a stranger. But once Molly decided you were okay, she loved you with her whole little wiggly body and her helicopter tail.

Molly's grief when Isabelle passed was really something to see. Along with our own grief of losing 'Belle, watching Molly grieve her was even more heartbreaking. I knew in my heart that she would not last long without her, and sure enough, she only lasted about six months. She was already really spoiled, but we ramped that up when Izzy passed and then ramped it up even more when we got her leukemia diagnosis. Benny got a little poetic with us in a text yesterday, saying she came into our lives knowing the hate of another human but left this world knowing so much love from us. I can only take solace in knowing that she's back with her best pal now, and she and Isabelle are running around with no pain, chasing bunnies and butterflies and teaching all the other dogs how to sing and howl with abandon. Run free, sweet Molly. We are blessed to have been your family. We love you so very much.

My thanks again to the amazing Dr. Diana Brown at Bradfordville Animal Hospital, who helped Molly make her way to the Rainbow Bridge to wait for us. We've lost three furry family members in the last year and a half - Pete, July 30, 2020; Isabelle, August 26, 2021, and Molly yesterday - and Dr. Brown was with us for the passing of each. I'm glad that Olivia chose to go with me and Molly yesterday because I knew Dr. Brown would help her feel better, and that she did. She is a gifted vet. There have been very few times in my life that I have not had a dog by my side. I know we'll welcome a new one or two home at some point, but for now, having lost two so close together, our hearts need to mend a little bit first. Our cats Zoey and June are going to be getting a lot of extra love. Jester June will love this; the magnificent Queen Zoey, not so much.

Guest Artist for Vintage Page Designs

Hey there! I was invited to be a guest artist for the upcoming 5-Day Journal Challenge with Ali Manning's Vintage Page Designs. That meant I got early access to the videos! Here's my interpretation of the book. The challenge starts on March 7, and you can sign up on Ali's website here. Don't worry if you've never made a journal before! Ali is an amazing teacher, and she'll break it down for you step by step. This is a great structure to start with as it's not very complicated. Of course, adding beads and bling will be completely up to you!