Long time No blog

So, we Farrs haven't blogged in a while. Kimberly was the main blogger on this site, but she set up a new blog (www.createrecovery.blogspot.com) so this one has kind of been ignored. I guess I'll have to pick up her slack and give a little update to all 3 readers as to what's been going on in our lives.

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary in August. It feels like it has been a lot short, and a lot longer than 1 year. Our cake was surprisingly awesome still after being frozen for 1 year.

I also officially finished grad school in August as well. I'm still looking at different job opportunities while waiting to take my boards. They are coming up soon, but I'm confident that I'll pass them, so hopefully I'll double my income here in the next couple of months.

My buddy Trey and I took a trip to Chicago to see the Cubs/Braves series in Wrigley Field. I have always wanted to see a game in Wrigley and we got to see 3 games. It was awesome. I thoroughly loved Chicago and can't wait to go back. Trey and I are already planning our next man trip to Boston next summer to see the Braves/Red Sox.


The week after I went to Chicago, Kimberly and I returned to Excellence Playa Mujeres for our anniversary trip. This is where we went for our honeymoon, and we loved it so much that we decided to return. We even got a great deal on the roof-top terrace, so we splurged on that again. Needless to say, the 6 days were well worth it. I had just worked 60 hours a week for the past 3 weeks and Kimberly was doing her end of the year stuff at work as well.

It's a tradition that I carry her across the threshold of our room there. We were only 4 doors down from our room from last year.


Monkey drinks like last year, only these were coconut and not pineapple


We had a rainbow on our last day


After dinner drinks in the plaza

Kimberly breaking it down with some couples that we met while down there.

Since returning from our various vacations, life has returned to normal. I'm still working in the ER. Kimberly is still working for CCR. Hopefully we'll be putting our house on the market in March or April and move into a bigger house for when we start a family. Who knows when that will be...

the post i haven't written sooner because i didn't know how to start it

since becoming an adult, i have not had to deal with losing many loved ones.  it seems that since turning thirty, times have changed. 

i held my husband's hand back in november.  at the end of may, he held mine.

i knew a post to eulogize my beloved Granddaddy would come at some point; i knew immediately that the words would not come quickly.

i believe he would understand why.  his offspring adored him.  and, as his oldest grandchild, i was fortunate to have spent the most time with him.

cecil thomas wells was a complex, yet simple man.  i like to think of him as an onion, with many layers (and yes, an onion for a reason: because we both loved them, and because it's one of those things that either you like or you don't--and you know why).

he could give you a look that said, "go to hell," yet, if you knew him, you knew he was really smiling at you.

he loved to frown in pictures.  perhaps because he had done it for so long that didn't want to ruin his reputation by turning the corners of his mouth upwards instead.

many decades ago, he sliced off the top of one of his big toes with the lawn mower.  he used to charge my sister a quarter to see it.

for christmas a few years ago, i gave him a fake toe in a beaker that i had found at a halloween sale. he loved it.

my earliest memories of him involve his stomping (literally) around the primitive (read: jim walter home from the 70's) version of our family's now beloved lake house retreat. his outfit of choice: scuffed up brown leather boots, zipper down, cut off jeans, and a so-old-you-can-see-straight-through-it wife beater.

he paid for my first dance classes. not because he thought i could star in the lead of giselle one day, but because he thought i was so very clumsy (i was later moved to another "dance studio" because all i learned from said class was how to moonwalk).

when i turned 15, he bought me my first (matchbox) car.

he believed it was his calling in life to tell me what i needed to study in college and/or a potential business venture i needed to pursue.  among others, his favorites were robotics and investing in gold.  yes, my grandfather, in 1998, was preaching the future of robots in surgical procedures and the increasing price of gold.

he was an outspoken man.  upon meeting david the first time, he bluntly said over a home cooked breakfast, "I don't like male nurses."  david wasn't offended.  he instantly scored points with granddaddy. 

i will remember my grandfather as a man who loved life.  he loved sunsets, boxed red wine, and laughing.  he derived great pleasure from tending to his plants, barbequing chicken, and having his loved ones around.

anyone who has lost a loved one who has been in poor health for a long time can understand the conflicting feelings of grief and relief.  of sorrow and joy.

it's only fitting that he decided to go home right before memorial day.  it's like he was saying, "have a good time. eat. drink. be merry. and think of me."

i am fortunate to have had my beloved grandfather in my life for 30 years.  he was there when i was born.  he saw me graduate (both times).  he spoke to me on shortly before i married david and expressed his extreme joy and happiness.

he was well enough to actually walk down the aisle at my sister's wedding.

and, he held on to life long enough to see his first great-grandchild, our precious sarah ringl, in person.

these last three events occurred within the past nine months.  i truly believe that it was my grandfather's

intense love of his family that kept him here long enough to be a part of them.

my grandfather taught me many things, but here's what means the most to me:
no one is perfect.  everyone makes mistakes.  even though some of these may be too much for individuals to handle, it's never too much for God.  He will always love you, forgive you, and accept you.  everyone deserves another chance at life.

granddaddy, i love you.  thank you for loving me, despite my faults.  thank you for accepting me.  thank you for understanding me.

and look out. i'm gonna moonwalk past you in heaven one day.

tiny tacky turtles

i have a confession: i love tacky sourvenir stores.

alvin's island and wings. chain or local. i love them all.

yes, i know they are filled with endless shelves of treasure crap. i just can't help myself.  from the horrible spring break t-shirts to coffee mugs shaped like boobies, and all the shell art in between.

rarely do i buy something. but if i do, it's for a reason.

case in point: turtles.

you know the ones: no bigger than half your thumb. usually a form of shell art. sometimes wearing a hat.  or glasses.  or both.

i had to buy that first one.

here's why.

the first trip david and i took together was down to gulf shores for a wedding of one of my sorority sisters.  this was only a few weeks after we had been seeing each other, but i was already smitten. (no secret there) and it was on the beach across the street from the awesomely bad hotel that we decided to dtr. yep, heavy discussion for sunbathing. 

seeing as how this conversation eventually led me to my soul mate, i've adopted a sort of fondness for lower alabama beaches.

on the way out of town, i made him visit alvin's island.

a few months later, i returned on business and decided to buy a gag sourvenir for david.

you guessed it: i had finally found a reason to buy one of those ugly funny turtles.

he laughed.

then, wouldn't you know it, the gift shop at our honeymoon resort had a wooden bobble head turtle. and once again, i had to have it.

2 weeks ago, in the busy, hot airport in jamaica, david remarked that "we haven't found a turtle yet!" the search was on. and, as luck would have it, even the jamaicans have a soft spot for tacky turtles.

so now, yes, the turtles are tacky, but they are no longer pointless.

they're memories.

umm, yeah...

i care.

about most things, i care too much. about most things, i wish i cared less. about some things, i feel like i should care more, but know i never will.

i care about my family, my friends, and yes, my pets (too much probably).

i care about our country, but  not enough to follow world news and politics (i'll admit it; it either: bores me, confuses me, saddens me, or a combination of some or all of the aforementioned).

i care about my work. i love my families. i've laughed with them at their stories, cried tears of sorrow with them over death, and tears of joy over interventions.

i care about what people think about me. too much. not as much as i used to, but more than i wished that i did.

it is this obsessing over what you think about what i may say here caring that has frozen this blog. i felt that the few posted i had written where actually worth saying, saying somewhat well, and saying from me. i got great feedback in person. many were touched and enjoyed it.

and then the juice ran dry.

nothing seemed to compare to the other posts. and i worried cared about what others would think when they read what i considered writing.

and then i remembered: no one reads this anyway. and if they did, they can choose not too.

bottom line: i'm letting go. i'm embracing the power to not care so much about the mundane.

and it feels good!