It's my 10 year blogiversary!

Y'all.  I just realized that this month marks ten years blogging on the Junket!  Wow.  These past ten years have flown and I have changed SO much. 

I've shared my life, my jobs, my job changes, going back to school, trips I've taken, food I've cooked, Gotcha Days for our fur babies, my attempts at gardening, products I love, just MY LIFE.  And I've enjoyed every minute sharing with the ones of you who read my blog.  I know you're out there.  I've had over 208,000 page views from all over the world.  I see you and I appreciate you!!  Thank you for following me and for reading about my life.

One thing I have shared a lot that I don't do so much anymore is family get togethers.  I used to love those.  I love my family and I loved getting together with them on holidays and birthdays and such.  But things have changed and I have very strained relationships with both my sister and my brother so I see my parents when I can avoid the other two.  It's really hard to avoid my brother since he and his wife LIVE with my mama and daddy because he's a drug addict who refuses to get help.  He won't work, can't pass a drug test to even get and keep a job, and the whole thing is so infuriating.  I feel like he's mooching off my folks, who pay all the bills and buy all the food.  And this is not the first time they've had to live with my parents.  It's a pattern with them.  They've allowed his drug addiction to take homes, cars, everything they have.  It is not right.  It is not what I need and expect from my brother.  He is such a disappointment to me.  He's taken money from me, groceries from me, because he LIED to my face and took advantage of my love and my obligation as "big sister".  Every single person in the family who looks the other way enables him and they disappoint me, too.  I'm the bad guy because I don't and I'm being "mean" because I refuse to condone his behavior.

I haven't seen my sister in two years.  And that one stings.  I love my sister.  She has a hateful way about her, though.  A way that cuts and bites and hurts and she said one thing too many, a nasty insult to Larry.  At my birthday party, two years ago this month.  The absolute last straw.  I've suffered years of her verbal abuse, her little digs, her smart remarks, telling me what to do, how to be, how to even raise my cat (who by the way, is ridiculously healthy and happy and sweet and friendly and social), making fun of me whenever she could.  I just took it, laughed and let it go.  The outburst to Larry (after years of constant little digs at him as well, which he took and let go), over something that was SO small and insignificant and involved ME and not her, was just the thing that changed something in me.  Like a little off switch inside.  And I've not seen her since.  Oh, we've texted a few times but could not get anything resolved.  You can't make someone apologize for doing something to you but you can refuse to subject yourself to more of it.  Forgiveness flows freely around here but I'm not stupid.  I've touched that hot stove before.

I don't know if they'll read this or not and I don't care.  I don't blog for them.  I blog for me, as an outlet to express what's going on in my life and the life I'm building with Larry, after so many years of being apart.  We deserve this life.  We waited a very long time to have it.  And we get to decide who's in it and who's not.  I don't like the term "toxic relationships" but if you find yourself in one, get out.  It's not worth the pain.  I also have a strained relationship with Larry's daughter and have not seen them in over three years.  Also, over something very selfish and nasty she said to Larry.  Larry tells me all the time to let this stuff go, that the insults were toward him and he's perfectly fine with everybody, old hippie that he is.  I just can't do it, though.  I forgive you but you need to apologize and change when you see you've hurt somebody.  I have no room in my life or heart for selfish people.  

So, there's all that.  Me at 52.  I've been through a lot the past several years and the worst time of my entire life has been with this foot of mine.  The more I endure, the more I realize that I want to surround myself with people who love me and don't play games.  The older you get, the less drama you want around you, and the only drama I want in my life is "The Young and The Restless".

My advice is if you want to blog, DO IT.  Even if no one reads it.  Do it for you.  

Again, thanks for reading my blog and I welcome each and every one of you to stay on this ride with me.  I promise it will not be boring!

Welcome September!

We said goodbye to August and hello to September this weekend.  The first day of September was a hot one, highs in the upper 90's this afternoon and a good rainstorm tonight.  I'm really looking forward to fall this year!  My and Larry's first time at the fair, our first pumpkins and mums on the porch, our first jack-a-lanterns.  We're also hoping to fit a weekend camping trip in up at High Falls as well as the Country Living Fair with Ami and Brian at Stone Mountain toward the end of October.  

We hit some yard sales early Saturday morning and picked up this adorable little vintage Mersman table for five dollars!!  It was in great shape, just a few little dings and scratches that Larry buffed out when we got it home.  Then he rubbed some Old English on it and shined it right on up!  It looks brand new.  I just love it!!  

Saturday afternoon, we went down to Oglethorpe for a family reunion on my mama's side of the family and had the best time!!  I had cousins I hadn't seen in a long time (except on Facebook) and their spouses and babies I'd never met.  I didn't make a Sunday Cake this weekend because I made a birthday cake for the reunion.  We had several folks with birthdays in August, my mama included.  Hers was Saturday, the day of the reunion, and she's never been able to see so many members of her family ON her birthday so it was a great day.  I made The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. again and then Larry and I decorated it to kinda look like Banjo's house.  :)

Here's Larry with our baby great-niece, Katie.

 

And here's Katie with Aunt Ninner.  :)  I love my face in this picture!  I'm like, "somebody needs to come get this heah baby!"   

She wasn't hollering the whole time I held her.  Ha!  Sweet baby girl.

I took this picture of Larry standing out on the dock at Whitewater.  I love how it turned out.

And here's the whole Clark gang!  We had a wonderful time and I'm already looking forward to getting together again.

Today was Labor Day and we did just as little labor as possible.  I made us grilled roast beef and gouda sammiches and we just laid around and watched TV.  A great way to spend the first day of September!  I'm wondering if I get my fall decorations down from the attic this week if that will hurry October up. 

Real Live Woman

I've been asked many times by readers of my blog and by my "friends" on Facebook if my family is as loving and close and perfect as we seem.  Well, we love each other, that's a given, but we're far from perfect.  No family is perfect and we are definitely not without the occasional meltdown.  Something has been going on in my family that has been bugging me for months and I've let it fester but after speaking my mind and getting everything off my chest at Lizzie's 1st birthday party (Sorry, baby!  I'm just so relieved that you won't remember any of that.), I have peace about it now.  I know where I stand and I know what I need to do.  And I know that I will no longer accept excuses for certain members of my family.  There's a song by Trisha Yearwood that I love called Real Live Woman and there's a line in it that I yell out in the car when I'm singing along with her.  Well, I pretty much belt out the entire song but this line is mine.  :)

And I no longer justify
Reasons for the way that I behave
I offer no apologies
For the things that I believe and say
And I like it that way

Here's the video if you want to hear the whole song.  It's my favorite Trisha song because it is how I feel about everything.  From the size of my jeans to speaking my mind to the man who loves me more than anything else on earth.




If you love me, great.  If you don't like me sometimes, well, that's okay, too.  And when I show my butt, love me anyway.