Week 1

Welcome to a New Year!  2026 has officially started and I'm already running late but it has been a crazy start so it is what it is.  

Here are the pictures from a long week 1 because of a few extra days:

Day 1- Thursday, 1/1/26

Happy New Year!  We have the whole family here enjoying a New Year's feast on this beautiful, sunny, first day of 2026.

Day 2- Friday, 1/2/26

TGIF!  We're still officially on winter break for a few more days so enjoying the extra time at home but also getting a few things done around the house and yard before a storm moves in.  John made us some festive winter blue drinks that we enjoyed while watching the latest Steven King movie which was brutal but also well done. 

Day 3- Saturday, 1/3/26

It poured today and was cold so I got in some good warming cat cuddles between loads of laundry.

 

Day 4- Sunday, 1/4/26

LOL!  Another rainy and cold day.  At least we are home and able to just hunker down.  It will be brutal going back to work tomorrow.

 

 

Day 5- Monday, 1/5/26

When I got home from work today this is how I found these 2--must be nice!  Yes, John is over there covered up in the corner of the couch.  At least Bailey was happy to get up and go out for a walk with me even in the rain.  Her waterproof jacket was worth every penny today.

Day 6- Tuesday, 1/6/26

 I spied this pretty orange flower at the beginning of our walk and then this beautiful orange sunset at the end.  Thankfully the rain has passed.

Day 7- Wednesday, 1/7/26

I'm enjoying my new wildlife themed calendar card set at my work desk that I got for Christmas.  They were painted by a Canadian artist and are so wonderfully done.  I look forward to enjoying each month's picture as the year passes.  After work I made a Target run for pet essentials (cat & dog).  Rusty approved as he sniffed out the evening treats I tossed down for him before bed.

Day 8- Thursday, 1/8/26

This morning there was a package out front so I caught the neighborhood sunrise before heading to work.  Later when I returned home again Bailey was eager and ready to play.

Day 9- Friday, 1/9/26

Happy Friday again!  At work I'm bulking up my cultures for a harvest next week so I spent a lot of time in the hood today.  Back at home we have been working through the final season of Strangers Things and we're able to finish the last episode tonight.  It's kind of sad it's over but was fun to see how the kid actors have grown an changed over the years.

Day 10- Saturday, 1/10/26 

Well, it started out as a peaceful morning but then John who has been sick with what we thought was a stomach bug ended up fainting due of low blood pressure and hit his head pretty bad in the fall to the floor. I took him to the ER and it turned out he had a really bad gall bladder infection that was messing with his system plus his fall had caused a skull fracture with small brain bleed. Yikes! They are keeping him overnight in ICU on fluids and antibiotics before deciding if he needs surgery or not.  Poor Bailey is wondering where her dad is.  She was there when he fainted and is still quite concerned.

Day 11- Sunday, 1/11/26

This hospital is all too familiar but I'm here for a happy visit now.  John has been moved to a regular room and is doing much better. They still want to keep him for a couple more days to run more tests and decide if the gall bladder needs to come out or not.  He is in good spirits, was happy to catch the second half  of the 49er's game with Tyler after a head scan, and has his normal coloring back aside from the nasty head bruise that will take awhile to fade.  Thank goodness this wasn't something much worse.  Now Bailey and I can both rest better without excessive worry.  How's that for a start to the new year?

 Thanks for stopping by and baring with me as I try to catch up.

Week 52 and 1/2

. . . and here we are finally sharing the rest of the pictures from the final days in 2025. This is a long post with 1 1/2 week's worth of many pictures pictures in each day so we went out with a bang!

Day 356- Monday, 12/22/25

I'm was off this whole week so enjoyed spending more time with the boys while they were home.  Once Rusty let Justin get up for the day he and I went out to run errands including a trip to the mall to pick up an online order that never got delivered.  I haven't been to the mall in ages and hardly recognize most the store there now.  Justin was happy to tag along because he has fond memories of their holiday decoration but sadly it appears they have scaled back quite a bit and only the Santa visit area was decorated.  After that we headed to a dr visit for Justin where the parking lot turned out to be more impressive than the mall with it's colorful pavement littered with millions of tiny yellow leaves which had dropped because of recent rain.  It really was a wonderful sight.  Finally back at home I whipped up some Penne pasta with chicken in Vodka sauce to help warm us all from the inside out on this chilly winter day.

Day 357- Tuesday, 12/23/25

 

Time to make some Christmas goodies with my baking elf.  This is one of his favorite things about Christmas and he always does a great job.  We pretty much spent all day in the kitchen and can't even count how many times we needed to wash dishes, but it all turned out great and was fun too.  Later I spied Rusty on the stairs hiding from the dog and lit up by the banister holiday lights.  Every now and then he'll peek around the corner to see if Bailey is fast asleep yet so he can go downstairs to his favorite room in peace.  One day she'll stop trying to chase him and learn to just let him be.

Day 358- Wednesday, 12/24/25

Happy Christmas Eve!  Today was Christmas cookie-plate delivery day that all the neighbors look forward to and some also give us treats in return.  We have a storm brewing so Christmas for us will be a wet one but at least the clouds are pretty and kind of look like snow drifts up in the sky.  Later we made our traditional pizza dinner to enjoy tonight just before opening one gift and heading to bed.

Day 359- Thursday, 12/25/25

Merry Christmas!  It's actually a bit sunnier than we were expecting because it seems like the rain storm passed mostly overnight.  We had a nice relaxing and fun day starting with an eggnog French-toast brunch before opening presents, and we ended with a nice prime-rib dinner plus Christmas cake for dessert.  I hope everyone else had a great day with family and/or friends.

 

 

Day 360- Friday, 12/26/25

Happy Friday!  I did have to head into the lab this morning to feed my cultures but thankfully it didn't take too long. I'm usually able to get there and back home before anyone else is up.  LOL! We pretty much spent the rest of the day relaxing with the pup and enjoying gifts received.  These are Bailey's new toys that she has managed to already start to break in and that is how we know she likes them.  Later we enjoyed a festive holiday drink by tree light and then watched this movie I had heard good things about.  It was pretty interesting based on a true story about the evolution of dating apps.

Day 361- Saturday, 12/27/25

Someone has been saving his money and bought a used car today which will come in handy when he graduates college in May and will need to find a new job. Otherwise is was a lounging day as we all try to recover from the recent holiday and think about planning the next.  We also started a new Netflix series and it's fun to pick out the unexpected connections brought on by lif'e's ripple effect as the show progresses.

Day 362- Sunday, 12/28/25

Justin gave me that kitchen towel for Christmas with 2 of my favorite things--espresso martinis and chocolate labs.🤎  Even though the sun has been out recently it's still been super cold all break and Rusty knows how to find the best warm spots to deal.  As  I try to stay warm I've been watching the many episodes of Nurse Jackie while also doing mindless chores and was able to finish all the seasons over this holiday break.  Good show but the finale leaves you guessing and sad because you'll never know what happens next.

 

Day 363 - Monday 12/29/25

Happy 2nd birthday to our sweet girl Bailey!  She had a sweet visit with her litter mate sister who lives across the street so they could celebrate together for a bit and then wore herself out playing with a new chew toy.  Hopefully tomorrow the tree comes down.  I must have it put away before New Year's!

Day 364- Tuesday 12/30/25

... and the Christmas take down begins.  It's fun to put it all up but such a pain to put it all away.  Later we went out to a new place in our city to try it out while the boys are home. It's a cool place.  This time we just ate there and the food was good.  Next time we come back we'll plan to bowl and have a little more fun..  Back at home we watched this movie based on a true story and it was really good--almost like a true-life Survivor season.  Plus at the end they had actually real video footage of the real people on the island that was cool to see.

Day 365- Wednesday 12/31/25

Cheers to New Year's Eve!  We had appetizers for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert plus some good drinks. John headed to bed around 10pm while the boys and I lasted until just after midnight.  Goodbye 2025!

I really only had 8 posts in 2025.  The picture in the 9th spot is one from our city I added in as place holder.  IG and FB just aren't the same anymore so I'm less motivated to share.

Hope to see a lot of you in 2026 although you already know I'm running a month behind.