Wedding Anniversary and Christmas

Charlie and I celebrated 25 years of marriage on December 17th. I say "celebrated", but we're not into parties or fancy dinners or big to-dos. We went to our favorite pizza place - Cugino Forno (delicious Naples style pizza - they use the original 1889 recipe and get their ingredients from Italy), exchanged cards, and he sent me flowers. Normally we probably would've gone somewhere like Salvino (great Italian food) or something, and for a few of our past anniversaries we've gone to Asheville, but we wanted to keep things simple.

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We had a pretty good Christmas. Money was tighter this year, (Charlie's truck payment for the truck he bought in the spring, vehicle tax on the Honda and Charlie's car hauler, car insurance, vet bill, etc.)  so not nearly as many presents were bought/given, but it was fine. The kids (who are technically adults) are old enough to understand.

We got Sean a video game he wanted (he wanted a couple others, but his girlfriend Ashley got those for him), a Playstation gift card, and Charlie ordered something for him that we're still waiting to be delivered. We got Kelly a book, a Fawkes Pop (Harry Potter creature), a big plush cat (can't remember if it's a Pusheen thing or what), and a Playstation gift card. And, of course, a few goodies in their stockings.

Charlie/the kids got me the perfume I wanted (I had recently run out) - Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream - and an iTunes card. I got Charlie a Calvin Klein dress shirt. I got my brother a Starbucks gift card. He goes there every morning. I got my mom a soft, purple blanket. Mom gave each of us money. I bought a book Saturday evening with part of it - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

I bought it at Macy's. Originally $75, but was on sale. I can't remember how much I paid. The color is called bordeaux.

The food was good. I made roast chicken, stuffing, green beans, black eyed peas, and biscuits. Desserts were apple pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, and butterball cookies (made with almond extract instead of vanilla).

My mom had to work Christmas Day, but came by at around 7:30 after she got off work. My brother ate dinner with us and watched a movie/TV with Charlie, and Sean's girlfriend was here for several hours.

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Thanksgiving, Uncle Dusty, and Music

We had a nice Thanksgiving with good food.

My mom cooked the turkey and got crescent rolls and gravy. I did the green beans, black eyed peas, stuffing (Stove Top; I may make my own stuffing/dressing someday), mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, pumpkin pie (Mrs. Smith's), chocolate pecan pie, and chocolate pudding pie. Charlie doesn't like turkey (gasp!), so he grilled some pork chops. My brother ate with us.

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My uncle Dusty (given name James) passed away on December 1st of a massive heart attack. He was my mom's brother. (Her brother David died when he was a baby. Her brother Tony died seven years ago. She also lost her sister Nancy seven years ago. Her other two sisters are still living.) Two uncles gone in 10 days. :-(

He will be cremated this Saturday. I don't know if there's going to be a memorial service on that day or not. Last I heard, they were still trying figure things out.

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I've purchased several new songs since the last time I posted about that.

There are more songs that I want, but I ran out of money from the last iTunes card I bought. I asked for an iTunes card for Christmas (and Daisy Dream perfume because I'm almost out), so hopefully I can buy some more songs in a few weeks. :-)

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Science Center, DNA, and Uncle Bill

Thursday, November 7th, Kelly and I went to the Greensboro Science Center. It was a pretty day - sunny with temperatures in the 60s. 

Here are some of the pictures I took.

 Gibbon.

 Gibbons. There were about four of them.

Fossa. We thought it was funny/mean that the fossa enclosure is next to the lemur enclosure. Fossas eat lemurs.

Skywild.

 Lemur. There were several.

 Maned wolves.

 Goats at the petting zoo.

 This alpaca cracked us up looking at us from inside the stable.

 Alpacas.

 Donkeys.

There were also sheep, miniature horses, pigs, and chickens at the petting zoo/farm animal area.

 Meerkat.

Meerkats. Our favorite animals at the Science Center.

Fishing Cat in the aquarium building. 

Penguins.

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Earlier this month, I wrote about Charlie and my mom getting their updated DNA results. I got mine about a week or so later.

My previous results:

80% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
16% Ireland and Scotland
4% Norway

Updated results:

70% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
23% Ireland and Scotland
4% Sweden
3% Germanic Europe

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Thursday evening, November 21st, my Uncle Bill passed away at the age of 88. He was the last living sibling (and baby of their family) of my paternal grandpa. I loved my Uncle Bill. He was a good man. Kind, loved his family, God, and his church. I hadn't seen him in a few years. I wish I could've seen him once more. But I suppose we all say that after a loved one has passed. I talked to God and said that I don't know if He gives messages to our loved ones or not lol, but to tell my Uncle Bill that I love him and I'll see him again someday.

I have an audio tape somewhere from when I was a little girl of my Uncle Bill playing the harmonica, my dad playing the guitar, and my paternal grandparents singing hymns/gospel songs. I think maybe you can hear me, my brother, and my mom a little bit in the background. I need to try to find it. Hopefully my tape player won't eat it.

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Mountain Trip and the Park

Charlie, Sean, Kelly, Ashley (Sean's girlfriend), and I went to the mountains on Friday, October 18th. We drove up to Fancy Gap, VA, (stopping in Mt. Airy for lunch, as we usually do) and then drove south to Boone on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a pretty day. We ate at Dan'l Boone Inn Restaurant in Boone before coming home.

Here are some of the pictures I took.

I think this is in Virginia.

Ashley, Sean, and Kelly at Stone Mountain overlook. The tree we called the Halloween tree is gone. Kind of made us sad.

View of Stone Mountain at Mahogany Rock overlook.

I took this one as Charlie was driving.

Charlie, Kelly, Sean, and Ashley at Alligator Back overlook.

At Bluff Mountain overlook.

At Bluff Mountain overlook. Taken along the trail.

From top to bottom: Sean, Charlie, Kelly, and Ashley. The Lump overlook.

At Mt. Jefferson overlook.

At Elk Mountain overlook.

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This ended up being shorter than I thought it would be, so I'll include pictures from when Kelly and I went to the park on November 6th.

Hagan-Stone park.

Deer tracks along a creek at Company Mill Preserve.

Creek crossing at Company Mill Preserve.

Interesting mushroom.

Hagan-Stone park.

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Forgotten Family, DNA, Weddings, and Books

Sean is still working for Petco. He only gets to work a couple days a week. I hope he finds something soon that will give him more hours and that he can make a decent career out of.

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Milo had to go to the vet a few weeks ago for a recheck of his liver. His liver values or whatever are still too high, so he's on medication for that.

Pippin is due for his bi-annual exam, but we still owe $600 or $700 for Milo (Care Credit) and Christmas is coming up. :-/ It'll have to wait until after the new year.

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When I was working on the family tree a few weeks ago (I work on it nearly every day), I got a new hint for my great-grandpa Wilbur Melton. (My mom's dad's dad.) Turns out he and Great-grandma Vinnie had a son named Hustler (crazy name) who died when he was 10 months old. (Flu and then pneumonia.) He was their second child. (My grandpa was their third.) I asked my mom if she knew about him and she said she didn't. It makes me sad that he was forgotten (or at least not mentioned) all these years. 

In other Ancestry.com news, a new update is coming out with DNA. (The science is always improving.) My mom's and my husband's have both updated, but mine hasn't yet. I've been checking every day. Hopefully soon. I really want to know what it says now.


My mom's previous results:

78% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
22% Ireland and Scotland

Her current/updated results:

69% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
21% Ireland and Scotland
6% Norway
2% France
2% Spain


Charlie's previous results:

83% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
8% Ireland and Scotland
6% Norway
2% Benin/Togo
1% Germanic Europe

His current/updated results:

86% England, Wales, and Northwestern Europe
7% Ireland and Scotland
2% Germanic Europe
2% Sweden
1% Norway
1% Nigeria
1% Ghana

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I've been to two weddings in the last several weeks. Both couples attend my church. Carson and Jessica were married in September. Nicole and Lawaun were married on November 2nd. So happy for both couples.

Austin married Didi last month, but their wedding was in Massachusetts. Can't believe he got married at 19, but I hope they have a happy, till-death-do-they-part marriage.

That's four weddings of church couples since July. Um, hopefully no funerals any time soon. Ha ha. :-/

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For some reason, my GoodReads widget in the margin was saying that I was currently reading The Book Thief. Uh, no. I read that book 6 years ago. I had to update the widget. Hopefully it won't mess up again.

Since my last entry, I finished reading Days of Panic by Jack Hunt (I gave it 3 stars at GoodReads and will read the series; 3 more books) and started reading A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole. That one was difficult for me to get into, but then it got good around page 70. And then I lost interest and started reading The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth. That one's kind of dragging, though I'm not very far into it. Maybe around page 50? But then The Toll by Neal Shusterman came out this past Tuesday. I've been dying to read this one! It's the third book in the Scythe trilogy. I'm putting the other two on hold while I read this one. I'm so excited! lol

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I've purchased a bunch of new songs since my last entry. Well, they're not new, but they're new to my iPod. :-D "Fight for Us" is new-ish.

There are more songs I want, but haven't gotten around to buying them yet.

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I will write separate entries about our trip to the mountains last month, Kelly and I going to Hagan-Stone Park and Company Mill Reserve a couple days ago, and Kelly and I going to the Greensboro Science Center yesterday.


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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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Sean's Job Situation, Books, and Music

So, Sean's job with FedEx didn't go well. Too many little details to go into as far as training, what he hoped for, etc. He did end up unloading rather than loading, which he says is better, but after a few days of training and just an hour or so into his first real day of work (his hours were about 4 AM to 8 or 9 AM), he was hit in the head by a metal flap/folding shelf thing that came loose. (And apparently it happens often enough that no one seemed surprised. Sean was told that a guy got knocked unconscious one time.) It hurt badly and made him dizzy, but he tried to keep working.

After a short time, he was feeling weak and was told to go see someone. (Whose name and position I don't know, but she's not a medical/first aid person or nurse.) She asked him some questions, gave him some pain medicine, and told him to go home. She also told him that if he was still feeling bad to just call and let them know he wouldn't be able to come in the next morning. This was a Thursday.

Sean continued to feel bad and his head was killing him. Finally on the following Monday, September 2nd, he went to the hospital. A doctor who goes to our church had talked to him on Sunday and told him that he needs to see a doctor because it's a head injury and you shouldn't ignore those. The doctor at the hospital told him he had a concussion and wrote a note for him to return to work on the 4th, but only light duty until cleared by a doctor.

Sean went back to work on the 4th, light duty, and all seemed to be fine. His manager (who Sean liked a lot; they call him Big E) was talking to Sean about his injury and was surprised to find out that he wasn't sent to a doctor by someone at FedEx. Apparently that's what they're supposed to do with any on-the-job injury, but no mention had been made to Sean about seeing a doctor or filing for workman's comp. Sean, having never been in this kind of situation before, had no idea what was normal protocol for on-the-job injuries. When he had gone to the hospital, someone there had asked him if he wanted to file for workman's comp and he told them he did. It hadn't even crossed his mind to do that and he didn't know that FedEx would have to pay for an injury he got on the job.

Anyway, Sean was happily continuing to work for FedEx, though the light duty job was boring compared to unloading trucks. That week or the next, he received a phone call from the same woman who had failed to tell him to go to the doctor and instead sent him home. Basically, she said in so many words that Sean had made things difficult for her and that they were going to "fight this", meaning they don't want to pay his doctor bill. 

A few days after that, he got something in the mail that admitted that he was hurt on the job, but that he had only worked for them for 2 seconds rather than the 6 days he actually worked (maybe a typo? seems too ridiculous not to be) and that they don't owe him any money. While also saying that he had been hurt over an hour after clocking in for the day. Huh??

Sean contacted a lawyer a few days after that, about the workman's comp and the fact that they had yet to give him his paycheck. The lawyer's office called him a few days later and said they weren't going to take his case because there's "not enough" there or something. Not sure what that means.

FedEx finally sent him a paycheck a few days ago. I don't know where things stand with the workman's comp. It's just a bill for a basic check of his symptoms. There was no x-ray or MRI or anything truly expensive. He was hurt on the job, which they admit, and the woman who works for FedEx dropped the ball when she didn't follow company policy and send him directly to a doctor. Sean's not asking for anything more than what's owed to him and what the law says they must pay.

So, yeah, after all that foolishness, Sean quit FedEx and has been working for Petco for a couple weeks now. The pay is much lower and he doesn't get a lot of hours, but he enjoys it and it's just something to do until he figures out what he wants to do career-wise.

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Since my last entry, I read Undying by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, the second book in the Unearthed duology. It was pretty good. I'm now reading Days of Panic by Jack Hunt. It appears to be self-published and probably could've used some more editing/tweaking, but I like it so far.

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The last time I posted iPod song purchases was in April. I've bought several songs since then.

Jesus, by Eddie James

And the following songs as well:

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I've bought just one item of clothing since my last entry. I bought this blouse at Macy's Saturday evening. I went to Macy's for a dress I had seen online (I went to Belk first, but they didn't have it), but ended up not getting it because it's $139 and I wasn't sure if any coupons they might scan (as they often do) could be applied to this dress that's a new arrival or if it would be a good enough deal if they did  scan a coupon. And it would be kind of embarrassing to say "never mind" if it wasn't a good enough deal. I still really want the dress though (assuming it would look good on me; I didn't want to try it on if I wasn't sure I would be getting it) and normally I might pay full price, but I wasn't comfortable doing so at this time. *sigh* 

Anyway, this is the top I bought. It's by I.N.C and was about $70, but after the cashier scanned a coupon/included some kind sale/deal, it came up to $67 and change. lol Not a great deal. Which makes me think that I probably wouldn't have gotten a good deal on the dress.

I wore it to church yesterday with a black pencil skirt, black tank, and black heels.

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Charlie has some vacation days left for the year and is taking a few days off next month. We're hoping to go to the mountains for the day at that time. Don't know how good the color will be with the above normal temperatures we've been having and the near drought conditions, but we're looking forward to going. We'll want to go on a sunny day and on a day when Sean doesn't have to work. So hopefully that will all work out.


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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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New Job for Sean, New Clothes for Me, and Books

Sean applied for a few other jobs since my last entry and finally got an interview with one of them this past Monday. He heard back from them a few days later and will start training this Tuesday. He'll be working for FedEx. I hope this job works out better for him than UPS did.

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I bought a few new things over the past couple weeks.

I got this top at Stein Mart for about $25. I wear the belt/sash thing closer to my side, not centered.

I got these Jessica Simpson heels at Stein Mart. Regular price (at other retailers) is about $90. I paid $60. I wore them to church this past Sunday with a black dress.

I got this Calvin Klein skirt on sale at Macy's for about $18. Original price was about $100. I wore it yesterday with my new black top (above) and nude/beige sandals. I carried my green cross-body purse for a bit of color.

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I finished reading Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner on August 6th. I gave it 3½-4 stars at GoodReads. It ended on a cliffhanger. I may read the second book (of two) after I finish the book I'm currently reading - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I'm a little more than halfway through that one. The main character is difficult to like, but it's a good book so far.

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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An Unemployed Son, A Wedding, and Delicious Pizza

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last entry.

Sean got a job with UPS. They fired him after a week and a half because they said he wasn't moving fast enough/meeting quota/whatever. A quota he didn't know about until they fired him. Yet he had all his packages loaded by the time his truck had to leave each morning and was even sent to help other people with their packages and to another department entirely to help people there. :-/

On top of that, they haven't paid him for the second week he worked there. (25 hours.) He's been up there to talk to human resources and I think has called them once, but still no paycheck. He's going to call again or go back and ask one more time. Then he's contacting the labor board.

He's filled out a few more applications online and had an interview with some company, but no one has hired him. I've made some suggestions of places he should try to apply to, but I don't think he's done it yet. I told him that looking for a job is his job until he gets hired by someone, but he spends most of his day playing video games. He does help a friend once or twice a week renovating his place. This friend (who's over 60 years old) buys him lunch and I think pays him a little, but Sean needs a real job asap!


Update: He received his check in the mail today (Friday, July 20th).

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I've gotten rid of several more items of clothing since my last entry and bought a few more things.

Black denim skirt from Kohl's. Originally about $70. I think I paid about $50. Falls below my knees.

Denim skirt from Cato. I paid $21 for it. Falls below my knees.

Denim skirt from Cato. I paid about $17 for it. Falls below my knees.

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Friday evening, July 12th, was our pastor's daughter's wedding. It was held at Phillip's Chapel in Greensboro. Beautiful chapel! Savannah was beautiful and the groom (Jonathan) was handsome. Pastor sang Butterfly Kisses and got choked up a couple times. There weren't many dry eyes in the building. Jonathan's parents also sang. Savannah's grandfather (her mom's dad) performed the wedding. There were a lot of ministers there. Many of them relatives of the bride or groom. It was a sweet, beautiful wedding. The reception was in a building near the chapel.

Sean and Ashley (Sean's girlfriend) went with me. (Charlie and Kelly didn't want to go. :-/ ) We got home a little after 11:00 PM.

The cake was delicious. Strawberry with pieces of strawberries in it. Two large chocolate cakes (rectangular/single layer) were brought out soon after the cake cutting.

Hard to believe she's a wife now. I've known her since she was born (which was a few days after Charlie and I got engaged). They've been on their honeymoon this week and should be home by the weekend. He's from Arkansas, but they'll be living here in the Greensboro area.

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There's this pizza place that I had heard about quite a while back that Charlie and I finally went to last month - Cugino Forno. It's at Revolution Mill. It's possibly the best pizza I've ever had in my life. Most of their ingredients are from Italy (it's Naples style pizza) and so are their huge ovens. Kelly and I went a few weeks ago (her first time) and then all four of us went last week (Sean's first time). I've told several people about it. I've had their pepperoni pizza and their margherita pizza and love them both.

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Since my last entry, I finally finished The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (I gave it 2 stars at GoodReads) and also read The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan. I gave it 3 stars at GoodReads.

I'm currently reading Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I'm liking it okay, but I haven't gotten very far.

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~*~Nocturnal Queen~*~
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