Hello, another Monday in November

It was NOT "just another November 18th" 26 years ago today because it was my first full day as a MOM :). We celebrated that kiddo this weekend in his town with his Bell grandparents and "neighborhood grandparents" 

We first went to the shop Ellie works, Savannah Taylor, then ended up at State of Confusion for lunch/brunch.  Afterwards we went back to his apartment - he moved there at the beginning of the summer but this is the first time we saw it.  Barbara had made him a birthday cheesecake with peanutbutter sauce - and we watched the end of the Clemson/Pitt game (a good one!).  After that, on our way out of town, we swung by his new storage place, where he keeps all of his equipment for his businesses, OneScape and Junk It Chatt.

Tom and Robert were accidentally dressed alike!

"Neighborhood" grandparents and Bell Grandparents

New building he is leasing - the truck and trailer are usually parked in there; his birthday gift was an air compressor for that space - no pictures though.

We got home in time to catch the end of the FL/LSU game and settled in to cheer on our Vols.  They had a good first half, horrible second half and ending :(

After church Sunday I got the best picture from my good friends, who were traveling through Chattanooga and stopped to wish Robert Happy Birthday :)

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Later that day Robert's girlfriend, Ellie, had planned a surprise birthday dinner for him and his friends at the exact same restaurant!!  Ha!  So funny - he ate there three times this weekend :). My friends sent me a picture of them with their waiter - glad they had such a good time together!

I finished my second full week at my new job last week.  First time in my life that I have had Veteran's Day off so I got some chores done and then went shopping for fun. . .no one really to "shop for" so I picked up a few things to mail to Laura.  This is the only picture I have of it - I was showing Tom that the only box I could find in the house was too shallow - ha!  There were some autumn things and some December decorations and things to bake with.  I talked to her last night and she said she has a lot of Friendsgiving events this week so she'll be able to use some of the items I sent her.

Everyone keeps asking "how is the new job going?"  So far, so good is my general answer.  There's not a whole lot going on yet - I sat in on two sessions (of six) that my coworker is facilitating and took notes both time to share with her.  

I love doing this type of thing - reviewing an event or going over something someone has put together and talking about it so we can apply lessons to future assignments.  Of course I also really like facilitating but not as much as the behind-the-scenes organizing and managing :). 

I took this picture the first day I worked at home - it's been a long time since I've been able to do that!

People ask about the pen colors - I always use a different color for every day of the week so I can quickly locate notes - Mondays are black ink, Tuesdays blue, Wednesdays red, Thursdays green and Fridays are purple or pink.  I started this years ago and it really helps me locate notes or remind me when I took them and/or talked about them with someone.  

We had a date night after work Friday - this was an excellent movie - highly recommend :)

We had the craziest thing happen to us at pickleball Sunday. . .we couldn't play in our usual place because of a tournament so someone had reserved a couple of courts at a local park.  We knew most of the people we were playing with, but not all.  Tom and I began talking to a couple we had just met and found we had a LOT in common - we are all from Ohio, three of us grew up in the same area, she and I graduated from the same university, we both like to boat at Dale Hollow Lake, we both have a son who is 26 (and both are engineers, although ours isn't in that profession). . .and then we dug further and found we both call the same (former) couple in Dayton, Ohio "best friends".  What are the odds???  So Tom took a picture of the three of us (I don't know them well enough to post it - ha!) and sent it off to our friends. . .turns out, when we first moved to East Tennessee in 2015, Tonya and I were introduced by Jill. . .we now both vaguely remember that!!!  What a small, small world.  I LOVE it when things like this happen :). And now, obviously, we have pickleball in common :). We also attend the same church. . .crazy.

I'm working on this project - at the tailgate I only had the one board done but it wasn't protected so I filled in some scuffs on that one and started on the other board.  The weather was kind of yucky to be working outside Friday and Saturday and will be colder this week so we'll see if any progress is made before Thanksgiving.

That's about it.  Guess I'm getting it published right under the wire (9 p.m.) on Monday - finishing it up while the Texans and Cowboys are playing.  Our usual NFL teams to cheer on - the Bengals and Titans are both having rough seasons so not too invested in it all this year.

I will join in with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday - lots of good blogs linked up there - go check them out!

Until next time,

Love,

Jenni