Friday Favorites - 9.19.25

 

This was Tom with his girls on his birthday - I don't know if I shared it?  Some FAVORITE people in my life, for sure :)

It's been a minute since I've published something - I'm doing the same thing I did to myself last year - I started a post that's "too big" and now won't allow myself to move on until that's done.  Do you ever do anything like that?  You start something then say, "I can't do anything else until that's done" so then nothing gets done???  Believe me, I don't have a problem "moving on" with house projects (generally I am waiting for help or time that never comes) but if it's something I depend only on myself for and then I decide I don't want to do it, it's too big, I get bored. . .well. . .sigh.  

So. . .I'm going to join in randomly with Friday Favorites because I LOVE reading and being inspired by other people and what they're doing, using, where they are going, or what makes them light up :). Thank you, Erika and Andrea, for hosting this each week, therefore giving me a reason to share MY favorites.

Yesterday I was in Chattanooga for work (I do Day in the Life trips so I can learn all about what we do, differences in our various locations/departments, and get to know the people who do it - it's one of the best parts of my job!) and when I was leaving the manager at the branch asked, "how long will it take you to get home?"  I looked at my map and it said 2 hours.  WOW.  Our family shares locations and I checked that app and saw that Robert was "near" me so I called him to see if he was free to get away for a soda or something (it was 4:45 on a Thursday).  He said he could get away, that he was at his apartment getting some paperwork done, so we met up for a little over an hour at a FAVORITE, State of Confusion - we sat at the bar and shared an appetizer and just had some great one-on-one time.  He and Ellie had plans for dinner with friends so she met us there, they took off, and by then my map said I could be home in 1 hour 35 minutes.  MUCH better.

Gosh, it must have been a good week for me - here's a recent picture of my FAVORITE youngest on Tom's birthday too.  We went out after church for a birthday lunch and, since we never really had a "special" dinner just for Stephen on his birthday, we combined the two.  Connors does a great job of marking celebrations :)

A sunrise or sunset will never not be a FAVORITE - leaving the house early to get to Chatt yesterday morning I got to see these beautiful colors in the sky. Funny enough, I think sunrises always look better in person - hard for me to capture the beauty on my phone camera - but I've taken pictures of sunsets specifically for the lighting and, although beautiful in person, what is captured in a picture is even better:

When I typed "sunset" in my picture app ALL of these (and more) came up - I was specifically looking for the lake ones - but the beach and river work too!  I guess we are out-and-about and take a lot of pictures at sunset - especially in the summer!

This was another "sunset" picture (and at a marina, funny enough - I love to be around water!!) - it was our monthly Birthday Friends dinner.  This is a FAVORITE evening each month - we are celebrating another one Tuesday :). 

This is a new FAVORITE too. . .my Swig cup!!  Shay posted her new one recently and I thought it was time to treat myself to a new "everyday" cup (yes, I have one cup that I use all.day.long.every.day) and thought her's was cute.  I went in search of it but saw this one instead and I couldn't be happier use it for the next few months, although in Knoxville I could pass it off all year long.  We're all about our Vols anytime of the year!  It's taking some getting used to - I don't like the lid like I did on my Stanley and it's a little bigger than what I'm used to but the handle is comfortable and I like the rubber bottome - glad I treated myself.  If you are local, I bought mine here.

(I am not an affiliate blogger - I post links in case readers would like click for more info.)

This is a FAVORITE this time of the year - college football (specifically SEC college football) every Saturday.  We've been known to fly to Florida for the weekend just to spend the day in my brother's living room watching college football together - ha!  My uncle and I are usually exchanging texts during the day - he's a Michigan fan so we keep up with that team also - and I was probably showing him what games we were currently following with this picture.  

I posted about our day here, but then this FAVORITE picture came back from Susan who found it on SM later in the week.  Someone was on campus taking pictures to post to her account - who's going to say "no" to a picture together??  (DON'T answer that Tom!!!).  What a happy occasion, to be on campus on Game Day with these people.

And I'll end with these two FAVORITES - Chelsea will be 13 in a couple of weeks and Radar is two.  I really, really love having these two around.  Neither are "cuddly" by any means, but they are always happy to see you, love a walk, and will let me kiss them.  We have a million pictures of Chelsea overlooking her "kingdom" from that spot and Radar sometimes rings the bell on the door just to go jump up on my chair and sun himself.  Yes, there are many times I would like to sit there but he's stretched out and comfortable so I sit at the table.  How I love these doggies!

If you're not a blogger, please list your FAVORITES in the comments and if you are a blogger, direct me to your post so I can read about yours today :)

Hope today's a good start to a great weekend!

Love,

Jenni