Ten Lords A-Leaping

1.  Wednesday walk with Kristin at Central Park/The Station!

2.  Fan club for Jace's last home football game!

3.  Parker holding the baby as they provided respite foster care!

4.  Mom and Jaceman after his last 7th grade football game!

5.  11am OSU game fun with Dad and Rach!

6.  RIP Diane Keaton!

7.  My T-Swift inspired pic before seeing her album-launch movie on October 3rd!

8.  Heal Out Loud LifeGroup ladies (Good Boundaries & Goodbyes)!

9.  Gaillardia Halloween girls night with Rach, Kyndal, and Haydenn!

Merry Christmas-Eve Eve!!  Today will be my final day at the Cleveland County Courthouse - I'm excited about the job transition, and I am sincerely very grateful for my time there!  This = 12 Days of Recaps with a few blog quotes and my top nine photos from each month of 2025!

OCTOBER:

"Enough of this tortured poet nonsense.
Welcome back, vibrant and happy T-Swift! lol
Your long-time fans had missed you!!"

~Dancing Through the Lightning Strikes, 10-6-25

"[Emily] carefully asked whether it might be possible that my nervous system has become so accustomed to me being in a state of indecision and limbo that self-doubt feels like the most familiar path - (something I naturally default back into without much conscious awareness).  Umm, wow, yes!!"

~Breaking the Cycle, 10-8-25

"For years, I talked and wrote about becoming a single mom until it became hard to admit that I might want something different now.  In addition to all the roadblocks I encountered, my desire itself had begun to shift.  It’s not that I don’t ever want kids or don't believe I would be a good mom, but the “doing it alone” part began to feel more daunting and isolating than empowering and connecting."
~Safety Nets and Wet Paint, 10-11-25

"The Cowboys lost, but I can't express how little that mattered to me.  They fired Coach Gundy mid-season and their first and second string quarterbacks have been injured.  So it's a rough, slightly embarrassing, rebuilding kind of season for them, and on the metaphorical level, I totally relate to that and wish them all the best!"

~Football is Life, 10-12-25

"Either way, I know I am not alone in this frustrated perspective, but you cannot know how deeply flawed it all is until you're at the epicenter where you've invested so much time, money, and energy into this career that it becomes difficult to change course (the sunk cost fallacy)."
~Reality vs. Expectation, 10-18-25

"Having zero experience to speak from, I'm still firmly convinced I would be an excellent supportive wife, so I may venture back into the dating world eventually, and I will absolutely continue to work on my health goals, but in the meantime, I am truly grateful that, as an admittedly overweight and long-term single woman, I mostly feel cute and loved!"

~Everything Else, 10-18-25

"Embracing my own agency and power to choose and take action is literally the overarching theme of the last several years of my life... Emily and I also talked about how when you put others on a pedestal, it makes you smaller.  Then we talked about the litany of mixed messages I have received over the past four decades about the value of being small versus the value of being strong."

~Pedestals and Power, 10-23-25

"Me:  We've been talking about [dissertation topics], like, what do we want to be known for?
Dr. R:  Nooooo.  No, that's too much pressure!  You want to be known as "Doctor."  You can figure the rest of it out later."
~Photo Friday, 10-31-25

❤ ❤ ❤