Life is Short

You hear the saying that Life is Short and most people really do not think anything of it. We have had a couple of deaths lately that really touched me and made me realize this is true.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my cousin Jason's passing. He was diagnosed with melanoma cancer in Spring 2007. He later passed away on August 31, 2008 at the age of 32. Jason was surrounded by tons of family and friends his entire life. Mom, Kara, and I were able to make it to Nashville for his final days. While we were at the hospice we got to know more of Jason's friends and here great stories. Jason lived life to the fullest and was known for his saying "No Fun Haters." A motto, I like to live by now. Jason was such a fun cousin. When I was growing up, I would go to Fayetteville and spend a week or two with Granny and all my cousins. I remember my other cousin, Rebecca, and I could not wait for Jason to come over and hang out with us and so excited when he would stay over. At Christmas we would wait by the door in the living room until he came or continuously asked when he would be here. He came to some of my soccer games, high school graduation, and all kinds of other events. Jason will never be forgotten but glad to know he is in comfort now and with our Granny.

My cousin, Jason

One of our family friends lost their daughter to cancer in April 2008. Taylor Brooks was an amazing young girl. She was diagnosed with Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor cancer in July 2007. While Taylor was battling cancer she organized a holiday party for the patients and parents at the AFLAC Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and organized fund raising to bridge the technology budget gap for the new AFLAC Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She did not lot cancer slow her down. Taylor passed away on April 1, 2008 at the age of 14. Since her passing, her parents formed The Taylor Brooks Foundation, http://www.taylorbrooksfoundation.org/. The foundation was formed to provide visibility of childhood cancer, provide humanitarian support to patients and care-givers, extend resources to analyze and implement treatment options, and contribute resources to research new treatments. They continued her Holiday Party and has expanded it into the other Childrens Hospitals in Atlanta. They provide comfort kids to families that have to stay overnight and care packages for all holidays. Every Sunday, Melissa takes Krispy Kreme doughnuts to the center. Small things like this make all of the families days. This year, Jimmie Johnson will wear the Helmet of Hope during the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway on October 11, 2009. Selected charities will receive a grant of $1,048, will be featured on the back of the Helmet of Hope t-shirt and will receive proceeds from the sale of the t-shirt. The Taylor Brooks Foundation was selected as one of the charities. They actually drew my mom's entry (read this article: http://www.jimmiejohnsonfoundation.org/News/News-Archives/Johnson-Continues-to-Decorate-Helmet-of-Hope.aspx). Taylor is an inspiration to us all and I am honored that I got to know Taylor and her family. Once again, another person that taught me life is too short but don't let it stop you from doing something good for others.


I know this blog is a little different than I usually blog about but I thought it was appropriate and in memory of Jason. Please do what you can to support the cure of cancer. Also, please keep my Uncle Jack in your prayers as he has been battling colon cancer for over eight years and what a fought he has put up against it. Here is his caringbridge site if you are interested in his amazing story and updates, http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ourjackstewart/ (you will need to register your email).

Back to School

Well, it is back to school time in the Dunlap household. Russ started his second year of law school this past Monday. He really only had a break for a week this summer but that made it easier to get back in the swing of things for school this fall. Continuing with one of my Mom's traditions, I took Russ' picture for his first day back to school. I did this really as a joke but Russ was still not happy with me (as you can see in his face). Mom would take Kara and my picture every year with our new back-to-school outfit and backpacks before we left for school. As a back to school present, I got Russ a new lap top and of course a new outfit. We took full advantage of the tax-free weekend in Georgia a couple of weeks ago.

Russ is taking four classes this semester (Evidence, Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, and Trademarks). On top of those four classes, he will be doing moot court and law review so needless to say another busy semester for him.

Once he gets all his due dates and deadlines, we will determine which UT football games we will be going to this fall. We are for sure going to the home opener so we will see you all there!

Russ leaving for his first class

Life's A Beach

Ocean Isle Beach

I finally took off a week from work to head to the beach. The last time I took off a full week was for our honeymoon which is almost two years ago. Besides our honeymoon, my vacation days consisted of graduations, weddings, visits to Salem (Grandparents), and travel for the holidays. It was so nice to be able to take off a full week and actually relax. Mom and Dad invited Russ and I to join them on their vacation to Ocean Isle, North Carolina. Unfortunately, Kara could not come as she had sorority recruitment.

My parents have been going to Ocean Isle for thirty years or just a few years shy of that. I actually have been going since I was three months old. It is just a great place to vacation, its so laid back yet close to civilization when needed. Growing up, we would go every summer for a week. All the family would come, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc... Over the years that dwindled down and it was just the four of us (Mom, Dad, Kara, and myself) and of course Kara and I weren't civil to each other so we were allowed to bring friends to make the vacation more fun for all. My best memories of Ocean Isle were in high school, we met a group of guys from Ohio and ended up meeting them there every year for the next four years. We have missed some years here and there so we have not been to Ocean Isle every single year. Some times Mom would get an itch to try a new beach but after a day or so she says we should have gone to Ocean Isle. We did take some neat trips to Alaska and Hawaii instead, which were amazing trips! Anyways, needless to say we love our trips to Ocean Isle so I was excited to be able to share a week with Russ there.

Russ and I on the balcony

We left last Saturday for the beach. Russ could only be there the first half of the week as he had to go back for interviews. So while Russ was there, I had to show him all the traditions. We enjoyed our days relaxing on the beach, playing in the ocean, and nightly walks on the beach. I have not seen sun in over a year so of course I got burnt. I got so burnt I had to stay out of the sun for a day to let my body recover. It worked out though as Russ and Dad went deep sea fishing for the day. Dad was so excited to take Russ with him on his fishing trip, us girls do not go with him on the all day trips. Russ was his good luck charm too as they caught 12 fish (grouper, red snapper, and something else). While the guys were out fishing, Mom and I did what we know best, SHOPPING! The rest of the time we enjoyed the beach but on Friday since it rained all day. Russ left on Wednesday and took the good weather with him.

Russ in one of his outfits I bought him

Wednesday night, we did not have much to do and I was bored since Russ left so we decided to head to Myrtle Beach. Growing up we would go to Myrtle Beach on Thursday night to go to the Pavilion (amusement park) then to the boardwalk to play Skee Ball. They closed the Pavilion four years ago so I wanted to see what they did with the land. We got there and it was jut grass. It was sad to see it gone, my Dad grew up going there once a summer as well. The good thing was that our skee ball place was still there along with all the trashy people. Like the rest of our vacation, we relived that tradition. Mom, Dad, and I enjoyed an hour of playing skee ball and other games. We won 250 tickets, just enough to get Kara a Myrtle Beach shot glass since she could not be there. We did that as a joke, we just wanted to play we did not care about tickets. On our way back to our condo, we stopped at Krispy Kreme for some hot doughnuts. This completed our tradition to Myrtle Beach for the evening.

Playing Skee Ball on the Boardwalk

Ocean Isle is only an hour from Wilmington, NC so that meant we were close to one of my good friends, Rachel, so we invited her down for a couple of days. Rachel came down on Thursday. We enjoyed laying out on the beach catching up then had a yummy shrimp dinner. We played Chicken Foot that night for hours. Friday, it was raining so Rachel and I went to see a movie while Dad went fishing again (and didn't catch anything this time). It was so nice seeing Rachel, being so far away I do not get to see her as much. It was also nice to have her there as it felt like old times at Ocean Isle when I got to bring a friend.

Rachel and I watched the sunset

One of the great things about being at the beach is all the fresh seafood! I love seafood so I ate it every night while we were there (seven nights). Two of those nights, Dad cooked fish and shrimp at the condo. We ate the fish Dad and Russ caught one night and fresh shrimp another night. The other nights we ate places in Calabash, Sunset, and Ocean Isle. One night we ate at a Jamaican restaurant, Sugar Shack, it was rated one of top places to eat at OIB. It reminded me of our honeymoon a little bit.

Russ and I at Sugar Shack

Anyways, it was a week filled with relaxation. I did not answer my phone, read some emails, and only took a few pictures! It was a true vacation and a much needed one! Russ got to be apart of my family vacation traditions!

Russ and I on his last night, he survived a Wilbourne Vacation

Gatlinburg with the Dunlaps

I am still behind on blogging but thought I would blog about two of our vacations this summer. For the Fourth of July, Russ and I met up with his family in Gatlinburg for the extended weekend. It was nice to get everyone together as this does not happen often. Steve, Jill, Russ, Darren, Mary, Alex, Rebecca, Scot, and myself all were in town for the weekend. Thursday night just involved everyone getting into town since we all worked in the morning and drove in that afternoon. That night we just spent time catching up.

Friday, we all went to Dollywood. It was the first time for Russ and I to go even though we lived in Knoxville for four years. I thought it was going to be a dirty, ragged park but I was very impressed. I learned, it is more of a theme park rather than an amusement park. It was very clean and family friendly. The weather was very nice as well for it being July. We rode all the rides and even got Mary and Alex on them too (this is a might accomplishment as they are not big roller coaster fans). One of Alex's favorite things is to play the games around the park so he played a lot of those. I hardly play the games and thought I should join in on one with the guys. Darren and Russ started to play the game where you toss the ring and try to get it around the neck of a bottle. Alex stepped up and started playing then I followed. I picked one up and asked how you play but before anyone could answer I threw it and made it first time!!! Everyone just looked at me in shock. I could not believe I did it either. I won an electric guitar!! I picked a pink one then realized that I would probably not be the one playing it so I exchanged it for a black one. After the shock wore off of everyone's face they all explained that this was a hard thing to actually do, what can I say "beginner's luck" I guess! We continued to ride rides and left the park just before it closed. We ended the evening for a good dinner at the Ole Mill.

Saturday was a low key day, as it was the 4th of July. We all got dressed and headed into town. We started off our trip in town with a Dunlap Tradition, putt-putt. We played two games of putt-putt then met up with the Shaws. Since we were going to stay in town unitl the fireworks we killed time by going to the aquarium and other Ripley's places. Of course, there was window shopping and some shopping but the best part was the people watching. Boy are there some interesting people in downtown Gatlinburg... We watched the fireworks then headed back to the cabin.

Sunday we ate at a pancake place and said our goodbyes. It was a nice weekend together since it will be a long time until we are all together again. Mary and Darren moved to Tampa, FL in early August so when we go visit Hendersonville they won't always be there :( We ended our weekend with a beautiful drive home through the Blue Ridge Parkway rather than the interstate.

A Weekend Filled With Goodbyes

The past couple of days have resulted in a lot of goodbyes and new beginnings. Some of the goodbyes were to people, some were to furniture, others to offices, and even cars.

Our first goodbye was to our master bedroom furniture. My sister moved back to college this weekend and needed furniture. She moved into a house with four other college friends at Alabama. We actually were happy to let it go, it did not go with our bedding or decor at all. Mom and Dad bought it for me back when I was in 7th grade with the intentions that I would take it to college so if anything happened to it it was not the end of the world. They paid $250 for a headboard, chest of drawers, dresser, and mirror. This is a very unheard of price but the furniture was not worth much more than that anyways so we were expecting it to fall apart in a couple of years anyways. Well 12 years and six moves later, it is still in tact and won't fall apart. Kara successfully moved it into her house and out of ours!!! Meanwhile, this meant we needed to get new furniture. It arrived on Friday and I am in the process of putting all the clothes back in it and looking for Russ a new nightstand.

The second was for Russ. He completed his 1L internship for the summer on Friday. He learned so much and truly enjoyed what he did at the US Department of Labor. It allowed him to gain experience and test out the field of law. Now he is hitting the books since he is taking the Patent Bar this Friday in Chattanooga. His summer has been jammed packed with stuff. Also, as a follow up to an earlier post, Russ made both Law Review and Moot Court. He also received an A in his Intellectual Property Survey Course this summer, so he has had a very successful summer!

I also had to say goodbye to something work related on Friday. My group is moving to another building. We had to pack up all our desk and office area for us to move down the street to another building. It will be nice to see the new office environment, as they are trying out lot of new and innovative ways of setting up office spaces. Before, if you were a manager or above you had an office that was on the outside of the floor, so along the windows and all the others had high walled cubes and u-shaped desks. Our floor, had three conference rooms and a "breakroom" but all that included was a refrigerator, microwave, fountain machine, and vending machines. Our new space, all the managers offices are on the inside and the workspaces are on the outside with the windows. The workstations have a choice between fixed or free space. You can have the same desk everyday or float around. The workspaces are in groups of four with a table in the middle for collaboration and the desk themselves are L-shaped. They only come up to your high hip so you look around and see all the lights and heads. It also has five conference rooms, along with four other meeting types (hard to explain, will post pictures later). Our breakroom is a cafe style, it has booths and tables, along with hightops. It has a very open atmosphere so they put things in the ceiling for white noise. It will be an interesting, yet fun adjustment. It was sad saying bye to the other people who worked on our floor, we will still see them in the occasional meeting but not everyday like we were used to.

Friday night my parents had a going away party for our neighbors, Jim, Darla, Jordan, Stephen, and Austin. They moved in before Austin was born (I think he is eleven now....) so we grew very close with their family. Kara and I both babysat them over the years. Darla was another Mom to us, running us to doctors appointments, picking us up from school or soccer when Mom and Dad were at work. They were great neighbors and friends. Jim got a new job in Columbus so they are moving down there. It was really sad to say goodbye to them on Friday night. Hopefully, with the world of free long distance, email, and technology (facebook) our families will be able to keep in touch.

My other goodbye for the weekend was to my first car, 1997 Ford Explorer. My parents bought the car in 1996, it was the first of many SUVs for our family. It was good to go to soccer practices and games, beach vacations, trips to VA and TN for holidays, and Dad's weekend trips to Home Depot. Like all cars, Dad gets to drive them first then Mom gets them after about a year because it is nicer than our other car to drive clients around. I didn't get a car when I first turned 16, it was about six months later and actually the car I really got was my Granddaddy's Bonneville. As a teenager, I was not going to be seen in this car so somehow I managed to talk my parents into letting me drive the Explorer. In January 2002 the Explorer became my car. I loved that car. I would wash it every Sunday and it was great for all our adventures around town. I took it off to college, which was great for loading up all my stuff to Tennessee. Dad would still use it on the weekends or when I was home for his weekly trips to Home Depot. When I was in Italy in 2005, Dad was driving my car that summer and it died on him. Of course Mom freaked out and said that she did not want me driving it again so that resulted in me getting the a new car and Dad stuck with the Explorer. It was the alternator that went out. Dad drove that everyday until Christmas this past year when Granddaddy once again gave us his car. Luckily, Granddaddy made the decision to stop driving so our family did not have to go through that battle. He was very generous and gave his car to Dad. The Explorer sat a lone on the driveway from January until August 1st when Dad donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There were many great memories with that car, it was actually sad to see it go. It held up pretty well too!

Our final goodbye, which isn't necessarily a goodbye, goodbye but it was a goodbye for a couple of weeks or months was to Kara. She went back to college on Saturday to get ready for her sophomore year. Over the past couple of weekends, we spent going all around town looking for decor to her new room and boy did it turn out so cute! Sophomore year was probably one of my best years in college and I hope the same for her!