Category Archives: Blogging

08.07.25
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Getting Personal #310: Reflections, On My Birthday

Welcome back! After two years of not writing my annual birthday blog post, I’m back at it!

I’ll sum up 2023-2025 here. The summer of 2023 was a big deal because I was pregnant with our sweet girl, Addy. It was a hot and humid summer, but I survived! We celebrated a couple of weddings and new babies!

The summer of 2024 was also full of change. I started my new role with Sentara in April 2024. I had successes and challenges. Last summer in particular was really hard work-wise. I’m happy to report that things are much better. I feel like I have arrived. I can see myself working in physician credentialing for the rest of my career. I’m very happy to be able to say that confidently.

Last fall, almost a month apart to the day, we made the difficult decisions to put Phineas and Ferb to sleep. Phineas was continuing to decline physically and mentally, barely able to walk at the end. He peacefully crossed the Rainbow Bridge in October 2024.

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, Ferb showed signs of rapid decline about two weeks after Phineas died, so we helped Ferb cross the Rainbow Bridge in November 2024. This was exceptionally hard on both Al and I, but we know that we made the right decisions. Both of them were nearly 15 years old. They lived a wonderful life, and we were thrilled to have them home with us for nearly seven years. They were amazing dogs. We miss them. Hopefully, when Addy gets a little older, we can add another furry member to our family.

I continue to educate and advocate about preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome. There isn’t good data available, even my hospital where I delivered admitted this to my face, so I’m determined to keep this up. I plan to write a full post about my experience with it in a few months.

Addy is doing amazing things. It’s hard to believe that she will be 2 in October! She is so smart. She loves and devours (literally) books! We have nicknamed her Crash recently because she’s constantly crashing into everything. She’s absolutely all gas, no brake!

We celebrated 25 years of blood drives in April! That’s amazing. The same day, we collected our 9,000th unit. It was an incredible milestone. We have had two more drives since then, and we are up to 9,175 units. I’m so grateful, knowing that today marks the 37th anniversary of me being a blood recipient from my dad, that this work continues! I’m hoping to give again in October to celebrate 20 years of donating!

As for me, aside from working full-time, being a wife, and a mother, I’m continuing to write when I can. My 1950s romance is slated to be released at the end of the year! I have big plans for 2026 as well. Stay tuned!

Here’s to 37!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.31.24
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Getting Personal #308: My Favorite Things of 2024

Image Credit: Quote Master

Books

Adventures With Claudie: An American Girl

Meet Isabel and Nicki

A Special Kind of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Serial Killings

Movies

Argylle (Apple TV)

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Netflix)

Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney+)

Die Hard (Hulu)

Dune: Part Two

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Seen in theaters, March 2024)

Inside Out 2 (Seen in theaters, June 2024)

Kung Fu Panda 4 (Seen in theaters, April 2024)

The Fall Guy (Seen in theaters, May 2024)

Twisters (Seen in theaters, July 2024)

Woman of the Hour (Netflix)

TV

Babylon 5 (Tubi)

Blown Away (Seasons 1-4, Netflix)

Cold Case (Seasons 1-7, Max)

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey (Netflix)

Community (Netflix)

Degrassi: The Next Generation (Pluto TV)

Finding Your Roots (PBS)

FRONTLINE (YouTube)

Glow-Up (Seasons 1-5, Netflix)

Guy’s Grocery Games (Max)

Hotel Hell (YouTube)

Into The Fire: The Lost Daughter (Netflix)

Is It Cake? (Netflix)

MasterChef (Seasons 1-14, Hulu)

Next Level Chef (Hulu)

Unsolved Mysteries (Amazon Prime, Netflix)

What Jennifer Did (Netflix)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (YouTube)

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (YouTube)

Who Killed Jill Dando? (Netflix)

Podcasts

20/20

48 Hours

48 Hours: NCIS

Criminal

Dateline NBC

Dateline Originals

Forensic Files

Forensic Files II

Media Pressure

Mind Over Murder

Radioactive

Small Town Dicks

Snapped

The City

Unsolved Mysteries

Up and Vanished

Well, that wraps up my favorite things for 2024!

What about you? What were some of your favorite things of the year?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

04.04.24
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Getting Personal #306: February Goals Recap

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of February:

  1. Donate blood. — Accomplished!
  2. Finish formatting “Specialton.” — Accomplished!
  3. Publish at least two Book Reviews. — Accomplished!
  4. Celebrate Valentine’s Day! — Accomplished!
  5. Catalog at least 25 American Girl items in my inventory. — Did not accomplish yet.
  6. Participate in a P.E.O. membership panel. — Accomplished!
  7. Reorganize my office. — Semi-Achieved.
  8. Send donations to Trey’s Dolls. — Did not accomplish yet.

February and March were both a blur and a marathon.

I was able to donate blood for the first time in a year, nearly a year to the day, in early February.

I finally finished formatting “Specialton” on March 29th. This is a huge accomplishment for me. I thought it was going to take me a lot longer. It’s 99 chapters. I sent it to my social media manager and my editor. They are excited, and so am I.

Valentine’s Day was really sweet and special. I love spending as much time with Al as possible.

I’ve made a lot of progress with my office. I finally cleaned off and dusted my desk. I filled a kitchen garbage bag with stuff that needed to be thrown away months ago. I set up my mechanical keyboard that Al got me for Christmas! I have more things to do, but I’m really happy with the cleaning and organizing that I’ve done recently.

I published two Book Reviews! You can read them here:

I have two huge boxes to send to Trey’s Dolls, but I’m waiting for Vicki to return home before sending them.

Come back tomorrow to see my April Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

02.03.24
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Getting Personal #305: February Goals

Image Credit: Balancing Today

Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of February:

  1. Donate blood.
  2. Finish formatting “Specialton.”
  3. Publish at least two Book Reviews.
  4. Celebrate Valentine’s Day!
  5. Catalog at least 25 American Girl items in my inventory.
  6. Participate in a P.E.O. membership panel.
  7. Reorganize my office.
  8. Send donations to Trey’s Dolls.

What about you? Do you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

02.02.24
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Getting Personal #304: December Goals Recap

Image Credit: Centre for Collaborative Health

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of December:

  1. Continue incorporating my editor’s suggested edits into a more polished draft of “Specialton.” — Semi-Achieved.
  2. Prepare to market, promote, and publish “Specialton.” — Semi-Achieved.
  3. Publish at least one Book Review. — Did not accomplish yet.
  4. Celebrate Christmas! — Accomplished!
  5. Continue working on my American Girl inventory. — Semi-Achieved.
  6. Schedule regular blog posts. — Did not accomplish yet.
  7. Reconcile my thoughts about NaNoWriMo. — Accomplished!

I decided to push back the release of “Specialton.” I’ve made a lot of progress with the suggested edits and formatting, but I’m not ready to release it yet. Making this decision was tough, but I immediately felt better afterward, which tells me it was good decision.

We had a nice, quiet Christmas. We loved being with our parents and celebrating Addy’s first Christmas.

I’ve decided on the format that I want for my American Girl inventory in Excel. I just need to dive in and execute the plan.

I reconciled my thoughts about NaNoWriMo in a recent post. This was a hard one to write. You can read it here: Commentary #120: Thoughts on NaNoWriMo

Come back tomorrow to see my goals for February!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.31.23
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Getting Personal #303: My Favorite Things of 2023

Image Credit: Quote Master

Books

Isabel’s Journal

Jim Henson: The Biography

Nicki’s Journal

The Night Swim

Movies

Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (Seen in theaters, February 2023)

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Seen in theaters, May 2023)

Barbie (Seen in theaters, July 2023)

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Seen in theaters, May 2023)

Haunted Mansion [2023] (Disney+)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Seen in theaters, July 2023)

Jesus Revolution (Seen in theaters, March 2023)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Seen in theaters, July 2023)

Murder Mystery 2 (Netflix)

No Hard Feelings (Netflix)

Pete’s Dragon [1977] (Disney+)

Pete’s Dragon [2016] (Disney+)

Remember The Titans (Disney+)

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Seen in theaters, June 2023)

The Beanie Bubble (Apple TV+)

The Marvels (Seen in theaters, November 2023)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Peacock)

We Have A Ghost (Netflix)

TV

Babylon 5 (Tubi)

Bake Squad (Netflix)

Cold Case (Seasons 1-7, Max)

Doogie Howser, M.D. (Seasons 1-4, Disney+)

Family Matters (Max)

Finding Your Roots (PBS)

For All Mankind (Seasons 3-4, Apple TV+)

Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star (Season 5, Netflix)

Guy’s Grocery Games (Max)

Killer Sally (Netflix)

LEGO Masters (Seasons 3-4, Hulu)

Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (Max)

Next in Fashion (Netflix)

Only Murders in the Building (Season 3, Hulu)

Poker Face (Peacock)

Pressure Cooker (Netflix)

Secret Chef (Hulu)

The Afterparty (Season 2, Apple TV+)

The Mandalorian (Season 3, Disney+)

Unsolved Mysteries (Hulu)

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (YouTube)

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (YouTube)

Podcasts

48 Hours

Cold Cases

Criminal

Dateline NBC

Disappearances

Embedded

Mind Over Murder

Serial Killers

Small Town Dicks

Snapped

Solved Murders: True Crime Mysteries

StoryCorps

Unsolved Murders

Unsolved Mysteries

Up and Vanished

Well, that wraps up my favorite things for 2023!

What about you? What were some of your favorite things of the year?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.01.23
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Getting Personal #302: December Goals

Image Credit: Pinterest

Welcome back!

I’ve been away from the blog for several months. One major reason is that I found out I was pregnant at the end of March! We found out we were having a girl during Memorial Day weekend. Her original due date was December 4th, but I had some complications due to preeclampsia, so our baby girl officially arrived on October 22nd. She needed some time in the NICU, but she’s home now and doing well! We have enjoyed loving on her and taking care of her. Being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it’s totally worth it. She’s small but feisty.

Thanks to everyone who continued to read my posts during my months-long absence. I’m excited to be back!

Here are my goals for the month of December:

  1. Continue incorporating my editor’s suggested edits into a more polished draft of “Specialton.”
  2. Prepare to market, promote, and publish “Specialton.”
  3. Publish at least one Book Review.
  4. Celebrate Christmas!
  5. Continue working on my American Girl inventory.
  6. Schedule regular blog posts.
  7. Reconcile my thoughts about NaNoWriMo.

What about you? Do you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.02.23
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Getting Personal #301: June Goals

Welcome back!

Here are my goals for the month of June:

  1. Begin incorporating my editor’s suggested edits into a more polished draft of “Specialton.”
  2. Publish my Camp NaNoWriMo April 2023 recap post.
  3. Enjoy the 2023 P.E.O. Virginia State Convention.
  4. Celebrate Father’s Day!
  5. Continue working on my American Girl inventory.
  6. Prepare for Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023!

What about you? Do you have any goals for this month?

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

06.01.23
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Getting Personal #300: May Goals Recap

Image Credit: Success Magazine

Welcome back!

Here were my goals for the month of May:

  1. Begin incorporating my editor’s suggested edits into a more polished draft of “Specialton.” — Did not accomplish yet.
  2. Publish my Camp NaNoWriMo April 2023 recap post. — Did not accomplish yet.
  3. Publish at least one Book Review. — Did not accomplish yet.
  4. Celebrate Mother’s Day. — Accomplished!
  5. Spend some time away at the farm. — Accomplished!
  6. Continue working on my American Girl inventory. — Did not accomplish yet.
  7. Prepare for the 2023 P.E.O. Virginia State Convention. — Accomplished!

I’ve been so busy this month that a lot of writing projects have been put to the side. But, I’m determined to work on one project per month going forward!

Mother’s Day was really nice. Al and I took Chinese food to my parents. There’s a great place near our house called Dragon City. Their portions are huge! My parents got at least four separate meals out of what we brought!

We enjoyed a long Memorial Day weekend away at the farm. Look for a new Adventure Time post coming soon!

I’m very excited for the 2023 P.E.O. Virginia State Convention. Instead of co-chairing the convention, I get to be a visitor this year and enjoy it. I’ll also be participating in the annual memorial service for those women who have died in the past year, along with a fun skit to encourage new ideas and strategies for membership.

What about you? Did you have any goals for this month?

Come back soon to see my June Goals!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂