Monday, June 24, 2013

I'm Home

WooHoo! I'm in!

I am embarrassed to admit this, but I'm going to go ahead and do it, just in case someone else has encountered the same problem - I forgot the email address I used to sign into this blog so I was locked out. I love this blog. I wrote about my old life in here, lots of adventures at the park with my kids and family, I found my love of photography here, I have posts that really mean something to me here, but I lost my way for a year or two and a half-ish. Now, I'd like to find my way back. I miss writing.

Here's what I've been up to, I'm in school again, although I dropped my one Summer session class today and I'm taking the Summer off of school. I am working as a merchandiser, but I also work for a temp agency which means I get to try lots of new jobs all the time. I live with a whole lot of dogs, my husband, and my youngest daughter, Sarah. 
This is my husband, John, holding two of our puppies and I'll slip Sarah in below....
This is Sarah, in my car, which is a place where we spend a lot of time, because I'm always driving her back and forth to town for some sporting event/practice/open gym. She's grown up a bit since you saw her last, I bet.

John and I have been busy in the garden (mostly him) and we are beekeeping (again, mostly him, although I go peek at those busy bees every once in awhile).  I would like to eventually use the bees as a money-maker for our family. I want to learn how to make skincare products with the honey.  I want to add more mint to my garden, because the mint honey is incredible, although blackberry honey will always be my favorite. Unless you have the bees in a large area of mint/blackberry/star thistle/etc, they honey is categorized Wildflower Honey, I believe. See one of the bees on my mother-in-law's leek flower below.


We spent part of the Spring learning how to train scent detection dogs. It was so much fun! Dogs love to sniff, as you may know, and they love treats, which is how you get them to sniff what you want them to sniff.

I haven't been running much, but I'm slowly starting back. Sarah and I took a puppy out for a long walk last night and I sprinted (if you can picture a turtle sprinting) a few times. I did have a 2 mile run the other night. I find it so hard to get a block of time free. That's honestly my biggest problem. I miss the days when I could jump on my treadmill. I'm also working  yoga back into my routine. I have an old friend that I follow on Facebook and he's turned yoga into his lifestyle. I love reading his posts and seeing his smiling photos. Yoga is good for the soul... and the aches and pains that come with middle-age.

Here's a close-up of those puppies.... dang they are cute!!

Right now, I'm waiting for John to get home so that I can go help him with a load of wood. In the meantime, I made up a batch of BBQ sauce from my canned tomatoes that I've got bubbling in the crockpot with some bear meatballs. Should be pretty good when we get home from woodcutting, if we ever get going.....

I think I'm going to start a new food blog. I will link back here, as soon as I get it up and running. Some other plans for Summer, I'm going to get my photography business (that I started way back when in Chico) going and I'm going to write a book. I have given myself until the end of December to have the book ready.  I haven't written anything more than a paper for school (or this blog post), in a long time. I hope I can remember how to do it.