And So It Goes

The past few months have been difficult. Nothing completely earth-shattering, but difficult enough to have kind of put a halt to most creativity, or ability to even want to write. A grand funk, if you will.

I have never been a fan of blogs (or Facebook pages, for that matter) that whine about someones lot in life, or spew negativity, because really, we all have our struggles. So, I haven't been writing. I just haven't felt like it. But now I do. So I am going to attempt to get caught up here, because this is my record of what goes on in our little family. I'm slightly cross with myself for leaving the last few months essentially blank, but that is how life goes sometimes. We struggle until we get to a point where things start to turn around. I dare say that summer has something to do with the shift I am beginning to feel - - oh, how I love summer!

School has just let out, and the boys and I are gearing up for a great summer. Annual Training started today, and I am happy that we are getting that out of the way so that Steve can join us on many of our adventures. We sure did miss him last summer. I can't wait to see what the months ahead have in store for us!

(This photo clearly has nothing to do with this post, but I had to add it, because Smokey is just weird. This is her preferred sleeping position)

Early Morning Thoughts

Safety first!
The boys and I are in the midst of our first long-ish separation from Steve since he returned from deployment last September. In the grand scheme of things, he won't be away for that long, but still, it is a first for us since returning to normal. So far, the boys are doing just fine. They are missing Daddy a lot, but luckily springtime means lots of activities with school and sports, so we don't have a lot of down time on our hands.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to the sound of Riley "tap dancing" in the laundry room. He usually saves this for 5:15 a.m., but I am guessing he drank some extra water before bedtime last night. Either way, once I am woken up, I'm up. I know I will be feeling this around 2:00 p.m. today, and I will really want a nap that I cannot take.

As I was laying in bed, waiting for Riley to let me know that he was ready to come back in, I was thinking about the little quirks I developed while Steve was deployed, and how quickly they come back when he is away from home. I don't get frightened at night per se - - I'm not afraid to be home alone and I don't really worry about things like that. However, I just don't feel right when he isn't here, and have a hard time winding down for the evening. When Steve is home, I am usually in bed by 9:00 and asleep soon after. I think when he was in Iraq, I avoided getting into bed at night because that is when I would lay in the dark and think about awful things, miss him terribly, and then proceed to have a not-so-restful night's sleep. So I unknowingly developed a night- time routine that involved staying up way too late, to the point where I was so tired that I would fall asleep the minute I got into the prone position, thus eliminating the 'laying in bed and thinking awful thoughts' portion of my evening. It worked for me, except for the part where I was always operating on not enough sleep.

Steve and I have been married for 10 1/2 years, and I've spent roughly 3 1/2 of those years by myself, 3/4 of that time, with children. One would think that it would get easier with time, but I find that separation gets more difficult. When I say this, I am not talking about handling things on my own, without a spouse. I can do that part just fine. I am talking about the mental aspect of it. Nobody can help out with that.

A Titanic Week

This is a big week for our resident Titanic expert, for it is the centennial of the sinking of Titanic. I don't remember exactly how Camden became interested in Titanic, but his passion for it has never wavered. Over the past few years, he has amassed quite the collection of books and documentaries, and they are among his most treasured possessions. To mark the occasion, we are having a dinner on Saturday evening, using recipes from the actual ship, and food that was served on the night the great ocean liner sank.

I found the cookbook on Amazon, and it was chock-full of all kinds of details I never knew about the ship. My plan is to make a dish or two from each class menu (the first-class menu is an eleven-course meal, and I can assure you, I won't be doing that!). I think I expected to find porridge listed as the third-class dinner, when in fact, they dined quite nicely by today's standards. Camden plans to make a speech and say a special prayer, and I think it is going to be a lovely evening.

I might just be biased, but to know Camden is to love him. He is a precious boy with an imagination that knows no bounds, and that just might be my favorite character trait of his. I love being able to share in his interests, and he has so many of them, so life is certainly never boring around these parts.

Cooped Out

I promise, this won't turn into a blog about chickens, but at the moment I am a little obsessed so cut me some slack. I had planned to write a post today about chicken coops...I even uploaded some pictures of what I was hoping for, in terms of what Steve was planning to build for me. He can build anything and is very handy, so the plan was for him to get started in a couple of weeks, as the girls will need to be moving outside toward the end of April. However, I have been checking coops out on Craigslist for the past couple of weeks, too. The cute ones sell instantly, and the scary-looking coops are way overpriced and not any place I'd want the girls to live. This morning I was up at the crack of dawn and decided to pay a visit to Craigslist, and right at the top was this little beauty:

So, so cute, and with a flower box at the window, even! This is very similar to what Steve was going to build, minus the run. I knew it was probably already sold, but waited patiently for 8 a.m. to roll around and thought I would give a call anyway. Lo and behold, it hadn't sold yet, so I snatched it right up. We will go pick it up in the morning. Steve will still build a run to attach to it, so the girls can peck away outside and still be safe. I think it is going to be the perfect home for them! What makes this coop even better (to me, anyway) is that a father and son built it together, their first little construction project. Love it.

When I got up this morning, I discovered the chicks had managed to spill their waterer in the night, therefore soaking half of their cardboard brooder. I had to work fast to scoop out all the bedding and convince them to huddle in the opposite corner of the brooder while I turned up the heat and tried to dry it out. I also doctored up a new system for their waterer so they will stop filling it with pine shavings (their favorite pass time). Take that, crafty chicks! I also tried giving them some plain yogurt this morning, and it was pretty funny. They walked through it a few times but wouldn't eat it. Finally I thought to smear some on the wall of the brooder, and they practically pecked each other to death trying to get to it. Good for getting some good bacteria into their developing little guts.

Griff and I have lots of chores to get to before the weekend starts, so off we go!

New Additions

I have recently taken the plunge and decided to try my hand at back yard chickens. I am so happy! I have wanted to keep chickens for two or three years now, and this year I finally did it. I had fun reading up on back yard chickens and deciding on which breeds I'd like to have. I couldn't believe how much information was out there! The other hitch in my giddy-up has been the fact that we live within city limits. Come to find out, our city did not have an ordinance in place for back yard chickens, but just a couple of weeks ago it was finalized so I went ahead and got my chicks.

Nan. She is the calmest and sweetest. I could hold her all day! She is a Dominique.

Bertie is a close second to Nan. She is also very sweet and doesn't mind being held at all. She is also a Dominique.

Stella. As you can see, she's not exactly excited. Stella is a Buff Orpington. Buffs are considered the "wimps" of the chicken world, and therefore they are supposed to be very docile. I have not found this to be true yet, as my Dominique's are way more laid back than my Buffs. We shall see!

Butterscotch is the bossiest of the bunch. She squawks when I pick her up, and even flaps her wings, but eventually she calms down.

The girls in their brooder. The lighting is weird because they are under a red heat lamp. They need it to be nice and toasty. Tomorrow they will be two weeks old, and are definitely entering the "tween" phase of life. They are about 2/3 feathers and 1/3 chick fluff right now, so they look pretty weird.

One more picture of Nan because she is so darn cute. When I hold her, she even closes her eyes and dozes off.

They will be living inside, in their cardboard box, until they are at least 6 weeks old and fully feathered. A coop still needs to be built, and I am excited about that! If all goes well, they should start laying eggs in September! Between baking and general egg-eating, I go through about 2 dozen eggs per week, so it will be wonderful to be getting those eggs from my own chickens that I am raising myself.

Uniforms and Leprechauns

It is the weekend I am very happy about that. This week kind of sped by in a big blur. Lots going on and lots to catch up on, so I am declaring today a "low-key" kind of day so that I can get caught up on a few things. Steve has a big meeting to go to on base today (thus, the class b's in the picture above) so we are on our own. Would like to get all of my big chores done today so that we can just have some fun tomorrow.

I have to say, I love uniforms. It sure is a good thing I married an Army soldier. I get my very own man in uniform every day! I especially like the dressy uniforms though. Steve isn't required to wear a uniform like this hardly EVER...as a matter of fact I have only seen him "dressed up" for our wedding, and for the Army balls we have been to in the past...sure hope they have one planned for this year, it has been a while! This is the first time I have ever seen him in this particular uniform - - in the past you may recall seeing Army soldiers in a green coat/shirt/tie - - well now it has been changed to a white shirt with blue pants/black tie. If he has to be super-dressy, he adds a blue jacket to it, but for today, no jacket. I think he looks pretty snazzy.

The boys aren't up yet, so I made sure to tip over some chairs, put some green food coloring in various places (the toilet bowl being their favorite) and scatter some gold coins around the house. They would not be pleased if there weren't any signs of leprechaun mischief when they got up. I think we will bake a St. Patty's dessert of some sort today, and I am definitely making a boiled dinner for this evening...I look forward to corned beef brisket every year for St. Patrick's Day.

Crabby Patty Cupcakes

I wish I had gotten a better picture of these but alas, I did not. If you do not like Spongebob Squarepants, then you probably will want to skip this post. If you know anything at all about Spongebob, then you know what a Crabby Patty is. I'm afraid my children love Spongebob, and I have to admit that I have a bit of a thing for him myself. I can't help it. I don't know what it is...maybe I was just worn down over time, by repeated episodes (again and again and again) over the past few years. I'm aware that people have pretty strong opinions about ol' Spongebob, but it is my opinion that there are things far worse (in the form of cartoons) that they could be watching on television. Anyway, I am coming clean - - I love Spongebob and Patrick, and I really, really, really love Gary. I mean, how can you not love a snail that meows?

Anyway... I recently saw this recipe in a magazine and knew that I had to make them. Very simple...yellow cupcakes, which you cut in half after they have cooled. Then, you bake a pan of brownies (13x9 pan) and cool completely. Then cut circles using a 2 1/2 inch circle cutter. The cupcakes comprise the hamburger bun, the brownie is the hamburger patty. Then, take a container of vanilla frosting, divide it among three small bowls. Tint one portion green, one red, and one yellow. Put each portion into a Ziploc bag, and cut a very small opening at one corner. Put a brownie patty on top of one of the cupcake bottoms, then squiggle green around the edges, followed by red, then yellow. Top with cupcake. If you like, you can lightly brush the top of each cupcake with some Karo syrup, and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I had fun making these, and the the boys just loved them. Even my big boy.

Sawdust and Nails

Steve and I are becoming a couple of Scouting nerds. Camden joined Cub Scouts last year and I volunteered to be a Den Mother, but unfortunately spent most of the year floundering because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Then, I kind of got shanghaied into doing it again this year, but the good news was that Steve had recently returned from Iraq. Even though Steve was a Cub Scout drop-out himself, it seems that in his middle age, he's become quite obsessed with the whole Scouting scene. He breathed a healthy dose of excitement and enthusiasm into the whole gig, and I have to say that now I am having all kinds of fun being a Den Mother. My little den of Bear Cubs are learning, thriving, and are well on their way to earning their Bear badge. Hooray!

Today, Steve took part of the afternoon off from work to be our special guest in instructing Achievement #20 - Sawdust and Nails. He planned to build toolboxes with the boys, and spend the last couple of days preparing the activity and pre-cutting a lot of the pieces so that we would be able to get them put together during our meeting time.

It was a huge success and I really think all of the boys were super-excited to have made their own tool box. I hope they will all have their tool boxes for years to come and will remember the fun we all had this afternoon.

Back to Life

Well my goodness, it has been a while. I am happy to report that I finally have a new laptop. I am still trying to figure it out but at least I have figured out enough to be able to post something to my blog. I really hope that I can get back into the swing of regular writing. I have realized over the past three months that I have miss keeping a record of what we are up to. I spent some time going through blog posts from years passed and am so happy that I have so many memories written down. Sometimes I will go through a dry spell and will think that maybe I don't want to have a blog anymore, but now I know that I do. So, onward!

The above picture is from this past weekend. My mom flew out to Idaho to watch the boys for us so that Steve and I could attend a Strong Bonds marriage retreat in McCall. This is offered by the Army and we have wanted to attend for a long time, and it finally worked out that we could. The retreat consisted of a bunch of great sessions, dinner, and ample free time to do some things on our on. During our free time on Saturday, we rented a snowmobile and rode to Bergdorf Hot Springs. It was such a fun adventure! I have now been to three different hot springs and Bergdorf is definitely my favorite.

The gigantic pool you see behind Steve is actually the hot spring...I think the temperature was around 101 or so. It was also about five feet deep. I have only ever been in very shallow hot springs so this was great. This was after our soak and we were getting ready to get back on the snowmobile for the 20-mile ride back to town. It was great to do something out of the ordinary (for us) and we really had a good time. The entire weekend was wonderful and I know we both learned a lot. I am so thankful to my mom for coming all the way out here for us. She and the boys packed in a ton of quality time together while we were away!

Favorite Things: Beauty Edition

I haven't done a "favorite things" post in forever. The other day, I read this post on one of my favorite blogs, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! I soooo want to have one of these little parties. I'm just wondering if any of my local friends would want to do this. Hello? Anyone local reading? Hello??

Anyway, this edition of Favorite Things will be about beauty products. If you are Steve, or anyone that knows me the least little bit, you will know that I have a bit of a "product" problem. I can't help it, I am a major girly-girl, and I love lotions, potions, makeup, etc. So, in no particular order, here are some of my must-haves:

Tresemme Dry Shampoo Spray. For the first time in my adult life, I have long hair, and it is at a length now that I do not have the time to wash it every day (nor do I want to). I discovered this a few months back, and I just love it. I've noticed that it doesn't get the best reviews online, but I've found that if you follow the directions, it works great. Just a few quick spurts of it, and it refreshes your hair. Love it.

Philosophy Butterscotch Bliss Shampoo/Shower Gel/Bubble Bath. Last year, my sister-in-law gave me some of this in Pink Layer Cake scent, and I made that bottle last for months, I loved it so much. It costs more than I am willing to spend on shampoo, but I've found that if you check TJ Maxx, they frequently have bottles of various scents for about $6 less than what you would pay at a department store. When I was out on my Birthdaypalooza shopping spree last week, I treated myself to a bottle at TJ's, and I am so glad I did. It smells sooooo good.




L'Oreal Elnet aerosol hairspray. Best hairspray ever. It costs more than your standard drug store hairspray, but it works so much better, doesn't give you 'helmet hair', and I find that I use it a lot more sparingly than the average spray, so one can lasts me 2-3 times as long.




L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara. I have used this for years and I really hope it never gets discontinued because I don't know what I'll do.

Alpha Hydrox Lotion. I use this under my daily moisturizer. I would like to think it is slowly working miracles on my turkey neck, but I do know that it has evened out the tone of my skin quite a bit.

What are your must-have products?

On the Road to Health

Finally...I think we may be on our way to a healthy household. I don't want to jinx myself, but I think we have more than paid our dues in the past four weeks. The body count as of today is: Steve ~ healthy. Heather ~ healthy. Camden ~ fighting a cold, but seems to be on the upswing as of this morning. Griffin ~ Finally, FINALLY on the mend. When he wasn't getting any better, after 4 WEEKS of illness, we headed back to the pediatrician (for the third time). I don't enjoy medicating my children, but I had my fingers crossed that the doctor would prescribe something that would get this kid on the mend. With the addition of wheezing and some chest pain, the doctor prescribed an oral steroid for post-infections lung inflammation. I can already see a difference in him, and I am hoping that this will put an end to the scourge that has plagued this household since early January!

More Birthday Musings

I wanted to take the time to write down what I did on my birthday, because it really was a perfect day, all the way around. Steve really outdid himself and I will never forget how much fun I had on my 40th birthday.

I got up in the morning and had some coffee with Steve, and then enjoyed a lovely breakfast (toad in the hole and turkey bacon) that he made for me. Steve had taken the day off from work so that I could have the "day off" and do whatever I wanted. After breakfast, I headed out on my morning walk, which felt great.

Steve took Camden to school, and I got ready to head to Boise for a day of shopping. All of you mothers know that if you have little kids, shopping isn't exactly fun, and it is a rare occurance to get out BY YOURSELF, to shop FOR YOURSELF. So, this is what I was wanting to do on my birthday. Try on clothes to my heart's content, browse, wander, window shop, and drink coffee! I was determined to go to all the stores I steer clear of when I have the boys in tow, and that is exactly what I did. As luck would have it, there were some crazy sales going on last Friday, and I still cannot believe the treasures I found. I spent nearly the entire day, but soon had to head back home to get ready for dinner. I think I had 30 minutes to come in the door, freshen up, change, and then get back in the truck and head back to Boise, but this time with all three of my boys.

Steve wouldn't tell me where we were going but said it was somewhere that I'd always wanted to have dinner. A little bit before we reached our destination, he told me we were all going to Le Cafe de Paris. He and I have been there many times for dessert, but never for dinner. I have a bit of an obsession with all things French, so I was really excited to say the least. The boys are really well-behaved when we take them out to eat, but I will admit I was a little nervous about taking them to this particular restaurant. I'm happy to say that wasn't necessary - - they were extra-excited to go to a "fancy" restaurant and were perfect gentleman for the entire hour and a half that we were there. Anyway, I enjoyed escargot, chicken cordon bleu, and a couple of glasses of Les Graines chardonnay...probably the best chardonnay I have ever tasted. Yum.

We got home late so we held off on cake until the next night so that my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew could join us. My boys made me a delicious cake, and I was completely spoiled by Rex, Kasey, and Banzer, who gave me a deluxe camp kitchen. I can tell you that thing is going to see a lot of use this coming camp season - - I cannot wait to use it.

So it was a wonderful birthday weekend. I also had a huge surprise on my birthday, but that will need a post all its own. More on that later.

Forty

I celebrated my 40th birthday this past Friday. I can already tell you that 40 is way better than 39. I really and truly have not been dreading turning 40, but there is something about 39 that packs some sort of unspoken anticipation that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Come to find out, it was almost a relief to just get it over with and embrace 40 already.

I would be lying if I said that I haven't been thinking a lot about aging lately. Mostly I think about mortality, and how I keep forgetting that as I age, so do all of the people in my life. I wish I could get to a place where I could be okay with that, but it is something that weighs heavily on my mind from time to time.

As for my own aging, I am happy to say that I am quite content. Over the past year I think I have done a pretty good job at realizing that I have to 'put in the work to see the results'. This holds true for so many areas in life. My health is better than it has been in a long time, and it makes me feel great, knowing that it is a direct result of my hard work. I am getting better at taking time for myself...another great feeling. Plain and simple: Life is good.

Smokey Goes to Preschool

Today, the Show & Tell letter of the week was "C". Griffin wanted to take his brother for Show & Tell, but since he had school, Smokey got the job. Smokey is truly the Best Cat Ever. Mind you, she has some bad habits that we continue to try and break her of (*ahem*, climbing on the counter tops), but she is affectionate, is full of personality, and is laid-back as all get out.

I was told to show up at Griff's school at 10:15, and when I got there, all the kids were sitting in a circle. Griffin was very official about the whole thing, and didn't waste any time letting everyone know that they needed to be quiet so they wouldn't scare his kitty. I removed her from her cat carrier and she didn't look the least bit scared, but gave everyone a once-over and jumped back into her carrier. Griff wasn't having any of that, so he reached in, lifted her out, and took her for a spin around the circle so everyone could get a closer look. As you can see, she just sort of 'hung out' and didn't protest in the least.

Soon we were told that Cookie the Dog had arrived for Show & Tell, so Smokey and I packed up and made a hasty retreat.

More of the Same

I last blogged 15 days ago, and not much has changed around here, unfortunately. After Griff's bout with the upper-respiratory junk, I caught it (no surprise there), and right about the time I started to feel human again, he started feeling poorly. It was off to the doctor yesterday to make sure his nasty cough wasn't something more serious (it wasn't), and now we are back in the juice-drinking, forced-resting mode in hopes of kicking this sickness to the curb. Poor Griff. He is a good little patient, but really, enough is enough.

As you can see from the quality of my pictures, I am still phone-blogging, which is why I haven't been blogging. Yesterday I decided to just chalk January up as one of those months that seems to evaporate before your eyes, and if someone asked you, you couldn't really tell them what you'd done all month. All of the days seemed to blur together and mostly I am just very happy that today is February 1st. It gives me that "clean slate" feeling, and the hope that health will be restored to this house. Pronto.

We have been experiencing an extremely mild winter here in Idaho. One would think that this would alleviate the 'winter blahs', and while it does help somewhat, I find myself extremely impatient for spring to just get here already. These mild days are a tease and I am just ready for the children to be playing outside and to just chalk this winter up as a bust and get on with it.

Steve's office has relocated, away from the military base he's always worked on, so this has added a good 45 minutes to his already one hour (each way) commute time every day. This means some adjusting and some changes for all of us, but mostly I just feel for Steve because really, who wants to spend 3.5 hours in a car every day? He's a trooper, that's for sure.

We have not broken the news to Smokey yet, but tomorrow is "Letter C" day at preschool, and so she will be going to visit a gaggle of hyperactive 4-year olds.

Slow Days

Griffin, convalescing, with the ever-faithful Smokey

Things have been pretty slow around here these past few days, and things haven't been going exactly as planned. That is usually the case when there is sickness in the air. The latest victim in our family is Griffin - - he seems to be fighting some sort of respiratory flu, complete with fever, chills, hacking cough, and the like. So, he is resting, and I am playing nursemaid. Days like today serve to remind me of how thankful I am to be doing what I do. I am so glad that I don't have to fret about whether or not I have sick time to use so that I can stay home from work, or that I have to send a child back to school before he is truly ready, because I can't miss another day of work. So, while I am sad that Griff is sick, I am glad that I am here with him.

The weather has turned bitter-cold here in Idaho, and the weatherman tells us that we are in for some snow. Finally! I was starting to think that maybe winter had decided to skip us all together. Unfortunately, that snow is going to be followed by a string of days of rain and gloom. At this point I think I will be happy if we get an early spring. If it is going to be cold, I'd at least like some snow to go with it.

I am currently still computer-less, and struggling to maintain this blog. I miss writing, and I've also found that since my computer died, I'm just not taking many pictures. Typically, I take pictures nearly every day, and upload them every couple of days. Steve finally uploaded pictures from my Sony camera the other day, and it still had my pictures from Christmas on it. Not sure when I will solve this problem, but I'm not thinking it will be any time soon. So, I'm hoping to come up with a plan pretty quick here.

In the meantime, I have a sick boy to tend to. Here's hoping his fever will subside and we can be done with this current round of illness!

In With the New

I love the start of a new year. Even though I thoroughly enjoy the month of December and all of the festivities that go with it, I'm always happy to put the chaotic part of it behind me. We have been experiencing some rather mild weather here in Idaho, and although I'd like to see some snow eventually, I am enjoying these sunny days.

Just the same, I planted some narcissus bulbs a few weeks ago, and am thrilled to have them blooming on my dining room table. It is so nice to see some green. I never like to wish time away, but I would be lying if I said spring could take its time getting here. It can't get here fast enough, as far as I am concerned. I don't enjoy being cooped up in the house at all - - I don't think any of us do. Winter is definitely my most challenging season, in this profession.

Camden headed back to school today, and Griffin has another week before preschool starts back up. We are easing back into our routine, as I continue organizing and purging this house of unnecessary clutter. I have some grand plans in mind for the coming months, but they require a level of organization on my part that I have never quite been able to master.

I didn't set any concrete goals for 2012. I'm not big on resolutions per se, but I do love the idea of "starting fresh" each January. My focus for this new year continues to be my health and physical fitness, because finally, after all these years, I am learning that if that takes a place of priority, everything else falls into place so much more easily.

The Waiting (is the Hardest Part)

Griffin patiently waits for his best buddy to wake up.

Being five is hard.

Gearing Up for the New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas! For whatever reason, things came together smoothly this year, so there wasn't any crazy running around at the last minute or any of that. The anticipation just about did the boys in on Christmas Eve...poor ol' Griff appeared to be in physical pain a couple of times -- he just could not stand the waiting! I am happy to report that they both survived though, and had such a fun day. Unfortunately, Camden woke up the day after Christmas sick to his stomach, but luckily it passed quickly and soon he was back to his old self. Just glad the poor thing wasn't sick ON Christmas day...that would have been a major bummer.

Santa did not bring me a new laptop, so I am still blogging via Smartphone, I fear. I really miss my computer! The impending New Year has given me the motivation I needed to do some organizing, which has been great. I have been getting rid of things I don't want or need anymore and I hope to tackle more drawers, closets, etc. in the coming weeks.

It has also dawned one that I will be turning 40 in 37 days. How did that happen?!? I am not exactly sure how I feel about it. I don't remember caring one way or the other, when I turned 30. I think somewhere around 38 I might have raised an eyebrow. I think I am mostly thinking, 'Holy cow, I can't believe I am 40!' It just seems so odd to me. The good news is, I am in better shape than I was at age 30, feel better about myself, and am more content than I have ever been before. This past year in particular has been a year of letting go -- letting go of disappointment, letting go of things and people I can't control...still a lot of work to do in that area, but it is a start. So, I suppose I am looking at the coming year as a challenge (the good kind)...with my health being at the top of the list (physical, mental, and otherwise). Let the games begin!

Making Progress

As you can see, a bit of progress has been made in the Roy/Smokey area. Don't get too excited though...they still spend the majority of their time wrestling and yowling. This was the first time, however, that Smokey attempted laying on the sofa at the same time as Roy. Baby steps, kitties, baby steps.

I have finally started letting Smokey outside this week. The boys are not happy about this at all, especially Griffin. He is afraid she will leave and won't come back. So far she hasn't even attempted to leave the yard. She does love it out there, though, and I am happy to report that she zeroed in on the pesky Squirrel Brothers in the blue spruce almost immediately. I hope they are shaking in their nasty little squirrel boots.

As for Riley, I don't know if he is experiencing a second wind, or if the old boy is just excited for Christmas. He has always loved a good squeak toy, and has quite a collection of them, but he stopped playing with his toys all together, a few months ago. However, for the past few days, he has been back to digging through his toy box and dragging out random toys throughout the day. It has been good to see him doing that again.