Over Mother’s day weekend, in between games and family and photos, I jumped out of bed to paint my new tomato boxes my husband and I built the prior weekend. Actually, the hubby was suppose to build them, but I did a little too much complaining and wound up having to help. Which deep down, I love to do anyway. So it was all good.  I also painted “PJ’s pad”….. a little shed we had built for him to get away in.  The chain link in the photos will be going away this summer (thank the lord!!)

Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done… but it is so fun to watch this place come together. I like to call it the compound. Buildings for all of us!!

More to come!

I put my sweet little boy to bed.

I sometimes crave color.

Because there isn’t much outside yet.

I make my own. I like to change it up around here anyway. Decorations change day to day.

But one thing does not.

There are always flowers here. Whether I have to paint them myself or buy them. And sometimes I do both. Because I need the extra color in my house and heart.

See, everyone, it is possible for me to paint something that is not white!

Song: Don Williams, Maybe That’s All It Takes … because it’s a sweet song about only needing simple things.

We spent the day on the 4 wheeler, trekking through the mountains, playing in barns, swinging from ropes and hanging out in trees on the ranch my dad keeps his horses. It was wonderful. Of course my little man immediately makes friends and already has friends there waiting to play with him. He normally does wherever he goes. I love that about him. And sometimes wish I had a little bit more of that in me.

We slept until late in the morning. Something I NEVER do, but for some reason, when I am at my parents house I revert back to being a teenager. I sleep. I let them take care of me. And feed me. It’s just something that parents do. And I have no doubt that is exactly what it will be like for my little man.  It’s humbling though to watch your parents get older and move on to different stages in life. It all happens so very slowly. But it changes none the less.  My superman dad moves slower than he use to.  It’s different, but it’s just the natural course of things in this world I guess.

So… even though I missed a few days, Jenni’s topic for every day in May for today, is “what are you most afraid of?” (and I know I probably won’t get to all of these, but it’s a good exercise none the less.)

I thought I would chime in. Of course there a small things I’m not real fond of. Like snakes. But, I don’t really count those as real fears. I mean, I live in Wyoming, I’ve come across many snakes in my time. Even had to kill a few. What I’m talking about is real fear.  I think my biggest fear is the future of my child. He is my main worry in this life. The what if’s are endless. I worry about his health. His social life. School. Eating. Everying. It all comes with the territory. And my fear, is that I mess him up.  I also fear success. And failure. Both equally. And I fear old age. Not wrinkles or how I look or anything cosmetic really.  But being old in general, and burdens upon others. I also fear, losing my family. Any of them. Anytime. I think I fear the pain associated with it. I know I will survive whatever I’m handed, but I don’t want to have to survive something. No one does. And my last fear…. losing my memory. Childhood memories. Good memories and bad ones. All of them.  I have too many beautiful ones stored up in there. They get me through the bleary days sometimes. I think that is one of the reasons I document my life in pictures, to prove it all happened to myself.

Song: Titanium, David Guetta …because I just can’t get it out of my head.

I just love that she has red hair. And I had to admit, she looked an awful lot like her grandpa!

Thanks for coming to visit guys!!!

Ha ha ha, Ho ho ho. Hee hee.

Right, well, um. That fell through.

But that’s ok, because it was for a good reason.

And that reason would be….

My husband volunteers for things.

And then I take care of them sometimes. Not all the time, but sometimes. And this time just happened to be a school carnival we were in charge of. And it involved a lot a balloons. And pizza.  And it was AWESOME. A bit of work, but a lot of fun. But, keeping up this place, again took a back burner. (As did most picture editing, so if you are waiting, I will be getting there very shortly!)

Anyway, the weekend had to be spent outside, as we haven’t been able to be outside all that much lately.

And since it was the 5th of May, we still had to celebrate a little. So I whipped up some tortillas, tres leches cake, and some cactus dip. I let the Dino Man do a lot of the work with the tortillas. I think he did an awesome job. I’ve never been able to get them round, but they always taste fantastic and bring back great memories every time I eat them.

I also made cactus dip. I’ve been waiting a long time to share this recipe. It is one of my new favorite treats and when I first got the recipe I made it three times in just a couple weeks. It’s extremely addicting. A friend of mine shared the recipe and I hope she doesn’t mind that I’m sharing it here. But it’s soooo good, it’s hard to keep to myself.  It’s very very simple, very refreshing and very very good.

You can find the cactus in King Soopers, that’s the only place I have seen it.

Cactus Dip

• ·         1 small jar of cactus
• ·         1 or 2 Tomatoes
• ·         ½ an Onion
• ·         2 Avocados
• ·         1 or 2 Jalapenos
• ·         ½ a bunch of Cilantro
• ·         Salt
• ·         Garlic Powder
• ·         1 Lime

Place cactus in a colander and remove yucky stuff and pepper then rinse.

Chop cactus, tomatoes, onion and avocado (sometimes I make the salad without avocado).

Remove the membrane and seeds from jalapenos and then chop.

Chop cilantro and remove larger stems.

Place all the vegies in a bowl and add salt and garlic powder

Add lime juice

Mix all up and enjoy

Recipe from the most awesome Marie N.

So, I read all kinds of things when I get up in the morning. Like reading the newspaper, only it’s not nearly as depressing as that. (And there are days even weeks that I have no idea what is actually going in the world, because I don’t read the actual news.)  I used to read in Google reader, but now that is being taken away from me and I am trying to find something else. That’s neither here nor there, the point is, I found a challenge for the month of May to help me get back into the habit of writing and sharing here.

So here goes…

Today, I am to tell you about my life in 250 words.

Born in a small town in Wyoming. Moved to a smaller town in the mountains. Moved to the reservation. Struggled. Transferred to a larger town.  Grew really tall. Thrived. Moved to a little town. Struggled again. Played a lot of sports. Spent a summer away from home.  Graduated. Went to college to be a marketer and came out  with an economics/ finance degree. Met my husband. Graduated from College. Got married. Moved to a city in Colorado. Got a job. Moved to a smaller city back in Wyoming.  Got another job. Bought a house.  Saw some of the world. Got pregnant. Sold house, bought another. Had a baby boy.  Started taking pictures. Saw a little bit more of the world. Took way more pictures. Sold house, bought another. Sent my baby boy to school.  Saw tad bit more of the world. (there is a pattern I’m seeing here…I wonder what I will do next….) and that is where I’m at now.

And as I read that, I realize, life is not that exciting without some emotion or stories behind the words. I’ll have to work on that.

In other news today, on this first day of May… we woke up to a foot of snow. Happy May Day to us!!!

We were up bright and early yesterday and started tearing up old cards. Don’t get me wrong, the sentiments of cards are awesome, I love them.  I just can’t keep them all. I have a really hard time throwing them away, so every now and again we will recycle a bunch of them.  This time my little Dino Dude was an awesome help and very experimental in his paper making processes. I love the way he thinks sometimes and he was bound and determined to try everything.  Some of the paper we put seeds in and we will be able to plant it as soon as the snow GOES AWAY.  Can you tell how I’m still feeling about the snow?  Others were made with carrots. Blackberries. Spinach. And my favorite strawberry and coffee, it made a pretty dirty pink color…and I’m not going to lie, I love dirty pink.  We wanted to color them naturally for Earth day of course, so nothing unnatural was used.

We basically followed the instructions from here, on a bit smaller scale. Of course we were not able to let them dry out doors because of the GOD FORSAKEN SNOW. But they dried overnight inside and it worked out perfectly. Except we were not able to plant the ones with seeds because of course there WAS SNOW ON THE GROUND .

I have many many goals to help celebrate the earth, we’ve tried and been very successful with composting, recycling. Both of which are my son’s little chores to take out. I hope by the time he leaves the house he won’t know any different and continue to do so. I am a recycler of old furniture and clothes. My next goal is to grocery shop without coming home with any plastic bags (which I’ll admit, with a family is harder than I thought it would be.)

Happy Earth Day Everyone. Be kind to our planet and each other!

This is not exactly how I felt when school was called off today. When it snows two feet in December, I love to curl up with a blanket and a book or a movie with my favorite Dino Dude. When it snows two feet in April,  especially the middle of April,  I feel like a caged animal. Imprisoned. This is the nice way of putting it, in my head, there are many choice words flying around about what I think of snow this time of year.  I’m not a huge fan of spring snow storms here on the plains. I know they happen,  I know that are wonderful for desperately low water levels, but in my mind, when Spring finally comes, all I can think about is the outdoors.  Don’t get me wrong, I went outside today. I built an igloo for our dogs. And all I could think the entire time I was building it, was how long it was going to take for it to melt.

But, if I’m really honest with myself, this negative attitude has lasted longer than the last week or so of snow storms. If I’m honest,  I’ve had a bad attitude about the way I look, my clothes, my hair, the way my pictures look, the way my house looks, the tone of voice of my child,   the way my schedule is becoming overwhelming, the way it keeps changing and being canceled. Broken computers. The news. Bombs on the news. Everyday things are being spun into negativity right now. I know it is part to the weather, but not completely. I know it’s my spin on things.

I read an article tonight. It talked about how to deal with negativity, especially negative thoughts. And the trick… is to catch yourself thinking them, and then immediately make that into something positive.  Stop yourself from being critical about yourself and others. Easier said than done, but definitely something to work on.

So I guess the positive spin on today……I got to spend the day with my baby. Nothing is better than that.

My dad told me  of how he was in San Fran the night before he shipped out to Vietnam. The California men bought my penniless father food and drinks though the night.  He could remember them all saying when the sun was coming up… “Awww man…I wish you didn’t have to go.”  He remembered San Fran fondly.

We spent the next few days at a pace a bit slower than the first. Sometimes my husband and I forget that we’ve aged and are reminded of it in the mornings with sore legs and shins from hours of hill climbing. Meanwhile our Dino Dude will keep on skipping circles around us for 18 hours straight, until he just passes out in some obscure place…like the sidewalk, a park bench or the restaurant we happened to choose after he had charmed the waitress.

We spent several hours at Pier 39, full of lovely shopping, performers, wonderful food… and sea lions. Barking, fighting, sunning, swimming, slimy, adorable sea lions.  The Dino Dude got to bungee jump on a trampoline. It made his day. It made me a bit ill to watch him flip and flip and flip over and over and over again. We decided to skip the Alcatraz tour, none of us really were interested in it. I haven’t watched a scary movie in nearly 10 years. I like to focus on the happy. But it was still intriguing to be sitting at lunch and have that sitting out there…kind of a gloomy place looming out past the shores of such a happy-go-lucky city.

It was cold by the ocean so we walked toward down town and saw Lombard street. The most crooked street in the world. We walked to the top and waved at all the cars winding their way down it. At the top we hopped on a trolley(which was on my vitality tally) and then made our way to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. Where I bought a truck load of chocolate….but only made it home with enough to fill a smart car.

We visited Haight-Ashbury….the street of legends. The little one with us wanted to know why it smelled like skunk, someday I will have to explain that to him.  It’s a famous street where the “hippies” commenced. I bought a shirt in a vintage shop from a man dressed like a Beatle.  My son bought chameleon goggles from a woman dressed like a normal person, and I bet I remember my purchase longer than he will.

We also visited the Painted Ladies. The row of beautiful Victorians made famous by “Full House” and a red convertible with John Stamos (who I had a poster of in my room when I was kid….c’mon girls, didn’t you?)

Our home away from home was just a few blocks from China town.  A couple months ago when we told the Dino Dude that we were going to be close to China Town, he said… the only thing I want on the whole trip is a Chinese finger trap. And by golly, within two steps into China Town, there were some! It was a wonderful busy place. It’s a great place for sushi, which we ate off of a floating boat. Everything was shiny, everyone was bustling in the streets…it was a boisterous street.

On the last day, I made my way down the hill to the coffee shop in the morning.  We wandered around Union Square, window shopping in stores, looking at things we will never have, and never really want, but are fun to look at anyway. We drank fresh squeezed orange juice. We ate a top the roof, overlooking the city. With pigeons helping us.  And then we had to bid San Francisco farewell.

But I could hear it whispering to me ”Aww man… I wish you didn’t have to go…”

Song: If You’re Going to San Francisco, Scott McKenzie