Category: A Day in the Life

Main category. Posts about what is going on in our day-to-day lives.

A Day in the Life

How We Spend Our Freetime

Keira

We spent many nights at the local movie theater/arcade. This is what happens when you’re the only kid still up on a Friday date night in a college town. She made bank! All the college kids handed her their tickets.

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And spent her earnings wisely… Interestingly, her favorite color isn’t really purple. Sometimes it is, but she changes her mind so often, I wouldn’t say she’s really GOT a favorite color. But out of the colors there, purple won. Purple, soccer, and zebra. That’s how to be a cool kid, I guess…

We spent many minutes moving the location of this silly sticky hand.

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Isn’t this a cool cloud formation? There’s been a ton of rain this summer. I am rained out! Seriously, you do not want to cross my path in February if I don’t get a little more sunshine this summer!
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I made a goal to cover the whole driveway in sidewalk chalk. This is as far as we got, so I guess we’ll have to start all over again!

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a sunrise and a very quick (and extremely inaccurate solar system rendition)


Mom, Dad, and Daughter. In a rainstorm

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The new house doesn’t have that great of a driveway, so I guess I should embrace this one for the few minutes (translate: ages!!!! Seriously, I want to move! I’m so not patient enough for this!) I still have one.

the rest of the summer has been less than glamorous… We’ve been doing TONS of packing. 9 years in a house is hard to pack up. And then there’s the back and forth between lenders. And the just plain doing nothing moments.

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But there was that one time that my Father-in-law trusted me to care for the buffalo while he was out of town on vacation, and I let them out… That was exciting. I’m happy to announce that I got them back in, all by myself! That has to make up for the fact that I let them out, right? The whole time I’m thinking “my father-in-law is never going to trust me ever again!” Luckily, I used the armor of the car to get them all collected into a corner of the driveway, right by the gate, and I was still strange enough that by the time I got out of the car, they’d figured that they’d rather be in the safety of the pen than to mess with a stranger. And I don’t think the bull fit through the gate, so they definitely felt safer on the same side of the fence with him. I definitely felt safer on the OTHER SIDE of that fence. Apparently, none of the men use the gate for just that reason. They all climb over. AFTER I let them out, Ranger told me not to use the gate because buffalo will keep track of how you come in and out and will work at that spot. Smart stinkers.

We’ve watched the babies grow up, too. That’s been pretty fun.

A Day in the Life

Huckleberry Heaven

Keira

My husband, daughter and myself all love camping, but can never seem to find the time to go. Every time we tried, this would happen:

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This time, we just gave up and went. It still sprinkled on us each night we stayed, but we had a blast anyway, and we didn’t let the rain get to us. We found an amazing camping spot, and plan to make a tradition of it.

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We went just to go camping, but these little berries made it that much better! We ended up picking 2 gallons. Too bad most of them were used for a certain family member’s wedding… it was still well worth it though.

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It was so nice to get away from everything pending in our lives. Up there, it’s just you, your campsite, and the side of the mountain. Oh, and the family picking on the hill next to you that locks themselves out of their car, raids your huckleberry patch (she was determined that by picking the whole branch and then collecting the berries, she’s doing the bush a favor. I’m pretty sure she’s crazy. Anyone know if she’s really right?) All I know is she blazed through our berry patch and didn’t make me all that happy to have to share the hill. She also had strong opinions on everything. Her husband was cool though.

One thing we’ll check for next time: making sure the firepit is clean! It’s kind of a no-brainer for my eagle scout husband, but we were in such a hurry to get the tent up in the minimal time between rain and dark that we forgot. Ranger heard the pop and knew what it was, but we didn’t find the evidence until morning. Soooo glad it missed us all…

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Seriously! I was pretty disgusted with the cleanliness of the campsite, anyway (why do people think it’s a good idea to mix beer, guns, and camping? sounds pretty …. not so thinky… to me…), but it made it pretty easy to leave it better than we found it!

On a much different note, did you know that there are lizards in this area? I had no idea! I thought they’d gravitate toward a much warmer climate. I’ve got my feet up on the rocks next to the fire while the kiddo is sleeping in the tent, and suddenly Ranger freezes, staring directly under my feet. That’s the thing of nightmares! WHAT IS UNDER MY FEET! But eventually, Ranger points to a crawly thing circling our firepit. He made a complete circle and went back up into the woods. When I got back to civilization, I looked him up. I think he was a Long-nosed leopard lizard. Apparently, there are a few varieties of lizards in the area, but they were all news to me! Lizards in Idaho! Blew my mind!

Long-Nosed Leopard Lizard

A Day in the Life

E+J wedding

Keira

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted. I’ve had so much to say, but I managed to lock myself out of admin because I somehow only half managed to change the password somewhere. I finally had to delete all the shortcuts and apps in my browser and sign in all over again. Such is life.

Update is: there’s still no update on moving. We’ve been in the “almost… Just one more step” stage for about a month and a half. We really are “almost there,” though. We’ve done everything but sign the papers and get the carpet and windows in. I am soooo ready to be outta this house!

But now to the fun stuff. After about a 3 year absence from the cake scene ( my sister’s wedding really did me in!) I made a cake again! This time for my new sister-in-law’s wedding. It was so fun.

I admit I was so worried. The forecast has said rain all week. And the bride was DETERMINED to have an outdoor wedding.

The clouds hung threateningly the entire ceremony/reception, and about an hr and a half into the reception, it wasn’t a threat, but a downpour. I’m pretty impressed, though. It ended up working out amazingly.

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This is before they added the wildflowers to the mug. it was pretty cute and incredibly cheap!

By then, the traditions had all been attended to, and it’s the part of the reception that just drags on, so when the rain came, most people left, and only the close friends and family stayed.

It turned into one big wet afterparty. With an amazing sunset.

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I love this picture. I’m bummed it’s blurry. This is true love. You know the country song I don’t dance? That’s the song that goes off in my head each time I look at this picture. The lyrics are so perfect! I’m so glad my Father-in-law found someone that loves him so perfectly.

Anyway, the cake turned out amazing. After having such a long hiatus, I was pretty worried I wouldn’t be able to call on enough skill. Luckily, it seems that the cake-making skill stuck a little better than the “riding a bike” skill (fyi, I can’t ride a bike. I’ve learned twice and never really enjoyed it so I run while my family rides. I get a much more intense workout, and I actually like it better…)

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and the cupcakes were divine! I came up with the recipes myself. That meant that when they were gone before the reception got rained out and that all the comments of “oh my, these are so good!” went right to my head. It’s pretty inflated, now. Probably not enough to make another cake, just yet, but I’m definitely suffering from an expanded ego.

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The white cupcakes are white chocolate with huckleberry filling and white chocolate butter cream and sprinkles on top. The purple-frosted cupcakes are lemon cupcakes with huckleberry filling, huckleberry frosting, and huckleberries. I wish I had made a gel of the huckleberry liquid and drizzled it on top of the white chocolate cupcakes, but maybe next time someone wants to pay me good money for huckleberry cupcakes… those buggers are purple gold, I tell ya!

A Day in the Life

Fourth of July

Keira

This is my favorite holiday! I love it because…

  1. I love red white and blue.
  2. It’s the last holiday before my birthday.
  3. I’m an Air Force daughter.
  4. My family’s always been patriotic.
  5. There’s something about being all joined together supporting the same thing. Everyone’s proud to be an American, even if tomorrow they forget that they are.
  6. It’s (usually) nice and warm (this time wasn’t so warm) so it’s great for outdoor parties, and picnics, and swimming, and watermelon seed contests, and hamburgers, and staying up late, and gabbing and hanging out with friends.
  7. We really do have an amazing life in America, and I am proud to be an American.
A Day in the Life

Milks…

Keira

I’ve always disliked dairy. Especially some cheeses. It’s not a lactose-intolerance thing, really, because it’s usually not the heavy-lactose things that bother me. I have a huge problem with cheddar, but can handle powdered milk. that’s totally backwards! Powdered milk is about 97% lactose, if I’ve done my google-searching correctly.I think it’s a problem with the milk-fat. 2% kills me, but skim doesn’t. Maybe something else, I don’t know. At any rate, since I cut out cereal 6+ months ago (best decision!!! Haven’t looked back), my daughter’s been noticing that she feels so much better without cereal and milk. So, we struggle to finish a half gallon before it goes bad. As we were having rice for breakfast today, I couldn’t help noting the types of milk we have in our lives! I have to buy so many varieties now!

  • we have powdered milk in our pancakes and for baking. And for cottage cheese if we ever eat it (SOO much better this way, I promise).
  • we have almond milk or coconut milk for things that just plain need milk (like rice for breakfast).
  • we have 1% for my husband who REFUSES to join the “health kick.” Little does he know he’s being slowly converted. I haven’t dared point it out, because that will halt all progressive change.

However, instead of buying sour cream and yogurts and the like, we use no-sugar plain Greek Yogurt. Yogurts never used to bother me. But then I read the labels. Seriously! If you don’t want to change your diet, don’t research what some of the ingredients are. It’s way too much of a catalyst for change. So that was enough for me to get over my desire for Yoplait. Now I can mix in my own fruit and honey at home. I used to hate plain yogurt with fruit on bottom or whatever. It was still nasty. But with honey and tons of fruit, I guess I just don’t notice the difference. Either that or I’ve discovered what real food tastes like. And I do love that one container can fulfill so many needs like sour cream and yogurt and ranch and that sort of thing.

I know there are advocates for both sides of the milk argument. Some (like my friend Reta) think it’s awful any way you swing it and are quite happy with their almond milk. Some (like news, media, and a ton of people with their own agendas and propagandas) say that milk is a required dietary need. I’d say I’m in the middle. I think most of our problem comes from pasteurization and homogenization, but I don’t have any evidence to prove it. As a whole, I think that milk is enjoyable, but not a necessity. I count it as a blessing, not a need.

How do you view dairy? Are some things okay? Is it always good? Always bad? Let me know. (I know I don’t have that many followers, but I was interested in whatever feedback I can get).

A Day in the Life

Mentally Scary Mommy Moment

Keira

I’m taking a break from all of this work stuff to watch a movie with my daughter. (Confession: I’m reading homework while she’s watching. Only half counts). It’s a quick-made Disney channel movie, but it’s still cute. In the movie, the princess must flee quickly. No big deal. Normal plot. And we’ve watched it before. Regular movie-watching, right? Then My daughter asks a question and I’m suddenly aware of how old she’s getting and how unprepared I am for the realization.

“Mom, where is her emergency kit? and shouldn’t she be taking it with her, like I would have to do?”

I should be thrilled she remembers such an important safety element. I am! But instead it suddenly occurs to me that she is aware of the concept that there could be a time when she would have to flee without me.

That is a scary thought. One I really don’t want to entertain. But I am beginning to realize that her Tinkerbell backpack is not going to cut it. Suddenly, I’m not thinking “what happens if my family had to leave quickly, what will WE need.” I’m thinking “what do I want my daughter to have if she were ever to get separated from me?” I think I’ll be re-vamping our emergency kits very soon.

A Day in the Life

Beauty During Sorrow

Keira

While I was up visiting for the funeral, Mom asked me to help her with a project. Before she died, My grandmother gave my mom a task and a bag of old jewelry. She asked mom to put the jewelry on mirrors, because my mom etched mirrors for all of her nieces and nephews when they got married. She wanted her granddaughters to look in the mirror, see a piece of her, and think of Grandma telling them how much she loved them.

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Ranger and I ran to the store later that day, and they had a cool snow-sculpture community event out front of the senior center (That my grandma helped get there). We took a few minutes just to walk around and enjoy something beautiful. It was refreshing.

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A Day in the Life, Life Lessons

One Life

Keira

[warning]This post is kind of scattered, because my thoughts are raw. Also, this post involves death, which might be a trigger.[/warning]

UntitledWritten at about 6: I just got word that my grandma might not survive the weekend. Probably not even until tomorrow night.

It’s silly that I’ve known that this could be coming for more than a month, now, and have felt absolutely no sorrow for it; she’s lived an amazing life, and she gets to be with her husband and daughter again. Her only daughter. And now, in her last hours, I’m so sad! Suddenly, I’m not thinking about how SHE feels about this, I’m suddenly realizing I have feelings, too!

This is the woman who held my hand through the delivery of my daughter. This is the woman who helped me out of so many scrapes, especially when everything hit the fan. She loved me and always had my back.  I guess, up until now, I’ve just been happy for her chance to move on to “the next great adventure.” When I went to visit her a few weeks ago, we talked about life. We talked about everything she was going to have to go through. She told me she wasn’t afraid of the other side, she was just afraid about how long it would take to get there.

I look back on the day my daughter was born differently, now. At the time, I called her because my ex was an hour and a half away and didn’t want to leave his meeting (at the time, I thought he couldn’t leave it. But my perspective has changed since then. No boss would expect a man to miss the birth of a child. Not in Small-town, Snowbank where we used to live). Grandma had told me that if I needed anything, all I had to do was call. Well, when it looked like I was about to have my very first baby all by myself, I called! It was a little awkward having your grandma there. But now… now I’m so glad I did. All of her other grandkids talk about all she did for them. But she never did that for any of them. Just me. Years later, she told me how much it meant for her to be there. She only had one daughter, as I said. She told me at that moment, I became her daughter, too. And she got to hold her daughter all over again, and help her daughter through life, all over again. Her daughter made a lot of hard choices in her life, picking men about like I picked them; some really dangerous and oppressive, and one really, really great guy. Grandma never judged me for my past, just helped me pick up the pieces. She never called my ex names, but helped me through all the problems he left me, even though he caused problems for her, too. Really expensive problems. She’s my hero.

Written at about 10: When I told my daughter about Grandma, she took it really hard. At bedtime, she prayed the sweetest, most inspired prayer. “And please bless Grandma, and let her have fun with Adella. And help her be happy up there. And help us be happy down here. ” It was said just about the time my grandmother actually slipped to the other side. Adella is my sister’s angel baby, she lost last spring.

Help us be happy down here…

A Day in the Life

A New Year

Keira

Happy New year, everyone!

I had an amazing New Year’s Eve party. It consisted of the whopping crowd of 2. It was actually supposed to be a crowd of 1, but Ranger surprised me.

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New Year’s Eve is actually quite special to us. We got engaged on New Year’s Eve, three whole splendid years ago. Come to find out, it would have been Christmas, but I made a comment about how a ring as a Christmas present was tacky, and he had to think outside the box a little harder… oops! Especially, since I had been quite clear that that’s what I wanted in a blog post many of you will probably remember (It’s no longer there, if you were wondering).

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we camped out in our front room this New year, brought up a TV to watch Fantastic Four (it’s what I wanted. We made it a marathon), and reminisced about all that has happened in 3 years and all that we hope the future holds for us. We had other places we could have gone, but I’m completely comfortable just being alone. In fact, I crave it sometimes.

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Actually having a husband home wasn’t the only surprise he gave me. I got another ring, too. It was sweet. He kept hinting that I would get one for Christmas, and then he got me a necklace. It’s 3 years ago all over again! Except this time I didn’t say it was tacky, and actually asked if we could afford it. My fingers have gotten smaller over this past year (I lost my other one in the Christmas tree for a few months until I decided to open that box in hopes of finding it), and my ring was not staying on! Since I don’t want to get my old one resized, and then needing a bigger size when I am actually able to keep some meat on my bones (what a problem to have, huh?), I just asked for a new one. He brought it in, all cute, and brought flashbacks of the nervous kid sitting across from me three years ago. It’s amazing how much things can change all the while nothing does!

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Me 3 years ago.