The Love of My LIfe

Hello Friends,
Boy has it been a while since I shared a little piece of me with you. For those who haven't heard, I made my way back to Washington State and found a job working in a hotel. It's not my dream job by any means but the pay is good and the hours are good so it will do for now.
There are not many things that are new in my life but there is one major thing I would love to share with everyone.  Barkley is a 4 month old Italian Greyhound mix and as it turns out, he is also the Love of My Life. I haven't been really happy with life for a really long time and after depression, angst and a heartbreak I had tried just about all of my life to avoid and one that I was soooooooo not expecting, he really saved me just as much as I saved him.

I found Barkley through a rescue organization in Richland, WA and drove the two and a half hours there to meet him. He wasn't exactly what I was looking for and didn't know what to expect at all. When I walked through the door, his foster Mama was standing there holding him. He turned his cute little head and looked at me with those sad little dark eyes over his shoulder and I was a goner. I have never met an animal more willing to give unconditional love to anyone he meets until I met him. Even after a rough start in life and being rescued from the house full of animals and animal feces where he was born and then again from his first "forever home" after mistreatment by his new owners, he trusts and loves unconditionally. This makes him the most perfect dog there ever was in my eyes and I have definitely found myself a companion in life.
There are times when I have to remind myself that he is just a little puppy and that I can't get angry because I wasn't paying close enough attention to him. He is still learning how to ask to go outside and being a puppy, anything we leave out is considered fair game for teething purposes. The dog had toys everywhere but he would much rather chew on my yarn than his bacon flavored bone.

Had I known that he would be so easily entertained, I may have been able to save some money in the beginning.

Regardless of the trials and frustrations of training a new puppy, I am so happy that I found the one that is right for me. I know that I will find no better friend than the one laying in my lap helping me type this blog entry. For anyone out there who thinks that they need just a little something extra in their lives, please give some consideration to adopting an unwanted or abandoned animal. It discourages breeders from over breeding and the adopted pets are the ones who understand how much we truly love them because they have known a life without that love.


pssst...... by the way, have your pets spayed or neutered friends, there are already too many homeless pets.

The Crafty Side of Me

So, I can remember a time when I loved to do arts and crafts and it wasn't that long ago. I have decided to get back to some of that recently. I have decided that I am going to make my Christmas Cards. I have have purchased some new rubber stamps and some ink and I am hoping to find a great sale in a few days at the craft store. I would also like to get some embossing powder and an embossing gun. I am hoping that from now on you will start to see a much craftier me.
I am also going to spend some more time with my yarn and crochet hook. I'm pretty good with them and I love to make scarves and blankets.

I have also recently ventured into baking more. I make my first cut-out cookies the other night and aside from some decorating issues,(apparently you have to have some sort of talent to make a snowman shaped cookie look like and actual snowman) they turned out really well.

I have also decided that I am going to cook more, I like it when I make a full meal and it looks pretty and presentable.
These are things that I enjoy doing and I am not sure why I have let them slide. They relax me and take my mind off the bigger issues. I guess this is why it is important to make time for yourself. :)
Happy Holidays Friends. I have to go, I have some cards to make.......

Vacation

Well friends, I finally got my Vacations.  I spent a whole week with my amazing cousin, Kelsey Kester and her husband, Jason Humble in Queen Creek, AZ. They are so wonderful to me and such great hosts. I got to have so much fun. They took me to Schnepf Farms to have Chili and get a fresh baked pie. I got to pet some little goats and get lost in a corn maze. On Sunday, Kelsey took me up to Sedona so I could see the Red Rock (painted desert) and it was beautiful.

On Sunday night we carved pumpkins for Halloween and roasted pumpkin seeds. They were yummy. On Monday we just kind of chilled and waited for the Trick or Treaters to  show up.

Yesterday we went to the outdoor mall and went shopping and I helped the happy couple take their Christmas Card Pictures. They turned out so cute and Kelsey and I took one of our own.

So, here I sit, in the Airport waiting for my flight, which has been delayed for mechanical issues. Oh yipee, back to hell in Texas. I really want to stay here but I can tough this out. My vacation should help me feel refreshed so we will see how it works.

That Time of the Year

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's almost that time of year again. The holidays are upon us and I am starting to really miss home, family and friends. I miss the cooler weather and the foggy mornings. I have decided that the only comfort I will get is to bake my little heart out. Starting tonight it is going to be pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, sugar cookies for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am also going to try my hand at a few new things.
I haven't decided what new I will be trying but I have never made candy before, that is a possibility for me. It is also the time of year when I like to start a crochet project that I am never gonna finish. I do it all the time but I may give it a shot again in between making scarves and a baby blanket for Becca's newest addition to her family. Maybe this will be the year that I finish my project, or maybe I should work on a past project in hopes of finishing it (what a fantastic idea).
So, in exchange for the snow, I am going to crank the AC and bake my little heart out here in sunny Texas. Wish me luck.

Ewwwww!!!!

So, I have come to terms with the fact that no matter what it appears to be, Texas is a desert and has desert like creatures. I have seen lizards hanging out on planter boxes outside the mall, crickets the size of a 747 and I even saw a scorpion on the sidewalk outside the apartments. The lizard, he was kinda cute, he was just a little guy. I draw the line at bugs in the house, I managed to kill the one cricket that made it past the doorway but when I found a scorpion crawling in my sink, that was the end. I want to go home. I am tired of triple digit weather, sweltering humidity, ugly landscape and the scorpion in my sink was no small bugger. I wanted to cry when I saw it.
Someone please get me out of here, even though I love the friends that I have made down here and I like my job, I miss my best friend and my family. It is tearing my heart out and I really just want to go somewhere else. I know if I liked where I was at it would be much easier than it is now. I am just trying to hold on. I refuse to quit what I have started.

Well friends, that is the end of my rant, hopefully it will help calm me for a little while longer.

Making a Statement

Power to the Aries

Well folks, I did it again. I got bored and decided that my best option was to go put some more permanent ink on my body. Don't get me wrong, every tattoo I have means something to me and I have been thinking about this one for a long time. I knew in general what I wanted but it wasn't until this morning that I decided for sure exactly what I wanted and where I wanted it. So I found the tattoo shop, showed the artist my design and once again, I jumped in that chair. I am thrilled with the results and I am so happy with the design that I decided on. 

I know that tattoos are not always socially acceptable and people may be afraid of them but I believe that they are becoming more accepted in society. I would encourage any person who has an intense passion for any one thing or idea to consider a tattoo. I find it incredibly satisfying to look at a finished tattoo and think to myself  "Now everyone will know that this is something that I feel incredibly strongly about, that it means something to me." I think that they are to boldest statements a person can make.