pictures

I should be writing an actual post but there's too much to say and not enough time right this second.  Instead, here are some pictures:

Morgan (age 8) at the Fourth of July parade.

My sister-in-law, Ali, with her son, Daxton, and Ava (age 2) at the parade.

Trysta (age 1).

 My friend, Taryn, came over from Star Valley for the Fourth and we had an awesome time!

 

Later in the day we went to a grassy area by Wal-Mart to have a picnic and watch the fireworks.  There was must wrestling and playing around going on.

Lily (age 9)

Taryn with Trysta.

Watching the fireworks.

A canola field near the house.

Potatoes! 

The actual potato plants.

The fields around where we live.

I got a new phone and discovered that it has different filters.  Tyler hard at work.

I get to live here!

I did not do my hair or put make up on once the entire week I was up there.  Can you see the leftover spot from my nasty cold sore?

I cleaned up a lot of the back yard and then started a fire on my own to burn it.  Burn, baby, burn!  The pile of brush was about 7 feet high. 

This stupid pivot got stuck in the mud and Tyler had to dig it out.

Early morning snuggles with Tryst and Ava.

She's so stinkin' cute!

update and pics

Last weekend didn't go quite as I had planned.  Instead of hibernating and eating cake, I ended up spending the weekend in Wyoming, playing nurse to an injured friend.  No worries, though, it wasn't quite as dreary as it sounds (despite the lack of cake).  I actually had a great time, as always seems to happen when I'm up there.  It gets harder and harder to leave every time. I swear one of these days I'm going to go for a weekend and just not come back!

Since I'm doing updates, I should also mention that there's only three and a half weeks left until my trip!  Woot woot!  I decided to cut my time in Dublin and London a little bit short and spend some additional time in Paris.  My dad is on sabbatical this semester and will be in Europe at the same time, so we're going to meet up in Paris to finish out both of our trips.  We'll be staying in the same condo we were in last summer.  So yeah, 5 days in Dublin, 5 in London and another 5 in Paris.  Speaking of Paris, I never did post any pics from last summer's trip.  I didn't actually take any pictures on the trip, but I stole these from my brother:

The Moulin Rouge.  Sadly, Ewan McGregor was nowhere to be found.

From the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Did I mention that I hiked up many, many stairs to get to the top?

Stained glass at Sainte Chapelle

This place was pretty amazing.

Pictures obviously don't do it justice.  It must be experienced in person.

I love gargoyles and other grotesque carvings.  Good times!

The atmosphere in old churches . . . amazing!

Mass at Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

More Notre Dame

The Steps from Midnight in Paris.

People watching is always half the fun!

From our boat trip on the Seine.

Loved all the little scenes like this.

Chopin's grave

Pere Lachaise Cemetery

The area dedicated to WWII was unbelievable.

The monument for Auschwitz.

Year in Review

It's that time of year again.  Part of me says thank goodness this year is over and part of me is sad to see it go.  Then there's the biggest part of me that really just doesn't care either way.  That is definitely the dominant part.  Nevertheless, as I have been horrible at blogging lately, this is the perfect opportunity to compose a blog post that will hopefully entertain, enlighten and perhaps cause a few tears to be shed.  Haha, not really, but that was quite dramatic!  And now I shall commence with the discussing of me and my year, as that is what is truly important tonight.  :) 

Highlights of 2012

• Moving closer to my family.
• Every single moment in Paris, even the ones I didn't absolutely love because hello, it was Paris! (Except for the one lowlight, see below.)  I can't pass this one by without mentioning a few specifics:
• Sharing the experience with my family.
• Seeing works of art that brought tears to my eyes and are some of the clearest examples of the influence of the Divine that I have ever seen.  It never ceases to amaze me how the arts can be such a spiritual experience.  
• Pastries!  Glorious, glorious pastries!
• Weekends spent in Wyoming.  
• The fact that the moments where I felt like all was right in the world far outnumbered the moments where I felt like everything was wrong.
• My daily email and text conversations with Traci, who saved my sanity many, many times.
• My apartment and the solitude, serenity and pants-free environment that it offers.
• Antagonizing people on Facebook for sport during the election season.  I really felt like it was the only way to make those few months before the election bearable.  If any of those people are now reading this, I apologize if you were really and truly offended.
• Temporarily living with BFF Amber after I moved back to Utah. 
• Discovering Homeland, Misfits, Iwan Rheon, Harlan Coben and Lee Child. 
• Taking my client that had cancer for a CT scan a few weeks ago and finding out that there is no sign whatsoever of cancer!

Lowlights of 2012

• The whole Wyoming exodus.  Leaving my friends and clients was heartbreaking and many tears were shed.  Then there was the whole having to give my dog back to the shelter drama.  I still can't speak of it. 
• Moving three times in one year.  I don't want to move again any time soon.  As I wrote that I felt like I was jinxing it and condemning myself to move again in 2013.  Nooooooo!!!!!!
• Having my car stolen.  I still can't quite believe it actually happened.
• The slight (meaning major) nervous breakdown I had early in October.  It was the perfect storm of events and circumstances that caused me to question every single thing in my life; not eat, sleep or bathe for a while; and watch an excessive number of episodes of Roseanne.  Very glad that it's over and that there were people around that I could lean on for support.  On the other hand, it was this event that led me to make my plans for Dublin and London because I needed something to look forward to, so I can't complain too much!
• Being in Paris and having massive blood blisters on the bottoms of my feet that caused excruciating pain with every step I took.  I had to pad and tape my feet every day, but then it would all just come off with all the walking around.  :(  
• My client being diagnosed with cancer and the subsequent treatment.  Taking her to radiation every single day for weeks on end was definitely one of the lowest of the low moments of the year.  And I wasn't even the one with cancer! 

I know I'm forgetting many things but these are the things that immediately came to mind.  There were so many other awesome events, people and moments throughout the year and also several other really crappy moments, but all in all, I consider 2012 to be a success.  I have learned much and experienced much and I am ending the year feeling more content and secure with myself and my life than ever before.  Thanks for reading and being part of my journey!

For Meagan

My last roommate, Meagan, keeps bugging me about updating my blog, so here are some random pictures of our brief cohabitation from my phone:

This is the one bonfire we had in our backyard. We couldn't get it to start, so I whipped out some bacon grease to get it going. It actually worked fairly well. The picture taking did not:

My pasta salad that Meagan loves:


Her sweet dog, Vixen (and my dirty laundry):


There's a creek/crick/slough that runs through her parent's farm. The area where the cows live during the winter is right by the water, so when we saw something weird in the water later in the spring, we thought maybe a calf had fallen into the water and drowned as it was being born. Turns out it was just some paper.


A frightening number of cats live on the farm:


Meagan and her mom, who is one of the coolest ladies EVER:


Trying on hats at TJMaxx:


The puppy (named Veronica Mars) who Meagan convinced me to get. She only lasted a couple days before I gave her away. I am not a puppy person.