I'm Back!

Hi Friends!

I'm sitting here in the cool air of the A/C drinking a glass of iced coffee, and I'm back! Finally. I've been MIA for a while simply to enjoy my life and kind of get my writing grove back. It has been a surprising struggle to get back into writing here, I've attempted this post multiple times! I think I am finally ready to get those creative juices flowing into this space again, but without all the pressure I was putting on myself before.

I just thought I would share a little bit about what I've been up to lately. Life has been good to me and I am so grateful for that!

The biggest thing that has happened is that at the end of May I had to say goodbye to the best job in the world: taking care of three beautiful children! Life circumstances did not allow me to keep watching them, and I am sad. I miss them every day, and I am thankful that I still get to see them often! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be apart of their lives, it truly was the best job I ever had in my life!

My sister also graduated from high school at the end of May, which is absolutely CRAZY. I can't believe she is an "official" adult now. I can't wait to see what she ends up doing with all of her beauty, brawn, and brains.

Also had a fun opportunity to do a comparison photo with my hubs (and his beard!!). Both photos are from a youth camp we serve in every year in June.

(2018)

(2019. It's been almost one year since he has shaved his beard!)

It finally warmed up enough to hang outside (it snowed on May 20th). This is my sister's dog, Ruby! She's a cutie.

Last week I got all 4 of my impacted wisdom teeth surgically removed. What an experience that was! I did not take any photos of that because I kept crying to my husband and saying "I'm so ugly!" You best believe I wasn't going to photograph that! If you really want me to, I'll send the Marco Polo I sent to my family that day to you, only upon request. Anesthesia makes me 1000x more emotional, and I'm already a very emotional person. There was a lot of crying.

Since it has taken the Northern Arizona and New Mexico area forever to actually warm up this summer, we finally took our first camping trip of the season last weekend! It was for Father's Day. We took my dad up for a night of camping, and my mom and sister came up for the evening! We all really enjoy being in the mountains and having fun around the fire. I bought a hammock a week before (my first one!) and it was honestly my favorite thing ever! Swaying in that hammock in the mountain air reading my book...I'd do it all the time if I could! We are going back for two nights this weekend and I already cannot wait to hang my hammock!

(The guys spent forever chopping up this stubborn log for the fire!)

(Josh was so excited to build the fire!)

(Maisie was living her best life exploring the campsite!)

(My cheeks were still chipmunk-like after surgery and I was unable to enjoy the brats we roasted over the fire!).

This is just an adorable picture of my parents and their dogs in the wedding-arch-converted-to-bench my dad made! Josh and I got married under that (handmade by my talented father!) and he added a bench for them to sit on around their fire pit!

The most recent and most exciting news is that we have added to our family by eight paws! Kitten paws, that is! This is Chamomile and Chai, sister kittens we adopted from the shelter last week. They have been so sweet! I am already super obsessed and in love with them. We just couldn't stand to separate them and they are definitely entertaining together!