Homecomings

We are home from Alaska! It was so wonderful. It was even better than we expected. And usually we dread coming home from vacation, but this time we were happy to return to hot water, puppies, families and friends, not in that order of course!! As we expected, it is so nice to be back home. Our house feels like a mansion compared to that tent!! We are thankful for it all over again! And, while we didn't see this particular seal (we haven't downloaded our pictures yet), we did see lots of seals and incredible wildlife. We now feel like National Geographic Explorers. It's so good :)

Memoirs

I like reading memoirs. The latest two that I have enjoyed are "The Glass Castle," by Jeanette Walls, and A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. They are different from each other, but entirely wonderful to read. It seems that everyone thinks their life could be a memoir. I have a friend who's dad says "Everyone has at least one good book in them." I like to think that's true. For these girls it definitely was.

health

Larry and I are saying "cheers to good health" this week. The reason we noticed our good health is that Larry temporarily lost his. Thank goodness, it appears to be coming back. There are several versions to what happened, the quickest is that he was pulled about 30-40 feet across a parking lot by an SUV. He didn't lose his footing so he wasn't dragged. Just pulled. The other versions include him leaping across car tops in a single bound to save a poor little family from certain destruction. Of course, these stories are also true. So he basically has serious muscle strain. He's going to physical therapy and is off work for at least three weeks. He's fine,but bored and tired of hurting. Anyway, it helped us to realize how much of our life plans depend on us being able to get around. It doesn't sound like that stunning or dramatic of a discovery, but for some reason it was for us!! Three cheers for our health!

Keifer

We weren't planning on getting another puppy. It just sort of happened and now it's wonderful. Piper and Keifer are best friends! It's so darling. And Larry is so happy to have a "boy." It's pretty adorable around here.

planning

so, i'm not always that great at it. sometimes i procrastinate and am therefore forced to be spontaneous. like the time i didn't plan and let my sweet hubby organize our backpacking trip to glacier national park. we ended up hiking 10 miles a day to find empty campsites! i wouldn't trade it now, but yikes-a-rama!! but back to planning, the idea of it makes me happy. it gives me something to look forward to; something to direct my attention towards. i always love having something new and exciting on the horizon and planning makes that something stay at the forefront of my mind. right now, i am conjuring up ideas for a trip to alaska this fall. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please share them...

Sites we have found useful:
http://www.kayak.com/
http://www.carrentals.com/

Pearls

When I was younger, I thought pearls were for "old women." They seemed too stately for me. My birthstone is the pearl, but I always wanted it to be something more flashy like emerald, aquamarine, or sapphire. Now, I am starting to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of pearls. There are freshwater pearls, saltwater pearls, cultured pearls, natural pearls... Yesterday was my birthday and I celebrated my special day by wearing a string of beautiful black pearls that my friend Matt brought me back from China. They felt cool on my neck. Just thinking about the time it took for them to form and all the miles they had traveled made me feel rich and, well, maybe stately. But, I liked it. Hmm...

Projects

I love projects. I’d like to have one. The problem is that you have to be creative to come up with a semi-original one. I have ideas of refinishing furniture or planning a better flower garden… But what I really like are long, crazy projects. I recently read the book, Julie and Julia where the author decided to cook the entire Julia Child’s cookbook in a year (I would read some reviews before running out to get this, it's not for everybody). Right now I’m reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life, where the author and her family eat for an entire year on only the foods from their own neighborhood. Wow! I’m so inspired! I love reading about others that take on something so big!! Oh, I just realized that both of these were food projects. Hmmm. I’m not sure that my 2 tomato plants are going to help me… and there's the fact that sometimes I look like this bunny when you try to get me into the kitchen ...