The end of another decade

It's a beautiful summer night. I'm on my deck, enjoying the bug and humidity free starry cloudless night. Drinking a savory kombucha and smoking Phantom Cookies, which when I coughgasm, makes me feel like I'm floating. It's delightful. 

The babies are in bed, we had a fun day at home this morning, got to the pool this afternoon, which Kate swam across the length TWICE, and they killed some McDonald's for dinner after all of it. Then they both fell in love with Dr. Pepper as they danced on the deck and ate french fries. We watched the first hour of Encanto after bath time, and Johnny was snoring by 8:15.

Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? 🤣🤣🤣

My life is full. I share my love with my children and Chai, my soul family, and many friends. I truly am #blessed.

Even though I'm without a life companion, I have many people that I can ask for help. I'm working through the trauma of asking for help and, with time, I'm getting better at it.

I'm about to end another decade. I hoped to be celebrating this moment in Hawaii. Circumstances have kept me from getting there yet, but I can definitely get there over the next decade. 

With the new moon yesterday and another celebration of my life in another 15 minutes, I want to send these manifestations out into the cosmos.

May my family be financially secure, find healing, and find peace. 

If this is what being "over the hill" is like, I can't wait to see what's on the other side. 😁 40, I welcome you.

Woah, this is New!

Sooo, is it just me, or has blogger changed their layout JUST a little?  I'm starting to wonder if this post is actually going to get posted where I want to to be or not . . . I guess that's what I get for neglecting the blogging world for so long.  Well, I have an excuse, or many excuses.  So the last time I posted was mid-November . . . let's see if I can come up with a few pictures since then.

 For Thanksgiving we were able to go to Rob's sister's place in Ohio and spend a few days with her family and their parents.  We had a nice relaxing time and enjoyed hanging out with family.  Isn't this just the most amazing looking Turkey?  Well it tasted even better than it looks.  Thanksgiving was wonderful.

 For Christmas we went to Rob's parent's place in Maryland.  Again, it was an excellent few days with the family.  This picture is of the game, smess, which I never played, but it's pretty much the only picture of our time there.  We also went to Laurie's house and spent time with her and the boys.  I'm so thankful that I decided to quit school and go off to New York and be their nanny over a decade ago.  So happy that they are my other family. 

 Promptly after Christmas I was off once again to Pasadena to work at the Rose Parade.  It was my third year, and I practically had my own float to work on this year!

 It was the Microsoft Kinect Float, and it was amazing.  I also helped out with the Bayer Advanced and US Bank floats, which both won awards!

 Here I am with Tom and Juan, my partners in crime.  I love Pasadena and the Rose Parade!

 Rob and I have gone to Niagara Falls twice now.  It's only about half an hour away, so anyone that wants to come see the waterfalls with the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world (and us!) then you better come and visit us!  We do have an extra room and would love to have visitors (thanks for being the first family visitor, cousin Brenna!!)!  Can you believe this picture was taken on January 6th?  The winter here in buffalo was awesome, btw.

 Mid-January I took a quick trip down to Maryland and Virginia to pick up a car that Keri and Cody (Rob's sister and our B.I.L.) were graciously giving us.  I spent an evening out with Kami, my BFF from VA, and we had a great time.

 In February I went down to Manhattan to work with Starbright Floral Design for the Valentines Day holiday.  It was a crazy few days, but something I would love to do again and again!  Tom, my friend from the Rose Parade, works there and convinced his boss Nic that they needed me for the holiday.  I'm so glad that Nic obliged, and we had an awesome time!  This first picture is of the tulipalooza I was having.  This picture was taken around noon, and we were there LATE that night.  So much garbage!

 This is a shot of my favorite creation of the week!  So romantic and earthy!

 This design is something that I designed for Rob.  Circus roses are his favorite.

 In January I finally quit the flower shop where I'd been working since arriving in Buffalo, and I got a new job, working at Niagara Scenic Tours.  I'm a motorcoach operator, and I love it!  I work long hours, but I enjoy my job which makes the hours worth it!  Plus, it's like I always on vacation. 

 I stay in nice hotels regularly, like this one.

This is an outline of where I've been, so far.  It's just the outline, I've been all over the place inside that line over the last few months.  So far, I've driven 13,388 miles this year for work.  4,640 of it this month alone.  Good thing I love my job, right?

 I saw these adorable salt and pepper shakers during one of my tours last month, and I wanted to get them for a friend, but Rob said no.  I think if I ever get back I'm going to by them anyway.  She loves all things piggies!

For our 5th anniversary, Rob and I spent the weekend in Corning, NY.  As we were nearing our hotel, we noticed on an airplane hangar right off the freeway advertising scenic flights, starting at $25, so what did we do, of course?  We went for a ride!

 Rob sat in the front seat, and he really had a great time.  I, on the other hand, sat in the backseat and got major motion sickness.  It's ok.  It was totally worth it.  I'd do it again.

 We went to to Corning Museum of Glass, the worlds largest glass museum, and absolutely loved it.  It was an exhausting day, but our minds were blown.  These are my favorite pieces.  This glass sculpture of the dress was amazing.  I tried getting a picture of the shawl where the hands would have been, but it didn't do it justice.  Such an amazing talent.  We are definitely going back!

 These vases were incredible.  I want them.

 Mark Peiser, you're amazing.

And this is the number one reason why I love my job.  Repeat business!  This is Cayla and Laura, of the ECC Softball team.  I took them on a four day trip to Maryland last month and we had such a blast.  Well this last week I got to take them on a day trip to Canandaigua, and again, we had some major fun.  I know it looks like we are in a bar, but really, we are in Chili's.

So, there it is.  A short summary of my slackitude.  Other happenings that I don't have pictures of, in no particular order:

• Driving my bus in Manhattan was awesome, fun, scary, CRAZY, and exciting.  I only had to back up during a turn once--during which I said, "This is my worst nightmare."
• The bulbs I planted last fall have come up, and they are gorgeous.  Even though we put up a fence around them though, the bunnies ate and then dug up all the crocus.  I'm so sad.  At least all the tulips, iris, and daffodils have been lovely, and the allium are about to bloom as well!
• I've gone to Amish country in PA and OH, and I love them and are fascinated by their culture!  
• Being the bus driver means that I come home with lots of swag.  Last week I came home from Amish country with three pies, two jars of jam, two loaves of bread, four different kinds of cheese, three hand stitched hot pads, and twelve 4" pots of pansies!  At least I have something to put in place of my crocus!
• We miss Alaska.  There have been more than one occasion when we considered calling our boss in Skagway and seeing if she still needs drivers for the summer . . .  

Well, perhaps that is enough for now.  Rob is nearing the end of his first year of grad school, and he's looking forward to "the summer break".  He's looking for a summer internship, and if nothing works out he's pretty much guaranteed a job where I work.  My boss keeps asking about his summer plans, so I think that's a good sign.

BTW, We Relocated.

Yep, it's true. We are no longer in Alaska. Or Idaho for that matter.

We are in New York. Together. And life is AMAZING!

Rob is attending the University at Buffalo working on his Masters Degree and I'm working 40 hours a week as a florist.

We are renting a 3 bedroom duplex which means we have an upstairs, downstairs, and basement. We eat breakfast and dinner at our dining room table, which is no longer our office. Our office is our office not our storage room; our office also has a couch in it for lounging. Storage goes in the basement on the shelves that Rob built in the basement.

Rob also built himself a work bench in the basement, the 8 ft. desk in our office, and his next task is to build shelves in the office so we can unpack our library of books--which coincidentally is four of the last six boxes we have yet to unpack.

We have each mowed the lawn once, and together we pulled many weeds and four stumps out of the front yard before I planted 300 bulbs in their place.

We've gone on a few walks and a few bike rides. We are getting to know the area and we are happy here. We have a few places nearby we'd like to be tourists, like Niagara Falls and the Corning Museum of Glass. I'd like to take Rob to Sackets Harbor where I lived a decade ago, and of course we still need to get to Toronto! But we aren't far away from any of it! Hooray!

Also, we are very excited to do some traveling for the holidays. The plan is to visit Rob's sister's place in Ohio for Thanksgiving and his parent's for Christmas! Then I'll be off for the Rose Parade once again! Before I know it it'll be 2012 and I'll be needing to post pictures of the Parade once again . . . but probably won't ever get around to doing it.

Let's see how things progress , but as for now, it's time for bed. Goodnight.

Ben and Jenalyn

Here are my friends, the Greenwoods. They are up visiting "me", and hiking the chilkoot trail this weekend. On Monday I'm going to take them on a tour with me.

I've known Ben since I was fourteen. He and Jenalyn visited me when I lived in Virginia too, so it's pretty fun that here we are, a few years later, hooking up thousands of miles away. I'll be spending a few days with them in Sitka before I leave Alaska.

I Love My Weekend Job Too

All I can say is that it was an amazing day out at Glacier Point today. Perfect glassy water.

Goodbye Rob

Be safe. I love you.

Have I Mentioned Lately . . .

How cute we are?

Because. We. Are.

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Life in Skagway

Well, we've been in Alaska now for almost eight weeks, and we absolutely love it. Every work day we drop passengers off at places like this (although it's no longer snow covered):

And drive by waterfalls like this:

We see lots of these:


And experience "sunsets" like this:



We hike to places like this:


And this:


And this:


Isn't Alaska beautiful?


Oh, and we hang out in our two person hammock whenever we get a chance.

We also work a lot. I worked 97 hours in the last two weeks . . . and payday is on my birthday. We love it here.

Handsome Rob

Today Rob is going to start shaving away his beard. Having never grown it out before, he didn't realize that his curly whiskers would continually poke and itch him, so the beard must go.

He's chopping it in stages, so this afternoon he'll have a goatee instead of a beard. I think he's handsome with facial hair, so I'm hoping the goatee is more comfortable for him. :)

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Look what I saw today!

The black bear was about twenty feet away! I saw him yesterday as well, and on the second time this morning I finally got a picture!

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