Spring is Coming!

Wow, spring is really coming. We thought it would come faster, but it really has dragged in! Our yard had a mounting pile of snow about 7 feet tall at its tallest. Roofs were connected to the ground as it just kept coming down. But I can actually see a lot of grass around lately. It has even snowed this week a few times (yes, more than once!). I am looking forward to spring. Winter here was different for me as I've never seen this much snow, and I'm in a new place. It was exciting!! I wanted more and more! But after the first few warm sunny days I could really feel SPRING, and I had a hard time going back to the snowy, cloudy days that followed. Even the smell of spring was refreshing. Isn't it always?

I've started running again, casting all doubts aside. I long to actually run OUTSIDE, but until I find some other time to do it or Elise goes to school I have to run on my treadmill. I'm happiest to run when the sun shines through the windows. I have my own little room upstairs that I call my Reading, Writing, and Running room. I have a really nice desk, a table, a few chairs, a bookcase, boxes of books, and my trusty treadmill. It looks out on the park to the east of our home. In the spring and summer it is usually bustling with activities, especially on Saturdays. Soccer and football, baseball and horseback riding. There is a children's park with slides and swings too. Just last Monday, we couldn't see the grass, yet today as I look out, the grass has overpowered the snow FINALLY!

I love the sunshine. I don't know what I'd do without it. Actually, I do know what I'd do. I'd wither and die. Just like a plant. I NEED it. I think most people do.

Hopefully we as a family will be able to cash in on all the fun activities here this summer. Working the farmland, having a dog, soccer, softball, running, gardening. I'm looking forward to it all. It is my last summer at home with Elise before she is in school all day long. This comes to mind with joy and sorrow at the same time. I really love to be her mom, our mornings are usually casual and full of fun. But it will also be nice to get her out of the house at 8:30 and be able to relax a bit, or work more, or write more, or run more, or just sit around and be a vegetable!!

I'm not sure if anyone reads my blogspot. So if you do, email me and let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to continue blabbing on to myself!!

My ten year high school reunion is this summer. I found out and I'm not sure if I really want to go or not. It would be interesting to see where everyone has ended up, but there are still so many things about high school that I want to leave there. I'm not ashamed of anything in my life, but I also don't care to share it with some of them. I am afraid to feel hurt because I only have one child and otherwise am viewed as childless by heaven, which hurts me.

Well, my daughter needs me in her room. She has made something new. I imagine it is amazing!

We're Yerting!

Hey Friends and Family! We are up at the Yert that Mike has been working at the solar on. It is about 19 degrees out (at 5 pm). We had to snowmobile in. It was my first solo trip. I was on a powder machine, and I'm a trail rider, so that was new. There was mostly trails, but I went out in the snow a few times. Up a HUGE hill, and I wanted so badly to have not done that! But I got it turned around and went AROUND the mountain! We got here around 4 pm. Mike and his dad and brother went out for more rides while I stayed in tried to enjoy a book, but couldn't with such a pretty day calling to me and my snowshoes. So I left the yert for an adventure. It was fun.

You can visit the live webcam on the website http://www.destinationeden.com/scare-canyon-webcam.html Those footprints that you see, those are ours. We got some breathtaking sunset pictures and went snowshoeing as the sun went down. I don't think I've heard anything so quiet before. It was wonderful. Now, we just finished our chili dinner and are getting ready to watch a movie. This yert thing is really neat. We have almost everything. A bed, a toilet (doesn't flush, but it kind of does), internet access!!, lights, heat via a propane stove, a microwave... I think that is it. Run by generator, wind and solar power. We even have a leather couch. Too bad it isn't all ours. One day, we'll have one though. The floor is a rough wood. I just love it. Wish you all could have come, well, maybe not, cause it is small!! But I hope that you all could get here one day! Enjoy your weekend!! I sure am!! ~Vicki

Shifting Plans

Last night Mike and I had a little talk. I had had a talk with myself in the morning on my treadmill. We moved up to this beautiful valley to make our lives simpler. In sort of a forced simplistic kind of way. Mike was searching for a non-long-haul trucking job (found it thanks to a broken leg in Jackson on a family vacation) and I found my way to another great job that I enjoy and works well with my wanting to be a mother and be at home when my girl is at home. We've decided to move a few things to "hobby" status. Mike is going to work harder at selling his bike and a few of his woodworking tools and I'm putting my Herbalife shopping cart on the back burner. I'll still help people that want helped, I just will be not advertising. I love the products, but I want to write!! I desperately want to achieve a life-long goal of being published! First goal is to be published by 30. I've got 2 years to go. I had no idea that it would go by so quickly, so time is of the essence my friends. I'll be writing a few hours each day give or take a 6 year old's interruptions like not getting ready for the day quickly enough, such as today. That makes me crazy. She'll cry and bawl about having to put on her clothes. What IS the deal??

I'm going to be joining a writing club up here in Eden. And be running around in those circles. I'm glad that I went to the Eden Writer's Conference in the fall. It really set me up.

And I love my new socks!! Just love em.

SHADOW: June 1990- December 1, 2007

SHADOW: June 1990- December 1, 2007

Tonight, when I got home from work, my husband took me in his arms and very carefully told me some pretty sad news. He said, "Vicki, I have a problem and a question. Which do you want first?" I, not understanding what he had in mind, told him to just get it out. He asked me if I needed him to beat around the bush at all, and I told him, "No, what is it?" He shared with me that on the first snowfall of the season, my beautiful white kitten was killed by a passing car. He cleaned her up and buried her by the pine trees at the side of our road by our home. A fairly good place for her little body to rest, though I would have preferred to lay her in a bed of white daisies, but it is winter! I had told him several times, and many of our family that are up here, that if this were to happen that this is exactly what they should do, and tell me later. I just couldn't bury my cat. She was my sisters, but she owned my father and I got the luxury of caring for her the last 7 years. She's been with us for all of our moves and through all of our joy and pain. Dad loved her and I know she is better. I won't have to worry about her being warm enough at night, or have enough to eat, or being safe to cross our busy street to drink from the stream. I keep water out for her, but you know cats, they prefer running water, even toilet water! We haven't told Elise yet. I plan on telling her tomorrow after church when we can visit where Mike buried the Jade Princess.

She will be greatly missed, at least by me and Elise. A big piece of home just left me, my father's cat. I guess that now, I truly have to "grow up".

I'll miss you!!!!!