Where does the time go?!?!

Yeah, so I haven't posted any thing since March. Wow. Writing is not a thing I have a lot of time for anymore, which is sad I think. They used to tell me I had something of a knack for it. Now if I write anything it's e-mails or perhaps a legal notice of some kind.

I realize it's very early in December and not really time for the "year in review" post yet, but some things were missed. So I'll sort of update the best I can here.

Late March: Family trip to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon/Zion National Park and a few points in between. Whirlwind week, lots of driving, and saw lots of cool stuff. Since my promised photoblog never actually happened, here's this:

At the Grand Canyon

 Monument Valley

 Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

April/May/Somewhere in there: The person above me on the ladder at work gave notice and left. Hiring was done, and I ended up moving up and taking on some more responsibilities. Technically I am now an "executive" at the company, which is not as cool as it sounds, trust me. :-)

August: We were visited by Train's Air Force buddy and his family. Bryan, Danielle, and Lilah magically chose the ONLY rainy weekend we'd had all summer for their visit. We tried to go to Mt. St. Helens, but it looked like this:

Seriously, there is a giant volcano right there. We were less than 6 miles from it. Sadly, the clouds were completely obscuring it that day. We never did see the stupid mountain (though I can see it most of the time from the freeway near my house, and I don't even live in the same state as the mountain). *sigh* We did also go to the beach with them while they were here, and that worked out better:

September: The Chamaco started EIGHTH GRADE. Like, where does the time go, seriously?? He's going to be in high school next year! Also I turned 33. I haven't had an age consisting of repeating digits since I was 22. Yikes. Those were dark days... Also we went on my annual birthday trip to Bend:

On Paulina peak

The view from Paulina Peak

Also in September I got to have my favorite nephew for an overnight visit for the first time. He was 1 and 1/2 at that point. Hopefully this video will work. I bought him a toy to have at my house that plays music, and he and the Chamaco were rocking out.

October was unseasonably warm, which gave Train and I the opportunity to visit the Oregon Garden, one of those places I've never been but always intended to go that is practically in my backyard:

 

 

The other notable thing that happened in October is I somehow stumbled into an interest in yoga. I started doing yoga consistently on I believe October 9th, and I have not missed a day since, though admittedly some days I only squeeze in 10 minutes. In late November, I finally cancelled my gym membership (which I hadn't really been using) and got a membership at a yoga studio instead. I then promptly got sick for a week, which brings us up to present day.

For anyone interested in more details, I have a fabulous yoga mat/towel combo thingie that has a tropical beach scene on it. I get compliments on my mat in class! I practiced at home for over a month before finally getting the courage to go to a class. The studio I go to does Baptiste method "power yoga" in a room heated to 95+ degrees. Classes run 75-90 minutes, and I am usually the good kind of dead afterward. There are still a lot of things I cannot do because of my size and because I'm just plain not strong enough yet (a simple thing like being in down dog then stepping my foot forward between my hands to come into a lunge is a nope, because stomach and boobs, for example), but I'm getting better slowly. Also, since I started practicing in October, I've lost 7.2 lbs and a cumulative total of 16.5 inches from the various locations on my body I am tracking. It's been slow but steady, and I think one reason the weight loss has been slow is because I'm having to gain muscle, which is heavy. **END YOGA TALK**

Embarrassing pic as proof that yoga actually happens.

Today we took my friend/co-worker Christi out for blacklight mini-golf and pizza for her birthday, which was today (Happy birthday Christi!!!), and tomorrow we're going to a family gathering for the multitude of December birthdays in the family... my cousin Marlaina (3rd), the Chamaco (9th), Marlaina's husband Garrett (10th), my dad (15th), and my cousin Jasmine's husband Thadd (23rd).

You'll note the Chamaco in that list... this week he will turn 14. I don't remember how old he was when I first started blogging about him, but he was small enough I could still carry him upstairs if I really had to. No way I could do that now! Also on the not-too-distant horizon, my baby sister will be turning 25, my baby brother will be turning 27, my nephew will turn 2, and all this will be shortly followed by our second wedding anniversary. We've been married nearly 2 years already! Where does it go?? No concrete plans yet, but we're tossing around the notion of taking an anniversary-ish trip down to visit Bryan and Danielle in Tucson, AZ. Much depends on what sort of job the husband is able to get after he graduates next week with his machining degree. He's been sending out resumes and filling out applications for a week or so now and has had one interview already, with another one scheduled for Monday. Send prayers/positive thoughts/sunshine and rainbows our way as we handle the first major transition we've had in nearly two years of blessed stability. Everything's been pretty calm since we moved into this house in January 2014. 2016 could very well see us moving again, and possibly even buying a house, but we're not sure where yet. Much of that will depend on what kind of work Train can find.

Thank you to anyone who is still reading for even pretending to care what we've been up to this year! Now that I've rediscovered my own blog, I'll try to update more often. Writing is a thing that needs to happen.

One Year Later...

So, for those of you that were paying attention, today is our one-year wedding anniversary. Is the honeymoon now officially over?

Never. :-)

It's still kinda like having a slumber party every night with my best friend, and there are still a lot of nights (probably too many) where we're up talking and giggling until long past our bedtime.

Have I discovered that my spouse has habits that annoy the crap out of me? Oh yes. I won't list the things here because many of our mutual friends are likely to read this, but rest assured there are times I want to (very lovingly) strangle him. I regard this as normal, however, and try to keep a broader perspective... those little tiny habits that annoy me are a small price to pay for all the benefits I get out of this arrangement, such as:

1. Built-in Partner in Crime - If I can concoct a scheme for a thing I wanna do, I've already got an accomplice! And I'm not talking about criminal activities here, I'm talking about anything I think I might want to do that's more fun with a friend. Netflix and popcorn? Yep. Bowling? Yep. Going for a walk in the neighborhood? Yep. Taking a nap in the middle of the day on Sunday? Yep.  Still can't convince him to go with me to get his nails done, though...

2. Master Planner - Those that know me know that planning is not my strong suit. I don't even know where I'm going with this blog post yet... I just sit down and start writing. However, we're going on a trip next week, and my husband has already booked flights and hotels and rental cars and created an itinerary for what we're going to do on what day. Pretty much all I have to do is show up and have fun. What's not to like? His planning skills are not limited to that, however. He's also the financial planner. And we did have to learn to communicate clearly at first. When he realized that vague instructions like, "You need to start saving money," didn't work with me, he changed it to a more concrete, "Put $300 out of every paycheck in savings." Bam. I can do that. That's a specific instruction that I can follow. As a result, between the two of us we have now built up an emergency fund that could sustain us for up to six months or so, depending on how frugally we were living. I also no longer live paycheck-to-paycheck. This is HUGE change for me, and also it's really weird. Still kind of not used to it.

3. Partner in Domestic Operations - I was a single mom for over a decade. I'm used to doing it ALL, in the sense of if I didn't do something, it wasn't going to get done. So imagine how cool it is that often when I get home from work, dinner is already cooking! And it's not in a crock-pot either! Our current situation is a bit non-traditional... I'm working full time and making the bulk of the money. He is in college full time and working part time. So a lot of the time he will start dinner because he gets home first, and because waiting for me to get home and do it would be stupid. On these days, I do dishes/clean-up after dinner. Some days it's the other way around... I cook, he cleans up. And on the days when we decide the house needs a full cleaning, between the two of us we can get it done in about an hour.

4. Understanding of the Little Things - I am not a romantic in the traditional sense. Thankfully, neither is my husband. He told me for our anniversary dinner he might cook a pot of ramens and put a sparkler in it. I think this is a cool idea, and he knows this. He also mentioned to me that he found a dead crow in the yard while he was mowing the lawn yesterday, and that he'd left it for me so I could look at it. Yes, I want to look at it. Our relationship is built on a solid foundation of back scratching, massages, and fart jokes, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I could go on for quite a while about the million and one little ways in which we were so obviously meant for each other that even my kid can see it, but you're bored and I have a gelatin mask in my hair that I will need to wash out very soon. So I will just finish by saying that it feels like our family is complete now, and we have a plan and goals for the future for the first time. And also the first year has been a Carnival of Awesome, pretty much. Can't wait to get started on the next year.

And also we're flying out to Las Vegas on Wednesday night and we'll be driving to the Grand Canyon and Sedona and Zion and Monument Valley and all kinds of cool stuff, so expect another trip blog with heavy photography coming up soon... :-)