Some Stuff On My Mind

I have been thinking about getting back into my blogging.  It's been ten years since I started and the blogging world I joined then is quite different now. So many of the wonderful bloggers I followed when I started this adventure are no longer gracing us with their wit and words.

My world has changed too.  When this started I was the mom of two young boys.  Now they are both in double digits and so much closer to independence.  Turbo is 16. He drives, has a girlfriend, and is going about this growing up thing pretty well. Bruiser is 11.  He's in fifth grade and doing quite well.  He is taking a martial arts class and really enjoying it.

Turbo

Bruiser

Two years ago we got word from our work that we had to move to keep our jobs. So we moved.  Away from friends and family.  Away from our comfort zone.  Just away.  Now we live in a new town with a new house and hopefully new friends.  I have trouble making friends.  I am an introvert and just have trouble putting myself out there to meet people. I'm trying but it's very slow going.

The last two years have been a roller coaster and not really in a good way.  Nick has had health issues.  An ankle surgery, oral surgery to remove an impacted wisdom tooth, a neuropathy in his hand, allergy issues, the list goes on. 

For myself, I'm still dealing with occasional kidney stones, stress related stomach issues and just recently, I had a colonoscopy.  I had it done because my mother died of colon cancer four years ago.  She had a brother who also died of colon cancer.  They offered me the genetic test, but I decided that I just wanted to go straight to the colonoscopy.  It a good thing I did, they found and removed a rather large polyp that did, after testing, show as precancerous.  I get to go back in for another colonoscopy in three months. Fun times.  Oh and I am also dealing with pre-menopause heading to menopause.  Getting older sucks.

So that is just a little of what has been going on here.  There is so much more.  I think writing out some of this will be good for me.  I certainly don't have friends who drag me out of the house where we live now.  I working on it, but it's not easy.

Hi to the Crickets

So yeah, I have not really fallen off the face of the earth, but the blogging bug has flown off to warmer climates and then didn't come back.  I think it might have returned just recently.  So here I am, again.  Posting to the crickets.
Let's keepo this one light, as life got kind of crazy and still is to some extent.  Here are 40 random things about me:
Doing this for a simple distraction as sometimes we need to do things that seem indulgent to ourselves.
1. Do you like bleu cheese? Yes, in dressing and on steak with mushrooms.
2. Coke or Pepsi? not really picky, pepsi is better palin, but I like coke to mix in drinks.
3. Do you own a gun? not me, but Nick has several and I do know how to use them.
4. Whiskey, Tequila, Vodka? Vodka, it mixes better and dosn't produce as nasty a hangover.
5. Hot dogs or Cheeseburgers? Cheeseburgers
6. Favorite Type Of Food? Mexican or Chinese
7. Do you believe in ghosts? Sort of...
8. What do you drink in the morning? Chai tea.
9. Can you do a 100 Pushups? Probably
10. Spring, Summer Winter or Fall? I actually like winter, snuggling up while it snows is wonderful.  Less so if you have to go out in it, but I still like snow.
11. Favorite Hobby? Reading
12. Tattoos? 1, representing my guys.
13. Do you wear glasses? I have contacts, but wear glasses when I'm not wearing the contacts.
14. Phobia? Spiders and insects, especially the buzzing, flying, stinging kind.
15. Nickname? Boo, from Nick, Mom from the kiddos.
16. Three drinks you drink? Tea, milk, soda
17. Biggest Downfall? I avoid conflict like the plague 
18. Rain or Snow? Snow
19. Piercings? My ears
20. Age? 46
21. Taken or Single? Married-so definitely taken
22. Bad Habits? Tying knots in my hair.
23. Kids? 2 boys.
24. Favorite color? Violet
25. Employed? Yes as a data manager and researcher in geology
26. Can you whistle? Yes
27. Where were you born? Florida
28. Brothers or Sisters? 1 Brother
29. Ever Been Arrested? NA
30. Surgeries? One
31. Religious? No. I have a herd time with organized Religion.
32. Shower or Bath? Bath, given the time.
33. Like To Gamble? Not really
34. Are You Loyal? Yes
35. Broken Bones? Only the occasional toe.
36. How many TV's in your house? Too many, probably.
37. Worst pain ever? Passing a large kidney stone.
38. Do you like to dance? Yes, but I don't do it often.
39. Are your parents still alive? No, sadly.
40. Do you like camping? Yes, we try to go at least once a year, more if we can swing it.

So feel free to swipe these if you want to. I have no claim to them.
Have a good day!

Intermittent

Yeah, so I am supremely inconsistent with this whole posting thing. But it has been just almost 9 years since I started this blogging thing. So much has changed since I dipped my toe into the blogging world in search of an outlet and a connection.

•  I had a 10 month old Bruiser, who is now 9.
• A 6 year old Turbo, who is now 15 and (OMG Driving!!!).  
• We have moved towns, but not states. 
• I have had one blog inspired meet up and hope to have a couple more.
• I went from a relatively isolated mom to a small, but solid network of friends (which I get the challenge of rebuilding in my new town).
• I got to share some epic road trips and vacations.
• I have knocked a few things off my bucket list.
• I have added a few things to the bucket list.
• I have made some annual promises and kept a majority of them.

I have come to realize I need to blog again for my sanity's sake. Blogging helps me not feel so isolated.  I'm hoping it will help until I can develop a network here.  Being an introvert sucks.  I totally need an extrovert to come drag me out of the house.

For me, cats count as friends too!

 So all in all things are going as well as can be expected in our new town. I will make friends, but it will be a process.

And how have things been in the blog world?

Back in the Groove

We are slowly getting settled into a routine here in our new town.  The summer was a nice time to transition, but with school starting we are getting back into the groove of routine and such.

Turbo is really liking his new school.  The high school here has a block system that is more like college in that you take a class for a semester and not for the entire year. Turbo has fit into this system quite well so far.  We are still addressing his attention issues, he likes to daydream and tends to have focus issues in class sometimes.  He is also learning to drive. he is making friends and finding where he fits in and that is nice.

Bruiser has found several boys in the neighborhood his age and has friends and such that he is enjoying spending time with.  He also likes school and is doing well. For my little introvert, he is quite social here. He does still need his down time for himself.  But it's nice that he has kids his age in our neighborhood.

Nick and I are doing pretty well.  Nick has friends he can go mountain bike riding with and have that all important social connection with.  I am muddling through.  Making friends is and has always been a slow process for me.  I'm working on it but I know it will be slow going.

Life still gets away form us on occasion, but we are getting a better handle on it every day.

On a lighter note, it snowed here today.  Typical Wyoming weather. Not a lot of snow but enough to stick on the ground.   We have off and on snow predicted all day today.  Fun times!

Now for MMMM:  THe theme is Finger snaps and Hand claps.  Let's see whats playing:

Queen and David Bowie with Under Pressure:

The Addams Family Theme song:

Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars with Uptown Funk:

Have a wonderful week!

Weekend Fun

Yeah, so I sort of fell off the map again. I will be telling more about the Disney trip but first some of what we have been doing lately.  This weekend we scouted a lake nearby for camping and kayaking suitability. Then we floated down the river here in town on Sunday.
Saturday was a scouting trip, like I said.  Pathfinder Reservoir is a body of water about an hour from our house.  Right now it is very low, as it is a reservoir water rights down stream cause it to be drained as the season advances.  This opens up lots of beach area, but reduces water surface for water activities.  There are some nice camp areas and next weekend we may go camping.
We will most likely have to tent it since the camper broke.  The bumper that helps support the back bed on our pop up camper broke.  The weld on one side failed as Nick and Turbo were hauling it up to Casper from Laramie. So it is off getting re-welded in place.
If we don't tent it we can still go spend the day with family who will be out there camping. Take the kayaks and go have a day on the lake.  Sounds like fun, no?!
Since the water was so low we took a trip to a local historic landmark.  Independence Rock was about 5 minutes from where we were. It is a landmark on the Oregon trail. We climbed to the top and saw a couple of carved names from the 1840s and 1850s. It was fun seeing history like that.

Sunday we floated about 4 miles of river through town.  It was windy, but we had a good time and got to hit the water park, ie. created rapids and water falls the city has put together.  Nick and I both dumped on the first rapid, but Turbo and Bruiser rode them out with no trouble.  Nick and Turbo went on down to the other three rapids/waterfalls but Bruiser and I called it quits after the first one.

Now for WWWW. This week's theme is Songs with drinks in the title.

Toby Keith with Beer for my Horses:

Alan Jackson with Jim and Jack and Hank:

Jimmy Buffet with Margaritaville:

Have a great week!

Disney World Vacation

So, we did Disney.  Took the boys down and drank the Disney Koo-laid. It was pretty good.  Now we don't need to do that again. The interesting thine is that we have been in Disney every 10 years since 1998.  Nick and I went to Disney on our honeymoon August 1998.  We took Turbo to Disney when he was 5 in 2008. (Side note: I came home and found out I was pregnant with Bruiser, we tease he was there then but couldn't see out.) And now we were back at Disney in 2018. I am hoping we don't do Disney in 2028 (I want a beach. With cabana boys and fruity drinks.)
Anyway, both boys had a fabulous time in the world of Disney.  We started our first day (after totally awful travel) at Epcot, per Bruiser's request.  We made rope drop, and were able to do Soarin' before we headed to our first Fast Pass at the Test Track.  A trip through Imagination with Figment preceded Spaceship earth and then we did Mission Space: Trip to Mars.  Which was awesome!

After this, we headed back to the resort for a late lunch and pool time.  We missed a rain storm, which cleared the park a bit and we wandered the countries loop of Epcot and had a nice walk while hitting the various areas of Epcot before the fireworks show.

All in all Friday was a busy day.  We all slept well Friday night. Saturday was Typhoon Lagoon then off to Animal Kingdom. Interesting side note, Animal Kingdom debuted 20 years ago, about 2 months before we got married and visited on our honeymoon. I was not aware of this fact when we visited while on our honeymoon, but it makes for a nice story now.

Anyway, we did Avatar Flights of Passage (which was a fantastic ride, overall one of the best rides we went on while at Disney) then it was off the Kali River Rapids.  Strangely, we had the Kali river raft all to ourselves.  Just the four of us.  It was weird, but fun anyway.  Our last ride at the Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest. The roller coaster ride was fun, more fun than Nick thought it would be anyway.
I'll share more Vacation fun tomorrow, I have three more park days to share!

Randoms

Random Tuesday time! Survived a Monday and now to knock out the rest of the week.  Let's spread around the random and see where it gets us:

• Coming back from our trip I managed to catch a cold.  Airplane travel is no fun and summer colds are even worse.

• The boys had a blast at the water parks at Disney World.  All three of them did the 120 foot plunge at Blizzard Beach.  I got pictures of Turbo taking the plunge.

That's Turbo way at the top as he started down.

Here he is just finishing his plunge.

• Killing time in airports is almost worse than killing time on airplanes. During our prolonged travel, the wifi in the airport in Denver was helpful, but we did get a few rounds of Mad Libs in with the boys.  It got laughs and passed some time. (A thought just crossed my mind--Mad Libs are the predecessor of Cards Against Humanity. They work about the same, just with a more prescribed outcome for Cards.)

• We were smart and planned out a few days to recover from the trip when we got back.  Laundry, groceries and just plain recovery from the trip in general. You know you have vacationed when you need a vacation from your vacation.
• Next time we do a big vacation I demand that a beach and ocean be involved. I want to sit on a beach and also be able to snorkle and collect shells. A cabana boy bringing me drinks would be a bonus.

And with that, I hope everyone has a wonderful week.  Tomorrow there will be more vacation fun shared!

Vacation!

So, we had a vacation.  Seven days in Orlando, five of which we spent enjoying Disney World.  Two days were mostly travel days.
Travel to Orlando was a seven hour delayed adventure.  Our flight was first delayed due to storms in Orlando, then when they finally got clearance to fly, the plane was broken.  So, new plane then we needed a new crew.  Then new catering, cause we can't have food that was sitting four hours waiting for us to have clear weather. So yeah, we landed in Orlando at 1:00am. We were supposed to arrive there at 6:30. We hit our room at the resort at 2:30am.
We were up and going the next morning and at Epcot by 8:45am. We hit it hard and really didn't stop until we got home.  We did Epcot, Typhoon Lagoon, The Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios, and The Magic Kingdom.  We enjoyed fast passes and didn't wait in a line for longer than 45 minutes our entire trip. I think we did just about everything the boys would have wanted to and we had fairly decent weather for the week we were there. Oh, it rained, but never for long while we were out in it. The boys got pool time and ride time and we all came back feeling very vacationed.

We have tons of other pictures of our adventures and so much more to share from our trip.  I think I'll spread it ou over the next few days so I don't over whelm anyone.

Hodgepodge Wednesday Family Time

 

1. I feel most energized when I _______________________.
Get some alone time and can read and listen to music.  I am an introvert and really recharge by being alone and quiet.  Reading is a refuge and outlet both.

2. Where were you ten years ago? 
Ten years ago we were fresh back from a trip to Florida: Clearwater Beach and Disney World.  Just after we got back I discovered that I was pregnant with Bruiser. Turbo was five and would be headed to Kindergarten and I was working from home as a geologist for a Uranium exploration company.

Turbo on the beach at Sand Key, Florida

3. July 17th is World Emoji Day. Do you use emojis? Which one's your favorite? Your most used?
I use emojis when I text Nick and Turbo.  I will use the occasional smiley face with other texts but I am not really a big time user. I don't even have a favorite.

4. What song would you put on a wedding DO NOT PLAY list? 
Alanis Morrisette's You Oughta Know:

A song about a nasty breakup, most definitely not wedding ready.

5. What deserves less of your attention? More of your attention? 
I should probably spend less time reading.  I love to read, but should not try to spend all my free time reading.
My family deserves more of my attention.  With the move and us all being together all the time now we are spending more time as a family doing things together other than just sitting at home. This is a good thing.

6.  Insert your own random thought here.
The guys raced in the Fat Fish Racing Muddy Mountain Mayhem race on Monday.

Turbo at the start of the race

The weather was wildly variable from fog to sun and back to fog.

Bruiser and Nick finish the race

All my racing guys

Turbo took first in men's recreational division.

They had a good time and I was there as the cheering section.  It was a nice family outing and we all look forward to the next race.

Pre Vacation Random

Time for Tuesday random and this one is pre vacation. Pre Disney vacation.  Yep, we are going to go introduce the boys to the Disney Koolaid.

Now on to the random:

• Last week at work we had some visitors to our garden level offices:

 

• Three white tail deer came to visit and snack on the bushes.
• This is a creative solution:

• I often complain about not being able to remember things, I blame mom brain.  It is most definitely not because I'm getting older.

• A drinking game might make the work easier, or make for a bigger mess, not sure which.

• Yeah, I'd completely freak and wreck the car most likely.  Full body shiver, yuck!

• We had another flood in the basement.  Poor Bruiser's room got inundated. We have figured out the former owners didn't even seal the windows into the holes and they used crap windows to boot. So new project that will get down before snow flies.  Sigh, my bathtub keeps getting put off farther and farther.

Well that covers our random. What random do you have?