My Summer Bucket List

I have always tucked away goals in my mind,  things I would like to try, places I would like to go, things I should do in my life.   Now don't you worry, I am not going deep here, no grand life plan or sweeping declarations that will rock the foundation of my world,  but with summer coming quickly I thought I would make a bucket list of the top ten things I would like to do this summer to make it one to remember. 

1)  Run/ Walk in a 5k for charity
I am accomplishing this on Saturday by doing the Color Run in Kansas city to benefit the Ronald McDonald House!   I may not run the whole thing (I just started planning this in March and I am not the greatest athlete) but ya know what they say.... even if I am as slow as a turtle, I will still lap the people on the couch!

2) Take more photographs
As I have said before, photography is one of my favorite hobbies, it makes me happy to capture lifes special moments. This summer I want to capture more, create more beauty in the world and just enjoy being a shutterbug!

3) Read more
I have always been a book worm and this summer I would like to set aside time to enjoy cracking open a good book and seeing what adventures lay ahead! ( stay tuned.... I might just blog about my summer reading list)

4) Barbeque
The main goal is to find some great recipes and use the hand-me-down propane grill that my darling husband aquired last fall..... COOK OUT ANYONE?????

5)Take a small vacation
Last year we took a huge 2 week vacation to Hawaii to celebrate my brother in law's  retirement from the air force and although I think that is out of the question this summer (time and budget wise) I would love to take a little time to enjoy summer and get away from the stress of day to day life..... maybe a small road trip is in order? hmmm.... to be continued.......

6) Get outside more often
I want to enjoy the outdoors... take the pups for more walks and just soak in the sunshine on my time off

7) Make a plan
Now that my darling husband has graduated from college, I want to make a plan for what I want to do next.... do I want to actively start pursueing our dream to adopt a child?   Do I want to look into graduate school? (and if so, what program?)    Now is the time to decide what comes next in life.  What is my next chapter?

8) Get healthy tan skin
I am pale and sensitive skinned girl, with that said I would like to work on that this summer. First things first, I want to try a new BB cream to give me a glowing complexion and although tanning beds are out, I still would love to be a bronze goddess this summer so I am going to look into good quality sunless tanners and pray I don't look streaky and freaky

9) Grow herbs in my own little garden
I have already started this!  I have Basil, Cilantro, Rosemary, mint, and Oregano growing well on my poarch..... yum I can just taste the deliscousness!

10) Eat healthy
I want to take full advantage of the farmers market this summer and be a good girl and eat my veggies :)   Lets all just say no to fast food!

well there you have my not so lofty goals for the summer..... what are yours?

Long Time No Blog.....

It has been a LONG time since I updated my blog and I have missed you all!!!!!!

 I have tried to keep up but life just seem to get in the way.   Speaking of life.... mine is going at full steam. It has been full of work,  holidays, vacations, camping trips and birthdays and just day to day experiences that have made life grand :)   but rather than bore you with ALL of the nonsense, I will just let you know of the biggest highlight in our little piece of the world and that is the addition of another pup into our crazy life. 

Duncan seemed a little mopey, so upon the realization that Darling Husband and I were just not cool enough for the oh so awesome Duncan, we thought long and hard about getting him a friend to hang out with that spoke his language :) and I kept thinking back to my crazy childhood dream of having a Westie and a Great Dane just like the guy in our neighbor hood that would walk them everyday when I was a girl! 

 It seemed a little nuts but I researched the breed and realized how truly great they are!   Armed with the facts, I thought if not now, when?  why not?  So we brought home our new pup Penny a beautiful Great Dane puppy  around Christmas.

Duncan was not all that happy about this new addition at first.... 

She was sassy

 and stole his toys

Despite the rough start, she has grown both physically and emotionally in the last 4 months that we have had her. 

She and Duncan have reached an understanding... and now they are buddies who love car rides together

She begins her first obedience class tonight as a gregarious 6 month old dane........  wish us luck!

(we are gonna need it)!

Photos for a cause ..... 10-7-11

I did it again friends..... I volunteered taking photos at Joplin Humane society Adoption and Rescue Resource Center..... These are some of the cuties I got to spend time with yesterday.... If you live in the Joplin Mo Area you should come meet them :)   

Photos for a cause......

I am a photography hobbyist with a point and shoot camera..... but yesterday I got the chance to put my hobby to good use!  I donated a couple hours of my time to go around with a pro photographer and take pictures of animals in need of adoption at the Joplin Humane Society!  It was challenging, difficult, messy, wonderful, inspiring, add all the great adverbs you can to this list because I could go on forever! below are a few of the adoptable pets that melted my heart!   if you are around Joplin go see these fur faces..... they would love you forever!

Duncan loves R and D!

YUP my dog definitely has a love affair with my niece and nephew...... he follows them everywhere and keeps tabs on their every move when they are around!  I can't hardly stand the cuteness! :)

One last nod to summer

As you all may or may not know, Fall is my favorite season. The changing leaves and crisp air just inspire me!  But before I just jump head first into fall, I want to give one last nod to the beautiful summer that I had by showing you some of the summer flowers in my Dad's garden back home. (he has quite the green thumb, me .... not so much.

Pow Wow

I have a very mixed heritage. I have Scottish ancestry which is a very strong source of pride on my moms side, German ancestry from my moms side as well, and other European decent that I have no clue about because somehow it has gotten lost in translation through the years. However my Great Grandmother was full blooded Cherokee and my grandpa has always been proud of that fact. He did family history research and looked up old Indian records so that my cousins, sisters, and I could actually claim this Native American heritage. I have sat at my grandpas feet and listened to him talk about the past, and my great grandmother and have always always always been proud when I heard the stories.  With this being said, I have NEVER EVER been to a pow wow.  So this last weekend I remedied that fact and attended my very first one!

 I  enjoyed the fancy pants dresses worn by the indian princesses (yes they had pow wow princesses)

and the elaborate warrior dances!

sorry its blurry but they just danced so FAST :)

The women were the most lady-like example of beauty and strength I have ever seen, and the men were true manly warriors! I can tell that this is a group of  proud people and I was honored to be able to spend an evening with them! The amount of respect at these dances was the most amazing part of it all. They treasured family, tradition, and togetherness. The Drum beat and chants echoed  the emotion of each song with voices getting louder and softer with every beat!