WHO AM I?

I belong to blogging/photography groups on Facebook. Cricket Walker is the leader of these groups. An assignment she gave us some time ago was to write about the following: “WHO AM I?” I have given this a lot of thought since receiving the assignment. Cricket likes to give blogging assignments that are not easy, and make you think beyond the surface and trite.

I am a Mormon,(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) for each individual their religion has a different place in their life. For me, my religion defines who I am.

I am a daughter. Not only of my mother and father, but also of my Heavenly Father. He loves me and I love Him. I love my Father in Heaven and have complete faith in Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

I am a very, very blessed woman!! I waited until the ripe old age of 29 to marry for the first time; but when I did marry I hit the jackpot!! My husband is an incredible man who is so understanding of me, my family and all the attending idiosyncrasies. (No small task!)

I am a woman with an incredible daughter. I wish I had been half the woman she is when I was her age! I love her dearly! ♥

I am an emotional wimp!! Many people think that I am pretty tough and resilient. Nothing could be further from the truth. I just wear a great mask.

I am actually very sensitive. I get anxiety attacks easily. I want to cry frequently. I work hard at all that I do and take it very personally when I feel attacked or unappreciated.

I am a fighter for the underdog. You will always find me standing with the individual under attack (if the attack is unjustified). I really hate when people are given special privileges just because of who their friends/family are. Even as an adult, I seldom am close friends with the “popular” group, and I abhor cliques.  

I value integrity. Tell me anything you want, but DO NOT LIE to me!! I may hold that against you forever.

I am a lover of all things artistic, whether it be arts and crafts, photography, dancing, music etc. I try my hand at many of them, but certainly know my limitations.

I am a teacher. I love teaching, especially high school age kids. I have taught church classes, stained glass classes, classes on food storage and preparation.

I am a woman who would like to have the opportunity to enjoy the “finer things of life”.

I am a prideful woman. I take great pride in my yard. It is very depressing to me when the yard is not beautiful.

I am a woman who likes to travel, see the world and eat seafood while doing it.

I LOVE all things Irish. The people, the country, the smells everything!! I lived in Ireland for 18 months while serving a mission for my church. There is no better way to learn to love people than to serve them.

I am a woman dependant on drugs….. yes, until I met my anti-depressants my life was much different. My husband makes sure I never run out.

WHO AM I?  It probably depends on who you talk to....but this is how I see me.

10 THINGS I HAVE NEVER DONE!

I belong to a group online that challenges you to increase your abilities with blogging and photography (and who knows what else will be next)! I really enjoy the group. The challenge this time is to make a list of 10 things you've never done and blog about it.  

1.       Gone to Tahiti…

·     Before I had heard of bucket lists this was on my list. My whole life I have talked about going to Tahiti. So much so that when my daughter was little she thought it didn’t exist; sort of like never-never land.

2.       Gotten drunk….

·    This has never been on my bucket list. I’ve made it this many years without any alcohol in my system and I don’t have any desire to change it now. It’s actually one I’m proud of.

3.       Driven a farm tractor…

·     Yes, I grew up on a farm in Wyoming, but I have never driven a tractor. How did that happen? I have NO IDEA!

4.       Spent an entire day on a beach…

·     This has been on my bucket list for years it's something I truly long to do …. someday…

5.       Gone hunting for wild game with a rifle…

·     I love hunting wild game with a camera… in this part of the country where at this time of year everyone has a rifle in their pickup so they can go hunting after work we are sort of an anomaly.

6.       Been in a protest march…

·     Yes, it’s true. However, lately I sometimes  wonder if I might do it.

7.       Missed voting in a General Election since I reached voting age

·     Even while I was in Ireland I had my mom send me an absentee ballot.

8.       Been to the rose gardens in Vancouver, BC.

·    I’ve wanted to do this for many, many years.  Perhaps when we go to Alaska to see my sweetie’s family, or maybe next time we go to Washington to visit my family.

9.       Learned to be organized and tidy

·    This one actually bothers me a lot. I wish I had the money to have someone come in and organize me then come back weekly to make sure it stays that way.

10.   Spent a day at a spa

·     I think this would be so fun and relaxing, especially done with a good friend.



Fun at Walden Pond!!

Thad and Kim live just a few minutes from Thoreau's Walden Pond.

Now this may be a pond in Massachusetts but in my area of the world it would be considered a lake.

A beautiful one at that!!

It is 102 feet deep at its deepest point and is 1.7 miles around it.
It is such a gorgeous pond!

Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge it.

It is so beautiful!!

Thad and Kim have the cutest kids!!
They are just adorable. Here is Talmage, Conlan and Madison playing on the beach.

Talmage surveying his kingdom.....

Conlan, Madison and Talmage posing for grandma.
I admit, I stole this from Viv. :) Thanks Viv!!

Laurence and Dave~~ Doing what they like best ~~ READING!! 
No wonder they get along so well!!
Viv showing mom pictures that Aisling posted on facebook from Germany.

I love that they can both be so happy with their electronic toys.
Next on Laurence's list will probably be an iPad.

Kim with Grayson..... you can't see much of him, but he was sure happy!!

Talmage is such a fun little boy!!
(I took this for Aisling, she has a crush on him... LOL)

Me and Laurence

Thus ends our day at Walden Pond!
Thanks so much Kim and Thad for such a wonderful day.

Headed Out from Baltimore....

Prior to the show Viv decided she was going to send care packages to her soldiers; Erick, Tera's husband and Zachary, Sage's husband. We all had fun trying to get all we could for their care packages. Aisling was the very best at that!!

Viv and Aisling emptying out our "STASH" on the bed.
Can you believe everything we got.
Not everything would fit in the boxes.

The "stash" is sorted and ready to go into the individual boxes for our soldiers,
Erick and Zachary.

Our last dinner with Aisling, she wouldn't let me take her pic so I took pictures of Laurence, Viv & Dave.
We went to a really cool little restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland down on the pier.

Aisling headed to security at the BWI airport....
Off she headed for her German adventure...

 The following day after we mailed the packages we headed out to Thad & Kim's. They live on the Air Force Base near Boston.  It was a beautiful drive.

But here is what we really went for......

GRANDMA hugs!!
Mom, Dave, Viv, baby Grayson, and Kim.

♫♪ Food, Glorious Food!! ♪♫

Every trip to the coast requires seafood!!

This was no exception.

Aisling found a restaurant she wanted to go to.

She called for reservations and we were delighted to find that because

they are located in Little Italy and there is no parking there

 they come to the Inner Harbor hotels and pick you up!!

Viv was thrilled to not have to drive down there.

This is what both Aisling and I ordered.
Yummy!!
The food was so yummy and there was so much of it!

Mom had pasta with mussels and other seafood.
She said it was really really good.

 AFTER THE PARTY'S OVER!!

Dinner was delicious, but it really needed a little bit of sweet to follow....
We wanted to be sure we didn't disturb any of the guests
as we tip-toed down stairs to the restaurant.

Oh Yes, we do know how to live!!!
Lemon Coconut Cake with ice cream!!
Aisling had Chocolate Volcano Cake with Ice Cream!!

 The View from the Hotel

Out our window you could see the convention center on the left,
the sports museum in the middle and
Camden Yards on the right.

 

We were sorry that the team was out of town all week.
Aisling would have loved to take in a game!!

COOL CAKE!!

Remember Duff Goldman from Charm City Cakes?
It's a food network show "Ace of Cakes" based in Baltimore.
He made this cool cake!!
I was in the elevator with it and didn't even realize it was a cake.
This booth was selling coconut oil and they had this cake made like their logo
then they served cake that he made with the coconut oil.
I had Carrot Cake and Aisling had Spice Cake.
They were divine!!

After a very long day setting up we headed over to the

Inner Harbor for dinner.

Laurence and I with the USS Constitution in the background.

Aisling and Grandma waiting on the bench.
Viv and Dave had gone to get the car so
we wouldn't have a long walk uphill to get to the hotel.
They are to good to us!! (And I LOVE it!!) 

BALTIMORE.....

We went to Baltimore for the Health Food show.... It began wonderfully.

No self-respecting trip to the east coast could possibly begin with anything but fish n chips.

These were WONDERFUL!!

I LOVE good fish & chips with malt vinegar.

One of my many loves I gained on my mission to Ireland.

 Day One~~ Set up Day

Mom in definately the Queen Bee
She keeps us all in line.

Dave was the man of the hour; anything you needed done he would do it.
We must have needed him to look handsome at this time. :)

Viv, the ever ready bunny go-getter.... does she EVER rest???
I love getting to do the shows with her and Dave.

This is what everything looks like when we start.
Aisles filled with freight boxes, and the only thing in our booth is a piece of carpet.
Usually set-up takes just a few hours, but we had several complications this year and it ended up taking us a long day.  

Then the magic happens~~~~

Shazam

By 10 a.m. the following day we're ready to sell....
Are you ready to buy???

Labor Day on the Big Horns!

Friday we went up on the Big Horns. We had a such a delightful time AND a delightful surprise.

We spent the night Friday then went to Billings Saturday morning where we got to spend the day in the temple.

Arriving back on the mountain Saturday evening we did little before heading to bed.

How delighted were we when we woke up the next morning to find my niece Betsy was camped across the road from us! We had seen their camper, but had no idea it was hers, she had never seen our camper either.



Sunset over the Big Horns



Betsy
We got to eat a couple of meals with Betsy and her family!

Betsy and Jack
Jack cut his finger.

Colton and his beagle
I think this is a perfect picture of the 21st century boy and his dog!!

Ty and Shelby
Getting everything ready to re-load the 4-wheelers

Shelby
These kids are pro's on their 4-wheelers!

Laurence
Keeping up the Pitt tradition.... the man does the cooking while camping!
We are coming to absolutely LOVE our volcano cooker.

Bacon
Cooked perfectly on the volcano cooker!

No camping trip is complete without a campfire!!

ROOTS
"Have you found your roots yet?"
"Where do your roots lead you?"

We ran onto this little guy in the forest. He just ran up the tree, sat there until I snapped a few pictures then away he went! Guess he has dreams of Hollywood!! There would be plenty of nuts there!!

Splash Dams

This is a splash dam.
It was built in about 1905.
The logs were rolled into the water above the dam then when the conditions were right the gate was opened and the logs were washed to small ponds near a flume entrance. From there they were washed down the flume to the mill near Dayton Wyoming.

Logs at the base of the Splash Dam

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of our other surprise. Kent, Jason, Ruth (Jason's friend), Gene and Ginny came to visit. I thought they were going to be staying longer than they did and they were gone before I thought to take out the camera.

The end of a wonderful summer!!