My third June party was one my friend Danielle and I threw for my dear friend Carrie.

Carrie and her husband, Seth, have been traveling the country since the beginning of the year. They are home for a short visit before they go out again. We are sure happy to have them home for as long as we can. They’ve been chronicling their journeys on their blog, Short and Hat.

We decided to keep it really simple for the party, just burgers, hot dogs and lots of fun sides. Our friend (and my trainer), Janae, made the most amazing cupcakes.

There were 10 little kiddos there so having the party at the park was perfect. We also supplied the kids with water guns, so there was a pretty fun water fight that went throughout the night. Honor ended up (deservingly) soaked.

Happy Birthday Carrie, we love you!

Today Jim and I had an early morning appointment at the courthouse and filed our paperwork for divorce. I had actually hoped to have the papers filed much sooner, my goal was to have the divorce final before my birthday in September, but we didn’t get it together and are going to be about two weeks shy of that goal.

I’ve decided that all that paperwork is part of the state’s way of discouraging divorce. It was NOT fun to get all that information together. And I am SO glad to have it over with.

As we were walking in this morning, I was overcome with a deep sense of gratitude. Everything I have been through lately has brought divorce horror stories out of the woodwork. It’s so sad what a broken marriage can turn into. I am very thankful that Jim and I are still on really good terms, friends even, and that we can work together for the best interest of our children. I’m also so thankful that Jim has worked hard to make sure the kids and I are still taken care of. I realize how rare and special this is.

90 days from now I will be single and a new chapter of my life will begin. This nearly 3 year journey has taught me SO much and changed me in so many ways that I don’t recognize that person I used to be. Today, I’m doing really well emotionally. So much of my grieving has already happened and I’ve just come to so much acceptance. I’m just ready for the new and wonderful things that are in store for me.

(I’m in Wyoming for my cousins wedding at her family’s ranch.)
Yesterday my uncle took me and my cousins for a ride in the dune buggy. We went flying around the ranch, it was kind of like  a rollercoaster ride in amazing scenery. It was one of those moments where I found myself stamping every detail into my memory.  I soaked up every second and will treasure that little dune buggy ride always. 

My uncle’s  grandfather made this dune buggy from a 1970ish vw bug. He had to chop the body down to make it smaller and had the custom fiberglass made. 

When I was little and visiting the ranch, I rode in the dune buggy and it is one of the things I remember the most from that visit 21 years ago. 

25 years ago my aunt and uncle got married near the ranch and my uncles dad forgot to pick him up for the wedding. So he tossed his suit in a garbage bag and rode to the wedding 10 miles away in the dune buggy. Today my cousin will ride down to the wedding site in the dune buggy with her dad driving. 

This time at the ranch preparing for the wedding has been so nostalgic, reminders of the wedding 25 years ago. The flowers were prepared by the same florist, the bride will ride in the same vehicle and ceremony is in roughly the same place. I’ve been giving my cousin a hard time for having two weddings (the second will be back home next week) but now that I’m here, feeling all the history, I see how being here is so important and so worth it. 

(more to come) 

The second party this month was a baby shower for my friend Rickelle. This was a fun one because four of us friends threw it for her which made it much easier and it was a Tangle. We’ve been toying with the idea of renting Tangle for private parties… I’m not quite sure how it will work out, but in the meantime, it’s fun to thrown my own parties there.

Here’s the first round of photos, just of the food. I haven’t transferred the photos from my camera yet.

I think fruit was my favorite part, although I loved it all. We had cranberry scones, a really delicious, fluffy cookie, chocolate covered pretzels, chicken salad on mini rolls, spinach dip, lemonade and iced tea.

I ordered the straws from Shop Sweet Lulu. I thought they were really fun!

June is the craziest month for me – full of parties! The first was a shower I threw for my cousin Alyssa who is getting married next week. I just love throwing a party – planning out the menu, making the house perfect, and planning all the details.

I wanted to go for a little whimsical sophistication for the treats, so we had marshmallow pops dipped in dark chocolate with sprinkles, antipasto skewers, smoked salmon dip and a 4 layer red velvet, strawberry shortcake. To drink I made naughty limeades which is 7up, half a lime squeezed, maraschino cherries and vodka.

Everything was delicious, if I do say so myself.

(excuse the blurry phone photos)

I’ve recently started collecting old china to use for such occasions. I love the look of mismatched plates. This was the first time I got to use it which made me super excited.

So I’ve lived in GJ since 1989. I was in 2nd grade when we moved here. And I have never been to a JUCO game. JUCO is kind of a big deal around these parts. It’s the Junior College World Series and our little city has been it’s host for over 50 years.

I remember when I was in high school, the halls would be empty the last week of school because everyone was ditching for JUCO. I don’t know whether the school district got smart and arranged the school schedule around JUCO or if JUCO changed to accommodate the school district. All I know is that school is now out whenever JUCO is in.

I’ve never been to a game, until last week that is. I’ve wanted to go for the last couple of years, but not enough to make it happen. So this year, the kids and I had a plan and we were determined to go. Carrie happened to come home from her great US adventure a little early so she was able to come with us too. Our friend Troy is a JUCO diehard so we sat with him and Danielle and Becky in the very special O section.

The kids had a blast and I got such a kick out of watching them cheer at every home run. I have to admit that I actually really enjoyed the game too. I think out of all the sports I dislike, baseball would be the one I dislike the least. (ssshhh, don’t tell anyone.)

Next year we plan to buy a pass for every game so we can really live up the week of baseball.

We’ve had weeks of rain (which is so strange for us here in the desert) and my garden is finally going gangbusters! Even though I planted early, we had a late start – I think because we’ve had so many late freezes. Here are pictures of my peas going crazy. There’s lettuce too that’s finally starting to come on, three broccoli plants and some dill that’s coming up from last year. I also threw in a couple of tomato plants and will plant several more after the peas are harvested. I’m so excited to fill my freezer with peas! I planted peas in the pod and sugar snap peas.

(click to see notes)

My original plan had been to cover the garden with a tarp while my neighbor’s elm trees dropped their seeds, but because of the peas I was unable to, so I’ll be pulling elm sprouts for the rest of my life. Honor, thankfully, thinks this is a really fun job.

The yard has a long way to go this year, but I have a whole plan mapped out… it need only be funded and executed. In the meantime I’ll enjoy my pergola covered patio that I filled with pretty flower pots.

I’m also a member of the Main Street Community garden, so I plant to have copious amounts of organic veggies. I’ll try to take some pics (with my new, pretty, white iphone4) soon so we can watch that progress too.

Here’s the most recent round of publicity that Tangle has received:

kjct interview
(totally unexpected, of course on a day I was lazy about doing my hair.)

letter to the editor in the Daily Sentinel

Shifts in my heart have never been gradual… more like giant leaps and bounds that come on all of the sudden. Each phase that I have gone through has been brought about so quickly. Like one day I wake up different… one moment I find myself a different person that I was the moment before.

It think that is because I’ve always been pretty adaptable. I’ve always been able to accept change… especially if I saw it coming – then I could plan. Change is well upon me and I’m finding myself settling into it. Right now, change and I are friends. I’m feeling content with my life; I feel a peace and freedom that I’ve never felt. But I’m also starting to get glimpses of how different it could be. I have this feeling that I don’t even know what great things are in store for me… but I have my suspicions and they fill me with so much hope.

Today, right now – this very moment, is already so much better than I’d ever imagined it could be. I feel so, terribly thankful.

Tangle sponsored (and created) Knit on the Corner again this year during our city’s Art and Jazz festival. Art and Jazz has always been my favorite Main Street event and I love that Tangle gets to be such a public part of it now.

Here are some of the photos from the event: (click any to see more)

(This year’s knitting and crocheting was all made by me and Christina.)