Fiddlin' February - 2018

Tell it Color, Day 10 -- Earth

A couple of years ago we took a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon.  Talk about Earth's majesty.  My pictures don't do it justice but it was very impressive. 

In the midst of the dirt and rocks a cactus grows.

We are at a picnic lunch in the Grand Canyon.  He is my rock.   Almost looks like we are sitting in front of a painting huh? 

These are the hills in Nevada on the way home from Reno.  I love the different colors.  

My quiet little bit of peace on earth. 

From our rental at Boulder Creek last year.  Such a nice place to sit and be one with nature.  

My journal entry for today:

What speaks of the earth to you?  Ever been to the Grand Canyon?  Got a favorite spot to read and commune with nature?  Share!

December Reflections - 2016

Day 6 - In the air


In May my husband and I went on a mini-vacation to Las Vegas and one of the things we did while we were there was take a helicopter ride from Vegas to the Grand Canyon.  It was really cool.  Here is our pilot:

We were sitting in the back seat.  There were two other couples with us.  We stopped in the Grand Canyon and had a champagne picnic lunch and then flew back again.  I am so glad we did it.  We were definitely "in the air!"

We took a little video:

If you get a chance, I definitely recommend it.  

Jubilant June

June 29 - Half a year gone already.  Seems like just yesterday it was January and I was making my vision boards for the year.  Now we are almost at the end of June and I am reflecting on what I/we've accomplished so far this year and what needs work on for the next six months.  Using my vision boards I can see that there actually has been quite a bit of progress!





Starting with the "Home" card, I think this is where we have made the most changes.  We got a new mattress, and purged some things from the closets, but most of all, gave the outside a much needed facelift!

Isn't she pretty?  Next comes yard work, but we need to build up our financial reserve a bit first.  For now it will be just making some dump runs and using the weed whacker to clean it up. 

The other card that has gotten a lot of attention is Travel.  

I really wanted to get away, just my husband and I, for a few days to relax.  I guess we could have picked a calmer place than Las Vegas, maybe somewhere in the mountains?  But, I knew that he's been wanting to go to Vegas for a while now so that's where we went.  We did get to see the Grand Canyon, and we did spend time with each other, without the distractions of our usual surroundings.  Maybe later in the year we'll go to Carmel...

The next card is about finances.  

You might think that we are deeper in debt now because of the home improvements, but with a bit of creative money juggling, we actually are not that far in the hole.  We were able to shave $4000 off our "pre-remodel" debt and now that hubby's Social Security Disability has been accepted, we will have a better income than we have had for the past year. 

Business is another card.  

This is one of the areas that I think I need to focus on over the next six months.  I have two things going on, the transcription business that is my real job and the crafting business that I want to be my real job.    

I have read the book by Marc and Angel Chernoff about being happy and successful and found that a lot of their ideas I was practicing already, so I know I'm on the right track.  Here again, organization and planning will help, so I have made an inventory notebook of a lot of my crafting tools (stamps, punches, templates, etc) so that will help when I am looking for something particular and so that I don't buy duplicates.  I also participated in one vendor fair and have an application ready for another.  They won't buy what they can't see, right?  

I am hoping at some point to be able to transcribe less and craft more, but I still have some learning to do about different techniques and how to incorporate blogging and a website into my creative endeavors.  I'm thinking about adding videos and showing how I make some of my projects. My main goal is to be able to continue to work for myself from home and not have to go back out into that jungle.  

And last but not least, is the Healthy Me card.  It seems that I just get started on a healthy program for myself and something happens to derail me (or I should admit, I allow myself to be derailed).  I need to realize that I am worth taking the time and effort to be the best person that I can be and also to know that I am pretty darn good right now as well.   

I am taking steps to get more activity into my life, as I feel my joints starting to stiffen up from sitting so much and I already have bad knees and diabetes.  I know I am capable of following a healthy eating plan because I have done it and had some success.  

But it is important to have mind and spirit health as well as physical health and to that end I am going on an "Inner Excavation" with Liz Lamoreux.  It is a six week exploration of self-care and the inner me.  I started it last year but didn't finish.  I'm hoping to get farther along this time.  You can read all about it here.  Feel free to join in!  

And that is how we end the first half of 2016.  I am sure there are many more adventures awaiting us for the next 6 months, after all, we still have 8 concerts to go to, include ADELE, that I just was able to score tickets to.  You will remember what a hard time I had trying to get them when they were first on sale.

How about you?  Did you have goals set for this year?  Are you meeting them?  Love to hear about your experiences!  Leave me a comment :)

 

In the Marry Month of May

May 31 - What a helicopter ride of a month this has been!  I had all kinds of blog posts planned because we had so many things going on and here it is the end of May and I've only written about our house!

The whole premise for the MARRY in the title of these posts was because it was our 32nd wedding anniversary on the 20th and I didn't even write about that, so here goes:

For our anniversary, I booked us a trip to Las Vegas because we had not been there in 30 years.  Not sure why I had to make the flight so early (6 AM)!  

But the Bloody Mary's helped wake us up (bonus, they were free because the stewardess forgot to come by to collect!)

Because I consider my hubby my "knight in shining armor,"

I thought it only fitting we should stay in a castle:

One of the things that my husband wanted to do while we were in Las Vegas was to go by the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop because he watches that program on TV and is interested in the different things that get sold there:

He did recognize some things from the show and it was very interesting, but I somehow expected it to be more "Hollywood" than it was.  I mean, it is literally just a little hole-in-the-wall pawn shop.  Cory, the son, was in the store at the time but he was behind a desk and there was a big sign saying "no pictures in this direction" so we had to settle for the cardboard cut-out of Rick. 

The other exciting adventure that we had while we were there was to take a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon and have a champagne picnic on the west rim of the Canyon.  It's a good thing I didn't read about the crash this company had a few years ago before we went!  I actually felt very safe.  We had a terrific pilot.  

We only saw a portion of the canyon but the whole excursion was about 4 hours.  We saw some beautiful scenery and got to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in addition to the Grand Canyon and then flew by the Las Vegas strip on the way home.  The pilot made sure to pass by our hotel so we could see what it looked like from the air.  It was pretty cool.  

Our trip was slightly hampered by the fact that hubby was having a problem with pain in his leg and was unable to walk for long distances, even with a cane.  That kind of forced us to stay close to the hotel and the gambling in Vegas is not as fun as it is in Reno, at least in our opinion.  I don't think we'll go back to Vegas any time soon, but we did manage to make some pretty great memories on this mini-stay.  

We even got to see Elvis in his pink cadillac as we drove the strip:

   

All in all I'd say it wasn't a bad way to celebrate 32 years!  

May 20, 1984

May 24, 2016

We  haven't changed much, right?  Tomorrow is June 1 and it is looking like another topsy turvy month.  I'll try to keep you all better informed :)

One last thing, in our trip to the Pawn Shop I saw this brochure:

and it reminded me of the post I did last month in the A to Z challenge about In A Gadda Da Vida.  Sometimes the weirdest things catch my eye!

Hope you had a great Marry May.  Bring on June!