Warning: this is a very (very) long post

I'm going to resist the urge to start out with what is probably the #1 thing said on a blog.  (Or anyways, any blog I've ever done, ha!)  "Sorry I haven't posted in forever...life has been really busy!"  Blogging simply isn't at the top of my list of priorities, so if you are one of the faithful few who follows this blog, I'm sure you'll get used to my sporadic posting, so I won't apologize.  :)  There is so much life to live and I would rather spend the majority of my time living it than writing about it. Anywho.

Life has been bursting full and good.  Here's what I've been up to:


--- Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving was awesome.  It was so great to have my big brother Brandon home for Thanksgiving, and have my grandparents here.

So much to be thankful for this year, as always. A few things I'm thankful for...

~Having Bran home for Thanksgiving
~Everything God's done in my life this year.  It's been the hardest, but best, year of my life.  A whole lot of tears, and lots of laughs.  Looking back I can see God's goodness all over everything.  He's. So. Good.
~My amazing family.  I love them all so much.  So much!  In fact, the other day when they were late to come home  (we're talking an hour and a half late)  and not answering my many phone calls, I got myself worried enough that I decided to go looking for them.  In the ranger, because I couldn't find the car keys.  I know, so smart!  Our road is pretty icy and I've done some slipping and sliding on it, so I was imaging them all unconscious in the ditch.  I was telling myself everything was fine and I was just being overly-dramatic (I do do that sometimes, believe it or not) but I had to at least drive down our road and check.  They pulled in as I was just starting down the driveway.  I felt really retarded, and then I burst into tears and was like "I was worried you went in the ditch and I was coming to search for you...in the Ranger....and I'm so glad you're alive and I'm not an orphan."  Thankfully my family is used to me and they were sweet and let me cry on them, and then explained that they stopped to do some shopping, and the phone was on vibrate.  It was really all so ridiculous, and I knew it was, but when they pulled up the driveway I was reminded how much they all mean to me.  Forget everything, the relationships are what matters, right!?  Anyways, where was I???
 ~Coffee.  It is my BFF.
~The Bible.
~My puppy Sasha who brings much joy and slobber to me :P
~All my amazing friends...
~My dear friend who just got engaged to an awesome guy...so happy for them!  She sent me a picture of her ring and I was laughing and crying and screaming all at once.  She asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and I'm so honored and blessed!  Looking forward to her wedding this winter!
~Another awesome friend who has been my life saver this year.  The kind of friend that I can text a complete I'm-freaking-out-HELP text to and she texts me back, "Take a deep breath.  Now let it out real slowly.  Everything is going to be OK" and then goes on to encourage me that everything really is going to be OK.  Love you, Ena. :)
So many more but I've probably said enough.  :)


---Vacation!  We went on vacation to Breezy Point the weekend after Thanksgiving and it was awesome!  So blessed to have friends who will take care of the many critters while we're gone, it's no small task!  It was also fantastic to have my Grama along.  We have too much fun with her!  We laugh until we cry, and dance down the sidewalks because we don't know anyone around there anyways!  Here's a few (ha) pictures.

Carmel Latte.  'Nuff said.  

These two beauties are my mom and Grama.  <3

This is Mom's favorite store in the history of ever.  Sometimes we are there for a long time.

That's my "I'm-so-tired-but-now-I-have-coffee-so-I-think-I'm-going-to-survive-face-selfie.  :P

We went to the game room where I used every quarter I could dig out of my purse, and I may or may not have turned a few dollars into quarters too.... we played air hockey until I was literally dripping in sweat.  That stuff is intense!  :}

Another Breezy Point tradition, one night we all go out to eat at a fancy restaurant.  I love it. We get all dressed up (I wore my one and only dress, ok?!) and it's probably the one time every year when I wear lipstick.  Because I hate lipstick.  That is, I hate the feeling of it because I feel like I'm eating lipstick.  But this is the night I eat lipstick, just because.  And above was my dinner.  It was chicken something or other...tortellini?  That might have been it.  It was delish, but there was no way I could finish it - it was a huge serving!  

My adorable parents.

Grama, Jonny, me, and Ben.

Black Friday shopping!  

I saw Grama kissing Santa Claus! =0  =)

We went on a sleigh ride in a wagon.  It was super fun, even though it was freezing!

Ben and Jonny got to sit up front with the driver.

Getting pizza for dinner.

Please don't ask me why we were eating ice cream when it was freezing, literally freezing, outside.

And we wrapped up Black Friday with watching fireworks.

Went swimming every morning.  A blast!  

The boys and Dad.

I know what you are thinking.  "Why is she plugging her nose?!"   Because my nose doesn't keep out water, that's why.  Trust me, I have tried to learn to swim underwater without plugging my nose and all I do is drowned my brain.  And I forgot my nose plug.  Yes, I have a nose plug.  I bought it, so apparently there are other special people out there who have holes in their noses too.  That nose plug is the best. thing. ever.  And I forgot it.  So, I'm plugging my nose.  Everyone got it?  :D

At the coffee shop.  

Sitting around drinking coffee.  <3  It was an awesome vacation! 

 ---PUPPIES!  So. many. puppies!  We have a litter of eleven pups right now that are around five weeks old and so adorable it hurts.  We gave them all baths the other day and I took pictures of each one.  Puppy photo shoots are a blast, but by the time we got to number eleven, I was ready to call it a day.  Every once in a while I'd get a really photogenic pup, but most of the time it was sifting through fifty photos to find five that aren't blurry.  =}  Here are a few of the good ones...

"LOOK AT THE CAMERA AND SMILE."  ;-)

~Christmas!  It's the most wonderful time of the year, folks!  I love this season!  We've been decorating for Christmas and last week we rocked around the Christmas tree, which means we decorated it, while drinking eggnog and listening to good music.

The boys and I have little Christmas trees in our rooms, and I've been wanting to get a new one the last few years because mine just wasn't big enough for my growing stash of ornaments.  This year I majorly splurged and finally bought a bigger one.  And once I got it home and out of the box I realized it was a lot bigger than I thought...but it's perfect!  Love it. :D 

This is an ornament a little guy I babysit made for me. PRECIOUS!  :)

I'm going to stop while I'm ahead, because I'm probably not anymore, and there's simply too much to catch up on for one post.

If you made it to the end without a) falling asleep, b) giving up, c) un-following, or d) all of the above, congratulations.  You are amazing.

More coming soon, or not.  Thanks for reading!  :)

Of Hunting and Being Hunted

No deer yet for any of us!  But, we're making good memories, which is the most important thing anyways!

The fam heading out.

I also made a scary memory.  I don't exactly enjoy being out in the dark, but during deer season I suck it up and do it anyways.  So, Saturday night I got off stand after season closed and started the pretty long trek back to base.  I kept my gun loaded though {I unloaded it while I climbed out of stand, I promise!} just in case I needed to use it on anything...makes me feel a little safer.  :P  The trail back is just a narrow trail through very tall cattails that are way over my head, so it feels a bit like a tunnel only there's sky overhead.  So, it's really dark out and I'm on alert watching out for boogie men or whatever, when all of a sudden I could see something huge and black coming straight for me down the trail.  It was ginormous, and coming really, really fast.  I freaked.  Didn't it see me!?!  All could think was that it was the Hound of the Baskervilles.  Moor, slough, same difference.  I had to do something before I got eaten alive.  In my panic, I ejected the shell that was in my gun onto the ground and pumped a new one in the chamber.  (Fresh bullets always work better.)  I yelled at it.  "HEY!"  It stopped and just stared at me but it didn't go away!  I mustered up my remaining bit of courage and hollered "GET OUT OF HERE!!!"  Then it turned and ran back up the trail....bringing it's white tail behind it.  A deer.  :P  I was feeling a little shaky and called my dad to see if he was coming back from stand any time soon and could pick me up so I didn't have to walk the rest of the way back.  But I ended up making it back before they got there anyways.  I think I can be a little bit like Anne of Green Gables in the haunted forest...you know, deer look like hounds and the swishing sound of something following me?  Oh, it's my snow pants!  Snow pants are so noisy.  So, that's my story of the deer hunting me.  I really think it was trying to kill me.

Anyways, I've been seeing lots of deer.  Last night I literally had does surrounding me.  On every side!  Since I can't shoot them, I took pictures of them.  I know you guys are dying to see some dark, blurry pictures of deer so here you go.

There was a nice big doe and her two babies that stuck around for a while, and a couple others that meandered by as well.  I didn't realize they were still around when I climbed down after dark and I don't know who got more freaked out, them or me.  :P

This morning, we woke up to this:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

It seems most people aren't happy about winter coming early, but not me!  It means hockey.  :D  But, it also meant sitting on stand in blowing snow this morning.  Mom was smart enough to not go out {in fact, I have a sneaking suspicion the boys and I were the only hunters in MN dumb enough to go out} and so Jonny and I were on stand together.  Ben was down the ridge from us in another stand and texted me that a big doe was headed our way.  Jonny had the view of where she was supposed to be coming from, so I told him to watch for her.  But Jonny sat there burrowed in his coat and I could hardly see his eyes!  I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't open them a little and watch for the deer!  What was his problem? Was he falling asleep?  I told him we should switch places.  We swapped and ohmygoodness.  My perspective changed immediately.  I was now sitting with the wind blowing in my face, bringing all those nice little soft snowflakes with it.  Only they weren't soft. It felt like ice shards being driven into my eyes...and I could barely keep them open. ={  Poor Jonny!  I had leftover makeup on from church yesterday and Jonny soon informed me that my eyes were swollen and had makeup all over them.  I told him it was my raccoon disguise.  The deer will look up at the stand and just see a raccoon sitting up there.  No big deal!

So, after torturing ourselves for a (LONG) while longer, we came up to the house. Which took a while, considering that we had to dig the trapdoor out because of all the snow that had accumulated in the stand the last two hours.  We looked at each other and were like "WE'RE SNOWED IN!"  But we made it up eventually, thawed out, and I had the perfect, hot breakfast - a big cup o' coffee. :D

Such good memories. :D

My pal and I.

Going back out to stand soon, so wish me luck.  :D

Ramblings

Busy week!  It was a good and productive week, I just got done things I wasn't planning on doing, and didn't get the things done I was planning on doing.  (Did I write that right?)  Monday and Tuesday were just boring days of getting things checked off lists and things like that.  On Wednesday morning we played hockey at an indoor rink for two hours.  And I'm still alive to regret it.  We do this EVERY YEAR.  Our first hockey game of the season, we just jump into it and play for a long time, and then the next day we are dying...literally....almost.  So yes, we played two hours of intense hockey, and I'm serious, I could barely walk the next day.  I hobbled and groaned and used the handles on the car to get in and out.  I seriously couldn't put my own socks on, and my un-sympathetic family wouldn't do it for me.  (I figured it out eventually, and complained a lot.)  It's possible I'm being a little dramatic, but really, sore is an understatement.  Anyways.

Thursday night was the annual Blaze Orange Festival in a little ol' country church near us.  The Jorgenson family was playing and then we visited with friends afterwards.  Fun stuff!

Jonny and I, on our way to the Blaze Orange Festival.  

Then Friday.  Oh, Friday!  Mom and I had a girl's day.  All. Day.  It was a blaaaaaaast!  I am not really the girly-girl type.  As an only girl, I've always done things with the boys.  And I love it!  More than once, I've (accidentally) referred to my brothers and I as "us boys".   I would MUCH rather be hunting, razzing on 4-wheelers, or playing hockey then drinking tea.  However, every once and a while I love a good girl-fix.  Especially with my mom!  Our girl's day out was actually my (June) birthday gift, we just hadn't got to it until now.  We were out of here at 6:30am, ready to shop til we dropped.  And we did!  We went to a ton of adorable antique/boutique shops, a couple thrift stores, the coffee shop a couple times, and Target.  And speaking of thrift stores and Target, those would be my two favorite places to shop EVER.  It was bliss. :D  And it was one of those days were everything is the right price and you find all sorts of amazing deals.  Add that to being with your two BFF's (Mom and coffee) and it's going to be about the best day ever.  We had so much fun and laughed ourselves silly a lot of the time.  And panicked when the keys got locked in the car.  Thankfully, the very back just happened to NOT lock, so I climbed in the back (and over all the seats, while moaning because I'm still so sore and it just. shouldn't. be. that. hard) and unlocked it.  And then when we had shopped to our heart's content (12 hours later), we came home, sacked out, and watched "Mom's Night Out".  Oh my gosh... it was hilarious!  We loved it.  :D  So it was a good day!  Best birthday ever. :D

Mom & I having breakfast!

I love this :D

Mom sporting an adorable hat....see, it matches her coat!  A sign that she should get it.  I sent this picture to Dad and he said "I'll buy her".  ;-D

Lunch at Cherry Berry

Having dinner and all of a sudden mom starts singing along with this 80's song on the radio.  I almost died. :D

My crazy, wonderful mother.  Isn't she adorable?!

This is about the awesome-est sign I've ever seen.  :D

And then today!  It's the most wonderful time of the year....deer season!  We got up at 5am and the family had breakfast.  I wasn't hungry and felt more like sleeping than eating, so I had a cat nap on the couch while they had breakfast, and then we all scrambled to get out on stand before 6:35am. We got permission to hunt on a neighbor's land, so Dad and the boys went over there and Mom and I were in a couple different stands on our property.  I think I only fell asleep with my eyes open three times.  And I did see a deer - just got a glimpse of a big (BUCK!?!?!?) through the thicket and then he was gone.  But I sat there and chattered and knee-knocked for 15 minutes anyways.  I was hoping he'd come around again but alas, no sign of him.  By 8:30am I was frozen, almost literally.  So I decided to call it a morning early and made the long walk up.  I took a hot shower to thaw out and then painted my nails with some sparkly nail polish I picked up yesterday.  :D  The stuff smells so strong though, I just hope it doesn't scare away the deer.  :P  Will be going back out on stand this afternoon and hopefully we'll have some luck!  Dad, Mom, and I are all bucks-only, which I'm secretely happy about....I just hope a buck shows up.  =}

Sunrise from the deer stand this morning.

Life Lately//11-3-14

I'm hoping to get on a more regular posting schedule, it just hasn't happened yet.  For now, I'm going to steal a great post idea I've seen on other blogs.  :-)

Seeing... a pretty empty coffee shop.  I had piano lessons this morning, ran some errands, and now I'm catching up on email, doing some website work, writing a blog post, and working on my latest, not-sure-if-it'll-be-greatest business plan.  :)

Hearing... it's pretty quiet in here (ahhh!)

Smelling... COFFEEEEEEE!

Tasting...  I deprived myself, was a good girl, and didn't get a zillion-calorie coffee drink.  Instead, I'm choking down sipping a cup of hot water.  Oh, with a tea bag in it.

Thinking... about my new business idea.  About how complicated it is to start your own business.  About everything I need to do this week.  About HOW GOOD GOD is!!!  I'm so grateful for His goodness to me!

Buying... some chocolate to send to my bestie friend.  She's off in college and it's stressful, so chocolate always helps.  :)

Going... to the bank after I'm done here.  Then I'm going home to get stuff done.

Remembering... to turn the lights off on my vehicle.  :P  I didn't remember last time.... and little brother is there to remind me.  =P

Trying... to get this new business off the ground!  It's a process, and I'm not really known for being patient, so I'm trying to keep plugging away, do it well, and not rush it.

Believing... that God will work all things together for good, in His timing.

Learning.... to wait on Him.  I've been going back to this verse all the time lately: "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

Feeling... full of energy and motivated to get lots done this week!

Wearing... my new favorite thrift store find - knee length denim skirt, boots, and a plaid button-up.  I usually hate wearing button-ups, but this one is working today.  :D  

Practicing... my Christmas recital song "Carol of the Bells" on piano, and "Come Thou Fount" on guitar.  Also, trying to practice holding my tongue and not being critical...not sure how I'm doing. :-/

Emailing... back a new "friend" I've made through selling kittens.  Let's just say, they aren't too happy about me selling kittens...and I'm getting to practice being nice to nasty people. =}  Also, puppy customers!  We've been getting lots of emails from people who are interested in getting a puppy from our new litter which is awesome!

Googling... MN business laws... ICK!

Dreaming... about my new business, about the future (and if it goes anything like how my life likes to go, it won't be anything like I think :P), and about DEER SEASON THIS SATURDAY!!!!  Speaking of that...

Looking... FORWARD TO DEER SEASON THIS SATURDAY!!!!  I. can't. wait.  !!!!  I think I'm starting to catch buck fever as my dreams the last few nights have been full of big deer with big racks.  :D

Loving... my mom.  Don't know what I'd do without her.  She knows when to, umm, give me a kick in the rear and preach it to me prophet-style, when to give me a hug and let me cry, or, more recently, give me 1,000 business ideas when I'm lacking motivation and unsure of what to do.  She's da best, folks. :D

Working... on my new business plan (sorry if this is getting old) and trying to get more organized.

Reading... my Bible and business laws.  That's about it right now.

Deciding... I better hit publish and get on with my day!

Hoping... ya'll have a great week!

Oh...and here's a few random pictures.  Sorry for all the sunset/sunrise pictures.  There have been SO many INCREDIBLE sunsets/sunrises lately and I, of course, have to get pictures of them all!

The story behind this picture - I took this out of the deer stand while we were having some nice family time, chillin' out in the stand hunting coyotes.  (And no, we didn't get any coyotes...we called for them ("here, coyoteeeee!" ok, actually it was a dying rabbit call...) and saw some in a distance but I really think they were just sitting out of range laughing at us.  It was fun anyhow!

A pumpkin spice late my mom made...it was DELISH.  

One of my kittens....going home this week!

PUPPIES!