Visitor!

You better be practicing your salute, Nebraska.

The General is coming.

That's right. The General is going to be dropping off another horse for me to ride (in fact, she's bringing the horse that is in this picture), so she'll be visiting our digs next week. Which means, I should start cleaning.

Like, right now.

Easter Update

Well, we made it home from Des Moines in one piece - mostly. Aside from a split lip, which is now a pretty shade of blue (but, hey, I always looked good in blue), we had a pretty successful Easter.

And, we got to see a couple of pretty cute little bunny rabbits.

Our Easter weekend included some non-traditional Easter events, including a trip to the hotel pool;

a Chuck E. Cheese-like place;

and, an early birthday party.

And, of course, we had to do a little bit of egg hunting.



All in all, it was a pretty packed weekend. But, it was good to see everyone and spend some time with our niece and nephew.

Live - from Des Moines!

David and I lead an incredibly exciting life.

So exciting, in fact, we consider Des Moines a thrilling expedition.

Anyway, for Easter this year, David and I headed to Des Moines to spend the holiday with his sister, Tracie, and her husband, David's other sister, Jamie, and her family, and David's parents. Of course, with a new baby and a little nephew we haven't seen in a while, there are bound to be pictures. Stay tuned.

Eight Long Years

You know what? This week marked eight years.

Eight years of missing the sight of that 1960 red El Camino come tearing up the drive in the summer. Eight years of going outside at home and not hearing the radio on in the shop. Eight years without hearing his familiar phrase, "Park it. It's time for dinner." Eight years without his corny jokes. Eight years without trail rides and camping. Eight years of thinking, "Oh man, he would have loved this. I wish he could have been here." Eight years of seeing one empty chair at holiday gatherings, graduations and weddings. Eight years of avoiding that turn off just before I get to my house back home because it's the turn off for the cemetery.

But, you know what's worse? This year, I didn't realize it had been eight years until two days after the anniversary had passed. That makes me feel sad. And, incredibly guilty.

How did I miss it? How did I become so wrapped up in work, hobbies and, well, life in general, that I couldn't even remember the date? And, more than that, is the fact that I forgot a good or bad thing? Or is it just one of those things that is?

In the end, I guess the fact that I missed a date on the calendar isn't the part that bothers me. Instead, I feel like I forgot about him, and that's what makes me feel guilty. Each year, it seems like memories slip from my mind. And, I'm sure that's not true, but it still feels that way sometimes. 

When it comes down to it, I suppose there aren't any good answers for these questions - or even the guilty feeling. 

And, that's okay.

And...We're Back!

I'm not sure why, but my cute little blog here was experiencing a few technical difficulties for a while. Come to think of it, I was experience a few technical difficulties, too.

First, my blog mysteriously disappeared. I got all kinds of messages (okay, just three) from friends saying that they received an error message when trying to get here (it wouldn't have really mattered if they could get here because I hadn't updated it in a while anyway. Go figure.). When I tried to get this thing up and running again, every solution I found on message boards wouldn't work.

Then, the mother of all crappy electronic things happened: Someone hacked my email account. So I threw the whole blog out the window and decided to start over. I'm not sure I'm happy just yet with the layout and background of this new set up, but we'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.

Oh, and I already have tomorrow's post whipped up and ready to go. How's that for being on top of this thing?