Halling Go To Alaska

I'm a big fan of Jade over at Tasting Grace .  Like a huge windmill-sized fan.  I'm not sure when I started reading her blog, but she's 1000 kinds of awesome.  Currently she and her husband are living in Thailand.  They moved from Southern California to Thailand.  Because they wanted to.  How awesome is that?   There is a lot more to the story.  Here's the background.   See? All kinds and shades of awesome. But not only is she a fantabulous writer, she's got heart and insightfulness and friendship.  I'm proud and lucky to call her a friend. Today she wrote about an experience she had about a month ago.  She and her husband were in an accident.  Everyone's fine, but you must go read it.  Because these last couple of sentences? These here? Holding on to fear and anger will only create more pain. Clinging will only bring anxiety and hurt. Rings so true and so clear to me.  Such a simple statement but so profound an...

Look!  A post that isn't about pictures!  Miracles do happen!  Well, this one is happening thanks to Tiffany at A Tall Drink of Life .  (So you might want to go say thanks. IJS.  She's a pretty awesome lady!)  But I sorta scoff at the "stylish" part of this award.  I've never considered myself stylish.  But maybe my pictures are stylish.  Or something.  But thank you, Tiffany.  You rawk my running socks and it's an honor to call you my friend. There are a few "rules" that go along with receiving this award. 1. Give thanks! and  2.  Share something about myself.  So the first part is done.  The second? Mmm. What would be interesting to know about  me that isn't already covered on my "100 things" page.   I'm super excited for Sweet Pea to start kindergarten next year.  I can see signs of her leaving that toddler -without-an-attention-span stage and it thrills me to no end.  So that fact along wi...

So Jade over at Tasting Grace  sent me this award yesterday.  I'm tickled that she chose me.  Especially since I don't feel like I've been doing much blogging lately other than pictures.  But thanks, Jade.  Really, an award from you is very humbling.   The "rules" are of course first and foremost to thank the one giving it to you.  (check).  Then write about 7 random facts about you.  (Damn, this is going to be hard. All my random facts are over on my '100 things' page.  I'm going to have to dig deep.) And the last thing is to pass the award on.  We'll see how inspired I am by the end.  So without further ado, random facts about Kirsten. I love running.  I know big shocker there.  But I've always loved running.  I ran my first race when I was 5 or 6 and it was 5 miles.  My dad "ran" it with me.  I'm sure how he managed to run at my pace for that many miles.  It has always been my go-to sport when I...

First I have to say that I can't believe it's already Thursday.  This week has been insane, and it's not getting any better, but I really wanted to participate in this week's Tell It To Me Tuesday . This week's theme was friendship. Friendship is such a tricky endeavor.  I'm not sure there has ever been a time in my life where I have taken friendships for granted.  Maybe that has to do with the fact that I moved every two years until I was 11.  I knew how important friendships were.  I cherished the ones I had that were true.  Moving to the town I now live in back in 1987 was rough. This was a small town, and in some ways it still is.  We had always moved to places that were fairly transient.  We lived in Guam for two years before moving to Northern Nevada.  Guam was a place where there was diversity and differences were lauded instead of looked down upon.  This town I live in was very small and very static.  There wasn't a lot of p...

This week Jade asks us the following questions. If you had a weekend all to yourself, with no one to see and nothing to do, what book or movie do you turn to time and again? What book or movie satisfies you no matter how many times you sit down with it? This is kind of hard for me.  I used to have movies I could sit down and watch and books I could re-read over and over again, but those books were read as a kid and the movies were watched endlessly in the dorms almost 15 years ago.  I haven't found a book that captivated me enough to want to read it again in a long time.  I loved  the Harry Potter books.  I devoured them each time Amazon dropped the latest release on my doorstep.  But I've had no desire to read back through them.   My favorite movies and books that are good repeats seem to be ones that made me cry.  "Bridge to Terabithia" was one I remember reading for the first time in 4th grade.  I cried at the end every time I read it. ...

I wish I could say.... how scared I feel at times.   how peaceful I feel inside at the same time. that I had all the answers.  Visit Jade to see what others have to tell.

Sometimes I.... Sometimes I look in the eyes of sweet girls and wonder how I got to be so lucky. Sometimes I wonder how I got to where I am in life relatively unscathed by life.  Sometimes I wonder if I have the strength to get through the day.  Sometimes I despise being an adult.   And sometimes I am just so thankful that those faces above are healthy. Head over to Jade' s and see how others completed that sentence.

Jade's question this week is if I could have a different life for just one day what would it be? I have often thought of this question, usually in the midst of whining children and housecleaning staring me in the face.  My answer is actually quite similar to Jade's.  Although I don't have a particular place in mind, I would like it to be somewhere warm, but not warm enough to make me sweat.  Somewhere quiet where I can hear myself think.  Somewhere filled with nature.  I think of mountains with a river.  Sort of like being at the top of the Continental Divide in Colorado.  I want beautiful sunrises and sunsets to watch and enjoy the changing colors.  I want time to read, time to write, time to just be.  But one thing that would be necessary even though I'm not surrounded by people and busy-ness?  I want good food prepared and to have it show up when it's time to eat. My day in another life would be to enjoy my senses to the fullest: sigh...

So I guess I'm feeling spunky this evening because that's not exactly what Jade had in mind, but I thought that would be a fun a title.  And when you find out what my "smell" is, the title will seem appropriate.  And I wasn't sure until I started pondering what smell really took me back in time. There are two different colognes that trigger certain memories from high school.  I hate that I love Preferred Stock cologne.  It is such a drug store cologne, but it reminds me of my first boyfriend, and it smelled so damn good on him.   Obession  reminds me of T in high school - before he thought I was cool enough to date.  (*wink wink*, T)  Yes, I will admit to owning my own bottle of both of these just so I could get a whiff when I was missing them (at different stages in my life, of course!) But the one smell that takes me back as far as toddlerhood is the smell of tobacco.  That may sound like a weird scent to have nostalgia about, but my dad ...

So, Jade asked a question over at her blog  about names.  Not any name.  Yours.  Mine.  Whatever.  She specifically asks: What’s in a name? What does your name mean to you and do you think it shapes who you are? I'm always game for a challenge.  But I never really thought about this question before.  I have thought endlessly about baby names.  We have three girls.  I didn't want too "girlie" of a name for them as I'm not a girlie person and I couldn't see me having to call one of my kids Olivia or Emily.  Not that those are really girlie names, but to me they exuded, unattached to a face, a girl in a ruffled dress not wanting to get dirty.  I grew up a sort of a tomboy.  I was always trying to keep up with my brother.  I didn't want to be girlie.  Boys names were harder.  It's good we didn't have one.  If he did have a boy I wanted a traditional name but not one that would be shortened with a 'Y' on the...