A little something to finish up the year

If anyone knows what the hell happened to the last 4 months, please let me know because I lost them. This is going to be a rough one, buckle in.

After 2 months of nearly constant studying and testing, I successfully completed the last part of the Architectural Registration Examination on August 4th. The “paperwork” took another two months after that, but I finally got my license. It’s behind me now and I am so glad to be done.

Regarding puppy chow, she says, "That looks dirty."
"Do you want to try some?"
"Mmmm. That is bery delicious."
(She can't say very.)

The day after I passed my last test, I hoofed it out of town with a good friend of mine and we trekked all the way out to Laramie, Wyoming, where another friend was waiting for us. Meanwhile, Dan took the kids and his parents to family camp. Last time I “vacationed” to family camp I came back even more exhausted than when I left. I did not want to go again. This was the longest I have ever been away from my children, and while I missed them, I was fine with it. It’s nice to remember that you are an actual individual person, not only a servant/bodyguard. We had a great time in Wyoming (and on the road to and from) and took some particularly inspired pictures. My friend is a creative genious and we went to Carhenge TWO TIMES! Changed my life. When we were there I laughed harder than I had in years. It was absolutely amazing.

Be a bear!

Now pretend your arms are tusks!

Labor day weekend brought with it the usual craziness of the state fair and the renaissance festival but we also added in the Bison game at Target field, because how could we not? My little Bison were adorable, and I think Oskar now legitimately considers himself a fan of the team. Elena was exhausted and quit midways through the 4^th quarter, so we carried a very sleepy girl all the way home on the light rail.

We hit renn fest on the perfect day where weather was crappy in the morning and lots of people gave up trying to get in when they got stopped by a train so it was not at all busy and absolutely wonderful.

In an effort to try new things, we convinced Oskar to try out of the Christmas Carol at the high school. We talked about it on and off for a while to get him prepared and as I was about to turn off his light one night, he goes, “I think I’m going to be one of the skating penguins…” “Oskar, I told you that’s not the right Christmas Carol. ” “Or a rat.” At least we know that he is watching the right movies. I had fully intended on showing up and getting in and out of this tiny audition in 15 minutes, quite unaware that everyone and their brother would also be auditioning. All he had to do was sing The First Noel, which he absolutely nailed on the way over there. After waiting in line for an hour however, he lost his focus and didn’t sing nearly as well as he did in the car. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still proud of him for trying, but I would have appreciated if he hadn’t yelled out, “Finally we can get out of here!” as he left.

Pretend campfire.

I took Elena to Arby’s last night and on the way over she said, “I don’t want to bleed again.” About a month and a half ago we went to Arby’s and she fell into the window mullion, slicing open her gums above her front teeth. Holy moses did that thing bleed. It was gushing for probably 5 minutes. Thankfully there was no permanent physical damage, but apparently the trauma remains. She will not be sitting by the window in Arby's any time soon.

I didn’t get bronchitis or pneumonia this year!!! Even with passing the ARE, I consider this my biggest accomplishment of 2019. I’m so happy. In other news I’m trying to get back into my hobbies and projects. I’ve started writing again (obviously not talking about the blog, we know that’s not going well) and I have a couple t-shirt quilts started in the basement. Some of the t-shirts I’m using are shirts with quotes on them from high school. I cracked up reading them the other day. For the most part I can’t remember who said what, but as a group I must say we were kind of funny. Whoever said “Don’t steal Dorisa’s food or she’ll kill you”? Yea, that’s still true. Good work. After those quilts are done I’m going to get into my photo organization and get some family yearbook type things made. And no, none of these are resolutions, just me trying to take care of myself. Basic human maintenance things that have been haunting me and I'm sick of it.

Had this idea for a photo. Turned out okay, but not the best.
I might try an redo it, but as she gets taller it's loosing the effect I was going for.
 Standing there posing for this shot though? Yea, painful.
My body definitely isn't the same as it was when I was dancing and I'm sure the 20 year old shoes didn't help.