Absence makes the heart grow fonder...right?

I hope the title rings true as I have been "absent" from posting for close to two months.  In my defense, I had a great post all written up a few weeks back and lost the whole thing while uploading pictures...#$%&.  I was pretty ticked and decided not to start all over again. Lol.  

We have been pretty busy and at this point, I won't be able to remember every little thing we have done since my last post.  (Pictures will be RANDOM!)  There have been rodeos, Jackass Mail Runs, fairs, BBQ's with friends, Mother's Day, picnic fishing...etc etc.  

We continue to enjoy our surroundings, our friends....life is pretty swell. :-)  We've got a great little circle of friends which has helped ease my still lingering home-sickness.  

School is officially out for me!  It is completely surreal that I have finished my first school year here in California.  Plain craziness.  I have made some good friends and discovered a new love.  Working at a continuation school introduced me to a completely different population than I had ever been around or worked with.  It was a slow burn, but I ended up falling in love with that part of my job.  Seeing my Seniors graduate last week was so touching and I couldn't have been prouder of them!  My focus will turn to Addy's first go of swim lessons and planning her 3rd birthday party.  She starts the swim lessons Monday and will go for two weeks 30 minutes a day.  I'm thinking she will be a little fish before we know it!  And yes, I said 3rd birthday...I don't know how that happened.  Three?  Really?  

We are down to 19 day until TEXAS!  Addy and I will land on June 21 and be there for almost 5 weeks until July 25.  Dusty will join us for the week of the 4th.  Wish he could join us longer.  I am a little anxious at the thought of flying with Addy alone.  I trust she will be a good little girl and that you won't see us on the news getting kicked off of our flight over a temper tantrum.  Have I mentioned the child has an attitude for days?  Don't know where it comes from.  Lol.  Someone I recently met told me within 5 minutes of meeting Addy that she has a lot of "moxy"...I like that and I'll go with it.

Big news for the Felderhoff world...my brother and his beautiful family have moved back to TEXAS as of yesterday!!  Woohoo!!!! Go Ray!!! They have been in the Seattle area for close to 8 years (I think) and he has been looking for something in Texas for the past two years.  Well, he finally found the job and its in Waco...halfway between Austin, where his wife's family lives, and halfway between Dallas, where our family is.  Don't forget that he is an AGGIE...so Waco puts him within an hour and a half to his college roots.  :-)  Our family is overjoyed...my parents are thrilled.  It goes without saying that when Dusty and I made the decision to move to CA, I struggled with a lot of guilt.  Self inflicted, of course.  I felt like I was "abandoning" them seeing as Ray and his family were already so far away.  I have struggled and struggled with it, weighing heavy on my heart, and when I got the news that Ray was moving home, I felt this sudden weight lifted off of me.  I am beyond happy that one of us will be near our parents.  I thank the good Lord that they won't spend another holiday season without either of us.  Despite us both being gone this past year, they have been nothing but supportive and we couldn't ask for more in our mom and dad.  :-)

I am so looking forward to being home and seeing my family and my friends.  I can't wait to soak it all up.  :-)

Ready for summer 2012!!!!!!

Dominie Happenings...

Hello!  Its been a while since I last posted, we have been going, going, going like crazy.  And its been good!  Lots of BBQ's, a birthday, and Easter.  We are slowly starting to create a small circle of friends up here, well, to be honest, I am creating a circle of friends...Dusty has known them for years. Lol.  We have a few couples we hang out with who all have kids right around the same age as Addy, which makes it so nice.  She has her group of friends from school, but I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know she is making friends up here in Springville near our house.  In just a couple short years, she will start Kinder and I love knowing she will be there with a group of her "girls".  (If we are still up here!)

Some of her friends..

Its been so good for me too, this whole making friends thing.  Of course, I have people at work that I adore, but its so nice to have a group who have nothing to do with my day to day job.  I've been missing having other moms around me going through some of same things I go through.  Its such a nice release to be able to sit with them and gripe about the same things.  ;-) Lol.  Its all finally starting to feel like a version of "home"...even if it isn't Texas!  

Dusty and I being big kids ourselves...

Last week was Easter!  We started the day here at the house with Addy doing her own little egg hunt in our yard after finding a surprise from a certain bunny.  

She got to meet the Easter bunny at school!

We headed over to my sister in law's family get together which happened to be up here in Springville as well.  We BBQ-ed, let the kids do an egg hunt, and ended the day with some fishing.  

Last nite was another big one in our household...Addy slept in her "big girl bed" for the first time!  She chose her own bedding which was Disney fairies...she is in love with Tinkerbell these days.  She slept through the whole nite without a peep.  I cannot believe she is getting so big...its all happening too quick. I want it to slow down a little...let her be my baby just a little bit longer.  Ugh..makes my heart ache.  Love her so much.  She is our world!

 So that's what has been going on around here lately!  Our garden is sprouting by the way! Yay!!!

Green Thumb

I've been dying to find a little hobby that I can call my own for the longest time.  I just want something I can do that is fun, cheap, and "my thing".  Gardening had been nagging at me for awhile and so I decided that I would try my luck (or green thumb) at it while I was out for Spring Break.  Yesterday, we went to Lowe's and stocked up on some things for me to get planted this week; flowers, pots, seeds, potting soil, gloves etc.  Today I got started on all of the flowers and herbs--it was time for some color around our house!

I had so much fun with all of it.  I'm hoping to plant an actual garden before the week ends.  Going to try my luck with spinach, cabbage, squash, chili peppers, jalepenos, and cilantro.  Hopefully, I have as much fun with that as I did with this!

Off Roading!

Ok...I don't think I've ever had as much fun in a vehicle than I did last Saturday off roading with my family!  Who knew something like that could be so awesome?!  We took the top off the jeep, which we have named "Black Betty" or "Betty" for short. :)  We headed up in the hills to Blue Ridge and found a couple of small trails...even found some snow.  That was Addy's job--locate the snow!  Pretty sure she said, "Where's the snow?" about 894 times.  We then went back down the hill to find another gnarly trail, Jack Flat Trail.  I got to drive on this one and I LOVED it!  So much fun.  We definately found a new hobby and are looking forward to many more adventures!

Happenings

Well hello, blog world, its been while.  Since my last post, there have been a few "happenings" around these parts. 

First off, I'm proud say that we have a potty trained little girl living under our roof!! Yippeee!!  For the past three weeks, Miss Addy has been in "big girl panties".  I decided one Saturday morning a few weeks back that she was going to put some panties on and no diaper.  We were going to be home and it was a long weekend so I thought what better time to try?  She ate it up!  Granted, we had been working towards this moment for quite some time to little avail...to the point that I was thinking, "Is this ever going to happen?". Lol.  Our girl was not only ready, but so proud to be a "big girl"!  With the new panties (...and let me tell ya, there are a lot...Dora the Explorere, Minnie Mouse, Disney Princesses, Disney Fairies...laawwwdy...) came a newfound "Miss Independent" stubborn streak.  There have been a few more timeouts happening at school and home.  We are working through it though--doing our best to say consistent.  She is much more of a decisive person than I am--no doubt about it, she knows what she wants.  End of story. 

Next change is our new car...last weekend we turned in our Rav4 for a Jeep Rubicon 4 door 4x4.  Its pretty cool.  Dusty and I have actually been dreaming and talking about this car for a couple years now.  It feels like us.  It fits us.  Some of y'all may remember my FJ Cruiser years ago...when I had to give that up when mommyhood entered the picture, I was inconsolable.  Well this Jeep puts the smile right back on my face.  We are taking it out on some trails this weekend...hopefully they are open, been a lot of snow up in the hills lately. 

Finally, we bought our tickets to come home this summer!!!!!!!! Addy and I will be heading back to TEXAS on June 21st...Dusty will be heading out July 1st.  Addy and I get to stay much longer--until July 25th--but due to work, Dusty will only be there a week.  Little time is better than no time, right?! I cannot wait to kiss that Texas soil.  I cannot wait to hug my family.  I cannot wait to be with my HEROES family.  I cannot wait for some brisket and Shiner Bock beer.  I cannot wait to see those big Texas blue skies.  I cannot wait!! 103 days!

30.

"All the world is a birthday cake, so take a piece."-George Harrison

As most of you know, because I make sure everyone did know, I turned 30 a couple weeks back.  It is a bit surreal saying "I am 30."  I actually had to say that out loud recently--don't remember why--and I remember thinking, "WHAT did i just say?". Lol.  I'm actually quite OK with it, better than the alternative of not being here to celebrate another birthday.

Dusty went above and beyond to make sure I felt special and celebrated for not just one weekend, but two.  On my actual birthday, he organized a bit of a party where some of our family and friends came up to the house for beer and BBQ--two of my favorite things.  We had a great time hanging out with everyone and I was overwhelmed at how many showed up for little ol' me.  Dusty, Addy, and myself took the next day off and had some fun family time fishing at the pond near our house.

This past weekend, Dusty had more surprises in store for me.  We headed to the coast early Saturday morning, just the two of us!  I had been there once before on one of our visits, but didn't really spend much time.  I LOVED it!!  We went to Avila Beach, where we stayed, Pismo Beach, and San Luis Obispo.  Beautiful.  All of it.  We first went to Splash Cafe and had THE best clam chowder I have ever eaten.  Oh. my. word.  (Sorry, Pensacola, you got nothin' on this chowder!)  We did some walking around, some shopping, and some hanging out on the pier just staring at the Pacific.  We headed over to San Luis Obispo that evening where we saw Dusty's nephew, Casey, who is going to school out there.  SLO is AH-mazing.  How fast can we move there?! Lol.  It is such a cool town.  The whole vibe in this town is "chill".  Loved it.  We visited a few bars and ended the night with some amazing sushi.  To die for sushi.  :)  We absolutely enjoyed our little mini vacay--just the two of us.  We needed it.  I think every couple does every now and then.  More of our time was spent laughing and I can't even tell you what we were laughing about half the time! 

All in all, 30 was GREAT! The only thing that would have made it better would have been spending it with my Texas family.  My mom's birthday and my birthday are one day apart and growing up we always celebrated together with at least a dinner or something.  So that was a little hard.  I'm thinking that's why Dusty had so much planned for me--didn't want me to have time to be sad. Lol.

I am grateful to be 30.  Never thought Springville, CA would be where I would have celebrated it though.  It's funny how life works out...never know where it will take you!

"Life has more to do with what typed of experiences you've had, and what you've learned from them, and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated."-Unknown