Re-awakening the blog... with a beautiful sunrise

Hello, everyone! I know it's been a long time since I've been blogging... life took over. Once Unity Stamps discontinued their Friends with Flair on Fridays, I didn't have that weekly motivation to keep up on my documentation of life. The girls both became more competitive with their respective sports teams, we got another dog, the house almost burned down (long story but it involves a faulty propane tank and a brave dog named Bo who saved us all with his barking), and everyone got older.

As luck would have it, my name was randomly chosen to be a Growing in Unity (GIU) Gal, beginning tomorrow. So here I am, exercising my fingers to see if I still remember how to blog. This is a beautiful sunrise that Marika took for me, from the back wall of our yard. Gorgeous, isn't it? It was almost worth the price of having to wake up at 5:30 AM to travel to Irvine for a soccer game.

My goodness, it's been four years! What do the girls look like now...? Here's Mika after her first high school game (2 weeks ago)… she's sixteen, has her driver's license, is captain of her HS softball team, and verbally committed to play collegiate softball at the University of San Diego.

 

Marika used to be tiny, but now (at age 14), she's actually the same height as me. She's still playing soccer, but she moved to a better team and now trains in Irvine, 3 days a week. I thought about going back to work this fall (since both girls are in high school), but I had to stay available for all the driving. Ugh. Well, only 3.5 more years of this and she goes off to college.


This is Blaze, our "new" puppy (he's now 3.5 years old - and yes, Bo is alive and well). One week after we brought him home (hubby's decision, surprise surprise), we had an unfortunate incident with the propane tank flaring up and burning most of our patio cover structure down. The fireman had to come, of course, and laughed when they heard Blaze's name. Hubby no longer barbecues with propane, but he has a cool smoker. Here's Blaze, helping my upcycle the leftover crusts from the uncrustables I make for my husband's lunches. The boys have their own Instagram account, jointly run by Marika and myself.

Time flies!! I hope to begin blogging regularly again, since hubby will hop on here every once in awhile and enjoy revisiting memories. I'm so lucky to have a guy like that, because he doesn't seem to mind if I disappear into my "Fun Room" to get crafty.