Does Anyone Even Read/Write Blogs Anymore?

 I feel like an ancient dinosaur reviving this blog again. I'm not even sure what possessed me to come back to it after all these years, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with my new obsession with the Pioneer Woman, who is a chef on a ranch in Oklahoma. She has an awesome blog of cooking, her farm, family, photography, restoring old buildings etc, and I just love her. She writes about everything I love. And then I remembered, I once wrote a blog. So, I logged on to this old thing and I sat here and ignored my school work as I laughed hysterically at my previous stuff. I encourage you to go back a few stories and read at least one from our (Kelly and I) camping trip. I'll be funny. Man, I do miss those days of craziness with Kelly aka- My Kokie Lee. There really is no such thing as a replacement for your best girlfriend. But lives do move on and change is always happening in every ones lives. Thankfully, she has no choice but to keep loving me because we are totally each others person, so I am more than sure that we will have more ridiculous times to share on this post. Sorry man, you just aren't getting rid of me that easily.
Also, on a previous blog, this was the guy I was thinking she should totally hook up with a few years back.

Turns out, he ended up being my husband to be instead. At that point, the three of us would have never believed that, but it is definitely true. We were all oblivious to what the future had in store. Thank every star out there that they never hooked-up. Can you say - Awkward!!!!
Fast-forward: It's no surprise to anyone now, that I had met my future husband and moved to Wyoming to fulfill both our dreams. Yes, I quit my job that I was terrified to leave (I still hate that place to this day) and started going to school full time!
                                 Biggest. Dream. Ever.
On top of that, Johnny got to start working on his dream and go to school full-time as well! Winning! But seriously, I never imagined getting married. It was always a nice idea in theory, but I did not believe that I would ever find someone that could just run wild with me. Someone that would still love me after I was totally cranky, sleep-deprived, "get me my coffee and no one gets hurt", crazy self. And someone that could slow down when I wanted to stop running wild, and then speed back up again with me when I needed wind in my hair. He totally does that. Amongst all the other wonderful things that he does, and is. He didn't even run when he met my crazy family. Score! But since I'm about to barf from all the mushy romantic stuff, I'll move on.
We moved to Wyoming, and back to the country life that I love so much. Santa Ynez had totally ruined me, and I could never get the country living out of my blood after that.
So here we are. Poor, filling our brains with more info than we could ever retain, and trying to make a go of our lives. At least we're happy though. It totally sucks being away from our families, but I took the advise that my mom gave me (that woman really is smart! Of course I would have not agreed when I was 13), and set out to the unknown.
"There are planes, trains, and automobiles. If we miss you that much, it's easy to visit. You go out, get away, and do what you've wanted to do."
She once lived in Montana, and I can still see the gleam in her eyes when she talks of it. And since I've had dreams of living in different states, (Montana being #1) that's exactly what we are doing!
I'm not sure where I'm going with this blog. Last time it was an attempt to try new things to get my life going again. And while that was fun, I was the WORST at keeping up with it. So, for now we'll keep it as a way to keep my family and friends up to date without boring everyone else on Facebook. Sometimes I want to post things that I don't feel all of FB should know, so I'll keep it here. I'm sure I'll have cooking stuff on here, garden stuff, school stuff and such since that's basically my life, but I'll try to remember to post my most funny stories too. Here's one that still makes me laugh:

My first garden. I have about a 5x3 foot garden bed that I tried to plant vegetables in, by seed, organically, non-gmo seeds, for my first time. I put in a lot of hours revamping this area since no one ever took care of it.

 

All was going well, I even named them my "babies" and cared for them more than three times a day. I raised the seeds in boxes and planters until they were ready to be planted. They were so happy!

 

 

Helpful advise from my neighbors was that we had a SHORT growing season and you had to be quick! So July 1st, they were ready (2 months into my 4 month growing season I learned about too late) to be planted and it hailed. HARD! So hard, it killed half my plants. Leaves were broken, the manure was pocked with holes, and my babies were holding on for dear life! We were out there tarping plants and getting nailed with relentless hail. I had two tomato plants, 3 zucchini, two lettuce, and about 6 spaghetti squash plants left (yes, I planted them wayyy too close together). Then a shit head rabbit came in, got past the barrier Johnny had built, and ate my last two lettuce plants. Two weeks later, it hailed again!! I lost 1 zucchini and 2 squash plants. August came, and so did the squash bugs.
                                 WTF are squash bugs??

4 spaghetti squash plants left. Thankfully, those still flourished and did beautifully!

 

 



Before you know it, it was September 1st. And the frost came. Then it snowed 2 minutes afterwards. Everything died. EVERYTHING. My squash was now the consistency of baby food. However, I managed to salvage about 4 individual squash and hid them in my garage. 3 turned to mush anyway, and one was left. I brought it inside and hid it until we were ready to eat it. My one sacred squash I had worked months for. We planned to make "spaghetti" and meat sauce so I threw it into the oven. Sweet victory, we could eat the fruits of our labor! Celebration time!

 

Well, staying in my usual character of delirium and excitement, I got distracted and forgot about the squash in the oven. My ONE squash! In.The.Oven! Needless to say, I burned the fuck out of it. It tasted burned and was not good. Completely over steamed and overcooked. So there I was. Almost in tears because I was down to the last of my garden and I totally blew it. I blew it! All those plants gone. All those months of watering and loving my babies. I still laugh at myself because of the luck of it all.

What are the freaking odds???

So, here's the last picture. My burned and discarded squash on the left, and the beautiful Mac-N-cheese with broccoli dinner Johnny made so that we could eat and so I wouldn't cry about having to make two dinners that night. What an experience for my first year of gardening.