Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Seek the road that makes Death a fullfillment

I was driving across my home state tonight and enjoying beautiful scenery and some of the most amazing sunsets (In Wyoming you get multiple sunsets if you are driving because the weather patterns can change so fast!) and the book I was listening to had a quote in it that really made me mentally stop and think.

"Do not seek death, for it will seek you out. Seek the road that makes death a fullfillment."

Wow. That quote really touched home with me. Not that I seek death or anything, but it is true. We will all eventually find our lives coming to a close in one manner or another. But we can choose how we live.

Sometimes I feel like I coast through life waiting for the next thing to happen. Waiting for Spring, for Summer, for Fall, for Winter. Waiting for the next school semester, waiting for the semester to end. Waiting for graduation, waiting for a career. Waiting for Nora's potty training.

Or time is wasted looking back and saying "I wish I had done this, that or the other."

But this year I have been looking for those little opportunities that really make life a joy. Nora is amazing and she give me so much joy day to day. This year even though it is hard for our family, I fulfilled my dream of owning my horse.

I guess it is another way of saying Carpe Diem. Sieze the Day. Live life to the fullest so when that inevitable day comes the promise of your life has been fullfilled. We can't get lost moments back, but we can fill up future moments and savor the experiences.

Just thought I would share! Anyone else squeezing life for all it's worth? :D

Sky Dog likes Organic Apples

My apple tree did pretty well this year. It was the first year for us to be here with this particular tree and I expected the apples to be ready about another month down the road so unfortunatly we lost quite a few because I was to busy to go to the back yard and about 80% of them fell in a wind storm. The hornets have also been having their way with the apples. I have picked some off the tree that have had hornets eatting them, not to mention the ones they have eatten on the ground.

Today I am goig to work really hard to pick up the wind fallen apples and sort out ones that I can still do something with and the ones that can go to the horse stable and ones that just need to go to the compost pile.

So back to my subject of the post. Yesterday we went out to the back yard to play. Nora found an apple she wanted to eat. And she ate about half of it before throwing it for the dog. Sky was playful and chased it, but when she picked it up, because it was already a bit juicy, she got a taste for apples. She ate the remainder of Nora's apple and then started hunting up ones others for herself.

She doesn't eat a whole lot from each apple, but it is so funny to see a dog eating an apple!! This coming year I am going to take better care of my apple tree. I am going to put up hornet catchers after spring pollination and hopefully I can get rid of some of the nests in our yard. I am hoping to be a better farmgirl and utilize this resource better next year!

Monday, September 14, 2009

I am such a ditz!

So I just happen to have four days off that coincide with two of my out-of-state Aunts and a cousin coming down to my grandparent's home for a little bit of a reunion. Great, I think! Awesome! I can go see everyone! So I as Doug to check the Suburban and make sure the battery is charged and maybe we should go ahead and get gas in it on Friday? But he thinks he will have time Saturday morning before work. No problem.

Saturday morning dawns and the plan was get Doug off to work, pack quickly- get in the car and go. Doug comes in and tells me the truck is dead and I have to take him to work. Can't we jump start it and you still use the truck? Nope. No time.

Darn. That means I have to wait until after 2:30pm to leave. Okay. Roll with the punches. It's okay. I still get to go. So we stop and say Hi to Tala on the way back from dropping off Doug. That was fun. Then we jumpstart the car and let it run to re-charge the battery. Note to self: Make sure the radio is ALL THE WAY OFF in the old truck so dead batteries can be a think of the past! Whoops!

So then I let the truck idle to re-charge the battery and of course forget that it is running and almost run it out of gas. So I drive around the block to the gas station and put some $$ into the tank. Ouch.

We get Doug, gas up the car, drop him off.

"So Alyssa, where are the truck keys?" Doug asks. Warning! Warning!

"Uh...I think in the key basket?" Kiss kiss bye bye. Yup. Nora and I left for an 8 hour car drive without verifying where the critical ONLY set of truck keys were. WARNING!! DANGER!! DITZ ZONE QUICKLY APPROACHING.

So I get an hour and a half down the road and have to stop for a call of nature and as I am paying for a candy bar so I am not a complete and total rude person for only usng the facilities I find...you guessed it...The truck keys. Dang.

So I am an hour and a half down the road. It's already late. Do I turn around and go home? Delay my visit? Don't go at all? Do I go on to Laramie and see family that I haven't seen in about 3 years? Darn darn darn.

So I decided to go to Laramie. I got to spend about 18hours there hanging out with family (and sleeping). They got to see me, Nora, and pictures of Tala. And then we packed up and came back! Talk about speed trips! 16 hours of driving in a day and a half. All because I didn't check to see if I had the keys or not.

I am such a ditz! But Nora had fun! And I had fun so it could have been worse!

My Beautiful Nora Girl

Nora's Musings