Yikes

That's what I thought when I saw what a bad blogger I've been in the last 6 months. Truly pathetic.

My computer is semi-dead, so there's no pressure to include pictures as I type on Brien's laptop and try to figure out which key keeps moving my cursor. If there are random typos, I can totally blame it on the computer, not the user.

Poppy is trying to walk by her first birthday. It's just a few weeks away! She's a picky eater. If I want her to eat vegetables I have to mix them with fruit. That's not completely true. This morning I fed her some broccoli mixed with infant cereal for breakfast. If I give her the veggies first, when she's the most hungry, Poppy will eat at least 6 bites before she possibly decides that she doesn't like them and refuses to eat any more. And when she's decided she's done, don't put it near her, give her something different that she will like.

Zarina is obsessing over Disneyland. There's a travel agency that purchased too much advertising time and they play the same commercial, featuring the magic kingdom, too many times each day. When it comes on Zarina will say, "I wish I could go there." We took the plunge and booked a trip for this fall (with money saved in our special "vacation account"). It feels a bit irresponsible to plan a Disney trip with everything else that we need to take care of, but it's paid for and we will continue to save a little gas and spending money in the vacation account so the trip won't follow us home.

Back in January we found out that the soils portion of the NRCS Ely office is closing this September. Brien still has a job, he just will be doing it in a new location. It looks like we will be moved to Elko, NV, but we don't have anything in writing. It could happen as early as this Fall, or even next Spring. There are some projects that need to be completed from here, and they still have the Ely NRCS office open for the programs people (they work with the ranchers) so there is an office for him. We are trying to finish up the things that we have started on our house. The government would likely purchase the house from us because of the type of closure/relocation that we are experiencing, but really it would nicer to just sell it to someone else. The Ely real estate market is especially slow, so who knows how this will turn out.

Instead of blogging I post irregularly on Facebook. I read my friends blogs and find things on Pinterest that I want to accomplish.

A few months ago one of my friends wrote about her "unplanned life" and I keep thinking about it. Because really, even if parts of your life fit into the pattern you envisioned, there is still so much that you didn't expect. When I was a teenager I hoped that I would get married and have children. I didn't dream that I would serve a mission, live in France four months, finish my bachelor's degree, and start a career before that happened. Then I move to a rural community, decide to stay at home with my first child, experience (undiagnosed) postpartum depression, and continually wondered, "What the heck am I doing here?!?!" It probably took me four years to feel okay about living in Ely. I can't really say when I became happy with my circumstances, but I do appreciate it now. While I enjoy my visits to the city, I really enjoy the quietness that I find at home. The slower pace is nice. Sometimes I feel isolated, but that seems to have more to do with my SAHM lifestyle rather than my location. On bad days I like to tell myself that I could be just as miserable living in Las Vegas or Utah as I feel here. (What a glowing recommendation for my locale and life choices.)

Postpartum with Poppy has been better than with Zarina. Partially because I have Zarina who needs to be played with and taken to story hour at the library. I also decided that even on days when I would rather stay in my pajamas I will get showered and dressed, for fear that 4pm will roll around and I'll wish that I had showered and dressed earlier in the day.

So there's some randomness.

Typed as I glance out my window, looking at a mountain and sunny, blue skies (quite deceptive looking since I'm sure it's cold out there). Hardly any snow to be found this dry, brown winter. Poppy woke from her nap. Zarina is in their room, "playing" with Poppy as best she can while the baby is in her crib.

PS - I took Jana's advice (see comments) and found a reason to get outside. I loaded up the double stroller and we walked my computer to the shop where he will copy my hard drive so I can re-install all my programs. While the blog is "4 hours from everywhere", my house is "not even 2 miles from everywhere". That means my in-town mileage is awful on my car, but a tank of gas can last me a month, even when I drive everywhere.