Rozzy the Elf.

 It is not too late, I repeat, it is not too late to watch Elf this holiday season.  I am a huge fan of all movies Christmas and Elf is one of my all time favorite quote-able movies. So, if you haven't yet, here is some cute motivation to get onto watching the movie.

Here are three reasons why my dog, Rozz, is like Buddy the Elf:

1. 

Just yesterday on a walk, Rozz was walking across a bridge, and ate some unknown substance.  It wasn't gum, but it was just as funny and repulsive as Buddy and the gum! Rozz and Buddy just can't resist free treats.

2. 

Buddy is like a three year old with crazy bouts of energy.  Rozz too is like a toddler with his crazy puppy zoomies:

3. Oversized but so lovable.

Buddy just didn't fit in at the North Pole among his fellow elves; he was just too big.  Rozz is also oversized but still thinks he fits anywhere:

You don't have to take my advice but how can you say not to this face?

Rozz says: Go watch Buddy, you won't be disappointed! You can choose whether you pull out your Christmas sweater to do so, but Rozz says everything is better in that sweater.  Okay, so maybe Alice put that thought into Rozz's mouth, but sweaters are amazeballs.

Ramblings on Grief...

 Hi.  I promised I would post the poetry that I submitted to a writing contest this past summer so without any further ado: 

Deal with Dementia 

Who will answer the phone today?

Will it be the woman who remembers,

the one who interacts?

Or will it be the woman who doesn’t remember,

the one who talks in circles, repeating the same questions?

So sometimes I avoid calling,

then guilt sets in.

Face to face isn't much easier,

sitting in uncomfortable silence,

worrying about what she is thinking,

or feeling.

Knowing the conversation may frustrate her,

may be hard to follow.

Then the anxiety of the "what ifs" enter my mind.

"What if” this is my future?

"What if " that little struggle to find the right word

is an indicator of future struggles?

“What if" I should be seeking early

interventions now.

What if, what it, what if...

Losing a parent is hard

and I often feel like I'm losing Mom,

over and over.

Pieces of her die

in circular conversations.

A reminder of a long hard process  

without a predictable end point.

Losing a parent is hard.

Losing a parent over and over is taxing.

Still there is no choice but to

deal with dementia.

*The formatting was weird on that. What I would do now to still be dealing with dementia. I miss her like mad. I am very good at trying to ignore grief but something a family member said the other day really has brought it back to the surface the past few days: "The holidays are especially hard." I think that is 100% true compounded with the fact that I don't have routine to distract me for the next two weeks. I am very excited for the rest but will miss distraction.

Here is the next poem I submitted:

Dementia is a Thief

Stealing moments that should be monumental,

birthdays once recollected with precision,

now only recalled with reminders.

Names once salient,

now faded,

replaced by relationship tags:

Your husband,

Your daughter,

Your sister.

Physical death still distant

yet mental death is imminent.

Close connection

ripped away like a shoplifter

and their five finger discounts.

Dementia is a thief. 

*To any of you associated with dementia my heart goes to you. It is not easy. Just try to be okay with just sitting in silence at times and. holding hands. You will be glad you had those sweet moments.

Here is my favorite of the three poems I submitted. There are more poems to be written about grief, but my brain still needs to just be in silent and process the whole entity that grief truly is.

Grief is a Bastard

Alone and abandoned,

you leave it unattended,

packed far down in the darkest

forgotten corners of your brain. 

But like a 3-year-old begging for attention, 

in a crowded department store,

grief tantrums. 

Raging,

punching,

tearing up from

long dried ducts.

Crying alone feels right.

In the dark isolation of a cold room,

under warm covers.

Crying feels like a necessary solo act.

Unlike a musician,

who solos surrounded by a crowd,

and more like a pilot

trying to transatlantic in solitude.

Yet like Amelia,

solo proves fatal,

extending the life of grief,

keeping you alone and abandoned.

Grief truly is a bastard. 

*I have let myself be familiar with grief. I do not try to push it away. Today the tears nearly froze as I was walking the dog and a song that gets me thinking about mom came on. Instead of avoiding it and skipping the tune, I embraced it, tears in all! Luckily, I have a very good support group! My dad was right, "With time it will get better," even though it is taking a long time but there is hope is the baby steps that healing brings.

I think that is all I have for now. I truly do think about what to post or right and am often just paralyzed. I think in many ways that is how grief has felt of late. I have great intentions of writing or reading more that quickly turn to sitting and staring, a pure nothingness replaces those intentions. But again, with time it will get better. So, in the meantime, I just keep dealing with grief too!

Plan the Trip, Little Monster!

SIDENOTE: I never finished this post that I started writing just after going to Los Angeles to see Lady Gaga.  So, it's a perfect bonus read for you! Happy reading.

 I don't know why, or maybe I do but I have been trying to write this post since September 11th.  Part of the delay is that I wanted to write something profound, something more like a serious non-fiction, article like piece.  But the past few months I have not been able to focus.  As I have mentioned before, grief is a very weird thing.  

I read or heard somewhere that planning a trip is actually really good for our brains and that this action actually helps our depression levels and anxiety levels go down.  I have been a bit depressed about my mom and her rapid decline with her memory.  It has felt like I have slowly lost her over and over again.  So, I thought I may just start planning the trip.  

I have become a bigger  Lady Gaga fan as I discovered and grew to love her album "Chromatica."  It actually has gotten me through a lot of the hard stuff with my mom.  You can read all about her album HERE.

When talking about Chromatica Ball, which is the tour for the album, Lady Gaga said "It documents like the many different stages of grief and the manic energy of grief that I feel like I have experienced in my life."

She also talked about the album itself and the ball on a recent Instagram post: "People ask me all the time what Chromatica was about and in Babylon I say "Battle for your life" and when I made Chromatica, I was really battling for my life and for anybody that is in a tough spot, I just want you to know that this show was created in the spirit of that battle to win yourself back. There's no greater prize than you! There's no thing more important that your own heart and your own ability to heal.  We don't heal on our own, I don't think, but I think it's possible to at some point have your own back and having your own back takes a lot of strength and time."

This journey through this album made me really want to see her concert live.  I had watched clips on YouTube when she was on the European leg of tour and I got more and more excited about it.  I started looking at dates and how much tickets were.  I also started to look into how much it would cost to fly to the cities.  Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, and Miami all were on my radar.  The only two of those cities that had weekend dates, were Los Angeles and Miami. School had started and it had to be on the weekend.  Miami would have been fun, and sunny and all the fun Florida things, but it was also more expensive to get there.  So, I started concentrating on LA.  I started to invite friends(mainly because Reub wasn't comfortable with me going solo, although he was okay if I stayed with my nephew and just drove to the concert!) but after a few friends saying they couldn't make it, I got a little worried and did make plans to couch surf at my nephew's in Irvine, CA. I also started looking more and more at single tickets, but didn't purchase any because it was 1. still a bit away and 2. up in the air if anybody would join me.  Luckily, I asked a co-worker, who was very interested in coming and eventually was my travel buddy.  The unfortunate thing was that I did have a bipolar midnight moment the evening before she told me she would come and I bought a single ticket because it was in a place I knew I would have a good view of the show.  But, I found her a ticket in the same section and she was totally cool with it. 

As I boarded the plane to L.A., I was giddy and thinking how truly blessed I was to be going.  I also was just so excited to be going to this concert because I had been dreaming about it.  Dreams really do come true.  

My sister had asked me if I was going and I said, "Of course, 'cause YOLO!"

The concert was amazing.  It was loud, you could feel the sound.  That feeling was accented by random burst of flames coming from the stage, and even up in the upper deck of Dodger Stadium, I could feel the heat.  The art of both Gaga's voice, her stage design, and the little interludes were captivating.

The brutalist architecture a background to shadow not only Gaga's struggles but also my own. The concert was divided into acts similar to a play.  The opening act, or prelude, brought us back to her chase for fame and featured a few of her first big hits, "Bad Romance," "Just Dance," and "Poker Face"

End of Summer Rambling

 Remember that one time I wrote about how I was always shocked by how much time had gone between my blog posts? Well, there is something to say about consistency, right?  I have been "summering" around these parts.

"Summering" typically means, I wake up around 7, get workout clothes on and take the dog for an hour walk, then kids and I go and do some sort of adventure after I shower and eat breakfast, then we come home around lunch and then they immediately jet to their friend's house and then return around 4pm, then we eat dinner and then sleep, rinse and repeat.

Other times we were out of the state visiting with family and eating up the traveling moments.  

And even other times, we are out of routine and just enjoying the summer.

I'm still in denial about going back to work next week.  If I don't think about it, it won't happen, right?

Of course there are moments when I definitely feel ready to be back in routine and to not have to be the referee to my kiddos endless fighting.

I started this post yesterday and really have no clue where I was going with this post. I think it is definitely just a space to be random so here I am, Mrs. Random.

Today we went to a museum.  It is the fifth museum we have visited this summer. It was the BYU Art Museum and it was a nice time. My favorite museum of the summer was The Peteeneet Museum in Payson, Utah.  It had a room filled with dresses. Now, most of you know me and know that I really don't care too much for dresses but it was cool to see dresses lined up from oldest to newest and to see dresses worn by Shirley Temple and Doris Day.  We have also visited the BYU Dinosaur Museum, the BYU Bean Museum and the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures.  E is a huge museum fan and he learns all of it and then tells us more about it for months on end.

We had a daily theme including art and crafts, movies, museums, hikes, and splashpads/pools. The schedule was 99% for me and 1% for them.  See, having something to do makes it so we do not just sit around and become bored and there is much less fighting.  The added bonus of getting away from screens was also a big plus.

Wisconsin was glorious.  We had an Air BNB a block away from my parents' house and it was magical to just walk over to visit.  The favorite memory was going over there to fill gallon jugs with filtered water and my mom inviting me over to talk with her while she ate her lunch. That thirty minutes of just me and parent time was magical.  

You all may or may not know this, but my mom has been diagnosed with dementia.  She often asks revolving questions and can be very confused, but in those thirty minutes, we chatted like it was just me and her regular, remembering self. Magical.  It has been very tough to see her disease progress and she actually was moved(with the help of my angel sister) to a memory care facility just days after we left Wisconsin.  That angel sister mentioned how "it will never be the same" as we embraced in the driveway of my parents' condo just before we came back to Utah, and she is right.  The grief of the loss of that part of our family space has hit me hard this summer. Grief is a silly thing, isn't it?  It hits me at times and then other times I conveniently forget the situation. I wrote a poem about it, and it is called "Grief is a Bastard."  I will post it here after the writing contest I entered it into this summer has picked it's winners. I don't think I am supposed to publish it before then. I will keep you posted on if I win or don't get chosen like every other year.

Wisconsin also included a Brewer Game with two fun uncles, Bay Beach adventures, Algoma beach day, fun fish fries with other family, a ten year celebration of Reuben and I being married, and a visit with some high school/softball friends.  Wisconsin always tempts me to come back and live there, but that whole having a steady job that I love and not having to pack keeps me rooted here in Provo.

Summer always goes too fast. Words just can't describe how much I love my summers off and how much they are needed.  Teachers don't have the easiest job and the past few years have only added teacher stress.  I don't feel like I am ready to go back.  In other words, the batteries don't feel recharged enough to face this next year, but as professionals do, I will go back and act like I am recharged.

I will now close this random piece of writing . I hope all fourteen of you that read this when I publish are doing well and that summer is treating you well.

The need for a challenge.

 Oh, hey again!  Every time I sit down to write on here, I think "Man, I am just not doing this as consistently as I would like."  But alas, life is busy and exhausting as of late.  This coming week is the last of the school year, so hopefully I will be adding more here more often.  I have been writing more lately, but the last two weeks I have slowed a bit.

I have just felt like I have been in a funky time warp.  I just don't have much motivation to do much more than lay on my couch after work.  It could be the tired that comes with the end of a school year(especially with no prep hour during the day), or it could be the Covid funk that everybody has been feeling of late, it very well could be both. Whatever it is, I have been feeling that I need a little bit more drive.  I need a few things that I can control.  So, I have been trying to eat more veggies and less crap.  I also have lately felt the urge to move more.  And I have had lots of opportunity to reconnect with my love of hiking.  Last week, I first went up into the mountains with my little family. Then Monday I was able to go with a group of boys from our school and camp at Goblin Valley.  I did three hikes while there.

Family Hike in the foothills of Orem

Hiking Little Wild Horse Canyon on a school camping trip.

Goblin Valley

More hiking in Wild
Horse canyon

    Exploring the beauty that is Utah makes me feel good.  The air is cleaner out there.  I was also able to hike with a school field trip to Timpanogos Cave in American Fork last Wednesday.  

 

The cave is spectacular.

It's fun to go on adventures with these teens, especially when it is their first time doing something like this.

The views from higher help my overall perspective of life.

    As we explored the cave, we were informed that this is the 100th year of the National Park Service giving tours there.  As part of their celebration, they are holding a 100 hike challenge.  Those who complete 100 hikes up to the cave and down, will get a medal.  This sparked something within me.  So, I am taking the challenge.  The hope is that I will be able to get 100 hikes in before Mid-October.  But, even if I don't make that lofty challenge, I still want to get up that trail as many times as I can.  My body yearns for a challenge.  I want to make my time less and I want something to get up early for all summer long.  I do better when I am up earlier.  I focus more. I get more done. I remember to write. So, alas, I am a crazy looney, but I am a crazy looney with purpose.

Two down; 98 more to go.

    

    Wish me luck. Onward and upward!

Memory Binding Smell

 

March: The month of my birth.  A time where I often contemplate my origin.  Who am I and where do I come from?  What has made me into who I am? Times, places, and many people have made me who I am.  This month is a time to look back, reminisce and explore those times, places and people.  

 Funny how a smell can take you back through time and to a different place. 

    I smell the grease as I pack the bearings of the front wheel of my 1961 Schwinn, but I am no longer in the bike shop now, but back in rural Wisconsin and in the spacious metal shed where my grandpa keeps all his tractors.  I am no longer forty-five, but am now five years old again.  Tools are scattered on the wooden workbench, and hung on the wall behind it.  Some earthly smell mixed with grease mists the large space radiating from inside the long silver grease gun, engines and engine parts dispersed around the packed dirt floor.  Without that grease, those tractors would no longer move and the operations of the farm would be cease.

    Life when I was younger and in that special place was more simple and the memories of grandpa fixing things and taking me on early morning rides as he chopped the green dew moistened grass for the cows are just as rich and thick as that grease.

    I miss my favorite farmer and I miss those simpler times.  I love the time traveling scent as I now work with my own hands.  Hands that now are dirty and slick, just like his thick hard-working calloused hands would be as he worked. We are forever family and memories keep those close to us alive. 

45 Trips around the sun: a tribute in 45 Nuggets of Learned Treasures.

 

March is "Who am I and Where Have I come From" month. I am a combination of millions of experiences, senses and genes.  I am my father's daughter, my grandfather's granddaughter.  My family is me and I am my family.  I am on this planet for a purpose; there are no mistakes.

Well, 45 feels the same as 44.  Rarely does a birthday come and go with much significance.  But there can be found beauty in that.  Normal isn't all that bad.  In fact, in a world that is often catapulted into chaos, we need things to keep us going and a sense of normalcy is often warranted. 

Here I offer a simple list of things that make my life easier in those times of chaos and ground me back into my normal, well, at least I can see glimpses of normalcy.  

So, as an ode to my 45 trips around the sun, here is a list of 45 things I have learned(in no particular order after the #1 most important):

1.  First, find deity.  Pray, it makes life easier.

2.  People are good...when you decide that they are.

3. My kids are growing up too fast. Take time to enjoy the beauty that is childhood.

4.  I am growing up too fast.  Take time to enjoy the moments.

5. Enjoy your parents.  They too grow up much too fast.

6. Take days off from work.  You deserve it.

7. Take a soon to buy car into the mechanic BEFORE purchasing.

8. Never have a car payment.

9. Start saving for retirement in your 20s.

10. It's okay to have vices.

11. Perfection isn't real...even for the people who you think are perfect.

12. It's okay to not be okay.

13. Your parents become cooler as they age. 

14. Parenthood is the scariest hood you'll ever go through.

15. If you go to Russia, don't worry about money! Do all the things.

16. Happiness is a choice you make daily.

17. Eat the donut...just not everyday all day.

18. Taking care of your mental health needs to be a bigger priority.

19. You feel better when you quit worrying about what other people think.

20. Marriage/love isn't always rainbows and butterflies.

21. Visit home often.

22. Politics are stupid, as well as most politicians.

23. Say yes more often.

24. Everybody loves getting a letter in the mail.

25. Reading is fun...you must first find the right books for you...see #19.

26. The book is always better than the movie.

27. You really shouldn't cry or yell over spilled milk(or spilled anything!).

28. Saying sorry is the best tool in relationships. Say sorry, you are wrong a lot.

29. Call your mom...grandma...grandpa...aunt...sister...brother...etc. even if one of you doesn't have anything to say or remember what is said!

30. Exercise is therapy.

31. Walks count as exercise.

32. Friends can be the family we choose.

33. Write more...your kids will thank you.  Tell your story.

34. Good times ALWAYS follow hard times.

35. Smile at strangers.  They either will think you are crazy...or they will smile back...or both.

36. Don't be too serious,  Silly is also therapy.

37. Music. Play it. Listen to it. Sing it loudly, even if off key.

38.  Calls are often better than texts, like MOST OFTEN.

39. Buy the tickets.  Plan the trip.

40. Always find things to look forward to.

41. Growing a garden is rewarding.

42. Hammocks are the furniture of nature.

43. You feel better when you eat less sugar.

44. A bike ride is also therapy. And the right number of bikes to have is the number you currently have plus one.

45.  Never say no to a catch with your kids.

I Love The Seasons of Life

Wise people have often said: "All things come to pass."  I truly love that seasons come and go in this life.  Not just seasons like summer and fall but seasons of grief, sadness, and all emotion.  We endure much, but there is always a season of rest from all trial.  

Basketball season this year as a coach was definitely a season of many highs and lows.  If you were to measure our success by wins versus losses, then we failed.  We only won one game. We lost over ten games.  If you were to measure our success by attendance at practice, we also would be considered failures.  

But I don't consider this season a failure at all.  I first hand saw many successes.  From the fact that a most players couldn't do layups at the beginning but could at the end, to how they learned how to break a press, to how they became much better at shooting free throws, to how we were molded into a team instead of a dozen individuals, we were a success.  Oh how I did love basketball season, even if I am very grateful for a new season of leaving school before 4 everyday and of not having to drive long distances for games.  

I love successful seasons!

I Love a Good Project

 February is the month of love.  We often tag this love as romantic, but I think sometimes you just have to love stuff and that love can awake you and it is magical.  Happy love month!

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

                                -Shakespeare 

This post cannot be limited to one thing I love, it consists of a few things I love. 

I have always loved bikes. I remember being young and how having a bike gave me new found freedom. The wind in my hair, sunshine on my face and reflective revolutions of the tires and pedals added to that freedom to leave my house and be on my own. 

 My current ride is a Trek commuter style bike. It has thin tires for quicker riding and a comfortable seat. I installed pedals that are flat on one side for casual riding and clip-less on the other side so I can wear my fancy biking shoes and pretend to be all serious about speed. 

I have mentioned this before, but a wise woman said to me in the past few months that the right number of bikes one should own is the current number they own plus one. 

I have been looking for a cruiser type bike. The kind that would allow for me to just ride slowly especially on rides with my kiddos. While searching for one, I found these old bikes for sale and I went down a rabbit hole of looking at vintage bikes and came up with a crazy idea to buy one that I would have to work on before I could ever ride it. 

Well. I bought not one but two 1961 Schwinn Travelers to fix up. 

I have started the labor of love on the bike Reuben will ride along side me. It is dirty and tedious, and I love it. There is nothing like Schwinn chrome as it shines again with some elbow grease. It is as if those 60 years of rusting and dulling are just erased. I indeed do love a good project. 

I also love old classic things. I also love my Gramdma Huven, who is classy but never seemed old.  I feel a huge connection to her now just as I did before she died a few years back. 

Here she is at the age of 16 in 1941. I cannot completely guarantee that the bike she is on is a Schwinn but it does have similar fenders and I did a little research and that bike looks a lot like the 1940 Schwinns. So, even if that bike isn’t a Schwinn, I’m going to pretend it is just to further the connection to her and to generate smiles as I think of those simpler times and as I look forward to this spring and the first cruise I get to do on one my classic bikes. 

The time spent in repairing and polishing is well worth it as I am learning and finding purpose in these projects. 

I love bikes,

I love old things,

I love a good project, 

I love my grandma,

And I have a very new love for all things Schwinn.  

I Love...Groundhog Day.

February is the month of love.  We often tag this love as romantic, but I think sometimes you just have to love stuff and that love can awake you and it is magical.  Happy love month!

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain."

                                -Shakespeare 

"Watch out for that first step........it's a Doozie!"

I am not sure you and I can be friends if you do not know where that quote is from.  If you haven't watched Groundhog Day with Andie McDowell and Bill Murray, stop what you are doing right now and go watch it.  I mean it.  Right now.

Groundhog day to me isn't just about some rodent that is trying to be a weatherman.  I do love Punxsutawney Phil, don't get me wrong.  In fact, I would love to be in Punxsutawney some day on Groundhog Day to cheer him on, but there is more to just hearing the fabricated prediction of a late or early spring.  I think there is a bit of hope that comes from that prediction and from the whole tradition surrounding it.

I love spring and February 2nd comes around just in time to remind us that winter won't be here forever and that spring will come, it always does!  Sometimes in the dark of January and February we forget that and Phil reminds us!

I always need that reminder.  So thanks Phil!

I am exhausted...

     I had grand plans of making this last, Who am I?, post about some of my amazing ancestors and where I have come from.  But guess what? January has been the longest ten years of my life and I am just tired.  I think crazy March teacher tired has already set in and I am exhausted.  

    I think I felt this exact way last year.  It was around the time our cherished Papa passed away.  Basketball made me tired and I also was just stuck in the routine of teaching day in, day out.  I got grumpy.  I didn't know exactly where to put all my sadness.  I went dark for a few weeks.

    So, this time around, I think I am going to battle the dark.  I am going to a movie on Friday with Reub.  I am also starting a project tomorrow.  

    I have always wanted a cruiser type bike, I began searching for my birthday present to myself(of course you have to start early).  I have always been obsessed with all things old, especially from the late 50s and early 60s.  So, it just seemed right to buy an old bike to fix up and make amazing.

    So, you may hear about those adventures here and there in the future on this here blog space.  Because I bought this: 

1961 Women's Schwinn Traveler

    And the man who sold it to me, really wanted this to go along with it:

1961 Men's Schwinn Traveler

    So, I guess I have two projects to do.  I am planning on starting this endeavor tomorrow.  Something real good is about to come out of this winter.

    So, 

I am tired

I am in a funk

I am in need of a project

        (or two)

I love bikes

I love old things

I will now be a restorer of old bikes

I always have purpose

(and so do you!)

    

I am a hat person.

 January Theme: Who am I? 

The hat collection(well part of it)

    

    I only have one head, but I probably own close to fifty hats.  My dad used to say something about having only one head so why did I need more than one hat.  Of course he would also always ask if my shirt was waterproof, and then proceed to tell me: "Well, it should be because that hat sure is a pisser!"

    I am pretty sure my obsession with hats happened when I was tiny.  See, I have very Scandinavian skin;  I am very white.  With skin like mine, I have always joked that I just think about the sun and I get sunburned.  My parents always had a hat on me to prevent such problems.  I think I got used to it and it became a comfort to me.

    If I am not working, I am wearing a baseball hat.  I think partly this is due to comfort, but it also helps tame my naturally crazy(or curly) hair, and to be honest, I am lazy.

    Why not wear it at work?  Well, I can get away with it seeing I am the Physical Education teacher, but I still feel that I look a bit more professional when I am hatless.  I often do wear one on Fridays when it is a more casual dress day.

    While dating Reuben, he noticed all my hats hanging on the wall of my tiny living room.  He asked: "What's up with all the hats?"

    "I like to wear hats."

    "Why don't you wear them then?" (He had never seen me with a hat on)

    "Well, I didn't think it was cool for dating, I was trying to impress you."

    "You should wear the hats."

    And that was that.  Reuben appreciated the fact that I am very, very low maintenance.  I liked that he didn't care that I wasn't the girliest girl in the land.

    He also bought and hung these fancy hat hangers.  It is true love!

    Each different section is a different type or category of hat.  I am not that organized of a person, but I do like my hats (semi)organized.

    There is the Dodger section(my favorite baseball team):

There is the baseballism.com hat section:

    There is the hats from the baseball stadiums I have visited(My life goal is to get to all the MLB stadiums):

There is the hats from Wisconsin section(plus a random San Diego hat!):

Then lastly there is the important to me, but doesn't fit into the other categories section:

Home is where you hang your hat, you know.  Good thing I have so many hats so that I can be at home wherever I may go!

                                                                                                                                                             

I am a Letter Writer.

 January Theme: Who am I? 

I decided to demonstrate that I am a letter writer.  Enjoy...and seriously....I will write you a letter, if you get me your address.  I promise.

My Rocketbook...cover made by my awesome friend, Cassie!

The famous box of letters on my shelf.
Great treasures.

It was a treat to read these letters from my Grandma tonight.

The binder of letters from 2015's a letter a day.