Another year older...another year gone by!

 Today I am Grateful for...
True Love!

 I am grateful
that Tracy and I both made it to celebrate another birthday together 
and that both of us have our HEALTH!! 

I truly am the luckiest girl in the world...
 I'm married to the most amazing man who I LOVE to share and experience everything with!
What an absolute JOY it is to get to have birthdays to celebrate together as well! 

 Tracy and I are definitely an odd couple 
 as we both can't wait to see, show and tell each other about our day or any and everything in our life!  Tracy loves to email me links he finds on the Internet or take camera photos of magazine photos and he looks forward to discussing them when he gets home from work...whether it be a quote or frame-able wall art, a cute photo, food that looks yummy, a fun idea for a costume, trim work ideas for our house, tree-houses for kids, landscape ideas, backpacking ideas,  places that would be fun to travel to, etc...

I can't wait to show Tracy things I have experienced with my day...like showing him a new blog post I'm working on and asking his opinion, showing what creative thing I did, or what I cooked up in the kitchen, or, showing him a FUN blog post from my close friends...

There is NOT a moment in our days 
that we don't have each other on the mind
and even if we can't experience everything together, we share all about our day through thoughtful acts, photos, etc...

We make all of the decisions on our house together...
not a photo gets hung on the wall without deciding together.  

 Life is pure bliss, when you're married to your best friend 
and you want to experience everything you can together!!  

As is tradition for my birthday posts each year, I like to post random things about me, or things I have been thinking about.  This year I thought I would throw in some of my favorite quotes as well.

(This is my most favorite quote of all!!)

Here are some random things about Kimmie...

--I am a perfectionist to a fault!   I  have many good intentions, but many times I don’t do something if I can’t do it PERFECT and so there have been many a time I haven’t sent off that package, letter, or delivered a meal, because I couldn’t do it to the level I wanted it to be done.  Thank goodness for goals and having a husband that has helped me realize to:  

 "Do the best you can at the moment, 

even though it’s not perfect”!!   

This is definitely something that I am striving 

to do and be better at each day of my life!

--I LOVE getting cards, invitations, letters and packages in the mail!! As much as  I love technology for staying in touch, I always get exited for REAL mail. 

--I LOVE the art of preserving...I have never and probably never will make freezer jam. I LOVE my freezer for freezing berries, but to me bottled jams/preserves are SO much more yummy and can't be beat!! 

--Corn is my least favorite veggie! I would rather eat anything but corn AND I don’t want to waste space in my garden planting it. I would much rather plant another row of carrots and beets, than plant corn. HOWEVER, 

my kids LOVE corn and so I always try to buy some so they can enjoy it during harvest time.

--I LOVE my Chaco sandals!! 

It took me a few years to really love them as they always made my heels dry and cracked.  

NOW, I wear them daily (I don't think there was a day this summer/fall that I didn't wear them) and I'm sad that as I type this, snow has fallen on the ground and I have to put my sandals away until warmer weather.  
These truly are my VERY favorite shoes that I own!

(HOWEVER, I am looking forward to pulling out my sweaters, leggings and boots and bundling up in style for the winter months).

--If I’m eating Pringles chips I can only eat them if I put them in my mouth with the rounded part up, so it is the same shape as my mouth.

--I don’t like Cotton Candy!

--I don’t like Candy Corn, but I LOVE Candy Corn Taffy!

--I am not a fan of JELLO and it is pretty pathetic that the only time I have made JELLO in my life is when I was asked to bring “Jello Jigglers” to a scout activity and I actually had to ask someone how to make them as I didn’t have any experience in making this.   My kiddos are definitely Jello deprived and it’s funny when we go to ward potlucks, Ethan is a typical kid and always dishes some on this plate.

--I could eat squash every day and never tire of it! I LOVE, Banana, Hubbard, Zucchini, Summer, Sweet Meat and Butternut Squash and love them plain or love anything made with them!

 (hilarious observation: in the above photo

(taken near Lewis & Clark Caverns) Ethan is giving me a "tittie-twister")

--If I could think of one event in my life that I truly miss (other than the fact that I wish my kids would stop growing, Or, I miss the simpler times of Newlywed days), it would be that of having a sweet baby to nurse and feed! Nursing my kids was truly one of the favorite times in my life!

--I LOVE yams and sweet potatoes and I always have a few of these for us to enjoy. This is also something I could eat everyday and never tire of it.   Love them baked up and with just a tiny pat of butter and sprinkling of salt and pepper. My other favorite way it to cut them up, slice up an apple, top with pecans and bake them up. Sadly, I do NOT like them the way that most people do, smothered in butter and brown sugar and topped with marshmallows…YUCK!

--Butterflies…I absolutely LOVE butterflies and have many butterflies all over my house.  I have always loved them...even before they re-surged in popular home decor.    

To me they symbolize re-birth, renewal,  freedom...the confidence to be myself and not be stifled or held-back as I soar to new heights! 

--I like my fried eggs with completely cooked yolks. I do NOT like runny yolks at all. I’m the odd ball in my family as Tracy and the boys LOVE their fried eggs with runny yolks.

--I have learned that you should always feel GRATEFUL for each stage of life and that you'll look back and wish you looked a certain way. I have always been worried about my weight (not in a bad way...just always have wanted to be trim and in shape) and in these photos above, I was not the "skinny as a rail" Kimmie I used to be and so I was always working out, biking, walking, etc... NOW, I look back and would LOVE to be that skinny!!  Looking forward to working hard and losing the 10-15 pounds I have put on these past few years.   Tracy keeps telling me, that the same thing will happen again...in a few years, I'll look back at how I look now and WISH that I could look that good.

You need to SAVOR and ENJOY each season and moment in time to the fullest!

--I’m so efficient with things that I have measuring cups in many of my containers of staples. I have 1/3 measuring cup in our container of Steel Cut Oats  ½ measuring cup in my unbleached flour, ½ measuring cup in our rolled oats and 1/8 cup in our Morning Moos powdered milk.    That way when I’m baking I can just measure things out quickly and always have the right measuring cup available. Steel Cut Oats have 1/3 cup as you add in 1/3 cup of oats per one cup of water.  Powdered milk you use 1/8 cup milk per one cup of water and my flour and rolled oats I just like measuring things by ½ cup increments at a time.

--I struggle when the days are shorter and it’s still dark at 7:00 in the morning. I am VERY much a morning person and LOVE the long days of summer when the sun is starting to crest over the horizon at 5:30 in the morning.  Love morning twilight!

--I LOVE nice thick dishcloths that are black and beige. LOVE how nice and big they are and LOVE that they don’t get looking all stained up.  They always stay looking nice.

--My favorite comfort food is cheese. I buy pounds of cheese and freeze it so there is never a moment that we are not without some kind of cheese to add to our meals.

--I don't enjoy being called "Kim" and I'm always amazed how many people call me this, even though I always refer to myself and introduce myself as "Kimberly" or "Kimmie"!  Maybe one of these years, people will get it right.

--I have to have my towels folded a certain way…they have to be folded with the folded side edge along the LEFT side and put in the drawer or stacked on the shelf so that the FOLDED side is facing out. (raw edge is on the right and at the top)  While I very much appreciate when my family helps fold the laundry, it drives me crazy to look and see the edges on the wrong side.  It's moments like that, that I realize the things that truly matter in life and it's not how the towels are folded.

--I love altering recipes so I can make them without adding any kind of boxed mix to them. It’s kind of a passion of mine to tweak recipes so I can make them using just staple ingredients.  (ie…no pudding mixes, no cake mixes, no jello mixes, no boxed rice mixes, etc…)

--I LOVE this quote...

I truly believe with all of my heart, that the best thing in life is to just

BE your BEST self!!

--I can tell if someone has been in any room in our house.  I have a certain way that I leave things and I can always tell if someone has been around and moved things, or left crumbs, or feet prints on the freshly vacuumed carpet, spots on the faucet, etc… It drives my kids and hubby crazy when I ask them about something and they say…”How did you know I did that”, or “How did you know that I was in there”.   

--I am ALWAYS looking Upward!!  I can spot birds in trees everywhere we go. I absolutely LOVE birds.  I love looking upward and noticing the ever change sky and clouds. I love to notice if there are planes or birds flying in the sky.  I am a lover of nature and love to enjoy each and every part of it that I can…even when I’m driving in the car.

--I love the smell of rubber tires...I always like to linger when I'm in the tire store.

--I am a creature of habit…every morning without fail I listen to NPR on my way to work and the instant I get to the stop light at the South Rexburg Exit I have to see what the price of gas is.   I love to track the prices of everything.

--I am very much a creature of habit and when I find something I like, I stick with it. It makes my life SO much easier, to not have to keep for searching for the “perfect” whatever.

However, It was a sad year for me this year as my bra style, my Lipstick I use and the brand of jeans I wear were all discontinued and so I have had to go back to square one and find something else that will work for me. I’m still searching for the perfect bra, I finally found another lipstick option and YES, I found new jeans that are better than the last style I had.  (LEI Ashley, low rise, long, boot cut jeans).  Can’t wait to find a new bra option that is exactly what I want. My bras are looking pretty shabby and need replaced!

----My handwriting looks like "chicken scratch"...seriously I have some of the world's worst handwriting and try as I might, it doesn't really improve.  SO, cards/letters from me are ALWAYS typed up nicely and signed.

--My favorite place to be is anywhere in Nature...especially being up in the high country, where we have backpacked all day to get there!

--I am enthralled with small space living.  

I love finding ways to “scale down” and live and function in smaller spaces.  We love our home but it has much more space than we really need.  We hardly go in our "front room" and the large, unfinished basement just represents another potential bathroom to clean, unfilled bedrooms to clutter with more craft and sewing things and another unneeded family room to clean and heat, etc...  The only really useful space down there (to us) is our food storage and backpacking gear storage room.  I think it would be fun to dramatically scale down and be smart with the space.   

My dream home would be  

to build a home similar to the main section of our home, 

HOWEVER, it would end at the main bathroom with a wall at the end of the hall that would have a door that went outside to a porch that wrapped around from the side of our house to the front porch of our house).  It wouldn’t have 2 bathrooms, but rather one LARGE bathroom with the sink separate so someone could get ready while someone else is showering. (we have found that we never use our other bathroom). A half bath off the utility room would be nice. It wouldn’t have 3 bedrooms, instead it would have a sleeping loft in the main great room of our house with a room for the kids and a room for Tracy and I.  Where the living room is right now, this would be our TV room and it would have a “barn style” door to close and have it be conducive to watching movies. It wouldn’t have a full basement, rather more of a food cellar, large enough for our food storage, holiday storage, camping gear, etc...   

It would have a funky, modern exterior shape and have cool roof angles and be sided in natural materials.   And, as long as I'm dreaming, it would be set in a mountain town like Boulder, CO, Telluride,CO, Wilson, WY, or some other small town nestled in the midst of hiking trails and scenic beauty.

--I don’t really enjoy pasta.  However, my kids and hubby like pasta and so I try and make a pasta meal at least once a month so they don’t feel deprived.

--I don’t enjoy green bean casserole!!  It seems to be a big hit this time of the year, but, I can’t stomach the stuff.

--I LOVE to swing!!  I love to go to the park and swing and swing. I LOVE it and it makes me feel like a kid and makes me feel free.  Someday in the not-to distant future, we are going to have SWING in our backyard so I can enjoy this whenever I want!! (here to see what we are patterning our back yard retreat after...it will be complete with a TALL swing for us to enjoy!)

(some favorite photos through the years)

10-20-11 = Kimmie turned 41

10-22-11 = Tracy turned 43

Looking forward to another wonderful year together,

feeling grateful that I have a body that functions, that even though it is starting to show signs of aging, I can walk, run, talk, breathe, smile, cook, bake, snuggle on the couch with my kiddos and hubby, hug & kiss them each day, walk hand in hand with my sweetie as we go on walks around the block, or walks on our dates and most of all I have my health!
(looking forward to enjoying another 40 years of LOTS of health, happiness, romance & loving with my best friend and love of my life!)

I am truly grateful for all of the many simple pleasures in life that fill my life with much joy and love...

with the top of the list being Tracy, Jade & Ethan!