oh, hey – we’ve met, right?

Oh, HI! We’ve met, right? My name’s Amy and I haven’t blogged here in almost a year. So if you’ve forgotten about this place, I can’t say I blame you. If you were following along and missed me, let me just say, I missed the heck out of sharing with you, too! If not, maybe you’ll stick around a minute and fall in love with all the wit and wonder? HA! You’re possibly in the wrong place for all that, but I try.

I thought I’d catch you up on what’s been going down since I last checked in. Before I go into the random details, I figured if you HAVE been missing the blog, I should at least share what the hell, dontcha think? You know from previous posts that I was struggling to find my way after the loss of a couple loved ones. Then a couple more.  I’ve been seriously feeling like the freaking Messenger of Death or something *attempt at humor for something so heavy* I’m continuing to find my way through grief. Buuuut. I miss blogging and I feel like I can maybe take this on again. Here we are.

Now, the lowdown: That husband guy and I are enjoying 11 years of marriage and just over 19 years of love/figuring this crazy life out together. Jones is doing great, and I continue adoring him immensely. Still doing a full-time gig trying to make people smile, but added business photographer and social media dynamo to the resume. All the while attempting to build my own photography business. We still love our not-so-new kitchen and continue tidying up the yard.

So that’s the quickie version. See photo version below ;]

Garden

The grass sod we installed is doing really well. We overseeded for the first time this last winter (the people who know stuff said not to do it the first year as the Bermuda is still establishing itself), and there were some heated debates between me and Joe about what to do when winter grass should be done. He won the battle because I got tired of talking about it, and now he’s in charge of the lawn, whether it lives or dies. Stay tuned for details on the yard debate and saga, I’m sure you’ll find it as thrilling as I do. HA!

Tomatoes took over the raised bed garden this year. Then the white flies took over the tomatoes. Ants took over the whiteflies, and there you have it: short version circle of life. The plant popped up on it’s own and I didn’t have the heart to rip it out since it was already quite big by the time it caught my attention. We got SO.MANY.tomatoes out of the deal! My sis helped me can them into pickled, Italian style, and salsa tomatoes. I’m super stoked knowing how to can now, since I’m planning a bigger garden for this fall!

Food and Entertaining

With everything going on, we haven’t been entertaining as often as we use to. We did manage to put together our annual Pumpkin Party last year, and cook a few delicious meals. I recently signed us up for meal delivery service and that’s going really well. Here are some kiddos and meals we’ve enjoyed this last year:

One of the meals from Plated meal delivery, right there.

One of the meals from Plated meal delivery, right there.

An apple crisp I made this last winter.

This vegetarian shepherds pie was toDIEfor, holy hell. I will share this recipe if I can find it, promise.

For a while there, I was realllllly into prepping egg casseroles for the week ahead. But then it got way too stinking hot to use the oven so I switched to avocado toast with hard or soft boiled eggs (see below). Some hot sauce, salt and pepper and you can almost call it gourmet.

We did get out of town for our annual Thanksgiving camping trip, too. The campfire turkey this last year was the best yet!

Life in General

Even when the struggle is real and your heart aches, there are so many beautiful moments in life. We loved loved, loved, loved this wedding of two dear friends:

We had a bittersweet camping trip up in Williams, Arizona at the start of the summer. Surrounded by dear friends and family and scenery\an obscene amount of dust, it was a little bit of therapy for me.

I honestly can’t express how immensely grateful I am for the dear friends I’ve made and surrounded myself with over the years. From flowers to donations to kind words, out-of-the-blue calls or texts, I wholeheartedly believe I have the absolute best people in my life and I’ll be eternally thankful for their love and support the last few years.

Jones has been quite the little therapy dog for me and in exchange, he is spoiled and loved endlessly. He’s my favorite dog EVER, hand’s down!

We’ve Met, Right? Moving Forward…

That’s the short version of life lately. I originally drafted this post a couple months ago, so there is more to add – hey, we have something to look forward to, now!

Please drop me a line and let me know how you are. I feel like I’m finally looking forward to things, and your feedback always inspires me <3

xoxo, amy