Castle in the Clouds

I was thinking about why I wasn't posting much here, and it occurred to me that it was because I couldn't talk about how happy I was for nearly a year. I had to be careful to keep things offline and discreet. I know many people might find that suspicious, but it was because I was against the rules. You see, he was my dance instructor, and fraternizing with students was forbidden. A fireable offense.  Eventually, he left that job for me. Not because we were outed to the owners, but because we both got tired of having to pretend we were something less than two people completely in love with each other. It became more and more difficult to hide how we felt about each other. More than once, I almost slipped and said "I love you" and "don't forget to text me on your way home" as I walked out the studio door. My lips came close to his cheek, and my fingers lingered a bit too long during social dances.  We came up with hand squeezes and silly phrases to expres...

Has it really been almost three years since I've posted anything here?  Not to be dramatic, but A LOT HAS CHANGED.  Mostly, me.  When I last wrote something for the blog, this was me.  I'm the one in the middle. Fast forward three years. This is me now.  25 pounds lighter. More confident. Happier! I have been on more than just a weight journey. I have evolved. I have become someone who enjoys wearing cute, dare I say, even sexy clothes. My wardrobe has exploded. My shoes are out of control. My jewelry boxes overflow. This isn't a brag because almost everything comes from discount stores like Temu and Shein. It's a testament to how fundamentally different I am from the mom/wife who used to wear the same thing day after day and, more often than not, appeared frumpy. I hid in baggy sweatshirts and overly large sweaters. I did not feel cute or sexy back then for a variety of reasons that are more fit for a private journal than this blog.  Those days are done....

  Our first travel trailer. I don't remember camping much with my family as a kid. This is likely because we always had the same vacation destination: a family plot in Baldwin, MI. There was no cabin there. Instead, there were two structures: a small, silver camper and an old single-wide trailer. The silver camper is gone but the single-wide still sits there and is used by extended family members to this day.  It wasn't until I was a teenager that my step-mom and dad bought a pop-up trailer and we started camping elsewhere in the state. My memory isn't the greatest, but I'm almost certain they got the pop-up after I started dating Ken. Eventually, my parents upgraded to a fifth wheel that my dad still pulls around to various nearby camping spots. Ken, by contrast, didn't have a set vacation destination growing up. His family camped. They started out with a truck-bed camper, I believe, and eventually upgraded to a fifth wheel.  Ken and I vacationed both in Baldwin an...

  Me and Ken with the Stanley Cup I recently went away for a scrapbooking weekend with my friends and family. I wasn't in the mood to lug my scrapbooking supplies around, so I only brought a few smaller projects. I had coloring books and colored pencils for those moments when I really didn't want to do anything. I also had my laptop, tablet, photo scanner, and several boxes of old photos.  My first priority was to finish up my nephew's senior pictures. I had some editing left to do from our summer session. I am happy to report I am all caught up now!  I finished up his baseball pics and sent them off to his mom.  Once I had completed that task, I colored for a bit. Eventually, after my sister finished borrowing my computer to do some video editing for her job, I hooked up my photo scanner and started feeding in pictures. I have a feeling I have some of these floating around on an external drive or CD somewhere, but, just in case I can't find them in the future, I sca...