New Year, 2011

So, it was one heck of a yeah, huh? Problem is, I blog so unregularly that I can't really remember much of what happened, and it's been about 8 months since I posted. That's right, 8 months!

I'm still plugging along at eBay and Jesse is still at his place, although he will start at Western Governor's Univerity in February to finish his Bachelor degree. Fingers crossed he can get a lot done in a timely fashion. It's online Uni where it's up to you on how many courses you can finish within 6 months. Some dedicated folks can get through an entire 4-year degree in just over a year. I'm thinking those people don't have a life.

Still no kids for us as yet. We're hoping this will be the year. In the meantime we have two cats, Joline and Mister. They are siblings and are the best, craziest, pain-in-the-rear kitties, ever! I'm proud that they are both such good hunters but really, if they never brought in another live/almost alive/dead, bird/rodent/worm, it would be just fine with me. Really.

Our soap company, Sympathetic Soap, is starting out much slower than I thought it would. We did some farmer's market type events last summer that did pretty well for us, and I would like to do it again this year, but who knows if I will be able to get the time off to do it? We have a small fan following, and a small following is better than no following at all. We've expanded our inventory and I work on different items and formulas when I have the time.

This September my aunt gave me my grandmother's manuscipt; my aunt has had it for 15 years and finally turned it over to me. I was thinking that it would need a full-on editing done to it because my grandma bounced all over the place in her life story that she wrote, but upon talking with grandma, it turns out she just wants it transcribed and bound into a book format!

So Velvet, Carl, and I are now working on this book, transcribing pieces here and there, and then Carl will work his magic and make it a book, with an ISBN number and everything. We keep getting questioned on how the book is coming along and I'm like, listen, you had it for 15 years. I think taking a couple months to get it out is just fine! But, we are hoping to get it out sooner rather than later, because grandma is close to 90, after all.

We are very eager for spring to get here already. I keep looking at flower gardening sites and picturing what our yard will look like once it's all put together. Right now it's basically a dirt pit with a koi pond. Once thing I miss about living in the Oregon valley is that we won't be able to have a lush, green yard like those who live in humid regions. I see these photos with tons of green vegetation and think, "I want that!" But then I have to remember that we have almost no moisture and then I start to check out xeriscaping. I am totally going to have a ton of planters and those huge ceramic vases are the yard. And I've been looking into mini rose bushes, because I hear they have some really hardy ones. Jesse hates the care roses need, but I love the scent of roses...we'll see who wins.

It sounds like the cats are going crazy, so that's got to be all for now.