Changes

It's been a long time since I've blogged regularly. In fact, I completely forgot about this blog. I tried my hand at blogging under my own domain for a few years, but it started stressing me out. I was spending way too much time writing for it and perfecting it and thinking about what to blog next and trying to organize it. And I worried way too much about whether my posts were any good. I missed just blogging for myself because I enjoyed it. I decided to stop paying for it. I've missed blogging and was thrilled to discover my old, FREE blog is still up. So, at least for now, I am going to blog again - just for fun, just a way of journaling for my future self.

I've been thinking about all the changes since my last posts here in 2014:

• Andy retired from the Air Force after 30 years of service and we moved to Pennsylvania. He now works in HR at the Navy Depot.
  
  
• Whitney, John & the grands all moved to Pennsylvania with us! They live about 20 minutes away from us. It's great and we see them often!
  
  
• River and Austen have transformed from toddlers to big kids, and we have 2 more beautiful grandchildren.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• We finally bought a house with a swimming pool, something we have always wanted! We love spending our summers grilling out back and cooling off in our pool. We live on a cul-de-sac and have the best neighbors. We all get together often for playing cornhole or watching football. Of course, with the resurgence of stupid COVID right now we haven't been able to do much lately, but hopefully that will change soon.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• AJ graduated from CWU with a degree in business, works a state job and got married! He and his wife Hallie live in Washington.
  
  
• Sky graduated from college with a degree in nursing. She works as an RN in a hospital and  lives with us. She has a serious boyfriend named Patrick who is over here often. We consider him a part of the family.
  
  
• Emma graduated from high school in 2019 and is pursuing a degree in Art Education.
  
  
• My sweet buddy Luke died shortly after we moved here. I was devastated and missed him following me around everywhere. We adopted another goofball golden retriever puppy in December 2016 and named him Sammy. Then around Thanksgiving 2019 we adopted a little pitbull-beagle mix that our friends found wandering around in a Walmart parking lot. We named him Ollie. He is super cute and sweet, but much more serious than Sammy. I totally believe golden retrievers are the goofiest of all dog breeds.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• While Emma was still in high school, I started working in the cafeteria as a bonafide lunch lady! It was a busy job with fun coworkers that kept me moving around. The days went by super fast. But I wanted more freedom so I could travel with Andy when he went on business trips. So I quit, and started volunteering once a week. I got to travel to Hawaii with him and right after we came back COVID happened. So Andy hasn't had any work travel since last February. But Hawaii was AMAZING!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I spent a semester training to become a volunteer CASA (court-appointed special advocate for a foster child) and was certified in December 2016. I have worked on two cases since.
  
  
• Like everyone else, I am sick and tired of COVID. Uggghhh