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It’s half way through the summer and I have finally posted pictures of all the things I’m growing. This year I am going to keep a sideshow with photos of all the exciting changes in my garden. I’ve become obsessed with veggies so I am calling it “The Farm“.

I hadn’t ever been to the circus before this weekend. I might have gone when I was to little to remember and I’ve see the Cirque Du Soleil but yesterday was my first time seeing 6 motorcycles ride together in a small globe! I was afraid my expectations for “The Greatest Show on Earth” were over inflated but I was dazzled. I was mostly into the animals. There were dogs, ponies, a little pig who rolled out a carpet, elephants, and tigers all doing fun tricks. I also enjoyed the acrobats and trapeze. There was just a happy silly vibe in the air.

I loved watching the elephants dance and do tricks but at the same time I had thoughts of those same elephants in a small train stall traveling the country. The Ringling Brothers Circus has information on it’s website about caring for their animals.

I can’t forget to mention that the circus is a junk food event. We had a bucket of popcorn, a hot dog, a sprite, and a fried dough. I would have also had a snow cone but I got to full.

We passed the circus trains on the way in and out of town. The train filled with all those people, animals and stuff gives me visions of “The Little Engine Who Could” making it’s way over the big hill. There must me over a hundred people of people, seven elephants, and the entire set, plus all the merchandise.

If you want to see more pictures of our trip to the circus check out my photo gallery.

When I was 15 years old my family moved from Columbus, OH to Easton, PA. This was our 5th move in 5 years. My sister and I were unhappy to leave our friends yet again, so our mother bribed us with the promise of pets. Unfortunately we rented a house that did not allow animals. That was what we believed until one day mother father accidentally spilled the beans that the least allowed for one cat. We went that very day and brought home Bossy. The cat people, my father and I, were happy but the dog people, my sister and mother still didn’t have their puppy.

Something that should be know about my mother is that she is a person that believes in rules. The lease said no dogs and she planned to stick to it, regardless of her long time craving for a canine companion. I knew it was love at first sight when she saw Sweet Pea because in those moments the rules meant nothing. With just a glance through the glass my mother turned to me and annouced, “That is our dog!”. After playing with the our puppy for a few minutes my mother already knew her name was Sweet Pea.

Sweet Pea was a scrawny little miniature schnauzer with big floppy ears. Dumbo was one of her many nicknames. The cat has always tormented her by getting her all worked up so she would chase her and then faking towards the sliding glass door. The poor puppy wouldn’t be able to stop herself from sliding right into the glass door. There was a time Sweet Pea would climb up the stairs but was afraid to climb down. The cat loved to get the dog to chase her up the stairs and then come running back down leaving the puppy stuck.

Over the next few years my parents got two other miniature schnauzers, Daisy and Clover. Sweet Pea was always the mouthy one in their pack. She was the most likely to misbehave, always the first to bark at bigger dogs. We like to think of her as the ring leader and the other two as her muscle. She was also always be the first one to jump in your lap. My mother loved to call her a slut because she was willing to get into anyones lap for a little attention. She was a wonderful little barky dog and we all loved her very much.

Even as our dogs have gotten older we have always called them puppies. Sweet Pea was our 13 year old puppy. I think it might have started with my dad but we all adopted a since that if we pretended like they were still puppies somehow they would stay that way. Even in my home my cat, Adelyne, is more commonly called “The Kitten”. This week the fantasy of our forever puppy was broken with the passing of our Sweet Pea. My sister and I accuse my mother of replacing us with her puppies. To tease us she would call them our brother and sisters. Once I left home I missed them like they were part of my family.

Sweet Pea was really so loved by my family and will be so missed. I’m sad that I won’t be petting her again but a comforted by the fact that I know a puppy could not have had it better. There was always a lap for her to sit in, it was easy to scraps from our table, and once we brought on the bodyguards that damn cat couldn’t even get to her.

For more pics of all the puppies check out my photo gallery.

Myah and I had planned to go see a movie Horton hears a Who but just couldn’t spend a beautiful afternoon in a movie theater. Instead we did a little shopping and then got our nails done. Each time we are together is so wonderful. She is amazing. I find myself being a little protective of her. I worry when I can’t see her. Once we got lunch at the food court and I felt nervous leaving her at the table to get my food. I’m not really sure what kind of supervision is appropriate for a seven year old. It defiantly has something to do with the child. Myah seems pretty responsible.  My instinct to be so protective surprises me. I’ve always believed I would be a laid back mother. It’s important to me that my children experience the world. This “big sister” thing is new to me. Myah and I are not peers which is different from my relationship with my biological sister, Dori. We get to be friends but I am the one in charge. In general I have no problems being the leader but it feels different when someone is dependent on you. I’m all for treating kids like people and with Myah this is easy. She has never been anything but completely pleasant when she has been with me. Her entire family are friendly. I’ve enjoyed spending time with her mother and brother. My BBBS experience has so far been a perfect choice for me. I feel lucky to be able to share time with Myah.

Last December I left my job. I didn’t exactly resign as much as I created a situation where I could no longer work at the company. It wasn’t the smartest path but it was the one I choose to take. During the past few months I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next. I like to think I am a certain kind of person. I wasn’t being that person in the beginning of the winter. I needed to make the changes point things in the direction I want to go. The first step was figuring out where to go. I did have ideas for filling my time off.

One of my ideas was that I would make excerise a regular part of my life. I joined the gym and I do go pretty regularly. I take a tennis clinic on Sundays and I try to workout at least two other times a week. There have been phases in what I choose for my non-tennis workouts. I started by just working out in the gym. The club offers two free sessions with a trainer when you join. Joe is beautiful in personality and looks. During our sessions he showed me a workout to help me to work toward my goals. I started with a little running and then lifted some weights. I enjoyed these workouts for awhile partly because Joe is always chatty when he sees me. I started getting bored when I kept forgetting to charge my ipod or to bring the ear phones. One day I didn’t want to run to silent tv so I took a palates class. Then I learned about the tennis social on Wednesday morning. These socials gave me a chance to play with some of the big kids, more senior club members. Lately I’ve been inspired by my sister to swim laps. I feel great about getting to the gym and enjoying my time there.

I would say the biggest challenge I wanted to met during my time off is figuring out what to do about this work thing. As I was sitting here trying to figure out how to explain how I felt about my previous jobs and how this new work thing has to be different when a tweet from JimMoon.com wrapped it all up in a 140 characters.

“Ya know, They say find somthing you love, and youll never work a day in your life… Well, I’m still looking…”

I’ve decided I want to be a clinical social worker. I’m into families. The relationships in a persons family sets the tone for all their other interactions. It’s where a person learns basis concepts such as love, happiness, and respect. I had thought about going for my MSW but wasn’t really ready to act on it until about two weeks before the deadline. I have an unbreakable habit of leaving just enough time to finish a task. Somehow I gathered all the recommendations and wrote an essay I felt pride in summiting. Last week I got my acceptance letter from Simmons. I couldn’t be more excited to start the program next September.

I’ve thought about volunteering since I moved to Boston. These thoughts were of working with the homeless population or the democratic party. I never felt inspired until I found out someone in my tennis clinic worked for Big Brother Big Sister (BBBS). I was drawn to the idea of spending time with a child. We have been matched for a month and half. At seven years old her favorite restaurant is Mr. Sushi. This girl doesn’t know how to do anything but smile. We were shopping a couple weeks ago and picked up a beautiful tiara which she wore to an event this past Sunday. I suspect she may have it on when I pick her up for next play date.

I have many other projects on the go. I’ve been scanning all my family photos, selling my jewelry on Etsy, and put some time into our web hosting company, Alienwebshop. We finally have a routine for keeping the house clean I’ve also been having a good time with all my plants. A new plant page should be coming soon. Each day becomes more and more full of things I want to be doing.

I’ve been on a few interviews lately. I got a call from the people I spoke with first about a job in human services. It’s only part-time but they will work with my schedule for school. I’ll be helping families transition into permanent housing and providing ongoing support. I’ll be doing a part-time finance admin job I’ve been on for the past couple weeks. I’m even having a blast hanging out at the office. They have me making filing systems. I love taking a mess and turning into color coded beauty. I use the laser printer to make the perfect labels for both the file and hanging folders. Everyone in the office was impressed when I tossed the old magazines from the coffee table and then straitened the rest. A phone call today changes everything so work is no longer a problem but a pleasure.

These are just a few reasons why life rocks for me. I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere these days and the ride is a blast. Next priority is to adapt blogging and twitter into all the things I do.

Lukas has asked me to start collecting card board tubes to use as bowling pen for his new favorite sport. He picks up the kitten like she is a bowling ball and throwing her across the dining table. She does a kind off roll slide across the table. When she gets to the other side she sits there and stares at Lukas for a second. Any normal cat would run away at this point. The kitten just prances right back into Lukas hands for another tumble. This is how they bond.

I’ve changed my look yet again. I’ve decided to go with the wordpress for blogging and use iweb for making the pages I want to be “pretty”. I’ve installed Dreamweaver but haven’t yet put the effort into playing with it. Maybe some even prettier pages to come in the not to distance future.

I started my Etsy store in the beginning of February. This website allows me to sell my handmade crafts and network with other crafters. I am calling my page “Bailey’s Craft Shop”. Currently I only have jewelry listed but I plan to add other crafts in the very near future. I am currently working on block printed note cards and a couple flower pictures made with decoupage. I am hoping to fill my shop with the products of all my different crafting ventures.

Torrey and I have instituted a craft night. For the past few weeks we’ve met on Tuesday nights, had a little dinner and did some fun crafty stuff. Our current project is block printing.
Block printing was Torrey’s idea. I am always up to learn something new. I bought a starter kit that included all the basic needs for the project; 4×5 lino block, Lino handle, Cutters #1,2, and 4, black printing ink, a soft pop-in brayer and foam tray. It also came with a booklet but I just followed Torrey’s instruction. I chose to make my first block butterflies. We first copied the design onto the block using carbon paper. The we set to work with our little tool removing all the negative space. I didn’t really get the knack for the scoop the first evening and I hurt my hand. One of my fingers is still a little numb. SInce then I’ve learned to scoop without pain. The two blocks I have made so far are displayed on this page. I like this medium. I plan to make an Applefest 2008 block sometime soon.

With each week of freedom I feel more and more relaxed. This week I’ve made jewelry, block printing, and spent some time on videos. I’ve hit the gym and I’ve sat on the couch. I’ve made three loaves of bread, pizza, lasagna, and homemade ice cream. My plant are well tended to. The mint has exploded with health growth that seems to be spider mite free. I think it might be about time to start looking for a job.