It's a new journey.. again..

November of 2010 we embarked on a journey to Alaska. It's been rough to say the least. It's been a huge strain on my marriage, my personality and my desire to reach out and enjoy life.

Shawn and I have done our best to get out and embrace everything Alaska has to offer, and we have had alot of fun. However, it's not where we want to spend our lives on a permanent basis. Shawn and I are cowpokes, we enjoy ranch living, ranch life, open ranges and long warm evenings. We always knew we would retire in Eastern Oregon, or somewhere near his Dad's ranch in Oklahoma.

Shawn found out a few months back at a conference, that an opportunity in Little Rock, AR would be coming open eventually. (meaning in USAF, a year to 18 months). We knew it would be perfect for us, but also knew it would give us another year in Alaska to finish some must do items on our bucket list.

He got home from the conference and I kid you not , the job came open less than 4 days later.

So here goes nothing, we are moving again, this time back to the lower 48 and a left turn at Albuquerque.

Here is downtown Little Rock.

A State Park

Another State Park.

Johnny Cash's childhood home.

Also don't think I wont be taking my Mom and my sisters, Aunts, cousins for a trip to this place !

http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/

Hellllllllloooo sweet thing .. sigh.... Mommy is coming for you. !

I will also be visiting here.

Graceland

The immortal resting place of the coolest musician that ever lived. He had a weird Oedipus complex, but he still made awesome music and a bajillion lame movies that I love to watch.

So we embark on June or July, the date isn't final but it will be soon.

It will be the Alaska Hillbillies tour 2012. Two horses, three dogs, a cat and a beta fish!

Lordy, it should be an interesting trip!

Roller Derby? Really ?

My family thinks I've gone crazy, my kids think it's cool and my husband LOVES IT.

I play for a team called the Denali Destroyer Dolls or DDD for short.

I am in the back row third helmet from the left.



Every Roller Derby girl has a nickname she goes by. Some are cute, some are tough and some are well.. Way too raunchy to put here.
 My name is Payne Killer and my number is #800 mg. I wanted something else but my son thought it sounded like a porn star. oops This is a family blog!
It was so cool to hear my name called out in front of 1000 people.

and it's number 800 Payne KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAH !!! Man, I do love me a crowd :)

These are the toe caps my sons bought me for Christmas. It's Bumble Bee from Transformers.
 I fell in love with them the moment I saw them and HAD to have them. Makes me feel like a bad ass.

Another picture of me. Far left, with white knee pads.

We won our first bout against a team called Midnight Sun Roller Girls from Fairbanks, AK. They were VERY sore losers and have made it very hard to be excited about our first win. I didn't get to skate because I had just had surgery, but I will be all good for the next one.

So that's the big excitement around here, as we have our next bout April 14th, and I actually get to play in that one.

I think I may have gone crazy, who at 43 joins Roller Derby? Me, apparently.

The Ghost of Blogger Past

Good Morning Blogger peeps,

          I am excited to begin again this journey I took when I started this blog. We moved from Oregon to Alaska, now we are moving to Arkansas in July.

I had to stop triathlon training due some some medical issues, that I just had major surgery to repair.

I have also joined a roller derby team here in Wasilla.

SO much going on that I need to catch everyone up!

The yellow Bumble Bee toe caps, that's me :)
Please forgive for my long absence, it's been such a rough year and I was feeling less than inspired.

I always wanted this blog to be funny, informational and interesting. None of those things I had in my writing arsenal the last year.
However, I am feeling better and excited about beginning yet another adventure and sharing it with everyone via this blog as Facebook is boring to me these days.

See you soon,
JP and Star

It's about to get as sweet as Unicorns and Cotton Candy here

Hank is growing up these days. We take him places all the time, he loves coming to work with me.
However his number one job is to keep me company. It's a career path he has taken very seriously as you can see in the following photos.



The picture above was at Shawn's Work BBQ on Sunday. He is not a fan of the children yet. They tend to mob him and get overly aggressive with the holding and petting. He does not like that one little bit.

Picture below is us coming home from work on Friday. We both had a big day at work.The floor I work on is Hank Fan Club central. So he was on his best company mascot behaviour all day.

Chihuahua's are bred to be companion animals. So we coined the phrase "companion-ing". It's what is on Hankie's resume as his skill set.



We were supposed to go shopping and run errands but someone needed a nap first and do some work on his " companion-ing" skills.

Blogger is pissing me off with this text alignment and photo alignment BS today. So the huge post about star will have to wait until I get home and use my other computer. Until then enjoy the cuteness :)

updates cometh I promise

It has been a busy busy summer, and frankly I haven't had the energy to update the blog.
Sorry Peeps.

On the bright side and dark side.

Star finally made it to Alaska

It was a nightmare and she is a little worse for the wear.

Next post will be the entire saga.

Hugs and Peppermint treats!

Oh and it only gets better ....

Ready for another lengthy post? Good, settle in then. Got that snuggie and slippers ready because here goes.

It's Memorial Day weekend so what does every other American couple do on a sunny day but go to their local Home Depot for some flowers. And to what do Shawn's wandering eye do appear? Dad's reels hanging in the garden area. Shawn says Hey Honey, aren't these your Dad's reels? I look up and immediately go Yep, those are them all right. So if I ever I get lonely for family I can run down to Home Depot and chill with the Garden Hose Reels I guess.

                                          

 Dad started this company back in 1984- ish , it was the whole reason we moved to SoCal in the first place.

I thought it was cool that all the way up here in Wasilla I see a bit of home.

 The whole reason for the HD trip was because Shawn brought these Calla Lillie's home for me from Costco. They are so beautiful and my favorite flower, so I needed to buy soil and other flowers to go in my containers. Pansies, Soil, Pots and voila! A container garden in about 30 minutes. Easy Peasy.

 The view of my backyard and the lake over the weekend. The weather was outstanding and just nearly perfect. Met the interesting neighbor and his less than interesting Pit Bull. Sorry but they scare me and I am not a fan of them running loose in my yard just because "everyone else does it". My dogs are NEVER allowed to run loose. EVER...Let's not get me started about the poop in my yard that I know is not my dogs poop. ugh so nasty...

Perfect for catching fish? Not really.. Shawn caught this bad boy about 12-14 inches. But nothing else all weekend.  We are buying a canoe so soon we will be going out farther than just the boat dock to cast. Shawn was very impressed that I knew how to cast a line even though I had not picked up a fishing pole in nearly 20 years. I told him, my Dad could put a pole in my hand and I would be happy for HOURS, sitting by myself just casting that line over and over again.

 We ended the entirely too perfect weekend with a campfire and Smores. It would have only been better if we had people over sharing it. The neighbors had a party with almost 100 people. We went over later after all the majority of them had left to chat, smoke cigars and drink. Yeah, life is rough out here.. So so hard...

 So that's the weekend round -up. Onto the diet for a second. Anything Amy's is yummy. These burritos are SUPER Yummy. Expensive but I'm not eating them everyday. Some days I just want to stick something in the microwave and call it good.

 These however were GAH-ross. Do not eat unless you like overly minty edible paste. Almost like the stuff we had in Kindergarten but I think worse. I wouldn't know as I wasn't a paste eater, but I am speculating anyway.

 So AK PonyGirl invited me to go on a trail ride while they marked trail for this weekends upcoming poker ride. I am not one to ever say no, so of course I went! She is a great trail horse, point and go. No drama just happily plugs along. I am beginning to favor the short ponies. It was so easy to throw a leg over her! I am used to Star where a mounting block/stump/step etc is required as she is tall and gets all kinds of pissed off if you mount from the ground.

We were out riding until almost 11 pm and it was just barely getting dark.  How wicked cool is that? When Star gets here we will be riding up in these mountains. Oh I cant wait!

So that's all I got so far, nothing terribly exciting and new to report here in the Last Frontier.

If you are planning to come visit, let us know as we would love to have you! 

JP~ Hugs and Love

Whats in my lunch sack?

Breakfast: Ezekiel Gluten Free Bread with Organic Peanut Butter and whole fruit Jelly.
Until I find low sugar organic Jelly, this will have to do.

Lunch and two snacks:

Almonds- Raw
Blueberries
Carrot sticks
Tuna
Hard Boiled eggs.

This I will divide up into little mini meals through out the day. Then will most likely drink a protein shake tonight before I go riding with friends. I will not have time to eat dinner tonight.

The usual dinner is meat and veggies, but Mr Shawn is a Carb Metabolism guy and needs more than I do , so we have included some pasta and cornbread for him. I just need to learn to say no, but I grew up on cornbread and it's soooooooo tasty!

So, do yourself a favor and go get the Bobs Red Mill ( Oregon Brand) Gluten Free Brownie Mix and add the extra Chocolate Chips in the mix. You will LOVE THEM. They are the best brownies we've ever made from a mix. I had ZERO heartburn and ZERO bloating with them and the lactose free Ice Cream.

Work out plan for this week:

Tonight: I am going riding on an actual horse for a couple hours- My abductors will be screaming tomorrow I am sure.
Thursday: Expresso Bike- 12 miles AKA The Vindicator
Friday: Nothin :-)
Saturday: Swim- 800 meters
Sunday: Swim-800 meters

It's raining here today, which sucks because I was just bragging it doesnt rain in Alaska to my Oregon Peeps.
oops ...

Pics of the ride tomorrow !