All in the red. One in the head and that was intentional. This was my target from my first time shooting my Glock 19. That is a sweet ass gun. I want to get some advanced training. 

I think I like shooting because I’m good at it. I never liked gambling because I never got the positive reinforcement of winning. Hitting the bull’s eye is positive reinforcement. Does that make sense?

In a nutshell-

• I’ve been crazy busy with my photography business and it’s going very well. I specialize in newborns, but also shoot weddings. I’m not terribly fond of shooting weddings or maternity. Lighting is nuts at weddings and big bellies are not my thing.
• We bought five acres and we’re going to have a little mini farm! With like animals and shit!
• Here are some of our trees. There are five huge live oaks and about 1 ½ acres is still wooded in back. I love the trees. Love <3
• We just came back from the Smoky Mountains and only saw 7 bears. Last time we saw 17. Don’t know what’s up with that.
• I went horseback riding in the Smokies and the horse did not bite me. Damn good thing because I’ve been afraid of them since I got bit as a kid. Now I want to take horseback riding lessons. My horse was Ben and we had a deal- he got an apple if he didn’t bite me.
• I cleaned my gun for the first time tonight. The LCP was a little tricky, but the Glock 19 ( my fave) was a snap. Next time I’ll remember ventilation. That solvent was noxious.
• I learned how to shoot and am damn good at it. Pics will follow. Must be a natural or something. I really dig target shooting.
• New future neighbors (at our farm) are dicks and moved the survey stakes that we paid good money to have put down. Gonna have to watch those assholes.
• Pretty excited about moving, but hoping it won’t kill my business to move it an hour away. I’m totally willing to start over.
• The hubby said we can get a pool!
• I can’t wait to start building our new house. We’re going to build my studio first and live in it while we’re building our house. My house burned down and my husband’s house is the one we live in now (which used to be his ex wife’s house too). It will be nice to have something that feels like both of ours.

Lunch with my shortest shortie.

Where my house stood. I remember watching the house being built. I remember each item: the bathtub arriving, the fireplaces put in, everything was exciting and new. I remember thinking about being on the water and the views of what is really just a large retention pond, but man I thought it was heaven.

My best friend lived here with me for a good period of time while his life was in a shambles and we had some crazy adventures out on that “lake”. We found buried treasure, an old safe that was across the pond and was just visible under the water. It took us an entire summer to figure out how to get it to the other side. A picture of Jesus was the only thing that survived the muck of the water.

We had a large donut shaped raft we’d go out in and we had a kayak oar across the middle so I could dip in the cool water because I can’t swim for shit. We’d scare ourselves silly going out in the pedal boat at night and talk about alligators. 

We had one crazy party where we kicked out all of the guests. No shit. We’d finally gotten that damned safe on a kiddie pool and was transporting it back when our drunken guests were thwarting our attempts by shooting beebee guns at our raft.

Those crazy times with my buddy was like a second childhood. Then of course, this was the place where we had family gatherings, birthday parties, my beautiful grandchildren spent plenty of time here. It was a happy place.

This lot is now for sale and I hope that someone will enjoy it as much as I did. The house is gone, but the memories are not.

I’ve been away from Tumblr for a little while. I was dealing with my own shitstorm and while I wanted to talk about it I couldn’t talk about it and didn’t know how not to.

July 7th my house burned down. Dealing with the insurance company and the traumatic loss was especially stressful and while no one was hurt, my daughter barely made it out of the house. Fortunately my two grandsons were sleeping out that night. The cat did not survive.

My daughter and grandsons lost everything as they had moved in while she was finishing up her degree. 

What happened was my daughter was not allowed to smoke in the house because I’m allergic and so would smoke on the back deck. She extinguished her cigarettes in a container close by the back door. Apparently, the butt was not out and caught the house on fire. She woke three hours later by her friend who was sleeping over, and with much difficulty waking her, they found the house engulfed in flames. The smoke detectors never went off.

I suppose that if I could help someone by sharing this story I would caution you to make sure that cigarettes are put out in the proper container. Also, I would suggest you revisit your insurance coverage and make sure it’s appropriate if your house is not new. Our policy would have been up two weeks post fire and we had already set up with a new insurance company better rates with more coverage. Since my house was ten years old I was under insured by about 30%.

My little house was the first and only house I ever owned and it was paid for and for that I was proud. I had some really great memories there, but I’m looking toward the future. Joe’s house is for sale and we’ll buy one that feels like both of ours.

I hope you all have been well. I was very saddened to hear the news about Julie. Joe and I were just talking about her a few days ago and he had a feeling that we should check Tumblr. Though I never met her she will be missed.