My word for 2021 : Seeking

 

Do you choose a word for your year?  I have the last few years.

Here we are almost into March and I'm finally at the point where

I know my word. 

"Seeking"

I feel that I have a lot of things I'm seeking to do this year.

I'm almost fifty.  How can that be?  50 seemed so old to me when

I was 20, now I feel like I'm still pretty young.

My body doesn't always agree with that.  So this year I am seeking ways

to say healthy and go into my older years with grace and strength.

I'm seeking out a healthy diet.  Which at my store is 

easy because they have dietitians that will help you make up a 

good diet plan and little tags around the store that point you to the healthier choice.

I love Bento boxes.  This is my typical work lunch, salad, fruit and a 

healthy protein.

I'm seeking out ways to stay motivated to exercise.

I join virtual races to keep me motivated to walk each day.

I have a fitness tracking device that helps me to see

how well I am doing with my exercise routine.

I also created a group text with my favorite ladies to keep us

all motivated.  It has been a wonderful way to connect and uplift and

I am so glad for them in my life.

I'm seeking organization in my life.

This is my office at the moment.  It always becomes this mess of

holding papers.  This year the papers are being scanned and made into computer files

and then all the family history information will be connected to the families they 

belong with and the papers will be shredded and gone.

I have also found my new daily and monthly tracking sheets.

I love them and think they fit all my goal tracking needs.

I have been doing a goal tracking binder for 3 years now and

it really helps me to stay focused.

I am continuing to seek out the stories of my ancestors.

Last year I got a subscription to a news paper search engine.

I have been having so much fun reading about the lives of

my ancestors in the news papers.  

I am seeking God's hand in my life. 

In the morning I listen to scriptures as I drive to work,

In the afternoon as I drive home I listen to a conference talk. 

I also try to find time to read from uplifting books.

I am always seeking for peace in calm in this turbulent world.

I am also seeking adventure this year.

I love going and seeing new places in Utah.

My husband and I have  been enjoying our day dates.

Sometimes we find ourselves walking the same paths,

but I try hard to find new paths and places to visit each month.

Hopefully this book that I have found will help us

find new adventures.  I also follow some different Utah centered 

facebook and instagram pages to find places to go to.

When we are finally ok to travel again (when the pandemic is over)

we hope to visit New Jersey, Vermont and Arizona.

The big dream is to also go to Scotland.

My husband got me a selfie stick for Christmas.

We are having so much fun taking photos when we go out.

I will be seeking to find more birds this year. I want to 

make a Utah Birds photography book too.

I am also seeking for a new camera.  We will see. 

I get such good results from the camera I have it's hard to decide to change.

I am also seeking to keep my work and life

in good balance.  I love my job, and the future may hold

new opportunities, I just don't want work to keep me from

having a really good life.  

My son drew this picture for me.  

I love it.

Well that is what I plan for this year.

Do you have a word for the year?

Would love if you would share it with me.

G.G.

Valentines 2021

 

We had a nice valentines day despite the ongoing pandemic.

It was amazing how fast the store sold out of chocolates.

I thought I would share some of the photos I took 

of the store with you.  I love the store I work at.

I do the accounting and bank work for the store,

along with mailing packages out for customers and I'm also in charge

of balloons. In the above photo is one of the hot air balloon baskets we

put together for valentines day.  We sold 8 of them this year.

Here is another shot of the flower displays with some of my balloons.

I start the process of valentines day balloons in October.  

My order will arrive in January and then I slowly get them organized

for Valentines day.  I spent almost a whole week, just inflating valentines day

balloons.  I was so pleased that my store made top sales this year.  That has 

always been my end goal.

The floral shop had so many wonderful valentines gifts.

Our Floral Shop Manager is so talented, I love seeing

the flower arrangements that she makes.

There were so many beautiful flowers.

I would go around before my shift started and snap

photos.  I will have some nice flower photos to

make into cards to send to my friends.

The Lilies were so beautiful.

Someday I would like to put my photos into a book

with the meanings of the flowers.  That is one of my big

projects for this year.

I don't usually get flowers for my house,

because many are poisonous to cats.

I sure love to look at them though.

All the decorations were just so beautiful.

My store around the holidays feels so magical.

I love how they go all out to make the store look special.

I would have a hard time deciding what to get as a gift

If I was young and in love for the first time.

I'm glad I'm in the comfortable love of a life time stage.

Here are a few of my best selling balloons.

The dog did not stay in the store long. 

For some reason everyone loves this squid balloon too.

It's kind of fun to make.  I think we sold over 30 of them.

Well I hope you enjoyed my photos.

Hope you had a wonderful Valentines day.

It feels like this year is just speeding by.

G.G.

Our Songs... The making of our list of 25 songs to celebrate 25 years together... January 2021 songs.

 In August we will celebrate 25 years of marriage.  A few years ago

for our anniversary I made a song play list and a book with photos of my husband

and I throughout the years.  This year what is fun is that on our dates we listen

to music together and are putting the song list together.  We are

only in month one and we are having so much fun.

I have to pick about 4 songs for the next 7 months to get 25 songs by July.

Then I also have to find photos for the book to go with the song lyrics. 

Each song has lyrics that make us think about each other or our relationship. 

This song was on the first play list.  I liked the fact that it was a song about

having a song that reminds you of the one you love. 

It was the first song in the play list, introducing the theme of 

the play list.  "...Play that song, the one that makes me go all night long

the one that makes me think of you, that's all you gotta do.."

 I have been listening to a Taylor Swift play list lately and really liked

this song too.   " Our song is the way you laugh

The first date; " Man, I didn't kiss her, and I should have"

And when I got home, 'fore I said "Amen"

Asking God if he could play it again. " 

My husbands laugh is a song to my ears.  We are always giggling and laughing 

about some little inside joke.

This is our wedding song, so it is always on the anniversary play list. 

"Grow old along with me

The best is yet to be

when our time has come

we will be as one

God Bless Our Love."

I believe we will be together forever.

After we die, we will still be together, there will be 

no end to our marriage. 

I make lunch for my husband for his work everyday. 

Each month I write out some of the song lyrics and put them in with his lunch.

I write to him what lyrics speak to me, why I like the song.

It's a fun way to add joy to our marriage.

I love this song by Keith Urban.  This is a new song to the play list.

"I wanna sleep with you forever

and I wanna die in your arms...

I told my husband if I ever get sick before him, and I'm going to die,

I want this, for him to hold me in his arms as I die.  

Not that I want for that to happen anytime soon, but that would be my best way to 

cross to the other side.

"And I'm gonna love you

Like nobody loves you

And I'll earn your trust 

makin' memories of us."

This has been what we have been doing for 25 years.  We have been making 

memories and earning each others trust.  Becoming best friends and lovers. 

Constantly changing and yet growing closer to each other.  It's been such a beautiful adventure.

I hope we have many more years to be together. 

Well now I have to find 3 to 4 more songs for February.

G.G.

 

Birding At Farmington Bay...Searching for the Bald Eagles.

This year as I go out birding I want to  

show in my photography how far away my subject is.

You really need a good zoom lens with your camera and

binoculars when you go bird watching.  Do you see the bird in this photo?

This is the zoomed in photo.  I love seeing the Blue Herons. 

I think this one is standing on one leg.

This is a zoomed in photo and the birds are still very small.

Do you see the two Bald Eagles on the tree?

Can you even tell there are birds in this photo.  I think there are some

Swans in this one.

This is without any zoom, the eagles are there on a

big chunk of ice.

This is the zoomed in photo.

Then I got out of the car and closer to the edge of the water.

I wonder if they knew the people came to watch them.

I think this one caught a fish.

The Seagulls are near the eagles, but I think they are a little bit worried that

they could also become the next meal.

I need to look that up and see if eagles eat other birds.

It was so much fun to watch them.

Here is a big group. 

So my camera is not as big at the ones these people have.

I'm a bit jealous, but I don't know that I want to lug the tripod and equipment around.

There were tons of people out looking at the birds. I think

it was the most people I had seen since we started bird watching.

I wonder do you think they are having a chat? 

Excuse me, would you share some of your fish with me Mr. Eagle?

How far away they really were.

The Hawks were out and hunting too. 

I think they were looking for mice, as they were not near the water.

I thought this was an interesting photo.

It is really beautiful at the bird preserve. 

These next photos are of pelicans floating in the  air.

They kept doing these patterns of flight together.

Just gliding around up in the sky.

My husband called it "Bird Joy"  because he felt 

the birds must be enjoying the moment of just gliding in the air.

One moment you would see them and then they would turn and

it was like they were gone.  I was surprised by how many

birds we saw.

There was a tree of red winged black birds.

I love listening to them.  I wasn't able to get a good photo.

I was afraid if I got out of the car to get closer they would fly away.

He is hunting something, he swooped down to the

ground after I took this photo, I was hoping to see him catch something.

Can you see the bird in this photo?

It's another blue heron.

There is a bench out here that we like to sit on and just enjoy the outdoors.

This one swooped right up onto the vent of the outhouse.

I'm so glad we found these bird watching places.

We have so much fun.

Look I caught our shadows kissing. 

The clouds in the sky were so beautiful.

I got a selfie stick for Christmas. 

Now we can have photos of us together. 

It's not easy getting a good photo with the background the way I want it.

Almost 25 years together and he still needs to have

kiss photos.  I must be doing something right.

Can you see me??

Hope you enjoyed looking at the photos. 

I could go back my next day off. I think though I have to get the house cleaned. 

G.G.