Grounded: Stepping Stones to the Present + A Story
Saturday, November 10, 2018
 |
| Thick socks and new rug to keep our feet warm. |
 |
| Theme is staying warm right now. |
My feet now - November 2018
Thick, cotton socks.
Tufted kitchen rug.
Mexican blanket and warm husky fluff.
Gifted chair from my current Employment at Kakawa Chocolate House.
***
Stepping Stones
1. I was born January 3rd 1980 in Corpus Christi, TX.
2. Moved to San Antonio, TX in 1984.
3. Grew up on 3735 Briarhill just a street away from my grandparents
- Ralph & Bonnie Trexler (3746 Highcliff) -
and just a handful of houses down the street from my best friends, Sarah and Laura Monroe.
4. Featured in the San Antonio Express Newspaper in Fourth Grade for an event at Northwood Elementary School - I was captured on film dressed as a princess for a medieval feast lunch party.
5. Summers were filmed by my grandma on VHS - my cousin Scott would visit and we would line soda cans filled with pool water around the edge of the pool that were collected by my grandpa throughout the year.
6. I joined Show Choir my 8th Grade Year and started to come out of my "shell" a bit.
7. Graduated High School in 1998 - I was so ready to get away after living a "normal" life never really seeing much outside my bubble. I went to three schools before college at SWT -
Northwood Elementary
Garner Middle
MacArthur High
8. My first kiss was on the eve of my Birthday in 1999 by Matthew Wegner. We were playing pool at his house and he dipped me down and planted a quick kiss on my lips. I met Matt through my roomie, Shanna St Andre at SWT.
9. Made my first snowball on the side of the road in Colorado in May of 2002 on my first road trip out of state to take Melissa Brandley home.
10. Josh proposed to me at Yosemite National Park in May of 2002 around 6AM in front of Lower Yosemite Falls. I had barely slept because I was so worried about bears attacking our tent and it was sooo cold.
11. I got married on June 21st, 2003 to Joshua Adam Mieth. I met Josh through Shanna at her wedding in 2001 to Eric Sliva (Josh's good friend from high school in Brenham). We took our honeymoon to Northern California and stayed at Elk Cove Inn just south of Mendocino.
12. Josh and I bought our first home in the fall of 2003 in Spring, Texas (suburb of Houston).
- 9634 Crail Dr - our home also came with our first kitty - Miss Kitty.
13. Josh and I adopted our first puppy in the fall of 2005 - Noah. He was a Hurricane Katrina
Evacuee and Josh drove to Lafayette, LA to pick him up while I worked at StoreHouse Furniture.
14. We moved our little family of four to Austin, Texas in the winter of 2007 to a little 1950s cottage
- 1815 W 36th St, B -
15. I started working at Dogadillo and met Lisa Conrad and Joni Bumgarner in the spring of 2008.
16. I blew my ACL in the fall of 2010 which led me down a whole new path of wellness. From PT with Jason Alaimo to workouts with Joni at Lifetime to Pilates with Britny - I lost about 40 pounds and started to be aware of my lifestyle choices.
17. I received my Real Estate License in 2012 to work with Tammy Young and my first fun car, Gertie my MINI Cooper as a present for getting my License. We also adopted our second pup, Cole in the Summer of 2013 right before I found out I had skin cancer in my right arm.
18. Summer of 2015 Josh and I went to Costa Rica with our friends, Kara and Kevin, Jackie and Brian, Renee and Thomas, and Alex and her Ex along with a few others to stay at a beautiful resort home with a private path to the beach. It was a beautiful trip and also a turning point for me. My health had declined and since my initial wellness work I'd gained weight again and my skin was aggravated with eczema. So while everyone was out partying I worked on myself and started journaling and meditating.
19. I started seriously training with Josh Bumgarner in the summer of 2015 and watched as my health improved, my mind was more focused, and I felt as if I were coming out of a daze that I'd been walking through for the past years.
20. The Fall of 2015 on my last trip to Mendocino, CA with Josh Mieth I realized we were not meant to be together. After almost 13 years of marriage we were divorced on August 30th 2016.
21. I moved out of our adorable cottage in March of 2016 and began dating Joshua Donald Bumgarner in April of 2016.
22. I adopted Hanz the husky in August 2016 and he came to live with me in my little apartment on the East Side.
23. At the end of Feb/ beginning of March of 2017 Josh, Hanz and I moved to Seaside, Oregon.
We lived in a cottage four blocks from the beach on 822 13th Avenue.
We were both bud tenders and worked at dispensaries. I also worked at Pilot House Distilling Co on Sunday Farmer's Market days in Astoria. We also adopted Dahlia, our demon hound mix from Hood River Oregon in May of 2017 to complete our current family.
24. At the end of October 2017 after struggling to find a home to purchase, we decided to move back south via New Mexico and moved into our current rental at 20 Rocking Horse Ranch, Unit D. We've been acclimating to high altitudes and tougher way of life since. We continue our journey here...
***
There are other stepping stones I don't want to leave out.
Like Interior Design School with Susan Oren and Jocelyn Johnsen.
Nights spent in my garage/ studio with Jocelyn with Buffy in the background and T-Square mania.
Noah and Miss Kitty and the doggy door.
Walks each day through the neighborhood in Spring.
Rosemary near the school.
The sadness of when I knew it was over with J.M.
The happiness of being with J.B. and the expansion he has brought not only to my heart but to my mind.
Picking a polaroid camera.
Film cameras.
House Showings.
My love for space planning and vintage homes.
The desire to travel.
The art of relaxing.
Working with all types of people in different states.
Hikes with J.B. to Enchanted Rock and along Barton Creek Greenbelt.
Photography walks with Joni along South Congress.
The endless amount of restaurant choices with the Densons.
Wine tastings - CA, WA, OR, NC, TX
Walks with Noah and Cole around the hood and to their park along Shoal Creek.
Meditating with J.B.
J.B. bringing me a rock home from his travels to CA with his Dad and Asher.
So many moments that make up my life.
Stepping stones that have brought me to where I am today.
This moment.
November 10th 2018.
In cozy, thick cotton socks.
On my leather sofa with Dahlia dreaming next to my feet and Hanz curled up on a mexican blanket by the coffee table. Josh snuggled in our bed.
Black Mother of Pearl/ Crescent moon ring on my left hand.
Grandpa merino cardigan and teeki sunflower pants.
Peppermint Rose Chai tea from Taos.
Vintage Foxwares Ceramic mug.
Crisp yellow leaves falling outside while birds search for leftover feed from yesterday.
Old course that I'm taking again, that I'm typing about right now. That I started in 2011
- Unravelling by Susannah Conway -
I still have the flickr page.
My photos have changed though as has my story.
***
Once Upon A time...
There was a young girl with big dreams.
She grew up happy with normal teenage angst of boys and clothes.
She loved to swim at her grandparent's pool.
And create fantasy worlds where everyone played a part.
Including swamps in the house and mud pits in the yard.
Each time she went on a road trip to the country with her family she would look out the window and daydream.
She was running.
Always trying to catch something or someone.
To help.
To love.
She embraced the outdoors and continued her young learned tradition of hiking throughout her adult life.
She left her hometown and moved around Texas.
She met a boy who loved her and they got married, bought a house, raised their little family of four.
They moved to Austin and turned their family into five.
They went on lots of adventures.
Near and Far.
Local parks to Northern California to snowed in festivities in Arkansas.
But the woman she had become seemed lost.
Who was she?
An Interior Designer?
A Photographer?
A Real Estate Agent?
A wife?
A mother to fur babies?
She was all of these things.
But she yearned for something else.
Something she knew she was missing.
It was love.
Yes she was in love with her life but not with passion.
She loved her Noah dog.
She loved Miss Kitty.
She still loves her Cole dog.
She even still loves her EX.
But that is a different love that she could only realize once she took action.
On what she was missing.
The love she was missing was understanding.
It was yearning.
It was passion.
It was equality.
It was travel.
It was taking the leap that others are afraid of.
It was doing instead of always talking about doing.
She loves her boyfriend now.
So much.
A love so different from the past.
Soul mates.
Through the good and the bad.
To miss someone so much.
To love someone so much.
To hurt so much for this loved one.
This is what was missing.
The education that love will grow and change, but the heart still yearns for that companion.
The one that really sets her heart on fire.
He has been with her.
Held her heart, her head and soul.
He doesn't understand all of her pain.
But he is with her through it.
And wants the best for her.
For them.
Their puppies.
Hanz + Dahlia.
She will always have good and bad days.
Ups and downs.
Adventures and times to heal.
With tears in her eyes and sadness still lingering in her soul.
She now reaches out to where she is now.
Her feet in Northern New Mexico.
Where many ancestors feet have been.
She now takes this new love that feels so old.
As if it were around many years before.
This ancient love now assists her.
With learning a new way of living the old way.
Respecting the earth as when she was a child.
Asking her elders how to tend to it.
Tend not only to love of her life but to the love of her earth around her.
This is where her feet have taken her now.
Cozy socks with husky fur.
***
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
