Beach Finds

Yesterday was a wonderful day for beach walking.. the tide was way out.. and the sun was warm... the water was so quite.. one of those days that you sit on a log and watch the fishing boats go by... you can listen to the grandpas telling their fish tales.
I saw eagle sitting in a tree and watched him for awhile.... he waited to fly until I had turned around for a moment.. I did see him later down the beach and was able to get a quick photo of him flying away....The water had gone out far enough I was able to get around some trees that had slid down the bank that most days block off a part of the beach.. it was great exploring the other side... climbing around on the drift wood and pretending like I as on a desert island searching for treasures. A lot of the adventures I have on the beach remind me of being a little girl and playing in the woods.. it does not take long for my imagination to take over and I can step into a pretend world. I did find some beautiful treasures today.. I found the sea glass pictured above and some beautiful agates that glow in the sunshine.

~Michelle

Hello, Hi and Welcome

Well I have decided to start a new online life. When I first started online I was making wine charms / glass identifiers so the name of glass~identities worked well. Now I make lots of other things and there are many more ideas I would like to explore. I wanted a new name with a new look to throw some new ideas into. This is it :)

I know using my own name is not very creative... but.. it will cover anything and everything that I want to explore.. and it is who I am and who I love being. While trying to come up with other names I knew I needed to go with something I love.. and well..I love being me.

I want this blog and this whole online presence to have a lot of me in it... means sometimes I may talk about what I am making.. or what I am doing.. what I am seeing or hearing or feeling... I might share about my family or my friends or my home. One will never know what will be found here but it will all tie back to me :) *hint if you do not like me then this might not be the place to plan on coming back to* I want this to be a fun place.. but I also want to be able to share my "bumps in the road of my life" type of experiences too.

I am glad you are here visiting.. and I do hope you will stick around and come back often... I am hoping for a lot of interaction on this blog.. as I love reading what people have to say as much, if not more than I love writing what I am thinking. I do tend to follow back and interact with those who leave me comments here... as I am sure is how it works for most bloggers :)

I will be adding my links on the right hand side.. for all my new accounts.. would love to have you add me on any of those :)

~Michelle

100 Reasons

Maybe not 100.... but my house has been kid free now for about 5 hours.. and will be for the next week.. and I am adding up the things I love about this. In the last few weeks... my middle son has gotten married and headed out to be a Marine.... my oldest son has moved out of the house.... son number 3 is working hard and planning on leaving this summer for boot camp... daughter is.. right this moment... on a plane to LA to check out some colleges for next year... and this mom has been dealing with a lot of empty nest feelings. It is all happening so quickly and had been making me feel pretty old and alone.

Now only hours after the last kid is gone for the whole week... I am NOT feeling old or alone... I spent the first hour alone cleaning the house... and guess what .. it is still clean!!! This is the most awesome feeling... I keep walking through the place...oh yeah.. everything is still where I put it! No one made any dirty dishes... or crumbs.. or .. hey wait... that takes me to the next thing I am loving... All the food is still in the fridge.. and.. it will be every time I look.. for a week. I also do not need to "guard" the last cup of coffee in the pot.... no one will drink it.... seems every time I leave a cup there for a "just in case moment" so I could warm it up if needed later in the day... as soon as I am not looking someone drinks it.

I also get my choice of bathrooms... might not seem like a big deal... but when we moved in here.. there were 7 people and one bathroom... now we have two bathrooms.. a kid one and adult one... but hey... I can use the kid one or the adult one (and they are both clean and will stay that way.. for a week) Every time I walk through the house... everything is where I left it... no extra noises... no need to put on a bra..... no weird smells... no questions... no comments... no one in my space... I am going to have to battle not to start remodeling their rooms... I have at least one more year for one bedroom.. and two years for the other room.. then they are all ours... if these kids come back to visit they better bring a sleeping bag and plan on pulling up some floor... I needed this reminder that no matter how much I love my kids... and I love being with them.. that... there does comes a time.. when we are meant to go our own ways and that it is ok for me to let go and let them grow up :) I now have things to do and plans to make.. 2 years will be like a blink of an eye :)

Wonderful Weekend

Bird Nest, originally uploaded by glass_identities.

Yesterday was good.. Dave and I are feeling a bit under the weather.. getting the cold from the oldest son... so we took it easy most the day.. then we went for a short walk on the beach at sunset.. and watched some movies.... today my oldest son moved into his own place... he is so excited.. and I am so happy for him... my other son was going to be helping him.. then staying the night there.. so they can head out and go camping for a few days.

We decided we needed to get out of the house for a few hours.. I needed to get some more sticks for a couple of orders of garden stakes... we needed some fresh air and some exercise.. also wanted to get some pictures taken and do a little road trip. I had signed us up on the geo caching website a couple of days ago.. we have talked about "going to do it" for a long time... today was the day.. we took some cards with the info to a couple of caches and off we went. We are already making plans on when we can go again and things to put in the boxes.

We went out on Mountain Loop Highway.. a road we go to play on often.. it does not really go anywhere but from one very small town ( Granite Falls) to another very small town (Darrington ) Lots of trails off this road... and a lot of train history. Today we walked on the Robe Trail.... we walked on the very old railroad... right to the tunnels... it was just amazing. I loved the kids asking questions and pointing out the old ties and hardware.

We then took a drive up Green Mountain Road... lots of beautiful views up there.. and waterfalls and even played in the snow :) Also a great place to get some sticks :) Came home on a back road... Felt like we were filming a commercial... swerving to miss the many frogs jumping across the road... I am sad to say we did not miss them all... we did miss the deer though... and the raccon... lol all the way out the mountains and we find all the wildlife on jorden road on the way home.

We stopped and had some dinner then headed home.... one of the things I love the most.. is how much the kids talk to us while we go on these adventures.. the questions they ask and the stuff they share... lot of great bonding. I did learn some things about sons friends that I did not need or want to know.. but.. it was an awesome weekend.

To see more photos of our trip today.. just click on the photo above to visit my flickr page.

Some Things

Just some random things I want to share.

Found this site in the Costco magazine and have been drooling over it ever since. As soon as I can pick which items I want added to my chocolate I plan on ordering one and giving them a try. You pick what type of chocolate.. dark, milk or white and then pick from things like different nuts.. or fruits.. or candies or hey.. even things like bacon bits. You can make it pretty.. weird.. or just about anything.... Chocomize .... Would love to hear what you would pick for your chocolate bar.

I spent some time this last weekend working on some new items for my shop... I love making them and they seem to be a hit :) Rustic Garden Stakes. Finding stakes is a fun thing to do with my kids on our walks... and then I just carve a bit of a point on one end and a flat space on the other... wood burn the word onto the stick then spray with a lacquer... add some beads and they are ready to go :) * check out my shop here *

Talked to my lawyers office today about my shoulder... it is all so frustrating... shoulder is still hurting and keeping me from doing most things I want to do... need to find out what I should do now... it is better than it was before the surgery and the physical therapy .. but not getting any better... just sort of at a standstill.. and now with spring here and gardening happening... it hurting more and more... because I am wanting to use it... it is hard... when I am walking I still have to hold it by my side.. if I get to swinging it too much then the next day I can hardly move it... learned that shoveling is out of the question all together.. and waxing the car... no way... I feel like a lazy bum most the time. Hard to remember that the day we had the accident we were on the way to gym... where we played racket-ball at least 3 times a week... I can not even imagine playing that now. Thing is... there are a lot of things I can do... one if I am very careful.. two.. if I plan on hurting... not sleeping that night.. or doing anything the next day. I am starting to be afraid that this is how it will end up being...no way is that going to be ok.

Speaking of the accident... the jeep we were in when we were hit has been all fixed up and it is back on the road. It needed both front end and back end work since we were hit in the back so hard that it slammed us into the car in front of us. We were one week over having it back on the street 2 years after the accident. It took us awhile to collect the parts needed. Everything still worked.. the hood and tailgate.. still opened and closed.. they were just dinged up.. and both bumpers were smashed up... the only thing we had to get brand new was the radiator. I can not believe it was totaled.. but I guess with all the little parts and stuff and how much things cost that it just added up ... if we had replaced everything with brand new parts it might not have been worth it... being able to take some time and collect them off craigslist was awesome. Now it has tabs and is insured and we have driven it and there are no problems. I am still a bit nervous being in it... hard when my shoulder still hurts.. but I know if it had not been for the jeep being such a good car.. it would have been worse. I will get more comfortable.. I do love this jeep. I love the commander too.. but there is just something about this one that is nice. I think it was the fact that I went from years of crappy cars and mini vans.. to a grown up car... it has a special place in my heart :) *yeah I know it is a car* lol