Amazing Beach Day

I am sure I will be going a bit overboard with the beach walks... but.. they are my thing right now.. big time.. even though I hurt by the end of a 3 hour adventure on the beach... I can not stay away. I started just walking on the beach... then started collecting sea glass and shells... and I have always liked to pick up cool rocks from anywhere.. and now a friend has me looking for agates. I also love the animals I see.. eagles and sea gulls and crabs and snails and fish and bugs. Sometimes I see other people.. sometimes I do not... every single trip down the beach I find treasures and have adventures. I love it!

Last night we were watching one of the Life Series and it was about Creatures of the Deep.. we have watched most of these and they are AMAZING.. the video and the photography is like no other. This one goes to an ocean floor and talks about starfish...(and many other things) I mentioned that I do not think we have starfish on our beach since I have never seen one.. (like I know everything) Hubby said we have some on our beach too... well one day I will remember to never doubt him. Today I was walking on the beach and not only did I see a starfish.. I saw three.. and they were amazing. I also saw a big snail thing.. sort of grossed me out.. but it was so cool.
I also think I found a lot of agates... not 100% sure yet.. but whatever they are.. they are great.. the light shines through them and they glow and my mind is going over a million things we could do with them. I was lucky enough today to find some new colors of sea glass to add to my collection too.. a light green one and a charcoal one... also added three more of the icy blue color I love. I do LOVE beach walks.
Click here (flickr) to view more photos of todays adventure!

~Michelle

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.