Updating My Life

Oi vey!
I have a plethora of life details to share with you!!!

I’ve missed you. I’ve missed my home. I’ve missed Idaho. I’ve missed Mister Pinkerton.
And land sakes! I’ve missed my princess and the pea bed!
RW and I are finally home, for at least a couple of months, in Pocatello, Idaho. I cannot tell you how good it feels. We figure in the past 6 weeks we’ve been away for a total period of about 4 weeks and it feels like it! I’m so relieved to be off the road, out of the airports and back to my homespace on this enchanting piece of property we’ve named Plume Gables.
This morning, I woke very early to the sound of Pinky knocking some potted plants off a shelf in the laundry room — the poor fellow is a bit feral after this last jaunt of ours and so I couldn’t be angry with him for breaking some pottery and making a horrendous mess this morning. In fact, I was somewhat glad he woke me up so early. I showered, put my hair in a cute-little-war-bride-bun at the nape of my neck, popped on a pair of heels and had a gloriously hot cup of tea in the quiet morning light. I watched the sun rise. I reflected on life. I evaluated the accomplishments and happenings of month of January, 2010 and then I moved on to computer work.

When I’m away, I don’t do any computer oriented upkeep so it’s been a bit overwhelming this morning. I won’t go into those details because they are heinously boring but I DO have two other details to share with you:
1. We’re up for another life change as RW has been hired on as a smokejumper at the Winthrop Washington smokejumping base!
I know what you’re thinking right now:
WHAT?
RW IS GOING TO LIVE IN ANOTHER STATE THIS SUMMER TO SMOKEJUMP?
WHAT IS THIS SMOKEJUMPING ANYWAY?
WHY IS JILLIAN SUPPORTING HIM IN THIS WHEN HIS CURRENT JOB IS ALREADY SO TOUGH ON HER IN THE SUMMERTIME?
Officially, I want you to know that I TOTALLY support him in this job change. As a couple, we’ve always believed in helping each other chase down huge dreams and life goals. Smokejumping has been one of RW’s dreams for at least a decade now. He’ll still be fighting forest fires, but he’ll be jumping out of planes to do initial attack fire fighting instead of hiking in with a crew of twenty dudes. I’m really proud of him because smokejumping is for the best of the best of wildland fire fighters. I can’t stress how incredibly elite this job is and how difficult it is to get into smokejumping in the first place. I believe in him, his abilities, his leadership skills, and his ability to work independently and I think Winthrop picked an incredible man for the job. Robert’s the bomb and the best man I know. Let’s hope he’s good with a parachute.
We aren’t moving to Washington. Yet. RW needs to make it through rookie training which has a 40% failure rate! Fingers crossed that he makes it through and gets to live this dream. I’m so proud of him, I feel so close to tears as I write this, I’m just that darn proud.
It’s going to make for a bloody tough summer for me, tougher than the past two I’ve made it through while he’s been hotshotting. But I know this is something he needs to do and I don’t want him to have any regrets in life. So we’re all going to make it through. I know that already.
To be quite, terribly frank, I would rather have RW smokejump for ten years straight than
stay on his former hotshot crew for one more year for reasons I shant disclose here.
***IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS BLOG, WELCOME! PLEASE CLICK ON THE COLORED LINKS IN THE ABOVE PARAGRAPHS TO SEE THE WIKI DEFINITIONS OF WHAT RW DOES OCCUPATIONALLY!
2. The Rumors of the Sea series is going to hit the Etsy shop tomorrow. I have had a heap of inquiries about this design series so I’m going to set the listing time for 7PM MST. Be there or be square! And thank you so much for your interest in this series. I’m still so excited about it, the concept does not yet feel finished so if you miss out on one of these designs, not all is lost! I’m still dreaming of all the different things I can do with metal, glass and stone when it comes to recreating the sea with jewelry designs…
These necklaces are SO cool and are built entirely from scratch, including the enameled focal pieces. The only things I didn’t make with my bare hands are the pearls, coral and iolite components. Obviously! I’ve worked so hard on this series, I can’t wait to see where they fly off to!
Now I’m off to eliminate the remainder of my computer duties and then out to the studio to swing some hammers!
Loving on you birds something fierce,
THE NOISY PLUME
PS Thanks so much to all the amazing guys and gals that took the time to meet up with RW and I on our journey to and from Tucson. It was such a pleasure to camp, eat, drink, laugh and love with you. Thanks for your friendship and for being part of our lives!

Feeling Brisk

Only two things can make me smile like this:

I woke up to snow this morning. The west bench is glazed with the good stuff. Down valley, in Inkom, there’s a generous dusting to behold. These hills come alive with a little bit of white. Also, it’s doggone brisk outside. I’d say that today we are experiencing our first cold, fall winds in Pokey though the word cold doesn’t do the breeze justice. I tend to refer to the fall winds as freshly flung daggers of ice that penetrate wool, down and fur like they’re cutting through jello (I have a flair for the dramatic though…). If you live in my town or in my area of Idaho I know I’ll get an amen from you. One of my favorite things to witness, when the weather turns cold, is all the emo kids in their skin tight pants and greasy hair under dressed for the weather and walking down Main Street like freezing to death is cool. Even the Ramones wore coats and whilst they weren’t really emo, they DID wear extremely tight pants if you recall. Hey. Ho. Let’s go.

Holy crow! While preparing this blogpost, RW walked in the door!
I guess that’s the second thing that makes me smile like this (quick post revision).

What makes me smile even bigger are the following facts:
1. I had a terrifying fit of insomnia last night. Tonight I’ll sleep deep and I’ll feel totally safe.
2. The Snake River Hotshots are officially unavailable which means RW is almost done work which means I’ll have a family again very soon.
3. Hot tea and books in the living room tonight.
4. Farley will be ten times less neurotic since he’s going to get to hunt 7 days a week starting today.
5. Cooking for two is so much easier than cooking for one. No more pita chips and hummus for dinner!
Whew. I have to get out to the studio and do a bit of work now.
I hope you’re feeling the season change where you are!
Oh gosh. It’s blizzarding! What a welcome sight.
Skis, down parkas, mittens, rosie cheeks:
PLUME
PS Pardon the green yard. The snow isn’t sticking in town yet…

Could this be a mirage???

SHOULD I BELIEVE MY EYES?

TALL DRINK OF WATER

CRIKEY

SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT
I HOPE HE’S COMING FOR TO TAKE ME HOME

JEEPERS CREEPERS SWOONARIFIC

LORD HAVE MERCY

OH NO.
THAT AIN’T NO MIRAGE.
THAT’S THE REAL THING.
STINKING LIKE A 30 DAY LONG BONFIRE…SOOT IN HIS EARS…PRICKLY BEARD…STOMPING AROUND IN SMELLY BOOTS…REAL THING.

…HATE TO SEE HIM LEAVE.
LOVE TO WATCH HIM GO.
I’M OFF TO UPDATE THE ETSY SHOP QUICKLY AND THEN
I’LL BE BACK ON MONDAY.
HAVE SOME LOVELY WEEKENDS!
XO