A SOLD OUT SHOW!!!

I just want to take a moment to personally thank each and every beautiful cookie at Connie's Cookies at Summerfest 09' in Bountiful City Park. This weekend you proved your beauty, courage, attractive appeal, and bursting flavor to wow the visitors of the festival. You did so well, both individually and in your small groups packaged of 3, to land yourself into the mouths of many guests leaving not a single one of you to take home.  In fact you sold out before the show was even over, 6:50pm on Sat, with 3 hrs to go!

While its painfully difficult as your creator to pass you into the hands of hungry mouths, the truth is, the more you get out there, the greater your likelihood for your population to never become extinct.  In fact the sole purpose of your creation is for enjoyment and consumption. You have made me so proud!  Let's take a looksie at the successful line-up!

 The display!

The stars- Allstar Monster Chocolate Chunk, your super size chunks set you apart from the pack!

Double Mint, we could never do it without you, with the second in popularity, you are a HUGE mouth pleaser!

Triple Ginger Delight, you steal the show with your kick! And thanks for pleasing those that don't like chocolate. 

Our sweet Everything Nice, to some you are a staple in their life, they couldn't do without your spice and Everything Nice (Oats, Raisins, Chocolate, Rice Crispies and more)!

Fresh from the Garden Zucchini, what? and you are Gluten-Free??? One bite and I just can't believe it! I adore you, I honor your, I bow to your existence!

And last but not least, my favorite, Triple PB Chocolate, the fusion of all great things, PB, Peanuts, sugar, PB Chips, Milk Chocolate, and best of all love!

A special thanks to our Gluten-Free variety's, you had several consumers you left speechless, and extraordinarily happy!  They wonder if it is legal for you to tantalize their taste buds like you do.  I tell them you were meant for pleasing, and that is what you'll do!

You make mom and dad proud!

You sold so well, this is what Micah thinks of not having any extra to take home and consume!

Fresh from the garden...

Nothing makes me happier than watching, caring, loving, nurturing, admiring, and ultimately consuming a fresh little item from the garden. After 3 summers in NYC I discovered the only healthy patch of live green grass lied in central park along with the other millions of bodies that shared in it. As you might imagine, I was simply thrilled this year to have the opportunity to plant a small garden with my sweet hubby Micah in our spacious pastures. 

I can think of no better way to honor mother earth than take advantage of the wonderful nurturing she provides in producing such lovely sustenance. We get so disconnected to food when everything we eat comes from a box, mix, or plastic bag. I think it becomes easy to forget that real food does ultimately come from the earth and what roams it.  So this little garden is truly a humble, happy garden! 

Before

After

and after the after! (Holy crap batman, those tomato plants have taken over!) (Not to worry Robin, they have fallen over at least 4 times in the storms, they pose no threat!)

Overgrown seeding lettuce

Our first and second zucchini (My Gluten Free cookies thank you!)

A cornucopia of little treasures!

The apple tree produces cute little guys, but bitter to the taste, showcased in the fabulous pink/green stoneware I bought at summerfest! (In my humble opinion, green and pink is the fusion of perfection in color! I mean really does it get any better?)

And with all these colorful, beautiful veggies to consume I love the fact that a serving of vegetable hasn't changed for Micah!

Micah is on the left, me on the right!

Thanks Halling's for sharing your lettuce!

And after working on our little garden we were still eager enough to work a bit on our landscaping!

And yes, I know its humble, but it sure beats the hot glued snowflakes and flowers in my mothers front yard (yes your heard me right, snowflakes, and yes it is hot glued onto the branch), I suppose we do have the benefit of it not dying...

I love life

and all it has to offer. Really, is this real, sometimes I feel like, wow, pinch me, is this real?

yes people, I am merely relishing on the fact that reality, as I know it, is great. 

Really and truly when I think about everything I've experienced, life is just great and I love it! That doesn't mean it is easy, or without storms, it doesn't mean it is like my neighbors life, or my sisters life, or my best friend's life. It doesn't mean I have lots of money, worldly success, or that I've accomplished all I would like too.  

What I do know however, is that life, in and of itself, with all the wonderful glorious moments, sad times, and simple experiences is great. It fills me wonder and awe. I am blessed.

January 3, 2007 I had a pivotal moment in my life, I decided to never make a decision based on fear. I decided to live a life based on love, love of life.  I have two small clips on youtube that capture how this decision has shaped my life: http://blog.bitterphotography.com/2009/02/connie-micah-slideshow.html andhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMlZTecc_Y8

Avoiding Annoying Experience

Today is Pioneer Day, and I went running upon arising.  This is a typical event as I do it most mornings, but this morning I had to run a bit faster in anticipation of my yoga friends meeting in my backyard for a yoga session.  As I went on my merry way I encountered not ONE, but TWO small dogs that seemed to find me in THEIR territory.  Both yapped trying their best to intimidate me with those loud barks that little dogs produce.  One even nipped at my heals attempting to instill more fear.  Neither dog was what I consider to be cute, just small.  Both dogs ran off after their moment of being heard.  (Below is Ginger, he wasn't either of the small dogs I encountered today, and he is extremely cute)

Upon returning home from my run encountering the small dogs, came the arrival of my yoga buddies.  Shortly after I began teaching our backyard session, a bee found me in what he considered to be his territory.  Again, much like the small dogs, he didn't seem to want to leave me alone.  He lingered long enough to interrupt our session, buzz in my ears, face, and chest. Eventually he left, and the session went on.  Not more than two hours later as Micah and I hiked to Waterfalls Canyon in Ogden I encountered bee number TWO.  He was more frustrating than the first, this time heading for my mouth, nose, and any other body orifice he could find.  He left, just as the first, but not without the struggle and irritation.  

Two small dogs, two buzzing bees, one day. I can only think of one word to describe the dogs and the bees - ANNOYING.  No other word quite captures the essence of what these creatures present to me.  Neither post any real threat or danger. After all what is the worst they could do? Bite or sting.  A dog bite and bee sting are easily overcome in the bigger scheme of things.  But as I come to ponder a bit on the dogs and bees in our life, I'd like to compare it to experience. 

There are all types of experience - fun, enlightening, peaceful, thrilling, loving, kind, gentle, exciting, passionate, dramatic, frightening, upsetting, awful.  Some of these experiences we seek for over and over, others we avoid like the black plague.  I realized that in the past few years I have become more open to inviting experience rather than avoid, to seize the moment the watch the clock.  This has produced a lot of wonderful things in my life, swinging from a trapeze, baking lots of cookies, teaching lots of yoga, marrying someone really great.  But all that said there are experiences probably daily that seem to exist only to take me off my path.  Perhaps like the dog or bee they are there to veer my off the task at hand.  Such experiences do not seem to hold any profound truth, hold any earth shattering epiphanies, teach an impactful lessons, or tell any amazing stories. They seem to exist simply to annoy. 

Sometimes I try to avoid annoying experience.  Oftentimes I expend much more energy in the avoiding of it that the pain of experiencing it.  And after all if I would have avoided such experience today I would have missed out on a beautiful run, a peaceful yoga session, and amazing hike to waterfall.  Avoiding annoying experience sometimes leads to missing out on the breathtaking experience just around the corner.

  

Sometimes the annoying experience is annoying people. Yes, they exist in a plethora of ways, but they don't really always have our annoyance as their goal.  They might actually, like the dogs and bees, be acting out of fear for their territory, ego in their bark, or revenge in their sting.  But they can't do much more than a small bite or sting which can't do much to damage us permanently.

Annoying experiences are just that - annoying.  I am pretty certain they aren't going away anytime soon, they have their place in life.  I have decided however that I will not give in to the energy it demands to avoid them, the thought it takes to analyze them, the frustration it takes to encounter.  I just accept them, annoying and all.  Isn't life great?

Time

There are times I like.

There are times I admire.

There are times I adore.

There are times I love.

There are times it seems to all make sense.

There are times I understand.

There are times I know.

There are times when I don't know, I trust.

There are times I imitate.

There are times I integrate.

There are times I innovate.

There are times I inspire.

There are times I want others to feel what I feel.

There are times I give because I can't imagine not.

There are times I hope to touch the life of another.

There are times beyond my own doing.

Such moments are small and simple,

Sometimes overlooked if I am looking for grandiose,

Such moments weave together as the tapestry of my life.

Such moments occur, and TIME doesn't exist.