This one is fun, a list of things I have never, ever done. Thanks to Belinda for the prompt and her Blog Everyday in May challenge. 

+ Gone skiing.
+ Gone scuba diving. 
+ Been arrested. 
+ Milked a cow. 
+ Smoked.
+ Done drugs. 
+ Learned calligraphy, despite an effort.
+ Watched the Exorcist. 
+ Gone in haunted buildings on purpose. 
+ Worn a 3-piece suit.
+ Gone on safari. 
+ Written a book (yet). 
+ Built a barn (also yet). 
+ Learned web coding.
+ Been good at drawing.
+ Gotten a tattoo. 
+ Read Harry Potter. 

Okay, this is harder than I thought so I'm going to stop there. And then probably think of a dozen other things later. 

What have you never, ever done?

Yeah, that's me. Being a ham in the driveway while Mom does all the work washing the car.

Story of my childhood, basically. 

Part of Belinda's Blog Everyday in May challenge, the fourth prompt is to write a thank you letter, to anyone for anything. I picked Mom. 

Her birthday was the other day and in honor of Mothers Day, it seemed just right.

So thanks Mom. 

Thanks for supporting all my crazy ideas. Driving me to ballet class, music lessons, tennis practice, gymnastics, spending hours in freezing ice rinks for ice time. 

Thanks for always telling me to "look it up" when I asked what a word meant, no matter how much it annoyed me and no matter how much homework I was trying to crank out. 

Thanks for never telling me that I couldn't do something and for never telling me not to pursue my dreams. 

Thanks for listening to all my travel stories and looking at all my photos, even when I'm sure it got old after a while. 

Thanks for running with me when I was home, and pushing me to go further and faster.

Thanks for taking in Grover when I came home and spoiling him with turkey bits on Thanksgiving, even though he sheds all over the house.

Thanks for showing me, with Dad, what real love and strong marriages look like. 

Thanks for giving me and my sisters a safe and happy place to grow up, even if we didn't always get along and even though I wasn't always an easy kid to manage. 

Thanks for being the best Mom a girl could ask for. 

The third Blog Everyday in May prompt: What's on your travel bucket list?

I'm behind again since Weebly was doing maintenance last night and I just couldn't stay awake that long!

But, on to the prompt. 

There's not much that isn't on my bucket list, but I've picked out a few highlights. That photo up top is from Easter Island, a place I crossed off my bucket list in December 2012, right after quitting a job and right before I moved to Montana. 

(To see the original photos, just click on it)

Egypt

A friend and I had decided we were going to Egypt together for out 30th birthdays since hers is Aug. 2 and mine is Aug. 22. But then the world got crazier, she got married and had a baby. I moved to Montana. 

We had big plans for places to visit while we're there, maybe even branch out a bit in the region, but who knows what we'll finally come up with. The pyramids are a must, and Alexandria, but there's so much else to see!

We haven't been yet, but we haven't given up the thought of making that trip together, even if it takes us a little longer to get there. Maybe 35?

Iceland

Another long time resident of my travel list. A friend and I have been talking about going for quite some time, we just need to make it happen. My mom has also mentioned that she'd live to go sometime. I've heard nothing but good things from the friends who have visited and it seems like a beautiful and fascinating country. 

As I'm looking at this now, I'm sensing a theme. Places that start with E and I. Hmmm..

What's on your travel bucket list? 

That's me and Grover at my parent's house in Virginia a few Christmases ago, I think the one before I moved to Montana.

But you already that, sort of anyway.

This month, I'm joining in with Belinda's Blog Everyday in May project. I've been struggling to get back into my blogging grove and as soon as I saw Belinda's idea, I love it and figured it would help get me back in the habit. Even if I don't quite make it every single day. 

Like right now, I'm already a day behind. But in my defense, the WW2 Museum calendar I have posted in my work cube had 31 days in April and so I thought Friday was still April, for far too long. Needless to say listening to me try to schedule things last week must have been hilarious.

So I've decided to combine the first two writing prompts into one for the sake of staying on track. 

The first, introduce yourself. 

I'm Jenn. A military brat born in MIchigan, I've lived in Texas, South Dakota, Vegas, Virginia, Alabama and now Montana. I've been to most states in the continental U.S. I spent six months studying abroad in New Zealand, which awakened my love of travel and I've since been to Australia, England, Peru, Slovenia, Italy, Paris and Chile plus Easter Island. All of those were solo trips, except the time I met a friend in Rome and spent most of my time there with her and her other au pair friends. 

I'm a red headed Leo, making me strong willed and a bit feisty. I loved school growing up. I loved to read and learn, explore and adventure. I had a wild imagination but also a work ethic to back up my dreams. At 10 (or so) years old, I decided I want to be president of the U.S., so I went to the library and checked out books about the Constitution and political science and tried to read them. When I wanted to be a marine biologist, I had notebooks full of notes, thoughts, research and a whole life plan mapped out to do that. When I wanted to be a prima ballerina, I found a stray pointe show in the dressing room and made my ballet teacher watch me and tried to convince her I was ready for pointe, at about 7 or maybe 8 years old. When I wanted to be a playwright, I wrote the church Christmas plays and applied to the college with a fantastic program and was accepted, only to decided I wanted to stick with journalism. 

Now I'm a newspaper reporter, and I write about the military and city government, I read defense budgets and city code all day long and sometimes on the weekends. I'm territorial on my beat and professionally very competitive. 

Most of my close family has served in the military and acronyms don't scare me.

I'm a red headed Irish girl with brown eyes, depending on who you ask, that's rare or common.

But in Peru, that combo stands out like a sore thumb, especially while sitting on a sack of rice on the local bus in Peru trying to make your way to the town where you need to catch the train to Machu Picchu. 

Grover, my black lab rescue mutt, is my best friend on Earth. He drives me completely insane sometimes, but for the last five years, he's been my constant, my comfort, my most reliable friend, even if he ate my brand new (full retail price) skirt once. 

I own a house with M, my boyfriend of nearly five years, if you count the time we dated first and then the time we've been back together since. He's got a dog too and we got a puppy in January who is keeping us on our toes. 

We've got chickens, 26 acres and plans to get sheep this fall. 

I'm learning to bake my own bread, grow my own vegetables, cook more and eat far less things that come in a box. 

I love coffee, but I'm drinking more tea these days, peppermint is possibly my favorite thing in nearly any form, and most red wines are just fine with me.

So I'd say that's more than enough about me. On to today's prompt: 5 photos that tell your story.

1. Grover from the photo at the top. That pup has taught me so much about caring for another living thing and loving another with as great a depth as I do my pup. He's my bud, my running parter, my pillow (when he's too tired to notice) and my protector. Even if he peed on my floors, puked in my car, chewed my favorite things and all around changed my life, he's the best pup a girl could ask for. 

2. I am my own person. This particular Halloween I had to be, HAD TO BE, a ghost. Don't ask me why, I don't remember what was going through my mind 21 years ago (woah that makes me feel old), but I had to be a ghost and I wanted it to be cheap, simple and homemade. We didn't spend money on costumes in our house, we created them with things we had, which were often repurposed ballet costumes that were outrageously itchy. But to me, a sheet over my head with eye holes and a head band to hold the sheet in place was perfectly practical. It was not. I couldn't see where I was going for most of the night and at one point I thought I was at the bottom of some steps but there were actually six more and I twisted my ankle. I might have even used a pillow case as my candy bag. Looking at this photo I now, I'm thinking how ridiculous I look and yet applaud the girl who said this is what I want and I'm doing it.

3. I go my own way. It might take me awhile to figure out where I'm going, but i know when I get there and enjoy the journey. I've quit jobs that were making me miserable, even if I didn't have another one lined up. Risky? Absolutely. Worth it? No doubt. In college, I had a massive falling out with my campus paper editor and quit the paper during my junior year. The paper that had been my life for my entire college career and I felt an incredible sense of loss and a complete lack of direction. The day of, or the day after, I quit, I had lunch with a great friend who is five years older and who had traveled the world. As I was wallowing, he said, "why don't you go somewhere?" Me: Where? Him: Australia. Me: I'm not big on the beach. Him: Okay, New Zealand. And that's where I went the next semester for some of the best six months of my life. Getting to that decision was hard, but I wouldn't trade that path for anything. All of those big, and little decisions, have lead me to this life. That photo is me kayaking on Bowman Lake in Glacier National park when M's family came out and I was still living in D.C., but flew out to meet them all. 

4. I trusted in love. It wasn't something that came naturally to me and I didn't date in high school or college really, so when this guy came along, it was a big deal in my world. We dated for awhile when we both lived in 'bama and I don't think either of us was quite ready. No, I know we weren't. I call it right people, wrong time. We went our separate ways for a few years and somehow found each other again. I admit to almost not taking that chance the second time around, but I'm awfully glad I did. Because this time, it's right people, right time and it just keeps getting better.

5. I love what I do. Yes, I get frustrated and complain about the day to day work environment some times and have left some newsrooms for new ones, or other industries entirely, but I always seem to come back to newspapers. So when I saw News Lane while visiting my sister in Seattle with my family, this photo had to happen. I genuinely worry about the future of my industry, but to cut and run just because it's hard and the future is uncertain would be an injustice to the career I feel so passionately about. News is so much a part of me and it's how I contribute to, and interact with, my community. That's something I can live with.