2014 Justin and I had been married for 10 years. We planned to start a family, but nothing was happening. After speaking to my gynecologist, we decided to try Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). A “fertility treatment that involves placing sperm inside the uterus to facilitate fertilization.” I started taking medications to help stimulate ovulation, regular ultrasounds took place to determine when my eggs were mature. Once they reached a specific diameter, we would schedule the IUI procedure. _I’d like to point out was that we never tested for a surge in LH hormone, I was on Clomid, but was neve ..read more

Top of Teton Pass - View of Teton Valley Wyoming, 2010 | © Candace Woodbury It’s 2:30pm on a Thursday. I am sitting at Miller Park in downtown Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as I write this watching the locals go about their business; the tourists passing through on their way to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. The weather is how I like it, unpredictable. The day starting out sunny and warm, but now it is beginning to cool off, and the sky is getting moody, threatening to rain on everyone. I’ve been in Jackson for two days now and hav ..read more

normal | ˈnôrməl | adjective conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected Normal is not a word that I will ever use to describe a mass shooting or any type of hate crime or violence. Normal is the word that is being used across the internet about the recent mass shootings of El Paso and Dayton. We don’t have all the information yet on the motives of the young men who committed these crimes, but we know enough regarding the shooting in El Paso. The hateful extremist views in his manifesto spoke of the “invasion” of immigrants to our nation that he believed must be stopped. These kill ..read more

I firmly believe that no matter where we come from, the color of our skin, how we identify in regards to gender and sexuality, or how we chose to worship, we all want the best for our families, our children, and ourselves. We are all human, sharing this little planet made predominantly of water (71% water to 29% land) with each other (all 7.7 billion of us) and the estimated 8.7 million species, many of which have yet to be discovered. Our top priorities should be sustainability to save our planet, world peace, equality, but that is not the case. In today’s consumer driven world greed has t ..read more

Educated is an astonishing coming of age tale. I was engrossed in Tara’s telling of her childhood growing up in a Mormon family in a rural town, roughly 80 miles from my hometown, in Idaho.   There are moments while I read when I had the inklings of a sort of déjà vu.  Not only did I grow up in Idaho knowing families like Tara’s and going to church with them, but within my family, there were similar minded individuals and echos of the same beliefs within my immediate family. Other moments I felt like YES!!! For example: when her brother Tyler told her “there’s a world out there, and it will ..read more

I discovered this challenge on Blogs of a Bookaholic many years ago. After a bit of searching I was able to locate the list again. Many of these books I have previously read and I don’t intend to read them again in the near future. I do want to share this list for all those who love books, and Rory Gilmore. It’s well rounded I think and a good start if you are looking for a challenge. For those that I do read moving forward I will make sure to link to reviews and include my finish date. KEY: READ | FAVORITE READ 1.) 1984 by George Orwell 2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ..read more

I never read reviews online before I read a book myself. Only after I have read the book and formulated my own opinion do I look at what others had to say… I sort of wish I had looked before I picked up a copy of Sapiens. The majority of reviewers on Goodreads seem to love this book with 5-star reviews. I am not one of those people. Bill Gates got it partially right in his quote on the cover “…a fun, engaging look at early human history…You’ll have a hard time putting it down.” For me, this was true for Part One, The Cognitive Revolution. I couldn’t put it down, but then I began Part Two, The ..read more

I had every intention of participating in this year's #NaNoWriMo. I even managed to get 2,667 words written on November 1st, but it kind of went downhill from there. NaNoWriMo, also known as National Novel Writing Month, is a challenge that encourages writers to draft 50,000 words of fiction in one month. This year would have been my first year participating, but life had other plans for me. My husband and I had a few trips planned for November, and when you are visiting friends and family, it makes it difficult to set aside time every day to write. After a two-weeks of attempts, I decided ..read more

A while back I purchased The History of Bees by Maja Lunde. I had been doing some research and wanting to widen my scope of reading, to read more than just native English speaking authors. That was when I came across Maja’s book, and it sounded interesting enough. I looked at all my local bookstores and nothing… so I had to order it online through Indie Bound. It was a slow start, the first few chapters took me a bit to get through, and I was tempted to put it down, but having read the study “Pollinators in Peril,” I kept reading interested in what the outcome of this novel would be. Three s ..read more

As much as I love reading I can also be a nerd when it comes to technology. I love to use my smartphone, iPad, MacBook… until they started taking up all my time! This isn’t something that only I am dealing with. There have been many articles on “breaking up” with our smartphones. That doesn’t mean it is easy. In our world today everyone, including our employers, want a response NOW. Even when we are NOT working. They know we have a smartphone and can access our email and social media 24/7. Does that mean that because we can, we should? HELL NO! Last month I started following the advice of many ..read more