""""***ERIN***""""

This post is dedicated to my sassy friend, Erin. Erin has been living in the wine country in California for the past 2 years. Chris and I visited her last summer and where she lives is truly magical. Her folks live in SE Kansas and so for the holiday season she decided to come back to the Sunflower State for a month! She's been staying with them a bit and us a bit and other friends a bit. We've had SO MUCH FUN. We celebrated the New Year together, spent many a night at 715, had a sweat lodge, played with essential oils, went to a movie premier and just hung out and talked for hours. Oh yea, and drank wine. Erin and I have known each other for 12 years and have had lots of adventures. Every time she comes in town, we fall right back into place, like we've never been apart. Erin is a beam of bright light. She's fun, sassy, positive, adventurous, loving, encouraging...she's everything you'd hope for in a friend. I love you Erin! 

Our holiday party

With Alicia at our holiday party

With another super longtime friend, McKenzie at Pachamama's

With more awesome longtime friends: Erin, Cat, Me, Gina, McKenzie

 before we went out for sushi and a crazy nice of dancing

 

New Years Eve!

Movie premier bathroom pics

 Playing with essential oils in front of the fire 

after our sweat lodge with Josh and Alicia.

Visiting me at The Merc while I was working. 

She worked there for years before I did.

Eating dinner in front of my fireplace.

715 with Erin, Chris and Kenzie

 Ya know what the cool thing is? She's back in town. Our birthdays are next week and are 1 day apart. The weeklong birthday celebration begins tomorrow! Yahooooo!!!!

***A not-so-cold winter***

Here's just a little smattering of photos from lately. We drove the back roads to Wichita to spend Thanksgiving with Chris's family. We had two turkey dinners with both sides of his family, visited the Nifty Nuthouse (an insanely huge candy shop), went to the Donut Whole (a Wichita legend) and spent quality time with his family.  It was a really great weekend! When we got back we bought our Christmas tree and decorated the house, which is always one of my favorite days of the year. And at the beginning of this week I did a 3 day cleanse which included a sweat with Josh in my sweat lodge, lots of juicing, an acupuncture session, eating well and drinking copious amounts of water. It was great! 

Frying the turkey in the garage.

Chris with his parents and siblings.

Staci, his sister, driving a tractor.

Love this picture of Chris's folks from back in the day.

Christmas tree shopping! We always go to the same place.

The sunset right before we got in the sweat lodge was stunning.

Carrot, celery, apple, ginger. 

Haven't shown you pics of these guys in a while. 

Chi chi and Holly Go-Lightly are our outdoor kitties.

~~~Don't sweat it~~~

So, my best friend is moving away. Bummer. We're like bread and butter, we are. Josh built a sweat lodge in his back yard about 3 years ago and we've been sweatin' ever since (only during fall and winter though). Since he's gonna be movin' on, we decided to move the ~sweat~ to my house. We have an entire side of the house that backs up to the woods that we haven't really utilized. Chris piles his reclaimed lumber collection over there and it's kind of a mess. Building the sweat lodge there has encouraged us to clean up the area. Chris is going to built a structure to organize all of his wood and I think we can really make something of this space. It is so easy to access from our front deck, it's perfect for this. 

Wikipedia says: "The sweat lodge (also called purification ceremony, sweat house, medicine lodge, medicine house, or simply sweat) is a ceremonial sauna and is an important event in some North American First Nations or Native American cultures." 

As we were creating the hut, a hawk swooped right over Josh's head and landed above us on a tree branch. He shook his tail feathers at us. It was a sign.

I feel as though Josh gifted this to me and I'm honored. It is a cleansing and healing practice that I intend on keeping sacred and special. 

Thank you

 **{{JOSH}}**

XOXOXO

Don't worry, you don't wear jeans and long sleeves in there. ;)

Sweat.

The sweat lodge (also called purification ceremony, sweat house, medicine lodge, medicine house, or simply sweat) is a ceremonial sauna and is an important event in some North American First Nations or Native American cultures. There are several styles of sweat lodges that include a domed or oblong hut similar to a wickiup, or even a simple hole dug into the ground and covered with planks or tree trunks. Stones are typically heated in an exterior fire^[1] and then placed in a central pit in the ground. (from Wikipedia)

My best friend, Josh, built a sweat lodge for his birthday and invited Chris and I over to participate. It was a beautiful, crisp night. In total, we were probably in the hut for an hour, getting out every 20 minutes or so to give ourselves a break from the heat. In the description above it doesn't mention that you pour water over the hot rocks in order to create a lot of steam. It gets incredibly hot in there and is extremely purifying. Afterwards we lounged around and ate a healthy meal. It was a wonderful evening. Thank you Josh!

Josh built the frame of the hut out of willow branches.

There were 12 river rocks in the fire getting nice and hot.

Josh put mats down for us to sit on.

You cover the frame with tons of blankets which keeps the heat and steam in.