It’s no secret that I live in Minnesota. And here, the weather is a constant topic of conversation…

“Can I go shovel the walk? You betcha, hun!”

“It’s not so much the heat, it’s the humidity.”

“Did you see those storm clouds move in last night, Sven? What a soaking we had! Boy, it sure is nice out today!”

And in true Minnesotan form, as much as I’d like to pretend I’m not guilty of it … I am. But seriously, have you SEEN this weather?? This week has been beautiful!!! Pretty much all week! So this, in combination with a lot of catch up from being gone in the depths of Mexico, a bunch of new and fantastic opportunities for Chocolate Moose, a heck of a lot of emotions as I take this week to really look at ‘me’ and what that means now and of course, oodles of time with the girls are all contributing factors to why my blog has been silent since I got back.

We’ve been doing a lot of this {see images below} around our house … time on the square and time with the shrimp.  Oh boy, the shrimp. There has to be a post about that in the future. Anyone who has been to my house since the holidays knows that this little one here is obsessed {almost to the point of drooling} when I take out a shrimp. She fetches them like it’s what she was meant to do. And maybe that’s just it … Tarrazu was born to fetch shrimp. Ha 🙂 Glad she found her calling in life!

Tarra and Digi, the girls, enjoy some time on the square out back as the sping weather comes early in Minnesota Tarra, one of 'the girls' stalks her favorite toy shrimp before pouncing on it and tossing it across the room

**side note … I’m pretty sure that in the past I’ve defined a few terms for my blog readers that I throw out there all willy nilly, but just in case we have some new folks in town, here is another quick run down.

the square: an incredibly tiny patch of deck real estate that is outside our apartment’s back door. it is large enough to hold 2 cats, myself, a tomato plant and just a few herb plants. want to join me out here? then we should probably move the tomato plant inside.

the girls: my amazing kitties that have filled the last 2 years of my life with excitement, laughter, love, a little insanity and meat muffins. I don’t think I’m a crazy cat lady yet {proof? when they talk to me I’m still not sure what they say} but it’s possible that may be in my future. names of said kitties are Digi and Tarrazu (Tarra)

Just recently someone said “oh fun! what girls are you hanging out with and where is this square?? I want to come!!” So to help paint pictures in your minds that doesn’t involve lots of my girlfriends, martinis and some fancy restaurant patio somewhere {although that does sound AMAZING}, above are the definitions of what the hey I’m talking about.

Well, I’m super excited about everything that is ahead but it’s also quite bittersweet because of that big hole that remains in my heart. But today I’m going to focus on the good things … enjoying the sunshine, getting the girls as much out door time as possible, drinking some fancy new beer I just picked up and making something crafty. Have a great Saturday!