Hello Dahhhhhlings! (Pics)

(Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

Why hello, Darlings!

I just wanted to wish you a happy new year and check in for a moment.

It’s been a wonderful holiday season and frankly we’ve been quite busy with all of our social philandering! You might have read the blog before this one about our holiday party… Wow, what a good time that was! I can still feel the alcoholic vapors radiating from my pores. 😉

Naaa! But it was, just such a blast!

We went away for a week to Sedona. I never really realized how many people didn’t know where Sedona was until my husband happened to mention to some of his coworkers that he was going there. Hello? What’s Sedona? Are you for real?

Let’s just say that it’s one of the most beautiful places on this earth.

The red rock formations that are sprinkled on the landscape are breathtaking. And to have been able to drag our mountain bikes with us from Los Angeles, California to Sedona, Arizona… well let’s just say that were quite lucky to be able to have peddled those paths amongst the cactus and my children’s giggles.

Yes I am quite a lucky woman indeed.

Plus, to have the luxury of my husband preparing all of the mountain biking equipment and carrying the Camelback and making sure that we have our helmets and our gloves and our sunglasses… well, I was quite pampered with the luxury of him and his thoughtfulness. Frankly, I didn’t have to think about a thing except pedal! Yes, now that’s the way I LIKE TO TRAVEL!

Then of course we got back and we all caught the flu, which mine developed into a horrible sinus infection and have been on antibiotics still today. YUCK.

So frankly, I haven’t been online too much because I have been recovering, and have been taking this time it to move great strides on my new book. Which I am totally excited about! It’s humor/suspense, and it’s great fun! I can’t wait to finish it and get it “out there!”

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the holidays…

Much love to you all, and stay away from the freaking flu. It’s a bummer.

holiday dinner

my man and our bikes

the kids

biking bell rock

great shot

beautiful cactus

sedona dirt

slick rock Momma!

snowing in sedona

catching snowflakes

fesitval of lights

our hands

the kids

my silly kids

Happy New Year, everybody!

xoxo

Be well,

Belle

  A 78th Annual Writer’s Digest Award Winner

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
and Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

What I Missed… and What I Didn’t…

 (Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

 

My darling husband went on this moutain biking trip.

I couldn’t go because I had to stay home and do the “Mommy Thing” and send my kids off to the Homecoming Dance in style (my son’s first!).

So this is what I missed in Bryce Canyon…

Utah...

Riding the "fin" in Bryce -- I have had nightmares about rides just like this!

 

Beautiful Bryce Canyon

 

This is the trail... Riding between rocks instead of trees...

I call this "The Balls" of Bryce Canyon!

 

AND this is what I didn’t miss… My kid’s Homecoming Dance…

 

 

 

And, here he is...

My Handsome Guy

My Precious Duo

My daughter and her date... Yowza

Some of the Gang...

My Girl and her Crew!

I figure Bryce will still be there after this dance… but, this night…

Well, you get the picture.

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
and Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

Great song for a Sunday going into Monday…

 (Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

 

I love you guys!

This is one of the most incredible biking songs known to man!

Be ready to push it to the limits!

“The Great Divide”

Awesome — Pump it, baby!

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

Shhh . . . Muggles . . . (pic)

(Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

 

Shhhhhh.

We’re going snipe hunting.

Well, sort of . . . So be quiet.

Watch out for muggles, you know.

Well, if you haven’t guessed yet we are hunting for geo caches again. We went for a wild ride today from the top of Mammoth. Went on “SHOTGUN” and rode The Wall and The Log. My husband rode down “FLOW,” but frankly, that one is too aggressive for me. No biggie, I have a lot that I have to accomplish in this life. No sense in using it up in Mammoth, right?

So, yes, we are hunting.

We finally got the correct handheld GPS unit — we bought a Garmin Oregon 300. We bought an extra card for the dang thing, and then the topography maps . . . And let’s just say that this little “Free Adventure” of Geo caching has now cost us over $500 in equipment.

No problem.

If it gets us out and doing something other than what we normally do, then it is money well spent.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I decided to use the new Garmin GPS unit the first time with my son. We were excited because we just got it in the mail and had a hankering to find some geo treasure.

It was around noon, in Calabasas, 109 degrees out, no breeze, and we happen to all be wearing black.

No shade. No hats. No patience.

Let’s just say that it is a wonder that our geo caching experience that day didn’t end in familial bloodshed.

We found two geo caches, combined with a never ending eloquent arsenal of verbal attacks on each other in general pool foul spirits.

Weather really can be a deciding factor as to the success of a day, I am convinced.

However, today, it was just my husband and I in the mountains of Mammoth. A perky 60 degrees, combined with an arching afternoon sun shedding shadows of old-growth pine tree shade upon our path. Pleasant breeze. Yes. This geo caching day had all the perfect elements for success.

So . . . . Shhhhh . . . Muggles, you know.

I sound like a goof saying that . . . By that IS the lingo, baby.

When in Rome . . .

So, we walk around as if we are hiking. We are walking to the left, and then to the right — in a zag-zag direction because the arrow on our Garmin GPS keeps pointing east, west, north, south. Practically going in circles this way and that.

Yeah, right. We look like normal hikers . . . Idiot hikers.

“Is there a hint?” I ask my husband.

And he reads from the Garmin, “ . . . under a log.”

So there we are, putting our hands and feet under a log out in the wilderness.

Hello-o? Does the word snake mean anything to anybody?

Evidently, when geo caching . . . one is fearless . . . And stupid.

I am going from log to log, poking my head and hands under every open spot.

Have I lost my city-freaking mind? Is this the yellow-brick road? Bugs, spiders, and snakes, oh my!

So, I am bent over with my thonged ass held high in the air when my husband calls to me, covertly silent in a commanding tone, “HONEY… over here.”

I look, up.

We make eye contact.

He nods.

No words.

Muggles, you know.

I look around to make sure that I haven’t been spotted. I’m clear.

I sprint over to my husband and he points under the log that I had been looking under first, “How did I miss that?” I asked.

“I was just looking for something unnatural.” Like the way we are “hiking” wasn’t unnatural enough?

I look around again.

Sneaky.

Muggles, right? You’re learning.

I pull the canister out and I can’t believe how huge it is! Full of all kinds of geo treasure!

Eureka!

We smile as one. Geo cache sneakies, yes we are!

We are stupidly giddy with our find. Giggle, giggle. Take a treasure, leave a treasure! So fricking fun.

We sign the sheet and date it!

Belle Karper — that’s our “geo name.”

Quickly, we lock it back and hide it once again.

Muggles, you know.

If you are out geo caching, and you see it signed by Belle Karper . . . Well yes, that is one of our finds!

Take care of it so that it will be fun for the next geo treasure seeker!

 

Shhhh . . . Muggles, you know.

—–

Y’all come back now, Y’hear?

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

Mountain Biking in Mammoth

(Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

 

I have to tell you that today was one of the most beautiful days.

It started out being a little testy. I was a little nervous. I hadn’t gone out for a while.

I was afraid that I had lost my edge.

The only way to learn this time in the saddle, and I have been away from my saddle for quite a while.

But, like everything else in life that starts with the first step . . . the first pedal.

Taking it slow. Climb the hill. Enjoy the show of the trees in all their wildness.

And, before I knew it . . . I was flying.

Stones, drops, roots, logs.

No problem.

My momentum back.

I wish you could have been there.

Standing high, then pulling back on the reigns of my bike. My weight turning me instead of my handle bar.

Yes. Back in the groove.

Yes, me, my husband and this glorious mountain.

I will ride you again tomorrow.

Until then, rest until I torture you again, dear hillside. You are mine, and you are smitten.

Hitting the Trail

 

The Bike and I

 

Jim & I in Mammoth

Mammoth Full Access Mountain Biking Pass

—–

Y’all come back now, Y’hear?

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

Coffee is Brewing…

 (Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

 

The coffee is brewing.

The breeze is coaxing me.

A reminder of life past the screen door.

My mountain bike is calling me . . .

 

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK – An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle – all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!