10.14.10

This happened a few days ago so I must post it before I forget. 

On 10/14/2010, A did an amazing feat (a noteworthy or extraordinary act or achievement, usually displaying boldness, skill) at gymnastics:

On floor; round off back hand spring, back tuck.

On bars; front hip circle, squat on, jump to high bar, kip

I am not sure what all that means, but I do know her coach said it was a pretty good trick, A was the first one to do it.

The weather in Wyoming is great.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is no "S" (insert the word "snow" here but don't say it aloud or it may come true) until after Halloween. 

Have a great weekend!

10.10.10

October 10, 2010, came and went, but this is what we did yesterday. 

We visited Koltiska's Pumpkin Patch.

She picked the perfect pumpkin,

and posed by the nice pumpkin scene. 

Then we went to the Kendrick Mansion. 

I took pictures of flowers,

fall berries,

more berries, (I know enough with the berries), but its so fallish and it's October in Wyoming. 

I also took pictures of my sister's family,



(obviously they are all looking at the professional photographer and not me.)

my kid,



a beautiful fall tree at the mansion,

and berries. 

10.10.10

Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend pictures

Colorado Springs Balloon Fest

August

August:  inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic. (dictionary.com)

August:  hot weather, the end of summer, back-to-school, cool evenings, rodeo parade, days at the lake.  (my version)

Either way you look at it, August is: 

The Dog Days of Summer

1.  The period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere.  2.  a period of stagnation or inactivity.  (Webster)

VACATION

Yes it has been over a month since I have blogged. 

I'll admit I spend too much time reading other blogs than blogging on my blog. 

Anyway we went on a vacation - our pack trip.

We fished.

A found the "Fountain of Youth".  It's actually a natural spring.  But she doesn't know. 

We hiked to Mead Lake.  It was the most beautiful lake I have seen on the trip.

And we fished,

and we fished,

and we caught one.

We sat and

we looked at the mountains.

We climed on big rocks - boulder hopping.

We - T - cooked. 

We had a big campfire each night.

The last day the weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky.

We hiked out and waited for our pack train to come down.

- THE END -

Did I mention, we fished?

You might be a redneck living in Wyoming if . . .

If you drive a 1/2 mile from your house and see a sign that reads, . . .

you might be a redneck living in Wyoming. (May 4, 2010)

If you wake up on May 6 to this, . . .

you might be a redneck living in Wyoming.  (May 6, 2010)

If you go to work in the morning wearing a skirt and sandals and you come home for lunch to change into pants, wool socks and closed-toe shoes, you might be a redneck living in Wyoming.  (June 11, 2010)

The temperature hovered around 54F degrees Friday, it rained all day Saturday and today doesn't look much different. 

Working too hard

This is what happens when I work too hard:  My daughter and my husband plan a surprise.  They planned a haircut, a dress and pictures.  This is what I got--the most awesome pictures of A.  This is my Mother's Day gift. 
She is nine going on 18. 

Nine is half grown, half-way to a high school diploma, half-way to college, half-way to being out of the house. 

But she's still my little girl. 

A's blog post

Hi I'm a gymnast. You can tell because of the picture with the clown doing a handstand a couple pages away. I  flip and roll and tumble and flip and flip and flip!!!!!!! But that was all taught to me by my coach      H H. Hey! Don't give him all the credit! I did most of the work! I also like...I mean LOVE to read!!!!! You can call me a reading freak if you want, 'cause your sure right!!! I read thick books, skinny books, hard-covered books, biography, fiction (my most favorite), tall tales and and AND EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! Fewh! Th-tha-t t-oo-k  mo-st  o-f m-my  br-ea-th  a-away!!! Pant! Pant! Pant! " Mom will you ge-get me some Chill Pills?!" 2 SECONDS LATER... "WHAT WE ARE OUT OF CHILL PILLS?!!!!!!!!!!!!" Oh great, NOW WHAT?!!

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A asked if she could blog and she did.  I'm sure you will be reading more of "her blog" as I am so busy lately.  It's already May.  Maybe I will be able to blog more than once a month.  I started another new job and it has been difficult keeping up with everything I need to know for the new job and keeping up with A's schedule, house work, cleaning, etc.  I know I'm not the only one with a busy schedule. 

Happy May Day!

April Eve

Yes, that is a strange title to a post but once you see the content you will understand.

April Eve is March 31.  When this happens at 10:00 p.m. April Eve --that is snow piling up on the back deck.

And it looks like this 6:00 a.m. April 1 --that is not an April Fools joke. 

This is what you get on April 3, Easter Eve  --a snow Easter bunny.

Most of the snow melted April 2, except for this snowbunny.  I had to take pictures of it. 

This happens on Easter Eve --dyed and decorated eggs. 

 

Not much . . .

Not much going on right now.  Not much blogging, not much remodeling, not much picture taking, not much of anything. 

The room seems to be back to normal, a few unexpected leaks here and there.  A few power outages to test the system.  That is a shocker, talk about the deer in the headlights look of panic.  What will happen when the power goes out with a 260 gallon fish tank in your family room?  Not much, just a few more leaks from pipes not sealed as planned. 

I've been fingerprinted, I've showed all my forms of identification, filled out all my forms, I'm ready for my new job that starts April 1st.  I told my new boss that I may call in sick my first day of work . . . April Fools!!!  She did not think that was as funny as I did.

The policeman at the police station was very nice about my fingerprints.  I wore a white shirt that day.  Not the thing to wear when being fingerprinted and my nose itched the entire time.  At the station, next to the black ink pad is an industrial size container of baby wipes.  I wonder how often they have to refill that gallon size container of baby wipes?  I haven't been called back to the police station, so everything must have checked out okay.  Whew!!

My friend JediMama has a blog, (check it out), and she has a nine year old son that attends gymnastics with my A.  Occasionally I read up on her blog and laugh out loud.  Her son, The Boy, and my A have said similar things lately, it makes me laugh how similar they are.  The Boy, the cutest little guy at gymnastics, apparently listens to "new" music like A does.  The Boy told JediMama that Michael Jackson is cool.  Beat It, Billy Jean, and Thriller are on the top of his listening chart at the moment.  A asked me a few days ago as I sang along to The Eye of the Tiger, "How do you know all those words?"  I said that I listened to those songs when I was about her age (wink, wink).  OK, I listened to them when I was in high school.  
Then, nine year old A asked me, "Was the music static-y?"  As in the music on the radio is so old-fashioned that the radio was static-y. 

A asked another question recently about The Wizard of OZ.  "When you watched it on TV was it all in black and white?"  And the best, "When did they invent color?"  As if the entire world was created in black and white and someone invented color one day in 1956, when the movie came out in full Technicolor on television sets across the country (--that is if you had a color television back then).  Out of the mouths of babes oft times come gems. 

Let the laundry begin

Yes.  The washer is fixed.  After two and a half hours, the washing machine repairman fixed it.  Who knew it took that long to fix a washer?  This weekend will be filled with laundry sorting, adding laundry detergent, drying laundry, hanging laundry, folding laundry and putting away laundry. 

The tank is running smoothly and leak free, at the moment.

I was able to enjoy my favorite shows on Thursday evening:  Survivor, CSI and The Mentalist.  The new room with the comfy couch and TV which we managed to work this week was a joy, so nice. 

We are going to watch my sister's boys play hockey this evening.

See you next week with clean fresh clothes and more sanity than I have had in a few weeks. 

Enjoy your weekend!!

Progress, Stop. Progress, Stop.

It seems the odds are against us.  Or maybe the odds are with us.  However that works, I'm not sure. 

We make a little progress then we have to stop. 

This last week or two, it seems, has been just that.  The first water test resulted in a few leaks.  We drained the tanks.  We fixed, re-glued, a few joints in the pipes.  We thought we had the leaks stopped.  We poured in the sand.  We set in the rocks.  We filled the tanks with water and salt and . . .  more leaks. 

The nice carpenter man came over to finish the cabinets above the tank to enclose the lights and the plumbing. 

Our lives came to a screeching halt on Friday evening.  No TV, we had too many remotes, four to be exact, for the big screen TV/Cable/Speakers, oh yes, and the new DVD player.  We had to ask the neighbor to come over and fix the TV. 

In the meantime, during all the commotion on Friday: the plumber, the carpenter, the stone man, the electrician, the cable TV man.  The internet and the phone were disconnected in the attic.  Do you know what that can do to a girl that is totally dependent on internet and phone for her job?!  Two days of missed appointments!!  Not to mention no blogging, no surfing, no nothing. 

The room is almost back to normal.  We are still waiting for a plumber to come and fix two leaks then we can start this small-scale ocean up again, cycle the water for two months and see where we sit as far as ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, salinity and then maybe we can add a few creatures. 

Now we have to get the washing machine fixed.  It broke during all the towel washing.  We obsessed over spreading towels on the carpet to prevent traffic dirt from all the people coming and going.  We washed towels on a nightly basis.  Needless to say we have clothes piling up in corners. 

GREAT!!  What is next?  Hopefully the progression will begin and the stopping will be at a minimum for a while.