tales from table rock. . . .

Very long holiday post

2012-01-08T16:29:00.022-07:00

I have been totally remiss in updating this blog. So, here's 3 or 4 blog posts in one. If nothing else, I am efficient.

Blog 1:

We had the kids help with the decorating. So, this is not one of my cheapo, buy the tree on clearance on Dec. 24 trees. But is wasn't terribly expensive, and it sure was a full, squatty tree. First we made a Gingerbread house. (We also made a Gingerbread train, but that didn't turn out as good!). This is one of those kits that you can buy at WalMart.

Let me tell you, they are not as easy as you would think. And the icing sets up like concrete--it can take days to get if off your counters!!

Next we have the kids decorating the tree. CJ first. It was easy to tell where he put his ornaments, front and center at the bottom of the tree, 2-3 ornaments on a branch!!

Next up is G. He's older, so he has the concept of decorating a tree pretty much down. He can even get the back of the tree so from the outside of the window it has ornaments!

Next up is Miss M. She's getting older, and really likes to decorate the tree. She had to have all the glass balls to put on the tree!.

And somehow I missed a picture of the tree, which really looked good, especially when we had all the presents under it.

Blog 2:

This year, I decided that the girls' Fancy Nancy needed a new outfit. I made three of these outfits for three different Fancy Nancys.

Blog 3:

After Christmas, for the first time since I have lived here in the Springs, we went to the Electric Light Parade at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Great lights, lots of animals out (but my favorite, the grizzly bears, were hibernating......Bah!!), and not too cold. We all went, five grandkids, daughter, two daughters-in-law, and one son. Oh yes, and Grandpa and Grandma.

Goofing off.

One red tree, I really liked the lights!

A sunflower by the Big Backyard exhibit, taken diagonally on purpose (in case you were wondering......no I hadn't had anything to drink!)

And this one that I especially like. Those lines of light in the background are the city lights framed by the zoo lights. It was a magical view!!

The youngest, W, in his stroller. Only way to stay up with this one!!

Outside the zoo, CJ starting to climb a tree.

Blog 4:

We still have snow in our backyard. There has been no warming to melt this stuff, so it's the same stuff that fell at the beginning of the month. Miss M in all her winter glory:

We took the sled down into the gully behind the house in the hopes that the snow was deep enough still to sled. It was, knee deep at the bottom. So we did some sledding. W was really into this, I don't know if he had done any before, but he really wanted to go.

Miss C helping her brother go down the hill:

And Mom had to get involved. She did remark that sledding with a 2 and a half year old was a lot of work!

Miss M thought this was a lot of fun!

And Miss C was really getting into it!

Mom and W on another run.....look at that look on Mom's face!!

CJ thought it was fun too!

And W at the bottom of the hill....

Miss M and CJ at the bottom on the last run:

It was a busy day, and the hot chocolate we had afterwards was really yummy!!

the things I can find to do.....

2011-08-07T20:05:00.004-06:00

I should be painting. It's amazing the things I can find to do to avoid that activity. And it's not that I don't enjoy painting, it's something else.

So, today, what did I do?

1. Went to Serrano's for hot chocolate and a newspaper, which I came home and read completely.

2. Chopped firewood. Actually I used my chain saw to cut up 4 logs, and trim off the slash.

3. Cleaned up more of the dog yard.

4. Mowed the side yard and the back yard.....again.

5. Swept the patio and rearranged the tables and chairs.

6. Swept the walkway thru the garage into the house.

7. And then, I cleaned all the kids' stuff in the living room, built the $15 bookcase I got from Target for the closet, and rearranged all the stuff from one bookcase to two. I sorted crayons, pencils, paints, paper, brushes, scissors and glue also. Got them a lot more organized.

So.....this is what the kid's korner now looks like:

And here's one of all the games organized on the bookshelf in the closet. Of course, you know that this meant I had to clean out the closet too.

But doesn't this all look so nice and neat? And then I made lasagna for dinner, and now this is the second blog post in two days. Like I said, the things I'll do to avoid painting!

new paintings at dream pastries

2011-08-06T12:53:00.005-06:00

It's county fair and rodeo week in Castle Rock. So, I have three new paintings hanging at Dream Pastries in honor of the week.

ODD COW OUT This painting I have done before in colored pencil as part of a collage of cowboy pictures. Changed a few things, and tried to keep the background simple so that the cowboy and the cows would show up.

JANIE JILL - This is from a photograph that I took at a clinic several years ago. After the photo was taken so I could frame the painting, I changed the hat to a darker brown, and made the shirt red so they would pop against the sky better. I was in a hurry so I didn't take a whole lot of time for critical thinking.

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY - This is also from the colored pencil drawing of the cowboy scenes. I've used this cow three times now. One in colored pencil, with the horse turning it, one in watercolor with a tessellated background (not one of my better paintings), and this one of the cow by itself.

So, which one do you like the best?

Mary, Mary quite contrary....

2011-07-11T19:13:00.010-06:00

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells,

And pretty maids all in a row?

All of these pictures were taken around the patio and driveway. The second picture is one of the herb pots that Clyde has started. This one has rosemary, basil and spicy basil. The others have more rosemary, oregano, lemon thyme, and mint. Very pretty, very scented.

Petunias.

Strawberries.....

And more strawberries, with real strawberries !!

More petunias and lilacs and hollyhocks.

The pansies are really going to town.

Sunflowers with my friend Linda's old bicycle. I think the sunflowers are going to hide the bike before they bloom! Better planning next year.

Rhubarb, which is the best growing plant we have. We also have pumpkins, chives, and some volunteer squash. And the tomato plant even has a couple of tomatoes on it.

And the best part? It's been raining so much to water them!

The painting -- Opportunity

2011-06-12T13:48:00.004-06:00

Here's a photo of the painting that took honorable mention in the watercolor section of the PLAG spring show this year. It's a little distorted, and has some glare from the camera since it was under glass in the frame. (Some day I will be a little more proactive and take pictures the correct way--before framing and with the tripod so they aren't distorted.)

Until then, you all will just have to suffer with my bad photography. LOL!

However, if I can brag, this is the second year in a row that I've gotten a ribbon. Not the best painter, but at least the judges like what I do.

From the party

2011-05-26T20:51:00.003-06:00

This year, I actually made the old man a cake for his birthday. Got a good recipe for a carrot cake, made entirely from scratch. Yes, this was more than dump a box of ingredients and some egg and oil into a bowl and mix it up. Actually had to grate the carrots, chop the nuts, and mix all the ingredients. Then floured the pans, and baked the cake.

Then I made cream cheese frosting, and decorated it with large gumdrops cut for petals and reeses pieces for the center of the sunflower. Spread the frosting over the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.

Yes, it does look a little concave in the middle. Why do you ask? I BAKED it!!

Spring in Colorado...always a surprise!!

2011-05-23T19:18:00.005-06:00

Spring is a wonderful season in Colorado. Mostly because a lot of years, it doesn't actually happen. We jump straight from ski season into road repair season. This year, road repair season has actually started, and ski season isn't done with yet. Therefore, no spring.

May 5, 2011:
I think it's really cool to see spring flowers covered with snow! They always look so pretty.

Then, two weeks later we had the craziest weather. These are coming home from shopping on May 19.

Looking west, there was blue sky and sunshine.

Looking north it was a completely different season.

And looking east, still winter.

What you can't see here, is about 15 miles east of here there was a tornado. And we had lightning and thunder during the snow storm. I call that thunder snow.

Autumn is another season that can disappear overnight here, but you'll have to wait til September or October for those pictures.

Another zoo day and some flowers

2011-05-09T20:08:00.013-06:00

These are the flowers that Ed and Rachel sent me for mother's day. That was a really nice surprise. I have to admit that when I saw the box on the counter, I thought that Clyde had sent them to me, but no. Ed picked them out and had them sent. I hope he did something like this for Rachel too. Thanks you guys!!

Miss M is wishing for her two, er, no, three front teeth for Christmas. But wait, there's another loose one on the bottom, so I guess she's wishing for her FOUR front teeth for Christmas. Alls I got to say, is taking a bite of something is not going to be easy for her for a while. No front teeth at all!!
We got up and went to the zoo on Saturday. First really nice, sunny, and hot day we've had all spring. What, spring, do we even get that season here? Naw, just goes from winter to summer all in a 24 hour span. But the kids were happy to be outside and enjoying the nice weather.

And where's the fun if you can't make faces at the camera?

One of the really big chairs at the Big Backyard exhibit. They all tried to catch the chickens that were running loose, but thankfully they weren't able to. I just had visions of beak marks all over their arms and hands.

The playground below the Big Backyard has cement mushrooms (toadstools?) that are for climbing on. G was able to climb them all, he is the tallest, and they did have some conveniently placed steps and handholds.

C however, couldn't reach the steps, so he just climbed up the front of this one. Grabbed the ledge with his hands, and swung his legs up and walked up the front. Just like a mountain climber (or goat if you wish). That kid is going to be something.....can you say grey hair Bekka?

Miss M was able to get this close to a peacock and grandpa got her picture. Just before G came over and scared it away.

The daffodils were in bloom, and they were gorgeous! Now, where are mine? I've not even got a little green sprout coming up. Maybe next year if they don't rot in the ground....

And after the first time Clyde lost us in the monkey house because he was doing this, I caught him at it some more. Really, we walked by him at least two times in the monkey house, and he never even looked up. Then we left, and he had to call to find us. Course, then I had to go back and find him because the stroller wouldn't go thru the door that we used. So here he is outside of the otter pond.

And here outside of the Big Backyard.......

And here in the playground. What a way to enjoy the zoo.

OK that's all I have to say about being busy texting. Guess you can get the gist of what my feelings are about it..;)

Misc., and Grand Junction

2011-04-03T16:37:00.016-06:00

At the end of February we went to feed the ducks. They weren't eating, just swam around. Clyde figured it was mating season and they weren't interested. Oh well.

Here's the Miss M with the feather she found.

Here's Mr. G showing off for the camera.

And here's Mr. C being a copycat!!

After the non feeding of the ducks, we went for gelato. Miss M is certainly enjoying hers.

Bekka and I left for Grand Junction about 8 pm on the 23rd. Not exactly my idea of a good time to leave, and I really thought it would be earlier, but the cub scout tour of the police station didn't exactly get out on time. But we left G with Grandpa and took off. By the time we hit the freeway, both M and C were asleep in their car seats. So that at least made for a quiet drive, even if it was going to be almost all night!

The next morning, after sleeping all night, even if it was in the car most of the time, I caught M and C eating breakfast. Not exactly the most cheerful faces, are they?

And this one of Wyatt, who really didn't have anything to be grumpy about because he did sleep in his bed all night.

It seems Wyatt has a pink motorcycle that you plug into electricity to charge the battery. Even uncharged they seemed to enjoy it. Here is Cordelia pushing Miss M.

And Miss M and Mr C:

Here's Ed in his knee brace because he tore his PCL snowboarding. Sounds like it's time for him to maybe start giving up all the young people sports! I was only a little older that him when I tore my ACL, and I didn't give up skiing. It took Clyde breaking his leg for us to taper off on that sport!

M, Wyatt and Cordelia doing something at the table. Look how Wyatt is concentrating on what they're doing. We played games and put together puzzles while we were there.

I found these little bubble wands at Walmart before I left, so I picked up a couple of packages, they were 3 for a dollar. And then with a bottle of bubble soap, they had fun. Course Wyatt had trouble with the concept. He thought it was a lollipop and he should be eating it! UGH!

C concentrating on his bubbles, while Wyatt looks over his shoulder.

Cordelia at her birthday party. The kids got to decorate the driveway with all different colors of chalk. I never thought of that for a party game, but it sure got their attention!

All in all it was a good trip.

When I got back, Clyde and Gnarly got into an altercation (have no idea what Clyde did or why Gnarly responded the way he did), but Clyde had teeth marks on both arms. That was Tuesday.
Thursday we took him (Clyde) to the doctor because his hand was all puffy and red. Infection time. He got a tetanus shot and antibiotics.

Friday afternoon the hand was a little more swollen, so it was off to urgent care, where he got two shots in his fanny, and more antibiotics, and told to come back on Saturday for a checkup.

Fortunately, by Saturday, the swelling and redness had gone down. So now he's still on antibiotics.

I've been doing yardwork, and have two more raised garden beds ready to go. I have blackberry and raspberry bushes to plant in them, but didn't plant them today. Good thing, it's been snowing since about 1:30. I've also been spreading the horse manure all over the yard. Clyde gets it with the tractor and dumps it for me and I rake it around. It'll hold moisture so the grass can grow. Maybe someday I'll have a grassy yard.

My Perspective

2011-03-29T16:55:00.002-06:00

The other day (last week) the Old Man in Black Forest described taking the two dogs for a walk. Well, let me tell you, he completely understated the entire adventure.

I took Gnarly, the small Newf. He's a very enthusiastic two year old. The Old Man took Grizzly, the larger, and much more sedate Newf.

After about a quarter of a mile of Gnarly jerking me forwards and backwards while trying to play with Grizzly, Clyde suggested that we trade dogs. This worked find for a short while. We got to the spot where the two yellow labs come running out from their yard to greet us.

Not knowing that we now had TWO Newfs, they happily charged out. Grizzly perked up his ears, well as much as a Newf can perk up its ears, and ran forward to greet them.
They stopped, took one look at this huge dog and turned tail and ran.

Griz followed, happily pulling me along (totally a non match for me!). I let go, not knowing that Clyde was right behind me being pulled by Gnarly, who was desperately trying to catch up with Griz.

So I'm trying to stop, Clyde is trying to hold onto Gnarly and push me out of the way. Fortunately, he realized that something had to give, so he let go of Gnarly.
Both dogs disappeared into the yard after the labs.

Wisely, I let Clyde go after them.

Warning....really long post.

2011-02-27T14:31:00.014-07:00

Well, it's been a long while. Since before Christmas, but it's not all my fault. Clyde has been hogging my computer. I bother him if I'm in here while he's working, and since he's taking classes at CTU now, after work he needs it for his classes. And he will deny it, but everytime I sit down in here while he's work, he asks "Don't you have something to do? You're bothering me and I might need the computer."

So all I manage is the bank accounts while he is out feeding the horses, or first thing in the morning while he's still sleeping. ERRRRRRRR!!!!

So this first picture is me in the hat and scarf that Bekka made me for Christmas. Sorry about the quality of the picture, I don't usually try to take them in the mirror. I know others do this just fine, but it's not my best work.

Last weekend, Rachel brought the kids over to visit. She finally has reliable transportation so she can come without Ed if she wants. It was a very busy weekend, so I didn't get many good shots. But that's not all my fault. The nerds weren't doing a whole lot. Here they are with Cordelia playing the game and G and M watching intently.

This is Miss M on the computer when she finally got a turn. I missed the best shot of the weekend, that was Wyatt with the earphones on, sitting at the computer with his hand on the mouse looking like he knew exactly what he was doing.

We had strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream for desert one night and as you can see, they loved it!! Wyatt is coming out of his shell, and is much more personable, and he didn't even cry when I went near him.

Thursday, Brandi and I went to Dream Pastries to change out the paintings that I had up there. They had been up for about 3 1/2 months and it was time. We went with a flower theme. So here are my latest paintings (all copyrighted of course.). This one Brandi suggested that I title 'Garden Party'. I am so not good at titles. Not enough imagination.

This one is an older one, and I'm calling it 'Ladybugs' even though there are sunflowers in it too.
Clyde wasn't sure about this one, until I brought it home framed and he hung it on the wall. Then he liked it.

The top two are quarter sheets of watercolor paper, so about 11 x 15. The next one, while the photo came out smaller (I had to crop off some blurs around the edges) is a half sheet of watercolor paper so 15x20 just for the painting. I'm calling this one 'Promises'. Can you guess why?

Here is what the wall looks like. Mine are on the left, and Brandi's are on the right. She is using more subtle colors and experimenting with monochromatic colors. I'm still the bright, in your face colors that I really like. Maybe eventually I'll try the more subtle colors.

Dream Pastries is on Perry St. in Castle Rock. The have the best lunches and pastries! We had lunch there, and brought a lot of pastries home, along with chili and a sandwich with potato salad for Clyde. They even make their own mayonnaise there. Really a great place to eat.

Today we went to Petsmart to get X a rabies shot so we can get him groomed. I've managed a little around the ears and head, but I can't get all the mats out. He is going to be a lot less fluffy for a while after all the mats come out and before the hair grows back. This little girl came along, and she really likes dogs. She stayed and petted and talked while her father did his shopping.

Got right down on the floor with X, and petted and hugged. No fear at all.

And here's a face picture of X that I took. He's got a really sweet face, and it's about half again as big as Gnarly's. His eyes are larger too. Everything about him is larger......

I'll try to update more. Just have to get to the computer!

The week I wish wasn't.......

2010-11-05T20:00:00.003-06:00

This past week has been a disaster, not to mention busy....

First, the fan in the truck for the heater/defroster doesn't work. And Monday morning, it was cold and snowing..great way to have to drive to work! I started the truck about 15 minutes before I had to leave, and set the heater on defrost, so eventually it did get some of the snow to melt. But I had to scrape too.

And the steering wheel was cold on my hands. I was cold by the time I got to the clinic.

Then on Wednesday, I had a dentist appointment. I got there early, and her first appointment had canceled so we could get started right away. However, then her suction thingy wouldn't work, so we had to pick up and move to another chair. Lots of fiddling there, so I guess it was good that I was early. But I missed the turn on the way there for the gas station, so I was really running on low..

Had an 11 o'clock appointment with the horse vet to do shots, but she called about 10:30 and said they were almost there. Oh great, I was still in the Springs. But the good thing was that they know my horses, and could get started. I, however, still didn't have any gas, and it was telling me I had 50+ miles til empty. Went home and then to the 80, got all the horses their shots ;>), but five of them need floats (like dental cleaning for horses) :>( Expensive.)

Then needed to get shopping done, so back out the door to the library, gas station and pharmacy before hitting Sam's and Walmart. And the truck started making squeaking noises while it was running. I know that sound, serpent belt going bad.

Got home, the chimney sweep had been there, and gone. Now back to town, downtown to Josh and John's with Gnarly. I needed reference photos for the urban landscape that I have to do for class....and the kids all have fond memories of that place. So does Gnarly now. Oh, did I mention that we completely reset the camera, and it still delays taking a picture, so now that has to go to the camera shop to be fixed.

Then dinner and back home, fed animals, called the cats in, and brushed my teeth.
Turned off the water, and I could still hear it running. Oops! Accused Clyde of leaving the water on outside, had to catch the cat so he could get up and go out the garage door to check. (got him out of bed where he was finally getting warm).

No, not there. Came back inside, pulled everything out from under the sink, and found a big puddle. Oh great...:>(

Tried to turn off the water under the sink, no luck. It stopped when we turned off the hot water from the heater. Now no hot water.

Got up Thursday morning, called the plumber, and he's trying to fix a boiler for someone who has no water, no heat. Doesn't know when he'll get done.

Not Thursday, had to go visit Bekka to take a shower.

Friday night: we have hot water, Clyde ran the dishwasher, I can take a shower in the morning! Eric worked on the trucks, but isn't finished. Maybe next week will be better.

But I did get this great picture of Gnarly:

Hope I don't have as much fun this next week!

huh.....??

2010-10-10T08:11:00.002-06:00

Clyde, surveying the kitchen counters: Are we collecting more stuff in our old age???

Me: No, we're not cleaning as much in our old age!!!!

After the squirrels......

2010-09-26T16:43:00.003-06:00

Clyde planted his sunflower garden again this year. Makes three years in a row. You can see how well they grow. The fence is five feet tall, and the sunflowers are taller. Last year they were even taller.

Well, this year, the squirrels got over their fear of the plastic pinwheels that we put all over the garden and fence to scare the birds and squirrels away. This is what we have now.

They pulled the stalks over and broke them, then broke the flowers off to eat the seeds.

Now what can I do with the stalks that are left??

Grand Junction, butterfly place

2010-09-12T12:05:00.005-06:00

Here are some of the pictures that I took with the Nikon point and shoot, since Grandpa took the other camera away......First up is Grandpa in his stylish shorts outfit.

Next up is Ed. I caught him looking at his pictures on this camera. He likes to take pictures just like Grandpa.

Here's C on the jolly green giant. If you look closely, she has a mustache from the smoothie they were giving away.

And here is the little W. Doesn't look too happy, does he? But at least he's not crying. And it was hot, at least hotter than we're used to.

Ok, I found pictures from CJ's birthday party, and M's party, and more feeding ducks, this time with a different cast. I'll post them next. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I sure do. Leave a comment so I know you came. I'm not doing this for the galaxy, you know..LOL

:

2010-09-09T19:23:00.008-06:00

More kids from the weekend. In descending age. G up first.

C:

M:

CJ with Bekka(He showed up on the sleepy side, which was good, because he spent the rest of the time until bedtime chasing G and C up and down the sidewalk.)

W: (he loves his daddy's computer so much!)

And guess who W took to? It's NOT FAIR!! I'M THE GRANDMA!! HE'S SUPPOSED TO LIKE ME BETTER!

But I have to say, he did like the book I brought him, and he would come to me with it to read. But I still couldn't pick him up. And he even cozied up to Grandpa (which picture I can't post because Grandpa wasn't completely dressed.) And I have to say, Grandpa did have a computer beside him, so maybe he cozied up to the computer and not Grandpa.

Fish at the Butterfly place. There was only one butterfly, and my picture of it has the butterfly out of focus, but all the leaves around it are in focus. Only me!!

And right after I took this picture, Grandpa had to have the camera because I wasn't taking enough pictures for him.....So I got stuck with the coolpix, and haven't unloaded those pictures yet....more to come.

On another note, I had a very busy day today. Left just before 9 am to pick up horse meds, a receipt from the periodontist, and a parking tag for school before a 10 am class. First thing to go was the horse meds, next thing to go was the periodontist as I was running late. At house plus 10 miles I remembered the stuff I was supposed to bring for Linda. At house plus 25 miles I remembered that I didn't bring an ice chest for the groceries.

At class time - 20 minutes, I pulled into the parking garage, and all the spots for PPCC were taken. Overflow spot was full also. Found a spot next to a wall that was jutting out, and scraped the right rear door on that. Backed up, and took two parking spots marked compact cars only. Figured my truck is a short bed. That's compact!

Got to the office for the parking tag, and mine's still good.

Got out of class, picked up the receipt and met Linda for lunch--Happy Birthday Linda!

Went to Sam's, then had to bring those groceries home. On the way, I stopped by the vet's and got the horse meds. Good thing Grandpa volunteered to come with me to WalMart and the library, because I was going to whine if he didn't!

Busy day, I need to go to bed now!

So

Herding cats....er, kids!

2010-09-07T20:33:00.000-06:00

We had a surprise party for me on Saturday night, because it was my birthday the next day. All five of the grandkids were together. However, they were together about as well as five cats would be together. You can see in the following pictures what it was like trying to get a picture with all five of them in it.

Try number 1. G is trying to be funny. (the rabbit ears that he is giving to C.)

And CJ wasn't paying attention.

Try number 2. The three oldest are doing ok, but CJ is looking at W, and W has decided that he doesn't want to play any more. That's Rachel in the background trying to keep them in line.

Try number 3. W has completely disappeared. The oldest two are doing ok. The middle two have decided to turn around and see what's going on. Doesn't Rachel look excited with all of this?

Try number 4. G has his hands on his head, C and M look like they're standing at attention, CJ is chewing on his fingers and Rachel is trying to hold W in place.

Try number 5. G has his arms up, and his pants are slipping, C looks serious, M is not smiling, and CJ is still eating his fingers. W looks ok, but he's definitely being held in place.

And that is the tale of how we got all five grandkids lined up in descending age. Now I just have to figure out how to get them all engaged and looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.

Or I guess I could put all five pictures together and then keep only the best image of each one.
(I think not, that sounds like too much work!!)

More later, I have lots of good pictures to post....

This is the life....,.

2010-08-21T20:14:00.002-06:00

Today, for the first time all summer, I took my lunch out to the new patio, sat at the picnic table, and read a book. The weather was great, blue skies, a little breeze. So peaceful.

Then it was back to work on the yard. Got the truck backed up to the last pile of slash and found four old Christmas trees out there, no needles, but lots of little branches that poked and scraped as I loaded them in the back of the truck to take to the slash place.

I was hoping, actually deluding myself, that I would only have two more trips to the slash place, and I could start cutting down the dead trees. Unfortunately, I was completely delusional!
The size of that pile looks like I could make a career of taking branches to the slash program.

This will never end! A condominium with no yard is looking better and better! Or winter....whichever comes first.

More Pictures of ....guess who?

2010-08-09T19:12:00.006-06:00

OK, so I publish a lot of pictures of the grandkids, and what they are doing. Last weekend, we had the two, M and CJ. They got to play in the water, and then help Grandpa put together another raised bed for plants. We had one rhubarb plant, and were getting another. Unfortunately, we were short of dirt, so they didn't get planted. But here are the three of them building the planter.

Now for some other news. Can anyone guess what the cats are doing here?

Well I can tell you. They are looking for the mouse. That's right, I have a mouse in the kitchen, and the cats know it! Now you would think that with six, that's right, six!! cats in the house and another three in the garage at night, that mouse would be history. But no! All they can do is look at the dishwasher intently, like it's going to suddenly materialize in front of them. With my luck, they wouldn't be able to catch it anyway. So, due to the amazing mouse catching skills of my cats, we went to Walmart in Monument for mouse traps.

Guess what? No mouse traps. We looked, then we asked, and the guy looked in the same place that we had looked, and then Clyde went to Customer Services and asked, and that guy went back to the same place to look. All the while, Clyde is muttering about how they mustn't have mice in Woodmoor (rich peoples place to live). This guy isn't going to fail, though. "Hurmph! They must be in the back" and off he goes to look. So we end up with two mouse traps, the live trap kind so when we catch a mouse, we can take it outside and let it go......presumably so it can find it's way back into the house. And guess what? The mouse hasn't found the trap yet!

So this weekend, we got up and went to feed the ducks. After all, how would they live if we didn't show up periodically with food?

Here's the three duck feeders.

Back at home, we got the pool out. It's really a water trough for the horses, but it's big enough for M and CJ to have fun in. I didn't catch the first time CJ jumped in...he surprised me and fell flat on his face! But I did catch the next time. Oh the fun you can have with a little water when it's not a bath!

They brought their bicycles and helmets. M was out riding on Saturday night, and then wanted to go play in the sand. When asked if she wanted to take the helmet off, she replied, "No. It's going to rain, and I need to keep my 'rain' bucket on."

So that's what she remembers from when Clyde called it a 'brain bucket' last weekend. And the helmets remained 'rain buckets' all weekend!

And to finish off the day, nothing's better than a picnic on the patio at the kids table.

Another lovely weekend, except I had to mow the lawn (a very loose description). I waited for the rain, then put down fertilizer and weed killer, and wouldn't ya know.....a couple of hours later it poured and washed all the weed killer off the weeds! So I will continue to have a lawn made up of grass and weeds. At least they're green!

???...???...???

2010-07-31T17:17:00.001-06:00

Grandpa: This getting older has got to stop! I'm tired of it.

Grandma: I know of only one way to stop it...LOL!!!!

A little of this, a little of that

2010-07-24T12:49:00.006-06:00

A couple of weekends ago, we took M and CJ to Fox Run Park and made a picnic. We played in the water, then ate. We also played with the bubble wands and the kids chased the bubbles.

When we left, we went to the gelato place. Of course, when we got there both kids were asleep. So I went in and got two pints and two cones. By the time I got out, M was awake so we shared my cone on the way home. When we got home CJ was still asleep, so Grandpa threw him on the bed, and laid down beside him. This is just as CJ is waking up.

A couple of days later, I saw the mama deer and the baby! It was out with mama down below the deck. Grabbed the camera, and we put the telephoto on it. Still in the picture it was really small. So this is a blown up picture. You can see the spots on the baby.

The next day, I caught Furby on the railing of the deck. I just love this cat, he is so sedate and calm. He likes being outside this time of the year, yet he doesn't wander very far. And they all come into the garage to get fed at night.

Today, we loaded up the back of the pickup with branches and dragged them to the slash/mulch place. Now that I've mowed the grass under the tree, and I can go get some timbers and make a square around it, and then we'll go back and get a couple of buckets of the mulch to put under the tree. I can hear the old man from black forest complaining about the physical labor now.........

A new sketch

2010-07-22T14:39:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, I sat outside for a couple of hours keeping an eye on Kat while she grazed in the yard. I took a sketchbook and pencils out with me and sat on my new patio (finally!!) at the picnic table and drew the flowers in one of the planters. It was peaceful.

I haven't done this in a long time, and I think I'm going to get back into the habit of doing something everyday. Of course, it's 2:30 in the afternoon, and I've not done anything except figure out that since the upgrade of the computer, Photoshop doesn't recognize the scanner. But never fear.....the computer nerd (better known as the old man in black forest) was here and even though it still doesn't show up in Photoshop, it is usable.

Now all I have to do is get the pictures from the last week and a half off the camera and I can do posts that should have been done last week!

We are SO just on top of everything here. And it's raining again. Yea!!!!

Last day in Grand Junction

2010-07-07T15:00:00.009-06:00

Grand Junction part III.

The last whole day in Grand Junction started with a hike (even tho the path was paved with cement, it was more than a stroll!). We went back to the Colorado River State Park, and turned left towards the wildlife area. That was supposed to be 1/2 mile away, but with the heat it sure seemed longer. And what did we find when we got there?

A lake with ducks and some really tiny fish. We did see a jackrabbit and a nesting dove, but that was all. Nothing interesting like a bobcat or mountain lion! Oh, and lots of ants, they were everywhere.

Later that day, we went to one of the parks in Grand Junction. After it had cooled off somewhat.
I mean, the truck thermometer was registering 101 degrees, and I didn't even know it had a hundreds column, hadn't seen that before!

Here's Cordelia, with hands on hips, probably trying to correct Wyatt.

And here's Wyatt, drinking. This kid is FAST!!! He runs all over the place! And climbs, and explores, and whatever else little boys do.

And here's Cordelia thinking about climbing one of the cottonwood trees. These things can get very big, especially around. The bark in uneven, so theoretically it could be climbed, but I think some steps would make it easier!

Notice them long legs on Cordelia, this kid is going to be tall.

And here's Grandpa. What more can I say?

And that's the end of the trip. Now I have to think of something to blog about!

Colorado National Monument

2010-07-05T18:25:00.005-06:00

On Sunday while we were in Grand Junction, we drove the scenic route (only route) thru the Colorado National Monument. The views were great! However it goes really high, and depending on the side of the vehicle you are on, you can be looking straight down for several thousand feet! So here's one of my first pictures of the Monument itself. Most turned out kinda washed out because we went in the middle of the day, but you can bet that I'm going to get back there at sunrise or sunset. It would be awesome!

Here's Rachel with Wyatt. She kept a very close hold on him...kinda like a death grip so he wouldn't get away and run over the edge. And we all watched Cordelia to make sure she stayed away from the edges, even tho there were railings at all the lookout points.

All three of them after Cordelia tried to catch a lizard. Guess she's going to be a tomboy like her grandma was!

And here's Ed and Grandpa at the first stop. I thought we were going to be doing this all the way thru the Monument, but Ed didn't get his tripod out all that much, but Grandpa did!

We picnicked at the visitor center where there was some shade, but we all came back with some sunburn. Very hot and bright out there.

Patio: Yesterday, I finished the patio. Got more flowers to plant, and more potting soil. So what does it do last night (July 4th)? We had a total of four different hail/thunderstorms. It poured!
This morning, I get up and go out and the flowers are all beaten by the hail, the sand between the bricks is all washed away, and the pollen producers from the pine trees are all over the place. So I spent the morning cleaning up the mess. And planting the new flowers.

A fun time in Grand Junction

2010-07-04T18:52:00.007-06:00

Last week, Grandpa and I took a trip to Grand Junction to see the grandkids (and Ed and Rachel too). It was a long drive over the mountains, but we stopped in Castle Rock for sustenance first.

Here is Ed and Wyatt. This is one of the few times that he looked at me and didn't CRY!

Here is Cordelia. I must say that when we pulled up and she was out in the drive way, I mistook her for a six year old version of her father. All she was missing was the curly copper penny hair that he had as a youngster.

Ok, so that was Friday night. Saturday morning when we got up I gave Cordelia the bubble maker that I had brought for her, and Wyatt the pail and shovel, so we all went outside in their backyard. I must say that their backyard is very interesting. There is this huge cottonwood tree, about 50 years old, that shades the entire back of the house. And right behind them is county land, with a farm on it.! Here are Cordelia and Wyatt on the swing in their backyard.

Later that morning, after Cordelia and I took our morning walk, I pulled out the Yarka watercolors and the watercolor block that Clyde brought. She was the only one that did any art work while we were there. Well, I did draw her a picture to paint on the paper, so I guess that should count too.

Here she is painting. She was that focused the entire time.

And Voila! Here's the finished picture.

That afternoon, when Ed was done with some of the yard work that he was working on, we all went to downtown Grand Junction to see the sculptures on the street. It was quite interesting, some of the sculptures were amazing. But the one weHAD to see was the prince as a frog.
Here is Cordelia trying to turn him back into a prince!

On another note, we are still having our run of bad luck. After having to have the transmission rebuilt on my truck (and believe me that wasn't cheap!) the computer died, so now we have a new one. Clyde's truck is getting fixed on Tuesday, and he spent the weekend replacing the brakes on my truck. Also the D100 isn't working correctly, and I sure can't afford to replace that right now........

I need a quiet and uneventful July......!!!!!

New Duds for the Dolls

2010-06-29T17:41:00.005-06:00

We're back from Grand Junction, so I can show you the new outfit I made for the Fancy Nancy dolls. Miss M took hers home last week, and I took Cordelia's to her. She wore the new outfit all weekend.

Had a great time in Grand Junction, saw the art on the street in the downtown area, ate gelato, walked along the Colorado River in Colorado River State Park (which is a whole 2 blocks from where Ed and Rachel live), drove the scenic drive thru Colorado National Monument and had a ball playing with Cordelia. Wyatt was another whole story.

All of my grandkids (except Wyatt) really seem to like me. That kid spent Saturday and Sunday running after Rachel and crying if I just looked at him. By Monday he was getting tired of all the running and just ignored me. This is going to be a challenge to me. He even let Grandpa touch him! HUMPHFF!

Now I have to start planning my strategy for the next time I see him. I will have him in my corner with the rest of them. I will!

I'll post pictures of the trip as soon as I get them off the camera.

Father's Day doings.....

2010-06-20T14:48:00.005-06:00

Lets start with yesterday. I have been educated this weekend! I have learned several things.

1. Remember the old trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat....?? Well, Grandpa used to finish it with If you don't, I don't care, you can smell my underwear..
So, M was telling me a story about Halloween, and started singing this song. I finished it off the way Grandpa used to, and guess what? According to M "That's inappropriate!" in that many words.

2. C is in pull ups, and he is all boy. He informed me that he needed a diaper change because he was wet. So I pulled off the pull up, and he ran into the bathroom to sit on the toilet. Course, if he had done anything it would have spouted all over the bathroom because that's how it was pointed.

Instead he looks up at me, gets this big grin on his face and says "I farted!". And he's done.

3. At the zoo today, when we were done with the giraffes, M wanted to go see the gorillas and monkeys. Grandpa, pushing the stroller with both of them in it says "Great, it's all uphill."
If you have ever been to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, you would know how ridiculous that sounded. Of course it's all uphill. The giraffes are the first thing after the entrance and the zoo is built up the side of the mountain.

Here we are entertaining the lowland gorilla.

4. The hippos were outside eating grass when we left the monkey house. I never knew how absolutely short their legs are!

See, really, really short!

After that, we tried lunch at Rudy's, a new BBQ place on Hwy 24, but the line was out the door so we went to Fatburger instead, and then to Baskin Robbins, and then home.....

I came home and cleaned stalls, then worked on the patio (and no, it's not done yet), and then vacuumed all the rugs so Grandpa could sweep and mop the floors. Busy, busy day.

Paintings in the Show

2010-06-02T18:47:00.004-06:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted. And I'm the one that's always nagging the kids to update their blogs! Guess I haven't had a lot to say and Clyde posted the pictures of the grandkids and himself at his party last week.

G spent 4 days with us last week, and he left yesterday to visit his dad in .......Hawaii. How's that for luck, he gets a summer vacation in Hawaii, and I've only been there when the ship stopped there for 2 days on the way back from Okinawa.
If only........

I'm posting the paintings that I put in the Palmer Lake Art Group's show at TriLakes Center for the Arts in Palmer Lake, CO. These paintings will be up until June 27 or thereabouts. The center is open from 12 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays thru Saturdays, and they have a lot going on there.

This first one, I've called Desert Gold. I took pictures of these poppies several years ago, when I was visiting my mother in El Paso. They had had a wet spring, and the poppies all bloomed all over the desert at the foot of the Franklin Mountains.

This is another one of a cowhorse working a cow, with the title of "Chasing Cows".
I am so totally bad at coming up with original titles.

The last one I called Blazing Saddle. This has got to be the epitome of originality..NOT. I need to find someone who can come up with titles to go with my paintings. Paintings are not a problem.

OK, what would you have titled these three paintings? If I like your suggestions, maybe I'll hire you!

Amanda is gone......

2010-04-07T15:38:00.002-06:00

I was going to post a picture, but the good computer with the pictures is broken.

Kendra, our vet, came out this afternoon and took care of Amanda for us. It's tuff. After almost 13 years with us, she has moved on to the Rainbow Bridge. I'm sure Wizard, Stormy, Snowy, Sunny, Darby, Rainy and Windy will be glad to see her. But I miss her terribly.

On the seventh day of spring there was.....

2010-03-27T09:42:00.003-06:00

MORE SNOW!!!!!

It's a good thing there is no class today, thanks to spring break, because we aren't going anywhere. The sun is trying to come out, it's peeked through the clouds a couple of times, but the snow is still coming down.

ONE FOOT!

2010-03-26T07:04:00.002-06:00

Last week we had a snowstorm. But that was ok, it was still officially winter. Sunday was March 21st, and that was the first day of spring. Wednesday I was shoveling one foot of nice spring weather off the driveway so I could get to the trash can with the garbage. Yesterday, I shoveled snow at the clinic (which was closed during the snow on Wednesday) to get the garbage cans out for pickup.

Clyde had to drag out our trash can through a foot of snow yesterday, after he had knocked off the top with the truck, so I could get out yesterday morning.

So, after that bit of spring, you'd think we could have a break! Not happening, we have another winter storm WARNING for tonight, and up to another 9 inches of snow on top of the foot that hasn't melted yet.

Isn't spring time great?

Spring!!!!

2010-03-21T13:29:00.004-06:00

Spring has finally arrived. Today is the first day of spring.

Spring sunrise:

Friday morning dawned cold, foggy and snowy. Winter storm warning, complete with blowing snow. We left about 9 am to try to do our grocery shopping. Because of the weather, Clyde was coming with me. We pulled out of the drive, turned left, and then left again to go down the hill. At the bottom, we turned left again......And
Gasp!! (That was me). We slid to the side of the road. Clyde said "Don't make those noises!" Overlooking the precipice, I said "Go back home".
Clyde backed up, saying "Boy, it sure is slippery out here!"

Putting the car into the drive, the conversation proceeded like this:

S: Just go back home.

C: It is really slick out here.

S: Go back, we don't need to get groceries today.

C: It is really, really slick out here.

By this time we'd made it to the next street. Clyde turned left, backed up, and turned around. We went home. No more surprises. I went downstairs and worked all day on my tessellation assignment. Pictures later when I get it done. Clyde just worked.

Wednesday, I had made an appointment with the vet for Peaches. For some reason, that we didn't understand, her coat was all matted and clumped, and falling out in places so that her skin showed. Clyde had tried brushing her, and then this happened, almost as if the brushing had caused the problem.

When I picked her up later in the afternoon she looked like this:

Apparently, according to the vet, the brushing Clyde had given her, and stimulated her to try to groom herself. She looked like really old cats look when they groom themselves. Something to do with the saliva that causes the mats to form. So now she has a shaved back. I found a "furbuster" at Wal Mart that is supposed to cut the mats out, like the one that the vet uses. Except more fancy. I will have to try that on her. I still have to cut off the mats on her front legs.

Today we went to return library books, get some coffee, and a newspaper, and stop at VI for breakfast. It was too crowded, so we came home and Clyde made omelettes. Now we are doing the floors. I must say that I really like my studio downstairs. We moved the Nordic Trak down this morning. Clyde's suggestion (actually he has been doing some nagging about taking it downstairs.) Of course his reaction to taking it down was "Why, it's just something for the kids to run into while they're playing down there." Sure wish he could make up his mind and stick to it. But it's down there now, by the double doors so I can look outside while I use it.

Cupcakes!!!!

2010-03-14T19:27:00.006-06:00

Today dawned cold and snowy. Definitely an inside day. Since Wednesday is Bekka's birthday, we made cupcakes. Me and CJ and M.

Course the best part was licking the utensils, especially from the frosting, which I must say was excellent. I found the recipe for these Chocolate Malt cupcakes on
Noble Pig's blog. She has a lot of very good recipes. These were made from scratch

So here are the kids, busily licking:

And here is a closeup of M. I accidently spilled some of the confectioner's suger on the counter, and believe me, they enjoyed cleaning it up!

And here's CJ:

After we got the frosting made, I frosted, and the kids put the marashino cherries on top. Believe me, it was a challenge to get the cherries on the cupcakes. I think they ate at least half of them!

And here's a closeup of the 21 cupcakes that we made. I sent 10 over to Bekka and I'm taking some of my 10 to work tomorrow. Definitely don't want these sitting around the house!

After all this, the kids shared one cupcake, and then had lunch. I can't believe they were still hungry, but they both ate up their sandwiches!.

I must be in a domestic mode, because tonight I made dinner. Well, except for the steak that Clyde cooked, and the tomatoes and mozarella cheese that he cut up. I made Pioneer Woman's Mushroom Burgundy steak sauce. Wow, it is ever good!!

And simple to make.

I don't think that woman has ever had a bad recipe. This is not the recipe that is in her cookbook, but off the cooking part of her blog. I think we're going to try the recipe in her cookbook too!

And another one gets older

2010-03-14T08:05:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, while I was talking about my paintings in class (my midterm presentation) and how the assignments had blocked my creativity.....So much that I had rearranged all of my art stuff into a studio down in the family room...You know, anything to avoid the painting!

Anyway I got a call from Cordelia! She was calling to thank me for my birthday gifts. Yes, she is now a 6 year old! My goodness she has grown up so fast!

So, this is brief, but I hope that she had a very happy day! I talked to her again, later, while they were shopping at Wal Mart, and then Clyde talked to her even later after we got home with the kids.

Now it's off to clean the kitchen, we are making cupcakes for Bekka's birthday (March 17th).

Hope everyone is having a good day, week, month. It's cold here and we're supposed to get rain (maybe snow, but I'll take the rain). I'm so sick of winter. I want warmth!!

Display time.....

2010-02-19T18:25:00.002-07:00

On display until tomorrow at the Squash Blossom gallery on 26th and Colorado:

When I went back to class in January, Tom Owen asked, yes ASKED, me if I would show this painting at his show/student show at the Squash Blossom. I was so surprised, I wasn't expecting that! So it has been on display since last Thursday, and I have to pick it up tomorrow (I don't think it sold).

But still, I got to exhibit a painting in an actual gallery!

Wow!

Fancy Nancy

2010-02-17T06:51:00.007-07:00

Knock! Knock! Anyone there??!!?? I've started posting on my blog again. I have lots of things to post, since I have lots of pictures to post. So, what have I been doing? Well, mostly work, painting, and more work..

Today, I'm going to post the Christmas project. I bought two Fancy Nancy dolls at Target back in October. Then I bought two 18" doll patterns at JoAnn's. I didn't need to buy fabric or trim because I had some, and I came up with the idea to use old clothes for the fabric. I did have to buy the velcro closures and thread. And since my mom used to dress dolls for Christmas for the Army base, and she dressed a lot of them over the years (refurbished them too), she sent me boxes of trims, bias tape, and ribbons. So a very Scroogish present, except for the cost of the dolls.

Then I waited until 3 days before Christmas to sit down and sew. Great planning, bad implementation.

Here are the results of two days of frantic sewing...... And remember, I had to make two of everything...

Denim pants and a top (with a hobo bag purse that I made them for Valentine's day):

A dress (made out of the leftover material from a dress I made Cordelia) and panties that you can't see:

And a nightgown:

I think they turned out cute (patting myself on the back ;>)....) and I have material for a denim jacket and knit turtleneck tops next if I can find the time to sit and sew.

We are rearranging the house, and I am taking over the family room downstairs as a studio. I have a table that the sewing machine can set on permanently, and another table for cutting, crafts, whatever. The drawing table is still upstairs, but I have moved about half of the stuff on the bookcase down. I have all those cabinents down there to store stuff in. So, watercolors, colored pencils, basket dyes, all can be put out of sight. Also the acrylics that I am going to start painting in.

More to come......

Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T20:19:00.002-07:00

We had a cold snowy Valentine's Day. (And I know, it's been a long time between posts!! Mea Culpa!) We picked up the kids on Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening we baked heart cookies. More heart than heart-shaped. I bought the premade sugar cookie dough again this year and promptly forgot what happened the last time. Rolled out the dough, cut out the cookies, and put them in the oven to bake. So the dough was a little thick, and I put them on the cookie sheet a little too close together. The first batch puffed up and spread out so that it looked like a large rectangle of sugar cookie.

On to the next attempt. This time I spread them out more on the sheet, and rolled the dough thinner, and actually they looked like hearts even after baking them. Made another two sheets, one of which I cooked a little too long and they were crispy cookies! Then I put them all in a container on the counter. And put a lid on them.

The next morning, when I got up, I found the container upside down on the floor. I didn't even hear it hit the floor! And most of the cookies were now cookie crumbles....

I managed to find 2 large hearts apiece for the kids, and 2-3 small hearts each, so we broke out the icing, tinted it pink and proceeded to frost them. Then we sprinkled sprinkles, and trimmed them. I must say that the white outlining on the pink cookies did turn most of them into hearts, and we wrote messages on them.

When we were done, we put them on those paper doilies (looked in several places in Wal Mart for them before finding them in the craft section!), and wrapped them in plastic wrap so the kids could take them home. Glad we still had enough after those darned cats crumbled them all!

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day. I did. Cordelia called to tell me how much she liked the hobo bag purse that I made for her Fancy Nancy doll. That will be another post, as I borrowed Molly's doll and clothes and took pictures to post here.

Pictures from the last two weeks

2010-01-10T17:55:00.011-07:00

The last couple of weeks, I have had lots of chances to get pictures of my grandchildren, especially the two that live in Grand Junction, since they came over for Christmas. So here, in no particular order, are by babies.....

Wyatt, 8 months, eating. This kid is so cute, and just crawling. And boy can he be fast!

Miss M in the snow the day we went to feed the ducks, and try out G's camera.

Another Miss M on that snowy day.

G trying to con the ducks into coming and getting the piece of bread so he could get a good picture.

Another G at the duck pond.

CJ at the duck pond. He has that UGLY bandaid on his face because he fell and scraped himself. That kid has more scrapes and bumps than any kid I know. But if you just watched him for a couple of minutes, you would know why. He has no fear. I've seen him jump off benches or rocks that are 2 feet off the ground. And he doesn't think about it at all, he just jumps!

This one is Cordelia with her baby brother Wyatt. From what I understand, she is just like any big sister, and she tries to manage him. At least she is big enough to manage him. Today at the zoo I watched Miss M grab CJ by the hood of his sweater and fling him around because he was touching the fence, at least that's what I think is the reason. She got put in the stroller to sit until she could apologize. And she is SO STUBBORN when she has to do that!

The night after Christmas, which was Christmas for us, since we postponed a day, Cordelia fell asleep on cousin Baxter. Long story, James and Solitare are providing granddogs and grandcats, not grandkids!

And here is pretty Cordelia on her way out to help Grandpa feed the horses. I think she misses that, not living here, because she was always ready to go!

So there's my gorgeous grandkids. They're growing like weeds, and I'm sure gonna miss this stage in their lives when it's over.

A New Year, a New Month......

2010-01-04T18:50:00.006-07:00

Today is the first regular day after the holidays. Things are getting back to normal, whatever that is. The past two weeks went by without too much hassle.

I got everything I wanted for Christmas and then some! The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook was a real hit. I have eaten very well since that showed up. We have had sour cream pancakes twice, whiskey cream gravy twice, spiced pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and a blackberry cobbler. And I haven't even had to do any of the cooking. But the eating has been great around here! Thanks, Rachel!

I have two new sets of Yarka watercolor paints, and I can't wait to get started on those. Unfortunately, I have to clear the drawing board, literally, before I can try them out. Thanks Clyde!

I spent the money from my mother on the gold hoop earrings that I wanted. This was the end of my Christmas list. But I did get some surprises....

Bekka and Brandi decided at Thanksgiving that I needed a purse....Apparently my denim tote bag wasn't good enough. So, Thanks Bekka for the purse!

And James and Solitare packed up a 15 qt covered tub with mints, cookies, chocolates, candy canes, hot chocolate, boxes of candy, a very nice warm throw, a back massager (which G has already tried out on me, and it works!) and a microwave heating thingy filled with beans to wrap around my shoulders and neck. Clyde can use it too. Thanks you guys.

Got some socks, dish towels, an oven mit (presumably for Clyde the next time he tries to burn the turkey) and the coolest cookie scoop for making cookies from Susie.
Can't wait to use that one!

We got G a camera, again. This one came with a warranty (extended) and we took the kids out to take pictures on Saturday. It started snowing these really tiny snow pellets just as we got there, but the ducks didn't care. They thought the bread was delicious.

If you look closely, you can see some faint white streaks. That is the snow coming down.

The pictures aren't perfect, but I think G has the idea that he needs to get close. Now we just have to learn to hold the camera still.

But I think he did a good job. G likes to click the button and take the pictures, and he sure liked that I printed him out some 4x6's. But I don't think he's much interested in the processing just yet. Right now we'll just concentrate on the pictures, and the rest will come.

G caught CJ sleeping on the couch after we got home. That little one sleeps wherever and whenever he needs to. Just lays down and goes to sleep. What a cutie!

Colorado Christmas Tales part 5

2009-12-27T18:37:00.003-07:00

This is the last of the Colorado Christmas Tales for this year.

In 1989 we were going to El Paso for Christmas. We were going to go skiing at Taos first. So early one morning before Christmas, we got the kids up at 4 a.m. and bundled them into the van. And I do mean 'bundled'. For the entire week before we left, the temperature in Colorado Springs had been below zero. All day, 24 hours a day. So the kids were dressed in their ski clothes, long underwear and bibs and wool socks, and jackets, hats and gloves, and snow boots. Then they were enclosed in sleeping bags, belted in, and they tried to make themselves comfortable with all that extra padding surrounding them. Their heads promptly disappeared into the sleeping bags! The dog wasn't so lucky, she curled up on a seat and tried to stay warm.

The van was running long before we left, the heat was turned up on high. It would have been better if the heat could of been higher. Clyde and I climbed into the front seats, wearing all of our ski clothes, I had a sleeping bag wrapped around me too. We set off south to New Mexico.

It soon became clear that the heater wasn't putting out any warm air. It felt more like an airconditioner. The inside of the windows kept frosting over. We had to keep stopping and use a credit card to scrape off the ice on the inside of the van windows so that we could see where we were going. Luckily for us, the van didn't have a thermometer to tell us how cold it was, or we probably would have gone home and back to bed in a warm house.

By the time we reached Raton Pass, we were wondering if this was a good idea. The heater had been blasting for over 3 hours, and our breaths were still freezing on the inside of the windshield.
But the top of Raton Pass was the changing point. As we dropped down out of the mountains into Raton, New Mexico we quickly shed all of the outer layers, and were soon sweating because of all the heat eminating from the heater. We went from below zero to about 40 in 15 minutes!

What a change!

We went on to Taos for skiing, and then on to El Paso for Christmas. And when we came home, it was much warmer than when we left!.

On another note, Christmas is officially over here. All the presents are unwrapped, the kids have gone home, and it's just me and Clyde again. Quiet is so nice after all the commotion. But I wouldn't have missed all the commotion for anything. The little ones were SO excited! And we had a great gathering with friends and family on Saturday, even though I was ready for bed at 11 p.m. and so was everyone else!

Colorado Christmas Tales part 4

2009-12-14T17:44:00.008-07:00

Continuing the Christmas sagas, this is what we started doing in 1986.

I had an artificial tree, I would just get it out of the garage and set it up in the living room, and decorate it. Easy as pie (unless I'm the one cooking, that is).

But not Clyde. Christmas is NOT Christmas if the tree isn't real. But they cost a lot of money...... Well, not so much if you can get a permit from the forest service, and then get to the cutting area in the mountains. So that's what we did.

On the Saturday morning we were going to get the tree, we got all the kids up, fixed a thermos of hot chocolate, loaded up the ax and the saw into the car, and took off.

Luckily for us, it was a nice day, the sun was shining, and I don't remember the temperature, but not too bad. After we got there we had to find a tree. We didn't want to cut one that was too big, so we were looking for one that was about 7-8 feet tall. Gotta tell you that they look a lot shorter out in the open, but we found one.

Everyone got a chance to saw at the trunk. I think the general opinion was that cutting down a tree wasn't as easy as it looks. Here's Eddie taking his turn at sawing.

And here's Clyde hiking in. I know he's hiking in, because he wasn't hauling a tree out. That was another thing, those trees aren't light.

We got the tree tied to the top of the car and took it home. Then we tried to set it up. Remember what I said before about them looking shorter out in the open. We had to cut about 4 feet off the bottom of the tree to get it into the house.

And when we did, we discovered that we had to tie it to the wall. We had adopted these three kittens, shown here playing with the running water in the kitchen sink.

And when we got the tree up, they just loved the jungle gym that we had brought home especially for them!

Needless to say, we had to leave the tree undecorated for several days, until the cats were finished with it. Then we decorated it, and redecorated it, and redecorated it,.......

And the next two years we went back up to the forest to cut down a Christmas tree.
So our kids know where the trees come from and we are looking for one on our property to cut down so G, and M, and CJ and experience the fun of cutting down their Christmas tree!

Stay tuned for part 5.

Colorado Christmas Tales part 3

2009-12-10T18:09:00.004-07:00

Before I get started, here's the front of my Christmas card this year. I even got it done before Christmas this year! So, everyone have a Merry Christmas! And hopefully it will warm up a little by then since we have been so cold already this year.

I put this out here because I couldn't find any pictures for Christmas 1984 or 1985.
I don't even remember Christmas 1984, except that I know we were in Colorado. We went to El Paso for Thanksgiving, and the following week my father died, and we went back down to El Paso. So, I don't remember Christmas. It must not have been very memorable!

However, Christmas 1985 was memorable. Clyde and I had gotten together in September, and this was our first Christmas together. I sent the Ed and Becca to Phoenix, and James went to his mother's. We had the time to ourselves, and we had reservations in Breckenridge. We were going skiing! By ourselves! And we weren't coming back until after Christmas, so we were staying at least 4 days. If only I'd known....

We got up there on the 23rd, got our lift tickets and took off on a ski lift. First run, on a simple blue slope, at the top of the mountain, I took a twisting fall. And SNAP! I tore the acl in my knee. Oh bummer. If you have never been pulled off a mountain strapped into one of their sleds heading downhill headfirst, you really haven't lived! All you can see is the sky, and the tops of some of the trees!
And there's only the one ski patrol guy in front to keep you from going all the way down headfirst.

Got to the clinic, they checked out the knee and said the acl was torn. I couldn't walk on it like it was, so I got a splint, from thigh to ankle, to keep the leg straight. And some crutches! Boy was I upset. I started crying because I had messed up our vacation, and on the very first day!

We got to the hotel, and stayed overnight. The next day, the 24th, we headed home, getting there in the evening. The next day was Christmas, and I didn't even have anything in the house to fix a nice dinner. The only place we could find open was Eidelweiss, and they did have an opening for lunch/dinner. So we ate Christmas dinner out. Now I knew that we were going to eat Christmas dinner out that year, but I had been expecting to ski before and after.

When I got to the doctor the next week, he casted the leg from thigh to ankle, and that's how I walked for the next month. When he took it off, I had to go to Physical Therapy to get the knee working. (But I did get a new mountain bike out of this, and a wind trainer to put it on so I could ride stationary, it was good exercise for the knee.)

And, as soon as the doctor said I could ski again, I was back on skis. But that year my ski season was kinda short, since I missed 3 months of it.

Stay tuned for part 4.

Colorado Christmas Tales part 2

2009-12-07T18:23:00.003-07:00

Two posts down, I wrote about the 1982 Christmas weather disaster, when I couldn't get the kids to the airport to fly them down to Phoenix. So the following year, 1983, I decided to drive. After all, the snow was in Denver the year before, why shouldn't it be there again?

So, a couple of days before Christmas, I got the kids up bright and early (actually it wasn't bright, it was dark like it usually is at 4:30 am in December in Colorado.)

Packed the car and took off to the south. Shortly after leaving Colorado Springs, it started to snow, lightly. I followed a big truck, and it was easy. Well, it was easy for a short while. The snow kept getting thicker, deeper, and heavier.

By the time I got to Pueblo, it was coming down really good. Appears the storm decided to take a southerly path this time. Since it was still dark when I got thru Pueblo, and I didn't want to travel thru the ever thickening snow in the dark, I turned around, went north back into Pueblo, and stopped at the Village Inn. We had breakfast while I waited for the sun to come up.

The sun came up, but unfortunately, I couldn't see it. It was lighter out, but disorienting since the ground, road and sky were all the same color. Let me tell you, there weren't very many people on the road! It was all I could do to keep the car on the road, I could barely see past the front end of the car, and there were very faint tire tracks, if any. I mostly watched for the posts on the edge of the road so I could see where the middle was.

After 'white knuckling' it all the way to Walsenberg (normally a two hour drive at most), I saw a Best Western sign alongside the road--barely. Being the efficient, decisive person that I was, I decided we were going to have a second breakfast and turned off the freeway. It had only taken over 4 hours for a less than two hour drive.

First question as I walked into the Best Western was "Do you have any rooms available? I think I'm done for the day."

Well, of course, that early in the day, they were full. I had to wait for someone with better nerves than me to check out and be on their way. That's what they told me. I just replied, "I'll be in the restaurant. Let me know when you have a room."
At least I was at the top of the waiting list!

After another breakfast, the kids were confused since I didn't usually feed them breakfast two times in one day, and never twice before 8:30 am, we got a room!!

Yea! I didn't have to drive over Raton Pass, at least not today.

Of course, have you ever spent 24 hours with two kids (ages 10 and 5) in a hotel room with nowhere for them to go run and work off their energy? We watched movies, we jumped on the beds, we bounced off the walls. We did get lunch and dinner, and I called everyone and told them not to expect me, I was snowed in again! All of my southern family (Arizona and Texas) were probably wondering what I had gotten myself into when I moved to Colorado. After all, until last year I had never had a white Christmas in all of my 34 years.

I finally got them settled down and asleep and was relaxing finally. Bekka sat up in bed (the one she was sharing with me of course) and threw up. All over!!
I guess she had too much excitement that day. After we got that cleaned up, we tried again to go to sleep.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny. Really. There was over a foot of snow on the car's roof, but I could see where I was going! Apparently, Raton Pass was a real mess the day before, and there were ground blizzards all the way to Santa Fe that were causing whiteouts on the roads.

We got in the car, and after a very slow, and careful, trip over the pass, we continued on our way. We made it to Phoenix, and then to El Paso. I seem to remember on the way back, on New Years Day no less, I had to find a place to fix something that was going wrong with the car, because it wouldn't go.

That was not an easy trip!!

This is a picture of Ed and Bekka at Royal Gorge that fall, so you can see that they have grown a year's worth. Don't know what happened to the Christmas pictures.

Stay tuned for the next installment in the Colorado Christmas Tales.

Rudolph

2009-12-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Rudolph the Red Deer Rain Nose
by Miss M

Colorado Christmas Tales

2009-12-05T18:21:00.006-07:00

It occurred to me that I should save some of my memories of Colorado. We moved here in 1982. Totally unprepared for the weather. The kids never had snow fall in their yard before. Ed wasn't used to playing in the snow, and kept freezing the tips of his fingers and having to come inside to warm them up. But he always went back outside to play in this stuff.

Christmases became really exciting!

Our first Christmas here, it snowed. (Actually it was a blizzard on Christmas Eve Day.)

We had a white Christmas! My first ever (and I was so old then). The snow covered the front steps.

When we got up in the morning, Bekka discovered a new bicycle under the tree for her.
(Bekka always had 'bedhead' when she got up. The hair was like cotton.)

Ed had new tires for his bike, and one of those big Star Wars war machines (I can't remember what they were called, but it added to his collection of Star Wars toys.).
See all that red hair and freckles that he had?

Anyway, Ed and Bekka were supposed to fly down to Phoenix that day to spend the rest of Christmas with their dad. Unfortunately, the couple of feet of snow we got, wasn't the worst in the state. Denver got over 3 feet of blowing snow, they had huge drifts, and the roads weren't plowed. There was no way to get to the old Denver airport to put the kids on the plane. (I had them flying from there because it was a point to point flight-no changing planes or anything.)

So, we flew down for President's Day in February instead. Figured that wouldn't happen again.

Stay tuned for Christmas 1983!

Today will be MUCH warmer than yesterday......

2009-12-04T16:30:00.002-07:00

You know you are in Colorado when the weather man proclaims

"Today will be MUCH warmer than yesterday." And then proceeds to let you know that the expected high will be 28 degrees. But it will be sunny!

(Yesterday the high was 4 so I guess he was right.)

Thanksgiving highlights

2009-11-27T19:41:00.007-07:00

Well, Thanksgiving was really interesting this year, and since we only had family and Brandi and Ella, everybody missed the excitement.

Started with PWs Lazy chili rellenos and sour cream muffins with blueberries for breakfast. Will have to work on the chili rellenos some more, they were a little runny, but very tasty.

Then Clyde started on the turkey. We had a big one (22 lbs.) and he put it in a turkey bag like we have done for the past 24 years, and I did for lots of years before that.

He put the turkey in the oven at about 11:30 am. We proceeded to cook the rest of the meal, while enjoying the peach margaritas that have become a mainstay of our entertaining.

These are really, really good margaritas, that I found the recipe for on Noble Pig's blog.

At about 2:30, Clyde noticed some strange light coming from the oven. He opened the oven door, and flames came pouring out the door. He shut the door, thinking, I guess, that he would starve the flames of oxygen. He did turn off the oven, and then opened the door again. More flames! He started yelling "leave the house! go outside!" while he attempted to take the turkey out of the oven. James hovered behind him, cautioning "don't spill the grease!" Brent took all three kids out on the front deck. The fire alarm started going off.

Clyde got the turkey out of the oven, and the flames went out. He's yelling "where's the fire extinguisher!" Which we bought 17 years ago when we bought the house, and it's been MIA for many years now. (item one on the shopping list: buy a new fire extinguisher).

Had to open windows and doors and fan the smoke away from the fire alarm, which continued to go off. Got a little chilly in the house. Had to peel the plastic cooking bag off the turkey. Didn't get much in the way of juices to make gravy.

And thru the entire excitement, I never thought to pick up the camera and take a picture!

So, no picture of the flames coming out of the oven.

Right after the fire was out, the alarm was off, Brandi walks in the door. We're all, like, "Wow, you missed all the excitement!"

Needless to say, I am thankful that I don't have to rebuild the house, we did have a turkey dinner, and we enjoyed ourselves all the way until about midnight when we finally gave up playing games and went to bed.

Here is Miss M.

And here is CJ enjoying the pumpkin pie that he and Miss M poked their fingers into yesterday.

Hope you all had a quiet Thanksgiving. Oh, and we have to clean the oven, and make sure it's not going to happen again, or item number 2 on the shopping list is a new stove. And I think I just may make item number 3 on the shopping list a turkey roaster, so we don't have to use the cooking bags again!

You can read another version of this story Here.

Twas the day before Thanksgiving......

2009-11-25T21:36:00.003-07:00

And Granpa was busy baking pumpkin pies. They looked really nice too.

But, if you take a close look at the pie above, you'll see two little finger poke holes. One of the grandkids tested the pie! And the other pie has even more holes in it! Grandpa is going to be thrilled!

We'll have a houseful tomorrow, but not as many as usual.. James and Solitare will be here, as will Bekka and Brent. The three kids are already here. Brent is back at work and he gets off at 6 am and Bekka has to be at work at 6am. I was looking at having to get up at 4:30 am to go watch them. But Grandpa, not wanting to get up that early, suggested that we get them the night before. So, they've been here all day, causing the normal amount of havoc that they usually cause. I've done no painting, and the final day is getting pretty close. So, I've got to take pictures and get a couple framed to put into shows.

I am baking a pie right now. It's called an upside down apple pie. Figured that it didn't matter if it came out pretty, since I'm going to turn it upside down! At least it won't have finger poke holes in it like the pumpkin pies do!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mea Culpa, again

2009-11-19T07:30:00.002-07:00

Forgot to acknowledge birthdays again......Too much going on right now.... And yesterday, as we were getting out of the truck in Monument, I all of a sudden said "I forgot a day recently" and Clyde said "my mother's, October 28, and I forgot too". So sorry Mother in Law....Guess things just got away from us.

So Lois, Here's a big Happy Birthday!!!! to you.

And then James, the youngest, turned the big 30 on Nov. 1st. How time flies! Happy Birthday, James!

Rachel, Ed's wife had a birthday on the 10th of November, but in keeping with the 'we ladies don't reveal our age', I won't be telling how old she is. Happy Birthday, Rachel!

And Ed has a birthday on the 22nd. I'm not late on that one. Whew! Ed is turning 36 years old this year. I can't believe I have a kid that old. I mean, I'm only 39! Hah! So Happy Birthday, Ed!!

And so goes the year. I'm done with birthdays until February. Now I just gotta get thru Thanksgiving and Christmas, oh, and finish all my paintings for the final on Dec. 6th. And make Christmas cards, and doll clothes, and buy presents.

I vote for Christmas in July....how does that sound?

It's going to be a looooonnnnnnggggg winter

2009-10-30T20:59:00.003-06:00

Today, I finally got out! Yes, not stuck at home. I can do my shopping that hasn't been done in the last two weeks because of the snow. So, Grandpa warms up the truck and drives it out to the street two times to knock the snow down so I can get out. And get out I did. No problems.
Well, that was the good part.

Went to the doctor's, post office, and Walmart. Then MD's for lunch, and came home. Tootled right along. It was easy!

Then I turned into the driveway. And got stuck right out there by the street. So I hauled the groceries in by walking, and then went out after lunch to dig the truck out. Grandpa was kinda like "What do you think I'm going to do?"

I dug out 3 of the 4 wheels, and started on the one that was really buried, and along comes a neighbor in a red truck with a tow strap.

"Are you stuck?" he asks.

Well, duh! "Yes, I'm stuck."

So he gets out, attaches the tow strap, and he pulls the back to the left, while I back out, and
I'm out! So I stop right there. Not going to get stuck again. Call Clyde, tell him I'm out, and can he please come drive the truck into the driveway.

I bet he was surprised that I got out so fast. Like about 20 minutes of digging was all!

This is the second time in two weeks the truck has been stuck. It's going to be a long winter down here.

How the snow flies......

2009-10-29T17:42:00.003-06:00

Bet you thought you were going to see photos of the almost 2 feet of snow that's lying around our yard and drive right now (and yes, it's still coming down, but not as much!). This is how Amanda looks when she comes back inside. She plows thru the snow with her nose to the ground.

I've been painting today, it was a work day, but the clinic is closed because of the snow. I couldn't get there anyway. We haven't seen a snowplow yet. So we've sort of hunkered down and stayed inside where it's warm.

I know, I've got to get pictures taken of my paintings and post them here. I do have a couple of cool ones, if I do say so myself, that I think you'll all like.

Grandpa posted something over on his post. I think he's taking a poll. And yes, we do have goose and gander rules. But we also have gander and goose rules, so my vote is that it all evens out in the end. What about you? Do you have goose and gander rules at your house?

Ugh! Maybe this will help spring come early?

2009-10-28T06:07:00.002-06:00

It's 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning. The snow has arrived! But not too much yet. It's quiet outside (and yes, I've already been out, why you ask? Amanda of course!) and the snow is very fine, light stuff coming down. Everything is covered again, but only about an inch so far.

The temp is at 24 degrees. Not as bad as three weekends ago when the high was about 19.

The (make that my) truck has a new driveshaft, it was fixed on Monday. You gotta love a mechanic that comes to you, or better yet, comes to your broken truck, and fixes it by crawling under it in the snow to fix it!

Grandpa's truck has a new seat controller, so now the seat moves back and forth, so both of us can drive it now. But really, Grandpa is the only one that has to drive again.......I'm not driving in this stuff!

So, what's your morning like?

a short discussion

2009-10-25T06:59:00.001-06:00

Grandpa: "I'm tired of winter already."

Grandma: "But Dear, it's only October!"

I guess cold, snow and a broken drive shaft will do that to you...

Have a good day.

Back to the park last weekend

2009-10-23T15:47:00.012-06:00

So, last weekend, it was back to the park. After feeding the ducks. I did take more pictures than just the feet!

Started out playing by the water....What is it about water that fascinates kids? Unless it's bath water of course!

After digging, and throwing rocks into the lake, they found a tree to climb on. A good tree, it was close to the ground!

The littlest one thought this was lots of fun!

But you can see that Miss M wasn't all that interested in the climbing! But she did sit on the tree with CJ for a picture.

I did get a good picture of her, though.

Got pictures of G sitting on the tree.....

and making like a leopard in the tree.

And, of course, I got one of Granpa laying in the grass. He does that well, sometimes.

I would put up the photos I took after Grandpa got my truck stuck in the snow on Wednesday, but he already posted about that here.

Musings.

2009-10-19T13:48:00.005-06:00

Went to the park yesterday after feeding the ducks behind the library (slept too late and weren't ready to go to the zoo until 9:30. Would have put us there with all the other visitors and we like to go early and have the zoo to ourselves).

After watching the kids play for a while, I noticed these:

Big feet:

Middle feet:

Little feet:

Only that's not the way it is. You have to swap middle feet and little feet, because the 2 year old wears a size larger than the 4 year old! He'll be catching up with the big feet pretty soon.

Woweeee!!! Look what you can see !!!

2009-10-16T17:46:00.002-06:00

Clyde posted some of his paintings. You can see them
here !!

He did a good job, and now I've got to get going and post some of my stuff. Nothing like a little competition!!

Grey day, grey mood.....

2009-10-10T15:06:00.002-06:00

No pictures today. It's a cold, cold grey day here. I woke up to a temp of 13 degrees, and it's only up to 20 degrees right now. The fog here has lifted a little, so the sky is just a blah grey.

The drive to class this morning was quite eventful. First, I skidded pulling into Wayne's to feed his horses. So now Clyde's driving....it's a lot safer that way. (Whole other story why I'm doing the driving right now.) Then, in Monument, guess what? There were only about 3-4 vendors at the farmers market, and the pastry lady from Castle Rock couldn't get here because the the pileup on I-25 at Larkspur. So, McDonald's it was.

In McDonald's we heard about the freeway being closed going north, and that it was closed going south of Colorado Springs. And when we started down to class, there was an accident on the freeway. We got off at Briargate Parkway, went down to Academy and got back on. Ok, not so bad.

Uneventful all the way down to the Bijou exit. Cops in the turn lanes to go east. Bridge closed.
Tow truck manuvering to get a pickup off the bridge. Bus resting on a lamppost. Ok, so we went west, and turned to go down to the Colorado Street bridge. Guess what? Closed.

Now these are the two newest bridges over the freeway to get into downtown. Guess they made them too steep, they collect ice and become major hazards. Had to turn around and go all the way north to Uintah to go UNDER the freeway, then back south to ppcc campus.

After class, still foggy, bridge at Bijou still closed, firetrucks with lights and sirens heading north on the freeway (the direction we needed to go). Went back up to Uintah, turned east, and thru town to go back to Wayne's and feed horses and then home.

The house is cold, the outside is cold, it's snowing a little.....How much grayer can it get??

A second day at the zoo.....

2009-09-22T18:29:00.013-06:00

On Sunday, we went to the zoo again. Since we've already paid for as many times as we want to go, it seemed like the right thing to do.

G and M were ready to go:

We saw the birds (this is an african crane) at the giraffe exhibit:

After watching the giraffe stampede (where they let all the giraffes outside) we saw these little creatures (and I have totally forgotten what they are):

Next up were the lions, and rockclimbing outside the lion exhibit:

Then on to the Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit. The mountain lions were being fed in one half of their pen. Food was in feed sacks so they could tear it apart. They have 3 boys and one girl all from the same litter. The boys have been fixed, and the girl is on birthcontrol, but she still attracts the boys from off the mountain:

M standing on the fence out side the lions:

The otters were out swimming, so we had to stop and see them:

Then we got to the grizzly bears. They were out walking around, not swimming like we saw before:

The two of them put on quite a show wrestling:

Then we were done, and left for home:

And this is what I found after we had been home for a couple of hours. He insists that he was reading his book, but I have evidence otherwise:
The book isn't even open!

I guess the grandkids wore him out. Meanwhile, I washed dishes, clothes, and did some other stuff.

WHAT??!!??!?

2009-09-20T06:30:00.002-06:00

Where did summer go? It hasn't arrived yet! Oh my, we had spring all of June, July, and August.
It's supposed to be summer now. But no, our forecast is for a chance of snow Monday night. Temps in the high 20s.

Our sunflowers haven't made seeds yet.

We just got the stuff to start painting the trim on the house.

The manure pile isn't cleaned out yet.

The wood isn't split yet.

Oh, well, off to the zoo with G and M. Today's supposed to be really nice!

The zoo.....

2009-09-14T17:01:00.007-06:00

On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Clyde and I joined the zoo. Yes we did. We signed up for the grandparents membership with five grandchildren. So we can go anytime we want, and not have to pay. Seriously, I think 3 trips will pay for the membership, and we still have the whole year to go. And, the best part, we don't have to see everything in one trip. Which, I have to say, is a little hard on the little ones.

So here we have Miss M perusing the map to determine where we are going:

And here she is after deciding, looking quite satisfied:

CJ is a little more leary, not knowing exactly what he's gotten himself into:

Here he is leaving the treehouse right before we went to the My Big Backyard:

And they have a pond in My Big Backyard that is full of fish. CJ had to get a close look! Any closer and he would have been in the pond with the fish:

While in the Big Backyard, we went into the upper part of the treehouse. Miss M sat in an egg and pretended that she was hatching:

We had a great time and we are looking forward to going again! But it's hard to take pictures when you're chasing kids at the same time so we didn't get many taken.

Maybe next time......

The artists

2009-09-04T19:23:00.002-06:00

I have some very talented grandkids. They are becoming quite the artists.

Mr G drew this last spring, while he was still in 1st grade. See if you can decipher who it is and what it says. I thought is was really creative, and not something I would have expected from a just turned 7 year old.

I received the above in the mail today from Miss C, way out in Grand Junction. It's a birthday card for Grandma. She put Grandpa in it too. And isn't it nice that she only put 4 candles on the cake? She thinks I'm young!

I had one that Miss M drew of her daddy (and I knew immediately who it was) but I think I sent that home with her parents. I'll have to keep the next one to post.

CJ is quite the artist too, but he draws on himself so I have nothing to scan in from him. Maybe someday when he learns to draw on the paper! LOL!!

Patio stages One through Five.

2009-09-02T19:08:00.009-06:00

So, it's not done, but here's the progress so far. Let me say, that this was my idea, and I have participated in each step. Clyde has done some of the heavy lifting as you will see.

First step was buying some railroad ties. After looking on Craigslist for what seemed like forever, Big R had them for 11 bucks apiece. So I ran out there the first day of the sale and bought 10. So, first step was to get the new patio outlined with the railroad ties. Here's the first layer above.

Then it was time to move the second level. These things were HEAVY!!! And they had to be cut with a hand saw. Then they had to be secured to the lower layer, which was secured to the ground with rebar. Unfortunately, the drill was good for one drill at a time. Then it was, take off the battery, charge it, and drill another hole. That was the most time consuming part.

And Clyde was THRILLED that it was taking so long! Here he is resting between drilling holes and pounding in stakes.

And here he is pounding in a stake.

Next, I had to get dirt to fill it in, and that was another frustrating thing on Craigslist. So we finally went down to Pioneer Sand and bought a large bucket load of fill dirt. Which promptly deflated one of the tires on the trailer, so we had to borrow their air compressor and pump up the tire, and then pull that almost 9 tons of dirt all the way up Black Forest Road. With my little 2500 since the big truck isn't running reliable. After spreading out the dirt, and leaving it to settle for a while, I had Clyde dump in bucket loads of sand from the pile we have in the round pen. And we spread that out to settle. Then I cleaned out the flower bed, had Clyde put sand in that, spread it out and went and bought bricks and pavers.

So today, I put the bricks and pavers in that section. Now I have patio on both sides of the tree, and it looks great. I can hardly wait to finish this, but it may have to wait until next summer. I have two landscape timbers to cut to divide it into 3 sections, and then I have to buy more bricks and pavers. But you can see how it's going to look.

Well, busy day. Still have more stuff to do before bedtime.

How to paint with cats

2009-08-31T19:26:00.004-06:00

Painting at our house entails a few challenges. First there is the large amount of animal hair that floats around. (After all, we have 4 cats and a Newfie, all of which have decided that it's time to shed.) So to paint, in our house, you have to become very adept at removing hair from the wet paint. And this includes watercolor, or painting the walls for that matter. So Clyde is now getting very adept at removing the hair. But there are other problems to consider also.

For instance, paw prints do add texture to the wet paint, whether you want it or not.
See the above picture of the paw prints in the wet paint. In addition, if the paint is wet enough, the cats can paint pawprints all over your paper. Luckily that didn't happen here.

Of course, leaving the painting to dry in the sunshine on the table offers it's own challenges. The cats take up residence on the paper in order to nap in the sunshine. Don't they look comfortable?

Then there is always the choice of seating. Middle of the painting is the place of choice for Calico.

So this is the painting of a sunflower that Clyde is working on, with the help of the cats!

More Mary, Mary.......

2009-08-30T15:41:00.004-06:00

More flowers, seems like all I'm getting pictures of. We had planned on joining the zoo today, and taking the kids, but there's something about getting up to fog and 40 degrees that just takes the fun out of it! So everyone else slept in.

I did get up before sunrise the other day, and went out to take pictures of the sunrise. The sunflowers in the garden didn't come out so well, but the singles out by the fence did. Course I had to lay on the ground to get the right take on them, but I'm thinking these would make a great painting!

Clyde is really getting into the watercolor, and now he's absconding with my camera to take pictures of what he wants to paint. So, the above is a sunflower with a bee!
We are certainly going to get different pictures now.

And here's one of our sunflowers. They are really starting to bloom, so we're going to have lots of them. We did buy some bricks so I could work on the deck, and we found some really pretty black eyed susans that we now have planted under the sunflowers.

Happy gardening!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary....

2009-08-24T19:00:00.005-06:00

How does your garden grow?

Well, I'm not Mary, and I usually don't get much to grow. But this summer has been so WET, I swear I've been transported to Seattle. Yes, humid, wet, and cool for most of the summer. But here are some of my lovelies for your enjoyment:

The daisies, which I hope are going to survive the winter. I'm mulching with the horse manure to keep everything from hopefully freezing. I want more of these, they are one of my favorite flowers!

Here is an acorn squash. These grew magically when Clyde dropped some seeds from a squash we had, while he was putting stuff in the composter. He just pushed the seeds into the ground, and look what came up! I'm not sure, but it may be too late in the growing season here for these to do well, but I'll keep you posted.

And here is one of the first sunflowers. They are mostly over my head, and more are starting to bloom. While I may say that daisies are my favorite flower, I always plant lots of these. I think you could say that sunflowers are really my favorite.

And this sunflower is the prettiest I have ever seen. It's got such a lovely color, and so distinct.

We went to a horse show yesterday, now Clyde can hardly walk, Kory tried to buck him off (she hates latigo trails arena), and now he thinks his tailbone may be broken.
Oh, the moaning that is going on here!

I'll have pictures of that later.

Our watercolor class was cancelled, but Tom, the instructor, was nice enough to let us into the over filled Saturday morning class. So now we have a class on Saturday morning.

And now it's raining, again!!

A Little Cuteness

2009-08-19T18:40:00.003-06:00

Here's a little cuteness to brighten your day.

We have a sunflower that is blooming, and some more with heads that haven't opened yet. I'll post a picture when they're all open so you can see the sunshine. Truthfully, we're lucky they're blooming at all. Monday we had rain, a deluge, hail, more rain, more deluge, and more hail. When Clyde got up at 1:30 a.m. to take the dog out, it was still raining. And Tuesday dawned cold, cloudy, and foggy.

It cleared for a short time, and by Tuesday afternoon we were being rained and hailed upon AGAIN!!

Today, we had a nice summery day (but only in the 70s). FINALLY!!!!

But my poor petunias look very bedraggled.

Hope you all are having a nice summer. We've practically gone from winter straight to fall.

A Very Miss M Birthday

2009-08-17T18:41:00.012-06:00

On Saturday, after going to Wally's World to get the ingredients, we went to pick up the grandkids. We were going to have a little celebration because Miss M just turned four on the 13th.

Grandpa and Miss M made cupcakes, the white kind with lots of color dots. Very colorful. Then they frosted the cupcakes with pink frosting. Because we all know that Miss M's favorite color is pink. (Or is that her mother's favorite color?)

And of course, we had to sample the frosting.

Then we had to write on the cupcakes with glitter gel, in red, blue and green. What fun!

And sample the gel after each letter!

Then we were ready for the party to start! See, there is a letter on each cupcake, along with sprinkles (we didn't leave anything out!). And the letters spell Happy Birthday MissM.

We lit the candles, which were white with colored dots on them, so that MissM could blow them out. See, there are four candles. MissM decided where to put them all by herself. She huffed and puffed and blew them all out!

Then everyone had to have a cupcake. G starts by licking off the frosting, but then he eats the cupcake too.

You can see that they were REALLY good!

Everyone ate the cupcakes (except for MissM who thinks eating cupcakes means licking off the frosting!).

Mr. CJ really liked the cupcakes. He just smashed the cupcake paper against his face and proceeded to eat.

You can see that MissM like hers!

Then Grandpa picked up the leftover cupcakes to put them away. The look on CJ's face was priceless. I have never seen such a mad face, and especially on him. He's normally very easygoing and cheerful. Not even temper tantrums. And for a two year old, that is amazing!
But here he is after the mad look. Doesn't he just look so forlorn?!

Everything worked out just fine. After all three had their turn in the bathtub, Miss M decided that she was hungry, so we had ICE CREAM! And went to bed......

As seen in a drive by....and more experimenting

2009-08-14T16:10:00.003-06:00

On the way home from town today, I saw this in our lower pasture.

There are two of these fawns, along with their mother, who have been living down here. I haven't seen them for several days. Today we saw just the one. Unfortunately, I only had the little camera, not the new one, or the old one with the telephoto on it. So we had to make do.

I only got these two pictures that turned out. I now have to figure out how to make the pictures larger on Blogger, since I tried using bigger pictures, and they turned out the same size. But I do know now to make the size before I save for the web and not change the size from 100% to something smaller.

Oh well, live and learn. Looking forward to seeing the 3 grandkids this weekend. They should be back from Grandma Carol's, and we need to celebrate M's birthday.

Plus M and G both start school next Tuesday. Fall is coming.

How I spent my summer vacation

2009-08-12T19:00:00.004-06:00

The other day, Clyde rode Kory on cows. He was helping Rob, the trainer, get ready for a show. The cows were all bunched up at the end of the arena for cutting practice. The trainer's daughter was drafted to keep the cows in a bunch. So here she sits, while the guys play with the cows. What better way to spend your summer vacation? On the back of a horse, or catching tadpoles in the ponds we have from all the rain, or riding your horses. Outside all day long without a care in the world.

Except, this day, she kept wanting to go get a drink, like, "Dad I want a drink (it's getting a little boring here ya know!)" Dad's response? "Not now!"
He has his priorities!

Here's Clyde chasing a cow. Kory hasn't forgotten how to cut cows, and she really likes it! (Kory is the horse).

And another shot of Clyde. Rob is on Reno, Wayne's appaloosa mare. She's a cool horse, and pretty too.

And what was I doing? Using my new camera and getting used to it. On another note, I'm not sure how these pictures are going to look. Clyde showed me another way to get these ready for the Web in CS4, and I'm sure I have some experimenting to do.

Today I found some free fill dirt on craigslist, Clyde called the guy and now we're waiting for him to call back when he'll be there and we can pick up dirt!

A little of this, a little of that.

2009-08-10T18:54:00.011-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted out here. No real reason, just lazy I guess. But we have accomplished a lot. We went to C's birthday party. He's 2 now!

We have been collecting seeds from all the wildflowers (weeds) along the road. Which was a good thing, because the county came thru today and mowed all the flowers down. We are going to try to grow them next year. Our garden is full of flowers, did you know that the farmer's market is a great place to get plants? Well it is. We have a poor basil plant, it's not going to survive. The poor thing was too skinny and we've been pulling off the leaves to spice up the mozarella and tomatoes that we've been eating.

Plus we've been taking lots of pictures with the new camera, only a few of which I've included here.

Here's G at the lake where we went fishing. It was a novelty for him, because he and Grandpa went and caught grasshoppers for bait. Who knew that you could use grasshoppers to fish. Of course, we had to go get him a rod and reel too, and some hooks and sinkers.

Here's princess M fishing. She and C have rods and reels that already have the fish attached. (not going to be catching anything, and M's is a pretty pink fish).

And here's a picture of princess M casting. She really has some form/technique here. And the fish went pretty far out into the lake!

Next we went and sat at a picnic table and had a picnic. These kids sure do like to eat outside. Doesn't matter what you feed them, they'll eat it outside. We usually take PB & honey sandwiches and have crystal lite drinks. They sure do like to eat that!

We were sitting at the end of the lake near the train tracks, and along came a train. It was noisy!

Mr. C had to climb up on the table to cover his ears.

The new patio is coming along. We have the railroad ties in place, and are now looking for dirt to fill it. Then sand and bricks and it'll be done. I'm sure hoping it'll be done by labor day, but Clyde hasn't found any dirt yet. And he's so lucky, I have three railroad ties left over that I can use at the bottom of the front yard to delineate the path and keep all the dirt from flowing downhill. (He's thrilled that I've thought of that! LOL!)

I have lots of flowers outside, and some of the sunflowers are taller than Clyde, but none of them have bloomed yet. I'll have to post pictures of the garden soon.

We watched Wayne's horses and Rob's horses over the weekend while they went to an Appy show. Wayne has two of the cutest little foals I have ever seen. One colt and one filly. The colt is the little brown and white one. He's friendly, and curious, and a little pushy. But we had fun with him. This is the colt.

The little filly is also an Appy, but she is solid colored. Her dam is a leopard spotted Appaloosa, quite pretty and very nice. What I liked about this filly, besides her friendliness, was how she moved. We played with her, and she has the moves of a cowhorse. She is so quick and lively. I also liked her dark coloring and the little crescent moon she has on her forehead. You can see it in this picture.

Well, now I have to go put some more blog entries together. Mustn't let so much time go by again. School starts for us next Monday, and Clyde will have some watercolors to show off!

It's Official

2009-07-10T05:34:00.003-06:00

We just got caught by the economy. So we're looking for possibilities and opportunities.

In My Backyard

2009-07-08T19:43:00.010-06:00

This has been a very wet spring here in Colorado. The snow started the first week in April, and continued every weekend. Then the rain started in May for every weekend and continued into June....All the way into July. So, we got a lot of color in the form of wildflowers.

We also got quite a few of these little guys, but since it's getting hot and dry now they are going away.

We have these yellow flowers. I don't know what all the flowers are so I call them yellow or pink or blue flowers. I know, quite original!

These are wild yellow snapdragons. Yes, they do grow wild around here.

This is a wild rose, and they are all over the place this year. You could almost call them a weed if they're growing in the wrong place.

Here are some purple flowers that grow on a stem, I don't know what they are.

Here are some purple flowers that almost look like snapdragons.

I found these pretty pink flowers by the fence. There are not many of these.

No flowers here, I was too late to get a shot of the irises. These are seed pods, and hopefully they'll spread the seeds around. I started with one patch of these wild irises and now they have grown to three separate patches. They grow wild, I don't do anything.

Here is a picture of the blue Colorado columbine, the state flower. I have seen these flowers growing wild on 10,000 foot mountain passes.

Here are some flowers that I think look like blue bells, even it that's not their real name.

I didn't show the thistle, that we were spraying when I found all these flowers. The thistle is a noxious weed, and very hard to get rid of. Our big patch, when we moved in, we have gotten almost all gone, and that place is now full of wild flowers.

Tomorrow we find out about Clyde's job. Wells has started cutting back on personel after buying Wachovia.

Stay tuned.

Happy July 4th -- late.....

2009-07-06T18:50:00.008-06:00

July 4th turned out to be another rainy day here. We went to Bill and Diane's (James in-laws) for a cookout, but no fireworks. Although we did see fireworks on their street, and then on the way home there were several places having fireworks.
However we didn't have to fight any traffic, so that was good. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are the ones I did take.

Solitare and OC. Apparently OC is allowed on the furniture as long as it's covered.

James and Solitare.

James and Diane in the kitchen.

Clyde, Bill, and Baxter the dog.

Clyde and OC. Clyde was the first one to invite OC onto the furniture. We had lots of good food, peach margaritas, and company.

Clyde and I didn't get home until after 10 p.m. So I slept until Amanda got up at 8 a.m. the next morning. Did I say that we took Amanda with us? We did, and boy was she tired when we got home. She never sleeps that late! Then didn't accomplish anything all day Sunday except watch about 4 episodes of Criminal Minds and then went back to bed.

The 4th was fun, and a great way to remember all of our service men and women who are serving around the world to keep us safe. And to remember all those who served before. To them go a big THANK YOU!

And apparently, we are going to get more rain tonight. Five days in a row of rain, twice on Friday. The yard is very wet, and the horses have pools in their runs again.

Happ Anniversary

2009-06-29T17:31:00.003-06:00

Last year, on this day, our youngest, James, married his long (and I do mean long!) time girlfriend, Solitare. We are so glad that he finally figured out what needed to be done, and did it.

James is really a great kid, but he moves to his own clock. We truly thought this would never happen, but it did!

And we are so glad. One of the things that I'd always wanted was six kids, but that didn't work out. I had Ed and Bekka, and gained James when I married Clyde. That put me half way there.

Then I had to wait for the kids to grow up and get married! Now I have six kids (and five grandchildren). I wonder how many grandkids I would like. At least three or four more.

I have expectations. Whenever you all are ready, now that I've gotten you all married off!.

Happy Anniversary, James and Solitare! We love you!

p.s. This isn't really a hint for more grandkids. LOL!!

Really??!! REALLY!!??!! REALLY!!!!!!!!

2009-06-22T18:41:00.017-06:00

Really, this is what we did for Father's day. We went to the zoo to ultrasound a giraffe! Yes, our horse vet was asked to come ultrasound an expecting giraffe, and they said she could bring her staff. Grandpa Clyde was enthused. He looked forward to it all of Friday and Saturday, and Sunday, we were there 30 minutes before the appointed time! That's how enthused he was!!

When we got there, and inside the zoo, we went up to the hospital area, and guess what they had. A 4 week old baby rocky mountain goat. It's mother had missed a jump and fallen to her death. The baby has a bad leg, so she couldn't get around. No one knows how long she was out there by herself, but definitely not more that 2 days. Some hikers found her in Montana, and Dr. Mark, the zoo vet went up to get her. Now they are trying to see what can be done about her let.

Her name is Forest. She is very friendly. And her white wool isn't as soft as it looks. It's kind of coarse.

Grandpa couldn't wait to get a hold of her.

And Grandma was right after him to give her up!

Next, everyone loaded into the vet truck, or the zoo van and went down to the giraffes. There wasn't enough room for everyone in the area where they were going to work on the giraffe, so I went up to the giraffe display area and met up with Bekka and Brent and the kids. They gave us so many of the giraffe crackers to feed the giraffes. CJ had other ideas, he thought the cracker was for him!

Meanwhile, back down below, they put the giraffe in this really tall chute. Like a cattle chute, but obviously it had to be a LOT taller. Then they pulled out the ultrasound to see what the baby looked like in the giraffe. Unfortunately it was so crowded in there, and the space so small, that all Grandpa could get was pictures like this: Lise looking at the ultrasound screen next to the giraffe.

This is a bottoms up view of the giraffe. They are really very, very tall.

And here is a photo of a giraffe that was up with the visitors. Don't you just love the come hither look she is giving you over her shoulder?

Here is Dr. Mark, Dr. Lise, and Dr. Holly all looking at the ultrasound screen and discussing what they are seeing in the giraffe. Did you know that baby giraffes weigh about 175 pounds when they are born? And I thought the 100 pound baby horses were big!

After they were done with the giraffe, we all went back up to the hospital. And Forest was just crying to get out of her crate! Of course, some of us weren't totally enthralled with the goat, especially when she tried nibbling the chin! (Dr. Holly and S- who is almost 2 years old).

Then Dr. Lise had to hold Forest too.

Dr. Lise brought the x-ray machine, so that they could x-ray Forest's hurt leg. So Dr. Mark held Forest and the plate, and Lise took the x-rays. This was the next step to trying to fix the leg so that Forest could eventually go with the other mountain goats at the zoo. They live in a rocky, hilly area so she needs all 4 feet to get around.

After the xrays, poor Forest was really hungry, since she had missed her feeding. The kids got to try feeding her, and Miss M was really eager to feed the baby! Seems there's a little mama in all of us! (Kelly is a horse vet tech and volunteers at the zoo).

There was another orphan at the hospital. This one was very shy, and she wouldn't come out of her cage. She did finally get curious, and this is as far as I saw her come out. She is a coyote, and she is going to be used in educational programs when she gets acclimatized to humans.

Of course, after all of this, we had to do some looking around, and get lunch. You can see that we had a very busy day, and naps were in order!

Rainy Saturday

2009-06-20T12:12:00.009-06:00

What do you do on a rainy Saturday morning? If you're not me, you would sleep in. But of course, that's exactly what I did! I didn't get up until 8 a.m., which is totally unheard of for me.

Then, after feeding the animals, late of course, it started to sprinkle. So much for working in the yard, cleaning stalls, or moving manure.

Instead of making breakfast, we decided to go to Monument to the farmers' market. So off we went! And spent too much money. But we got some goodies. Like this fresh red bell pepper that we checked out against the watercolor I did last year of peppers. Looks pretty good to me.

These are what the vegetables we got look like, fresh grown down by Lamar or Rocky Ford...
We brought home a cucumber, a zuchini squash, some summer squash, the bell pepper and something they called "sweet", suppossedly like a zuchini squash.

Next we bought some more of this fresh sausage. We've bought some every time we've gone to the farmers' market this year. So now we have vegetables for dinner, and sausage for brunch today. The sausage is made locally in Castle Rock.

Then I found a place that grows wheat, and mills it into flour. So I bought some of their chocolate chip cookie dough, because, of course, I LOVE chocolate chip cookies. (sorry, the picture didn't turn out so great, the camera couldn't find a spot to focus on.)

We bought some plants, two tomato plants and a poppy plant. Unfortunately, my little garden space is getting crowded. I've already planted lots of sunflowers, johnny jump ups, poppies, garlic and marigolds in my little space, plus a lilac plant. It's popping up with all kinds of plants, and some weeds, but I have to wait for them to grow more so I know what to pull out.

And I found Barefoot Books being sold there. So, we know what I think of kids books, and you're right, I bought some. Four to be exact. Three are paperback books that come with the music and a cd that plays the songs. So, I had to have the Knick Knack Paddy Whack one, and got more.
So much that she threw in a reusable shopping bag! I know the kids will love these books, and they are simple enough that G can read them to M and CJ.

We left the farmers' market, and went to get some coffee and hot chocolate before going home. Guess what! We found another farmer's market across from the coffee shop, so we had to stop in. Here, there was a booth roasting chili peppers, so we got some of them too!

We stopped at the library because I had a book to pick up, then we came home and made brunch. Cranberry sausage and scrambled eggs with roasted peppers! MMMmmmm, good!
Now it's time for a nap!

We are going someplace tomorrow, but I'm not going to tell you where. When I got the call and we were invited, I just said "YES, We'd love to come!"

Then I told Clyde, and all he could say was "REALLY!!?!!".........."REALLY!!??!!"...."REALLY??!!"

So he is really excited! More tomorrow.......

Graduation and Anniversary

2009-06-15T19:15:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted out here. We've been busy. We did have a party on Saturday. Clyde and I have been married for sixteen years, so we had a BBQ.

But first, we went to a graduation. Friday, Mitch and Susie graduated from National American University. We were racing around on Friday, trying to get ready for the party, so we were rushed getting to the graduation ceremony. Left to go grab something to eat on the way, and heard a "meow" in the truck. We'd brought one of the barn cats with us. Oh well, we kept going, until Clyde realized we had a new computer in a box in the back seat of the truck. So.....we turned around, took the cat and computer home, then went to the graduation. No dinner!

Came home, we were tired, so we went to bed. Besides it was late and we had to get up early on Saturday to go pick up the cakes by 8 a.m. And then we lost a cat! Cream the white cat wasn't inside. Looked all over for her, and finally, looking out the back windows, I see her up the broken tree. So we went out, and coaxed her down, whereupon I grabbed her and held on. She got taken into the house, and slept all day! (Or maybe that was Friday when we found her in the tree. Must have been because she slept all day, and we didn't see her at all on Saturday after James and Solitare got there with their dogs.)

Anyway, no breakfast on Saturday either! James and Solitare arrived, Clyde and James went to the liquor store, and immediately on their return we started making peach margaritas. They do make a great breakfast!

Here are Susie and Mitch with their cake (which I made them take home!).

I did get a picture of Bekka and her younger brother James at the party. We kept going until after 7 p.m.

After almost everyone had gone, everyone took a nap. Except me and M. We stayed up. But CJ was most interesting. Have you ever seen an almost two year old sleep standing up? CJ can! And here's the picture to prove it! And on one leg!

We played Dominion with James and Solitare, M fell asleep, and CJ was still going strong at 10 p.m. when I put him to bed.

Oh, and we got hail again on Saturday. My flowers that were shredded almost two weeks ago, and were just beginning to recover, got shredded again. Bummer. It's been cold and rainy for over a week.

Is this spring? or winter?

2009-06-03T12:51:00.002-06:00

We got a lot of rain over the last few days. Rain on Saturday interrupted the horsebackriding, and we all had to run for cover into the trailer and wait the storm out. Then hurry down the hill, hoping all the while not to get stuck in the mud.

Sunday, I think was a little dryer. My grass that I planted is coming up really good. The flowers were looking good too. Emphasis on that last sentence is WERE.

Monday, I went to work, and on the way home, it started raining. By the time I hit the Walker and Shiloh intersection, the rain had turned into hail (but only pea size or smaller) and there was a lot of lightning. Continued driving, even tho I couldn't see very far, and the hail was really making a racket! Got to the drive, and the rope was up to keep the mares in. (Trying to be helpful Monday morning, I put the rope up so that Grandpa could let the mares out. He didn't, so didn't realize the rope was still up.) So, long story short, there was lots of hail coming down, lots of lightning strikes all around, and really close. Now I sometimes do some really not smart things, but getting out of the truck to untie the wet rope hooked to an ELECTRIC fence in a lightning storm wasn't one of the things I would do. I am really afraid of lightning. It's SO fatal!

I sat out in the truck, leaning away from the sides, being dripped on by water coming in thru the rubber weather stripping, and wishing I could fit under the seats! I kid you not, just looking north, I counted over 20 strikes in one minute!
And Grandpa called me and wanted to know if I saw where the lightning hit by the barn. Of course not, my eyes were closed by then, and my hands were over my ears.

I sat out there for an hour, until I could count onethousandone, onethousandtwo, all the way up to onethousandfive, before I would get out to undo the rope. Did you know that lightning can travel over 8 horizontal miles from cloud to ground? That's called a bolt out of the blue. And I wasn't taking a chance!

It rained all night, we got about 6 inches. And Tuesday was no better, still raining and foggy. Today, Wednesday, started out foggy and wet, but the SUN IS OUT now! It's going to be a great day!

Riding the Range

2009-05-30T18:47:00.005-06:00

Today, we picked up M and CJ early. Then we went over to ride horses. It was starting to get ugly out, but we got Ponette saddled for the kids. Then, because Grandpa was being smart, he motioned to CJ to come get on the horse. Boy, you should of seen M jump out to get on the horse. CJ wasn't going to be first in her book!

Ponette is an old pony and she is very well trained. Ponette heels off leash better than most dogs that I have seen. She is just a sweet old pony, and easy to ride. M rode without Grandpa having to hold on to Ponette.

You can see that M is really enjoying herself! Who thought a horse could be so much fun!

Here she is looking like a real cowgirl, intently watching the cows and waiting for her next move! Not really, the cows weren't out, but it sounded good!

Here is CJ on the horse. It is so funny the things that this kid will do! And he is afraid of the dogs. This kid is going to go great guns when he gets over the dogs!

See CJ go!

When the kids got done, the weather had moved in, so the horses got quickly moved into their stalls, with saddles on, and everyone ducked for cover in the trailer.

And there we sat thru the thunderstorm. When it was over, actually a lull in the storm, Grandpa and Rob quickly unsaddled the horses and turned them loose. Then we all left quickly to get down the hill before it became inpassible.

Softy

2009-05-29T16:15:00.005-06:00

Yes, I am a softy. I can't resist. I tried really hard to give all five of the kittens away last weekend as birthday gifts from Clyde. There were no takers.
So this morning, I called the feed store, they had room for kittens, and I quickly put four of them in the carrier to leave. But I just couldn't put this one in too.

The good thing is, while I was getting them settled at the feed store, a call came in looking for kittens, so I know that at least one of them has found a home by now, probably more since they usually go in twos.

But isn't she just the cutest thing? Of the other cats, Peaches runs from her, Cream tries to get close, but just isn't sure of this, and Garfy comes right up and sniffs her. He will probably be the one she plays with the most. Amanda is another story. Amanda is the last newfoundland that we have, and at 105 pounds is probably 25 times the size of the kitten. And Amanda loves kittens! She tries to get close to sniff her, and Callie arches her back and hisses and spits like a little spitfire!
It's so cute to see this little cat try to scare off the dog!

Now all I gotta do is find her a place to sleep and teach her where the litter boxes are. And make sure she gets water and food, since that is all up out of Amanda's reach. Right now she's sleeping.

Now there's just two kittens left, and they are too little (only a month old) to go yet. BUT I AM NOT KEEPING ONE OF THEM!!

A birthday party and memorial weekend

2009-05-25T13:30:00.008-06:00

Since Grandpa's birthday was on Wednesday this past week, we had a party on Saturday.
It was the Second Annual Give Myself a Surprise Party (Grandpa has a sense of humor!). We invited lots of people, but since it was a graduation weekend, everyone didn't come. But we had fun anyway. And we had lots of food!

Bill and Diane, Solitare's parents came, as did Cindy and Mike, Bekka, Brent, and the kids, and James and Solitare.

Susie and Linda enjoyed talking at the bar. Rob and Kristie were elsewhere.

Grandpa had candles to blow out.

James and Solitare stuck around the next day. We didn't accomplish a darn thing all day. CJ and M spent the night, and Bekka called about 5 p.m. to see if we were taking them home or keeping them.

CJ has a way of putting himself down for a nap. He just lies down where ever he is and falls asleep!

Molly wasn't up for a nap, she stayed awake. Of course, she didn't wake up until 10a.m. that morning, so she was plenty rested!

Grandpa and CJ continued their nap, until it was time for James and Solitare to leave.

On another note, on Monday morning, when I wanted to mow the yards, it was cold, and wet from the day before. (We've had snow or rain every weekend since Easter, so it's hard to get any yard work done.) So I had to bring in the big guns to mow down the back yard. Yeah, right, Harley ate for an hour, then we put Squirt out there and he ate, until he ran thru my newly planted patch of grass. Redman and Nick both got to go out and eat some too, but they were anxious and someone had to stay out with them! Guess we'll keep trying, or I'll have to go out and mow at some point, before it's 5 feet tall!

What Grandpa did to make Grandma happy.

2009-05-17T19:32:00.008-06:00

I started with mowing the lawn (what there is of it), and Grandpa got some manure from the pile for me. I started spreading it around, and he said, "You need to do this with a rototiller to dig up the dirt".

To which I replied "I don't have a rototiller, and I don't know if I can run one."

He said "No one said you had to run it."

So we ran to Home Depot and rented one! And he dug up the yard, and then the flower garden with it!

Meanwhile, I had to keep M and CJ busy. What better than buckets, trowels, and lots of sand! After coating each of them with sunblock, we went out the the not so round pen (a whole other story) and they proceeded to play! Moving my big pile of sand one bucket at a time.

This is M moving sand.

And this is CJ. The funniest part was watching CJ crush the lumps of sand. Some of them actually exploded when he squeezed them. I really tried to catch one of them breaking up in his hands, but wasn't fast enough.

Then we found something else to do. M rode with Grandpa on the tractor and steered it, but CJ wasn't having anything to do with it. What a wuss! Then M decided she wanted to climb. All the way to the top of the five foot panel.

And CJ wasn't far behind. For an almost two year old, this is a tall climb!

Of course, I had to stop this fun because I didn't want anyone to fall and get hurt.

Who says you need expensive toys to entertain kids. These two are getting the same things that their mother got to play with.

If it feels like a truck stop.....

2009-05-15T19:24:00.007-06:00

Remember this photo of my little patio spot out by the driveway of the house?

Well, it's been invaded. Now it feels like a truck stop! Just look at my view!

Luckily, we now have two new batteries for the truck, so maybe I can get my view back soon. Clyde got the truck started, drove it over onto the drive in front of the garage, and then couldn't get it started again to move it. Sure did ruin the view.

Today, we went to the early show to see Star Trek. I must say, after seeing all of the TV shows, and then all of the movies, I think this movie stays with the characters the best. The story is a good one, and all of the young actors that played the main parts must have spent months watching the TV shows, they reenacted the characters so well. Scotty and Spock were the best, Ohuru was good, Kirk was good, Bones was still funny, and the other two (the russian and the oriental) were really good too. Oh, yeah, one was Checkov. Great story line, lots of action like you would expect, and it tells how they all came to be on the Enterprise.

If you get a chance go see it. I'm definitely getting the dvd when it comes out.

Now off to find the dvds of the TV show.

Pictures and an update

2009-05-12T18:46:00.003-06:00

Well, it seems I'm as bad as the rest of my family for updating my blog. I have been busy. We left on Sunday, April 26th for Grand Junction so Rachel could have the baby on the 27th. And so Cordelia could have someone watch her while all this was going on. Let me tell you, she had Grandpa and Grandma napping every afternoon while she was in school! She is so energetic! But here's a picture of her and Wyatt the night he came home (Wednesday). I didn't really get a lot of pictures because I was trying vainly to keep up with a 5 year old.

When we got home, on Friday, the other female cat was noticeably thinner. But we didn't see any kittens. Then one night she stayed in the garage eating, so we thought that they had died. They didn't. I was outside on Sunday, and I heard noise coming from the semi that sounded like kittens. I looked all over that truck for them and couldn't find them. Told Clyde, and he went out to look. He found them quite by chance. He happened to see a cat's paw in one of the storage compartments that he had open to clean out the truck. She had to have moved them there that day. Now she's in the garage with the kittens. She had one little light orange one, and two pure white ones!

Now I have eight kittens, but the first five are almost ready to find new homes.

Today I worked really hard, since I have no more homework for class. Class is over for the summer! Yay!

First I cleaned six cat boxes. Yes, six, three in the house for the five cats inside and three in the garage. Then I cleaned the dog yard. Then I repaved part of my "deck" that was sinking (picture follows), and then I cleaned and watered the horses. I'm tired now.

Got to go watch NCIS now.

The big day

2009-04-28T13:36:00.002-06:00

April 27, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. Wyatt (?) was born in Grand Junction, Colorado. He weighed 7 lbs. and 11 oz. He's a cutie! Mom is fine, Dad is at the hospital with them. the ? is because we're pretty sure the first name is Wyatt, but don't have a middle name yet. Pictures will follow when I get home.

Grand Junction

2009-04-27T14:29:00.002-06:00

A quick update and a story. We are in Grand Junction watching the granddaughter while Mom has her new baby brother. We arrived last night, and Rachel went to the hospital this morning. We are waiting for the new baby to arrive.

Meanwhile, we took The Granddaughter to see her mom at the hospital.
She led us into the correct door, we got instructions and headed up to Labor and Delivery. When we got the Granpa asked The Granddaughter to ask where her mom was.

So, in true five-year-old fashion, The Granddaughter walked up to the nurse at the nurse's stattion and demanded "Where's my mother?"

Nurse: "What's your mother's name?"

The Granddaughter: "Momma!"

Nurse: "OK."

After visiting Rachel for a few minutes, we went to the park, then to Burger King for lunch. When we got home, Amanda had tried (unsuccessfully) to get out the back door. Now the doorknob has dents in it where she bit it when it didn't open She did manager to open the pantry door, and enjoyed a buffet while we were gone. I have the only dog I know of that can open unlocked doors!

Another thrilling 3 days.....

2009-04-18T15:18:00.007-06:00

What is it about a forecast of lots of snow and the thought of being stuck inside the house for three days that makes people just have to get out and go someplace, or after you've been stuck for days, why do you have to hurry out just as soon as there's a little bit of a break in the storm. Is it just because you have to prove to yourself that you can get out? That you're not really stuck?

We had a situation like that Friday morning. It had started snowing Thursday night, there was already about a foot of snow on the ground and Clyde got out and scraped the driveway. That way it wouldn't be too heavy to move like it would be if he didn't do it until the storm was over.

So, I had a movie to return to the library, and we decided to go. Couldn't be too bad. I mean it was only about a foot so far. And visibility was pretty good. So we loaded up Amanda, the dog, and took off.

Above is what it looked like on the way to Monument. Pretty good visibility.

The above picture is what it looked like when we were coming back from Monument. The weather had clamped down on us, and was getting worse. And the snow was coming down faster and heavier. This is a plowed road, we still had three miles of unplowed dirt road to travel, and the snow was heavy, wet, and grabbed the truck tires. Got home, and settled in for the long winter's night.

This picture below, is Clyde moving snow on Friday morning. It's now Saturday, and it snowed all day yesterday and all night, and it's still snowing. Guess he has more to move before we can get out of the driveway.

This is what Amanda looked like every time she came into the house for the past three days. I've done a lot of mopping up after her. She just loves to go out and lay in the snow, until she looks like a lump of snow. It's just what she does.

And the picture below, is Cream, the cat, enjoying her view of the snow without ever having to deal with it. She just loves being inside where it's warm and dry!

And one of the trees close to the house snapped off because of the heavy snow. Luckily it didn't hit anything, and broke off high enough that it didn't take down the fence either.

And, I've gotten homework done today, since I couldn't make it to class. Not too shabby. Enjoy your week!

Seven years old and still cute!

2009-04-14T18:24:00.002-06:00

Today is one of my most favorite days of the year. Seven years ago, my first grandchild was born. He is such fun, and growing into such a nice young man. Today is his seventh birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDSON!!!

A Grandpa's devotion

2009-04-12T19:29:00.010-06:00

Grandpa, also known as Clyde, has been looking for a special thing for Gabriel. He found one on craigslist.com, and made arrangements to go look at it today, Easter Sunday.

So we woke Sunday morning to a lot of snow. But, Grandpa really wanted to get this thing. So we left. There are no pictures of our leaving, we had problems with the defroster in the truck. It was blowing hot air, but wouldn't blow it on the windshield, which kept fogging over. After almost running off the road, and fiddling with the switch, it finally kicked in, but we were off the dirt road and onto pavement by then. Hodgen looked like this:

And Hwy 83 going south wasn't much better.

And here we are at the south end of the trees on 83, still not improving much. But as you can see, the road is a little clearer. The temp stayed around 31-32 degrees, so it wasn't completely sticking. We did see a lot of people who could obviously see where they were going, but weren't particularly interested in who could see them. In other words they were driving with their lights off!!

When we got to the interstate, the roads were clear. And by the time we got downtown, it was raining, mixed with snow. We looked at the thing, bought it, and loaded up the truck to come home. Easy going until we got to the north end of Black Forest Road, north of the trees. Then it was bad again. We followed the snow plow all the way to the dirt road.

The plow turned left and stayed on paved road. We turned right onto unplowed dirt road and made our way slowly home. The snow was getting deeper, and the visibility was getting shorter.

But we made it! And Grandpa brought the thing in that he had to have for Gabriel, and started putting it together and figuring out how to work it.

Now I just need to get to a store and get him a couple of books on astronomy for his birthday, and the next time he comes out, he and Grandpa can stay up and go out to look at the stars and planets in the dark.

A quiet Easter morning in the Colorado snow.....

2009-04-12T09:09:00.004-06:00

Happy Easter everyone! This morning we woke up to a gently falling snow. No. Wind. What a relief! Well, except that it's supposed to be Easter, and honestly, how can you have an Easter egg hunt in the snow? But that's ok, Bekka is having the Easter egg hunt at her house with the grandkids. We're just snuggled down in the house waiting out the snow!

On another note, here's the kitties. They are three weeks old now, and their eyes are open! They are so cute!

Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy your blessings.

A Blast from the Past

2009-03-31T18:04:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, a woman who graduated from the same high school as I did in Texas came to town. We have been conversing on a myfamily site that we both belong to, for alumni of our high school. So we had to make arrangements to meet in person. So, she flew down from Alaska, and Clyde and I drove up to north of Denver to meet her. We had dinner at CB&POTTS, which was the location of James and Solitare's wedding rehearsal dinner last summer. And the only place that I knew to eat anywhere in Denver!

I had a lot of fun talking about people from high school, and getting to know what she likes and does now. I had a lot of questions about Alaska, since I've never been there, but would like to go someday. Now I know someone there to visit! And who knows, maybe next time she comes to Denver, she'll have more time and can come down here and meet the horses.

2009-03-27T11:40:00.005-06:00

Last Sunday, it was 70 degrees here. Warm and sunny. Spring had arrived! It was so nice! Even the grass was starting to turn green. Then......it got colder....and colder. And yesterday, we got the blizzard. Blowing snow, cold temps. And it did that for almost 24 hours. Officially we got about 10" of snow, but with the wind, it was deeper in some places.

The horses had to be fed.

The sun was trying to come out this morning when I fed the horses, but the temp was still only 9 degrees. Very, very cold after all the warm temps last week.

And, finally, the sun did come out, and we have blue skies again!

Now, I haven't seen any cars on the road out of here, but there were two tracks this morning, and I saw one SUV come up the hill from down below. I just don't know if they came all the way in from the paved road or got turned back by the drifts. I'll have to go out later and find out. Clyde's plane was canceled this morning from Charlotte because of dense fog there. Now he's coming home late, and we just have to figure out if he can get here from the airport. Not likely, if I can't get out.

Mea Culpa

2009-03-19T19:30:00.004-06:00

Guess I started a tradition last month, and completely forgot about it this month...So for this month's birthdays.

First I forgot my granddaughter. She turned a very grown up 5 this year, and is so excited that she's starting school this September. Plus she's getting a brand new baby brother next month!
I sure hope she had a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Now for my daughter. Shamrockgirl had her birthday on.....guess when????

That's right, St Patrick's Day, that's why she's Shamrockgirl! And guess what? This is the third anniversary of her turning 29. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you too!

And guess what? I won't be forgetting the April birthdays after that!

Our Weekend

2009-03-09T19:50:00.006-06:00

This past weekend was a first for us. It was the first time that CJ spent the night with us. M and G spent Friday night and Saturday night, and CJ came up for Saturday night. This kid has no fear of anything except the dog, and he is like a tank going thru the house. He climbed up in my old wooden rocking chair and rocked it so hard it fell over backwards with him in it. He got up and left. The chair's back is broken and if Clyde can't fix it with gorilla glue, then I'm out a rocking chair.

On the other hand, M had a hard time this weekend. She wasn't the center of attention this time. She threw a temper tantrum over the color of her ice cream bowl. When Clyde picked her up to put her to bed without the ice cream, she kicked him where it really hurt, he stumbled into a wall, and now has a broken little toe on one foot. We are splinting it to the other toes with vet wrap (horse bandages) since that's all a doctor could do. And it is really black and blue!

Tonight, we're taking it easy, and relaxing from the strenuous weekend!

An Update on Mitch

2009-03-05T15:48:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, Mitch went to another doctor. This one thinks he has Reynaud's disease. That is a disease of the bloodvessels that causes them to constrict and restrict the flow of blood to the affected areas. Mostly it affects hands and feet, but it can also affect just the hands or just the feet, or even only one or a couple of the toes and fingers. You can read more about Reynaud's disease here: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/raynauds-disease/DS00433. So now Mitch is starting on medication for that. If it doesn't work, then I guess they will have eliminated another possibility. Sure hope it works!

My Downfall--Girl Scout Cookies

2009-03-04T17:48:00.004-07:00

This is my downfall. I just love Girl Scout Thin Mints cookies! I have loved them all my life, since I sold them as a Girl Scout when I was a kid. Back then, the box was bigger, the cookies were a white cookie with the chocolate mint coating, and the box only cost $.50. Yes, that's right, fifty cents a box. Did I just age myself here? Yes, it was in the late 1950's, and I would take my cases of cookies and walk around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and asking if they would like to buy some cookies. No order taking, you got your cookies right then. What seems amazing now, was that I would cover my block without taking a buddy or anyone else with me, and nobody thought anything about that! Times have changed!

Now, I buy the cookies, and in two days, I have eaten two boxes of Thin Mints. That is my downfall. I will eat these cookies as long as they are in the house. In the past I have frozen them, just to keep them around longer. Now I limit myself to two boxes of Mints, two boxes of shortbread, and two boxes of the peanut butter sandwiches (but those are for Clyde, not me.). And the mints are all gone......until next year.

I think the Girl Scouts should sell cookies year round so that when I want a box of Thin Mints, I can just go buy a box. What do you think?

Happy Birthday Solitare!

2009-02-24T17:54:00.002-07:00

Today is my daughter-in-law's birthday. I hope she has a happy one, and many, many more.

This picture is one that Ed took at James and Solitare's wedding last summer. I must say she was a beautiful bride and James is very lucky to have found and married her. (I hope he is fully aware of that. If not, I just may keep her and not him LOL!)

Happy Birthday Jim!!

2009-02-23T06:08:00.002-07:00

Today is my father-in-law's birthday. He is 79 (I think) years young. He reads this blog, and since I have to mail his card today (I'm always so on top of things here!) I want to wish him a happy birthday here. (He reads this blog sometimes, at least as often as I update it.)

Mitch

2009-02-10T17:38:00.004-07:00

This is a picture I drew of Mitch for his high school graduation. The baby horse is Peppy, who is now a three year old.

Mitch started working for me when he was fourteen, he's cleaned stalls, cut down trees, cleaned up branches, hauled and unloaded semis full of hay. He learned to ride on my horses, and really likes the horses. He's learned how to handle foals, how to hold them, and how to start teaching them to halter and lead. He also went on to work for my horse vet as a vet tech.

Mitch is attending college now. And he has a very mysterious medical condition. The three middle toes on both feet are swollen and purple, and very painful. If he were diabetic, then this would be a circulation problem. But he isn't, and the doctors cannot find a circulation problem. In fact, they can't find any reason for the problem.

Whenever he goes to a doctor and they start prodding and poking, or running tests on Mitch's feet, he ends up in excruciating pain. The chiropractor did do acupuncture on the legs, and it seemed to help a little bit.

Several years ago, Mitch did have a medical condition called Rabdo......., which is like a horse tying up. And he's always had problems with his legs and knees, they are always painful, and it was considered growing pains while he was growing. But he's not growing anymore.

Mitch's mom, Susie, has been spreading pictures and test results everywhere she can think of, hoping that someone, somewhere, will have a idea what's going on. If you have any ideas, let us know.

2009-01-29T19:43:00.003-07:00

Two weekends ago, C and I took G to the National Western Stock Show in Denver. It was the first weekend of the show. We looked at all the exhibits, especially all the animals. There were horses, cows, chickens, bunnies, sheep, and many more. This is a big show, it goes on for two weeks (3 weekends). The horses come in by breed, and the Quarter Horses are the first to show. There was an AQHA Quarter Horse show the week before the stock show opened.

G checked out all the displays, tried to rope a cow (a dummy cow head stuck on a straw bale that ropers use to practice on), and petted the animals in the petting zoo.

Somehow I thought that we would wear G out and he would be tired, but Grandpa and Grandma were the ones that came home tired!