Carpet DOES Make A Difference

The basement is getting closer and closer to getting finished! Glenn worked on the railing this weekend and it turned out really nice! I took a picture of it to post and then decided to wait and take a picture after the carpet was laid on Monday! I had forgotten how much difference the carpet actually makes!

Our basement doesn't look like a basement any longer - it now looks like a family room! Day by day more is getting done and one of these days I'll be posting pictures of the finished product! I can hardly wait!

The Aspens At Their Best!

This weekend will be peak weekend for the aspens! The traffic will be bumper to bumper - everyone will be out with their camera to capture this glorious sight! And I'll be right out there with them!



This is taken from the the top of our driveway -

Darn those electrical wires!



Jessi, Gary and Evan are coming down early Saturday morning and we'll take an aspen drive - I'm not sure where yet - any direction will work - and the weather is supposed to be sunny and dry! Perfect weather for a perfect weekend!

I grabbed my camera after work today and took a few shots right here at the house - just to give you a sampling. Tomorrow after work my friend Carrie is picking me up and we're heading up to Rampart Range Road to do some serious photography! More pictures to follow!

An orange aspen in our backyard

The Red Door

Sounds like the title to a good book, doesn't it? But actually it's the color that I painted our 2 doors this weekend!

When I say "weekend", I literally mean ALL WEEKEND!! It took me a day and a half to paint these 2 doors - they were white to start with and each one took 2 coats on each side - plus the door frame, plus all those tiny wood pieces between the window panes, plus ALL the taping! I actually didn't think I was EVER going to finish - but I did!

I was REALLY irritable by the time I finished late Sunday afternoon - I was very carefully pulling off the blue tape from around the window panes, the door knob, and the door lock and I'll be darned if some of the paint didn't come right off with the tape - so I had to redo some of it! I was NOT a happy camper by this time - but I retaped a few places and once again reapplied the red paint!

The results were fantastic! I love the color and it makes the house look a LOT more cozy! So all in all it was well worth it - except for my aching body!

I pampered myself the rest of the evening - relaxing in the hot tub, watching the premier of my favorite show "The Amazing Race", eating a huge bowl of vanilla bean ice cream drenched with chocolate and downloading a new CD from ITunes! Hey, I deserved it!

When You Wish Upon A Star

It's been hectic at work - Gary is on vacation this week so I'm holding the fort down by myself - and it never fails, when he's gone, all sorts of problems arise!

I was MORE than ready to hit the hot tub tonight - it had been almost 3 weeks since Glenn and I had soaked under the stars and as I crawled in, it dawned on me that no matter how tired and late it is, we needed to do this more often!

The stars were gorgeous - the Milky Way was brilliant - I stretched out on the lounger and just gazed at the sky for at least 1/2 hour - it was just amazing how many stars were out there!

It was a crisp, cool night so the hot water was relaxing - just what I needed at the end of a long, long day! I'll sleep good tonight..........................

Rayna's Weekend

For the last 2 summers, Rayna has spent a weekend at our house, doing all kinds of "special" things with us! This year, our weekend was later than usual but nonetheless, we still had a great time together!

I picked up Rayna in Colorado Springs (that way, Jaime and I just each had to drive an hour apiece one way!) and we met for coffee before doing a little shopping and ended up at McDonald's for lunch - I REALLY tried to persuade Rayna to choose Burger King instead of McDonald's but her mind was made up - oh well, it wasn't as bad as I expected! And she had a lot of fun playing in the playground area!
Our next stop was the Dinosaur Mueseum in Woodland Park - I had never been to it before but Rayna was excited about going and I have to say, I was impressed! They had a special section for kids with several activities for them to do and she really enjoyed it!

Making pumpkin bread at the house was next on the list - it's her favorite thing that I make so of course I sent home a loaf with her and I hear she has been rationing it out to her folks! We watched "Finding Nemo" that evening and she decided our couch was not all that comfortable for watching TV and would we please get the basement done ASAP so she could sit in a recliner!

After cinnamon rolls the next morning, the 3 of us headed to the North Pole - as we were watching Rayna go down the huge Candy Cane Slide for the 20th time, Glenn looked at me and said this was his LAST year to come! I reminded him that NEXT year we would have 2 little boys that would be ready to see the North Pole! And I also pointed out that in 4 more years he would be 60 and could get FREE admission - that really boosted his spirits!

3 hours at the North Pole is PLENTY long - we rode the rides, fed the goats, ate a pretty pathetic lunch and walked and walked and walked! I promised Rayna a sno cone after we were done riding the rides and of course the last ride was right by the exit (I had that all planned out!!) But little did I know that the ONLY place that sold sno cones was back where we had lunch, way at the other side of the park - groan - one MORE trek for that darn sno cone!

Glenn and I were both exhausted when we delivered Rayna back to her mom in Colorado Springs - but then again, so was she!

No Elk Today........

Glenn and Bob are back from their hunting trip - actually they got back last Friday but life has been hectic since then..............Welcome back to the real world!

Unfortunately our freezer is still empty - no elk - yes, they had a great time and yes, they had great weather but the elk were in short supply this year! Guess there is always next year!

Bob emailed us a few pictures of camp life - and from the looks of this picture, they ate pretty darn good! Glenn had found a recipe for a cherry cobbler which is done in a dutch oven so I sent the ingredients with him and gosh, it not only looks good, Glenn said it tasted good too! I'm sure they munched on it the entire week!

One exciting thing they DID see was something I am STILL waiting to see - a moose in the wild! Maybe they should put in for moose season next year.......

Night After Night After Night.............

I really must stay home! The shades in my dining room and living room have NOT been opened since last Thursday! I always pull the shades in the morning when I leave for work as the sun is extremely intense and damages the furniture - and the first thing I do when I get home from work is to put the shades back up so I can see the mountains!

Tonight will be my 6th straight night that I have NOT been home till after dark, hence no need to put the shades up!

It all started last Friday (if you recall, Glenn left for hunting that day) when I attended the annual 4-H Foundation Picnic out at Lake George - it was a cool, rainy evening so we did have to eat inside but we all had a great time!

Saturday morning I left for Denver and spent Sat. night at Jaime's place. On my way home Sunday evening, I met one of my best friends, Carrie, for dinner in Colorado Springs and then went to her home for a while.

Monday evening found me over at Arlyne's house for dinner with the "choir girls". The 5 of us have dubbed ourselves that name because we all used to sing in the choir together at church.

Last night I met my other best friend, Joleen, over at her house for pizza, wine and hot tubbing! It was a wonderful, relaxing evening!

And now tonight, I will be heading over to Joyces' for dinner once again - (if you're wondering if I have eaten at home all week, the answer is NO - wonder if I've forgotten how to cook?) this time with the monthly get-together group of Joyce, Arlyne, Karen and myself. We have never given ourselves a name but we ALWAYS get together once a month for a meal or an outing!

It's sure wonderful to have such good friends like I have! And it actually worked out great to get to see all of them over the past 6 nights since Glenn is gone anyway and I would have spent the evenings by myself.

But I must admit - I'm ready to go home RIGHT after work on Thursday and Friday and pull my shades up!

Creative Play

I almost forgot how much fun it is to play with play dough! I'm no artist by any means when it comes to molding shapes and things, but I had a ball on Sunday playing with the stuff!


Since Jaime was working and I was over at Jessi's house with all 3 kids, Jessi decided to make a couple of batches of play dough - I'm not sure I EVER made it from scratch at home when the girls were growing up - I just remember the little cans with the brightly colored dough and if you didn't get the lid on just right, it would be hard as a rock the next time or all crusted over!

She made 2 batches - Rayna requested pink and I suggested green - wow - rainbow colors - they were gorgeous! While she made the batch of green, I took the pink to the table and started mixing the flour in a little better - the dough was hot to the touch and pretty soon it was all mixed in and ready for play!

We rolled and cut and formed - we laughed and tried to figure out what each other was making - we pretended we were eating and made different types of food - the boys loved the cookie cutters - Jessi made roses - Rayna made snails - and I made a basket filled with blueberries! It was a great afternoon - the child in me is STILL there - how can it NOT be when you're playing with play dough???

A Hunting He Will Go!

Glenn FINALLY got out the door late Friday afternoon to go hunting - I felt sorry for him as he had to jam-pack about a week's worth of work into 3 1/2 days! - seems like it's either extremely slow or extremely busy in his line of work!

But he got it all pulled together and even though he had to load the camper in the rain on Friday, he was excited to go! Unfortunately, since he didn't get left till 5:30, he would have to drive in the dark! Not a hard thing to do on the highway, but you should see the place he was hunting - WAAAAAAYYYYYYYY back in - trust me, I've been there and it's a long old' bumpy road to get back there ! And of course before he could even sleep that night, he would have to unload the camper which was packed like he was leaving for a month!

His friend Bob from Nevada was arriving on Thursday night to the designated spot so I'm sure he helped Glenn unload and get set up - but I bet neither one of them got much sleep that Friday night - anticipating the first day of black powder and that huge elk they'll be set to take down!

So I'm on my own for the next week - which means NO COOKING (HOORAY) but also coming home to an empty house each night (BOO HOO)! Good Luck Guys!

And I Was Talking To WHOM??????

The phone call today HAD to be made - the DISH guy (our satelite TV company) had been out to the house twice, brought out 2 new receivers, ran some new cable wire and who knows what else? The problem - we now had 3 receivers - only one was hooked up - and I wasn't about to get charged for stuff that I wasn't using or needed!

The trick was to get through FIRST to a REAL person, not the computer! Of course that's always easier said than done! The next hurdle was to get someone that I COULD UNDERSTAND! The first two tries were unsuccessful - yes, I DID get past the computer, but the first guy that answered - well, let's just say I never understood a word he said so I knew that call would be fruitless - hang up #1! I didn't fare any better on the second call - this time it was a girl - she sounded even more foreign than the first guy so here again - hang up #2!

3rd time is a charm - yes, the guy had an accent but it was understandable - I won't go into my conversation with him - let's just say that 20 minutes later, he FINALLY figured out what I was trying to tell him and we actually made some headway! I can honestly say, I'm still not sure what we will eventually be hooked up to when all is said and done, but at least I felt better!

I can hardly wait to get my next DISH bill - I can almost GUARANTEE you I'll be back on the phone!

Hard Workin' Men

AFTER

BEFORE

Our basement has changed drastically the last couple of weeks - thanks to our hardworking guys, Hans and Lance! These 2 guys are both firefighters but finish basements on their days off! And they're doing an awesome job on ours- every day that I come home and discover they have worked in the basement, I'm amazed at how much has been accomplished! BEFORE

Glenn and I made a trip to Co. Springs on Tuesday night to our favorite hang-out spot - Home Depot! This time we only had a little over an hour to make our purchases before they closed so we really had to hightail it through the store! Lots of electrical stuff, another light, primer, paint, light bulbs, and a toilet - now how exciting is that? Actually, it IS exciting to me when I can see that painting is within the next couple of weeks! And do you want to know the best part??? Hans is going to PAINT THE ENTIRE DOWNSTAIRS for me so I won't have to do it - AND trim out the windows! You can tell that Glenn and I are not used to hiring anything done at all - we always do it ourselves! SO this is a real treat for us - I believe the only thing Glenn will be required to do is to order the blinds and put them up!
AFTER

I'm already imagining sitting in the recliner, watching our new flat-screen TV and listening to Glenn play pool on the pool table that we have NEVER used yet! Soon - VERY soon!

Fun, Fun, Fun

Weekends with the grandkids are always FUN! We tend to do the same thing each time they come down but the kids don't seem to know that!

Rayna always enjoys playing with the "trolls" and her and I make up all kinds of scenarios with the 6 trolls - we've named them Mr. Green, Rocky, Mrs. Claus, Dr. Purple, Betty Crocker and Pizza Man! Her other favorite thing to do is to play "Africa" up in our loft bedroom which has a jungle theme!
Kylan on the other hand loves to play with anything! He really enjoyed eating beef stroganoff and his face tells the story! One of the funniest times of the weekend was taking him out to the deck with just his socks on - because there were cracks between the boards, he would NOT walk on the deck - he would just stand on the rug and if he HAD to move, he would go to the deck floor and crawl - it was hilarious!
Grandkids sure do keep us young...............................

We're Going To The Zoo

One of my favorite things to do with the grandkids is to go to the zoo! This usually happens during the summer, but my broken leg seemed to put a damper on a lot of activities this year! But needless to say, last Sat. was THEE day to meet Jaime, Rayna, and Kylan in Colorado Springs and to head to the zoo!
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is one of my favorite zoos to go to - I have fond memories of coming to Colorado in the summer when I was younger, and one of those memories includes riding in a convertible with the top down, driven by my cousin and heading up to the zoo! I say UP because the zoo is situated on the side of a mountain - some of the paths and walkways are STEEP!

It was a beautiful day with just the right amount of sunshine and breeze! The kids loved seeing the animals and usually the highlight of the day is to feed the giraffes crackers - I'm not sure how many "dollars" worth of crackers we bought but it was worth it, watching the 2 kids' faces when the giraffe's long tongue would reach out and eat the cracker!

Kylan stood on the little bench and watched the gorilla for a long time - I always liked watching them too and some of their antics are quite funny!

One of the newer exhibits that we hadn't seen was the large bird room - it was enclosed and the birds were all loose and either flying around or perched in trees or birdhouses. We bought a "seed stick" for Rayna which was a popsicle stick with bird seed stuck to the end of it and a bird would actually perch there and eat the food off - Rayna thought that was pretty neat! I'm sure Kylan just wondered why he couldn't catch any of the birds that he chased!

They have a new ride at the zoo - the Mountaineer Sky Ride - which is a ski lift up the mountain, over the top of the zoo! It's a great ride, except when a little 15 month toddler doesn't want to sit still! Actually, he fell asleep on the ride which was good because about 1/2 way down, the ride stopped - we waited and waited and waited - we could see below a step ladder set up and some guy crawling up into the working mechanism part - not too long afterward it started going again - THANK YOU - I AM scared of heights you know!

It was a great zoo day! I'm already looking forward to the next zoo trip!

Dancing In The Moonlight

Anybody that knows me, knows that I LOVE to dance! Unfortunately, Glenn and I just don't make the time to go to nightclubs so I end up just dancing around the house a lot! When all 3 girls were married, of course there was a reception with a dance and I was in seventh heaven! Give me country, rock and roll, oldies or just good dance music and you'll find me out on the floor!

Over the past years, it seems there were a LOT of wedding dances so I would generally get my quota of dancing - but this year, there just hasn't been any until Friday night! One of our friends' daughter got married and yes, there was a reception dance following the wedding!

The wedding was gorgeous - it was an outdoor one and unfortunately the weather had turned pretty cool that day so it was quite chilly sitting outside! But we all warmed up once the DJ cranked the music up and turned the lights down low!

What a fun dance! We did all the usual wedding dances - it's always fun doing the YMCA and watching the "wedding party guys" wear the hats and strut their stuff! One of these times I'll get Glenn out there to do the Electric Slide but he was content to sit and talk "hunting" with the guys during that one!

I did request a couple of country songs so Glenn and I could practice our 3 step - no, we didn't forget how - but we sure seemed out of breath at the end of the song!

As usual, we closed the place down - I could have danced all night (well, maybe not!) but the thought of that long drive home and an 8:00am departure time the next morning made me realize it WAS time to get home and get a little bit of sleep. We're not as young as we used to be - but it's sure fun to pretend we are!

I'm Still Here.....................

Life DOES get busy - WAY too busy! I have so many things to write about but no time to write!! Stay tuned for: Dancing In The Moonlight, We're Going To The Zoo, Fun Fun Fun, and Hard Workin' Men!!

COMPUTERS *#!#*#!*#*!

When Qwest goes down, the whole town goes down! About 11:30 yesterday, down went the computers - and they didn't come back up! After running errands on lunch hour, I discovered most of the town was without computers, phones, and cell phones! Major problem with something in Colorado Springs!

Fortunately, (or maybe unfortunately) we still had phone service at work - which meant that all I could do all afternoon was take messages! It's amazing how dependant you are on these darn computers - I could do NOTHING but file - now how exciting is that?

Even though our cell phones are Verizon and not Qwest, we still had no cell phones - and our computer at home is NOT through Qwest but through Century-Tel and STILL we didn't have internet at home either all evening.

But the problem is fixed today - and my desk is overflowing! So it's back to work........

Frost On The Pumpkin

Oh my, it's only September 4th and we woke up to 30 degree weather and frost! Imagine having to scrape the windows on your car this time of year!

It was a BIT nippy walking this morning so that means it's time to get out the gloves! What happened to our Indian Summer???????????

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

Labor Day Weekend must be over - it's back to work - it's back to exercising!

The alarm went off WAY too early this morning and the only thing I could think of was how VERY dark it's getting at 5:50! I'm back to clogging now - hooray - for a LONG time I couldn't do clogging for my exercise due to my leg and ankle so it feels great now to be back on track with that! I clog for approximately 15 minutes (3 or 4 songs, depending on their length) and I have a "clogging" category on my computer under ITunes so it's all danceable, clogging songs. After that, Glenn and I are off to walk!

We have 4 different routes we take, 2 up and 2 down with different roads intersecting. You know fall is coming to the mountains when it's 38 degrees when you're walking and you can see your breath! But it's always a brisk, refreshing walk - I like going uphill FIRST so my favorite 2 routes both go in that direction. Glenn prefers going downhill first. Of course, we always have to smile at all the dogs that start barking as we're walking by the different homes - all I can think of is that their poor owners are still TRYING to sleep and here we are out walking, waking up their dogs!

Pretty soon the leaves will start changing and I can't wait to start posting those beautiful aspen colors! September is my all time favorite month of the year!

We camped over the Labor Day Weekend - just close by so we didn't have to drive far - Glenn got an archery elk license but didn't have any luck unless you count his encounter with a bear! Yes, he could hear a bear close by and pretty soon it was about 20 yards from him - it circled and circled him and finally headed up the meadow! I asked Glenn what he would have done if the bear had charged him and he said he had his bow ready to go! I think in the future he'll consider carrying a handgun!

I did my usual camping thing - relax and read! And that's why I'm back to exercising today!