They're STILL Here!

Just a quick update on the moth situation: yes, they're still around - yes, we're still catching a lot of them in the soapy water during the night -no, I'm still not able to read up in bed at night!!

I did TRY one night to read - I had the vaccum right beside the bed and as soon as 3 or 4 would swoop down, I'm turn on the vaccum and chase them around the lampshade for awhile but would eventually suck them up!! I continued to do this 4 or 5 times until Glenn (who was trying to sleep) got a little irritated with the vaccum noise!! At that point, I got up out of bed and went to the lower level to read!

ON a brighter note, I saw the first fawn of the season out my kitchen window a couple of days ago - of course I grabbed the camera and tried to sneak up on him but that didn't work!! He was a cutie though and I hope there are more around soon!!

We also have a bunny that seems to be living on the property now!! I've seen him a couple of times, once even coming out of our 2nd garage - not sure what he found in there but maybe that's where he's living! Now if he would only eat the moths..........

Believe Me, They Were NOT Invited!!!!

My girls will remember this: The attack of the moths when we used to live over on Edlowe Road!! There were a few years where for a couple of weeks during the summer, the moths arrived - and oh my gosh, they were awful!!! They somehow got in every crack in the house and when nighttime came, flew around in droves in the house - it absolutely almost drove us crazy!!

You can't just swat a moth - first of all, you never can hit them anyway and if you do connect - yuck - all that powder stuff all over your window and screen!! And second of all, they rarely land it seems - they're always flying around!

We had two solutions: the first one was sucking them up with the hose part of the vaccum - it was really gross because at that time we had a rainbow vaccum which is the kind where you put water in the bottom and that's where all the dirt (and moths!!) went!! The second thing we did was to turn on a bright nightlight right by the bathroom sink and leave a sinkful of soapy water - in the morning there would be all these moths dead in the water - that was gross too scooping them up and flushing them down the stool!!

We haven't had moths for years - until last night!! So I'm reading by the lamp in the living room and notice there's 3 moths flying around the lamp driving me crazy but I didn't think much about it. Bedtime came and I ALWAYS read myself to sleep (I know, not a good habit to have) and I turned on the lamp and sure enough those 3 moths from downstairs flew up and started buzzing around the lamp, driving me crazy once again - I laid back on my pillows and happened to glance up at the vaulted ceiling and OH MY GOSH - there are at least 15 to 20 moths flying around up there!! Soon to be headed down to my lamp!!

I did what any normal woman would do - I grabbed the sheet and covered myself from head to toe - of course that didn't last long as I'm claustophobic!!! I reached out and shut off the light but then Glenn started swatting in the dark, saying they were landing on him and that was it for me!!

I got up and put my brain to work, trying to decide what to do! I ended up moving a small lamp into the downstairs bathroom and did the soapy water trick!! Then I kept turning lights off and on to bring them downstairs - I ended up reading in the living room for about 1/2 hour, hoping they all came down and I used a flashlight to get up to bed, also unplugging the nightlight in our bathroom!

And I did sleep good!! I was excited when I got up to come down and see how many moths were in the soapy water - guess how many???? ONE - ONE LOUSY MOTH!!! Which means the other 20 or so are waiting in hiding to attack once again tonight!! But I'm ready for them this time - the vaccum is all plugged in and ready, waiting by our bed!!

The neighbor stopped by this morning and needed a tool of Glenn's which was in the small garage - I walked out with him and he raised the door - have you ever seen a movie or a show when a door or cave is opened up and the bats come out flying by the hundreds???? Well, this was EXACTLY like that except they were moths!!! Hundreds and hundreds came bolting out of that dark garage - it was awful!!! We went inside and then another batch hurled out of the rafters and we had to duck and duck - oh my gosh - I can't imagine how many of them there were and I really DON'T want to know!! I just hope they bed down again in the garage and leave the house alone tonight!!!

If you hear a motor running all night, you'll know it's just my vaccum working overtime tonight!!

Early Celebrating!!

Sitting by the creek on the patio of a Mexican restaurant, sipping raspberry margaritas - that was the agenda last evening as the "church ladies" met to celebrate an early birthday for me!!

Because the 4 of us are pretty "travel crazy" ladies, we had to meet early as everyone but me is heading out on vacation - one to Alaska for 2 months, one to Germany and then to Norway, and one to the Ukraine for a mission trip!! I already had my 2 trips so I'm home for awhile.........

We drove to Colorado Springs to eat at Amanda's Fonda - the food isn't super fantastic but you just can't beat sitting outside by the creek!! They enjoyed looking at my Alaska scrapbook that I've started and after all of THEIR trips, we'll have a LOT more pictures to enjoy once they all return!

The evening ended with a huge piece of rum cake with whipped cream being served to me and all the waiters singing Happy Birthday!! A great start for the first day of summer!!

Iowa - Homeward Bound!

Monday - it's time to go home now!

One last walk around the town of Soldier - one last cup of coffee with Patty and Leonard! And all too soon, time to head down the road and pick up Robby and Jill before we head to the airport!

The plane ride home was uneventful - that's always a GOOD thing!! Aleah cried for a little while but soon was fast asleep again for the journey home!! As much as we love to travel, it's always nice to come home!!

THANK YOU so much Patty and Leonard for the great time that we all had - the food, the hospitality, all the planning - it was a fantastic time and definitely a trip for the memory books!

Iowa - The Day After!

Did we get any sleep the night of the party???? If so, it was very little!! But we had to get up early to tell Teri and Emily goodbye as they were heading back to Michigan!! One mandatory picture is a "sister" picture whenever the 3 of us get together!! And I almost forgot to mention that on Saturday morning, the 3 of us headed to Onawa to enjoy coffee and time together without anyone else around - that was nice!!!
Patty and I then headed to Charter Oak, a neighboring town, to attend the baptism of Zander, Brent and Eugenie's new baby!! So there was more time to catch up with cousins there too!

Unfortunately when we arrived home, the community center was waiting for us to clean it!! So a few of us headed down and got it looking spic and span!! Of course it started to rain when it was time to load everything into the cars - figures - but we eventually got it all loaded up and hauled to Patty's house!!

Leonard decided it was time to open his many, many cards and presents -lots of laughter and fun!!

After a quick farm meeting about our trip next year, we all headed for naps!! It was quiet at Patty's house that evening with her kids and most of her grandkids gone - we ordered pizza and enjoyed the quiet - watched a movie - and talked and talked about the party!! And that night I FINALLY got a good night's sleep!!

Iowa - The Party!!

Patty knows how to throw ONE GREAT PARTY for hubby Leonard!!!

We headed down to the Community Building at 6:30 and minutes later, people started arriving!! WOW - usually people are LATE for a party - but not in Iowa - they arrive EARLY! We hurridly finished up getting the food out amidst greeting long-time friends that we hadn't seen for awhile!! It was like old home week!!

The program started at 7:00 - a cute trivia about Leonard that his girls' did - a song read by Patty which truly described Leonard -Small Town by John Melloncamp - and a great poem read and acted out by one of my best friends from high school, Sandy!!

And then the music started and the party was rolling!!!!

We had people sign in at the door and pick up a lei - and all the relative girls had fun flowers to wear in their hair!! Robby and Jill looked especially cute and I wish I would have gotten a pic of the other 2 girls but I'm sure ONE of them has pics I can borrow later!!

Here's the birthday boy himself - in front of his 60th birthday cake, all done up in the beach theme - it even tasted GREAT!!!

As you can see by the pic below, we had the tables decorated cute as can be!! The kids loved the balloons of course!!

Do we look like we just stepped off the plane from Mexico or what????

We danced and danced and danced - Patty had hired a DJ and given him the ENTIRE song list he was to play during the party - mostly 60's and 70's and a few popular ones from this year! Most of the time it was just us girls out on the dance floor but once in a while we would grab our spouses and hit the floor!! I hadn't danced in ages and it was SO MUCH FUN!!

We soon realized (as we were sweating away on the dance floor) that it was MUCH cooler outside so we'd take breaks to visit with people out there, where you could actually hear one another! The bartenders were doing a brisk business, along with grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and the food was all a great success!!

Glenn's sons, Todd and Neal, who both live in Iowa came to the party - we hadn't had a pic of the 5 kids together in probably 20 years so it was fun for all of them to re-connect!

By midnight we were exhausted - and as the last song was played, we all got out on the dance floor and danced one last dance - what a great, great party!!

Iowa - The Family Reunion

We were BLESSED to have a sunny day in the afternoon because it was raining in the morning! I can't tell you how many trips we made down to the Community Center that day to finish up things but it was a WHOLE LOT!! We kept pushing the air conditioning lower and lower as the humidity was pretty high but of course in the end, it didn't make any difference anyway!!

Besides all the running around for the party that night, we had the family reunion to get ready for! I'm not sure of the final count but it was somewhere around 48 people I believe to feed that afternoon - Patty outdid herself planning it all and getting the food ready!

How fun it was to start seeing people arriving!! Most of us just congregated outside on the cement with a lot of the kids playing on the swing set! Jessi, Gary and family along with Brad, Jaime and family had just driven in that day from Colorado - cousin Gailen and Belinda had driven in from Missouri - aunt and uncle Don and Nadine came from Charter Oak - cousin Brent and Eugenie with family had recently arrived from Africa - brother Jim and Brenda who are local arrived with Jeremy and Jordan - and their other son Josh and Carrie with son Brandt came too and they had just moved back into the area - Patty's daughters Amy, Jason and family were here from Strawberry Point, Iowa - Kristie, Shawn and family were here from Webster City, Iowa - Cheri, Patrick and family were up from Omaha, Neb. - and of course sister Teri and her daughter Emily from Michigan - and Jill, Robby and Aleah who had flown in with us from Colorado!!

Most of us were dressed in our colorful "beach" attire for the party later on and I love this picture below of Kristie holding Aleah and Emily - makes you just want to head to the beach!!

BEFORE we ate, we decided to take the pics - Patty and Leonard had the perfect outside deck steps for the pics although the sun wasn't exactly where we wanted it to be!! Let me tell you, it was pretty tough to get these pics taken but we did the best we could!! Below is a picture of the "Gran Cousins".

Next up was the cousins kids - the next generation down!! We had already snapped a couple of these before we realized that Brent's 2 young children needed to be in the picture!! Because Brent and Eugenie had their children when they were older, we had forgotten they actually needed to be in THIS photo!!

Now this photo took a LOT of patience and a lot of "Look here kids" "Smile" "Stay there" "Look this way" - we all snapped and snapped as fast as we could!! Aren't they just the cutest bunch you've ever seen????

And the whole group!! WOW - we were just all so excited to be able to take this photo of this many people!! It's just not often that THIS MANY of us can gather together in ONE spot!!

The reunion was a HUGE success!! We all had a fantastic meal and visited with ones we hadn't seen in a while!! A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to Patty and Leonard for hosting this event, and to everyone else who helped out!! Let's not wait years and years to do this again!

Iowa - Back to the Old Stomping Grounds!

I was excited to get to Soldier on Friday to see everyone! Some of my sister's daughters and families were there, along with my other sister and her daughter who had just driven in from Michigan! It was great to see everyone!

Teri and I always enjoy taking a trip out to the South Church and also to our old farm so a bunch of us piled in the car and we were off!
The church looks great with all the new siding on it and we walked around the cemetary looking at parents and grandparents graves - of course there were some new headstones out there too and it's always a bit sad to think about that!

Unfortunately the church was locked so I couldn't peek inside to reminisce about playing the old pump organ! I would have loved to attend church there on Sunday but we had a baptism to attend in another town - maybe next year!

Then it was off to see the farm! The corn looked great in places and the picture shows Teri and Emily out in the field!! As you can tell, the rain had stopped for a while and we had some wonderful sunshine!

Our late afternoon and evening plans were to finalize all the plans for the reunion the next day and to decorate the Community Building for the party!

Decorating was FUN!! Patty had chosen a beach theme and bought the cutest decorations for the hall! We put brightly colored tablecloths on all the tables with beach decorations in the middle, hung beautiful beach scenes over the blinds covering the windows, and made the entire place look just delightful!! We couldn't wait to PARTY DOWN the next night!!

Glenn was out a lot later than I wanted to stay out that night, so I went back over to Patty and Leonard's rental house to hit the sack - Teri and Emily were staying there too but were upstairs! Glenn finally got home and we were awakened later by an extremely loud thunderstorm - I was sure that lightning had hit the house!! A few minutes later, Teri and Emily walked down the creaky steps to use the bathroom and Glenn turns to me and says, "Are we not ALONE in the house???" He had no idea Teri and Emily were upstairs sleeping!!

Iowa Bound

And the journey begins..............

I was glad when we decided to fly to Iowa - the older you get, the harder the road trips are if you're in a hurry! In under 1 1/2 hours, you can fly from Denver to Omaha - now that's quick! But of course first is the trip to Denver and that's where we started the journey last Wed. night!

Thursday morning we all jumped in Robby and Jill's car and headed to the airport - parked at Pikes Peak Shuttle and proceeded on to the airport! We were flying Frontier which is ALWAYS a plus to me because the Caribou Coffee is in that wing of the airport - I sent Glenn and the kids to get breakfast while I stood in line for coffee!! It was a great way to start the morning!

Our flight was uneventful for the first part - little Aleah did great for her first ride in an airplane and of course had all the stewardesses fussing over her, along with Nana and Papa!

And after takeoff, she totally zonked out and didn't awaken till we landed! I think Robby was tired too...........

The pilot had warned us it was raining in Omaha - and soon we were flying through the storm and it got rough, really rough! But we landed without complications and soon were picking up baggage and a rental car - a bright red Ford Ihr - I think that's how you spell it - anyway, it looks like a PT Cruiser!

We drove in rain all the way up to Glenn's folks place outside of Little Sioux and stopped to visit there awhile before heading to Onawa to drop off the kids to see Jill's dad. Then Glenn and I headed over to see our Iowa granddaughter, Nedelle! She's gotten a LOT taller!!

Early evening found us back at Glenns' folks house for dinner and a nice evening of visiting! And the rain contined............

We MUST Be Back In Colorado!!

Once again we've returned home from a trip - this time from Iowa - and it was a fantastic trip and SO much fun!! Stay tuned for LOTS of pics and blogs!!

Anyway, after we started the journey home from Denver last night, we could tell it had rained a LOT and could see snow on the peak! About 1/2 way up the pass, I had to turn the heater on - seriously - that's how cold it was!! And we arrived home to 40 degree weather - I did double check the date and yes it was June 14th!!! Go away cold weather!

But that was nothing compared to the 30 degree weather we woke up too - I'm not kidding - frost all over EVERYTHING - Glenn lost a couple of tomato plants and we had to defrost the car to get the layer of frost off! The sun coming up over the mountain this morning was a nice welcome and the day has turned out nice and warm!!

Is It ME????

At my last hair appointment about a week before our trip to Alaska, my hairdresser told me she was closing her doors and shutting down the shop as she's continuing her education - good for her - bad for me as it's TOUGH to find someone you like to cut your hair!

Last week at the place where I get my Friday coffee, the owner told me she had sold the place - she will be re-opening in a different spot under a different name with a different type of menu (but will still do coffee) and that will be next fall - hmmmmmmmm.................

And last night, my massage therapist confirmed what she had told me 2 weeks ago - her and her family are moving to PA. this Sunday and I had my final massage with her last night - bummer - REALLY a bummer!

CHANGE - I'm not really fond of change - why can't things just stay the way they are?

SO I guess when we get back from Iowa, I'll be looking for a new hairdresser, a new massage therapist and possibly a new place to get coffee - in the meantime, if my hair looks a little longer than usual, you'll know the reason why.................

Random Thoughts On A Sunday Afternoon!

Even though it's pretty hot out today, the sun keeps going under clouds and there's a nice breeze coming in the windows - summer has arrived in the mountains!

Tidbits going on:

a) Glenn has been working some hellish hours lately - one day he left at 5:30am and arrived home at midnight! I feel sorry for him but I really can't help him out either! Taking the trip to Alaska, and now a trip to Iowa on Thursday and then ANOTHER trip back to Iowa the next weekend for his 40th class reunion has put some timely demands on him!!

b) I scrapbooked ALL DAY yesterday!! WOW - it was SO much fun - I scrapped our trip to Cozumel in Feb. -secretly I was hoping to get it done in order to take the pages back to Iowa since all of us will be there, but I really didn't have high hopes of getting it done - but I actually finished it all yesterday!!

c) The lilacs at the office are JUST about ready to bloom - that figures, since I'll be gone for 5 days - let's hope they last and last and last!!

d) I picked up the last batch of pictures from our Alaska trip - I was worried since they were taken on a disposable camera but they actually turned out pretty good!! Since the 4 of us girls are having a scrapbooking weekend in a couple of weeks, Alaska will be on my list to do!!

e) Yesterday was our annual city-wide garage sale which is held at the high school parking lot! Glenn and I went out for breakfast and then went to the sale together, driving 2 cars as he had to head to work! There were rows and rows of great bargains - but I just really didn't need anything!! I did end up with 2 books, 2 childrens books, 2 to go cups (we seems to have lost all of ours!!) and a little riding toy that should work for Mackenzie this summer and Aleah next summer! Glenn was thrilled to find a bunch of pots (it's time for him to replant all of his seedlings that are now TALL) and also a couple pair of rubber boots that he uses at the granite shop! The best part of the sale is talking to all of the people you see.............

f) I've got baby back ribs in the crockpot and the smell is about to drive me crazy!! I think I'll put some potatos and beans in the oven and make it an easy meal!! I also bought some strawberries this morning - think I'll have some dacquiris ready when Glenn gets home!

g) We've seen one doe hanging around the property lately, definitely pregnant - I'll keep watch for that new baby fawn or fawns!!! Freckles and Speckles still come around a lot too and the triplets are in the area also - of course they're all pretty good size now!!

h) We have several stoplights now in Woodland Park but the most major one is one that connects onto another highway and also into the shopping center. I had gotten some groceries on Friday morning and was turning right to head to the office. I stopped at the light and the car beside me stopped, and then promptly turned LEFT on a red light!! I couldn't believe it!! Luckily there was no accident but I'm sure a few of the cars that had to stop weren't happy!!

Wednesday night we head to Denver to spend the night before flying out early Thursday morning with Jill, Robby and Aleah to Iowa!! We have a car rented and Glenn's folks are the first stop of our 5 day trip!! Jaime's and Jessi's are driving out too on Saturday so we're going to have one heck of a family reunion next weekend!! Lots of pics and posts to come......

Camera Crazy!!

What do you think of my new camera????? Cute isn't it - and sharp looking - and SMALL AND SKINNY!!!! It arrived yesterday and I was SO excited when I got home from work to test it out!! A big THANK YOU to Robby - whenever I need some type of electronic, I just tell him what I want, what features I need, and what price range and he does ALL the research and even orders it for me, delivered right to my house!! You just can't beat that!!

So far I LOVE this little camera - it's a Canon SD1400 IS model - and perfect for what I need it for!! The BEST part of course is just setting it on "Auto" and it will automatically adjust and focus on its' own. Of course if you do want to do settings yourself, that's all available but I never do that - I'm just a point and shoot type of person!!

Just charging the battery and figuring out how to load it and the memory card was challenging to me - I'm not only lousy at figuring out that type of stuff but I'm not too good at reading and deciphering directions either!! But I manged to get that part done and then pushed the button to turn it on - nothing - I pressed and pressed - nothing - hmmmmmmmm - I figured I had put the battery in wrong so double checked that and I did have it right - so I peeked at the manual again and found the problem - I'm hitting the shutter button instead of the on/off button - duh!!

At that point, I sat down and read about the camera BEFORE I did anything else - and realized there wasn't much I needed to know - I could turn it off and on, I knew where the zoom button was and I knew how to review the picture, once I had taken it!! So I started snapping everything in sight - believe me, it's pretty boring just snapping pictures around the house and outside since there were no people to take photos of!! (Actually Jessi had told me on the phone on my way home that I was welcome to drive to Denver and take pics of her and the kids but I politely declined that offer!!)

Below are 3 random pictures (although you get to see our new swing) taken with the new camera!! So far I'm impressed with the quality of them!! I called Robby later on and he instructed me how to hook the camera up to my new laptop and download the pictures - some practice is needed to get them over to my picture files but I'm sure I'll get it all figured out in due time!!

Now I'm sure you're wondering how I took the pictures of the NEW camera!! As you recall, the battery from our old camera is now fish bait at the bottom of the ocean. When I went into Radio Shack in Sitka, Alaska, the guy told me a new battery would be $50.00. Since I had dropped the camera and didn't even know if it would work, I had decided to wait until we went to Denver again and try one of their batteries (3 of us have the exact, same camera) to make sure before I went to the expense. Unbeknownst to be, Glenn had gotten on the computer and found a place to order the battery - 2 of them in fact - for the price of $13.00 (WOW!!!) Wouldn't you know it, they arrived yesterday too and after I charged up the battery and stuck it in the camera, IT WORKED JUST FINE!!! Can you believe it, we're now a 2 camera family!!