Construction in Ft. Collins

Jill and Robby are finishing out their basement to make a guest bedroom, storage and just some much needed extra room!! So when Glenn needed a website built, Robby did it in exchange for Glenn working a weekend on their basement - what a great trade!!

We headed north after work on Friday and stopped in Denver first to get adjustments from Jessi and then on to Ft. Collins! The kids of course were already in bed by the time we got up there so we had some adult time and checked out the framing in their basement!!

Glenn was up bright and early to start in - I decided to take advantage of the kids sleeping in and slept in myself!!

Parker and Aleah get bigger every time I see them!! I just HAD to post this picture of Parker because the expression on his face is hilarious!!

Jill and I ran out to pick up Aleah's pictures and also made a stop at her consignment store - it's a lot like my niece Cheri's store in that it carries only the nicer, name brand labels! I not only found 3 tops but a really cute sundress for our next trip!!

While the guys worked hard on the wiring, Jill and I prepared a couple of dishes for that evening's block party BBQ which was held right outside their house in the cul-de-sac! One of the neighbors had rented a bounce house for the kids - Aleah LOVED it!!! But I could only stand watching those kids go up and down and up and down for a little while before the dizziness overtook me!!

They have some great neighbors and we enjoyed watching the kids play and eating lots of great food!!

After getting the kids to bed that night, Jill and I decided to watch a movie and once again, we picked one that was NOT worth watching - to spare you the trouble of renting it, I'll tell you the title - How Do You Know!!

Aleah is now in a toddler bed - a hand me down from Kylan!! She is SO proud of that bed and just loves to sit on it and play!! Jill and I rearranged her room a little bit and re-hung some things on the wall.

It was a great weekend and Robby and Glenn did get the wiring done!! One step closer now on that basement!!

I'll leave you with a cute picture of Parker - the spittin' image of his dad!!!

Thanks Robby and Jill for a fun weekend!!

It's Been a LONG Haul............

Have you missed my blogs? Well, I've missed blogging too but have just not felt up to writing as I have been dealing with the dizziness for almost 4 weeks!!!

But there is a light at the end of this tunnel.................I AM feeling better - the dizziness is getting much less severe and I just feel a WHOLE lot better!! Even driving is easier now! But I can tell at the end of the day if I've overdone it - and that's exactly what I did today (Monday) as it's almost 8:30 and I'm ready to collapse!!

Tomorrow is another day - and I DO have a weekend blog to do that hopefully will get done tomorrow!! Until then..........

A LONG, Long Week..........

Especially when you're not feeling good! I did go to work Tuesday and finished out the week, but didn't accomplish a lot except for just being there!! My boss ended up being sick 3 of those days too so we were quite the pair last week!!

Thursday I called Jessi and asked if she could come down at least for a day over the weekend to see if an adjustment would help - and she gladly said yes and headed down Friday afternoon!!

She did a lot of muscle testing on me, determining that I indeed did have a strep infection and started me on some of her herbal remedies! And she also did several cranial adjustments to my head! I sure appreciated her help and her insight to help me with my condition! And to be honest, I'll take her advice any day over a doctor!!

Evan and McKenzie couldn't wait to get into the hot tub!! So we cranked it up to 96 degrees and they had a ball playing!! I had purchased a second fishing pole with cute colored fish and they had so much fun! I love Evan's expression on this picture - looks like he just caught a REAL fish!

Last year Kenzie was scared to death of the bubbles when we turned the high jets on!! This year she loved it - only she turned her head at the last moment so I didn't catch her smile!! As you can see, it was one gorgeous day out!!

After getting the kids to bed, I felt good enough to get in the hot tub with Jessi - it was one of those perfect summer nights - nice and cool - a full moon - and LOTS of shooting stars!!

I rested a lot on Saturday but still enjoyed coffee on the deck with Jessi and watching the kids ride the trikes around! I'm sure they didn't understand why Nana wasn't her usual self, and spent a lot of time resting!!

They headed on home Saturday evening and the house was once again TOO quiet!! Thank you Jessi for all your help - hopefully each day I'll just get better and better.................

Even Though I'm Smiling..........

in this picture, it's only because Aleah was making me smile!!!

I had a rough weekend - a REALLY rough weekend!! Last Tuesday night I noticed I was a little bit dizzy but didn't think much about it. I went to work on Wednesday but left about 2:30 as the dizziness was getting worse. Thursday I TRIED to work but sure didn't accomplish much and by 3:30 was back home on the couch.

I was feeling tough - extremely dizzy and no desire to eat anything. When Glenn had to help me up the stairs to go to bed Thursday night, I knew I wouldn't be working the next day!! And it was the worst day ever!!! I started vomiting in the morning because of the dizziness and the day just went downhill from there - I couldn't even make it up the steps to sleep in my bed so spent the day on the couch, praying for the dizziness to stop - it didn't!!

Glenn came home from work early and took me to the ER - they first checked me for a stroke - REALLY????? Glenn and I both thought I probably had wax on my eardrum as I tend to have an over abundance of that, but the ER dr. checked my ears and said that was NOT the problem. One more test and he discovered what it was - an inner ear infection - the nerve that runs back beyond your eardrum and tells your brain about motion, was infected. But he said it was a viral infection so antibiotics wouldn't help!

So he prescribed an anti-nauseous drug and a Valium type drug - I guess to make me sleep so I didn't have to be awake for the awful dizziness!! I think just riding in the car to town was enough to do me in...........

Jill and the 2 kids were waiting for us when we got home and bless her heart, Jill took care of me all weekend!! Glenn left early Saturday morning for an overnight outing that he'd had planned for quite a while so that left Jill to hold the fort down!!

This is where I spent the majority of the weekend!!

I managed to eat a cracker on Friday and that was it - Saturday was better and I actually ate some chicken and grapes which tasted good to me. Little Parker and Aleah kept me amused all weekend which was great!!

The sad news is that Jill and I couldn't join my "choir" girlfriends for the melodrama and tea in Cripple Creek on Sunday - we had been planning that for quite some time so I was not happy about that!!

Sunday I rallied a little bit and could walk to the bathroom without help at least!! And the vomiting had stopped - but the pills I was taking totally knocked me out and I felt like I slept most of the weekend!

Jill did manage to capture a cute pic of Aleah and I on one of my escapes off the couch - I think she had to help me back up though!!

So all in all, not a fun weekend at all but a huge thank you to Jill for taking care of me, keeping the house picked up, cooking meals and playing my personal secretary every time the phone rang!! Jaime and Jessi were both in Iowa but Jaime gave me her expertise advice on the drugs I was taking and Jessi helped me with an exercise to stop the pounding headache which was a result of the drugs I was taking!! It's sure nice to have a pharmacist, a chiropractor and an occupational therapist in the family as I had most of the bases covered!!

One last picture of Parker having his bath - what a cutie!!

A Visit From The Bear

I probably should just go ahead and name this bear since this is his 3rd time to visit!! SO if you have any good suggestions, let me know!!

Glenn yelled at me to get my camera ready as he was heading up the driveway so I grabbed it and started shooting pictures through the window - so they're not great pics at all - especially since it had been raining and was pretty wet and dreary out!!

Here he is coming up the driveway!

This is on the side hill right before you get to our garage.

He once again climbed over our deck railing so I hid beside the couch and then popped up to take this pic - we eventually opened the door because we didn't want him to break the bird feeder and of course that scared him and he raced around the deck again!!

Glenn snapped this one just as he landed from jumping over the gate!

You can just about tell when the bear is in the area because the neighboring dogs go absolutely crazy!! And we do take our bird feeder down at night - we just hadn't taken it down yet because it wasn't nightfall! We're also very careful not to leave any type of food in our cars as there have been instances where a bear will tear a car door off to get inside!!

Luckily the bear is scared of people so runs for his life if he sees one - and that's a GOOD thing!

Flooding In Iowa

As most of you know, Glenn's mom had to be evacuated the end of July because she lives 1/2 mile from the Missouri River - below are some recent pictures of her place!

The house itself is not flooded yet, just the basement - we're all praying the water goes down soon so the house will still be livable

Iowa Company!

Did last week go fast or what????

Wednesday morning I got a phone call from Glenn's mom, Lolly, that she was headed out for the weekend if we were going to be home - ABSOLUTELY - we LOVE to have company!! Since I had kind of neglected my house the past few weeks, Glenn and I spent the next couple of nights doing a bit (actually MORE than a bit!!) of cleaning!! And making up some goodies for some meals so I didn't have to spend the entire time in the kitchen when she arrived!! We were excited to hear the next day that Glenn's sister, Geri was also coming!

Lolly and Geri arrived at my office on Friday, right before close - they had that timed perfectly!! Since neither one had been to our new place, they followed me and before long we were munching on yummy dip and vegetables with beer bread, and peach fizzies!!

We had a great weekend together! Our days were spent visiting, taking drives, showing them Glenn's workplace and showroom, seeing a huge herd of elk one evening, touring a mini castle right in the middle of Woodland Park, looking through my books of scrap booking and Sunday night, eating at the Wines of Colorado.

The REST of the time we played cards and games - now that is RIGHT down my alley as I can NEVER get enough time playing games and cards!! Lolly and Geri play cards a LOT in Iowa and Geri even plays in a lot of tournaments!! They're both good - but Glenn and I did OK too!!

Geri realloy enjoyed our Mexican Train Dominos and we ended up playing 2 complete games of that - staying up till close to midnight one night!! It was great!!

It was back to work for Glenn and I today but they're staying another couple of days and I'll be anxious to hear what they decided to do today! Below are a couple of pictures I took at the Wines of Colorado - a beautiful night to sit beside the creek!

I'll be anxiously awaiting to see which card game we're going to play tonight!!