Some Days Are Better Than Others......

Not ALL days are great days - although I'm sure everyone wishes that each day would bring no problems, no surprises. We had one of those not so great days this last week!

Wednesday morning Glenn and his 2 employees left for a granite install which was around 90 miles away - and just as they were reaching their destination, the transmission went out of our truck - bummer!!!! I always try to look at the bright side of everything though and I guess the good thing was they DID get to do the granite install. After a hefty tow bill getting the truck back up to the shop, the next step will be to either rebuild the transmission or buy a new one!

Glenn and I did end up finding a used truck that we bought on Friday night - it's in pretty good shape and will solely be used as a work truck after a few minor repairs - and once we get the transmission back in our other truck, it can be used more for our camping and ATVing, and just used as a backup for work!

Wednesday afternoon I received a call from my dermatologist - I'd had a complete body scan to check out my moles and one larger one was burned off and sent off for a biopsy. Unfortunately the news on it was not what I wanted to hear - it was a melanoma. But it was caught early and only in stage one so that's the upside!!

I will be heading in for a consultation on April 2nd to talk with the surgeon and am looking at April 9th for the actual surgery to have it cut out. Hopefully I'll only be out of commission for a couple of weeks while it heals...............

And Thursday I went in for a massage and saw a For Sale sign in my massage therapists yard - yes, she is selling her house and moving to Colorado Springs!!! I dearly love her massages and will sure miss her when she leaves - but maybe her house won't sell for a while and I can still use her for the summer!!

THIS WEEK will be better! I guarantee it!!!

St Patrick's Day Weekend

What a whirlwind weekend in Denver!! They just seem to go so fast with so many things to do once we get up there!!

Friday evening was SUPPOSED to be an evening of dancing at the Stampede for the adults but then we found out it was closed to the public that evening - bummer - but we decided to have "adult game night" at Jaime's house and there was even free child care at the church for 3 hours!!! Alas, Glenn and I hit horrible traffic on our way up there and an extra long blind appointment repair on the way also made us late...............But we still arrived in good spirits and ate yummy nachos and played part of a game before it was time to pick the kiddos up!!

Saturday morning found Jessi, Jaime and I at Caribou Coffee drinking our FAVORITE drinks with green whipped cream for an hour and a half!!! Now that's unheard of for us to get to have coffee for that long!!

It was beautiful outside and Jaime, Rayna, Kylan and I walked to their park to play for a while - don't you just love their green????

And then it was a mad dash to make green pancakes and green scrambled eggs for lunch!!

After lunch, Jaime and I left for our "laser" appointments - these poor appointments have been booked and re booked I don't know HOW many times!!! It's actually a birthday present from Jaime to me and she was going to have the same thing done - the hair removed above our upper lips!! So we headed to Simplicity Laser and had the first of 8 procedures done!! Yes, it hurt a little bit but wasn't bad at all!! I'm sure the results will be well worth it!!

Next I headed over to Jessi's to spend some time with Evan and Kenzie!! I had found bib snow pants at Walmart for $3.00 apiece so bought them each a pair for next winter - they HAD to try them on of course!!

Rayna had an afternoon birthday party to attend and the guys went fishing and we all ended up at Jessi's house late afternoon for our chicken and guacamole pizza!!! YUM!! The kids sure had the green food planned out well!!

The munchkins were all so cute in their shades of green!!

And FINALLY, it was time to celebrate Rayna's belated 10th birthday and Jaime's upcoming 34th birthday (today!!!) Jessi made a batch of her awesome homemade cinnamon rolls and they were better than any cake we could have made!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYNA AND JAIME!!!

After church on Sunday, we had a fish fry at Jaime's house - Glenn and Brad had went fishing at night and Glenn caught a large catfish!!

So we all pigged out on fish and homemade french fries!!

After a trip to Sprouts, Kohl's and Jessi's work, the day was gone and it was time to head home! Gosh, I wonder what it would be like if we EVER went to Denver without an agenda!!!

Computer Crazy!!

I have spent more time on the phone with Dell Computers and Centurylink (our phone company and internet) the last couple of weeks than I care to admit!! I have tried to be nice - I have tried to be patient - the key word there is TRIED!!!!

Our new computer at Glenn's work started doing strange things - after the 3rd time, it was time to get Robby involved and after checking it out, determined that a cable is loose inside (it's one of those "all in one" computers). So I called Dell and after an extremely lengthy conversation, the tech told me he would have to take the computer down to its original settings when we received it - of course Robby had already warned me of this and said absolutely not do you allow that to happen!!! Well my other choice was to PAY another Dell tech to save all my info and remove the "infection" - even though it's NOT an infection!!!

Fast forward - Robby did a 3 way call between him, Dell and me - mostly it was between Dell and Robby because I had no idea what they were talking about - and VERY soon the conversation got quite heated - and then worse - and then even worse than that!!!! Robby knows how to talk to those people and after Dell kept telling him there was NO cable involved (several times I might add) the Dell tech finally relented and said they would send someone out!! HOORAY - that is what we wanted!!

So that night, Dell calls me at home and tells me that the cable has been back ordered and won't arrive for a few days so the tech coming out will be delayed. The WHAT has been back ordered????? The cable that is NOT in the computer according to Dell????? How funny!!

The computer has gotten so bad that Robby said to shut it down and leave it down - and luckily he had programmed my laptop to work at the office so I'm all set until the situation has been taken care of!!

Now the home computer - we've been dealing with SLOW speeds FOREVER!!! I have called and called and called - and when Robby was down, he thoroughly checked everything out and said it was all good. After being on the phone for hours it seemed with Centurylink, they finally said they would send a phone guy out - he came - nothing changed - they sent us a new modem - I spent hours on the phone with them trying to get it to work but to no avail - they sent ANOTHER phone guy out - he called us and even went into our house and checked EVERYTHING out - there was no problem!!! The speed is Ok during the day when no one in the area is around - but when you get home from work and the entire neighborhood is online, that's when it slows down to an ungodly slow speed!!!

So I called them AGAIN last night and told them I was done - no more testing - no more sending out new modems - no more of ANYTHING - I would just keep the old modem and deal with the slow speed - I just couldn't take anymore..........

And that's the story of my computer issues!!!

An Addition To Our Showroom!

I LOVE the new addition to our showroom!!! It's a custom made island from the Tim Kulin Cabinetry shop and they brought it over on Friday!!

After it was set it place, the guys put the granite top on - a beautiful piece of stone called Juperano Wildfire! Glenn had the guys do 4 different edges all the way around so we can show our clients what they have to choose from!!

The white vanity to the left of the picture will soon be taken out also and Tim is going to bring over a couple of his pieces to showcase in our showroom! SOME day we'll have it finished!!

It's Our 27th Wedding Anniversary!!

A big anniversary wish to my hubby on our 27th year of marriage!! To celebrate, we'll be heading down to Carrabba's for our favorite steak dinner and then do a little shopping - I know, not too exciting but at least we're celebrating!!

The weather is supposed to be fantastic here today - a lot of sun and nice warm temps!! Maybe it's time to bring my tennis shoes in and start walking on lunch hour - but as soon as I do that, we'll have a blizzard so maybe I better wait!!

Happy Anniversary Glenn - may we celebrate MANY more wonderful years together!!

Ice Castles

Looks like a frozen wonderland, doesn't it? But the weekend didn't go quite as expected...... I woke up early Saturday morning with a mad dash to the bathroom thinking oh no, my stomach CAN'T be upset today - but it was........

Determined to go ahead anyway with our weekend plans, I didn't eat any breakfast and packed the sprite and saltine crackers, just in case!! We picked up Martin and Joleen and were on our way for our 2 hour trip to Silverthorne to see the Ice Castles!!

The weather was HORRIBLE once we got out onto the flats - the wind was gusting like crazy and the snow was blowing around - we ran into several ground blizzards and had to be careful of the black ice!! We stopped in Breckenridge, having made it over Hoosier Pass , for coffee - the wind wasn't much better there and I envied the other 3, drinking their coffee while I just watched. My stomach wasn't doing any better!!

Even though the wind had died down a little bit, it was still bitter cold out when we reached the Ice Castles!! But they were amazing!! The structures are made entirely of ice with no additives to the water and no supporting sub-structure within or underneath! The castle creations were created by artistic minds and lots of hands-on work!!

I'm actually sitting on an ice chair here or should I say perching? It was DARN cold on the seat!

We loved just wandering around inside and out of these castles.

There were little tunnels to go through and I know the kids that were there were enjoying it as much as the adults!!

Out back of the ice castles is an icicle farm where they grow 3000 to 5000 icicles each day which are planted or fused to the existing ice! The icicles are then watered at night! As of Dec. 16th, they had used 70,000 icicles with an additional 20,000 per week!! Very interesting!!

Our tickets were good for all day but of course we didn't stay till evening - but it would have been neat as there are lights throughout the ice and I can just imagine what they would have looked like at night, all lit up!!

What a neat experience, only I wish I would have been feeling better!!! We headed back towards home and stopped in Frisco where we ate at a cute little German restaurant - I should say THEY ate, I just sipped a little bit of coke!!

And then it was back on the road again, heading back to Fairplay for our nights' stay!! I was feeling really tough by this time going back up the pass and soon had to tell Glenn to stop to rid my stomach of the 2 soda crackers and the little bit of soft drink I had drank - NOT FUN leaning over outside in the cold...........

Everyone offered to just go on home and cancel our nights' stay but I was determined to hang in there!! A little while later, Martin told Glenn to stop as he had to pee - again the wind was howling like crazy!!! So Martin just stood by the car and of course Glenn proceeded to pull forward (aren't the guys ALWAYS doing that to us????) and Martin yelled - I rolled down my window and yes, Glenn had RUN over his foot!!! Martin had braced his foot in front of the tire and Glenn had pulled forward - yikes!!! Luckily he was Ok!!

So we stop at the Valiton Hotel, a restored turn of the century hotel!! The wind was so bad that I didn't think we were even going to make it inside!!! I was feeling so tough I didn't even appreciate the old-fashioned lobby or the cute bar that had a roaring fire going in the huge fireplace!! I just wanted to lie down!!

The hallways were SO COLD as I'm sure they're not heated!! We climbed up the neat staircase and found our room and it was COLD, VERY COLD!!! The wind was so bad that the hotel could not keep up with the heat - they had placed a small electric heater in our room so Glenn moved it right by me and I crawled into bed, clothes and all!!! I think I shivered and had goose bumps for the next 3 hours!!!

And of course the management had told Glenn that the electric heaters would blow the circuits so several times he had to go trip the fuse at the box - what a riot!!!

Glenn, Martin and Joleen spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening having cocktails and enjoying their meal in front of the fireplace while I spent the rest of the day in bed.......what a bummer!!

We DID stay warm though during the night!! But the wind was VERY loud and we were glad to get up the next morning and head on home!! One of the main roads out of Fairplay was closed and several people had to stay at the hotel as they couldn't get home!! Luckily the rest of the way home wasn't too bad and I was glad to be home, crawling into my OWN bed for the rest of the day!!

Computers and Kids

Parker and I got along just fine last Saturday because his mom wasn't around!! And I took the cutest pictures of him while I was savoring him all to myself!!

Robby, Jill and the kids came down late Friday night and Aleah spent her first night upstairs with Glenn and I, sleeping on the princess mattress - and she did great!!

They had a birthday party to attend late Sat. morning but it was during Parker's nap - and since Glenn had an appt., I got to babysit for a little while!! After he woke up from his nap, I fed him and we played a little bit - I sure enjoyed all the smiles I received!!

And then I strapped him in his car seat and headed to the party where I exchanged Parker for Robby!! My FAVORITE computer tech was going to install a NEW computer and printer at Glenn's business!!! HOORAY!!! The old computer was not only slow, but had such a small screen and the printer???? It was something from the dark ages I believe!! Anyway, we headed to the office and Robby started in!! Jill and the kids stopped later to see the place and I headed back to our house with her since Robby was going to be a while!

Robby definitely got his workout at our house later - Glenn and him worked quite a while on the fax machine which wasn't working properly and then he hooked up our new Blu Ray DVD player and checked out our speaker system! Yes, I had a list for Robby as he doesn't get down too often and I SO appreciated all he did for us!!

The DVD player works great, I LOVE the new computer at Glenn's office and I got to play with the grandkids for a day - what a great Saturday!!