You WON'T Catch Me Up There!

Just looking at this picture makes my stomach queasy! I DON'T DO HEIGHTS! Never did, never will! I can say with absolute certainty that you will never read a blog from me with headlines "I Went Bungee Jumping" or "Today Was My Sky-Diving Lesson"! Just climbing up a step-ladder is high enough for me!

Glenn offered to wash my high windows for me in lieu of hiring the window washers! And since he basically has no work to speak of so is free to work around the house, I took him up on it! The ladder you see in the picture is like a huge, huge stepladder, so it's pretty sturdy! But it doesn't reach to the 2 top windows that you can see at the top of the picture - oh no, for those windows, he had to use a regular ladder propped up against the wall, extended to its' fullest height! Now THAT was scarey - and yes, I held the ladder with my hands and put both feet in front of the portion that was propped on the floor so it wouldn't slide!

The insides of the tall windows are done - now it's time to move to the outside but that may be a day or two - the winds have been horrible the past couple of days and high on a ladder in the wind is NOT where I want Glenn to be!

I also have another new item in the house - a light in my pantry! When Glenn was finishing up the house, he asked me if I wanted a light in the pantry and I said no, I really didn't think I would need it - WRONG!! It's dark as heck in there and I have to use a flashlight if it's evening time to find what I need! So I was thrilled when I came home yesterday and there was a light installed in the pantry! It's nice and bright and NO MORE flashlight!

Keep up the great work Glenn - I'm loving it!!

Listen To The Music!

I just asked for one thing for Mother's Day from Glenn - and last night I received it!! Check out this picture - pretty exciting huh???

All I wanted was one of my speakers to be mounted in the opposite corner of the house so I could have complete "surround" sound from the stereo! The stereo sits up in the loft and sounds great with the vaulted ceiling - but I knew it could sound even better if one of the speakers was at the other corner of the house, leaving one speaker up in the loft!

So last night, Glenn cut a small platform for the speaker and mounted it up in the corner - then strung speaker wire across the entire wall and stapled it in so you can't see it at all, went around the corner of the house and then ended up back in the loft with the wire! He hooked it up to the system and it was ready to go!

I called my tech advisor (Robby) to make sure it was OK to set the other speaker in the loft on top of the sub-woofer and it was so the big moment came and I turned on the system - LOUD!! My oh my - the sound was amazing!! So good in fact that I grabbed Glenn and we danced around the kitchen island to one of my favorite songs that just happened to be playing!

I am now officially ready for a party - the weather is getting nicer and nicer so we can spread out onto the deck now too - come on over and LET'S PARTY!!!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

As I pulled onto the gravel road going home last night, I could see in the distance there was a rider on a horse with a rope in the person's hand, connected to a colt a little ways behind - I'm assuming the rider was teaching the colt to follow - I'm not a horse person so know little about these things.

Anyway, as soon as I saw that image, my mind relaxed and took me back to a time when riding horses was the ONLY way to get place to place - that tranquil, western setting, far away from today's technology and fast pace of transportation. What a pretty sight seeing that beautiful horse and as I got closer, I could tell it was a woman, dressed to the hilt in her western wear and cowboy hat - what a great thing to do in the late afternoon - riding in the hills where we live!

As I got closer though and moved to the other side of the road so as not to scare the colt, I took another closer look at the rider - AWWWWWWWWW -the image was shattered - the peaceful rider scene was NO longer - the years fast-forwarded to the present - my mind snapped back to reality.

And what was wrong with the picture - the rider was talking on her cell phone...................

Mother's Day

I was once again made to feel so very special on Mother's Day by the best 3 daughters in the world! Jaime, Jill and Jessi all made Mother's Day 2009 another wonderful day to be put in the memory book! And to be surrounded by all 4 grandkids made the weekend even extra special!

It just goes to show that you don't have to do anything extraordinary or out of this world to make a weekend memorable because we did nothing of the sort! We basically spent the weekend at Jaime's house and enjoyed every minute just being together!

Because of everyone's working schedule AND the kids, we decided it would just be easier to make our meals at Jaime's so Jessi made an awesome lasagna for dinner on Sat. night and Jaime made wonderful spicy shrimp linguine for lunch on Sunday! Jill filled in all the "extras" and I hand-dipped strawberries in chocolate for our snacks on Sat. night!

We decided that after Jaime got off work on Sat. night, us 5 girls (Rayna included) would watch a chick flick after the little ones were put down for the night and that's exactly what we did! "Bride Wars" was the chosen movie and we ate chocolate strawberries till we couldn't eat any more - but of course there was room for strawberry/rhubarb dessert!

Sunday morning found Brad and Glenn cooking breakfast for us "honored" moms of the day (and the mom-to-be!) And then it was off to Caribou Coffee for "girl talk"!

Before we watched our next movie, "Marley and Me" (with no dry eyes I might add), I opened my gifts from the girls! WOW - a gift certificate from Jaime (one of those "pick it yourself" ones so I can choose from a whole list of stores or restaurants), super cute summer knick-knacks in wild colors to set on my 3 tiered stand from Jill (they're already sitting on the shelf and they all fit perfectly!! I just need to put a pic in the frame!) and from Jessi, something I had NO idea you could even do, a hardback book of all of my blogs and pictures from when I started, May of 2008 through March of 2009! Gosh, I felt like I had been published!! Below is an absolutely horrible picture of me but it shows the book that she had made!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU GIRLS!!! You are ALL so very special to me!

Of course I must attach a couple pictures of the kiddos - Kylan and Evan had just gotten out of the bathtub and looked so cute playing in the crib together - and Rayna had went to a birthday party where they had a balloon maker and a face painter!

Now how did I get through the weekend without a single picture of Mackenzie by herself? I guess it was because I was holding her most of the time ........... Only a couple more months and she won't be the baby in the family any longer - and then we'll have one more "mom" to celebrate with us on our special day!

It's Going To Be A GREAT DAY!

It's Friday - it's an "8" day - and my wonderful boss brought me my FAVORITE flower to put on my desk this morning - a lilac!! Oh my gosh, I forgot how WONDERFUL they smell!!

I anxiously await each spring for the lilacs to bloom and since they're just starting to bud here in W. Pk, I almost had forgotten they they might be blooming in Colorado Springs!!

My desk smells delicious!! And I just can't stop myself from reaching over every few minutes and bringing that lilac to my nose to smell that fragrant, heavenly smell! Life is GOOD......

Trash Talk

I decided that last night was the perfect time for my "once a year" job of picking trash up off our property! It was gorgeous out, with just enough breeze to warrant a sweatshirt!

We have 2 acres to cover which isn't a whole lot but I managed to pick up about 3/4 of a 13 gallon trash bag full! It just amazes me how much trash gets blown around on our property (probably not all ours but our neighbors' too).

What a great feeling an hour later to tie up that trash bag and look around outside, with not a plastic bag or piece of paper in sight! Sometimes the smallest jobs make us feel the best!

Silly Me (or should I say, Stupid Me!)

One of my best friends is moving out of state the first part of June - we've been friends for the ENTIRE time I have lived in Colorado which makes that 20 years!

Of course we wanted to spend some time together before she leaves so last weekend was our chance! Our plans were for Sat. but due to some weather problems, we decided to hold off until Sunday which was a good thing - the weather was awesome on Sunday!

Our first stop was coffee and muffins at our cute local Florissant Coffee House - yum! Then it was off to Buena Vista to the Cottonwood Hot Springs! It's one of my favorite places to go as it's not only a beautiful drive over there, but who can resist soaking in one of 5 hot springs with the magnificent blue sky overhead against the white capped mountains as the backdrop!

Anyway, the air was cool when we arrived there (remember, it's not quite spring yet in the mountains!) so we paid our money, hit the dressing room to change and soon were in the warm, soothing waters - WITHOUT sunscreen on! Didn't even give it a thought, even though we BOTH knew it was in the trunk of the car!

Fast forward 2 hours later - we'd had a great time soaking and talking but were pretty water-logged by that time so we headed into town for a great Mexican lunch (including cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory!) and then headed on home.

After arriving home, I was telling my friend good-bye and commented that my shoulders kind of hurt - I peeked under my shirt - whoa - what is this burning hot red skin I see? Then it dawns on both of us - we forgot to put the sunscreen on!

Was I miserable for a couple of days? Trust me, that doesn't even BEGIN to describe me! My friend and I emailed back and forth on Monday and Tuesday about how miserable we both were.

Today is Wed. and the pain is subsiding - the skin is starting to turn to brown now - I've applied bottles and bottles of lotion it seems - and I WILL NEVER AGAIN FORGET THE SUNSCREEN!