$10 - Now Give me $20

I love listening to an auctioneer - it just amazes me how FAST they talk and how they can get their words to sound like they do!

Sunday afternoon was our annual 4-H auction - because I used to be a club leader when our girls were in 4-H and since I am now on the 4-H Foundation Board, I always support the auction - if fact, I helped out at it for many years! Now it's a real joy to just ATTEND the auction and not have to worry about setting up, manning the tables, and clean-up!

They have now included a chile cook-off at the beginning of the auction so Glenn and I both enjoyed a bowl of hot chile before the auction started!

The live auction was first but since there wasn't anything we were interested in, we took that time to walk among the 10 silent auction tables and place our bids - lots of bids!! I want the 4-Her's to earn as much money as possible (all the items are donated of course) so I'm notorious for writing our auction number down again and again, bidding on items that I'm sure I won't get, but raising up the bid each and every time!

But this year they didn't post each items' winners like they have done in previous years so unless you were standing right by an item you were bidding on when they closed the table, you really didn't know if you got it or not until you checked out! Note to self - next year keep TRACK of the items you are bidding on and MIGHT get so you're not totally surprised when you go to the check out!!

Did we end up getting a few items?? Oh my, I had NO IDEA we had bid on so much and were the last bid on so many items! Wow - we made a haul! But again, it was all for a good cause and all the items we ended up getting were things we would use!

The items: a case of oil, a gift certificate for a pickup load of trash to the transfer station, 3 $20 gift certificates to local restaurants, a $25 gift certificate to the place I get my Friday coffee, a $25 Creative Memories (scrapbooking supplies) certificate from my consultant, a $25 gift certificate to our local hardware store, the game Cranium ( in the box, never opened, for $5.00 - what a steal), 2 square woven baskets with liners, 2 huge Easter baskets full of toys and candy - 1 boy and 1 girl, 10# of wonderful lean ground beef from friends of ours that raise cattle, a family 4-pack of tickets to the North Pole (Santa Claus Land) ( a super bargain as we will not only be taking Rayna this summer, but also the 2 little boys!) and the best bargain of the day for $6.00 - a booklight that not only plugs into a battery pack but ALSO into an electric outlet and 28 hardback Danielle Steele books!! I'm a great fan of hers and yes, I've read about 1/2 the books in the box but one can NEVER have too many books to read!!

All in all, it was a great auction and a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Mother Nature WASN'T Nice on April Fool's Day!

Hear me loud and clear Mother Nature - it's APRIL - the snow and blizzard conditions are supposed to come in MARCH not APRIL!! You're mixed up - look at the calendar! Turn the page - Easter is almost here - it's time for flowers and pastel colors and green stuff on the ground, not white stuff!

To be honest, I can handle the snow (although I really despise the wind!) because when the sun comes out the next day, most of it melts! So as you've guessed, yes, we had a lot more snow yesterday along with some horrible wind!

But that's really not what I'm complaining about - just guess what the temperature was when I got up this morning - not 30, not 20, not 10, yes it's the next set down - zero!!! ZERO degrees out on April 2nd!! It got up to 2 when I left for work - and now the sun is out so I think we're up to 15! Another few days of sweaters, heavy coats, gloves and snowboots! It's hard to imagine that a week from Sunday I might be wearing a sleeveless dress to church on Easter - yea, right, it'll look cute with my winter coat!!

Going, Going, Gone.............

I was supposed to have really exciting SNOW pictures to share with you - unfortunately that's NOT the case!! Because all that snow really DID blow into Ks. and there just wasn't all that much around to take pictures of!! I STILL had Friday off though as the wind and blowing snow made the roads pretty hazardous and my wonderful boss said I could stay home!! It was my FIRST snow day of the entire winter!!!

It was pretty exciting to sleep in on a Friday and then when I got up, knowing my house was ALREADY clean so there wasn't a heck of a lot of things that I HAD to do!! So I did what I do best - I scrapbooked!! It was great sitting there in my chair, watching the snow blow around outside and knowing I was all warm and cozy inside the house!

The sun DID peek out about noon though - and being such a devoted employee, I did call my boss and ask him if he wanted me to go into work for the afternoon - he said no and I secretly smiled and shouted HOORAY!!!

Jaime and the kids made it down by early evening - the roads were pretty much cleared by then so it was safe to drive! And we spent a fun evening discussing and researching Disneyworld!! Jaime, Brad and the kids are heading there next Nov. for 7 nights and guess who they're taking along??? That's right - Glenn and I are joining them and we're just as excited as they are!!

Jaime and I met with my travel agent on Sat. morning to discuss all the details and questions - I think we were all on the phone with the Disney rep for at least an hour, trying to get different prices and packages! And after letting the rep know that Brad was retired military, we REALLY got a great deal!! Our plans were to book 2 regular rooms in the Moderate Resort category but because of the great discount, we're now booked in the brand new "Treehouses" at Saratoga Springs that have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a complete kitchen in them!! We're all pretty excited about that!!

Sunday found us at "Disney On Ice" in Colorado Springs - this year the theme was "Disneyland" - how perfect!! Rayna loved it of course - Kylan, not so much - maybe next year!!

After the performance, Jaime and the kids headed back to Denver and Glenn and I took in a movie - we don't go to the movies very often so I'm always very excited to go - so what a disappointment when I didn't enjoy the movie!! We saw Duplicity with Julia Roberts and Clive Owens - it was so confusing I had no idea what was even going on the first half hour - and it's probably the first show I ever thought about getting up and actually leaving because I almost fell asleep! My advice is - don't see it!!

Here's a cute picture of Kylan who was pretending the banana was a phone!! Grandkid pictures are better than snow pictures any day!!

SNOW DAY!! IT'S THE BLIZZARD OF 2009!

It's almost 2:00 and I am home!! Thankfully!! I said a LOT OF PRAYERS on the way home in this horrible blizzard!! Once again, I waited too long at work - it's really hard to tell how bad the wind is blowing when you're sitting in a cozy cabin working away!! But once you get out on the streets, oh my!!

But now I am safe and sound in my snug home, just planning all the things I get to do today and tomorrow while the blizzard is raging outside!! I already know I won't be going into work tomorrow - the storm is not expected to move out of the area until late morning and it will probably take most of the day to dig out!

The forecast for our area is anywhere between 10 to 20 inches - but the wind is blowing so bad, that I'm not sure if we'll even be able to tell how much we get! Doesn't really matter to me - we need the moisture and as long as Glenn and I are both home safe and sound, it can snow all it wants to!!

Hopefully I'll have some snow pictures to post tomorrow - but then again, maybe the wind will blow all the snow into Kansas and there won't be any!! Right!!

A Weekend To Myself!

I took the weekend off - I didn't do laundry - I didn't clean the house - I didn't visit the grandkids! I decided I needed a weekend for "me" to do whatever I wanted to do!

Friday after work found me at the movies, here in Woodland Park - Glenn had gone fishing for the afternoon/evening and I had wanted to see the movie "Taken" so I went - got my drink and the oh so ever good but fattening popcorn and thoroughly enjoyed the movie! It's certainly not one for kids though - I was on the edge of my seat for an hour!

Because I went to the 4:30 showing, I was home by 6:30 and was EXTREMELY EXCITED to find that our big screen TV had been fixed! Yes, our new TV that we bought just last October quit about 3 weeks ago, right in the middle of my favorite show! I won't go into all the hairy details of TRYING to get it fixed through our warranty with Sony - let's just say I will probably NEVER buy another Sony product again! I plopped myself down in the recliner and proceeded to catch up on my shows!

Sat. and Sun. found me spending a lot of time on the computer but even more time scrapbooking! I REALLY wanted to scrapbook more than I did, but on Sat., I found myself having a hard time relaxing - you know the feeling when you JUST sit down to do something you REALLY want to do, and then your mind starts thinking about all the things you SHOULD be doing so you just can't completely relax??? Yea, that was me!

But I redeemed myself on Sunday after church - I enjoyed every second of scrapbooking and didn't feel a bit guilty!

And now it's back to the normal work week - and yes, I have to go home tonight and do the laundry and start cleaning the house for company this weekend, but that's OK! The weekend was mine!!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Jaime!

I'm a day late wishing my first born a VERY Happy Birthday! But of course I called her - I didn't miss it entirely!!

Jaime Jo was my firstborn 31 years ago! WOW - she may feel old but how do you think that makes me feel??? When you have children, the "30's" seem SO far away, but in reality you just blink your eyes and the years have fast forwarded!

Being the firstborn has lots of perks - the FIRST to wear all the cute clothes, the FIRST to talk and walk and do all those cute baby things that new parents dote on, the FIRST to be spoiled, the FIRST to climb up on that schoolbus - you get the picture!

Jaime was born a dark-skinned, black-haired little girl - in fact, she looked like an Indian baby!! But her skin soon lightened up and her hair turned a lighter color! Jaime was always a very "strong-willed" child and I remember that just driving in the car from Missouri Valley (where we lived) up to Soldier (where the grandparents lived) was quite the ordeal! I guess she thought she needed to be entertained at ALL times!

But Jaime soon outgrew being that strong willed child when her 2 little sisters came along - then she started giving out the orders - SHE was the boss!

It's hard to believe that my firstborn has been married now for almost 8 years and has 2 children of her own! But she's worked hard - attending many years of school to get that Doctorate of Pharmacy degree - and has a wonderful job to show for it! She's made me SO very proud!

Happy Birthday Jaime - you're not only my firstborn, but one of my best friends!

Cute As A Button!

Isn't this picture just the most precious thing ever??? Of course I'm not partial to our granddaughters - they're just so cute! And fun to dress! And fun to play with! And fun to buy for!! OK, I'll stop or the little boys might get mad!!

Glenn and I had a wonderful weekend in Denver with the kids and grandkids! The weather was beautiful so Glenn got to do some fishing and I spent some real quality time with the grandkids!

Besides celebrating Rayna's 7th birthday, we went to the park a couple of times, did some shopping, and of course had some Caribou coffee!

Weekends are meant to be with family and it doesn't get much better than that!