A Year of Change

It’s Saturday although it’s hard to tell as all the days seem to just run together these days. Jagger will be home tomorrow and get to call tonight, hope he’s still having fun! I guess he told Mom one of his roommates was throwing up as he was sick. Mom told him to stay away and use the Purell or hand sanitizer we sent along.

Last night Ty had his friend Jack over to play and he ended up spending the night. It’s 6:30 now and I’m running a couple of trash bags over to the Shred-a-thon at the Sheriffs Department. This is the once a year event where they take things you want shredded and well, shred them. Old bills, bank statements, tax returns, etc. Things that have account numbers and stuff you don’t want to throw in the trash as these days, people go through trash at dumps looking for ways to steal your identity.

Today both Lori and I are getting our hair done, mine cut and hers colored. In between our appointments I think we’re taking June to lunch. Then tonight as I said, Jag gets to call home. Hope all is well with everyone. We both need a rest this weekend but probably won’t get much. Take care and God Bless.

It was a little after 5pm when my cell rang with a number I didn’t recognize. I was on the other line with Chicago but quickly hung up as I knew it was Jag. My intuition was right as it was him. I wasn’t sure who was around him so I asked questions that he could answer without offending anyone as I knew he wouldn’t say anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Things like are you having fun, are your roommates ok, is the group and teachers ok? He answered yes to all of the above and sounded like a 17 year old. So with the formalities out of the way, I asked what he’s been doing and what he’s seen. I kind of had to drag it out of him but he is clearly having a blast. Lori was still at work so I asked if he could call her on her cell. He wasn’t sure but was going to try. Thankfully he was able to do so as Mom would have been crushed if she missed him. I yelled outside for Ty but couldn’t find him and he was sad he didn’t get to talk. Saturday he said he’s sticking close to home during the time period when Jagger will get to call. I texted Mike, the school Principal who is on the trip to see if I needed to fax a copy of Jagger’s passport as I forgot to send him with a copy of his id. Mike texted back no, he doesn’t need it and also that Jagger is having a lot of fun and what a nice young man and great kid he is! That was great to hear. He also said to feel free to call him on his cell anytime if we wanted to talk to Jag. Meanwhile Lori had a good day. Her and Dr Rodgers were on the phone with the lawyer who Lori has been working with regarding her wacko predecessor. Unbeknownst to her, the lawyer told Chris how lucky she was to have Lori working for her as she has been on top of everything and is really caring and professional. Lori has never met the guy in person but talked many times to him on the phone during this whole ordeal. After the call Chris said, “wow, and this guy has never sent us a single bill”. This of course is shocking as lawyers bill by the minute! Apparently he feels so bad that this wacko lady is trying to take advantage of the situation that he has just been helping out so far without charging. He was a referral which I’m sure helped but still, my lawyer charges for even a 2 minute phone call! Anyhow Chris was really pleased and finally relaxed as she was quite nervous about all the trouble this former employee is stirring up. She finally made it home around 6:15 or so and we cooked up a salad with scallops for dinner and that was it. Mr Ty of course had hot dogs and then I took him to Dairy Queen for dessert. It’s now 5am and time for coffee. I have a call this morning after 8 and then a sales meeting across town at 10:45 and then another call at noon. Then I should be done for the weekend. Hope everyone is well, bad fires in California, still snowing in the high country on and off and also raining. Maybe a few showers down here too! Have a great weekend, God Bless.

With only one, it’s pretty quiet around here. Tonight Jag gets to call home and we’re all anxious to hear how the trip is going. Today they’re supposed to be in Virginia. I’m sure they are all are having a good time. One of the other parents said he Googled Bar Harbor where they had dinner the first night and it was beautiful on the ocean, I think in Maryland. Anyhow we sure miss him and are glad he’s having fun and being able to see everything but it’ll be nice to have him home. It seems different from Outdoor Lab only because he’s across the country.

Today we all have lots and lots of work. I don’t know what we’d do with all our time if we didn’t work! It also keeps us young to always be on the go. You know what they say, use it or lose it! It’s a little after 5 and I’ll head to the gym this morning. Ty went to school early to work in the computer lab and wants to go in early again today so I’ll drop him early.

That’s about it, time to run, hope all’s well with everyone, God Bless.

With Jagger back east, we’re down to one kid, Mr. Ty. It was unusually quiet around here and even though Ty had a friend over after homework, and then went out to dinner with him and his dad, he still missed his brother. We haven’t heard from them yet as they only get to call Thursday and Saturday night. Today is their big day in D.C. and then they’re off to Virginia. I’m sure they’re having fun!

Yesterday I had a busy day juggling finances and bills along with lots of work. Meanwhile Lori employed our neighbor Steve to come down to her office and begin the large task of fixing and building new computers. On top of that, she had to evacuate the building when the fire alarms went off and later in the day had a flood in Exam Room 5! When she arrived home we had about 15 minutes to relax alone until Heather (a friend from school) showed up to help with Quickbooks and the spreadsheet she’s been working on. Finally around 8pm I picked up Ty and soon after we were all in bed, of course the same bed! With Jagger gone Ty didn’t want to sleep in his room alone and of course, Mom understood.

Today I have lots of work (what’s new) and so does Lori. First up for me though is I have an appointment to get my teeth cleaned at 8am. The grass and everything else around here is really green due to our latest snow storm. It’ll be in the 80’s this weekend, we can’t wait!

So another day, another battle, here we go. I almost forgot, those of you that know our friends the Harris’s, well, Carrie’s dad passed away two days ago. He was getting ready to go home from the hospital and before he could, he was gone. Carrie flew back to Minnesota yesterday and Mark and the kids took off driving after school with the dog. I think they’re going to be gone for at least the rest of the month! Hopefully everything will go ok and things will settle down. Our prayers are with them. Things like this make bills and work pressures kind of irrelevant.

God Bless.

Well today is the day, Jagger will be leaving with 22 other kids for his 5 day trip to Washington D.C. and Williamsburg Virginia. Mom will get up in 30 minutes at 5:30 to make him breakfast and pack him a lunch for the plane ride and he and I will take off for the airport around 6:45. He’ll be gone until Sunday when we’ll pick him up at 9pm.

Of course we’re a bit nervous but he’s in good hands plus he’s a responsible young man. Thanks to everyone who helped make his trip possible. He’s super excited.

Yesterday after school and work, we ran around picking up the last minute items such as an umbrella and food for his lunch on the plane. He’s all packed, sleeping bag and all, in my small Tumi suitcase.The Principal, who’s a great guy and going on the trip, gave me his cell phone number just in case. The kids only get to call home twice, Thursday and Saturday night.

Mom had another crazy day at work with the ex nightmare employee still causing problems, she’s now filing a claim with the Labor Board for something like $350. On top of that,  the computers were down in Dr Rodgers office and at the end of the day, there was a water leak in one of the rooms, what fun.

Time to run, lots to do and I’d better get Mom her coffee. It’ll be strange with Jag gone but we did just go through this with Outdoor Lab so hopefully it’s not that bad. Say prayers that he has a good time, weather is supposed to be fine and he’s been well versed by me to stay safe. Updates to come as we get them, God Bless.

The heavy wet snow hit last night, it’ll be slushy all day and all the trees are bent over. Hope you all had a great day but to be frank, it wasn’t so good around here. It was just one of those days where everything was out of whack.

We started by going up to my Mom’s at noon, and then made it home around 2 and then hung out until bedtime. During that time span, I put Dawn in the dishwasher, whoops, (soap suds came out all over the floor), Popcorn threw out her leg at my Mom’s (finally was back in and seemed alright but put a big damper on the party at her house) had a few disagreements over really nothing (basically the boys) and Mom and I really were not feeling all that well. Lori had some late day e-mails from work telling her the computers were screwed up over the weekend by the docs husband who tried re-starting them plus she has a giant spreadsheet that is going to take a lot of work as we now have to figure out how to re-format the whole thing. I’ll go down to her office this morning after my conference call to help out. Everybody all day was in kind of a bad mood.

Tomorrow Jag leaves on his trip so lots to do today. I think we need to have him at the airport by 7:30 meaning Ty will be late to school as he will have to come with us. Throw in the fact that our accountant at work is gone this week and we’re all getting short paychecks until he can get back and figure out the actual commissions and nothing seems to be getting better. Hopefully things will turn around soon. We need a vacation, or need to move or better yet, win the lottery.

Hope your day was better, especially you Mom’s! God Bless, time to go knock snow off tree branches.

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers! It’s 5:33am and so far they haven’t sent the email saying baseball is cancelled but even though the snow has not yet arrived, there are puddles of rain in the front yard. It’d be nice if it didn’t turn to snow and just stayed rain all day but it’s pretty cold outside.

Yesterday Jagger and I ran some last minute errands getting things for his trip and Mom was on a mission to clean up the dinning room and front living room. Ty had a friend over to play in the afternoon until we took him home around 6:30. In the morning we picked up my Mom at 9am and took her to one of our favorite places for breakfast. She called later in the day to thank us and say she had a good time which is good news. She’s so funny as she gets a kick out of things like our kids doing something that reminds her of when we were little or something that’s changed since she was last there, 30 or 40 years ago, or in yesterdays case, her remembering driving up where we were 40 years ago to buy a Pendelton robe for my great aunt. We were talking how the place we were eating at had been in business since 1985 and how that just seems like yesterday when in fact it’s 29 years ago!

That’s how fast life goes, one minute you’re buying a robe for your aunt for Christmas and next thing you know you’re eating breakfast with your grandkids. I decided to drive home the long way meaning up the back road to Evergreen and then down I-70 to home. It was a nice drive with sunny blue skies. I’m glad we all went as today it’s not going to be very nice out no matter what the weather does.

Today we’ll go up to my Mom’s as she ordered up a bunch of bbq from a new place we’ve known about but never been to. Uncle T went a week or so ago and apparently it’s as good as advertised. Not sure what time we’ll head up but the day should be open now assuming they do cancel baseball.

The boys stayed up until midnight watching some movie so they’d better cancel the game or Jagger will be really tired. Time to get more coffee, no comments on my musings yesterday? I thought they were pretty good. If I don’t get any comments on my political thoughts I’ll have to keep posting them as it’ll make me think no one is reading them!

Again, Happy Mothers Day, God Bless.

That’s right, 14″ to 20″ inches in the mountains which will begin today if it hasn’t already and then who knows how much down here, starting tonight. They say broken tree limbs and possible power outages with messy roads tomorrow and Monday as it’ll be a wet snow. I’ll need to move the big geraniums into the garage for sure!

This morning we’re picking up my Mom and taking her to one of our favorite breakfast spots in Morrison. Glad she decided to go with us as she doesn’t go out too much, at least with us.

Baseball practice was cancelled yesterday as it started to rain right about the time we were walking out the door. The boys, with lots of energy, played inside and out for the rest of the day. Finally around 9pm we all headed to bed.

Here’s a few thoughts for the day,

1. We are told to not judge all Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge all gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.
2. We constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. Why do we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money?
3. We are cutting benefits to veterans, giving no pay raises in the military, and reducing the armed forces to a level lower than before WWII. Why are we not stopping payments or benefits to illegal aliens?

That’s it, I’ll leave politics alone but if you think about it, those are just a few more examples of how out of whack we are, particularly in the govt.

Have a great weekend, God Bless.

I can’t believe it’s Friday again already. This week, like a lot of others, just flew by. Yesterday was a whirlwind with Mom at school most of the day and me doing a few “drive bys” to see each guy and their presentation. Both boys were great as expected. Last night Jag had a band concert at the high school. We were all set to go until we discovered Ty had some homework that had to be done. Turns out this wasn’t the big concert we thought so I stayed home and helped Ty finish up an hour and a half of homework. I said I’d go but Jag told me to stay instead of Mom since the football draft was also on.

Lori is back at work today, too bad she can’t take today off too as she could use the break. She’s not quite yet used to the pressure and daily grind like I am. Then Sunday we’re supposed to get snow! Can you believe it, May 11th and snow, sounds like global warming to me.

Guess I’ll run, we have baseball practice tonight and a game scheduled Sunday but I don’t know with the weather forecast. I think I’ll go before I go into taxes or politics or something no one wants to hear about so have a great day! God Bless.

Man are we busy busy busy. I suppose its good as it keeps us active but it seems like a decade ago that we had our vacation. Lori is taking the day off today as Jagger has his Greek Wax Museum project at school and Ty has his presentation on the infamous lady gambler, Alice Tubbs. Jagger is Apollo and will be dressed up standing like a statue in a “wax museum” for most of the day. He’ll be in costume and prepared, with help from Mom, to put on a nice presentation. Meanwhile across the hallway, Ty will be doing his presentation on Alice Tubbs, a cigar smoking gambler, madam, and business woman from 1879 to the 1930’s. Both boys I’m sure will do well but Mom should get part of the grade!

We’ll both be stopping by to see the festivities. I need to take Mom out to dinner or something, oh but wait, Jagger has a band concert at school from 6:25 until around 8pm, and of course, the NFL Draft is on, arrgghh, hope I don’t miss the Bronco’s pick, I can’t get a brake. I’ll have to have Uncle Tommy text me every few minutes.

Yesterday I picked up Helen and Peggy as I said, and packed the Ferrari for them and sent them on their way. Hopefully they made it home before the rain and hail we had here in Denver. They were very thankful and appreciative, Peggy has turned into a really good friend.

Guess I’ll run (I’m actually writing this last night before bed) as time to get everyone in bed. Hope you all are well, I’m really trying to stay way from politics but it’s hard, so so hard. Anyhow, take care and as always, God Bless!