A Year of Change

Good morning.  Last night, if you went to bed at half time during Monday night football…you missed the greatest Monday night come back ever! In the first half the Broncos special teams didn’t look their best….nor did the offense.  At half time when I went to bed we were down 24 points.  The Mr. stayed downstairs and watched the game.  He came upstairs with play by plays …long pass completions, touchdowns, forced fumbles picked up and run in for scores and interceptions.  You name it and the second half had it.  Hurray for the Broncos!  The players were all so humble in the after game interviews….nice that they share the glory.

When the boys got home from school we went through their Monday folders. These folders have all of their work from the previous week, notes from the school and teacher communication. Both boys did well on their work…it’s nice to be able to go over any mistakes and make sure the kiddos understand what may have gone wrong.  In the youngest’s folder we went over two math mistakes that were actually correct, so I’ll send them back and he will get credit for the answers.  At conferences I showed his teacher a paper that he had correct answers on and she told me to always send them back in if I find mistakes.  You see…she corrects all of her own papers over the weekends and I’m sure it’s easy to get tired and miss a few things.

Today we re going to Oxford Farms for any veggies they have.  My friend, Carrie and I are planning to can beets.  I just have to figure out if we can do them in a water bath or if we need a pressure cooker.  In any case it should be fun.  Carrie’s mom has a recipe that contains a ton of sugar…we are going to omit the sugar and use balsamic vinegar instead. Yum..I hope.

I took it easy yesterday, as per instruction from my husband and my Dad. (Moms too) Iced my head often and pretty much hung out on the couch…fun fun fun. The doc said 4 to 6 weeks for the nerves to die…just in time to give “Thanks” on the third Thursday in November.

June is putting Bunkie down today.  She is having the Vet come to her house at 11:15.  Her son is with her and I will go down before we leave for the farm to give support and say my farewell.  It’s really kind that he can be at home, and since he gets shots everyday anyway the shot from the vet will be business as usual.  I’m so glad he can be at home…for him and for June.  It’ such a hard thing to do anyway…at least he’s at home.  June’s son is with her and she will be going with him to Seattle for a few weeks on Thursday.  I hope the trip goes well for her.

Time to get the boys moving for school. My great husband is on the way home from the gym, Have a great day,

What a crappy day. I thought taxes were going to be $..,… but instead they turned out to be double that! You see I just woke up and checked my computer to find the 8 returns I have to file as our accountant only finished them all late last night. Unbelievable. You don’t even want to know the number but let’s just say you could buy a new car.

Yesterday started out with the 5K run which is 3.2 miles. The misses and I walked half of it while the boys ran. The oldest finished in 29 minutes with his brother a couple minutes behind him. After that we ended up at home with two extra kids, Jennifer to play with the oldest and Jake with the youngest. I ran up to Wal Mart to pick up 4 cheap pumpkins for all the kids to carve. Meanwhile the misses thawed out some pork green chili she had in the freezer. It was ready about 2pm when my friend Rik showed up to get out of the hospital for a few hours while his wife was resting.

He left a couple hours later as did both friends and we winded down the weekend. The misses neck and head was sore as she had done too much all weekend long. Lots to do today, so time to run.

Hope everyone is well and has a good week. Take care and God Bless,

The poor little girl who was snatched by some predator a week ago was less than 6 miles or so from us. Well last night, about 3 miles from us, they say someone tried to abduct a 13 year old boy. He told the kid to get in the car and when the kid started to back away, the suspect got out of the car trying to grab the kid! Are you kidding me? What do we have to do, literally watch our kids 24/7, even in the front yard. Enough is enough. The mom snapped a picture of the suspects car with her cell phone but he hasn’t been found yet. Wait a minute, the news just said the suspect from the car in the picture has just turned himself in to police! Let’s hope it’s the same guy from both instances. Even if it is, there’s still just a lot of messed up people in the World these day. What has happened to us as a society? You just cannot trust anyone anymore, no matter how nice they appear to be, it’s sad, really sad.

Last night we had some friends over for dinner along with their kids which was fun. The misses did too much, again, and I’m sure she’ll be paying for it today. Earlier in the day the oldest and I ran some errands to get him some new jeans, pick up some food at the store, (pasta was $1 a box instead of the normal $2.59, we bought 20 boxes!) and some other staples we need around the house. I tried to get him a haircut but he didn’t want to even get jeans so I gave him his choice, haircut or jeans and you know what he chose.

Whoops the news just said the guy who turned himself in (with the car in the photo the mom took) was just looking for his girlfriend so this isn’t the predator everyone is looking for, the bad guy is still out there.

This morning the kids have the Gold Rush which is a 5K run. I absolutely will not let the misses even walk it so it looks like I’ll be going with the youngest. The oldest will hopefully have a group of friends he’ll run with but he doesn’t want to wait for his younger brother as he’s trying to get as good as time as possible. I decided I just cannot let the youngest run alone as you never know. The predator, for all we know, could have signed up to run in the race (a kids race) and might be running right along side our children, waiting to grab one and veer off the trail. It is 3.2 miles along a creek in a wooded area. Once again, I may be overreacting but I don’t trust anyone anymore and am not taking any chances. I’ve always been cautious, some might even say too much so, but I’ve seen a lot of things in my life many people have not and I’ve seen first hand just how messed up some people are, so I’m running the 5K. It’s really sad that as a parent you even have to think about your kids safety in a school race.

The oldest and I are going to organize the basement today. We’re also going to get the yard ready for winter and the coming snow. This means wrapping the faucets and picking up flower pots and other assorted things that can be put away until Spring.

Hard to believe tomorrow is October 15th. That means 75 days until Christmas, wow how time flies. On top of all this, some in the intelligence community say Israel might attack Iran in a matter of days, that’s all we need. What the heck is the World coming to. Oh well, you need to focus on the good things in life like family and the simple pleasures. Do not take anything for granted. We’re trying to make sure we embrace each and every day and enjoy it to the fullest. Hope you do too!

Take care and God Bless.

The misses finally did it, she cleaned her closet. I’ll bet she’s sore today but she had to do something as that’s just who she is. so after years of procrastination, she did it. It took her the whole day and I think she still has some things strewn around the upstairs, but the closet looks great. I’m sure she’ll be wearing a bunch of new (or old) things we haven’t seen for years, as they’ve been lost in the abyss known as her closet. Next up will be the upstairs guest bedroom.

The boys had a good day at school and played as soon as they arrived home as they have no homework on Friday’s. They also stayed up until 11pm watching tv. They promised to go to bed earlier but you know how that goes. Mom and I had fell asleep but thankfully woke up at 11 to get them both upstairs.

If you’ve been following the story of the 10 year old girl abducted while walking 3 blocks to school, they found her body. What kind of sick person would do this. Now we have some predator living here they have to catch. They say she must have been followed as whoever took her only had 3 minutes or so to grab her. She must have been stalked or followed. We are very sad and disillusioned with life in the city when these things happen. I know this kind of stuff can happen anywhere but it seems less common in the smaller towns in the mountains. We’re seriously contemplating moving out of Denver in a few years or so.

Yesterday my buddy Rik spent the entire day with us until around 7pm when his wife finally was out of surgery. She was in for 10 hours! They spent the night at the hospital and today will move into a hotel in Cherry Creek for 3 days until they have a post op appointment on Monday before heading back up to Vail. For those of you wondering, yes this was cosmetic surgery, but still surgery.

My hunting buddy shot an antelope yesterday morning down in southeastern Colorado. He’ll process it today (chop it up!) and the oldest and I will probably go help him.

Both dogs are at my feet and it’s pitch black outside. Everyone is still sleeping so I think I’ll run to the gym. Hope everyone is well, take care and have a great day.

Thank God the weekend is here. It’s been a stressful busy week that is thankfully over. I don’t know if next week will be any better but at least we get a couple days off. Of course it’s supposed to rain today and tomorrow. Maybe we should head up into the mountains where it’ll be snow!

Yesterday started off with the boys heading off to school on time and then my cell phone ringing 10 minutes later as the oldest had forgot his recorder. I rushed back to school while the misses was cleaning up a bit against orders. We managed to make it to the grocery store around 10am and $270 later came home with a half a dozen bags of food. Prices sure have gone up as I’ve said before. We noticed that we rarely buy meat anymore but rather go for chicken (which isn’t much cheaper) and eat a lot of pasta and beans. I don’t think we’ve had red meat for at least 3 weeks.

The day wrapped up with parent teacher conferences for both boys. The first thing each teacher said was what great boys we have and how happy they are to have them in their classes. It seems the only issue either of them have is they sometimes rush too much to finish their work. Their great students who are polite and kind to others and are doing well in all areas. How nice is that for a parent to hear.

The oldest guys arm is still a bit sore and he’s a bit tentative to move it much as it’s been locked up in the cast for over 6 weeks. We’re slowly making him use it more and more and need to get him to physical therapy. Tomorrow they both have the 5K run called the Gold Rush. The misses will sit this one out if I have to tie her up!

Our friend from from Vail is having surgery today with the misses doctor. I think she goes in at 6am and will be out for 6 hours or so as she’s having quite a bit done. This means my close friend (her husband) Rik and I will have lunch as he’s just hanging out all day. Hope all goes well.

We made the oldest skip inter murals yesterday as it was the high jump and we couldn’t risk him hurting his arm. His friend Jennifer meanwhile, didn’t have such good luck, as she is now in a walking boot waiting 2 weeks for the swelling to go down to see if her foot is broken from, you guessed it, the high jump! I’ll wake him this morning at 6 as he has a 2 mile run that he wants to compete in.

After schol the youngest guys friend came over to play and his dad asked if we wanted to come over for lasagna. His wife, the misses friend, just had bunion surgery at 6 in the morning so we thought she probably didn’t want or need any company but they insisted they did. So we went around 6 for some food and the kids played while the 2 girls chatted and Mark and I watched some football. We tried watching the VP debate but it was pretty lackluster with Joe acting snarky and smirking and laughing at Ryan whenever he spoke. Pretty rude. I think the moderator was terrible as she lost control but it was nowhere as good as the presidential debate. They all say it was a draw for whatever that’s worth.

We made it home by a little after 8 and headed up to bed. I’m sure you’re all wondering about the misses headache. Thanks to all of you that called to check on her. The short report is it’s too early to tell but she does have some relief. It’ll really be weeks before we know for sure if this worked. We’ll keep you posted and are hoping for the best.

Time to run, lots to do today. Take care, God Bless and have a great weekend.

Good morning…it’s  after 6, both of our furry friends are lying by my feet, and looking at me in hopes of a belly rub.

We took the boys with us at O’dark hundred to Frisco yesterday morning.  The men dropped me off for my appointment (the nurse took me right back) and headed over one more mountain pass to get license plates or tabs for the Yukon.  They also made a stop for some yummy baked goods from the Avon Bakery…a favorite of all the boys at our house.  They came back and had just enough time to get the oldest’s cast removed before I was out of recovery.  Hurray for the oldest…he does have a script for P.T. and his arm is still quite sore, as you can imagine it would be after almost 2 months in one position.  He is supposed to do the High Jump this morning, but we are going to take another pass since there is no protection on the elbow.

Surgery went well.  Dr. Dickstein took an extra long time burning the nerves in hopes that they don’t regenerate rapidly this time.  The team thanked me for keeping them entertained…I chatted with them during the procedure and found out a lot of interesting facts about all of them.  I asked, “doesn’t everyone talk with you when you do this surgery?” they reply was a group laugh…followed by the Doc saying, “most people moan, cry and whimper.” I asked if he was kidding…the answer was once again in unison…”No, not kidding.” Funny, it wasn’t that painful.  In recovery, Dr. Dickstein told me I was in the top 2% if not 1% of the highest pain threshold he’s seen.  I replied, “Well, I’m glad to be in the top 2% of something.   The Mr, whom everyone said is a keeper (we all knew that already) came back to help me get dressed and we were off down the mountain.  The kids made it to school about noon and I was planted on the couch and then in bed the rest of the day and night.

The boys  had Chinese food…which the oldest has been asking for since pre-cast days.  It was the easiest dinner for last night, and now we have a yummy lunch to pack for school.  The kiddos were very helpful yesterday…letting the dogs in and out, picking up around the house and checking to see if I needed water….sweet boys. We let the kiddos watch some T.V. last night and then off to bed at 8.

We have Parent/Teacher conferences today.  The first at 3:00, and the second, at 3:20.  I have a few issues…imagine that…the youngest brought home a math paper that said he got 23 out of 27 correct, and when we went over it together he actually had only missed 1.  This has happened more than once and I will try to be as tactful as possible.  I’m sure it’s hard to grade all those papers….maybe she has a helper correcting them…I’ll ask. I have an issue or two with 5th grade for similar reasons.  I’ll let them tell me about my children and then I’ll chime is with a big smile and I will ask…If they can HELP me understand their thoughts on my more than perfect children. It’s always better to ask for help and get the other person’s perspective and then gently offer my thoughts.

I’m supposed to take it easy…ugg…lots to be done around here.  Luckily, I have the best helper man around.

Have a great day and God Bless.

It’s 5:23am and we’ll be leaving at 6 with the boys in tow to take the misses up for surgery. We’ll drop her in Frisco at 7 and then head up to Vail to get our license plates while she’s hopefully getting all fixed up. By the time we get back to Frisco, she should be pretty close to being ready to go home. The boys will probably make it to school by 10am. We didn’t want to take them but just didn’t have any place to drop them at 6am.

I had my foot aspirated (lanced) yesterday morning and the doc squeezed out a bunch of thick gel like fluid from the cyst. Hope you aren’t not eating breakfast! When you injure your body, one of its defense mechanisms is to release fluid to insulate the injury. It’s way down and will hopefully be all gone soon.

We then headed over to Colleens to visit and have a nice sushi lunch she had ordered. She has a coyote problem so we’re going to have a bbq and shoot them one night. I can borrow a 22 with a built in sound suppressor and night vision which will make it an easy job.

I need to run as I have 30 minutes to shower, slam a bowel of cereal and get the boys up and dressed. Cross your fingers that the misses will be all better in a few hours.

God bless,

That’s right, we have two birthdays today. First, my closest friend while growing up, Harry is something like 57 or 58. Also today is John Lennon’s birthday, the guy from the Beatles. Happy Birthday to both of them. I need to call harry as he’s never missed calling me in 40 some years.

Yesterday we were in Vail and have a prescription for another rhizotomy. This is the operation where they burn the nerves going up the misses spine to her head. It worked last time so we’re hoping it’ll work again. We have to get her in asap as she’s in unbearable pain. She’s much tougher than I am but we already knew that. I told her I’d just be in bed all day taking pain pills every 4 hours. I don’t know how she stands it, sometimes she doesn’t and just breaks down. Meanwhile this morning I go in for my cyst on my foot which seems to be going down a bit. I’ll probably have it aspirated anyhow just to get past it.

Then it’s off to our friend Colleens house to pick up some extra wine left over from the Women’s Foundation dinner. She wants us to come to some event from 4 until 6pm tonight and then go to dinner but we’re passing.

I think we’re going to unplug our tv until after the election, it’s just non stop lies. Amazing how campaigns will say and do anything to get or stay in power. Do you really think either of them care for any of us? The sickening thing is how the press, or presstitutes are in bed with Obama. The only comfort is that a study was just released saying 70% don’t trust the media. Maybe we’re not all as dumb as they think we are. I read the other day someone saying “Obama or Romney’s mother is no better than mine”, meaning these guys are just like you and I yet they act like there some sort of god with some divine entitlement to rule over all of us. What ever happened to great leaders like Eisenhower or Kennedy or Reagan who cared more about the country rather than there own power and wealth.

Oh well, time for me to run, here’s the misses to close it out.

The boys both went over to friend’s houses to play after their homework was finished.  They were home at 6 and we all sat down for homemade chicken noodle soup and biscuits.  The oldest finished the first Harry Potter book and jumped right into the second book.  Hurray!

The youngest came down and would like for me to go back upstairs to snuggle, so I am off…..can’t pass that offer up, sooner or later he won’t want too snuggle anymore.

Have a great day…God Bless

Can you believe some of the crap being thrown around on tv? The candidates legally must have to attach their name to these ads otherwise you think they’d be distancing themselves as much as they can from all the lies. I somehow don’t think our forefathers envisioned an election process quite like the one we have.

Well, yesterday was spent playing football outside with the boys, Mom putting up more halloween lights, a trip to Target and the gas station and some sweeping and raking of leaves inside the house!

Lots of football was on and I can’t believe both the Bronco’s and Packers lost. Add in the Cardinals on Thursday night and the only team that won was the 49’rs. That’s why they play the game.

This morning we all will leave at 8. We’ll drop the boys at school and head off to Vail for the misses doctor appointment. Hopefully we will make it home by noon or so. It should be nice in the mountains with some snow on the ground. It was a nice cool fall day here yesterday but is supposed to warm back up to the 70’s this week.

Taxes are due one week from today which is pretty scary as we owe a bunch. Oh well, what’a another payment plan, right? It just never stops, let’s see, the humidifier went out on the heater, that’ll cost some money, we need to have our sprinklers blown out this week, that’ll cost some money, taxes, enough said, and then all the regular bills. It seems the bills and prices on everything are going up but the income stays the same. It’s subtle as you don’t really notice .50 cents here on milk or $1 here on eggs but it all adds up. Take gas in California, it went up 20 cents a gallon overnight on the weekend. I think you all are paying about $5 a gallon right now. This sounds bad but in Europe it’s about $13 a gallon! There they charge you in liters so you don’t notice plus all the cars are diesel and more fuel efficient. Get ready, the times they are a changing.

The oldest just came down, he’s been reading a Harry Potter book all weekend. It’s great that he’s finally been sucked in by a book. You know, where you get to a point where you don’t want to put it down. Hooray for him.

Time to run, pray for the misses that she’ll get some relief soon. Today we will only get a referral for an appointment, it’s not like they can do anything today to help here but we have to go through these steps as it’s workman’s comp.

Have a great week, take care, stay safe and God Bless.

I was abruptly woken up at 6:30 this morning by Lacey the lab barking for her breakfast. Now she hasn’t done this in a while so I thought she had to go out or something, but all she wanted was some food. It must be my fault as I’m normally up much earlier.

I noticed when going out to get the paper (after feeding the dogs) that the windshields on the cars had a thin layer of ice. It’s about 22 degrees outside right now but feels great.

Yesterday the oldest and I ran down to REI to get him some new snow boots as I had a 20% off coupon. He now wears a mens 8 or 9 meaning his shoes and boots now cost the same as mine, he just has a smaller size. We finally found a good pair that cost us a bit over $100! These were about the least expensive we could find. We did buy the 9’s so he should get a few years out of them and then his brother will use them. That’s the only upside to the expense. We then headed to Old Navy hoping to find him some new pants that would fit in the waist and the length. We tried everything they had on but in order to get pants that are long enough, the waist was too huge. Looks like we’ll have to head back to the western stores. We then grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch and headed home.

Mom was on the couch trying to keep her head from hurting anymore than it already does. Thankfully we go to the doc tomorrow but then it’ll be at least a day (probably more) before anyone can get her in for treatment. Luckily the bad drug that was sent to 23 states and used in treatments like hers, was not sent to Colorado. This is good as many people are getting meningitis and some have died. Nice that you can’t count on safe medicine, food or much else these days.

I ran a couple more errands to get some shotgun shells with my buddy as he gets a military discount on cases which is a big deal. I wasn’t going to spend the $62 but his discount coupled with the sale they had going saved me about $60!

Meanwhile the misses made some lasagna for dinner which hit the spot with the cool weather outside. It rained or misted snow for most of the day so both dogs were in for the entire afternoon. Mojo has a habit of running upstairs and coming down with a stuffed animal in his mouth looking all proud. Yesterday he made the mistake of grabbing Pookie, which is the oldest guys most prized possession, that he found in Italy when he was 4 years old. Big mistake, not only was Mojo scolded, we had to wash Pookie right away to get the dog slobber off him. The oldest really doesn’t care about stuffed animals anymore EXCEPT for Pookie.

Today we’ll be watching some football and taking it easy. I do need to try to take the boys to Target for some new pants. Hopefully we’ll be able to find something. The Race for the Cure for breast cancer is this morning and there’s thousands of people running in it to support this great cause.

Friday morning a 10 year old girl was snatched while walking 3 blocks from her home on the way to school. There has been an Amber Alert ever since but no sign of her. What kind of world are we living in these days. It’s just not like it was when we were kids. We really need to get out of the city. Not that things haven’t changed everywhere but in some smaller communities in the mountains, these kind of problems are less frequent.

The youngest guy just came down to join me so time to run. I almost forgot, when I was running errands yesterday, Uncle T and Aunt B showed up with some new sweatshirts for the boys! They’re really cool and both boys love them. Thanks.

Have a great day and cheer for the Broncos over the Patriots today, we need all the help we can get.