A Year of Change

It was another stormy day, just a bit earlier and thankfully more to the north and east. There were numerous tornado warnings on tv throughout the day but for the most part, sunny at our house. We made a trip down to Cherry Creek as the misses needed some make up and that was about it for the day. The boys played a bunch and our quest to teach them to stop whining and get along continued. We don’t mention this a lot but we’re through putting up with the arguing and back talk that comes with being 8 and 10. This is no worse than any other kid but we figure at this age, we need to nip it in the bud. So the misses and I are united in holding fast and it seems to be working. It’s not really a big deal, I’m just short on material today!

Here’s a great email courtesy of Uncle T which is pretty spot on, check it out, it’s from a couple who own a horse transport business to the AARP who want them to renew their membership.

This is an actual letter written by the Millers in South Carolina. SHRINKING AARP IS LOSING PLENTY OF SENIORS Fall from Grace takes a few days on the Internet and this will have reached 75% of the public in the USA . This letter was sent to Mr. Rand who is the Executive Director of AARP. THIS LADY NOT ONLY HAS A GRASP OF ‘THE SITUATION’ BUT AN INCREDIBLE COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH  LANGUAGE! Dear Mr. Rand, Recently you sent us a letter encouraging us to renew our lapsed membership in AARP by the requested date. This isn’t what you were looking for, but it’s is the most honest response I can give you. Our coverage gap is a microscopic symptom of the real problem, a deepening lack of faith. While we have proudly maintained our membership for years and long admired the AARP goals and principles, regrettably, we can no longer endorse its abdication of our values.. Your letter stated that we can count on AARP to speak up for our rights, yet the voice we hear is not ours. Your offer of being kept up to date on important issues through DIVIDED WE FAIL presents neither an impartial view nor the one we have come to embrace… We do believe that when two parties agree all the time on everything presented to them, one is probably not necessary.  But, when the opinions and long term goals are diametrically opposed, the divorce is imminent. This is the philosophy which spawned our 200 years of government. Once upon a time, we looked forward to being part of the senior demographic.. We also looked to AARP to provide certain benefits and give our voice a power we could not possibly hope to achieve on our own. AARP once gave us a sense of belonging which we no longer enjoy. The Socialist politics practiced by the Obama Regime and empowered by AARP serves only to raise the blood pressure my medical insurance strives to contain. Clearly a conflict of interest there! We do not understand the AARP posture, feel greatly betrayed by the guiding forces that we expected to map out our senior years and leave your ranks with a great sense of regret. We mitigate that disappointment with the relief of knowing that we are not contributing to the problem anymore by renewing our membership. There are numerous other organizations which offer discounts without threatening our way of life or offending our sensibilities and values. This Obama Regime scares the living daylights out of us. Not just for ourselves, but for our proud and bloodstained heritage. But more importantly for our children and grandchildren. Washington has rendered Soylent Green a prophetic cautionary tale rather than a nonfiction scare tactic. I have never endorsed any militant or radical groups, yet now I find myself listening to them. I don’t have to agree with them to appreciate the fear which birthed their existence. Their borderline insanity presents little more than a balance to the voice of the Socialist mindset in power.. Perhaps I became American by a great stroke of luck in some cosmic uterine lottery, but in my adulthood I CHOOSE to embrace it & nurture the freedoms it represents as well as the responsibilities. Your website generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish.. ARE YOU KIDDING??? The illegal perpetrators have broken into our ‘house’, invaded our home without invitation or consent. The President insists we keep these illegal perpetrators in comfort and learn the perpetrator’s language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them. I DON’T choose to welcome them, to support them, to educate them, to medicate them, or to pay for their food or clothing….American home invaders get arrested…Please explain to me why foreign lawbreakers can enjoy privileges on American soil that Americans do not get? Why do some immigrants have to play the game to be welcomed and others only have to break and enter to be welcomed? We travel for a living. Walt hauls horses all over this great country, averaging over 10,000 miles a month when he is out there. He meets more people than a politician on caffeine overdose. Of all the many good folks he enjoyed on this last 10,000 miles, this trip yielded only ONE supporter of the current Regime. One of us is out of touch with mainstream America . Since our poll is conducted without funding, I have more faith in it than ones that are driven by a need to yield AMNESTY. (aka – make voters out of the foreign lawbreakers so they can vote to continue the government’s free handouts). This addition of 10 to 20 Million voters who then will vote to continue Socialism will OVERWHELM our votes to control the government’s free handouts. It is a “slippery slope” we must not embark on! As Margret Thatcher (former Prime Minister of Great Britain) once said “Socialism is GREAT – UNTIL you run out of other people’s money”. We have decided to forward this to everyone on our mailing list, and will encourage them to do the same… With several hundred in my address book, I have every faith that the eventual exponential factor will make a credible statement to you. I am disappointed as all get out !!!! …I am more scared than I have ever been in my entire life !!! …I am ANGRY !! ….I am MAD, and I’m NOT gonna take it anymore! Walt & Cyndy Miller, Miller Farms Equine Transport Sorry for the format here, I can’t figure out how to change it, Take care and have a great day, God Bless

Last night about 12 am I woke up just by chance and 5 minutes later the tornado sirens were howling. I looked outside, checked the news and decided better safe than sorry. So I grabbed the kids and the misses and both dogs and headed for the basement. It’s not often we see tornados in Lakewood or Denver but the microburst or tornado we had a few years ago that tore up our roof proves they can happen. After about 30 minutes downstairs we went back up but I stayed up monitoring the news until about 1am. I was going to call my Mom if it got any worse but hoped she slept through it.

Earlier in the evening we went to Capital Grill with June who had her 91st birthday yesterday. The boys behaved extremely well and everyone had a good time. We were home by 7:30 which was good.

The misses resignation went fine as it should but I could tell she was a bit apprehensive about going in. Everyone have her hugs and said they totally understand and would do the same thing if in her position. The people there are actually really nice. She spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon cleaning the house so the cleaning lady could clean the house! This morning the house looks really nice. We’ll see how long it lasts.

We let the boys sleep in since they were up from the storm. I don’t know if the pool is even open this morning. Whoops, they both just came down, at least it’s 8am meaning they slept in a few extra hours. We’re supposed to get more of the same tonight.

I need to make some calls so time to run. I’m glad and the misses is relieved that she isn’t going to work checking and bagging groceries anymore. We just can’t take the chance that she’ll re-injure herself.

Before I go I wanted to share my daily thought on politics, here’s a comment from Grandma Annette,

Annette says:

Yesterday I went to lunch with my Mom and Uncle T which was nice and then as soon as I arrived home, the misses and I headed up to Vail for our 1 month post op check up with the great doctors we are blessed to have.

It was a beautiful day in Vail with the temp around 75 degrees and the sun shinning. We left the boys with Daniella who took them to Subway and then the pool. We finally got in to see the crew (nurses and doctors) around 3:45. First we see Diane, who’s a nurse, then Eric who’s Dr. Corenman’s long time assistant doc and then finally Dr. Corenman. The long and short of it is that the misses is doing great. Normally they don’t see patients until 6 weeks after the procedure the misses had done as sometimes it takes that long to see any improvement.

After meeting with Eric and Don (Dr. Corenman) they said if she goes back to work, they wanted to further restrict her to only 4 hours a day. When Eric found out she only worked a day or two a week, he asked if she really needed to go back as even though they could release her, the repetitive motion could aggravate and set off her head again. We said our number one concern, more than money is keeping her healthy. After all, you only have one body and one spine. He left the room and said that he wanted to talk to Don. A few minutes later Don came in and the first thing he said is “you should quit”. He went on to explain that if it was his wife, he would recommend this. He said that the motion of checking and bagging groceries wasn’t good for someone with her neck. He said leave that to the 20 year olds with young healthy necks. They both also explained the process of workman’s comp and told us leaving her job in no way has anything to do with her receiving future medical treatment from workmans comp. This was our number 1 concern, getting future medical expenses covered and keeping the misses healthy, that’s it, not the $100 a week they pay although don’t get us wrong, all money helps.

So the misses is in the shower and in about 45 minutes will head over and submit her resignation. We joked that we should buy $5000 worth of groceries right before to save the 20% one more time! We’ll actually miss the discount more than the $10.50 an hour. In the end, we feel we’re making the correct decision based on her medical condition and the doctors advice. We’ll have to figure out some way to make up the lost income and hopefully increase it but we’re pretty resourceful, we’ll think of something. She goes back on July 31st for another follow up appointment with her doctors.

Now onto the other news, I’m happy to say that despite $60 million dollars spent by Unions all across the country, the Republican Governor of the great state of Wisconsin overwhelmingly won the recall election yesterday. You might remember last year he had to re-structure union jobs where school bus drivers were making over $150K a year with pensions of over a $100K a year and the Democrats went crazy. I guess if I was  bus driver making $150K a year, I’d want to keep that job too! Last year democratic senators left the state and went into hiding in Illinois instead of doing their jobs and staying to vote on state policy. Then they organized this recall election with Unions all across the country actually pulling the strings. Well, the people prevailed and did the right thing. The facts are this Governor slashed the state deficit by billions and brought business and industry back to Wisconsin. The only people who opposed him were the ones who were over paid in the first place, I mean come on, a school bus driver making over $150K a year! Enough said.

Now I have nothing against Unions except the fact that it’s usually the workers who don’t benefit, just the big bosses. They even bused in hundreds of people from Michigan and paid them to vote and go protest. You’ll notice Obama stayed as far away from this as possible. He didn’t go to the state to campaign for the democrat and when he tweeted his support, instead of his usual signature he signed it “bo”. Maybe his dog Bo actually was the one tweeting and not him! Oh well, the people of Wisconsin made the right decision and the state will continue on the road of recovery. Hopefully the rest of the Country can follow suit.

Sorry if I offended any of you, I’m really trying to restrain myself but this in your face election with ads and news running 24 hours a day is hard to ignore. Hopefully after the election, the country can begin to come together and heal.

Take care and God Bless.

It’s not easy getting the oldest one up, dressed and to swim team practice by 6:30 but boy is he fast! His long lean body and size 7 feet seem to give him an added advantage in the water. The only hard part is rousting him out of bed at 6:15 and getting him to practice. Yesterday he swam 12 lengths of the pool, alternating between freestyle and backstroke, without stopping. Now I don’t know about you but there’s no way I could swim 12 lengths of the pool non stop.

I kinked my neck sleeping last night and it’s all sore this morning. The youngest is on the couch with me eating a bowl of his favorite cereal, Panda Puffs. He goes to practice at 8am after the oldest is finished.

Today around 1pm the misses and I will head to Vail to see Dr. Corenman for a follow up visit on her neck. It looks like her headache is almost all the way gone, yea, now we just have her sore stiff neck to deal with. Work called her yesterday and she starts back tomorrow and also works Thursday. They’re anxious to get her back, we’ll see how long she lasts.

In the spirit of keeping up with me and trying to clean and purge one room at a time, she spent the whole day on the mud room yesterday. A huge 50 pound plus bag of who knows what came out of there and is now sitting outside waiting for the trash man on Thursday. I threw away a half dozen old pair of shoes but no telling what all she dumped. You can even get into the closet in there now and she says we should all start using that door now. I think she plans on locking us out of the front door to force us to use it. So, my closet and the mud room down, the rest of the house to go. There’s a lot of junk around here we have to just get rid  of.

I’m off to Houston next week for a night and think I’ll make a quick trip to New York the following Monday. I need to sometime get up to Wyoming to drop off some gear and check some fence lines. We might also try to take a trip to Yellowstone or Mount Rushmore sometime this summer. The way time flies, fall will be here before you know it.

Time to run, hope all’s well with everyone, take care and God Bless.

Yesterday was full of fun for the kiddos. The oldest had his friend come over to play for a couple of hours and then go to the pool.  The youngest had the neighbor over as well.  All four of them played outside with nerf swords until the thought of catching snakes entered our oldest’s mind.  The kids tried to catch an elusive bull snake to no avail.  This snake has seen it’s friend “snatched and relocated”, so it only suns it’s tail.  The snake resides under the neighbors concrete slab on the south side of her house.  I think there may be more than one.  The oldest seems to think he’s caught at least eight different snakes at her house…the markings and size are different on the snakes he’s grabbed.  He is really educated on snakes and reptiles, so I don’t doubt him at all.  Happy hunting,

The mister met his friend the saddle maker at the gun show and his friend didn’t bring down the old saddle because it was too oily.  Bummer.  The mister was home early and headed upstairs to purge his closet while I took the kids to the pool.  He did an amazing job on his closet…I wish mine looked like that.

We have to wake the eldest at 6 a.m. to get to the pool at 6:15 for stretching and warm up.  It’s early…I know…but once they get into the rhythm…they really enjoy it.  The youngest doesn’t need to be there until 8, so swim team practice is a breeze for him. I am off to find the swim suits , so the Mister is taking over.  Have a wonderful day.

That’s right, I cleaned out my closet. That means I tried on every stitch of clothing to see what fit and what didn’t. In the end I have some real nice clothes I need to take to a mens consignment store as they’re just too nice to donate. I have some Prada shirts and Armani pants that are in great condition that hopefully will bring in some bucks. Next up is the closet in the spare room.

Work’s going pretty well. I just have to keep the pressure up and monitor the distributors almost daily. You have to treat them like 5 year olds.

Did you see where Anna Wintour, the long time editor of Vogue magazine is running ads trying to get you to bid to come to dinner with her and Obama. I mean really, like that’s going to connect with the average American. Some uber wealthy New Yorker who thinks she’s better than the rest of us. Oh well, pretty typical as Obama thinks he is too. I just don’t understand how anyone can vote for him this time around. I mean can you honestly say he did what he said he’d do? Where’s the transparency? Where’s the working together? Where’s the reducing our debt? Where’s the cutting out the waste? Sorry to those of you I offend, I don’t know why I go into this as if you like him, he could do anything and it would never make you change and the same is probably true of the other side. That right there is the problem, we’re too divided. Where’s a President like Roosevelt, Eisenhower or Kennedy? Ok, I’ll stop now but I fear for our Country if this guy gets elected again. How about the 30,000 drones that will soon be flying over all of America in the name of preventing terrorism? That’s just wrong, how can anyone think that’s ok?

We woke up at 5:15 when Lacey managed to open the kitchen cabinet door and pull out the trash can with her teeth and then proceed the spread trash all over the floor. Nice huh.

Mom’s having a hard time rousting the oldest out of bed for swim team. You can hear him upstairs moaning and groaning plus Mom gave him his little brothers suit. It’ll take a few days to get him in the groove.

Last, Grandma Dixie had a nice comment yesterday, here ya go.

Last night the youngest had his first sleep over at the neighbors. He’d tried before but never made it through the night unless his brother was with him. We hope he had fun.

Yesterday the morning started off with the oldest hot on the trail of a 3 foot snake at the neighbors. He couldn’t quite catch it as it seems they’re onto him. We had a spell of rain and wind that was a bit worse as you go east. Just a good summer mini storm here. The youngest hung out at his friends while Mom, the oldest and I ran some errands and I got a haircut. We were gone for about 3 hours yesterday. We did go to Whole Foods and spent $250 on staples to stock up and got some ribs for dinner. Tuesday we drive up to Vail to see the misses doctor.

Now for a more serious note, today is my Mom and Dad’s anniversary. I’m not sure how many years it would have been but it has to be close to 45 or so. Anyhow, Happy Anniversary Mom. I know you think of Dad daily and so do we! In some ways he has more of an impact on my life now than he did when he was around. By that I don’t mean the last 10 years of his life when he was a shell of who he was, but of when I was a kid and the lessons he taught us and things I remember about him growing up. We all miss him too. He’d want us all to enjoy the day and think of the good times we had together. As I get older I strive to be as much like him as I can. I can’t think of a better role model for any man.

It’ll be in the 90’s today and we might have a little more rain this afternoon. I’m going to try to go to the gym quickly before I head to the gun show to meet my buddy who’s bringing the old mexican saddle down from the mountains. I’ll have to stop by and show my Mom.

Time for me to go, hope you all are well. Take care, God Bless and enjoy the day!

Here’s a comment from Aunt B, it wasn’t necessary as I know when Uncle T comments, he’s doing so for both of you but good to know you two were together doing the same thing!

Alright, here’s 2 more comments from yesterday. I think this is the most comments we’ve received in a 3 day span in 510 days, thanks!

• Tom says:

  May 31, 2012 at 2:46 pm

  Okay, here it is. Saturday went to the inlaws in Longmont with niece and her boyfriend. Sunday we had the neighbors over for Mexican food and patron and you know I cooked chicken and wine for everyone on Monday. lots of food and friends and family.
• Reply
• robi says:

  May 31, 2012 at 5:03 pm

  I had a great Memorial Day Weekend! Sure nice to have a 3 day weekend! Friday I went out for Mex. Saturday I helped Robert plate up a wedding then went to the Peanut Bar for half price burgs. Sunday was poolside at Robert’s condo then steaks on the grill. Monday went to Nordys and the Culinary Dropout (great restaurant)! I agree with Annette – you gotta be careful with Workman’s Comp – they will even hire people to follow you! Yahooie and Yippie to the boys – enjoy summer!

  Well, yesterday at 12:45 school officially ended for the year. Hard to believe it’s already summer. Monday we’ll start the chores, summer school work, swim team practice, etc. The only thing we started right away was the tv restrictions.

  The misses was at school helping with various parties most of the morning while I ran several errands for work. I did stop by a friends shop who sells old indian antiques in Cherry Creek. I dropped him off a sample bottle of wine he likes and he gave me this old photograph from about the 1940’s or so of an indian man herding his sheep in Canyon de Chelly. It’s amazing with the scenery and clouds but didn’t look that great as the frame was as old as the picture. It also wasn’t mounted very well. We immediately dropped it a couple blocks away with our friend Chris who frames art for most of the galleries in town. He said it’s a shame as this photo deserved better. He’ll re-do it for us in a cool frame with matting and we’re thinking of hanging it above the fireplace, wait to you see it, it’s a very cool vintage photograph. It’s fun to rotate art in your house every so often as it gives rooms a completely new look and you get to see pieces you don’t normally notice. Uncle T and my Mom should try this. It seems people hang paintings and then leave them in the same spot forever. Move them around, it’s fun!

  Meanwhile we’d dropped the boys at the Chalkers after school party as soon as they were out. They had a dunk tank, 3 water slides and huge bouncy castle, a hot dog machine, cotton candy machine, sno cone machine and water balloons, and a margarita machine and cocktails for the adults. The kids were in heaven. We ran to the grocery store and while on the way sitting at a stoplight, we witnessed a car run smack dab into an old man crossing the street. The guy who hit him was 80 and gay (not that that matters) and didn’t even see him. We helped the victim up and called 911 and then had to wait for the cops which took 20 minutes or so to arrive. Everyone was on the same page with the details of what happened so we left. We made it back to the Chalkers and after  4 hours at the party, we loaded up the boys and took them home.

  When we arrived home the oldest went out and caught a snake (one of his favorite pastimes) and put it in our garden as the misses keeps seeing a mouse run in her flowers. I’m not so sure a small garter snake can eat a big mouse but we’ll see. The youngest has had a headache on and off for a few days so he slept with us last night. He’s been sleeping in his own bed so Mom said ok. Everyone is sleeping still at 6:30 and will probably do so until 8ish. I need to get the trash out as our pickup was delayed a day this week due to the holiday. Mid 90’s for the next 3 days, uggh.

  Take care, stay safe and God Bless

Here’s a comment from Grandma Annette, that means we’re still missing Aunt Robi, Uncle T and Aunt B, Grandma (my Mom), Aunt Shelly and Grandpa Bob, what did you guys do? Let’s get those comments in, here’s Annette’s,

Just a word of advice, don’t write about L playing paint ball ziplining ect. Workers Comp could use it as a way of saying L was able to go back to work. I worked for a state agency long enough to know how they work. You know how computers are everything is saved forever. Jean and I went to Chico to visit Serena and Matt. We went shopping (suprise) and to our favorite bakery for lunch and wonderful cupcakes. That was the only thing I did over the weekend that was fun. Love the blogs. The ranch sounds wonderful. I would like to go just to sleep in the beds, sit by the fire and eat the food.

Thanks, the misses isn’t so concerned about going back to work or not, our main concern is just being able to have them pay for any future medical bills. We did talk with a lawyer yesterday and have a plan on what to do now, but thanks again for the advice.

Today the kiddos are out at 12:45 and then will officially be 3rd and 5th graders, WOW! We’re slowly implementing the new rules around here, 1 hour max of tv a day, chores in the am, very little computer and ipad time and school work each morning. We want to go slow so it’s not a big fight.

I had two good appointments in Boulder yesterday. It’s good to get out in the field as I usually get stuck behind a desk on the phone. Lots of good stuff going on. This morning I need to deliver some wine for an event and then a few emails. It’ll be in the 90’s over the weekend and the boys will be at the pool. I don’t really like to hang out at the pool but the kids sure do, plus it gets them great exercise. I’d prefer to be riding horses somewhere but it is what it is. At $550 for the summer, it works out to about $6.50 a day which is hard to beat.

Yesterday the oldest had the honor of throwing or smashing a whipped cream pie in the Principal’s face, he’s sure a good guy. It’s now breakfast time so time to run as Mom makes us all sit at the table. Take care, God Bless.

Well Grandma Dixie took the time to comment, where are you? I know you all did something over the weekend, come on, let us know. Here’s Grandma Dixie’s comment in case you missed it.

Pa Don and I surely enjoyed the descriptive blogs that Doug wrote–he
knows how to write beautiful word pictures. We felt as if we were there with you. As for us, we never left the homestead since coming home from our two-week stay on Maui. Frankly we were too tired. Our meals consisted of anything we could find in our pantry or refrigerator–lots of soup and our good neighbor’s potato salad. Thanks for lighting up our lives. We love all of you. Grandma Dixie

Thanks Dixie, we know you’re reading on a daily basis. Yesterday was basically a play day at school for the boys. The misses and I were busy with her going to a couple of doctor appointments where they had the gall to tell her that not only do they need to release her to go back to work but also suggested that we start using our insurance! We called one of her doctors in Vail who said that’s crazy and that he’d dictate a note right away keeping her out of work until at least June 5th when she sees Dr. Corenman at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail. We know they’re trying to get out of paying any more medical bills as work called and wanted her to come in today and sign release papers saying she’s all better, unbelievable. Looks like it’s time to get lawyers involved. As I said yesterday we think work wants to get rid of her anyhow as one of the girls told her when she was in that she was let go. They know they can’t do this without finding some reason or we think it’d be wrongful termination but it’s clear they will try to squeeze her out somehow. Real nice huh, they caused the injury and now they not only want to stop paying to get her back to where she was but also want to fire her. We’ll keep you posted, what a joke.

This morning I have a couple of appointments in Boulder but should be home by a little after 1. The oldest one gets to throw a cream pie in the school principal’s face for being one of the top performers in the school fundraiser. The youngest one actually sold more on his own but Uncle T took the oldest guys order form to the bank and got a bunch of sales for him putting him over the top. Mom offered to let the youngest guy throw a cream pie in her face to make him feel better.

We have some great pictures from the ranch, and a few that aren’t so flattering. The misses and I are back on a strict regiment of vegetables and lean protein. (the not so flattering ones are of us!) It seems the older you get, the tougher it is to keep those extra pounds off. In any case, you now us, we have to try!

Lacey the lab is limping around a bit as she had lots of ball throwing while we were gone. She’s also just getting old. She’s a good dog who still has a sparkle in her eye, it’s her hips and legs that aren’t quite as young as they used to be. Mojo the malamute is frisky as ever. He seems to do ok in the heat but we know he’d prefer snow!

Time for a little exercise as it’s been a while since I did any cardio or weights but I have to tell you, when you’re at a ranch, there’s plenty of exercise. That wasn’t the problem, it was the endless buffets of great irresistible food that set you back. The misses and I said we need to fast for a few days. I think yesterday we had an apple, a salad and maybe a bowl of corn flakes and that was it.

Tomorrow after school our friends the Chalkers are having their big end of school bash. Each year they say they’re not doing it again but every year, they do it. They’re both trust fund kids (in their 40’s) with wealthy parents and they throw a party with all kinds of hired attractions from jumpy castles to performers like magicians and this year I think they’re even bringing in a pool! I mean who hires out a pool? On top of it, they invite the entire classes of both kids plus other friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had valet parking as they’ll be over 100 kids. It’s always the Mom’s doing to throw this and her husband Charlie just shakes his head and goes along with whatever she wants. Oh well, the kids love it as it’s an annual right of passage to summer.

We might get some horseback riding in this weekend back up in the hills. We’ll see how the weekend plays out as the kids have no more school. Both boys didn’t get a chance to ride last weekend as they were too busy with paintball. The oldest one wants to earn money this summer for a dirt bike (motorcycle), while the youngest has his sights set on, you guessed it, a new paintball set. I tried to explain to him that there’s no place around here to play but he said he could just play in the neighborhood. I said no one wants splotches of paint all over their grass or house and that we’d have to find some place to play. He’s not deterred though and says we’ll find a place. The oldest guy has been on a dirt bike kick since her rode one last summer at our friend Brad’s house in Boulder. We were hoping he’d forget about it. We’ll keep you posted.

This summer, we have some new policies around her. Each boy will have a list of morning chores they must do before anything else each day. Next up will be the Bridge Books which are school books designed to keep them up to speed over the summer, then swimming practice and then they can play. TV will also be limited to an hour a day. We’re thinking of just unplugging them. I’m ok with that until football starts!

Ok, now I do have to go. Hope everyone is well, take care and give us a call. God Bless.