A Year of Change

Well, I called my Mom yesterday and tried to get her ok to put some chickens and a cow up at her house as after checking with the City a few weeks ago, she is zoned for this. She didn’t really go for it and now we’re kind of stuck as we have our first calf being delivered today! We plan on this being the cornerstone of our new herd for years to come. We have kept this a secret as we weren’t sure when she would be old enough to be weaned from her mother. Our good friend in Boulder (who moved to a new house where he can have chickens, ducks, and cows) gave us Bell. (that’s her name) So for the time being, we’re putting her up at Grandma’s on a long leash. I’m going to see if we can put her down at the little old lady’s house where we get our eggs. They already have a cow. We picked up the hay yesterday and have a water trough ready to go but there is also already some grass in the pasture. We’ll post pictures tomorrow! We’re now officially cattle ranchers!

Mom works at 11 and we need to get Bell all settled before then. Our friend Brad in Boulder called at 6:30 and he’s on his way in an hour or so. Fun day for the boys yesterday, Mom and the two of them planted some flowers, both got haircuts and Bunkie bit Mom (bad) bad last night. It was a good day at work and will be a bit warmer today. I’ve got to run and jump in the shower (Mom’s already there) to get ready for the new addition to our family.

Have a great day!

Another windy day here in the rockies. It’s supposed to warm up into the 70’s starting tomorrow. That will be a nice break from the sunny yet cold weather. Hard to believe it’s the last day of March! Both boys have soccer today so we’ll need to split up the duties with one of us shuttling each kid to their respective practice. We finally picked up our car from the dealer last night about 5pm. Of course while fixing the brakes (we opted for only doing only the front as they were $325 by themselves), they also found we had a leaky water pump. Now these are $500 but luckily covered under our 5 year/100K mileage warranty. We did need to change the oil and add an air filter but did manage to get out under $500. So after splitting this up between my debit card and another credit card, we headed home for dinner. The boys headed right outside to play while we grilled up some burgers. We had some blue cheese burgers along with some “cowboy burgers”. Cowboy burgers are infused with jalapeno’s and some spices but this particular batch was too hot to even eat! Will be taking these back to the store today for sure.

I need to head to the Post Office today to begin the process of renewing my passport as I’m headed to Spain for a week in May. I keep putting this off but better get on it now. It’s almost 7am and although my back is almost all better, the wife’s is almost out! I’ll have to take the kids somewhere today to let her get some rest as she works the next 6 days in a row! I know she’s not looking forward to this at all but she’ll “cowboy up” and do it with gusto. We really haven’t done much with the kids this week as the end of the month is always hectic for me at work (need to get hundreds of thousands of purchase orders in) and the misses has been busy around the house and has her shaky back. She did play Monopoly with both boys yesterday which they really enjoy. They’ll probably both be real estate moguls when they grow up. (they’re both pretty ruthless landlords)

Mom and the little one just came down to join me on the couch. the oldest has taken to sleeping in, it’s hard to get him up these days. In fact everything about him is more like a 15 year old than a 9 year old. Lots of snow in the midwest and on the east coast again! We’re sure glad we live in Colorado as most of the Country has been hammered this year. The misses is itching to plant some flowers. I had to stop her from heading to Home Depot yesterday when we were picking up the car but will probably get some green stuff today. Hope bending over and planting doesn’t throw her back out all the way.

No politics or worldly opinions today as the wife has shut me down. I would only suggest that you all be aware of what’s going on not only in your backyard but in the World as it all does impact each of us in one way or another. That’s all. There’s a big article in today’s paper about the huge resurgence in backyard farms here in Denver. Apparently lots of people are raising chickens and growing gardens. (over 2000 in the last year up from less than 200 backyard farms in Denver proper alone!) I think we too will see if we can have a few chickens as the boys really want some. I think we’re zoned for them and 4 chickens produce 4 eggs a day. We already have a shed that can easily be turned into their “coop” so we’ll keep you posted. Lot of our friends at the kids school already have chickens, who knew! Like I said before, what we really need are some milk cows as our boys live on the stuff. Don’t worry though, you won’t be seeing any cows hanging out in our backyard anytime soon. (we’re putting those up at Grandma’s!)

Time to make some breakfast and get the day going, lots to do again. Hope all’s well with everyone and have a great day.

God bless you all,

Our youngest is at the dentist having his first cavity filled this morning. Apparently they’re going to do this without novocaine. Not sure how that’ll go! We all woke up late, about 7am, and had to rush the car over to the dealer for new brakes. We then made the mad dash home for breakfast, dropped Mom at Bunkies for his morning shot, jumped in the shower and then sent Mom and the little one to the dentist.

Last night we had L.O.L. and Bunkie up for dinner. She really enjoyed herself as she kept telling us how she hates living alone. When my Mom gets back from Arizona, we need to hook these two up for lunch. Spaghetti and meatballs was the evening fare and was enjoyed by all. The boys then headed off to bed and by the way, were extremely well mannered at dinner! (we were secretly wondering if it was really them or some robot clones!)

One more day off for Mom and then she works six days in a row! Then we’re all headed off to Sacramento for a couple days for the big birthday bash. The youngest one just pulled up and had his cavity filled with no problems. When told they drilled his tooth, his reply was, they did? He was more concerned with the free toy at the end of the procedure that the actual process itself.

Oh well, time to run, lots to do and it’s already 9:30am. Hope everyone has a good day.

best,

I’m happy to announce that Aunt Blondie’s name was drawn this morning as the Grand Prize winner out of those of you that have submitted comments. Her prize is an extremely rare bottle of Bohae Black Raspberry Wine! This remarkable wine is from Seoul Korea and I’m sure will be a bottle savored at some upcoming holiday such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. It is rumored that it will even cure warts if applied directly to the skin. Congratulations to Aunt B!

Now to more serious matters, the boys decided they wanted to sleep downstairs last night as they had been waiting for days to watch a particular movie that started at 9pm. We don’t know how much they watched before falling asleep but I was awaken by a thud about 5am when the youngest fell off the couch in his sleep. Being awake now I took the oldest up to his bed and the whole family is still asleep at 7am. The misses has a dermatologist appointment at 11am this morning and I have a few errands to run for work. My back is almost totally cured and will hopefully be 100% by tomorrow.

I missed the Presidents address about Libya last night (I don’t really trust or believe much he says as most of you know) but it looks like we’re now involved in 3 wars! God help us and the World as things seem to be spinning out of control. I can’t remember when so many bad things were happening all at the same time. We cannot afford to be the World’s policeman. We have too many issues of our own here at home. Sorry for the drift into politics but the Middle East is rapidly falling apart. What’s next, Yemen, Syria? People there too are being shot, killed and persecuted by their governments as well. Are we going to go there as well? Where does it all stop. We can only hope and pray for peaceful resolutions to all the conflicts going on.

Back home in our little corner of the World, it looks like a nice day. Time to get out the garden hose and water the trees and flowers as it’s pretty dry here. The misses and I are going on a crash diet to get ready to go to her Mom’s 80th birthday party in about 10 days. Hard to believe it’s almost April, summer will be here before we know it. Time for me to get moving as I have a lot to do this morning. One of our cars needs brakes ($400 of course), so we’ll need to skip some other bill to get this done. Just another day here. Hope everyone is doing well, keep your spirits up and enjoy the day.

This morning is the official spring break kick off. We woke up to snow and the misses had to jump in the car and drive to the airport to pick up her Idaho friends who left their car at our house over the weekend. Once again the boys enjoyed “room service” while my love and I watched a movie. Happily she has the next 4 days off and doesn’t work again until Friday. We planned it this way with the boys out of school all week.

Yesterday the boys and I ran to REI to use our annual dividend to get the youngest a new pair of shoes. After using that and a 20% discount coupon I had, his shoes ended up costing us $2.53! I had to buy him a size 2 as they don’t come in half sizes and the 1 was too small. They way he’s growing they’ll fit perfectly in about a week or so. After that we played outside a bit and then anxiously awaited the arrival of Mom from work. She made a great shrimp, cilantro, jalapeno saute over brown rice, it was really really good!

We might try to take the boys to a movie later today although the misses and I really want to see True Grit. We vowed to go December 22nd when it was released and still haven’t made it. Our close friends in  Seattle saw it Saturday night and said it was great! If I haven’t told you before, John Wayne is one of my heros, and even though this is a remake with Jeff Bridges, I still really want to see it.

Mom’s a little tired today as she worked hard yesterday and we didn’t get enough sleep since we stayed up to watch our movie. I’m going to try to give her some time to take a nap today as she deserves it. Time to run as I need to take the youngest to the store to buy his brother an Easter present. He’s been begging to go for days and even though Easters a month away, we promised him.

Later today we will be doing the drawing for the Grand Prize from all of you who posted comments. Stay tuned for the official announcement of the winner and the prize in tomorrow’s blog.

Have a good day and God bless everyone.

Ok, it looks like we now have 3 comments entered into our contest which ends today. Mom (my Mom), Aunt Blondie and Aunt Robi are all qualified for the Grand Prize to be announced tomorrow. My Mom tried to get out of me just what the Grand Prize was but I am keeping it a secret. It’s not too late to enter, just go to the bottom of the post and click on leave a reply, fill in your name and email address and then click on “post reply”.

Yesterday was a fun day for the boys and I. Mom arrived home from work about 5pm and I had dinner in the oven ready to go. We then settled in and tried to watch a movie (which we didn’t get 30 minutes into) while the boys went upstairs to watch their own movie. A few minutes later (as we told them to stay upstairs and not come down) we received a call on my cell phone requesting some drinks and snacks. (the boys used the home phone to call down to us) We decided to play along and let the boys pretend that we were room service and they were calling from their hotel room ordering up some movie snacks. Their first order was for 2 glasses of root beer milk (yes there is such a thing as root beer milk), 3 cookies each (we gave them two) and some popcorn. They were of course in heaven. The youngest who’s down here on the couch with me this morning just informed me that we’re having room service again today. I had to unfortunately tell him that room service isn’t open on Sundays.

My backs damn near all better but I did cough this morning which threw it back out a tad. Regardless I decided I’m through having a bad back so I’m just going to ignore it and get on with life. We went and bought some poster board yesterday and began cutting out pictures of things we want to put on our family collage that symbolize what we want in life. Visualization is the key here. We figure if we see our dreams everyday we have a better chance of making them happen. I of course cut out some pictures of a ranch house, some cows and horses while the youngest found some pictures of houses and horses as well. Mom getting home late, looked at various pictures of new homes and kitchens as well. We didn’t have many magazines to look through but will continue to find some more pictures today. The misses is upstairs getting ready for work as she traded shifts with another girl so she gets home around 5pm instead of 6:30. This of course means she goes in earlier, by 8 I think. She better get a move on as it’s 7:30 now! Here she comes now looking as pretty as the day I met her. (she’s actually better looking now but don’t tell her as we don’t want it going to her head!) She’s out the door to give the little dog down the street his morning insulin shot and will be back in a few minutes to make her lunch and head off to work.

The oldest just bounded down the stairs and has joined us on the couch. It looks nice outside but is supposed to get colder and even snow a bit tonight or tomorrow. I think I’ll get them out to a park early today and maybe take them to Bass Pro (sporting goods store extreme) which is more like a playground than a store. They like running through all the tents set up, shooting guns at the shooting gallery, looking at the fish in the giant aquarium and more.

I should clean the garage today but think I’ll let it sit for a few more days. Time to go as the boys need breakfast and I need to hit the shower. Have a good day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

For some reason I had a dream about Sandra Bullock last night. She ran into us at some horse show and asked if she could move to the ranch with us. Apparently her and the misses were quite good friends who had known each other for sometime. She was pretty funny and seemed like a genuine person just as she does in her movies. Don’t remember much else except I had to constantly saddle her horse for her as she wasn’t very good at tightening the cinch and the saddle would fall off every time she got on. She also wasn’t a very good cook, funny the things we dream about.

We stayed home last night and were joined by our good friends for a thrown together dinner while the 4 kids (our 2 and their 2) played outside and then capped off the evening watching Yogi Bear. (the new movie) Mom works at 8:15 so she’s already up and showered and ready to go. My back is almost all better. It still hurts a bit when I move a certain way so despite wanting to go to the gym, I’m going to lay off for a couple more days. Not sure what the boys and I will do today although I’m sure it’ll involve some kind of activity outside. It’s a bit cooler this morning with a thin layer of frost on the grass and cars. The youngest just came down the stairs and promptly turned on Looney Tunes. (you know, Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam) If he’s going to watch cartoons, I’d much rather have him watch those than all the new cut em up, shoot em up violent things that seem to be all the rage these days. The youngest wants me to take him to the store today (he’s been asking for days) to buy his brother an Easter present. He’s been consumed by this for days so I’ll have to find some time to get him over to the store without his brother.

So far Aunt Robi is the only one who is commenting on the blog so it looks like she’ll be getting the prize. There’s only a few more days left in the contest (ends tomorrow) so get your comments in now! Those of you who don’t enter sure are going to be sorry when you find out what the Grand Prize is! Time for me to jump in the shower before Mom heads off to work. Oh by the way, you should have seen the littlest one yesterday when he came home from school, for some reason he decided to color in his belly button with green magic marker. When I asked him why he said because it was funny to which I had to agree. Thankfully he didn’t use permanent marker!

Have a good weekend and get out and get some exercise today, remember the old saying, use it or lose it, turns out it’s true!

God Bless

Good morning…the sun is just coming up.  The sky is robin egg blue, dusted with lavender clouds, and a streak of bright salmon across the horizon. The trees are silhouettes of black as far as you can see.  The colors are changing with every passing second…I love mornings!!

The boys just got up, they went to sleep quite fast last night due to our big day with our friends. We picked the boys up from school at 12:15 right after their first lunch and took them to SALT, a great restaurant in Boulder…friends in tow for another lunch. The kids were so well behaved..all FIVE of them.  They sat together at the end of the table and the grown ups manned the head of the table. It was quite enjoyable! The children were engrossed in conversation and coloring. After lunch we headed to our house where we broke out scooters helmets and bikes, again more fun.

The weather changed as it does here in Colorado and the kids donned snow coats while they scootered around.  After some fun here..guitar hero, petting dogs and checking out the playroom, we loaded up and drove to our friends hotel for an evening swim. Oh my gosh did they ever swim. They had the pool all to themselves, laughing, screaming, squealing,…can you say LOUD…lots and lots of fun!!!

I’m off to cook breakfast, so here comes Dad..

WOW, Mom sure notices all the changing colors outside! I must be color blind. First off, Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. I sure am lucky but then you all already know that. I have a couple of conference calls today, one at 9am and the second at 1pm. We offered to drive to and pick up her friends (on Monday) to the airport today to save them the parking money as we think they’re low on funds. Her friend asked me if we really want to drive them to the airport to which I replied “no” but we’re happy to help them out as parking cots so much. (just being honest, right??, the misses told her that’s just my sense of humor)

Spring Break starts today at 2:45, yea! The house is the cleanest it’s been in a long time. The best thing about company coming is it forces us to scour the place from top to bottom. The oldest yesterday, out of no where, said he sure would like to live on the ranch. This of course is my dream! Mom too has committed as long as she gets a nice house, barn , guest house (for grandma’s and grandpa’s) and some other building similar to our friends in Saratoga Wyoming. The youngest of course is all in as well. Both boys cannot stop talking about horses, they remember vividly Grandpa telling them he’d get them each a horse. The misses and I decided to create a collage with our hopes and dreams on it in pictures as apparently visualizing your dreams is the first step. One of my biggest regrets in life (and I don’t have many) is that I didn’t do more to somehow facilitate a place up at our ranch where my Dad could have gone to spend some time as he got older. As far back as I can remember, he was happiest whenever he was up at the ranch. You see, he was a true cowboy, in heart, mind and spirit. If he gave you his word, it was gold. It seems these kind of values are all but gone these days. Even in his waining years when dementia was setting in, you could see his face light up when he’d get up to the ranch. He’d just take off walking and exploring much I’m sure as he did when he was a kid staying there in the summers with his parents or grandparents. (almost lost him once when he took off walking on his own but eventually found him up by the old tipi) Anyhow, I do not want to be sitting around when I’m 80 (hopefully I’ll get there!) wishing I had spent more time at the ranch. So we’re formally starting our 6 year plan today! (usually I think people allow themselves 10 years for their life changing plans but we’re too old for that!) You can all start making plans now to come visit us on our 17th anniversary on a ranch or farm, game on!

Fires are still burning 5 miles to the west, you know they’re bad when we make the national news. The smokes not that bad as the wind died down the past couple of days. It’s just the mountain terrain that makes fighting the fires difficult.

The misses and I decided to pass on anniversary gifts (even cards are $5 bucks now!) so we’ll just have a normal night at home with the boys. Uncle T and Aunt B kindly offered to watch the boys if we wanted to go to diner or a movie but we decided not to to spend the cash. Just for fun we did decide to come up with what we’d like for our anniversary, first of course for both of us was to be out of debt. On a more semi-realistic level, the misses wants a new kitchen, a new 2 carat diamond ring and to be able to eat as much chocolate and ice cream as she wants and stay skinny. (value, approx $40,000 plus chocolate and ice cream) Me, all I want is peace on earth and a new Winchester SX3 shotgun, (value $999), see I am the most practical one of the family! Anyhow we’ll probably pop a bottle of bubbly, cook up some pasta and count our blessings for the great family we have, (brothers, sisters, their significant others included), good health and wonderful parents!

God Bless and if anyone wants to now where to order a Winchester SX3 shotgun, drop me a line!

Yesterday, in the morning our house looked like “Hoarders” lived here. However, since my friend was due to arrive I started in one room at 8:30a.m. and put away the last load of laundry at 8:00p.m.  Seriously, you couldn’t walk through the playroom or the boys room.  When the boys clean their room they tend to stuff everything into their closet and under their beds. I’m sure I didn’t do that when I was a girl…I’ll check with my Mom, she may have a different take on my childhood cleaning abilities.  We did take a break during the “Spring Clean” to enjoy a family dinner.

The boys are off T.V. at our house for a week.  We sure get a lot done when no one is sucked into the “Boob Tube”. They went down to Uncle T’s for a bit yesterday (No worries if they watched a show).  They rule for the week is no T.V. at home. The oldest did his chores…doggie waste…when he came in from finishing his task, he stated…”It’s so easy to get this done when I do it everyday” An “Ah Ha” moment for a 9 year old.

The day was beautiful, a little windy but that didn’t stop this generation’s “Bicycle Brigade” from enjoying cruising up and down our street for a couple of hours. Our neighbors are great…there is always a parent out watching the fun and yelling “Car” when one is approaching.  We also put out giant orange cones to alert drivers to “Slow down”. Husband and I also are supervisory parents when his back is well and I am not consumed with cleaning and organizing…(back and organizing doesn’t happen very often). I am determined to not let the clutter consume us again!

My friends arrived at about 8:30 ish. They changed Hotels because of asthma and allergies. The fire burning here in Colorado is sending smoke in the direction of their original Hotel.  We are going to take them to a great park in Boulder and then let all of the kids go swimming at the indoor pool at their Hotel.  I am really excited to see all of them!

I hope Hubby’s back feels better today…I have to start breakfast…Dad is taking over…

Ok now to the economy, war, rising food costs and crime,  just kidding. I’ve decided to leave you all alone for a while as you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. I had to pick up another 25 cases of wine yesterday am while Mom was cleaning, this of course didn’t help my back. The misses helped me (she did most of it) unload the boxes into the house and basement. After a few more errands I tried to settle in on the heating pad on the couch. I’m more upright today but still in pain when I move or get up from sitting. It’s been a week today so I should be back to normal hopefully by tomorrow or Saturday. Tomorrow’s our anniversary, no plans, just another day, although one with great memories and a time to reflect on the past 11 years. What a great wedding we had (thanks again Mom, Dad and Mom and Dad in law) and we still have people to this day tell us it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to! It’ll be a bit cooler today with rain in the forecast tomorrow. We need the moisture for the trees and grass so this would be welcome.

Boys are eating breakfast and doing great without TV. If it wasn’t for sports, I’d turn them all off, maybe I will anyhow. Of course I’d have to turn them back on for the NFL draft and football season or else just get a key from my little brother so I could show up at will whenever I wanted. Not sure how this would go over. Point is when you don’t have TV, you don’t really miss it. I know this first hand as whenever I’m in Europe I see no, none, nada, TV and come to find out when I get home, I really didn’t miss anything important.

Anyhow time to get moving, we’re getting the boys out of school a bit early today to go to Boulder (as the misses pointed out), to let the kids play and visit with her friends children. No wine that has to be boxed or moved (at least by me) today so outside of a couple of hours sitting in a car, my back should get some rest. I can’t really take any pills during the day as I get too loopy. I need to get back to the gym and will probably go in the next few days regardless of my back, just can’t take anymore time off. Don’t worry though, if/when I go, I’ll just be working my upper body sitting at weight machines to take all pressure off my back. I have a physic to maintain you know, big party coming on in a few weeks in CA.

Take care, and God Bless you all, too bad for Liz Taylor but she’s probably in a better place as apparently she’s been in a lot of pain for years. Also had 7 husbands, WOW, must be some kind of record.

Have a great day, oh and only 1 comment yesterday from my little sis in AZ, where are the rest of you? Right now she’s the only one eligible for the prize!

That’s right, it’s 4am and I’m up. I had a bit of a headache last night and didn’t sleep that well. I’d tell you all how beautiful the colors are outside (as my wife does so eloquently) but it’s just black. The misses and I are cutting back on coffee from our usual 6+ cups a day to 1! I think this is the reason for my aching head, caffeine is a powerful drug.

My backs getting better every morning but I can still feel it a bit when I move a certain way. Mom’s friends arrive from Idaho today. I think there are 5 of them! Husband and wife, a 9 year old girl and 5  year old twin boys. Thankfully they will be staying close by at the Marriott and not here. I need to ship some wine (and go pick some up) today but might put it off again as I have to get this back back to normal. Mom took both boys to Walmart for 2 pair of jeans each as the oldest doesn’t have any that don’t have holes in the knees. When she got home she noticed they didn’t charge her for one pair. (apparently she dropped one on the way to the register and told the girl to charge her as she’d go back and pick them up but the girl didn’t charge her!) We called Walmart and asked for the manager and told him what had happened and he was in a state of shock that we actually called saying we didn’t get charged and owe them for a pair of jeans. His comment was something like, “no one has ever called and said we forgot to charge them for something”. Anyhow we’ll go back today and do the right thing.

The youngest ended up in our bed again and joined me downstairs at about 4:45. I made a couple of eggs for me and he’s had his first breakfast (he’s usually good for at least two, maybe three) of the morning. It’s nearing the end of the month again which means we’re ending the bottom of the bank account. Time to break out the pasta again. Spring Break starts this Friday at 2:45 sharp and runs for the next 9 days! Mom works all weekend (again) but does have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off. I’ll need to coordinate my week to be able to keep the boys occupied next Thursday and Friday. We’re planning out our tree house in the backyard so if my backs all better, maybe we can get started on that. We’re headed to California in a few weeks for the big 80th birthday bash for the wife’s Mom. From what I understand, it’s 3 days of consecutive parties. 80 is a pretty big deal, good for her.

Most of you really don’t respond to the blog so it’s hard for us to tell who’s reading or not. Maybe I should tell you all the wife is pregnant, let’s see if that’ll get any response! God help us if that’s true, as we’re busy enough. By the way to leave a comment, just scroll down to the end of the days post and fill in the information where it says “leave a reply”. Let’s see who can do this! There might be some kind of prize or major award for one of you randomly chosen from all entries, good luck, you could win an empty cereal box or a worn out pair of jeans or tennis shoes, you could bronze them! (all applicable taxes are the responsibility of the winner)

Take care and God Bless,