Journal Life!

Preseason: Lions vs. Broncos

2010-08-26T16:46:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday Kaitlyn and i had tickets for the preseason game. We really wanted to go to this game to see our favorite rookies, Ndamukong Suh and Tim Tebow. Unfortunately, Tebow didn't suit up because of bruised ribs from the previous game. But we did get to see Suh in action. He's so awesome that he's always double-teamed, (in the middle of this picture, #90) but he got in on some of the tackles and also batted down a QB pass.

Here's another action shot from the game.

Finally, Palace of Versailles pictures

2010-07-31T12:57:00.017-06:00

It was hazy that morning, but hopefully you get an idea of how huge this palace is! I'm so glad to finally be able to put on a "few" of the hundreds of photos we took. Hope you enjoy them!

Outside the palace before we went in.

The cathedral inside the palace.

One of the many beautiful rooms we toured through. All were very elaborate and ornate. After all, kings and queens lived here.

A huge hall full of this huge paintings depicting different wars and treaties of the times.

The famous "Hall of Mirrors".

This is from the palace looking down into a center walkway into the 28 gardens. You'll see another photo showing us down by the big lake looking up towards the palace.

Great photo op!

Another beautiful garden with statues!

Walking, and walking.....

Within another fabulous, beautiful garden.

This may give you a little idea of how huge this place was. Far in the background you can see one wing of the palace itself. Where we are standing isn't even the furthest end of the gardens, but it does run down the middle of them. So there are 14 huge gardens on either side of this large center walkway.

Another very large statue in a huge pond!

This pond was so cool! They had a musical water show! There was some music over some hidden speakers, and the water sprayed in cadence with the music. We loved it!

Us in front of one of the 28 gardens.

One of the many statyes outside in the gardens.

Some Tour photos!

2010-07-29T16:05:00.004-06:00

A shot of the riders as they passed by us!

Here's a shot from the race! We were right up front...see Lance!! He's the blurry one in gray and red right there!

Yummy! We love the crepes!!

Back in the USA!

2010-07-29T14:25:00.004-06:00

Here we are the last day of the Tour de France, wearing our "Tour" shirts. See the Arch in the back ground. This was taken on Champs Elysees.

At the Hard Rock cafe in London!
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Finally in the states again (waiting for our connecting flight to DIA), and I can post pictures again! Here's the London red phone booth!

2010-07-28T05:00:00.002-06:00

This is one of our first pics in London. We were a top of a double-decker tour bus. Windy and chilly, but fun! And then, just so we could get the true feel for London, it started to rain.
We took several pictures of the red telephone booths, but I can't get any of those to upload to the blog right now. Maybe later!

I tried to upload other pictures and it's just not happing right now! Bummer!

More adventures!!

2010-07-27T12:04:00.002-06:00

So I'm still having trouble loading pics! Darn!! On Sunday we spent the day down on the Champs Elysees waiting for the Tour de France to come through. It took forever, but to get a decent place to see the cyclists, we had to be there early. But it was so worth it when they finally came!! They actually do a big loop while in Paris, so they went by us 7 times! My guy didn't win (I was going for Andy Scleck) but he got 2nd. And we saw Lance several times!!

Monday we took a day trip to London. Does this make me a world traveler now? It was so much fun, but really not nearly enough time to see much of anything. The bus system there is incredibly slow!

And today, Tuesday, we spent the day at Disneyland Paris. I know, silly, huh. But the girls really wanted to go and we had tons of fun. Very tired though!!

Tomorrow Brianna leaves in the afternoon, and Kaitlyn and I leave Thursday morning!

Later!

A day at the Palace!

2010-07-24T10:56:00.003-06:00

Bonjour! I continue to have trouble loading pictures onto my blog. I hope it's a location problem, and not a computer issue! Anyway, today we went to the Palace at Versailles! Oh my! To actually be touring a massive castle that kings and queens once lived in was amazing! It was so huge! We really enjoyed it so much. Then we went outside to tour the palace grounds. If I thought the palace was big, that was nothing compared to the gardens!! I only wish I had my pedometer on! :) I can't even begin to describe the beautiful flower gardens, all the huge fountains, the sculptures, the perfectly trimmed hedges and trees! And we took so many beautiful pictures and I'm so bummed I can't get them uploaded to the blog yet. I will certainly try when I get back to the states. Another great, but exhausting day!!

So tomorrow we will go to watch the finish of the Tour de France. If only I can figure out when the Tour will actually be arriving! I have asked several people here, and they don't seem to care about the Tour, so they have no idea! Ha!

More tomorrow!

The Louvre

2010-07-23T12:38:00.003-06:00

Kaitlyn and Brianna in front of the Louvre.

Sorry, I couldn't load any more pictures for some reason right now. But we took lots of cool ones. We saw the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. Wander the Louvre for a few hours and were extremely tired. That place is absolutely huge!! It would take an entire week (or more) to try to see everything!!

Bonjour from Paris!

2010-07-22T13:43:00.005-06:00

This is us in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful day, and we were smart enough to get there early before the really long lines formed. So we went all the way to the top of that thing!! What a great view!!

Here's my two glamour girls!! Looking good in Paris!

Here they are in front of the Notre Dame cathedral. What a beautiful, awesome church. To beautiful...even to put words to it!

And here they are as we strolled along the Seine. It was a very busy, but fun day. We are totally exhausted now. But more to do tomorrow!!

"Leavin' on a jet plane..."

2010-07-20T04:34:00.003-06:00

Bonjour! It's 4:35 AM, and Kaitlyn and I are getting ready to go to the airport. Hopefully I will be able to post updates here on my blog, so if you're interested, stop back throughout this next week. Maybe I'll get some pictures posted as well! I'm just not sure what access I'll have to internet there. We're looking forward to a fun time with Brianna!! And yes, we'll take lots of pictures!

Happy Birthday to me!!

2010-07-15T20:54:00.006-06:00

Aren't friends the greatest?! My friends took me out to Texas Roadhouse tonight to help me celebrate my "21st"? birthday! I love them for that! No one has ever surprised me like that for my birthday before, and this was very fun and special!! Thank you so much!

Here are my friends, Debbie, Linda, Jen and Jill!

Me with my friends, Trish and Donna!

Cest La Vie!

2010-07-06T13:02:00.001-06:00

This is a simple card I made with the Wall Decor and More cartridge. I really love that cartridge! It has some amazing cuts on it!! I made this card in celebration that it's two weeks from today that we leave for Paris!! Wow! Can't believe it's only two weeks away! :)

"Meeting Suh-perman" layout

2010-07-04T18:51:00.004-06:00

I think this is probably the quickest that I have actually completed a layout after the pictures were taken. We got to meet Suh only a week ago, but I wanted to finish this layout to add to Kaitlyn's Nebraska Husker book. She really liked how it turned out. I used the Superman cartridge and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

SUH-perman encounter!!

2010-06-26T15:55:00.006-06:00

Today was the day to go up and get autographs from Ndamukong Suh (this years 2nd pick in the NFL draft!!) and coach Tom Osborne. We've been very excited for this day to arrive! We waited in line for over an hour waiting for Suh to come out and begin signing. We were very hopeful that we would also get to have a picture taken with them. The security was very tight and weren't allowing fans to get pictures taken with them, which really disappointed us. The best we could do was to shoot a picture as he was signing.

This is the best we thought we were going to get. So then it was time to get in line to get Osborne's autograph. What a nice and wonderful man he is!! It was an honor to meet him and shake his hand. Afterwards we noticed Suh's line was almost empty. So we hung around hoping maybe we could get a picture with him. A guy in front of us asked if he could get a picture, the security told him yes, so he hopped over the rope and stood besides Suh while his wife took his picture. That made the security people mad, so they told us "no more pictures!" We were bummed, visibly, Suh saw that, stood up and walked over to the rope and motioned for Kaitlyn to come over for a picture!! We were thrilled! He didn't do this for anyone else!!

Kaitlyn with Suh!!

Me, getting Osborne's autograph. What an awesome day for both of us!!

Lacy Labels

2010-06-19T14:12:00.002-06:00

These are a couple of cuts from the new Cricut "Lite" cartridge called Lacy Labels. Cricut has come out with 24 new "Lite" cartridges that are smaller than a full cartridge, but larger than a solutions cartridge. I just got this one (and a few others!) last night, and was anxious to try a few fun cuts. This cartridge is loaded with so many more!! I haven't decided whether I will use these on a card or on a lay-out.

Family get together

2010-06-10T06:14:00.003-06:00

Grandma with several of the grandkids: Graeme, Cole, Carly, Kaitlyn and Gabby.

My siblings, L-R: Dianne, Doug, me, and Deb. Only Don is missing in this photo.

Me and two of my kiddos...Micah and Kaitlyn.

We met at the Pumphouse in Longmont, the halfway point for the the Denver gang and the Fort Collins gang. It's always fun to get together. We get a little loud and crazy...I'm sorry to all those who were sitting near us last night! :)

Merci card

2010-06-07T06:53:00.002-06:00

Here's another thank you card I made this weekend. I used cricut cartridges Beyond Birthdays and the new cartridge, Cindy Loo.

gracias

2010-06-03T18:21:00.001-06:00

Here's a card I made a couple of weeks ago. Kaitlyn wanted a card to give to her spanish teacher. We liked how it turned out.

More fun with vinyl!

2010-06-02T08:59:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I played around with my gypsy again. With it's most recent update we are able to "hide" features on objects. This really helped me out on my Cricut cover. I used 3 colors for this project, the green, white, and black. I made a binder with all the cricut cartridges so it's easier to look for images, and this is the cover I made for the binder. How cute is that!? Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Cricut and my Gypsy!!

Dressed up my Cricut!

2010-06-01T07:36:00.002-06:00

This is my first attempt at cutting vinyl on my cricut! I was very pleased with the result! I also used my Gypsy to design the CREATE and weld it to the flourishes. And I totally impressed myself by using the 2 colors of vinyl!! Yea!!!

Kaitlyn and Tawnya

2010-06-01T07:32:00.002-06:00

Here's a picture of Kaitlyn with her friend Tawnya. We went to her graduation party. She has completed all her courses a year early! It was good to see her again. Sadly, their friendship has diminished over the years, but they were the best of buds beginning at the age of three!

"Merci" card

2010-06-01T07:28:00.002-06:00

This is a card I made for my good friend Trish. I was excited to use my new Tim Holtz sizzix dies! I used Tim Holtz grunge paper for the die cut and it turned out pretty cool!

Kaitlyn's Prom

2010-06-01T07:21:00.003-06:00

Charlie's Angels?

Glamour girls!

These are pictures from Kaitlyn's prom in April. She went with this fun group of girls and they had a great time! They went to eat at Macaroni Grill before the prom. It was a fun night for them, and fortunately there was great weather!

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-26T13:47:00.002-07:00

Brianna's home!!

2009-12-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!!! :)

Family day

2009-12-13T16:21:00.003-07:00

Mom and I went to the Cheyenne base today for family day for Micah. It was really nice, but sure is windy and cold in Wyoming!! Ha!

Micah in front of the Black Hawk helicopter.

Scrapbook Christmas party

2009-12-13T16:13:00.002-07:00

This is the group that made it this year...back row, Debbie, me, Jen, Amy. Front row, Donna, Trish, Jill, Allison, and Linda. We had a great time!! Lots of yummy food!!

Here's Jen, Jill and me!

Nebraska has another Heisman finalist!

2009-12-07T18:32:00.002-07:00

Awesome! Ndamukong Suh, a defensive tackle, has been named as one of the 5 Heisman finalists, along with 2 running backs, and 2 quarterbacks. Even though the award is supposed to go to the best all around college football player, it has always gone to an offensive player (except once). So it's not often that a defensive player even gets nominated. Suh is just that awesome! I don't anticipate that he will win that award, but he will win several others before the week is over. He, and the rest of the NU defense, very nearly derailed the undefeated Texas team....except for one lousy second.

A few photos from this week.....

2009-12-07T18:24:00.006-07:00

One of my favorite Hummels.

Another calendar page done!

Got the tree up!

Woke up to this Sunday morning!

Kaitlyn's class at school has "adopted" a needy family. Kaitlyn spent her own money to buy all of this for the family for Christmas! I love her giving heart!! :)

Nebraska beats CU again!!!

2009-11-28T13:15:00.003-07:00

Look at that big hole for Roy Helu to pick up big yards!! Love beating CU, 28-20! Perfect way to end our regular season games. Now we play Texas in the Big 12 Championship game next weekend. Could be scary.......

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-28T13:12:00.002-07:00

Me and my kids...too bad Brianna isn't here!

Micah and Kaitlyn with Grandma!

More....

2009-11-28T13:08:00.001-07:00

A couple more calendar pages finished!

Micah's visit

2009-11-23T18:26:00.003-07:00

Micah came by for supper. It was really good to see him. He "cleaned out" my kitchen cabinets, whining that his cupboards were bare, so they he had to sit for some pictures!

I love this picture of Micah and Kaitlyn!
Okay, now they're just getting silly!

Being crafty!!

2009-11-23T18:14:00.005-07:00

Here are several of the calendar pages that I've been working on recently, in no particular order. I'll be glad to get it all finished and take it to Kinko's to get it bound!

Here's a couple of cards I made. I sure am lovin' my cricut, and Gypsy too!

A few photos from this week.....

2009-11-14T17:28:00.005-07:00

Kaitlyn made this frame for her friend, Katie. Her birthday is Monday. It's a good thing I have so much crafty stuff to use!! She even used glimmer mist!

My drive home from work Friday. We had a little crazy snow storm.

This is a book I got at church last week. The author, Tom Davis, was there, so he signed it for me. I finished it in just a few nights. It was very good, but sad. It portrays the horrible situation in Africa in the remote villages where AIDS has spread through the villages, leaving thousands of young orphans. Read it if you get the chance!

My two roses for my two children in the military. I was presented these on Veteran's Day.

I keep this picture on a shelf above my desk and computer at work.

Timberline retreat

2009-11-08T16:17:00.002-07:00

Kaitlyn went on youth retreat with her church youth group this weekend. She had so much fun! She couldn't stop talking about all the cool things they did! Here she is with two of her friends, Reba and Kiera.

This is the group shot of all the girls in her cabin.

Crew

2009-11-08T16:14:00.002-07:00

Here's some adorable shots of Laurie's son, Crew. He's so cute!! Laurie is my niece...so what's Crew to me....

A and P class

2009-11-03T16:59:00.003-07:00

Today, Kaitlyn's Anatomy and Physiology class had a field trip to Denver. They went to this SERI, an education and research center where they saw cadavers and other gruesome body parts. She really enjoyed it. Not my thing......

Here's a group shot of the whole class that went.

A few photos from this week.....

2009-10-31T07:49:00.003-06:00

Anyone who knows me, knows I love football. So this picture represents the football teams I love to support. Yup, I like it!
We finally have our own Chick-fil-A here in town. Yes, we have one already...but it's in the mall. So now it's nice to be able to go without fighting through the mall!! And even a drive-thru!!

So nice to have chocolate chip cookies when there is snowy weather outside!!

Snow Day!

2009-10-28T16:21:00.002-06:00

Today we got dumped on! Luckily, schools were closed. Here's Kaitlyn cleaning off her car at 9:00 this morning. She had to go babysit since the kids were home from school, and their parents had to go to work.

Working on calendars

2009-10-26T11:31:00.003-06:00

I'm working on calendars today (yes, I'm playing hooky from work!). I make 4 calendars every year for Christmas gifts, and they can be very time consuming. So here is next years September page. When I'm finished with the whole calendar, then I take them to Kinko's to get bound. I've really been having a lot of fun with my Cricut and Gypsy!!

RMHS Homecoming

2009-10-25T12:44:00.002-06:00

Last night was Rocky's homecoming dance. Kaitlyn and her friend Katie got ready at our house, so I had lots of great pictures of the girls! Neither of the girls had dates, and they had a great time!

Sometimes I'm stunned at how my daughter has grown so quickly into a beautiful young lady!!

Gypsy, and more!

2009-10-16T11:55:00.004-06:00

Here's a few pictures from this last week. Most exciting is my new little friend, Gypsy!

Kaitlyn with her new beanie. I think it's really cute!

Kaitlyn and Flash love to sit on the heat register on a cold snowy night!

So the eye thing is still not gone! Here is $80 worth of eye drops. To date, I've spent nearly $300 on this stupid eye situation!!

NU 27, Mizzou 12

2009-10-09T17:29:00.002-06:00

Last night my Huskers played on ESPN against Missouri. This was their first conference game this year. It was a rain-soaked, sloppy game with a lot of mistakes on both sides. My team couldn't get any breaks on offense for the first 3 quarters, although the blackshirt defense kept us in the game. At the end of the 3rd quarter, Mizzou was ahead 12 - 0. But then Nebraska cranked it up a notch, scoring 3 touchdowns in about 5 minutes!! Wow! Definitely one of the best 4th quarter comebacks I've ever watched!! Fantastic! GO BIG RED!!

Sam's shopping trip

2009-10-04T16:54:00.001-06:00

Note to self.....do not take Kaitlyn to Sam's when I have to pick up a few things! :)

A new look

2009-10-04T16:51:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I tried to grow my hair out....but finally decided it's just to thick and course and continues to drive me crazy....so i got it cut short again. Much easier now.....

Husker weekend!!

2009-09-28T18:31:00.010-06:00

Go Big Red!! Kaitlyn and I were so lucky to go to the Nebraska game in Lincoln this last weekend! Her friend's mom got the tickets and they invited us. It was a great game to go to because it was Homecoming and it was the 300th consecutive sellout for the Huskers! This is no small feat. The streak began in 1962 and continues 47 years later! There is no college athletic program that has achieved this! Amazing!! We, of course, won...55 - 0. It was Kaitlyn's first Husker game, and definitely very memorable!!

Action shot during the game.

Jumbo screen with the 300th consecutive sellout logo.

Kaitlyn got a great shot of her two favorite players...defensive tackle, N. Suh, and kicker A. Henery (from last years CU game!).

Coming out of the tunnel!

1972 Heisman trophy winner, Johnny Rodgers!

Lil' Red

Down on the field with friends Katie P. and her mom.

Photo op in front of the logo.

Kaitlyn with Suh! Or at least a cardboard cut-out of him! :)

Old Town

2009-09-13T12:31:00.005-06:00

Kaitlyn has a friend with a really nice camera, who wanted to take some pictures of Kaitlyn. They went down to Old Town for a few hours and took a ton of photos. I have several favorites, so I'm sharing a few here.

Fun!!

New Skechers!

2009-09-12T16:13:00.004-06:00

Oh no! I discovered the Skechers store in Aurora, right by Archivers...wouldn't you know it! I don't stand a chance! But aren't they cute!!
They were having a sale...buy one pair get the second pair for half price! Too cute!

Labor Day weekend

2009-09-09T18:58:00.007-06:00

Kaitlyn and I went to Wichita Falls this last weekend to see Brianna for Labor Day, and it was also Brianna's birthday. We drove down, a long 12 hour trip, and drove back on Tuesday. There is not a lot of things to do in Wichita Falls, TX, but it was nice to spend time together. We did find a Nature Center with a cool butterfly garden. We learned a lot about butterflies that we didn't know before. The next day, we went to a park and took some fun pictures and found a beautiful waterfall. Here's a sample of some of our many pictures!

A great assembly!

2009-09-02T18:48:00.002-06:00

Rachel Joy Scott

Today, at our high school, we had a wonderful and very powerful assembly called Rachel's Challenge. For those of you that don't remember, or are too young, Rachel Scott was the first student killed at Columbine on April 20th, 1999. Rachel's Challenge is a presentation going across the US, challenging students to 5 challenges....eliminate prejudices, choose positive influences, keep a daily journal, look for the little things, and tell people how much you care about them. Rachel's brother, Craig was our presenter today at PHS, and he certainly made a big impact. I have never seen such a captivated audience at a high school assembly before! The students were listening, and most everyone in the room shed tears. Rachel's brother was in Columbine the same day his sister died. In fact, he was hiding under a table in the library when the gun men came in and shot most of their victims. Two of his friends hiding under the same table did not come out alive. Yes....very powerful. But the main message was about how Rachel lived her life, and believed that we can start a chain reaction by showing some compassion to others. They have a great web site at rachelschallenge.org, so check it out!

During a light-hearted moment in the middle of his presentation, Craig was showing the students some of his dance moves. The crowd loved it! Just as he was close to finishing his dancing, he announced "this is where I get to embarass one of your female teachers." Note to self - do not sit in the front row at a school assembly. Yep, you guessed it...I was the one chosen to be embarassed! Fabulous. So he pulled me out onto the floor and for 20 totally humiliating seconds, I had to dance with Craig Scott in front of PHS. Fun, but very embarassing.

Seriously, this was a very good assembly. They also have books if you're interested. I was amazed at the vision this young girl had about life and about knowing that she would have a short life. Very sad, but she has touched millions of lives, even in her death...much like Anne Frank.

Swimmer man!

2009-08-23T13:17:00.000-06:00

Here's my niece's adorable son, Crew!

Sunday

2009-08-12T13:01:00.001-06:00

Here's Kaitlyn with her two younger cousins, Gabby and Graeme.

Harmony is open!

2009-08-09T12:09:00.002-06:00

Finally!! After being closed for 3 long months, Harmony road is finally open once again! It is now 4 lanes, which is long overdue for that road, and looks great. But it was terrible for us, living just off of Harmony, to be closed for so long. I was really tired of going miles out of my way to go from one end of Harmony to the other. I am thankful that it is finally done!!

Saturday the 8th

2009-08-09T10:53:00.001-06:00

I got these great Palisade peaches at the Farmer's Market today. They are so delicious and juicy!! I must get more!!

Thursday the 6th

2009-08-09T10:51:00.002-06:00

Out to eat at the Armadillo.

Wednesday

2009-07-30T08:34:00.002-06:00

See this tiny bottle of eye drops? We had to get some prescription drops for something going on with her eye. This little bottle cost $40.00!! That's even with insurance! Any idea how much without insurance? Only $148.99! That's insane!!

Roses

2009-07-26T13:10:00.000-06:00

Another picture of my beautiful roses.

Archiver's (Saturday)

2009-07-26T10:45:00.002-06:00

My friend, Donna, called and asked me to go to Archiver's with her today. How could I say no?

Friday

2009-07-25T09:10:00.001-06:00

We went to PetsMart today. Flash got a new fun toy. You can turn it on and it moves around on the floor. She was unsure at first, but seems to like it now.

Thursday

2009-07-25T09:08:00.000-06:00

I cleaned out my closet and made a trip to Good Will.

Wednesday

2009-07-25T09:06:00.001-06:00

I found all these hospital bands in Kaitlyn's room. They represent the "fun" last six months of her life....

visitor

2009-07-21T13:34:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I was finally able to catch our visitor on camera. He's usually too quick before I can grab my camera. This is the third time I've seen him sunning there by the roses. Not sure what kind he is, hopefully perfectly harmless (I'm assuming).

ER.......again! (Monday night)

2009-07-21T08:46:00.002-06:00

Yes, here we are, Kaitlyn's home away from home! She was mowing the lawn, somehow tripped and fell on the edge of the window well...don't ask me how. Screaming in pain, I had no choice. I feared she had broken a rib and possibly punctured a lung. Needless to say, the ER was very busy, so we were there for hours. Luckily her lungs are okay. They were concerned that maybe she had injured her spleen....a rupture would have meant surgery ( a lot of praying at that point!). Turns out she has a rib fracture and will be in pain for several weeks. We finally left at midnight with prescriptions for pain medication. For those of you counting, that now makes 3 ER visits, a 3-day hospital stay with surgery, and I can't even count all the doctor's appointments...all in the last 6 months.

Estes weekend

2009-07-19T18:22:00.004-06:00

Here is this year's group in Estes; l to r, Linda, Allison (with dog, Parker), Jill, Amy, Trish, me, and Jen.

I just spent the last four days up in Estes Park with my scrapbook group. We stay in a beautiful cabin owned by Amy and Allison's parents. It's so fun and relaxing each year when we do this. Here is a picture of some more fun, we were playing the game Cranium. Jen (blue shirt) and Allison were do a charade, trying to get their teammates to come up with the correct answer first. Can you guess what they were trying to demonstrate? The Heimlich maneuver. The laughs were plenty, all weekend long! :)

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-07-15T18:44:00.001-06:00

Kaitlyn took me out to celebrate my birthday. We went to Red Robin, and she even paid! :)

More great books!

2009-07-14T19:31:00.001-06:00

Here's some more great books that I have read this summer. They are written by one of the ministers from my church.....very good, and fast to go through.

Fun Math books!

2009-07-13T17:49:00.002-06:00

Yeah! For a math teacher, these are really fun! I found them at Barnes and Noble today (I really should stay out of that store!) and decided I'd pick them up, since about 90% of my students don't like math. And, for those readers in the "older" generation, do you remember Winnie from "The Wonder Years"? Yep, that's her....go figure (pun intended!).

New brad maker

2009-07-12T13:15:00.002-06:00

Today I have been playing with my new brad maker from Imaginisce. It's really cool! Now I can make brads to match my paper on my layout. You can use paper, ribbons, even photos to cover the brads. And it is extremely easy to use! Definitely a new favorite in my supply of tools! :)

Family reunion

2009-07-12T13:09:00.001-06:00

Here's a picture of mom and her cousin, Doris Ann, before they went to their yearly family reunion.

Rendevous

2009-07-11T07:18:00.003-06:00

Kaitlyn got back from her week of fun up in the mountains at the Rendevous. She's loves going every year. This year she was a horse wrangler with her uncle David and aunt Deb. Here she is with her cousin Carly. Carly is 6 years older than Kaitlyn, but Kaitlyn is still the "bigger" cousin. In this picture, one of them was standing on a little hill....guess who!

Here is Kaitlyn's favorite horse, Tess.

Cat nap

2009-07-06T17:48:00.000-06:00

Apparently, this is what happens if I don't fold my clean laundry right away! :)

Robbie's birthday

2009-07-05T14:22:00.001-06:00

Happy birthday, Robbie! Since he's not here right now, I am using a picture from last December here with Brianna. So cute!!

Happy 4th of July!!

2009-07-04T13:04:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. Remember the significance of today, celebrating America's freedom. On today, once again I'm reminded of the importance of our men and women fighting for and protecting our freedoms that we can easily take for granted. I'm thankful for them, past and present.

Paper and embelishments

2009-06-30T13:57:00.002-06:00

Okay, so you know I need to have the right paper and embellishments for all the great photos I took in San Antonio. Here I am, the proud Air Force momma!!

Mom's potato salad...yummy

2009-06-29T18:47:00.001-06:00

My mom makes the best potato salad! She made me a batch today, so I knew that we had to have burgers on the grill along with her wonderful potato salad! Yummy!!!!!

Happy Father's Day (a week late)

2009-06-28T15:17:00.002-06:00

I chose this old photo of my Dad and his first born, my older brother, Don. I know I'm a week late to honor him for Father's Day, but I had too many photos from my trip. I wasn't late in sending him a card though! Wow - he sure looks young here!! :)

Dakota and Darcy

2009-06-27T14:32:00.003-06:00

Today when I went over to my mom's, I was pleasantly surprised to see my sister, Deb, and her granddaughter, Dakota, visiting mom. Dakota is so cute! She loved playing with the kitty, Darcy, and also playing with Darcy's toys!! :)

Dress day

2009-06-26T19:11:00.002-06:00

"Big K, we should have a dress day!" This is what the 2 little girls that she babysits every day told her earlier this week. So today was the planned dress day. They all wore dresses today. By the way, she's called Big K because one of the girls she babysits is also named Kaitlyn. So "my" Kaitlyn is known as Big K.

Foster mom

2009-06-24T18:01:00.002-06:00

My sister sent me a cute story on e-mail about this mother cat at an animal center. They also had a kitten with no mother that they placed with this mother cat. She accepted the new kitten with no problem. Then they also had two puppies about a week old, their eyes weren't even open yet. And you guessed it! She's now mothering them too! How cute! :)

Afternoon well spent

2009-06-23T19:16:00.001-06:00

This good book is how I spent my afternoon.....gotta go, 120 pages left......

BMT

2009-06-22T17:15:00.003-06:00

Brianna is the first one here on the end.

One of the things Brianna gave me over the weekend was a CD with nearly 300 photos taken during the 8 weeks of training. I was thrilled with the couple dozen photos where I actually saw her....sure made it more real for me. So I'm sharing a couple of photos (obviously not taken today!) for today's photo. I really love this one of her smiling. This was on a day at the shooting range. My daughter wears combat boots and shoots military weapons. Get out! Just a few months ago she was worrying about what color lip gloss to wear! :)

Saturday at Seaworld

2009-06-21T19:13:00.009-06:00

Feeding the dolphins! Kaitlyn's favorite thing that day!

Feeding the sealions!

We got lots of great pictures of Shamu!

I'm not "too" proud, huh? She's my hero!

Since Seaworld is so close to Lackland AFB, they do a great job honoring the military service men and women. Even though it would have been nice to have Brianna in her shorts and a t-shirt, I felt very proud being with her in the park. Occasionally people would stop to thank her for her service, which really does mean a lot. I know she's just getting started down this road, but it is still something spectacular. So the next time you see a service man or woman, you should think about thanking them.

Brianna is going onto tech school at Sheppard AFB. It's still in Texas, so she'll still be in hot and humid weather. Ugh! It is really dreadful! I can't believe she's been doing all this really hard physical work wearing her heavy uniform in 100 degree heat and humidity! Ugh! I'm such a wimp...I could never do it!

The Alamo and the Riverwalk

2009-06-21T19:01:00.007-06:00

s
The Riverwalk at San Antonio

The Alamo

Brianna with her friend, Katera.

After Friday's graduation, the airmen were allowed off base for a few hours. We tried to cram in as much fun activity as possible. Brianna's friend joined us since her family was not able to go to TX. So we saw The Alamo, and walked the Riverwalk and shopped for a short while. But one of the most important things the airmen wanted to do, was eat good food. They chose the Hardrock Cafe, just along the Riverwalk. It was beautiful! By the way, we did not see Brianna in civilan clothes the whole time we were there.

BMT graduate (Basic Millitary Training)

2009-06-21T18:51:00.004-06:00

Here's some pictures from different events at Lackland Air Force Base. Thursday and Friday we spent a lot of time on base.We were not allowed to take Brianna off base until later Friday afternoon, and then we only had a few hours. She graduated Friday morning. Her flight (1 out of 10 different flights) was chosen to carry the flags. She's changed (yes, ma'am), but she's still my Brianna!

We're Texas bound!

2009-06-16T17:57:00.002-06:00

So our bags are packed (almost) and we are very ready to go! Kaitlyn and I leave for Texas in the morning to see Brianna graduate from BASIC. We'll be back on Sunday, so I will update my blog with great pictures from our trip when we're back. Check back later!!

Thunderstorms

2009-06-15T17:20:00.002-06:00

Well, here in Colorado, we've been experiencing this sight every afternoon for the last 9 days. These skies seemed very threatening! I was at work at Tattered Angels, which is south of town. I shot these photos looking north, so they were directly over home when I took these. Fortunately, the storm passed over with no major damage, just lots of wind, rain, and pea-sized hail again.

Pedicures

2009-06-14T08:16:00.002-06:00

Kaitlyn and I went to get pedicures this afternoon. We wanted to have them done since we'll be going to Texas on Wednesday! We're both so excited to go see Brianna and watch her graduate from BASIC. Can you guess who has the blue toes?

Kaitlyn and Chris

2009-06-13T09:04:00.002-06:00

Here's Kaitlyn and her new "boyfriend". He's really a nice boy, but it pains me to use those two words in a sentence together - Kaitlyn and boyfriend. She's my baby...and she's growing up.

Friday night - Scrapbook Club

2009-06-13T09:03:00.001-06:00

At my house again this month. This is the largest group we've had in a long time!! So glad everyone was able to come!

My space

2009-06-13T09:01:00.001-06:00

Flash likes small spaces. Here she is in the little cubby of Kaitlyn's night stand. Maybe Kaitlyn should remove her books and put in a little blanket for Flash!

Working girl

2009-06-13T08:59:00.001-06:00

Kaitlyn has been working 5 days a week babysitting Wendy's kids. They are long days, generally 9-10 hours. Here she is with Flash, catching a little energy nap before she goes to work.

Hail storms

2009-06-04T16:55:00.001-06:00

We've had afternoon thunderstorms every day for a week. One day after work at Tattered Angels, I came home to find these white piles in my yard and on my roof. Upon closer inspection, I discovered these piles of pea-size hail.

Flash

2009-06-04T16:55:00.000-06:00

The "Queen" on her throne.

Sudoku puzzles

2009-06-03T19:18:00.002-06:00

So, I admit that I love to do Sudoku puzzles. But pretty soon, they are not challenging enough. So I have come across some other Sudoku puzzles that add a little more challenge to them. One of the new ones I like is called Sumdoku, which involves adding sums into the puzzle challenge. Another one I discovered recently is Samurai Sudoku with these overlapping puzzles. Too much fun!!! (Sorry, the math teacher in me is coming out!)

Tuesday, June 2nd

2009-06-03T19:16:00.001-06:00

My new Idea Book from my good friend (and Close To My Heart rep), Allison.

Sunday, May 31st

2009-06-01T09:27:00.001-06:00

Last day of May, so my POTD is a shot of my May calendar. It features Brianna's high school graduation last year.

Saturday, May 30th

2009-06-01T09:25:00.001-06:00

Kaitlyn saved her money so she could buy a pair of inline skates. Doesn't she look cute?

Thursday, May 28th

2009-06-01T09:23:00.000-06:00

Last day with students. This is Heather, smiling by the sign on the board.

Wednesday, May 27th

2009-06-01T09:19:00.002-06:00

This beautifully painted horse stands in the yard of a friend. There was a huge retirement party for Sandra, our principal, this afternoon. The house and yard are something that you would see in better homes and gardens. Her husband is an artist and interior designer. Go figure!