Four Things:

1) My current drug of choice is chocolate-covered almonds from Costco.

2) I am truly enjoying my job this year. I don't have the powerhouse voices and talent I had last year, but the kids are nice and teachable and much calmer.

3) It is MUCH better to give than to receive.

4) We started singing Christmas Carols, today!

The PBS special of National Parks by Ken Burnes i

is definitely worth watching! I hope you are! Our National Parks are an important part of our country...

We had a great weekend!

I have lots and lots of pictures to post, but for now you can enjoy this:

Taken @ Makoshika State Park (Sioux for BADLANDS) where we camped...
(don't mind the dang baggy clothes, it was COLD AND WINDY!) lol

A little taste of the Sidney Air Show...

Friendship Friday

Have a good Friday and weekend!

Much better today!

Whopper Wednesday

It's a whopper, alright. Home sick with a headache, sore throat, cough, feeling cold! ugh

Taco Tuesday

FINALLY! THE SCRAPING IS FINISHED thanks to my future son-in-law, Terry. I appreciate him coming over yesterday and finishing it up! I did get the front porch painted (not trimmed, yet). Scott got the front of the house caulked and it's ready to prime today. It's coming along!

Today, I'm tired. Feel that sore throat etc. coming on.

I think I'll make tacos for dinner tonight.

PROGRESS:

This corner is hell. You have to stand on the top bar of the scaffolding, put one knee or foot on the little roof, reach as far as you can and scrape...while you endure the chemical stripper-soaked pieces of paint falling on your arms, legs, down your shirt, burning the hell out of your skin, wherever it may land. Whoever tarred up there slopped tar all over, so you get to endure that, as well. I finally ran out of strength, after 12 hours. LUCKILY, Scott said this corner is good enough. No one sees it and the sun rarely gets to it. It's the only part of the house I am leaving unscraped.
Tomorrow, we'll move the scaffolding and I"ll scrape this last little patch. It's only about 3 feet wide. (The white on the left is primer and will be painted tomorrow.)

Here is the front of the house, all scraped. (blurrrrrry) Getting dark by the time I got around to the pictures. The front of the garage is finished (except for the foundation).

And here is what the back looks like :o) It's lighter in the daytime, but I still love it! I had planned on pale yellow and teal for quite a while. I even drove around looking for houses that were pale yellow and teal...I finally decided it wasn't interesting enough. So one night, I got to thinking about these colors...and I REALLY like them! I will take some daytime photos tomorrow so you can get a better idea.
Now, I've showered and am ready for dinner. Happy Saturday Night!

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!

We might get the scraping done, today!

TGIF!!!

Not much news...

Just the usual...working, enjoying our gorgeous weather while it lasts and home improvement stuff on the weekend. Ohhh, and a little streeeeetching now and then...

A day to remember...

24 years ago today, my swirly twirl girls were born!

And they were so dang cute!

Everyone just loved them!

They have always been buddies...

and up on fashion!


They love to dress up...and get their picture taken!

And they aren't afraid of dressing down and getting busy!

It's been fun loving them as individuals and as twins.


Double trouble? Nah! Doubley blessed!
Even Santa thinks so!


Eddie is their big brother, and a fine one at that! His wife, Cathy, loves our family as her own and we love her as much...

The girls celebrated their birthday last night so we could all be together, and it was great. Building more memories! Love you, girlies!



And it is also our day to remember our beloved mother who passed 2 years ago today. She was the sweetest.

It's a bittersweet day...part of the circle of life.

The final decision...

When I think of my father,

I think of being outdoors. Dad was an incredible outdoors man and taught us to love and RESPECT the mountains, or any other place we were. So, I think of places like all those times we stayed at the cabin up at Green River Lakes...

Or Fremont Lake...where I learned to swim and spent many, many hours being outside.

And it didn't matter how cold out it was...that's where the fun was!
I was always so proud of him because he was a Game Warden, and later the District Supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish.


After he retired, he because a city marshal for the little town we moved to.


We lost him 28 years ago and that loss was losing the main supporting wall of our home. I miss him, still, but I will always hold dear what he taught me: the names of the trees, the wild flowers, how to cut and haul firewood, the importance of always being prepared when you are outdoors and just the love of adventure. Thanks, dad! Thanks for taking us out every weekend to do something...hunt arrowheads on the desert, drive clear up on the mountains or wherever... And thanks for teaching me to have a sense of humor and enjoying a good cup of coffee! Miss you.

The weekend:

Saturday, the 12th:
-scrape, scrape scrape...hopefully get really close to being done...

Sunday, the 13th:
-Ed and Cathy coming up for the girls' birthday party.
-28 years ago, my father died...I was 17.

Monday, the 14th:
-Megan and Michelle's 24th birthday
-2 years ago, my mother passed...

Lately, I've been watching

some pretty good speeches!

Whopper Wednesday!

Hope it's a good 09/09/09 for y'all!

Progress...

The big push of the weekend was to get the paint scraped around the living room windows so Scott could get the new ones in.

It took a couple hours Friday and all of Saturday and most of yesterday to get that job done! Below, you can see it is dark and Scott is carrying the first window over to be installed!

Yeah! Number one! Okay...put the camera down and help!


Here are the finished windows from the inside. All trim work will be finished next weekend!

Here is the picture this morning of our new windows. Should I forget the scraping and just leave it this color? It's about all that is left to scrape. And does anyone volunteer to haul off the old window scraps in the middle of the yard? Hmm?

Moving on...
Here's the new window on the west side of the kitchen. The green boards will be replaced.

Here we are testing the air flow of the new fan Scott put in the kitchen above the new north kitchen window.


Here are the new windows on the north side of the house...kitchen and bathroom.

It's getting there! Now I'm going to make cinnamon rolls and biscuits for my crew coming up to continue scraping. Then Scott will finish priming and we will start painting. Woohoo! Light creamy yellow with an interesting teal trim :o)

Don't forget to read

postsecrets.com!

The exhibit is coming here in October! I can't wait!

Labor Day Weekend of Labor

Yep...same ol' thing. This weekend is dedicated to scraping. Hopefully we will get some of our new windows in and at least get the scraping finished. Hopefully. Any of you friends/family out there that wants to come and labor over this 3 day weekend, come on up! (I already scraped for 3 hours tonight).

Sometimes

Koobie (the cutest little wire fox terrier) sent this to me, in part, in a forward email. The message was something different. However, this particular picture made me think of this: It's nice to have that special companion at your side, looking out in the same direction...