Another Weekend Gone...

Don't you think Mondays come awfully fast? I do. I never have enough weekend. I didn't feel "up to snuff" over the weekend, with a really sore throat and some congestion and cough. I took Nyquil last night, and I am STILL sleepy. Oh, well...I hope I can focus and get some work done. I had a good weekend, all in all, just could have used another day. (Isn't that what I say every week?) It has been birthdays galore...my great niece, my nephew, my sister, brotherinlaw, etc. Then, two anniversaries coming up tomorrow. Busy time for cards, emails, and facebook postings!!? I visited with my next in line sister on Saturday. She's going through some hard times, and I probably was no help, but I can listen. Regardless of the circumstances, we did have a good lunch and visit together. I went to Mass on Saturday night, as I thought maybe I would sleep in on Sunday..HA. Sunday was spent in the usual way, doing this and that, getting groceries, catching up...and I even did some work on the school website. I made shishkabobs and fresh corn from the neighbor, along with apple crisp for supper, and it was tasty. So, that's my weekend in a nutshell. I hope you all had a great one!

Happy Birthday to my Sis!

Happy Birthday Jolyn!
Love ya!

Birthday Girl

Today is Silly Sissy's birthday.

She hopes for ice cream later! She is 3 years old!

She has been a gift to me, giving me hours and hours of love, entertainment and laughter. She was born on my birthday, so we were meant to be together!




Happy Birthday Silly Sissy!

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

Our baby boy is 9. He won't want me calling him my baby boy. He's all grown up already! But, he's still our baby boy. (I tell him he is MY birthday gift, as his birthday is the day before mine...and then he says...and you are MINE!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! WE LOVE YOU!!

Change

Changes, changes. As you may recall, Brooklyn started school on Monday. Now, yesterday, our little Chloe had her first day of Kindergarten....gosh! I can't believe she is starting school! She was really excited and it sounded like she had a great day!

I had my good friend, Sh, in my thoughts all day yesterday as she moved her oldest daughter a few hours away for the first time. She has been out of the house, but now she is further away, and I know how that is...

So many changes as children change and grow....

Doing OK

Hello!
I know, Sammy said I would write the next day after his post. Oops.


I am doing ok. I just have some bumps, bruises, scrapes, two black eyes, and a couple chipped teeth, which I hope will be repaired today.


I don't know why or how I had my bicycle accident. I was almost done recovering from my unfortunate jackalope incident!


I just am a klutz. Always have been. Darn it anyway. But, I have been keeping active and doing ok and hope to ride my bike on a long ride this weekend. I get in rides during the week, but not real long ones.


In addition, our exercise class was cancelled for the past two weeks because our instructor has had to work double shifts at her "real" job...so been on our own. I hope next week will be back to normal in all ways.

I am very busy at work, and things are going like crazy, so I need to keep ahead of the game. These are a few of my bruises, and scrapes. I know, I look very lovely...sorry!

Have a great day!

Sammy Sighs

Hi...remember me? Mom hasn't hardly let me post in forever and ever. I guess she must have thought she had more things to say this summer than I did. Of course, she got to go places and do things. I had to stay home with Silly Sissy. Crystal would come and house/dog sit while Mom and Dad were away. Silly Sissy would then chew out hair so she'd have a balding spot by the time they came back. I tried to just have a grudge, but I'd be happy to see them and forget about my grudge.

I miss Brooklyn being here. I slept with my little buddy a lot this summer. And, he liked to give us treats a lot. And lots of belly rubs, too. Plus, if we went on walks, he'd walk me on my own leash. Now, Mom puts me and Sissy back on the coupler leash together...again. At least she hasn't made us dress up in any cutesy clothes or anything.

Mom even gave us both baths last night. I was not happy about that, but I was nice about it. Silly Sissy gets all riled up. But, that's just her. Then, today Mom cut some hair around my eyes because we can't go to the groomers for a while yet...

so, it's kinda back to normal around here. This weekend I could tell Mom was feeling kinda lonely.

After our walk today, Mom decided to go out on a bike ride. She had a little mishap and has some scratches, scrapes, bruises, bumps and even 2 chipped teeth! She'll update you on this tomorrow. She is sure a klutz.

Well, I better go run outside and bark...I think someone walked by. Signing off, Sammy

Finally got to see it....

My good, wonderful, fun, loving friend S, and I went with another friend last night to see My Sister's Keeper. Bring on the kleenex.

I am glad I got to see it. Usually I can say whether I liked the book better or the movie. In this case I may have to call it a tie. Good book. Good movie.

Granted, there were some differences between the book and the movie...that's Hollywood.

Still sniffling......

Back to the Norm...

Wow, spent all day yesterday in Scottsbluff with my boss cleaning up data. That was fun. Well, at least our data is clean??!! :-)

New staff is arriving and things are gearing up for the new school year. That makes all new (but familiar) tasks come back to mind, so I have been very busy with getting new staff input into our system and various programs. I hope I get them put in everywhere they need to be. I am trying to make sure our new website is up and going, and will be easy for everyone to use/read/follow. The calendars are ready and up...and many staff have already started utilizing the new features.

It will be a busy time. I worked two nine hour days this week. That isn't bad, but we are still on our 7 hour schedule for those days...ha! Oh, well.

I miss my kiddos. I can't believe Brooklyn will be in FOURTH grade! Time has flown..he is growing up too fast. And, our little Chloe Bean will be starting school, and be our KINDERGARTENER! I suppose it won't be long we'll be forced to drop the Bean behind her name? All grown up now! I had their pictures taken this summer and can't wait to get them. I think we are going to have to all get webcams so we can visit and see each other. Good Christmas thought, right? I am thinking so.

Well, back at it.....have a great day!

Empty house....

Well, we took Brooklyn home to Denver this weekend....

More Wyoming....

Good morning!

I am writing posts ahead of time and having them post over the next few days, as we will be taking Brooklyn home this weekend :-( It will be so quiet around here! So , anyway....I mentioned that I would write about Register Cliff and the Oregon Trail Ruts. My mom and I took the kiddos out there to see these. Wow, those places have really changed and been upgraded since my childhood. Anyway, it was interesting to them to hear about the Wagon Trains and people that traveled in them, seeing where they had traveled and where many had written on the cliffs. While out and about, we also saw the obstacle course that the Army National Guard uses for training, the river, the walkway, and many other things as well. I enjoyed seeing this all through the kids' eyes and hearing their comments.


We also spent some time in Hartville, of course. John and his brothers helped finish up the chain link fence around his mom's house, and we also did some other chores as well.


We enjoyed spending time with extended family, and especially our parents.

For a complete view of photos from our week, click here: Vacation Photos.

Thanks for listening!

That Blasted Jackalope

W-e-l-l.........Dubois has the "giant jackalope" that you can sit on and take your photo at a gas station there. Here are photos of the kids on this jackalope:

For those of you not in the "know"...and my blogger friend, JoJo: this is what a jackalope is:

The jackalope—also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny—is an imaginary animal of folklore consisting of a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, which is usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers. The words jackalope and antelabbit are portmanteaus.

It is possible that the tales of jackalopes were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papilloma virus also known as Epidermodysplasia verruciformis, which causes the growth of horn- and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit's head and body.^[1] However, the concept of an animal hybrid occurs in many cultures, for example as the griffin and the chimera. Indeed, the term 'chimera' has become the categorical term for such composites within the English language.

Anyway, outside of that gas station, is a plastic or fiberglass or whatever jackaope as well. Of course, the kids wanted their pictures on it. Here are some of those photos along with a couple from the original jackalope inside as well:



Well, I thought, hey, I should get my photo up there too. So, I start to climb up, thinking I could flip my leg over just like getting on a horse. (Which, by the way, I have never ridden...so why in the heck would I think I could hop on this in that manner??) I must have been thinking I was very nimble and in shape..but ........I slipped and started falling. I knew I didn't want to fall on the barrier around the bottom of the jackalope, as it was wood...railroad ties, I believe, and that would hurt! So, I was trying really hard to maintain my balance and NOT fall....and I felt like I was flailing around in very, very slow motion. (Later they told me it looked like slow motion as well....!) Anyway, I finally lost it and landed in the highway...right in the lane of traffic (which I didn't even realize)...and head first. Ouch! I banged my head so hard! John and Tina drug me off the roadway, and immediately I had this huge bump on my head. It was horrible. But, I remembered that if you get an outward bump, that is what you want for a head injury...ouch, though! John said, I'll help you get back up for your picture. I said, I didn't care about my picture anymore. He said, Oh, I'll help you, so I got up on there, very very shakily. I got my photo, and grimaced thru my smile....


I don't even like the picture...ugh. But, oh, well, I got my picture on that evil, horrid, blasted jackalope. We went home where I sat around with an ice pack on my head all afternoon. I didn't feel sleepy, but John watched to make sure I didn't sleep. Who could sleep ... it HURT! Anyway, I had this huge bump on my head, and thought maybe I was elephant man or something. It progressed swelling some and I then became 'cro-magnum' man for a couple days. On the night of the second day, my eye had some slight purple around the side when I went to bed. When I got up in the morning, I had one heck of a black eye...and I mean one heck. Not to mention that I still had this bruising big old bump on my head. Good grief...I was a sight! Here is a slide show of the injuries: (as if you wanted to see these)....



Let's see, I am actually writing this post on Wed, July 29. This is the first day I have worn any type of eye makeup...I still have a purple half circle under my eye. I still have some purple lines on my eye. My head still has a bump and is bruised. I get a headache every so often, because I start stressing about it...wondering those what-ifs....I mean the story is funny, but there are a lot of tragic stories out there. I was lucky. No more riding strange animals for me....

Alvin and the Chipmunks

I forgot to mention the other family we visited while we were in Dubois...Alvin and the Chipmunks. This chipmunk family lives in Tina and Adam's yard. Ah, so cute....the little creatures are fairly tame....and seem to go thru a lot of food. We know, we know, they are not pigging out, they are hoarding it for winter.

Watching through the window in the sunporch...
Alvin?

Watchers....Sophie and Chloe

Yummy...

They were awfully cute, and in the mornings, I could look out my bedroom window and see them scampering around out there in the mountain beauty.