Neglected....

I realize I neglect my blog a lot...I don't mean to, I just don't make it a priority... bad blogger.

Here are some of the highlight from January thus far:

- Did my first Ever After Events wedding of the year on January 7. When the photographer posts pictures, I'll share the link, you can see some of my beautiful work. :)

- Interviewed for a new job at Gethsemane. My school is closing. BOO! So must find a new one to work at.

- Went to Alyssa's house warming party. Met some of her friends and had a good time.

- Hosted our own house warming party. Met some of the neighbors. Had lots of people here. LOVED IT! {Side note: When shopping for a new house, I told Lisa, our realtor, that I loved to have people over so I wanted a big open house so we could have people over a lot. Our house is truly our dream house. Having people over is joyful. There is plenty of room for people chatting and sharing in good food! Our party was proof of that.}

- Prepped some stuff to celebrate the 100th day of school with my students. We go 180 days so we are more than half way through the school year. Bittersweet.

- Got back into the couponing. Last weekend saved 47% at Safeway. Best savings yet! Saved a bunch at King Soopers, but since we bought produce the savings didn't average out to be so high.

- Went to a lot of basketball games to watch the Emmaus kids. Tonight our JV girls played in a tournament. They were playing for 3rd/4th place...they lost by 1 point with a seriously, last second shot. They played awesome. There are only 6 girls on the team.

- Spent quality time with Ry at Ikea and then in his office setting up the new storage unit we got for him at Ikea.

- Got a new mattress for our bed, now we OFFICIALLY have a complete guest room. Hooray for my parents and the cuz, Kayla, coming in April. Can't wait!

- Told Gethsemane that I wanted to take the call, there are a few things that need to be done and tweaked before it's official, official...

- Practiced being a crazy dog lady by taking even more pictures of Tanky. LOVE HIM!

So there you have it. The run down of January. I have some photos, mainly of my shopping trip, I'll have to get them off the camera and onto the bloggy.

StayTuned...

I'm gearing up for some changes to the ol' blog & I've got some posts that are soon to come...

Officially "Homeless"

Well we did it, we got our whole house packed with about 8 hours to spare.  We had to be out of our house on Saturday at 9 AM.  Friday at 12:30 AM we were on our way to our hotel for the night...DONE!

Let me tell you a few things I learned about staying in a hotel with a dog:

1.  EVERY little noise makes him growl and/or bark.  He's not usually a barky dog.
2.  It doesn't matter how nice your hotel is, when you take your dog out to go potty there might be a "lady of the night" outside who thinks he's cute and when she bends over to pet him she shows all her goodies on both ends...
3.  Allowing the puppy to sleep with you in hopes that he won't bark/growl quite so much might work...a bit.
4.  Allowing the puppy to sleep with you keeps you super warm!
5.  Allowing the puppy to sleep with you means you are in the middle and he might take up more room that your husband on the bed.

Currently we are staying in Arvada, housesitting for some people from church.  Let me tell you how glorious my morning was today.

Woke up at 4:30 AM to shower.  Laid in bed while Ryan showered.  Got up at 5:15 to fix hair/do make-up.  Left house about 6, stopped to get gas and a sandwich (I HAD to have a cold lunch today because my class went to the zoo...no microwave...I forgot.) and still made it to school by 6:15!  Hooray for not living in Kansas for a while! 

Ryan's morning was probably a bit longer than mine...he'll live...it's only 3 weeks.  {Anyone got an extra bed we can have beginning October 24th?  We have a dog...}

Pictures!

Okay, so these aren't all from the ones I've been promising, but they are pictures none-the-less. :)

Last weekend Ry & I with the Tankster headed to Nebraskie for a wedding.  A family friend of ours finally said "I do" after 10 years of dating!  (Which would be a REALLY long time if he was older, since he's not, it's just a long time).  We headed out on Thursday and stayed until Sunday.

I think I appreciate my trips to Nebraska more and more as I age.  It's so nice to be there and not have a care in the world...or so it seems.  It was nice to settle down and not worry about finding a house and dumb house stuff. 

The wedding was on Friday, so we got dressed up all pretty for that... 

My dad loves the camera...can you tell?  Here's the bride and groom...

 Ryan needed to pose with Tank before we left for the wedding.

On Saturday the Huskers played their first Big 10 game against TN.  They won.  Being home on a Husker game day was a great chance for Tank to model his new Husker fashion.  Mom made him a bandana in July so he sported it on Saturday.  Here I am with him. 

 When we go home Tank has to be on a leash when he's outside because we're afraid he'll chase a rabbit and we'll never see him again (okay, that's a stretch since there are like 100 people in Meadow Grove...)  Here he his posing in the grass.

Isn't he the most awesome dog you've ever met?  (or seen?)

Good news!  We have a place to stay once we give up possession of our house!  Two ladies from church who have a house in Arvada are going on a month long trip in October.  I asked them if they needed a house sitter and explained what was going on with Ry & I and today they told me that they would LOVE to have us house sit for them!  Yay for not being totally homeless!  Now if we could just get the bank to accept our offer...

I'm going to post pictures

I swear!

Last week really got away from me.  Before I knew it, BAM! It was Sunday night & I hadn't even started my lesson plans.  (I usually do them on Thursdays & Fridays but I had to stay late at school both nights working on tuition and billing...) So no pictures yet.  But here's a quick overview of the weekend:

Saturday--Met with a bride, looked at tons of houses {7}, made an offer on one

Sunday--Church, Fall Festival Meeting, Change oil in my car {Ryan}, go grocery shopping {Me--I saved 45% on my King Soopers bill alone...I heart couponing!}, lesson plans

Monday--Found out there are other offers also submitted on the house we like.  It's a short sale.  We resubmitted our offer (and changed it up).  Pray!  Call Xcel man, find out that the inspection report may not have been 100% true concerning the gas leak (there wasn't one, hooray for Xcel's fast, free response to check for said gas leak), waste time reading blogs, make yummy hamburger and beans like grama used to make (too bad I didn't have any potatoes, fried potatoes would have made it), blog, create some Language Arts worksheets for tomorrow.

The. End.

Fun!

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com I found this website via a blog I was reading.  So I just HAD to make a little stick family! {I don't know why Tanky's name won't appear, I swear I typed it...}

Our Past Two Sundays

The past two Sundays Ryan and I have been at church/school from the time church starts until about 8 PM. (Okay, two weeks ago we were so late for church, we didn't go, shame on us...) But still we've been there a long time.

I'm pleased to announce though that because my husband is brilliant, our school now has a web filter. That's right, in his free time, the husband-extrodinare has been building us a filter so that the kiddies can't access any information they aren't supposed to access. Sweet huh? (He threatened to block Facebook which nearly sent me into cardiac arrest, {I only check it on my recess breaks, sometimes, and before and after school} but in the end he hasn't blocked it...yet)

Tonight was our back to school picnic. We had a lot of new faces there with our CDC program. I love parents of preschoolers! They are so cute and it's all so new to them to have a child in school that they are eager to help out. All through my presentation there were three moms smiling and nodding their heads with everything I said.

Tomorrow Ryan took the day off so we can spend my last day of summer together. Sweet, huh? Yeah, he's awesome like that. Here's what I would like to do tomorrow...

Here's probably what we'll actually do (especially since we don't live near a beach...)

Him working on the filter and me blogging, blog searching, pinteresting, or working school stuff. 

Thought we might go here...

We'll see.  I'll let you know.

Hanging with Maddie

Yesterday I got the privilege of hanging out with the coolest 6 year old I know.  I drove to Colorado Springs to pick Maddie up at noon.  Our mission:  Have a fun girls day and find her a baptismal birthday present.  Our plan...well I didn't have one, because I don't really know Colorado Springs.

I picked her up at noon and asked her what she wanted to for lunch.  She told me we should probably go somewhere close to her house and that there was a King Burger {Burger King} nearby, but she didn't know if she wanted to go there...  So we drove in the general direction of food.  As we were driving she was supposed to be watching and choose a place to eat.  She was quite talkative in the back seat and I kept having to ask her where we were going.  Then she decided on the Black Bear Diner.  I loved it!  It was a cute little diner that reminded me of my days working at The Cafe in Meadow Grove.  There were cute little black bears all around. 

 Once we left we were on our way to the Target Mall because they have a play area.  I didn't know where this mall was so I was trying to use my detective skills.  I asked if there was a JCPenney and Dillards at the Target Mall--yes, there was.  So I drove to where I had seen the JCP & Dillards only to be told that it was not the Target Mall.  So then I drove to Target, which was a stand alone store.  Then she remembered that the Target Mall was in Denver.  So we just went to Target.

We were probably in Target close to two and a half hours.  We made three trips to the fitting room. 

It was great.  I loved the pink shirt with the cupcake but it was "too hot" for her, even though I tried to explain that it was going to be winter soon.  The skirt she is wearing with the yellow shirt was HUGE, but it had these elastic pulls on it so we were able to make it fit, we decided that was a maybe because she could grow into it and wear it longer.  The leggings that came with it were super cute.  After many yes, no, and maybes we went to look at toys, then shoes, then clothes again.  Finally she settled on a super cute outfit {which I didn't get a picture of, Boo!}

We had to pause in between fitting room trips and toy aisle trips.  We laid out all the possibilities while still keeping in the parameters of spending I had set up.  So we went and got a push-up from the Target food court.

She got two pairs of leggings, one brown with white polka-dots and one pink.
The cutest pink skirt--think tutu only a bit longer.  (I tried to find a pic on Target.com, but couldn't)
The yellow shirt pictured above.
A white shirt with a rainbow on it.
...and the shoes.
She also got a Smurf because it was kind of killing her that she wasn't getting toys (Auntie Sarah was trying to carefully persuade her away from toys that would only be played with for a few days and then forgot about)

When we got back to her house she went and put on the brown & white leggings, the skirt, the white shirt with a rainbow, and the shoes.  SO CUTE!

I also regret that I didn't take a picture of the two of us.  It was super fun spoiling her.  I might have went $5 over the amount I set.  She NEEDED the Smurf. :)

A B C's of the Last Two Days

{Okay, so I don't really have 26 things to share with you, but what I am going to share is in ABC order}

Army Wives!  Netflix is streaming ALL the seasons of Army Wives.  I used to watch this show regularly when I had cable & a DVR!  I've missed it.  I decided to start from the beginning and watch it through to it's current season...

Breakfast Burritos!  I made 12 of them today.  Yummy!  

Colleen & Cowgirl Cookies!  Yesterday when Colleen was here she had some Cowgirl Cookies from a birthday party.  We decided to make them.  They are delicious!

Goulash!  I made a pot of goulash last night and divided it into smaller bowls to freeze & have ready for lunches.

Ikea!  Colleen and I went to Ikea finally!  It was fun.  I can't wait to go back when I really need some things.  I did find four things that I just simply couldn't live without...  A new stool for my classroom, a cute little lantern that I'm not real sure where I'm going to put it but I loved it and it was $4, two boxes (one package) for Ryan's receipt & paper collection, and a new dish drying rack!

Lazy...that's what I was today.  I slept in a bit, laid around and read, surfed the Internet, created a newsletter to email to my staff weekly, worked on Smart Board stuff for my classroom, and generally didn't leave the couch much.

Pots & Pans!  I have washed them a lot yesterday and today.  Sometimes multiple times.  This may be why I don't like to cook  much?

Summer is ending...Sadness.  Only a few short days before the bell starts to ring at school daily at 8 AM and I have lovelies waiting for me to teach them...I think I like summer and my summer schedule of life better.

Tank!  World's laziest dog, for real.  Today he slept in the kitchen while I made breakfast burritos, in the living room, right under my feet, in the bedroom while I folded some laundry, in the bathroom while I showered, back in the living room, outside he soaked up the sun & slept, and currently I believe he is in the hall sleeping.  I'll be taking him on a walk tonight so he'll sleep through the night.

What did YOU do this weekend? (get your coffee...this is a looooooooooong post!)

A few weeks ago (maybe a month) I got a Groupon email offering me a $30 savings for an "Urban Scavenger Hunt."  After I read the details & checked out the website I thought, hmmmm....this could be fun.  I contacted our friends Jeff & Kath to see if they wanted to do it with us.  They were already committed to mud volleyball {gross!} but they wished us luck.  I also called Amy & Phil to see if they would do it--Phil is in OKC this weekend with Air Force stuff, so then I went to my dear husband, who loves when I schedule things that he normally wouldn't do and said, you know what, I think it would be fun and we should do it.  He agreed and I bought the Groupon: one for me and one as a "gift".  I signed us up for the race.  Here's what the Challenge Nation website has to say about the whole thing: 

"Challenge Nation is a series of urban adventure races coming soon to a city near you! Each Challenge is part 5K race, part scavenger hunt, and part urban exploration--which all adds up to 100% fun as you compete against other Challengers to quickly solve the clues and beat them to the finish line!"

And fun it was.  Ryan and I don't know a whole lot about the Denver area.  As we were driving there today I told him we might have a fighting chance because I had written a scavenger hunt for my students to participate in recently so maybe, just maybe some of that information will be helpful.  I'm going to say that it was helpful. 

Registration was between 11 AM and 12:45 PM today and the race started at 1 PM.  I wanted to leave in plenty of time, but that didn't work out (it rarely does and it's not always my fault...)  I thought I knew EXACTLY where I was going:  The Tavern Downtown.  We got there and there was NO ONE around.  Now this is a race for 475 participants to the fact that we saw no one made me double check my email.  It was at The Tavern UPtown.  It was 12:44 PM...

I thought for sure we were out $40 and they weren't going to let us participate.  I was driving as fast as I could to get there.  Ryan later told me that every time I pushed on the gas his stomach lurched and then when I slammed on the brakes everything he thought he was going to lose was forced back into his stomach--so dramatic....

Anyway, we got there, I pulled into 7-11 and told Ryan to park the car and I was going to try to get our packet and hope we could still participate.  Turns out that the emails they sent were really mean, but they were not really mean about sticking to what they said.  We were participants 372 & 373.  Ryan found me and I told him I was going to run to the restroom.  When I came out all the teams had the clues, but Ryan had no clue (literally and maybe a bit figuratively).  I asked him if he heard the directions or knew where to get the clues...Nope.  So I went and got some clues and we were off...kind of.  We sat down to read through them first to get an idea where we were going.  Oh, and the rules--we could use our fee and public transportation, which was limited to RTD, Mall Ride, and Light Rail.  

Below are our 11 of 12 stops with the clues in the order we achieved them.  (Oh, and there was a costume contest so we wore our Betty & Barney Rubble costumes from Halloween.)  

NOTE:  Clues are numbered as they were on the sheet we got, but shown in the order we finished them.

CLUE 8: Unlike the one row of purple seats at coors, THREE separate stpes on this building have been marked "one mile above sea level" over the past 100 years, as a measurement methods have become more accurate (or the sea level is falling?  Don't tell Al Gore!)  Find any of the markers, stand on its step and take a triumphant photo with it and your team spelling out "D-E-N" (teams of two will have to sue some artistic license)

I was knew this one thanks to my scavenger hunt planning: The Capital Building!  We had checked Facebook for some "hints" this morning and it said "We think 15 is accurate" so on the 15th stair we stood.  Our idea was first to form our body into "D-E-N" but then when we got there I told Ryan, "Duh, sign language!"  Then a girl from another team decided to jump in and help us finish spelling out DENVER.

 As we were leaving the Capital we saw all these people around the statue at the bottom of the stairs, but we had NO idea which clue they were referring to.  We thought about just taking the same picture as everyone else and figuring it out later.  Then we heard someone say "11" and once we read the clue we still had no clue...


CLUE 11:  On your route from clue 7 to 8 (or reverse) you'll come across either a monument that has the word "stow" on it, or a monument to a Colorado first--the photo pose is up to you.

Still clueless Ryan started to walk around.  We were looking on one side of the monument that everyone was pointing at--I was trying to find the word "stow" then all of a sudden Ryan realized the monument was for Colorado's First Calvary!  Hooray, we were on to our next clue.

 One of our clues involved finding someone from another state.  My philosophy on this was look for people with cameras around their neck!  As we crossed Lincoln Ave to head to the library for clue 9 I decided to ask this family of four if they were from out of state.  Here's how the conversation went:


Me:  Are you guys from out of state.
Lady: Yes.
Me:  Does your state start with a L, N, O, or P?
Lady: Yes, Pennsylvania. 
Me:  Great!  Um, could we take a picture with you...and your driver's license for this scavenger hunt we're in?
Lady: Uh, sure.
Me:  We also are supposed to make our arms look like the state in which you are from...what's PA look like?!?
Lady: A rectangle, with a weird cut out on the side (shows me her DL) like this!
Me:  Uh, hmm...I think my boob can make that cut out.


CLUE 4: We promise you'll interact with a few folks for this one--find a friendly stranger who hails from a state that starts with the letter L, N, O, or P.  Have them prove it by taking the picture with them and their drivers license and then all of you should (approximately) form the shape of their home state with your arms.

I would like to note that the first people we asked fulfilled this clue!  Huzzah!

 CLUE 9:  Just like last year, it's pretty warm out there by Rocky Mountain standards (the clue above not withstanding, V.P. Al just may be on to something...)  So just like last year, this clue is a MANDATORY 5 minute indoor breather.  Find the place that's cool and quiet (even though it's full of volumes) In the central lobby you'll find a clock...take one photo with your team and the clock and then another photo at least 5 minutes later acting our your team's favorite scene from any offering in this building.  Note:  Challenge teams are aLWAYS quiet, courteous and respectful while indoors--please whisper!

This was a no-brainer for me!  The LIBRARY!  We hurried over there.  We did take two pictures, though only one is here.  Seems the lady we gave our camera to for the 5 minutes later picture wasn't a great photographer--it was super blurry.  Here we were also able to get a pencil so we could cross off clues as we went.

  CLUE 7:  The Bard says "all the world's a stage" in As You Like It (we're very cultured) but sumtimes you really need an...actual stage...to find your inner actor.  So find this monumental outdoor venue constructed in 1918 that's south of the city's first standalone library (funded by none other than library fan Andre Carnegie...he built 35 here in CO alone)--if it looks pretty spiffy, that's because it just underwent a $9.5 million renovation. Hop up on stage and pick our a (reasonably) recognizable movie scene and act it out with another Challenge team or a talented passerby.  Be creative.

Again this one I was fairly certain of because it's near the library and I remembered it being under construction last summer.  So here we are with another team acting out Romeo & Juliet.  (The other team's idea, we were just happy have a team to join.)

It should be noted here that it was SUPER important to read through the ENTIRE clue...we walked from the stage area to the US Mint only to have the guard at the Mint tell us that everyone was coming there, but we needed to go to the Federal Reserve Building...

 

CLUE 1:  Everyone knows the 10,000 pound Big Blue Bear--he'll make his way into the convention center some day.  One you find this three-dimensional concrete giant, you'll be near a far more flat rendition of a President who fell in love with the American west, Colorado especially.  A Centennial State national forest is named for him, in fact.  When you spot him, act out his most famous quote or any scene from his life in the photo.

When we got to the Convention Center, we were getting ready to cross and we knew we were looking for Roosevelt.  Then Ryan very carefully told me to look at the building across the street from the CC, and did I think that was it?  YES!  We casually took off in that direction only to find no one to take our picture.  We ducked into a parking garage (shade) to read the clue again and figure out what we were going to do.  I Googled (we were allowed to use Smart Phones & GPS) "Famous quotes by T. Roosevelt" and found one he said about being courteous.  I told Ryan to make it look like he was letting me go in front of him.  Then a man and woman came over and thought they were in the same predicament with no one to take their picture, out we popped, switched cameras and Ta-Da!

CLUE 6:  Yes, you have a U.S. Mint here, one of only four in the country that still make our coinage (see why I thought we had to go to the Mint?)  But you have to settle for a "Denver Branch of this other entity of the federal money apparatus, (see why I should have read the whole clue?) based out of... Missouri of all places.  Once you find its main entrance, look at your feet for some noisy grates.  Locate one and listen for a little bit--have your team mimic what you hear in the photo.

When we got there we heard pig noises in the grate.  By the time we found another team to take our picture there was opera singing.  We decided that since when we got there it was piggies we were going to make piggy noses in the photo.

 Here again is where we went about a block out of our way.  As Ryan was directing us to where we thought we were going I re-read the whole clue and told him NO!  We gotta go here...

CLUE 5:  You know, it's a good ting that the chefs at Ted Turner's Montana Grill don't know about this particular herd on 16th--the customers would probably complain that their burgers were a little tough.  When you rustle up this location, your team should pose juuuuuust like the sculpture-- you won't look silly or draw attention at all! (previous statement: false)

All of a sudden it made sense to us why people were taking pics with the cows all over the 16th Mall, but I remembered that the logo for Ted's is a buffalo.

 Here we took a breather, we were down to our last clues...and we were clue-less.  We were both Googling things like mad and again, Ryan aka Super Smooth Man, turns around and says, oh, there, at the bus stop, are the chess pieces...

CLUE 3:  What's with all the larger-than-life sculptures 'round these parts?  These oversized regal chess items actually mask two vents for the subterranean space the sit atop. A stone's throw away, find the temporary megasized resting spot, which is part of a public awareness campaign--make like Forrest Gump with your team and pose on it.

Even when we got there I was still confused as to what we were doing--I was hung up on the chess pieces because I hadn't read the clue all the way through...  The team who needed a photographer sat down first and so we followed suite.  Afterwards the light came on...Forrest Gump...waiting on a bench for a bus...the chess pieces cover the bus stop.

 The whole time we were doing this we were looking for someone to fulfill this clue...

CLUE 2:  Like most Americans, we're amused that professional athletes and wealthy team owners in several pro sports have found it tough to agree just how many gazillions of dollars they'll make from teh average fan.  But for this clue, find any stranger (non-Challenger, that is) wearing any professional sprots gear from any team EAST OF THE ROCKIES.  Here's the catch:  no Denver teams adn you can't throw a hat on someone in a sports store, and this person cannot fulfill any other clue's objectives.  Snap a photo of them mimicking a play from the sport they're rocking.

I failed this one earlier--we snapped a pic with a guy in a Kansas Jayhawk shirt...ooops, not professional.  Sorry dude.  

When we saw this guy I told Ryan I was fairly certain his shirt was a St. Louis Cardinal's baseball shirt, but to be sure I asked.  Fail 2 would be that we didn't pretend we were playing baseball....doh! But he was friendly...Ryan was weirded out that he put his arms around us.

Down to 2 clues!

CLUE 12:  Denver's home to the first location of many popular restaurants that have franchised across the country...We left one off the list that has the most locations of all, more than 4,000 (although many are toast: 1,000 have closed in the last few years).  But the original is still open:  find it and have your team pose out front.

We googled and found out it was Quiznos.  We also were told the original was on 17th...wrong.  When we went there though, the lady told us it was on 13th & Grant.  Back on the mall ride and a few blocks from there...

 

Now all that was left was to head back to The Tavern Uptown...

We got there and took a load off.  (We had stopped at Starbucks on our way to Quiznos. 

The costume contest involved nominating yourselves.  We decided to, after all we thought we were creative.  We got 3 votes...2 were ours.  Boo.  We were up against Nintendo Characters, Smurfs, Ladies in Angel wings with devil horns and forks, three girls dressed as super heros, ZOMBIES?!?!, and Pirates.  The Smurfs won the $50.  We might still stand a chance on the FB voting.

All in all a fun day!  And we finished in 1 hour, 44 minutes, and 21 seconds.  Hopefully you were able to read this marathon post in less time that that...


If Challenge Nation is coming to your city or one near you, you should do it!!

Food Fast

Today is August 1.  Sadly that means that there are only 15 days of summer left.  Boo!  Hiss!  Boo!  I wish that we could split the summer/school year evenly.  I'm thinking summer from April 1 to October 1 and school in between?  Perfect.  Someday I'll be the President and make it happen!  (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!)  Any who.  As August approaches many exciting things are happening here at Casa de Glover.  The biggest is that Ryan and I have officially put our house on the market and have begun the search for a new home.

Some people assume that I am with child and that is why we are upgrading our house.  That is a bad assumption.  It is true that some day we hope to have children and that we would like a bigger house to raise said children.  That being said, it seems to us to make sense to move before we have children because hypothetically it will be less involved.

As we prepare for a large adventure, we've decided to partake in a food fast--as in, for the month of August we will not eat out on our pocket-book. To prepare for this event, last night we went all out. :-P  We had Mexican for our meal yesterday.  (It was at about 4 PM, neither lunch nor supper, we called it Linner).  Once we got home we did a few things and then decided it was necessary to go get some Fro-Yo!  So today was day one, and I had Chipotle for lunch.  BUT, the Board of Ed paid for it, so it doesn't count.  Tomorrow is Chicken Cordon Blue at the base--Ryan's already asking for an exception.  :-P  I guess they only have it once a month and Ryan really likes it...guess that means I better learn how to make that, huh?

In other news, I went back to school today for a teacher's meeting.  I don't want to be back at school, but it pays the bills... ;-)  so I'll go back. 

I have the cutest god-daughter!

Today Ryan and I traveled over to Faith Lutheran in Denver (really close to Emmaus).  The reason we went over there was to celebrate Maddie's life.  Yesterday was her 6th birthday!  And this year she has been cancer free for 5 years!  Friday I met up with Mona, Katie, and Maddie and we all got pedicures.  Since it was her birthday, they gave both her and Katie cute flowers on their big toes.  When I got to Faith today, she told me that her flower didn't wash off in the bath.  I guess she was nervous about that.  I, being the horrible, but maybe great, god-mother that I am could not think of anything to get Maddie.  I usually give her baptism birthday gifts rather than birthday gifts so that the other three don't wonder why I don't bring them  gifts on their birthdays.  But today I wanted to do something as being cancer free for 5 years is a pretty big deal!  I remembered how Grama used to take us kids to lunch and then wherever we wanted to go.  So I pulled Maddie aside later and told her that I just couldn't decide what to get her so she was going to have to go shopping with me to pick something great out.  She was super excited about it.  She was even hoping that it could happen today or maybe tomorrow.  She told me that she wasn't going back to Colorado Springs until tomorrow afternoon.  But we have a silly voter's meeting tomorrow, so I told her that I would make plans with her mommy to come and get her sometime soon.  I can't wait to hang out with her for the day!

Here we are right before I left.

Love It!!

There is no place like Nebraska...Madison & Pierce

On Friday Ryan & I headed to Aunt Donna & Uncle Den's for supper before heading to the Madison County Fair.  Kayla and Andrew were home for the weekend so after supper the four of us headed to Madison.  The Madison County Fair is "The Best Week in July" and inlcudes three nights of rodeo action and two nights of concerts.  Mom & Dad purchased the fun pack which included tickets for all these events.  They were kind enough to let us use their tickets on Friday and Saturday. 

I wish I could show amazing rodeo photos to you, but I didn't take my big camera to the rodeo.  I frequently do this...I think, oh, it's too bulky, then when I get home I wish I would have just taken the dumb thing with me.  The rodeo was fun, though not the best rodeo I've been too.  Many of the cowboys and cowgirls just couldn't get it together.  Many calves went unroped, bucking broncos & bulls unrode.  Sad day.

Saturday we put on our swimsuits and headed to Pierce with the A. Donna, U. Den, Kayla and Andrew.  We were off for a day of boating (tubing and skiing).  It was a fantastic time!  I did take my big camera for this experience.  There were so many great pictures that I decided to make a collage of them so it wouldn't take so long to load them on here.  You can click the picture and it will make it bigger.

None of these photos have been edited, just put into a collage.  Here are my two favorites of the day...

Saturday night ended in a Josh Turner concert.  I had never heard of him before the concert, but did enjoy his voice.  It was super deep most of the time.  I might have to download a few of his songs now. 

Today we drove back to Denver, it was a nice drive and Tank slept about 5 of the 8 hours and as I type this blog he's laying on the floor snoring...must be ruff.

There is no place like Nebraska...OMAHA

When one leaves Denver for a week in Nebraska the question that enters many people's minds is

"What are you going to do for a week in Nebraska?!" 

This was the question I asked myself on the second day we were here!  We made plans to go to the Madison County Fair at the end of the week, but what about the beginning?  Well, I jumped on Facebook and sent my cousin a message that said something to this effect:  we're going to be in NE for a WEEK.  We'll need something to do...we're thinking Omaha and visiting you!

My original thought for Omaha was the Henry Doorly Zoo!  If you find yourself in Nebraska for a week, make a trip to Omaha for this place!  The last time I was there was in 6th grade and it was pretty great then and I know they've made many changes since then!  They have an indoor rain forest!  Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the zoo:

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is nationally renowned for its leadership in animal conservation and research. Evolving from the public Riverview Park Zoo established in 1894, today the Zoo includes several notable exhibits. It features the largest cat complex in  "Kingdoms of the Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp; the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforest, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert,as well as the largest glazed geodesic dome in the world The Zoo is Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.

Pretty cool, right?  Well here's what I didn't think about...in July, in Nebraska, during the day, it's HOT!  My husband, he does not really like being hot.  The fact was simply this:  If we go to the zoo, we're going to sweat and be hot and probably border on being miserable.  So the zoo didn't seem like the best idea.

So here's what we did.  We left my parents about noon (I thought it was earlier because my computer was (and is) still on MST).  We got to Omaha about 2 PM and still didn't have a plan.  I had suggested the SAC Museum--a place I had been on my senior class trip.  Ryan decided that the museum would be great.  Ryan got out his phone and checked Google Maps for directions.  It's actually located in Ashland, NE, a suburb outside of Omaha.  I want to say it's on the South, maybe Southwest side?  It's on I-80 between Lincoln & Omaha.

The SAC Museum focuses on USAF paraphernalia as well as educational information about the planes, missiles and spacecraft.  It includes two large hangars and a traveling display.  It has one of the top collections of strategic aircrafts.  Not a lot has changed since I was last there, ahem 11 years ago, but it was fun to see again.

Outside the SAC Museum (which I know has been renamed since I was there my Senior year, but Strategic Air and Space Museum doesn't have a cool acronym like Strategic Air Command Museum does...) there are three rockets.  Above is the largest of the three.  Upon entering you are greeted by this:

Ryan knew right away what it was--SR-71A built by Lockheed.  I thought it was an airplane.  Turns out it's really a spy plane.  The admission to get into the Museum was $12 per person.  We paid our fee and headed over to Hangar A.

Hangar A featured many plans that were flown during the WWII era.  There was a section of the hangar that discussed Nebraskans involvement in the Doolittle Raid (not sure what that is, watch Pearl Harbor, it's not 100% historically accurate, but they talk about the Doolittle Raid-- it was the first air raid by the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor.)  Below are some pictures of Ryan with various planes and parts of planes.

As you can see they had a few child friendly areas that you could sit in and push buttons and be cool.  Ryan took full advantage of that.  After Hangar A we headed to Hangar B.  Hangar B is where they have more of the space stuff.  They have a few more planes but also some rocket stuff and information about the various spaceships that have headed into outer space. 

*As a side note, I'm a little sad that the space exploration program is ending*

Ryan continued to wander and look much longer than I did.  We skipped the traveling exhibit--John Wayne.  Not sure that he really fits into Air and Space, but whatever.

After our time at the SAC Museum we headed to the Old Market--another place I went on my Senior Class Trip.  The Old Market is only a block and a half long.  We stumbled into a junk antique shop.  This shop had ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you could imagine.  My favorite part of the shop was the area with stuff from my childhood.  Remember when Pizza Hut used to give away glasses?  Well this shop had them all, including Popple AND Care Bear ones!  I wanted to get the Popple one that matches the Popple that I still have...

but I didn't get it.  Now I kind of wish I had.  Oh well, I least I have the real Popple!  They also had Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, Ninja Turtles, and CALIFORNIA RAISINS!  They also had a section dedicated to toys you got in kids meals from various restaurants--you know, when the toys were good!

After a walk through the Old Market and Ryan being uncomfortable because he was hot (good thing we didn't go to the zoo), we headed to meet Kayla and Andrew for supper at Andrew's house.  They made grilled burgers, pasta salad, beans, and french fries.  Kayla even went all out and brought strawberries, sugar, and cookies for dessert. :-)  We sat around the table and chatted with them for about 3 hours before we packed it up and headed back to the big MG!

Tomorrow's Agenda:  Madison County Fair!

Photography

So I've been begging people to let me take pictures...

Here are some of my favorites:  A & H:  The granddaughters of my Administrative Assistant.  H just recently joined Karate and they wanted a pic of her and her belt.  A came a long for the ride.  I taught A last year in 5th grade--they go to another school now.  I cannot believe how beautiful A is!  I asked her dad if he had a big stick to chase the boys away!

Our good friends J & E are having a baby.  I took some pics of them.  I can't wait until baby is here and I can take some pics of him!

 And finally, Saturday I spent two hours asking the following question "Are you T or E?"  T & E are the twin boys (4 years old) of two of the teachers at Emmaus.