Family Ties

So, in case there is any question to the family connection, take a look at this picture. Tadd and Jennifer have grown up together (well, nearly together) since they were born, and they've been in countless photos together, but not until this very shot have I ever noticed the uncanny resemblance between the two. Weird.

So, on with today's update. Well, we went shopping today. Wow, was that a treat! Every store is busy, the streets are crazy, and it was cold. Otherwise it was a perfect day! I got to spend the day thinking of my family, and wondering what would make them happy! Who could ask for more. On a sad note, my car is acting 'sickly' so it's got an appointment at the car doc right after the holiday. Bummer. That'll cut into the after Christmas sale shopping funds. :(

That'll do it for today, hope all is well with you, talk to you more tomorrow.

Boy did we have fun.......!

So, here I sit, watching the Broncos struggle against the Bills, and hopefully I'll enjoy a good outcome, but I thought I'd take a minute to let you know how much fun we had yesterday making cookies! I invited the neighbor kids, and of course Dane was here, and I asked if Morgan could join us. which of course he did. It was messy, chaotic, noisy, and several kids ate so many cookies that they got sick - boy did we have fun! I'm sending pictures so you can get the basic idea. During halftime (I had to let the cookie dough chill so I could cut more out) they played out in the snow. I'll write more later, but I wanted you all to know how much fun we had, and how much I love being a mom, grandma, and domestic goddess!




The first picture is all the kids standing around decorating, the next is the kids with the finished products (16 dozen), and the third is Morgan coming in from the cold.

Update from the mountain

Well, another week has come and gone. Sometimes I sit and reflect on things, and this week is no different. Crystal makes me think back to the amazing days of babies sleeping on my chest, the smell of their skin and the comforting sound of their breathing in my ears. It still makes my heart skip a beat. From there its on to toddlers, then kids in the yard, school, teenage angst, wow wasn't that fun. I can't imagine missing a single heart beat of it, but I have to admit that I prayed for the strength to endure on a regular basis during that period (Crystal and Tadd will understand that one - and it wasn't about them).

When my mom died, several years ago, I was raising teenagers. My sister was too. We have one more sister who has chosen to remain childless through her life. I don't get that. She made the comment (at the funeral) that she had successfully avoided those issues that Deb and I were living through, and she thought it was a good choice. I remember - like it was yesterday - Deb and I just looked at each other, smiled, and said nothing. Clearly she wouldn't have understood. It's even hard for me to explain. I'll try though.... someday.

Anyway, I've rambled away from my original comment of reflecting which is sad, because I reflected on how amazing life is now. Though certainly not without issues, we've got a great life. I guess maybe its the Viking blood in me, but I always want to see what's around the next corner, or the next week, or just tomorrow. What new and exciting adventures will there be? It's important to always want more, try to go further, learn more, do more, be more. Never allow yourself to become complacent.

Then when you're done thinking of cool new things to do, see, and be. Get out your old copy of Joni Mitchell's 'Circle Game' and after you've listened to it, stick your foot out and try to slow the carousel down.

SIDE NOTE-----

For those of you who didn't know this, or who haven't read my posts. Dane got certified this past month, and had his open water dives in Mexico. One of the divers on our boat brought an underwater camera and just sent me a stack of pics of Dane's dive. How sweet!

So this is Dane at the bottom of the ocean! OK, so its only 40 feet deep, it's still the bottom, and its still the ocean!

OTHER SIDE NOTE -----

I am still giving Ginger and Mucho (and George and I) the new drugs. The dogs seems to be feeling better but I haven't seen a huge improvement in the tumors. I wasn't supposed to see any marked improvement for at least 20 days, and its only been 14, but I must admit a bit of disappointment. I'll keep you posted.

For those of you who don't know her, this is Ginger.

Continuing experiment!

So... Ginger and Mucho haven't had their pills for the past two mornings. I wonder how much I am screwing up my experiment? I had class for those days and left very early. They got their pills in the evening, so it wasn't a total loss, but we'll see.

Tomorrow is the big day. It's been a whole week tomorrow, so I measure Ginger's lumps. I'll let you know the results (of course!).

Let's play scientist!

OK, are you all ready? You're going to be a part of my experiment, as we work towards Ginger's health. Here's the premise for this experiment:

Ginger is a nearly 13 year old yellow lab. She's in reasonable health for an old dog, but has several lipoma (fatty tissue) tumors, and a few serious mast cell tumors that are taking over her poor old body. The advice from the vet? Let her die in peace. Don't operate.

(we operated on one of them because it was torn open, but otherwise we've left them alone)

I was talking with a friend recently and she told me about this miraculous new product that had worked wonders on dogs that she knew of. I looked it up online and was impressed with the documents. I e-mailed the head guy and he wrote back with lots of further information. So here goes:

I ordered the stuff.

You will be a part of this experiment on a daily basis. All of the posts will start with an experimental heading. I won't tell you what the product is unless it works (in case any of you are using it, I don't want to discourage you).

Day one: Friday: Measured Ginger's biggest tumor (my baseline) and it is 12 inches circumference and 3 inches in height from her body. It is a solid mass with the feel of a grapefruit. I gave Ginger one capsule in the morning and one in the evening.

No change.

Day two: Saturday: Gave Ginger 2 capsules in the morning and 2 in the evening (they seemed to be well tolerated). No change. (I will measure the tumor weekly)

Day three: Sunday: Gave Ginger 2 capsules in the morning and 2 in the evening. No change except she seems to be getting around a bit better and I'm not giving her any Flexamin anymore.

Sidenote: Mucho is getting a size proportionate dosage too. His only condition is that he is a stinky little dog. The guy I talked to said "Who knows, maybe it'll help stinky dogs!" We'll see. I give him one in the morning and one at night and he is one seriously smelly dog now. It's sure doing something to his insides, but God only knows what!

More to come tomorrow!

Time to slow down a bit

Well here it is, the end of November. It seems like yesterday when I wrote in this blog, but facts show it to be October 31st. Wow. So our trip to Orlando for the National Assoc of Realtors convention went well. Strange creatures bit me on a regular basis, leaving bloody welts to make my pantyhose look gross. I didn't get to enjoy the Florida weather, I ate too much, I wore way too much evening wear, BUT I enjoyed a lot of meetings and banquets. I guess that's why I go. George had a good time, though, and hung out by the pool working on his tan. Rough huh?

Shortly after we got back from Orlando we prepared to leave for Mexico. We had a really fun time, but were ready to go home after the 7 days. I felt sort of bad for Crystal. She had to watch everybody else drinking (though not really to excess) but she was a good girl and took good care of my baby. (Sorry everybody, apparently I've laid claim already. he he :) )It started out a little blustery in Cozumel, but cleared up for most of our trip. I'll put some pictures up here when I go to my other computer, they're all on it. More to come on the Cozumel trip.

I'm ready for December to come, business is slow, but marketing is busy and George has some big projects to work on. Talk to you soon! ttfn

Where did this week go?

What a week this was! I'm pretty sure that it should be Monday, but here it is Friday night. How did that happen? Halloween is over now, so what do I do with 5 pounds of extra candy? Did all of our neighbor kids move? I guess they were all at the mall-crawl. Oh well....

So I had a breakthrough of sorts today, with our weird, scrawny little stray cat. I'll take a pic and post it for you. He/She (can't get close enough to tell) is a fairly young looking dirty little calico cat with some serious issues. We've all been bitten, and she growls and hisses continually, yet doesn't leave. I called the animal control folks, who informed me that Teller County has no cat ordinance. That means they won't help me. I called the Shelter, they informed me that unless I want to capture it, bring it in, and lie to them about not wanting it any more, they can't accept it. Besides, who would adopt it? It's a no-kill shelter, so I would be sentencing it to a long life in a small cage. That would be bad. Anyway, back to my breakthrough....

I sat out on the porch today, because it was a spectacular day, and hand fed this poor creature kitty crunchies by hand until he was purring and rubbing on my hand. I still got bit, but it was definitely an improvement. Did I mention he stands at the door, day and night, hoping for food. What can I say.... I'm weak.

I guess I should be going to bed soon. I have to get up at the crack of dawn and drive Dane down to his last scuba diving class! Yay! He's so stoked about this.... He seems to be doing really well, too. It's sad though, because its an all day class. I'll need to find something to do all day. Shopping comes right to mind.

Maybe I'll go by and visit with the new mama-to-be! That would be fun! I went by the other day, but she was leaving for a nail appointment. Bummer. Maybe we can do lunch. I wonder if she's back from her game in Texas? Have I mentioned how proud I am of her?

Well, it's crowding midnight, so I'll leave here. ttfn, and I'll write back soon!

I've just gotta get this off of my chest....

I don't particularly like getting into political discussions, but ..... wait!.... this isn't really a discussion, because it's all one-sided now, isn't it. Sweet. I can say what I want. For those of you who aren't politically minded, stop reading now, and I'll get on to something lighter later.....

I have been hearing for weeks, and reading for months, and talked to people for I-don't-know-how-long, and I keep getting the same sick feeling every time I hear this. I wish I could just get over it, but.... what can I say... I can't.

Dane came home from school the other day, and after an extensive conversation about the faux election they had in middle school, asked me this question.... "Do you suppose if Obama gets elected they will stop calling him 'African-American?" He asked me that because, technically, as an African American he isn't eligible to be president of this country. He must be an American. Everybody knows that - including middle school kids (guess they teach them something after all!). Thats why Arnold can never be the Prez, since he's Austrian.

Here's the issue... I've never once heard John McCain referred to as an Irish-American, (or whatever country the McCain name originated in). I've heard him called a brave American, a heroic American, and even a great American, but never a hyphenated American.

Apparently it has something to do with Obama's tan.

He was born in America, granted it was a palm tree ridden, sun shiny, paradise-like America, but America nonetheless. Why can't he just be an American? When my ancestors came here from Norway and Prussia, they came to find a better life. I hope that they think they found it. They didn't do it that long ago, though, and I'm only a 3rd generation American. Nobody has ever called me anything hyphenated.

I'm fairly certain that the skin color issue is a self-perpetuating idea that will only go away when we quit seeing it. I remember when we would give strange looks to male nurses, or male teachers, or female construction workers. After a while we got used to it, and it went away. Why is this not going away? I think it's because we, or possibly just the media, want to prove that all of the folks with differences are treated just the same, differences and all. Here's why I think that.....

Several years ago I was watching an ice skating championship, possibly even the Olympics, and Kristi Yamaguchi had just won the event. The press immediately stuck microphones in her face and asked this question.... "Tell us Kristi.... what does it feel like to be the first ever Japanese-American champion in this sport?" Her response will never leave me. She said that she was a 7th generation Californian. At what point does she get to just be an American? Good question.

It's sort of like women though, in that it wasn't that long ago when women were considered chattel property and could be killed for a good reason. A slave couldn't be killed, but a wife could. Hhmmmm..... So flash forward to 2008, when women are about 50% of the population, and a huge portion of women work outside the home. A big percentage of them work in professional fields and are extremely well educated and intelligent. Why are they not leaders? The polls all show that the public is willing to accept women as leaders yet we rank 69th in the world ranks for women leaders (below North Korea and Iraq!). I guess I will spend my life empowering people to do what they can to cause change.

Here's a thought to leave you with.... "Those who have the ability to help, have the responsibility to do so."

Now cut back to my comment from Dane..... "My answer to his question about the African-American term (see the beginning of this rant) was simple. I said 'it probably won't end in my lifetime, but if you work really hard, maybe in yours.'

Another one in the record books.... phew.....

What a relief! The convention is finally over.... yay! I really enjoy them, but I am totally exhausted. The Colorado Association of Realtors annual convention at the Broadmoor ended with the Board of Directors (which I am one of) meeting that lasted until 12 ish. Right after that I got to have lunch with my Crystal! I always love having lunch with her, and it used to be a regular event. I guess life has gotten in the way for both of us. What a wonderful day we had. I have wondered for weeks what the problem was, because she was always to distant. Now I know! For those of you reading this who 'get it'..... yay! I am so excited for all of us. More on this later, once everybody has had the chance to hear it from somebody besides me.

So, after many evenings of working on my speech, I think it went off without a hitch. I tried really hard to not offend anybody, and to cover all of the issues I wanted to cover. Tadd said it was good, so did George, but they're prejudiced towards me. Hope it was good. Now I am officially the State President of the Women's Council of Realtors. When I talked to Robbie right after the installation, (my predecessor) she asked if I would meet her in the parking garage. I was puzzled, but went anyway. Now I am the proud caretaker of 'the boxes' which are apparently the past propaganda, finances and paperwork for the past umpteen years of WCR. Oh boy. I have since learned that every president since Roosevelt (kidding....) has carried these boxes around with them. I don't know what's in them, but it must be mission-critical or we wouldn't carry them from year to year, right?! Oh well, some evening this winter when I'm bored I will go through them.

On a fun note... I stopped at the dive shop this afternoon, before lunch with my Tootsie, and picked up Dane's Jr Open Water package. He's really stressed about getting the book work done by the weekend, but I know he's excited too. His classroom stuff is this weekend and next, and his open water testing will bein Cozumel in November. Yay! How exciting!

I'm dead-dog tired, and trying to decide who's cooking dinner tonight (because it's clearly not going to be me). I think either Pizza Hut or Quizno's. hhmmmm....... Tough call. I'll leave now, and let you know tomorrow.

Thought for the day..... Never underestimate the power of one person to make a difference in this world.

Juicy Fruit? Go figure...

I think I've discovered why I get so much done late at night. It's 8:30 and I can't get my brain to slow down enough to put together a serious string of cohesive thought. In an hour or two I will be slow enough to think. You don't suppose it's all the caffeine, do you? lol

So, this morning, in the midst of my daily task of surveying my kingdom (which consists of standing at the dining room window with my coffee looking at the yard, the field, the outbuildings, and the road, and thinking - yep, I love my life) I noticed that the holes in the yard are multiplying! We discovered a week or so ago (when the little piles of sand appeared) that we had 'moles' under our lawn. I don't know what they are doing there. I don't know where they came from. I don't know what they look like, I don't even know what they eat! I do know that our great white hunter was on duty, but she has not been successful to this point. The great white hunter is a 7 year old spayed, declawed calico cat named 'Baby' that just stares at the little piles of sand. Apparently they have moved on one or more occasions, and she noticed it. Now she studies intently, but thats all. She is quite deadly, routinely bringing in everything from birds, mice, and even a small rabbit one time. She may or may not kill the creatures, but she typically spits it at my feet with the look as if to say 'can you cook this up for me? You don't expect me to eat it raw do you?' We've had to chase down a bird or two when she hadn't gotten it totally incapacitated yet. She is pretty bummed when we put them outside to fly away. I know she worked quite hard to capture the prey, but what can I say.....

Anyway, the mole issue...

I spoke to a friend of ours last week and complained about the mole issue. We only had one or two holes (with little piles of dirt on top of them) so it wasn't really a crisis. Today we have 10. Yikes. So anyway, this friend of mine said that if we placed an opened stick of Juicy Fruit gum in the hole, the moles enjoy it so much that they will scarf it down instantly. Sadly though, they do not digest it and ultimately die of intestinal blockage. Sounds like an ugly way to go, but then I thought about the alternative - death by cat. Hhmmmm..... tough choice. George wanted to know if the option of trapping and transplanting was a viable choice. I have no idea if they are 'trappable' but I know several people that should have these creatures living in their yards. hee hee hee.

Oh well, enough about moles.

More to follow when my brain slows a bit. ttfn

Welcome back Crystal and Joe!

Even though it seems like a month since they left, Crystal and Joe finally got back from Indiana after their vacation. I don't suppose you can understand how frustrating it is not to be able to keep up with them (read that:her). Poor George gets stuck listening to me ramble on about the mundane everyday things that somehow Crystal and I can spend 1/2 an hour or more every morning catching up on. I almost think he missed her more than I did (not!). I guess they had a good trip, even though it was to Indiana. I'm not picking on Indiana, but coming from Wisconsin, I get it.

Crystal was telling me about the adventures along the way, especially since they took 'the kids' with them this time, instead of leaving them home. My oldest grand-dog, Ty, is pretty sane and is apparently the king of the pack, but his little brother Moose is a hoot! When Crystal tells me stories about the kids and Indiana, I can almost see them and it makes me laugh. I'll include pics as soon as I can.

I stopped by Heather and Chris's house today too, to see my little MB. (Thats monster baby for those of you who don't know...) My little Morgan (pics to follow) is quite the young man now, and I just love to be around him. I had to go by and drop off the wagon we borrowed this past weekend to use at the Chili Festival in Pueblo (whole other post,...). I had a wonderful, albeit short, visit with my number one grandson and then it was back to work for me.

It was a beautiful day here in WP today, nearly cloud-free, perfect sweater weather, and clear all day. That's why we love it here!

On a more amusing note... When I came home from work Hollers were out searching for their missing beagle pups again. Seems when the kids let them out, they take off to go on an adventure. Ah, the life of a pup. I hope they found them, but I never heard. More info tomorrow. For now, I'm off. ttfn!

Welcome to our life

Well, here it is, your open invitation into our lives. Weird huh.... I'm not quite sure why I'm doing a blog post, but I suppose its to keep everybody posted on whats going on. I figure if you don't know us, you won't read it. We're not that entertaining.

It's fall here in the mountains, and its starting to feel like it already. I love fall, but I'm sure not looking forward to winter. It's seems like its been a short summer, doesn't it? We went riding a few times, but mostly just tried to keep up around here. Fortunately we live in paradise so hanging out at home isn't a negative, it's a great thing. If you feel like following this post you can look forward to baby pics, posts from middle school, political observations, and updates from the real estate market. Fascinating, don't you think?

I'll go for now, and write more later, otherwise this won't just be a 'welcome' post, it'll be a typical ramble for me. Oh by the way, Dane's football team won their game tonight! Yay!

Talk to you more later, ttfn