Life on the High Plains

Jillian and Brian's wedding is 4 weeks from today.  Yikes!  Irv ordered me to take it easy today so I spent 10 hours straight sitting in a chair sewing the trim onto Jillian's veil.  I wanted to make her a special keepsake for her wedding.  I'm having a terrible dilemma because she needs something old.  I inherited one piece of jewelry from my grandmother and I gave that to Dana when she got married.  (Three of my four grandparents died before I was born so I never knew them.)  Hopefully when my daughters' children get married they will have a special family heirloom to pass onto them. The veil isn't done yet, I still have about 200 Swarovski crystals to attach.  I think it will be beautiful when it's finished. My eyes held up quite well today and I was happy to see that I could still thread a needle without putting my reading glasses on.  I think my cold has now progressed to bronchitis though. Tomorrow is Easter, the day to celeb...

The surgery is over and all came out well.  In fact, I would have to say it was miraculous.  Just to tell you a little about the procedure...I arrived at the center and checked in.  The nurse gave me 15 mg of Valium and a little while later they took me back to the holding room.  The nurse asked me how I was feeling and I told her I felt completely normal so she gave me another Valium.  Then she cleaned my eye area and marked my eyeballs with what looked like a magic marker.  A few minutes later it was my turn!  I went in the surgical room which was dark and filled with all kinds of people and machinery.  I must have been feeling good by this time because I wasn't nervous or anything.  The most annoying part was this thing they suction onto your eyeball while they're cutting the flap.  Other than that it was a lot of watching the green light and listening to the zapping.  I know I was feeling pretty good because I thought all t...

Tomorrow is the big day, hopefully.  I've been waiting a couple months for my Lasik eye surgery appointment to roll around and it is finally here.  There's only one problem...I'm sick.  Me, who never gets sick, has come down with a cold--runny nose, itchy eyes, the whole nine yards.  If I have to reschedule, it will be Fall before I get the surgery.  My surgeon takes the summer off...I guess you can do that when you're the best.  I'm using the power of positive thinking to will myself well by morning.  Keep your fingers crossed.  Say a little prayer that I don't freak out when he cuts "the flap" on my eyes and I lose my vision for a few seconds.  (I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.  Or better--I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.)  I have to keep my eyes bandaged until Friday morning, but after that I will hopefully be able to post the video of my Lasik procedure.  No, Irv won't be there videoing (alth...

Diesel came over to visit today and he got to meet the horses, Doc and Jasper. The horses thought Diesel was very interesting. Jillian and Irv took the horses for a little spin, it has been quite a while since they were last ridden.  Both behaved quite well.  Doc is still shedding his winter coat so he's not looking  very good yet. It started out a beautiful day, but then the wind picked up (as usual).  Still no rain, our pasture grass is dry and brittle.  At least we're not burning up like Texas, not yet anyway.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”   John 12:12-13

We had a nice surprise this evening.  Billy Currington and Kenny Chesney invited us over to the Instrust Bank Arena to see Kenny's Goin' Coastal show. I have to admit that I committed the biggest sin a blogger can commit.  I left home without a camera.  So here I am on my way to see Kenny and the only camera I have is my cell phone.  I've learned a tough lesson. Anyway, Uncle Cracker (I think that was his name) started the show, followed by Billy, then Kenny.  It was fantastic!  I am now the deafest I have been since the first Nsync show I went to years ago (yes, I have been to more than one Nsync show).  It was LOUD!   Kenny is highly energetic.  I can certainly see why he was Entertainer of the Year for so many years. It's now 11:30 and I need to go to bed.  Hopefully some of the deafness will wear off by 6:00 a.m. so I can hear the alarm go off.

I'm back in Wichita for regression testing for the project I've been working on for the last 2 1/2 years--NGS (Next Generation Solution).  Eighteen team members are here to put our program to test.  It has come a long way and it's about ready to go to pilot.  I love what I saw today.  It's all finally together and functioning pretty good.  There are a few glitches, but overall it's going to be great.  Now to get everyone else in my association excited about.  That's going to the hard part.  People are set in their ways and don't like to change.  I love change, maybe it's because I'm into technology.  If something can make my life better, I'm all for it.  How do you feel about change?

This is Diesel, the newest member of Jillian and Brian's family.  They adopted him from a rescue yesterday.  He is an eight week old heeler/shepard mix. Do you think he'll get to participate in the wedding? What a cutie!

Last night was our customer appreciation dinner.  It was the perfect opportunity to reunite the infamous 2010 wild cow milking team to get a shot of them with the trophy.  Two of the guys work in our Limon office, one works in Colorado Springs, and Irv works in his own location.  We had a picture of them after they won last year, but not one with the buckles and trophy. It took a while to round them up, they're all quite social and like to talk.  Will there be a repeat in 2011??

Mr. Beans had his first soccer game of the season last night.  His team name is "Burn".  Don't ask me why, they've had that name for about three years now.  He started off as goalie. Here's an action shot of him kicking the ball out of the goalie box.  By the way, please forgive me if I use incorrect soccer terminology.  I know absolutely nothing about soccer other than the goal is to kick the ball into the opponent's net. This is Mr. Beans' biggest fan enjoying a nice warm spring day in Colorado. This is my creative shot of the game...I call it 2 foot x 2 foot. Mr. Beans' team has eight players.  Do you know what that means?  Every kid plays every minute of the game.  No relief. Mr. Beans is one fast little dude.  There's a lot of running involved in soccer especially now that he's older and they use a bigger field.  Down and up, down and up... At the end of the second half he was kind...

Today is my brother's fifty-something birthday (he's five years older than me).  Happy birthday, Yogi.  I hope you got to do something fun like going out and finding 10 geocaches followed by some adult beverages. How is it that we're getting to be so old?  I used to think that 50-something was really old, now I think it's not that bad.  Now 60, that's really old.

One of the best things about living on the prairie are the morning sunrises.  I took these a couple weeks ago.  Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.    John 8:12 Beautiful!

 Helicopter (taken from the car) During our recent trip to California I took pictures with my new Nikon while Mr. Beans took control of our point and shoot Olympus camera. He had complete control of the camera and it kept him very entertained.  Irv and I found it very interesting to see what he took pictures of.  Self Portrait (in the car again)  We spent quite a bit of time in the car.  He kept himself occupied. Our rental car was brand new, we were the first to rent it.  It was a Ford Taurus and we really liked it. Getting a brand new rental car happened to us once before--in Australia.  They unloaded a brand new car for us at the Cairns airport.  We suggested this wasn't such a good idea since Irv had never driven on the "wrong" side of the road before.  We purchased extra insurance and took it on our first week of Australian adventures and returned it in perfect condition.  GPS (notice the rain) ...