Life on the High Plains

Irv built these wonderful raised beds for me, but I have not had time to plant anything yet.  I had planned to do that today, but the wind was blowing and I didn't feel like it.  Tomorrow though, it has to be done.  It hasn't felt like summer yet.  Hopefully it won't be too late to at least get a few veggies before the end of summer.  This is my first try at veggie gardening so I'll keep you informed on how things go this summer.  The first time I see a snake out there, that may be the end of my gardening. Diesel has to go home tomorrow and I'm sad.  (Notice there's still only one ear up.)

From your favorite aunt!

So today is going to be a very personal post. Six days ago my beautiful daughter was married to a wonderful man. I feel very blessed for that. However, these last few days have been kind of rough. The wedding weekend was full of joy and celebration…and very little sleep. In addition, I got to make a whirl wind tour of some of our branch offices for work this week. I really think it’s unfair that the mom and dad don’t get a “honeymoon” of their own after the wedding! It’ s great having a three day weekend, but it sucks that Irv is working just like he does for every holiday. We spent the last several months planning every minute of the wedding and it turned out as close to perfect as possible. Jillian and Brian left on their honeymoon, Dana and Adam went back to Australia, my Dad, brother and his family went back home, Irv’s family came and went without us getting to spend much time with them. Irv and I have been wrapping things up…returning things to the vendors, putting things away, m...

Little Diesel has been trying to grow into his ears.  Yesterday one of them finally made it all the way up! I think Diesel is going to be sad when he has to go home.  He and Keira have become really good friends. Sometimes they get into a wee bit of trouble together.  For the most part though, Diesel is a really good little puppy. I think we'll miss him!

Dana and Adam:   Missed their flight by 2 minutes last night, but made the best of a bad situation by spending the day at Disneyland.  Will catch a flight at 10:00 tonight. Brian and Jillian:   Got up at 2:30 a.m. to catch their 5:50 flight just to find it delayed until 2:00 p.m.  I think it actually left about 3:30.  They should be in Jamaica by now after almost 2 days of travel.  I hope they're having fruity drinks on the beach by now.

How many animals can one house hold?? 1)  Cody, the grumpy old man 2)  Zima, Dana's 19 or 20 year old really matted and grumpy cat 3)  Keira, the 7 1/2 year old lab puppy (my sweet girl) 4)  Tabitha, Jillian's 15 year old tabby cat 5)  Rascal, Jillian's rotten and really mean monster cat 6)  Diesel, the newest member of the family (other than Brian).  He's also Keira and Cody's worst nightmare.  It's a good thing he's so cute. SIX!  I have six animals in my house?  GROSS !  Please note that 4 of the 6 don't belong to me.  I'm feeling like an animal hoarder.  Where's the bleach and disinfectant?

It's been a bad travel day for most of our clan. The newlyweds departed from Denver at 1:00 a.m. today for Charlotte, NC where they were making a connection to the honeymoon destination.  Upon arrival they found that their flight was cancelled due to an air traffic controller strike in Jamaica.  Flights are apparently backed up for days.  After a full day of working with the travel company, they boarded a flight for LaGuardia in NYC.  They called us to find them a hotel near JFK because they have a 5:54 a.m. flight out tomorrow morning.  At least if they get stuck in NYC there will be lots to do--way more choices than Charlotte, NC.  Keep your fingers crossed.  The travel agency extended their stay in Jamaica for a day so they will still have lots of beach time. Dana and Adam were leaving to go home to Oz tonight, but they're still sitting on the plane in Colorado Springs and may miss their connection to Sidney.  Maybe they'll get to spen...

The rehearsal is done. The cutest little flower girl and ring bearer are ready. My baby looks beautiful, doesn't she? Dana has her usual camera face on...and I guess that wonderful habit has been passed on to her boyfriend.  (Maybe it's just a symptom of the jet lag.) The family has all arrived and the rehearsal dinner meal has been eaten. The Lord has given us a beautiful day. The only question that remains...is this man ready to give his litle girl away? We love you, Jillian!  Happy wedding day!

What more could a bride who loves pink ask for than a pink limousine?  Mary planned a fabulous bachelorette party for her little sister that included a Chrysler 300 pink limo complete with pink interior and disco floor.  Gramps, Yogi and family, and Adam all arrived safely today.  Tomorrow more family arrives. 2 days to go! Forecast for Saturday:  67 degrees and 30% chance of rain We're puppy sitting tonight--I'm pretty sure there won't be much sleep involved.  Irv is going to pick up the girls at 2:00 a.m.--what a good dad!

The beads are sewn on, the head piece is attached, and it is pressed and ready to go!  All without anything tearing, melting, or getting dirty.  We're going to need the sun to shine next Saturday so all these tiny little crystals can shimmer and shine.  I can't really show you the whole thing, but here's a glimpse. Six more days... Forecast for next Saturday--few showers (30%) and 69 degrees.

So what was up with blogger yesterday?  I even got up early to make a post and then I couldn't get in.  Oh well. We have a baby in the neighborhood.  Our neighbor, Steve, keeps longhorn cattle for roping practice.  This week he moved two cow calf pairs into the pasture by our house.  If you look real close you can see a little brown head and ears behind the cow.  Adorable!  I think it's amazing how God made made all baby creatures (except snakes) so precious.  Usually if I stop and try and take a picture mama and baby run off, but on this day they were okay with it.  My mom always used to say that if the cows were laying down, it was going to rain.  As you can see by the crunchy brown grass, we definitely need some moisture.  Any day except for May 21, please.  One week to go...

This morning I awoke to the sweet sound of rain hitting our metal roof.  Unfortunately, it was accompanied by the howl of the wind.  Winter has returned to the Pikes Peak region.  The forecast for today is for rain, wind, thunderstorms, snow, and  a high of 43 degrees.  SNOW!  It's May 11th and it might snow, the news last night said we could get up to 3 inches.  I'm not complaining because we very much need the moisture (as long as it snows today and not 10 days from today--the day my baby is getting married).  It could be worse though--further east there are supposed to be major storms including possible tornadoes. ` Mr. Beans has another soccer game this evening.  It is always coldest on the days he has games.  Here's Bella and I enjoying last Wednesday's game.  Miserable! Tomorrow I can go to weather.com and pull up the 10 day forecast to see what is expected on May 21.  I know it's going to be a perfect day.

I realize I've been falling behind on my blogging lately.  Other things have been keeping me occupied.  Last weekend I had to finish writing the final paper for the economics class I was taking.  I got the results back tonight and my grade was a B.  B?  How can that be, I've never gotten a B.  Then I looked through the professor's comments and he was correct, I forgot to include the in-text citations for all the statistics I quoted.  Such a simple error and one that I knew would reduce my score.  I meant to go back and add them and I simply forgot.  Oh well, even with a B on the final I still received an overall A for the course.  Oh well, a good lesson in humility.  I will survive if I don't receive an A on every assignment. Mr. Beans doesn't have school tomorrow so he and I are hanging out tonight. We just finished watching Wipe Out which Mr. Beans says "cracks him up". Is there anything better than the laughter of a child? Now ...

It's less than three week until the wedding and our high today was around 37 degrees and there were a few snowflakes.  Oh boy.... Thirty-four years ago Irv and I got hitched.  Wow, how could it possibly be that long ago?  I guess times go quickly when you're with the person you were meant to be with. My darlin surprised me with dinner reservations at the Peppertree, a really nice steak restaurant.  Of course, I was there without my camera, but luckily the phone came through again (sort of).   This is the type of restaurant that you actually have to dress up to go to.  Even though it was freezing outside, I decided to wear my Easter outfit that I didn't get to wear the week before because rather than going to church, I went to the urgent care clinic.  (The cold I had last week developed into bronchitis and I needed some antibiotics.) The Peppertree's specialty is pepper steak.  They cook it table side.  The best part is when th...