Life on the High Plains

Wow, the last seven days has been incredible! Last week our family grew by two feet when little Miss Gigi joined the family.  We have a beloved grandson, Mr. Beans, and now we have a gorgeous little granddaughter.   Here she is when she was brand new.   This was her going home outfit.     This is a just because she's so dang cute picture.     Isn't she beautiful?  We are so blessed to have this sweet girl in our family.  Mr. Beans finally has a cousin!  Dana has promised to send me a picture every day so I'll be sure to share.   On Wednesday my boss came in and told me about a big promotion I'm getting on April 1st.  My new job title is going to have an "AVP" in it.  I'm pretty much in shock and scared at the same time.  More about that later on.     On Saturday we joined some of our other favorite people at the Garth Brooks concert in Denver.  All I...

Way back when Jillian was a little girl she loved the Berenstain Bears books.  One of those books was "Too Much Birthday". That's kind of how I'm feeling today.  Big birthday celebration this past weekend.  Lots of food, drink, and cake! It all started Friday after work when a new friend invited me to Phantom Canyon for beer and billiards.  Billiards?  I have never picked up a pool cue in my life, but I told her I was game for it if she was up to teaching me. It was so much fun!  I can't believe I've let the first 55 years of my life go by without having played pool before.  She was an awesome and very patient teacher too. Afterwards we walked downtown to a great restaurant where I had salmon tacos.  Yum!  The best part of the evening was getting to know Leigh better and realizing how much we have in common.  It's great when you find a kindred spirit...doesn't happen very often. Saturday morning starting with a gift...

The first couple days of my birthday week has been fantastic!  I think we should go for 365 days of birthday. On Saturday Irv and I went and got our Whooping Cough vaccinations updated.  Dana very kindly asked if we would mind doing that before we go to see our new granddaughter.  I hope the Little Miss appreciates how much our arms have been aching ever since.  (It was worth it!)  In case you're wondering, the Little Miss is in no hurry to make her appearance.  I'm pretty sure she's waiting for her Grammy's birthday on Saturday. Then on Sunday I wanted to go for a hike.  Well, when you've recently had a couple weeks of weather that left a foot or more of snow, it's kind of hard finding somewhere that is dry. We saw a lot of snow, ice, slush, and mud!   I will admit that it was a little treacherous in spots.  There were a few areas with a very narrow, icy, muddy trail right next to a cliff, not a big cliff, but a small...

I stopped to visit some neighbors a couple days ago.  Their big brown eyes and fuzzy ears were beckoning me to stop and say hello. They were pleading with me to bring them something good to eat.  Maybe some hay or alfalfa and a little cake would be good too. I think they'd like to come in out of the snow and cold for awhile too. It's a good thing I don't have a bigger barn. Happy Skywatch Friday!

It's time for an adorable kitten cat video.  My little girl is all grown up now, but still keeps me entertained.   She is the most personable, smart, and affectionate cat I've ever known.  She is definitely my best friend and she thinks I hung the hung the moon and stars.  Her dream in life is to become a dog..she thinks dogs, especially Diesel, are really cool. Irv and I wanted to get her a motorized mouse and I found one at the pet store today.  Unfortunately, she wasn't as wild about it as I had hoped.  She seems to prefer it when the motor is off. Oh well...it was worth a try. Stay tuned for another adorable cat video coming soon.

The snow and the cold has returned.  We've been stuck inside for what seems like forever now.  There's a glimmer of hope this weekend though...we may actually get up to 40 degrees! So my kids who only blog about once a year, or maybe once every other year, think they have to have a subject to blog about.  I'm going to show them how you can blog about anything.  For instance, how do you start your day? Here's how I start mine. The alarm goes off about 5:15 a.m.  I drag myself out of bed, throw on the athletic shoes and spend about 30 minutes with my worst enemy...the treadmill. I hate the treadmill!  It is incredibly boring, but when the weather is bad it's a necessity.  You may be wondering why I choose to get out of bed that early and do something that I hate.  I've found that activity in the morning brings out the natural endorphins.  I feel better, I have a better attitude, and I'm much better able to handle the stressful day o...

It's March so it's birthday time around our house. Today was Mr. Beans' 14th birthday.  Can you believe he's 14? I can't! He's grown into such a sweet and considerate young man (most of the time--there is an occasional teenage moment, but not many). No more Legos and Transformers for this young man. Now it's Walking Dead and full gear for paint ball.  (This is Mr. Beans on top of the pile of snow that Mary's neighbor has filled Mary's spare parking spot with.  Believe me this was no easy task.  Mary says she does it in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping.  It's easily 4 feet high.  The lady is nuts.) Pappy was a wee bit jealous of Mr. Bean's new gear. Mr. Beans loves the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies.  He received seven boxes of his own.  It's a good thing he's so skinny! Dirt cake and chocolate cake for his special day. So today was just the start of the birthday celebrations.  Tomorrow i...