Thursday, April 28, 2011

deergrama

"MMMM... a... Dear Gramm, Grandma... I put a lot of G's... backspace, backspace, backspace. I did it.

Duh... e, e... d, rrr... guh... guh... grrr... deer grrr... ahh... mmm... a. Dear Grandma. Dear Grandma! I spelled, Dear Grandma! I spelled, Dear Grandma!" (awesome!)

Blooming Rock Garden 2011/1

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Goodbye, Old Chairs

We were gifted a dining table and four chairs by the previous owners of our house (read: they were crap and owners didn't want to pay to take them to the dump.) I said sure and we kept them. We didn't have much in the way of a dining table or chairs anyway, except those three legged ones we kept falling off of.

I upholstered them at least twice and they came out nice, but sadly the kids are slobs (as kids can often be) and I couldn't keep them very clean.

I lucked out at a local(ish) going-out-of-business sale and bought a nice veneer table and chairs off the floor at a huge discount. They are beautiful and they have nice wood seats that wipe clean very easily.

The old chairs were literally falling apart by then so I didn't even bother; I put them in the burn pile. There they sat for weeks and weeks making my yard look like the dump, so I said to heck with it and built a fire.

Goodbye, old chairs. I will not miss you in the least.

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Look What I Found

Walking around Harvey Gap Lake a couple of weekends ago I picked up a bunch of shells along the upper trail. I used to pick up the same kinds of shells when I was a little girl, forever collecting little things in my pockets. Not much has changed since then! I soaked them for awhile to loosen the dirt that had found its way inside.

I was cleaning them out today when I found a plant growing out of one of them. (scroll down)

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A very tiny plant...

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I love tiny things! I can't stop looking at the tiny plant and seeing a whole Pacific Northwest island; an ecosystem in and of itself. To be sitting in the shade of one of those mighty trees, relaxing to the sound of the surf. If I had a tiny little ear I could hold the shell up to it and hear the ocean. ;)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Gotta Have a Sharp Eye

... when Willon's the one hiding the eggs.

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Yes, he really buried that one.

Friday, April 22, 2011

3rd Quarter ABC Student Award!

That's my girl!

Every quarter the teachers select a boy and a girl from their class to win the ABC Award. The school called me a couple of days ago to give me the heads up, although they didn't tell me what the award was for. Just that we might want to come to the assembly to see her receive it.

I purposely did not mention it to Rhetta.

I caught her reaction when they called her name. She looks surprised and delighted. She's just about to jump to her feet, and I heard her squeal EEE!

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Coincidentally the boy her teacher picked happens to also be the boy she wants to marry. (hee ♥) The hand mime is a fairy - pinky and ring man are the feet, pointer is the head, and thumb and tall man are the wings. She still looks delighted. Those cheeks!

As an aside, someone once said our area wasn't ethnically diverse enough for her. Take one look at my kid's schoolmates and you'll see how ethnically diverse it is around here. ♥

She leaned over to look the boy in the face and asked, "Am I an ABC student?! *big grin*" adn he smiled and nodded yes. So happy.

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My proud (and maybe a little tired) girl.

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New Fence

Why? Because the wind blew down my old fence so many times I got serious about it. 46' of old weathered wood. The fence posts were rotten and the cross bars were tied on with baling wire and rope.

Some owner before us had built a 6' fence out of 4' slats. I liked it well enough but I couldn't see over it. Choosing to go to only 4' was a great decision. I don't know a whole lot about Fung Shui but I think this improved that in my yard tremendously.

Thank you to my neighbors at D & G Fence for giving me a great deal. The new posts are treated and set in cement, and they used all the old slats per my request. Also notable, they were extremely careful not to tread on any of my plants, and filled in the new space with dirt which I had thought I'd have to do myself.

Before (taken last spring before the wind blew it over completely)

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During

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After

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Was Out of Ideas

Pressed for time tonight I looked around my food cupboards and was greatly discouraged by what I found, which was not much. There's plenty of the usual but I am so tired of the usual. I very nearly stuffed a frozen pizza in the oven and called it good.

Instead, I got busy. I cooked up a bunch of chick peas in the pressure cooker. While that was going - dude, they take an hour at this elevation - I started rummaging for things to dip in what would eventually be homemade hummus.

I found organic carrots, a green bell pepper, GF pretzels, celery, rice crackers, sharp cheddar, gala apples, asiago cheddar sourdough bread sticks (from Target), and for no other reason except that it needed to be cooked soon, bacon (man, did THAT turn out to be a good idea).

Voilá! A meal fit for a queen and her family.

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rifle Falls and Harvey Gap

Two of Colorado's wonderful state parks. We get an annual state park pass because we spend most of our play time at one or more of them. There are 42 of them in Colorado so it's no wonder!

We spent the whole day with Cameron today. We took him to Rifle Falls State Park and Harvey Gap State Park.

Rifle Falls is a desert grotto. There are three cataracts surrounded by limestone caves. There is a trail that loops up and around to the top of the falls and back around and down the other side. it passes numerous small caves and even a couple of big ones.

It is spring time in the Rockies so naturally there are still no leaves on the trees. We were lucky there was not still snow on the ground, although we were not very far from deep snow.

We hiked around for hours investigating nature, climbing in caves and playing hide and seek. This isn't safe for the littles so it was just the teen, and he was only practicing his ninja stealth skills. He is really, really good, too.

Here is a little plant growing right out of the limestone. They were just waking up - meaning they survived the freezing weather and were just getting their green back. This particular formation was as big as a car and bleeding water.

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This picture was a total accident! I was getting my reflection in the water next to it. When I got home and looked I did a double take. I turned it upside down and cropped it down and what do you see?

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Here is Rhetta's silhouette from inside one of the larger caves.

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Sibling sweetness...

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Taking a break (because I begged them).

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Family portrait ♥

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The very noisy, wet cataracts.



The elusive ninja teen checking out the shoreline down on the lake at Harvey Gap. He hiked over the dam with me then we took a trail around the upper part of the lake. We were headed to another water fall but never made it because he kept taking side jaunts down to the water. He really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed watching him have a good time.

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And finally, the other slightly less elusive boy learning how to use the bee-noculars because, you know, you can't put in too much cuteness.

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Random Photos From This Week

Dead Juniper (Colorado Nat'l Monument)

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Ornamental Plum (Backyard)

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Blow Dry (Laurie @ Mane Image)

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It Tickles (Laurie @ Mane Image)

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Grand View (Colorado Nat'l Monument)

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Lola Kitty (Our sweetie cat)

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Cinnamon Ants

He was very patient and very gentle. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

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Monday, April 4, 2011

Flotsam

At first it kinda looks like that memory game where you look at the stuff for one minute them they take it away and you try to list everything you saw from memory. Go ahead and try it. It's not that easy!

What is all this stuff anyway? It's the flotsam from our washing machine. Every other load or so I find something in the bottom of the washing machine, sound familiar? It's usually loose change or hankies, sometimes a stray dryer sheet (don't ask 'cause I do not have a dryer).

So, it accumulates. I fish it out of the machine and toss it on the little windowsill above the washer. Apparently I've been doing it for some time without giving it a second thought. Seriously, dental floss?

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

Spring 2011 Dance Recital - Rainbow

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She's in the back row so is hard to see some of the time. It looks like she's completely out of sync there in the beginning but she's actually the only one doing the moves right of the ones visible in the video. Make sense? Anyway, she had a great time and we're so proud of her we could burst.

Friday, April 1, 2011

2011 2nd Grade Pioneer Presentation

Rhetta's 2nd grade class and the other three classes held their annual Pioneer Presentation today. They danced and sang songs. It was very cute.

Unfortunately, it was too loud for Sis and holding it in the gymnasium didn't help that much. This is how she looked during most of the songs. Of course, if she is at all like me and her dad she just can't stand the off-key noise on top of the volume.

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You'll see in this first video of the very first song that she attempted to sing.



You'll see in this second video just how wonderfully individual she can be. God, I love this girl. She made the pantomime up herself.



Please excuse all the camera motion. Someone who shall remain 4 years old wouldn't stop jostling me. LOL

Also, I wish I could have captured her face when they were dancing. She was definitely having a great time!