Daniel! | My Blog

Busy, Hectic Week

Posted on March 4, 2012 by

This week was something else. Monday I spent catching up on all the email from the weekend and met with Sandi Hansen of Edison Learning. She is working with our school district to help bring up our educational scores on the Colorado student assessment tests. (TCAP).

Tuesday was meeting day from hell. Dan and I had a Southeastern Workforce Investment Board meeting in La Junta. This was also the day that Colorado tried to blow all of it’s topsoil to Kansas. We had miles of dirt fog. So much dirt in the air that we couldn’t see. Tumbleweeds were passing us and we were going 65! It took 1 gallon of gas to get to La Junta and 3 to get home due to the wind.

At the meeting, we discussed the workforce/employment issues in our region. The map showing the regions can be found here. We also had a really good presentation on Demographics for regions 6 and 14, which is what we are according to the state. It was very interesting and we actually got to solve a question that the Demographers had. There was a statistical blip that they didn’t understand and I looked at it and knew in an instant what it was. There was a burst of households in the 44 to 65 yr range. They didn’t get it and I explained that it was the grandchildren coming to Huerfano County to occupy their grandparents houses. The reason I knew that was that I’m one of those. I escaped the big city, Littleton, to come down to Walsenburg to raise my family in a low cost, low crime/stress area.

After that meeting, we drove home, grabbed dinner and then headed to the board meeting. This was the first regular board meeting for RE-1 in February. All others had been special meetings and/or workshops. We got a lot accomplished and once again, there is more on that meeting on my other blog.

Wednesday should have been quiet. I got some stuff done around the office and then went to meet with David Benson around 4pm. He and his partner, Iris Williams are working to help our school district with trust issues. We have a situation whereby nearly 100% of the district dislikes/distrusts one person. Not healthy, and it is causing major issues. It was a really good discussion and we talked till nearly 5pm. Afterwards, I went to the library and then went to work to pick up Dan. We had to be to Peakview by 6pm to see a 4th grade play called the Emerald Egg. That was fun.

Thursday we were up early and went with my parents to Colorado Springs. Dad had his cancer checkup. Dan drove us home as Dad was a little loopy from the pain meds. We stopped at Romero’s for lunch. Yummm!

Friday was just as early a start. I had a State Youth Council meeting to be at in Denver. The weather was bit nasty, so we left early. The meeting was very good. More info on that over on Untapped Potential. We drove home through bands of snow. We were going to stop in Pueblo for dinner, but with the snow, we changed our minds. Good thing we did as there was a huge car pileup accident due to the snow.

Friday was also Daniel’s 22nd birthday. 🙂

Saturday was sort of a stay in bed type day. We slept in, relaxed and did as little as possible. 🙂 Better yet, we went to Wonderful House in Trinidad with my parents. It was my parents way of thanking Dan for driving. They even promised him that he could bring a date if he wanted, or if he didn’t, they have this daughter…. that they’d set up as a blind date for him. ROFLOL!! Needless to say, there were a bunch of blind date jokes all evening.

Today is catch-up day. Dan has gone into work for the day and I’m writing blog posts, reading emails and cleaning house. Wheee!

For more school board adventures, check out my other blog, Untapped Potential

About that cable…

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

Yesterday around 10am. the internet died. So did the phones. Our first thought… did we pay the bill?

I went home to check and what did I find??? No one had phone service or internet. In fact, as it came out later, someone had cut the cable. The article in the Chieftain was brief.

In fact, it was almost as good as the one from the Weather Channel that said we’d only get a trace of snow. So far, that trace adds up to about 4 inches. Brrr!!! Thank goodness for Daniel who brought his dear old mum some firewood.

Now to catch up on everything I didn’t get done due to no phones, and no internet. Oh, and I’m wiping one item off my agenda. I am NOT changing my header picture. It still looks like that outside. Snow!!!

A Wild Time in Walsenburg!

Posted on August 11, 2011 by

Just in case anyone in the universe missed the news yesterday…. This is what happened in Walsenburg. Around 9:45am, Dan called to tell me that he might be late getting home from lunch. He’d gone to get gas at the Acorn when suddenly everything went crazy. He got over to George’s Drive Inn and managed to grab a burger while waiting to see if he could get out of the area. He finally ended going up over the hogback and through the back side of town to get home. He also got the chance to talk to our local sheriff, Bruce Newman.

Meanwhile, Daniel and some of his work buddies were getting gas as well. Everyone got hung up. My parents were trying to come home from Pueblo where they’d gone early this morning for groceries. I don’t know how long it took them to get home. Oh, and Morgan and I were suppose to go to Pueblo to do some shopping. We got delayed and had to go out of town by the southern exits. We passed the scene and could see the car and the traffic backed up for miles.

We got our shopping done, had lunch at Bingo Burger and still managed to be caught in the traffic jam. We did see the Dougherty Gang being taken in convoy to Pueblo. Lots and Lots of law enforcement vehicles with flashing lights.

It certainly has been a media circus. Walsenburg’s one day of fame. Now to going back to a quiet sleepy town in Southern Colorado.

Now this is what May is suppose to be like!

Posted on May 6, 2010 by

Warm days, cool nights and lovely breezes. Okay, Winds. Then again, when isn’t it windy in Walsenburg? Oh well. The weather is warmer, I can wear skirts, sandals and light tops again. Wheeee!!! Can you tell I get tired of jeans?

Life has been busy. It was suppose to be a relaxed week. HA! It got really busy really fast. Not only were Dan and Ian trying to fix the Neon and the Nissan, but they had computer work, and then the Lights at the Fox. Oh gods. They wired the theater in 9 hours when it normally would have taken 3 days. They also discovered that there was a piece missing called a terminator. (stop laughing) Without it, nothing would work. Dan and Ian about had a seizure. Checking online and on the phone, and discovered that they cost $300. Or, you could ‘build your own’ for about $5. Guess what we did? Yup! We built it.

The reason it was so necessary to get things running this week was that El Fandango was performing for Cinco De Mayo. One performance on Wednesday, one tonight and another one on Saturday if I remember correctly. Practice went well, so hopefully the shows will as well. Dan was happy the way the new light board worked too.

We let Nibbler play with the big dogs this evening. Daniel was here, so I figured that he and Ian were strong enough to pull the dogs apart if anything went wrong. No problems. Wheee!!!! Now to just rebuild the fence.

Tomorrow I have to buckle down and write an essay for school. Oh, and return about 20 phone calls.

Alphadogtechs.com is us!!!

Posted on April 29, 2010 by

We now have a domain for service to add to our LoboSavvy website. Wheeee!!!! We’d been debating what to do, as LoboSavvy Technologies is so broad in it’s abilities. So, we decided to make LST, the teaching arm of things, where we do classes and philanthropic type things and have ADT for the repairs, service and other $$$ things.

We are working to ‘revve’ up the business at the moment too. Now that Dan has a brain after his divorce, and can concentrate more on business, we hope to get things moving more. Dan and Ian are working on A+ certs and that kind of thing. Meanwhile, Dan and I are about to change colleges too. Poor professors and classes that are not challenging us. So, we are ‘shopping’.

Dan and Ian are working on the truck as well, since the computer on my car has died. pout! Once we have a bit of cash, they will fix my car. Meanwhile, Daniel is letting me borrow his car as needed.

Well, must go do something! It is cold and damp again today and I must get moving!

Puppy Photos!

Posted on March 24, 2010 by

I finally got all the pics off of the camera. These are pics of the puppy Daniel brought home about 10 days ago. We call him Nibbler.

And back into the Icebox!!!

Posted on October 21, 2009 by

Last night it started to rain. We went to bed fairly early because Morgan had a field trip to go on and they had to leave at 6am this morning. At some point in the night, the rain turned to snow. Daniel turned up around 2:15am. He didn’t want to fall asleep and not be able to be woken up. I woke up at 3am, when something pissed off the skunk. Oh gads! The smell sent me into an asthma attack. 4am, my alarm went off. Dan was suppose to get up, but didn’t want to move. I don’t blame him. 4:25am, Dan and Morgan finally got up and moving. It was snowing and they knew that they needed to get on the road. Dan, Daniel and Morgan left around 5am for Gardner. I went back to bed, as I could finally breathe.

7:35am-The phone rings. Daniel. “Hi mom, we’re stuck in the mud and Erin is coming to pull us out.” Huh? Okay. I figured that they had gone off the road and were just stuck on the side of the road. I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

8:58am-The phone rings. It’s John this time telling me that Daniel and Dan are still stuck, Erin couldn’t get them out of the mud, and that they were waiting for Daniel’s Towing Service to unstick them. Great… The boyz went Mudding. What the hell were they thinking? I debated rolling back over and going to sleep versus getting up. While I lay there debating, Dan and Daniel arrived. Dan was soaked and mud covered. They were hauling the hose out of the back yard to clean off Daniel’s car. I got up and took a peek. There must have been ten pounds of mud on it.

Brandy and Blanca of course took advantage of the chaos to run off. Dumb dogs!

They hosed it off, and Daniel headed home to shower and hopefully get his car fixed. He had planned to get a ball joint or something like that repaired today. If he couldn’t, he was just going to sleep. While fixing breakfast, Dan told me what really happened. They had gotten Morgan safely to school and were almost home when they decided to go play in the arroyos near Toltec. Dan said to Daniel that this probably was NOT a good idea. Daniel, being Daniel said “Well, I want to” and off they went. They did fine right up until they hit clay. The sand in the arroyo was okay. However, the mud was…. sticky, sucking and treacherous. Daniel almost got them out. he slid off the ‘road’ and that was it. So, they called Erin, who has a big 4WD pickup. Daniel’s is a 4WD Blazer.

Erin came out and couldn’t even get near Daniel’s Blazer. He got stuck twice and finally gave up. So, they called the towing company. The guy with the tow truck has a Mudder truck that he tows with for situations like this. He almost got stuck. It took Everyone, 8 wheels, two drivers and lots of luck to finally get the Blazer out. The guy told Daniel he was lucky! gads! Boyz!

Dan said the mud was sucking the shoes off of his feet, and rivaled Montana mud. (and that is something to rival!)

So, now we are curled up with a fire in the fireplace, the two dumb dogs have returned and are drying off on the back porch, Spike is with me in the house and the cats are on the front porch. Dan keeps saying he will take a nap. (ha! silly boy) At least he did crawl in bed even if he does have his computer with him.

There is about 10 inches of snow out there and it is still snowing. Such fun. I’m going to finish this post, play on the net a few more minutes and then go back to writing my story.

Chaos Central

Posted on September 4, 2009 by

Oh gods…. Since I last wrote, school has started, and we’ve had company, and TEENS!!! At the same time no less. Aieeeee!!!!! So very busy. The weekend of the 29th, we had four teens…. three girls and one boy spending the night for Friday and Saturday night. Giggles, gory movies, lots of junk food and oh…. more giggles.

We all went to the Sand Dunes at one point. One girl didn’t go with us, but spent the night, so we had three adults and three kids. Wheeeee!!!!! It was a lot of fun, and very sandy. There were also two trips to Pueblo. One with Daniel in tow, and we all went to our favourite Chinese buffet. Daniel was drooling over one of the waitresses and we got him to hug her goodbye. All of the adults thought that that was a riot. We did some grocery shopping too. Oh that was fun. 🙂 Daniel is so funny.

By the time Sunday came, we were ALL ready for the teens to go home. Our company left Tuesday morning and life got sort of back to normal. School runs, picking plums at Mum’s and Dan going out on hikes with Dad.

Today they just took a drive and a little hike. Mom and I went out to lunch and I finally got the jam bottled. Gods that was a lot of plums. I just hope it sets up well. If not, oh well…..

I am half way through my class at the moment. English 112. Not as bad as English 111, but oh my… Teaching to the lowest common denominator. Argh….

Teens, drama and dogs

Posted on June 12, 2009 by

We’ve had Morgan and Kayla at the 520 house for the last three nights. We had Matt here last night as well. That wasn’t too bad, but we also babysat Spike for Daniel. The house was full of noise. Squeals, barks, hisses and noise from the TV and computers. We got a short break when they went swimming and out for pizza, but the rest of the time was rather loud. They watched vampire movies until nearly 2am!

Morgan and Kayla planning world domination

Here are the girls. Giggling and being silly on the computer. This morning I made bacon, eggs and biscuits for breakfast. It is Matt’s 16th birthday. Tonight the kids are working at the move theater and treating Matt to the movies. Wheeee…. Then they are here again for the night.

I have to admit that it will be nice to have a bit of quiet while they are at the movies.

In other news, Lyra had five kittens on Tuesday. That brings the number of cats up to fifteen at 203. Gods! I have possible homes for three of them.

School wise, I’ve got all A’s. All points too. Now if I can keep that up when the subjects get harder. Intro into online learning isn’t that difficult. Biggest issue is not dissing the instructor during Live Chats. I’ve made a few friends too. Daphne in Louisiana and I have struck up a good beginning friendship. We have fun chatting back and forth. There are a few others I want to get to know better.

The library is getting ready to shut down and move into their new building. I get to go help pack boxes later next week. Wheee….. At least I am not swamped by classes at this point. I took out a stack of books to read while they are closed. The idea being to get all the patrons to take home at least 10-15 books each. This way there will be fewer to move. It makes it interesting on the other end, when they all get checked back in, but… it does make fewer to pack up.

John is in Denver today. He had a VA appointment. Dermatology. His skin is doing better. He is waiting in town to pick up some caviar for the grand opening. I hope someone likes the dammed stuff. I sure don’t. Bleckkk…. Tarmasalata is good, but totally different. I have a dress made for the grand opening. I need to make a waistcoat to go with it to finishe out the outfit. Plus, as I like this pattern, I’m going to make a few more in different materials. I also have a surprise… 🙂 Can’t wait to unveil that one. Of course, the grand opening coinsides with the end of the first chunk of classes. This shall be interesting.

Well, best go tackle the laundry.

Babysitting…

Posted on May 31, 2009 by

Daniel brought Spike over to play with Blanca and Brandy. Oh how that pup has grown.

I can barely lift him now as he weighs nearly 45 pounds. Our new cat, Shadow wasn’t too concerned that Spike was around.

She just laid there snoozing while Spike, Brandy and Blanca ran around like three little kids on a sugar high. It was hilarious.

Daniel wanted breakfast, so we made a big breakfast. Daniel cooked the bacon while I made the pancakes. Daniel had three eggs too. It was heavenly!

He will probably get mad at me for posting his picture, but he looks good. Dan and Daniel talked about him going into the Marines. Eeeep! As a mom, I’m allowed to get wigged out. sigh…. At least I know that of all the boys, Daniel will probably handle the military the best.