Gardner school | My Blog

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.

Update on life, part 2

Posted on October 10, 2009 by

I ran out of hours in the day… I didin’t get to the fun of Thursday. We got Morgan off to school and I started to get ready for the day. Spike, Daniel’s dog, went tearing into the house and scared the kitten, 5. 5 ran and Spike gave chase. He caught the kitten and started to shake it, when the kitten planted all twent claws into the dog. Meanwhile, Dan and I are trying to get the dog to let go. Spike is a pit bull… I thought that we were going to loose the kitten. However, Dan pulled Spike’s gums back and popped him in the jaw. It worked, and We got the kitten free and out of the way. Spike went out on the back porch, and we took 5 to the vet. Just a puncture in the jaw from what the vet could tell. So, we came home. Cleaned up the blood and looked at Dan’s hand. He broke two small bones when he hit Spike. Ouch!!!!

Then Dan went to work on a computer for a client. Meanwhile, I discover that there is a bat on the inside of the porch. Normally, this wouldn’t have bothered me. However, with everything else, I was a bit nervy about moving the bat. When Dan got home, he moved it outside. I have a picture, but it isn’t very close…

The other thing that freaked me out is that I adjusted the piece of plexiglass between the bat and the outside world earlier that morning, and I don’t remember seeing the bat!!!!

Then it was time to head off to Gardner and then to Westcliffe, because Morgan had a volleyball game at Custer school. It was snowing of course. We drove up and watched the game. The girls won!!! After that, we went to Pizza Madness for pizza. Very good! Ate more than I should, but oh it was nice. Then we drove home in snow and fog.

Next day was suppose to be nice and quiet so that Dan and I could get school work done. Hahaahahaahaa….. First Daniel showed up to talk to us about Spike. (7:30am!!) We know he was just being a dog and 5 a kitten. Now we will just take care to lock up the cats before we let the dogs in. sigh…. Finally got Daniel out the door and thought we’d snooze a bit when the phone rang. It was Dad. He had computer problems. So, we got up and tried to get stuff done… Oh yeah….. I think the phone rang 20 times in at least a two hour span. Sigh. Daniel came back with new cables for the dogs and then they all escaped. Dan and Daniel went after them and I stayed put in case they came home. That escapade over, Dan tried again to get his school work done. He finished it just in time to go out to Lathrop park to help my Dad and the park rangers with the computer equipment. Meanwhile, I did laundry, housework and tried to start my school work.

Morgan spent the night and Dan and I got our school work done around 10:30pm….. Off to bed because Saturday was Volleyball tourney time!!!

Up at 6:30am and started to get ready. Dan was a slug….

And Brandy wasn’t helping………

I finally got everyone up and fed… and out the door. There was ice all over the car. Brrr….. Dan got it started, but then it died. No idea what is wrong. So, I came in and called Faith Espinosa who’s daughter Madiana (sp?) is on the team as well. She gave us a ride up and we got there just as the tournament started. Wheeee!!!!

Gardner B team played Gardner A team first. Then there were games between Primero, La Veta and Gardner. Gardner B team ranked 4th. La Veta 3rd, Primero 2nd and Gardner A team Won First Place!!!!! It was a really good set of games with lots of breath holding. Morgan did really well and we are so proud of her. We got home around 1:30pm and started a fire in the fireplace. It is still bitterly cold. I’ve got chicken in the oven and I figure we will curl up with a movie later tonight. Brrrr!!!!

Just another manic wee-eek!

Posted on January 17, 2009 by

Wish it was Sunday…. oh wait… tomorrow is Sunday. The days have boiled past. Now I could really go for a nice hot soak in a tub, a lovely dinner, watch a bit of a movie and then crawl in bed.

Saturday, I went shopping with Jolene. A girl’s day out! Wheeeee!!!! I got a few new sweaters, undies and a skirt. We had dinner at the China Recipe, a decent restaurant in Pueblo. Yummmm…

Sunday, I did grocery shopping with Dan. Not a lot to pick up, but it seemed to take much longer than necessary. Hmm…. maybe it was because we had Morgan with us. teehee….. She needed new shoes, and I refused to buy them without her trying them on. Fussy feet. We went to Chile’s for dinner and had to tease her because she has become a “veggiesaurus”. Best part was her trying to flirt with the waiter. He was late 20’s, and she’s 12.

I started Monday with taking the girls, Brandy and Blanca to the vet. My mom gave me a little bit of money and after paying off some bills, I decided to get them fixed. Dan did a deal with the local vet, and so we got two dogs fixed for the price of one and the repair of a printer. Wheeeee!

Of course, it snowed that day. Lots of it. The roads were slick, and the WorkForce people didn’t make it up from Trinidad. So, I did bits of their job as well as my own. Plus, this week, Dan has been helping me out trying to get the office in better shape. Since he is now the treasurer for the Chamber, he wanted a place for his computer to park when he has work to do. The dogs were real unhappy with the snow when we picked them up. Don’t blame them really.

Plus, we’ve had to pick Morgan up from school this week. Jolene normally takes her to school and has been bringing her home. However, Jolene’s schedule changed. sigh… So, we’ve been driving up to Gardner to pick up the girl after basketball practice.

Thursday, we met with City Council Finance committee and got the ordinance fairly well straightened out. Talk about a sigh of relief!

Friday I went to a meeting with the Colorado State University Extension office about gardening! It was a good meeting and I think that this will be a good project for the city and the county. Then, I got paid!!!! Wheeeee!!! We had to take a big box of brochures to Pueblo’s CF&I Steel Mill Museum, so we did a bit of shopping as well. Dan and I got home late because we stopped into Barnes and Nobel. I got a book and a bookmark. It says “You say WICKED” like it’s a Bad Thing!” and it has the witch from the Wizard of Oz on it. 🙂 We saw our friend Shirley there too. Caught her up on the fun from Monday. She works for Workforce.

Today we got up at the crack of dawn to take Morgan to her basketball tourney in Gardner at 8am…. yawwwwwn! HWY 69 is an East-West road, and coming back (eastward) at 7:15am this morning was horrid. We pulled over for 15 minutes to let the Sun get off the highway. Dan literally couldn’t see to drive.

After playing with the dogs for a bit, we came down to the chamber. Why? Because Dan was meeting John from the finance committee to get the treasurer’s books. Whee….. I put in 3 hours extra time. ah well… Plus played on the computer.

We headed to Gardner around 1:30pm to go watch the girls play in the finals. Gardner took second. The Craven team was really nasty. They played a foul offensive game. grrr… One of the girls got hurt. Liz. She’s a real sweetie, and smacked the begeezus out of her kneecap. Dan, Cathy (the coach) and I gave her ice packs and cuddles while the game finished. It is a bad sprain, but should be ok.

Of course, my car acted up on the way home and so it took us nearly 30 minutes to go 1 mile at one point. We were rolling downhill and couldn’t make the turn to the house so we glided to the Chamber parking lot. Dan worked on the books a bit and I decided to post for the first time in over a week. Gads! I want to go home now!

Where’s my popcorn and movie!?!?!?!?!

Have you seen a week floating around here?

Posted on November 1, 2008 by

I’m missing one. I know that one went on, as it is over seven days since I last posted, but… where did the time go? Gads. Somewhere along the lines, I have:

Sent Matt to join El Fandango-a dance class/troupe/cultural thingy run by my cousin Gretchen
Been to parent teacher conferences with Morgan
Gone to work for at least 4 hours a day, M-F.
Totally rearranged the Workforce office and my storage area at work
Dealt with volunteers/board members/tourists
printed, collated, folded, stuffed, labeled and mailed 80+ renewal packets for the chamber
Gone to Pueblo for car parts for Divot
Cleaned out the guest house for a workspace
went through 2 years of microfilm searching for stories
seen my parents
sewn curtains, Yule prezzies and knitted
and did the whole Halloween thing last night.

Yesterday was fun. I dressed up for work. Or should that be dressed normally…??? Long black velvet dress, B&W striped socks, black shoes, pointy witch hat, pentacle and my hair going any way it wanted. I even had candy at the chamber to hand out.

After work, I had lots of errands to run. I didn’t bother to change, so I went to the bank, post office, San Isabel Electrics, Edla’s and Mountain Harmony (the local health food shop) in costume.

After I got home, I took off the hat and added my reading glasses as I was working on the computer. big surprise! We had treats waiting for the trick or treaters. Not too many at first, and then there was a rush around 7:30pm that went on for at least an hour. One little girl, probably about 3 came up to the door all dressed as a witch. I answered the door, and said Happy Halloween. She looked up… and then looked me up and down really well. Then looked at her own costume and then back at me. I smiled at her, gave her the candy and said bye! She was still giving me “the look”, with her eyes wide. Her mom, who has noticed none of this says “lets go” and starts to move the little girl down the stairs. The little girl is still giving me “the look” that says “she’s a real witch” the whole time. Steps down a step, looks back, steps, looks back all the way down the stairs. Mom still hasn’t noticed, and is nudging her down the stairs. I wave, close the door and start giggling. Dan asked me what I was giggling about and I explained. Dan started lauging and said, “No, she wasn’t expecting Aunt Jet to hand out candy.” I laughed. It’s true.

Today has been very warm. I think it was nearly 70! I ran around in a teeshirt and jeans most of the day. Beautiful Indian Summer weather.

I’d love to sleep in tomorrow, but I hope that we will be going to Pueblo for some grocery shopping. John is suppose to borrow Erin’s car as mine are still out of commission. sigh…

Graduation!

Posted on May 21, 2008 by

Yes, Matt graduated the 8th Grade today. He survived Nancy’s class for two years. I’m so proud of him.

It was a bit windy by the time I took his picture. 🙂 However, it was a great day. Started out with a 6am haircut followed by a half day of school. At noon, Dan, Beth and I drove up to Gardner for a roast beef dinner. 🙂 All the parents are invited for lunch. The ceremony started at 1pm. All eight kids marched in as their 1st and 2nd grade reading buddies showered them with confetti. They were the honor guard. Then each student gave a speech. Some were literally “hello, thanks, mumble, mumble, goodbye. Others were very well written. Nancy Moore, their teacher was tearful, as this was her very last class. She is retiring. Kyla McCain did an iMovie with the kids and each one had a 2 minute section on just them. It showed the camera following the around on different days and it gave everyone a “feel” for each kid. It was really nice and each kid got a copy. After everyone spoke, Julia handed out awards and then Nancy handed out the diplomas. They all filed out to the reception. I know that I was glad to get off that hard bench! At Gardner, it’s traditional for the parents of the kids to bring stuff to share at the reception. Beth made brownies. There was also a cake and punch provided by the school. It was nice and we all got to mingle with people we hadn’t seen in a while. Dan and Beth left early as Dan had to head to Aguilar. I took the kids a bit later and we were all home by 3pm.

For me, it was back to the office and an attempt to find some information on DSL in Colorado. Ha! Decided at 6pm to call a halt to the day.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Huzzah! I have to go pay bills, have lunch with my parents who got here on Tuesday, and do a fw other things as well as attack that DSL list again. Wheee….

I also get to research what part I need to fix my little red car. Dan and I thought that the new coil pack would do the trick. Well, it did part of it. However, halfway to picking up Matt yesterday it died. Right about the 12 mile marker on the way to Badito. The only good thing about the whole mess was that it died in a spot that still had cell phone signal. Normally, there is no signal on that road in may places. It started to pour rain just as Dan got to me. We swapped vehicles and I drove the truck while he took the car. He was speeding in an effort to keep the engine cool as well as get as far as he could before it died. Normally it isn’t a problem as there are never any sheriffs on the road. However, he got clocked going 87mph. I saw the blinking lights as I crested the hill, but didn’t see that it was him until I was almost level with them. I just laughed and pulled in next to him. When the sheriff got done, I hollered over to Dan that he owed me a dollar. That had been the bet. Only he said that I’d be the first one to get a ticket. Lucky for Dan, the sheriff was very nice and only ticketed him for 84 mph which is a lesser fine. It pays to be polite. I’m still laughing! The sheriff laughed because of the bet too! Maybe that’s why Dan got the lesser fine!

Can I go home now? Oh wait….

Posted on May 14, 2008 by

I’m already there. It has been a busy week. The office still looks like a tornado hit it. Or, was it just a small grandson. Hmm… could be both.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. Daniel and John wished me Happy Mum’s day. Stefan had called me the night before since he had work and wasn’t sure he’d have time to call. I slept in a bit, then had to get up and start working on various projects. Laundry being the biggest. Does it ever end??? I came back upstairs and was going to cook some breakfast. That’s when I realized that there wasn’t a clean dish in sight. Nope! Not even going to do dishes on Mom’s day. So, I headed over to the office and started to dig it out. Ha! Dan needed to check out some stuff, and asked if I’d go with him. So, I packed up my book and off we went.

There is a tower nearby that we are thinking of buying for the business. While he was inspecting it, he saw a crow’s nest. Dan got some really good pictures of the babies.

I made him promise them some worms if he goes out there again. They were so sure he was a big crow! At least I got a wee bit of time by myself. On the way back, we stopped by and visited my mom to see how the work was going. It was nearly done, but Jimmer and Bill still had the back porch floor to do.

Monday was one of those hazy days. I was doing stuff, but didn’t seem like I got anything done. I was suppose to have a meeting of the Stragic Planning committee, but there were only three of us. I chatted with Chuck and Maria and then headed home.

Tuesday was hell on wheels. We woke up to cold and damp weather that just got worse as the day went on. I took the kids to school, showered, took my mom to Trinidad to catch the train, drove home and went straight to a meeting for the Celtic Music Festival in September. http://www.celticmusicfest.com/ Barbara Yule, the coordinator of the festival is trying to connect Huerfano County and Scotland through the common links of coal and mining for this year. I’m part of a group who are going to be telling stories and working the family histories of the area into the festival. I think it will be a lot of fun. I’ll probably work my arse off too, but that’s alright. I get to hear lots of good Celtic music.

I no sooner got back from that meeting than we were off to my mom’s to pick up her laundry, the roses she got for Mother’s day and the food out of her refrigerator. Dan and I barely got stuff done when it was time t to head up to Gardner. We found the weekly agenda for the school and discovered it was Academic Fair Night. Oh, and a school board meeting afterwards. Chuck wanted us to be there for support. The school board is messing around with his contract. grrrrrrr!

The Academic Fair was brilliant. We got to see all the kids work. Poetry, pottery, collages, all sorts of writing, wood work and more. The school board meeting was a bit of a write off. They tabled the section dealing with Chuck’s contract. Not a smart thing to do. Methinks heads will roll. On the way home, we could see that there was snow up on the mountains. It was very cold!

Afterwards, we dropped the kids home and Dan and I went to go check out some of the network equipment. When we got out of the car, we could see snowflakes in the headlights. Brrrrrr!!

We finally headed to bed around midnight, and I had to get up to put an extra blanket on the bed!

This morning started out fairly calm. I stepped out the door to the most beautiful sight! Snow on the Spanish Peaks! In May no less!

I got more pictures as I drove out to Badito. Daniel was outside waiting for me this morning, so I dropped him off and got to the office early. Dan was still asleep. Oh well… I got a cup of tea and started trying to make sense of my desk. hahahahaha!!! Foiled again! Carlos our business partner showed up, the phone rang off the wall and just as I tried again to work on the mess it was time to go to Pueblo.

We headed up for a new microwave, toner for Dan’s printer, a few groceries and car parts for my car. Managed everything except the car parts. They will be shipped to us as the parts dealer messed up the order and had to redo it. grrrr…..

We got back to Badito just in time to pick up the kids and head home. I made steak pot pie for dinner. Very good! Tomorrow the kids go to Pueblo for an all school roller skating party. 🙂 Wheee….

Maybe, just maybe I’ll get something done!