Yeah, sort of like second breakfasts in Lord of the Rings.
Why? Well… um… You saw the pics in the Albuquerque trip post. That snow left us with 4 inches. It was all gone by Tuesday, and it even warmed up a bit. Wednesday wasn’t bad either. A little cool in the morning. Hot by noon. I even hung out some of my laundry.
By 3pm, the clouds had rolled in and the rain started. I dragged the clothes in and hauled in firewood. It kept raining. By 5pm, we had snain. Yes, snowy rain. By 7pm, it was snow. We woke up to 4 inches of new snow and about 21F temps. Brrr!
Of course, by Thursday afternoon, most of the snow had melted, and the mud was awesome!
Today of course we had a high of about 73! Next few days are suppose to be in the high 60’s with rain. 70’s again by Tuesday. This weather is just crazy!
Today I did some sewing, and learned how to pick and place parts on circuit boards. Apparently from what Dan says, I’m pretty fast. Did 9 boards in the time he could have done 3 or 4. 🙂 Tomorrow we are doing my parent’s yard work, shopping in Pueblo and then working on the Wendy House closet! Whee! Pics when we are done.
Early this morning, I heard what I thought was rain, but wasn’t surprised to see a dusting of snow. It melted. By 9:30am, it had clouded over more and begun to snow, just a little. I started a fire in the wood stove, and when I looked up around 10am, it was really groppeling. You know, that whole sounds like rain, but looks like snow. By 10:30am, it had turned to big flakes. Now, two hours later, we have 2 maybe 3 inches of snow and the wind keeps picking it up and making little blizzards. BRRRR!
This is a vast contrast to yesterday.  Mom and I went to Pueblo and did the shopping. Dad had surgery on Tuesday, and just didn’t feel up to shopping. No surprise here. sigh… So, we had a ladies day out. 🙂  It was a nice relaxed day and very warm! The funny part of the day was when the young cashier at Joann’s offered me a Senior Citizen coupon for a sale on next Wednesday. I’m only 54! sigh… I giggled rather than get offended. I don’t dye my hair, so I guess to her I looked old enough. The high point of the day of course, was dinner at Romero’s. yum.
I’m planning to spend the rest of my day watching the snow fall, writing and maybe embroidering a bit. Oh, and going to lunch at George’s!
We did have a few warm weeks. However, Ground Hog’s day saw us plunge back into arctic weather. Snow and COLD. It was -22 Wednesday night. it would have been alright except for the wind rattling the trees and plunging us into wind chill cold. Speaking of wind, we had one tremendous wind storm just over a week ago. Just before it ripped the weather station off of the house, it registered 83mph.
It’s been busy since I posted last. Lots of school board meetings, stacking firewood, trips to Pueblo for all sorts of things, stacking more firewood, trips to Denver, moving more firewood, working on organizing the crafts area, taking care of my parents and their house, working on knitting and nalbinding needles, and trying to stay warm!
I have to admit that I am so glad that we have our little woodstove. It is our sanity saver even if it seems like all I do some times is move, stack, restack and move more firewood. 🙂
We are getting ready to build the closet in the Wendy House. Two weeks ago while it was still warm, we built a small cover for the plumbing and I bricked in part of the patio area next to the Wendy House. The cover worked pretty well, until two nights ago. It was too cold for any plumbing. At least we use Pex, and that is pretty sturdy.
I’m hoping to get the craft area fixed up this week if it is warm enough. I want to finish up a few projects and get going on some that have been burning my brain. 🙂 We have Corazon in about a month, and I want some things done so that we have warm gear! 🙂 I did get my socks done. I only did the first one in August, and didn’t do anything else for nearly 6 months.
Well, off to finish dinner. Italian onion soup. 🙂
This month has been crazy. Chaotic. Dizzying. Now, I thought it was a little crazy, because I spent most of the first week at the CASB Winter Conference. This is the big school board association conference held every year at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. It was a very good, although COLD conference. Average temperature was about 13F outside for most of the week.
I went up on the 4th, as I was presenting at the New Boardmember’s Boot Camp Workshop. 🙂 Five minutes of fame. LOL! Well, it started snowing on Wednesday morning and I was taking a school district vehicle. The VAN. A huge 12 passenger van, which made me feel like a five year old. I nearly needed a step ladder to climb in. Granted, it was nice to have the weight, as I was driving in snow and on ice most of the time.
This was also the first time in almost a year that Dan couldn’t come with me. As it was so cold, he stayed home to keep Brandy from turning into a Pupcicle. We had no one to feed her or dog sit her, so there was no choice but for him to stay.
Thursday was great. I went to my first session about Rural districts and then presented that afternoon. Five minutes on ‘how data is important.’ The rest of the conference was good, and I was very glad to get home on Sunday. Once I got home, we went and picked Morgan up from La Junta. Monday, I spent time with Daniel and Angela. We went shopping in Pueblo and had a great time. I should have gone to a District Accountability meeting, but I didn’t make it.
Tuesday was our board meeting. A long one, but good. Thursday was busy. Two events. A school holiday party and a school district office party. Sort of stacked together, but we managed both. 🙂 Good thing they were next door to each other.
Friday, we drove to Denver. We did a bit of shopping and on Saturday we saw our computer client. Got home late Sunday. The week started out busy. A trip to Pueblo, work for Dan, the holiday program at Gardner on Wednesday, cleaning my parents house and then up to Denver again on Thursday because our computer client was having weird issues. Friday we did shopping and then drove home late.
Saturday was Solstice. Yule. We got up at dawn and enjoyed the sun rise. Then instead of a nice breakfast, we had to check on the school wrestling tournament. Should have been a 10 minute stop. Nope. It wasn’t. At noon, I left to go help my dad stack a cord of firewood. I was done in 90 minutes, and went back to the wrestling tournament. We were there till about 7pm. Afterwards, we grabbed dinner and then collapsed in bed.
We woke up to snow this morning. Today we did odd jobs around the house and tried to relax a bit. Oh, and Dan built a faux satellite transmitter to test his ground station. The rest of the week isn’t looking much calmer.
Well, by the time the weekend rolled around, the weather was back in the mid to high 60’s. So,… we decided to do some work on the Wendy House. First though, we had to go see Morgan. What neither Dan or I knew/remembered is that she wanted to come home for the weekend.
Bonus!!! We had extra hands to help with the work. So, Saturday morning at the crack of 10am, after a lovely breakfast of bacon and pancakes, we started the great destruction. Twelve hours later, we had 90% of the work done.
Sunday, after crawling out of bed by lips and toenails, we got moving again. We were fueled by bacon, orange rolls and plenty of tea! While Dan did some electrical work, Morgan and I tackled some outside work. We dug a ditch for a drain and then did terracing work on the driveway. The alley had been falling into the driveway for probably 3 years. Now, it isn’t moving… we hope.
After that, we drove to Pueblo for steak and then took Morgan back to La Junta. Dan and I took our sore and aching muscles to bed. 🙂
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And for anyone who doesn’t understand why I call it the Wendy House… it’s a Peter Pan reference. 🙂
Thursday night we headed for Denver for the Fall Conference and Delegate assembly. There was a lot of good information, and the assembly was short and sweet. There were good conversations and I got to see people that I enjoy talking with about school board and education issues. As usual, I took Dan with me. 🙂 He enjoys the conferences as well and participates which is great. It’s like having an extra board member with me.
Friday night we had planned to drive down to LoDo to have dinner at the Rio Grande. We were both too tired, so we ate at the Modmarket. Yum! I had a lovely salad. Oh that there was one in Pueblo!
Saturday, we finished the conference and then headed to a computer client’s house. We got to have our appointment a week early. 🙂 This means we can go visit Morgan on the 18th. Then it was off to IKEA.
Yeah, we’ve been there a lot lately. This time we picked up the light fixtures for the Wendy House. We got these cool lamps. I also found some cheap rugs for entranceways, light bulbs, a couple of holiday candle lamps, and fabric out of the discount area. 🙂 Once the fabric is washed, I’ll be making adjustments and will have curtains in the kitchen!
Sunday, we should have been doing work on the house. Instead, we went to Pueblo and went to Target and Home Depot. We were too tired and brain dead to do any actual construction. That will happen this weekend. Just in time too, as it is getting cold There was snow on the Spanish Peaks this morning. We had a cold slushy rain in town last night.
No sooner did we get back on our feet from Battlemoor, then we had a trip to Denver. Our computer client needed us. 🙂 So, we went up on Thursday and stayed in a hotel with a huge bed and bigger bathtub. I swear it was as big as our bed at home. It was a lovely soak!
Friday… After we dealt with the client, we headed to the Denver Art Museum and we saw the Spun Exhibits. They were good, but I wish there had been more quilting stuff.
Saturday… We had one last soak in the tub and then headed to IKEA. 🙂 I finally got my rugs for the Wendy House! A big one for the main area and a runner for the side of the bed. No cold floor this winter! We got a bunch of little stuff and a shelf unit for Dan. After that, we headed for Pueblo where we had a few things to pick up. We were home by 8pm, and I was so tired. I think I hit the pillow and the next thing it was Sunday.
Sunday… Dan was sick. Something he ate. ughhhh. So, while he tried to not turn green, I cleaned bits and pieces of the house. Hung the new curtains we got at IKEA for the spare bedroom and I finally had time to air the tent and tarp from Battlemoor. It was still wet from the rain a week before!
Today I caught up on some other bits and pieces and I am off to Denver tomorrow morning for an interview with CASB. I’m interviewing for a place on their board. Region 6.
Oh yeah… The sky. We’ve had a couple of short rain showers, but for the most part, we’ve had lovely sunny weather. Dan says it is because I’m working on coats for Battlemoor. 🙂 All the sun has allowed us to finally mow our weeds out front. They were hip tall on me! Maybe next week we will attack the back yard. Right now, our dog plays hide and seek in the weeds.
Also over the last few weeks, Dan has worked for the school district as a contractor. Since we only have the one truck, sometimes it means we have to shuffle schedules. It’s been a long week. A really long week.
Monday: Teacher inservice breakfast meet and greet.
Tuesday: Take Mom to Dorcas and a school board meeting. Also first day of school
Wednesday: Cleaned parents house, did laundry. School district IT interviews in the evening.
Thursday: Did not feel well.
Friday: Ran errands in Pueblo and got the oil changed on the truck.
Saturday: Breakfast with parents, did yard work for parents.
Along with all of that, I’ve taken Dan to work, run my own errands, worked on SCA clothing for Battlemoor, and tried to keep up with all the “Regular” stuff.
This week has been busy, crazy, hectic… and a few more adjectives.
Monday was almost quiet. Lots of errands.
Tuesday: Up and running and off to Denver, for a computer client. Home by midnight.
Wednesday: In the middle of a Google Hangout, Daniel called. He needed brought home from Cheyenne because Angela’s father was in hospital. Daniel wanted to get to see Frank before he died. So, I drove up to Cheyenne. Traffic was horrid both ways and in the midst of Denver rush hour traffic, we got a call from Hillary, Angela’s sister, that Frank had passed. When we got to Pueblo, we met with Angela and Daniel went home with her. I got home around 10pm.
Today was another long day. Errands in town, vacuuming my parent’s house and then off to Pueblo. Why? Well, besides getting a new windscreen for the truck, picking up some groceries and items from Target, Lowes and JoAnn’s Fabrics, I had a brand new granddaughter to see!
Raven Alexandra was born at 7:50:16 am, July 18th. (A day she shares with her Grandpa John, Nelson Mandela and John Glenn.) She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and is 20 inches long.
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We had dinner at Romero’s and then came home to collapse!
This weekend was full of digging, plumbing and sticky things liked grout! First off, we tiled the top of the rolling cabinet in the kitchen. It has needed a new top ever since the Formica peeled off years ago. And, I’ve had these tiles for oh… 15 years at least. Pretty ones with herb pots on them.
I glued the tiles down on Friday morning. Then I went up to Pueblo to get what I thought was the last of the supplies needed. Wrong! sigh.. The tiles I bought were too narrow for the space, so it was back to option B. Glass blobs, or whatever it is you call those little round bits of glass people put in vases and use as game markers. I have this huge bag of them.
Saturday, we grouted the tiles and then while I dug the trench for the water pipe, Dan worked on drilling holes in the Wendy House wall. As he drilled there was a high pitched squeal. He pulled the drill out and there was an old pepsi bottle. He couldn’t move it, so he pulled the board out. The reason he couldn’t move it was because there was a bunch of coal in between the walls! We ended up with two small buckets of coal. 🙂
Then he fought with the tin on the wall. Nearly burned out his drill and then found out that his little saws-all worked the best. After that, we collapsed.
This morning, I made steak and eggs for breakfast. While Dan did school work, I cleaned up the digging work and placed the water pipe into the ditch. Of course, the minute I did that, it started to rain! At least I know the drainage works in the ditch!
I ended up using window caulking around the little glass blobs as there wasn’t enough grout. Fussy. Next time I’m filling the channel with grout and THEN putting the glass blobs in place. It looks okay though.
After dinner, we got all the plumbing we could done because we were short a coupling and a 45 degree elbow. We plan to finish up the plumbing on Tuesday.
