Next cow and pig

Oh my gosh, I am worn out. I had the quilting party last Sunday. I only had 4 people show up, so that was disappointing, but maybe when the weather is cooler people will be more into quilting. I will hold another one again soon.

I spent a lot of time last weekend and every night during the week working on my stock project. It was due Thursday. So, I got it completed 10:30pm Wednesday night. I had to get it all done that night, as I had a 7:30am marketing event to attend.

Thursday morning I got up early and got ready. Hubby woke up saying that his throat hurt. He ended up taking Courtney to daycare and then coming back home. I went to the event, then to class then home to change. While I was home I looked in Hubby’s throat and it wasn’t looking real pretty. So I called the doctor and got him an appointment for that afternoon. Then I went to work for a few hours before coming back home to pick him up to take him to the doctors.

Well, sure enough, he had strep. So he is now on the same medicine as Courtney. So, he spent Friday at home to. No one was really interested in having him in the office with strep throat.

We have made the decision to switch Courtney’s daycare. It hasn’t been an easy decision. There are several things fueling the change. 1) I think Courtney is bored doing the same thing day after day. She loves to learn and they don’t do much new and exciting learning type things there. 2) I have been having personal issues with her teacher. And to start, I have never been overly impressed by the director. 3) Her current daycare is 10 miles from the house, and its one hour round trip commute to take her or pick her up from daycare.

We are going to start her at the Goddard School. Yes, it’s super expensive, but I like all that I have seen and heard about the place. I took Courtney one day this week for an open house and she seemed to like it. She jumped right in with the other kids after about 5 minutes of sitting on my lap.

This hasn’t been an easy decision, and I am still feeling nervous about it. But, we have put down our deposit and given notice at her current daycare that we are leaving. We won’t make the switch until we are back from Vegas and vacation, but it will be here before we know it.

Yesterday morning was swimming again. Right at 30 minutes Courtney hit her wall and she was done. She climbed out of the pool and said “Done!”, and she meant it. I put more pictures of her and Hubby swimming on our website.

After swimming we took her to Nana and Papa’s house. Yesterday afternoon was the auction at the El Paso County Fair! And for the first time ever, I went. It has been many many years since I was at the actual fair. I was avoiding it the last few because I didn’t want to meet my upcoming dinner. But I had a blast! Hubby and Esten hung out watching the auction waiting to bid. Meanwhile, Glenn, Alexis and I walked around. We saw the bunnies, the goats, and poultry. We milked a cow, tried goat cheese (real goat cheese), and did a lot of looking at animals and 4H stuff. I made it back just as Hubby bought the cow that was in the arena. I took a picture, just to show what the auction looks like before Hubby bought it. It ended up being the same one I took a picture of:

We discovered later her name is Tinkerbelle. And we purchased a pig, her name is Diet. No idea why the kids named them these names, Diet, that’s a little odd. We walked around after purchasing the cow and pig. Hubby got a new straw cowboy hat. We ate fair food, corndogs and caramel apple chips. We went back into watch Esten’s niece Yvette show her lamb. She did well, I don’t remember exactly how much her lamb went for, but it was right around what all the other lambs were fetching, which was $650-$700.

Courtney really would have liked the fair, they are very kid friendly and oriented. There are 2 different pony ride, a petting zoo and tons of animals to look at. But we were heading out there right for nap time. That is why we left her with Nana and Papa. Maybe in the future we can take her in the morning and Hubby can stay for the auction.

Well, we actually have a quiet and relaxing day today, it’s nice. I am taking advantage of it by catching up on laundry. In fact, gotta go move it again!

Leave it better than you found it

I do love summer. But, we are always busy on the weekends! Not always a bad thing, but sometimes a bit overwhelming.

So, this past week has kept us busy. Sunday we got our new Doolies. We have 2 new young men who seem very nice. One is from the Boston area, and one was a military brat who spent his last 4 years in California. They both seemed like they would be interested in coming back, so hopefully we will see them again.

Of course the big news event this past week was the Lion sighting. There were several agencies out looking for this “lion” or dog or whatever it was. Nothing was ever found. So, probably to calm the nerves of the public, the media started to report that it was most likely a dog. I don’t know folks, here’s the picture that was captured:

And here are the paw prints it left:

And one witness said, he thinks it was a lion, but it definitely was not a dog. My theory is that someone out there has a lion as a pet, yes people do that. You are supposed to have a permit, but my guess is that this person doesn’t, so they aren’t going to speak up and say, “Hey, don’t worry, that’s just my lion”. The probably never found it because the lion went home again. The area this all took place in is east of town where there are large plots of land. It would be very easy to hide a pet lion out there, until it got out one morning! Or I know someone who is calling it a Liog because maybe it is half lion half dog!

Or it could be a conspiracy. We have a big cat rescue out in that area. They insist that they had all their animals, they counted 4 times. But, maybe they didn’t have all their animals before they counted. Maybe the lion came back first, and then they counted and said, YEP, we’ve got them all!

So, that was the big excitement around here that day.

Courtney went and met with a neuromuscular doctor on Thursday. He discovered that she does have an issue with her fine motor skills. Her fine motor skill muscles are not as strong as they should be. This could be the source of the swallowing problem. But, she also is likely to have trouble writing when she starts to write. Someday she will outgrow this, but she will be behind some other kids in that area for a little while. And since we know this ahead of time, we can work with her a lot to help her practice and strengthen those muscles at home.

He also did order an MRI. So, August 12^th she will have an MRI just to check her brain, but the doctor is not expecting to find anything, but he just wanted to double check to be safe.

After that we saw her pulmonologist. He switched us from her nebulizer to inhalers. The nebulizer takes 10-15 minutes for one medicine. So, when we have to give her 2 medications, we are looking at 20-30 minutes of sitting and having her have the mask on her face. The inhalers just take a few moments. It’s nice; it makes everything a lot easier.

Then Friday day care called and said she was miserable, and had a slight fever. So, I took her to the pediatrician’s office who confirmed she had a double ear infection, and they didn’t see the tubes. Wonderful, looks like her tubes are out. If that is indeed the case, she is mostly likely going to have to have them back in since this is her second ear infection in a month. We have to wait for this round of ear infections to clear up before we can go back and have the doctor really dig around in her ears to look for the tubes.

Last night we went and saw Billy Bob Thornton in concert. Yes, you read that right, Billy Bob Thornton. You know the odd guy who was married to Angelina Jolie and was rumored to wear a vile of her blood around his neck, the guy who was Dan Truman in Armageddon. According to IMDB.com he has been in 68 movies! He has himself a little band called the Boxmasters. Apparently they are a little bar band traveling the country. So, we went to a bar and saw them last night. I have to say, they were pretty good. We bought their CD after the show. It was rather odd to see this famous actor in a bar on a tiny stage singing. Pretty neat!

Today was our picnic for Bow WOWZ! That is my agility group that I belong to. Kelly, the owner, asked another girl, Dawn, and I to plan it. We have been working on it for about 3 months. Last week, we met her out at the park we were having the picnic at to check out where we could set things up at. There Dawn told me she would not be able to actually be at the picnic because she was going camping with some girlfriends on an annual camping trip. Ok, well at least I had Kelly still. Kelly’s dad suddenly fell ill and landed in the hospital late Thursday and so she headed off to Cheyenne, WY to be with her dad. So, I was on my own. I think I pulled it off okay. And when I needed help, someone gladly stepped in to help. We played 5 games and had prizes to give away. We also had a cookout. Everyone said they had a great time. Courtney and Hubby came up after her swim lessons.

I had to miss her second swim lesson, but Hubby took her. She just loves it. Since she had medications on board, she was feeling much better, so Hubby made the determination right before class that she was up to going. She has 2 more lessons left. After lessons are over, we are most likely going to have to take her swimming weekly. 1 because she likes it and 2 so she doesn’t lose the skills she is learning.

When Courtney had her tubes put in back in February, the hospital gave her a quilt at the hospital. It was a crib size quilt that someone had made. It was very nice! It was something personal in such a cold, sterile environment. To repay the niceness, I am having a quilting party tomorrow. A bunch of friends are coming over, with fabric to make several quilts. We will then donate them to the Children’s Hospital at Memorial to be given out to kids. I have already spoken with the lady at the Children’s Hospital to co-ordinate drop off, and she is so excited and thinks this is a great idea. I am excited too! It was one of the nicest touches I have seen with all that we have already been through with Courtney.

My new life motto is very similar to one people like to use in Colorado: ‘Leave it better than you found it’. Here in Colorado when someone says that it’s more about picking up trash and litter when you are out enjoying our beautiful outdoors. Pick up more than just your trash, pick up others trash too! But for me, it means to leave this world a better place then when I came into it. And I am trying to do that in any little way I can.

Well, I really must go and work on homework.

Lion on the loose-UPDATED

The lion is still on the loose, here is a pic: http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/25333189.html

I am not even kidding when I say there is an African Lion on the loose right now in a suburb of COS:

CSPD chopper to aid search for lion on the loose east of Springs

July 14, 2008 - 9:13AM

THE GAZETTE

El Paso County sheriff's deputies and state wildlife officers are on the hunt for a lion - not a mountain lion, but a large African lion - in the eastern part of the county.

A resident reportedly saw the animal around 8 a.m. chasing their dog in the area of Falcon Highway and Log Road, said sheriff's office spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene.

"They're saying he has a red mane and a big tail," Sevene said.

Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said photos taken by two residents and tracks found by DOW officers confirm the animal is an African lion and not a cougar.

The sightings are about five miles from Big Cats of Serenity Springs, a sanctuary in the area, but the operator Nick Sculack said none of the sanctuary's animals is missing.

"We counted four times and none are missing," said Sculack, adding the lion probably was being kept illegally as a pet.

Sculack had brought a tranquilizer gun in hopes of taking the animal alive.

The last sighting was about 10 a.m. near Coyote Lane. The Colorado Springs Police Department was sending its helicopter to assist in the search.

Reverse 911 calls have been used to warn resident in the area to remain indoors until the animal is captured.

link to article: http://www.gazette.com/news/office_38203___article.html/sheriff_lion.html

First Swim lessons

Courtney had a pretty exciting day today. She had her first swim lesson. It was at our local YMCA. She has never been in a big pool before so I wasn’t real sure how she would react. One of my co-workers and her daughter are also in our class, so we all sat on the edge of the pool before class. The class that Courtney is in is called the Perch. Each class (by age) has a name of a fish, it’s pretty cute. For little little kids, they are the shrimp or kippers. The next age class is Inia. Then is Courtney’s class, the Perch. Next will be Pike, but she can’t take that until she is 3. So, for the next year we will just have to take her to the pool on our own.

She loved it! She figured out the dog paddle motion all on her own! She was kicking and splashing! Floating on her back wasn’t real fun for her; I guess it’s not enough movement for her. She likes to be moving!! When the lesson was over, she was sad to get out of the pool. Here we are in the pool:

And here she is trying to float on her back:

After we got home and she had lunch I took her up for a nap. As I was rocking her she kept saying “go swimming again”. So, I think she is really looking forward to next Saturday now!

After nap we headed out to my co-workers daughter’s birthday party. She is turning one year old today! There were lots of little kids there, and it was some chaos for a while, but after a while Courtney settled in and started to play a bit. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and then we headed home.

Once home we went to visit our neighbor Lisa. We hadn’t stopped to see her in a few days and Courtney had been asking about her. While we were over visiting with her, her husband took off on his motorcycle for a ride. And of course Courtney was excited to see someone on a motorcycle. And she had to talk about his helmet, and how loud it was.

Well, I have got to go and work on homework!

Hope Everyone had a Happy 4th!

What a whirlwind weekend!

The 4^th of July was a blast! We took Courtney to her first parade. The little town just on the north end of Colorado Springs, Monument, has a big parade. It is quite a draw. Tons of people were lining the streets! The first people walking down the street were people dressed like pioneers and they were shooting off guns. They also had a small cannon they would stop every 100 feet or so to shoot off. They had a kid from the side of the road help with shooting off the cannon. Wouldn’t you know they stopped right in front of us? When they shot it off, Courtney wasn’t real happy. But a few minutes later when she discovered this parade had horses, she was a happy camper! She loved all the horses she saw. She also loved the cars and fire engines. It was a good 2 hour parade! Here are her and Hubby watching the parade:

It put her nap back a bit, but when we finally got her in bed and asleep, she took a good nap. So good in fact that we had to wake her up! We were heading over to the Z’s house for a BBQ. It was a beautiful day, actually on the hot side. We ate lunch on their patio out back under the shade of their deck, a large umbrella and a tarp. After dinner we played a game called “Cornhole”. It’s like a bean bag toss game for adults. There is even a website for it: http://www.playcornhole.org/

Here is everyone out playing Cornhole:

We had a great time. We tried to put Courtney down in Tony and Kelly’s bedroom, but she wasn’t having much luck getting to sleep. So, we headed for home to get her in her own bed. Hubby and I watched fireworks on TV, we watched the one’s in Boston. We can’t see any from the way our house sits, so until Courtney is old enough to stay up, we have to make due.

We finally went to bed about 10pm ish. At 11:55pm I was awoken by the sound of fireworks. Our very obnoxious neighbors across the street from us had purchased pretty much real fireworks and were setting them off. They would shoot out what sounded like an air cannon, and go up about 40 feet, where they would explode. They were real fireworks, just not huge like professional ones. The sound was ridiculous, and Courtney’s room is in the front of the house. I was livid.

I called the police, but because fireworks are illegal in our town, they were already a little busy with firework calls. I kept telling Hubby I was going to go out there. He wouldn’t let me, but I was FURIOUS. Courtney never woke up all the way, but she was rolling around in her bed a lot. Finally another neighbor approached them and they did shut down for the night. But, I was fuming….

The next day we were all a little groggy. Imagine that. But we spent the day preparing for some visitors. Hubby’s cousin’s wife and her friend were on a road trip from Indiana and stayed with us for 2 nights. They arrived just as I was putting Courtney to bed on Saturday night. The next morning Hubby made his famous homemade waffles, and then we were out the door. I dropped Courtney off at Nana and Papa’s house for the day and then we were on to horseback riding through Garden of the Gods. Here is a self portrait with Hubby behind me on his horse “Easy”:

After our hour ride, we stopped at the Trading Post in the park to have lunch. From there it was on to the Cog Railway up Pikes Peak. On the way up (and down) we saw Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep!:

After the round trip, we took the long way to get to my parents’ house that included a dirt road and a stop at Helen Hunt falls. They dropped me off at my parents’ house (my car was there) and headed off to pick up grub for dinner. We met back up at home, and started dinner. One of our cadets was also coming over. His girlfriend had just gotten back from 6 weeks in Egypt and was in desperate need of a washer and dryer. So, they arrived and started their laundry. They finally finished their laundry at 12:30pm. We were all dead tired and hit the sack as soon as the cadets left. The next morning, we all moved slowly. Hubby and I got to work late, and the girls headed off on their next leg of the trip to Boulder, via Cripple Creek.

Today we went to lunch about 11:45am. When we got back an hour later, the power was out! It finally came back on around 2pm, and I was just getting ready to leave. So, I sat down at my computer and tried to do work. But, the power had caused several issues for us, and I couldn’t really do anything. SO, I left anyway. I ran a few errands, and then went and picked up Courtney.

We went down to Focus on the Family. They have a public play area for kids. They have a 3 story slide! Courtney is still a little too young for that. They had a toddler’s room and some other areas for older kids. Courtney wasn’t real interested in the Toddler room as it really only had stuff to sit on, not play with. It wasn’t real exciting for her.

But I also had to meet someone up at Fox Run Park in Black Forrest. So, we headed up there early. They had a playground that was perfect for her. But she spent about 20 minutes of the 30 minutes we had, swinging. She used to hate swinging, but she sure is growing fond of it now!

After I met with my friend about an upcoming BBQ, we headed for home. And after dinner, we went on a family walk around the neighborhood. We saw a bunny, a bird, and a motorcycle. For Courtney it was a very exciting walk! She loves seeing motorcycles, and she is finally over the fact that there are other motorcycles out there besides Daddy’s!

One of my parenting magazines had a cool site referenced the other day. http://cosmeticdatabase.com/index.php

That is a site that will tell you all you ever wanted to know about cosmetics, lotions, soaps, etc. Such as what chemicals are in them, and what those chemicals can do, do they test on animals, etc. I love this new site and have been using it a lot to look for new things that I will purchase in the future! Just wanted to pass it on!

Here is a great photo that was taken of Courtney at daycare:

I am off to do laundry!

What do we forget to teach our children?

I called a business yesterday, I asked to speak with the person I was calling, and the girl said, “He’s with a customer right now”. That’s it….There was no, “May I take a message?” or “he should be free in 5 minutes”, nothing! So, I told her I guess I would call back later. That got me to wondering why she wasn’t polite enough to offer help, such as taking a message or when he might be free? Was it something she never learned how to do growing up? Had no one taught her the polite thing to do in that situation? It seemed so basic, but yet, it just wasn’t there.

This got me thinking even more about the small things we might overlook teaching our kids. What do we forget? What does school not teach them that they assume we will? I can’t be with her in school every day, so what is she going to miss? And I certainly cannot teach her everything! I can teach my kid to be polite, heck she already says thank you, please and bless you when you cough or sneeze. But how do I teach her all the little things, like asking to take a message when someone isn’t available?

I remember my mom teaching me how to answer the phone, the proper way to handle the situation, etc. My dad would call from work to let me practice answering the phone. And I was told to never let someone know my parents’ weren’t home. I always told them that they couldn’t come to the phone right now, and could I please take a message.

But that is just the phone. What other stuff am I going to miss teaching her? Hopefully it’s not something big that someone will someday wonder ‘didn’t your mom ever teach you (fill in the blank)?’

It is currently 11:42pm this night before the 4^th of July. I can’t sleep, so I am down here on the computer. Someone, very close by, started setting off some fireworks in the last few minutes. I am going to bet that it’s our neighbors across the street from us. They aren’t exactly the best neighbors in the world. If they light another off, I am going to be marching out there, because Courtney’s room is in the front of the house. And the dogs go nuts every time they set one off. It sounds like they are shooting them off with a potato gun!

A vacation, we are going on a vacation!!! We are planning to take a few days in August to go to the Peach Festival in Palisade, CO. That is over by Grand Junction. We will only be out of work for 2-3 days, but hey, it’s something! No business, just the 3 of us heading off to do something together! The other two owners at work have already had their vacations. One was gone for a week and a half and just checked email on his blackberry and only responded when absolutely necessary. The other owner went camping in Yellowstone with his family and I don’t think he even brought his phone. I tell you what; it’s very tempting to make Hubby leave his phone at home.

He is very addicted to his blackberry. He rarely can go more than 15 minutes without checking it. He can only go for long periods of time without looking at it if he is on the computer. Granted this is during the day. When he is at home, he is good about putting it down when entering the house and leaving it there unless necessary. However, when he comes down in the morning, it’s the first thing he goes to. He can’t do much before checking his email.

Well, it’s late, and I am still wide awake. I guess I will go try reading a bit.

Hope everyone has a very Happy and Safe 4^th of July!