A Weekend of FUN in the...prairie?

Well, I decided that it was time to make a visit to my good friends' house, Justin & Mel. It turns out that my other friend, Julie, was headed that same direction this weekend, so we traveled together and combined our trips and had a grand time!! :)

It started with a late arrival on Friday night so there wasn't much visiting time before we all had our sleepy heads on our own pillows. But Saturday we were up early and ready to go! We had a nice relaxing breakfast but then it was time for Wade to go feed the horses. Well, Julie went out to "take pictures" and here's how her picture taking went...

Good thing I was around to capture the horse feeding on film!! :)

Next up...Wade wanted to demonstrate just how far along that Buford has come with being ridden. I personally think that Wade did an excellent job leading Buford and that's why Buford did so well, but you be the judge...


While Wade was riding around on Buford, the girls were doing their own thing. Callie was trying out a saddle...


...and Amy was demonstrating her future career as an acrobat! :o)




Next we went for a little drive up the road for a picnic and some running around at the shale pit. Everyone had a great time, as evidenced in these pictures! Oh, and if you're wondering where MY picture is for this jumping and running around...well, they don't exist. I refused to jump off of some of the hills that these guys were jumping down from!! So, I was just the picture taker!

Yup...even Amy gave it a try!! (If you click on the picture, her facial expression informs you of her excitement! What the picture doesn't show is that Amy was on ground that was hardly inclined but she was proud as punch to be doing what everyone else was doing! :)

Julie and I...

After finishing up lunch, we decided we'd better head back to the house to meet the guys and decide what we wanted to do for the afternoon. I caught this picture on our way back... Soon after arriving back at the house, we decided to head to town and go bowling and then out to eat. I didn't capture any of the bowling moves that were witnessed at the lanes, but it's probably a good thing! :)

Sunday morning, Justin and Mel and crew went one way and Julie and I went the other. After meeting, we went to lunch at Dave's house where we were joined by Lisa and crew. It was great! Too soon, though, it was time to head back home. We were saddened by this but we realized we had no choice. But we were cheered a bit when we remembered the one special stop we had to make to help out a friend! Here's what we found!

And so it goes...another weekend with good friends provides good memories but it's back to work in the morning! Have a great one! :)

Do you even believe me anymore?

Well, if it wasn't for the two pictures that I've already posted, I'd wonder if you even believe that I went on a hot air balloon ride!!! Here's the deal...I so desperately want to post pictures, but I just have not had a weekend available where I had time to organize them for a post. I started working on it tonight and it took me eons to load eight pictures. In order to keep a right spirit about me, I've decided that tonight is not the night to make an attempt at this.

The sad news? My next chance probably won't be until the end of next week. Trust me, I kind of feel like a loser as it is, but I want the post to be in order and...well...perfect. So, it will take some time. I only recently got pictures organized on my snapfish account from my parent's trip here in July (ask my dad...he'll let you know how long it took!) and the same with the balloon trip. So, I have them in an order somewhere, but just no time to load them onto my blog.

I've been wracking my brain on what to do, but I finally decided that maybe if I post some pictures tonight, I can appease the crowds...at least until next week. At that point, it will be officially one month since the trip and I promise that I will post the full post. Until then, I hope the following pictures make you smile...and feel not so frustrated with me. :o)

In this picture, we (my friend, Keith and I...the guy in the white shirt is the pilot) are in the basket and READY for take off!! :)

It was at the point of the first picture in the next group where I wondered, "Have I made the right decision?" Too late now!!! You see, I have a small fear of heights, but since I fly on airplanes all the time, I thought I'd be fine. Well, in an airplane, you are sitting, not standing. Luckily, a couple minutes after take off the pilot said, "You're welcome to sit on the bench if you like." Yeah. I think I almost pushed Keith out of the basket to get to that bench!! After that...all was well! Keith sat for awhile, too, but for most of the trip, he ended up standing. I, on the other hand, sat the entire trip and was A-OK with that. It made the rest of the trip quite enjoyable for me. You see, any movement from us moved the basket (aka, it would swing a little. Not a lot, but enough for me to notice.) and I was not okay with that. Seriously, I never even thought about the movement of the basket being an issue, but I learned VERY quickly that it was.

These pictures are a comparison for you. In the first picture, taken seconds after lifting off, is the crew that helped us set up and take off. The white building behind them in that picture was where we parked our cars (next to it). In the second picture, you can locate that same white building in the center (almost!) of the picture. We were that high up in the sky in a matter of minutes.

After being up in the sky for awhile, I took a picture of the other team. You see, after we arrived at the take-off site, we learned that there would be two balloons in our group flying that day. One would be a group of five people and then the other would be our balloon. Keith and I lucked out and we got a smaller sized balloon and basket and it was just the two of us with the pilot. As was already explained above (with the bench in the basket), that smaller basket proved to be my saving grace. If it wasn't for that bench, I'm not sure how the trip would have gone. The other bigger basket that held five people (plus the pilot) all had to stand for the entire trip. In this picture, they are in the balloon on the right. The balloon on the left is a completely different company.

This picture was one of the few pictures that I took while we were landing. You see, if you look closely right in the center of the picture is an oval opening in the wall of the balloon. In order to land quicker, the pilot opens that slit and lets air into the balloon which causes the balloon to drop at a faster rate. I'm not sure if it's typical to do that, but this was our second attempt to land and I think the pilot was feeling like we had to land now or we could be in trouble. We came down fast and it was kind of a shock to me how hard we landed, but when I look back on it, the pilot really did do a great job in making it work and keeping calm. I was quite impressed!!


Here are two pictures of our first attempt to land. The first picture gives you an idea of how close we were to actually landing! Plus, you can see our shadow on the roof of the building! :) The second picture is another comparison picture. It was taken just a minute or so after we went back up in the air to search for a place for our second landing attempt. I am putting these side by side so that you can get an idea of height variances during the trip.

And, lastly, do you ever wonder how to stop the balloon once the basket actually is on the ground? Yeah, I didn't either. :) Well, obviously, the balloon is still moving with great strength. After all, when the balloon (our balloon...the other team's balloon was bigger!) is fully blown up, it can house the interior of a 1200 sq. ft. home...ten times over!!! Crazy to think about, huh? So, this picture shows what the team does to slow that balloon down (Keith was helping out here, too. He's in the red shorts in the middle of the group). In the meantime, the pilot is inside the basket, opening up all the various openings through the balloon to let as much air in as he can so that the balloon will collapse. The stages of collapse WILL be posted in the full post!! :)

A Special Day!!

What's so special about this day and this lady? Well, she's 90 years old today!!! If you get a chance to see Wava or talk with her, make sure to wish her a Happy 90th Birthday!!

You can also leave your birthday wishes here if you'd like. I plan to print off this blog post for her so that she can see who's wishing her the best! :)

Happy Birthday, Wava!! :o)

Now viewing...Mo's Garden!!!

Well, folks, it's September already and time to fulfill the promise (remember?) of putting updated pictures up of Monique's garden! She's done quite a lovely job with it and everyone that has the privilege of dining at her house will get to appreciate the goodness from her garden! :)

Garden one -- this garden plot has zinnia's, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, green beans and onions.

Garden two -- this garden plot has lettuce, carrots, kohlrabi, red beets, golden beets, snow peas, sugar snap peas, peppers, yellow straightneck squash, and tomatoes. The yellow straightneck squash was a gift from the owner of the nursery. Monique was seeking another cucumber plant and got this mystery plant that developed into a yellow straightneck squash. Quite the surprise! :o)

How do people "do it all"?

I've been sitting here wondering how people can "do it all" and still function. I just have been feeling like I have a FULL plate and I do not like it. Granted, I enjoy everything I'm doing but I realize that I can't do it all anymore. Right now I'm working a full time job plus I just took on another small job to be a travel accountant for one of my professors. On top of that, I am taking two classes from UW this semester. Both are Intro. courses for Communications and one is online and one is on-campus. In between all of this I need to keep my apartment clean, cook myself a meal once in awhile and try not to neglect my friends and family.

But how do people manage? How can one person maintain a go-go-go schedule like this? Where are the moments that you enjoy the NOW and where you take the time to reflect about life? What about just taking one day at a time and not planning everything out for the next week? Some people say, "Cut out the socializing!" but is that really the healthiest option? Others say, "Well, you choose to be in classes!" but what about wanting a better job that will allow me to buy a house and set up a good retirement fund and all that jazz? People seem to want degrees to pay you for what you already know you're worth. So, I continue to work on the degree.

I just keep thinking that there's got to be a balance somewhere. I guess that the trick is finding it. In the meantime, I just continue to inadvertantly neglect my friends and family or inadvertantly get behind in homework or my part time job...all while I struggle to find the balance. So far, it's not going very well.

So, if you've figured it out, share your secret. (You are welcome to remain anonymous.) Tell me what your method to the madness is. I'd love to know.

Balloon ride? What balloon ride? (part 2)

Update (8/24/2007): I would LOVE to be posting more pictures of the hot air balloon ride that I went on last Sunday, but life has just NOT allowed me to sort through the pictures and put together a post. *sigh* So, I am hoping that I will be able to do it a week from today (basically over Labor Day weekend). Hang in there! :) There will be more pictures...eventually. :)

Oh, that balloon ride!!! :o) Yup...it happened! The weather was perfect and we went on an hour and twenty minute ride and it was S.W.E.E.T. I cannot emphasize that enough!!! If you're EVER interested in going, the company we went with in Fort Collins was awesome! I highly recommend them!! You can find more about them at http://www.windtracker-balloons.com/.

So, we were there at 6:15 AM and got to watch/help set up the balloon and we took off a little before 7. By the time we landed, helped put the balloon away and went back to where we started to get our cars and have a little celebration, it was 9:30. I think I got my money's worth. :)

After that I headed to Eaton, CO for my Sunday morning church meeting and then had lunch and spent the afternoon with my good friend, Kimber. I'm just getting home now in time to go to a friend's house for supper and then it's EARLY to bed tonight! However, I wanted to leave you with a taste of what my experience was this morning. I will do a LONG post later (hopefully by Wednesday), but I have to sort through and weed out some of the 154 pictures I took. :)

More later!

This was a picture of the set up. There was our balloon (on the right) and another balloon of the company's (on the left). It was fun to have a "flying partner balloon" for the morning. :) The other balloon was carrying five people while our balloon had the two of us and the pilot.

This was the best picture I could get of the reflection of our balloon in the lake we were flying over. Pretty sweet, huh? :)

A bit about my day today. (Long post)

Wow. What a day! I'm house sitting this week so my normal routine is off in the first place. Well, this morning, my alarm goes off around 6:40 (remember, I'm not a morning person!) and, of course, I hit the snooze. I'm laying there, just thinking about stuff and I think, "Huh. That's funny. The alarm hasn't gone off for a long time." I look at it and the time says 7:31 AM. Ugh. I'm supposed to be at work at 7:30. Obviously the dumb thing didn't work again. Aarrgghh!

So I flew out of bed and was doing the "super speed" flight of the bumblebee and at 7:40 I was heading out the door to go to work when I thought, "I should open up the living room windows again." (I closed them last night due to a storm.) So I went sailing over the cat that was sitting in the middle of the living room and I opened the curtains and then the windows. I turned around to go flying back over the cat and I halted. It suddenly occurred to me...that was not a toy mouse the cat had laying next to it. Sure enough. A real, albeit dead, mouse. Now what? I didn't have time for that this morning!! So I made the quick decision to leave it and deal with it when I went home from lunch. Gross, I know, but when you're late in the first place you have to prioritize. However, I got in the car and I thought, "I cannot leave a dead mouse in the middle of the living room for half the morning!!" So, at that point, I called my boss to explain that I hadn't forgotten that I had to be at work today but that I was just running a bit late. Back into the house I go and wouldn't you know...the mouse was not in the spot where I had left it 30 seconds ago. My only thought was, "If that mouse is still alive, he's on his own." Unfortunately for me (seriously unfortunate), the mouse was indeed still dead but the cat had moved it about a foot further into the living room. So I got a broom and brushed the dumb thing to the door (it was dead by this point). I had a bit of a problem with the lip at the base of the door so I had to brush Squeaky onto an old newspaper and then move the edge of the paper over the lip of the door so that I could brush Sqeaky OUT the door and off the deck. Boy was I glad when that chore was done!!! And I think I ended up re-taking my shower by the time I finshed washing my hands. Yuck. I must say, though, that I handled the situation quite well. I didn't freak out and act like a baby, but I still could not pick up the thing, even with a glove on. Sorry, Squeaky, you're just going to have to "rock and roll" out the door!! Ha!

So that's how my morning started. My allergies are kicking in again, but I received some good advice that I'm going to try and that was to purchase some honey that is made in our area and take a teaspoon of it per day. Apparently the idea is that the bees feed on everything in the area and by eating their honey, you build up a tolerance for the weeds/flowers/pollen in the area and...wallah! Allergies are gone! I've talked to two people I know that said it was successful for them, so I might as well give it a try!!

Last, but not least, I had my hair cut today. I know some of you might gasp at that news, but please don't. I donated it to "Locks of Love" (Fantastic Sam's is one place that takes donations and that's where I had it done). I've been thinking about doing that all summer and so today, I finally did it. I felt really good about it, too, especially when the lady in the chair next to me said, "You know, you're really doing a good thing. My sister had breast cancer and you are helping someone with what you are doing." I wanted to say, "Stop, before I really start to cry!!" So, really, my hair is a bit shorter than I wanted, but the stylist knew that I wanted to still put it up so she kindly showed me some hairdos that work and it will be okay. The other reality...it will grow back. I really do feel good about my decision, too, and for any of you women out there that want to cut your locks off, I would recommend this! They only need 10 inches! For me they took 12 and that was fine. They'll take whatever you want with the minimum being 10 inches. The ladies in the shop were excited and practically crying because I wanted to do it. It was nice. :)

So that's been my Friday. Crazy, but good. Now it's rest and relaxation for the weekend and hopefully off to the balloon ride in the early hours of Sunday morning. Life is good.