It's Going to be a New Year

I have not posted to this blog in a long time.  This will be short and to the point.  Nothing to report worth reporting and I will hopefully pick up blogging after the new year.  Hopefully 2016 will be better in lots of ways.  We shall see.  Change is always hard but sometimes change is the only way to continue.

Just a few pictures of those I miss and a few more.

Taking a LONG Trip

I am taking a LONG trip.  Going to MD to pick up my mother-in-law's furniture and driving  back through Oklahoma to pick up daughter's furniture then drive it all home.  Long and hard!  Some things just have to be done.  This is one of those things.  Hopefully there will be things along the way that will make me smile.

Some Days...

Mother,  I am missing you a lot today.  It seems like life is just complicated and you helped me keep it in prospective.  So, I am missing you today.  Some days I feel lost and alone and wish you were here just to hear your sweet voice and hold your strong hand.  I know you are far more comfortable and would never want you to come back to your broken body.  I'm trying...I love you!

We Celebrate Our Firstborn

The firstborn, daughter number 1, will be celebrating a birthday.  Here is a tribute to this amazing daughter!  We love you!  Enjoy the walk down memory lane.

There you have it.  There are TONS more but I will save some for another tribute.  Daughter,  I love you dearly!  I look forward to living near you!  I hope this next year is the best you've had, so far.

Big Happenings...

This week is the beginning of some big changes.  I leave soon to go to OKC and celebrate the first daughter's birthday.  Then we will be packing up her little Civic and driving to Colorado.  In the next 2 weeks we will just settle in here then we will fly to DC and pack up the MIL's furniture and drive to OKC and pack up the daughter's furniture and drive to Colorado.  Both are SUPER excited to join us in Colorado.  We, too are so excited to have almost all our family here with us.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us as we travel cross country.  Thanks to a friend of the daughters, I will not be making that drive from DC to Colorado.  They are actually looking forward to the road trip.  I am glad to be flying home.  But not before the daughter and I have a day in Annapolis.  Could be our last trip back east.  That's OK, we have been going for years.  The loved ones there will be in Colorado!

More From Our Sunday Adventure

The Sunday adventure was so fun.  Here are a few more pictures from that.

Last Day of September

Nothing significant about the last day of September.  I just wanted to get one more blog post in before a new month.  I am trying to stay up with my blog even when I don't have much to blog about.
I did finally upload all the pictures from the big birthday party this summer.  That alone is a couple of days posting.  I will start with the real birthday dinner.  It was to be only the MIL and the husband and me.  But I knew that the firstborn red-haired angel girl was in town early and was going to surprise her grandmother by joining us for dinner.  It was great.  Just the 4 of us at one of our favorite Italian places in Rockville.  Amalfi's is some amazing Italian food.

Sunday Adventure

After a GREAT service at church today, The husband and I took a picnic up into the mountains.  Can't live this close to remote and not visit it occasionally.  After all the saying,"The mountains are calling and I must go," is true.  I took pictures with my camera but have not uploaded them yet so here are a few from my phone.

I Love IKEA!

I needed a new desk area that could include my sewing area.  I started looking at other people's creative areas and realized that IKEA was an option.  I first had planned to make one whole side of my office/sewing room tables with drawer units.  But we decided the corner piece would make the room.  So, the husband and I went to IKEA in Denver and along with hundreds of other people that saturday, we wondered through the store going up and down all through all the areas.  It was not our first time, but our first time when we lived close enough to buy big stuff and take it home, YAY!!!  One of the things I was looking for was chairs for the son and DIL's new place for their dining table.  They have them!  LOTs of them!  I found the best ones and was able to afford to buy cushions to make them comfy.  But of course they had to be put together.  No problem.  The son and I put them together with NO problem.  That would be the first of many pieces of furniture I learned to put together.

My Blog

I have been the worst blogger for a while.  I feel my life is not very interesting and more than that I hate uploading pictures from my phone or camera and so I do not blog because I have no pictures to post.  I refuse to let my blog die.  I will keep it up even though I have little to blog about.

There is actually plenty going on.  My MIL is moving to Colorado and we have been VERY busy finding the right assisted living center for her to live.  If I were ambitious I would include a picture of each place we visited , but I took no pictures and therefore if I share the places it will be from their websites.  One was Sunrise Senior Center.  Close to family and it has amazing views of the mountains.

Baron

My big buddy has not been doing very well.  Went to the vet yesterday after a half sleepless night.  The sweet dog was having an "episode", probably related to arrhythmia.  He has a heart condition and if left untreated his "episodes" will take a toll on him sooner than need be.  He is VERY healthy in all other areas.  We will see a cardiologist next week and hopefully get him on some meds that will prolong his life but the inevitability is that eventually his heart will give out.  But I am not willing to give up right now.  He has too much good life left.  So, Baron, you and I are going to walk and help ourselves.  He will LOVE walking with me.  He is the most wonderful companion.  How much better life is with BIG B!

Moving Day...

Truck   check
lots of boxes    check
drugged kitties   check
other kitties quarantined   check
Big dog nervous   check
More later...

Maestro and Baron

My "boys" are good today.  Two spent some time last week not feeling good and at the vet.  Saturday was scary for my Baron.  Thankfully he is doing better.  I had to miss a photography class to take him to the emergency vet. Spent hours there.   Unfortunately the instructor did not see that it was important enough to let me take the class I missed at a later date.  I will not be taking any more classes from Colorado Photography School and I don't recommend anyone else take them.  Hard to believe someone would be SO cold and unfeeling!

We Knew This Day Would Come, Still Sad...

The son and his lovely bride are buying a house and moving next week.  No more basement-dwellers.  We have enjoyed having them here more than they will ever know.  We have had lots of meals together and plenty apart, privacy is a good thing.  And speaking of privacy, it has not been a problem on our part and I think they will say the same.  We did have some issues with our pets not intermingling well, well the 2 long-haired cats.  That was an issue that we resolved.  We will miss them and it will be lonely here.  But I would want my own place if I were them.  And they will enjoy finally using all their wedding gifts.  We will have to start Sunday dinners or something similar.  Son and DIL, I love you both and look forward to our visits.  Thank you for sharing your lives with us for this precious time.

To Maryland and Oklahoma and Texas and Back

We had a big birthday celebration for the MIL who just turned 80.  We had about 60 guests come help us celebrate a life well lived so far.  We had lots of good food and drink and candy and flowers and gifts and relatives that felt like we had always known each other!  What a great family.  Here are a sprinkling of pictures.  I have many more on my camera waiting to uploaded.

Happy Birthday, Amy Jo!

CSA Goodness

I have had the privilege of being a part of a Community Supported Agriculture group this summer, Arkansas Valley Organic Growers.  Here are some of my Friday surprises.

Lightroom, A Whole New World

I just "learned" how to use Lightroom and photoshop.  I am pretty woobly on my feet with this, but I am making myself do it with pictures I don't care about and here are the results.

Adventure Sunday

We took a much needed get-away Sunday.  We have been wanting to see the small town of Rye with the intentions of someday living in a smaller community.  This is an area similar to where we live, close to the front range/Wet mountains.  But the mountains are higher.  The little town is part of a tri-town group known as the greenhorn valley.  Greenhorn mountain is 13'er very close.  We ate at this little cafe, Rye Cafe, which was VERY good.  They make paninis.  After lunch we looked at a couple of houses then went up into the mountains.  As it turns out it is very close to Westcliffe, one of our favorite places, our first choice when we dreamed of living in Colorado.  On the way to Westcliffe we stopped at Bishop's Castle.  This is a strange castle built by one man, very strange but interesting.

So Much Fun!

A Surprise Visit

I woke up last Friday to the most wonderful surprise.  My first born came to see me.  She and a friend arrived at 2:30 in the morning and I did not know they were here until I got up.  We have had a wonderful visit.  We went out and took pictures one of the days she was here.  Here are some of my attempts at this photography thing.

My Photography

I have been taking classes to learn more about using my DSLR.  The instructor is very good.  I am hoping to take more classes.  One I am especially looking forward to is the Milky Way class.  We will go out east where it is very dark and shoot the stars.  Hopefully there will be some good pictures to share.  In the meantime, here are a few of my pictures.

My Sister

My 2 sisters.

As most know I lost my middle sister in May of 2013.  She was exactly 4 years to the day older than me, so she died way too young.  We grew up very close and were close as adults.  She never married so my children were like hers.  Our family stayed close because we wanted to and it was also important to be close so she was not as lonely as she could have been.    She and I have an older sister.  She left home to go to college when I was only 5, then married when I was 6.  I always looked up to her, even had her up on a pedestal.  Over the years it was sometimes hard because I never felt like she cared much for me.  That was obviously not the case at all, but just my own insecurity.  This blog post is to somehow honor the great sister I have and have had for all my life.

As a young girl with Mother.

Adventure Saturday

We have heard about Mount Herman Road since we moved to Colorado.  The mountain closest to Monument is Mount Herman.

The Elephant in the Room

Grief can be such a big elephant in the room.   There is an expiration date on grief, or is there?  I say there should not be.  But society does.  I should be over the death of my beloved sister.  I can not be yet.  I long for more days with her.  I long to tell her I love my big sissy one more time, I want to tell her things or ask her advise which I did often, I want to have another holiday with her...  And that is just my sister.  My mother is gone!  My mother who was always there for me in one way or another.  I want to tell her she was a great mother one more time, celebrate her amazing number of birthdays one more time, hear her sing something one more time, kiss her sweet cheek one more time...  It seems like the days need to get easier and they just have not yet.  So I am embracing this grief over losing my sister , then my mother.  How else will I move on?  So, on this father's day that my own wonderful father must be enjoying, I celebrate those three most important people of my life, gone from my sight, but not from my memory or from me, I know you all are with me, there is still this hole in my heart where you once were.  Enjoy heaven and each other!

I love you!!!

Learning

I am in the midst of learning, right now.  Since moving to Colorado, we have been attending a wonderful church.  Each Sunday I learn something new, about me , about God, and even about my mother.  The pastors are great, but not because they are highly educated and notable speakers, but real men with a real love for God!  The church meets in a basketball gym, so it is not the "church".  The people are just like me.  They all want to be there and it shows!  So, last week I was trying to figure out why I can be unapproachable sometimes.  I am not exactly a lovable cuddly person.  Why???  I could ask God, why and wait for the answer and in the meantime try to figure it out, but the answer I got was why figure it out, embrace life however uncomfortable it is and REJOICE!  What a relief.  I don't want to figure that out.  Has it been easy...NO, but it is a work in progress.  I am a work in progress even at my age.  So many times things seem to be going wrong and that is the time to REJOICE!  There is much to be thankful for and to rejoice over.  I think my mother must have had her version of this.  The love of her life, my dad, died when she was so young.  She had to have a way to survive that grief.  In her grief, she rejoiced.  That is one lesson.

A Great Visit/ Adventure Sunday

We were blessed with a great visit from our youngest daughter and her husband this weekend.  So good just to hug her and get time with her and it was even better because we went up in the mountains together.  We actually waded in some really cold water on the Platte river.

Air Force Academy

We live close to the Academy and today was graduation.  The Thunderbirds put on an air show for the academy and guests and because we are close we got to see some amazing stuff!  Here are my lame photography skills.

Our Trip to the Mountains/ Adventure Saturday

The husband and I went up into the mountains last Saturday.  I took my DSLR and tried to play with it.  What I got was a LOT of black pictures but a few turned out.  Next month I am taking a photography class.  Hopefully that will solve the black pictures mistake.