*  My parents dug up and thinned their rhubarb plant.  They had 20 little rhubarb plants and they brought them to my house!  I already have a ginormous rhubarb plant that probably needs to be thinned as well.  I posted on Facebook and got a few hits.  But then I posted it on Nextdoor.com and it got cleaned out within a few hours.  It's pretty hardy stock, it was in their backyard when they bought their house.  My parents bought their house 20 years ago and they bought the house from the estate of the people who built the house.  It was funny how excited people were to get rhubarb.   Apparently I've been taking it for granted!

Happy St. Patricks Day my friends.  Be safe!

*  Holy wind.  The wind has been blowing here for weeks.  Some days more than others.  Yesterday I think my welcome mat may have blown to Kansas.  The gusts were over 50 mph!  No good hair days here.

* It's been pretty warm here.  In the 60's.  Tulips are coming up.  Spiders are coming in the house.  I've been spring cleaning.  Kind of.  It's more like organizing and cleaning clutter.  I'd open the windows if it didn't mean I'd have to dust the second I closed them.

* I have a new favorite beauty product.  Aveda Composition Oil.  Denver is very dry and my skin is even drier in the winter with the cold air.  To get into work, I have to scan a badge and then fingerprint in to get through the gate.  In the early, cold mornings I have a hard time fingerprinting in. I've been using the composition oil after showering in the morning and then again at night as a base under my hand cream.  It's not a greasy type of oil, it soaks in very quickly.  Plus it smells good!  It can be used in the bath or directly on the skin.  I can't wait to see what it's like in the summer after I've been working in the garden all day!  (Just so you know, I was not compensate for this post.  It's completely my own opinion.  I did get a free bottle though, as a birthday present from Aveda for being a rewards member).

Happy Thursday my friends!

* I've been giving it thought to becoming a serious blogger.  One where I can eventually make some extra money (you know, to pay off my debt).  I have downloaded Ruth Soukup's book How To Blog For Profit Without Selling Your Soul.  I've only read the first two chapters so far.   One of the first things I would need to do is pick a domain name and transfer my blog over to Word Press and pay for hosting services.  I know wouldn't make any money to start with but it would be possible in the future.

My sister is law who blogs over at Bren Did has been after me to change over since she started her blog.  I know I haven't been a consistent blogger so far and that would have to change.  I'm willing to commit to more postings... I have ideas for posts and then just never write them or follow through with actually writing the post.

* We applied to four elementary schools in our neighborhood.  The local school that Miss C would attend (in our boundary area) is the lowest performing elementary school in the district.  We are not going there, so we made the decision to choice enroll her into another school.  She is number six on the waiting list at our first choice.  It is a dual language elementary where half the day is in English and half the day is in Spanish.  Our other first choice she did not get into but she did get into our second choice for full day kindergarten and our last choice for PM kindy.  We should know more come August when there is a lot of movement as people move and decline their choices.  Fingers crossed.

Happy Thursday!

*  My 2015 Goodreads challenge was to read 100 books.  So far I have read 64 books.  I've got three going right now... One on my ipad, one audio book in my car, and a real book.  With the end of the year rapidly approaching I highly doubt that I'll read 36 books between now and then.

I don't know if I can lower the number to 75 for 2016.  I may have to challenge myself to read more books!  I hate that I did not accomplish my goals.  I don't think it was an out of reach goal.  In fact if I had listed all of the books that I have read to Miss C I would far surpass that goal.

I am flyingjen on Goodreads!

* I have debated for months on whether we should cancel our TV service.  We have significant debt that needs to be paid off and while I'm not sure exactly how much our TV service costs a month, I know it would be a good payment to debt.  I have begun to research alternate ways to watch TV.  We do have an active Netflix account and an inactive Hulu account.

Quite frankly one of the reasons I would like to keep our current service is the DVR.  I never watch live TV (unless it's with C).  One of the reasons Bryan would like to keep TV is the cycling channel.  We watch A LOT of cycling... The Tour de France and just about every other Tour available.

I have researched Sling TV, Amazon Prime, and Roku.  Do you have any of those devices/ subscriptions that you use to watch TV.  Or maybe another one that I am not aware of?

*  Sunday night this beautiful big boy cried and cried and cried and held his left front paw in the air.  It broke my heart to hear his cries.  Monday he was listless and restless.  Tuesday I took him to the vet.  We thought it was his hips.  You know big dogs and their hips sometimes aren't good friends.  The vet poked and prodded his hips and joints but it wasn't until she started moving his head that he started crying and doing the same thing he did on Sunday.  The vet looked like she wanted to cry as well because she didn't want to see him hurt.  She said it's basically like a degenerative disk disease that humans get.  Now he's on a cocktail of anti-inflammatories and pain meds to see if that helps him.  She said surgery is an option, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there, he's nine and that's old for big dogs.  But we don't want him to be in pain or suffer either.

*  What a difference.  Last year we hung all of our Christmas lights wearing short sleeve t-shirts and jeans.  I think Bryan wore shorts.  This year there is still snow on the ground and it hasn't been all that warm to even melt the snow.  But it sure looks festive!

Happy Thursday my friends!

* Open enrollment for school begins in January.  Our neighborhood elementary school is the lowest performing elementary school in our district.  Miss C will NOT go to school there.  We have toured two schools so far and we are touring another one today.  Luckily there are some excellent schools within a couple of miles of our house.

* In some magazine I was reading at work, I read a little blurb about the Serial Podcast.  It sounded very interesting so I downloaded the first episode and listened to it yesterday.  It's a true story of a high school senior who is missing and then found murdered.  Her ex-boyfriend is arrested, tried and convicted.  He maintains his innocence and there are some that believe him.  The host of the show, Sarah Koenig, starts researching to get some answers.

Happy Thursday Friends!

*  Miss C as Rapunzel!  Oma made the costume again this year.  Miss C and Papa made the braid.  My mom used to make all of our Halloween costumes when my brother and I were little.  She made a few costumes for my niece and nephew when they were little and then swore she was never going to sew another costume again.  Ever.  So much for that.  As soon as she heard that Miss C wanted to be a princess mom got out her sewing machine and got to work.

Unfortunately at the Halloween party we went to the kids got their hands on some Sharpies.  Miss C has black marks on the front of her dress.  I googled how to remove it and a few of the lighter marks did come out, but for the most part there are a lot of 4+ inch black lines on the front.  I don't want to ruin her dress but I"m thinking the best thing is that my mom sew a patch of the same fabric on the front to cover it up.

*  The witch is my cousin.  Olde Town Arvada does a trick or treat street and all the merchants and business owners hand out candy.  She dresses up every year and scares the kids!  Last year a little girl asked her if that was her real nose.  When my cousin replied of course it was, the little girl responded that if she was ok with her god given nose then who was anyone else to complain about it!  Funny.  Miss C asked how she flew on her broom because it was so small (it was a mini broom).

*  Monday it was warm enough here in Denver that I wore shorts all day!  The temperatures dropped yesterday and it is supposed to snow today.  It will also be gone by tonight.  But the nice temps made me think I had much longer to clean up the yard than I really had.  What was I thinking?  It is November!

*  I've been playing a lot more on Instagram.  Are we friends?  Find me.  I'm flyingjen.

Happy Thursday my friends!

*  October=more leaves in my house than on the tree.

*  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Plexus is offering a Buy One Get One sale on their Breast Check Kit.   The Breast Check Kit was featured on The Doctors.  Buy one for yourself and get one free to share with your sister.  Your daughter.  Your BFF.  You can order HERE.

*  I want to introduce you to a new blogger.  About a month ago, Lauretta, my good friend from work decided to start a blog.  Please drop on by Bless Your Heart to read her first post about a trip to Jordan and the good samaritan she met there.

*  Tuesday night we went to a Colorado Rockies game.  It was C's first baseball game.  There was a huge group of us there to celebrate the 70th birthday of a dear friend.  It was a surprise party and the guest of honor was in complete shock.  It was bittersweet for a few of us because my sweet friend Bob (who I met at a baseball game) is no longer with us.  He would have been the first to sign up for this shindig and he would have been on the early flight to Denver.
Happy Thursday my friends!

*  The sun finally came out!  Wednesday was a day of sunshine all day.  We stayed outside all day.  Consequently, mama is sunburned.  Oops.

Wednesday was C's field day and picnic.  They had sack races, three legged races, hurdles, balance beams, and of course tug of war!  She was one worn out little girl.



*  The roses in the front yard are finally all pruned.  So not only am I sunburned, but I am scratched up as well.  The soil in our yard is mostly clay.  Even though I've added amendment and compost for years there is still a lot of clay.  The garden is still pretty wet after three weeks of rain so I've not planted anything else.  If I walk in the garden I'll have 20lbs of clay attached to my feet!  Next week.  There's always next week.

Happy Thursday my friends.

* The top news story here in Denver is the weather.   It has rained 19 out of the last 21 days.  It has also been tradition that the road to the top of Mount Evan (the highest paved road in the US) be open by Memorial Day weekend.  Not this year.  There is still over four feet of snow up there!  And it snowed again on Tuesday.  Luckily there hasn't been any flooding yet, but it also hasn't started melting yet either.  The high yesterday was 45 degrees.  The garden has not been fully planted yet.  The roses are not pruned.  The grass is about six inches tall but it's too wet to mow.  For a state that sees the sun over 300 days a year we are all a little grumpy.

* Tuesday night was Miss C's dance recital.  The recital theme was Leap's Circus (her school is called Leap).  The dance her class did was the "Elephants on Parade."  It was super cute and they all did such a great job.

A mama at preschool who also has a chicken addiction bought five Welsummers and asked a couple of us if we wanted chickens.   That day I emphatically said NO!  I don't have room for more chickens.  By the next day I texted her and told her YES!  I am excited by their chocolate brown eggs!  Right now they are living in a chicken wire box so they can be in the same run as the big ladies until they are bigger.  I've talked Bryan into building me a bigger coop which we need to get on that project soon!

Happy Thursday my friends!

*  We had our taxes done this week.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.  I was bummed to find out we owe again.  The whole experience was rather deflating.  Apparently we are not having enough with held on our paychecks.   And then to top it off, the lady doing the taxes tell Miss C that she is doing such a good job sitting there (I had to take her Oma & Papa and Bryan were out of town) that she deserved an ice cream.  So that's all she could think about for the next 90 minutes.


*  Last Thursday we went hiking in the foothills just west of us.  It's a trail we hike a lot.  We were on the way down, Bryan was leading with Miss C in the backpack; I was next; and our friend was behind me with her 18 month old when she stopped suddenly.  I turned around to ask her what was up when she said, "just keep moving.  just keep moving."  I was standing about a foot away from this 4+ foot long bull snake.  Both Bryan and I walked right by it.  It had been sunning itself on the rocks.  Luckily after it startled me half to death, I realized it was a bull snake and not a diamondback rattlesnake.  Plus I'd like to think if it was a diamondback, I would have at least heard the rattle!

is actually a cat bed.

 But this kitty has decided the kitchen sink is a warm and toasty place to sit.

Happy Thursday my friends.

*  Last week I uncovered the strawberries.  Considering we had weeks of subzero temperatures that came and went this past winter, I'm surprised we didn't lose  more strawberries than we did.  It looks like we lost 5 plants.  I've been digging weeds in the veggie garden.  Why is it that weeds come up first?  I love that things are greening up, but really?  Weeds?


The rhubarb is coming up quite nicely and so is the horseradish.  Try as I might, I just can not kill my husbands horseradish.  I forget to water it for weeks in the summer.   I didn't mulch it last fall either and look at it...Green.

*  I have used paperbackswap.com for years to trade books with people.  Basically you post your books and if someone wants the book, you mail it to them and then get a credit for the book you mailed.  Then you can use your credit to request one from another member.  I logged on a couple of days ago to find that they'd changed the way the site works.  Now they have memberships.  You pay for the premium memberships, but the "Ala Cart" membership is still free.  Kind of.  With each credit you want to redeem, you have to pay $.49 for the book you request.  For some reason that irked me.  I have 13 credits, but now have to pay for each book that I want.  I've already paid (generally) $2.70 to mail the book I posted to get my credit and now I have to pay for a book?  I can buy books at the thrift store for cheaper than that.  I've decided I'm going to deposit enough money into my account to get my 13 books.  But I doubt I'll be posting anymore books.  OK.  Rant over!

Happy Thursday my friends!

*  We had a trip to the Emergency Department at Children's Hospital on Tuesday.  Corrine picked up the rotary fabric cutter (even though I told her it was not a toy and to put it down.)  She sliced her fingertip open.  I was ready to slap on some ointment and a princess bandage but I could not get it to stop bleeding.  I applied pressure and we sat and read a story.  After about 30 minutes and it was still bleeding I called her pediatrician's office who said to take her to the ED.  The local branch of Children's doesn't open their ED until 5PM so we had to drive across town.  Ultimately her finger bled for about 90 minutes but by the time we sat in the room waiting for the Doctor, it stopped bleeding.  So they cleaned it up, determined that it wasn't deep enough to stitch and that the cut wasn't going to re-open, they applied some glue and steri-strips and sent her home.   I am so proud of her.  The whole time the medical staff was cleaning her cut she just continued to chat with them!

*  It's been snowy and cold.  But not snowy like New England!  I had a 6 pack of club soda in bottles in the back seat of my car.  I forgot the bring them into the house.  That was not pretty!  Yep.  Those bottles froze and exploded all over the back seat.  The club soda on the seat is frozen making it impossible to clean up all the tiny pieces of glass.  I shop-vac'd most of the pieces, but will have to wait until it warms up enough to vacuum the rest of the shards so I can soak up the club soda.  I found pieces of glass and a bottle cap in the back part of the car (I drive a SUV) so that sucker flew.  I'm glad I wasn't in the car.  What a mess!

Happy Thursday my friends!

* The temperatures this past Monday were in the 70's!  CRAZY!  We spent the afternoon at the park with some friends.  At one point, C took her shoes off (because her feet were hot...) and was playing on the wooden play structure.  It is an older park so said wooden structure is not in pristine condition.  We have removed approximately eight splinters from her feet and she has about ten or so to go.  I can not describe how difficult it is to remove them.  I also can't explain to her that they will hurt worse in her feet than they will for me to pull them out.

* Yesterday Buffett had surgery to remove a mass from the back of his neck and a tooth extraction.  He was scheduled for the 25th, but the mass ruptured and was very much an oozing mess.  Luckily the vet had a cancellation and we were able to get him in.  The mass was sent to CSU for biopsy and we'll know the results in 5-7 days.  He is currently resting comfortably.  OK, who am I kidding?  He is drugged up!

Buffet (last summer) after a grooming

* I have been getting a gazillion junk emails every day.  The last week of January, I did a 3 day trip for work.  I never take my lap top and didn't get around to checking emails on my ipad.  I came hope to 567 email messages.  Most of which I deleted.  So I started a quest to unsubscribe to all that crap.  It may take me forever and it might not work.  But I'm going to try!  

*  "Once up a time in a far away land a princess named Stella lived with her Queen.  One day..."
That's the story that C told me last week.  It must be a 'to be continued' type of story.

*  Beware of this scam, it's making it's way around.  A lot of people here in Denver have been hit by it.  Yesterday Bryan got a phone call on his cell phone from "The IRS" saying he owed $4000 for his 2009 taxes and if he didn't pay it immediately they had a warrant for his arrest and would come arrest him at his work place.  Which is kind of laughable since they wouldn't get past TSA without a valid airline ticket.  But anyhoo, it scared him a bit, because we really do owe A LOT of money to the IRS for Capital Gains tax on the sale of the rental house.  I thought is sounded like a phising scam to me so I drove home to look at our taxes.  Sure enough we got a refund and when I googled it, the IRS website  makes mention of this very scam.

Of course, the IRS will never demand money "immediately".  They will work with you to set up a payment plan.   The IRS will never arrest you because you don't pay.  I am amazed at the number of people who will fall for this type of scam.

The funny thing is though, when Bryan call "The IRS" back to tell them he did not owe money and he had reported it to the police, they told him to stop harassing them!

Happy Thursday my friends.

skiing at Winter Park!

I don't usually make New Years resolutions because they are rarely kept.  And aren't resolutions usually like lose weight and make more money?  This year I tried to come up with things that I think I can accomplish!  (I hope...)

*  live simply.  purchase only needs and not wants.  pay with cash.  don't live beyond my (our) means.
   
*  exercise more.  that includes walking the dogs.  start running again even it is slow and short.

*  budget better.  pay off some debt.  work my plexus business.  be a more consistent blogger.

*  have more patience with home and work.

*  finish current knitting projects before starting new ones.   finish crafting projects too.

*  read 100 books according to my goodreads goal.  that includes audiobooks.

*  learn another language.  relearn spanish too.

That's it in a nutshell.  I'll let you know how I do.