Snowmen are NOT supposed to come before Halloween.

Recently my husband spent a considerable amount of time in the mountains of Colorado near Boulder.  During this time he experienced the seasons abruptly shifting from Indian summer to frigid winter.  It snowed 2-3 times on them while they were gone.  Each time he called home, or sent me pix of the snow; I made sure to tell him about how it was in the 80's here and that I was enjoying my shorts and t-shirts.  I'm nothing if not supportive, right?

Here is a picture of how they spent one afternoon when it snowed too much to get to the work site.  In case you don't understand, Mr. Snowman here is decked out in complete woodcutting gear. 

Mizzou finally beats Oklahoma!! woot woot!!

Pumpkin Pickin'

This past weekend I took the girls to pick pumpkins in Las Cruces at the Mesilla Valley Maze.  If you live in this area you definitely need to take a trip there in the Fall. 

You get to take a hayride out to the fields where you can choose your own pumpkins.  There are all kinds of sizes and colors of pumpkins and gourds.  This part is the girls' favorite part of the whole day.  Their rule is that if you pick it, you carry it.  Great words of wisdom.  I repeated this mantra to my girls.  And they followed it...for about 3.6 seconds. 

They picked fairly small pumpkins that were easily carried.  However, freshly picked pumpkins have stickers on the stems.  Their delicate little hands weren't havin' none of that sticker bizness!!  So guess who got to carry their pumpkins.

Not the hayride driver, that's fo' sho'.

Not only did they pick out their own pumpkins, they each found little baby pumpkins that they wanted.  Plus, I found a cool white one (maybe a gourd, who cares) and of course, we got Tracey a good sized one. 

I'm sure I looked like a pumpkin sized idiot for carting around 4 pumpkins.  The girls so graciously carried their baby ones. 

There's lots of other stuff to do beside pumpkins.  There's a super cool maze that they create in their corn field but I haven't ventured into it yet.  I'm still waiting till I am fairly confident I won't have to carry the two girls out after they drop from exhaustion from all the walking. 

There are some HUGE slides to keep kids happy.  There's also plenty of games to pay-to-play but sshhh! my kids don't know that yet. 

We had lots of fun and are already looking forward to next year.

Introducing..."the world according to me"

I would like to introduce all of my readers to a new blog that is listed on my "blogstalking" list.

The author of this blog is none other than.....my oldest daughter, Tracey!!!

So go on over and take a gander at the world according to me. 

Claude Monet reincarnated

Krysten Monet (emphasis on the Monet) would like to give you a tour of her canvas our house.

 Look Mom, crayon on the TV!
(along with a myriad of other...stuff)

 "I thought it was wotion."

(foundation poured on the carpet.  let's not even mention how much

she had smeared all over her entire body. or how difficult large amounts of makeup

 is to wash off the entire body. did i mention entire?  just checking)

 Front door greetings.

 White was just so....plain.

 Tracey's mirror does a lot of sweating...therefore the need for deodorant applied liberally.

 A love note to greet me each time I turn on the light in my bedroom.

 Tables are not just for eating, you know.

In case burglars climbing through our windows need a little...crayon therapy. 

Thank you for joining Krysten on this tour of our house. 

If she ever comes to your house...

...be afraid.  Be very afraid.

I only hope that she will give me credit for not killing her supporting her when she becomes a famous painter.

2010 Lady Broncos- volleyball

Tracey's 8th grade volleyball season has come to a close.  They had a great season this year, ending with a winning record and greatly improved skills. 

Later, I have realized that 'ohmygosh' I will be watching her play at the high school next year!!!  Wow, where has the time gone?

The girls and their daddy. 

Kudos to them for spending hours at the gym watching their big sister play. 

Horsin' Around

 My girls dearly love to ride horses when they come to the ranch.  All 3 of them.  From the time Tracey was little she would ride Freddie.  Freddie is like part of the family.  My dad raised him from a colt, I can even remember the mare he's out of.  My dad started him as a cutting horse back in the 80's.  Later, when I was a teenager he gave him to me as my horse to ride.  Once Tracey got big enough my dad then told Tracey that Freddie belonged to her.  Freddie is 30 years old now and he's really starting to show his age.  Now the little girls get to ride Freddie when they come to the ranch. 

 Tracey now gets to ride Red.  She's pretty happy with that.  Papa even told her yesterday that Red could be her horse.  So she was pretty stoked about that.  Grama is now wondering just who she's gonna ride.

 Grama Maggie and Papa Rick with all their grandkiddos and their horses.

The Ranch

When it's time to visit the ranch the girls are so excited they can hardly sit still for the entire trip.  They've been looking forward to this trip all week. 

 Kylee is finally old enough to handle a very important job.  The gate opener.  Any driver knows that it's fabulous to have someone else open the gates for you.  Kylee was so excited to get to do it and she did it all by herself. 

Here is the view of the house/shop from the gate down below. 

Stay tuned for more pictures of the girls' adventures on the ranch.

Summer: How I Miss Thee

It's that time of year.

Time to put away the bathing suits, shorts, and flip flops.

Time to unpack the warmer clothes.  Dig out the jackets.

We had a great time this summer. 

Summer oh how I miss you.

Lazy days of summer.

Fun filled days of summer.

Oh how I miss you.

These photos were taken on Labor Day weekend. The last unofficial weekend of the summer. 

We went to Bill Evans Lake and lazed around. 

Aaron took the girls out in the kayak, I read a book, and Tracey slept.

Ode to Summer Rains

Oh green grass,
oh how I miss you.

The rain this summer turned our normally brown landscape into a lush, green landscape.  The landscape of which to rival the greenery that I saw this summer as I traveled through America's Heartland.

See Jill!  It can get green here.

Briefly.

How Well Does He Know Me?

Katie, over at Cleared For Takeoff did this little game over on her blog.  I thought it would be fun to do my version here.  I asked Aaron these questions and he was supposed to respond according to how he thought I would answer. 

Here goes:

1.  She's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
      Food Network
He's pretty much right on this one.  I watch the Food Network all the time.  When Dora's not on of course.

2.  You're out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?
     Italian, but it's different all the time.
He's spot on with this one.  I do order different dressings.  Usually it's Italian.

3.  What's one food she doesn't like?
     biscuits and gravy
While it's true I don't care for biscuits and gravy (although sometimes I will eat them), my answer would have been eggs. 

4.  You go out to eat and have a  drink, what does she order?
    Pina colada
If I had an alcoholic drink of choice that would be it.  Regular drink though it's UNSWEET iced tea 100% of the time.

5.  What shirt size does she have?
       Medium
He's right when it comes to t-shirts.  Regular shirts I have to go with a large though.

6.  What shoe size does she have?
      7 or 7.5, somewhere around there.
Yuppers.

7. What's her favorite type of sandwich?
         Philly cheese steak
He's right on that one, although I was thinking more in terms of a regular sandwich- in which case it would be a roastbeef/swiss sandwich.

8.  What would she eat everyday if she could?
     Jalisco's.  smothered red burrito
True dat, true dat.  Jalisco's is a Mexican restaurant in town...but I'd take a smothered red burrito from just about anywhere.

9.  What is her favorite cereal?
     Raisin Bran Crunch
That's what I eat every morning :)

10.  What would she never wear?
         After much consternation he finally chose "stripper clothes" as his answer.
Not what I would've picked, but true enough.  I would never wear stripper clothes.

11.  What is her favorite sports team?
        the Bulls
Huh?  Maybe 20 years ago.  Where has he been with all the discussions we've had lately over which football teams?  But in his defense, I'm not a die-hard fan of anyone.  I would really much like to be a UNM Lobo fan but they are too horrible to claim to be a fan of  (Jill, take your coach back!)  I vascillate between cheering for the Buccaneers, Saints, and just 2 days ago decided I would become a 49ers fan with him.  This topic is worthy of it's own blog post.

12.  What is something she does that you wish she wouldn't do.
      Vacuum when he's watching TV.
He hates that.  For some reason that's when I feel the urge to clean and cleaning's not done until you vacuum, right?

13.  What is her heritage?
         Spanish.  How detailed do you want?
There's pretty much no way he could've gotten this wrong.  It's true.  I am half Hispanic.  I can trace my family roots clear back to 1598 when the Spanish explorers sent the first groups of settlers to the area now known as New Mexico but way back then still belonged to Spain.   I could provide lots of details.  Lots and lots.  But no need to bore you.  So he's spot on with this one.

14.  You bake her a cake, what kind of cake?
     white cake
Yep, pretty much.  I don't like chocolate cake. He really would've been able to answer anything but chocolate.

15.  Did she play sports in high school?
       yep
Again, pretty easy one.  I played volleyball, basketball and track.

16.  What could she spend hours doing?
         Facebooking
While that is absolutely true, my answer would have been reading. 

17.  What is the unique talent that she has?
          bossy. hahaha
He must've been getting annoyed by this point.

18.  What is her type of coffee.
          none
I don't drink coffee, neither of us do. 


Answering these types of questions is something that he DOES NOT like to do so I really appreciate him humoring me.  Also, keep in mind that I was asking him these questions over the phone as he was traveling to Boulder, CO with 3 other men in the truck.

My Progress So Far....

Anyone curious about my workout progress? 

I know you're just dying to know how I'm doing.

I have been exercising since July.  During the summer I was going to the gym most every day.  I would go before Aaron left for work and that schedule worked great...until school started.  After school started I struggled to find the time to exercise.  I had to be creative in how and when I got my workout in.  I now only get a workout in about 2-3 times per week.  Here are some of the various things I've been doing.

This summer I paid for a membership.  At the gym I did the treadmill, the elliptical, and weights-mainly working on my arms and shoulders.  I've seen results...my arms aren't nearly as flabby as they used to be.

After school started I paid for a membership at the gym in Lordsburg (yes, there's one there- can you believe it?)  There I started riding the treadmill but for some reason the belt on their machines heats up and burns my feet, making it highly unpleasant after about .5 mile.  So I started putting in lots of miles on the stationary bike.  I also kept up with my arm weights.

I also have a collection of videos.  Most of them are Biggest Loser videos (mainly cuz they're cheap at Walmart) and I switch between them. 

I borrowed a Kettlebell from a friend and plan on doing that during lunch at work.  Gotta be honest...haven't started that yet. 

For the month of October I am trying to commit to the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels.  ( I have done it twice...and yes I realize today is the 5th)  It's one of the videos I've been switching thru, but I'm gonna try and stick it out all month.  Last night I started on Level 2. 

Nutrition wise I haven't really changed much except for less sweets and portion control.  I am trying to not eat so much fast food either.  But completely eliminating it is darn near impossible with the schedule that my family maintains.  I also haven't changed what we eat at home because...well, because I live in a house full of picky eaters.  Healthy veggies doesn't fly with certain members of my familia. 

Okay, now here are the results:

I don't really know.  Sorry.  I was a total loser and never remembered to measure myself before I started working out.  I can tell you my arms are firmer, my legs are in better shape, I'm losing my saddlebags, and my muffin top is reduced from a baker's dozen to about a half dozen muffins.  I can keep my clothes buttoned all day, but haven't gone down a size yet.

Initially I gained 4 pounds (super, super discouraging- but I'm sure it was due to a little bit of muscle that I was building.  at least, that's what I'm telling myself!!)  But now I'm back down to my original weight. 

Grrrrr...I so want to see pounds being lost.  That's so frustrating.  I do know that I would see an increase in results if I totally changed the way we eat....  we'll get there.  Sloooooooooooooooooooooowly.