Colorful Colorado

 

Yesterday, when I left Dad's place, it was snowing up in the mountains!  It was amazing that we could be hiking all day that morning as well as the previous day and then be all covered in snow.  It was so pretty looking out over the mountains covered in a blanket of white.

On my way to Nebraska, I stopped by to see Katie in Fort Collins.  It was wonderful!  She had about an hour, so I met her at her work and we walked to a coffee shop.  We both got chai tea and sat outside in the sun with Briggsy.  I am SO very happy to be close to her again!  We are only about 2.5 hours apart now!  Sounds like I will be running the Horsetooth Half marathon with her and Corey this April. Heath is considering it also!  :)  Yay for running!

Today, Friday, I started off my day by getting the boys breakfast and off to school.  Then ,I went for an awesome run on the ditch road.  I ended up doing a loop, which are hard to do without going way further or way shorter than you want to go.  It was the perfect temperature and sunny!  Briggs had alot of fun too!

After my run, I showered and quickly headed to town to go to the bank and to pick up my vacuum cleaner from the shop.  I returned home just in time to meet Barb, Heath's mom, to head back to town with the truck and horse trailer to get Penney.  Before we went to get her, we stopped by the physical therapist.  Someone recommended PT for my hip flexor which has been hurting for 15 months now.  I was in there over an hour. I'm really hoping this helps because it is starting to keep me up at night.

When we went to pick up Miss Penney, we ran into Delton at the house.  He is working really hard, getting ready to sell the place.  I am very interested in it as it has a barn and 32 acres with 20 acres of water rights.  We will see if I can afford it though.  I am working on getting the paperwork done to get pre-qualified so that I know what my budget is going to be.  Anyway, Delton showed us around and we daydreamed some ideas about what could be done with the place.  Tons of options!

He was getting rid of alot of old windows and I asked if I could have them.  He was very happy because it saved him a trip to the dump.  I saw a really cool idea when I was with my Daddy.  His friends had made a greenhouse out of all old windows and they extended their growing season almost 3 months!  Another project for me!  :)

We got Miss Penney moved to Senkel's until we can get the corrals by my house all fixed up.  I hung out with Penney to make sure she was comfortable when I got a call from Danny.  He wondered why I was not there yet.  Today is the last day of goose season with only 3 shooting hours left and I wasn't there.  

LIFE:  To hang out with horse or to go hunting?!  What an awesome day!  Both great things!

After getting Penney all set up I headed north to get in on some of the goose action as the season was quickly coming to a close.  We ended up with 8 total!  Not a bad way to end the season.  I didn't even have coveralls on because it was so nice out!

When we had put the decoys away for the last time this season, Heath and I had to go back to Stegall to get the flatbed.  We were on a mission to go get hay for Penney.  A guy, Joe, from church grows alfalfa still had some available.  Hay is really tight this year because everyone has been so dry.  So, we had an adventure of an hour and half round trip to get hay.  Joe had the big square bale (1,700 pounds) all ready to go on his tractor so all we had to do was drop it on the back of the truck.

What a day!  :)

Great Day!!

Yesterday, Daddy made homemade bread, eggs, and bacon this morning for breakfast for us.  It was so delicious!  I haven't been able to make that good of bread ever, I was very impressed.  After breakfast, I made a bunch of phone calls and did some work and then we took Briggsy for a 2 hour hike.  It was a beautiful hike with occasional snow on the ground for Briggs to play in and get a drink.  We came back to the house to work a little bit on a few things and the we ate lunch a little restaurant downtown.  I had an excellent hamburger and sweet potato fries.  I was too full for a homemade milkshake.  We went back and relaxed a bit and I took a shower and shaved for my massage at 5 pm.  















Dad told me that a massage really helped him when his leg was hurting so I decided to try it.  My hip flexor has been hurting me now for 15 months and after a 14 race racing season for 2012, it is time to get it fixed.  I was very pleased with this massage by Karla.  It was an injury massage, not a feel good massage.  She really worked on that area and it actually hurt on a scale of 1-10 a 10 for parts of it, but by the end, she had worked blood flow back into my hip and I could lift it without it hurting.  She told me no stretching, to take a hot bath tonight, and lots of water to wash out the toxins and lactic acid that she released.  I could get back to exercising and stretching after 24 hours.

As we were driving home from the massage it started snowing.  We went inside and Dad and I cooked supper together.  Then, I helped him rearrange his kitchen.  We had alot of fun and a great meal together!  After supper, we took a nice walk to the post office in the gently falling snow.  Briggs loved it!

Consider It Pure Joy

Lots of random photos.  Dad and I did alot of hiking today as it was a beautiful day!  Briggsy had a blast, especially in the snow!

Old Mining Country

Functioning Gold Mine

Remainder of Mining

Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the horizon

Neat ole' tree

Old Mining Cabin

Found this in the Cabin

My Buddy

Too much to see and do to sit for a photo shoot!

Ag Mining Museum

Ag Mining Museum

Mountains

I made it late last night to the mountains and I have been spending quality time with my Daddy and doggie.  We are all really having fun.  Getting back to the basics and starting to live life more simply.  We are going out hiking today and I will be taking my new camera out with me to try to capture what I am so very blessed to be seeing.  Be watching for photos tomorrow!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Laura's Story

*Blessings*

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Headed up to the mountains to visit my Daddy today!

~Home Sweet New Life~

Run.  Church.  Benefit lunch.  Run.  Football game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ

All Nighter

I snapped this right as we were pulling onto Stegall Road at sunrise.
Saturday morning.  Welcome to Nebraska!

Being young and crazy, we decided to take off after supper last night.  We were all packed and ready to go and getting antsy.  We wanted to make it back to Justin's last wrestling match.  He wrestled varsity today!  Congratulations JUSTIN!  :)

Last Day

Today Heath and I did all the good things in Manhattan.  We went to Orange Leaf, our favorite frozen yogurt place for one.  Now let me give you a quick description for those of you who have not had the wonderful opportunity to experience this.  When you walk in they greet you and you pick up a cup.  Now, you are faced with tons of choices of soft serve frozen yogurt of all flavors.  The flavors change monthly and seasonally, so get your favorites while they last!  Each machine has two individual flavors and the one in the middle is a twist of the two individual flavors.  I, personally, like to mix and match and try all the good ones in one cup.  Then comes the Subway bar of toppings!  At the end they have the all dreaded scale!  You pay $0.41/once.  TOTALLY worth it, don't get me wrong.  In honor of your patronage, they give you an "ounce back" on a credit card looking thing.  What an amazing entrepreneur idea.  We went there to use all the money off of my "ounce back" card and then gave us another dollar off.  :)

Next, we went to McAllisters, a rare find towards the end of the semester.  I finally treated myself to their infamous sweet tea with lemon!

Our last stop was Baan Thai, my favorite thai food place just down the hill from my house.  I especially wanted to take Heath here because of this story.  One time during a rough patch in vet school, Heath really wanted to order me supper to make it easier for me.  So he asked me what I wanted and I suggested Baan Thai because my roomies seem to like it alot.  He, being the wonderful man that he is, called and ordered it for me.  The people at the restaurant were very sweet to him, but they could not take credit card over the phone.  So, when I went to pick up my phone, they apologized to me and told me that I had a good man.  I agreed.  I was very glad that he got to go here with me.

Another phone snapshot at Baan Thai!  :)

After lunch, we went to pick up the UHaul and went home to start loading.  Heath packed that thing to perfection.  I couldn't have come close if I tried.  Then it was time to start cooking for my going away Wild Game Feed supper.  Heath so kindly brought duck, goose, and pheasant from Nebraska to cook for my friends.  We had a potluck and everyone brought my favorite dishes, including Melissa's Snicker Apple Salad and Shannon's jalapeno corn bread.

We had a really nice turn out!  Heath marinaded the goose two ways:  Italian dressing and the other batch with lemon juice and garlic.  He wrapped Nebraska raised bacon around the duck and the pheasant we did it in a little soy sauce, garlic, and butter.  What a treat and a cool thing to share with my friends.  Some had never had it before.  This was my first time to have pheasant and it was definitely a winner!