News for December - WOW!

It's been a crazy few weeks. We had a wonderful time in California at Kate's for Thanksgiving (found a new wine, check out the site on the right). We cut some trees at MB's and Andy got a part to fix the waterheater.
I finally had the garage sale...we did really well, evidently. Two cars in the garage - just in time!
For massive snow!!!!! We got 10 inches or so, but it DID drift a little in the open spaces one night. Since then, it hasn't gotten above freezing, so it's still here. Andy got snow, burritos, and carrot cake for his birthday. He's been studying for finals... I've been driving the Nissan...checking to make sure it works before we head to CO for Christmas! Well, I've avoided work for long enough... enjoy the changes! Here's the Birthday shout-out:

Karen, Jim, Rhoda

MB
Andy

Devine
Grandpa Don
Susanne (B) G

Pre-Thanksgiving Checklist

So...we made it to MaryBeth's house. All the animals acted like they'd been starved for days...drama queens! You know how when you travel there's always stuff left behind? It's inevitable that something gets left, and then you have to talk about it and decide how important it really is. I mean, is it like going camping without sleeping bags and pillows, or is it like camping without a spatula? So I've decided that you can't go anywhere without something being left behind. What are we missing? Here's the list: my phone chargers (car and regular), dvd movies for bedtime (MB has some good ones), and chairs (the living room couch has been sent to a new home).

But all will be well... I turned the phone off to conserve the battery. I moved the plastic off one of the chairs to sit here and type. The heat is on in the house, and the dogs are playing...
What else happens at the holidays? Well, hopefully we can stave off any serious illnesses, but we do both have a little congestion.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

News from Hurricane, UT...

Andy and I have been attending James' (#21) youth football games the last couple of months. We've really enjoyed watching (and cheering) these young men play. They put a lot of hard work in and made it to the Championship Game for their age group undefeated. (These pictures are from their playoff game 11/14.) Unfortunately, they lost a heartbreaker last night. The game went into overtime last night at 0-0. Then each team scored in the first overtime. In double overtime, each team scored again. Going into triple overtime, it was tied 14-14. Hurricane had the first shot and scored, but missed the extra point. Their opponents scored and made the extra point. The boys (and all the fans) were sorely disappointed in the loss, but all the fans knew how hard a game it had been. (This was a little extra hard because Hurricane HS had gone to the State finals for 3A the night before - 2nd year in a row - and lost in the last 3 seconds.) But the 6th graders were the only youth team from Hurricane to make the Championship game....next year, they'll definitely kick some more butt!



On the movie front, we double-dated to New Moon - it was great! The movie and the company, of course... Dee and Steve borrowed our copy of Twilight the night before so Steve was up to speed.

Happy November!

Here's the list of the lucky November birthdays:

(that I can remember right now...I just KNOW I'm forgetting several)
Grandma Meisel

Logan ( #1 Nephew!)

Lots of home maintenance going on this weekend. We also did the Butch Cassidy 5K walk this weekend with some neighbors - good times! Hurricane USA League 6th grade team won last night under the lights (go James!) - they beat my students, but it was a good game. Will post more later. Gotta bike ride and do citizenship grades for report cards - YIKES!

Great Basin National Park - the middle of...

NOWHERE! Don't get me wrong, it was fabulous, but when even Andy says he wouldn't live there, you know it's in BFE. Andy says it reminds him a lot of the Ruby Mountains...evidently there's a lot of nothing in Nevada, except for in the mountains. The colors were gorgeous, for you leaf peepers, we were flying low up and down the road into our camp and didn't get the red, but I'm including some yellow. All the leaves had pretty much dropped off the aspens by the time we left Monday morning.

We had some great hikes, one up from our camp to an old tungsten mining town with a lake at about 10,700. We will go back sometime and climb up and over the ridge to another lake, but we don't think we can take Sarah on that one.











Sarah was happy though, that we found snow - her favorite thing.









We also hiked up to Lexington Arch, which was a shorter (but steeper) ascent, and that's where these other shots were taken. It was REALLY windy at the arch, but the canyon up there was amazing!












The glacier is on Wheeler Peak (13,000) feet roughly...it's in the middle of the park. Looks like a good hike - in the SUMMER! It was so cold up there that they'd already closed the campground. We also practiced our "professional" photography... so there were LOTS of pictures taken in 4 days, but we won't share them all.






We celebrated our anniversary (Andy cooks a mean steak, and Dee sent sangria!), and then the next day was Sarah's birthday. She got bacon - that was a SERIOUS treat. She NEVER gets people food from us.

Here's the damage report: 1) the pump mechanism on the duel fuel lantern has finally gone caput, 2) there's a major leak in the air mattress - the good one, but at least it waited until Sunday night to appear, 3) very sore calves for a couple of days (mostly the downhill), and 4) the Coleman chairs officially went in the garbage when we came home (mechanical failure). Other than that...awesome trip. Back to school was a reality check on Tuesday (for me, we came home Monday morning for Andy's Bio class), but now that the week's over, I'm not sure where it went.

Anniversary Edition

I know that this is belated for some, and premature for others, but I'm doing one shout-out for all the October anniversaries:

Scott and Kim Keene
Bill and Cathy McCullough
Carl and Susanne Medley
anyone else my mind is blanking on at the moment...

Some of you might not realize that I'm a collector/packrat/someone who keeps momentos and stuff...(the title depends on your point of view). Anyway, Andy and I have been talking about going through all our old photos. So I went in the closet where that stuff is and realized...WHOA - there's a LOT of stuff in there. Christmas pictures of everyone, cards from special occasions, invitations to events, lots of ticket stubs, napkins, and other memorabilia. I could do an entire blog just on that stuff. But it did make me a little teary (not a shocker)... So here are some pictures from our wedding... Many of you were there, and for those who have met us since, yes, that really is us...

Yup, if you were at our wedding and under 35 (with a couple of exceptions) you should be somwhere in this shot... we have an 11 x 14 hanging on the wall.Look at that handsome bunch of guys...

I get 2 Moms...

and a really great Dad! (He maintained his sense of humor about the hotel, the road, the golf course...)I don't mean to brag, but what a family...(where's Justin, anyway?)This was worth all the other stuff...Andy and I wanted an outside wedding (hence October - Phoenix, remember?), at sunset...picky, picky!

The other great event was Leona's birthday, 90 then - 101 this year - for which we sang...Other notable October birthdays...(I'll try to make this a habit...)
Ivy
Mike (another great dad)

and, Sarah

Back from the land of busy...

Hello - is there ever enough time? Today, as Andy and I were doing a "big" clean, he remarked, "there's really not enough time to work a full job and keep the house clean, huh?" Truer words were never spoken. It was a good day, tho'. Andy let me sleep in and took the pack for a big bike ride (they LOVE that phrase now). Then when I woke up and realized he was gone and had taken my paint (more in a minute), I geared up and rode to the fire station. He very sweetly helped me paint the CERT signboard (I've been promising for 3 months to get that done...see? never enough time). Then I rode home and when Andy got back, we decided to clean house. A big clean involves dusting everything (except blinds - that's its own job), cleaning granite, bathrooms, sweep (for dog hair), vacuum (for all small dust), and mop. We've got this house down to 4 1/2 hours...and then the dog shower so she can come in! I temporarily misplaced my retainer...and had flashbacks of 6th grade. But, all's well that ends in the retainer case soaking in mouthwash.

Anyway, got an email from Mom and Dad by way of Michelle and Jarvis (Brethour's surrogate parents/grandparents). Katie got a Women in Business award from the city of Pasadena! Way to go Kate! I think this is a great shot of her and Mike.

Speaking of family, Andy and I are looking forward to Brooke's wedding in March. The only difficulty with coming to Phoenix is all the people we should see....

Don't you just love weddings? Here are some pics I found recently. We have been digging out some old pictures to load on the computer, so I'm including some classics - see the Compatible Dyad - oldie but goodie!

Gotta go - there's a bathtub calling my name!

Will wonders never cease?

Hello! I am home for approximately 30 hours in between conferences, so I thought I'd take advantage of that pause...
Check out those fingernails...now, anyone who's known me for longer than 6 minutes, knows I can't seem to grow a fingernail to save my life. And yet, look! They are all about the same length, no major defects, and it's been like 1 1/2 weeks! I did paint them, then of course, the paint wore down, so I took it off and am repainting tonight. I'm not holding my breath tho' - they'll disappear as soon as I'm not careful.

Speaking of beautiful, how 'bout them bikes? Andy's is the one with the red wheels and pedals, it's called a Pivot. Mine is an Ibis. Whatever, I like it. My butt's adjusted (I did break down and buy some padded shorts - ugh!). Now as soon as my thighs adjust to going uphill.... The dogs love the exercise.

Everything else is good here! We're having chicken enchiladas (Andy slowcooked the chicken all day...mmmmm). Take care!

Thoughts...notice I didn't say they were deep...

1) Back from being out 4 days, isn't it nice when you have a great sub? Everything was organized, my room was neat, probably having the PTA president for a student's mom and my sub helped, but hey... you never know.
2) We bought bikes...pictures to come later...Why does the seat have to be so uncomfortable? I don't want to buy shorts with extra padding...but my rear end hurts! Why?
3) I know everyone's heard about the California wildfires, but the day we bought the bikes from the local shop, they finally decided to start fighting the one that had been burning for a month on Pine Mountain (N of St.George). Andy went to fight it and called to tell me that one house had burned. Then he called the next day and said that it was the bike shop owner's. I don't know about you, but the one thing I think would be nearly impossible to recover from (besides a death), would be your house and everything in it being destroyed. We really like Quinton and DJ...
4) So now that I'm back and on a roll, my principal says she got me (and a small group of others) into the PLC conference - in 2 weeks! I just gave up and started planning until Christmas. It looks like it's going to be one of those years...but I got the great sub!

I HATE BEING SICK!!

I have strep throat!!! Do you believe it? So now I'm going to be out at LEAST 3 days, if not 4, from school. Fellow teachers - - - - feel my pain!

THIS SUCKS!

By the way, Happy Birthday Katie!

New...

New teeth, new hair, new clothes...must be time for SCHOOL!






Seriously, here you go, Mom.



School's good...kids are good...not enough sleep...

Ah, the End of Summer...

This will be a long post, I have tons of pictures here...
Andy took his test for his math class on 7/28, so we headed out for our camping extravaganza on 7/29. Since we had a shortened time frame, we stayed "in Utah" for this year. We had a great time and found some new spots to return to... Here are some of the highlights:
First camping spot - Fish Lake - Mackinaw Campground, Site 18. (Site 16 is ROCKIN' for tents, but there was someone there before us. Our site was great tho', at the top of the circle, back in the trees.) NOT Sarah's favorite, just because she had to be on her leash. We were there Wed-Mon and did some great hikes, took Sarah swimmin' a lot, and found some awesome dispersed camping and trails.Monday - we pulled into Torrey, UT, just outside of Capitol Reef National Park/Monument. Having been there at Halloween, we had found a motel that is pet-friendly. So we showered, did laundry, had pizza at the Patio, and shakes at Slackers (also great burgers for lunch). Slept in a bed for one night, then off to Hell's Backbone Road.
Second half of camping - Blue Spruce Campground, just off Hell's Backbone - The road is great...better than our own dirt road for most of it. Andy took pictures at the bridge (WAY high up). We found the campground around noon, 6 spots, one site with people (who were packing up). Latrines, water, bear cabinets, lots of trees, a running creek, and a fence around the whole thing! (we think it was to keep cattle out) Sarah loved it, she "logged" the creek, and ran around the whole place since we were the only ones there. We did some over-the-road exploring, and took Sarah swimmin' every day (ask Andy about the kids who caught a duck), and survived a LOUD thunderstorm Thursday morning.
We headed home Saturday through Tropic and Bryce and Coral Pink, watching everyone else going the opposite direction. We got everything unpacked, checked email (seriously people, 80 messages in 10 days?), checked snail mail, did laundry, SHOWERED again, and had a house full of dogs. School starts tomorrow for me, so I'll probably MIA for a little bit. Happy August! This adventure was brought to you by Moose Drool... [it tastes MUCH better than it sounds ;) ]