Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Another year come and gone! Where does the time go?! We held our annual bday/bbq get together this last weekend and had a great turnout. I was rather impressed with myself and had a ton of fun planning this party. All Wyatt could talk about all summer was having a Jake Pirate party, so that's what we had!  I hid gold doubloons all over the yard with maps for a scavanger hunt, had coconut drinks, coin toss, pin the tail on the donkey, and a pirate ship pinata. The kids with the most coins at the end got first choice out of the treasure chest that Wyatt found when we were shopping in Pueblo earlier this summer. He literally found it and drug it up to Nate and I in the store all excited that he had found 'his treasure!'. How could we not buy it after that?

His big gift? A bike that he had been coveting at Walmart for months now. Anytime we go he brings us over to the bikes to show us, and even though he's a little undersized it was worth it to see his face when we rolled it out!

And it won't be long before we're doing this twice a year! Can you imagine?!  Yup - that's right, we are expecting another little boy in December!

Friday, August 02, 2013

For Mother's Everywhere

To the lady I chewed out at the pool this morning,
When you first tapped my on my shoulder with the smile on your face as I finished up swim lesson with a little three year old, I thought you were going to make a supportive comment about my two year old who was standing by the side of the pool crying because he wasn't getting his way with me at JUST THIS MINUTE. To my absolute horror you commented,quote, "I've never been a mother, but can't you stop that noise so we don't have to listen to it." in front of the young mother picking up her child from me, with a baby on her hip and to a young mother who is obviously pregnant. Normally I may have just said to you that I was sorry you felt that way and walked away, but instead I choose to bite back because I have watched you pretend you own this public pool the entire summer, complaining about group lessons and children in your way day after day. I am tired of your selfish behavior. Everything I said you deserve, you bitter old woman who has never had the opportunity to feel the love of a child. I actually feel sorry for you.

I will reiterate everything I said - that it's obvious you never have been a mother or been the caretaker of a young child, or you would never DARE say that to anyone. You were in a public pool, where all ages are welcome, and I can guarantee that swim lessons generate more income than you coming to walk laps everyday does, so pick another pool where children are not welcome, if you can.

And when you chose to turn to your friend to complain further, I am glad that I continued my tirade against you as you said you were glad you had never been a mother, because you wouldn't have been able to handle an crying child.  Exactly right, because you would have made a lousy mother with that attitude.

You have no idea how lucky you are that I spoke to you in conversational tones and did not raise my rather loud, argumentative voice for the entire pool to hear instead of those immediately around us.
I also noticed you removed yourself to the dressing room rather hastily afterwards. I hope it was because you were embarrassed because I bet nobody has ever bothered to put you in your place before. And would you like to know why? When you speak like that to a mother who is balancing the act of dealing with her child and correct behavior, you embarrass them to the point of speechlessness. You make them feel like they are doing something wrong. You ridicule them and attack their innermost fears that they are not the best mother afterall. 

Who are YOU to make that judgement? Again I say, how dare you. Unfortunately for you, today I made the decision not to hang my head and turn away as I have watched others do in similar situations. Yes, you did succeed in making me feel all those horrible, hurtful things, but I also absolutely refused to back down to you. I made that split second decision because I watched you bully children and instructors all summer, and I am done with it.

The management here has done its best to placate you and those you upset regularly so as to keep good customer relations. They too are sick of your behavior, and how you treat their customers and teenage employees. But guess what? I'm not a teenager. I'm a 35 year old woman with a career and family who chooses to teach swimming because I enjoy it. I'm not the youngster who will keep my mouth shut, and you can also be sure that I informed the owner of how I chewed you out and why. I hope you complained about me. They also have young children.

You are a bully. And I pity you that you cannot even fathom what it is to be a mother. Perhaps you couldn't have children, maybe you chose not to; whatever the reason, you have no right to have made the decision to be embittered by those who do have them and project that bitterness upon others.

And I WILL be back at the pool. Often.

Annual Springs Trip

Headed to Colorado Springs earlier in the week with Chase and Tanner for our annual summer trip!  It's fun to get away and this year we swam in the hotel, saw a big screen movie, visited the North Pole (where Wyatt wouldn't even look at Santa...uh oh!) and stopped by the Dinosaur Center in Glenwood Springs.

On our way there we brought French Bulldog puppies to a person (Megan's mom is a breeder), and of course Wyatt had to babysit.  We also had good eats!



Monday, July 29, 2013

Summer Eats

Who doesn't like a sweet, Juicy Watermelon?


Sunday, July 28, 2013

Stampede 2013

Even if we don't make it to many rodeo's in the summer, we never miss the SKI-HI Stampede, Colorado's oldest rodeo!  Wyatt made friends with the announcer this year, got to enjoy some night rides and spent almost four hours riding and pigging out on carni food a few days later.

Yes - he does have bandaid on his cheek. He got stuck under some chairs in the shed while one of our momma cats went after another cat and I think he got caught in between. I was right outside the door when it happened but only saw him sitting crying with the cat next to him wondering what all the fuss was.  At first I wasn't sure what had happened other than he must have gotten scratched, but after cleaning him up I realized we were going to pay a visit to the drs. Luckily he didn't have to get stitches, but they did glue it. I wish I had just taken care of it with good tape like it was when we went in because the guy who did it didn't get it closed enough. Oh well. Medical care in the valley...so we are now putting Mederma on it and it is looking like it will eventually fade away.

After the inital hurt of it all he hasn't cared anything about it and still crawls around after the cats with no fear. So in his own words..."It's an accident mom".


Friday, July 19, 2013

Living at the Pool

Today was the last day of swim lessons. Whereas I'm sorry to not be swimming every morning except for private lessons, I really will appreciate being able to work on my class and contract work first thing every morning so as to free up my afternoons.  I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of Wyatt all summer despite being at the pool four to five days a week.  He took lessons this last session and did awesome in a new environment with other students and teachers. I regret not being able to take pictures of him with his class and going off the diving board, but I'll try and get that later this summer since the pool is right down the road!

                                           


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Fishing on the River

A friend of ours lives on the Rio Grande in the most beautiful ranch.  A bunch of little rivers and ponds dot the property so I took Wyatt "fishing" for the first time. I didn't put a hook on and he had a blast anyway. One of these days we'll try to catch something!




Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Cuckoo Houses

Wyatt brought me Cuckoo bird houses while down the craft aisle in Walmart one day. I'm not sure where the phrase cuckoo bird came from, but he was insistent we had to paint them for the birds. One was mailed to Nona in Michigan and the other is hanging on our tree outside. For the Cuckoo birds of course.

I personally like how he sticks his tongue out while concentrating. Evidently I do that also.

Friday, July 05, 2013

Look What Rumba Did!!!

Our new little bundle of joy has arrived! Yeah! She was born sometime between 11pmlast night and probably 2 or 3 this morning. Rumba never shows any sign of foaking - doesn't wax, never sweats up or gets anxious...she gets soft around the tail weeks in adnavce and her bag stays full for weeks too - so it's impossible to tell exactly when she is truly getting close. Luckily she is a super easy foaler since we always miss is. She's perfect and I think is going to look like her daddy Grizz, a big, beautiful dun marked grulla. She's a half sister to Ringo, who continues to do well with his training!


Look! Smiling for the camera!




Thursday, July 04, 2013

Happy Fourth of July!

We finally had a rainstorm tonight! Yeah! No Fireworks anyway because of the fire ban, but we did sparklers anyway. Super fun!




Wednesday, July 03, 2013

The Wienie's New Abode

Ok - Our small house is not very condusive to dogs and the wieners have been sleeping in the stock trailer because they dig out of the big kennel with Mac and Roxie.  Now they have their own penthouse.  Nate does good work eh?

The fires have dwindled and no structures burned thank God!  Monsoons are starting to come in too so hopefully that puts it all out. However we still can't have fireworks for the fourth :(

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Loves His Babies

Wyatt loves animals. Sometime too much, but I'd rather he be over-lovable than not enough. He has taken to carrying around the two kittens we have kept around with him everywhere. They are wising up to him though and hide. But when he does get his hand on them they follow him everywhere!

He also climbs in with his mini-pony Tootsie all the time. She's a stinker and won't let him catch her until I put a halter on her, but she tolerant and gentle with him so she's pefect for a kid learning the ropes with a horse, and who likes to climb in with the horses.

And THIS relationship never gets old. These two are too much together.  Not sure I blogged about Wyatt's new room. We finally are redoing the house this summer. We have a HUGE back room we have used for storage, so now we are turning it into a master bedroom, the family room into a dining work area, the old master bedroom into a den/guest room, and the spare bedroom FINALLY has turned into Wyatt's room. Toddler loft included. He loves it but still crawls out of bed at 5 am to sleep with mom and dad.

He loves Mari Cart so hence the Mario sheets.



Sunday, June 30, 2013

The Nudest

I give up. He wants to be naked all the time. Who can argue with that?

Friday, June 28, 2013

Babies, Babies Everywhere

It is the summer of babies here. My little broody Banty needed to hatch eggs and she's the best momma ever.


Our kittens we got late last fall also turned up pregnant right around when I was bringing them into get fixed. I figured they would only have a kitten or two each, but nope!  The black one had five and her sister had four. They are sharing duties as mommas. We were a bit overrun, but everyone but the two we decided to keep have been spoken for...thank God.



Rumba is also expecting. We've brought her in to foal as she was bred late July. Expecting a baby within the next few weeks!

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Fire Today

This is what the smoke from the fire looks like today. Everything still standing but poor visibility and air quality.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Ok - WOW....

...I'm not lazy but life is going to fast right now.  The end of the school year was a bear. The wind has been blowing like crazy since the start of May and so outdoor activities are a bit limited.

I also am working as the Rio Grande Country Tourism Assistant, was working a trade show for them at the end of May, teaching morning swim lessons this summer, am working on my Masters of Education and am taking on two new core classes next year since we had a teacher in my department move on.

We haven't done a whole lot this spring and summer.  So I'll back track a little to keep things in order and try to stay more updated as we have some fun summer events planned.

AND...
A BIG AND...
Keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.  The West Fork Complex Fire has moved into the San Luis Valley. I live far enough from the forest in the plains and so we are safe -  I'm no longer firefighting due to family, kiddos, etc...but many of my friends and colleagues are affected by this. The town of South Fork, and possible Creede and parts of Del Norte are in danger of burning.  Keep your fingers crossed that nobody is hurt, nothing is destroyed and this fire rages through depleting future mega fire problems due to the high incidence of beetle killed trees and poor forest mitigation.  It's very frustrating to me because I worked on much of this part of the forest trying to mark out dead and dying trees to use as lumber, but tree-huggers got upset since we weren't letting nature take its course and so took it to court, and so therefore all this dead wood is just sitting there...waiting for a lightning strike. Which is what happened. Now people's homes and business might burn instead.  It's hard to know that this timber could have been removed and used for production, instead of being burned up and causing these Maga-fires that we have been experiencing.  In all my years of studying fire behavior and working on a fire crew I have never seen any fire move like these fires are doing. It is terrifying.  This picture was taken two nights ago before it made a seven mile, 8,000 acre run last night.


This is what it looks like right now - you can see the smoke rolling through the valley. It looks like it's just a few miles away when it fact it's over 40. Nate was working in Del Norte but there is hot ash and so much smoke they had to leave.


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Helping With Chores

Wyatt's a very good helper when it comes to chores, however we need to work on his attire.  Notice the mismatched boots. At least they are on the correct feet....


Oh...and perhaps the lack of clothing...


Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day Picnic

Packed a fried chicken lunch, called up our friends Megan and her boys Chase and Tanner (Wyatt's partners in crime) and headed to the dunes for the day. The wind kicked up a bit, but we headed to the trees and blocked it out. We had way too much fun burying each other in the sand and running through the river.


Thursday, May 09, 2013

Play Ball!

 The kid loves baseball.  What more can I say? I come from a ball playing (worshiping) family so I'm a proud momma. You should see this kid's arm already!

 

Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Ringo's First Shoes

I sent Ringo to be worked for a month and had him trimmed before he went. Well...that didn't go so well as he was trimmed way too short and was walking in his canon bone. So to keep him from going lame I had to have shoes and pads put on. He had never had shoes before so I was curious to see how he did. And as usual he played it off with flying colors despite being hot shod with banging metal, loud propane tank and having a nail driven into his hoof. He took it all in stride. That's my good boy!



Monday, April 22, 2013

Croca-gators!

Bet 'cha didn't know Colorado grew alligators too!  A few miles away from us live the Colorado 'gators.  There is a natural thermal hot spring and fish farm. The alligators eat the waste. It's now a tourist attraction.

The place has taken on adopting unwanted, undesirable 'pets'. So there is a fun selections of snakes, lizards, gators, crocs, birds, farm animals, etc for little boys to run around looking at. They also have the gator from the movie Happy Gilmore here, living out his retirement with a girlfriend.


Wyatt and I went with his buddies-in-crime and their mother Saturday. It was fun and Wy couldn't stop talking about the 'croca-gators' all weekend!



We also darn near had to adopt this mini-donkey. He was so gentle and FUZZY!  Wyatt fed him skittles (after I checked to see how gentle he would take food of course!), and then had the little guy following him all over like a dog.



Sunday, April 07, 2013

Look What We've Been Doing!

Doesn't happen in strange places, and he really likes to have his "reading" material too...lol

Saturday, April 06, 2013

Bounce House Fun!

Need I say more? This has been a pleasant spring! A little chilly but has had some beautiful days! 


Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Easter Started Early

We almost never have spring break fall during Easter, so this year we took advantage of it.

First we had a play date dying eggs


Then we took the Easter Express Train to the park to meet the Easter Bunny and go on an Egg Hunt


Easter day was full of egg hunts and farm fun at a friend's!


Wyatt was a bit shy of the Easter Bunny when he first saw him...not at all like the stalking he did of Santa Claus, and continues to do with any guy he sees with a beard. But after a few minutes he was pretty pumped about high fives and 'knuckles'!  Then he started to stalk him too...


Friday, March 29, 2013

Been Awhile...

Since starting a second job as the Rio Grande County Tourism Board assistant in working on marketing and advertising - I haven't had two seconds to myself.  It's been wild.  I also am in charge of all the social networking, and since I do not facebook or twitter it's been a bit of a challenge to get people to view the sites.  If anybody reading wants to check out what I have rolling and give suggestions, or like, or follow...please do!
www.facebook.com/riocountry
twitter: @riocountry
pinterest: www.pinterest.com/riograndeco

It's spring break - actually it's about over. It really was a mild winter, and it started warming up in February, so we've played outside as much as possible. Wyatt and I headed to Denver with some buddies to explore for a few days - this was the result:

Wyatt chillin' with the mermaids - couldn't stop asking me to "find her" once they were gone. He panned for gold, fed the stingrays and got a tattoo of a shark too!

Chuck-e-Cheese, swimming and playing with his balloon dragon at IHOP. Went on a roller-coaster simulator and had a blast!

The Wildlife Experience Museum - very cool for little ones. Ran through a maze, pet hissing cockroaches, went fishing and even caught a 3D movie on baby animals!

This place is a ZOO!  Awesome ideas and fantastic for little ones - but run on the premise that parents will interact and 'police' their own children....not so much.  Even Wyatt had sensory overload with all the craziness and screaming and kept putting his hands over his ears. Obviously I wasn't impressed.  I wish the staff would get it organized because the whole idea is so cool for hands on play and discovery - if your kid gets the chance. Despite that Wyatt had a good time exploring each station and didn't let the bigger kids push him around.