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And They Said It Wouldn't Last

Today, friends and family gathered at my parent's house to help them celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.  Despite the little rain storm that showed up to announce the end of the festivities, it was a great event.  The only thing missing were Susie and Jerry Ausec and Mary Thomas. It was a fun BBQ event, though, and I can say that the Coleman part of the family enjoyed it immensely.

Don got a new camera from Mom. I think I had the most fun just playing with that! It was a Sony, 13 MP camera. It looked like an SLR, but I don't think it was.  At any rate, the picture quality was pretty close to that I've seen with some of the SLRs...and it was about half the price.

Here are some pics:

From left:  Mindy, Ken, Mom (Sue), Chris, Don Thomas, Don Stanley, Ruth, Bill (in back), Angela (in front), Mike, Phillip

Marilyn, Pam and Jennifer

Barbara

Harry

Mindy

Ken (yes, he *is* being silly, I agree...)

The Awesome Chris!

And here's a pic of me...and, yeah, it's probably the last one you'll see!

Summer's Over...Finally!

I know that I am not alone in this feeling...I know there are others out there who share my particular distaste for super hot, super sunny days. My husband is one...of that I'm sure.  My friend, Tiffany, is another. But surely there are others. We can't be the only ones looking forward to the cooler days. 

For Ken and I, at least, the reasons are rather selfish. The days of doing hours of yard work in blistering heat are coming to a close.  Ken is happy about that. For me, it's the clothes. I really don't like summer attire.  Oh, the casual clothes are great, but really, I only get to wear those a couple of days a week.  The other days, I go from a cool house in the morning to a freezing office during the day back to a cool house in the evening...almost always interrupted at some point by a few smoldering moments when I can not avoid being outside and the decision made hours earlier to wear a light sweater for the office comes back to haunt me. I've actually started wilting in the heat now.

With the end of summer, of course, comes school.  There are two students in our house now.  Mindy started kindergarten on August 12. I took the day off work so I could take her and pick her up on this special day.  I think it was more special for me than for her, truthfully.  She takes everything in stride. I was just happy there were no tears ... from either of us!  She looked awfully cute. 

I love this picture, because that backpack was about as big as she is!  LOL This was actually taken at the end of the day - well, school is only three hours, so it was still the middle of the day! This next pic of Mindy and Grandpa Harry was taken just before we left for the new adventure!

The pigtails were my idea...so blame me.  :P

Mindy's been in school now for about three weeks.  She seems to be doing pretty well. Her class is VERY large, 30 kids.  Her teacher, Mrs. Borell, is a saint in my book.  The group is very diverse, some kids come in knowing their letters and numbers, some kids didn't. And, of course, there are at least a few kids who most likely don't speak English at home. Ken and I try to work with Mindy a bit each day to ensure she's learning her letters and she even has some words down.  She can recognize words like DOG, CAT, BALL, ON, OFF, MOM, DAD, ME, and her name. We're also working on phonics. So she can spell those words, not just recognize them.

As for the other student in the house...that would be me...I'm taking two classes this semester.  We'll have to see how this goes.  Both courses are online - Microeconomics and Report Writing.  I'm hoping they are 'easy' enough that I can get everything I need to get done even with the travel I'll be doing this autumn. Classes start in two days...yikes!

I don't think I mentioned in previous blogs that I got a new job. That's been a challenge, to say the least.  I'm still transitioning out of my old job. It has made it difficult to focus on some of the things I need to start learning for my new position.  But, eventually, these last few projects will go by the wayside and I can put my all into preparing for the big changes in store for the health care electronic transaction sets. There is a lot to learn.

Ken is still plugging away at HAC.  He's the second most productive Voucher Examiner in his grade. He really does hate the job, though.  There's not much challenge in it for him.  Hopefully, there will be a change in hiss near future so he can start enjoying work as much as I do!  LOL  Or maybe I'm just a freak...

Later today, my folks are having a BBQ at their house.  Monday is their 30th wedding anniversary! Can you believe it?  And they said it wouldn't last.  ;)  If we get pics, I'll throw some up.

 

Later...

Vacation!!!

We're getting ready for vacation #2. We leave tomorrow for the bright lights of Vegas. We're driving, and in the truck no less, so it will be an expensive trip. But I think it will be a good get-away for the family. This one will be just Ken, Mindy and me. We LOVE vacationing with our friends, but we also need some 'quality' time together. I know Ken is bored with his job so getting away is good for him. And things are so crazy for me at work and home. Wth Mindy getting ready to start school, it just seems like a good time to go. I wish I had planned it a little better, but we'll take what we can get.

I had a good week, weight-wise. I'm down 2.6 pounds this week, for my biggest loss yet. Not sure how that happened. I barely journaled at all this week, so I can't go back and see what I did that was good. I have to get back on track with that.

I came across this thing called MVM, My Virtual Model, this week, too. It's quite the motivator! LOL Here are my models - one for how I was when I started, the other showing how I should look at goal. Can't wait!!!




That's about all I have time for today. I'm racing through my math homework trying to get ready to take a test tonight. Still have grocery shopping to do...and packing...UGH! bye!

Is there Such a Thing as a GOOD Monday??

This one held some promise, but it was still a tough day. It was our first Monday back to work after a week off. But we didn't make it to work until a bit after 9:00. Ken and I took Harry in to the Wound Care Clinic downtown. He'd had a sore on his leg for a few weeks now and this was the follow-up visit. The first time I saw the wound, he had just asked me to take a look at the back of his leg because it had been hurting. I'm no medical professional, but I could tell this was not a good looking sore. It was swollen and pussy and the area of his leg around it had turned a brownish-red color. I cleaned it off as best I knew how and we made an appointment to see his primary physician.

She took one look at it and said, 'Yuck!' Her nurse bandaged Harry up and they made an appointment for him at this Wound Care place at Franklin Clinic. It was almost a week before we could get in. In that time, I cleaned and rebandaged it for him each evening. I don't think it was fun for either one of us! During the WC visit, the health care professional - I don't believe she was a doctor, but was some knd of 'super-nurse' (my own technical term which I'm sure will catch on) - redressed the site with this gray, fuzzy cloth. She said it contained silver which is a great anti-microbial. Over that, she placed a greasy gauze, another gauze bandage then some really cool fabric tape. She said this could remain bandaged for up to a week without a change! This was a God-send as Ken, Mindy and I were leaving for the cabin I discussed in the last post. After just ten days, the wound site is almost completely healed. He no longer needs to bandage it. I'm getting us some of the fuzzy stuff to have on-hand for the future. It was pretty amazing.

After getting Harry's clean bill-of-health, we took him back home and made our way to work. I was expecting to hear about a possible job interview for me, hopefully this week. But no word yet. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I spent the rest of the morning going through the 1,280 e-mails that were sitting there waiting for me. GULP! About 80% of them were 'junk e-mails' for technical mail groups I'd signed up for over the years, but still it took a while to get through those. There were a few I looked over...one announcing that Congress had approved a 3.9 percent raise for Federal employees for next year. We'll get that in January, and that will help ALOT. Another said Congress had passed a bill approving paid materinty/paternity leave as a separate paid benefit for Federal Employees. Probably not a benefit we'll get to use, but interesting. It seems that it would make keeping us Feds around to do the job keeps getting more and more expensive. It's already pretty attractive to contract out much of the work we do.

Speaking of contracting out, the one exciting thing that happened for me today was that I met our new DBA contractor. He'll be onsite for the next six months helping me with a lot of the hardware and database administration. If I end up getting that EDI Analyst position, he'll be pretty critical during the transition. He seems like a pretty nice man, eager to help.

After work, Ken and I picked up Mindy from Karen's house. Boy, was she in a foul mood! And it didn't get any better as the evening wore on. We barely made it through dinner without tantrums on all sides. I took her up to bed early and we read a couple of new story books that arrived today from Amazon. The first, Knuffle Bunny, is a very cute story about a young girl with a much beloved stuffed toy. The second, You're Not My Real Mother, was one I'd gotten so Mindy and I could continue our somewhat disjointed dialog about her adoption. I am not sure that she understands it yet, that she has birth parents far, far away. But we talk about it from time to time and I thought this book might help extend the conversation. I was reluctant to read it to her this evening, given her mood. But she insisted that we read the new books. I relented, read it and asked her some questions. She didn't seem all that interested, though. She picked out another book she wanted me to read instead. (sigh) I'm sure I'm doing this all wrong. lol

Mindy and I crashed in her rocking chair while listening to the radio. We all are pretty tired this evening. I'm glad she was in a pretty happy place before falling asleep. It usually makes for an uneventful night.

By the way, today is my Mom's birthday! We all celebrated at my parents' home yesterday. It was a fun barbeque event with family and friends. Both Joyce Ruisi and Marilyn Bixel were there. They are long-time friends of my mom's and happen to be pretty amazing women. My Aunt Lucy showed up from Texas just as the BBQ was starting. She had incredible timing and introduced several of us there to the wonders of sangria! Yumm-O!

Jerry and Chris Ausec attended from the Springs, looking every the dashing pair of dudes. Unfortunately, Susie couldn't make it this time. Mom added Susie and Mary both to Grace, asking God to protect and keep them from harm.

Uncle Bill and Aunt Wilma both showed as well and were such fun. I consider them to be that rare mixture of retro-cool.

Aunt Ruth and Uncle Don were there, too, bringing love and laughter to the party.

I didn't think to pull out the camera until pretty late in the afternoon. So, I didn't manage to get everyone in a picture. But here are a couple of the Colemans, at least. Next time, I'll do better!





Here Mom and Mindy are spending some girly time on the swing.




Ken is providing a perch for Juliet, Lucy's Yorkie just in from Texas. I just noticed they both have the same hair color. Maybe that's why they like each other so much!




And here, Mindy is showing off her new dress. I'd just bought it that morning. I got a size 6 because she was starting to outgrown all her size 5 clothes. But this barely fit! She also really liked the little 'pearl' necklace I picked up for her. She felt and looked like a little lady! :)

I have a couple more pictures from the party that I'll throw up later this week. But I had to show off my family first! I'm kinda selfish that way. ;)

Time for me to pop off. Given that not all that much out of the ordinary happened today, it did turn into a rather long post. Hope you don't mind!

Much love,

Kelley

Summer Fun

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. We're definitely in summer mode, but it's not the lazy days of summer I normally love! We are very busy these days. Between Mindy's gymnastics and my college class and Ken's gardening, we're all keeping pretty busy.

We just returned a couple of days ago from our annual trip to the cabin with the Holzheimers. We love that trip and look forward to it every year. It was a bit earlier than usual this year, falling in June instead of August. But there's a lot to be said for that part of the country at this time of year. The days were very warm, but not overly hot. There were still bugs, but there were also bits of snow on the run up to Antora Meadow.

We didn't take our dogs this year. Harry stayed home and kept an eye on them. That was actually a last minute decision brought on by our Bichon's sudden back problem. It doesn't happen often, but it seems more likely to happen when the neighborhood folks are shooting off fireworks...they've been doing that for a couple of weeks now. Louie is very frightened of sudden, loud noises. Actually, they don't have to be loud. Any popping or clapping noise is likely to send him into a tizzy. As we packed up to leave, Louie was very glum and obviously in pain. We decided to leave him home. Then we realized we have to leave all the dogs home. They would go crazy if not all of them were together. Harry did an excellent job taking care of them. We called our friends, John and Susan, and asked if they would run any of the pets to the vet while we were gone, should the need arise. Luckily, we have awesome friends.

The trip up was a bit longer for Ken than for me. I conked out somewhere on the west side of Bailey. I woke up about a mile before the turn-off at Villa Grove. Sure made the time fly! lol

Once there, we spent some great quality time with our friends, the Holzheimers. We are a pretty nerdy bunch, though. There were many times when I'd look around and everyone in the group, except maybe Ken and Mindy, were reading! I actually read two books while I was there! I read Sandra Brown's Hello, Darkness and Mary Higgins Clark's Little Girls in Blue. They were both fun, fast reads. I hadn't had time to just sit and read in so long, it felt like quite the indulgence.

We spent a couple of the evenings around the campfire. We re-visited an old camping past-time by melting aluminum cans inside a tin can. The fire was so hot at times that the aluminum cans would melt in seconds. At the end, we had a big tin can about half full with liquid aluminum! We dug a hole as a mold of sorts and dumped the liquid into the hole. Here's a pic...



Sorry the picture is a little blurry...it was taken pretty late at night with a flash.

The night before we left for our camping trip, Ken, Mindy, Harry and I went to a Rockies game at Coors Field. It's such a pretty park. We had decent seats, too. Ken got the tickets as a Father's Day present for Harry. I think Harry had a good time, although it was a late night for all of us.



Mindy ate lots of cotton candy (yes, I'm a terrible Mom!) Her tongue turned blue...



Tomorrow is the last day of Ken's and my first vacation of the year. We're back at work on Monday, but only for four days. Then we're off again to Las Vegas. We will be staying at the Worldmark Resort. We're driving, so who knows what the gas prices will do to us.

Ken's out on the front porch watching our neighbor do yard work in her halter top. ;) And Harry is with him....like father like son.

What Did You Do Today?

I had an interview today - my first in about 8 years. I interviewed for a supervisor position at the HAC (where I work now). I was really amazed that I even made the cert. My KSAs (essays on knowledge, skills and abilities applicable to certain requirements for the job) were hastily thrown together, and I honestly wasn't sure that I was interested in holding a supervisory position. Ken was very supportive of me going for it. He believes I would make a great supervisor. I'm not sure if that's because I'm usually supervising at home while he does all the work!

At any rate, I thought the interview went extremely well from my perspective. I don't believe I sold them on selecting me so much as I met most of my goals for interviewing. I looked pretty good, I was able to speak somewhat intelligently for at least 90% of the interview, and I believe I did the appropriate level of self-promotion without over-stating or sounding too boastful. I'm am usually reluctant to take much credit onto myself. But I felt that I made it clear I have a strong work-ethic, and that I have the drive to do the job. The rest is all up to them. I've done all I can do to this point; some I did well, some not so well. It will likely be the end of June or early July before I hear.