My Trip To Riverfront Park...

And my trip to Jackson, Wyoming, in which my car felt the need to introduce itself to a guardrail. More on that in a bit. Be patient. : )

Back in early March, I think it was, we had some really great weather for a week or so, so I decided to take Heather to Riverfront Park, which is more of a nature-type park than a play park, about 2 miles from our house. There's a decent size lake there, picnic tables, barbecue grills, a bunch of trails through the trees, and of course, the Yellowstone River flows alongside the park and through the lakes there. There are a bunch of Canada geese that live there just about year-round, and we always take a little bit of bread to feed them.

This guy got close enough to touch.


After we ran out of bread, we went walking along one of the trails to see what we could see.

There's a muskrat living in here somewhere. We keep seeing him poke his head out of the water, but he didn't stay out long enough to catch him with the camera.


This is the top of one of the cottonwoods that grow all over the place here, but mostly I was taking a picture of the sky. It was just incredibly blue that day, with no clouds anywhere.


This is one of my favorite pictures of Heather. She had just stepped out of a break in the trees, and the sunlight was kind of hazy around her. I thought it was kind of ethereal. : )


I'm going to add a few other pics that I liked, in no particular order, but were also seen on our walk in the woods.

View of the lake from the bridge--I liked how well the trees and sky were reflected.


A bird's nest in a tree.


A dried berry of some sort. There were a bunch of these on bushes all over the park, but this one stood out for me because it was the only one in that area.


I'm pretty sure this is another view of the lake where the muskrat lives. Or it might be another lake. Same park, though.


................................
Okay, now for my trip to Wyoming. (See? Told you I'd tell you about it!)
Towards the end of March, I was asked to go to Dubois, Wyoming and Jackson, Wyoming to train some new crew leaders. (I was still a recruiting assistant at the time, and didn't know I would be giving me the same training shortly after my return.) Actually, what I was doing was training them to take fingerprints--they would get the rest of their training from someone else.

Anyhow, I headed out, and after being on the road for about 45 minutes, I managed to wreck the car. The road had been dry up to that point, so I was driving the speed limit, but I came across a curve in the road that had a small patch of ice on it. The car slid (by the way, I HATE anti-lock brakes), I corrected it, ended up going waaaaaaaay over to the left (thereby freaking out not only myself, but also the driver and passenger in the oncoming pickup truck), corrected it again, and was then introduced to the ONE AND ONLY piece of guardrail on that stretch of road. The bumper was pretty well mangled, as seen below:





After calling Dave and apologizing profusely for wrecking his car, and calming down a bit, I continued into Wyoming. The drive was pretty uneventful, but I ran into more snow:



As a matter of fact, I got stuck in Thermopolis for a night because the pass was closed and I couldn't get to Dubois until the next day. But they did open the pass up late that night, and the next morning I headed out bright and early.

Believe it or not, on the other side of the pass, the roads looked like this:


After doing my training class, I continued on to Jackson. Lots more snow on the way:

See that orange pole? It's attached to the top of one of those green poles that you see along the side of the road. That's how deep the snow was right there.


And this is more of the snow.


The weather cleared just a bit, and I managed to take one picture of some of the stores there in Jackson before it got nasty again. All of the stores in that square looked like that--I love the river rock facing.


So, I spent a night in Jackson, then headed back to Dubois for the next night, and there I saw the giant Jackalope. I took pictures!


What're you lookin' at?


And a more normal sized specimen:


After spending the night in Dubois, I drove back home. I stopped in Cody for about an hour and visited the Buffalo Bill museum. I took a couple of pictures there, but I think I'll save those for a photodump post.

I think that's about it for today. The next post will be of my son's wedding! (Why yes, that was a week and a half ago, what's your point? lol)

Have a good one!

Hmm...long time, no post...

Sorry about that. There's actually been a lot of stuff going on, I just didn't get around to posting here.

First things first, I suppose. My son moved out just after Easter--and it was a fight to get him to stay that long. Things are certainly quieter around here with just Dave and Heather in the house with me.

Also, at the end of March I started working as a crew leader for the census. I've had about 10 people under me, and it's been interesting, to say the least. I've been in charge of approving their payroll and making assignments, and also I've been doing address canvassing myself. The canvassing work is cool--we have hand held computers with maps and address lists for the different areas, and our job is to make sure that all the addresses are located correctly on the maps, and to make sure that all addresses are listed correctly; for example, if an address is a home, a group-type home, uninhabitable, or if it doesn't exist. We also have to add, delete, or rename streets if what is actually on the ground doesn't match what's in the computer. It might sound kind of boring, but it really is interesting to see more of my town and state.

In April, I got to go with Dave to meet up with John (a friend from the Museum of Hoaxes) and his family in Fairmont Hot Springs. It was a lot of fun--they're great folks! I had crocheted a small mushroom and hedgehog for John's daughter Sydney--it was a hit! : ) I suppose now would be a good time for some pictures...

First, I want to introduce Phoebe! John brought her for me, and I know that Dave's posted a picture of her already, but I haven't, so you get to see her again--so there! lol


Sydney and her new friend...cute, yes?


Anne, Sydney, hedgehog, and John


This was actually taken on Friday, before heading to Phillipsburg to visit the sapphire mine. I wish we'd managed to get one that included all five of us!


This is a post in front of The Sapphire Gallery. There were several of these, and I thought they looked pretty cool.


These are just a few of the very cool gemstone carvings that could be bought at The Sapphire Gallery. There were carvings ranging from really tiny--under an inch--to really big--a foot or so tall for some really neat obelisks. You'll just have to take my word for it, though, because I didn't manage to get pictures of those.


John, Anne, and Sydney looking for raw sapphires. At this place, the people who work there wash and sift the gravel for you, and then you go through and pick out the raw sapphires. Raw sapphires (at least these ones) look like blue-green bits of broken glass that have had the edges smoothed out. I will get some pictures of ours and post them another time.


This is from The Sweet Palace, which is a candy store next door to the sapphire place. Both sides are lined with bins of candy sold by the pound, and there is also an old-fashioned taffy-pulling machine (don't know if I got a picture of that or not) and a TON of custom chocolates. One of them (that I didn't get a picture of, and should have) is called Miracle Max's Magic Pill (or something like that). I thought that was pretty cool!


On the other side of the store there were a bunch of toys and puppets. Notice the dragon in the front there? He was about a foot and a half tall, and cost something like $69!!!! Yeesh!


Candy bins on the other side of the store...


Closer view of the candy jars...


This is the counter of the restaurant across the street where we had lunch. It's supposed to look like an old-fashioned soda shoppe. They had some great little hamburgers served on a skewer, and shakes made with ice cream (as opposed to a mix).


These safes were in just about every building. Dave was saying they're a holdover from when Phillipsburg was a mining town and everyone had to lock up the gems, gold, and silver. I just thought they looked really cool. All of them are painted like this, but with each business's own logo on it.


And, on our way back to the hotel, Dave and I found the road to Wisdom. We did not take that road...


Okay, I think this is long enough for today. Next time will have my trip with Heather to Riverfront park and my trip to Wyoming, in which I wrecked the car and encountered a giant Jackalope!

This is not an awesome parenting moment...

I came home from the store this evening to find out that my 16 (almost 17) year old son has supposedly been leasing an apartment with his girlfriend for the last two months.

To say that I'm surprised is an understatement. I'm pissed, hurt, shocked...all at once. For the last year he's been hanging out with this girl--it started out that she was his tutor for school. And while she was hanging out with him, she told him about a guy she was dating who wasn't very kind to her. Naturally, my son, being the generally decent guy he is, wanted her to get away from the jerk. And he told us over and over that he was "done with her drama" because she kept going back to the other guy. Finally she left him for good, and started dating my son. She's 18, by the way, and a freshman in college.

So for the last few months he's been dating her. And we've tried to set some ground rules. "If she's going to be in your room, your door has to remain OPEN. Not an inch or so, but all the way open." It got shut a little more each time she was over, and only grudgingly reopened when we said something to him. "It's a school night, you must be in by 11:00." Somehow that got pushed further and further back every time they went somewhere. "Do something with your time other than hang out with her. Don't cut your other friends out of your life. Have some balance." Yeah, that didn't happen either.

He was nominated for Youth of the Year for our county again, and won. Third year in a row. We were very proud of him. He went to the State competition, and won. Again, we were very proud of him. But we were also trying to move into a new house, and the help we got from him was scant, and extremely grudgingly given. We chalked it up to him being upset that we were moving in the first place, and not having a say in the choosing of the house, or even whether we would move. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the heads of the household (his dad and I) make the decisions that we think best for the family, and when it comes to moving, not a single one of the kids has had any say in the matter.

He has told us that if he ever needs anything, he has "important people" and "contacts" who will help him out. People like our lieutenant-governor, and state senators. That's all well and good, but those are busy people. And, what, we're not "important people" to him? We won't be there if he needs something? Or are we just not good enough, or is he embarrassed to be part of our family? I really think that's a lot of what it is. And, oh, that hurts. It's very hard for me not to take that personally.

He thinks we don't understand him. And in a way, he's right. I don't understand why someone would want to get out of a house and away from a family that has done nothing but love and encourage him to the best of our ability. Yeah, we probably dropped the ball by not enforcing the rules of the house. We could have just not allowed her to come over. But we knew that if they weren't at home, they would be somewhere else. And we were trying not to fight with him. Maybe we should have. I don't know. All I know is that I feel like I've failed somehow, somewhere along the line, because so far, each and every one of my older kids (with the exception of Kaila, my middle daughter) has wanted to move out as soon as they physically could. And if I try to keep him here, he'll just run away, and yes, we'd call the police to bring him back, but he'd leave again, and do we really want to force him to stay here against his will? Is it even worth it?

The thing that kills me the most is that I feel that I have very little worth to him. After all, I'm only his stepmother. Every time he calls, he asks to talk to his dad. Even when it's something that I could easily answer or solve. There was one exception. Today he called and asked me to bring something to his work, without asking for Dave first. Nice to know I'm good for something, I guess. Sometimes I wonder if I made a huge mistake, because it really feels like I'm not appreciated, and I feel as if the kids would have been better off without me, like maybe they would have turned out better or something. But even through the times when they've upset me the most, I could look at them and think, "Even so, they're good kids, and hopefully I've helped them to be that way." It's hard to think that tonight, but hopefully soon.

And this has turned into a really long post, so I will go for now.

Cute and tiny...and Odd and huge...

So...whilst driving yesterday, I saw a triceratops. No, really, I did!



And today I took a picture of Gizmo, my chinchilla. I also took a video of his bath, but the lighting was crappy, and I don't think it'll show on here.




I'll have to try again in a couple of days. I'll take his bathtub into the kitchen where there's a lot of daylight and let him go crazy in it. :)

Yeah, this is kind of a lame post. Sorry about that.

Just to keep y'all posted, I'm still waiting to hear about the supervisory position I applied for. I should hear something one way or the other by the 20th of this month. As soon as I know, I'll let you guys know. :)

In other news, I'm working on unpacking boxes and getting pictures hung up. Soon as we do that, we can start on the boxes in the garage. I think I'm going to be unpacking for a looong time...lol

Oh, and my son Daniel is getting married May 14th! I'm excited for him, can you tell? ;-)

And now I think I'm going to go for the evening. Not a lot to say, really, this time around. I'll post again later on.

*Hugs* and g'night, y'all!

Snow post...

Yes, I know I said I'd post this a while ago, but I just didn't get to it before now. Anyhow, while driving for work, I've taken a few pictures (well, more than a few, but I promise I won't share all of them!) This is mostly going to be a photodump, unless I really thing something needs an explanation.

Without further ado, I give you snow:

(Squirrels!)










And I was going to upload a video, but apparently the one I have is too big, so I'm going to try putting it on Photobucket. If I manage to post it there, I'll add the link here.

This, that, and the other thing...

Not much going on, really. I did start my job with the Census Bureau, and so far it's been fun mostly, but also a little frustrating. Fun because I've met some really nice people, and driven to some cute little towns. Frustrating because I've had very little luck getting people to come in for testing. I'm thinking it's mostly because of Christmas and people trying to just concentrate on getting through that. I know hunting season played a big part in it as well. *sigh* But it still feels like I'm not doing my job as well as I could be.

One cool thing--in the last couple of weeks, I have seen THREE bald eagles in my travels! I'd never seen any in the wild before, so this was pretty awesome! Beautiful birds, I think. I've also been noticing a lot of hawks in the area, which I hadn't before.

Oh, I would like to know who exactly ordered winter for here. >:-( I am NOT impressed with all the snow we've gotten. It's freakin' cold! (Though it is very pretty if it isn't on the road...) Which reminds me--I need to do a couple (at least) "snow posts" for those who don't get to share it with me. I've been taking a bunch of pictures while out and about (tomorrow I plan to go to a park near here and try to get some good black and white ones), and also took a short video that I wanted to put up. I'm thinking that I'll have to do what Boo does and do a "photodump."

One last thing...looks like we'll be able to start moving in to the new house as of the first of the year. We'll have a week to do any painting or things like that, and then we'll start moving our stuff. The downside: so far, I have packed--1 large box of clothes, 6 boxes of videotapes, and 3 or 4 boxes of breakables. We haven't even started sorting the other stuff we have! I think this might be a good time to start panicking! Seriously, though, if anyone wants to come and help us move, I will pay you in home cooked meals. They won't be fancy, but they'll be pretty tasty, and that's all that really matters, right? :)

Okay, I think that's all for now. I will most likely download pictures to the computer later on and see about getting some good ones posted on here. Sorry this was kind of short, but I thought I ought to get at least one more on here before the end of the year...lol

Y'all take care, and I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and hope y'all have a great start to the new year!

Trick or Treat! (the costumes and decorations)

Now that we had carved and decorated our jack-o'-lanterns, it was time for us to get into costume.

My other granddaughter, Isabel, came over the day before Halloween--she was a cat this year.






Her soon-to-be stepsister, Jordan, came over as well, dressed as a unicorn.
Aren't they sweet?






Tree went as a corporate vampire this year...






Accompanied by Rachele in fairy guise.







And here's Aidan, as Darth Vader. He was heartbroken that he couldn't wear his Spiderman costume anymore (he outgrew it), but it got some use anyway--Iris was Spidergirl, but somehow we didn't manage to get pictures of her on our camera. I'll have to fix that!




Heather went as a leopard. Dave did a pretty good job on her makeup. : )





Here's Heather outside, next to our witch's table. Looks like one of the finished painted pumpkins also made it into the picture. : )





Here's me, in my "enchantress" costume. I really like that cloak! It's actually pretty warm, which means I don't need a coat--a bonus when Halloween night is kind of chilly most years.







And this is me with Heather and Aidan at Mom & Dad's place. It's tradition that every year we go to Dave's folks' so they can get pictures of our costumes. Plus we get as much candy as we want! : )




I almost forgot about my niece, Angela--she was (I think, but don't quote me) a goth angel. Very cute, I think! : )





I didn't get very many pictures of Halloween decorations, simply because there weren't many displays worthy of note. However, there was one place that really did up their yard:















There was another really cool house, with some pretty spooky lighting, and scary...not scarecrows, but I guess you'd call them dummies...they were done up in costumes (one was the guy from Scream, one was Freddy, and I don't remember the other one), but one was an actual person. Last year it was the Scream outfit that had a person inside, this year it was Freddy. Anyhow, generally all is quiet while the kids ring the doorbell and get their candy, but when they leave, the guy in costume jumps at the kids to scare them. Heather remembered the place from last year and wasn't sure she wanted to go up to the door, but it wasn't too bad. : )

This year was a nice change, weather-wise. It really isn't unusual for it to be raining, windy, or snowing on Halloween, and is almost always really cold. We have to find or make costumes that can be worn over cold-weather clothes! But it was in the low 70s early in the day, and it only dropped to the 50s that night. The kids came home with a ton of candy, and combined it with the candy they'd gotten two days before from trick or treating up at the college. I think they've all got 5 or 10 pounds each!

Okay, this has gotten quite long enough. I'll check back in in a day or two--I'll have to tell you about my new job then!