stuck and going nowhere fast

We had a great time in Gillette last week. It was nice to sit around and relax! My grandma came over for a few days too and had fun playing with Brecken with his cars. The Easter Bunny left lots of new cars for B, so he was in 7th Heaven.



Yesterday we headed back for home. After Casper, you have two choices for which way you want to continue on to Saratoga- through Medicine Bow or through Rawlins. Each is the same amount of time, and one usually has a bit better roads. We chose to go through Rawlins. As it turned out, that was the WRONG choice!! We left Rawlins and the sign was blinking to tell us the road was closed at Sinclair, 6 miles up the interstate. So we stop at the gate that was keeping the road closed and talked to the highway patrolman, who said that there was a bad 12 car/semi pileup at Ft. Steele, another 10 miles up the interstate and they were working to get it cleaned up. So we pulled in the truck stop parking lot along with at least 100 other cars, thinking it would be an hour or so. We got B out of his car seat and he sat up with Josh in the driver's seat, "driving". He looked out the window at all the cars and said, "Oh geeze." HAHAHAHAHA. I didn't know he knew that phrase! He said it a few more times and we cracked up. :) After about an hour, Jeffrey called because he and Beth were on their way back to Lyman and passed the wreck- he said nothing had been cleaned up yet. So, knowing it was going to be a while, we made our way back to Rawlins. We stopped at the TA Truck Stop in Rawlins and said hi to Beth and Jeff for a very fast minute so they could get back on the roads before the snow, which was falling, became worse. We let B pick out a treat from the truck stop and we settled in one of the tiny little booths from Subway, which was inside the truck stop. This was a much NICER truck stop than the one in Sinclair- no smoke smell, had tables, and was a lot cleaner and friendlier.



There were a ton of people at the TA that were stranded with us, and there was a line of semi trucks so long that I couldn't see the end of it. There was a grandma and grandpa with their granddaughter who was probably 7 or so, and they were sitting next to us. The grandpa asked B if he wanted one of their bananas, and was just really nice. And through this whole thing, B could've been a monster and I wouldn't have blamed him, but he was AWESOME. With no toys or anything, he just sat at our booth and watched out the window and watched the people in the store with us. A few times he wanted down and would run around for a minute or two but then would sit down again. He was incredible.

Josh had been in touch with the dispatcher from Saratoga's police dept., who was giving us updates from the Highway Patrol. As we were sitting and waiting, waiting, waiting, we got the bad news that National Weather Service had called and said we were getting a big storm at 7:30 (bigger than what we were getting already!) and that the HP wasn't going to let anyone through on the interstate. Even "local traffic" (those of us that live in Saratoga). That totally bummed me out. We were making plans to stay overnight in the truck stop when Josh got a call at 8:00 or so from a guy he knows, who was also stuck in Rawlins, saying the HP was letting us go through. So we hurried up and got ready and headed out. It was pretty eerie- the usually very busy interstate had two of us on there- our car and the guy Josh knows. However, I much prefer that to traveling with all those trucks and the 7 bazillion cars that were waiting to get out!!

I would've documented the whole exciting ordeal with pictures, but my camera battery died in Gillette and of course I didn't have my charger! BUT, we're all home safe and sound.

thunder and snow

Right now, in Gillette, we are having snow so thick it has covered my mom and dad's deck in the past 5 minutes, and with it we are having lightning and thunder! What a strange combination.

B and I went to story time at the library today. Gillette has a fantastic library. We actually almost missed story time- I thought it was at 10:00 but it was actually at 9:30, with one for 3 and 4 year olds (and younger, but the majority were older preschoolers) at 10:30. We made it in time for the last song, and then B and I played with the puzzles, played in the great fort they have just for little guys, played with the bead table in there, climbed on the outside up the ladder to the reading nook where B played "BOO!" with me, picked out a movie to check out, and then the other story time started. B didn't want to participate in the song they were doing but was very interested in the surprise box, so interested, in fact, that he let a stranger help him down the stairs so he could get right close. After that, however, he lost interest and we went home.

B gets to hang out with his grandma and grandpa tonight while Josh and I go to a movie. That is, unless we get snowed in and can't get to the theatre. :)

eggs

B has been busy today. He decorated 3 eggs (and in the process, spilling green egg dye all over the table) and then found 10 more at the Easter Egg Hunt we went to this afternoon. Whew! Big day for a little guy.

spring

Happy SPRING!! Saratoga is welcoming the new season with a forecast for snow. Of course.

We had a busy week this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights at school until 8:00 p.m. for Parent/Teacher Conferences. I hate Conferences. This year was especially boring, because out of the 8 hours I spent at them, I saw a whole one parent. Whoop-dee-doo. And being at school for over 12 hours a day wears on a person!! I went to school this morning feeling like I had a hangover! Josh and Brecken came up on Tuesday night for a few hours and had dinner with me, which was nice. Brecken likes it at Mommy's school because I have lots of noisy instruments to pound on in my room. :) He also found the lockers and discovered that he fit inside of them. He thought that was pretty hysterical. :)

We had an early out day today, we got to go home at 1:30. Josh had a full day of school, but neither of us have it tomorrow because it is the start of SPRING BREAK!!! Hooray! We are leaving tomorrow to go up to Gillette. We haven't been to my mom and dad's house since August so we're looking forward to the visit. We'll stay until next Sunday.

luck o' the irish

Some of you may remember this adorable picture from last St. Patrick's Day...

I tried again this year with another hat but B had other ideas. I was barely able to snap this shot before he threw the hat with all his might across the living room with that "ug" of disgust:

Sorry it's blurry- he moves fast!

the bear

Our Advanced Art class at my school did something awesome: The State Wildlife Museum gave any school that wanted to participate, a fiberglass bear. Plain white. Nothing on it. Their job was to decorate it somehow, like the Pronghorn project here in Carbon County, or the Cow project in Chicago. I think Cheyenne did something like that too. All of the bears that were decorated by art classes around Wyoming are going to be judged at State Art and a winner will be determined. I think our kids did awesome. ALL of the things on the bear were made of clay and they are so tiny I have no idea how they got the details painted on! All the boulders are made of clay, all the little tiny animals are made of clay, everything was painted. Teeny tiny. Some of the little chipmunks are so small that you miss seeing them the first time you look at the bear! It's quite amazing.

You can see the rest of the pictures I took at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/14494706@N03/Mn8LMH

Click on "view as a slideshow" to get the full effect.

a tornado

A tornado went through our house. Or, that's what I'm going to tell people when they ask why it's so messy.

We decided to put our house on the market, hopefully next week. The realtor is coming on Monday to give us a Market Analysis on it, so we're feverishly going through things and not only throwing a lot of stuff out, but packing up things that aren't needed, that way when we DO get to move, we won't have *as* much packing to do. We have simply grown out of our house. It's a tiny little 1200 square foot house and we simply need more room! We don't have any storage, only 3 bedrooms, teeny tiny bedrooms, a tiny living room, etc. The only thing I'll miss about it is the beautiful view we have out our front windows! We've looked at 3 houses now, and fell in love with one, but it only had 2 bedrooms and I really don't feel up to an addition on the house right away. Turns out, it didn't matter because an offer went in on it the very next afternoon! We've had our eye on one house and it's supposed to come on the market within the next week. We'll go look at it and hopefully it will be wonderful and in our price range! It is supposed to have 4 bedrooms, a finished basement, and a brand new kitchen. However, if this isn't the "right" house, we'll just wait for another one to pop up. The nice thing is, we don't HAVE to move. We can take our time looking. When we moved to Saratoga, we had one day to look at houses and out of the 8 we saw that day, our current house was the only one that was in good shape. So we had to take it. This time around, it will be nice to not have to settle, and wait for the right house to open up. I HATE moving, so I don't want to settle for something we won't be happy with in a few years!!

think pink!

The beautiful being growing here in my sister's belly is my new NIECE!!!

bad, bad babysitters.

Deb and Dr. Jake babysat for us Friday night so Josh and I could go on a real date. We went to dinner and then to the Count Basie jazz concert! When we got back to Blazzard's, we got B and then talked for a few minutes. I looked down right as we were getting ready to go and noticed blue underneath his sweatshirt. B had worn an orange shirt under his sweatshirt when we dropped him off... So I pull up the sweatshirt and under it was a stinking BYU jersey!!!! (Deb and Jake are BYU alumni and make fun of us for loving Brown and Gold.) Both Jake and Deb went, "OH MAN! We hoped you wouldn't notice until you got home!" B wouldn't let us take it off, either. In fact, that's what he slept in!!!! Dang kid!!!

I know the jersey got put on because last Wednesday night, the Blazzards went to Laramie
for the BYU-Cowgirls basketball game. BYU lost bad, so I put B's WYO shirt on to go to their house the next day. :)

Dang jersey. :)

in love

My son is in love.

With a pair of shoes.

Now is where you say, "Yup, just like his daddy. Again."

He wears them all day long. He wears them for naps and cries when you try to take them off. They are the first things he brings you in the morning and gets very impatient when you make him put on socks before the beloved shoes.

I'd say he's in love with them because of the little red man, but frankly, I'm pretty sure that just happens to be an added bonus. His first love is the shoes themselves.

lucky

I'm a lucky girl.



Here's why: I have an immediate in-law family that I love. Not everyone gets to say they love their in-laws.



I've always wanted a little brother. A few summers ago, I got to add THREE of them (including my sister's husband) to my family! All in one summer!! My three little brothers-in-law (here on out known as my brothers in this post) are awesome. I get to joke around and rough house with them like I always wanted to do while growing up. My brothers are the best.



I have two sisters-in-law that are awesome. We can just sit and hang out together, or go shopping, or do lots of quality girl-talk. My sisters are the best.



My mother-in-law and father-in-law treat me like I've always been in the family. They've been nothing but nice from the day I met them, which was a terrifying experience- I met them at Red Lobster along with a whole table full of Josh's family- talk about nervousness!! My mother-in-law and father-in-law open their arms to their new daughters-in-law like we've always been in the family, but were just gone on a long vacation. They've never been judgmental, they love us for who we are, they love us for what we bring out in their sons, and I think secretly, my mother-in-law likes having girls around for once. :) For that, they're the best.

funny for the day

I love kindergarteners.

I have a bean-bag activity song that I do with my really young kids, where they have to balance a bean-bag on their head, walk around the room, and when the song says "Sha-boom", they have to jump and try to keep the bean-bag on their head. We haven't done it for a while, so when I pulled it out again I asked my kindergarteners if they remembered what the magic word was in the song, and one of the little girls goes, "YEAH! LIGHTNING MCQUEEN!" I thought she was crazy and wondered where in the world that answer came from until I realized a few minutes later that that song IS in "Cars"- it's when the town gets all spruced up and the cars are dancing down Main Street. I think I probably laughed out loud when I realized that her answer was a very clever one!!!

busy on the ambulance

Josh has been busy on the ambulance already this week. Sunday night/Monday morning, he got a call at 3:00 a.m. Poor guy, got home about 5:30 and had to get up again at 6:30!! His ambulance director went with him. And then she called last night to let Josh know that the lady they hauled (an elderly lady having problems breathing) tested positive for influenza. So Josh is now on Tamiflu, because he never did get his flu shot. He went and got it tonight.

Then he got another call at 5:45 tonight. This one might take a while- the roads are SLICK out tonight because it's been snowing off and on all day. And like usual, it can't just snow, it has to BLOW, too. My drive home from work was real slick this afternoon, so I can imagine how much worse it is tonight!!

oh my gosh!

Encampment's boys basketball just won State!!!! I think this is the first time in school history to have a State basketball title. Man, was it close- within 1 or 2 for most of the game. It was tied and one of our boys made a basket with 2 seconds left in the game for the win. Our home ec teacher said on Thursday that she dreamed it would come down to this boy, Garrett, and how weird that she was right, since he was the one that won the game for us tonight. Whoo-wee! How exciting! Too bad we weren't there.

B and I made a run to Laramie today to stock up on stuff. We were going to go to the rec center indoor playground to play, but I think they were having a swim meet there and we would've had to park a mile away. So instead, we went to my sister's house, where nobody was home, and played in her front yard instead. :) B had fun on the swing and the slide and then found a water puddle and because of it, had to ride home in a t-shirt and his diaper because his pants, socks, and shoes were soaked. He had a blast though! :)

laundry in the night

Doing laundry in the middle of the night is never fun. I guess this wasn't really the middle of the night, but close enough! Poor Brecken woke up about 11:00 coughing, then cried pretty hard, calling for his Mommy. (Some day, I really want him to call for his Daddy.) I went in there and the poor baby had coughed so hard he threw up. So in went the load of laundry. I got him changed while Josh threw the dirty things into the washing machine.

Josh left about 6:00 this morning for Denver for the coaches clinic. Brecken decided he wanted to get up then too. We don't have school today, so I was hoping I'd get to sleep in! But B had other plans. And from the time we got up until about 9:00, all he did was throw tantrums. Then at 9:00, he gagged and threw up again because he tried to put a toy in his mouth. So, I got to clean up puke twice in 12 hours. It was lovely. I finally got him settled down enough to take a nap. I took one with him while I had the opportunity! After a nap and some lunch, I finally got some smiles out of him.

Sure was nice out today, but there's nowhere to play outside since we still have a foot of snow on the ground. I could tell B wanted to go somewhere, however, because about 1:00 he brought me his shoes and my coat. He wanted his, but couldn't reach it. So on went the shoes and coats and we went to the library.

Now I'm watching the webcast of Encampment's boys' basketball team playing the semi-final round at State. Saratoga plays right after them, but that one will be on the radio.

regional basketball

We all spent the weekend in Torrington watching Regional Basketball. I left right after school on Thursday and picked up B, then headed out. We missed most of the first half of Josh's game but watched the whole second half. Unfortunately, they lost two games in a row, (Friday morning was their second game) meaning they were out of the tournament and are not going to State. :( The team stayed all weekend to watch the boys though- the boys team ended up Regional Champions and are going in to the tournament with the #1 seed! Hooray! We didn't get to watch any Encampment games, because Encampment's Regionals is in Lander.

Brecken did really good on the trip. He had to sit and watch a LOT of basketball and was ready to run around by the end of the day but he did so great. He really enjoyed the trains in Torrington- our hotel room sat practically ON the tracks so he heard the whistle every time. He'd then want up in our arms to see out the window so he could watch the trains go by. By the end of the trip he was saying, "Tray!" I have a smart kid. :)

i think they smell good

Here are the roses I got from Josh for Valentine's Day. I got 18 beautiful red, white, and pink roses. I said above that I think they smell good because Brecken and I have terrible colds and I cannot smell them! Too bad, because roses are one of my favorite scents.

flight for life

I never knew how much Brecken's Flight for Life trip cost because we never got an insurance claim form for it. I was always curious though, because I've never known anyone needing Flight for Life services so I had no idea how much it cost!! YESTERDAY, after a whopping 17 months after the Flight for Life service, we finally got a statement for it. I have no idea why it took that long to get claimed, but it did. And it was expensive. Are you ready for this?

$14,183.00

WOW. That's a lot of money.

older ladies

Since Josh's team hasn't played a game in almost 3 weeks, he and Amy, the head coach, planned a fun game for tonight. Josh came home the other night saying they were inviting some older ladies to play. In my mind, "older ladies" means 80-some year olds and I couldn't figure out why they would invite them to play ball... He said, "No, like Deb!" Deb is all of 34- maybe? I laughed that he called her an older lady!

Anyway, Josh coached a team of "older ladies", including his cousin Dixie tonight. There were 12 of these "older ladies", two real refs, score keeper and clock man, and then the Saratoga girls team. What a fun game to watch! And the "older ladies" an Josh won! By 9! Everyone had a good time. There was a pretty good crowd, too! It wasn't really a "game", because that would be against WHSAA rules, but it sure was a fun "practice"!

Brecken spent the day at Amy's house today. Dr. Jake had some things he needed to do in Rawlins so he didn't want to keep B. Amy's such a trooper- she's home on maternity leave, so she had her son Dylan, who will be 2 in April, Brecken, and then her 4 week old baby Cooper. Brecken had a great time playingwith his friend Dylan all day today. I held Cooper for a while tonight while the game started and Amy's mom wasn't there yet, and I was exhausted from holding the tiny little baby and chasing after Brecken!!! I'm glad I don't have a newborn right now! But it sure was fun to hold such a tiny little guy again. Cooper is over 10 pounds, but I don't remember B being that small! :) Brecken loves Cooper. At the game, he'd go pet Cooper's head or pat his feet, just to make sure he was OK. He even gave Cooper a kiss all on his own. I'm glad he loves babies. :)

aperture

Here is Stacey's assignment for this week: Aperture. This means how much of the picture is in focus (on purpose!). Here are Brecken's farm people set up in front of their big ol' barn.