What a World

I'm Alive!

2009-09-29T22:27:00.002-05:00

So I thought you might like to know that I'm not dead. I often think about what I should write on my blog and just never get around to doing so. SOOOO much has happened since February and I can't wait to tell you all about it. We have gone to New York to visit my wonderful brother Matthew, I worked 5 months at a horse ranch, we have become part of the UTV owner family, etc. You get the point. Anyway, I'm really going to try to give you all some detail soon. Hope everyone is doing well!

Jennifer

February Already??!!!

2009-02-02T22:23:00.013-06:00

Hello all! Time is flying by! I can't believe we're already over half way through February. Things have been a little crazy with activity. We have had girls' nights, Superbowl parties, and lots of work.

Several weeks ago we took the ole' car and traded it in on a vehicle I have been drooling over for 2 years. The new Jeep Liberty. I love the new body style and anyone who knows me knows that I'm more of a truck and bigger vehicle kind of person. Anyway, I LOVE it!

I have also found a little time to work on some of my projects. I am currently, FINALLY, working on our honeymoon scrapbook.

I have an oddly diverse list of hobbies. I love to be outdoors, fishing, hiking and hunting type things but a little known fact is that I also love to craft. I scrapbook, carve wood, sew, crochet, and dabble in oil painting. By anyone's standards a strange combination of likes and hobbies. The last several Christmases I have made carved/woodburned gifts for a few people. 3 or 4 years ago I made a snowman (He was just for decoration for us)...

2 Christmases ago I made a frame for my cousin Janelle...

And this last Christmas I made a wall plaque for Mom (I need a better workspace :))...

Last Father's Day I gave Dad a rather "interesting" oil painting (Don't stare too long the colors may blind you)...

I do love my crafts!! Later!

Jennifer

Been a Long Time!

2009-01-07T21:20:00.004-06:00

My goodness! It has been an extremely long time since I have had a new post! Things have been mad around here with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 2 deer seasons. I'll slowly be trying to get everyone back up to speed.

We went back to Kansas for our three Thanksgivings. All of my family was there except Matt who stayed and had his own Thanksgiving in New York (he came back for Christmas). It was a very nice, quiet Thanksgiving, not much going on. As we do every year we went and got Christmas trees, five to be exact. My parents, Grandma H., JD and Soni, Jerry and Shelby, and ours.

This was our first year to have the room for a real Christmas tree, and I didn't want just a little Christmas tree (since we have vaulted ceilings). So, we ended up hauling back to Colorado a "9+" ft Christmas tree. It was gorgeous and I truly enjoyed having a real tree again!

Shortly after we got back from Thanksgiving Joel and Jerry left once more for Kansas' deer season. They camped out in Jerry's new spike tent and used Joel's new cylinder stove for heating and cooking. Both of them have birthdays in December so Shelby and I cordinated their gifts so that eventually we can each buy the other piece and have our own tent sets. Sounds goofy I know but it's worked out nicely.

Joel got a nice ten-point buck. I'm so glad my husband has a sense of humor. Yes those are deer on his pants.

I had a wide variety of things to do while Joel was gone, including some work, but I wanted to take some time to do something I wanted to do so I took a road trip. I headed off back to Kansas. I'll save that trip for the next update. Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

Jennifer

Getting Settled

2008-11-16T22:29:00.007-06:00

Well, we feel like we are really getting settled in here. We actually started decorating a few weeks ago! It always takes me forever to get our houses decorated. I don't know why I'm so slow at it, but it has been started. I think that secretly I hope that if I put it off long enough one of those freaky decorators from tv will appear in my living room to do it for me. As you can see Joel's deer finally has a nice home (I think that is Joel's favorite part of the whole house).

This last Saturday Joel and I went to another Air Force Academy football game. It was a blast and we had great seats. They played BYU and unfortunately they lost. The two games we went to this year were definitely their toughest games and even though they lost it was a really fun game.

This time we sat next to the entire section of cadets. It was beyond loud for entire game! They start the game by having the cadets march onto the field with the flags. I think that it's only the underclassmen but I'm not totally sure. After the national anthem they storm off the field and run into the section that is reserved for them.

The fly over included three very low F-15 and then there were seven people who parachuted onto the field with different flags and banners.

This is one of my favorite parts of the games. When they want the crowd to get loud they show parts of the big battle scene from "Brave Heart". The crowd really goes wild!

Oh, and guess what! We've had three more snows since my last post.

Snow!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-08T21:47:00.004-06:00

Okay everybody, I know it has been a really long time since I have updated my blog but I'm finally getting around to it. Work has been really busy and it is starting to settle into a steady pace.

The weather has been fanstastic here! It changes a lot! It starts out cold, and then usually warms up to cool to fairly warm. We have definitely had our cold snaps though! As a matter of fact we have actually had two snows already. The first snow was on October 13th and was just a dusting a couple of times but the ground was too warm for it to stick around.

The second time was on October 21st. We got 5 inches over night and then we got more snow on and off throughout the next day. When the sun came out it started to melt but it stuck around in the shadows for about 3 days. Our lowest tempurature since we've lived here was about 10 degrees.

As you can see that we defintely still had fall colors when the snow came:

In our front room we have three very large windows, this was our view while it was snowing more later that day:

I love the weather here and I'm pretty excited to see some of the real mountain snows here! I'm sure by the time Spring actually comes I'll be ready for a warm up.

Football!

2008-10-20T23:51:00.001-05:00

I love Fall for many reasons! I love the cool crisp weather, the changing leaves, and football - especially college football. I don't care for professional football for many reasons that I won't get into. Anyway, a couple weeks ago Joel, Jerry, Shelby, and I went to the Air Force vs Navy game at the Air Force Academy. It was a blast even though Air Force lost. There are two trophies that they compete for. One is the Commander in Chief trophy for the winner of the football game and the other one is for the 7 intramural sports they play before the game. Air Force swept all 7 of those and so they at least got one of the trophies.

We had some very interesting and entertaining people around us. About 5 rows down from us was a gang of middle aged people. They had one leader (note the picture)who would jump up during all breaks in the game and lead them in a very heart-felt cheer. They were awesome!

Sitting in the row in front of us were 4 guys who played football for Air Force. I don't think I have tell you that they took the loss to their rival quite hard. One of the guys had even came all the way from Washington for the game.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the game was the fly over before the game started. Of course since it was an Air Force game the fly over simply has to be great. They were going to have some people parachute onto the football field but it was too windy. However, they did have a Stealth bomber (B-2) and two of our brand-new fighters (the F-22). These are some impressive machines! I didn't get great pictures because I was busy watching. Later!

The Great Accomplishment!

2008-10-20T22:44:00.002-05:00

Alright everyone work has just been crazy busy so I haven't updated in forever, but I'm going to try to catch up! Before I got started on all the somewhat interesting things we've been doing I wanted to let you know about our Great Accomplishment of the year...Last weekend Joel and I drove back to El Dorado for the weekend. It takes 8 hrs and 6 minutes and is 537 miles from our house and we drove it without stopping, not even once!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fall in the Rockies

2008-10-03T22:14:00.006-05:00

Last Sunday after church Joel and I took a drive up to Cripple Creek to see the changing aspen trees. Cripple Creek sits at 9,500 ft (about 1,000 ft above us). There are more aspens there than in most other places because way "back in the day" the people who settled the area to mine cut down the pine trees for lumber.

This weekend the colors are supposed to be even better, but we probably won't make it up there again. The bright yellows and oranges were beautiful against the dark green of the pine trees.

I've always loved seeing Fall in Kansas and the Ozarks so I was pleasantly surprised to see so much color. I know it's still not the same, but here's a handful of my favorite photos.

Marshalls, Meet Your Foe!

2008-09-26T20:43:00.007-05:00

So a few days ago Joel and I were removing some debris from a house, including a very large dog house. In order to break the dog house apart we tipped it over. As we did we were swarmed with yellow jackets which decided to follow us all the way to the front of the house and finally our truck - Where I was stung twice (the wrist and over my left kidney). Let me tell you, that is nothing like a bee sting. Joel somehow got away with no stings.

These mini-creatures had built their home right under the dog house into the ground. I had no idea that these things would build under items such as that dog house. When we got home I did a little research to make sure of what these angry stinging things were and discovered that yellow jackets and other such creatures are very common here in Colorado. That extension office webpage seemed to scream at me, "Meet your new foe!" I guess we'll know next time to be careful when removing large items from long abandoned houses.

Here's a guy that had a lot of fun getting rid of an underground yellow jacket nest! I wish I could have done this to that nest.

It just goes to show that no matter where you live there is always something to deal with and that no place is perfect.

Dad Update #2

2008-09-23T00:02:00.004-05:00

This last weekend Jerry, Shelby, Joel, and I surprised Mom and Dad with a visit. We got to the hospital Saturday morning. It was great to see them both and I think that Dad enjoyed the change of pace. Dad actually seems to be doing very well, much better than after the back surgery last year. He is eating, has color back in his face, and is walking with his back STRAIGHT! Praise God for the difference already!

The doctors only went in from the front. He has a cesarean-like incision and they actually took all his “guts” out for the surgery. They fused a few more vertebrates and plated them and then put spacers between the vertebrates that were worked on before, as there were none put in the first time. The doctor also said that there wasn’t as much damage as he was afraid there was and the surgery went very well.

Saturday the doctor came and released Dad- much to his relief! He still has a long way to go and will need to be patient and do very little for the next 6 months, but I think he has a good beginning. Thank you to everyone who has been remembering Dad in your prayers!

Jennifer

Early Morning Visitor

2008-09-16T21:07:00.003-05:00

Joel and I are definitely what you would call night owls, especially for working people. Last night (or this morning) we got to bed at about 12:45 and I had just began to doze off when we were both startled by a loud bang and Molly (our big Chocolate Lab) viciously barking. She doesn't bark often but when she does she means business. We both made our way through the dark house and flipped on the back porch light.

There before us, perched on top of the fence, holding on for its life was a large raccoon! It ended up jumping off the fence and running away. However, we were plagued for several more hours by being awakened by Molly charging the fence every few minutes. Apparently the raccoon was determined to get in the fence to eat Molly's food... It didn't happen.

I love seeing all the wild creatures up here. Of course we have raccoons but we also have tons of mule deer that run around town in the mornings and evenings. We were warned when we moved in to watch for the bears - apparently the black bears like to come down to rummage through the town people's garbage every now and then.

Please keep Dad in your prayers, his surgery is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 12:30. Thanks and have a great day!

Jennifer

A Picture Tour

2008-09-13T22:36:00.007-05:00

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! We have had a nice weekend. Today (Saturday) Jerry and Shelby came up and we all had brunch and then we drove out to Beuna Vista to see my Great Uncle Phillip and Aunt Shirley. We had a really nice visit with them and the girls won the fun-as-ever Skip-O game.

On the way back home we were exploring a country road when we spotted a porcupine. It was my first time to see a live porcupine in the wild. Joel grabbed the camera and ran after it. He got some great pictures, but the thing was definitely on the defense and would not let him see his head.

Some of the most gorgeous views in Colorado are on the way to and around Beuna Vista. Beuna Vista is surrounded by the fantastic Collegiate Peaks. All the peaks out here are starting to get covered in snow. Thursday night the weather guy said that we might get our first snow but it didn't happen.

So for all the family who have been asking to see pictures of our new house I thought I would include a few here. We are still settling in (a very slow process for us) so you have to excuse any messes you see.

I know those pictures were exciting, but I hope no one got too excited. Talk to you all soon!

Jennifer

Dad News

2008-09-05T19:38:00.003-05:00

Dad's surgery was rescheduled for September 17th. After I expressed my frustration to Mom she pointed out that it's more time for God to work a miracle. We'll just keep praying!

Jennifer

We Made It!

2008-09-05T13:00:00.002-05:00

Well guys, we have made to Woodland Park and we are settling in. We still have a ways to go, but we've gotten a good start and have began receiving work here. The weather has been fantastic and I totally understand why nobody has air conditioners at this elevation. We haven't used the fireplace yet (we haven't gotten a screen yet) but we have used the heater at night and in the mornings.

I also wanted to update you all on Dad. He is actually undergoing another back surgery today. After running several tests the new doctor decided that there are more discs that are damaged. They won't be sure what all they will work on until they get in there. This time they are going in from the side and plating and fusing the front also. Recovery will be more painful as they will also be cutting through some ribs. Please keep him in your prayers, he is really nervous and will need a lot of patience.

Now that we have everything up and running I'll be able to catch you all up on our Montana trip and the happenings in our new home. I'll write more soon!

Jennifer

House Searching

2008-08-19T00:10:00.010-05:00

Well, we have found a house in Woodland Park, Co. Elevation: 8500 ft. It is an adorable little house on the front range of the Rockies. We will be moving in on September 1st.
What a difference there is in the weather! When I left Missouri the heat index was 115 degrees. When I got to Woodland Park to look for a house the high was 59 degrees with hardly any humidity. Ignore the people in the picture (they are complete strangers and I don't know why they're in the picture).

Move Number 6 is a BIG One!

2008-08-06T00:19:00.002-05:00

Well, Joel and I are once again moving. At the end of this month (August) we are moving to Colorado, somewhere in the Colorado Springs area. Joel and I fell in love with the Rockies on our honeymoon (I guess I've loved them since I was little). We have decided that since we don't yet have children now is a great time to continue in our wonderings and there is a lot of work for us in the Springs area. Eventually we will probably end up back in the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas, but not yet. All I know is that I can't wait to be out of the heat and humidity of Missouri - Oh wait, I am out of it!

That's right, I'm actually in Colorado. I drove all 800 miles yesterday (Monday) to find us a place to live. I am staying with Jerry and Shelby. Joel will join me here on Saturday and then on Monday we will continue on to Glacier, Montana! I can't wait! Hope all is well with the rest of you!

Jennifer

College of the Ozarks on CBS!!

2008-07-29T22:06:00.003-05:00

Hey All! CBS ran a story about C of O this morning. It is about the work program that every full time student must go through. I had an amazing experience at C of O - It is an amazing school. The video is titled "The Value of a 'Hire Education'". Here's the link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4303320n&channel=/sections/earlyshow/videoplayer500202.shtml

GO BOBCATS!!!!!!!!

16 days and Counting!

2008-07-21T13:40:00.007-05:00

In 16 days Joel and I are leaving for Montana for our “real” anniversary trip! We are going back to Glacier National Park where we honeymooned. This time we are going to spend most of our time “backcountry camping and hiking” and Jerry and Shelby are also going. Our route takes us along the continental divide so we ought to see some AMAZING views! When we were there before we didn’t spend as much time in the mountains as we will this time but we still saw the most gorgeous views I have ever seen! Most of you know that I absolutely love the mountains and their cool, dry climate. This will be a fantastic break from a hot, humid August in Missouri!

We have collected some really cool camping gear that is light and easy to carry into the mountains. This last February we went camping to test some of our gear, including our mummy sleeping bags. It was absolutely frigid, but we stayed pretty warm in our bags. The first thing that Molly did after Joel and I got up was jump in the river (she loves water and the cold). When she got out her fur froze in icicles before she got back to the tent (she didn’t care). BBRRRRR!!

We camped right next to Rush, Arkansas. It’s actually a ghost town that used to be a huge ore mining town. We spent some time the next day looking at the old buildings and caves. It was a lot of fun.

Anyway, if you can’t tell I am VERY excited to visit the amazing Glacier National Park once again! 16 days to go…

The New Beast

2008-07-09T20:09:00.009-05:00

How exciting, we have FINALLY bought a new truck! Having a good, solid truck to drive will make our job so much easier and more enjoyable! Ode to the A/C! Yeah, so we decided to replace Babe the Big Blue Ox after it tried to eat Joel the other day...

Here's the new truck. It's a Chevy Duramax Diesel, Heavy Duty, 2500, crew cab, long bed, Z71 off road package - Big Dawg. It's a little bit of a tradition that my family names their big trucks. Jerry has voted that we name it the U.S.S. Enterprise for several reasons, this was in an email we got from him (Jerry hope you don't mind me sharing your creativity):

"well so many big grey and/or silver things come to mind. The Hindenburg...but that blew up. The Titanic...but that sunk. The Bismark...but that was blown up AND sunk. Dumbo...but he was a fat elephant that cried. How about the USS Enterprise...that was huge, had warp speed, 12 phasers, and last but not least-a supply of 250 photon torpedoes." The only other name we have came up with is Max. So here's the beast:

We spent the Fourth at Mom and Dad's. We had a really nice time and got to see just about everyone while we were in town. We of course spent lots of time shooting fireworks and then the next day spent time at the pond fishing and shooting. We also sprayed lots of plants with herbicide. Joel and I planted some aquatic plants in Mom and Dad's pond about two years ago and one of the kinds, the American Lotus has gotten a little out of hand.

I hope you all also had a great Fourth of July weekend!

It's a Twister! And a flood, and hail, and...

2008-06-13T17:35:00.016-05:00

What weather we’ve been having! All year it has been weather system after weather system! We started the year by having 70 tornadoes (all on one night) in January. That was followed by an ice storm, followed by another bunch of tornadoes in February, and then the BIG ice storm.

Then the flooding began. Branson had some very bad flooding when the Corp of Engineers were forced to open wide the gates of Table Rock Lake above the town. Water levels in the lake broke the record numbers. Here's a picture of the lake level at the top of the dam.

It rained all day two days ago (it's the same story about every other day) - Parts of Springfield got 7 inches of rain in about 5 hours. There were many flooded roads, some we could drive through in the truck and others we weren't even about to try to cross. Our average amount of rain for the year is 46 inches and we've already gotten 36 inches.

Our garden has fallen victim to a hail storm attack. Quarter-sized hail squashed our squash! Our Zucchini, cantaloupe, strawberries, lettuce, and tomatoes also took on some damage but I think that we should still have a pretty good "crop". Last August my brother Matt stayed with us a week to help with work and just have some fun. He also helped me can some of our tomatoes…Matt, I think I could use your help again this year! Ha, ha! This is before the hail:

Here’s some pictures of the various weather and aftermath of the weather:

Lake Taneycomo flooding Branson

Our Driveway (good thing we moved the car up the hill!)

Some of the trees in our backyard. The trees in the area took a really hard hit and they continued to fall until the ice finally melted. We had a tree on the house but there was no serious damage.

We cooked our breakfast on our porch using our camping equipment as we had no electricity. It got really cold in the house!

You can see how thick the ice really was!

Hmmm, do we dare cross it?!

Our Backyard with the hail.

Oh, so I thought I might include a strange/interesting incident of the day (on the days we have them). Today we got to remove a frozen badger and two red foxes from a house. We donated them to a taxidermist. He was really excited to get them!

4 Year Anniversary!

2008-06-11T21:36:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm a little late in writing about our anniversary. It was actually last Thursday, June 5th, but I still wanted everyone to see the fun stuff we did.

We had a great, relaxing anniversary - We camped in Montauk State Park (here in Missouri) and went canoeing on the Current River. Our "real" anniversary trip will be in August when we return to Glacier National Park in Montana, where we went on our honeymoon. Joel and I really fell in love with this area when we were there four years ago. While we are there we are going to be hiking and camping in the "back country". We are super excited about returning but we needed to wait until August so that all of the areas would be snow-free.

We canoed from Akers Ferry to Pulltite which is a 12 mile trip, we took our time and spent a lot of time playing with the fish on the river. For our anniversary Joel bought an amazing underwater case for my camera he got me for graduation. We took a lot of pictures of fish using the camera, goggles and snorkel. Towards the end of the day we saw the most exciting sight of the trip - 20 Paddlefish. They averaged about 4 feet long and the biggest one probably weighed 25 lbs. Unfortunately they were in pretty deep water, so our pictures aren't great. This probably won't be as exciting for most of you as it was for us, but it has been years since they have come up the river and this was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for us.

Here's a better picture of a Orange-throated Darter in his spawning colors.

Alright, enough boring fish stuff. Thanks for all the great anniversary wishes!

Jennifer

Welcome to My World!!

2008-06-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

Wow! Time really flies and there are two things I have learned. The first is that you can never get it back and the second is that as time goes faster it becomes harder and harder to keep up with everyone. And so, this blog (never thought I would be a blogger) is an attempt to keep you all up to date on what all goes on in my crazy life. I hope you enjoy reading!