Sweet Pea

This is what Sweet Pea, our first chihuahua, does a lot of the time. Adorable, isn't she? The smallest of our chihuahuas, it's easy to see why we named her Sweet Pea. She was barely bigger than a hamster when we brought her home. Awwww!

Hold on! Not so fast! This is what happens if you try to pick her up out of her bed for any reason. Cuddle, trip outside, or just walk anywhere within a 10 foot radius of her bed, and Sweet Pea turns into this...

She has sharp little pearly whites, and she knows how to use them! We have all been bitten by Sweet Pea, in fact, she got my left index finger just yesterday. OUCH! She does not go outside for potty breaks willingly, so we take our lives into our hands several times a day. We have ways to get her grabbed up without letting her get those chompers into us, but sometimes the best laid plans don't quite work.

There are plenty of times every day that she comes out of her bed and wants to be held and cuddled, and she's perfectly sweet, but it has to be her idea. Otherwise, look out!

Even with all of her grumpiness, we love our tiny tyrant.

A Superior Weekend!

Saturday, we traveled to Casper, WY for the 2013 State Marching Band Festival. Megan has been working very hard with the rest of her school's marching band for the last few months on their show for this year. It's a very complicated program, but they went into the competition on Saturday evening confident that they were going to be successful.

Our band is sharp! Always the first band on their feet at attention when another band was taking or leaving the field, they showed utmost respect.

At attention as another band takes the field for their performance.

Our band was the 5th out of 17 bands to perform. Their show consisted of three movements from "The Planets";   "Mars," "Venus" and "Jupiter" by Gustav Holst. This music was written in 1912, but didn't feel old fashioned at all. A very lively show, the band is moving all the time. Many of the other bands would do some moving around, then stop and stand for awhile, then move again. Our band was in constant motion, which makes for a more entertaining show, but also makes it difficult to get non-blurry photos! I did my best, but dearly wish some of the pictures would have been more clear.

They had so much going on that I really can't believe nobody crashed into anyone else. They were amazing! At this point in the show, there wasn't a lot for the percussionists to do, so they performed a flagline instead of a drumline for a bit.

Megan looks like she's holding still, but she was actually marching forward here.

Finishing up one of the movements.

At attention between movements.

Megan and cousin, Steven.

After they performed, they were excited and knew they'd done a great job. Anxious to find out how they scored, they had a long four hours to wait until the awards ceremony.

After all the high school bands performed, the University of Wyoming Western Thunder took the field and performed. They were crazy awesome, and so inspiring to the high school band kids! The first time Megan saw UW perform was her first year in marching band as a freshman. She knew right away that she wanted to be a member of UW's marching band when she goes to college. Now a junior in high school, Megan is more passionate than ever about this dream.

This marching festival is sort of a family event. Cousin, Steffy, is a member of Western Thunder, and is the middle clarinet in this photo. Cousin, Steven, is Steffy's younger brother, and is a member of the high school band. It's a fun reunion when Megan, Steffy and Steven are all together for the marching festival.

Finally, after over 5 hours of marching performances, it was time for the awards ceremony. All 17 of the high school bands came down to the field and stood at attention, waiting to hear how they scored. They don't compete against each other, so there is no 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. ranking. Their scores are based on performance of music and their marching. They are rated as Good, Excellent, and Superior. Every band is striving for that coveted Superior rating. It's been several years since our band has gotten that rating. For the last few years, they've gotten the Excellent rating, and this year they were determined to bring home Superior for the first time since 2009.

Waiting for the scores to be announced.

Congratulations to Megan and her entire band; they got their Superior rating! There are also some awards, called captions, for different sections and aspects of the marching program. Our band was also awarded the brass caption. Megan was especially excited about this, being a member of the brass section!

In all, there were 7 bands given the Superior rating. It was a great  night and so much fun! I loved seeing all of the bands perform. They all had a great time, and it's quite entertaining to be in a building with hundreds of enthusiastic teenagers.

Megan is already talking about, and looking forward to, next year's marching season!

I Love a Parade

Yesterday was the high school's homecoming parade. It was cold, windy, and occasionally spitting a snowflake here and there, but I couldn't miss seeing Megan marching with the band and playing her trumpet.

Mom and I went downtown about 40 minutes early so we could get a place to park right on the parade route. We stayed in the car and out of the cold until the parade got to us. I give all the band members a lot of credit for being able to march and play their instruments in that cold wind, and not only play, but play well. They sounded great! The tune we heard them play was "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas.



Photo taken by my mom. Thanks for sharing, Mom!

This is Megan's third year in marching band, and the trumpet is the third instrument she's played during marching season. She has played on the drumline in the past and really loved it, but she's also really loving the trumpet. So, the question is, will she stay with trumpet for marching season next year (her senior year!), or will she go back to drumline? Stay tuned! Haha, stay tuned...see what I did there? Band...tuned... :o)

Friday; Ladies Day!

Yesterday my family had a ladies only party! There were aunts and cousins ranging in age from great-grandma to toddler; eight of us in all. The party took place at my Auntie Grace's house. There were lots of photos taken, and already three blogs have been written about the day. Since I didn't take any photos, you can click here, here, and here to see lots of pictures and read about all of the fun.

I really enjoyed getting to read stories to my littlest cousins. They live a couple of hours away, and their visits are about the only chance I get to read to little kids anymore, so I arrived armed with books. I love the excuse to get my favorites out and jump into the stories I've loved since I was a child. There is nothing better than sharing a story with a snuggled up kiddo.

As always, Ladies Day ended all too soon, and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Better Late Than Never...

This is old news now, but we had an epic storm last week. I am late to the party, but it is better to be late than never. My cousins and my mom have already written about the storm that covered much of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is heartbreaking to lose so many trees. They are valuable to us, since we have to work so hard to get them to grow and thrive here. The loss of livestock is also terrible, with thousands of cattle and horses killed in the storm. I'm sure there were wild animals lost as well. So much devastation.

We had 17-18 inches of snow and stiff winds, but worst of all were all the downed trees. The leaves had just barely started to turn on a few trees, but most were still green. Too much snow and too much wind means lots and lots of broken branches. One tree in our neighborhood has not one single branch left! It was a mature tree, at least 30 years old. Now it is a 20 foot tall stump.

Thankfully, Chad had done a major trimming of the cottonwood tree behind our back fence in May. Check out some photos of that project here. He was concerned we'd get a snowstorm like the one we just did, and he was worried about branches taking out the neighbors' fences as well as damaging our property. We had a storm in  early October, 2009 that left about 6 inches of snow, and limbs from our tree took out our power and cable lines. Chad wanted to try and stop a repeat performance. It didn't quite stop all the limbs from coming down this time, but I'm sure the damage would have been much more extensive had he not had the foresight to get the tree trimming done.

I heard the first crash at 4:00 a.m. on Friday, October 4th. I got up and looked outside, groaned when I saw about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground, and that our neighbor's tree had just lost some large limbs. I also saw that our lines were covered with a lot of snow and sagging, so I was putting my coat and shoes on to go clean them off. I didn't even get to the door when there was a very loud crash and the entire house shook.

This is why:

See how hard it's snowing? Usually when I take pictures while it's snowing, the flakes barely show up. Here they just look like a lot of white streaks.

I have no idea how that branch managed to get hung up there and didn't bring the power lines down. It did bring our cable down, so no land line phone or internet for us, and pulled the line down that powers the streetlight in front of the house. A very long branch, it was dangling clear over the neighbor's fence, and a piece of it snagged on their cable line. Chad had to get out the chainsaw to remove this limb, and others around the neighborhood were already running theirs. It was a very rude and early morning for a lot of people!

While we were clearing that branch, another was sagging onto the main electrical line. It began to arc, and soon there were a lot of sparks and some flames. Fortunately, the city electrical crew was already in our alley working on another downed line, so they came over and cut down the burning branch.

Not exactly in focus, but you can see the bright flames with the power line running underneath.

Right after the crew took care of our burning limb, there was a crack, crash, bright flash, and very loud bang as a limb came down right on the transformer next door. And we were without power for rest of the day.

It was a long, cold day, with many, many more branches coming down all over town. As we got out to start cleaning up the next day, Megan said it best: "Who dropped the nuke?" It looked exactly like a bomb had gone off.

So, here are some pictures from around our yard and neighborhood on Saturday, October 5th.

Our windmill.

Neighbor's spruce tree.

Megan making a "snow starfish" in the front yard.

Limbs exactly as they fell in a neighbor's yard.

A bird landed in the deep snow of the front yard and left cool impressions. From the size of the marks, I think it must have been a dove.

Megan's snow angel in the back yard.

Spies Among Us

Ever have that feeling, that prickling down your spine, that you were being watched?

I had that feeling recently. I was in the back yard, minding my own business, and I just had the sense that I was being stalked. Not wanting to seem obvious that I was feeling creeped out, I tried to look casual as I whistled a nervous little tune and took a look around. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but I knew there were eyes on me. I took a couple of slow steps back toward the house, then stopped and pretended to be absorbed by looking at some potted flowers. I was listening for any sound, any movement, that would give away the location of the spy. I heard the breeze rustling leaves in the tree above me, but oddly enough, no chirping birds. They were quiet, as if they knew something was amiss.

Just as I was about to make a run for it and lock myself safely in the garage, I heard a sound, a signaling, and instantly knew my stalker. Or should I say stalkers. When I knew where to look, there were two of them.

Fortunately, I was able to snap a couple of pictures. They tried to look casual and non-stalkerish, but the jig was up and I was on to their tricks. Having heard their signal, I know they are working as a team and sharing information, so I will be careful to try and thwart their plans to take over the world.

Willow, our siamese cat.

Simba, the next-door neighbor's siamese cat. Notice how she's trying to act like she's not watching my every move.

I shudder when I think of the danger I wouldn't even know surrounded me had I not heard the meow, the signal between these kitties. Sure, they look purrrr-fectly harmless, but shortly after this incident, I intercepted a piece intel, so I know I'm not just imagining things. I am sharing this intel in an effort to save lives. If you have feline operatives in your own home or neighborhood, keep their strategies in mind, and keep yourself and your children safe!

Hehe, have a good day!

The Difference a Couple of Days Makes

Here in Wyoming, we have seasonal yo-yo action in spring and autumn. Our weather goes completely crazy, like mother nature has multiple personality disorder or something. One day we're wearing shorts and t-shirts with the A/C running. Then within a matter of a day or two, we're bundled up and running the furnace, only to swing back the other way and warm up again in another day or two. While we are accustomed to all kinds of wild and wacky weather in Wyoming, the autumn yo-yo is in full force a bit earlier than usual this year.

This was happening on Friday, September 27:

It snowed all day. We ended up with about five inches of snow, and had a high temperature of 35°F. The trees are still in full leaf and could not take the weight of that heavy, wet snow. There were very large limbs brought down all over town, and that is a heartbreaking sight to see in an area where trees are carefully nurtured to get them to survive. Trees do not naturally grow here on their own.

This maple tree is across the street from my house, but there were scenes like this all over town.

Fast forward a couple of days. This was happening on Monday, September 30:

Most of my flowers survived the insult of being buried under snow, just being a little bit flattened here and there, and are still blooming. I started out the day wearing bluejeans, but got too warm and changed into shorts. The sun was intense, and felt downright hot, even though the temperature only reached the upper 70°s F.

Today is much cooler than yesterday. Already the temperature is on its way down, and we are forecast to have more cold and snow by the end of the week. Welcome to the autumn yo-yo!