Counting Down

Well THE LIST is on the kitchen table. Since you already know I am a majorly obsessive list making, post-it note kind of girl...you are probably asking, "Which list is that Kathy?"

It's the one that will help me to remember everything I need to buy and then pack for vacation! The countdown has truly begun. Actually, it started the day we decided to go, but the serious counting down is here. We will leave around 5:00 a.m. on the 27th. We have our house and pet sitters all lined up and I have that really nervous excited feeling I get before vacation.

Ouray Hot Springs and Pools

We plan to pack lots of snacks and water in the cooler, plus some basics for when we get there. Telluride is a resort town and everything is very expensive. I'll buy what I can here and take it along.

Silverton Mine TourI don't get rattled about stuff like this...in fact, I don't get rattled about much of anything, but we leave Saturday and I work full time, so I need to get some things done this weekend. Hence....THE LIST.

Bridal Veil Falls outside of TellurideIf you recall, a teacher friend of Matt's has offered us their home while we are there since they will be on vacation. So nice of them. Matt went there this week so they could fill him in on anything we might need to know. They told us to feel free to use the grill and the hot tub if we like. Matt said the view from the porch is amazing and the 20 minute ride to the house is gorgeous.

Black Canyon of Gunnison

The drive to Telluride is normally about 22 hours...longer for us. Irv has a very bad hip and he will need to get out and stretch quite often. If we make good time, we are going to take a little trip up to Loveland to just look around a bit. It seems I want to retire there, even though I've never been there. I've heard good things about it and it looks and sounds like our kind of town. We shall see.

Moab, Utah

Our agenda remains the same once we get there: Moab, Utah for kayaking, Black Canyon of Gunnison for sightseeing, Ouray for hot springs, Silverton for a mine tour, Telluride area for some very beginner rock climbing and to see Bridal Veil Falls as well as some horseback riding, and downtown Telluride for a parade and picnic on the 4th. Then we will be headed home.

Riding With Roudy

Matt and I were texting the other night about my rock climbing adventure. He said that the rock is only about 20 feet high. I asked him if I can climb barefoot because I thought I would feel better barefoot and he said, "No hippie, I'll get you some climbing shoes!"

I always feel better barefoot. Oh well, it was just a thought!

A Very Close Call

I was so happy to get off work at noon today. We started summer hours this week, so Fridays are short days for us. It's awesome. I was headed home just enjoying the fact that I would have a great afternoon to work on another apron when out of nowhere.......there was a big deer right in front of my car!!! I swerved to the left and then back to the right and missed her as she ran across the road.

I have to tell you that was the closest I have EVER come to hitting a deer and my chest was in knots for a couple hours after. I drive a lot of back roads to and from work and one road in particular has a lot of deer. Usually, they are standing at the side of the road and you can see them and slow down. You never know if they are going to wait, or start walking across the street. I'm always very cautious in the early morning and then on the way home. Noon is not a normal time to see deer so I was really caught off guard. Not only that she wasn't standing on the side of the road waiting like a good little deer....she was flying and I never saw her come out of the trees.

It was very, very frightening. It was like one second I was driving along and then the next second this huge deer was just there.

I drove the rest of the way feeling very lucky for me, my new little car and the gorgeous deer. It was a close call and now I know that even at noon on Fridays to keep my eyes open for those beautiful creatures that I love so much.

I didn't have time to snap a photo :) so the picture is compliments of Wikipedia. Have a wonderful evening everyone.

What a Day!

We had the picnic at work today for our superintendent that is retiring. It went really well. He's such a great guy. I ate way too much, including a couple of pieces of cake and my stomach is still reminding me eight hours later! HAHA!

After work I zipped on over to the house that Michael and Bernadette are buying. They were having inspection, so we were able to go in and take a little tour. It is so cute and in such a nice area. I think they are going to be very happy there. Once they close on it, I'll share some pictures.

When I got home I watered the flowers on the deck. They were looking a bit thirsty. Then I got Irv to take some pictures of me modeling my two new aprons. I love these two. It was cute...when I was headed back in the house after he took the pictures of the black and white one, he commented that he really liked that one! :) I like them both and I can't decide which one to make next as I sit and look at the fabric I have left.

I had hoped to get these all done before vacation, but that sure isn't going to happen. We leave a week from Saturday and I have five more to do! Maybe I can get two or three done. I wanted to have them for the show I'm doing a week after I get back. Why do I always think I am Super Woman?

Well, I really have some other things I need to get done. Hope everyone is having an awesome day! Chat with you tomorrow....it's summer hours and I get off at NOON!!! Woo hoo!

Fun Day At The Old Ball Park

Even though the Cubbies lost today (to those nasty yucky White Sox) I had a wonderful day. Irv and I hopped the train this morning in Cary and Bernadette and Michael hopped on two towns later, in Barrington. Tresa picked us up at the station and we made a quick stop at her condo to see Casey the kitten and it was on to the game. Chris had to work part of the day so he met us there.

Here is the old fashion score board. There are a couple of people inside of it and they put up the numbers by hand!

This is the announcer's booth section at Wrigley. I love Ron Santo and Pat Hughes that do the radio announcing for the Cubs. Ron played for the Cubs in the 60's and I was at the game a few years ago when they retired his Number 10. It was so awesome.

I love walking up the steps to Wrigley Field. When you hit that top step and can see the beautiful green grass and the awesome ivy covered walls and that old fashion score board...it takes your breath away. Then there is the food at the old ball park. There's nothing better. The nachos are so good. That is Tresa's favorite part of the whole day!

Bern heard about this giant pretzel that they have now, so she had to get one. Five of us actually shared this thing and it was like eating a loaf of bread with great stuff to dip it in! It was well worth the $15 it cost! Mmmmmm!

Today's game was a bit different because there were almost as many icky Sox fans at my park as there were Cub fans....and I really don't care for the White Sox or their fans very much. There was a lot of banter during the game and the fact that we were losing the entire time made it a little hard to take. The more drunk people got, the worse the comments got. I don't care much for public drunkeness either, but everyone around us managed to behave thank goodness.

I loved the guy's shirt that was sitting in front of us. It was so funny. His friend sitting next to him was a Sox fan, so that made it even funnier!

This is Michael and Bernadette, the happy new home owners. I might get to see the house tomorrow. They will close next month on it.

This is Tresa and Chris, the condo living city kids. They love living in Chicago and everything the city has to offer.

This is us!


We usually only make it to one game a year, but when we do go, it's always a fun experience.


Have a wonderful evening!

Front Page!!!!

Before I head to bed at night I usually check the Craft Cult site to look at my hearts and views. For those of you that don't know what Craft Cult is....it's a site that tracks some of the stats from our etsy shops. I use it to see what's happening at FourDogDay and MyOtherShop. Well, I was ecstatic to find out that my little Blue Reversible Wood Ducks were selected by etsy to be on the front page yesterday morning!

They got some views and my shop and some of my items got lots of hearts and I got one sale (not sure if it was because of the front page or not). I have had a lot of items selected for people's treasuries and had a couple of them end up on the front page. It's always exciting and a nice little emotional reward for all of the hard work.

You can see the front page on the top right of my blog.

I am off to the Cubs game today and hopefully I will have some "happy" pictures to post later on when the Cubs kick the White Sox butts. If the opposite happens, I will be in deep mourning and you won't see me for a few days. Just kidding. :)

One last thing, Michael and Bern bought a house yesterday...I am so happy for them. I'll post about it when I get some good pictures.

Have an awesome day!

Follow Up To Today's Post

He is back safe and sound. They hiked up the mountain and gained 3000 feet it elevation. It took about 4 hours. At times they lost the trail and had to find it again. There were still 15 foot drifts in places. He had a great time and he is exhausted. He said it was awesome and he's going to post pictures on Facebook. Now he has to go work at a festival until midnight!

Let's Go Snowboarding

I had planned to write about something else today, but when Matt sent me this photo and told me he was going to snowboard today, I had to change gears. This is the middle of June and there is still snow at the higher elevations out in Colorado. He actually did a little snowboarding yesterday, but today they are going to snowboard this.

I immediately get nervous because this isn't the ski resort. This is just out somewhere in the wilderness. Although the threat of avalanches is very, very small, I find the look of this mountain to be quite ominous. They saw this on their way back from snowboarding yesterday and went in to investigate. They found a way to get to it and decided that today they will venture on in.

He tells me it's no different than any other rock climbing he does, except they are taking ice picks, and if you are going to climb up the mountain for hours, then why would you climb back down when it's much faster to hop on your snowboard and glide on down?

I told him it looked really steep and he said that's just the way the picture looks. I asked him about him falling off a cliff and he laughed.

I know that Matt is very cautious snowboarding and he did say that if it didn't look safe when they got up there that they certainly woldn't go.

I have been in my worried mommy mode all day today and I am just waiting to hear his sweet little voice or see those texted words.....we're back.

When I Grow Up

How many people do you think actually end up doing what they always said they wanted to do when they grew up? My daughter, Tresa wanted to be a teacher during the day and a nurse at night. She did get her degree in education, but after teaching for one year she ended up in marketing and does really well for herself.

Teacher?

My sons, Michael and Matt were both going to be famous athletes. They promised to buy Irv and me our log cabin on a lake. They use to practice signing their autographs all the time. They are both teachers.

Professional Athletes?

Irv wanted to go into some kind of law enforcement. He want to be a body guard, a sharp shooter or work for the FBI. He ended up following in his father's footsteps in the plumbing field and then moved into facility maintenance. He currently works at a school, but he watches every crime show there is on t.v.

FBI Agent?

I grew up in the age of the television variety shows. I wanted to be one of the dancers that every show had. It looked so wonderful and so exciting. I did take ballet, tap and point as a child, but the practice just wasn't for me. I preferred climbing trees, playing with bows and arrows and going to the beach. As I got into my teens, all I wanted to do was get married and be a mom, and that's what I did.

Variety Show Dancer?

How about you? What did you want to be when you grew up? Is that what you are doing?

This and That

Beautiful day here today, finally. This spring has been awful. We had a little nice weather early on and then it has been either cold or raining, and raining and raining. Today it was sunny and in the low 70's so that is quite an improvement!

Took over 200 photos of more things for MyOtherShop...coasters, light switch covers, pillows, etc. Now I have to tweak them and then get everything listed. Here is a sneak peek!

Found some cute t-shirts at Target for work and the trip. I love wearing jeans and tees every day. I wish it was always like that. I even bought a new ironing board cover. Mine had no padding left. I think it was about 15 years old...or more!

I start summer hours tomorrow. I start 30 minutes early every day and then get to leave at noon on Friday. It's hard for me to get to work by 7:00 a.m. I have a 40 minute commute. That means I won't have any computer time in the morning. It will just be get up, walk the dog, do some weights, get cleaned up and dressed and out the door. I cannot bring myself to get up any earlier than 4:45-5:00!

I finished the green apron yesterday and almost have the black and white one finished today.

Remember the awesome fabric...well the aprons are even more awesome! I should have them both listed this week. I have five more of this style to make and then I will get fabric to try some other styles. This is so much fun!

Have an awesome rest of the day and I'll chat with you soon!