Flipping Sticks aka Archery...

This morning we made some last minute plans to go shoot an archery tournament. The teenager had golf plans and bailed out on us... (he officially has better things to do, than hang with us) but he was a good sport and joined in on the family self portrait before we split up and went our separate ways.

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This trip we decided to take Taylor with us, to work on her training and see how she does with her obedience training in this kind of environment. She was really excited to get to "go"!We went over to the foothills above the Emmett Valley... it is so beautiful. But the ranges are super hilly... great workout today!

(you can see how small the people down below me look... it is quite a hike up some of the hills, with my equipment and a dog in tow. One shot was straight up the side of a hill shooting down on a critter, it actually make me dizzy and woozy looking down. That's crazy steep!)

This was a pretty straight forward shot, down in a draw.

Taylor was really good and began to get the hang of the pattern of hiking up, waiting while we took turns shooting, and hiking down, waiting in the down stay again, and hiking up. We were really proud of her and had so much fun with her.

My strong silent mysterious man taking a straight easy shot.

(I didn't get any pics of the hard shots, mostly because I was trying not to break an ankle, or fall down a hill side, dragging the dog and my shiny bow down with me... that would not be worth any picture... sorry Ansel Adams, I guess I am a wimp)

Here is Taylor towards the end of the 2nd range (there were 3 ranges with about 15 targets on each... so we were about 2/3rds of the way through at this point) she was really starting to mellow and mind us at this point.

When we got in the car she sprawled out across the entire back seat, and just tried to keep her eyes open.

She wasn't able to hold out very long before she finally dropped her head. It was so cute.

Then about 3 hours later, she was back in action playing with Rudy! I might take a little longer mustering up this kind of energy!

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What a great day! I loved getting outside, the weather cooperated and was mild all day long, I only felt two raindrops, but it never turned into anything else. And I loved getting a great work out! I can tell I will feel it tomorrow, but it will be a good hurt!

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But most of all, I really loved spending some quality time with my strong silent mysterious man! We had such a fun time together today!

1st day of spring, no school...

It doesn't feel like I accomplished much today on paper, but I feel really good. I am not on the roof, but definitely out of the hole!

It was the 1st day off school for spring break, the first day of spring and it really feels like it here! Oh so sunny and even warm!!! Yippee!!!

I got some house work done, had the teenager climb into the attic and find the Easter box decorations that I couldn't find on my own last week; took one of the dogs for a walk; took myself for a different longer walk; got some of my work done in my office; a little laundry done; took the teenager golfing; I got some teenager to do some really past due chores he hadn't gotten done due to a busy golf schedule; I really focused on a better healthier eating plan for myself; and got my Easter decorations put out.

I really want to go pull out my spring/summer clothes that are packed up... it is so exciting pulling them out and finding new things to wear. I am so happy my sister taught me this habit of switching out my clothes in my closet twice a year. It's hard to just start it, but now I would never go back to keeping everything in my closet all year again. I hadn't done my shoes in the past, but last fall I packed up all my sandals with my clothes too, so I am really excited about finding some new shoes to wear. I love shoes!

No pictures, I am in a photo funk!

I hope I get over this quickly, photos totally make the journaling experience!

Spring babies...

I love spring babies!

Theme song ~ for ALL the money!

Yesterday, I went to visit my friend who suffered a stroke in December. I was nervous, it had been a long time since we were together. I hadn't seen her at all during the past few months of her recovery. But the minute we were together, it was like no time had passed. So awesome! We communicated perfectly.

She is still working on her speech recovery and still has some trouble finding words. It's like all her words are in filing cabinets in her head and some are used allot, so they are readily available. But some get stuck in locked cabinets and she knows they are in there, but just can't get to them to use them. She knows immediately when she grabs the wrong word.

Yesterday she had me laughing out loud! She would be telling me all about something, and then get stuck trying to find one of those locked up words... then... I would hear her humming? At first I was confused and thought she had lost her focus, then I realized it was the theme song from "Jeapordy"!!! It was so hilarious... she is so whitty, I was cracking up. She totally knew it was like being in the quiet moment trying to come up with the correct answer for ALL the money when they play the famous theme music!

The do...

Yea! No green hair!

Okay, I wasn't really worried that she would turn my hair green, she is a professional, and I love how she does my hair... I guess I spent too much time growing up around a brother who lived for April Fools Day! Look out Panda it's just right around the corner, and he starts planning just after St. Patricks Day... see how paranoid it made me!

So now I just live the next few days of trying to get the hair to look like this again before I give up and just towel dry and go!

Happy St. Patricks Day...

This holiday pretty much misses my radar, I don't do green drinks or make green food (although I have a great green peach pie recipe now). I don't even try and wear something green. I like some Celtic and Irish music, so maybe I will throw one of those Cd's in just for fun.

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I am going to get my hair cut and highlighted today, so I guess I will just hope it doesn't come out any shade of green and I will be happy!

Men at Work...

No... not the 80's band from down under!

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My Strong Silent Mysterious Man has been working up in the mountains this past week. We don't get cell service, so I miss my daily phone call home at lunch time. But he was thoughtful enough to bring some pictures from the job site! It is so beautiful... but when I heard how cold it got, I was happy to be in my warm house keeping the home fires burning so to speak.

This is so funny, he is not a "strike a pose" kind of guy.

But he does look cute in the hard hat.

I was listening, but I could not begin to describe what he told me they were doing up there, I mostly heard... bla bla bla, at the dam, bla bla bla a motor, bla bla bla.

(Sorry darlin'... it was interesting, I just don't retain those kinds of things.)

Their work was down inside this cement hole... I remember that part, because it looked like the very least appealing place to be on the entire site to me.

Check out how huge this crane is compared to the guy standing to the left.... it's huge.

Now look at what a tinker toy it looks like on the site at the dam.

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These next two are my favorite pictures... they speak volumes to me!This one because he has been paying attention to me and learned that self portraits are important and necessary for the blogging experience, and if at all possible must include the location! He nailed it!

(I think he does pay closer attention to me and my day, than I do to him and his day)
And this one because he has a special eye and is always the one to see special things on drives like cute animals or rainbows that no body else seems to notice (it's a blessing and a curse, he is also the special one that if there is going to be something weird found in the food at a restaurant, like a rock or bug, or a nasty hair it will always be on his plate).

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He mostly enjoys these things and you never know he has spotted something cool. He is calm, cool and collected about it. He might mention something later, "hey did you see that"? Content that he might have been the only one.

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So I am very impressed he was thoughtful enough to take a picture to bring home and share this one with me.