Countdown to shopping

In less than 48hours I will be laughing my head off with my friends. That's is what happens when we get together, we enjoy eachothers company. Its not even the shopping, although we do well with that, its about spending time and gabbing. We talk and talk. We go to our favorite places, see what is new, look at what we wish we could buy, or would like to if we had the space.
Mostly we buy Christmas decor stuff, ornaments that kind of stuff. Rarely do we buy clothing. In the words of my husband, its STUFF. Stuff we cannot live without or do not want to live with out. Things we enjoy. Each item that I have bought I can recall what we where talking about when we found this or that. MEMORIES!!!
I love this weekend, it is so great. So good for the SOUL.

Every November for quite a few years a couple girlfriens and I get together for a girls weekend. We shop! Not much clothes shopping, mostly home decor, Christmas decor stuff. Originally we always shopped in Idaho, the Bonneville Craft Fair, started it all. Now we rotate homes every year. This year we are back to my place in Idaho and Bonneville. First we are shopping in Jackson on Friday. That begins the fun.
We are different in so many ways, but so similar in what counts. The weekend is one of the best parts of the year. Its a weekend to rejuvinate as a Mom, Wife etc. We have so much fun. Taunting eachother into buying what we think we cannot live without. We eat fabulous food and laugh till we cry or pee our pants.
Girls weekends are a must. We are thinking about making it twice a year. Some of the thoughts are that one of the years we take a trip.
I so look forward to the weekend, this year we have a few new stores to check out in Idaho Falls, so that adds to the fun. Also, its been a couple years since we shopped here. That alone makes it fun!!!
I cannot wait for next weekend.
So get together with your gal pals and enjoy the friendships.

Wednesdays

So glad its Wednesday. Why, Mondays are just crap, plain and simple, no need to pretty it up. Tuesdays, you just try and clean up from Monday, so by Wednesday you start to feel like you are starting to gain some control....I said some, not all, I'm not into make believe, at least not too much.
Then there are the weeks that everyday seems like crap. Those seem to be much more frequent of late. Work sometimes seem to take over all aspects, and its hard to seperate work from the rest of your life. Somedays is so frustrating that it moves me to tears. I'm a shrew some days, most it seems. Having a hard time finding the balance that I usually have. At least a 40/60 split. Its more 25/75. I want to run away, but to where, and from what. I want to run home, and then the house closes in. Too many projects that are not getting done and who knows when I will get them done. Last night was one of them, when everything seemed to much, fix dinner, not hungry for any of it. Throw a load of laundry in, never get ahead of that. Feels like the commercial with the big ball of laundry coming at the family, except in my case it doesn't stop, just piles on top! Yep thats my life right now. So how to find the balance?
It needs to start at home. Leave work at work. That is hard. The frustration stays with me. Need to leave it also.
Then find peace at home again.
Get the house in order.
Start throwing things away, get rid of stuff.
So tonight I will spend 1 hour on that.

Another newsletter, cattle roundup, life

This PTO newsletter thing at first thought seemed to be not a huge project every month. I now know better, but oh well, live and learn. Not that I would stop, but I'm learning that things need to happen in a process and on a time frame. Not to mention DEADLINES need to be met. Which means I need to enforce them, but how. How to enforce getting the content from the school when that is the main content. The newspaper that has donated the printing and paper has their own deadlines also. So I'm trying to meet all, while "bugging" everyone to meet my deadlines. What fun. I enjoy putting the newsletter together, its getting it to me that frustrates me. This newsletter for the first time has ads, which ads another dimension. Its good for the PTO because it makes the newsletter a money maker instead of a cost, which is what you want in the PTO. So getting all the ads in and making room is another aspect. We also add the school lunch menu to the newsletter because not everyone has access to the internet to access the school web page. Hard to imagine not having the internet. When did that happen? You know the frustration when your provider has trouble and you don't have access. Scary isn't it. I send the file to the newspaper/printing place that prints it for us for free, but its not a priority for them, so if there are any problems, its a couple of days before they get back to me. Such frustration.

Then adding to that its the first of October which means it is time for the roundup. Yes a roundup. My husbands family has range rights on the National Forest to range their cattle. Which means the first of October they need to come off. Its fun in its own way, looking for 160 cows on about 80,000 acres of forest, not the fun part, but the ride thru beautiful country. We also have a great lunch and a fun visit with family, and friends who come to help. It takes up a weekend but does not end there. The next weekends are also taken up to find the stragglers, and there are always stragglers, and they tend to be our few cows. We only have ten and are still missing 7, not great odds. We will go up again this weekend in hopes of finding them. It is very enjoyable to spend the weekend, staying in the travel trailer, enjoying nature, looking for the critters. Even if it rains and we only go out a couple of times, its so relaxing, we watch series on dvd, like Monk and Psych. Make chocolate chip cookies, eat so good. Cait goes and plays with the neighbors of the "camp site-where we park the trailers for the season" their girls are her age, they ride horses, 4-wheelers, play house. Then she rides with us too.
Then we come home and go back to work. Yuck.
Life goes on, its what we do and how we do it that matters.
I think the scooter is going to get parked for the winter, its so cold in the morning. Can't handle the cold that way. Takes me hours at work to warm up and a cup of hot cocoa.
Fall has arrived. I love the colors, the cooler temps, sweaters and jackets, especially suede jackets!! Took some awesome pictures this weekend of the colors, even with the rain and the mist.
Trying to accomplish it all.
Later

School, shopping and newsletters.

Okay so school is full at it. Homework and all. Not too much homework, yet. The usual math, and reading with some spelling words to work on. I honestly do not know how parents with more than one child in school do it. On most things I do not know how parents with more than one child accomplish anything. We both work, so when we get home its homework, dinner, an activity like a bike or scooter ride. Nothing big, no time. Bed time 7:30pm. I know a little early, but where she no longer naps, she gets too tired still. Anyway, not much time in the evenings for much of anything but the basics.
We watch Jon & Kate Plus 8 and I do not know how on this earth they accomplish what they do. I am so amazed. I love that show!!!
I guess you adjust to the number of kids you have.
We did some school has already started school shopping, and some Christmas shopping at Park City and the outlets there. Alot of fun, a really great weekend. I shopped most of the time, Chris and Cait swam in the pool. Shopped a little, but swam alot. My niece and her husband (college students) came up had lunch with us, did a little shopping. Always fun to see them. My best buddy came shopping to. Carrie is so much fun, much more fun to shop with than my husband! Always fun to spend time with her!!
The next day we hit IKEA, LOVE IKEA. So much fun, that is one of the few places my husband enjoys shopping at. Cait loves the kids area to play for an hour. By then we are usually thru shopping and its time to pick up the big stuff. Can't seem to get out of IKEA without some bigstuff! So much fun.
We stayed an extra day to see my nephew when he flew in from Germany before he goes on his mission.
Great weekend, expensive weekend, but so great!
The next weekend we went to a working horse show (ranch horse show) in Preston Idaho. Very interesting. Another fun weekend, not nearly as expensive. Thank heavens, just a trip to the cheese factory, and the kitchen store.
Looking forward to a weekend at home. Lots of projects at home to finish.
Also need to get working on the PTO newsletter. That takes up some time. I'm enjoying it, despite the frustration, but I enjoy being creative. This year the newsletter will include advertising from local businesses, its been very successful, but getting everything to fit is a struggle. This way the newsletter will be a money maker for the PTO instead of a cost. That as Martha says is a very good thing!
Fall is in the air, crisp mornings and warm afternoons. The leaves are changing, I love the colors of fall. Ready for pumpkins and all.

So school has started. What a disaster the bus thing is. The first morning of school, 7 buses pass our house. Country road.
The busdriver had called the night b4 and said she would pick up at about 7:53am. Well Cait was soooooooooooooo excited for the 1st day. 3rd grader, still thinks school is fun. So we had both got up early, Chris already gone to work. We were ready by 7:15, so getting the backpack ready, and finishing combing hair. Getting my purse together, planner, etc. At 7:30 Caitlin says theres my bus, and I look out the window and a bus is pulling up in front of our house, so Caitlin goes flying out the door as the bus honks. So I get ready to leave for work and am waiting in the driveway on my scooter when another bus pulls up and picks up the neighbor kid from across the street. I look at the bus and it has a monster truck picture on its side. That was the bus Caitlin was supposed to get on...........................Okay the heart is pounding hard now. I call Chris tell him what happened. He gets ahold of the school and they say she is supposed to ride the monster truck not the other one, but all buses come to the elementary school. He verifies she is in her class, and I start breathing again. But why did the other bus stop at our house?
The other bus comes earlier so I would not have to be late for work every day for the next 9 months. The next day it stops, and I ask and she says, she has our house listed as a stop. So Cait catches the earlier bus for now, who knows what will happen next. I have watched buses skip a house with the kids standing there and pick up at the next house. Pick up kids on this side, but the kids across the street catch another bus. I think they are way messed up this year.
What drama.
I think I am only going to be able to ride my scooter to work thru September if I am lucky. The temps in the morning are cold. I'm close to wearing long johns. But then its 80 during the day. I shall wait and see. The scooter is so fun. I enjoy the drive to and from work. Love the gas savings also. I think my boss jinxed me this morning by calling me crash. He said that everyone that rides on two wheels knows its not if but when they crash. Really excited now.
Looking forward to the 3 day weekend. YIPPEE.

Summer is almost over...

Coming on the middle of August and Cait starts school in a little over a week. Where did it go.....
We did go to Bear Lake with the trailer. Stayed at a great rv park, Ideal Beach, private entrance onto the lake. Less crowded wonderful area, their own rentals. So great. We had so much fun.
Would like to own property there, too much $$$$$. New favorite place, though.

Went to our 25th high school reunion (same class-high school sweethearts). I really did not want to go, I mean really did not want to go. Chris "convinced" me to go. So we went. IT was good to go. We only had 52 in our senior class, and had 12 that came to the reunion. Small group but good to visit and catch up with. Somehow I relapsed and had a lapse of brain function and volunteered to do the 30th along with Chris. I know, major brain malfunction!!! So in about 4 years I'll start to panic. Will need to figure out a way to find everyone.
So why is it high school reunions create such emotions in us??
Is it the coming to face with our high school side. Just like the movie "The Breakfast Club" we are "in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions, But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, an athlete, and a basket case, a princess and a criminal." Does that bring it back in those terms? Do we suddenly feel like a high school kid and not in a youthful way?
Part of it is for me. Part of it is the usual, I have extra weight that I'm carrying around.
In all honesty, we really did not have clicks, we all where friends, we got along, now there where a few that did choose to click themselves! At least that is what my view was. Yes some where more popular, some more athletic, some more brainy, and some more shy, but we got along. A really fun class. So why the reluctance in going? Probably the weight issue the most. Stupid I know, but true. Also some insecurities still left over from high school. Such is life.
I did enjoy it, my husband did and yes I even agreed that he was right and that it was good that we went. Other than the part about being in charge of the 30th. Now I did ask him before volunteering. So when he groans about it, I can tell him he should have said no!

Getting Started

First time. Like ya cannot tell that. Oh well, one must start somewhere and this is my somewhere.
Intro;
Briggs fam dam is me, my hubby, Chris and daughter, the Princess Caitlin. Yes she is a princess, she is also a monkey, climbs all over, bouncing around and just plain monkeying around. Since she is an only you could say spoiled, I say probably, but then after 14yrs waiting for her arrival, its a given. Perhaps not smart but its a given.
We also have 10 cows,, 1 bull, yes moo. 2 horses, 1 poa, 1 donkey or burro, 3 dogs all labs(including one silver-registered as a brown) 2 cats that do not like each other in the least. One is a kitten that showed up on our doorstep on our daughters birthday last year, like we could get rid of that one-KitCat. The other is Miss Kitty, the very typical humans are lower than cats, cat. Although suddenly she has become this I want attention and in your face cat. During winter she usually is allowed in the house during the night. However, when she starting thinking she could sleep on our bed she is no longer in the house. For years she has come in the house and found a nice quiet corner and slept, places like closets etc. But when she started the lay on your chest thing, it was over for indoor. Although she will come in during the day and sleep in the chair.
We used to have two goats, they were fun. Ate the weeds. Now our neighbors have them. They no longer eat weeds, they are spoiled.
The cows are on pasture for the summer. We are not running them on the forest range this year, thank heavens. Much easier. Not cheaper but easier and less worry. No bears and wolves to worry about at least not as much. Hopefully it will work out and the pasture will not dry out, burn up, etc.
Tonight is last night for baseball. Its machine pitch and I don't like it. The kids went from t-ball to machine pitch, there should have been a coach pitch before the machine. But tonight is the last night so oh well. Glad for that actually.
Making plans for the 4th of July. Lots a famdamly in town, lunch for about 35 on the 5th. Having bbq and mexican. Doesn't that seem like the ideal combo, okay not really but that should cover all tastes, and for the non picky - nice buffet! Not cooking it all, not hardly any of it. Since the kitchen remodel is on hold until the countertops are put in, its call the local bbq place, Bubbas and order chicken and brisket and some sides. Then a friends aunt is making a couple of trays of enchiladas for us (she has one of those busses that she parks and sells mexican food). So with some fruit salad and green salad, chips, chips and salsa, I think we have it covered. Always worried about not having enough food. Working on the dessert this week. Made Apple Pie cake last night. Going to put it in cups with cinnamon graham crackers on the bottom, the the cake, then some carmel sauce and whipped cream. Also making a Root Beer float cake, so will bring both those to work tomorrow for a tasting.
Well that's a good intro.
Later.