Estes Park here I come! :)

So I went up to Estes today in hopes of finding a perfect little home and I DID!! It isn't the little blue house that I wanted to buy, because I decided I really needed to get up there and get settled and such before I go through the whole home-purchase-process. I seriously lucked out and found a great little cabin on the west side of town right on the edge of the National Park. It's PERFECT!! :)

Looking north/east up the hill at the back (which is really the front)



My FAVORITE part is the view... (this is from the deck looking south and a little west at Long's Peak)



Welcome to my house!! :) The door you can see here opens into the kitchen:



Looking from the living room through the kitchen out to the porch:



You can also come through another door into the living room (sorry... this lovely furniture will be gone when you come visit me):



The living room, fireplace, and the door to one of the bedrooms:



A closet, and the doors to the other bedroom and the bathroom:



I am sure I will have many more to post once I am settled and its all Polly-ified! :) I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Summer!

So I took a break from reading Plato today to take my pupperdog on a hike. It's the first real hike we have been on for a long time and we both enjoyed it!!

This flower won :)

Apparently Colorado is being infested with ladybugs. I think they should come up with a different word than "infested" because I like ladybugs!! How many can you see?

Confessions

So my friend Jessica (Lotz not Ricks) did this on her blog and I thought it was fun:

1) I love watering my plants. I love plants in general, I love owning them, picking out cute pots for them, and watering them. I can't do super-high-maintenance plants because I have a life (or right now I have school)... but I can see when I am old and pottering around having a greenhouse and spending all day with my animals and plants :)

2) I hate cooking. Really. I really do not like it. At all. Even when something I make turns out well... I still don't like doing it. Not my thing. You cook, I'll do the dishes.

3) Sometimes I don't empty the lint-thingy in the dryer at my apartment complex. Yup... I'm the one.

4)I do however leave coupons that I won't use on the grocery shelf for other people, offer to return their grocery cart to the cart corral, help people carry heavy stuff, and hold doors open for people. I think this stuff is more important than lint.

5)I love the outside of my fridge (see previous blog entry) Can you imagine what it will be like when I have kids? I might have to get another fridge just to have the display-space! :)

6)I talk to trees. Yup. Blame it on my friend Kathy... but they are really good listeners. Dogs and cats also work well... but they can walk away. Trees are there for the long haul.

7)I still sleep with a stuffed animal. Puppy (he's a dog - original huh?) I usually use him as an extra pillow... but if I can't find him when I wake up I worry about where he went :)

8)Speaking of my bed.... I'm a hog. I like to sprawl. Your side of the bed is really your 1/4th of the bed. Deal with it.

9)Sometimes I look at things upsidedown. It's good to change your perspective :)

10)For a really long time I thought the phrase was "pigment of your imagination" Doesn't pigment make more sense anyway?

11) I can't spell. You might think that as a teacher this might pose a problem... I think it just gives my students the chance to understand that I am not perfect.

12) I laugh when people do stupid things... but I also laugh at myself when I do stupid things :)

I am sure I could come up with lots more... but I also:
13)procrastinate doing things I don't feel like doing (aka homework)
So I'll stop and go do my homework (after I water my plants)

1 Week Down.... 4 to Go

So I am done with the first week of my last summer of classes (for a long time at least!!) I have four weeks left to go... YAYAYAYAYAYY!!! This last week was the second half of an art class (we did the first half last summer) and while I LOVE the professor... the class was kind of lacking. I got a lot out of her first class and was looking forward to taking that stuff a step further, but she spent more time reviewing, which I found boring. Also we had a huge project that is due Monday AND the next class gave us pre-homework (that should be illegal!!) for Monday... I have had not-much weekend this weekend.

One thing that I did find amazing was a project that I did for the class. We had to take a black and white photograph and turn it into a pencil-drawing. My brother is by far the artist in the family, and I honestly have always felt that I didn't get any of those genes...so to say that I think my drawing is awesome is saying a lot! It is being graded right now, but I will try to post pictures of it (I know I keep saying that, but I actually found my camera, so I WILL do it sometime!)

The other thing I loved about having class again is getting to hang out with my friends every day. With Jessica going to Africa and Marci having a newborn soon, and me moving to Estes... I know we aren't going to get this kind of friend time anytime again soon. So I am definitely enjoying it while I can! I also enjoyed my homework-break to go to Jeffeckle's birthday party this weekend. Marci threw a suprise party and it was awesome!! Happy Birthday Snarf!!! :) Yay for Famous Dave's!!

So the other excitement around here was my poor Pupperdog getting a sliver in his eyeball. Yes it was as icky as it sounds. Friday morning I noticed it was kinda weepy and he was pawing at it. He's had doggy-pinkeye in the past, so I didn't think much of it, but when I went to put the gook in his eye that afternoon I noticed what I thought was a scratch on his eye. I'm ok with cut paws and such... but eyes I don't mess around with, so off to the vet we went. She stained his eye and saw there was actually a sliver in the cut so she had to sedate him and get it out. He was NOT a happy camper. Luckily the eye is looking much better now (although the medicine for the inflamation gave him upset tummy!) so hopefully he will get a clean bill of health when she checks it again on Friday.

The only other thing around here is dreaming/planning for Estes Park. I have been looking at real estate online and found this adorable house.
http://www.cohomefinder.com/p/80515/727781.htm
It is 16 miles from the elementary school, and I have no idea what kind of drive that is in the mountains... so I will have to go up and explore. I also was not planning on buying something right away... but who knows! It is certainly much more fun to think about than school :)

Ok... I should stop procrastinating and get on with reading the crap for tomorrow. The end is in sight!! :)

Vacation Day!!

I had a nice day :) I have been going through nephew withdrawal (really? "awal?" whatever spellchecker) since I got home on Wednesday... so it is a good thing that my brother sent me home with a bunch of DVDs of the boys! It is also nice to be home with my Fat Kitty (who has been in my lap loving on me every time I sit down) and my pupper dog! Yesterday was a nice day too as I got my hair cut and then had lunch with my favorite Marci at Famous Daves (MMMMMMMmmmmmmm!!) We laughed off the calories :) Now I only have two more days before classes start again, but today was definitely a nice relaxing vacation day.

Here is a list of things I did today:

1) Slept in (ahhh... vacation!) Another nice thing about being gone is that Fatness is off of his 5:30am breakfast schedule and he let me sleep until 7:30! (I also went back to sleep after I fed him)
2) Stopped by CC to drop off some form that someone needed to bind my MR paper... this was only nice because it gave me an excuse to get breakfast out :)
3) Stopped by Sharla's to get Sherlock's leash (she was dog-sitting him while I was gone) She also gave me the inside scoop on a used bookstore where I might be able to start my classroom library.
4) Went to Petsmart - this might not sound like a very exciting thing, but I got to pet all the out-for-adoption kitties (one of which was a Big Fat Grey Kitten!! He was ooooh so cute!) I also had a coupon AND almost all the things I needed were on sale too!! I did good :)
5) Got my snow tires off... yah I figured it was about time :) I walked across the street to Walmart while I was waiting and bought myself a new plant. New plants make me especially happy!! I might put a picture on the blog if I ever find my camera.
6) Took a nap (ahhhh... vacation!)
7) Went for a nice hike with the pooperdog. We went up to the reservoir and I chatted with a super-cute guy while Sherlock played.
8) Did NOT get icecream on the way home.... I thought about it, but I didn't!
9) Made myself a yummy pasta dinner... tomorrow I am going to the store to get some groceries including peaches, spinach, feta, and onion to make my most favoritest salad (thanks to my friend Bronwyn!!)
10) Started writing a grant to get money to buy all kinds of fun school stuff for my new classroom (I figure I should get it done before class starts and I have homework - blah!!)

See? Productive, relaxing, stress-free.... ahhh vacation! :)

Boys and Aunt Polly ONLY!

So my nephews and I had a boys and Aunt Polly ONLY night! (aka I sent my brother and his wife out to dinner to have some alone time) Sam and I built a fort earlier in the week and we played in that a lot. We hid from the monsters that live in his train table (Jack, Sara, and Fara) who are furry and green, yellow, and blue (but they do NOT have sharp teeth or claws). Then I invented a great game where he threw Nose (a stuffed animal) down the slide (the back of the airbed which was also the wall of the fort) into a bin and then jumped off the launch chair into a pile of pillows. Great fun :)

Max is feeling a little under the weather today, but he was still great. He has this little book where you put your finger in and you are the puppet of a lady bug. He thought it was great fun to try to eat the lady bug (ouch!) He might only have 6 teeth, but they are sharp! He also is just an explorer and it is fun to just watch him go!

I can't believe I have to leave tomorrow :( Sam said "I wish you could stay and play with me for all of these weeks!!!" Ahh... my cup runnith over. But it is still definitely too soon to go. Oh well. Another good thing about being a teacher is lots of vacation time to visit the boys!

Hopefully tomorrow is an un-eventful trip home!

Silly Aunt Polly

We crack each other up! :)