Fall is coming to the Rockies!

I saw my first Aspen trees turning yellow in the mountains today! I love fall in the Rockies. We headed up to Indian Peaks Wilderness for a lovely 6.5 mile hike with Aspen, the dog, not the tree.

We started out at Brainard Lake and then took the Lake Isabelle trail up the mountain, past Long Lake and finally to Lake Isabelle, which is above treeline right before Pawnee Pass. The trail is great for most of the way, but the stretch between 2.5 and 3 miles is very steep and very rocky, so we were tired when we made it to the top. I told Mike we'd do an easy hike today, so he wasn't very happy by the time we made it back to the car, but it really was a beautiful path. All three lakes are beautiful, and just before treeline there is a gorgeous creek flowing down a steep hill (almost a waterfall) with a field of high altitude wildflowers all around and a view of Isabelle glacier behind it. In addition, you have the smell of the mountains and fresh, fresh air. The temperature was nice and cool, and the rain only sprinkles. We also saw our first snow in the Rockies today too, but it was only a little bit and already on the ground.

Aspen was so excited all day. She spent the car rides up and back with her head hanging out the back window, and on the trail she practically dragged us up the hill because she was so pumped up. Even at the end of the 6.5 miles, she was still rearing to go! She could have turned around and done the hike again, even though we were exhausted (and hungry!). We had a lovely late lunch at the Millsite restaurant near Ward on the way home, and now we are vegging in front of the TV for the evening.

The only problem in an otherwise perfect day...I forgot to check the camera battery and it died just after we started. So, all my pictures are of the first 1/2 mile of our hike.

Tribute to Mike

Nothing very exciting to report. It's been a pretty standard, business-as-usual week. However, I'm looking forward to the 3-day weekend. I need some time to hang out with my wonderful, amazing husband.

Yes, he told me to write that. No, really he did. He asked if I'd updated my blog yet, and I said I wasn't sure what to write about this week, so he said, "write about how wonderful your husband is." Now's he's sitting with my blog up on his computer screen, pestering me to get a new post in. So, this post is for him. Of course, I'm teasing him here, but it's also true...

He is a wonderful husband, and I'm very glad that the doctor says his broken arm is finally starting to heal. Now if only he'd mow the lawn....just kidding. He is waiting to read this, so I'd better get it posted. Love you honey!

A fun day at the Park

Aspen had a great morning. We went walking in the Arapahoe Bend Natural Area, where she could chase grasshoppers in tall grass to her heart's content, and then we went to the Spring Canyon Dog park in Fort Collins, which has a pond for the dogs to play in. She had a great time, although she had to suffer through a bath when we got home! She's been tired all evening, which is great for me, since I have some school work to do and it's raining out. Mike's at a Broncos game in Denver. Hopefully, he doesn't get too cold and wet.

Thank goodness for Fridays

Whew! It's been a whirlwind week. I had book club on Tuesday night, a scrapbooking party on Thursday night, and an event at Mike's work tonight, plus all the usual work related jumble. I'm very glad it's Friday, but I have a busy weekend ahead of me. I have to finish wallpaper stripping, go grocery shopping, do laundry, do some schoolwork, maybe start painting, do housework, and other assorted chores. Oh, and we have the fantasy football draft in the morning too. And, I have to look for my shoes more!

Yes, I said look for my shoes...it's a mystery at our house right now. I purchased a new pair of shoes and wore them once and now they have disappeared. I've been looking for them unsuccessfully all week. I swear I've looked everywhere, even in unusual places like dresser drawers and in laundry baskets, but they are nowhere to be found! I even went outside and looked in Aspen's kennel and favorite spots fearing she'd carried them off. I cannot figure out what happened to them, but I suspect foul play!

I need to teach Aspen how to vacuum this weekend too. She tore up her stuffed racooon all over the living room floor and then dumped a bowl of her dog food all over the kitchen floor (just for fun), and I haven't found time to clean it up yet. At what age can "children" be expected to clean up after themselves???

The I hate Wallpaper Tribute

I really do hate wallpaper, or at least the act of removing it. I've started working on the guest bedroom, which means wallpaper stripping first. This is a doubly annoying task because 1) all the wallpaper in our house was applied directly to drywall without ever finishing the walls and 2) there are several layers of wallpaper on any given wall. This wall was actually interesting because there were hidden secrets within. The top layer was blue plaid, and the bottom layer was blue plaid as well. No, that wasn't the surprising hidden secret, but on the bottom layer of blue plaid there were lots of drawings, some of which were quite well done. I uncovered sketches of transformers, skulls and crossbones, lightning bolts, comments about death rays, and all sorts of things drawn in magic markers. The room of a teenage boy mystifies the archeologist who's digging through the murky past. Seriously, I kept thinking about this as an anthropologist whose only clues to culture are what's left behind. It's a rather scary thought to think of our world being defined by far future generations based on the leftover doodles of a teenage boy! We'll have to repair and texture the walls next week, and then we will be able to paint.

Anyway, the wallpaper always comes off in tiny little pieces, and then it's wet from the steamer so it sticks to everything. And, I can never get all the layers off at the same time, so I have to peel each of 4 layers off one at a time. I do love when the wallpaper is gone!

I've had a productive weekend overall. I made homemade pasta sauce with tomatoes from my garden and some I purchased at a farm stand. Then, I did laundry, ran errands, worked around the house, helped clean the garage, watered the garden, and did some school work.

I also worked on several craft projects this weekend. I made a cute scrapbook page of Aspen to go in my "family" scrapbook. I also did a great recycling craft project. I had a bunch of plastic zipper bags--the kind that new curtains and sheets come in--so I pulled out the curtain advertisements that came in the pockets and replaced them with labels for "holiday cards," "thank you cards," "birthday cards," and "other cards" and I'm going to use them to store premade cards until I need them. This should keep them neat and clean and they don't take up much space.

Tomorrow is another school day, so I'd better get to finishing up my weekend projects and get the laundry put away. It's a busy week a comin'.

School Time

School is under way, and so far it's going well. Of course, we are just getting going on content, since you have to do all the book checkout, and going over syllabi, and all that first. I come home exhausted every night--I have to get used to the hectic pace again. All the students are very excited for these first few days, but then the honeymoon period will be over.

I was surprised at the last minute by getting a student teacher assigned to me. And, I'm the official mentor/evaluator for one of our new teachers as well. Apparently, I've joined the ranks of "experienced" teachers at my school. I'm mostly excited about the student teacher, but it's going to be hard for me to give up my classes for weeks! We'll see how it goes, but she seems like a nice woman. She's 22 years old and from Omaha, Nebraska. That's about all I really know. She started with me today. She'll begin by observing me teach for a few weeks and then start taking over a class at a time until she's teaching my whole schedule for about 4 weeks. My job is to evaluate her, support her, and help her learn how to be a teacher. It should be interesting.

Back to Fall

The universe must know I have to go back to school tomorrow because today is a perfect, beautiful fall day. The temperature has been high 60s, low 70s, with just enough cool air to seem like fall but still be pleasant to sit outside in. I catch myself watching trees, expecting to see a spontaneous change to yellow and orange because this vibrant green doesn't quite match the feel in the air. I had to put a sweatshirt on this morning to walk the dog, which is okay with me.

Summer officially feels over today. I think I'm mostly ready for school tomorrow. I do still get excited for the first days. After that, it's just work, but the kids are well behaved and positive for a few days, and we are all excited to be wearing new clothes and seeing all our friends again.

Last night, we enjoyed a lovely date night as a last hurrah to summer! We had a great dinner (Prime rib for Mike and Shrimp and Mussels for me) at the Candlelight Dinner Theater and then saw their performance of Wizard of Oz, which was quite well done. There's a lot of local talent in Northern Colorado, and they know how to get a crowd laughing. Plus, it's always fun to have the Wicked Witch of the West as your waitress.