Craftiness

I've been working on figuring out how to do a pop-up card today. I made this one for my dad. This is the front of the card:

And, here's the inside of the card:

It was a fun card to make. And, I'm sure my dad will get over the 5" tall announcement of his 50th birthday!

It's hot out here!

Aspen takes some time to cool off in her swimming pool, which she's decided she likes.

Update

It's been a hectic week. I've been working to get ready for school to start by designing math lessons and getting my classroom all set up. I'm starting to feel like the summer is winding down and school time will be here before you know it.

In addition, I've been doing my acupuncture twice a week in Fort Collins. The sessions aren't bad really. The only needles that hurt are the ones they put into my feet. The rest I don't really feel. However, I'm not sure I feel much different afterward either. I'm having more trouble with the injections, which are producing a whole list of side effects, including muscle aches and pains, headaches, itching feet, and an inability to sleep through the night. And, my sessions with the doctor are starting to pick up pace. I have one Friday, and then next week it will be Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon...and on daily until it's over. Of course, don't really know an exact date yet.

It hasn't been all work and medicine of course. I've been doing some scrapbooking and lots of cooking too. I'm looking forward to a visit from Mike's parents next week as well.

Cherries!

I spent the morning making jam out of the sour cherries in my backyard. It takes forever because the cherries are smaller than grapes and have to be pitted one by one. It only took 15 minutes to pick, but it took 2 hours to pit them. And, that's just to make one batch of 7 seven jars! I made a batch over the weekend and a

nother today, so I have a good stock of jam, but I haven't used even half of the ripe cherries out there. Some of them are hard to get to because they are in the area of our yard that we refer to as "the jungle," but maybe I can make another batch next week or get a friend to come take some.

On a less exciting note, I've got the means to open my own pharmacy now. I wanted to sit down and cry when these two big boxes of drugs arrived today. Can you believe that all of this is for the next 3 weeks! It's overwhelming to see it all at once. I didn't give in to the urge to cry, but I did ignore the box for about an hour before I got the courage to open it and explore what all was in there. My first injection starts tonight. I keep having to remind myself that it will be worth it if it works!

A Visit with My Parents

Despite almost constant rain, we had a nice visit with my parents and grandma this week. We tried to go to a band concert and 4th of July fireworks, but both were canceled due to heavy rain. Then, we spent 2 days camping at Dowdy lake up near Red Feather. It was beautiful the first day, and we really enjoyed it. We even got Aspen to go for a ride in the canoe! It started raining again the 2nd day, so we were all a little cold and wet and ready to go home by Wednesday morning. Then, we did a tour of the Budweiser plant, some shopping, and went out for dinner, all while it continued raining. Thursday, Mike and I had to go to a doctor's appointment, so the family had to entertain themselves in the morning and then we spent the afternoon just relaxing and visiting at the house. Here are a few pictures from the non-raining day:

ISTE 2010

I spent the last four days attending the ISTE Conference in Denver (International Society for Technology in Education)! It's a huge event about all things tech and how to use them in education. It's been a fun time, but I'm also very tired. I have a new appreciation for those people who commute to the city every day for work. I wouldn't last a week!

I learned some great ideas for my classroom and saw some amazing technology. I also got the chance to do some more training with SMART and met some other SMART Exemplary Educators (SEEs), which is a program I spent last year working toward and am now a member of.

These pictures are of the Blue Bear, a famous statue called "I Can See You," which is outside the convention center peering in the windows. It's such a fun, whimsical art piece.

Camping at Big Creek Lakes

We headed up to Big Creek Lake (lower) on Thursday afternoon. We saw some great scenery on the way, and stopped to view a gorgeous valley where even Aspen liked the view.


After a detour caused by a GPS that directed us to a dead end in a cow pasture, we found a better route and arrived at our campsite. Big Creek Lake is very isolated. It's about 30 minutes outside the tiny town of Cowdery, CO and not far from the Wyoming border.



The lake is very pretty, but the area has been hit hard by the Pine Beetle so there are dead trees everywhere, and the forest service is currently cutting them all down because they pose a threat. There are signs everywhere warning of the dangers of falling trees. Thursday night, we had just enough time to set up camp, have dinner, and take Aspen for a walk.


Friday morning, we started out fishing and canoeing. Mike caught one fish (a small one about 7 inches) before breaking his pole accidentally, and since we didn't have an extra, that was the end of that.

Then, around 10:30 we heading out to hike the trail to get to Big Creek Lake (upper), which can't be reached by car. We hiked for about an hour to get to this lake. From there, we saw a sign to Big Creek Falls, so we kept going and hiked up into the mountain canyon to see the falls.

We hadn't seen any other people for a couple of hours, so we let Aspen off her leash and she enjoyed running around. She also had to walk through every creek and patch of water that we came across and there was no shortage of water.
We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, but we did see some moose tracks crossing our hiking trail. We finally made it to the waterfall, which was pretty neat. We paused for Mike and Aspen to wade in the water and for some pictures, and then we had to hike all the way back.
In total, our trip ended up taking 5 hours, so we were all tired when we got back! Mike and I spent our afternoon in lawn chairs, and Aspen was so tired she decided a rock would make a good pillow and went straight to sleep.

We had a good time, but the nights were very cold (near freezing) so it wasn't very pleasant in the tent. And, the day after our hike Mike's back was hurting, so we ended up coming home Saturday evening instead of Sunday. Still, it was a good escape and a way to relax after the news of our latest doctor appointment, which we had Thursday morning before we left.