Tag- You're It!

Well, since Becky tagged me, I guess give this a try...

20 years ago..... I was 2 1/2 years old and I have no idea what I was up to. I'm sure I, along with my twin sister, was driving our parents and older brother nuts! I was probably still bald and using a pacifier, as I can tell from pictures. (I definitely think they should have taken that "stinky binky" away from me before then, but I can't go back and change history. They probably gave it to me to make me be quiet.) We would have just gotten back from our trip to Colorado. That's all I can tell you.

10 years ago... I was 12 1/2 years old and not looking forward to middle school! I was going into the 7th grade (and now I think about the fact that Shaun graduated from highschool 2 years prior to this year- YIKES!!!) I was spending my summer swimming and playing with my border collie, Oreo. We would have just gotten back from Colorado (it's an every other year thing). I loved helping with the babies and toddlers at church.

5 years ago... I was 17 1/2 and getting geared up for my senior year of highschool. I was working as an assistant in the toddler-one room at HOL and loved it. I was definitely spoiling those kids rotten and having fun with them (like playing in mud, going on field trips, etc.) I was very active in the H2O youth group and loved hanging out with all of my friends. It was definitely a fun time!

3 years ago... I had just completed my freshman year of college and NOT looking forward to 3 more years! It did get better I have to admit. I was still working at HOL and participating in H2O activities. It would be later this year that I would start dating Shaun after our annual jeeping trip to Cassville, MO.

1 year ago... I just got back from our honeymoon and had been married 2 1/2 weeks and had semi-moved to Moundridge. I had another semester of classes in Topeka and ended up staying in Topeka during the week and driving back to Moundridge on the weekends. I was so tired of living out of a suitcase at this point. I was hoping and praying that I would get my student teaching assignment at Hesston, which thankfully happened. I was loving married life, but knew reality of school and work would soon set in...

So far this year... I completed my student teaching experience, graduated from college, was hired as the new 1st grade teacher at Moundridge, began cleaning out my classroom, spent two weeks in Colorado, and lots more! Oh, and Shaun and I just celebrated our 1st anniversary. It's been a busy year!!!

Yesterday... I spent my day cleaning the house (trying to catch up from being gone for 2 weeks), doing dishes (lots and LOTS of them), and went to McPherson with my hubby and in-laws. I gave Wal-mart some more money (which I absolutely HATE, but they have such good sales on school stuff) and ate at Pizza Hut.

Tomorrow... I will go back to school and work on some more bulletin boards and go through some more things. I will wish my carpet was in my room so I could start arranging and putting it back together. I will try not to think about this carpet issue, and enjoy my last few unstressful days, before having to frantically pull together a classroom from chaos! I will go with Shaun to his grandma's and who knows what else!

Next year... I will be preparing for my second year of teaching and enjoying my summer. I can't really say what else the future brings....?

I tag... Molly, DeAnn and Lynda (or if the guys would like to, go ahead).

Fun times in Colorado

Shaun and I got back last night from our 2 week Colorado vacation. The first week we spent with his parents, sister & brother-in-law, and friends from church. We stayed near Durango a couple of nights and rode the Narrow Gauge Durango-Silverton train. We went fourwheeling one day around our campsite and then decided to pack up and move to Lake City. We were able to drive our fourwheelers right out of the campsite, instead of trailoring them to the trails. We even did an overnight fourwheeling trip and stayed in Eureka, outside of Silverton. We got rained and hailed on a couple of the afternoons and it was pretty miserable at times. The rest of the group left early Friday morning and Shaun and I piddled around waiting for my family to get to Taylor Resevoir on Saturday afternoon.

We stayed in Gunnison overnight and then headed for Taylor Resevoir on Saturday. We spent the next week with my family and numerous family friends. I think there was a total of 36 people, including 12 kiddos, for most of the week. We had 16 vehicles, including 9 MI51 (military jeeps), 3 fourwheelers, 1 Gator-like vehicle, 1 jeep Cherokee, 1 Wrangler, and a TomCar (an Israeli vehicle). We were quite the parade at times. A couple of highlights from this week were our rafting experience, running into our neighbors, Don & Bonnie Kaufman, on top of a mountain, and helping 2 women from Wichita down the mountain after one of their ATV's went down the mountain.

Some of the trails/passes we went on the last 2 weeks were: Cinammon Pass, Alpine Loop, Cross Mountain, Slaughter House Gulch, Tincup Pass, Taylor Pass, Hancock, Napolean, St. Elmo, Italian Creek, Spring Creek, Lottis Creek, Tellurium Creek, and Lily Pond.

Shaun and I also celebrated our 1st anniversary in Colorado! We figured at least every 2 years we'll get to take a trip for our anniversary- how exciting!

Cats, Cats and MORE Cats!!!!

So it seems like the more time I spend in the barn, the more cats I see. We now officially have 10 cats living in the barn full-time (I think) and one cat who comes and goes as he pleases, or when he cannot find anything better to eat and has to resort to Cat Chow. We have found our cat food bill has been increasing since these little kittens have began eating dry food. One of our gray and white kittens, Cookie, died early this week. Rest of these kittens are so active! They run to me when I call them and chase and pounce on each other. The other kittens who are a couple of weeks older than these, are even becoming braver and creep past me to get to the food bowl. I have been able to pet one of these, Spot. As I think about the number of cats we now have, I have to think back to when my friend Julie had around 20 cats at one time and I wondered how she could have so many cats. Now I know! They multiply just like mice. Hopefully, they will keep our mice population in check this winter! I also have to wonder if my recent increase in allergy symptoms is a result of spending more time with these little critters???? How can I have so much to say about cats when I really don't like them that much?!?

Patches and three of her kittens

Spot

Taffy

Smokey

Patches and Skunky
(I don't know how much longer Skunky will live, he doesn't eat dry food yet and is getting awfully skinny :( )


Shaun wonders where I come up with these names!

An Update from the Ortman's

We went to Topeka this weekend to celebrate the 4th and spend time with family before going on vacation at the end of this week. We went to some friends' house on Friday for our annual family/friend party. We had a good time with everyone and enjoyed watching the firework show my dad's boss, Adam, put on. The fireworks were beautiful and this video does not even do them justice. We also had an AWESOME smoked pig to eat... YUM!!!! We got the menu for our jeeping trip to Colorado planned, which is always a bonus.

We were able to go to church at TBC this morning, and enjoyed getting to see everyone. I miss you LOTS!!! Instead of staying and driving back after church tonight, we went ahead and came home so Shaun could get started on "revamping" our trailor so it can haul our jeep and two fourwheelers. He has a busy week ahead of him, trying to get planting and spraying done so we can go to Colorado. Where's the "easy button" Walgreens is always talking about???

I came home and decided to clean out the cats' barn. The kittens all have gunky eyes and I'm hoping this will help a little. I've been trying to clean out their eyes with a rag and have been putting eye drops in their eyes from the last round of sickness among the cats. Probably shouldn't be giving them to that young of kittens, but it's better than Shaun's idea of doctoring... One of our kittens, Cookie, is not doing so well and I don't think he'll make it. The two gray cats are the runts and they just look so unhealthy. As I was cleaning out the old straw in the barn, the other 4 kittens were very nosey and curious. I came to the realization last week that we went from 4 cats to 12 cats in a matter of a couple weeks. Yikes!

The End of Harvest

The last truck load of grain will be leaving our house shortly and we can then say that harvest is "officially" over! A little over a week of cutting and I think we're all glad we made it through without any major problems. I have enjoyed my first full harvest this year; I was only around for a day or two last summer due to my summer class. They did end up getting me to drive a tractor across the field yesterday and I drove the jeep home tonight. Now if they can only get the fall crops planted before we go on vacation!!!

Another highlight of my day is that my classroom is getting new carpet! I am very excited, especially since the old carpet is extremely faded and has little waves in it. So I'm hoping they get it replaced this week so I can actually spend some time in there. I still have some more sorting and organizing to do and then I can get down to the fun part, setting up my classroom.

Kristen made me aware that "normal people," or those without blogs, couldn't post comments on our blog, so I got that figured out and now you can leave your comments.