New Year's Resolutions

Bill Watterson obviously channeled me for this cartoon!

Several years ago I resolved to quit making resolutions.

I had been pretty successful at keeping this one

until I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and then ...

http://trio-of-sisters.blogspot.com/2010/09/lifestyle-changes.html.

I still need to do better with the lifestyle changes

and I really am going to try, but I have decided that I have really missed writing the blog so I am going to try to begin writing more regularly again.

It's a great outlet and I do enjoy it, but  tend to have trouble coming up with ideas.  My kids complain about the same exact thing and I tell them to suck it up and to look at their idea book.

Now I'm going to take my own advice.

I just need one of those darned idea books!

All ideas for topics and stories are welcome.

If you don't make suggestions, then you can't complain when you're bored!

What's One More?

About three or four weeks ago Sister Three called me and asked if I would consider taking a dog that was a known biter.  She knew that we had experience with a biter and she was hopeful that we could keep the dog from being put down

.  She sent me a picture because she knew that I'd be a goner.

I was a goner once I saw this grin.

 

This picture was taken by Stephanie Rausser, a world famous photographer.

Sister Three is the office manager for Stephanie and heard of Harry through her.

Sister Three is convinced that I am on my way to becoming a "dog whisperer".

I do have a way with animals and dreamed of becoming a vet when I was in grade school, but I don't think I'm necessarily a whisperer .... although I do whisper my hopes and dreams in their ears as we're cuddling in a chair.  Does that count?

At any rate, I talked to my better half and her response was, "What's one more?"
 so I emailed Sister Three and she set the wheels in motion.

We met Harry's family in Cheyenne yesterday. 

They drove him to us.  Can you believe that?

 That is true devotion on their part.

After a tearful parting, we headed home.

The beasties didn't quite know what to make of our newest member.

After lots of sniffing and checking each other out, they have all decided that

Harry is okay and have started to try to play. 

He is still a bit overwhelmed and doesn't want to play yet, 

but he went hiking with me this morning.

Yesterday, somebody found my geocache, but reported that the coordinates were

450 feet off.   I figured Chip or Maybelle had carried off the container, so

Maybelle, Harry and I set out to find it.

We checked out the first stage of my multi-cache and it was securely
 in place just as I had left it.  We trudged on to the second and final stage.


Along the way Harry startled a heron, which in turn perplexed him.

We found the cache and  put it in it's rightful place.

 Then we hiked to the end of the pasture.

It was beginning to snow a bit, but nothing to speak of.


We got to the end of the pasture just as the wind came up and the snow let loose.
We headed for home and Harry was content to trot beside me.


About halfway home he began to frantically pull at his leash.


I had to jog to keep up with him.
The wind was howling and I didn't hear my better half calling my name,
 but Harry did and he hurried me right along.


He's definitely going to be a great addition to the family.

Carhenge

I think we three sisters have mentioned it before that outside our little hometown sits 30 cars stuck in the ground to replicate England's Stonehenge- named Carhenge.

http://www.carhenge.com/



by WillyZ.


It was built in my junior year of high school and I remember going out to the field that used to be farm ground to get pictures of it for our year book.

The local towns people were split on it: " it was a great work of art in Western Nebraska." Others fell into the group: "it's a junk yard and why would anyone ever stop there and look at a bunch of old cars stuck in the ground."

The first elven years that Keith and I were married our farm was north east of Alliance, and we would drive by Carhenge to and from home. Keith's niece always referred to it as "car wreck." But the thing that always amazed me was that someone was always there pulling in and looking around. Always out of town license plates on their vehicles, usually out of state plates. People liked this? During the summer months it would increase in traffic ten fold.

A summer a couple years back, Sister Three and her family came home for a visit and we went out there so she could get pictures. We walked around and looked around. My kids were amazed as they had never done that. I hadn't walked around since 1987 when I took the year book photos, but it was really neat. You don't get that driving by on the road. You have to stop, get out of your car and walk around.

Last week the Friends of Carhenge announced they could no longer keep enough volunteers out there to man the visitor booth it now housed and would be offering it up for sale.

So if you have $300,000.00 you could purchase a local "land mark" and the sky is the limit on what you would be able to use it for. Some suggestions have been to have a RV camp ground, a go kart race track, and a restaurant on site to help generate revenue. All would be excellent ideas, but now we will wait and see what will happen.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/31/us-nebraska-carhenge-idUSTRE79T29420111031

It seems that the trio of sisters have gotten very busy.  

I often sit down and begin a new post, only to abandon it.

I discovered that it wasn't nearly as much fun to write the blog after Mom died.

  I knew she would comment no matter what and that once she did, Aunt Sue would.

It's hard to believe that it has been almost two years since Mom died and at that time I would never have suspected that Aunt Sue would be gone in two short years.

I have spent the better part of the evening rereading old posts.  

I've laughed and I've cried.  One might think that I'm feeling very sentimental and nostalgic.

The simple plain truth is that I am procrastinating!

Anything beats doing my math assignment.  I mean, assignments.

I have one paper due on Monday, but it's only 3-5 pages long.

Of course I still haven't read the material that the paper is to be written on, but that's nothing.  

By the following Saturday I have to have a lesson plan (also 3-5 pages) written out, 

a math lesson videotaped and critiqued, and a summation of my student observations written. 

Do I have my lesson plan planned?

Of course not.

Do I have my math lesson videotaped?

Of course not.

Do I have my summation of my student observations written?

Of course not .... but I have observed the students.

That's saying something.

 So, what am I doing?

  I'm dreaming of writing something a bit less stuffy.

Something a bit more uplifting than mathematical learning trajectories.

I'm hoping this might ignite the creative juices .....

but at this point, it's looking doubtful.

We Love New York

We took a little trip to the Big Apple. It was totally different than I expected. I thought people would be really mean because my friend told me when her mom went to New York, a bunch of people yelled at her while standing in line at Dunkin' Donuts because she was taking too long to decide. I purposely avoided Dunkin' Donuts for that reason.

Here are a few shots we took while walking around:

Trump is like everywhere in New York.

 We spent a little time on Park Avenue.

  What's up with those weird steam things?

   We're all happy and well-rested here since no one jumped on our heads at 6 am.

This was my favorite part. I love Danielle Radcliffe. He's so cute.

Broadway was rubbing off on Andrew and he started doing a little singing in the rain.

My feet are extremely wet in this picture.

 What I really needed was a good foot back rub.

I think I need one of those right now too.