Our Community

This has been a great week to remind us (that is, Jeneric) why we decided to stay in Greeley. Sometimes the smell, the reputation, the lack of cultural happenings, the state of the school district, poverty, and the racial tension that defines Greeley gets to you. Your friends who live in Windsor and Ft. Collins openly ask you why you live there, and you begin to wonder. Then you go to Oktoberfest...

Last night was Greeley's celebration and it was a lovely time. We drank, ate, and were merry until dusk. Eric and I love our friends and feel like we belong to a community of people who challenge us and accept us for what we are-crazy.
There's the Mash clan, little Cecily was sporting some awesome temporary Crabtree Brewery tattoos...


Then Everette was spitting peas with Kathy...

When we are all together, we just take care of the kids like we were one big family. It's a lot of fun until Eric begins introducing them to beverages like beer and wine...


Kathy started feeding Erin a hot dog and it was pretty funny watching her open her mouth like a dog waiting for Kathy to give it to her.


Erin sure does love alcohol. Today she went up to the communion table with Deborah and audibly said "wine, drink it?" It's all cute until the congregation starts wondering if Erin drinks beer and wine on a regular basis. But even though many feel like Christians who drink beer and wine are "bad" we believe that beer and wine bring people together in real community. You should read the article Michael, our pastor, wrote about our church brewing beer. He says it better than I do. Oktoberfest was a perfect example of what Michael was saying.

It's good to be in Greeley and belong to a community like ours. At least until the smell comes back...

On a funny note, I want to share with you what Kathy drew on my iPhone this morning during church. She usually doodles on paper while she listens, so I went to the iPhone App store and got this free drawing program. She has quite the knack for cute pictures!

Cache

Ok, so many of you saw my post on Facebook about my dog Cache and were a bit concerned. Ah, having a dog...

I went to the pound in 2003 to get a dog because I was lonely. Blayne went with me and said that Cache looked like a winner and I should get her. Why did I listen to Blayne? Who knows, but I got Cache and we went home. She turned out to be quite the handful, on the neurotic side, and energetic. I worked with her and today her behavior is much better. During this time Eric and I started dating (the first time) and he really liked Cache. After we broke up, he would still come over and take her for walks and play with her. Since he was lonely, he decided he should get his own dog-that's where Audrey, the incontinent stubborn bitch comes in. So there we are, single and lonely, each with a weird dog. Then we end up dating again and you know the rest of the story. So since we weren't lonely anymore we were stuck with two dogs-who HATE each other. I mean HATE. There are times when they fight and draw blood, and if Eric didn't physically launch himself on both of them they would fight until death. We are working on this with them, but it's been frustrating. So then they start chewing and getting into things while we were at work, so we begin kennel training them for their own good. That goes just fine until Cache starts vomiting and having other "issues" in the kennel. On more than one occasion I would come home to a mess and spend the evening cleaning the kennel and area around it. NOT FUN.
So last week I came home and there was a very bad mess and this time it looked like blood. I took her outside and she continued to be sick, from both ends, and it looked like pure blood. She kept looking at me with these big eyes and I knew something was wrong. So we took her into the vet and they were concerned it was a rupture in her digestive tract of some sort of puncture from something she ate. So we end up running all these tests...lots of $$$ worth of tests... The vet calls me and says they can't find anything. So they sent us home with antibiotics and dog food for a sensitive stomach. I wasn't sure whether to be happy or not-it's always better when you can figure out what the problem is.

So Cache has been ok since, though we now have her on a very bland diet and she is not allowed to have any other food, at all, ever. We'll see if that stops the mess. That's my not-so-interesting story of what happened to Cache.

Party at the Parrish's

We have finally exhausted our back porch insurance claim. Now that we see the final product, we are glad that the big snowstorm of 2006 destroyed our back porch!

Next year we are going to try to add a pergola to the area, along with enclosing the screened in portion. However, we are very happy with what we have at this point and as soon as the final coat of sealant can take traffic we plan to have a party.



It's been a very busy time with school starting. Some of you know that I do a lot of extra work through a program called GK 12 and that has started again. I'll be writing grants and proposals, as well as planning new projects for our school. This is all separate from our normal school curriculum, but it gives me opportunities like doing research on the prairie and taking trips to present this research. Since our middle school is only 1 year old I have a lot I want to see happen in the next few years- so yes, that means I really like my new job. Along with the projects there have been funds alloted for teachers to take graduate courses online and on weekends so I'm going to find some that sound interesting. So if you don't hear from me that's why.

Happenings lately...

It's been a busy time for us, me with a new job and Eric thinking about what he really wants to do as a career. So here are some fun pictures of what we've been up to.
Here's our favorite "chebot" baby. (That's how Erin says ketchup phonetically)

Here's our "favorite" neighbor trying to shoot squirrels out of his tree. We aren't sure if this is legal, and this morning there was a squirrel in a trap beneath his tree. Would you call the city? For those of you who do not live in Greeley, this is the neighbor who calls the city for watering on the wrong day, dogs barking in homes while owners are away, and hedges that are higher than code allows.

Here's little Lily Bruemmer! Mark and Sarah had their baby last Friday and she is super cute. We spent some time at their house today. Big news about the green dump-apparently the lights were on all night last week, so someone is either illegally breaking in or it was sold. More details to come!

Lastly, this is a picture of my first flower garden. Mom, be sure to show this to dad since this is the area he kept trying to step in and throw shingles on! See, there was something other than weeds growing there.

13.1 miles-The Last Hoorah

Yep, it's time to train for another race. This time I'm going to be a little more serious in my training and start early and slow. None of the jumping into running 5 miles at a time after no running for a year. It is going to help to have a training partner...Eric! You read that right, Eric is going to run the race too. He seems kind of excited about it, but a little apprehensive about all the training. We've decided to do a lot of treadmill running in the evenings when the weather is too cold to run outside. We'll throw in some biking, swimming, cross-training, and weight lifting in between the runs. Personally I think Eric could probably go out tomorrow and run 13 miles faster than I will after 33 weeks of training, but he will keep me motivated and push me hard. There's nothing like competing with someone! It's my last hoorah-the final event for my tired old bones and joints...after this there will only be biking and swimming for me.
Anyone interested in joining us?

Oh, FYI Mark and Sarah had their baby-a little girl. I hope they can move into their house soon!

Helping near the Green Dump

Eric and I had the chance to escape to the mountains last Saturday and what a glorious day it turned out to be. We went to Mark and Sarah's place, which is well on it's way to being livable! That is exciting news, since I remember last spring when the foundation was poured. The siding is going up and that's what the guys worked on all day while the girls relaxed inside. You see, Amy and I risked our lives pushing plywood up to the rafters over the summer so we felt entitled to sit back and read a little. Seriously, there was a little accident and we were both very lucky to escape with just a few scratches. We got back on the horse and helped shingle after the incident. But Mark has made SO much progress since then. I'll let the pictures show you.





And someone be sure to tell dad (aka Ed) about this picture of a bull elk in Mark's front yard...

Don't feed the baby...

NONUTS!



These pictures show that it is inadvisable to feed Erin too many "nonuts."

However, while she was in our care we did take her to have "nonuts" since we could give her back. And rumor was that Kathy took her to Winchell's Donuts the day before...note that she took her first steps about 3 hours after these pictures, so I think it was the extra energy from two consecutive days of the fat-laden, high calorie "nonuts" that enabled her to take her first steps. Eric was the first person to introduce her to "nonuts" and there have been times when instead of saying "Eric" she'll look at him and start chanting "nonuts." Ah how cute!