Happy Halloween!!

One of my favorite holidays is here. I don't know why. I think it's mainly because it's a fall holiday, the first after my birthday, and was always so enjoyable when I was growing up. Deciding what my alter ego would be for that one night, it allowed me to slip into another imaginary life.....even if it was just to snag some candy. Now, I don't want anyone to misread that last statement. I had a wonderful childhood full of love and encouragement. But I always had an overactive imagination, so a chance for me to utilize that was always welcome. :) Tomorrow is Trick-or-Treat here in Riverton. I'm looking forward to seeing the costumes this year to see what the latest fad is with the youth. Tomorrow is also the tradition of watching as many Simpsons Halloween episodes as I can get through before either getting bored, or falling asleep.

For now, I'm watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I'm about halfway through it as I type this. It's interesting...a little somber for the night...but I had a feeling it would be. So I knew what I was getting into. There's pearls of wisdom throughout the movie...quick quotes that make me think about happenings over the last few years and just say "hmph." But that's a sidenote.

Things around here have been going well for Paul and me. The beginning of October brought our Women in Science Conference. It was a wonderful event. We get new ideas every year and I'm a little excited about a couple of the ones we've talked about. Of course, there's plenty of steps between here and there. First up is to continue working on gaining our non-profit status. We're making a little progress on it. A lawyer is looking over revised Articles of Incorporation...hopefully we can get those mailed off to the state soon...and then we're pretty close to being ready to send in the big application to the IRS. Updates will be made on that whole ordeal over the next year or so.

What else has been going on...not a whole lot. Work is going very well for both of us. Wyoming is as gorgeous as it always is. I helped with an event called Paws for Pearls, it was an auction to benefit the animal shelter. It was an amazing night...the board did an incredible job putting it together, I was pleased to be a part of it. And of course, many of my Facebook friends already know...but Paul and I went to see Cesar Millan in Jackson, WY over my birthday weekend. His presentation was incredible...and Paul and I spent a good amount of time helping the Jackson economy. :) The Tetons were outstanding...I think I got some decent pics of them. We did actually meet Cesar. We got tickets that allowed us to arrive early and he came as a part of that. He actually told me he was glad I was short because of how tall everyone else was. I take that as a high compliment coming from him. :) The presentation he did was so funny...I remember bits of it every now and again and it still makes me chuckle.

Anyhow...my ice cream is melting so it's time for me to sign off here. Take care.

As It Turns Out...

Katy Loves Fishing! Now, I never would have guessed that. Prior to July '09, I maybe went fishing 2 or 3 times (at most). Paul had me try it when we went camping in the Wind River Mtns in July. Over that weekend, I caught 3 trout (he caught none...shhh). Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and we believe a hybrid West Yellowstone Cutthroat/Brook. It was a grand time. It took until the 2nd one before I was willing to actually touch the things...and Paul had to remove the hooks from them. We caught and released, it was a lot of fun. I was (pardon the pun) hooked after that. We went fishing the following weekend at Frye lake and I caught 1.95 (got the 2nd one into land but it slipped off before anyone with a net reached me) more, can't remember what they were...and a chunk of tree. I lost my "lucky" lure that day...but so goes life. I have my own pole, tackle box, vest and net now. :) Oh! And I really liked camping. We "roughed" it (no showers or drinkable running water). That was my 3rdish time camping outside of cabins with Girl Scouts years in my past. The other times were with a friend in middle school where we left halfway through the night because of a wretched storm, and the other time with with the Branham's when we were in High School during a holiday weekend. I only stayed one night with them, got there in the evening and left in the morning...so it's really hard to count either of those trips. Clouie came with us when we went camping in the Winds. She had a nice time, though she was fighting a skin infection while we were there which we didn't know about until the last morning. Paul said he'd noticed her belly was pink before we left...but it was red by Sunday morning. Poor little monster. No worries...she's fine. We're hoping to go camping one more time this summer before there's too much snow in the mtns, but we're fast running out of time. We'll see what happens.

Let's see...other than that...we've crammed as much summer fun into the 6 or so weekends I've had off this summer as possible. We visited Devil's Tower, my favorite place, in early July. Great time. It's been years since we've been to the monument and it's still as breathtaking as I remembered it. The next weekend was the camping trip. Then Paul's family came to visit us the 2 weeks after we went camping. Their visit was really great. PaPa came with them, and even our nephew Matthew was in attendance for the first week they were visiting. His dad (our brother-in-law) came up to get him, so at one point, we had 5 additional people in our 1800 sqft house. It was a bit crowded that weekend, but truly outstanding. Paul's folks went to Salt Lake City during the early portion of their second week visiting us, so Paul and I had some nights with just PaPa. Or at least Paul did...I started evening shifts the second evening...but I did have all the day and afternoon hours with PaPa. After their departure, it was time for our trip to Yellowstone. We went for 5 days or so and it was a lot of fun. We saw a lot of critters, and did a good amount of fishing. Paul caught a small brown trout on his fly-rod. I had a nibble with my "fly on a bubble" but that was about it. Can't win 'em all. We did an easy-ranked hike while we were there to the Fairy Falls. They were really nice. We did the hike earlier in the morning, which was good because the trail-head was CROWDED by the time we got back to the truck. So what all animals did we see? We saw three black bears, two grizzlies, four antelope (at least), a bunch of bison and elk, a bald and golden eagle, a bunch of jumping trout, and two wolves. It was our first time seeing any of the wolves in the park. Paul was thrilled since he's always wanted to see the wolves. If only we'd seen a porcupine and moose...maybe next time. Amazingly, with all the elk we saw, we didn't see any bulls. We found it a bit peculiar after previous visits to the park, but we suppose that happens sometimes...depends on how their winter went.

So, lots and lots of trips and traveling this summer. It's felt nice to be home the past week, but I am about ready to take my way own trip back into the Winds to do some more fishing. But, I'm not in a hurry. If a lure gets caught on something when I'm solo...I'm S-O-L since I don't have waders. Plus, I've never unhooked my own fish...so that could be interesting if I'm alone. Chances are, I'll wait until Paul can go with me in a couple Sundays.

What else, what else. I'm sure I'm missing things. I have been volunteering at our animal shelter which has been an adventure all of its own. There have been some great pups, and chances are low that I'll go through a breeder again to get a pup. Not that I have any regrets on getting Clouie that way...she's such an awesome and bad beagle. Love her to pieces. It's been a great summer. I'm sad to see it ending already. We had some snow in the Winds yesterday, it was fun to see them snow-capped when the clouds lifted yesterday afternoon.

The fall will be busy as it always is. Will write more later. Take care all!

Ohio Vacation & Updates

After being home for a week, I figured it was about time to go ahead and update the blog. About a week or so after our last post, Paul and I went on the road for a trip to Ohio. We drove this time. Paul's parents gave him their 12' Boat (ask him if you want more details) so we took the Silverado to pick it up. The nice thing is the ability to avoid airport chaos...and more importantly, it allowed us to take Clouie with us! She did very well on the drive. On the way to Ohio we were fairly good about using her harness which kept her more in the back seat. But we would unhook her for a couple hours at a time so she could curl up in the passenger's lap and/or look out the front window to find "big dogs" (aka cows, horses, etc). She was even really good in the hotels, which was a great improvement over the last time we took her anywhere. I give part of the credit to reading up on the Dog Whisperer site on how to introduce her to a hotel room. We made sure to enter the room first, and didn't make a big deal out of anything. She sniffed around a bit, but seemed more content to cuddle up on the extra bed, chew a rawhide, and relax. As is always the case, she got  little more upset when Paul left the room, but I usually got her to relax but just having her lay back down on the bed (no coddling like normal). 

Ohio was a great time as always. We pulled into Paul's parents house Saturday evening, and had mine come over for some grilled food. After being in a car for 2.5 days, Paul and I didn't feel like going out to a restaurant. The steaks and such were great, and of course we loved seeing our parents! It was nice to be in town for Easter Sunday, though again - Paul and I could convince ourselves to get out of bed to go to a church service. We were still on mountain time, and 8am eastern time for church just didn't happen for us. I feel bad about that, but not much to do about it now. Easter dinner and such at my folk's house was great...especially since my sister's crew came over. It feels like it's been forever since I've seen my nieces...they have grown like weeds.  Paul worked on the boat Monday & Tuesday and I believe him and his Dad finished it up Wednesday morning. I had a lunch date with my Dad at our favorite place...Carsonies...a small italian place that he only goes to when I'm in town (or so he claims). Tuesday I had a small procedure done, so I rested much of the morning. But I did go out to Bob Evan's with my folks for a late breakfast (early lunch for me... can't get enough of their Turkey Bacon Melts!). I felt better by the afternoon, so Paul and I and some of our family members went out shopping. We bought a good amount of stuff. Wednesday was my niece's 2nd birthday party...she was adorable. Thursday we went out to dinner with some high school friends that we haven't seen in years. Friday we left to come back here. We pulled back into Riverton Sunday afternoon. We were hoping to get back Saturday night, but the roads weren't cooperating, and we had a little trouble with the boat once we crossed into Wyoming. Sunday morning I woke up with a little bug, but thankfully its symptoms ceased after the early morning hours, so the 5 hour drive back to Riverton wasn't too bad. 

We brought back a ton of stuff since we had the truck. Included in this list are my alto and soprano saxophones, and a bunch of yearbooks and such. So next on my list is to get some reeds and gear for those to play with them a bit. I've barely touched the instruments since high school...so it'll take me a bit to remember things. 

I continue to work on my books and such for LEAD in June. I'm a little over halfway through the Courage book. It's interesting and has a lot of good information. I might flip through it again before June. I've read it in chunks and I think I would get more out of it if I were to read it through more solidly like I did The Servant. But for now, I just want to get through it once. 

So baseball season is back upon us...my favorite sport. My Mets have been holding their own...though they haven't demonstrated the "force to be reckoned with" attitude that the projections were trying to bestow upon them pre-season. I blame the Sports Illustrated curse...I wish they wouldn't have published that they thought the Mets would go really far this year. They're 8 and 10 as of this note, having dropped a game to the Nationals (who were 3 and 13 coming into the game) this afternoon. We still need some adjustments to our starting pitchers (the relievers seem to be performing fairly well) and it would be really nice to see some run support when Johan takes the ball. And of course there's the Murphy, Church, Sheffield fiasco which I won't go into here. 

Overall Paul and I are doing well. Work goes well...play time goes well...animals are well and happy... and as much as we miss our families already, it's nice to be home. We hope everyone is doing well. Paul's R/C stuff starts up soon...so expect more posts to his R/C blog  as the weeks go on. It's linked on the right side somewhere. :)  We hope things go well for you too. Take care, folks!