Fall's Beginnings

Here we are, early September already. This year has just sailed by, and it has felt like a huge roller coaster. But, why am I summarizing already?? It's not December! We still have the most fun part of the year yet to come! So bring it on, I'm ready! And I'm tired. It's a great kind of tired though, one I haven't felt since....well....have I ever felt tired like this before? Maybe when I was younger and had dedications to clubs/teams/etc. What a difference a few months can make. Prior to June, I was a bump on a log. I wished I could do more, but never saw the greater reason why I should do more. Would it really matter? And my classic excuse...I rotate shifts, my sleep is always messed up and I'm usually recuperating from my last string of whatevers...I need to sleep when I'm not at work. The excuses are over. Now I'm finding as much, if not more reward in doing outside of the office things as I imagined. I am easily influenced...both for the good, and probably the bad. I'm working hard to gear it more towards the good...and hope to be doing alright. I like to think of it more as I'm easily inspired. :) Books, movies, brief conversations, etc can set wheels in motion for me to do something.   Our Women in Science conference is just around the corner! What an honor it has been again to work with this group of people on the board and committee for our fifth event. We continue to work on our Non-Profit status...phew, quite a bit of work goes into that. I was expecting it to take a lot of work though. It will be worth it once it's over, I have no doubt. I'm so excited for this year's event, I think it will be outstanding. We had a bit of a slow start this year, but as is always the case...everything is falling into place. We finally have our keynote, our break-out speakers are responding with gusto, booths are well staffed. The last thing? Volunteers...always with the volunteers! We're working on it, and I'm sure it too will work out just fine. And if not? We'll work it out! Why not be optimistic?   I'm looking forward to the next board meeting for the animal shelter. I am almost positive I would love to be a part of this board. Of course, they have the final say on all those matters, so we'll see what they decide. They have a big event coming up a couple weeks after Women in Science...so October promises to be busy, busy, busy. But it always is! My Mom arrives on the 1st (which is also our anniversary)...she's staying until the morning of the 4th. Women in Science is the 2nd. My birthday is the 8th. The 10th is Cesar Millan's visit to Wyoming! The Wine Tasting event for Paws is on the 17th. Sister-in-law's birthday is the 18th, nephew's is the 21st. We might have plans for Halloween weekend but not sure quite yet. I feel like I'm missing some items, but you get the idea. I love October...it makes me feel alive, and the early events of the month leave me incredibly motivated. 

Last week, a coworker and I went down to a food bank in Lander. Our office has made a conscious decision/hope to do more for our communities, and the food bank was one effort we elected to participate in. It was quite an experience. We were in the "back room" for the couple hours we were there. Helping to organize boxes of assorted food for families, and making sure the stock was sufficient to create those boxes. Their overall food stock was impressive considering the size of the operation. And they made sure to include a fairly balanced selection of food...making sure to go heavy on the protein and fruit/veggies. I was impressed...I hope my coworker was as well.The food bank gave us a dedicated slot on Wednesdays so that one (or two) of us could head down there. Between now and New Year's Eve, we have the majority of the weeks filled. Hopefully the remaining weeks will get filled.  

The time at the animal shelter continues as well. This past week with as much work as I was doing for Women in Science and the food bank, it got cut very short. I don't think I actually went this week at all. I always feel badly when that happens, but whenever I talk to the manager, she says she understands and is fine with whatever time I get there. 

I don't know why, but for some reason I am having so much fun right now. Maybe it's a honeymoon-kinda thing with trying to do more. Don't get me wrong, I have days when I'm wiped out and long for more sleep and time to be a bump on the couch again. Regardless to those times, I'm generally happy.   Paul is doing very well also. He's ramped up for another school year, though sad to see the opportunities for more outdoor activities fade with the changing of the seasons. But, thrilled with football season starting, and the awareness that hockey is just around the corner. We're pretty happy with life right now. Things could always improve...but isn't that always the case? Ok people...time for me to bail...almost time for work! I hope you all are doing well. Later!

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!