Oh hail no

Last week, we had two major hailstorms that managed to wipe out TWO of my gardens in completely parts of town.  This may be the most boring blog post I've ever written but bear with me.  Weather is one of my less well-documented hobbies.  Apparently Cheyenne is the Hail Capitol of the World, according to people in my office and this article.  A rather dubious distinction especially since we have practically the World's Shortest Growing Season and it snows on Mother's Day.  

 

Snow, not hail. 

The first storm happened on Tuesday evening.  The weather radio had been going off all night warning us about thunderstorms, hail, damaging winds, etc.  Glenn helped me put all of our plants on the deck and I covered everything with lawn chairs and laundry baskets.  Classy.  The storm blew through town and our neighborhood didn't see a single ping of hail.  I breathed a sigh of relief until Aunt Vicky texted me "goodbye garden." 

This picture was taken on the Sunday before the storm - our slightly weedy but still well-cared for community garden plot.  We had more dill than we knew what to do with, broccoli, cabbages, onions, lovely potato plants and a brave little zucchini. 

Aunt Vicky's neighborhood and our community garden took the brunt of Tuesday's storm.  Leaves and branches and defoliated plants told the story.  

The community garden the morning after. 

So blah blah blah boring hail stories.  We also have a plot at our church garden, that was also spared from the first storm.  It's the first year of our church garden and I've had grand plans to share loads of fresh produce with the congregation and discover new and unusual ways to make kale edible.  Then Friday rolled around and the skies were black and I came home at lunch to try to protect the stuff in my yard again and this time I didn't do the whole laundry basket/lawn chairs and barely pulled things up onto the porch before it started hailing.  It hailed and hailed and hailed and our yard looked like it was covered in snow and the church garden was a giant, soggy, icy mess.  So now we'll have to see what bounces back.  We've replanted a few things and fertilized the heck out of everything and fingers crossed that two hailstorms in one week is good enough for a summer. 

Before the weather drama, we celebrated Wyoming Day by dressing up like soldiers and sitting in an Army jeep.  Will would've spent all weekend there if we'd let him. 

I don't think that's regulation uniform there, Driver. 

I've talked a lot about Will's baseball, but Reina is playing t-ball too and she's quite the slugger.  This year, the coach pitches to each kid three times and then they hit it off of the tee.  Reina's managed to hit the pitches and then stands there in surprise for a minute before dashing off to first. 

Her batting stance is a tad casual, but it works! 

I was digging through my phone and found this picture of Glenn and Will on the last day of school.   

Glenn and his clone.  We should've named him Glenn, Jr. 

Reina wants looooong hair and she's (im)patiently growing it out.  Mornings are usually a madcap rush out the door but I did take a few minutes to work on a Frozen braid a few weeks ago.  Reina was happy with my handiwork and I was happy to send her to school with a coif and not a giant ball of blonde craziness. 

Here's hoping for a hail free Fourth of July.

Tootsie

I traveled to Douglas earlier in the week for work.  As I pulled onto the State Fairgrounds, I realized that it's almost been exactly two years since I drove up there early one morning to meet a little red heeler and her foster family and bring her home.  While Tootsie and Trigger drive me bonkers periodically (is once a day periodically?), she's a great addition to our crazy household and she's a sweet, sweet dog.  She's my enthusiastic jogging partner, in fact the minute she sees me put my jogging shoes on, she whines and paces until her leash is snapped on and we're heading out the door.  Tootsie and Trigger are great companions.  While their combined level of enthusiasm and energy is more than twice what it would be individually, she also keeps him from being completely crazy and he gives her someone else to boss around. 

 

In the winter months, when it's too cold to run outside, she sits on the sofa next to my treadmill and keeps me company.  Her glance is only slightly reproachable.  Like, "toughen up lady, we could jog outside today." 

 

Let's not forgot about Trigger.  It's been about 2 1/2 years since we brought him home and while I'm still not sure he always knows his name, he sure is a patient boy.  Sunglasses?  Sure! 

I dug through my camera to find pictures of the Tootsie and found this collection from one of the days Reina was sick earlier in the year.  The littlest human needs a dog pillow?  No problem. 

When not busy being a pillow, she makes a heck of a blanket, too. 

This is my view several mornings a week.  Jog jog jog jog jog.

She serves as the sentry, letting us know about any loose dogs or cats with bad intentions wandering around the neighborhood. 

Tootsie also keeps an eye out on the prairie behind us.  Her hackles go up when she hears the coyotes, but in this picture she was either watching antelope or more of those naughty cats. 

Last month, when I spent the day with Baby Cousin, Tootsie was my shadow.  She must've been around babies in her early life because she was gentle and so very careful around Baby Cousin, even when Baby Cousin was practicing canine optometry. 

Tootsie followed me from room to room and when I set Baby Cousin on the floor, Tootsie stayed within arm's reach and babysat. 

She's called Tootsie, Toots, Butter (? - from Reina), @#($(#*$@ (from me), Tootsiebootsie, and various chirps and sound effects (from Glenn).  She's not perfect, but we are so grateful that she found her way to us.  Any Wyoming folks who are interested in adopting a heeler/cattle/working dog, make sure you check out HERD of Wyoming (http://www.herdofwy.com/).  We are so glad we did. 

The Great Family Road Trip of 2014 Part 1

Last weekend, we embarked on the Great Pauley Family Road Trip of 2014, Part 1.  Part 2 is later in the summer and will involve me, two kids and 838 miles.  Stay tuned.  For the GPFRT2014(1), we took a few days off and headed over to southwest Wyoming where we stopped at a pick-your-own-fossil place that Glenn and I had both heard of on work trips, but had never had the time to stop by.  I didn't get any pictures of the fossil hunting because (1) it rained part of the time, (2) I had to keep track of a small blonde archaeologist who wasn't necessarily interested in fossil hunting but definitely wanted to visit the gift shop and (3) I wanted to find fossils!  Suffice to say, we came back with a giant tote full of fish fossils and now we need to figure out a way to display them.  After fossil hunting, we drove into the Bridger-Teton National Forest and found a place to camp for the night.  We had one half of a giant campground to ourselves because it's still a bit early in the camping season and oh by the way, there was a decent-sized forest fire not too far away. 

They seem really concerned, don't they? 

Will's second grade teacher sent home a summer reading assignment (which I really appreciate) - the original adventure of Flat Stanley.  Flat Stanley is a boy who gets smushed flat (obviously) by his bulletin board and goes on a bunch of adventures even though he's, you know, flat.  The book is much less gruesome than I'm making it sound here and as part of the summer homework, we have to photograph Flat Stanley six different times and write about his adventures with our family.  So here you go, Flat Stanley bravely hovering over a campfire and a stick full of melted marshmallow goo. 

Will and Flat Stanley

Glenn does not have a summer reading assignment but here he is unpacking or packing something.  That was the unofficial theme of the GPFRT2014(1). 

The Pauley kids love camping.  They love the outdoors.  They love being dirty.  They love eating food out of doors.  They don't love moths or being cold.  But pretty much everything else is a-ok. 

Will enjoying the best muffins I've ever made.  Recipe found here.

Reina loves wearing pajamas out of doors and carrying a giant gold purse that's actually a toy pet carrier.  Not sure if that makes it better, or worse. 

Playing some game that involves swords, bad guys, robbers, handcuffs and a small blonde girl who may or may not be a bad guy. 

 

The next morning, we packed everything up and drove into Jackson where we ran into Aunt Vicky, Uncle Matt and the Star of the Show Baby Cousin at the grocery store, of all places.  We were all meeting later in the day in West Yellowstone but we got a head start on the familial activities.  After buying groceries (to make up for all of the stuff we forgot in Cheyenne), the GPFRT2014(1) headed into Grand Teton National Park with Yellowstone as our final destination. 

I drove this stretch so I only had a chance to take a picture when we pulled over for various reasons.  If you are curious about the reasons why we would pull over after just stopping in town for an hour, here are those reasons in no particular order:  someone needed to go potty, someone needed a snack, someone took their seat belt off for unknown reasons and for additional unknown reasons could not get their seat belt back on,someone couldn't find a tiny piece of plastic that was a super important component to his/her immediate happiness.

Gorgeous views! 

After crossing the border into Yellowstone, we headed west to West Yellowstone and stopped off at Old Faithful for a quick stretch of the legs. 

Pro tip, if you just happen to pull over at Old Faithful and see crowds like this, something cool will happen in about 90 seconds. 

I hadn't been to Old Faithful since I was a kid so I kept taking pictures in case that was the grand finale.  Not yet.....

 

 

There it is!  Even the kids were impressed with that one. 

After the exciting part was over, we posed for the obligatory family picture at the Old Faithful sign.  Flat Stanley Picture #2 in the books! 

Disclaimer, we were safely tucked away in the truck when I took this picture. We tried to obey the 100-ft wildlife rule but
when said wildlife is calmly sauntering down the highway, well... you take a quick picture and drive on. 

Besides the GPFRT2014(1), the other purpose of the trip was for Glenn and I and Uncle Matt to run the inaugural Yellowstone Half Marathon.  Here's a picture of us pre-race, shot by our budding photographer Will.  Let's face it, Glenn's hat and forehead were just supercilious to the picture anyway.  We've been training for a few months now and it's been fun to take a few minutes here and there to jog together on the weekends.  It's turned into our new 'date night.'  Anyway, we've been training, the dogs have been getting a lot of exercise, it's a great time of year to get in some long runs andddddd the race was really hard.  For me.  Glenn had a fun time and was definitely tired out at the end but that race kicked my fanny.  If memory serves me, we had to jog up a mountain, jog back down a mountain and then keep jogging for a really long time.  But I finished without throwing up, which is always a win in my book. 

This is definitely the 'before' shot. 

The day after the race, we woke up bright and early and headed home.  We had to stop right at the park exit for numerous reasons (see previous list) so I took a minute to act like a total tourist and take this picture, which will definitely find it's way on to Reina's high school graduation collage. 

Zoom in for a closer look if you need to. 

 

She wasn't even that grumpy in the car, so I have no idea what transpired to cause such an awesome expression.  Well, it was probably something I said or did, but that's obvious. 

Love these crazy little monkeys.  Side note:  Reina was perfectly happy to wear her mismatched jammies all the way home.  We got up early enough that our plan was to just take them from their sleeping bags right into the truck and hope that they'd keep dozing for a while.  Reina obliged but Will woke up and insisted on getting dressed because people might seem him in his pajamas.  Remember the kid who strutted around Target in a head-to-toe fireman's outfit?  Yeah, me neither. 

The GPFRT2014(1) continued as we drove and drove and drove and drove and stopped to have lunch at Sinks Canyon in Lander.  Glenn had never been and I remembered the giant fish and the way the river come seeping out of the hillside.  The kids were impressed.  They were also impressed by the giant grasshopper-looking/cicada thing that was near our picnic spot so frankly it doesn't take a lot. 

Glenn's not frowning, just chewing.  Why do my pictures always need a clarification?! 

We made it home in one piece with most of our sanity intact.  The kids are great travelers, even though there are a few moments here and there and a couple of temper tantrums (mine included) sprinkled throughout.  We had fun visiting with my sister and Matt and Baby Cousin was an absolute peach.  It feels like summer is officially here and we have some awesome adventures to look forward to.  We traveled all over our beautiful state, saw amazing views and lots of wildlife.  We feel lucky to live in this part of the world.  Plus, we come home and look out the back window and see this guy.   

Glenn tells me this is not Banjo - the older buck.  This guy is a little younger and oddly curious about the goings-on in the Pauley backyard.  I'm naming him Bandit and I think he'd like to snuggle.

Cousins!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to Omaha to visit the Pauley cousins and celebrate Alena's graduation.  I can't believe she's a graduate!  I first met Alena when she had just turned 9.  She was visiting the Pauley grandparents in Florida for Spring Break and Glenn and I happened to be out there at the same time.  Alena would be the junior bridesmaid in our wedding in the fall, but during that first trip she was a little shy but very adventurous and giggled at everything her uncle said and did.  Since then, she's grown into a lovely young woman and I'm sure she's headed for great adventures in college.  Her cousins absolutely adore her, especially the little blonde one.



Reina threw her only temper tantrum of the weekend shortly after this picture was taken when she found out that she couldn't drive to graduation with the graduate.  I think Reina would've gladly walked with her to accept the diploma if that had been allowed too. 

Cousin Ben is also on the list of "Cousins that are Adored."  He is probably the most patient soon to be eighth grader that I know.  He hauled Reina around the Omaha Zoo and brought out his gigantic collection of Legos to entertain Will.  I tried to talk him into coming back and spending the summer babysitting his cousins but apparently he has more fun things to do! 

 

Reina's cute little feet hardly touched the ground on our afternoon at the zoo.  Between her cousin and her uncle, she had a chariot wherever she went. 

This cute orangutan escaped his cage and followed us around for a while. 

Graduation finery. I stole a few minutes to myself and shopped with Aunt Maria at an awesome outlet mall. I knew Will needed some new church clothes for the summer and I hemmed and hawed until I found orange shorts and a dark blue shirt.  Naturally, it was a hit! 

More graduation finery with the grandparents! 

We had a very nice weekend with all of the Pauleys.  Besides graduation and the zoo, we had a family bowling tournament,  which the author of this blog won in a shocking upset.  Okay, shocking is a slight understatement because no one else really seemed to mind but I'm still waiting for my handcrafted trophy.  The bigger kids and assorted parents played a not-necessarily-friendly game of laser tag and Uncle Mark took home that award.  Glenn claims that his gun was broken. I kept shooting the poor guy that worked there.  Not surprisingly Will is now a giant fan of laser tag and I think we've found the theme for his next several birthdays. 

I sound like a broken record, but everything in our world seems to be beyond hectic right now.  So much for the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, huh?  Summer officially starts around here tomorrow with Will's last day of school.  He and I are going to have a mom/son afternoon while Glenn works and Reina is at Pop-pop's house.  Her preschool was closed for a few days to get ready for summer and she was more than happy to spend that time tiring out Grandma and Pop-pop.  Speaking of the end of the school year, Will brought home his report card today and I am one tickled mom.  He's made great strides this year and he's quite the smart kid.  He's rocking the math and reading and he also got an "A" in art which will make Grandma H happy.  I guess his art teacher must've liked detailed battle scenes.  And Star Wars.  Watch out second grade, we are coming for ya!

Last weekend we hosted a garage sale and officially sold the last of all of the baby stuff (sigh).  Will has baseball games a couple of times a week and Reina starts t-ball on Monday.  Glenn and I are both busy training for an upcoming half marathon and the biggest benefit of that is that we have two very tired dogs.  We have a few rows of cauliflower, kale, cucumbers and zucchini at our church's community garden along with pots of tomatoes and peppers at home.  I'm also helping with Aunt Vicky's community garden spot and if we don't get any HAIL we'll have a great bounty this summer.  In the past month, Glenn's been treated for an infected tick bite (not Lyme's disease) and had an allergic reaction to a bee sting.  The insects love him. Our insurance company probably does not.   I've stayed healthy but my allergies are in full swing with all of the green stuff growing out of the ground.  Reina has a pet beetle in her room and is a whirling tornado of activity who frequently shouts out "Let's go kick some honey buns!" which is her favorite line from the movie Mulan. I miss writing here but there haven't been very many spare minutes to sit down and type it all out.   I think that about sums it up.  Let's get this summer started!


Prima

WARNING:  This blog post may contain a certain amount of gushiness because I'm just in one of those moods. 

 

Reina has been taking a pre-dance class from a local studio since January.  As you might remember, I finally relented on a Saturday in December when she marched off of the indoor soccer field and announced that someone had punched in the arm.  She hadn't actually been punched, she just happened to be in the same vicinity as the ball and was jostled by other kids who were going for the ball (she was not).  I thought, "why am I making her play soccer when she's been bugging me for months to take a dance class?"  So we signed up and we've been faithfully attending every Wednesday night since then.  The class is pretty great.  The teachers manage to keep twelve (give or take) 4 and 5-yr olds moving in one direction.  They keep it organized but not militaristic and Reina bounces around the house practicing her moves.  Last Friday night, it all came together for one giant recital.   

Guess who came to the ballet recital?  Baby cousin and a hiding Aunt Vicky.  Both sets of grandparents were in attendance, too.  The Reina Pauley fan club. 

Baby Cousin was fascinated with the glitter and glam of Reina's costume.  She was all business as she tried in vain to get the blue taffeta/sequined/tulle-d concoction it in her mouth. 

Probably my favorite picture of my favorite ballerina.  Pop-pop is the official photographer of this page of the blog.  Isn't that a great picture? 

 

Reina's class was the second dance of the night and they brought the house down with pure cuteness.  Her class had one little boy dancer in it and as part of the routine, he went down the line of girls and 'lifted' them all up while they jumped.  It was delightful. I actually cried through the whole routine because I'm my mom's daughter and happy or sad, we cry. Reina was so cute and so brave on that big stage. 

 

Watch out Blog, I've figured out how to write on the pictures.    

We stayed for the first half of the program and saw dances of all different kinds, modern, tap, ballet and Irish step dancing.  The Irish group danced a long number to the theme music from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Will, who'd been watching with more interest than I thought he'd have, sat straight up and was hooked.  The dancers even had swords and the look on his face was priceless.  When the song was over, he turned to me and whispered, "I might want to do that sometime."  Stay tuned..... 
 

My sweet ballerina and the flowers from her daddy.  What a special night. 

The day after Mother's Day

The day after Mother's Day was a snow day.  Let's let that sink in for a moment.  The only day that schools have closed for this school year is May 12.  May 12.  Let's move on.  For historical purposes, this storm dropped close to a foot of snow at our house. I didn't measure it and the wind picked up to move snow around so it was hard to tell, but based on official readings in our county, I'd say we have about 12 inches.  I woke up to the phone ringing at 4:52 a.m. to announce that school was closed.  The state didn't shut down so I took the day off and Glenn went to work. I've spent the day with delightful, helpful, entertaining kids who are pretty excited to be home on a Monday.  I'm sure all of these feelings of goodwill will evaporate by 4:00 or so but we'll enjoy it while it lasts

To get my workout in today, I shoveled our walk so some of this snow is from the sidewalk.  But still, waist deep on a 7 yr old.  In May.  Good times.   

I had some help cleaning out the hall closet.  In an act of defiance, I packed away all of the hats, gloves and scarves.  If it snows again, we just won't leave the house.  Look at Will's feet. 

I took this picture of Reina last Monday, when the sun was shining. Her flower was in honor of Cinco De Mayo. 

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Mother's Day and other musings

I'll get to Mother's Day shortly, but a few things to capture about May.  We've had weird weather - rain, snow, sunshine, wind - sometimes all in one Day.  Work has been very busy for Glenn and slightly busy for me.  The school year is winding down for Will, which means book reports, field trips and class parties.  Reina is entering her last summer at Montessori, a thought that makes me momentarily teary-eyed.  We have a great summer ahead of us, if it ever arrives. We already have a few little vacations planned, we've signed up for some races and we have lots and lots of baseball to watch.

I was washing dishes and looked out to see Tootsie perched on the edge of the deck.  She usually keeps watch from the top of the picnic table but there must've been something super interesting to spy on and hence the balancing act. She's a unique little dog and I'm glad she's part of our family. 

On Friday, I took the day off to hang out with Baby Cousin.  I had such a nice time.  It's been a while since I've carried a baby on my hip while I do laundry and clean up the house.  Okay, I mostly just sat with her and made her giggle but we did get a few chores accomplished and she was very helpful. 

After school, big cousins got to spend time with baby cousins.  They both remain infatuated with her.  She likes them but also finds other things interesting - like monkeys. 

And Tootsie's....  but look at the expression on Reina's face.  After fussing about it and reminding us for months, she finally got to hold baby cousin.  She wanted to carry her around the house but I put the kibosh on that fun activity. 

Selfie time!   I love that little face. 

Will had his first baseball game of the season on Saturday.  It was chilly and there was a good wind coming from the west but nothing could deter him from wearing shortsleeves.  This is his first year playing baseball and what he lacks in experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm. He has a good coach and I think it will be a fun season for everyone involved.  Will's team won their game on Saturday and Will got a single.  I was overjoyed.  The teams play with a pitching machine and it's a little intimidating when the ball is coming at you at 55 mph. He's a trooper. 

I only had once chance to get this picture because someone was itching to get on the field.  We'll try for a smiling, eyes-wide-open shot next week. 

So it's Mother's Day.  May 11.  And we have just about a foot of snow on the ground.  True story. I've lived in Wyoming long enough to know that you'll often see a little snow in May.  A weird blizzard here, some skiffs of snow there.  But today we have a winter storm warning, interstates and roads in and out of town shut down and lots and lots of wet, white stuff. I'm a little unhinged.  We planted a bunch of different things in the community garden last week that will probably need to be replanted and my little chokecherries and lilac bushes are bent over under the weight of the snow. 

I know, I know.  Yeah for moisture!  Spring will be so green when it finally arrives. 

Reina wanted to build a snowman.  She lasted about 3 minutes.  Zipping up her jacket might've helped but what can you do.  That's waist high snow. I know she's not the tallest member of the family but that's a lot of snow. 

Despite the crazy weather, I've had a nice Mother's Day.  Will gave me a coupon book with coupons for "1 room cleaning with no complaining," "lunch at a restaurant of my choice," and "a day with no arguing."  I can't wait to use that one!  He also wrote that if he could buy me anything it would be a "nice hotel."  Now, I don't think he wants to get into the hospitality business, I think he's just heard me wish for a night of uninterrupted sleep all by myself a few times.  Reina drew me beautiful flowers and Glenn gave me a bird feeder and a few of his own coupons. 

I don't remember a time growing up when I didn't think I'd have children. Is that too many negatives in one sentence?  As I grew older,  I wasn't necessarily counting down the days until I could be a mom, but it was something that I figured would always happen.  Many of my summer jobs in high school and college involved kids - rec camp counselor, guest ranch kid wrangler... I even made a little bit of money in college babysitting at the Lutheran Church.  As my thirties approached and I was still single, I did have pangs of doubt but I also had Canyon and she was a great companion, plus I could leave her alone in the backyard for hours, which was something I understood was frowned upon with children.  Then I met Glenn and I just had a feeling that it would all work out.  Glenn and I took a trip to Florida after we'd been dating for a little over a year and I have a picture of us at St. Augustine.  The date on the picture is March 19, 2005.  I didn't know it at the time, but we'd be married before the year was out and on that exact date in two years, I'd become a mom.   Today, when I'm picking up the house and move that photo to get to the dust and junk behind it, I'm always reminded that for all of your planning, you just never know how things will turn out. 

In many ways, motherhood has surpassed my expectations.  For all of the sleepless nights, numerous times getting barfed on, arguments about clothes and room cleanings, and the fact that I NEVER get to use the bathroom without someone walking in with an emergency or a quick conversation about body parts, I'm just so thankful that I get to be the mom to Will and Reina.  I'm aware of how fast time seems to be moving - next year I'll have two kids in elementary school but I'm afraid if I blink, I'll be planning a high school graduation party.  So for now, I'm going to try to enjoy the little moments, even the barfing ones.