Our Memorial Day Weekend

Each Memorial Day Troy and I try to go for a little weekend trip. Memorial Day weekend is the last chance to relax before our crazy busy summer. This year, our destination was Durango, Colorado to ride the Durango-Silverton Narrow Guage Steam Engine Train.

We drove through Wolf Creek Pass into Pagosa Springs.

We stayed the night in Bloomfield, New Mexico because there were no rooms left in Durango. The next morning we hopped on the train and was treated to a panoramic view of God's miracles of nature.

After the three hour ride, we arrived in Silverton at 11:30 (just in time for lunch). We had a great time eating lunch at the Handlebar Saloon and Grill. We "tromped" through stores before heading back to the train. We even bought an amethyst rock from a precious little girl who was selling rocks from a make-shift stand on the street.

We arrived back at Durango at 5:30 and spent another night in Bloomfield.

We had breakfast with Troy's dad, Jerry, his wife, Jan, and her brother and sister-in-law in Bloomfield. They live in Oklahoma but were also on a scenic trip of southwest Colorado. After breakfast, we drove the "Million Dollar Highway" between Durango and Ouray. We stopped in Ouray for lunch. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I was ready to quit my job, sell our house and buy a Bed and Breakfast in Ouray and spend the rest of my days staring at the mountains. Then Troy burst my bubble when he reminded me that I would have to learn how to cook breakfast. Oh Well. The mountains in Ouray look like they begin at the back door of the buildings.

After Ouray, we drove up to Grand Junction and over to Glenwood Springs to stay the night before traveling home the next day. As you can see in the pictures, we had three out of the four seasons all in one weekend...winter, spring, and summer. Wow!

We had a great trip and now are hooked on riding trains. There are several in Colorado and we hope to ride them all!

Lawn Care for Dummies

Lawn care at my childhood home on a farm in Oklahoma consisted of spreading granules to kill ticks and mowing once a week. By August it would be so hot that the grass was brown and crunchy..........yea, no more mowing!!....Yep, that was lawn care. Troy's childhood experience in Texas was much the same. We moved to California and lived in apartments and a condominium where other people took care of the lawn.

Then we bought a house in Colorado!

We moved into the formally foreclosed house with the much neglected lawn in April 2006. Luckily, our neighbor was a former landscape artist who graciously took the time to help Troy learn about the sprinkler system and about that miracle product called Revive. We watered the lawn like crazy and it payed off. After one application of fertilizer the lawn was beautiful!

The next summer was a little harder. Admittedly, we were concentrating on the back yard with a new deck and patio. But the lawn just didn't seem as lush as before. We muddled through and promised to take better care of it next year.

Now here we are in May 2008. We went to the local nursery and found out that Dallis grass (a weed) and spider mites had taken over our lawn! We bought everything they presented to us.....I know, I know, we had sucker written all over our faces. Sharon, the nice lady at the nursery, told us to aerate the lawn first. (For those Non-Coloradoans who are reading this, soil aeration is needed at the high altitude to help air get into the soil. A soil aerator pulls plugs out of the ground to help the soil be less compact.)

The aeration people worked their magic on Saturday. Our lawn has little soil plugs all over it that look amazingly like dog potty. (I keep having to remind myself that it's just dirt.) Yesterday, Troy and I walked into the garage and stood amidst our bounty of lawn care products and couldn't remember what we were supposed to do next. Spray the weed killer on just the weed or the whole lawn? Spray the weed killer, then plan the seed? Wait a week before planting seed? Mow first? Water last? Don't water? ARGH!!??!! We had written instructions from Sharon, but apparently Troy and I were in need of the remedial lawn care class. I made a desperate call to the nursery and the calm voice on the other end assured me that it would all be okay and that we could use all these products at the same time, they were idiot proof. Hmm....I guess she calls them like she sees them.

Shoes.....

Shoes are a necessity if dining out (No shirt, No shoes, No service), if walking on most surfaces, if wearing a new dress outside your own home. The type of shoes traditionally worn by a group of people establish cultural ties such as wooden shoes and moccasins. Shoes have been used as a reference point in popular movies such as "Forrest Gump" ("Those look like comfortable shoes") and "The Man with One Red Shoe".

I've been thinking about shoes a lot lately. Can you tell?

I have my Grandma Hazel to blame. My mom, dad, and grandma came from Oklahoma for a visit last weekend. They arrived on Thursday and left Tuesday morning. While here, Grandma wanted to find shoes to match some spring dresses for church. They needed to have a heel but not much of a heel. They needed to be "springy" but not open toed. They needed to have a strap around the ankle. They couldn't be made of a material that might get dirty. And they needed to be about $25. My mother warned me, but I took the plunge and told her that I would take she and grandma shoe shopping. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!

I truly love my grandma. And I totally understand the delima of not being able to find just the right shoe. (Most women understand this problem.) We shopped and shopped and just couldn't find the right shoe [see requirements above].

Now, I'm going to digress for a moment....
My grandfather passed away in November and grandma is still grieving as expected. The whole family felt that getting away and seeing the sights of Colorado as well as visiting me was just what she needed. And I felt that finding the perfect shoe would help in so many ways.

About halfway through the shoe shopping experience, I noticed that grandma wasn't feeling well. She didn't feel well the rest of the night and didn't feel like going to church the next morning. Mom was worried about her due to the fact that her doctors in Oklahoma are concerned about her heart. She had bypass surgery in 1998 and had many complications due to that.

Mom and dad decided to cut their trip short and start home on Sunday afternoon. I suggested taking grandma to Urgent Care to check on things before getting on the road. Grandma didn't hesitate. This was the first time I really became concerned about her. The Urgent Care staff was amazing. After an EKG, grandma was whisked to the hospital via ambulance. The staff was concerned that she was having a heart attack. As mom and I were following the ambulance, we talked about the foolishness of encouraging her to travel and expecting that everything would be okay. I started blaming myself for pushing her into shoe shopping.

Five nitroglycerin tablets, eight doses of morphine, and a CT scan later, a cardiologist was called in. It was 6:30 pm on Sunday night. He ordered an arteriogram to see if damage had been done to the heart and to repair what needed to be repaired. Grandma was wheeled into the operating room at 7:30 pm. As she rolled away from us, I noticed the stack of her clothes topped by her shoes underneath the bed. We entered the ICU waiting room. Mom started to cry, and my mind felt numb as all I could think of was that we didn't find the shoes grandma wanted.

The nurse brought grandma's clothes to us in the waiting room. One shoe was missing. We noticed but had bigger concerns.

Thirty minutes later the surgeon came out to talk to mom and dad. She assured them that there was nothing wrong with grandma's heart. She even took mom and dad to see the computer images taken from the procedure to prove that there was no damage. Even though grandma's EKG looked concerning, this was normal for her and was of no concern. Grandma has gall stones and this is more than likely the cause of the pain.

Troy and I were not present when the surgeon talked to mom and dad, so we were thrilled to hear the news when we returned to the waiting room. I went to grandma's ICU room before we left for the night. On the walk there, mom told me that earlier, when she walked in, they had grandma's other shoe tied to the rail above her head. I started laughing. How fitting.

God has a purpose in everything and He is in control. I thank Him for bring my grandmother all the way to Colorado to find out that she does not have heart problems and can possibly stop taking some of her medication. I thank Him for the staff in the Urgent Care and the hospital for being so attentive to grandma.

Troy and I make a trip home every holiday season (either Thanksgiving or Christmas). I'm hoping that I can take grandma on a little holiday trip............SHOE SHOPPING!!!!