Blog Makeover

Woo-Hoo! I finally got the blog makeover I've been after for several weeks. I created the background with my digital scrapbooking supplies in Photoshop Elements a couple of weeks ago but I could not get it to load correctly. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and got my new background. Then this evening I created the header. I still need to do some tweeking of some things but I am excited I got this far.

Weekend at Glen Eyrie

Last weekend we went to a marriage getaway with about 20 other couples from our church at Glen Eyrie Castle near Colorado Springs. It is an awesome place to visit and we really enjoyed the getaway. Glen Eyrie began as the estate of General William Jackson Palmer, founder of several railroads and the city of Colorado Springs. You can read more of the history here.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon, it was rainy and a little chilly. But Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day.
As we walked to breakfast that morning, we saw some turkeys.


Glen Eyrie is located very close to the Garden of the Gods so there are several rock formations on the property.

We didn't stay in the Castle but in the Big Horn Lodge. This is the parking lot for the Big Horn Lodge. I forgot to get a picture of the lodge!

This bench was just outside the window of our room.

Saturday morning before lunch Sandy and I hiked up to Dawson's grave. We didn't have a clue about who Dawson was but understood it to be a short hike with a great view. We even saw Pike's Peak.

Granny Practice

I got to keep Sloan today. Her grandmother had to go out of town and I am the backup babysitter. We had a great day. Sloan is a really good baby. She eats, then plays, then sleeps. She is so happy and loves for you to talk to her.

Ahhhh - Retirement!

Very exciting news in the life of the HamFam --we are going to be grandparents in January! Woo - hoo! Check out Alyssa and Lichar's blog (link below and to the right) to see some pictures of our grandbaby. They do not plan on finding out the sex of the baby and have given it a temporary Dutch name - Dingetje. Needless to say we are all very excited but those of you who know me well know that I am REALLY excited to be a granny! I had to wait until Alyssa posted on her blog before I did on mine!

Sandy started back to work August 1 and I experienced what "real" retirement was! For me that was the signal summer is over and a new school year is about to begin. I enjoy the days at home even though there is MUCH to do around the house. I can do things without being pressured by time restrictions. Doogie seems to enjoy having me home all day as well - he sleeps pretty much the entire day. He does have to wake up to "protect" me from noises that he barks at.

One of the bonuses of retirement is that I was able to go to Houston and spend time with the girls! (And Lichar and Kalum!) My mother, her dog (Deeogee) and I left Monday, August 11 for Houston. It was a very long 12 hour trip and we were so glad to get out of the car for a few hours when we got there. The main purpose of our trip was to help Alyssa get her classroom ready for the new school year. (She teaches kindergarten at Westwood Elementary in Friendswood ISD.) So Tuesday morning we were off to school to begin our work. Alyssa had a list of things for us to do. Mom and I moved bulletin boards from one location to another and decorated a big board in the hall, cleaned out cabinets and drawers, reorganized Alyssa's teacher desk area (she got rid of the desk and is using a small table for her computer and work area), organized student books as well as big books, etc.

We finally got our tasks completed this Monday and came home yesterday (Tuesday.) We did have time in the evenings to watch the Olympics and visit with Ashley, Kalum and Lichar. I also got to spend some time spoiling Ali who is the 8 month old daughter of Alyssa and Lichar's good friends, Kira and Andrew. They are temporarily living with Alyssa and Lichar until they move to California at the end of the month.

We did work in some shopping time as well. Ashley, Kalum, Mom and I went to Old Navy and then Baybrook Mall on Saturday. Since it was tax free weekend, the mall was CRAZY and we didn't spend much time there. Alyssa and I spent some time shopping for material for the baby's room - no luck though. One thing I really wanted to do while I was there was spend an unlimited time in Fry's - an electronics store. I got to do that Sunday afternoon. Kalum and Lichar went along because they love Fry's as much as I do. I was able to walk up and down every aisle in the computer/office half of the store. The other half is music/movies/
appliances/television and maybe I'll get to walk that side another time. I didn't even buy a thing but was able to browse through the computer software/books/accessories - it was great!

It was so much fun to spend time with my girls and their husbands - we did miss Sandy though. Hopefully he can go next time and we can all spend time together.

Here are a few pictures of things we did in Alyssa's classroom.

Finally Finished the Alaska Cruise Posting!

We've been home a month now from our Alaskan cruise and I finally finished posting all our pictures! So if you've only seen through the fishing pictures, the rest are now posted. If you'll scroll down past the post from Colorado, you'll find the start of the cruise pictures. I tried to show as much of the beautiful scenery as I could by posting pictures in slide shows. Hopefully, you will enjoy viewing them!