happy turkey day

we made it to my brother's very cool house, but the base experienced a power outage this morning, so instead of getting the turkey in at 12 we had to wait for the power to come back up at 2:00 pm!

It snowed this morning for about an hour and that was nice, it made it seem too holiday like! it cleared after that and is just windy and cold now.

well I hope everyone will have their fill of good food and family or friends.

should be working , not posting!

we are off for a spector - side thanksgiving tonight and for a few days. S and I, J and Hh and SSD2 will be there along with my nephew, Mom and Dad and oldest bro and wife.

this is the 1st time in about 20 years oldest bro is close enough for a gathering at this time of the year. it will be strange to not go to KS for the holiday. We go about every other year to S's dad's mostly and that is a long trip. This will be less of a haul as we are going only to Cheyenne. I hope the weather will hold for a few days, as cold is fine but snow and ice are not fun for traveling.

I have a long list of things to do today to get ready,
wash puppies ( they are coming too)
pack
bake extra turkey- ( its in the oven now)
bake pies ( pumpkin- and cherry)
gather up stuff to take with us,
sleeping bags need to be rolled ( all washed and ready to go)
buy a couple more items missing
and pack up the van.

I am thankful to be spending time with my family this holiday and I am so grateful for my health and my job and my wonderful children, and fantastic husband. - I hope I will remember all these things, and my camera to document this occasion!

please have a lovely holiday, I will try to post from the road, we are taking a laptop and Steven has his PDA-phone - but if you don't see anything here don't worry I will post again soon!

Killer Chili in High Demand!

Thank you so much ! I love to Share my “recipe” it is pretty loose for the amounts, as I am a cook that puts things in when I have them .

This particular pot had my Basics-
Ground Beef – I used a pound
Elk – roast that I had in my freezer, very lean and cut in small chunks
A little bit of roast beef left over chunked as well.
I sautéed these together with diced onions ( use as much or little as you like) and Hatch chilies from the farmers market this year ( I have them in my freezer) then when all was browned – I drained off the fat.

I put these in the crock pot with –
Dark red kidney beans ( canned- don’t drain) several cans – this pot used three
Pinto beans ( this pot got 1 can)
( some times prepared Chili like Stagg- it has beans and beef- depends on if I have some on my pantry shelve) ( this pot got two cans)
One can of diced tomatoes – ( this pot got one can plain) you can used seasoned diced tomatoes too! Again don’t drain.
I also put in about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning herbs
And A lot of Chili Powder – the red kind. Some times called new Mexico chili powder – I would guess I put about ¼ to 1/3 cup
A little bit of regular sugar (teaspoon or two)
Salt and black pepper
Mix all together and …

Then this pot cooked low overnight – it thickens on it’s own – it may seem juicy at first

This is a very forgiving recipe and if you like garlic, or less beans or more beans, it can be loved over time and adjusted. I also like bell peppers in this recipe and didn’t have any in my freezer wed night so this pot didn’t get any.

Enjoy .

Mis-understood

From Seth Godin

You will be misunderstood

I typically write posts that are three to six paragraphs long. I try to be clear and direct. And yet, just about everything I write is misunderstood by someone. (Not the same someone, alas). They write to me and I try to explain.

It's hard to imagine how one could write something that 100% of the recipients will understood as written. If you overwrite to satisfy the last 1%, you're going to bore the rest to tears
All of which is a way of warning you about microblogging (Twitter, etc.). If you've got 140 characters to make your point, the odds are you are going to be misunderstood (a lot). There may be nothing wrong with that, but you should be prepared for it to happen. And most of the time, people won't take the time to ask. They'll just assume you're an ignorant jerk and move on.

If it's important, or controversial, I don't think I'd obsess about making it short.

I found this an interesting premise and topic, even with only a few readers you are sometimes mis-understood. And he is correct in his assersion that fewer isn't always better!

twilight and twitter

Hh has proclaimed this her favorite movie of all ! pleased that we got to see it today- we went to the AMC at westminster and the parking was so full - we drove on to flatirons and then we had to wait quite a while for the screener to queue up the film, because they ran it on two screens at the same time, so the projectionist ( an old term) had to be sure that would work we waited for an extra 1/2 hour but Hh say it was truley worth it.

I am on twitter @queue_t

Killer Chili - wins golden fork!

Today we had a chili cook off - the second annual !

it was the perfect day for a good chili as the weather has turned frightful. It was 30 degrees cooler than yesterday !

So I made a pot of Killer chili to take to the cookoff and I WON!! voted by my peers the best chili and out of 9 pots that is a great deal, well I know it was the secret ingredient - just ask Kate - LOL she knows after eating my killer chili that this is the best because it is great and hearty and red - yum yum.

I made the " forks" as a prize, gold, silver and bronze and irony is I got my fork back.

under the weather

I have been lucky to not catch a cold in a while, but since friday I haven't felt well, off to nap a bit then - back to the grind. - sneezy -sniffy and whiney -

Travelers- all

We are all travelers in... the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. She is a fortunate voyager who finds many. We travel indeed to find them. They are the end and the reward of life. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, we are only nearer to the absent.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Color test blogthing

The Ultimate Color Test

When you are at peace, you are: Deeply stable When you are moved to act, you are: Giving and warm When you are inspired, you are: Creative and productive When your life is perfectly balanced, you are: Totally in the moment Your life's purpose is: To live a passionate life

The Ultimate Color Test

Happy Happy Birthday!

To my wonderful S. he is now my age until Feb and then I am a year older again :) - he likes to tell people I am the older one in the relationship. LOL

He will be getting WOW for his Birthday and taking Friday off to play with his " gang" as I call them really they are called a guild!? WOW=world of warcraft

I made him Cinnamon rolls for his office mates this morning, as a happy birthday treat.

Love you more and more every year, sweetheart

living and dying

We lost a co-worker and friend over the weekend. Yesterday the vice president of our department had nice words to say to everyone. It is a big loss for one area of our department in particular as this lady was an intergral part of our opperations.

about a year ago when it was evident that she was having trouble, I took on the task of loving her plants. They have remained in my office and I care for them daily and water them weekly. It was the one small thing I could do at a time when my co-workers were sad by knowing this lady would be having a long road to recovery at best and at worst would not return to her position here. Well I now have her living legacy in the plants she lovingly nursed back to health. I am glad knowing that this little bit of her will remain with me, I didn't have the chance to know her as well as others do here at work... but I am glad I could do a little to confort those around me.

woodbadge breakfast

This event occurs two times a year in the DAC and this is one of them! Today one of my patrol mates got beaded with his second bead, after completing his tickets. we have one more patrol mate to go and our patrol will be the first one to have all members finish from our WE5-61-2-07 group. It was nice to be able to see others that I don't get to visit with very often. And breakfast was outstanding as scouters really apprciate a good breakfast.

a collection was take up for the scholarship fund and about 1000$ was raised, this is near and dear to my heart as I recieved a scholarship and help from my good Friends Karen and Art P. I really changed my attitude and loved the camraderie I formed during my 6 days of my course. I am very grateful for the opportunity that was given to me.

Now to go to work on that third Bead?? as a staffer. !!!

Blessings in disguise ...

People Who Deal with Life Generously and Large-heartedly go on Multiplying Relationships to the End. ~~ Arthur Christopher Benson

Today started out a little on the shaky side, after a long day in Colorado Springs yesterday, I came out to a flat tire, after getting S up, we put air in it and I went off to the local Discount tire, well they repaired it, say it was a screw. - so on my way again to the office, and called in to my Boss - and the tire is Flat again as I go around the corner to the exit ramp and I have to pull off. So I call S, who didn't answer his phone, and start to worry how I am going to get this figured out. A broomfield police man pulls up behind me and helped me to change the tire. ( the spare was semi flat as well, enough to get me off the highway) Thus my Blessings in disguise!! so back to Discount where they gave me a new tire and mounted the spare back under the Van - all is well.

relevant on the vote

this article seems like a good idea to me! Roxanne Whieman


Well, here we are on the other side. A watershed moment. An historic election. And we, the American people, have made our choice.Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States, and the nation’s first black president. And in elections across the country, Democrats won their seats in the Senate. When Obama takes office in January, he will do so with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.“The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly,” McCain told his supporters in Arizona after the results came in.But what about you?

Those of you who took our RELEVANT poll yesterday favored McCain: 47 percent of you voted for the Arizona Senator and 33 percent of you for Obama. So, are you disappointed? Will you hang your heads today? Do you fear for our nation’s future? I’m not so sure.

So many of us—members of the widely contested “young evangelical voters”—were divided about this election. Not just as a group, but even in our own hearts. I know which candidate I chose, but it wasn’t an easy decision. And, to be honest, I didn’t really care who won. I agreed with both. I disagreed with both.

What I’m wondering now is where do we go from here?While the electoral vote and popular vote strongly favored Obama, our country is still largely divided. This was a hard-fought, personal and passionate race. There are wounds on both sides. Can Obama and the Democratic congress heal those wounds? Can we help?

Yes and yes.

Obama ran as a unifier. He condemned our party divisions and championed cooperation across party lines. Many of the Democrats who won seats in the Senate ran with similar platforms.

If Obama and the Congress majority maintain that position and “reach across the aisle” in the years to come, that will certainly go a long way in healing our wounds and unifying our country. Karl Rove has already expressed his own wish that the Republicans would do the same, "I hope we will support [Obama] when we agree with him, persuade him when we think his mind is open, and oppose him when we think he is wrong.

"Whether unity happens in Washington or not, the question still returns to us: what can we do to help?

As Francis Schaeffer so famously put it, “How shall we then live?” Now that the election is over and Obama and the Democrats have so clearly won, how shall we then live?

I believe that we, the young Christian voters, can uniquely answer this question. I believe, in fact, that this is the very question we are so primed to answer. Because this election and its profound life issues has galvanized us to true action.Yes, we voted. But it’s more than that. Through this election, we’ve become aware of the major social issues of our day. And now we want to do something about them. We recognize an election will not change everything. We do not rest our hopes for change on a political party or candidate.

We vote, we hope, but we don’t stop there.

Tomorrow and the next day and the next and in January when Obama takes office, we get up and we continue our sojourn to follow Jesus. We live our votes for life, for justice, for peace, for equality.

We comfort our friend who tells us she’s considering abortion. Then we gently tell her why we believe life in the womb is precious. We help her find alternative options … and we stick by her side all through the pregnancy and birth and after. She is not a statistic or a faceless evil to us.

We love beyond racial, gender and sexual lines. We reject stereotypes. We embrace individuals.

We work for reconciliation.We do not talk about “that side of town,” we live there and work there and mentor there. We are a part of educational reform, and ESL, and rehabilitation.

We recycle. We reduce our imprint. We consciously make our purchases, recognizing the global implications. We strive to “live simply that others may simply live” (Ghandi).

We personally pray for our soldiers in Iraq, for the citizens of Iraq, for our leaders who are making tough decisions that affect millions of lives. We really do pray, and we believe our prayers matter.

We continue to work hard in the jobs God has given us, saving our money and stewarding our resources. We tithe. We donate. We volunteer.We continually challenge each other to deepen our understanding of whole life ethics and Jesus’ call to follow Him.I believe this is who we are. I believe this is who you are.

I believe we can be the change we’ve voted for—no matter who we voted for

Romans 12:16 NCV

Live in peace with each other.

and for sheer amusement,I got this fun list, and thought I’d give it a go! how about you?

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Go Hh - sparring

look at the height she is getting on her foot right at the head level of the other sparring partner !