I'm a happy girl

I have hope that spring is coming. We’re experiencing days of 20-30 mph winds. This typically signals the change of seasons in Wichita.

The iPod is christened. After a week of fighting with my very uncooperative computer and help from Dave in diagnosing problems, I finally got everything up & running properly & was able to transfer songs to that sweet little device.

I finished my taxes. I use Turbo Tax. I like watching the little corner box go from “you owe $X” to “you get $Y refund” as I enter deductions.

And I finished a little project. At the beginning of last year I was inspired to make vintage-look aprons. Made ones for my mom & sisters last January. I bought fabric to make myself one but then never got around to it. I finally pulled it out last week and started on it. So happy with the end result.

As Ren & Stimpy would say, “Happy, happy, joy, joy.”

my new toy

I bought an iPod nano on Friday. I had saved Christmas & birthday money to get it. Now I need to actually open the box. I know that gives you gadget people heart palpitations. But it would have consumed my whole weekend and I had a long to-do list. I need to set aside a few hours to mess with setting it up. I promise I'll be better than when I bought the dvd recorder last year and took a month to get it out of the box.

Rocky Mountain High

I had the opportunity to go skiing this past weekend with a group of friends from church. I hadn’t expected to get to ski this year and was thrilled at the chance to go along. We went to Breckenridge, Colorado and stayed in a ski-in/ski-out condo. It was a blast.

The drive out Thursday got interesting west of Denver when we hit a snow storm. The highway was down to one lane of traffic. I was thankful I wasn’t driving. We made it slowly but safely to the condo. Friday morning the weather wasn’t bad. Skied in a lot of powder that day. It takes a lot of effort but it was neat to go down a run with 12 inches of fresh powder and only 2 sets of ski tracks. That was also where I fell 3 times – one of which was a face plant. I had to look around to find the ski that came off – could barely see the binding sticking out of the snow. The afternoon became very overcast with wind gusts that sent snow blowing. The face mask I bought was worth every penny. Yes, that's me and I don't know why I smiled for the picture.

Saturday and Sunday were clear, gorgeous days. Amazing views from the top of the mountain. Sunday was my favorite day of skiing. I skied with a small group that was just my speed. We were hauling it down the blues on Peak 7. It was so much fun.

Two Voices

Two incredible voices – Reba McEntire and Kelly Clarkson. I attended their concert on Thursday night. Wow. Reba & Kelly were on stage together for almost 2 solid hours. Neither of them ever left the stage. If it was Kelly’s song, Reba sang backup. If it was Reba’s song, Kelly sang backup. And they did a lot of duets. Their voices both sounded amazing, and they meld well together. It was fantastic to have the opportunity to listen to such talented ladies sing. Thoroughly enjoyable evening of entertainment. And now I need to add some Kelly cds to my collection.
If you’ve ever seen Reba’s sitcom, you know who Barbra Jean is. Melissa Peterman, who played Barbra Jean, opened the show with 30 minutes of standup comedy. The woman is hilarious. And when she busted in on Reba & Kelly later when they were about to sing the show’s theme song, Kelly was unable to keep from cracking up.

Listening to Reba & Kelly talk about their friendship and seeing their camaraderie, it made me think of how great an example of mentorship they are. A sharing of lives, a give & take, building each other up, offering advice. Lives can be changed by those types of relationships. We need to look around us to see who we can mentor, and just as importantly, who can mentor us – we need both.