Relaxing Weekend

I haven't felt motivated to write much lately. Life has just been going on fairly well, but hasn't been too interesting. Which is honestly kind of nice for a change. This is the first weekend in a long time where we haven't had obligations. So I've gotten most of my weekend chores done already, instead of rushing to do so Sunday afternoon like I have been lately.

It snowed again last night and we had a beautiful sunshiny day reflecting on the snow. All of today's pictures are from my new phone camera. It's still a phone camera, but it's much nicer than the one on my old phone.

I've been doing a good job with my eating lately. I was feeling a little bit like giving up today with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, but then I ran across a blog post that made me feel like I can stick with this. I can be the hero in my own story, and keep working on this goal.

Tonight we're having a lovely sunset tonight as I write this. So I'm going to relax and enjoy the view and my family this evening since I'm ahead of the game on my chores!

This One Time, at Band Camp...

Well, it's actually a band competition, but I couldn't think of a movie quote for that to use for the title. Our entire Saturday was consumed by my daughter's band competition yesterday. We got up at 5:15 to get her to school and drive 40 miles south to a band competition. My daughter's school performed at 10:00 AM, and then we had to just hang out the rest of the day, in the direct sunlight in 85 degree weather. Side note here: I want to know who authorized the return of summer temperatures in October. Sheesh!

These kiddos are improving pretty dramatically each week they perform. (Which may be why their band director signed them up for a competition every...single...weekend.) This isn't just a biased maternal opinion; their score has gone up 11 points (out of 100) since their first competition. So of course they made finals last night, and actually got the 2nd place spot. Which meant they played again 9:00 PM. So we didn't leave the competition until after 10:00 PM and didn't get home until almost midnight.

I had a different (somewhat obstructed) view of the band yesterday from field level.

My husband and I signed up to work on the pit crew yesterday since our parents couldn't come to the performance. It was hard work, and even though I didn't have time for a regular workout, I still think I get some credit for pulling a trailer loaded with props and equipment which probably weighed about 300 pounds. There were even hills, and we had to sprint with it to set up for the performance, because they only get 3 minutes 15 seconds to get all set up and ready to play.

Since I was working the pit crew I finally got an opportunity to take a picture of my daughter in uniform in the staging area. Which was good because she told me yesterday that I could just wait until her senior pictures. (She's a freshman).

The kids ended up taking 3rd place overall after finals, out of 28 bands. This was really exciting for a band who until last week hadn't even made it into finals. I'm glad they're working hard and improving, I'm not so glad that their improved performance means I'm losing all of my Saturdays during my favorite month of the year. On Friday night we watched Monster House with the kids. My husband thought it was too early, but I told him we weren't going to have as many opportunities to watch our family Halloween movies together, so we had to get started.

All of this activity so far away from home yesterday meant that I lost an entire weekend day to get caught up on chores. But I pounded through them this morning so I'm feeling better. The dishwasher is running and the hand-wash dishes are sitting in the drying rack. The laundry is in progress. The mail is sorted and the bills are paid. Now I intend to relax (other than taking care of laundry as loads get done) until we take my husband out to dinner for his belated birthday celebration with his parents, where I fully intend to have a margarita!

My yard is really starting to look like autumn.

Back to Reality, Minus 1 Hour

Another weekend in Estes Park has come and gone. Yesterday afternoon I took a walk around the grounds of the cabin and saw some elk with large antlers. These two were grazing on the hillside and first the one on the left looked up as I snapped a photo, then the one on the right.

This one was by himself much closer to the cabin.
UPDATE: I just realized that this elk is not alone. There is another male elk behind him in the bushes with huge antlers. I didn't even notice when I took the photo! I'm feeling rather sheepish at the moment.

We headed down the mountain this morning so that we could get home and get our weekend chores done in one afternoon. Here's our snowshoes drying off in the sun.

We wanted to make sure to get started at a good time this morning since we lost an hour today. I'm not going to enjoy waking up tomorrow morning at what's going to feel like 3:15 to me. Though the extra sunshine in the afternoon will be nice.

I hope you all had a nice weekend and enjoy the start of your week without feeling too tired, especially those of you in areas where daylight saving time is now in effect.

Monday, Monday

I had a very productive day at work for which I'm very grateful, and now I'm worn out and exhausted.  However, my job at home isn't done yet for the evening.  We did get through the homework and piano practice, so the wild-card events are out of the way!  Now it's just dishes and bedtime.  I did get out in the yard and take a couple of photos of the autumn colors.

Hopefully I'll have the energy for a meatier post tomorrow, but I'm feeling kind of brain dead tonight; like I already used up all of my intellectual capacity for the day!