He dribbles...
He shoots...
He scores!!!I recently learned about a high speed internet option that is available to those of us who are isolated from DSL and cable...Canopy Wireless through Blanca Telephone Company. My friend was searching for alternate internet providers (she lives 5 miles EAST of Alamosa) and actually had the satellite installer at her house to install Wild Blue. It was the satellite installer who told her about Canopy. She knew that I've been desperately seeking an alternative to dial-up so she asked about service in my area. She told me about this on Wednesday, I called on Thursday, and it was installed this morning (Friday). It does cost more than my dial-up service but I can now cancel the additional phone line I used for internet, making it more comparable and affordable. I am so excited to finally be able to view photos & videos that friends send me. Woo hoo!!
Jamie turned six years old today...wow, it's amazing how fast the years speed by.
Grandma came to visit for a couple of days and we took cupcakes and juice to share the big day with his kindergarten classmates. He will have a small birthday party on Saturday, so the celebration goes on...
The salmonella outbreak brought an unexpected surprise...another week off from school! We're still not sure of the reasoning behind this, other than the inconvenience of not being able to use city water while at school, but it was nice to have Bill & Jamie home for another week. (The chlorination flushing started on Tuesday and the effects could linger for up to three weeks.)
Tuesday was Parker's usual day to come over and since I knew that Tiffany was in a pinch trying to find childcare, 
we invited Ashley over also. Ashley was a little put out that we didn't have any "girl" toys, but they had fun playing croquet and swinging on the playset.
On Friday, playgroup decided to meet at the Hooper Pool. We invited Ashley & Jessica to join us for a fun day of swimming.
We enjoyed our Spring Break in Arizona but it sure was nice to get this bonus week to enjoy time together at home with friends.
This is one of the many "mountains" of water you can now find in almost every Alamosa store. Currently, city water can be boiled to kill the salmonella but next week the city will begin the chlorination flushing process. The chlorination concentration in the water during this process will be so high that people are being instructed to use bottled or bulk water for bathing, dishwashing, teeth brushing, laundry, hand washing, cooking...basically everything except flushing toilets. The stores stocked up on bottled water and the National Guard has been called in to distribute water to city residents, so water will be available. I dare you, however, to find a bottle of Germ-X at any store in Alamosa!
Easter (March 23) kind of snuck up on us this year, earlier than it's ever been before.
Here are the Easter facts:
Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (which, this year, is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on the Roman calendar. Based on this, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) than it will be this year, but that is rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will see for the rest of our lives. And only the most elderly (95 years and above) have ever seen it this early. The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913. The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.
Our playgroup had an Easter Egg Hunt on Friday and since there was no school, Jamie & the older kids also were able to participate. The weather was cooperative and the kids had a great time.
Later that afternoon, we colored eggs at home. Jamie loves coloring eggs...too bad he will not eat the boiled eggs.
Bill played his guitar at the Sunrise Service but Jamie & I slept in and met him later for our regular church service. The O'Dowds hid eggs for the kids (all 4 of them) throughout the Fellowship Hall. Jamie found at least 25 eggs!
After church, we finally got to see what the Easter Bunny had done at home. Jamie found an Easter basket filled with goodies and eggs hidden in the yard filled with candy and coins.
Bill helped Jamie build a sailboat last night. Today, Jamie was curious to know if the water at the park (Rio Grande River!) was still frozen. I, somehow, convinced him that it might be a better idea to sail his boat in the bathtub. He & Parker could not wait to set sail and, before I knew it, they were stripped down and ready to get in the tub with the boat. The boat was fun for a little while but eventually bubbles were added and that brought on a whole different type of fun.
The remainder of our Spring Break was spent enjoying the warm temperatures and the sun. We met our friends, Chris & Linda, at Scottsdale Stadium to watch the Padres vs. Giants game. The Padres won 11-5 and we had a great visit with our friends.
Tuesday, we met Julie's uncle Cliff & aunt Velma and they took us to lunch at Joe's BBQ in Glendale. The food was so yummy! This is, officially, our new favorite place to eat while in Arizona!!
We had a nice visit with Cliff & Velma...uncle Cliff is looking (and acting) so old, it was sad.
After the movie, Jamie went back to the casa with Grandma and we drove to south Tempe to the IKEA store. I've heard lots of people rave about the awesomeness of IKEA and I just had to experience it for myself. I never imagined that Bill would want to go, but he did, and we had SO much fun! We spent over three hours in the store, taking it all in. Yep, twenty two years of marriage and a hot night out consists of a trip to IKEA.After calling to confirm that the live steamers would, indeed, be running today, we headed back to Scottsdale to feed our train addiction. This was our third annual visit to McCormick-Stillman Park but our first time to visit on a Sunday when the live steamers were running.
From the website:
We had an inch and a half of new snow when we woke up last Thursday morning. I picked Jamie up from school at 11:00 and drove to the Albuquerque airport for our flight to warm & sunny Phoenix!!! I was SO happy to be leaving the snow and cold!!! Bill remained in the frozen valley for the Crane Festival Craft Show. He'll be joining us in Phoenix on Monday.
We had a nice flight to Phoenix, Jamie made friends with the flight attendants and scored a coloring book and other goodies. My mom picked us up in Phoenix and we headed back to Mesa.
Friday morning we went to garage sales, one of our favorite things to do in Arizona! Well, not exactly Jamie's favorite thing...even though he always ends up with cool stuff. I had to bribe him to not complain by offering a trip to the toy store at the end of the bargain hunting. It worked and Jamie got a remote control car. My mom & Jamie stayed at the casa while I went to Jo-Ann's, one of my favorite craft stores. (They have huge Jo-Ann Superstores in the Phoenix area.) I had a pocketful of coupons to use and a list of supplies that I needed to replace from the flood. My trip was not very successful, they didn't have very many of the things I wanted and what they did have was already on sale, so they wouldn't take my coupons. Oh well! I had fun looking! As I was driving back, I witnessed a crazy hit & run in my rear view mirror. A truck changed lanes and side swiped a little Honda Civic. The Honda slowed down and moved over to the shoulder and the truck did too...for a while. Then the truck took the next exit and almost hit three more cars as it took off. I didn't stop either, I was just in shock that the truck would just take off. I hope that the Honda was able to get a license plate number and description as they were both driving on the shoulder.
Friday night we saw a commercial on TV for a train expo thing in Scottsdale over the weekend...perfect (or at least I thought it would be) for today's bribe. Jamie was very cooperative while mom & I shopped garage sales. After lunch, we headed to West World in Scottsdale, unaware that the 101 freeway between Tempe & Scottsdale was under construction and down to one lane of traffic. It took us over two hours to get there in stop and crawl traffic. Jamie had a good nap and it was all I could do to stay awake. The train expo was a major disappointment and the afternoon was a bust. I don't know about Jamie but I did not get my train fix so, tomorrow, we will go back to Scottsdale (using an alternate route) to go to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. The live steamers run on Sunday, so that will be fun.
I talked to Bill tonight...it's snowing in Alamosa. SO glad I'm not there!
We decided to move the kitchen table out into the family room and the dining room table into the kitchen. We're going to convert the dining room area into a computer and office center. I wanted to put a table in the family room so that I could have a place to hold Stampin' Up! classes & workshops and it was actually my mom who came up with the idea to just rearrange our current table situation. I LOVE it!
I found some standard kitchen cabinets at Lowes.com that I like and drew a sketch of how I want the north wall to eventually look. I want lots of cabinet storage and drawers for the supplies that I use frequently, plus two work areas. I'll probably set up my laptop at one of those spaces. This is how I want it to look, who knows how it will actually turn out!
