Almost Gypsy Soul

So I am getting ready to go on a super awesome snowboarding hiatus.....and I have like 0 blogs written, so I throw up my hands I'll be on hiatus from blogging for a bit, but I'll be back.....someday.

It's here!  Merry Christmas! I'll be spending the day getting packed up to go home for a week of snowboarding, Little Sister's bridal shower and bachelorette party, family time and my house going on the market, plus Tylie and I will be sneaking in a steak dinner to celebrate! The car is packed, the house is clean....one more day of work and I'm outta here! I didn't get around to getting a real Christmas card in the mail today, but I did get this fancy one done that I shared on Facebook. Let's be honest, more people will get to enjoy it on Facebook! And as my Aunt said "This is the best card because it doesn't clutter up my table". I love that lady! Since it's a little tough to read on my card, I'll translate. 2013 kept me busy and the 2014 outlook is busier. What did 2013 hold for me? I made it through my very first government shutdown, where I caught my supper. I golfed 4 new courses and had my best round ever! Tylie and I hiked

I got asked to write a guest blog, so that pretty much means blogland superstardom in my mind.....legend of my own mind or something like that. Venture over to Figuring Out the Plot to read what I've got to say on this years Christmas decorations. Thanks Football Fan for inviting me to write for your readers and if you don't follow Football Fan.....get on it! She's got some good things to say!

They say catchy titles is one of the most important parts of blogging, so even though I do not even begin to pretend that my little large sewing project is anywhere near the same ballpark as Betsy Ross's accomplishment, it is still pretty darn good for this non-sewer. Catchy title? or no? Did you want to find out what in the heck I did to think I might be Betsy Ross? Do you know who Betsy Ross is? Colorado Transplant Friend has two of the most adorable kiddos ever, Little Boy and Miller Baby. Oh and those cute Bronco outfits, yeah I picked those out. Little Boy and Miller Baby Colorado Transplant Friend wanted to make them quiet books for quite a while. She decided that she just didn't have time to spend on sewing so I got this great idea that I would make quiet books  for Christmas . Luckily, I started in plenty of time because even though I have a sewing machine, I'm a sewing disaster and this project is way out of my league. I figure they are kids, they won'

Although I've claimed nearly all the bedrooms in this house "mine" at one time or another, this one I think wins the official title. Its not the biggest, but I love the mattress on this bed, plus I have flannel sheets for the winter and that is just awesome when its below 0 outside! And the final product   Have I ever said how nice it is to have matching carpet throughout the house instead of a different carpet in each room?

I'm not a big Ellen watcher, but this video had tears rolling down my cheeks. Enjoy!

I love Christmas. I love the reason for Christmas, I love coming up with great presents that the receipient will just LOVE, I love the snowy weather and warm comfort food, I love decorations and lights. But this year, I’m a Grinch and I really don’t know why. I’m just having a hard time getting into the annoying, happy, smiling, not-a-care-in-the-world spirit. I don’t have any decorations up because I’m selling my house, I’m going to be working on some final projects on Christmas Day, my shopping is done, but I don’t feel as I got any earth-shattering awesome presents for anyone this year. Stuff they will like? Yes. Stuff they need/want? Yes. Earth-shattering awesome? No. So for these final days before the big hoo-rah, my mission is Christmas spirit……I’m going to hang some lights right now, maybe that will help.

First off, a huge thank you to all who participated in our 2013 Virtual Turkey Trot . Football Fan and I promised a donation to the Salvation Army if we had participants in at least 10 states.....and you guys delivered, and we will too!   To read all about (and look at pictures) from everyone's run click here , and here , and here. Like Football Fan I had a couple fashionably late reporters, but we like 'em so we count 'em. California - I will say I'm jealous of California Girl. She got to run in 75 degree weather. She knows she has it good so she ran a few 5Ks over the weekend. She's got a cute little husky pack that runs with her. She runs to be healthy and beat stress. She runs for those who are unable to run. California Girl is so thankful that she is able to run! And on other end of the world Alaska - Alaskan Mom completed her 5K on the elliptical because it was a whopping -5 degrees in Alaska. Her son Tate also wanted to participate.

I am in awe of range sheep operations here. I just love them and I always have so many questions that I'm sure that my guys hate love taking me with them because I probably ask stupid questions, but they humor me and answer without laughing at me too much. Q: How many times are your sheep ran through "corrals" in a year? A: 6; shearing, docking, mouthing, before they go up to the forest for summer, coming off the forest and when we take the bucks out. Q: How do you protect your sheep against predators? A: We use herders and guard dogs. Great Pyrenees - Guard Dog Q: Are your dogs aggressive towards people, like people they don't know, like me!? A: Ours aren't, but some people have more aggressive guard dogs. Q: How often do herders get groceries delivered? Do they get to pick what they want to eat? Do they change it up? A: Groceries are delivered every 2 weeks, herders make their own list and anything goes as long as they don't eat better

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is charged with managing public lands for multiple use which includes the management of "wild" horse herds. When I wrote my original post in response to a news story that was ran by NBC News, I decided that in order to further educate myself, as I encouraged all my readers to do, I needed to attend a wild horse gather. And I did just that. Last week I attended the Salt Wells Herd Management Area (HMA) gather, where BLM estimated that approximately 150 head would be removed from the range. Throughout the entire month of gather, an expected 700 head would be removed. This sounds like alot right? Consider that this covers an area that is nearly 2.5 million acres and 700 head isn't all that much. I'll be honest, the gather was pretty much what I expected and not all that exciting. We were a good mile away from the trap and we waited for a long time before horses started coming in. The ran pretty far from us and there were no incidents

Here is another guest bedroom and occasionally my guest bedrooms are clear full and I love those weekends! I use this room because of the wicked awesome big mirror on the dresser that I built in high school shop class. That is one good thing about having a big house and just me, I have plenty of room for all the furniture that I built in high school. All ready for some company!

........but I tried to eat the whole crock pot by myself of this recipe! It is fackin' AMAZING and EASY! The crafty mom with scattered thoughts got it together on this one! I copied her recipe from here blog here to make it easy on you guys, but it might be a good idea to swing by her blog and check out some of her other stuff! Slow Cooker Creamy Green Chile Enchilada Soup Ingredients: 32 oz chicken both 24 oz chicken breasts 2 cans of Green Chili enchilada sauce 4 oz can of diced green chilies (I might have used more than 4oz. Ok I did, I used more than 4 oz) 3/4 cup of water (As I'm editing this blog, I realized I didn't use any water) 2 tbsp of ground cumin 1 tbsp of chile powder 1 tsp of onion powder 1 tsp of garlic powder 1 cup of frozen corn (defrosted) (I used canned, drained because I needed cans for a crafty project I'm getting ready to start) 1 block of PHILADELPHIA cream cheese (cut up into a few pieces) (I used neufchatel cheese because its

He had my job before I had my job so he knows what its like down here. He mentored me through learning how to run an office and how to manage FSA programs in a 2 person office that covers several million acres. Even though we have had very little opportunity to hang out in person (because he moved clear to the catty corner side of the state after he left SW Wyoming), he is one of the people I trust the most and not just with work stuff. Plus let's just say when you work for the government you need to have someone who you know you can trust with anything because there are a handful of people you just can't trust. And he likes to drink beer and his wife is nice and his kids are cute! Everyone knows I'm a sucker for cute kid stories!

I feel as a single person with a dog I shouldn't be able to even name a post bedroom #3....who has 3+ bedrooms and only a dog to share them with. Especially when said dog likes to curl up on the foot of the bed in bedroom #1 with her human.? whelp, I guess that would be me. So because I don't need this third bedroom to actually house a bed, I turned it into an office....which I never use. My thought process was to have a place to sort all the bills and junk that big kids are now responsible for. I thought it would help me keep my counter clean. For the record, my counter is not clean. ever. ok, maybe for a couple hours a month. All the bedrooms pretty much got the same treatment, fresh paint, new blinds, new carpet and new closet doors and a touch of my style with furniture and wall hangings. When I bought my house I had no idea how expensive some of the small things would be. Case in point, blinds....buying blinds could break Donald Trump! Unless you order from here

I really, really wanted to get into shape and be a healthier version of myself, the problem was I kept getting frustrated and quitting. I wasn't seeing the results that I wanted and so I would quit. Make sense? Absolutely not, but its what I did. After seeing some pictures of myself on FB and giving a really long, hard look into the mirror it hit me that I was ready to commit. Please don't think that I'm perfect in this journey by any means. I still eat like crap, just not as often. I still sit on the couch, just not as much. I still drink beer, just not as many. And if you are wondering, I didn't hit my lofty goals, but I feel better, I look better and most importantly I'm still "on the wagon" as they say. I did take 'before' pictures and measurements like they suggest in most Beachbody workout video systems, but I'm just not comfortable in sharing those with the internet world because they are flat out embarrassing and I'm still not w

Well, it happened, its December already, the season of giving, the celebration of the birth of Christ, so, tis the season. Ok, I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not going to play a bunch of Christmas songs that will annoy you all month. Instead, I’ll throw some totally awesome tunes your way, and maybe one Christmas tune just to make sure you stay in the mood. So, here goes…. Snowfall, Reckless Kelly Fightin’ For, Cross Canadian Ragweed Sing That Song Again, Glen Templeton (to remind you the summer is only 6 months away) I Got a Car, George Strait (New George, always good) And your Christmas song….. Merry Christmas from the Family, Robert Earl Keen MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Its time to tell us all about your 5K Turkey Trot! Grab the button below and link up with Football Fan over at Figuring Out The Plot and here with me at Almost Gypsy Soul. Then visit the other link up and see how we celebrated Thanksgiving across the country! Don't forget, if we have link-ups from at least 10 states, both Football Fan and myself will be making generous donations to either the Salvation Army! <center> <a href="www.almostgypsysoul.blogspot.com"><img border="0" src="http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/y467/jendutton5/2013TurkeyTrotbutton2_zps4e17e791.jpg"/></a></center> Wyoming - My Turkey Trot included a pack so I guess I'll go ahead and take credit for a 20K, although I think the small one might have ran more than a 5K, she went crazy running all over. Which is kinda scary because she is so small even with the drought stricken sagebrush....she can't be seen! Because I haven't been

All the time, but especially around the holidays, blood banks are in need of blood. Everyone is busy, its hard to make time to give blood, but there couldn't be a more important time to give. You could save up to 3 lives, just by giving up an hour of your time. My normal blood bank service is United Blood Services and they are having an O Drive during the holidays. What does that mean? It means they will track you down to get you to make an appointment to give blood. Not an O blood type? They will take your blood too!  My poison of choice was the double red donation once again because now I don't have to get a needle stick again until March. YAY! And since I'm a good donor, they told me to eat a Taco Bell hearty meal after donation. I swore they said Taco Bell, so I swung through the drive through on my way home. If you are able, please take time to donate this holiday season. What better gift can you give than the gift of life?

I'll never forget the first Thanksgiving that I spent away from my family. I was a freshman in college and we were in Grand Junction at a basketball tournament. I ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Golden Corral and then I cried. Who eats Thanksgiving dinner at the Golden Corral....well apparently a lot of families do, my college basketball team family included, but I just wanted to be at my Grandparents with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, sisters. Looking back, it wasn't as bad as I seemed to think. Those girls were really family too, we were sisters all united by a leather basketball. We were a team family. I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to get me through my first couple years of college. My second Thanksgiving away from my family came when I was at school in Oklahoma, luckily I have great friends and even though it wasn't my immediate family, it was still family in Southwest Oklahoma. These are my boys! and yes we drank beer on Thanksgi

 Since I've lived here lived here for 4 years, there should be many more posts, but there aren't because I'm a slacker. To catch up on on my DIY(with recruitment of helpers) projects, just click here ! This project is complements of my taste in picking flooring, paint colors etc. It is not a product of my blood, sweat and tears. Actually, there was plenty of tears because this is one of the rooms that was flooded, but now that its all done.....its a much better place! **Don't forget to Trot Your Turkey tomorrow through the weekend. Report back with your pictures and thoughts! If we get trotters from at least 10 states, we will be forking over a donation to the Salvation Army!**

The Assistant Pack Leader had wanted a weenie dog for as long as I can remember. Said weenie dog had a name long before he entered this world and Critter joined our family one year for Christmas. Critter Jack is the poster child for personality. He was quirky, he was fun and he wasn't afraid to stand up for himself......or any toy who he made the decision to adopt. Critty could "back it on up fat Jesus" into the roping box that looked eerily similar to the corner of the couch. Fist bump, had that one down. Want him to roll over? He'd do it with style by spinning in a circle first. every.single.time. Critter was very protective of his bones, treats and especially of the toys that he found on his own. A hedgehide (which of course is a hedgehog that had his feet chewed off so he couldn't run away and had been gutted....becomes a hedgehide) or a bear that he pulled out of Assistant Pack Leader's garage sale pile, or "Snowy" the snowman that he

If you need me this winter your best bet will be to visit a crap ton of ski areas throughout the mountain west. I had a semi-impluse purchase of a 2013-2014 season pass to Monarch Ski Area. Now its unlikely that I will actually go to Monarch more than once, but let me tell you, they call their pass One Planet, One Pass and they have deals all over for free days at tons of resorts. I figure I can pay for it AND get to try out a ton of new ski areas!!! WIN. See you on the slopes! We are already starting to plan some trips, so if you want on the fun train...holla!

Welcome to Soul Food Friday, grab the button (its at the bottom of my blogpage), link-up and share what feeds your soul. It can be anything! Don't sweat the small stuff! Yet its the small stuff that makes things ok. What can turn my day around in an instant? The 5Cs of small stuff: Coke (fountain of course) Coffee Country Stuff   Color Cuddly doogs   What turns your day around? Does it start with a C?