Almost Gypsy Soul

[Linking up with Hayley and Lauren ] These two got a good idea! This link up is awesome because it tells me what to write about and I love it! Up this week? What is one tangible thing you have that holds intangible value to you? When graduating from Limon High School and as a Girls Track member, one could be sure to receive a black banner from Coach Grimes that read Limon Girls Track - Teammates Forever, Thanks Grimes.  Lots of you are probably wondering why a black banner is so important to me, why that would mean anything. At the Limon gym all state champion teams have black banners showing the sport, the year. Black = champion . In addition to black banners, there are white banners covering the walls of that gym in eastern Colorado. White banners are runner-up teams, showing the sport and the year. Limon has a long legacy of excelling in sports....all of them, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, track and softball. Many are proud to call themselves...

The kitchen was probably the biggest makeover in this house. It took a long time and I had ALOT of help. As in they did most of the work and I played the part of the 'assistant'. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go! Good riddance tiny, crowded, dark, ugly kitchen!

 [Linking up with Julia at Black Tag Diaries for Thankful Thursday] "The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale and pays freight both ways" ~ John F. Kennedy This is where I came from (photos courtesy of Amy , told you I'm not very good at this picture thing) Where this (even though most will argue about the 'right' color)....... turns into this....... I love eastern Colorado. I am thankful for growing up there. And I'm missing it a whole bunch lately.

I'll preface this post with I don't have kids of my own (I don't want to lose any readers!) so in my expert opinion......here we go. As I'm out and about, I've noticed that little kids all have their own cell phone, Ipad (I mean seriously they took the book Goodnight Moon and turned it into Goodnight Ipad ), Ipod, Gameboy (whatever the new ones are called, I realize that Gameboy is so yesterday) and various other devices that require some sort of charging cord. Along with packing these items around, it seems that many kiddos also pack around the opinion that they have to have these items and their parents owe it to them to spend the money so that they might carry them to school each day. I have even offered the advice to one of my ranchers "If you have trouble, just ask one of your grandkids to send me the email from your Iphone." Last week, a friend from back home posted this video of the reveal of her daughter's birthday gift from Mom and Dad. ...

"Okay, what's our back story?" "We're brothers a couple from New Hampshire. We're venture capitalists."  "I'm sick of that. Let's be from Vermont. And let's have an emerging maple syrup conglomerate." "Wait, that's stupid. We don't know anything about maple syrup." "I happen to know everything there is to know about maple syrup! I love maple syrup. I love maple syrup on pancakes. I love it on pizza. And I take maple syrup and put a little bit in my hair when I've had a rough week. What do you think holds it up, slick?" We didn't really crash the wedding, I had an invite, but Wedding Crashers  is an awesome title and it made you want to read this post to see if I really had the guts to crash a wedding. Well the answer is no, I do not have the guts to crash a wedding. It's wedding season! Up first? High school friend and home of fried spiders, turned my financial guru is getting ma...

My heart breaks for Colorado and all those affected by the multiple wildfires. Yes,the Black Forest fire is very, very bad, but there are multiple fires burning throughout Colorado, let us all remember all those affected and pray for safety for everyone. Please take the time to visit Help Colorado Now to find out more how you can assist those in need. They have a link and summary of reputable organizations that are assisting in relief efforts,  if  you would like to donate to the cause. I personally donate to the Salvation Army because its online, its easy, I support their mission, approximately 84 cents of every donation dollar goes to help those in need and you can specify what you would like your donation to go towards.....i.e. Choose Colorado ! Throughout the last few days, I have had so many friends on Facebook offering to shelter animal, people, gathering supplies to donate, donating money, offering up prayers....anything they can do to help Colorado in ...

I grew up a farmer's daughter and I am shamefully admitting this is my first garden. Mom had a garden when I was younger, I remember "helping", but more than that I remember playing while Mom gardened. Hers was big.......mine is little.....Tylie doesn't like veggies! The beginnings of a farmer's daughter's city dwelling garden:   I scored some killer deals on my garden supplies! I got some MiracleGro (miracles will be needed for me to have a successful garden) potting soil for $2.99 per bag, regular $4.99 per bag. They limited me to 2 bags those....jerks. I also got some super cute tomato cages, a purple one and an orange (GO POKES!) one for $3.99 per cage, regular $8.99 per cage. Maybe the biggest savings was my tomatoes....gallon tomatoes for $2.99 per plant, regular $9.97 per plant! And I bought my tank from Mike while I was home for Memorial Day. My garden will grow (hopefully) zucchini, squash, cucumber, tomato, cilantro, spinach, jalapeno an...

Dear Donor Family, My name is {Gatekeeper} and I received your loved one’s heart. The most important thing I want to tell you is that I am so grateful to you! There are no other words to express my gratitude other than Thank You!  I have thought about what to say over and over, and I want to say the right things but I’m not sure what those words are. In your time of grief you made a decision that saved my life. I would not be alive if it were not for you. I know very little about your loved one, but I would love to know much more! What I do know is that he must have been an incredible person. The fact that you have allowed him to live on inside of me is a testament to how much he was loved by you.  There are so many thing I would like to tell all of you, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. I do want you to know that I was sick for a very long time, and I do not take for granted a healthy heart! When I was 14 I was diagnosed with a rare cancer so I began che...

So as I started out writing posts about Grimes, I was having trouble getting the words quite right. I took some time to shift through old scrapbooks and yearbooks. And everyone knows you can't pull that stuff out and spend just a few minutes. I read some notes on the cover of my yearbook with this one especially sticking out from the Assistant Pack Leader. And I asked some others for a few words about Coach Grimes......some footprints left by Coach Grimes: his loping run - he made it look easy. he took such damn long strides that it was hell for short people to keep up. his irritation and aggravation at the members of our team who didn't "get it" and weren't out for track to win. Those that were there for social reasons. (You know the ones on your team I'm talking about!) him nearly killing Shane Stone for hitting me on the inside of the knee with a baseball pitch when they were practicing inside. I had gone to get ice out of the concessions sta...

You remember those special people who have left this world, some way to soon, some having lived a full and wonderful life. Are you like me where your memories fade, you can't quite remember the specifics of the relationship? The one thing you will always remember is that they changed your life, maybe not in big ways, but lots of small ways that made you who you are today. Footprints were left on my heart by Coach Grimes (his footprints look more like track spikes) and I knew it while he was here and I REALLY knew it after he was gone. Today is the anniversary of this great man's passing and I couldn't be more honored to be "one of Grimes' track girls" Grimes believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself. He chewed my ass when I needed it, he encouraged me when I needed to know that someone believed in me, he joked with me when I was so nervous I couldn't speak for fear of throwing up somewhere on that infield and he was ALWA...

Even when I was the young age of 16 and getting my first drivers license I made the choice to be an organ donor, after all, if the question of if I am an organ donor was needed to be asked......its pretty obvious that I didn't need them anymore. It wasn't a choice that I gave alot of thought to, it just made sense to me. On Sunday, it hit me what my choice really means. It means that I will live on through someone else.  It means that my family can be proud of the difference that I could make in a stranger's life even through tragedy in our own. It means that someone else gets to spend more days, weeks, months, years with their loved ones. It means that a stranger might welcome my family into theirs and my family might welcome a stranger into our family. This weekend, Coach Grimes parents and Stacey got to meet the lady who was the recipient of his heart when he passed. They got to listen to his heart and heard the words "I am not the owner of his heart, I am merel...

Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Trail, Overland Trail, Cherokee Trail, Pony Express Trail, 1861 transcontinental telegraph line, Overland Express stage line and the 1868 transcontinental railroad, they all lead to Rock Springs, Wyoming. I moved to Rock Springs, Wyoming in May of 2009. I had never heard anything good about Rock Springs with many referring to it as the "armpit of America." I'm here to tell you that it just isn't true (the armpit is Rawlins). When you get off the pavement, Sweetwater County has so much history, beauty and wonder to show off. Welcome to Sweetwater series, I'll focus on one unique thing about Sweetwater County (I'll probably throw in some Sublette County too since that is my area for work) in each post of the series. This one is a little sneak peek of some of the things that are up for blogging in the future. This post has a few shots that I have taken around the county while doing field work for my place of employm...

[Linking up with Julia @ black tag diaries ] When I saw Football Fan's link up for Thankful Thursdays last week, I knew I would had to copy her again. I wonder if she is getting tired of me copying her link-ups? She probably wishes she would have never taught me about blogging link-ups. oh well, too late now, I'm a linking fool! So here we go......... This Thursday (and every other day) I'm THANKFUL for......... and RANCHERS too!

  They can't do anything about it! AND I'm going to post embarrassing pictures of them on my blog and there is still nothing they can do about it! Sister and Little Sister, I don't know what I'd do without them, but sometimes I'd like to kill'em. We've been through alot, some good, some bad. We have our own dialect (more on that later). And we are pretty open book. We have furry children, most of which are naughty. Sister has agreed to guest blog with 'Critter Tales', all about her naughty weenie dog. They were a hit during her treatments with all that followed and continue on Facebook so lets hear a chant to get her going on those! We are stylish, as seen below. We can be acceptable humans to take out into public should the need arise. Mountain States Circuit Finals 2012 Rock Springs, WY