STAY OFF THE ROADS!!!

Well, it's finally here...

The Day Stown Got His Permit!

Actually, he took his test and recieved his paper temporary last week.  This one arrived in the mail today.  In Colorado, he has to hold his permit for 1 year before he gets his license. 

Perfect!  12 months of weather and adverse road conditions on which to practice!

On that note, you might want to invest in Calming Tea. 

 I have a feeling I will be drinking it by the gallons!!

First day of school

Stown Everest Ross

15 1/2 yrs old

10th Grade

WOW!

My have you grown!

Shining like a star and blossoming like a flower.

(I can't figure out how to rotate photos yet, just tilt your head.)

Still a bit sideways,

but I am sure you will straighten up with time!

Stown, you are amazing! 

Keep striving for all you can imagine possible.  The world is yours for the taking if you keep your head down, focus and work hard enough.

I love you, MOM!

Disclaimer: I don't know what the little photo off to the left is doing there, how it got there, or how to remove it.  It doesn't show up in my drafts but is there in the final post.  Oh well, more to figure out another day.

YEAH!!!

Ok, just like Jim taking the time to teach Stown how to change the oil in the truck, I too need to find the patience and the time to tackle complex, changing and unfamilair things in my world.

Finally, I sat down with nothing else to do and attempted another blog post (with success, I might add!).  Soon this will lead to more stories and pictures of life here in Durango.  Sorry to all those who have missed our little corner of the world - I will be attempting to catch up on all the summer postings that have been missed due to my fear of confronting technical changes.

Love to All!

Thank you for your patience.

Workin' to figure it out...

 Like Aspen trying to figure out the smell of the wild flower, I am trying to figure out the new changes to my blog layout /format / set-up / etc.  I can't seem to understand why this picture uploaded horizontally when it is a vertical picture in my files.  I also can't seem to figure out how to rotate it. 

Oh well, on to bigger and better things....

Like Jim snowboarding in July!!

(Sunday 24 July 2011)

Washed down from above in an avalanche.

A testimony to how dangerous this area can be during the winter.

 A little snow-skating for Stown, after he hiked up and took some turns on his snowboard.

Doug was giving me a good luck kiss before I headed down the mountain. 

Thanks for not actually licking me, Doug.

Well, I will have a smile as big as this if I publish this post and it looks right and I can continue updating my blog regularly and effortlessly.

If it doesn't work out right, frustration may get the best of me again and the future posts may be few and far between.  As for now, I am crossing my fingers and hitting "publish"...

MAY 18th - What?!

SNOW!!!

Yep, this is what I came home to this afternoon after working out in the drizzling rain all day in town. Quick! Cover the plants and bring in the herbs!

Sage?... Catnip?....





Where are you?





























Below: Garlic chives, green onions, leeks and salad mix

Now, I know Swiss chard is a cold weather green,

but this is a bit much - don't you think?

Meanwhile, the motorcycles are collecting their fair share of the white stuff, too.

Hopefully May brings you flowers in your corner of the world!!

Disclaimer: Something is not right with my blog layout and I can't seem to fix it. I didn't notice it until after Stown did his post and I started this one. Now I am fighting with it trying not to delete everything on this post. Hopefully, it will back to normal soon. Until then please excuse the random layout.

The Best Art Work On The Planet

Hey so my mom is making me write this blog post since this one is all about my art work.

So what we have down below this section of text is my version of M.C. Escher's "Glass Ball Portrait" featuring me. Even though it looks like my head is tiny I think that it looks pretty good. What motivated me to this piece in particular was: in my art class we had to do either transparency or a reflective piece of art work. So i took a metal ball and, yes, held it in one place for a period of days so that i could draw this and show it to all of you.




WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Art Work IS AMAZING
YAY!!!!!!!














The next piece in our small selection is a enlargement self-portrait of a picture that was taken during my art class. For this piece I had to have a picture taken of me put it on a document camera projecting on a wall, tape the black paper onto the wall and trace the hard lines over with a soft graphite pencil. After doing so, I had to take everything down, place them side by side and begin using a white charcoal pencil to fill in the brights. With an enormous use of the tortillion (aka a blending stick) I was able to turn a black piece of paper and some harsh highlights into a beautiful, roughly 3' by 1.75', portrait of me smiling back at you .


I hope that you all enjoy my art work hopefully if I can continue to get into art classes I can keep showing beautiful pieces of work to all who click on this sight, whether it be by obligation, want to read about the family, accident, or you're just bored and don't have anything to do in middle of the day when the family's away.

This Blog Post Brought To You By:

A very joyous young man with nothing to do when his school has been canceled do to a senior prank and has been stuck at home for three days and may, very soon, get cabin fever if not let out

-Stown

Girls Weekend!!!

At the beginning of March I took a couple days to visit my friend in Creede Colorado, which is just over two hours east of Durango over Wolf Creek pass. Wolf Creek is also home to one of the highest ski areas.

Due to the steep mountain terrain the road goes through the mountain - such a beautiful drive!

Main Street, Creede (pardon the window glare - it's not the sun)

Atlas, I arrived in Creede. This itty bitty mountain mining town sits at the base of a canyon. The town kind of dead ends where the canyon gets narrow. The road is sort of paved sort of dirt and not much is open in the off season.....

Sam!

...but leave it to Sam to find a Mardi Gras fundraiser going on that night. We partied in the underground community center with live music and $4 hurricanes! Sam was a gracious hostess and offered to be the designated driver so I could enjoy those hurricanes. We moved the festivities to her house and stayed up way too late talkin' girl stuff.

Delia tried to seek refuse under the coffee table but my camera found her - she seemed less than thrilled with the flash.

Me & Sam

We finally made it up to Wolf Creek mid-morning the next day. True to the picture, I was feeling a bit upside down from the night before.

With over 18 inches of fresh snow in the last two days, we decided to hike to fresh uncrowded powder. Breaking a sweat definitely helped break the hang over.

The top of the world!!

Hey Sam, Look over here!!

What a great day! We rode the open slopes, played in the trees and hiked for epic runs. We didn't take many pictures, I guess we were too busy playing. Isn't that always the case?

We may have arrived mid-morning but we were some of the last to leave. We caught the last lift chair and were the last off the slopes.

The next morning I went back to take pictures of the town. The community center is in the side of the mountain in a series of old mining caves. It made for amazing acoustics for the band during the fundraiser.

Creede's Fire Department is also located in a cave.

"Even though Mother Earth News called Creede one of the best places to live in North America, only 300 or so folks have taken them up on the offer. With a tax base like that, city planners knew it wasn't going to be easy to raise the money for a new fire station. Still, since the entire town burned to the ground just three years after it was established in 1889, it was something they felt forced to propose.



Luckily, the innovative little town lifted itself above convention and came up with the novel idea of building their fire station into the side of a cliff. Using explosives rather than lumber, they blasted out 45 - degree-angle rock stalls for the volunteer fire department's two fire trucks and inadvertently opened up a whole new trickle of revenue. In fact, so many tourists came to see the World's Only Underground Firehouse ( the local 4-H Club gives tours) that they eventually decided to blast another tourist attraction - an underground mining museum." **

"Multiplying loaves and fishes is one thing. But in Creede, with a population of less than 800, the world famous repertory theater manages to sell 19,000 tickets every season. How do they do that? By winning kudos from everyone from USA Today (their reviewer dubbed Creede Repertory Theater "one of the 10 greatest places to see lights way off Broadway") to Rocky Mountain News, who said, "No wonder the Denver Post calls it a 'a miracle in the mountains.'"**

I can't wait until summer when we can go back as a family to visit Sam and take in some of the amazing sights of this adorable little mountain hideaway.


**Quoted from Colorado Curiosities by Pam Grout 2006




Sometimes you just gotta get away and have a little girly time!!