137 Days And Counting

Much has transpired since my last post! Please forgive me for my absence. My job has been hectic and stressful, and instead of writing I've been binge-watching The Office, Everybody Loves Raymond, and whatever else Netflix has to offer!

The countdown has informed me that we have

          One-Hundred 

                    Thirty-Seven Days 

[and] 

                              Six[ish] Hours 

                                        until we take off for Colorado!

It's getting closer!
El, The Maniac, and I have been feverishly going over our Google Drive files, adding to the List of Ideas, the Itinerary, and a Packing List.
(I've also created a blog that we may start using to document the preparations and the actual event, so keep an eye out for a link. It should be up and running by the end of March.)
Here are a few things we're looking forward to, in no particular order:

• Driving through the night in 4-hour shifts
• Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs
• Focus on the Family Headquarters (El and I grew up on Adventures in Odyssey, so visiting "Whit's End" is a MUST!)
• Estes Park (there are plenty of fun shoppes to visit downtown! Including one devoted entirely to Socks.)
• Rocky Mountain National Park (This year is their 100th anniversary!)
• Horseback riding
• Maybe some gemstone mining?
• Discovering the best coffee shops in each town
• Visiting a good Indian restaurant (Maniac is a big fan of Indian food and good chai tea.)
• Journaling
• Photobombing the webcams in RMNP
• Souvenir collecting

Is there anything we're missing?

It seems the more I look, the more I realize that there is no way one week will be enough time to see and do everything.

There are so many
     museums,
          exhibits,
               trails,
                    mountains,
                         lakes,
                              restaurants,
                                   landmarks,
                                        ghost towns,
                                             curiosities...

So many options for souvenirs:
     Jewelry or t-shirts?
          Christmas ornaments or post cards?
               Worth the money or woefully overpriced?
                    Tacky or tasteful?

How do we choose?

You decide: Is it acceptable to decide your vacation's fate by drawing destination options out of a hat? What if it's an Indiana Jones hat?


--Kiwi d. Fruit

Twenty Trip--Pica Pull-off

Friday, September 7th, 2012

Between Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs (don't ask me which road, I have no clue!) there's a little pull-off that loops around a house-sized boulder and back to the road. 

We reached there in the late afternoon, as the sun fell and the air cooled.

I believe the above picture was taken while we were still headed north towards Mammoth. If I have it figured correctly, that hillside in the middle is the one in the picture below.

Here we are, between the house-sized boulders. It was almost scary because those things were just so freakin' HUGE! Sure, sure, they've been that way for hundreds of years. 

What if THIS is the year and the day they choose to fall over?

Thankfully, they did not. =)

Dad was looking at the mountain across the road.

When we got out of the car, there was a bird or something chirping quite loudly. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from, until Mom looked down at the base of the boulder and saw... a Pica! Isn't he cute? 

He was LOUD, too!

We dubbed the place "Pica Pull-Off" in honor of the little guy.

I, of course, was playing the part of mountain goat and clambering all over the rocks and boulders.

Here's yet another shadow picture! Look at that! Look how far you can see! 

When I return to Yellowstone, Pica Pull-Off is one of the spots I'm stopping at, even if just for a moment.

~Kiwi~

Those Bad, Bad Badlands

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

After stopping on the Missouri River for lunch, we continued on to Badlands National Park. It completely eclipsed the Missouri lunch. The formations were so different from anything I had ever seen! 

All the pictures I had seen of the Badlands were at the base of the mountains (hills?) looking up or across. I had never seen how you can look DOWN at these hills, or the portions of the canyon where there's a maze of eroding ridges. If one had time (and non-squeamish parents), one could follow those out for miles, winding back and forth and jumping cracks in the earth. 

Because of the angle of the sun, the shadows (or lack thereof) were confusing. Distance was tricky to determine as well. I would walk along, but things beside me didn't seem to move, or I'd be past them sooner than I expected. It's very hard to describe that sensation--let's just say that until I got used to it, I didn't walk close to the edges!

My mother was wonderful. She let me climb all over everything without scolding me too much.

It was lovely. I'm going back there someday!

~Kiwi~

A Sunday Afternoon by the Missouri

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

We lunched by the Missouri River in South Dakota, right about where Lewis & Clark camped for a night or two.

 This is the place where my jaw first dropped. And looking back at it now? This, though beautiful, was nothing compared with what was ahead!

 I braved rattlesnakes and whatever other unsavoury beasts could have been lurking, and went barefoot.

It was a lovely warm, windy, sunny day. We couldn't have bought better weather! It made the trees look really green, and the river and sky so very blue.

~Kiwi~

Browbeaten into Blogging

Oh hey, look! I'm alive!

The past two weeks have been spent on vacation, the first day of which we visited family in the next state over. This sad, lonely, sick little blog came up in discussion with a Cousin, who threatened me with Total and Complete Annihilation if I did not revive this thing. 

Here I be. 

 This is said Cousin's adorable Daughter. One of them, that is. The other spent the entire evening running around with my patent-pending Baby-Attracter necklace. 

This Baby Attracter is becoming legendary. Almost every baby at church under the age of 2 has played with it at one time or another. A random cutie at my friend's graduation party. And now my incredibly shy first-cousin-once-removed has become my very bestest friend. The thing works wonders, I tell you!

What is so special about it? What does it look like? I can't tell you.

The whole thing is so incredibly simple, you could replicate it in no time and the babies would have no reason to come to Miss RoRa for their entertainment. You, sir or madam, are Out of Luck.

~Kiwi

(Yes, I have far too much fun capitalizing various Significant Words. I'll try to cut down on that eventually, but for now I can't stop!)

It's been a while...

Oh, goodness, it's been waaaay too long since I posted on here. =/ Plenty has been happening, but I don't really feel creative to write about it. But I'll try.

Three weeks ago I landed myself a job at Jo-Ann Fabrics! So I've been working away at that, mostly at the cash registers. I wasn't too great at first, and had to keep calling a coworker up to help me, but I think I'm getting better. I worked yesterday 9:00-1:00, and only had to call for help ONCE, and that was because the horrid computer suddenly quit working. My boss said she's going to start me on cutting counter soon, which I'm just a bit worried about, since there's so much more that can be done wrong there!! But I think (hope) I'll do okay there. =)

My parents and sister went to Las Vegas for a week! No, they weren't there for the reason most people go to Vegas. ;-D Sis had a gemology lab class there (Diamond Grading! She got to work with around 20 diamonds over the couse of the week. :), so they made it into a vacation, Mom and Dad sight-seeing around the area while she ran her fingers through piles of diamonds. ;) They went to a Ghost Town, Red Rock Canyon, and the pawn shop from The History Channel's "Pawn Stars."

While they were off doing that, I went to the church Barn Dance and started my job.
So that's what's been happening to me over the past three weeks.
And tonight, we're going to see PAUL COLMAN!!!! IN CONCERT!!!! =D I'm really excited about that. He's been in the general area three times over the past year & three months, and I had a chance to see him last summer that I was forced to pass up. He was in IL twice last month, and now he's doing two shows here in Wisconsin. True, it's about 2 hours away, but with seven of us chipping in for gas (AND it's a free show!), this won't cost us more than $5 each. =D =D =D

Well, I have some stuff to go get ready before we leave in 6 hours, so g'bye for now!
~Kiwifruit~

Family Reunion, part 1.

We have a family reunion in Iowa this Saturday. I sure hope there’s good weather for it! The main event will be at a park. We’re taking our portable volleyball net, and a volleyball. (Yay! We’re finally getting our own volleyball! Now I won’t have to keep borrowing Short Stuff’s.) Perhaps roller blades shall accompany Rapunzel and me.
I’ll finally get to meet some baby second cousins! That will keep us occupied, I hope.
I wonder if *coughcough* the cousin closest to me in age *cough* will be there? If she isn’t, I won’t hold it against her, but it would be nice to know… *cough* Perchance she could bring some pictures from her wedding? She was going to show them to us a few months ago, but forgot them.

I wish we had known that we wouldn’t get to go on vacation a few weeks back. Then, Dad could have taken this week off, and we could have gone down and visited Dagmar and Matt’s family. *sigh* I wish I could see the future sometimes.
Love y’all!
~Kiwi~

99th post/AIRSHOW!!!

Hey, y'all! I'm back after two weeks of non-vacation-y-vacation. The only reason it was 'vacation' was because I didn't have school and Dad was off for a week. BUT I'm not going to go into all that. Let's just say that Mr. and Ms. Renter paid...on Friday. And now it's a new month, so we're praying that God provides them with the money they need to pay us and everything else they need to spend money on. Especially the 'money they need to pay us' part. :)

What did I do last weekend? shall I tell them, or shall I not.?.....I think I shall.

We spent last weekend avoiding being hit or scared by Blue Angels. They fly right over our house during the practice and shows. It was awesome! I was sorry that we missed vacation, but at least we got to watch the airshow....three times over, plus practice, plus when ev'ryone left.

Here are some pictures & videos taken from my camera:

This video was taken on Thursday from our driveway. Don't you just love the sound of them?
*waits ten minutes for the video to load...* Why must it take so long to load a video? It isn't that hard to get one off of Youtube onto here!

Five of the Blue Angels.

Three of them. It's true, there are three there.

Three of them...in black & white.

Four of them. In color. STOP looking at me like that! Okay, YOU come up with better captions!

Four, two INVERTED! Can you imagine flying upside-down at 500+ mph?? Cool!

Um. So last weekend was the airshow, and on Sunday we ('Punzel and I) played volleyball again. Man! I love playing that game! It's perfect for me; fairly easy, fast-paced, and doesn't include much running. Perfect! And everyone here is nice. I don't feel (horribly) embarrassed when I miss the ball or do something wrong. They give me tips on what to do next time this happens, or that changes suddenly, or whatever.
And several people have commented on how I've gotten a bit better since we began playing. "The first two weeks, it was a cause to celebrate when you just get it over the net! Now you do that regularly." That's good. I'm glad I'm improving. But I still feel bad next to some of the others! Right now I am desperately hoping that it is dry enough tomorrow to play some. Today is cold and rainy, and tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, too!
"Hey mister weather man
I don't understand
I think I said clearly clear skies should be the forecast tomorrow
I'm lookin' west,
I see cloudy skies at best,
And to the east storm clouds are headed this way...."

And I leave you with this: The next post from me shall be my 100th! There'll be a party, balloons, prizes, and CAKE! You're all invited. See you then!

~Kiwi~

Hey!

hey, all! I'm at my grandparents' right now. They live close to our IA house, so we're chillin' here for a few days. Things aren't looking too brilliant at the moment. Mom and Dad talked to an attorney today, and if all goes well Mr. & Mrs. Renter are going to be leaving in the next few days. Ugh. Here we go again. Anybody want to buy/rent-to-own a house in Iowa? Pleeeeaaaase?? I thought we were all done with the 'house-thing'! Hrmph.

Sunday, instead of leaving for Kentucky, we went to the annual church canoe trip/picnic, minus the canoe part. I wish we had known we weren't going on vacation in time to rent a canoe. But we didn't. I must get over that.
The picnic was fun. I played a lot of volleyball. The difficulty was that the sand wasn't sand. It was sand with a wholelotta sharp pebbles mixed in. So diving wasn't easy, and after a while I felt like me feet were going to start bleeding if I took one more step. But they didn't, and I just had to deal with dried-out feet all the way back home. (I don't know about any of you, but I absolutely can't stand dried-out, sandy, gritty feet! Yich!)
That's mostly what I did: played volleyball. There really wasn't much else to do, other than eat or talk or watch other volleyball games. But I soon ate my fill, and the majority of other people were playing volleyball.

Um.

Today my Grandma, Rapunzel, and I went flower shopping. Grandma ended up getting some New Guinea Impatiens, vinca vine, and ornamental grass for her flower pots. I really like the Impatiens! And tomorrow we'll be planting geraniums along the flower beds. It was Florida-ey all day (hot and muggy), and then just as we started planting the flowers, the heavens let loose with a deluge of rain. And then got hot and muggy again. Huh.

Ummm.

I'm now one (or is it two?) posts away from 100!!! I think it's two, 'cause there's an unpublished post in my post list, which doesn't count. I'm going to do 100 random things about me if I can come up with that many. I'm up to 30. And possibly some awards....we'll have to see. :D

Okay, well thusly ends a dull post.
Have a great day, folks! Go do something other than reading my silly little blog!
~kiwi~

Hi.

Just so everyone knows, I'm NOT on vacation this week due to Certain People who will remain nameless, but were mentioned in the second post back.
And I'm really grumpy about it, so that's all I'm going to say for now.
Goodbye.
~Kiwi~
p.s. I reviewed In The Hands of God in my last post. Check it out!

UPDATED

Hey, I just wanted to send out a prayer request or two.

On Friday, my Dad did something to his back, and now it's really hurting him. We're all praying that it will heal soon.

And then there has been some trouble with our renters and their payments. We can't get hold of them. We lost their phone numbers so we (obviously) couldn't call them. Mom drove three hours down yesterday afternoon just to find them not at home, the doors unlocked, the television and lights on, the house a mess, and the lawn not mown yet this year. She left a note, asking them to call us and, guess what? They haven't called.
Not only are they 8 days past the 10 day grace period with their payments, but if they don't pay, we don't have money to go on vacation.
So please be praying about that for us.
Thanks.
~Kiwi~

UPDATE:
We managed to talk to the renters last night, and, if all goes well, most of the stuff should be worked out by Friday.
Thanks for your prayers!
~Kiwi~

Easter/First day of Vacation (Monday)

Here is my long over-due post about vacation.
On Easter I got to wear a new outfit, which was nice. (We're watching Mike Rowe in Dirty Jobs. Please excuse me while I go KILL him, or at least the TV. He's disgusting.) I would describe it to you, but there's no describing that skirt. It's bright, it's colorful, it's......it needs a picture.
Late in the afternoon, Rapunzel and I went for a walk and I took my camera (Lotsa pictures coming soon). We found a Dinosaur, we found Ducks, we found Gooses, we found broken cds, we found beer & vodka bottles, we found a Turkey....This is starting to sound like an "I Spy" book! We ended up walking for two hours and going 3 1/2 miles or so. There'll be a lot of pictures later.

Monday we woke up early and drove to Baraboo and the Circus World Museum, which is the Barnum & Bailey/Ringling Brothers' Summer headquarters. It was very interesting, but rather cool. They had a lot of old circus posters dating back to the early 1800's in the first building. There were also some floats from the '70s. Some of the other buildings had a scale model of the circus setting up, the box stall where Silver King (the greatest circus horse in history, according to the signs) resided, clowns, statues of some of the curiosities they had, etc. Plus two or three sheds full of circus wagons.
I got tons of pictures here. Now I just have to go through them and pick out a few to show.

Also on Monday, we drove north of Baraboo a ways to Castle Rock. Here's part of the Official Marker:
"You are standing on what was once the bottom of a glacial lake in which Castle Rock, the formation rising before you, was an island. Thousands of years of erosion by water, ice, and wind created the surface features you see in this area."
Y'know what I find odd? The fact that sandstone which is easily scraped and dented has lasted 'thousands of years'!! It's covered in graffiti, which is easily scraped in with a simple rock (not that I would know.... ;). How does that stand up for so long? At least they're not trying to say 'millions of years'.

Hopefully that satisfied your need to read something new on here! I'll continue posting later!
'bye!
~Kiwi~

Hullo.

Hullo. I would do a long post today, because I've been up to quite a bit in the past few days, but.....for some reason I don't feel like typing much right now. I'm sorry that my posts have been a bit sporadic lately! I don't know why I'm feeling like this. :(
My Green Bike was picked up from the bike shop today and I love riding it! It's taking a bit of getting used to, though, because the handlebars are so narrow.
Well, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is coming on now, so I'm going to go watch that! Sorry for this horribly boring post.
~Kiwi~
p.s. Fritz shall be going into the shop next week, so sometime after that y'all'll get some photos from vacation!

bad news/good news

Mom is taking Fritz in to the shop today to get repaired (good news), so I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again (bad news)! I wish we had some way of knowing exactly how long it'll take. So in the meantime, I'll be gazing at a blank computer desk or (trying to do) posting on the library computers.
In other news, my green bike was taken into the shop on Friday and the guy said it'll be ready on Wednesday!! It's going to be rather expensive, though. But then again, how much does a brand-new Schwinn cost?
Dad has taken this week off of work. We went on a day-trip up to Baraboo (Baaaaraboooo-oo-ooo :D ) and the Circus World Museum up there, which was interesting. We also drove through the Dells, saw the "World's Largest Culvers," and clambered around on an interesting rock formation. I got some pretty cool photos of it all, which I'll post when Fritz is fixed up.

G'bye, Fritz!
G'bye, all the rest of you!
~Kiwi~