Financial Education and Kid Art

August – what a blur!

I changed jobs this month and have been adjusting to a new schedule and the whole transition of am working in a educational type role again. The subject matter is near and dear to my heart (financial education) and I’m loving being able to help families meet their asset goals and get out of debt. The opportunities to learn about financial matters (tax laws, public policy, etc.) is inspiring. I also get to travel a bit and am excited for an upcoming conference in Washington D.C.! Should be very educational and a lot of fun. Blah blah blah. Well – enough of work! Sorry to bore you all.

Now, I want to share a silly story about some nice young girls. The other day, when we were painting the exterior of our house, two girls strolled up (maybe 6 or 7 years old). And literally one was in a stroller, being pushed along by her friend, while she carried a big box on her lap. They were very cute indeed. They asked if I would like to buy some art from their big box to help their “back-to-school fund”.

Sure – I love kid art. So one by one they showed me their “posters”. I was utterly disappointed! I usually am very encouraging of art and creativity (even if I have no idea what it is), but this time I was just plain saddened. Their so-called “posters” were pages just torn out of an everyday magazine! And that’s it. Granted they were only selling them for a penny a piece, but still. No creativity. At. All. That made me sad.

So, the teacher in me thought to tell them honestly what I thought (in a nice way) and encourage them to be creative! After all kids have some of the most interesting ideas. I remembered back to when I was a little girl and went through the “make-a-homemade-envelope-from-a-magazine-page” phase of life. I told the girls to wait a sec and I ran inside, grabbed an envelope, scissors, and glue. Then on the sidewalk we made a few envelopes out of those “posters” and the girls had so much fun! And so did I. They left pretty excited to make envelopes and homemade greeting cards from their “posters”. Not sure if they sold any – they never did come back!

That is my silly story. If you have kids or are around kids – inspire them to be creative. Don’t let them settle for easy pre-made things. Help them to use their resources to make something new, repurposed, and original. OK - those are my thoughts! Would love to hear yours!

CANDISC 2010 video

Check out this video of CANDISC 2010 that a fellow rider put together. I love the landscape, old cars, and baby bunny they captured on film. Enjoy!

Credit: DakotaPuma

CANDISC 2010

Whew! I just got back from an awesome week of cycling 450 miles around North Dakota with CANDISC! Here’s what it stands for:

CANDISC - Cycling Around North Dakota in Sakakawea Country

{a bicycle ride across some the greatest frontier of North America}

This is the second year I’ve been on CANDISC – and can’t believe I’m saying that I would love to do it again! This is the 6th year my dear Mom has been on CANDISC. What a trooper! 2nd year for my sis and 1st year for my sweet cousin, Apples. She was the best hill-climber on the tour!

Words to describe the week:

beautiful – hot – windy – hilly – fun – simple – exhausting – rainy – interesting – long – discouraging – challenging – rewarding – hilarious – spandexy – small-towny – freeing – relaxing – strengthening – eye-opening – awesome

This is a fully supported 7-day ride – which means we don’t have to haul our tents and bags on our bikes. They haul our bags to the next town for us. Then we camp outside each night with about 4oo other bikers in a park or school yard. Each community provides a meal and local entertainment. This can be hilarious and quite entertaining. Key examples from this year:

Berthold – demolishing an old grain elevator

(I love how they saved this “event” for the day CANDISC comes to town! Pretty sure we more than doubled their population.)

Kenmare – free movie in the cutest little theatre. The Twilight Saga – Eclipse

(I have never previously partaken in any of the Twilight nonsense until this day. Now I can firmly say I’m on “Team Jacob”…)

Crosby – Viking Women!! uffda!

Bowbells – the Mayor invited all 400 of us over to his backyard for appetizers. Who does that!? Very beautiful garden and yummy food.

Also, a sweet accordion band!

Glenburn – huge Applebee’s hot air balloon. A musical concert of sorts. And a lot of card playing.

Makoti – Threshing Bee tour. Tons of old tractors and stationary engines. Very cool.

Here are the official directions while riding on a trailer pulled by a tractor to the tour:

TO STOP DRIVER PULL ROPe + RING BELL if technical difficulties HOLLER VERYLOUD louder than tracter ROPE <—>

What we had for breakfast – Mom’s mixture – soaked overnight – chewy morning delight?     buckwheat, almonds, dates, sunflower seeds, raisins

So…we once had a cat named Norma…and couldn’t resist.

I loved the beautiful fields of sunflowers.

Way to go ladies! It was a awesome week with you!

Interesting in riding CANDISC next year? Click on the link for more info!

Window and Door Replacement

Last winter, our patio door and front window leaked in quite a bit of cold air and had a lot of moisture damage and rot. Our heat bill and our chill factor said we need to replace these both before next winter.

So, here goes!

Nick worked with a rep from his office to get a custom size for the front living room window. We ended up going with vinyl for this one to cut costs, while still accomplishing a good looking window that seals well. We changed the layout of the panes because with the old one, the pane divider was right at eye-level as you sat on a couch to look out. (We like looking outside – and it blocked the street view!)

The patio door was in their “garage sale” pile for quite a discount as it was previously custom-ordered for someone, then turned down. It is not as big as our last one, but much sturdier and built well. Metal clad exterior and wood interior. I love it!

Front window and siding:

Just gotta throw in a pic of our garage sale bikes!

We had extra fiber-cement siding from the garage project to wrap it around up to the brick wall. Eventually – we’ll reside the whole house. But small bites at a time!

I’m really excited about the natural wood around the door! Nick cut the boards to make it ship-lapped. (Similar to a tongue and groove, but not quite.) The wood adds a lot of warmth to the entry along with updated numbers and a locking mailbox. Woohoo!

As for the patio door…lacking many pictures. We replaced this right after playing bball at the Big Sky State Games – we were all exhausted and starving for dinner!

Big Sky State Games

Last weekend my sis came down for the Big Sky State Games. We we played on a women’s basketball team. It was sure fun! It has been years since I’ve played “organized” bball – where we all somewhat matched and had referees to call the fouls. (And yes they did call em tight – just ask Mary about fouling out!)

Right before our first game, we found out we needed to have a jersey with a number on it. Hmm…no numbered jersey in my closet – except my old Lacrosse uniform. So, I thought I would just tape a number on a grey tank top.

Then, Nick said, “Why don’t you just sew a number on?”

Sure, why not? So I did…

However, at the game – someone found matching jerseys so I didn’t even need to wear my number tank. Sure glad I made it permanent!

So…now what do I do with a numbered shirt? Maybe I can number all my clothes! One for each day of the week. This is now my “Saturday shirt”. Only available to wear on the 7th day of the week. Ha!

Here, I’m up for a free throw. Nice break time from burning lungs. Question is – did it go in?

Three Years Ago

Three years ago we tied the knot!

These three years have gone by so fast. It seems like yesterday when we closed our college textbooks and said, “I do”.

As we walked the other night on the Rims, we reminisced about what each year has held - adventures, challenges, and blessings. We are so thankful for God’s hand in our marriage and His continual guidance in our lives.

I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man and look forward to many more great years!

Happy Anniversary, Nick!

Denver, CO – 4th of July

It was such a blessing to visit an old college friend (and meet her husband!) in Denver last weekend for the 4th of July. It is amazing how times flies and years pass so fast!

They took us to a beautiful new housing development, Solterra, located between Denver and the majestic mountains. It was a wonderful blend of Tuscan, French, and Spanish inspired homes with beautiful stonework, landscaping, and views. Her husband is the head developer for this community and it was neat to see his ideas come together in such a beautiful way.

Here is a picture of the community center at Solterra where we had a memorable evening of fireworks and fellowship.

We also saw Blues Traveler live at Red Rocks Amphitheater – what an amazing venue! The rain started pouring during the song, “Mountains Win Again” – making for a drenched but exciting and crazy time. That’s a concert I’ll never forget!

Here is a video when the rain starting pouring down:

See the guy in the orange jacket? That’s Nick! And we’re all standing on the other side of him. :)