Beautiful Columbine 

A cute one. I've decided that small grass hoppers are pretty cute. 

A wonderful bunch of spinach, that Kaia allowed to grow after a second planting.  

A baby Praying Mantis growing big and strong in my spinach.  

My garden helper. Kaia has made sure that she has either dug up everything or at least attempted to.  

sometimes it's better to just keep walking

Last evening on our nightly outing I decided to a walk the dogs on a river trail, in a neighboring subdivision. We were enjoying ourselves immensely, when I heard the rustle in the bushes. I told myself not to fret (I can be very paranoid of noises and such) and that it had to be some kids playing down by the water or playing hide and seek in the nearby bushes. No such luck, we (the dogs and I) walked around the bend and looking down I saw a large, full grown, man sitting in the water kind of struggling around while holding a branch (hence the noise in the bushes). It was just a little weird!!! I had to tell myself not to run, to keep walking quickly, and not look as freaked out as I felt. After we had gone past I wondered if he could have been hurt, but then thought, sometimes it is better to just keep walking.

I do need to clarify, since my mom will be reading this post at some point that the trail is next to the river and HOUSES. It's not some secluded, dark, creepy place. I could have looked into peoples kitchen windows if I chose to do so. Still the whole thing was a tad odd.

Walking the bizarre,

Naomi

Five Years

As of Friday, May 12th I was Mrs. Terran Goodwin for five years. I cannot believe that much time has passed by. We had a lovely annivsary weekend even though I had a terrible snotty, nosed cold. I spent more of the weekend with a tissue to my nose than I did holding Terrans' hand. Friday after a quiet dinner spent with me wiping my nose; I went to bed. I felt bad about that, but Terran being the wonderful husband tucked me in telling me to feel better. Saturday I did feel a bit better, so we went to Aspen as planned. We spent the day wondering around looking at shops, going for a short nature walk, and ended the day with a delicious Italian dinner. It was such a wonderful day spent together. I loved every minute of it.

Still Loving Him,

Naomi

Five Years and Loving It !!! 

My dream car, a Cobra. This is only one of the PRICEY cars that I like.  

Terran's dream car, a Firebird. All that is missing is black flames and of course, it would need to be a convertible. 

How big can you go? Behind the truck is a trailer made from the bed of a truck. Pretty crazy!!!!!! 

A rock formation in Utah. The Priest and Nuns 

On the way from a fun filled day at the car show 

Weekend fun

I've noticed that since I've been married my weekend interests are slowly changing; or maybe I should say broadening, and this is all because of my darling manly, man husband. Weekend before last we went to our third or fourth annual Moab, Utah classic car show, and I love it!! I never, never thought I would think, write, or utter those words in my life time. Before Terran, I would have scoffed at people who found classic cars interesting and labeled them insane for wasting large amounts of money on their frivolous hobby. I am almost ashamed after my pious attitude to admit that I have been converted to a classic car appreciator. I now admire the dedication that it takes to restore an old car and the artistic talent it takes to pick the paint, interior, and all the accessories. Especially since in my old age I will be working with my husband to restore his dream car. The biggest joke to me about my new interest is the cars I find NICE. I'll show Terran a car I like, he'll look at me asking if I know what the car is (I'm now sometimes able to recognize a make of the car), or how much it's worth, I usually don't. I have very expensive tastes (am I allowed to laugh here?) my range starts at 50,000. and goes clear up to 150,000. Who would have thought? I think this should be warning to Terran about what he interests me in (wink).



Speeding along,

Naomi

Easter Pictures

The following are pictures of our incredible Easter Sunday. Most of Terran's family came for dinner at our place and after dinner we took a family hike with the dogs. It was a fun, fun time. I love spending Easter with family. It's such a great way to celebrate the freedom the Lord bought us on the cross.

We had spaghetti and meatballs with a strawberry spinach salad for dinner, a yummy, creamy tiramsu for dessert with espresso. I had a great time cooking, though I nearly spoiled it all by forgetting the garlic bread in the oven on broil, it got a little dark. I was just glad it didn't start on fire like I've had things do in the past.

Sorry it took so long to post the pictures. I've had to figure it out without my husband and computers can be challenging at times (once I did it, I coundn't figure out why it took so long), but the great thing is I did to it and now can post any time I want. Yippee for me


Naomi

Easter dinner preperation. I love how messy cooking can be.  

The Goodwin's and Liebenthal's on Easter Sunday at our place  

On the way home 

Kojo was amazing the climbing dog. He climbed all over the huge rocks with the boys. He then jumped down to where Alrs is and to the ground to finish his adventure.  

Terran and I on the Easter hike.  

Wes and Arls climbing on the hike we took on Easter Sunday.  

We've gone DIGITAL!!! Kaia checking out our new toy.  

The First Week

The first week at my new job went great. I enjoyed every minute of it and the kids are super sweet. I think that I will have to work on scheduling as I go. When I go to make Micah's lunch, Luke decides that he wants to eat or be held, and is quite insistant about these matters. Tuesday I got lunch made, and Micah eating it, and then held Luke till he fell asleep before I ate. ( I'm sure all you moms are nodding and saying yes, that's the way it goes.) The next day I decided to eat my lunch while making Micah's. Sure enough as soon as I got her food dished, Luke decided it would be a good time to eat too. :) I smile every time I think about the two kids.

I realized yesterday that I don't miss the Credit Union at all and have so much peace and joy in this new place that God has led me. I'm reminded about that verse that says, every good and perfect thing comes from Him. It is so true.

I've been meaning to respond for a while to the comments about books that Kristy and Kerry left. Kristy, I've read lots of the WW2 books by the Thoenes but not the series you mentioned. What's funny is the day my mom read my posting and your comment she had just put the first book to the AD Chronicles in the mail to me thinking I would enjoy it. We had to laugh at the coincidence.
Kerry, I've read almost all of Maeve Binchy's short stories and really enjoyed them, but I haven't actually read any of her full novels. :)

Well, I'm off to read a little before I go to sleep. We're on Sunday School duty tomorrow and I think that there will be a lot of one year olds.

Naomi

March Madness

I can't quite believe that the month of March is over with and we are into April. March has seen a major change for me and of course any change affects my husband also (lucky him) :)
I quit my job of almost five years at the Credit Union two weeks ago and have found a position as a part-time nanny for some Doctors here in town. I'm excited about the change and think that I have been ready to do something different for some time. I'll be caring for a two year old little girl and a three month old baby boy. It'll be nice to be back into caring for children again (I nannied before I was married back in Olympia).

March has been an extreme sports month for T & I. With the weather going from warm and sunny to cold and snowy and back again we've done something different each weekend. We went mountain biking one sunny weekend and had a wonderful time. I don't really know if I should classify it as mountain biking, because it was more of a old rough dirt road out in the desert, than the torturous, rocky trails that Terran loves. I find the real stuff involves too much terror to be really enjoyable. I'm sure by the time that summer is over I'll be a little braver.

We went cross-country skiing the next weekend, because of all the snow and had a blast watching the dogs run through the snow. Kojo doesn't really run though, he hops like a bunny rabbit trying to stay on top and then does these huge face dives. He is exuberant. Kaia, because she has stayed so small, has to work a lot harder to have the fun Kojo does.

Last weekend we went for a hike in Devil's Canyon (a huge wilderness area about 5 minutes down the road from us) doing a five mile loop. It was awesome with perfect weather. The trail led up a good size hill and then around the rim of a side canyon. It was beautiful with the red rcoks and the green floor of the canyon streching out below us. In the distance you could see both Grand Junction city and Fruita (our home town). When we are outside I cannot think of anywhere else I would rather be. After we got to the bottom we took the dogs to a water hole and let them play. Kaia wasn't sure she liked it. They both looked like drowned rats.

After all the activity of the last few weeks today we are staying home and being as lazy as we can be.

Naomi

Books

The Daytona 500 is on today, so we are not watching the Olympics right now. Terran and I are Olympic junkies. The winter is by far our favorite, as a result of this we have not left the house this weekend, and during the evenings I have been busy watching, not blogging.

Right now I would love to be on a beach, or in a snug mountain cabin with a fire burning during a storm. I want to read, and read, and then read some more. Our library has a web site link that you can read book reviews and read lists of the reviewers favorite authors. I've been browsing that for the last little while, and now I want to be lost in a literary world of some type. I think that I might even be willing to give sci-fi a chance at this point.

One of the reviewers went on and on about Dean Koontz. I have only read a little bit of one of his books and it creeped me out so badly I don't know if I will ever pick one up again. A co-worker of mine drew my name for our Christmas gift exchange the first year I worked at the credit union. He knew I liked to read and bought me this book by Koontz, because it was on the best seller list. Very thoughtful and I was quite excited about a new author. The beginning wasn't too bad and I thought I would probably enjoy it. Then Koontz introduced a young newly married girl, ( I had only been married a little over six months), named Naomi. That was a little funny, because my name is not super common. About 10 pages after bringing Naomi into the story her husband killed her out of the blue. It was awful. I had nightmares for weeks. In lieu of that 10 pages or so, I don't think I'll ever read Koontz again.

I'm getting the creeps again even though it's been over 4 1/2 years. I think that I am going to fix myself a cup of creamy coffee, sit on the couch cuddled close to my husband, and get lost in Linda Chaiken's India.

I'll have to pretend it's snowing outside,

Naomi

Happenings

I feel as though I have gone missing from the world of blogging. Our computer's power supply went out this weekend, and before that I have left blogging for the last thing on my things-to-do list. I have discovered that the last thing never gets done.

We had Kaia, our puppy, fixed a little over two weeks ago. That was quite an adventure. We take her to the vet, they cut her open, and then give her back to us with the instructions of not letting her run or play. How do you keep a six month old puppy from running and playing, especially when they feel good the next day? For a whole week we were constantly telling Kojo not to bite or chase Kaia, and telling Kaia not to run or jump at Kojo. Poor dogs, they were so confused. Kaia did get left outside three days after her surgery and when I got home her little belly was all swollen. I couldn't get a hold of the vet or animal hospital to ask if she could be bleeding inside or anything like that. After about an hour of worrying, I called one of Terran's co-workers wives who works for a vet. I wanted to cry on the phone while telling her I didn't know what to do about Kaia. She let me bring her over to be looked at. I had horrible images in my head of Kaia dying on me right then and there. Kaia has fully recovered, and today wreaked havok at the dog park. I'm so glad dogs only go through that once.

Terran, between working a lot of overtime, went to a hockey game in Denver. He watched the Avalanche play against the Vancouver Canucks. All you Canadians will be glad to know that the Canucks won with Terran cheering with Canadian pride from the bleachers. It turned out to be a fun game with a big fight, overtime, and a shoot out. I was a hockey widow that weekend, left at home to hold down the fort.

Every other Sunday Terran and I work with the one year olds at church. This weekend I went by myself since Terran was sick and needed rest. I wore a button down shirt that I normally wear with a little undershirt and leave the buttons part way undone. I didn't wear the undershirt Sunday and did up all the buttons. In the middle of class time, I was chasing a little run-away boy. Reaching for him, I suddenly felt my shirt tear open in back. I had a gaping hole the whole way down my back. Not only that, but as I was chuckling and looking down to find my coat, I realized my front buttons had come undone since getting to church. I was so glad at that point, service was still going and the only person around was my helper. She didn't have much to say. I think she may have been embarassed. She wasn't the only one by that point.


Naomi

A Joke

Ok, this joke was going around my place of work and I found it funny. So... since I found it sooo hilarious I thought I would share it. Please beware that this is a PG-13 joke and I do not mean any offense, just laughter.


New Church

A married couple wanted to join a new church. The pasor told them, " We have special requirements for new parishioners. You must abstain from sex for one whole month."

The couple agreed and, after two-and-a-half weeks, returned to the Church. When the Pastor ushered them into his office, the wife was crying and the husband is obviously very depressed.

"You are back so soon...Is there a problem?" the pastor inquired.

"We are terrible ashamed to admit that we did not manage to abstain from sex for the required month," the man replied sadly.

The pastor asked him what happened.

"Well, the first week was difficult. However, we managed to abstain through sheer willpower. The second week was terrible, but with the use of prayer we managed to abstain. However, the third week was unbearable. We tried cold showers, prayer, reading from the Bible..anything to keep our minds off carnal thoughts. One afternoon, my wire reached for a can of and dropped it. When she bent over to pick it up, I was overcome with lust and had my way her right then and there," admitted the man, shame-facedly.

"You understand this means you will not be welcome in our church, stated the pasor.


"We know." said the young man, hanging his head, "We're not welcome at Home Depot either."


I hope that didn't offend your sensiblities and that you all are laughing or at least chuckling.


Naomi

housekeeping nemsis

I've been surfing the net this morning trying to find out information on turnips, my new favorite snack, renewing library items, and realized I need to catch up on my blogging. So here I am.

I think each housekeeper has a housekeeping nemesis. For some it may be dusting, others ironing. What about vacuuming or washing windows? Mine happens to be paper. My house is clean and I try to keep it fairly tidy, until you take a closer look. You will see little piles of paper tucked in a corner on this shelf, or lain in neatly stacked piles on the desk, or tucked discretely in a file drawer where they should be in files not just laying in the bottom of the drawer.
You might wonder how many papers can we have in our house. Lots!!! I get scared to throw papers away because you never know when you might need it. I have no problem with throwing away junk mail, but receipts, any type of bill, and any thing I think we might need, or will one day be of interest I don't like to get rid of. What if I need it tomorrow and I throw it away today?
You'd think after working in a library for five years and knowing the Dewey Decimal system inside out, shelving books by author, title, and then publication date I'd have no problem filing phone bills. Or after maintaining client files at an attorney's office it'd be no big deal to sort through receipts and know the ones to keep and to throw away.
Since the beginning of this year I have been spending an hour each day working on my piles. I wouldn't call this a New Years resolution, since I've made some type of similar resolution every couple monthes for the last 4 1/2 years. But I'm hoping this time to overcome my nemesis, and be able to find the bill for the car parts we bought two years ago in the car file under 2004 if it's ever needed.

Naomi

Enjoying the Great Northwest 

Kojo and Kaia hot on the trail of the Sasquatch 

My Dad with his, "Do I have to smile?" face. 

Salome with Kaitlyn, the pretty little princess 

A long time tradition of Christmas lighting with Mom, Tim and Ben 

Kaitlyn and Kaia, "Let's play" 

Kaitlyn and Kojo, love at first sight 

home for the holidays

I hope that everyone had a most marvelous Christmas. Ours was delightful.

Terran and I drove to my parent's home in Olympia, WA this year for Christmas. I haven't had Christmas with my family since 1999 so, to say the least, I have been excited for the holidays. Everything lived up to my great expectations.

We got there late Friday night, had Chinese food for dinner, visited, and let the dogs work off some of their energy with Kaitlyn, our almost 3 yr old neice. She liked the "baby puppy" and wanted "tojo" to chase the ball. She was quite demanding in this and kept the dogs moving.

Christmas Eve saw a visit from my Aunt Barb, my Grandma, and some cousins. Then Terran and I, while different family members napped, took the dogs to the woods and let them explore the great Northwest Forest. They loved it. I don't blame them it was warm (in the 50's), smelled great, and was beautiful. If I could bring one thing to Colorado from Washington it would be the woods. I love, and have always loved hiking in them. They're so green and full of variety.

Christmas Day we ate breakfast out of our stockings, a long-standing Hansen tradition. My mom fills the stockings with a drink, an orange, some jerky, a package of crackers and cheese and of course, candies and chocolate. We eat it while opening presents. I can't wait to do it with our kids.

Our holiday adventure with the family (every holiday has to have some type of adventure, especially holiday trips) was, we had no cooking stove for Christmas dinner. My dad got up during the wee hours of Christmas morning to find, the kitchen had a strong odor of gas coming the from the kitchen stove. Off went the stove, and out the door went plans for dinner. We ended up with microwaveable potatoes from the store, (some of Oly's grocery stores were open) and our wonderful neighbors, and good friends from up the road sent down half their Christmas turkey. My family is blessed with generous friends!

The driving went really well. It does take a little longer to drive straight thru with dogs than just the two of us. We took 19 to 20 hours instead of 16 to 17 . The dogs did great. Kaia, the puppy, sat in one of our laps on the passenger side almost the whole time sleeping, or shaking with fear on the way there. It's a good thing she's small enough to hold still. Kojo slept most of the time, or sat looking out the window. He's figured out how to roll down the window by hitting the button, so at different times the window in the back would go down and the car was filled with cold air and rain. It was pretty funny. He looked pretty pleased with his head hanging out the window, smiling his doggy smile into the wind.
The only snow we encountered was about 1:30 am between here and Salt Lake City, on Soldier Summit. It was pretty tense, especially when we passed cars that had gone off the road. I am so thankful for the wonderous driving skills of a certain Mr. Goodwin.

Missing the fam, but glad to be home,

Naomi

Trials of a Tail

Kaia, our Australian Shepherd is a perfect puppy. She is playful, curious, cuddly, and (my favorite) little. She looks and acts like an Aussie in everyway, except she has a tail. One of the most distinguishing physical traits of an Aussie is their bobbed tails, which are very cute.
When we first saw Kaia, we almost didn't get her, because of her tail; but then she was so little and cuddly. Her offensive tail, black with a white tip, was just like our Border Collie, Kojo's. Who could say no to such a puppy? Certainly not me.
Kaia's tail has at different times become the topic of conversation of what it will look like, and whether we should have it removed or not. Each conversation ended with Terran saying there must be something wrong with Aussie's tails for them all to be removed.
A dark day loomed when it looked like Terran's words were true. Kaia's tail was not cute, it was no longer was covered with the sweet puppy fuzz like the rest of her, but long coarse hair. That day broke my heart, she looked like a little weirdo, a freak of nature.
The climax came when we took the dogs to the park one day, and they started playing with another Aussie, whose owner told us she had heard from breeders that if left long, Australian Shepherds had long rat-like tails, while the rest of them was covered with long hair. After getting home, Terran and I researched about having her tail cut off. Every website we went to used horrible words like "painful", "shock", "rehabilitation", "cutting through the bone" and many others. We could not do that to the puppy who would run to us when she is hurt or scared.
Our saving grace came when we stumbled on a Finnish site about Australian Shepherds. The first words on the site were about it being illegal in Finland to bobb the tails of dogs. We saw pictures of Finnish Aussies with tails. Beautiful, full, normal, long tails.


Proud owner of a Finnish-American Australian Shepherd,

Naomi