Saturday, March 7, 2009


Kudos to Dr. Kellogg since I love, love, love cereal. My favorites? Frosted Shredded Wheat, Frosted Flakes, GrapeNuts, Honey Nut Cheerios and Alphabets. (and I love to drink the leftover milk too, unlike some people).
Can you tell I like the sweet ones? What's yours?

Time Change


What a bummer! I was just getting to see to drive to work in almost daylight. Now they've started with daylight savings time even earlier and it'll be dark again. I may NEVER see the drive in full daylight if this keeps up.

Our First Family Adventure in Wyoming

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day. One of the few absolutely beautiful days we've had on a weekend since our move. Yes, the wind was blowing, but not as ferociously as it does some (most) days. I had given the furry kids a bath the night before, so we loaded them into the car and off we went. Since Joe had not seen where I worked and I had not seen what it looked like to drive there during the daytime, that's where we headed to the oilfield.

The picture below is the parking lot of the Casper office where I park my car every day and carpool to the oilfield. My normal parking place is beside the light pole, but since I don't work on Fridays, someone decided to park in my spot!
This is some of the government trucks that go out to the field every day. The entire side of the parking lot is lined with the trucks.
This is the Casper Planetarium where many mornings a herd of pronghorn antelopes gather and watch us leave the parking lot. There have been times when I've been sitting in the parking lot and the herd has walked past my car.
This is the jumping on point at the interstate to head north towards Midwest, a small town with a population of 508 people, close to the oilfield.
This is looking back south towards Casper at this point on the interstate.
After driving on the interstate for about 20 miles, we drive on a two lane highway which eventually passes the famous "Teapot Dome" rock formation. It's located on a hill overlooking this family farm. Unfortunately, the "spout" has dropped off. (The wind probably did that. No more singing "I'm A Little Teapot" for the formation). I have been really surprised that there is no historical marker noting the formation and no explanation about the historic Teapot Dome Scandal.
The following pictures are some of the scenery going to the oilfield.
This is the first sign indicating where the oilfield is located.
You have to cross a cattle guard when entering the oilfield. (There are cattle guards at located at the each interstate exit also).
The "official" RMOTC and NPR #3 (Naval Petroleum Reserve) signs.
The main road leading up to the office. And, some of the wildlife I see every day.
While driving up to the office, we encountered a herd of sheep crossing the road in front of us. They belong to a neighboring rancher and there is some type of agreement that the sheep can graze here for a few weeks during this time of the year.
I turned off the car and we watched the sheep pass in front of us. The furry kids were quite fascinated be the sheep. Several times, some of the sheep would stop in the middle of the road and just stare at us. I guess they were wondering what we were doing sitting there watching them.
Eventually the herd split into two sections. One stream in front of us and one behind us. I took a couple of pictures of the furry kids as they discovered the sheep behind the car.
This is the "lower office" where the 6:30 a.m. meetings and town hall meetings are held and where several offices are located.
This is the "upper office" where my office and department members are housed.
This is one of the trucks that I drive. It sits up so high, it is really a wonderful thing to see me trying to get up into it (not)!
The front of our ritzy office...
More oilfield scenery...
We turned the furry kids loose to explore in the wide open spaces where the deer and the antelope play. However, they caught the scent of some antelope and both of them took off over hill and dale. We thought we'd lost them for a couple of minutes. After driving up the road and then coming back, we found Blaze, but still couldn't find B.J. He finally showed up waaaaaay down the road and we had to go rescue him.
After leaving the oilfield, we drove up to the little towns of Edgerton and Midwest. Edgerton had a population of 109 people, but these used to be very, very BIG towns during the 20's and the 50's when the oil business was booming. Even on the oilfield is remnants of where dormitories and barracks used to stand, as well as a swimming pool. There was even a school that had 1500 children attending. But alas, those days are gone.
Then it was home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Monday, March 2, 2009

A Father/Son 1st Birthday Comparison

Since we celebrated Derek's first birthday just a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd post a few pictures of when we celebrated Corey's first birthday.


















Sunday, March 1, 2009

Alas, Not The Weekend I Was Planning

I had high hopes for this weekend. But, you know what they said about the "best laid plans" - they usually get screwed up!!! And, mine did. Wednesday night after getting off work, I hurried home to get Joe ready and go get his a "store bought" haircut since he really needed one. All went well until I realized when I went to bed that I'd pulled something in my back.

So, Thursday morning I hobbled off to work and stayed that way all day long. It was supposed to be a most glorious weekend (and it has been weather wise - the best we've had since moving here). I had planned on having lunch with a couple of new friends on Friday, pay bills and no other big plans for the rest of that day. Saturday morning I was going to get up, give each of the dogs a bath and then was going to pack up the furry kids and Joe and we were going to hit the highway. I planned on showing them where I worked, find a place for the furry kids to run until their tongues hung out (possibly chasing prairie dogs) - it was going to be wonderful!

But, that all changed when I didn't go for the lunch on Friday, but rather stayed in bed doped up, as well as Saturday. That was until I had to make a run to Wal-Mart 9:30 p.m. for a plunger and some RidX as our toilet wasn't flushing properly. It's a good thing that I don't know alot of people here yet. Do you know what two days of "bedhead" looks like?!?!? It isn't pretty at all!!! And I'd thrown on a preworn pair of jeans, a blouse with no bra and my boots and coat. I looked lovely to say the least.

Once I'd doctored the toilet, I doped myself up again and went back to bed. So here it is the Sabbath, I never made it to church and the only reason I'm up now writing this is that I'm waiting for Leonard Landlord to show up and unplug my toilet!!! We won't go into descriptions about that at this time. Let's just say that the new plunger ain't doing its job!

So off I go to work again tomorrow after a restful three days. Yeah, right!

Monday, February 23, 2009

They Turned Me Loose!

It finally happened! I was turned loose in a pickup truck today all by myself. The girl that normally picks up the mail for the oilfield was out today and I was asked to go get the mail. It's about a 2 1/2 mile drive from the office to the highway mailbox so off I went. The first obstacle was getting into the truck. It's not made for short people such as myself. Thank goodness no one was looking (as far as I know). Then the next thing was the drive itself. Because of all the snow and ice, we've had a lot of melting taking place because of some warmer temperatures. Thus, the entire oilfield is one big muddy, sloppy mess. Kinda reminds me of what the good ole boys would use for boggin'.

So, I took off having to be aware of possible antelope attacks, sliding off the road, etc., but I made it even though there were a couple of times I thought I'd have to put in in 4 wheel drive. Who'd thunk I'd be doing all this a few short months ago? NOT ME!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Some pictures of the wildlife at the oilfield. Though I see either pronghorn antelope or mule deer everyday, it never ceases to make me smile when I see them running free around me.


The Trip Home From Utah

Before we left the kids house on Monday after celebrating Derek's birthday, we checked the internet hoping for good weather on our drive home. Though we did encounter snow and ice, the majority of the roads were clear.


These pictures show some of the beautiful scenery we experienced on our drive home.



































How ya like Joe's new wool cap? It'll help keep his head warmer without falling off his head. I think he looks adorable!