Goodness I am horrible; I am going to start putting a reminder on my calendar to update this.  Mom reminds me all the time; however, I put it in the back of my mind!

So…here we go!  Todd graduated from his school and he was very happy about that and never wants to go back to Alabama again.  I felt the same way when I graduated from Officer Training School there!  They can keep that place!  After her graduated we went and saw our friends Audrey and Jeriah in Philadelphia where we spent a few days.  After that we went up to Port Allegany to see Todd’s family and to attend his 20 year high school reunion!  It was nice to see everyone and meet some of his old school mates!

This year we lived it up at Cheyenne Frontier Days (CFD)!  If you guys want to have a good time you need to come out during that one year!  (Hopefully we will be here for it next year)  We went to the Zach Brown concert, Blake Shelton, bull riding and the finals rodeo.  It was a good time.  The kids flew out at the end of July, so they were able to experience CFD; they got to see Blake Shelton and the rodeo.  We took the kids to Mt Rushmore and Devils Tower it was a lot of fun to see the rocks.  We called it the rock and roll tour, since we spend two days in the car looking at rocks!  On our way back, Todd found a four wheeler on Craig’s list and bought it.  Oh lord.  Next on the boys trip agenda was camping, so we took Todd’s new toy up and we went camping and fishing.  I think I got skunked pretty much the whole season on fishing!  We did take the float tubes up and do some fly fishing though, which was a lot of fun!  Can’t wait to get back up there next year and do some more of that!

Dad and Momma Lee came out to visit and we went camping, which was fun.  Matt met us up there and we had a good time, it had just started getting cold, so it was a little cool in the camper.  They also came back out in October for antelope season and Dad got another antelope this year.

Mom and Marsha came out to visit the Hults Hillbilly Hideaway and we hung out, did a little shopping, went out on the town (if you can call it that), or more bar hopped looking for a good time.  We ended up making our own good time!  It was nice to have them here and visit places we hadn’t been yet.

For Labor Day we went to Dad’s and fished and hung out, needless to say I think I got skunked fishing there too!  What a horrible year for fishing for me!!!!

Then started hunting season! OH my….Todd and I both got our antelope.  The guy behind us only owns about 21,000 acres!  So, we were fortunate enough to be the only ones allowed to hunt it!  We each have 3 tags for antelope, so we can get 6 total….holy crap I need a bigger freezer.  Then deer opened up, of course the day wee were supposed to go UP ON THE MOUNTAIN to camp and hunt was supposed to be our first snow of the season.  My husband wanted to tent it; hahahahahahahahahhahahaha….he cracks me up.  Needless to say we were hunting near Laramie, I ending my traveling through Jackson that day so I stopped in Laramie and reserved a spot at the KOA!  Got home around 4:00, Todd picked me up; we loaded the camper and were on the road to Laramie by 6:30, got set up and in bed by 10:00.  Got up the next morning at the crack ass of dawn and went up on the hill…walked about 7 miles and didn’t see a single animal, oh of course except a moose.  I swear we see more moose on that mountain than deer and elk combined!  Next day we went hunting with Stan to another place and didn’t see anything, that evening was the time!  Todd saw one and went after it; well his friend came out behind him about 5 minutes after Todd was chasing the other one.  I got his friend!  A tall 3x3, I was happy!!!!  Then we came home, hardly any snow what so ever, Todd went up the road about 30 miles to some public ground and got a 5x5 mule deer!!! 

So the count goes—2 antelope down, 4 to go….2 deer down, none to go……2 elk to go...

Last weekend I had a conference in Saratoga, WY so Todd joined me to celebrate our anniversary and to elk hunt.  We walked this mountain for HOURS and DAYS and never saw anything.  Stan had his kids with him and they saw oh I don’t know about 10 elk!  The middle boy, Kyler, shot a NICE 5x6 elk!  So this weekend is the last full weekend of elk hunting.  I haven’t decided if I want to be an elk hunter widow or if I will be joining the boys.  A nice relaxing weekend at home sounds really really good though!

As you might recall when Todd first got here he was the group chief, and then the chief came back from deployment so he then transitioned in the superindent of a squadron.  Well his chief took a trip to Alaska and decided it was time to retire, within a month he was gone, dropped his papers to retire and took off.  Needless to say Todd is now the group chief again, he enjoys it.  He has a new commander and that makes it interesting to adjust to everyone’s different leadership style.  One of our friends assures us that we will be leaving this next summer, we ignore her and pretend she doesn’t know what she is talking about…however she is in charge of manning for FE Warren and five other bases.  So we shall see where the cards take us this time when that time comes.

I am STILL looking for another job, I do like mine at times, just doesn’t keep me as busy as I would like.  There might be one coming open at the clinic that Todd works at but we shall see.  I have heard that story before and it takes forever!  I have however traveled this whole state a couple of times!  I have another trip out west Wyoming coming up, DC in December (as well as Todd, he is going the week before me), Jackson in February and then New Orleans in March.  Of course that is all if I am still here…..I often think, why would I leave this job!  Great travel opportunties and not bad pay!  I was supposed to start my doctoral program in Oct, however since the VA moves about as fast as molasses; I won’t be able to start until Jan now.

We ended up building a shed since Todd has a lot of toys that were preventing me from even walking through the garage!  So an outbuilding is complete.  I don’t think that we will be touching the basement, as that is a lot of money to turn around and have to sell the house.

Well it is snowing as I type, so I guess I should head home and hope that the road isn’t too muddy and I can get home!   We are supposed to get between ½ to 6 inches.  REALLY?  I think I picked the wrong profession to go into…..We are supposed to also have wind up to 50 MPH gusts, so needless to say the drifts are going to be quite high tomorrow!

One other thing!  Todd found out about his promotion 8 March 2012, at that time he was given a line number and that determines when he puts E-8 on.  His line number was 501, so that means he will put on his next stripe tomorrow!!!!  I will get to celebrate with him!!!  So exciting!

Well we had quite the scare in April!  After Todd got his promotion, Air Force assignments was calling to give him an option between Ohio or California!!  WAIT, we have only been here a year!!!!!!  There are only about 10 bases that he can go to with his new rank and Ohio was probably one of our top 4, the rest we REALLY don’t want to go to.  So, he replied back with Ohio, and assignments said ok you will need to be there by the end of September!  WHAT????  CRAP!

The next week he received notification that he had to go to Montgomery, Alabama for Senior NCO training.  UK!  That is where I did my officer training and it was not a pleasant place in my mind.  His class was from the middle of May to the end of June, 7 weeks.  DOUBLE CRAP, now I have to try to sell the house by myself…..So I put it on Craigs list, we talked to our realtor and we had about four people contact us to look at it.  Well the Friday before Todd left for Alabama assignments decided, well no we aren’t going to move you because you just got there….REALLY?  Hum, thanks for the month and a half of complete stress!!!

So, in short we get to stay here for at least another year, we hope.  We also hope that when it is time to leave that we end up at a base that we actually will enjoy.

Todd is NOT enjoying school.  His room is about a ½ mile away from the school and dining hall, which isn’t bad, but when it is 95 and the humidity is 90% that’s when it isn’t fun anymore.  He has to do papers, speeches and other home work; they have one test at the end of the class.  He has completed two speeches and has three more to go.

I am keeping busy around the house while he is gone.  I have a laundry list of things that I want to get done, making a pretty good dent in it, only the dreadful things are left, such as cleaning out my closet!  UK!  I mowed last weekend and it was ridiculous.  4 hours on the tractor, an hour push mowing and an hour weed eating….with the wind.  Each time I would make a turn dust would just come into my face from the tractor.  I had so much of it in my eyes that they were swollen the next day.

I am flying down tomorrow to go and see Todd in Alabama; I can’t wait to see him!!  He graduates 30 June and then we are flying to Pennsylvania and staying with Audrey and Jeriah for a few days and then going to Port Allegany to visit family and go to his 20 year high school reunion!  We will fly back July 8^th with his Dad and Theresa.

When the kids came out in March we went skiing, it was pretty much the last of the season.  The snow was HORRIBLE!  I did one run and was not digging the ice, so I sun tanned, yes I tanned at the ski resort as it was about 55 degrees!  They had a good time and they will be coming back out the end of July to the 8^th of August.

Ty turned 16 on the 27^th, he got his drivers license on the 29^th!  Look out world!  They both finished school with good grades.  Ty will now be a junior and Jake will be going into 8^th grade.  Ty is still wanting to go into the Air Force, so hopefully that will happen.

I traveled to Baltimore the beginning of April and when my conference was over I took the train up to see Audrey and Jeriah and meet Macy, it was a great time!

The rest of June should go quick.  Mom is flying in the weekend of the 8^th, I have a conference the weekend of the 15^th and I have to travel to Rock Springs the 26^th and 27^th, and then fly out to PA on the 30^th!

Wow!  Already a month since I updated!  Imagine that!

BIG NEWS!!!!!   Todd made Senior Master Sgt (E-8) I am so so very proud of him.  The upside is he made rank, the down side is it is possible to get orders at some point?!?!   When that some point is, we have no idea, it’s one of the SURPRISE you are going to XXX.  I don’t think we will be as lucky to work them like we worked these, but you never know.  We think we are good for another year of being here!  So, he should put on his stripe in July or August!!

We had a GREAT time in Jackson Hole.  Our room was right next to the ski lift!  So we could go downstairs and snap on our skis and go straight to the lift.  Todd skied a couple days and I skied one, I was working the conference as well. 

Next week I will be in Atlanta for a conference and then the kids fly in on the 21^st until the 25^th of March.  It will be good to see them.  April I’m off to Baltimore for another conference and I’ll get to see our friends Audrey and Jeriah and meet the new baby Macy!!  Very excited for that!

My job is still kicking along; I have authorized $4.9 Million in payments now!  We just did a press release which resulted in me doing two interviews.  I didn’t like that!  One was for a newspaper another for a radio.

We are going over to Dad’s this weekend in Cedaredge, supposed to be nice in the 50’s!  Thank goodness.  These last couple weeks have really taken a toll on my sanity!  The wind has been crazy…gusting at around 50-60 mph!  It is just stupid, stupid, stupid!   The other day it actually died down to 15 mph at 4:00pm and we ran out side like it was Christmas or something.  Todd washed all three vehicles and did the things we wanted to do outside.  This week it has been 50-60 degrees, so very nice.  We still have the 4 foot drifts by our snow fence though, I’m sure those will be there until July!

Well it’s been almost two months now since I updated this, I’m not doing very well at keeping up.  I guess after the new wears off there isn’t much to talk about…..Wind, snow, wind, snow, cold, warm, snow and wind! 

In December we were busy, as is everyone else during that month!  We had our Annual Cousins Christmas in Almont again this year (27-30 Dec) so we decided to go and see Dad and Lee for Christmas since we had the time off.  So we left the 24^th and drove to Cedaredge, we surprised dad!  Lee knew we were coming, but Dad didn’t!  So we pulled up and Dad looked out the window and looked again, and looked again and finally realized it was us!   The next day we surprised my Grand Junction family as we showed up for Christmas Dinner!  It was nice to see everyone and Todd got to meet more of the family that he hasn’t met before.  Some I hadn’t even met, no not really!  Hahaha, I always joke with him that I have so much family he will probably never meet all of them!

After Christmas we went up to Almont where we met the rest of the clan from Missouri and Grand Junction (on my mom’s side).  There were ten of us that all met up, we stay in cabins, the boys fish, the girls gossip and play games and then we all have dinner together, the boys fall asleep and the girls laugh and enjoy the rest of the night!  The boys went ice fishing up on Taylor Reservoir and caught some really nice trout. 

On our way home back to Cheyenne, we stopped off in Colorado Springs for lunch with my friend Mary Clow, always good to see her!   Then we stopped in Ft Collins to visit with my step-sister, Sandi that was in the country from China. 

We had friends up for New Years Eve to the Hideaway; we played games and did what you do on New Years!!  J  The next weekend we went down to the Sportsman’s Expo in Denver that was hunting, fishing and guiding services.  It was pretty neat, but continued back down to the springs to stay with Mary.  We had a great time visiting with her and Barry went out to my old stomping grounds, Cowboys and returned home the next day.   On our return trip………….I was driving on I-25, guess I hit something in the road and ended up with a flat tire…..well Todd changed the tire and put the spare on.  I turned the tire over to start to put it in the trunk and the rim was JACKED!   A whole portion of it was missing!  So a new rim and tire was in order for the car.  That was a long ride home from Denver going 50 mph….UH..

The next weekend we flew into Kansas City!  I got to go to Keeley’s (our old next door neighbor’s daughter) pep rally and surprise her and watch her cheer!  It was great!!!  We stayed with mom and got to see most of our friends back in MO that we hadn’t seen in a while.   We also got to take the kids to lunch and spend some time with them.

Other than that our January was quiet the rest of the month, we went to a dinner/auction which was fun, with some of my friends from work.  There was a WHEELBARROW filled with liquor that went for $700!!!

We got some snow the other day.  The snow isn’t bad; it’s the wind that drifts the snow over our driveway that causes us to both drive 4-wheel drive vehicles to get out of the drive!!! 

Later this month we are going to Jackson for five days!!  I have a conference up there, so figured I would bring Todd and he can ski whenever he wants.  The conference is at the ski resort so that will be nice!

The kids will be flying in on March 21 and will have to leave the 25^th.  I will also be traveling to Atlanta in March!  The traveling begins again!

Todd is now the superintendent of the Medical Operations Squadron.  The chief he was filling in for has returned from deployment, so they put Todd in the MDOS Sup position.  He likes it and has a really good boss, so he is enjoying it.

I’m still plugging along at my job.  We launched our new program and I have authorized $2.7 Million dollars in incentive payments to providers!   That’s a lot of money!!  Wish it was coming to me!

That’s about it, I will try to update soon, when something else happens in our cold, wintery world!

Lets see so much to tell!!  I will post pictures tomorrow.
 

For Veterans Day we went to Jackson Hole, we decided to take the northern route there and the southern route home…well the weather had a different idea for us!  We got there the evening of the 11th and drove through Teton National Park.  The Tetons were BEAUTIFUL!  Glad we got to see them then, because the rest of the time is stormed!  The next day we were going to drive through Yellowstone, however with the weather and the roads being nasty, we ventured around town and just had a romantic dinner and went to bed early.  It’s amazing how early you can go to bed as you get older!  The next day we were planning on coming home on I-80.  Well, it was closed due to blowing snow and snow packed and multiple accidents!  So we decided we would go the way we came out, there was only one pass we had to go over with snow pack.  We got home eventually; I kept my head in my book as we were going over the pass and tried not to look.  For our arrival home the weather decided to introduce us to the 70 mph hour winds that Wyoming is famous for!
I flew to DC two days later; it was nice to be downtown there again.  I’ve been several times, but never get tired of the history and what a diverse place it is!
 

We then had Thanksgiving with thirteen people at the house!  It was a great time, the kids flew in, my dad and Momma Lee came in, both of my step brothers and their families.  It was very nice.  We decided to do Christmas during Thanksgiving while the kids were there, since we won’t have then for Christmas this year.  So, their Christmas present was a ski trip!  Ty took right on to snowboarding, and Jake picked up skiing just as quick.  Ty and Todd went to the blue hills while Jake and I stayed on the blues, and Jake was flying down the hill!  I could hardly keep up with him.. We went skiing Saturday; the kids flew out on Sunday. 
 

Monday I flew to Chicago, and flew back Wednesday….well I didn’t get my bag until Tuesday night!  Guess someone took it off the bag claim and decided it looked like their PURPLE bag!

My big project at work launched today, so it’s nice to see something completed and on its way to being utilized.  Todd tests for SMSgt on Thursday, but won’t find out the results until March.  If he makes it, it is quite possible we may move soon after he puts it on….I think he is having an internal conflict of if he really wants to make it or not!  But where you live in the military is temporary, so if we do move it doesn’t mean we would be there forever, it’s all what you make of it!
 

Our Christmas shopping is done!!  I just need to mail it out, I hate the post office!!!!   I of course did Black Friday this year with Momma Lee and Todd and the Boys went as well at 4am!  Todd got me a Wii for Christmas, and that has consumed our nights for the last couple of days!  We bought the sports game and the Bass Pro Hunting game….we just can’t seem to get past the Alaska level; we both were crossed eyed the other night after trying and trying and trying!!! 
 

Last night our low was -1 and that continued throughout the day.  At noon the temperature was 12 degrees, and they are saying the wind chill tonight will be 20 to 30 BELOW ZERO!!!!   UK!!  We got snow the other day, not much, but enough to drift in the driveway, so I drove the truck this morning and Todd drove the Jeep, the heaters didn’t kick in until we both got to work, it was quite a chilly drive!!  But we are due to hit 34 on Wednesday!!  Pretty bad when that is what you are looking forward to in the weather, with more snow on Thursday.
 

No big plans and no reservations as of now at the HHH, except for the Annual Cousins Christmas in Almont this year!!

Recently it has been noticed that there are people that are not friends and family viewing this site.  If you are not a friend or family to us, please surf the internet elsewhere!  I can see each IP address that visits this site, how many times and what was searched on the internet to find it!  Just letting you know!

Well Todd and I are going to go explore the state this weekend!  With both of us off tomorrow, we are going to celebrate Veterans Day traveling…..Yellowstone, Jackson and Tetons here we come!  It will be nice.

I just got back from Milwaukee, next week is DC and the week after is Chicago!  Can I get some southern states for the warmth please?

Todd is studying for his senior master test that he takes in December and been working out a lot because he has a PT test coming up!

No snow for us this week which is unusual, there for a while it was a once a week affair!

I’ll post some pictures when we get back!

Well we had miller moths, then flies, then flying ants, back to moths, then wasps!  We had the screen door open from the garage to the kitchen and you could hear the garage buzzing, there were hundreds of them!  They were down at Stan’s as well.  Walk out the front door, 100’s.  Walk out the back door, 100’s of them.  This was while mom was here, so we tried to make a wasp trap!  Needless to say they weren’t interested.  However, Mom did send me some for next year after she was back home!

Well we hit our high today, this morning…..in the 40’s…supposed to get down to the 20’s tonight and our high tomorrow will be 30.  We are also supposed to be getting somewhere between 6-15 inches.  We are right on the edge of the shading where it says 12-15 inches!!!  So, it should be interesting tomorrow driving to work if we can make it.  Last time with 8 inches of snow we had 2 foot drifts, so I can only imagine the drifts we will have tomorrow.  Might be working from home tomorrow!

Our random plants in the green house finally got hit by the frost, I liked having them in there, but it was difficult to walk!!  The only thing that produced was the little pumpkin, the tomato plant died before anything turned red.

Not much, but wanted to update and let everyone know we may be buried soon!!