First blog of the new year

HI.. Here's hoping everyone had a good New Years and holidays. I'm trying to get back to some sort of a of a regular schedule. On the 31st, I got a new computer. Since then, I've been trying to install my work programs. I would not have thought it would be so hard. I got my North Carolina doctor's things to come up just fine, but my software for the Utah company has been another matter. Because my supervisor was off work on the 2nd (Friday) I could not talk to her about it until Monday, so I was stuck shuffling from one computer to the other to get my weekend work done. On Monday I talked to her and that is when the trouble started. She had me deactivate their software from my old computer to install it on the new one. After four days of talking with her... talking to her computer guru (at his work)... and much frustration on my end, on Thurs afternoon we (Ryan-computer guru) and I came to the conclusion that my new computer cannot run the software. My new computer has a 64-bit processor and the software is not compatible. So now.... I was stuck trying to get the software to reload on my old computer. This took another whole day. By the end of Friday, though, I was back up and running. I guess I'm just going to have to wait until their software catches up to my computer. GEESH-and I thought getting a new computer was a good thing!. Oh-Well, I'm back to shuffling, but at least I have a game-plan for next week. The girls are good. Swimming, Piano, and Gymnastics start back up next week. I know I'll be plenty busy. Hope everyone had a good week.

Merry x-mas 2008

Hello to all of our friends and family... I know it's a bit late, but wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We've had a full year. In May Rhiannon started swimming for a competitive swim team The Barracudas. She really likes it. In July, she turned 8. I can't believe where the time went. In August, we went camping to a place just over the Idaho border called Downata Hot Springs. It was a fun weekend, marred only by the fact that there seemed to have been a micro-burst our last night there. Our little tent trailer was a rocking and a rolling in the wind and rain, but we all stayed dry and warm. In September, we adopted John's brother's 6 mo German Short-hair pointer/Austrailian Shepard mix pup... (Bella). So we now have Dodger (our white lab), Stella (gray tabby), and Bella (the pup)... Oh, not to forget... we also have a leopard gecko named Twitch. Sometimes I forget about him because he is so quiet, but he has the cutest personality. Well, I don't know much more. Christmas is coming and I still have a few more presents to wrap. After Christmas is Morgan's birthday. I can't believe she will be 5 and going to Kindergarten next year. John and I are the same. He's still doing payroll for the school district and I am still typing medical reports.



Here's hoping everyone is healthy and having a good holiday season. Love, The Fritschle's

January Winter Wonderland.

Hello friends and family,

January was a busy month for us. I am just settling in with my new part-time job (in addition to the other part-time job that I am working). It is all coming together in some sort of a scheduled mess now. Rhiannon started back with swim lessons. We are hoping to get good enough by the end of Feb. to try out for the competitive team in town. Morgan tried dance, but we decided to go back to gymnastics, which she is really good at. The 25th was John's birthday. He is on that Atkin's diet, so you see his birthday cake was just a piece of cake that the girls ate. We have had so much snow this year it is unreal. Hope this finds everyone happy and well.

Love, the Fritschles.

Hardware Ranch Jan 19th

Hi Everyone,

Hope all are doing well. It's snowing here again today. Hey, I'm not gonna knock anybody's snow. I'm glad you guys in NC got some. Our friends in Georgia even got some (a skiff, but it shut the whole state down :) ).

This weekend we went up the next canyon over to a place called Hardware Ranch. They do sleigh rides in the winter where they feed the elk that live in that valley. It was real interesting, not to mention COLD! (about 25 degrees). We were all bundled up, as you will see. The sleighs are pulled by Clydsdales. They were amazing. The guide told us that between the two horses they weighed about 4200 pd. Wow! The elk herd in that valley is about 1400 head or so. The group that they were feeding that day was about 550. An interesting fact was they woudl scatter if you get off the sleigh. So no one was allowed off. We actually got to see a pair of bulls sparing.

We had brought along a thermos of Hot choc for afterwards. It was great!

"Reflections" District Winner

Hi-everyone.

Every year our school system has a contest with such categories as Dance/music, 3-D/Visual arts, Photography, and literature called "The Reflections Progam." This year Rhiannon entered a 3-D Visual art project. She worked many days/afternoons under the guiadance of John's Mom (who does a lot of crafty things-anything from oil painting to stained glass to pottery among others). Here is a picture of her project. None of these pictures really shows the amount of effort that went into this project. Rhiannon used collage from magazines for the mountains. She used real sand to glue to the path. The grass was painted using watercolor and the "trash" on the ground is actual bits of paper and straws and things that she glued on. She even made the clothes for her "person" herself.

In November, she won an "award of excellence" (first place in her grade) for her school and the project went on to the district level. Last night, we went to the awards ceremony, where she got an "honorable mention." She was exicited to be chosen for this award.

She got a certificate, a $1 gold coin, and a choc/raspberry candybar called, "A one dollar bar." Afterwards, we went to Kirt's ( a local drive-in) for a tasty treate of ice cream. It was only about 20-degrees outside, but that is what the girls wanted.

Of course, Morgan couldn't resist getting into some of the pictures, too.

Our love to everyone.

2:30PM 01/09/08 snow!!!!

The snow is still coming down. I just can't believe it. Check these pictures out.

It is now up above the swings on the girls swingset. Here's the latest depth. All that is visible of the Honda passport....part of a mirror.

Don't know if it will ever end..... I kind a like it myself :), but that's just because I don't have to drive anywhere to go to work.

Love to everyone. Amy

More january snow

Here's the Honda, again. Better test of the depth

Here's our snow depth.... This is looking down from the front porch after John had made one swipe with the snowblower.

John is out snowblowing... trying to clear a pathway to get to work. Don't know when the snowplow will make it down our road, probably not until tomrrow. That is usually the case. The girls decided to use the table as a snow-fort. I think it's as close as they are going to get to building one this year... who knows. It could do this some more though.

I'll try to add these other photos now. Much love to everyone.