Sights and Sounds of Spring

I love this time of year. When the weather teases us with short bursts of warm temps and signs of life appear again in the trees and plants. I am very ready for spring! It was so beautiful on Tuesday night so I took a stroll and had to bring the camera with me.

The daffodils are starting to peek out
Our Bradford Pears are beginning to bud. Soon they will be a brilliant white.
The pussywillow is springing to life as well!
Couldn't resist taking video of Cookie playing with her new best friend. Our neighbors have a gorgeous new Australian Shepherd puppy. She comes over every evening to play. We don't know her name yet, but they are completely in love and wear each other out! It is too cute not to share.

What I love best about the country in the spring are the sounds. I stopped to take a picture of our very full pond (we have had a lot of rain lately), and the sounds of the frogs singing and the birds chirping were so wonderful, I found myself hitting the video button instead. If your computer speakers are good enough, you just might pick up the sounds too (along with a 360 degree view of our property).

Welcome Elliott Lewis Glidewell!

What a great way to spend an evening! Gabe and I went to visit our friends Chris and Barbie as they welcomed their new son into the world. Weighing in at a healthy 9lbs and measuring 21inches in length, this little guy stole the show tonite. And he didn't even wake up once! He slept the entire time, even with us passing him around and poking and proding. What a Cootie! Thought we would share a few pics...

Look at those cheeks!
Gabe and Proud Papa
Elliott and Grandma
Elliott and Big Brother Zachary
Gabey and baby (looks like a natural!)

My shiny, pretty thing

I debated over whether or not to post this entry on my blog, but a few of you had wanted to know what my award looked like, so here it is. I mean, I guess this is what blogs are for right?

The Marketing Excellence award is given every year at the National Sales Meeting to the person who makes the most contributions in the marketing efforts for the company. Usually it is given to a Product Manager who has had a particularly big year or has had a big product launch. So imagine my surprise when I got a call from my boss who was at the meeting in New Orleans. I had recently completed managing 2 big corporate marketing intiatives: re-designing and launching a new company website (on my list of links to the left of this page) and the new product catalog. Both were year-long projects. So with that, along with the other projects I had managed in 2007, the sales and marketing group voted and gave me the honor.

It was a very humbling and strange experience. I have never been recognized for my work before, but I also felt that I didn't deserve sole recognition for projects that involved a very large team effort. So it was a bit strange and uncomfortable in a way. But, in the end, I guess it did feel pretty good :) Plus, it came with a nice big cash bonus! Can't beat that!

Anyway, I won this award back in January, and here we are in March and I finally got the actual, physical award today. Pretty, isn't it? Now the pressure is on to keep up the level of work! eeeeek!

Well, enough of that. For those that wanted to see it, here it is.

Our own little slice of heaven

I thought an introduction to the Schnelle Farm would be appropriate. So here is a short pictoral tour of our humble home in the country.

View from the front porch
view of the back yard. Pretty fence, huh? Gabe and my stepdad John built it in three days last spring!
Jewells, the neighbor goat loves to come and play. Also a small view of the bard and loafing shed
Gabe mowin' and a nice view of our pond. Takes about three hours to mow our 5 acre yard.

More photos of the property will come soon. Spring is coming and with that comes lots of outdoor activities.

Stay tuned....

Cast of Characters

Since we don't have kids yet (and yes, we are trying!!!!) Our lives center around our 4 legged family. A lot of you know our clan all too well, but I thought it would be good to formally introduce the kids so those who are not familiar can get to know them. I promise that not all the posts will be about the animals! :)


Cheyenne (aka - The Princess) Chey is 100% D-I-V-A. She is terribly cute, clever, strong willed, and manipulative. She would probably have never lived to be her age had she not been so darn cute. Before the move from Denver, she demanded (and received) all the attention. Since the move to Missouri, however, and having to share attention with the others she now spends most of her time pouting under our bed. Only coming out when she smells food.

Angel (aka - Mama) Angel is the oldest of the group at a ripe 10 years old. Angel was Gabe's dog when we met. Angel and Cheyenne instantly fell in love with each other. I have to say that these girls were an integral part of our relationship :) Angel is sweet natured and a bit shy but loves to play. She is 10 going on 5 in personality. But her poor little body is slowing down considerably. Nonetheless, she loves the outdoors and her new home in the country.

Cookie - (aka - Cookie Monster) The newest, and youngest member of our canine kids. We adopted her last April from Gabe's brother, Michael. At 9 months old, she is total insanity. She is the perfect 'farm dog' and has quickly taken ownership of the property. She has a blast playing with the neighbor dogs, swimming in the pond, chasing birds and even chasing cars (a habit we will soon break).

The Cats

The cats were meant to be "Barn cats". Adopted soon after we moved in, we wanted to get 2 kittens to keep each other company and raise them around our dogs so they would be used to them. Then, when they were old enough, they would graduate to the great outdoors and only coming in at night. How naive I was to think I could let them go. They are FAR from barn cats. Spoiled house cats is more like it. Gabe will probably never forgive me for that one. Not ever being a big cat fan, I have to say I can't imagine life without them.

Brody (aka - The Rock Star) Petite, agile, and athletic. By far the coolest cat on the planet. That pretty much sums it up.

Linus (aka - Brutus) Linus is the polar opposite of Brody. Fat and lazy. MAJOR whiner. A tad on the skittish, ferile side. Doesn't like loud noises, kids...etc. But he is my cuddler. Very loving and definately a mama's boy.

We are quite enamored with our little family. The house gets quite crazy at times, and I have my quarterly breakdowns on the amount of hair and cleaning I do. Our Dyson Animal vacuum is working overtime. We have 15 acres and these 5 goofballs would rather spend their time in the house. This spring, I have vowed to force them outside a lot more. We will see what happens.....