Thursday, September 19, 2013

Colorado Bucket List 2013

 Hello to you my dear friends and family with greetings from 611 miles out here in the west.  When the late and great singer John Denver always said...."Now that's far out!", well I guess I know now what he was saying.  Probably it didn't mean exactly the same thing but hey, it works for me these days. Some times I feel like I'm on the outer edge of the universe here along the Rocky Mountains and yet other times, such as when I write this blog to you, it's as if we are all sitting down around the same supper table, sharing a common meal and some great conversation.  Especially when I am homesick, I prefer to think of it in that way.

It's been some time now, in fact over 6 months, since I finished up the last item on the Miller Bucket List back home in Kansas.  Since getting married and moving here to Colorado, I've been a "slacker" as such in formulating a plan that would ensure that I made the most of each day of my life.  For three months, most of my energies have been spent on being homesick and not knowing what to do with myself in this "foreign country" that the locals here call "Colorado".

It feels kind of nice tonight, to actually say that I have become more accepting of life here and although I still miss home back in Kansas, I can finally find some positive points to living here along the Western Slopes.  My good husband Mike put up with some serious times of loneliness and sadness for me here and still continues to love me.  Slowly but surely I have learned to become a tiny bit less of a flatlander and I suppose as time goes on, it will become even better.  I have made a wonderful group of friends amongst the folks that I work with each and every day at Olathe Elementary in the small town of Olathe, CO, only ten miles from here in Montrose.  I have found my niche here and spend my week days in the company of 17 9-year olds, whom I have come to love very much in such a short span of time.  I have been blessed and for every heartache that I felt in leaving the place that I have always called "home", Kansas, there have been many nice things that have found their way to me.  For the least of things, make that the very least of things, this Kansas farm girl will always give thanks.

I've been thinking that it's time to get back towards working on my bucket list and after some thought, came up with the following "Colorado Bucket List of 2013".  They seem attainable to me and none of them really sound as difficult or dangerous as curb jumping on my bicycle ended up being.  I'm going to start with these and work my way up.  It feels good to have something to strive for once more and equally good to finally "release" a little of the homesickness.  I will always be a Kansas girl, the daughter of a Kansas farmer.  But now, I'm a Kansas girl whose home is in Colorado and that's not that I love the mountains or anything it's just that home has to be where your heart is.  

Good night everyone out there!  Have a great night's sleep, all of you.  Peace always!




I'm getting a whole lot of mileage out of my ALS Walk of 2010 shirt from back in Kansas.  My brother was a fine man who left us way too soon in 2007.  Every time I put it on, I think of him.  Rest in peace my dear brother, Mike Scott.




1.  To learn how to "snow shoe".

2.  To make my first snowman from Colorado snow. (that may be a bit of a challenge)

3.  To take a beautiful photo of the Aspen leaves in the fall.

4.  To make a scrapbook for my first grandchild, to be born in early March of 2014 and deliver it to Whidbey Island in Washington in person during our spring break in April.

5.  To make a difference in the lives of the 17 students that I have been entrusted with in my fourth grade classroom and to help them learn how to bring up their scores in reading and math by the end of the school year in May.

6.  To continue to make the journey over Monarch Pass and back home to Kansas for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

7.  To bring back the fine art of letter writing in my life and send a real letter (not an email or text message) each month to someone that I know.

8.  To be a witness to the sunrise and the sunset from the top of Cerro Summit.

9.  To continue to "reconnect" with as many of my Facebook friends as possible, buy them something to drink, and sit and talk about life for a while.

10. To follow the advice of a very true friend and never let my "bucket list" go empty because you cannot kick a "full bucket".


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