Sum up 30 years? Really? Here goes!
It has been a whirl wind tour since May of 1979, a tour that I am sure all will agree, has gone by way too fast.
I stayed in Sidney for a while after high school, but unlike Lori, I needed something different. I moved to Denver and went to the Colorado Institute of Arts for 6 months. Ran out of money and ran back home to mom and dad and worked for Cabela's for 2-3 years. Then I moved to Lincoln, NE to live with my sister and hangout. I still didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up so I could not bring myself to check out college. So, I waited on tables.
In 1984 I walked the Santa Fe Trail from Kansas City, MO to Santa Fe, NM, 980 miles in 91 days. It was an amazing experience. I fell in love with being out doors, and I believe it is what has drawn me to physically challenge myself ever since. Unfortunately, all this out door physical fittness doesn't pay the bills. So, out of money again, back to mom, dad and Sidney. Started working at UPS. That was okay, but yet, there was still something missing. I needed more stimulus, so, it was back to Colorado for college.
I had decided to move to Boulder in 1988 and go to CU because I didn't want to go to a "football college". Besides, Boulder is cool and artsy fartsy! Well in 1990 or so, CU became a "football college". While I went to school I worked for the biggest Liquor Store in the (world) state of Colorado, Liquor Mart. On "Football Saturdays", whenever CU played Nebraska, I proudly wore my NEBRASKA paraphanalia. I really enjoyed that pin that played the fight song. Whenever Nebraska scored, I played the pin over the intercom.
Then in 1991, I met Larry Kahn and married him in 1992. In 1993, I ran the Leadville Trail 100 in August and graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting that December. In 1994, we moved to Winter Park, Colorado and became professional ski bums for 11 years. As someone had told me at our 20th reunion, I was "living the life". Of course I had to hold down 2-3 jobs at a time to do it, like waiting tables, teaching nordic skiing, painting, and being a secretary for the elementary school.
As my husband and I are avid runners, hikers, mountain bike riders, and nordic skiing enthusiasts, we loved living in Winter Park. We could dress up in the gear du jour and walk out our back door to which ever trail that called to us. It was in short.....WONDERFUL! I have run and hiked thousands of miles on mountain trails, climbed some of the highest peaks in Colorado, (Larry has climbed all the 14ers in CO), road over trails on a mountain bike that I never thought I could, and experienced scenary, animals and weather conditions that could blow you away. I have nordic skied thousands of Kilometers, training for and participating in, ski marathon races all over the country, CO, CA, WI, MN, MT, WY, ID, UT. I never thought I could love a sport so much as I do nordic skiing! And tomorrow is another day!!!!!
Larry has a daughter, Jennifer, who is awesome. She was 18 when I met her, so we get along like sisters and that is pretty cool. She lived with us in 1993 in Boulder for a year until she decided to go back to North Carolina, shere she grew up, and to college. Then again in 1996, she moved to Winter Park for a summer. She met her future husband, Chris, back in NC. They eventually moved to Colorado and lived in Boulder. They were married in 2001 in Mexico on the beach. What a great place for a wedding.
In 2005 we were feeling like we needed to expand our horizons, so we moved to Montana. First things first, where are the trails? Then the search for jobs and a house. We are pretty confident when we say, that we were the people that bought the last house, at the peak of the housing bubble, and that burst it. But, we now live in Montana and we love it.
One year later, my husband Larry, found out that he can no longer run, as he has bad hips. The good news is, he can still nordic ski, hike and bike, so not all is lost. I still run with friends but it is not as much fun to do without Larry. So we hike more and ski a bunch when the snow flies.
Currently I am working for a large Plant Nursery in Bozeman, MT and we live in Belgrade. I have been enjoying learning about flowers, trees and shrubs and have loaded my yard with every new love. (Maybe I should have studied Hort. Oh well...) I have not been painting since we moved to MT, except the walls in my new house. But, I find much pleasure in gardening. I call it painting with flowers.
We love discovering all the trails and vistas that Montana has to offer. To me MT is like living in Colorado and Nebraska. There are beautiful fields of wheat and cattle as far as the eye can see and then there are all the mountains. It too is WONDERFUL!
In April of 2008, Larry's daughter Jennifer and her husband Chris decided to make us grandparents! (Does that make us old?.....Nahhhh!) Grover is the happiest kid I know, and oh so cute! (So, now I sound like a grandparent.) They live in Raleigh, NC which makes it difficult to see them as often as we would like, but, we have the technology! We get to visit on Skype. We watch him walk and do all the growing up baby things on our computer. What fun!
In a nutshell, I still don't know what profession I will have when I grow up. It sure has been a great adventure so far. Life is a challenge, you may as well enjoy everything while you can right? I hope to never rest on my laurels (for very long). As for today, it's snowing!!!!!
Yippee!
It really has been great to see all the old and new photos of everyone on the blog. I am really sorry I missed all the fun. Sometimes it seems that everything happens at once, and I think it is getting a little harder to keep up with it all. (Then I visit my parents, I can't keep up with them either!)
Anyway, it is great to see everyone so happy and well. Come to Montana sometime and we will show you the sights!
Take care, as always, love to all, Valerie
It has been a whirl wind tour since May of 1979, a tour that I am sure all will agree, has gone by way too fast.
I stayed in Sidney for a while after high school, but unlike Lori, I needed something different. I moved to Denver and went to the Colorado Institute of Arts for 6 months. Ran out of money and ran back home to mom and dad and worked for Cabela's for 2-3 years. Then I moved to Lincoln, NE to live with my sister and hangout. I still didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up so I could not bring myself to check out college. So, I waited on tables.
In 1984 I walked the Santa Fe Trail from Kansas City, MO to Santa Fe, NM, 980 miles in 91 days. It was an amazing experience. I fell in love with being out doors, and I believe it is what has drawn me to physically challenge myself ever since. Unfortunately, all this out door physical fittness doesn't pay the bills. So, out of money again, back to mom, dad and Sidney. Started working at UPS. That was okay, but yet, there was still something missing. I needed more stimulus, so, it was back to Colorado for college.
I had decided to move to Boulder in 1988 and go to CU because I didn't want to go to a "football college". Besides, Boulder is cool and artsy fartsy! Well in 1990 or so, CU became a "football college". While I went to school I worked for the biggest Liquor Store in the (world) state of Colorado, Liquor Mart. On "Football Saturdays", whenever CU played Nebraska, I proudly wore my NEBRASKA paraphanalia. I really enjoyed that pin that played the fight song. Whenever Nebraska scored, I played the pin over the intercom.
Then in 1991, I met Larry Kahn and married him in 1992. In 1993, I ran the Leadville Trail 100 in August and graduated college with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting that December. In 1994, we moved to Winter Park, Colorado and became professional ski bums for 11 years. As someone had told me at our 20th reunion, I was "living the life". Of course I had to hold down 2-3 jobs at a time to do it, like waiting tables, teaching nordic skiing, painting, and being a secretary for the elementary school.
As my husband and I are avid runners, hikers, mountain bike riders, and nordic skiing enthusiasts, we loved living in Winter Park. We could dress up in the gear du jour and walk out our back door to which ever trail that called to us. It was in short.....WONDERFUL! I have run and hiked thousands of miles on mountain trails, climbed some of the highest peaks in Colorado, (Larry has climbed all the 14ers in CO), road over trails on a mountain bike that I never thought I could, and experienced scenary, animals and weather conditions that could blow you away. I have nordic skied thousands of Kilometers, training for and participating in, ski marathon races all over the country, CO, CA, WI, MN, MT, WY, ID, UT. I never thought I could love a sport so much as I do nordic skiing! And tomorrow is another day!!!!!
Larry has a daughter, Jennifer, who is awesome. She was 18 when I met her, so we get along like sisters and that is pretty cool. She lived with us in 1993 in Boulder for a year until she decided to go back to North Carolina, shere she grew up, and to college. Then again in 1996, she moved to Winter Park for a summer. She met her future husband, Chris, back in NC. They eventually moved to Colorado and lived in Boulder. They were married in 2001 in Mexico on the beach. What a great place for a wedding.
In 2005 we were feeling like we needed to expand our horizons, so we moved to Montana. First things first, where are the trails? Then the search for jobs and a house. We are pretty confident when we say, that we were the people that bought the last house, at the peak of the housing bubble, and that burst it. But, we now live in Montana and we love it.
One year later, my husband Larry, found out that he can no longer run, as he has bad hips. The good news is, he can still nordic ski, hike and bike, so not all is lost. I still run with friends but it is not as much fun to do without Larry. So we hike more and ski a bunch when the snow flies.
Currently I am working for a large Plant Nursery in Bozeman, MT and we live in Belgrade. I have been enjoying learning about flowers, trees and shrubs and have loaded my yard with every new love. (Maybe I should have studied Hort. Oh well...) I have not been painting since we moved to MT, except the walls in my new house. But, I find much pleasure in gardening. I call it painting with flowers.
We love discovering all the trails and vistas that Montana has to offer. To me MT is like living in Colorado and Nebraska. There are beautiful fields of wheat and cattle as far as the eye can see and then there are all the mountains. It too is WONDERFUL!
In April of 2008, Larry's daughter Jennifer and her husband Chris decided to make us grandparents! (Does that make us old?.....Nahhhh!) Grover is the happiest kid I know, and oh so cute! (So, now I sound like a grandparent.) They live in Raleigh, NC which makes it difficult to see them as often as we would like, but, we have the technology! We get to visit on Skype. We watch him walk and do all the growing up baby things on our computer. What fun!
In a nutshell, I still don't know what profession I will have when I grow up. It sure has been a great adventure so far. Life is a challenge, you may as well enjoy everything while you can right? I hope to never rest on my laurels (for very long). As for today, it's snowing!!!!!
Yippee!
It really has been great to see all the old and new photos of everyone on the blog. I am really sorry I missed all the fun. Sometimes it seems that everything happens at once, and I think it is getting a little harder to keep up with it all. (Then I visit my parents, I can't keep up with them either!)
Anyway, it is great to see everyone so happy and well. Come to Montana sometime and we will show you the sights!
Take care, as always, love to all, Valerie
Wow!!
ReplyDeleteValerie - You are an inspiration!! Glad you are happy.
ReplyDeleteJanet Christjans Volkmer