Welcome Back.....

To start off, I am sorry. I failed. I obviously have not kept up with my blog and have received some vicious feedback from my (one) follower(s). Not to name any names Luis. I will try to be better I promise.. okay take that back I don't promise but I will try.

The only other really big announcement that needs to be made is to publish the winner of the Cult Rivalry.. needless to say it's not this girl..

They beat me. Fair and square. There really was no competition there towards the end of the year, just yousguys number rising while mine were stagnant. Therefore, 




 

Other news that is really old news at this point. I placed my first cache!!! Karma It is an easy park and grab but hey its fun to see who actually goes out to the middle of nowhere to find a cache. I must blame my mom for my new cache, after taking her to find her first caches, she told me I should place one! So I did.. in Arizona. I forewarned her that she would have to help me maintain the cache and take care of it... so we'll see how that goes. So far there has only been 5 visits logged.. but what do you expect when it's in the middle of NOWHERE!!


Slight exaggeration

 Have a few more ideas for some more caches I need to place.. just haven't gotten around to it yet.. will soon.. hopefully...

So here I will go on to complain about why I was unable to do much of anything, including keeping my blog up to date until now. I volunteered to help out with this thing called the Sierra Blanca Wildfire Academy (SBWFA)... BAD IDEA!! I pretty much got handed most of everything to take care of... or at least that's what it felt like to me.. My first year being part of the Academy and they had me taking all the nominations, issuing all the acceptance letters or "sorry the class is full" letters, handling cancellations and answering dumb questions like "When should I travel for my class?" Really? Do I look like your FREAKIN' travel agent....


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The above is clearly not me as there was not a smile on my face as I was asked to help a 40 year old man decide when he should leave for his class so he made it on time..  This year of the academy was also the first year that classes filled up and we weren't able to get everyone that applied into classes. So I also got to deal with a bunch of pissed off people who were clearly upset that they waited till the last minute to apply to the academy and now couldn't attend because classes were full. I'm sorry, tell me how your lack of initiative is my fault.


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On a much better and happier note....

My travel bug Wandering Ducky was rescued!!!!

It was a daring and brave mission by Love Cachers who traveled 77.38 miles on a clearly planned and well executed sting operation to guarantee the safety of my beloved Travel Bug. Considering its only 1 of 2 that I have ever placed and the only one still in existence (remember God Bless the USA is still MIA).....

If anyone has seen this Travel Bug, please return him to the world of Geocaching.

I am so happy that after almost 5 months, Wandering Ducky was rescued from Hwy 87 TB Hotel and moved to Love's TB Treehouse. Since his rescue, Ducky has gone an additional 422 miles and is currently residing in The SCARY Halloween cache in Arkansas!

On that I note I now want to express my undying and complete devotion to:

I registered Wandering Ducky on this website in hopes of finding out if he was actually still in the cache after 5 months and to try and get him moving again. I really didn't know how many people participate in this website and if it would help... well it did!!! So far the site claims to have rescued 1,268 travel bugs and still have 367 travel bugs that need rescuing! So come on people let's rescue some TB's!!!! So if anyone has any Travel Bugs that haven't moved for a while go to tb-rescue and register your TB and get them moving again!!

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On a more somber note... more gloom and doom..

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 This fire season is supposed to be just as bad as last years. Same weather pattern, same lack of rain, same dry fuel.... just need the idiots who go and start them and we'll be off the the races again. So my participation in geocaching and blogging might again be thwarted by this thing called real life that I guess I have to participate in if I want to be able to afford the gas to drive around geocaching...

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Seasonal Geocacher and a Big Loser

by RadioAngel

So it has been brought to my attention by my nemesis yousguys that I have lost this round of the Cult Rivalry... So here you go!!

The winner of Round 3 of the Geocaching Cult Rivalry is....



 ....yousguys:

And finally the Loser Badge goes to:

RadioAngel



Round 3 Final Score:

yousguys=49

RadioAngel =48

There you have it Andrew, victory is yours.... I am wondering though... it is quite funny that yousguys only got enough caches to beat me by one? So was it truly a "Caching Adventure" day... or a last ditch effort to win at least one trophy during our Rivalry??

All in all, this last part of the year has not been real productive when it comes to Geocaching for me... or any of my cult members... Is it the cold weather? Is it the holidays? Christmas less than 20 days away? The half a foot of snow on the ground?

This is not my idea of a good time... nor my husband I would guess.. Is there such thing as seasonal Geocachers? Because I'm pretty sure I am one.... I'm not ashamed. I like being warm. I do not enjoy freezing my ass off while I dig in the snow for a little plastic box.... Perhaps if I had someone to go caching with in the snow that would be enjoyable company and not miserable and hating every minute (insert husband here) I would have fun with it. But I'm not going to drag my 1 1/2 year old son around in the freezing cold just for Geocaching Glory...

So there you have it. I am a wimpy seasonal cacher....

Moving on..... it finally feels like Christmas and winter... and it only took severe winter storms, 6" + of snow, and an Administrative Day from work because the weather was so bad... Nothing like being paid to sit at home in your P.J.'s watching Toy Story 3 with your kiddo!

Now for the heart breaking news:

My beloved TB God Bless the USA is missing in action. I got this email today:

             I have bad news for your TB that was in  my hotel. My hotel is a    

             Medicine Cabinet mounted to the back wall of my shop, with a combination

             lock on it. Someone came by in the last week and undid my lock, got in and

             took everything. Then proceeded to lock it back up with their lock and leave

             the key inside. I had to cut the lock off and get a new lock. I hope your TB

             shows back up somewhere.

              Sorry

                   Joe Friday


So there you have it... Not doing real well in the Travel Bug department. One is stuck in Texas in Hwy 87 TB Hotel and the other is now missing and surely will never be found.

I am thinking I will keep future TB's and Geocoins safe with me for a while... not ready to let my babies out into the cruel world.....

I don't plan on caching anytime soon either... I have Christmas Dinner and present extravaganza to plan... This is the first time we are actually staying home and having Christmas at our house....

She could be my twin
right now..

Turkey Day = Horrible Caching

By RadioAngel

I had glorious visions of major caching adventures during my Thanksgiving holiday. I was off from work Wednesday through Sunday. I was going to be with family who wouldn't have a problem watching Jase while I went out on a little hike or two......... I had four wonderful caches picked out.. Nice higher terrain difficulty than usual. All on top of mountain peaks. A notorious weeds19 cache....

Little Hatchets Treasure Chest
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Hatchet
Bootheel Bonanza: Big Hatchet Peak
Playas Peak

Four wonderful caches to mark off my list. Four small victories.... But instead

Not one cache was to be found the entire weekend. I was pretty much devastated. It is still hard for me to talk about it. My dreams were so big, and they pretty much died on Wednesday.

Let me set the scene:
Weston and I were all sitting around my in-law's house Wednesday morning, nothing going on, perfect weather outside.

Weston's Mother Asks:
"What are your plans for the day?"

Weston Replies:
"Nothing I just want to hang out around the house."

It was then that I knew my caching dreams were doomed. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and it rained all day. Friday was "Black Friday" and therefore nonnegotiable. Saturday consisted of cold miserable weather. I could use my husband as an escape goat saying I would never convince him to take me out hiking in 30 degree Fahrenheit weather but the truth was I didn't want to go out and freeze to death.

And Sunday was spent in church and driving home...

To make matters worse, I think at 27 years old I need a hip replacement... okay probably not but it really really hurts like hell. It was so bad on Thursday night that I was on the floor changing Jase's diaper.... and I got stuck on the damn floor. Moving left or right even an inch caused excruciating pain. I just sat there in silence cussing myself for about 30 minutes.

Me next year at 28 years old

To sum it all up: The Cult Rivalry still stands as it did in Round 2

RadioAngel = 48
yousguys = 44

So I'm just going to let this last week slide and consider it a free holiday pass.

In other news, since my husband has already shouted it from the roof top and everyone in their brother already knows....... I'm prego!! That's right. With Child. Expecting. Bun in the Oven.... You get the idea. And so getting this decal for my Suburban (Weston has no say) .

The next generation cacher should be here late July - early August...

1st Geocaching Event and More......

By RadioAngel

So this weekend was pretty busy, but than again, most of my weekends are....

Friday night: Sadly, I did not make it to the two new published and un-found caches by my house due to complete darkness at a ridiculous time. I'm just saying if it's going to be 73 degrees Fahrenheit outside than it should not be dark by 5:00 p.m.

Saturday morning was complete chaos at my house, as most mornings usually are....

Jase slept in... which instantly through the day off as I was pretty sure Hell had froze over! I woke up to sunlight... thought what the hell... than realized there were two possibly un-found geocaches right up the road!! "GET UP!" I think I screamed at Weston.. which was rightly met with a not so nice look. 

After realizing it was almost pointless to try and hurry to get out the door and us all be in a good mood, I settled on just getting ready for the Geocaching Event breakfast. So we got ready, loaded the Suburban/ Caching-mobile, and ..... GUESS WHAT ...

I decided we had some time to do a morning cache run before breakfast.. which led to:

Not 1 but 2 First to Finds!!!               

Oh yeah.. Doing my happy dance right now!!! I now have a total of 3 FTFs.. and while we are talking numbers.. It's Monday and......

Cult Rivalry Totals Are In!!

RadioAngel = 48

yousguys = 44

Therefore, winner is:     ME!! 

And the Loser Badge goes to: yousguys

Anyways, we made it to the Geocaching Event, had breakfast and met a bunch of Geocachers for all over NM. I got a 100 Finds Patch for when I actually get 100 finds!!

Weston says I'm not allowed to put it on my backpack until I actually have 100 Finds... So it sits in my TB pouch waiting for the day it can be placed out in the open for everyone to see.  

Saturday afternoon consisted of a birthday party for one of my son's friends. There was cake, a jumping castle

and a dozen 3 year old  girls. Jase was totally outnumber with the girl/boy ratio, but needless to say he had a blast and was extremely exhausted by the time we left....

Jase sleeping in the car on the way home = Geocaching our way home!!! That's right! Weston even suggested we stop at a few on the way home... This is a major break through and quite possibly I'm hoping a sign of peaked interest in my new found love affair.... A girl can hope.

So we hit two more caches on our way home and called it a day.

Sunday was picture day.. again. We somehow convinced my co-worker to take pictures out at White Sands National Park of both my family and my boss Nicole's family. Her daughter just had a birthday party Saturday.

Extreme Chaos ensued. Kids did not cooperate. It was windy. Jase almost got lost... Yeah, Weston and I found out we need to work on our communication skills.

Let me set the scene:

Weston, Jase and I are out at White Sands playing before it's our turn to take pictures. We were hoping we could get him warmed up and happy so pictures would be easier.... (didn't work).

Nicole, my boss, was also having problems with her daughter Paula, who kept running away from the camera. We had brought a peddle front end loader as a prop for Jase to take pictures on. I thought it might be something to help distract Paula long enough to get some pictures.

I yell at Weston:

"Honey, go get the front end loader for Paula to play on."

This is followed by Weston taking off running to the Suburban and Jase of course running after him thinking it's a game. Weston looks back and sees Jase chasing him.. I think okay Weston has Jase. So I commence on trying to help Nicole get a picture of Paula.

5 Minutes Later:

Weston comes running back with the front end loader......... and no Jase......

Panic sets in, I asked him if he had Jase, he replies no....

Than Caleb (Nicole's husband) says, "Well there he is" and points out in the middle of this field of shrubs and bushes.... and there is Jase... just wondering without a care in the world.

It's quite funny now, it wasn't then, but it is now. Jase wasn't scared at all, didn't know he was lost, was just outside where he loves to be. Another comforting fact is that I work at an emergency dispatch center... I kinda know the number to search and rescue!!

What was also hilarious was following Jase's feet print in the sand. He totally like bailed off a little hill and I was looking at his feet print like, "Wow he didn't even fall he made it all the way down the hill..... oh wait. There's a face plant."

So mental note:

When watching Jase run away...

make sure someone is watching where he's going.

Happy caching fellow cachers!

New Published Caches

By RadioAngel

There seems to be nothing worse than seeing 3 new published caches in your area.... and being stuck at work...

These said caches were published late last night and were ripe for the picking today.. yet again here I am stuck at work dreading the ding of my email for fear it will show a

"Watchlist: armadillogal found These Critters are not on the Menu (Traditional Cache)"

So there you have it folks. Two of the three are left... as far as I know it. It is now dark and the race will be on first thing in them morning!! I have already warned my husband what we will be doing at first light.. I mean these caches are right up the canyon from our house!!! It would be a mortal sin NOT to go get them!!!

With that being said, if I get some caches this weekend I just might be able to win Round 2 of the Cult Rivalry... if not then Round 2 will have to go to Team yousguys... they now have 44 caches to my 43... But the weekend is young... however it is a very busy weekend for us... So victory might be lost this Round and I will be awarded the loser badge... 

just thought of it... so Andrew was spared last week during Round 1.

I am so excited for my first Geocaching Event Tomorrow, like this excited:



So the schedule for tomorrow is cache hunt in the morning, Geocaching Party for breakfast, birthday party for lunch, and if I'm really really lucky more geocaching after the party on the way home!!!

I am hoping to start working on my goal of finding all the geocaches within 5 miles of my house! So far I have 53/65 left.... thought I was actually doing alot better than that before right now.... any whoo... I have that goal and once I reach it I will expand to 10 or 15 miles!! I plan on total Otero County domination!! MUAHAHAHAHA

Also super excited for the preview of the family photos we had done last Saturday! Just love them!! Marquette LaRee Photography is just amazing!!

I swear he's not texting and looking
 at his phone!!



Mesilla, NM



Rio Grand near Mesilla

 



Amazing pictures and we can't wait to see the rest!!!!

RadioAngel 1 - Team yousguys 0

By RadioAngel

So I'm pretty much going to give Round 1 of the yousguys/RadioAngel rivalry to myself...

I'm writing the blog, so I can do that.

I figured (just now) that I will make this a weekly competition. Who ever has the most total cache finds every Sunday gets a point until say January 6th (it's a Sunday). And who ever has the most points at that time wins....maybe some sort of prize. Yet to be determined. Sounds good to me. I mean, I am inventing my own competition so of course it sounds good. All cult members encouraged to join!!

After my caching spree yesterday, I currently have 43 cache finds to yousguys 42.

That is only because my husband loves me very much and I begged him to go caching with me yesterday. We found 8 of 8. A personnel record all made possible because Jase slept the entire time and we went caching around town where there was pretty much a cache at every street corner.

Let's just say after a day of caching in town, even though it was a Sunday and not that many people out (Thank God)... I HATE NANOS!!!

This girl looks happy... she must be on crack!

There is no way finding something the size of a dime, in a 30 foot radius (remember my GPS SUCKS) is fun.. I about gave up on a few of the caches until my knight in shining armor (loving husband) came out and helped me find them. I swear he has like a caching 6th sense. More than once he has stepped out of the truck, said "I bet the cache is right there" and I'll be damned.... Guess what! It's right freaking there!

I am also learning that I must look in ALL possible places that a cache MIGHT be, not only where my narrow minded self thinks they SHOULD be...

Sunday Geocaching Recap

1. Alley Cat - GC298QX
Initially, GPS had me on the wrong side of the alley, which after 10 minutes forced my husband to get out the truck and come help the damsel in distress. After thinking, "My GPS is probably way off", I decided to try on the other side of the alley. After some looking in "obvious" spots, finally found it.

2. "Paranoid" - GC27PW4
This one really threw me for a loop, especially because it was a nano (blah). I again was going around in circles, which was probably pretty funny to watch for anyone watching... I'm sure my husband was laughing in the truck too. To make it even more interesting, I was walking around in circle around a police yard.. yeah not the least bit suspicious! "Sorry officer, no I'm not casing the joint"! My husband was about to get out of the truck when the provided hint sunk in...

3. Among the Palms - GC2BFT4
By far my least favorite cache so far, did I mention it was a nano.... GPS again had me wandering around in circle. Didn't help this cache was on a busy intersection.. trying to be inconspicuous while holding a GPS and walking in circles a dozen times... Not so much. Weston did have to get out of the truck for this one and found it in less than 2 minutes.... It's a love/hate relationship sometimes..

 Love that he finds them so quickly, Hate that it makes me feel like an idiot.

4. UNSIGNED LETTER - GC323T5

This one wasn't too bad. My GPS only had me looking in a tree that was NOT where it was hidden. Luckily by that time I was getting the hang of looking in places in a pretty big radius of where my GPS said it should be.. (Garmin I will be calling you!) Weston did have to get out of the truck for this one as well... although I ended up finding it.

5. You Don't Bring Me Flowers - GC2KZCW

Okay by this point, my GPS was really starting to piss me off! It kept telling me this hidden Altoids tin was next to a light pole in a parking lot... I kept thinking this can't be right, there is no where to hide anything...... After almost giving up, I don't know what made me look under there.... Sorry I'm not giving it away, you'll have to find it for yourself. I mean I almost pulled my hair out, you can do the same.

6. You've Got A Friend - GC21Z77

Located at an animal shelter. Thank goodness it was Sunday and closed. Another one that took 10 minutes for me to decided it wasn't there. Give up. Than decided to go back and look one more time. Could it be under "there"? Seriously, why is this so hard for me...

7. Spider - GC335KF

Now this was my type of cache!! It was easy to find, GPS sent me in the right direction... Why can't they all be like this! Thanks armadillogal for restoring faith in my Geocaching abilities.

8. Crossroads of New Mexico TB Trading Post - GC2EG09

Again my kind of cache! Huge container and slightly out in the open!! TB Trading Post was full to the brim, but I dropped off Army Duckers since I knew I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Found a bunch of TBs listed as being at the cache but were in fact not there. I emailed all the TB owners in hopes they will mark them missing.

This has kinda become my Geocaching campaign. To let TB owners know when their TBs aren't in a specific cache that way they can mark them missing and take it off the cache trackable inventory.... 

Happy Caching fellow Cachers!

psst... Andrew.... I'm winning