Happy Birthday Keegan and Kai!

Well today my favorite little guy turned 2, so happy birthday from your Auntie and your Uncle. Also Happy Birthday ( a little late) to my bestie Kai. I wish I could have been in AK to celebrate with you. Kisses and hugs to all.

Our weekend started out with a stressful Friday. I locked my keys in my car out at a jobsite and needless to say my innocent mistake turned into a day of stress trying to get into my car. Thank god for good friends, my husband and my amazing parents. I enjoyed some Dateline with a cold one on Friday evening while Matt and Cerbo had dinner in Golden and watched some college basketball. I love being married but I still love my alone time, when I can get it.

Satuday evening was a blast I got a little girl time. I wish I had some pictures and maybe I can get some from Kathryn. One of my best buddies (Kathryn) and I went out to see Super Diamond ( a Neil Diamond cover band). We started the evening by meeting up with some of her business school class mates from DU. We did a brief but benificial pub crawl that commenced at the Ogden on Colfax. Now 70's music and especially Neil Diamond are not on my itunes list but hanging out with one of my favorite people, meeting new people and people watching definitely made the evening worth while. Thanks Kathryn for the invite.

Well we are headed to San Diego on Thursday morning for a little vacation with Matt's family. We are actually going to celebrate Angela's spring break, which we are very grateful we were included. I will definitely post photos of the trip next week. I am really excited to go to the zoo.

Happy April to everyone! Sure doesn't feel like spring yet.

A wonderful getaway

On Friday morning we loaded up the car and headed west on I-70 to Eagle (west of Vail about 30 miles) to visit my godmother Linda. We were going to meet my parents and Cade, Emily and Keegan would join us later that day. The drive was about 2.5 hours.

Hunter was a great Co-pilot and Fisher kept watch too.

Cade, Emily, and Keegan arrive around 5. Keegan was happy to see Pa and Grandma. Cade and Emily realized together they had matched pairs of socks. Cade really has found his soulmate:)

The "kids" (Cade, Emily, Keegan, Matt and I and our doggies) stayed in the bunk house. This picture is a view of the valley. The Ranch that Linda lives on is 11,000 acres. She is the house manager for the family that owns the ranch. The Wienbergs live in Greenwhich CT most of the year but spend roughly 6 weeks a year in Colorado. When they are here Linda cooks for them and helps around their house. Its a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Her house is about 200-feet from the house we stayed in and is very similar in design. As you can see from the photos they have received a lot of snow this year (3-5 feet in most places).

Cade, Emily, My dad and Gary (Linda's boyfriend)heading down to Lindas for cocktails. Fisher posing for the camera.

Friday night we celebrated Keegan's second birthday (even though it is on the 31st). We had delicious homemade chili's and cornbread at Linda's. We all had a few to many beverages and headed to bed early.

Saturday morning Keegan was ready to go play in the snow. Fisher and Cody (emily and Cades dog)were already out enjoying the gorgeous March day.

Come on Grandpa lets go feed the horses, dogs load up!

Miles of private property mean I get to ride with out my car seat, Uncle Matt only 25mph on these roads.

Cade and Emily gearing up for our snowmobile adventure, little did they know they would need all the energy they could get.

Keegan petting the horses with Grandpa and Gary. Cade took Keegan on a quick spin on the snowmobile before we headed off for the afternoon.

Cade and my Dad are so similar. They both need to quit smoking!

Emily is concerned Matt might not know how to handle this thing. Little did she know how right she was.

We took off with three snowmobiles. Matt took off into the trees to start and off an embankment. But after a few spills he got the hang of it. So the four of us took off to disturb thousands of acres of undisturbed snow. The views were amazing and when we shut off the engines you could hear only absolute silence, Amazing. Cade did bury his machine (twice) and it took us about a half an hour to dig him out. We were all exhausted because every time you got off your machine you would sink into the snow up to your waist so you had to crawl across the snow to get the the other person's machine.

Our snowmobiling lasted a little longer that planned so when we got back to base camp we hurried to get ready for Easter dinner.

Linda had fun aprons for all of us to wear.

Keegan had on his easter outfit and looked adorable. Uncle Matt secretly wants a sweater vest.

The table was set beautitfully and we sat down and enjoyed the beautitful meal that my mom and Linda prepared. Honey baked ham, cheese potatoes, steamed green beans, and a great salad. All the snowmobiling helped Matt and Cade go back for seconds.

Everyone was tuckered out afterall the food and fun so a little nap was in store. The puppy is Linda's new 8 week old border collie, Lily.

After a little rest we headed up to the main house for games and hot tub. They have a great gameroom.

The mountain lion was shot on the ranch. Keegan called it "Bo" which is my parents cat, all cats are "bo." but thank god most of them are not this size.

Matt made a great bartender, this is a family night where is your shirt? Cheers!

Keegan was drawn to the foosball.

No clothes makes it easier until Mom gets my swim trunks on.

Keegan takes after his grandfather, at least the cowboy part.

Grandma lets play shuffle board, he was a natural.

Hot tub in 5 degree weather, everyone got in on the action, even Keegan.

Our camera died about this time so I had to switch over to my parents. I will have to add the last photos later. Amen to family and Colorado, how are we so blessed?

We are getting a roomie

We are getting ready to go away for a few days with my family. I am so excited to hang out with all of them. We are going to load up the babies, our snow gear and swimsuits and head to Vail for Easter weekend and to celebrate Keegan's 2nd birthday ( I will post photos next week).

Matt and I have offered for Matt's younger sister Angela live with us next year and she has accepted. This was not a tough decision for either Matt or I. Angela is a senior in high school and has decided to attend college at Metro University (which is in downtown Denver). The college doesn't really have dorms and she was excited to move out but not to far. We are so excited to share our home with her. She is one of the most amazing people I know and at 17 she has been blessed with a "good head" on her shoulders. She is caring, fun and really is a sister to me. It is weird that when I first met Angela she was only 12. I have watched her blossom into this beautitful woman and I can not wait to see how these next few years go for her. Watch out world, here her she comes:)

All these discussions with Angela about college and how fun this part of your life is , have really had me thinking about how wonderful that time in my life was. I am so excited to watch her go through it. All the new people she will meet, the ups and the downs, but most of all how much you learn about yourself. God really gives us wonderful opportunity in this life if we choose to let him. Happy Easter!

Milking it for all its worth

Life has been really busy lately and I have not posted in a while. I am not sure where February went, but it was a wonderful month. We had a lot of gorgeous weather in Colorado, 70 degree days to boot. However, the magical thing about Colorado is one day you are in shorts and sandals, the next you wake up with 4-inches of fresh white stuff outside. This is how the past weekend went. We spent a wonderful Saturday with our family(which includes our fury kids). We woke up around 7 and hit the trail to take the dogs on a nice walk in Evergreen. Than Cade, Emily and our nephew Keegan stopped by and hung out. I am absolutely in love with my nephew, he is just the best. Of course every time he is around I tell the team Captain that I want to have babies. I know the timing is not quite yet but as I tell myself with all aspects of my life, it truly is in gods hands. So if god is ready for us to have beautitful babies I will open my arms to it fully.

Saturday evening we had dinner with new friends. It was a blast and we actually made it past 9:30. I forget what a blessing it is to meet new people and new things. Don't get me wrong we have some of the worlds greatest friends and we always like to catch up with them but sometimes they have heard all your crazy stories.

But that is not why I am writting this blog, the subject says "milking it for all its worth". Well on Sunday it snowed a lot and we hurried to go to the grocery store and get home, so we could cuddly in with a fire and stew. Well sometimes our plans just aren't meant to be. Matt was taking some sodas out to our garage fridge and he slipped on our porch. (slippers do not provide the appropriate traction) well his knee looked awful but he could walk on it. It was scratched and swollen. He really wanted to go to Urgent Care to get it checked out. This suprised me because he does not go to the doctor. Long Story short we spent part of our day finding out that my hubby had a bruised knee. The doc said to ice it and put it up for the day this meant I should put on apron and my best smile and serve him? Hmmm. not so much my plan for the day. I love to care take when people are sick or REALLY hurt but to be expected to wait on somebody...oops he married the wrong girl. I am really just venting because he knows me better than that but it did make me laugh that he thought I might fall for it.

This is a great poem

I heard this poem on NPR and it said so much to me about life and time.

Poem: "In The Middle" by Barbara Crooker from Radiance. © Word Press, 2005. Reprinted In

The Middle of a life that's as complicated as everyone else's, struggling for balance, juggling time.The mantle clock that was my grandfather's has stopped at 9:20; we haven't had time to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still,the chimes don't ring. One day I look out the window,green summer, the next, the leaves have already fallen,and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children almost grown,our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn again how to love, between morning's quick coffeeand evening's slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises,mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodiestwine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between;his tail, a metronome, 3/4 time. We'll never get there,Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urgingus on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches,sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the meshof rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled upin love, running out of time.

Peacful times

Most days I get up and I am happy. I am happy to be alive and live the life I do. I get ready for work, which is a routine. Take the dogs on a walk or to the code word to them "walky woo".

I love where we live. We do not have an amazing house but we have a house that is settled in the foothills of Colorado. It is small and perfect for the two of us. It is in need of a lot of remodel and when we decided to purchase it from the Team Captains parents we did it for these reasons. Nature and Nature. Two minutes (walking) from our house is a wonderful park that overlooks the mesa's of Golden and front range all the way to boulder. There are miles of trails that go in both directions. There is a lot of wildlife, Elk, deer, fox, coyotes, racoons, and mountain lions.

I usually get to the park around 7 when the sun is just coming up and the pink and purple are simply breath taking. It is at this time that I feel most at peace, it is at this time that I feel thankful and great the day with open arms. This is when I feel like I am in my own personal heaven. But really this is when I am closest to god and can speak to him freely.

I was thinking about peaceful times of the day for me and there are 3 of them. The first is what I just described, the time between night and day when the world is quiet and preparing for the day. There is the time between day and night when the comfort of your home or going to the gym is in your thoughts and then there is the night when the team Captain and I get to sit on the couch and converse about life, and I sit there and feel so thankful that my life is what it is and that he is the person I get to share it all with.

Our world is so crazy and overwhelming if we let it be but it also has so many small opportune moments we just have to inhale into our souls. I love when I am at peace. Its all because of God, you know.

What should I be when I grow up?

The team captain and I are both civil engineers, we work for smaller land development companies (50-60 employees). Work is work. When I was in engineering school they really glorified how wonderful our careers would be. Well they lied. I don't hate my job but I don't wake up every morning jumping out of bed to say " I can't wait to design a detention pond" or "maybe if I am lucky I will get to design a road."



The design is okay and at times it is challenging which I like. I do like the client interaction. People are my thing, they always have been. So this has got me thinking about my future, should I really stay an engineer? Would I prefer something like teaching? Non-profit? Starting my own business? I just don't know! but I do know I can not do this for the next 40 years.



On the other hand the team captain is much more settled with his job. He was born to do engineering though he says his dream career would be a Park Ranger or a fishing guide. Which leads me to a major irony in our lives, we are both "live green", be "green people" BUT for our careers we rape and destroy the earth to develop more homes, busineesses, restaruants, schools, hotels ect. We are living a lie at work. We are the type of people that would rather live in some small cabin in the hills than in a subburb with the soccer mom and the SUV. BUT the need for the suburban family and their SUV's is what provides our pay checks. Its damn Irony I tell you.