6th Times a Charm

Never again will this long a period of time lapse between my stimulating family updates. Well, at least not for the next 2 years until we decide to move again. Just joking. We're not moving for a very long time. Yet, when we tell our dear friends that, they laugh at us, roll their eyes practically out of their sockets and say "Bologna Sausage." I don't know why. It's really quite a mystery to us. Isn't it normal to move 6 times in a 7 year marriage? We're adaptable and that my friends is a very good thing. Unless you're near and dear to us and get roped into the heavy and frequent job of loading and unloading Penske trucks. Great trucks, by the way! We've become loyal patrons of the big yellow beasts.

So, we're in. Decor is hung on it's appropriate spots on the walls, closets are organized, dude has adapted to his new surroundings, and neighbors have already gifted us with cookies, home made doughnuts, courtesy of their family owned "The Donut" shop and home grown cucumbers the size of eels . Thus why no blogging has taken place. Priorities people. If you know me, you know that poor Tim has been one busy and very patient man. It's really not to his benefit during times like this that he's capable of just about any project known to man.

Photos of the new digs are below. You can view the post below this one to get an update on dude's perspective on the last couple of weeks in his mile high life.

What's Up With These Wackos?

So, I was 17 months and life was good. I would go visit Miss Vickie 3 times per week and hang out in her comfy house with a couple other kids, including my buddy Nolan. And the dog, Candy, let me grab her face and pull on it, which was just awesome. Mom would pick me up and we'd hang at home, walk to the park, eat some nuggets, run up and down the driveway waiting for dad to come home and call it a day. That was my routine. And I liked it. I was a happy dude.

Now I'm 18 months and let me tell ya, my routine disappeared and I am STILL trying to figure out where it went. Miss Vickie must have moved or got sick of me attacking Candy, because I haven't seen her in over two weeks. Instead, I get dropped off at this crazy place with tons of other kids with runny noses. Dad plops me in a table that has seats built in it with the other kids and then takes off. Does he realize that I don't know these people?

Miss Laura is my teacher and I guess she's pretty cool. She makes me put my fingers in paint and glue and I don't know why that's necessary, but whatever. As long as she hangs my pictures from the ceiling, I'm cool with it. Here's the best part....they lay these mats on the ground all over the room and want us to sleep! No crib, no pack n play, nothing. I'm super tired from the chaos that is my day, so I just decided right off the bat that I'd take advantage of the less than comfy accomodations and just sleep. Then we have crackers and juice and play outside and usually Mom comes to get me. Sometimes I act excited to see her, but I'm still a little peeved about the whole situation, so other times I act like I don't really care.

To top off the whole circus of this new place they call "day care," Mom takes me to this wierd house every day. It has all my stuff in it, so that's pretty good, but I think Mom and Dad are a bit confused about where our real house is. We haven't gone home now for over a week, so I'm getting used to this new place and I'll admit that I dig it. It has a lot of open spots that I can run around, flail my arms and say "wee." That's what I like to do. And they bought me what we call the "Mile High Swing" and it's pretty awesome. I've been able to play in these huge boxes and help put furniture together. Those screw things were pretty tough to get inside the holes, but I did a pretty good job for a little kid.

I'm saying "wee" here. Again, it's what I like to do.

My fantastic Nanna came to pay attention to me while Mom and Dad ditched me. She is the best! Mom was a bit uptight and ran around like there were fires all over the place. Then she got sick and laid on the floor with me for 2 days while I played. That was just what I needed!

Anyway, that's whats been happening around here. It's all cool now, but I tell ya, it was a whirlwind for a while there. So help me if they move my stuff to another new house again.

Vaca Follow-Up

In following up with the "Hurricane Gustav" post, we arrived home safely that Tuesday afternoon after a relaxing 5 days in Orange Beach. We rarely take "vacations" where we can just plop our booties down and not think about where we need to go and who we need to see, so this was just what the doctor ordered.

Dude was in heaven from the minute we set foot in Mom and Marc's house. He slept like a dream in the basement (much to Marc's dismay that we left him down there alone), romped around the beach collecting shells, kicked around in the ocean trying to drink the saltwater, jumped into the pool (hoping someone would be there catch him), danced to the live band at Jimmy Buffet's sister's cool outdoor restaurant and definitely grew attached to Grandma and Grandpa Marc (when Marc wasn't chasing him around causing nervous squealing).

It needs to be noted that the food was a sampling of seafood heaven. Much time was spent in the kitchen working up masterpieces. The screened in deck overlooking the channel was our favorite spot to soak it all in. Thanks Mom and Marc for a fantabulous time! We'll look forward to doing it again. Marc, make sure the wildlife know to stay the heck away from me next time or I might just be too spooked to ever come back! No more sting rays under my feet, crabs munchin on my toes or water snakes visiting the dock! Tall order, but I know you can work it out.

Ben & Gwen

The Democratic National Convention brought with it a whole bunch of random excitement here in the Mile High City. I'm gonna leave ya'll hangin' on the Ben Affleck piece for now. Our little fam drove downtown the Sunday before the DNC officially started with adventurous friends Josh and Jen to check out the scene. Everyone else thought we were crazy.

Between black SUV's stocked full of men in ear pieces or exteriorly loaded with police/FBI forces ready for a nuclear war, vehicles you might find in a monster truck show spray painted with language depicting Barac Obama as the anti-christ, photographers hiding around corners, masses of people walking around just to see if you might be someone with an ounce of celebrity status, Obama hooplah on every corner and in-between every corner and most importantly, the Rednecks for Obama group, lead by the one armed gentleman, we thoroughly enjoyed our sightseeing tour of our city. The dude had a gay ole' time as well. Especially when a young kid gifted him with a freaky lookin gingerbread doll. Dude hugged it and laughed and when he wasn't looking, we quickly disposed of it in a garbage can adorned with Obama signs.

Our mayor went so far as to offer "Venice-like" (I stress the "like" in that phrase) boat rides down the muddied river that runs through downtown, complete with a little Hispanic man offering details about the history of the brand new buildings they pass along the way. Spray painted buildings were cleverly painted over in colors not even close to the color of the buildings, so that looked natural. All sarcasm aside, it was a pretty cool time for our city. We (as if I had anything to do with it) did a great job of hosting a rather ginormous group of Democrats and only had to mace and attack a few people trying to mess it all up.

Now for the entrance of Mr. Ben Affleck. I work at a large Food Bank, which happened to be a volunteer spot for Mrs. Obama's day of service. We were graced with the presence of Ben, Justin Bartha (nerdy guy in National Treasure...very cool in person), Alicia Witt and a couple other celebs, as well as Senator Durbin and McGovern. They boxed a bunch of food in a game of sorts, interviewed with about 75 members of national media and called it a day. We got up close (not very personal) with all of them, so it was a day worth talkin' about at Food Bank. Ben looked my direction once (probably because I had my zoom lens in his face), so that was my brush with fame. The end.

Donna, Justin Bartha, Janie, Director Ben Younger, me, Alicia Witt & Kimmy

Dude's First Hurricane

Ok...it's our first hurricane too. A few months ago, MomV & Marc asked us to come down to Gulf Shores to stay at the new house and introduce the dude to life at the white sandy beach. We couldn't turn them down, especially given the promise of home made seafood feasts. We arrived on Friday afternoon after our first successful layover with the dude. Our first day was spent swimming in an extremely calm ocean and playing on the pristine beach. The calm before the storm.

Today we woke up to cloudy skies, but warm temps. As we swam in the pool and walked around the wharf, other nut cases were boarding up their homes and storefronts, taking boats out of the water and packing their bags as if a hurricane was coming. Well, I guess it is. It started raining about an hour ago, but that's all the hype we've seen so far. The smoke alarms going off as we tried frying fish in the kitchen has caused more ruckus than Gustav, the friendly hurricane. It really was quite a sight. The alarm is directly outside the Dude's bedroom, making it sound like a fire truck was running through his bedroom. Marc is on a ladder, cutting wires simply to make it shut up, Mom and Tim are running around trying to find the code to quiet the system and I'm holding my finger over the electric current causing the constant beeping from the alarm box. Meanwhile, the dude slept. Never made a peep. Yet, us adults acted like the house was burning down and if we didn't quiet the alarm, we all would have evaporated into thin air. It was all worth it though...that was the best fish to be had in the state of Alabama.

Back to the hurricane....We'll see what tomorrow brings....we won't be able to get home for sure, but are planning on flying out of Pensacola on Tuesday morning, connecting through Houston and calling it a day. We'll post more info with photos when we get back to the Mile High City. But for all those terribly worried about our well being and safety, please don't fret. We'll continue to enjoy fresh seafood on the deck, watch 24 hours of Gustav coverage, laugh at all the crazy people fleeing the area and weather this hurricane yet.

GO-GO-GO

Nothing like jammin' in a bunch of F-U-N is one day. On Saturday we started the morning with some packing, dropped off a car-load of "very nice junk that someone I'm sure will be honored to grace their home with" at Goodwill, partied, 1 year old style, at neighbor Liv's birthday party at the park, napped & packed some more. (The moving process is still smooth sailing).

Liv was lovin' the sugar extravaganza...unlike our dude at his 1st b-day party!

Neighbors Mike, Stacy & Emma (we'll miss them!)

Tim then went to his yearly football draft with a bunch of pumped up dudes. From 3pm-2am they drink (not juice), eat pizza, shoot BB guns, play poker, get all of their childish banter and giggling out of their systems for the year, punch fences, punch each other...yeah. It's a day they all look forward to and rightly so. Us ladies had a pretty rockin evening as well! We drank (juice), ate Chinese, let PR play with a toy gun, played paddy cake, listened to childish banter and giggling from the kiddos and did our best to prevent our children from punching each other. The difference between the sexes is really quite extraordinary, isn't it? And yet we all had lovely evenings and will remember them fondly. For very different reasons I'm sure.

Dude got to play at 2 parks today...that's a good day.

Cutie pie Nolan laughed hysterically for a good 10 minutes at his buddy (Dude) on the swings.

All the kids were screaming "Ahhh!" during this pictures and little Nolan wanted nothing more than to be rescued.

A Real Kick in the Pants

Josh Blue poses with my work clan.

9NEWS' Susie Wargin, me and my bud Kimmy

There's been one day in my life that I can remember my face hurting from excess smiling/laughing. My wedding day. Last night marked #2. Why? Josh Blue, previous winner of the tv show Last Comic Standing, took stage at the Joe Sakic Dinner event for my work. He has cerebral palsy and uses that fact in providing some of the best comedy you'll ever hear. I'm pretty sure most everyone in the room peed their pants just a little bit at some point of his act. It's pretty cool to spend a night fighting hunger with Denver hockey all-star Joe and his wife Debbie, but it's even cooler to laugh like a freakin' hyena for about half hour straight. Everyone needs that luxury from time to time.

Joe Sakic, Kristina (work gal) & Josh Blue

Tim and I had a great night out...there was an auction item with my name all OVER it that we bought...it'll provide 3 dinners out on the town at rockin' steak houses (it's my favorite meal after all...really...I can down a 12 ouncer complete with side dishes in 4 minutes, 28 seconds flat).

The evening raised a bunch of moolah to provide meals to kids who wouldn't otherwise eat on a daily basis, so it's a very good thing. I love the fact that I get to be a part of such an awesome cause and get paid to do what I love to do while I'm at it. Lucky girl am I.

Yes, I had hot high hair. Tim's initial reaction was that I looked really tall. I said, "thanks."

Tubbin'

When I tell the dude that it's "tubbie time," he runs to the stairs, starts climbing and stands next to his bathtub grunting and pointing until I arrive. We dump the green bin of bath toys in immediately and the kid goes to town lining up each item (typically while sucking on one), throwing each and every one out and insisting that I put them all back in so we can start the process all over again. His favorite thing to do is throw the large cups, filled with water, at me. One of these days I'll wise up and throw on a parka. I took some cute shots of him this past weekend that I feel inclined to share. Enjoy!

Growin' Up and Movin' On

Dude is a real barrel of laughs lately. He's truly becoming a little man. He dances around, jumps, screeches at the very top of his lungs, repeats random words and sounds, counts everything in sight (in his own numerical language), blows kisses, gets pure enjoyment out of doing exactly what we tell him not to, learned how to pull a GiGi K face as evidenced above, found a new love in Dad's new XBOX...he immediately caught on to how that technology worked. The list goes on. Every day he exhibits his boyness more and more.




Second note of business....we sold our house and are moving in less than a month! I know. We didn't think it would actually happen, but it only took 6 weeks and bam! Done. We love the new house we're under contact with, but are trying not to get too excited until all the nitty gritty details are worked out with inspections, appraisals etc. This will be our fourth home purchase in 7 years...what are we thinking????? Livin' on the edge. That's how Jim and Nan raised me!

One more item to share....the video below shows how much rain we got this past weekend. It poured for 48 hours straights (almost unheard of in Denver). Our gentle creek became a rushing river and the dude found that to be a highlight of his young life. The day after we shot this video he was in the river, running around, falling and inserting sand in every crevice imaginable. Lovely.

A Day in the Life

We didn't know just how much fun one little dude could supply our lives. The giggling is contagious...the insistence of crawling over the slightest crack in the sidewalk is annoyingly endearing...the dizzying break dancing continues to crack us up...the rough housing is just what Mile High Dad has always dreampt of...the love of hiking (rather, cashing out in the backpack while Mom and Dad hike) is a family favorite...each day is something different. It's pretty amazing how one little person can take over 2 grown adults lives and hearts.