So far, the coldest temperature I have seen is about 25. Ben says that one morning it was down to 13. But these temperatures are apparently not normal around here. It seems like most days are between 30-60. A couple days ago it got up to 70 (the day that it apparently got very cold in the Midwest!). It feels a little unnatural, but it is ok with me to not be freezing all the time. Ben is pretty sad though because he loves the cold! There are a few things that I miss about having a cold winter though! It hasn't snowed very much here (as everywhere, apparently), although, more accurately it has snowed a few times but then it gets so warm that the snow melts very quickly. There are just a few big black snow piles around in parking lots for the most part. Another sad thing is that we got an apartment with a fireplace and we don't really have occasion to use it! We have used it a few times to add some atmosphere, but really, it just makes us get hot! There's something to be said about curling up in front of a warm fire on a cold day! Those two things are the ones I miss the most. Other related items are: less occasion to drink hot tea, I have a ton of super warm and awesome winter clothes I am not wearing ( I even just added to my infamous wild knee-high sock collection!), and we haven't been able to go snowshoeing or skiing more than once!
Anyway, no one reads blogs to hear about the weather. You read my blog to find out about my exciting life! Hah.
I bought some new hiking boots! I have been ogling them for a couple years now. Finally we have some money I can spend! I thank my husband profusely for working so I can spend his hard-earned money on things for me! ;) My boots are purple Ahnu Montara boots- here's a picture: boots Cool, right!? They are so lightweight and fit perfectly that it feels like I'm not even wearing them!
See how exciting my life is?!
Last Sunday we went on a big adventure to fix the guys' cars. We drove to a shop about two miles away from us and left the cars there while we explored the surrounding area for the day. It was nice being forced to get to know the area we live in! We first walked a mile-ish down and checked out Target and Kohl's. We got a couple things after the guys enjoyed searching the clearance area for shirts. Bill ended up with 3 nice shirts, and Ben got some much-needed pants (unfortunately not on sale and very expensive), hopefully these last longer than some of his other pairs! After shopping we walked back past the car shop and probably another mile in the other direction to get lunch at the Olive Garden. Endless soup, salad, and bread sticks- yum! Eventually we made it back to the car place and picked up the cars. Ben's car unfortunately needed lots of work done and we spent lots of money on it! Hopefully, Daisy won't need any more major repairs for a while.
On the way back from picking up the cars we checked out a "farmer's market" called sprouts. Really, it's just a store akin to Trader Joe's. But, it is nice to find a store close to us that sells really great produce and natural products. And a lovely selection of cheese! I got a very large block of Fontina... yummmmmm!
Last Saturday Ben and I went on a date to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It totally rocked! We saw a ton of cool things- Ben and I both found exhibits that we were particularly excited about and of course saw things that we were both interested in. We also had a delicious lunch at the cafe. One of the coolest exhibits was a traveling exhibit. We were lucky to catch it on the last day! It was about dinosaurs- particularly the Trex skeleton named Sue. Aside from info about Sue's bones and the dig, we learned a lot about dinosaurs in general and saw animatronic dinosaurs as well. The robot dinos were especially interesting because they were interactive! If you got too close to the nest, the triceratops would get visibly agitated and try to protect her eggs. The raptors would follow your movements and "hunt" you- very creepy actually. The robotic trex would follow you a bit too and roar occasionally, which would, in turn, frighten the other robotic dinosaurs. In general there were a lot of interactive exhibits at the museum and I really enjoyed it! We have to go back soon because even though we were there for over 4 hours, we only saw about half the exhibits! The place is huge!
This week, we took a step toward becoming official Colorado residents! We went to the DMV to get in-state driver's licenses. Of course we had to wait in line for 2 hours basically just to sign our names. And of course the other line went about 5 times as fast. But the lines were for different services and we just had to stand and wait. We should be seeing our licenses in the mail in as soon as 30 days! Wow... so fast! Unfortunately, Bill is going to have to go back another time with more paperwork to get his. Additionally, we'll have to go to a different DMV again to get Ben's license plates transferred as well (and cross our fingers in hoping there's no emissions test!), but at least we have started the process!
Last week I did something exciting! Well, got excited about something, more accurately. I applied for a job at the Denver Zoo! I've been applying for things here and there, but I haven't gotten excited about any jobs until now! The job is basically an educational zoo keeper. If I get the job, I would basically work with animals and then teach other people and kids about them in shows and workshops. It is pretty much right up my alley, and I definitely had a strong application. Keep your fingers crossed for me! If you have nothing better to do (which must be the case because you are still reading this blog), you can look at the job description here. I'm trying not to get too excited so I don't get my heartbroken, but I am obviously not having much luck with that.
Today I got to see some Luther friends, Nathan and Alyse! It was great to see some familiar faces! While the boys were still at work, the three of us took a nice hike to Cherry Creek State Park and had some tea (thanks for the AWESOME tea, LittleC!) when we got home. After that we had some cheese and crackers before the whole gang went to the Bent Noodle (our restaurant of choice lately) for dinner. It was wonderful to see them and hear about all of their adventures. Hopefully we'll be able to do more with them while they are still in town!
We'll see what's in store for this weekend- maybe I can convince the guys to go to the art museum!
Hmm, pretty unlikely.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
A better late than never update!
It is my pleasure to tell you that I am posting from a new computer! The keyboard even works! Unfortunately, this is only a new computer to me. It is actually my brother's 7 year old computer (3years older than mine!) but it is in a little better condition than my Betty!
Anyway, the reason I haven't posted lately is a mix of being too busy or not busy enough. Essentially, my life has either been incredibly boring to say anything about or I've been too busy to post!
But lots of exciting things have happened!
Let's see... I went dress shopping with Alex and Ashley again and she picked out a dress! It is beautiful and I'm very excited to see it on her!
It isn't nearly as exciting, but I got a haircut last month too. If you haven't seen it- it's a quite a bit shorter and a darker reddish brown. I like how it turned out, but I'm not sure I'll go back there or not- I didn't like the stylist I had very much.
We have also done lots of new arranging in our apartment and I decorated for Christmas! We got lots of new shelves, put lots of things away, and even got furniture slip covers! I have some pictures of the place on facebook.
Speaking of Christmas...
For a couple weeks before the holiday, we kept getting gifts in the mail. It seemed never ending! We had our own Christmas between the 3 of us before we left the state. We exchanged gifts in the afternoon that the guys had off. Ben and I got Bill snowshoes so we were able to all go tromping out together at the state park that same day. We ended staying out til sunset. It was beautiful! There's a couple pictures of that trip on facebook too.
Ben got me tickets to go to the holiday lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens as my gift! It was very beautiful and romantic! We got to walk around outside and look at lights, plants, snow, and ice! Inside we got to see some beautiful orchids- apparently that is their specialty!
Our friends Wilfer and Alaina were in town over their school Christmas break. We were lucky enough to get to see them on the 23rd after we got back from the gardens. It was great to see them, although we ended up staying up late chatting and eating cookies.
As for out big Christmas pilgrimage, we left on the morning of the 24th. Although, at that time of day, I'm not sure if it even counts as morning yet. We got up at 2 am, and gathered up our things. (Please not that Ben and Bill went to bed around 12:30 and I think I fell asleep about 1:55) At 2:45 we left to walk to the light rail station. It was very cold and I think bags weigh more that early in the morning. Ben ended up having to carry mine part of the way! We caught the bus at the train station. The airport shuttle was supposed to be a coach bus, but for some unlucky reason, we had a city bus. The ride ended up being very long and crowded! We did meet a nice little old lady that we got to talk to though! Finally, we got to the airport at 4 am. Luckily the airport was pretty quiet at that time and we didn't get held up by lines. Unfortunately, we did get held up at the ticket counter. All the other airline counters were open when we got there except ours! It didn't open until 4:30. So we got to have even more time to sit and rest. After we got our bags checked, we went through security and waited at the gate. Then we had our 6 am flight- our first flight of the day. We landed in Kansas City, Mo and had an incredibly boring 4 hour layover. If ever you have a choice of going to that airport, you should avoid it at all costs! It was tiny and boring and we couldn't even get anything to eat unless we went through security. Eventually we made it to Milwaukee and got to see the family! The only good thing about those flights was that we had some really nice and entertaining flight attendants!
The rest of the day we relaxed and wrapped up our gifts. We went to bed early and tried to catch up on some sleep! The next few days we fun, family, and friend filled! I'm glad I got to see lots of people, but sad that I missed seeing some and wished I could have seen more of other people. The whole experience was short but sweet.
Family and friends aside, it was also fun to see my family's new kitten and even newer puppy! Freyja the kitten and Gracie the puppy don't get along but they are both very cute! Gracie is an albino deaf puppy and she has a lot to learn! We are lucky we have Cody to take care of her and teach her everything she needs to know!
We flew back to Denver on the 29th. This time the layover was in Las Vegas. Were hoping it would be slightly more glamorous than our previous layover- and it was- but not by much. We finally made it home and had a friend pick us up this time. Then we slept for a long time to recover!
The next day, we were lucky to see Ben's parents! They stayed in town for a couple days and we got to have another family Christmas! They left on new year's eve and went to Justin and Ashley's house with some other friends- including Wilfer and Alaina! We had a very nice celebration complete with kinect and champagne.
The next morning we at french toast and came home to Bill's new mattress! He finally won't have to sleep on the floor anymore! New year's day was also Ben's and my 6th month wedding anniversary. So far, so good!
The boys have now gone back to work and I've gone back to looking for some. This week they are pretty bored, but they did have a special day on Wednesday. They had a big meeting with the whole office for the end/beginning of the year. They even met some people that they hadn't met yet. That night, we got all dressed up and went downtown for an office dinner. It was really great meeting all of the coworkers and finally putting names to faces. The place was called ocean prime, and it was the fanciest place any of have ever been! We had calamari, crab rolls, and goat cheese ravioli as appetizers. Then, we had lobster bisque. Next, asparagus and hollandaise and truffle oil macaroni and cheese. Our main course we had options of 2 different steaks and crab encrusted tilapia (which is what I had). For dessert we had huge individual lemon-blueberry cheesecake (like me!) or an even bigger chocolate peanut butter cake! The drinks were all really fancy too! I don't remember what mine was called but it had a organic edible orchid in it! There was so much food in that meal that no one could really finish! I brought lots of mine home to enjoy later! The company paid for all of that, and the icing on the cake was that their boss also got them Christmas presents- they each got a Nook reader! I'm very excited that I don't have to share with Ben anymore- he hogs ours!
Now that all the holiday madness is over, things are finally back to normal around here. Well, things would be more normal, however, if the temperature wasn't 60 degrees! When I took jterm courses at Luther the temperature was often below 0, even down to negative 40 once! Quite the difference! It doesn't even feel like winter!
I think that concludes my updates for now... although I feel like I probably left a lot of things out because there was so much to write about! I'll try to be better about updating more frequently and in smaller posts now!
Love you all!
Anyway, the reason I haven't posted lately is a mix of being too busy or not busy enough. Essentially, my life has either been incredibly boring to say anything about or I've been too busy to post!
But lots of exciting things have happened!
Let's see... I went dress shopping with Alex and Ashley again and she picked out a dress! It is beautiful and I'm very excited to see it on her!
It isn't nearly as exciting, but I got a haircut last month too. If you haven't seen it- it's a quite a bit shorter and a darker reddish brown. I like how it turned out, but I'm not sure I'll go back there or not- I didn't like the stylist I had very much.
We have also done lots of new arranging in our apartment and I decorated for Christmas! We got lots of new shelves, put lots of things away, and even got furniture slip covers! I have some pictures of the place on facebook.
Speaking of Christmas...
For a couple weeks before the holiday, we kept getting gifts in the mail. It seemed never ending! We had our own Christmas between the 3 of us before we left the state. We exchanged gifts in the afternoon that the guys had off. Ben and I got Bill snowshoes so we were able to all go tromping out together at the state park that same day. We ended staying out til sunset. It was beautiful! There's a couple pictures of that trip on facebook too.
Ben got me tickets to go to the holiday lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens as my gift! It was very beautiful and romantic! We got to walk around outside and look at lights, plants, snow, and ice! Inside we got to see some beautiful orchids- apparently that is their specialty!
Our friends Wilfer and Alaina were in town over their school Christmas break. We were lucky enough to get to see them on the 23rd after we got back from the gardens. It was great to see them, although we ended up staying up late chatting and eating cookies.
As for out big Christmas pilgrimage, we left on the morning of the 24th. Although, at that time of day, I'm not sure if it even counts as morning yet. We got up at 2 am, and gathered up our things. (Please not that Ben and Bill went to bed around 12:30 and I think I fell asleep about 1:55) At 2:45 we left to walk to the light rail station. It was very cold and I think bags weigh more that early in the morning. Ben ended up having to carry mine part of the way! We caught the bus at the train station. The airport shuttle was supposed to be a coach bus, but for some unlucky reason, we had a city bus. The ride ended up being very long and crowded! We did meet a nice little old lady that we got to talk to though! Finally, we got to the airport at 4 am. Luckily the airport was pretty quiet at that time and we didn't get held up by lines. Unfortunately, we did get held up at the ticket counter. All the other airline counters were open when we got there except ours! It didn't open until 4:30. So we got to have even more time to sit and rest. After we got our bags checked, we went through security and waited at the gate. Then we had our 6 am flight- our first flight of the day. We landed in Kansas City, Mo and had an incredibly boring 4 hour layover. If ever you have a choice of going to that airport, you should avoid it at all costs! It was tiny and boring and we couldn't even get anything to eat unless we went through security. Eventually we made it to Milwaukee and got to see the family! The only good thing about those flights was that we had some really nice and entertaining flight attendants!
The rest of the day we relaxed and wrapped up our gifts. We went to bed early and tried to catch up on some sleep! The next few days we fun, family, and friend filled! I'm glad I got to see lots of people, but sad that I missed seeing some and wished I could have seen more of other people. The whole experience was short but sweet.
Family and friends aside, it was also fun to see my family's new kitten and even newer puppy! Freyja the kitten and Gracie the puppy don't get along but they are both very cute! Gracie is an albino deaf puppy and she has a lot to learn! We are lucky we have Cody to take care of her and teach her everything she needs to know!
We flew back to Denver on the 29th. This time the layover was in Las Vegas. Were hoping it would be slightly more glamorous than our previous layover- and it was- but not by much. We finally made it home and had a friend pick us up this time. Then we slept for a long time to recover!
The next day, we were lucky to see Ben's parents! They stayed in town for a couple days and we got to have another family Christmas! They left on new year's eve and went to Justin and Ashley's house with some other friends- including Wilfer and Alaina! We had a very nice celebration complete with kinect and champagne.
The next morning we at french toast and came home to Bill's new mattress! He finally won't have to sleep on the floor anymore! New year's day was also Ben's and my 6th month wedding anniversary. So far, so good!
The boys have now gone back to work and I've gone back to looking for some. This week they are pretty bored, but they did have a special day on Wednesday. They had a big meeting with the whole office for the end/beginning of the year. They even met some people that they hadn't met yet. That night, we got all dressed up and went downtown for an office dinner. It was really great meeting all of the coworkers and finally putting names to faces. The place was called ocean prime, and it was the fanciest place any of have ever been! We had calamari, crab rolls, and goat cheese ravioli as appetizers. Then, we had lobster bisque. Next, asparagus and hollandaise and truffle oil macaroni and cheese. Our main course we had options of 2 different steaks and crab encrusted tilapia (which is what I had). For dessert we had huge individual lemon-blueberry cheesecake (like me!) or an even bigger chocolate peanut butter cake! The drinks were all really fancy too! I don't remember what mine was called but it had a organic edible orchid in it! There was so much food in that meal that no one could really finish! I brought lots of mine home to enjoy later! The company paid for all of that, and the icing on the cake was that their boss also got them Christmas presents- they each got a Nook reader! I'm very excited that I don't have to share with Ben anymore- he hogs ours!
Now that all the holiday madness is over, things are finally back to normal around here. Well, things would be more normal, however, if the temperature wasn't 60 degrees! When I took jterm courses at Luther the temperature was often below 0, even down to negative 40 once! Quite the difference! It doesn't even feel like winter!
I think that concludes my updates for now... although I feel like I probably left a lot of things out because there was so much to write about! I'll try to be better about updating more frequently and in smaller posts now!
Love you all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)