Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Winter!

The shortest day for a year has come and gone!  It only gets better from here!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

My Haircut

I've never really had a stylish haircut, and I was really hoping for one.  I'm not so sure about it.

Our Irish Meal

Last night Chris decided to make an Irish meal: corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and Irish soda bread.  It was super delicious!

And this morning, or should I say this afternoon because I woke up so late, Chris made corned beef hash for breakfast.  Yum!

Chris' Flat Tire in the Middle of Nowhere

I was supposed to work at 7 pm and at 3:30 pm Chris decided he wanted to go for his first long distance ride on the motorcycle since this would be his last chance for a while since it was supposed to snow the next day.  By 4:00 pm he was all dressed up like this and ready to go.  I have to admit, I thought it was a bit funny!  He was dressed like he was going to Antarctica and it had been a fairly warm day.

But boy was I glad he had dressed so warm!  At 5:00 pm the wobble he'd been feeling started to happen at slower and slower speeds.  He pulled over and realized he had a mostly flat rear tire.  He was now 40 miles east of here in the middle of nowhere, only 16 miles from his intended destination, it was dark, 46 degrees but with the wind it felt like it was in the 30s. I was just starting to get ready for work, which I would have needed to leave for in less than an hour when I got the dreaded phone call.  

After some planning, Chris told me to get ready for work and that he had somebody on the way.  Even if his friend was able to help him fix the flat, I just didn't feel comfortable thinking that he would be driving all the way back home on a potentially dangerous tire by himself.  I called into work and much to my surprise and relief the ER wasn't that busy, was adequately staffed and I was able to go in at 9 pm instead.  I quickly showered and arrived to his motorcycle shortly before Chris and his friend arrived from an auto parts store.  It was funny because I was there for no more than a minute or two when a police officer pulled over to see if I needed any help.  Chris had been there for about an hour and a half and not one person had pulled over.  :o)

They put some "Fix A Flat" in but realized it was the stem leaking, so it wasn't helping.  Chris didn't want to leave his precious motorcycle on the side of the road, so I followed him as we traveled to the next exit going 30 mph to fill her up at the gas station.  We only had to stop at one other station on the whole way back, which was wonderful!  I thought we'd be stopping every few miles.  I also had visions of the tire exploding and he losing control and getting in a terrible accident.  But everything turned out great as we safely made it back with the motorcycle and I had time to eat dinner before making it work on time!

John's a Police Officer!

Today was my little brother's graduation from police academy.  He will be working for Westminster Police Department!  I'm incredibly proud of him!

The handsome, and studly.... Mr. John David Wilber

Our Dad came from Houston, Texas

Laura and John

Me and John

Gingerbread Houses

Since before I was ten years old and someone gave us a gingerbread house, I have always wanted to make one!  This year I finally did!

My bestest friend Maria and her fabulous creation

And mine!

Flight to Amarillo

Yesterday we were supposed to go to South Dakota and fly over Mount Rushmore.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate so we decided to head south to Amarillo, TX.  Chris went with a friend who is working toward commercial pilot also and already has his instrument rating.  So they were able to spot for each other while under the hood (wearing goggles) and they split the price of everything which saves us all a ton!  It was great!  I got to ride in the back seat for the first time, and it was quite nice.  I had tons of room to just stretch out.  We met one of my good friends from Ouray in Amarillo for lunch.  Both the flight there and back were supposed to be turbulent, but they were both as smooth as can be!

Josh, Chris, and I

Brie and I

Brie and Mali

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday!  I was so blessed to spend it with most of my family this year, not to mention it was my birthday!

We missed Laurie.  :-(

The next day was supposed to be a a fun-filled day of snowshoeing, but there wasn't enough snow, not even in Ouray.  So we were stuck going shooting instead.  

Being that my brother served four years in the army including a 16 month tour in Iraq and in a couple of weeks will be finished with police academy and starting as a police officer, he's quite the talented marksmen.

Shooting clay pigeons (which I was thankful to learn are only little discs).

Chris hadn't been shooting in over five years and did awesome!  He was very happy with his performance.  (Please excuse my finger.)

Debbie the sniper!  Not really, it's only a .22 but it sure looks cool.  I shot everything the boys did.  However, I wasn't much of a fan of the 12 gauge.  I'm not as nervous about guns as I was before I went shooting but still not a fan of them.

Like mother, like daughter.  Or not?

Aren't we cute?

My poor brother John gets quite annoyed with all of my hugs and affection.  But I keep 'em coming!  :o)  

My Civil Air Patrol Pilot

Because we didn't have enough going on, (NOT) we decided to join the Civil Air Patrol a few months ago.  Although it has been a bit time intensive already, I think it will really pay off.  

I decided to join with Chris for two reasons.  First, they have hour and a half meetings twice a month that are 45 minutes away, not to mention other training, and I didn't want to miss out on all of that time with my hubby.  Plus, it will be really cheap to fly their planes (the main reason Chris joined) and we can take little trips together.  You have to be a member of CAP to fly in their planes.  I also have wanted to join Alpine Mountain Rescue (search and rescue) for many years.  I just don't have the time commitment needed for that.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to do some search and rescuing with CAP.

There are many qualifications before becoming a pilot for CAP, but we're working on it.  Last week Chris did a high performance check with a CAP instructor.  If he rented a plane it would've costed $204 and it only costed us $66.  Here he is in his CAP flight suit.

Birthday Bash

Last weekend we had many of my close friends over for a celebration!  It was sooo much fun!

Pre-party.  Doesn't he look cute holding a baby!  (Compliments of Jordan St. Louis-Sanchez)

John is the best brother ever!  I was quite impressed when he totally helped clean up and he and Laurie washed all the dishes.

Sissies and best buds!

The Gang in no particular order:

Tony and Maria (from CSU) It was Maria's idea and she made the delicious main course-chicken scampi like at the Olive Garden

Todd and Mariana (from Golden High School)

Sadie (from Golden High School) and Colin

Nate and Sarah (from church)

Andrew, Jessica, and Cameron (from church)

Me, Laura, and John (in order of AGE, not height, I must have been kneeling)

Good Times

Today was so much fun!  It was such a beautiful day!  The high was 76 degrees!  It fabulous!  Unfortunately I worked until 7am so probably slept through a lot of the sunny part of the day and then got other things done.  I had hoped to renew my Floridian tan, but by the time I got out to take the pups for a walk it was cloudy.

Kody, Jason, and I went hiking in Golden at Chimney Gulch to Beaver Brook Trailheads.  We had an awesome time!  And they were so good!

We were only about half way at this point (an hour) and as you can see the sun is setting and I realized that we better head back down!

When we got back Chris and Laurie were both home and we had soooo much fun!  Laurie has been exercising and doing yoga a lot and has always been quite competitive.  She wanted to compare muscles, starting with our left because she thought mine would be weaker than the right.

By the way, isn't her new haircut so cute!

Can you tell which is each of our weakest arms?

She also told us this hilarious story from work!  We couldn't remember the last time we laughed for so long.  She's an orthodontic assistant.  She was putting new brackets on a teenage boy.  I guess he didn't have the greatest complexion and had a big pimple right on his chin.  He went to the bathroom to wash out his mouth and when he came back it was popped, and after sitting in the chair he realized that it was bleeding like crazy.  He was nonchalantly trying to dab it with his finger until Laurie handed him a kleenex.  Throughout the rest of the appointment the bleeding, and even some pus continued.  When she walked away for a minute he applied direct pressure to it.  He quickly removed it upon her return and it was still bleeding!  Uh, awkward!  Poor kid!  Aren't we glad we're not that age anymore!

Maybe you'd have to hear it in her words!  It was sooo funny!  I'm still laughing and feeling bad for the little rascal!

Credit Owed

I have to admit, I got the idea of this lovely background change from Chris's cousins Mike and Megan.  I tried a different fall background, but I just LOVE this one and I've changed my background only once before so I want something on there that I really like.  But now that I realize how EASY it is, I'll have to do it much more often!  :o)

Megan, I'm very sorry for being a copycat.  But thank you soooo much for the wonderful idea!  I won't copy you again.

Yesterday.... All my Troubles Seemed so Far Away

Yesterday Chris was AMAZING!  He spent the morning and afternoon installing a humidifer on our heater.

When I left for work Chris left the pups outside and went to pick up some supplies to work on the gas line downstairs.  Upon his return Jason was happily wagging his tail at the top of the stairs with a large laceration on his chest.  

Chris immediately took him to the dog hospital where he had surgery performed.  They were going to try local anesthesia but Jason wasn't having it, so they had to put him under.  Chris was able to watch as they cleaned, debrieded, cut the edges of the wound, and stitched the muscle, the inside layers of skin, and the outside.  ***Please note: if you have a weak stomach or a sensitive heart, you may not want to view the following three pictures.***

While asleep, he needed some extra oxygen.

It's was a pretty deep wound.

All fixed and pretty.

And the culprit of our poor baby's pain and suffering:  five nails on the fence.  The first and last nails have a chunk of his fur and blood.  This was taken about 23 hours after the event and the other nails with bloody fur had blown away.

Even after spending a couple of hours at the vet with Jason, Chris still had the energy to finish his project.  With Andrew's help (thank you soooooooo much, especially on one of your few weekday evenings with your family and with such short notice) they were able to finish the gas line.

Jason still isn't feeling very well.  He even went to bed in the middle of the day (he only sleeps in his crate when we're gone and at night he chooses to).  Our poor baby!