It's So Nice Being Married to a Handyman

I really am blessed to be married to someone who can take anything and everything apart AND be able to put it back together in much better shape than it was in.  We save tons of money because he's been able to do all of our work.  The only unfortunate part is that it's made me a bit helpless and useless.  I used to be able to at least hammer and screw things in, but now Chris does it all and I'm losing what little skills I had.  I tried to use one of his drills once and it was scary.

Because the motorcycle hadn't been ridden in 12 years, the gas in the fuel tank and carburetors had turned into something nasty.  So he's rebuilding the carburetors and the gas tank.

P.S.  It sure would be nice to get the downstairs done Sweetie!  I appreciate all of your hard work!  I love you!

Ohhhh, So Cute!

Last night Chris was sooooo sweet to stay up despite fighting heavy eyelids while he waited for me to finish blogging.  AND THEN when I went into the room all of our pets were waiting for us too.  It was soooo cute!

Kody (Laura's puppy), Kena on our bed, and Jason in his bed.

Yet, ANOTHER Catch Up

Okay, one of these days I'm going to actually stay caught up.  It's really not as much fun when everything is a month or so late.  But here's my attempt.  Just pretend that these events didn't happen a long time ago so it sounds more exciting:  ;-)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Upstairs Doors

Chris finished the doors of our upstairs!  Several months ago we got an amazing deal on doors, nice, solid core doors for $49 each.  We were planning on doing the doors at some time, and this convinced us to do it sooner rather than later.

Being the kind and helpful wife that I am, Chris enlisted my services planing the edges of the door.  The exhaust port was less than a foot from the wall and I was right next to the wall so sawdust flew all over me!  It was so funny!

The finished product!  It's amazing how soundproof they are and they look terrific!

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Chris' Grand Creation:  A Lazy Susan

It's going to be a looong time until we can remodel our kitchen so Chris decided to update one small part of it.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Happy Birthday Mariana!

To celebrate Mariana's Birthday we went to this super fancy dessert place, D Bar Desserts.  I didn't know it was possible to spend so much on dessert.  It was a super cute, modern, and fancy place.  Just to give you an idea, the cheapest dessert was $8.  Thank goodness I got a peach cobbler for $9 and got the most bang for my buck!  I think I would've cried if I would've gotten a couple of little pieces of fancy chocolate for $10.

The chef found out we were celebrating a birthday and made us something special, probably since the birthday girl is such a hottie!  Here's a pic of our group with the chef.

Sunday-Wednesday, September 21-24, 2008

Louie's Company!

We had the pleasure Louie's company, one of Chris's friends from EMT class back in 1992.  Louie became a paramedic, a nurse, and is now operating a flight school in Lubbock, Texas (Hub City Aviation), which is how he and Chris became reacquainted.  Chris took his private pilot lessons with him at this time last year.  It was sooooo exciting!  Especially when I got to go down there for almost a week.  This year Louie came for a Cessna Seminar.

Louie and Chris were singing these crazy old school rap songs from way back in the day that I had never heard, Run-D.M.C.  It was hilarious!  These songs were popular back in the 80s and the boys still knew every word!!!

Living in Texas all of his life, we took Louie to appreciate the beauty found at elevation, right in our backyard, Red Rocks: one of the greatest concert venues in the U.S.

And while you're watching your favorite band, you can also see Denver in the background.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Happy Autumn!  :-(

I really wish I could say that I love autumn, but I don't, at all!  This year I'm going to try to be more optimistic about it.  Here are all of the things I love about it:

I don't have to try to take Jason for a walk either super early or super late!

I can run at anytime of the day and not suffer from heat exhaustion!

It's cool in our room at night! 

It really is beautiful, especially up in the mountains!

This year I really wanted to take a trip up to the mountains to see the aspens changing.  Although Chris and I haven't had time yet, he did have a long distance transfer at work and got to see the leaves at the prime of their changing.  So beautiful!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

And Last But Chris's Favorite...

His brand new 1978 Honda Goldwing!  The original owner, Chris' good friend Larry hasn't ridden it in about 12 years and decided to sell it for $500.  And of course, Chris couldn't pass this one up.  Needless to say, it needs some work, all of which is left in Chris's very capable hands.  It's mostly cleaning it up and cleaning it out.  Chris has become quite the mechanic!  He figures he can sell his other one and make up the cost for the motorcycle and all of the repairs, only loose $400, and have a much better bike.  I'm much more excited to ride this one, it won't feel like I fell 10 feet landing on my tailbone when I ride with him for 2o minutes.  :o)

Surf's Up Bath Ensemble

Okay, I know I'm a wannabe, but is this not the cutest bathroom set ever!?  I LOVE IT!  And now maybe I won't get as homesick for the ocean!

Please excuse the ugly wall paper and green cabinet and countertop.  We haven't redone anything in the bathroom, but we will soon!  And then this set will look even cuter!

I'm not sure what to do about the rug and toilet seat cover situation.  The ones I got don't match.  So I might look around a bit more.

We're All Grown Up

Last week I had the opportunity to have dinner with my brother and sister.  I think this is the first time ever with just them.  We treated them to the Texas Roadhouse, yum!  It was soooooooo much fun!  Now that Laura lives 45 minutes away and John lives an hour and a half away we need to hang out more!  They're the best brother and sissie ever!  I love them so much!

Climbing!

After many years of not climbing, our friend Corey called the night before and asked if we wanted to go either climbing or mountain biking.  We ended up choosing climbing.  We went to North Table Mountain in Golden.  It was a gorgeous day and so much fun to go climbing again!

On the first route within the first couple of feet off the ground, Chris fell, making Corey swing like a monkey on a vine.

Chris rockin'  the route called "Thelma"

Me on "Louise"

Kicking back in the shade!

 

It looks like I'm way up there, but really it was a nice hike up!

Me on "Lemons, Limes, and Tangerines"

Chris on Deck Chairs on the Titanic

I did all of the routes the guys did, but I had some help on the last couple.  The last route, "Deck Chairs", was the hardest, a 5.9+.  In fact, I can't really say I did it.  I made it this far up only because Chris was totally "pulling" me up.  He helped a lot in the beginning and then a couple of other spots I got stuck in.  

Our Western Dream Trip

(Chris's) Western Dream Trip.  Way back in the day, almost a year ago when Chris was just starting to take private pilot lessons he planned a trip from Colorado to California catching spectacular views and stopping to visit loved ones.  That dream came true for us!

Our flight to Cali was amazing!  The only thing that could've made it better was if I didn't have to sleep most of it.  We left at about 5am as soon as I got home from working my hardest shift in the critical care unit.  So I was exhausted and slept most of the flight.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The scenery was breathtaking.  We flew through mountain passes and about ten miles north of the beatufiul town of Ouray where I was raised.  It was so amazing to see all of the mountains and I can't wait to check out the views again!  We flew over Lake Powell and The Grand Canyon which were both awesome!

Ouray nestled in the mountains 

We spent the first day with Chris' good friends from high school.  Once Chris starts doing karaoke, there's no stopping him!

David and Billy are a couple of friends from college.  They've been living in La Jolla for the past couple of years.  David will be finishing his PhD in engineering this year.  Smart cookie!  Any nice, single, Catholic girls?- I'll hook you up!  They took us surfing and we had a BLAST!  They were so patient with us.  I guess I couldn't really say I surfed, Chris did though.  I think it took me a little while to catch on to the "catch the wave" part.  I would either not be pointing straight or I would be too far forward and face plant into the wave.  If I did catch the wave I was so excited and having so much fun that I would forget that I should try to stand, and at that time once I got up the wave was over or I would just fall.  Chris did an awesome job standing several times!  I do have to admit, I was super sore afterwards!  I had so much fun and can't wait to try it again!

Chris at our favorite beach, Shaw's Cove in Luguna Beach.  We went to the beach every day in southern Calinfornia!  It was wonderful!

After seeing a couple of Chris's old houses in Fountain Valley and Santa Ana we took the Pacific Coast Highway and watched the sun set in Huntington Beach.  Spectacular!

This is at Chris's family's weenie roast.  All of his cousins came to join us in Dana Point (I think).  Unfortunately I didn't get very good pics.

And another sunset picture

On our flight up north we stopped at Van Nuys airport and had breakfast with my aunt and uncle.  It was great to see them, even if it was only for breakfast.

Chris's Dad and Linda in Capitola near Santa Cruz.  They had never seen so many pelicans!  It was surprising how much cooler it was up there, I was actually cold a couple of the days.  Jeremy was able to meet us there also which was so much fun!  The boys had a wonderful time playing World of WarCraft.  I was hoping it would've been a little warmer so I could spend more time at the beach while they were playing games.

We also had a wonderful time with the sweetest Grandma ever up in Paradise, CA.  Here's a picture of us playing pool.  They both kicked my butt!  We also did some shopping in Chico and Chris fixed some odds and ends around the house.

Our last stop was in Reno to visit Jeremy.  I was quite impressed by Reno and Jer's super nice apartment.  They have quite the bachelor pad!

The flight home wasn't quite as good as the flight out.  We had been having alternator problems and had seen two mechanics and spent over $400 and were still having the problems.  The only problems we had  were because the battery was about to die which would've killed the radios.  So we had our radios turned off the whole way home.  It wasn't quite as fun having to yell at each other and not hear what else is going on in the air.  Chris was so cute, I slept part of the way which I tend to do in the plane so he was singing to keep himself company.  It was adorable!

We were only about an hour and a half from our home and were grounded in Cheyenne, WY due to thunderstorms.  We didn't anticipate that happening.  We were hoping they would blow over like they usually do in Colorado, but it was the biggest front of the summer.  We had to stay the night and rent a car the next day to drive home to make it to work that afternoon.  He then had to drive the car back on Sunday once the thunderstorms passed and fly home.  It wasn't what we had expected, but it made our trip longer!  :o)