Random, awesome, January...

So there's been a lot going on, and in no particular order (okay, #1 is MOST DEFINITELY #1, but other than that no order) here are the highlights:

1. My brave superhero - Found out that Dawn (one of my bridesmaids and best friends growing up) and Brian Fudge's little one, Liam, has busted butt on his chemo treatments and will be able to have surgery to remove a tumor instead of going on the transplant list!!! Wooohooo! While no one is out of the clear yet, this is awesome news for the family and we'll all be pulling for Liam as he celebrates his first birthday by being brave and having surgery. Can't wait for this summer's "I'm more than a year old and I'm done with cancer!" party - I'm totally there. If you'd like to support the Fudge family, check out their blog or donate in a number of really cool ways at http://www.briananddawnfudge.blogspot.com

2. Photography heaven - So I've landed in photography heaven and will be taking lots of pictures. Also means I need to brush up on my skills as everyone here is also a photographer whose just landed in heaven. Hoping to make my rounds this summer in some shows...maybe?





3. Dog parks galore - Who say's brown dogs can't jump? Well, for one, my dad. But here's proof they really can! Check out Loui, all four paws off the ground, playing with Drew at the dog park (and avoiding getting blown away by the 50+ mph winds off the foothills).



4. My butt is frozen - No not really, but it felt like it when Drew and I took snowboarding lessons last week. And no, it's not because I fell a lot - okay maybe I did. But honestly you have to start on your butt a lot in snowboarding in order to get up on your board - and after awhile you sort of form an ice sheet on your butt. Which, by the way, I didn't realize until it started to feel like I was sitting on rocks. Ice rocks. Instead of showing you pictures of my frozen butt, here's some of us actually snowboarding! Better, right?





5. Awesome "miss you" notes - There are no words, just these two pictures. :)




6. Iowa GymHawks - So this has nothing to do with Denver or even Colorado - and everything to do with me being a former GymHawk. VERY proud to say (and what a good way to end my list) that the GymHawks beat University of Michigan at home the other week! Awesome, awesome job! Even though I'm a few too many years removed from competing to really know any of the girls anymore, I always follow their season. U of M is fierce competition and the Hawks stole victory out from underneath them. I see good things for the Hawks this year! Way to go, ladies! Check them out at http://www.hawkeyesports.com/sports/w-gym/iowa-w-gym-body.html

House pictures!

Ha, just fooled ya. I don't have any yet! I know, I know. This is just a teaser - they'll be coming soon. :) Hehehe....

And, here they are! It's not every room, but it's a start. Home sweet temporary home! We're determined to make it feel great from the start, though. Almost every picture is up, and we even bought half a cord of wood so we can have great fires in our monstrous fireplace!

Notice the shuffleboard tiled in to the basement floor? That's right. Shuffleboard tournaments! Bust our your best slippers and sweaters - invitations will be going out soon. ;)

A garage full of paper...

So once everything landed in Denver, it was time to unpack. We had a moving company pack it all on the front end, and it's amazing what you find when you don't do your own packing. They packed everything. EVERYTHING. Even the lint and dust bunnies - or at least that's what it felt like. We're out of boxes now and into cupboards, shelves and closets, but what to do with all the paper and boxes!?

We saved the good boxes broken down in the basement (hey, we'll be moving in a year!) and the paper is going to good use in the monstrous fireplace we have. But not before it sat in the garage (yes, Denver, winter, snow, ice - would have been nice to USE the garage for its intended purpose), four feet high for a week or two. We'd just tossed it out the garage door the week before so the house actually could look like a house. Drew and I, and Loui, even had fun jumping and landing in the crunchy paper before sorting it all out and figuring out what to do with it. Wish there were pictures...

We've landed!

Well, sorry for the delay, folks! Moving, holidays, and no internet at home really put a cramp in the blogging. But, there's lots to share!

We packed up 293 Hurt Road on December 22nd and headed out - most of our earthly possessions went northwest towards Denver on a massive semi-truck (driven by the most wonderfully smiley, bubbly, workhorse of a woman) while Drew, Loui and I headed north towards Michigan. A weird moment, seeing your first house for the last time, pulling away. It was exciting, but hard to think of not seeing it again. (Oh wait, I did, two weeks later!)

Over the holidays we were able to see Killians, Swansons, Murphys, a Kreb and a Kolb. Pretty much everyone. Weather held, and we even had some wonderful snow for Christmas in both places. My nephew William, brother-in-law Kurt, Drew and I even got out sledding a time or two!

We left Iowa for Colorado on a Tuesday night (with intentions of driving straight through) and listened to the Hawks play in the Insight Bowl for the first few hours. Definitely helped us get through Iowa and into Nebraska without need for coffee! Hawks won in a nail-biter. ;) Took an hour nap somewhere in Nebraska, saw a wolf/coyote silhouetted on top of a hay bale under a full moon (beautiful!), and finally made it to Denver around 10am in time to sign our lease on a cool rental house. And then we crashed...

Said mover (smiley, bubbly, workhorse of a woman) showed up the following morning with all our earthly possessions! Intact! Accounted for! Awesome! :) We'd been told that might not happen... And it all got unloaded in the first snowstorm of the year in Denver! Now for the unpacking...